The education system Essay Example for Free

The education system Essay Assess the view that ethnic minority pupils are discriminated against in the education system There are currently significant differences in the educational attainment of ethnic minority pupils compared to their white peers, as shown in the statistics from Social Trends. There are many possible factors that may account for this and for the purposes of this essay I will explore the idea of discrimination against ethnic minority pupils. Some pupils may be treated differently either due to racism or inaccurate views made by the teachers which lead to labelling. The Swan Report was done in 1985 in Britain after it was felt that research should be conducted into the differing attainments of ethnic minority pupils. This report concluded that there was not much racism in Britain at that time and if there was, it may have been from resources such as books so is consequently dying out. Due to the age of the Swan Report, its findings may not be as valid today, so this would indicate that the amount of racism, if any, would have decreased dramatically. It would therefore, be fair to say that the changes in the attitudes of people in society has lead to ethnic minority pupils no longer being discriminated against. However, Coard felt that there was racism being put through the ethnocentric education, it focused on white people, so it caused racism from the teachers and peer groups. This view argues that ethnic minority pupils are being discriminated against, but I feel it is difficult to state whether this is knowingly happening. For example, there is a wide range of ethnic minority pupils from a range of backgrounds in Britain today so it would be impractical to include work that is related to all of the cultures. As we all live in England it seems natural to give slightly more attention to the history of this country. Also, an explicit criticism of Coards work would be that it is not scientific as it is only based on his views. Overall, I feel that what Coard has described is not discrimination, but he has simply looked at the education system from a negative angle. By the 1980s, Troyna and Carrington found that there was not overt racism, but covert racism. By this they meant that people were saying, Im not racist, but This indicates that at this time, people were aware that it was wrong to be racist, but they still had views against ethnic minorities. This shows that there may have been discrimination against ethnic minorities, but it was not intentional. They felt that schools needed to do Anti-Racist Education, this would involve more strategies to deal with overt racism and would completely remove any barriers that were apparent between the cultures. From this, it can be said there is very little or no discrimination against ethnic minorities as schemes have even been introduced to reduce the small amount of covert racism.

General Omar Bradley :: Essays Papers

General Omar Bradley General Omar Nelson Bradley was the first member of his 1915 West Point class to receive a star. Gen. George C. Marshall played a key role in his rapid advance, and he served one year as an assistant in the War Department under Marshall. Promoting him from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general in 1940, Marshall made Bradley head of the Infantry School, gave him a second star in 1941, and after that appointed him commanding general of the 82nd and 28th divisions. Impressed by Bradley's success as a planner, Marshall sent him to North Africa early in 1943 to be Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's "eyes and ears." Soon Bradley commanded the U.S. Second Corps in Tunisia. As a corps commander under Gen. George Patton's 5th Army, Bradley played a key role in the conquest of Sicily in the summer of 1943. Early in preparations for the 1944 invasion of Normandy, Marshall selected Bradley to command the 1st Army, which he later directed in the D-Day landings and Normandy campaign. When Patton was sent with the 3rd Army to assist in the breakout from France several weeks later, Bradley became the 12th Army Group commander, with Gen. Courtney Hodges's 1st and Patton's 3rd armies under his command. He led this force in a rapid movement across northern France and Belgium to the German frontier. Slowed by rugged terrain and supply shortages, Bradley's forces were hard hit in the Ardennes area in mid-December. When the German advance made it necessary for him to hand over command of the American forces north of the German penetration to British field marshal Bernard Montgomery, Bradley used Patton's troops to restore his lines in the south. His reinforced force in February pushed the Germans back across the Roer and led to a seizure of a bridge across the Rhine in early March. In April Bradle y's Army Group, now consisting of the 1st, 3rd, 9th, and 15th armies, led a massive drive through central Germany to the Elbe, to link up with the Russians at Torgau on April 25th before pushing into Czechoslovakia at the end of the war. When General Eisenhower retired from his job as chief of staff in 1948, Bradley assumed the position until he became the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position made necessary by the recent unification of the armed forces. Soon involved in supporting military operations in Korea, Bradley was caught up first with getting additional forces to MacArthur and then in the controversy between the Far East commander and Washington over policy.

Alina Humanities Essay

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of the course, students should be able to accomplish the following. 1. Understand and appreciate outstanding cultural expressions of the humanistic tradition. 2. Interpret and analyze selected artistic and ideological expressions. 3. Compare and contrast selected artistic and ideological expressions. 4. Identify causal influences in the chronological development of arts and ideas. 5. Applywhattheyhavelearnedaboutonecultureorculturalexpressionwhenexamining another. 6. Demonstrate how selected artistic and ideological expressions do or do not illustrate a cultural period or a stylistic concept. 7. Defend personal opinions regarding the interpretations of selected artistic and ideological expressions. 8. Demonstrate rhetorically effective writing appropriate for the study of humanities and meeting all requirements for college level writing. ***Please advise instructor if you will be taking exams at DSS. *** CLASS PROCEDURE & OBLIGATIONS Class sessions will consist primarily of PowerPoint presentations that include representative images, texts, and audio from the humanist tradition. Students will be responsible for viewing/reading the powerpoints and/or other material prescribed for each presentation. When 1  engaging literary texts, the students must read the assigned pages before classes, be ready to pass written quizzes on the readings and be ready to discuss each respective day’s assignment. *** Using laptop computers or other electronic devices is not allowed in class. For each incident, violators will be docked ten points on the following exam. Classroom Etiquette: 1. No talking during class. Private conversation cannot and will not be tolerated. 2. No reading the newspaper, or other outside material, or doing other homework during class. 3. Due to the abuse of using computers in class in the past, I ask that you do not use a laptop for  taking notes. 4. Arriving late and leaving early are disruptive. Please be considerate of your instructor and fellow students by arriving on time. If you should need to arrive late or leave early, please notify the instructor. 5. Turn off cell phones before entering the classroom. Attendance Policy Classroom attendance supplements and enriches text materials through films, slides, lectures, and discussions. In addition, class discussions suffer without each student present, since all viewpoints in discussion are important. Class attendance and punctuality are important. TCC’s  Catalog states, â€Å"All students enrolled in the College are expected to attend all classes, since regular attendance and regular application constitute the two most significant factors that promote success in college work. Until midterm during fall, spring and summer C terms, any student absent from any class for more time than that class meets in any one week (i. e. , two classes) may be withdrawn by administrative action (AW grade). † Tardiness and/or leaving class early both disrupts the continuity of the class and reduces other students’ engagement with the material. Both, therefore, will be counted as absences.  Since late arrivals and early departures constitute class disturbances, each instance of tardiness to and early departure from this class will be counted as an absence from an entire class session. Consequently, STUDENTS WHO ARE TARDY OR WHO LEAVE EARLY — FOR ANY REASON, INCLUSIVE OF BATHROOM USAGE — ON MORE THAN A TOTAL OF FIVE OCCASIONS PRIOR TO THE WITHDRAWAL DEADLINE WILL BE SUBJECT TO ADMINISTRATIVE WITHDRAWAL. STUDENTS SHOULD ARRIVE ON TIME AND POWER OFF THEIR CELL PHONES BEFORE CLASS BEGINS. Eight absences will lower your final grade in this course one full letter grade. A student with nine absences will automatically fail the  course. There will be no distinction made between excused and unexcused absences, so plan your absences wisely. 2 STUDENTS SHOULD ARRIVE ON TIME AND POWER OFF THEIR CELL PHONES BEFORE CLASS BEGINS. OBLIGATIONS I. Exams Students will be responsible for performing well on three exams. The course will be divided into three units, and a non-cumulative examination will be administered at the conclusion of each unit. All three exams will be comprised of slide identification, multiple choice, matching, short answer, and true/false questions. Students should bring a #2 pencil on the dates of the exams. IF FOR ANY LEGITIMATE REASON A STUDENT IS UNABLE TO TAKE AN EXAM ON THE ASSIGNED DATE, HE/SHE MUST NOTIFY THE INSTRUCTOR BEFOREHAND. Otherwise, no make-up exam will be administered, and failing to take an exam will result in an â€Å"F† for the course. The key to doing well on the exams: attending class, taking notes, and studying diligently. Each exam will include 20% extra credit. II. Writing Assignments Students will be responsible for submitting a total of three essays (600-650 words each). Each one of the three essays corresponds with each one of the 3 exams, and each of the three essays  will be a response to prompts aligned with each unit/exam — that is, each of the three essay assignments must be related to the readings for each exam. Further instructions and the essays’ prompts will be posted on BlackBoard. The due dates are specified on the calendar at the conclusion of this syllabus. Note: Students must complete successfully a short grammar quiz before submitting each of the three essays. Essays may include MLA prescribed in-text citations. That is, if you quote or paraphrase from a source, you must parenthetically cite that source after the quote or paraphrase. Also, you will  need to include a Works Cited page. ***If you plagiarize, your essay will receive a zero, and your overall grade will drop to an F. Grading Each of the student’s three exams and the writing assignments will receive a letter grade: 100-90 = A; 89-80 = B; 79-70 = C; 69-54 = D; 53-0 = F. >The three exam grades will each count 30%, totaling 90 percent of the student’s final course grade; and the three essay grades total 10 percent of the final course grade. *Failure to submit an exam or essay will result in an F for the course. * 3 A student’s excellent attendance, punctuality, Discussion Board participation, and attitude  (citizenship) can count up to 10%++ â€Å"extra credit† toward the final exam grade. Conversely, a student’s poor attendance, poor punctuality, and poor citizenship/attitude (which includes talking, texting, & â€Å"acting out† in class) can affect negatively the final exam grade. Tardiness or leaving early will be counted as an absence and will therefore negate a student’s extra credit for that particular class. Academic Honesty Policy Plagiarism: Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary states: to plagiarize is â€Å"to steal or pass off ideas or words of another as one’s own†¦to use created productions without crediting  the source†¦to commit literary theft†¦to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source† (p. 1371). Academic dishonesty is not accepted at Tallahassee Community College, and I will pursue and prosecute any instances of such dishonesty. ***Do not plagiarize—that is, do not use the research, ideas, or words of others as your own without giving proper credit to your source. This policy especially includes copying or paraphrasing written materials from gallery brochures, play programs, books, periodicals, encyclopedias, CD-ROMs, the Internet, or someone else’s paper. ***Do not cheat. Students who cheat or plagiarize will receive an automatic zero on the assignment and will be referred to the academic dean for expulsion from TCC. By the act of submitting written work or an exam, the student acknowledges that she/he understands the definition of academic dishonesty and is willing to accept the consequences for any violation. COURSE WEB SITE: This course has been designated â€Å"WA† (â€Å"Web Assisted†) in the schedule of classes, and the â€Å"WA† designation means: â€Å"Some use of computer online technology required. † In this regard a course web site has been established for students in this class. The purpose of the web site is to allow students access to important course materials (syllabus, writing assignment, study guides, presentation assistants, images, et cetera). The materials are intended as supplemental to the classroom experience; they should not, in other words, be viewed as substitutes for in-class presentations. Students may also use the course web site to communicate with one another by means of the â€Å"Discussion Board,† which can be found by clicking on the tab labeled â€Å"Communication. † Via the Discussion Board, students can introduce themselves to one another,  ask questions about the material covered in class, and ask questions about the course writing assignments (be careful, though, not to copy the answers of another student). Activating Your TCC E-mail Account If you have not already done so, you will need to activate your TCC e-mail account. To activate your TCC e-mail account, go to the TCC homepage at http://www. tcc. fl. edu/, click on â€Å"Online Access,† click on Student NetMail Guide†; click on â€Å"Activate your eAccount,† and follow the directions. You will be given â€Å"Student eAccount ID (or Name) and a Password (or PIN) that you need to record and store in a secure location. You will need your eAccount ID and Password to access both the course web site and your TCC e-mail account. If you have any problems, call 850-201-8535. Finding the Course Web Site 4 You may find the course web site by going to the TCC homepage at http://www. tcc. fl. edu/, clicking on â€Å"Online Access,† clicking on â€Å"Blackboard. † After logging in with your username and password, the next screen should display the name of the course in which you are enrolled. LIST OF CLAST SKILLS TAUGHT OR REINFORCED: The State of Florida requires each student to demonstrate proficiency in certain College Level Academic Skills (CLAST). The students of HUM 2210 will have the opportunity to practice and develop their reading and writing skills. As for their reading, students will engage their Literal and Critical Comprehension Skills; and, as for their writing, students will engage their English Language Skills: Content, Organization, and Grammar/Mechanics (i. e. , appropriate word usage, syntax, spelling, punctuation). Advising The Associate of Arts degree offered through TCC requires the completion of six credit hours in humanities with a grade of â€Å"C† or better. There are three different tracks through which those six hours may be obtained. The common track runs through both HUM 2210 and HUM 2230, Humanities of the World I and II. If students pass HUM 2210, then, to fulfill the humanities requirement, they must also pass HUM 2230 (and vice versa). Another track runs through HUM 2740 and 2741, Humanities Abroad I and II. If students pass HUM 2740, then, to fulfill the humanities requirement, they must also pass HUM 2741. The third track offers two humanities courses from four different categories. Those categories include courses relating to (1) Art History, (2) Literature, (3) Music, and (4) Philosophy and Religion. For the third track students  must pass two courses, and the two courses must fall into two different categories. Students cannot fulfill the humanities requirement by completing courses in different tracks. If, for example, students pass HUM 2210 and then pass REL 2300 (World Religions), they have not fulfilled the humanities requirement. ACADEMIC ALERT! Students enrolled in the same college-prep or college-level course for the third time shall pay one-hundred percent of the full cost of instruction (which is the equivalent of fees paid by out-of-state residents) except in approved cases of documented extenuating circumstances. Students may not withdraw on the third attempt and will receive a grade in courses taken the third time. An appeal to take a college-level course for the fourth time may be allowed based on academic goals. The appeal process is executed through the Counseling Department. If a fourth attempt is granted, a student will not be permitted to withdraw and will receive a grade for the course. The counting of attempts began in the fall of 1997 and includes only those attempts at the Florida college where one is currently enrolled. Take your course work seriously. Consult with your academic advisor, make an educational  plan, attend class, and take advantage of the skills’ labs available to you. * * * PRESENTATION TOPICS AND RECOMMENDED READING 5 Unit I: The Earliest Traces of Culture Ancient African Egyptian Culture Ancient Mesopotamian and Hebrew Culture Ancient Hindu and Buddhist Cultures Unit II: Ancient Greek Culture Ancient Roman Culture Early Christian and Byzantine Culture Unit III: Islamic Culture Japanese Culture: chs. 16, 23 (if time permits) Medieval European Culture Renaissance European Culture IMPORTANT DATES Classes Begin Holidays: Labor Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Break Monday, August 25 Monday, September 01  Tuesday, November 11 Wednesday-Friday, November 26-28 Last day to cancel registration/drop courses and receive a refund; last day to change from credit to audit or audit to credit Last day to withdraw from a course(s); last day instructors may assign AW Friday, August 29 Monday, November 03 1st Exam 1st Essay due Sept. 18 (Slide ID) Sept. 23 (Multiple Choice, etc. ) Sept. 16 2nd Exam 2nd Essay Due Oct. 21 (Slide ID) Oct. 23 (Multiple Choice, etc. ) Oct 28 Last Day of Classes Friday, December 05 Final Exam 3rd Essay Due TBA Day of the Final Exam TBA Final Exam: TBA Twelve Ways to make sure You Pass Your College Classes  6 1. Study the text, lecture material, or additional assigned recommended reading. Superficially scanning the reading the night before the exam â€Å"doesn’t cut it. † 2. Observe due dates. Late work, no matter what the excuse, will be downgraded or not accepted. 3. Do not urge the instructor to â€Å"cut you some slack† or â€Å"give you a break. † If he or she did that for someone else and not you, what would your reaction be? 4. Attend class. While you may think class is boring, the teacher might just provide some insights that will help you better understand the content of the course. 5. Come to class on time. If you really want to get on the wrong side of the instructor, just make tardiness a habit. 6. Do not play with your cell phone, iPod, or other electronic device in class. Unless you have childcare problems or are a first-responder, these actions tell the instructor that something else is more important than what is being taught. 7. Do not copy from Wikipedia, a Google search, or someone else’s work without proper citations. Teachers usually can identify plagiarism and material that is not yours. 8. Do not sleep in class. We know that school interferes with your social life, but do not make it so obvious! 9. Do not try to con the teacher. Telling an instructor that this is the last course you need to graduate or transfer will not earn you any leniency. 10. Do not tell the teacher that this class is the only one with which you are struggling and you have â€Å"A’s and B’s† in all other classes. Don’t give the impression that your other teachers are too easy. 11. Do not tell the teacher that you must have a good grade or you will lose your eligibility for sports, scholarship, or grant; lose your G. I. Bill; or be on academic probation. 12. Take your course work seriously. Try your best to learn.

Ip Camera

Basic – analog and digital Branded ones – Bosch, AXIS, Mobotix Biggest Taiwan brand Vivotek Check out AXIS and Mobotix trend in each country. Bosch is following up with AXIS and Mobotix. Bosch website is good in technical. Vivotek is good in hardware. Bosch and Airlive software are good. Analog camera has BNC connector (round connector). Can convert analog to digital? Yes is possible. Cost is 25 USD to 250USD. Can convert to BNC to RJ45 or even to Fibre. Lens affect the viewing angle from 4 MM, 6MM, 8MM, 16MM. Manufacturer is Sharp and Sony. Lens also got differentiate into CMOS and optical lens. Optical lens consume more bandwidth.AXIS has the best CMOS lens and they can make it closer to optical lens. MTBF- Mean time before failures. Our AP is 200,000HRS which is quite safe. Camera also have MTBF timing. Bosch have best datasheet. Digital cameras is using RJ45, LAN cable. Digital have both indoor and outdoor. DVR for analog have BNC connector. 16 holes. 1 hole 1 chann el. DVR is for digital camera. DVR is mostly for soho use up to 16 channels or even 32 channels = 32 digital cameras. 1 camera 1 ip address. DVR – we have 1 setup box and 1 harddisk and few buttons for control. Older form of DVR is onsite recording. 2nd generation is with Lan cables so is going via IP.Can record offsite. PTZ cameras – Pan Tilt Zoom.. which the lens is optical. NVR – network video recording is like a NAS, up to dual CPU power with single GIGBABIT port for connecting high resolution cameras for processing. Can connect up to 254 cameras to 1 NVR (255 ip address for Class C subnet mask). Codec is required for converting the recording for onsite. H. 264 and MPEG file version. For future, people are doing bigger and larger and scalable NVR to increase the number of cameras. Raid is now up to 0 and 1. Next year will be raid 5 and raid 6. inside have 4 CPU inside 4U CPU rack with 2 harddisk with redundant power. Software –Questions to ask. 1) Wha t is the FRAME per second? FPS. Recording for IP camera is 29FPS is good (for wired). Wireless camera is normally 3 to 5 FPS for viewing. Recording is still 29FPS for wireless. 2) Resolutions. 320 x 320, 480 x 320, 640 x 480, 1024 x 768 etc. higher resolution will consume higher bandwidth. For analog is defined as lines. Eg HD TV has 1080 lines. 3)CODEC file type. For night vision is based on lux. 0. 5 LUX is able to see already. 1 LUX – 40W of light bulbs. IP cameras do not take standard POE but it take POE+. AXIS – strong at indoor Mobotix – strong at outdoor Vivotek – Outdoor and indoor Bosch – Outdoor

Trolley Crane Design Essay Example

Trolley Crane Design Essay Example Trolley Crane Design Paper Trolley Crane Design Paper Introduction For this project, the aim was to research different geared trolley cranes and come up with a brief outline/ design which would meet some specific design limitations. The trolley crane that we had to come up with was meant to be designed to lift and carry a load of 1. 5 tones along I-beam of 4 meters long. The research that we did was mainly on existing trolley cranes and the configurations of these cranes which allowed us to familiarize ourselves with what the crane does and how It works. The way that the crane operates Is by having a person pull a chain. This chain Is connected to a drive shaft which In turn Is connected too pylon and two wheels. These wheels allow the crane to move horizontally along the I-beam whilst sustaining a load. For our crane design, as mentioned above, the I-beam must be able to support the load of 1. 5 tones without failing under the load and the beam length must be 4 meters long. The trolley crane must also be manually operated with one person pulling the chain to operate it. The way that we can ensure that the trolley crane and I-beam will support the specified load is by using some of the basic beam bending theory in strength of trials and by using different tolerance and bearing data from previous notes. 2. 0. Research As a group we researched many trolley cranes currently on the market, this gave us an idea of the competition for our trolley crane and helped clarify the workings of such mechanisms. (See appendix) 3. 0. Product Design Specification 3. 1. Design Brief The alma of this project, is through the researching of other products, Is to produce a design for a geared trolley crane which fits the given specification for our group. 3. 2. Performance The trolley crane should be capable of sustaining a load of 1. tones with a safety factor of 20%. Should run along a 4 meter I-beam. Trolley crane should be operated and manually moved via a chain/gear system. The weight of the trolley must provide stability along the selected I-beam. The Trolley should be removable from the beam for maintenance and re- installation. 3. 3. Environment The trolley will be available to a global market. Being used in a diverse environment, the trolley crane will be subject to a humid/ wet environment and as such will need to be treated in order to resist corrosion. The trolley will be stored in suppliers warehouses before sales. . 4. Product life span The product will be on the market for 7 years. Spare parts will be available for a further 3 years 3. 5. Life in service Should withstand an operating period of 1 hrs uninterrupted use per day for 3. 5 years. Life in service should be assessed against the criteria outlined in the Performance and Environment categories. . 6. Shelf life The product may be stored on-site for up to 2 weeks before being dispatched. Distributor may additionally store the product for several months. 3. 7. Target costs The product should have an end-user cost of IEEE within Britain. Cost of manufacture should not exceed 50% of this cost. The cost of packaging and shipping should be no more than 15% of the manufacturing cost. 3. 8. Quantity Dependent on market demand 3. 9. Maintenance To be maintenance free except for light lubrication once a month and a recommended service every two years. Parts requiring lubrication should be accessible within 10 minutes without the use of special tools or equipment. All fasteners used should comply with BASSES. Spares should be available for 3 and a half years after the product is replaced with a new model. No special tools should be required for maintenance. . 10. Marketing The trolley crane should be used in competition with other models. Some markets which will use the trolley crane are:- small car garages, storage warehouses, workshops etc. The trolley should be light and therefore be able to be moved easily by no less tan two people. It should allow for operation by one man. 3. 11. Packaging The trolley packaging and transportation should be reasonably inexpensive. No more than 5% of the total cost. 3. 12. Size and Weight Restrictions Length of the beam should be no more than 4 meters long. Width and Height to be no more than mm Weight should be no more than keg. Height should be no more than mm 3. 13. Manufacturing process Bearings, pin/bolt and chain will be bought in from a supplier. The wheels and the pinion will be CNN machined using the milling process.

Upgrade Your Essay Writing Process Say NO to Multitasking

Upgrade Your Essay Writing Process Say NO to Multitasking Upgrade Your Essay Writing Process: Say NO to Multitasking If you want to improve your essay writing process, you should avoid multitasking. This is an important thing to stress because what most people think of multitasking is incorrect. First of all, there is no such thing as multi-tasking. Instead, there is task switching. Your mind is not able to focus all of its attention on two things at once. What it can do instead is switch faster and faster between the two or more tasks. This is an important distinction because it means that if you are trying to do two things at once, your mind will constantly switch between the two and this means time wasted during the switch. If you choose, instead, to focus on just one thing at a time until that one task is done, you can save time and avoid the need to switch tasks. In fact, studies indicate that your IQ drops by 15 points when you are trying to task switch, because it reduces the brain power you can apply to any given task. That being said, in order to improve the process by which you produce your top notch essays, you should cover all of the key components in a linear fashion, one after the other: Develop Your Thesis Your thesis is the main idea warming argument that you are presenting. It must encapsulate your response to the prompt. To strongly express your overall response to whatever the main question is, you want to avoid having a thesis statement which is far too simplistic. Your goal here is to show that you actually put thought into the complexities behind your prompt. Remember too that the thesis serves as the backbone for your writing assignment and therefore it must be stated within the introduction. It is also the one idea which is referred to multiple times throughout the remainder of your content and all of the work you complete in the remainder of your content is designed to demonstrate how you prove your thesis. Write Your Introduction The introduction is where you not only introduce your thesis but when you open up your discussion. You want to indicate to the reader how the question or the prompt is going to be answered and engage the reader. Create the Main Body When you write the main body of your writing, you want to make sure that each new point has its own paragraph. You should use words or phrases at the onset of every paragraph to indicate to the reader how it relates to the content you presented previously such as nevertheless, in addition, or however. You should start each of your body paragraphs with a topic sentence which clearly links it to the remainder of your written content. Make a Conclusion When you sit down to write your conclusion you want to summarize the key ideas and demonstrate how the information you presented proves your thesis. You should finish with a thought-provoking or interesting comment. Overall, trying to multitask is not going to help you get anything done faster. What will help is doing things in a proper order and sticking to that order whenever you are working. Essay writing can be improved with organization and focus. At you can also get professional essay writing help on any topic.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense 13-day-long (October 16-28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union triggered by America’s discovery of nuclear-capable Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. With Russian long-range nuclear missiles just 90 miles off the shore of Florida, the crisis pushed the limits of atomic diplomacy and is generally considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. Spiced with open and secret communication and strategic miscommunication between the two sides, the Cuban Missile Crisis was unique in the fact that it took place mainly in the White House and the Soviet Kremlin, with little or no foreign policy input from either the U.S. Congress or the legislative arm of the Soviet government, the Supreme Soviet. Events Leading to the Crisis In April 1961, the U.S. government backed a group of Cuban exiles in an armed attempt to overthrow communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The infamous assault, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, failed miserably, became a foreign policy black eye for President John F. Kennedy, and only widened the growing Cold War diplomatic gap between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Still smarting from the Bay of Pigs failure, the Kennedy administration in the spring of 1962 planned Operation Mongoose, a complex set of operations orchestrated by the CIA and Department of Defense, again intended to remove Castro from power. While some of the non-military actions of Operation Mongoose were conducted during 1962, the Castro regime remained solidly in place. In July 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in response to the Bay of Pigs and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles Turkey, secretly agreed with Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in order to prevent the United States from attempting future invasions of the island. The Crisis Begins as Soviet Missiles Detected In August of 1962, routine U.S. surveillance flights began showing a build-up of Soviet-made conventional weapons on Cuba, including Soviet IL–28 bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs. A U.S. patrol plane flies over a Soviet freighter during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Getty Images Staff On September 4, 1962, President Kennedy publicly warned the Cuban and Soviet governments to cease the stockpiling of offensive weapons on Cuba. However, photographs from a U.S. U–2 high-altitude aircraft on October 14 clearly showed sites for the storage and launch of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) being built in Cuba. These missiles allowed the Soviets to effectively target the majority of the continental United States. On October 15, 1962, the pictures from the U-2 flights were delivered to the White House and within hours the Cuban Missile crisis was underway. The Cuban ‘Blockade’ or ‘Quarantine’ Strategy In the White House, President Kennedy huddled with his closest advisers to plan a response to the Soviet’s actions. Kennedy’s more hawkish advisers – led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for an immediate military response including air strikes to destroy the missiles before they could be armed and made ready for launch, followed by a full-scale military invasion of Cuba. At the other end, some of Kennedy’s advisers favored a purely diplomatic response including strongly-worded warnings to Castro and Khrushchev they hoped would result in the supervised removal of the Soviet missiles and dismantling of the launch sites. Kennedy, however, chose to take a course in the middle. His Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had suggested a naval blockade of Cuba as a restrained military action. However, in delicate diplomacy, every word matters, and the word â€Å"blockade† was a problem. In international law, a â€Å"blockade† is considered an act of war. So, on October 22, Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to establish and enforce a strict naval â€Å"quarantine† of Cuba. The same day, President Kennedy sent a letter to Soviet premier Khrushchev making it clear that further delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba would not be allowed, and that the Soviet missile bases already under construction or completed should be dismantled and all weapons returned to the Soviet Union. Kennedy Informs the American People Early in the evening of October 22, President Kennedy appeared live across all U.S. television networks to inform the nation of the Soviet nuclear threat developing just 90 miles from American shores. In his televised address, Kennedy personally condemned Khrushchev for the â€Å"clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace† and warned that the United States was prepared to retaliate in kind should any Soviet missiles be launched. â€Å"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union,† stated President Kennedy. Kennedy went on to explain his administration’s plan for dealing with the crisis through the naval quarantine. â€Å"To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated,† he said. â€Å"All ships of any kind bound for Cuba, from whatever nation or port, will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.† Kennedy also stressed that the U.S. quarantine would not prevent food and other humanitarian â€Å"necessities of life† from reaching the Cuban people, â€Å"as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.† Mere hours before Kennedy’s address, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had placed all U.S. military forces on DEFCON 3 status, under which the Air Force stood ready to launch retaliatory attacks within 15 minutes. Khrushchev’s Response Raises Tensions At 10:52 pm EDT, on October 24, President Kennedy received a telegram from Khrushchev, in which the Soviet Premier stated, â€Å"if you [Kennedy] weigh the present situation with a cool head without giving way to passion, you will understand that the Soviet Union cannot afford not to decline the despotic demands of the USA.† In the same telegram, Khrushchev stated that he had ordered Soviet ships sailing for Cuba to ignore the U.S. naval â€Å"blockade,† which the Kremlin considered to be â€Å"an act of aggression.† During October 24 and 25, despite Khrushchev’s message, some ships bound for Cuba turned back from the U.S. quarantine line. Other ships were stopped and searched by U.S. naval forces but were found not to contain offensive weapons and allowed to sail on for Cuba. However, the situation was actually growing more desperate as U.S. reconnaissance flights over Cuba indicated that work on the Soviet missile sites was continuing, with several nearing completion. US Forces Go to DEFCON 2 In light of the latest U-2 photos, and with no peaceful end to the crisis in sight, the Joint Chiefs of Staff placed U.S. forces at readiness level DEFCON 2; an indication that war involving the Strategic Air Command (SAC) was imminent. During the DEFCON 2 period, about 180 of SAC’s more than 1,400 long-range nuclear bombers remained on airborne alert and some 145 U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were placed on ready status, some aimed at Cuba, some at Moscow. On the morning of October 26, President Kennedy told his advisers that while he intended to allow the naval quarantine and diplomatic efforts more time to work, he feared that removing the Soviet missiles from Cuba would ultimately require a direct military attack. As America held its collective breath, the risky art of atomic diplomacy faced its greatest challenge. Khrushchev Blinks First On the afternoon of October 26, the Kremlin appeared to soften its stance. ABC News correspondent John Scali informed the White House that a â€Å"Soviet agent† had personally suggested to him that Khrushchev might order the missiles removed from Cuba if President Kennedy personally promised not to invade the island. While the White House was unable to confirm the validity of Scali’s â€Å"back channel† Soviet diplomatic offer, President Kennedy received an eerily similar message from Khrushchev himself on the evening of October 26. In an uncharacteristically long, personal and emotional note, Khrushchev expressed a desire to avoid the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. â€Å"If there is no intention,† he wrote, â€Å"to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.† President Kennedy decided not to respond to Khrushchev at the time.   Out of the Frying Pan, but Into the Fire However, the next day, October 27, the White House learned that Khrushchev was not exactly that â€Å"ready† to end the crisis. In a second message to Kennedy, Khrushchev emphatically demanded that any deal to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba had to include the removal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Once again, Kennedy chose not to respond. Later the same day, the crisis deepened when a U.S. U–2 reconnaissance jet was shot down by a surface-to-air (SAM) missile launched from Cuba. The U-2 pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., died in the crash. Khrushchev claimed that the Major Anderson’s plane had been shot down by the â€Å"Cuban military† on orders issued by Fidel Castro’s brother Raul. While President Kennedy had previously stated he would retaliate against Cuban SAM sites if they fired on U.S. planes, he decided not to do so unless there were further incidents. While continuing to search for a diplomatic resolution, Kennedy and his advisors began planning an attack on Cuba to be carried out as soon as possible in order to prevent more nuclear missile sites from becoming operational. As this point, President Kennedy still had not responded to either of Khrushchev’s messages. Just in Time, a Secret Agreement In a risky move, President Kennedy decided to respond to Khrushchev’s first less demanding message and ignore the second one. Kennedy’s response to Khrushchev suggested a plan for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba to be overseen by the United Nations, in return for assurances that the United States would not invade Cuba. Kennedy, however, made no mention of the U.S. missiles in Turkey. Even as President Kennedy was responding to Khrushchev, his younger brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was secretly meeting with Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin. In their October 27 meeting, Attorney General Kennedy told Dobrynin that the United States had been planning to remove its missiles from Turkey and would proceed to do so, but that this move could not be made public in any agreement ending the Cuban missile crisis. Dobrynin related the details of his meeting with Attorney General Kennedy to the Kremlin and on the morning of October 28, 1962, Khrushchev publicly stated that all Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba. While the missile crisis was essentially over, the U.S. naval quarantine continued until November 20, 1962, when the Soviets agreed to remove their IL–28 bombers from Cuba. Interestingly, the U.S. Jupiter missiles were not removed from Turkey until April 1963. The Legacy of the Missile Crisis As the defining and most desperate event of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis helped to improve the world’s negative opinion of the United States after its failed Bay of Pigs invasion and strengthened President Kennedy’s overall image at home and abroad. In addition, the secretive and dangerously confusing nature of vital communications between the two superpowers as the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war resulted in the installation of the so-called â€Å"Hotline† direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin. Today, the â€Å"Hotline† still exists in the form of a secure computer link over which messages between the White House and Moscow are exchanged by email. Finally and most importantly, realizing they had brought the world to the brink of Armageddon, the two superpowers began to consider scenarios for ending the nuclear arms race and began working toward a permanent nuclear Test Ban Treaty.