Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Way and Life of General Carl A. Spaatz Essay -- essays research pa

The Way and Life of General Carl A. Spaatz The name General Carl ‘Tooey’ Andrew Spaatz has become synonymous with the phrase air power and strategist. Air power has come along way since Wilbur and Orville launched the first airplane in 1902 in the city of Kitty Hawk. Famous engineers have taken the Wright-Brothers design and made great improvements to them while slowly integrating these new powerful means of transportation, weaponry and communication aids into the military. Since the onset of World War I there has been a debate on how to most effectively use these new airplanes in the Army’s collection. Most individuals believed that airplanes should be under control of the Army theater commander, while very few felt that these airplanes should be a separate entity from the Army. One of these few people who believed that the Air Force should be separate is General Spaatz. General Spaatz possessed perseverance, leadership attributes and military knowledge; all factors leading him becoming a substantial proponent of a separate Air Force. Spaatz legacy continues to live on; his leadership skills continue to influence people today as General Spaatz is still able to impact air power in the 21st century. It is no accident that General Spaatz is a proponent of a separate Air Force. Spaatz’s perseverance, leadership attributes and military knowledge would lead him to be a proponent of a separate Air Force were all being shaped, tweaked and instilled upon him during his early plebe years at the United States Military Academy (USMA) beginning in 1900. Looking back on Spaatz’s career at the USMA, one would not predict Spaatz to become the first Chief of Staff of the newly independent United States Air Force. However, these four years spent at the USMA were very influential, particularly in Spaatz’s development as a leader and his ability to persevere. While at the USMA Spaatz was very much a rebel and was constantly breaking the rules. Nevertheless, Spaatz knew he was smart, he demonstrated this by being ranked in the top half of his class. Although, as Spaatz entered his senior year, he felt he had nothing else to prove and began to slack off. Eventually Spaatz ended up being ranked near the bottom of his class. He went from the rank of 39th to 98th of 107 within a year. With the possibility of getting kicked-out Spaatz used his perseve... ...orce is grateful for a man like General Spaatz and the events that occurred in his lifetime. He may have been subject to coincidence, or even fate, but either way Spaatz’s leadership, perseverance and military knowledge is no accident. Works Cited Davis, Richard G. "Carl A. Spaatz and the Development of the Royal Air Force-U.S. Army Air Corps Relationship, 1939-1940." The Journal of Military History. Oct. 1990: EBSCOhost. 9 Nov. 2003 Davis, Richard G. "Gen Carl Spaatz and D Day." Airpower Journal. Winter 1997: Military & Government Collection. 10 Nov. 2003 Doughty, Robert A., and Ira D. Gruber. Warfare in the Western World. Vol. II. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. 797. Glines, C.V.. "Air Power Strategist Carl A. Spaatz." Aviation History. Vol. 12, Issue 4. Mar. 2002: Military & Government Collection. 8 Nov. 2003 McNeely, Gina. "Legacy of Flight." Aviation History. Mar. 1998: Academic Search Premier. 8 Nov. 2003. Maj. Carl A. Spaatz. 7 June 2002. The Evolution of Aeronautical Development at the Aeronautical Systems Center . 8 Nov. 2003 . Mets, David R. Master of Airpower. Novato, California: Presido, 1988. The Way and Life of General Carl A. Spaatz Essay -- essays research pa The Way and Life of General Carl A. Spaatz The name General Carl ‘Tooey’ Andrew Spaatz has become synonymous with the phrase air power and strategist. Air power has come along way since Wilbur and Orville launched the first airplane in 1902 in the city of Kitty Hawk. Famous engineers have taken the Wright-Brothers design and made great improvements to them while slowly integrating these new powerful means of transportation, weaponry and communication aids into the military. Since the onset of World War I there has been a debate on how to most effectively use these new airplanes in the Army’s collection. Most individuals believed that airplanes should be under control of the Army theater commander, while very few felt that these airplanes should be a separate entity from the Army. One of these few people who believed that the Air Force should be separate is General Spaatz. General Spaatz possessed perseverance, leadership attributes and military knowledge; all factors leading him becoming a substantial proponent of a separate Air Force. Spaatz legacy continues to live on; his leadership skills continue to influence people today as General Spaatz is still able to impact air power in the 21st century. It is no accident that General Spaatz is a proponent of a separate Air Force. Spaatz’s perseverance, leadership attributes and military knowledge would lead him to be a proponent of a separate Air Force were all being shaped, tweaked and instilled upon him during his early plebe years at the United States Military Academy (USMA) beginning in 1900. Looking back on Spaatz’s career at the USMA, one would not predict Spaatz to become the first Chief of Staff of the newly independent United States Air Force. However, these four years spent at the USMA were very influential, particularly in Spaatz’s development as a leader and his ability to persevere. While at the USMA Spaatz was very much a rebel and was constantly breaking the rules. Nevertheless, Spaatz knew he was smart, he demonstrated this by being ranked in the top half of his class. Although, as Spaatz entered his senior year, he felt he had nothing else to prove and began to slack off. Eventually Spaatz ended up being ranked near the bottom of his class. He went from the rank of 39th to 98th of 107 within a year. With the possibility of getting kicked-out Spaatz used his perseve... ...orce is grateful for a man like General Spaatz and the events that occurred in his lifetime. He may have been subject to coincidence, or even fate, but either way Spaatz’s leadership, perseverance and military knowledge is no accident. Works Cited Davis, Richard G. "Carl A. Spaatz and the Development of the Royal Air Force-U.S. Army Air Corps Relationship, 1939-1940." The Journal of Military History. Oct. 1990: EBSCOhost. 9 Nov. 2003 Davis, Richard G. "Gen Carl Spaatz and D Day." Airpower Journal. Winter 1997: Military & Government Collection. 10 Nov. 2003 Doughty, Robert A., and Ira D. Gruber. Warfare in the Western World. Vol. II. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. 797. Glines, C.V.. "Air Power Strategist Carl A. Spaatz." Aviation History. Vol. 12, Issue 4. Mar. 2002: Military & Government Collection. 8 Nov. 2003 McNeely, Gina. "Legacy of Flight." Aviation History. Mar. 1998: Academic Search Premier. 8 Nov. 2003. Maj. Carl A. Spaatz. 7 June 2002. The Evolution of Aeronautical Development at the Aeronautical Systems Center . 8 Nov. 2003 . Mets, David R. Master of Airpower. Novato, California: Presido, 1988.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Research Proposal Essay

This research project is entitled ‘Safe pedestrian practices: the perception of children in Sri Lanka’. Road traffic accidents are one of leading causes of death amongst child pedestrians in low-income countries. Despite this, little research has been done into effective interventions to reduce child mortality in these countries. This study aims to provide original and useful data from Colombo, Sri Lanka which will help in the development of new or existing road safety interventions and education, particularly in relation to child knowledge and perception. The method of research involves recruiting school children aged 8-9 years from the Holy Family Convent and St. Peter’s College schools situated on Galle road, Colombo. These schools have been selected as they have similar location, one being a girls school, the other a boys school. The first part of the study involves a draw and write technique where the children will be asked to draw a picture of themselves crossing Galle road, the main road by their school. They will then be given a piece of paper with the instruction ‘tell me what you have drawn and why’. Six children from each class will be then purposively selected to take part in a focus group. Content analysis will be used when analysing this section of the results. Finally I will carry out a two day observation of child pedestrian behaviour on Galle road. Behaviour of the children will be compared using the UK’s Green Cross Code. It is estimated that the research will take approximately four weeks to complete. This includes, recruiting and gaining consent from the participants, carrying out the draw and write activity, completing two focus groups and carrying out the observational study. The estimated cost of this research  £1163. Background Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with 86% of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries despite accounting for only 40% of motor vehicles[i]. RTAs are the overriding cause of child injuries killing approximately 180 000 children under 15 each year. Children are rarely the cause of road traffic accidents but suffer as pedestrians, cyclists and passengers[ii]. Lack of research in low-income countries has meant a slow introduction of effective intervention strategies to reduce the mortality rates. Many factors are accountable for the high RTA rates in low-income countries including impaired driving, lack of enforcement and vehicle type. However the most significant differences found in low-income countries are the wide variation in road vehicles and the high number of vulnerable road users. The mixture of road users including pedestrians, bicycles, handcarts, mopeds, rickshaws, motorcycles, vans, cars, trucks and buses means that schemes to combat this problem have not been required in the same extent in high-income countries and therefore local research is needed[iii]. Child pedestrians account for a large proportion of vulnerable road users. The high number of pedestrian and cyclist casualties in these countries reflects not only their inherent vulnerability but also insufficient attention to their needs in policy-making3. A study in Pakistan observed 250 pedestrians in the top 10 risk areas for pedestrian RTAs in Karachi. They observed walking and crossing the road and walking on the pavement. Only 60% of the pedestrians looked left and right before crossing. 52% crossed the street less than 2 seconds before a vehicle passed the point they had just crossed. 35% caused the traffic to swerve to avoid the observed pedestrian. Of the 250 pedestrians observed walking on the street edge, 82% had a pavement available to them but were not using it[iv]. Of the pedestrians using pavements 28% encountered an encroachment and 84% of these stepped on to the street to avoid it. Among those who were observed stepping on the road from the sidewalk, 66% did not look out for oncoming traffic4. Possible study limitations were that only pedestrian behaviour was studied, not actual accidents and the study sites were the top ten risk sites for RTAs in Karachi so may not be transferable to other situations. The advantage of this data is that it was carried out in a low-income country which means the findings can be drawn on for other settings. Policy changes such as restricting the amount of pavement space being used by stalls or shops and publicity to highlight the danger of such behaviour along with the important of observation when crossing roads may make a large difference to fatality rates. Risk perception has been widely studied as a risk factor for injuries however literature relating to child pedestrian safety is seriously lacking. Zeedyk et al[v] carried out research on children who had been taught a programme of road safety. They carried out two studies, both focussing on the skill of finding a safe place to cross the road. Firstly they tested the effect of the programme in improving knowledge and secondly whether the children transferred their knowledge to change their behaviour in a traffic environment. Initial results encouragingly showed that the interventions were effective in increasing the children’s knowledge of safe and dangerous places to cross roads and that this information was retained for six months. The second study however showed that this knowledge did not influence behaviour and that those children who had received knowledge on safety when crossing roads behaved no differently from those children who had receive no information whatsoever. That is the children were not applying the knowledge they had displayed during pre-testing5. The study’s main limitation is that it does not allow any further information on why the children didn’t apply their knowledge in the real situation, only that they didn’t. Research in Australia[vi] into the parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety found that cultural risk factors significantly affected risk perception and safety behaviour. The results showed that Chinese and Arabic speaking parents perceived the road environment to be significantly less risky to their children than parents from the other two language groups. One significant limitation of this study is that assumptions were made that the language spoken by an individual was closely linked to their cultural make-up. Since the main finding was the differences between perceptions from different cultural groups it seems important that this factor is reliable. Despite this, this study reinforces the need for local research from which local interventions can be implemented. As described there is very little research on road safety in low-income countries, particularly regarding the safety of child pedestrians. Intervention strategies to help reduce child pedestrian mortality can only be implemented if the factors underlying the increasing rates are established. It is hoped this study will help to describe the behaviour and perceptions of children in a named area in Sri Lanka regarding safe pedestrian practice. The study will help build on existing knowledge of child pedestrian safety but provide an original and detailed description of the behaviour and perceptions of Sri Lankan children in a defined area. The data produced from this study will identify the knowledge and behaviour of child pedestrians, what they perceive to be safe practices and why they think this. This study anticipates highlighting the importance of child perception in safety behaviours. Child perceptions should be taken into account when considering the design of safety education programmes and road safety interventions. Research Question The background literature shows a clear gap in research into the behaviour, knowledge and perceptions of child pedestrians in low-income countries. The research question for this study is: Child pedestrian fatalities: the accountability of child perceptions in Sri Lanka The aim of this study is to discover the perceptions children in Sri Lanka have regarding road safety and specifically related to their own safety as pedestrians which may influence their risk of being involved in a RTA. The results of this study will enable a greater understanding of how a defined group of children in Colombo, Sri Lanka use the local roads, what they know about road safety, how they perceive it and therefore whether they generally behave in accordance to their knowledge and perceptions. This was discussed above by Zeedyk et al5 who found the knowledge of the children in their study did not affect their behaviour. The objectives of this study are to: – Observe and record the road behaviour of children in the local area – Identify what the children know about pedestrian safety – Discover whether the children know why certain practices are safe – Make comparisons between what the children know about road safety and say they are aware of and how they behave in the real situation Detailed Research Proposal pedestrian injury Children are particularly vulnerable to pedestrian death because they are exposed to traffic threats that exceed their cognitive, developmental, behavioral, physical and sensory abilities. This is exacerbated by the fact that parents overestimate their children’s pedestrian skills. Children are impulsive and have difficulty judging speed, spatial relations, and distance. Auditory and visual acuity, depth perception and proper scanning ability develop gradually and do not fully mature until at least age 10. Method RTA death rates in Sri Lanka totalled 11 per 100 000 population in 1995[vii] with pedestrian accidents accounting for 45% of the total fatal accidents, one of the highest rates in Asia[viii]. The research will be carried out among children in Sri Lanka. The selected site is Galle Road, Colombo which is the main road from Colombo to Galle along the west coast of Sri Lanka and is the location of a number of schools. The assumption will be made that the majority of child pedestrians walking alongside and crossing that particular road are from one of the local schools. The study population will be girls and boys aged 5-15 years old attending schools in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Research shows RTAs predominantly affect those under the age of 15 [ix]. Schools in Sri Lanka are commonly single sex which means children will be selected from 2 schools, St Peter’s College, a boys’ school and Holy Family Convent, a girls’ school. Worldwide, boys are more likely to be affected by RTAs than girls so studying boys and girls may highlight important differences which could account for such a difference between them[x] [xi]. I was unable to find any research indicating which children are most at risk of RTAs only that those under 15 are an increased risk compared to the rest of the population. Research from Canada suggests children aged 6-9 years are most at risk and in a survey on children’s road safety practice several countries including the UK, New Zealand and the US identified those under 10 as most at risk[xii]. Research such as this in low income countries is scarce. Consequently I have decided to select the age groups 7-8 and 9-10 years as my sample. The methods being used in this study have been deemed inappropriate for children under 6 to carry out. Two classes of children, aged 7-8 and 9-10 from each of the schools mentioned year group will be studied, giving a total of 4 classes. Variations in ages might allow for difference in safety knowledge due to age to be identified. For example if the younger children perceive a certain dangerous practice to be safe and the same results are found in the older children this may indicate a problem with safety education or local road dangers rather than naivety due to age.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Debate Of Capital Punishment - 1313 Words

Capital Punishment Introduction The state of California has carried out 13 executions since the enactment of capital punishment in 1992 (NAACP, 2016, 10). According to the NAACP winter quarterly report, there are currently 743 prisoners on death row (NAACP, 2016, 39). Since the enactment, there has been a wide range of political debate. The largest concern is in regards to the number of wrongful convictions and its philosophical underpinnings. The citizens in California are as diverse as their opinions regarding capital punishment. As a society continues to grow, and time passes philosophical, themes change as well. As with any type of change, legislation eventually follows. Philosophical Underpinnings The debate for capital punishment is a debate that can last for a long time. Deterrence and Retribution is the basic philosophies of many individuals who believe and support capital punishment. Many individuals believe that those capital punishments will help stop crime from occurring. Isaac Ehrlich reported, (as cited in Radelet Akers, 1996, 4), that he had uncovered a significant deterrent effect. He estimated that each execution between 1933 and 1969 had prevented eight homicides. Radelet and Akers conducted a questionnaire on deterrence issues. These interviews were expert criminologist and the questions originated from Gallup and Ellsworth/Ross surveys (based on their knowledge in criminology) (Radelet Akers, 1996, 6). The results showed that based on their ownShow MoreRelatedThe Debate On Capital Punishment1673 Words   |  7 Pagessocieties in history at least at one point of time or another. Capital punishment could have been considered a tradition of sorts, considering how often it was and still is made to be an intriguing, perhaps morbidly entertaining, spectac le. When the reality behind the contentious punishment is revealed, so is the true ugliness of this custom. 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Capital Punishment is supposed to be a deterrent to crime, but is the death penalty really a deterrent? Capital Punishment is not a deterrent for crime, and the effects ofRead MoreThe Capital Punishment Debate Essay2269 Words   |  10 PagesCapital Punishment Try to imagine a relative sitting in a dark, cold, and tight prison cell and knowing minutes later that death would come for them through lethal injection. What if their case wasnt handled correctly, what if evidence was mishandled, and possibly an innocent person is going to die. Imagine the family who has been waiting years for justice to be served by the means of lethal injection. There is two sides to every story either way both families will grieve or already is. Read MoreThe Debate Over Capital Punishment1599 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The Capital Punishment is a sure punishment. Sure punishment in the sense that the convicted never commits another crime, namely a homicide, again. People that oppose it support the argument that as human beings we shouldn’t take the responsibility of judging who should and shouldn’t die. That argument is backed by moral reasons, whether they are religious or simply ethical beliefs. Another argument against it is the fact that an offender facing the death penalty does not deter themRead MoreAmerica s Debate On Capital Punishment760 Words   |  4 PagesAmerica’s Debate: Should the Capital Punishment be abolished in the United States? Violent crimes such a murder, rape, sexual assault, and robbery are perpetrated by criminals once every few minutes in this country. Lawmakers spend countless hours enacting laws to prevent these crimes. The introduction of the death penalty is an effort to deter criminals from committing heinous crimes. What exactly does the death penalty accomplish? The best description of the term death penalty is the legal executionRead MoreThe Debate over Capital Punishment Essay1025 Words   |  5 PagesThe Debate over Capital Punishment South Carolina, January 15, 1993. After wounding an Orangeburg, S.C. police officer with a misfired bullet, Thomas Treshawn Ivey, an Alabama prison escapee, proceeded to fired five more shots into the police officer from a handgun at close range after the wounded police office had reached for his gun. Ivey fled the scene but was quickly apprehended. This scenario is not to different from the horrible acts of violence that lead an offender to death row where