The Difference Between Metals and Nonmetals

The Difference Between Metals and Nonmetals Elements may be classified as either metals or nonmetals based on their properties. Much of the time, you can tell an element is a metal simply by looking at its metallic luster, but this isnt the only distinction between these two general groups of elements. Metals Most elements are metals. This includes the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides. On the periodic table, metals are separated from nonmetals by a zig-zag line stepping through carbon, phosphorus, selenium, iodine, and radon. These elements and those to the right of them are nonmetals. Elements just to the left of the line may be termed metalloids or semimetals and have properties intermediate between those of the metals and nonmetals. The physical and chemical properties of the metals and nonmetals may be used to tell them apart. Metal Physical Properties: Lustrous (shiny)Good conductors of heat and electricityHigh melting pointHigh density (heavy for their size)Malleable (can be hammered)Ductile (can be drawn into wires)Usually solid at room temperature (an exception is mercury)Opaque as a thin sheet (cant see through metals)Metals are sonorous or make a bell-like sound when struck Metal Chemical Properties: Have 1-3 electrons in the outer shell of each metal atom and lose electrons readilyCorrode easily (e.g., damaged by oxidation such as tarnish or rust)Lose electrons easilyForm oxides that are basicFave lower electronegativitiesAre good reducing agents Metal: copper (left); metalloid: arsenic (center); and non-metal: sulfur (right). Matt Meadows, Getty Images Nonmetals Nonmetals, with the exception of hydrogen, are located on the right side of the periodic table. Elements that are nonmetals are hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, sulfur, selenium, all of the halogens, and the noble gases. Nonmetal Physical Properties: Not lustrous (dull appearance)Poor conductors of heat and electricityNonductile solidsBrittle solidsMay be solids, liquids or gases at room temperatureTransparent as a thin sheetNonmetals are not sonorous Nonmetal Chemical Properties: Usually have 4-8 electrons in their outer shellReadily gain or share valence electronsForm oxides that are acidicHave higher electronegativitiesAre good oxidizing agents Both metals and nonmetals take different forms (allotropes), which have different appearances and properties from each other. For example, graphite and diamond are two allotropes of the nonmetal carbon, while ferrite and austenite are two allotropes of iron. While nonmetals may have an allotrope that appears metallic, all of the allotropes of metals look like what we think of as a metal (lustrous, shiny).

Where to Buy Saltpeter or Potassium Nitrate

Where to Buy Saltpeter or Potassium Nitrate You used to be able to buy potassium nitrate as saltpeter in many garden supply stores. While it is difficult to find saltpeter, you can still purchase potassium nitrate, which is used to make smoke bombs and certain other fireworks. Stores That Sell Potassium Nitrate One of the most common sources of pure potassium nitrate is stump remover. In the United States, you can find it at Lowes or Home Depot, among other places. Look for the Spectracide brand in those stores near the insecticides. Be sure to check the label to make certain potassium nitrate is the first (and preferably only) ingredient. If you cant find potassium nitrate  at a store in your area, you can  order it online at Amazon, plus its a chemical you can make it yourself. Make Potassium Nitrate Even if you cant find potassium nitrate, you can make it. All you need is a cold pack that lists potassium nitrate as an ingredient and salt substitute that lists potassium chloride as the only ingredient. It has to be salt substitute and not lite salt, because the latter also contains sodium chloride. If you use lite salt, youll end up with a mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate, which might be useful for your purpose, but isnt the same as pure potassium nitrate and will burn yellow rather than purple. You need; 40 grams ammonium nitrate from the cold pack37 grams potassium chloride from the salt substitute100 milliliters water Dissolve the ammonium nitrate in the water.Filter the solution to remove any undissolved matter. You can use a coffee filter or a paper towel.Add the potassium chloride to the liquid and gently heat the mixture to dissolve the salt. Dont boil it.Filter the solution to remove solids.Chill the liquid on ice or in the freezer. The potassium chloride will freeze out as crystals, leaving ammonium chloride in solution.Pour off the liquid and let the crystals dry. This is your potassium nitrate. You could also save the ammonium chloride, too. If you want the ammonium chloride, let the water evaporate and recover the solid material. The reaction exchanges the ions in the compounds: NH4NO3   KCl → KNO3   NH4Cl The products can be separated because they have different solubilities. As you chill the mixture, potassium nitrate readily solidifies. Ammonium chloride is more soluble, so it remains in solution. Even though the solution is on ice or in the freezer, it wont freeze because the particles cause freezing point depression of the water. This is why these chemicals can be used to de-ice roads! Keep in mind, the potassium nitrate you get from the reaction wont be reagent-grade purity. However, it should be pure enough for most chemistry experiments and fireworks projects.

Checkpoint Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Checkpoint - Essay Example This implies that employees should behave in a way that in no way diminishes the ethical value and standards of the other person. Employees mustn’t use their official status for their personal purposes and must also avoid those activities that involve the risk of corruption or any other activity that may defame the organization. The employer must assess the whole situation in which he/she is obliged to identify or recognize the specific concerning issue as to whether there is any ethical impact upon the decision which he/she is supposed to take. The analysis of the situation demands the ethical decision make to clarify the exact issue, the main problem; the causes of the problem, the consequences, end results and outcomes of the actions and the parties and the stakeholders that may be affected because of ethical decision. This is a decision making step in which the decider has to determine his role and responsibility, evaluate all the relevant facts, figures and the information regarding the dilemma, assess the element of the risks involved in that particular decision and the ultimate desired course of action to minimize and mitigate those risks, and eventually decide the best course of course of action to resolve the dilemma. In the verification step, the decider verifies the decision that he/she has taken by way of reviewing and monitoring the consequences of the action, and takes the corrective actions when he/she finds any deviation from the original decision. This step involves the communication and justification of the decision to the concerned stakeholders and clarifications of the points and reservations which are popped up by the stakeholders relevant to the case. The above mentioned each rule and principle is selected in order to avoid workplace conflicts and also to maintain the reputation of the company. There many instances where unethical, illogical and illegal behavior of

Innocent smoothies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Innocent smoothies - Assignment Example Innocent’s mini-kiosks were some of the few food outlets in the Olympic park offering healthy food alternatives to the millions of attendees. The company also ran a two-week campaign called ‘Tweet for A seat’ prior to the start of the Olympics (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2012). This was intended to have the fans regenerate the advertisements by tweeting pictures of the company’s products to their followers. In the campaign, Innocent called on its Twitter followers to suggest whom they wanted to take with them to the Olympics and the reason for a chance to win a seat for two. The campaign followed a decision by the company to scrap off its scheduled promotion through which it aimed to improve the sale of Olympic tickets. Smoothie had worked to be the official smoothie and juice sponsor of the Olympics. Before the start of 2012 Olympic, Innocent launched a healthy living campaign, which encouraged people to kick off the year with healthy lifestyles (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2011). The company features one retired athlete, Kris Akabusi in its video advert clips and billboards with a message to encourage people to get back into fitness through exercising. It gave away free day passes to the gyms of virgin active all over Europe (OReilly, 2014). Although this campaign was not geared to promoting the Olympics, it helped the company generate more revenue clocking 200 million pounds the following year. The company’s promotional campaigns have always focused on marketing its products as the best alternative healthy foods in Europe. It prompts people to focus on their health and watch their diet. Its tagline ‘tastes good, does good’ is meant to appeal to the buyers to buy the products and feel the tastes and effects of the product. By appealing to the healthy lifestyle, the company brands itself as the only one offering alternatives to longer living. This is a moral appeal

The submittal of claims Essay Example for Free

The submittal of claims Essay The submittal of claims to insurance companies requesting payment for medical services provided by a doctor to a patient is called the medical billing process. Ten steps make up the process: preregistration of patients; establishment of financial responsibility for the visit; checking patients in; checking patients out; the review of coding compliance; verifying billing compliance; the preparation and transmittal of claims; the monitoring of payer adjudication; generation of patient statements; and the follow-up of payments by the patients and the handling of collections. HCPCS, HIPAA, CPT, and ICD have an influence on every step of the process. The 9th Revision-Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) is a global categorization of disease and contains sets of codes. These codes give information for evenly measures and diagnoses. The ICD-9 code has three digits, and these three may be followed by a decimal point and then two more digits. The Healthcare Common procedure coding system (HCPCS) does not give diagnosis information, only information about the procedure area. The purpose of HCPCS codes is to process hospital treatments for outpatient services. Physicians also use these codes. ICD-9 procedure codes are required by HIPAA for their porting procedures of hospital inpatients. The numerical codes for CPT and the diagnoses areas signed by the coding team. They make these assignments based on information given by the provider. A charge is then created, following the billing rules that pertain to certain locations and carriers. People who work on the process of medical billing have to maintain patient information confidentiality based on HIPPA rules. Employees must also be truthful and conduct themselves with integrity. Every procedure and diagnosis has to be correctly documented and then coded accurately to avoid any delays in payments.

Explication of Diane Thiels The Minefield :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Diane Thiel’s poem â€Å"The Minefield† is about a man who’s mind has been ravaged by memories of a war in his childhood. She shows that even though the war had been over for years, the memory of it haunted the man in everything that he did. Through a powerful combination of symbols, dark images, and a split chronology, she creates a full picture of a life changed forever by war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first stanza, the tone is lighter, describing a scene where two boys are running through towns. The boys race, the faster one being described as a â€Å"wild rabbit†. This stanza feels dream like, the organization of thought is loose, and word choice seems almost erratic, almost unrehearsed. The first stanza ends with a twist. The faster boy is killed by a mine and his friend, just seconds behind, witnesses the whole thing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second stanza is only two lines, â€Å"My father told us this, one night,/and then continued eating dinner.† This stanza breaks up the chronology of the poem, pushing the previous stanza into the past, and making it disjointed, almost like another poem in itself. The result of the father continuing eating after he tells the story shows how dead he is inside, the recalling of the story no longer affecting him in the same way it does the reader and his own family. It is implied that he is the only one able to eat after telling the story. This short stanza foreshadows the father’s personality change.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the third stanza, the language becomes much darker, words like: anger, explode, and against make this stanza seem even more warlike than the first stanza.

Imperfect Punishments Essay

Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante’s Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante’s treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno and Limbo seem to be backwards and these poor people are doomed to suffer misguided punishments. Therefore, despite Dante’s best attempts to justly punish each sinner, he makes a few mistakes because he is not God and Dante is un able to unbiasedly judge each sinner. If you were to attempt a journey through Hell, the first unlucky hellions you would encounter are the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno. The residents of this â€Å"not quite heaven, not quite hell† domain were placed here because while living, they chose to neither side with God nor with the Devil. By choosing neither good nor evil, these people sinned because they never chose to live by a set of Christian ideals. The punishment for these sinners is to constantly chase a white flag. The color of the flag symbolizes the blank and empty life the sinners led because they did not choose to follow God. The sinners are also bitten by wasps because in real life, they were never forced into any type of moral decision, so in the Ante Inferno, the wasps sting them and force them to chase the white flag. While the ordeal these sinners face seems entirely appropriate, their physical location in hell, or lack there of, is what makes their punishment wrong. This becomes very obvious when the punishment for those in Limbo is considered. Limbo is the First Circle of Hell and it is the final resting place for the people who died before the birth of Christianity or who were never baptized. Notable figures like Moses and Noah are former residents of Limbo, until  Christ granted them a pardon. Virgil resides in Limbo and has been given a temporary leave of absence to guide Dante through Hell because Beatrice, Dante’s former love who holds a high place in heaven, is worried that he is headed on the path towards Hell. Dante shows pity for those who are stuck in Limbo because as Virgil describes, â€Å"Some lived before the Christian faith, so that They did not worship God aright – and I Am one of these. Through this, no other fault, We are lost, afflicted only this one way: That having no hope, we live in longing†(Canto IV 28-32). Dante is said to be seized with â€Å"heartfelt grief† (Canto IV 33) after hearing this, but no pity is supposed to be felt towards sinners who are receiving just punishments. But how just is it that people who never knew the word of Christ and had no knowledge of Heaven or Hell are sentenced to Hell? It is not a fair punishment to doom those unlucky enough to be born before Christianity to Hell when they were not given a fair chance to learn how to gain entrance to Heaven, especially when you consider that those living in the Ante Inferno were perfectly aware of God and knew the consequences of not living a Christian life. Knowing about God and simply ignoring him seems to be a worse crime than being born before Christ. Perhaps some of the residents of Limbo may have ended up in Hell had they know about Christianity, but some may not have. The people in Limbo were never given the choice to live a life with God, so their punishment and placement in Hell should be less severe t han the people who ignored their chance to gain entrance to Heaven. If Limbo and the Ante Inferno could geographically switch positions, Dante’s reasonsing and punishments for the two groups would make more sense. The sinners in the Ante Inferno experience what seems to be a greater punishment  than what one would face in Limbo. Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell†¦ yet they aren’t even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must fac e the fact that by their indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell. While Dante may have geographically misplaced these two groups of sinners, he did correctly punish most of the sinners in Hell. For example, â€Å"the river of blood – in which boils everyone / Whose violence hurt others† (Canto XII 41-42) describes the perfect punishment for those who were violent while they were alive. The degree of the violence committed also factors into the punishment. Tyrants who slaughtered many people are completely covered in boiling blood, while those who were violent against only a few suffer with blood up to their torsos. This is the perfect punishment because violence is a crime of passion and causes bloodshed. It is appropriate for these sinners to be in boiling blood, which would have been similar to their blood, simmering with rage and passion, while they committed their sin. Being immersed in this disgusting pool of heated blood would be a terrible punishment and it is just that those who commit the crime of violence and murder should s uffer this endless torment. In order to place the sinners in the appropriate levels of Hell, Dante relies on his personal experiences and opinions about the crimes committed. The little bit that we know about Dante and his life, we learn through the opening scenes of the epic and conversations he has with spirits in Hell. The epic opens with Dante, â€Å"In dark woods, the right road lost† (Canto I 2). This shows the Dante is neither a devout Christian, nor is he a sinner. At his place in his life, being neither good nor bad, Dante would most likely be sentenced to life in the Ante Inferno. Throughout the epic, Dante likens  himself to Virgil, but at the same time appears to know that his work is not quite as good as Virgil’s. Perhaps by placing himself and the Ante Inferno in a level of Hell less severe than Limbo, Dante may still not be as good of a poet, but he is able to represent himself as a better person morally. This may not seem just to me, but to Dante this is a perfectly reasonable pu nishment. Dante feels the need to be superior to Virgil and since he was not able to accomplish this in life, he supercedes Virgil in the afterlife. It is also evident that Dante has a personal bias towards those who commit the sin of violence. While venturing through their circle of Hell, Dante says there â€Å"in that crowd / Were many I recognized† (Canto XII 114-115). He mentions that Alexander resides there and that â€Å"he held Sicily under / For many a sad year† (Canto XII 100-101). Dante may have placed such a harsh, yet still just, punishment on the Violent because he is avenging his country and people for the violent crimes committed against them. Alexander was responsible for an innumerable amount of Italian lives during his occupancy of Sicily and Dante is making sure that he is correctly punished for his sins. In life, Dante was unable to stop Alexander from committing his atrocities, but he is able to condemn him in Hell. Had Dante and his country not experienced the terrors of a tyrant, it is possible that without his need for revenge, Dante may have awarded the Violent a lesser punishment. Our personal experiences and feelings are what make us human, but yet they also lead us to biases, which prevent us from being as fair and just as God. It is obvious that those in Limbo who were never given a chance to have their soul saved by Christ should not be doomed eternally to a lower level of Hell than those in Ante Inferno who ignored the chance to save their soul. Yet Dante misplaces these two domains of Hell to put himself in a level nearer to Heaven than Dante will ever be able to acheive. While Virgil’s literary abilities will always be remembered as better pieces of work, by making Virgil his guide to salvation, Dante will reach Heaven, the ultimate goal of a Christian, while Virgil never will. The punishment of the Violent is a strong statement against those who have brought bloodshed to Italy and reflects Dante’s hope for peace in Italy. Dante shows that while these sinners may have dominated the lives of others on Earth, that in hell  the Violent are completely overwhelmed by the blood that they created. Despite Dante’s good intentions of creating a Hell where the punishment fits the crime, his opinions cloud his judgement. He uses Hell as a way to punish or degrade those whom he had some sort of a conflict with while alive. It is obvious that I do not agree with all of his ideas about Hell, but then again I am also not a fourteenth century Italian male. A just hell is different for everyone, depending on your own beliefs or lack of beliefs. The only universally just Hell that can be experienced is a Hell of God’s making and hopefully I will never know how his punishments compare to Dante’s.

Choicepoint Data Breach Essay

Abstract The ChoicePoint data breach occurred in 2005. This insider data breach brought to light how a company can still be vulnerable to having data stolen from its databases even without any type of hacking of their system. By not properly vetting request for new accounts and request for information led to the theft of over a hundred thousand records of people’s personal information. ChoicePoint Data Breach ChoicePoint, A data broker, suffered a data breach in 2005. This breach led to the disclosure of thousands of people’s personal information. We will discuss the type of breach this would fall under, how it occurred, the losses of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C.I.A.), and the types of improvements ChoicePoint could or did undertake to help prevent this from happening again. The ChoicePoint data breach was a type of insider attack that occurred between 2003 and 2005 (Otto, Anton, & Baumer, 2007). According to the textbook, the definition of an insider attack is someone with legitimate access intentionally breaches information (Pfleeger & Pfleeger, 2007). This can typically be from an employee or a contractor. But with the ChoicePoint data breach is was actually from â€Å"customers†. The ChoicePoint data breach led to over 145,000 records of personal information being stolen (Polstra, 2005). This was not by any type of hack into ChoicePoint’s systems but by an individual or a group of people who used previously stolen information to create fake businesses that would have a need to preform background checks on people. They used the fake businesses to apply for accounts with ChoicePoint. When ChoicePoint reviewed the application for membership they ran a check on the businesses and did not find any criminal activity on the owners of these fake companies since they were from stolen information and not the criminals themselves. Since no flags were thrown up ChoicePoint authorized the accounts, and these accounts now had access to retrieve information on people. In terms of the losses of confidentiality, integrity, and availability there was really only a loss of confidentiality with a minor loss of integrity. The data breach led to the PII of an estimated 145,000 people to be possibly used by the individuals or groups that took the information for improper use. This use could have been for anything like creating credit accounts, loans, etc. Since ChoicePoint data broker of all types of information on people, this loss of data is basically the person’s entire life story and everything needed to take control of that life. The loss of integrity is minimal since the bogus accounts could not change information on the people; the integrity of that information was intact. But since the people that performed this breach created accounts from previously stolen information, that was used to create fake businesses, the account it self was not reliable. This then could of put every â€Å"real† account at risk of not being able to perform its needed task due to the possibly of all accounts being re reviewed to verify proper reasoning for needing the account. There are multiple things that ChoicePoint can do to improve upon with what happened in 2005. While ChoicePoint will point out that they were a victim of fraud themselves since it was not an actual hack into their systems (Polstra, 2005). They still failed to vet the applications for accounts and not reporting the breach of data until it was made public. Even then, they still failed to notify everyone until they were made to. This type of handling of the situation does not help with consumers trusting the company. Another thing they can do is to require more information on the individual that a company is requesting information on. This way if someone is trying to steal PII on someone they will have to have some of the more important information from the start. This will also make the request look more real and other request that are not stand out that much more. If they better vet the applications for accounts then just simple background checks, it would lead to a lesser chance of people having access when they shouldn’t. In conclusion, the ChoicePoint data breach exposed a serious threat to PII, even when not being hacked or databases being accesses without permission. If anything good could be said about this breach is that it led to the implementing of numerous state laws requiring notification of PII breaches (Payton, 2006). References Otto, P. N., Anton, A. I., & Baumer, D. L. (2007, September/October). The ChoicePoint Dilemma: How Data Brokers Should Handle the Privacy of Personal Information. IEEE Security and Privacy , 15-23. Payton, A. M. (2006). Data security breach: seeking a prescription for adequate remedy. Proceedings of the 3rd annual conference on Information security curriculum development (pp. 162-167). New York: ACM. Pfleeger, C. P., & Pfleeger, S. L. (2007). Security in Computing. Indianapolis: Prentice Hall. Polstra, R. M. (2005). A case study on how to manage the theft of information. Proceedings of the 2nd annual conference on Information security curriculum development (pp. 135-138). New York: ACM.

Understanding Americas Digital Divide

Understanding America's Digital Divide While America’s once vast digital divide is narrowing, the gap between groups of people who have those who lack access to computers and the internet persists, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. What is the Digital Divide? The term â€Å"digital divide† refers to the gap between those who have easy access to computers and the internet and those who do not due to various demographic factors. Once referring mainly to the gap between those with and without access to information shared via telephones, radios, or televisions, the term is now used mainly to describe the gap between those with and without internet access, particularly high-speed broadband. Despite having some level of access to digital information and communication technologies, various groups continue to suffer the limitations of the digital divide in the form of lower-performance computers and slower, unreliable internet connections such as dial-up. Making quantifying the information gap even more complex, the list of devices used to connect to the internet has grown from basic desktop computers to include devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, MP3 music players, video gaming consoles, and electronic readers. No longer simply a question of having access or not, the digital divide is now best described as â€Å"who connects to what and how?† Or as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai described it, the gap between â€Å"those who can use cutting-edge communications services and those who cannot.† Drawbacks of Being in the Divide Persons without access to computers and the internet are less able to fully take part in America’s modern economic, political and social life. Perhaps most significantly, children who fall into the communication gap lack access to modern educational technology such as internet-based distance learning. Access to broadband internet has become increasingly important in carrying out simple day-to-day chores like accessing health information, online banking, choosing a place to live, applying for jobs, looking up government services, and taking classes. Just as when the problem was first recognized and addressed by the U.S. federal government in 1998, the digital divide remains concentrated among older, less educated, and less affluent populations, as well as those living in rural areas of the country that tend to have fewer connectivity choices and slower internet connections. Progress in Closing the Divide For historical perspective, the Apple-I personal computer went on sale in 1976. The first IBM PC hit the stores in 1981, and in 1992, the term â€Å"surfing the internet† was coined. In 1984, only 8% of all American households had a computer, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). By 2000, about half of all households (51%) had a computer. In 2015, this percentage grew to nearly 80%. Adding in smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices, the percentage rose to 87% in 2015. However, just owning computers and connecting them to the internet are two different things. When the Census Bureau began collecting data on internet use as well as computer ownership in 1997, only 18% of households used the internet. A decade later, in 2007, this percentage had more than tripled to 62% and increased to 73% in 2015. Of the 73% of households using the internet, 77% had a high-speed, broadband connection. So who are the Americans still in the digital divide? According to the latest Census Bureau report on Computer and Internet Use in the United States compiled in 2015, both computer and internet use continue to vary based on a variety of factors, most notably, age, income, and geographic location. The Age Gap Households headed by persons 65 years and older continue to lag behind households headed by younger persons in both computer ownership and internet use. While up to 85% of households headed by a person under age 44 owned desktop or laptop computers, only 65% of households headed by a person age 65 and older owned or used a desktop or laptop in 2015. Ownership and use of handheld computers showed an even greater variation by age. While up to 90% of households headed by a person less than 44 years of age had a handheld computer, only 47% of households headed by a person 65 years and older used some type of handheld device. Similarly, while up to 84% of households headed by a person less than 44 years of age had a broadband internet connection, the same was true in only 62% of households headed by a person aged 65 and older. Interestingly, 8% of households without a desktop or laptop computer depended on smartphones alone for internet connectivity. This group included 8% of householders ages 15 to 34, versus 2% of households with householders age 65 and older. Of course, the age gap is expected narrow naturally as younger current computer and internet users grow older. The Income Gap Not surprisingly, the Census Bureau found that using a computer, whether a desktop or laptop or handheld computer, increased with household income. The same pattern was observed for a broadband internet subscription. For example, 73% of households with annual incomes of $25,000 to $49,999 owned or used a desktop or laptop, compared with only 52% of households earning less than $25,000. â€Å"Low-income households had the lowest overall connectivity, but the highest proportion of ‘handheld only’ households,† said Census Bureau demographer Camille Ryan. â€Å"Similarly, black and Hispanic households had relatively low connectivity overall but high proportions of handheld only households. As mobile devices continue to evolve and increase in popularity, it will be interesting to see what happens with this group.† The Urban vs. Rural Gap The longstanding gap in computer and internet use between urban and rural Americans not only persists but is growing wider with the increased adoption of new technologies such as the smartphone and social media. In 2015, all persons living in rural areas were less likely to use the internet than their urban counterparts. However, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NITA) found that certain groups of rural residents face a particularly wide digital divide. For example, 78% of Whites, 68% of African Americans, and 66% of Latinos nationwide use the internet. In rural areas, however, only 70% of White Americans had adopted the Internet, compared to 59% of African Americans and 61% of Latinos. Even as internet use has increased dramatically overall, the rural vs. urban gap remains. In 1998, 28% of Americans living in rural areas used the Internet, compared to 34% of those in urban areas. In 2015, over 75% of urban Americans used the internet, compared to 69% of those in rural areas. As NITA points out, the data shows a consistent 6% to 9% gap between rural and urban communities internet use over time. This trend, says NITA, shows that in spite of advances in technology and government policy, the barriers to internet use in rural America are complex and persistent. People who are less likely to use the internet no matter where they live- such as those with lower income or education level- face even greater disadvantages in rural areas. In the words of the FCC chairman, â€Å"If you live in rural America, there’s a better than a 1-in-4 chance that you lack access to fixed high-speed broadband at home, compared to a 1-in-50 probability in our cities.† In an effort to address the problem, the FCC in February 2017, created the Connect America Fund allocating up to $4.53 billion over a period of 10 years to advance high-speed 4G LTE wireless internet service primarily in rural areas. Guidelines regulating the fund will make it easier for rural communities to get federal subsidies for advancing internet availability.

Stiff Pen Shell (Atrina rigida)

Stiff Pen Shell (Atrina rigida) The stiff pen shell, or rigid pen shell, is one of the several species of pen shells. These mollusks have a long, triangular, or wedge-shaped shell and attach to rocks or shells in sandy, shallow ocean bottoms. Description Stiff pen shells can be up to 12 long and 6.5 wide. They are a brown or purplish-brown color and have 15 or more radiating ribs that fan out across the shell. They may also have erect, tubular spines. Pen shells may produce black pearls. Classification Kingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: MolluscaClass: BivalviaOrder: PterioidaFamily: PinnidaeGenus: AtrinaSpecies: rigida Habitat and Distribution Stiff pen shells live in warmer water from North Carolina to Florida, and also in the Bahamas and West Indies. They are found on sandy bottoms in shallow water. They attach with their byssal threads, pointed end down. Feeding Pen shells are filter feeders and eat small particles passing through the water. Conservation and Human Uses Pen shells have a scallop-like adductor muscle (the muscle that opens and closes the shells) and are edible. They also produce black pearls which may be used in jewelry. Pen shells in the Mediterranean (Mediterranean pen shells) were harvested for their byssal threads, which were woven into an expensive cloth. Sources Gofas, S. 2011. Pinnidae. World Register of Marine Species (Online) Accessed on May 24, 2011Meinkoth, N.A. 1981. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures. Alfred A. Knopf, New YorkScott, S. 2011. Pen Shells Provided Ancients Byssal Threads for Fine Sea Silk (Online) Accessed May 24, 2011

Leadership Challenge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leadership Challenge - Essay Example Leadership involves the most vital resources of the organization- the people. Power distribution between leaders and group members is unequal. Leadership involves the use of different forms of power to influence the behavior of followers. And lastly, leadership is about values. Management is the process of planning, organising, leading and controlling all phases of business operation in order to achieve the objectives of that organisation. Effective management invariably results in business success, while ineffective management often results in business failure. Planning is an intellectually demanding process, because it requires deliberate courses of action where decisions are based on purpose, knowledge and considerable degree of estimates. Planning minimizes costs. Its emphasis is on efficient and effective operations and consistency of procedures and methods. Organizing includes the skills of self- managing and team work thus time is considered as an essential factor. The word organization refers to the structure or a network of relationships among individuals interacting with one another. Organizing as a tool is an end in itself but a means of achieving the objectives of the organization. ... manager without the authority necessary to direct and supervise it, and the provision for coordination horizontally and vertically in the organizational structure. Controlling makes use of skills involving setting of performance standards and measurements of performance as well as flexibility and adaptability to change. Controlling is the managerial function of measuring and correcting performance in order to make sure that organizational objectives and plans that were deliberately devised to be attained are being accomplished. Planning and controlling are closely related that some manager and management practitioners think that their functions are also closely related. Objectives and plans are very important and control is not possible, because performance has to be measured against some established criteria. Controlling, as a management tool, is the function of every manager from president to supervisor. While the range of control varies among managers, those at all levels have the responsibility for the effective implementation of plans. Control is the process of assuring management that the organizational plans, objectives, programs and other specific tasks are carried out effectively and efficiently. The basic control process involves three steps: establishing standards, measuring performance against these standards, remedies for deviation from standards and plans. SUMMARY Kouzes introduced the five practices. "Faced with different cultures and difficult circumstances, Lindsay Levin and Alan Keith each seized the opportunity to lead. They chose a pioneering path and led their organizations to new summits of excellence. And although their cultures and circumstances are distinct, we learned some important lessons about leadership from Lindsay, Alan, and