Women and Mathematics Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Women and Mathematics Call me a bigot if you want but men are better mathematicians than women. Year after year, men score higher on the SAT’s, more men receive prestigious educations from the best technical schools in the nation, and men obtain more degrees, secure more jobs and get promoted more often. â€Å"The ETS report on students taking the SAT examinations indicates that males have traditionally scored 40-50 points higher on the mathematics section† (Women) â€Å"In 1996, California Institute of Technology’s enrollment was 75% male, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s enrollment was 62% male, Renssalear Polytechnic Institute’s enrollment was 77% male, Rochester Institute of Technology’s enrollment was is 68% male, and Worchester Institute of Technology’s enrollment was 79% male† (Baron’s). The future for women who enter the work place as mathematicians is no more encouraging. â€Å"Roughly three times as many wom en are unemployed and six times as many women are in part time positions. The female mathematicians who acquire these full time jobs are less likely than men to be promoted to a position such as full or associate professor† (awm-math.org). Females’ lack of success as mathematicians has nothing to do with their mathematical potential. The reason females do not excel in mathematical fields can be explained by high school course selection, social pressures and support and not by genetic differences. Psychologists have studied the impact of environment on human development for years. Most would agree that environment does shape us and play a role in some way or another. It is no wonder that mathematics has the tendency to turn women off. The world has ... ...cs. In the years, the country has started to realize the injustice it has been doing females in the field of mathematics. I believe that in the future these biases and disadvantages will be a thing of the past. Females have the mental capability to perform on an equal level with all respected and distinguished male mathematicians, but first social pressures and stereotypes must be eliminated. Works Cited [1] Association for Women in Mathematics. Education and Career. http://www.awm-math.org/. [2] Chipman, Susan F. Women and Mathematics: Balancing the Equation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 1985 [3] Custard, Edward T. The Princeton Review Student Advantage Guide to the Best 301 Colleges. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996 [4] Nolan, Deborah. Women in Mathematics: Scaling the Heights. The Mathematical Association of America, 1997

The Other Side of Truth

‘The Other Side of Truth’ is a novel written by author, Beverly Naidoo. The novel is mainly based on telling the truth and lying, and when it is right to do either. In the book are various types of situations where characters need to make a decision on whether to lie or to tell the truth. Beverly Naidoo provides the correct decisions and the wrong ones in the story. Naidoo shows in the novel, when it is ok to lie and when it is not. Naidoo suggests that if your life is in danger it is considered ok to lie, but if you assume your life is still in danger when it’s actually not you might accidently lie to the wrong people.Naidoo displays this when Sade and Femi find the father in a detention centre and ask him why he is not able to come back home with them. Folarin says that he cannot because Sade lied about who they were to the officials. Now the officials do not believe Folarin when he says that they are his kids. There is a sthrong message that sometimes one lie i s ok in the right circumstances, but consecutive lies could end you up in a lot of trouble. An important quote from the book states this idea, â€Å"A lie has seven winding path, the truth has one straight road. pg. 148. Lying could be a very dangerous thing, telling the truth is the best way to go, but even the truth can land you in trouble. The truth is a very powerful thing, it is important that you tell it, this is portrayed by Naidoo in her novel. Naidoo has based the whole novel around the truth. In the story it is used when it should and shouldn’t be. Folarin Solaja is the main protagonist in the novel when it comes to the importance of telling the truth. He states several quotes about how important in his mind, it is to tell the truth.

Analysis of “1954” by Sharon Olds Essay

â€Å"1954† by Sharon Olds is a poem displaying the horrors of an instance of rape and murder of a young girl by a man named Burton Abbott in 1954. Olds uses a frantic and horrified tone highlighted by a careful choice of diction to express her messages that any ordinary-looking person can disguise evil and the current justice system has a hypocritical eye-for-an-eye mindset that only ends up destroying human life. The structure of â€Å"1954† is built on enjambment and broken sentences. This helps the reader understand fear the speaker feels, as if words are simply pouring out, developing the frantic and horrified tone of the poem. This fear builds as the speaker begins to make connections between the victim and herself. The author uses clear imagery in phrases like â€Å"†¦I feared the word eczema, like my acne and like the X in the paper which marked her body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  to help make these connections. The speaker relates the victim’s eczema with her own acne, and recognizes how an innocent, little girl has been reduced to nothing but an X that marked where her lifeless body was left. Now that the speaker can relate to the victim in a clear way, she begins to realize how ordinary the murderer was. The author uses simple, ordinary diction to describe him. Phrases like â€Å"as if he were not someone specific,† â€Å"his face was dull and ordinary,† and â€Å"he looked almost humble† are examples of the author’s use of ordinary diction that make the killer seem normal. The speaker then says the killer went against â€Å"what I’d thought I could count on about evil.† This helps support the message that evil can be disguised in anyone because by making the murderer seem ordinary, the author forces the speaker and the reader to begin to question the people around them. A definite shift occurs in line 22 of the poem. The author shifts from using the word â€Å"fear† to the word â€Å"pity† when referring to the crime, and begins to use â€Å"fear† to describe how the speaker feels towards consequences the murderer, Burton Abbott must face. The speaker realizes that â€Å"the good people, the parents† were going to fry Mr. Abbott on the electric chair for his crime. The author deliberately used the word fry to express that the parents of the victim did not just believe that Abbott should receive capital punishment, but they wanted him to suffer; they wanted to watch him  writhe in pain for what he did to their daughter. As a result, the speaker begins to fear electricity, and her mother’s electric blanket. The author uses this and other carefully chosen phrases like â€Å"death to the person, death to the home planet† to demonstrate the hypocrisy that exists in the justice system’s eye-for-an-eye men tality when it comes to capital punishment. When someone commits a murder, they are sentenced to death, simply resulting in further loss of human life. People who see these crimes in the news not only fear the murderer; they fear the brutal punishment just as much, demonstrated by the speaker’s new fear of electricity. The author uses carefully chosen diction and tone to communicate two completely different messages to the reader. Both of these messages come together at the end of the poem to pose a single, lingering question to the reader: Who should we fear more? The murderer, or our own justice system?

time changes everything essays

time changes everything essays Throughout time, with technology, higher learning, and new inventions things have a tendency to change. Our roads, ways of life, and communities have changed over time. A small town that may have been productive may not be now because of the changes. From our studies we have learned about how farms, buildings, and transportation have changed into forgotten history. Some of the things that are forgotten are farms that are big, probably used to be bigger. Old roads and bridges become new, general stores in small towns or communities become rundown and some abandon. These stores become rundown and abandon because there is now Wal-Mart and K-Mart that replace these general stores of the past. That is why I feel it was bound for Route 66 to be replaced. I believe if Route 66 is the mother of all roads in America it is because the talk of it being the mother of American roads. If it wasnt for people traveling Route 66, and coming back home, and telling their friends about it the road would have never really known as that type of major road. I have to ask the question; would we know about Route 66 if people didnt tell us about it. Of course there are other things, like the sites that you can see by traveling across the country. At the height of Route 66s travel it was the main highway to the west. Some of the things that attracted people to Route 66 the idea of the road is it will always mean going somewhere.(Pg. 27, Route 66) Another idea is if you have a fast car, a coast to reach, and a woman at the end of the road. (Pg.26, Route 66) You can say that Route 66 is the mother road because it was the first road to use one-mile intervals to let you know how far you had to go. There are many other things that make Route 66 the mother of American roads. I feel that what I have found are the strongest reasons that mak ...

Free Essays on MP3 Laddering

Table of Contents Laddering†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.2 HVM†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....4 Attributes†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..5 Consequences†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...8 Values†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..17 MECCAS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.21 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦23 Laddering As a definition, laddering is an in-depth interview which takes attributes, values and consequences of a product and makes a â€Å"ladder† out of the answers that the interviewee gives. It tries to uncover consumers’ motivations underlying the importance of a products key attributes. Similar to something like this: Values Consequences Attributes The attributes are the lowest level which lead to consequences and the consequences lead to personal values, which are the highest level. It is a tailored interview that asks specific questions and gets specific answers in a certain sequence, with the goal of linking all the things mentioned above into a â€Å"ladder† as depicted in the example above. Laddering tries to probe the interviewee to think critically about the product in question for certain answers. (Reynolds, 1988) Laddering is part of the personal values area that marketers use to market consumers products. It takes consume... Free Essays on MP3 Laddering Free Essays on MP3 Laddering Table of Contents Laddering†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.2 HVM†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....4 Attributes†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..5 Consequences†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...8 Values†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..17 MECCAS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.21 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦23 Laddering As a definition, laddering is an in-depth interview which takes attributes, values and consequences of a product and makes a â€Å"ladder† out of the answers that the interviewee gives. It tries to uncover consumers’ motivations underlying the importance of a products key attributes. Similar to something like this: Values Consequences Attributes The attributes are the lowest level which lead to consequences and the consequences lead to personal values, which are the highest level. It is a tailored interview that asks specific questions and gets specific answers in a certain sequence, with the goal of linking all the things mentioned above into a â€Å"ladder† as depicted in the example above. Laddering tries to probe the interviewee to think critically about the product in question for certain answers. (Reynolds, 1988) Laddering is part of the personal values area that marketers use to market consumers products. It takes consume...

Stegosaurs - The Spiked, Plated Dinosaurs

Stegosaurs - The Spiked, Plated Dinosaurs As dinosaurs go, stegosaurs are relatively easy to describe: these quadrupedal, small-to-medium-sized, small-brained herbivores were characterized by the double rows of plates and spikes along their backs and the sharp spikes on the ends of their tails. By far the most famous stegosaur (and the one that has lent its name to this entire family) is, of course, Stegosaurus, but there are at least a dozen other closely related genera, most of which are no less important from a historical perspective. (See a gallery of stegosaur pictures and profiles and Why Did Stegosaurus Have Plates on its Back?) Evolutionarily speaking, stegosaurs are classified as ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs. Their closest relatives were the armored dinosaurs known as ankylosaurs, and they were more distantly related to other four-footed plant-eaters like hadrosaurs (aka duck-billed dinosaurs) and ornithopods. In a crucial way, though, stegosaurs were less successful than these other dinosaurs: they only flourished toward the end of the Jurassic period (about 160 to 150 million years ago), with only a handful of species managing to survive into the ensuing Cretaceous. Types of Stegosaurs Because they constituted such a small family of dinosaurs, its relatively easy to distinguish among the various types of stegosaurs. The earlier, smaller stegosaurs of the middle to late Jurassic period are known as huayangosaurids, typified by, you guessed it, Huayangosaurus and less well-known genera like the European Regnosaurus. The better-known stegosaurids were larger, with more elaborate spikes and plates, and are best represented by the classic body plan of Stegosaurus. As far as paleontologists can tell, the stegosaur family tree took root with the huayangosaurids of Asia, and grew larger and more ornate by the time Stegosaurus planted itself in North America. There are still some mysteries, though: for example, the tantalizingly named Gigantspinosaurus had two huge spikes protruding from its shoulders, making its exact classification within the stegosaur line (if it even belongs there) a matter of controversy. The last stegosaur to appear in the fossil record is the mid-Cretaceous Wuerhosaurus, though its possible that some as-yet-undiscovered genus may have survived to the brink of the K/T Extinction 65 million years ago. Why Did Stegosaurs Have Plates? The most enduring mystery about stegosaurs is why they possessed those characteristic double rows of plates and spikes along their backs, and how these plates and spikes were arranged. To date, no stegosaur fossil has been unearthed with the plates still attached to its skeleton, leading some paleontologists to conclude that these scutes (as theyre technically called) lay flat along the dinosaurs back, like the thick armor of ankylosaurs. However, most researchers still believe that these plates were arranged semi-vertically, as in popular reconstructions of Stegosaurus. This leads naturally to the question: did these plates have a biological function, or were they strictly ornamental? Because scutes pack a large surface area into a small volume, its possible that they helped to dissipate heat during the night and absorb it by day, and thus regulated their owners presumably cold-blooded metabolism. But its also possible that these plates evolved to deter predators, or to help differentiate males from females. The trouble with these latter two explanations is that a) its hard to see how an upright array of blunt plates could possibly have intimidated a hungry Allosaurus, and b) there has been very little evidence to date of sexual dimorphism among stegosaurs. The prevailing theory is a bit less exciting: the bulk of opinion today is that the plates and spikes of stegosaurs evolved as a way of differentiating individuals within the herd, along the same lines as the slightly varying black-and-white stripes of zebras (because they were well supplied with blood, these scutes may also have changed color with the seasons). No such controversy attaches to the sharp spikes at the end of most stegosaurs tails, which were doubtless used for defensive purposes (and are often called thagomizers in tribute to a famous Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson).

Is it morally right thing to do is always the thing which will produce Essay

Is it morally right thing to do is always the thing which will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest memebers Kant vs. Mill - Essay Example The ideology of metaphysics was a major avenue of study followed by Immanuel Kant. Metaphysics is the philosophical study of a person’s know how and being. (Kant, 98). It is evident that Kant’s idea of morality relies on the occurrence of metaphysics as an individual science. â€Å"The law effected by the uniformed forces should be absolutely necessary so as to have moral implications.† In fact, scholars have identified this statement as a basic maxim of Kant’s philosophical ideas. According to Kant (2008), there should a group of truths referred to as necessary truths, for there to be morality. These truths define a person’s incentive to fulfill his/her duties and enhance psychological growth through the act of seeking moral worth. Moral worth in turn has its consequences based on happiness in action or satisfaction of the greatest number. Consequently, people decide to take various actions in accordance with duty; thus making it a moral choice. The will to perform duty or take action is classified as good or bad. Kant notes that if action is based on bad will, then all the externalities point towards immoral intent. To understand the aspect of satisfaction of the greatest number, we need to ask ourselves; what are the necessary truths? Kant states â€Å"he should not act otherwise so that his maxim can become universally accepted.† (698) In interpretation, people owe their obedience to their social duty. In obedience to duty there exists the basis for morality and if anyone tries to make an immoral idea wholly accepted, there will be contradiction. For example if one decides to kill anyone who offends him, then everyone will do the same leading to extinction of the human race. While quoting Kant’s work, Gert (2007) argues that it is necessary to avoid double-standards between the actions we take and those that we