Heart of Darkness Essay

It seems like everywhere there is something in life that seems to be left behind. In the books I read about mystery or suspense, this always seems to be the case in such. The Heart of Darkness draws me into such depths of suspense and unknown that seem to assciate with my life. This whole book is full of mysteries. Marlow has a heart that is full of mytery when he is stuck in Africa, and looking for a man named Kurtz. Marlow is waiting, he learns about where the place is at, what could be coming ahead. Maybe he was just acquiring some ideas of what was ahead, or who he would be working with. Why is all this senselessness happening around him? Marlow is enthralled with mystery. You wouldn't think that somebody would be simply crazy to go and take a trip down the Congo river. He has heard some aspects about the place, and the way it seems to suck the visitors in. All the people getting diseases. One would go insane there, so why? Why would he wnat to go do this? Again, it's full of mystery, and that makes an interesting book. Kurtz, with this person, I can not express how much mystery applies to him and his personality. People haven't heard from him for quite a long time, because h eis up the river from the station where Marlow is at. People are wanting the boss, and they're getting restless. Is Kurtz, sick? Could one of these people get a new promotion in their job? The people don't want Marlow to go explore up the river a ways and kind Kurtz, suppling him with help that he might need. And yet, Marlow needs Kurtz. Yet, there is the mystery of the Congo river. It has a way with the people that come into it and try to explore it's orgins. It seems to drag you in, and not let you go. All of this, because they were curious and brave. But not all brave men will make it through this jungle that the Congo river lays on. Eventually, Marlow fixes his steamboat, and carefully goes to meet the mysterious man he has heard so much from the people, back in the station. Who knows what he'll find, or hear, or feel on his way. It's a mystery that follows him. Seems to be his shadow, but Marlow avoids them because they get in his way all the time. Then comes the infamouse scene of the package. Marlow finally finds Kurtz, and he gives Marlow a package. This was confusing part on my behalf. Kurtz dies, then gives the package away. I mean, this is a total mystery to me, and what was in the package. Maybe Kurtz saw hope in Marlow, and that he was strong enough to survive. The Hear of Darkness, a book full of unknown. I've never read a book with so many unknown containing in it's pages. But again, the mystery part of it makes that a good book, which is suspenseful. This was definately a "Heart of Darkness."

New Age of Technology

Technology and computers are increasing factors in the collision repair industry. With time being a concern for customers in many cases, the work we do has become easier to manage and faster to produce because of technology. Over the past ten years, equipment technology has increased our productivity. Today, a computerized management system helps you to quickly process repair orders, job costing, and management reporting. Some examples of this new technology are the Shark, Pro Spot PR-10, Magna Rack III, and HVLP. The first example, the Shark, is a computer driven measuring system designed to be operated electronically. Shark is not a modified mechanical or laser system. This is a totally new measuring system designed to be computer driven using ultrasound technology. Unlike mechanical or laser systems, the beam does not need to be level or parallel when it is placed under the vehicle The intelligence of the system automatically calibrates its position in relation to the points being measured. The system re-calibrates itself to the vehicle every time you measure. If you reposition the beam after the first measurement, or if the car moves, the beam will automatically re-calibrate from its new position, still producing the same measurement results. Before repairs, Shark provides you with the ability to prove existing damage. This information is good to the vehicle owner and insurance company because it not only explains the cost of repair, but eliminates unnecessary work and surprises. During the straightening procedure, Shark will monitor selected underbody and upperbody reference points. Shark then calculates deviations from the manufactures specifications. You can view the whole pulling process, as it happens, live on the colored monitor. When the job is complete, you may command Shark to store or print a report in a variety of formats that you can select, recording the condition of the vehicle as it leaves your shop. Another example is the revolutionary, Pro Spot PR-10 resistance spot welding system that can add increased profitability and flexibility to any collision repair shop. By pressing the trigger button, the PR-10 electronically provides precise control of the squeeze time, current sensing pre-heat, weld deviation, hold time, cool down and duty cycle. Within seconds, this cycle is completed and you can begin another weld. There is no possibility of an operator rushing a weld because of the pre-timed programming. The operator must wait until the green light has turned on before doing the next weld. The PR-10 assures you of consistent, properly timed welds whether it is the first weld or the hundred and fiftieth weld. With the PR-10 there is no shielding gas or wire to replace and dark glasses and hoods are a thing of the past. Now you can have clear safety glasses and actually see the work as it is in process. Next to be introduced is the Magna Rack III. This is engineered to perform repairs on damaged light framed and unibodied vehicles with the hydraulic tilt fixture. With the full-sized platform, everything from unitized vehicles to pickup trucks and vans fit nicely. Loading ramps can stay attached to the platform or be removed quickly for unproved vehicle access. The system has two working heights to choose from. Magna Rack III adds to your productivity with its full open oval design; you have complete access to the vehicle. The Magna Rack III performs combination front, rear or side correction pulls easily. When you need to work on the underside of the vehicle, the long center opening allows easy access for anchoring, measuring and welding procedures. Magna Rack III conveniently fits into a standard size working bay, while enabling you to perform controlled pulling techniques anywhere around the vehicle. You get maximum flexibility with the Magna Rack III pulling towers. Each tower assembly easily moves 360 degrees around the Magna Rack III's oval platform. Next is the HVLP, or High Volume, Low Pressure gun. The HVLP gun has a design that features hogged-out passages which cause the pressure to drop. However, there is enough air volume to transfer paint to the surface of a car. While high solids and waterborne finishes are advancements and are produced in an effort to reduce damage to the environment from paint and solvents, there is no more effective VOC reduction tool than HVLP spraygun. The High volume, low pressure gun design puts a higher percentage of material on the car because the lower air pressure limits the scattered spray and bounce-back tendencies of standard equipment. This reduces the waste which ends up on your exhaust filters and in the atmosphere. The lower pressures used by HVLP equipment does not develop the strength to create the small droplets the conventional guns do. Consequently, the finishes can appear "peely". This condition can be helped with a combination of proper set-up, longer flash times, slower gun travel and slower reducers. A slower reducer will allow the material to remain as a liquid for a longer period of time allowing the paint film to flow. However, the newest generation of HVLP sprayguns outperform the early versions of the equipment with regard to atomization. So, one may find it unnecessary to slow the drying with reducers. Cost saving with use of HVLP equipment are as great as 30 percent, and less masking is required. A primer-surface application usually requires complete protection from the overspray. However, an application with HVLP equipment can be performed with as little as 18 inches of masking surrounding the repair, saving money. Conventional equipment gives the glass-like finishes our customers have come to expect. The droplets are smaller and the pressure is enough to slam them into submission. However, more material gets bounced off the surface of the car than remains on its surface. Since the droplets in the paint film are larger with HVLP, the finish can appear "peely". Lower air pressure can not shear the paint droplets as effectively. The longer the paint is wet, the better it flows. However, the longer the paint is wet, the greater the chance of runs. Coordination of temperatures, flash times and reducers is a must. This new age of technology has increased so rapidly in the past few years. It has kept us up to date and has increased all productivity. The old body man's way of doing things along with the strain and sweat are a thing of the past

Language is a virus

A written work, whether it is a story, a poem or a song, can be as vague and indeterminable as a painting and given to many different interpretations. It gives an opportunity for the reader to use his imagination and his emotions in absorbing the writing and comprehending its meaning. The interpretation of written work varies with circumstances, such as different cultures, religions, historical times or just personal feelings. Folk tales and legends are stories that have been passed throughout generations and are being told in many parts of the world in different languages. These stories, originally written as local tales, pass the boundaries of their localities and become absorbed into the folklore of other religions and countries through publication in other languages. In many cases they are being altered to suit the tastes, customs and modes of behavior of the population to which the readers belong. In other instances the written works are absorbed in different localities, in their original forms, but even then their meaning varies in accordance with the cultural, religious and economical conditions of the country as a whole and of the reader as an individual. Obviously, a written work is a product of the period in which it is written. Unless it is a historical tale, the subjects, characters and events described, would be of a temporary nature or have a temporary outlook and appeal. Many writings are of a controversial nature and as such they appeal to some but can meet with a violent disapproval by others. Salman Rashdie has been lucky to survive the violent anger of the Muslim world. But at the same time he became popular with many segments of the population, not necessarily due to the greatness of his writing, but primarily because of the controversial subject he touches upon, the fact that he criticizes his own and that his criticism appeals to a non Muslim reader. Language is like a virus. It spreads through different media, but primarily through writing. Depending on the subject and the quality, it can spread widely, become a chronic illness (in a positive as well as a negative way) or disappear completely. It is a virus which attacks a reader as well as a writter. It should not be treated by different remedies, but it should also not be left alone. If good, it should be cherished, if bad it should be exterminated.

A Liberal Arts Education

A liberal arts education provides students with a broad spectrum of information enabling them to expand knowledge and to advance society in a positive direction. This universal education provides a strong foundation of knowledge in many subjects. The students can observe the strengths and capabilities, as well as the limitations of each field of study. This allows the students to find connections between diverse fields of study, to explore them, and to discover new theories, thoughts, or inventions. It allows the students to investigate areas of intrigue and create new fields of study by blending subjects that compliment each other. With these new inventions, discoveries, ideas, and new methods of problem solving, society will advance in a positive direction. Standards of living will rise with these inventions and discoveries, making society more productive and more capable of controlling its surroundings. New thoughts and theories will give insight to those who desire meaning and understanding of concepts. A liberal arts education provides a strong foundation of knowledge in many fields and subjects allowing students to create new theories, inventions, and connections between fields. With this foundation, great thinkers can build and expand from what others have learned rather than wasting time and effort on what has already been discovered. While it is true that the factual information about each subject is very important, the most useful tool liberal arts students can possess is the knowledge of the strengths and capabilities of each individual field, as well as the weaknesses and restrictions. With this knowledge, the students can mesh attributes of different subjects to formulate new and more brilliant concepts; the brilliance being a function of the strengths and compatibility of the chosen subjects. As in mixing colors, a new color can only be created by mixing different colors. The brilliance of this new color depends on the shades and hues of the colors used to create it. The same is true for education. The resulting idea or innovation is a function of the aptness and compatibility of the subjects meshed to create it. For example, the invention of the transistor, one of the most important electronic devices, was developed by a team of research specialists. Specialized mathematicians, scientists, physicists, and engineers all worked together to find a quicker, more efficient way to process the overload of telephone calls. The leaders of this research team had to be highly educated in every one of those fields of study, as well as language. They had to practically translate the technical terms of each field to the other team members so each one understood the approach the team was taking. Most notably, though, the team leaders came up with an approach of improving the efficiency of the vacuum tube in the transistor, which resulted in one of the most practical electrical innovations of all time. The solution the leaders came up with was ingenious. Through this, society benefited by being able to communicate more quickly and more clearly. Businesses, armed forces, and governments today greatly depend on the rapidness of telephone calls. This high level of communication in society is a direct result of the innovative improvement of the transistor by liberal arts educated minds. A better understanding of each facet of education comes from understanding the dependence of each subject upon one another. Each subject is a branch of education and every branch stems from the same tree. Some branches diverge and have twigs and branches of their own, but everything is joined at the root. Education is very similar because each branch of knowledge relies on the other in order to advance. For example, science relies on language to document and publish experimental results. If these findings are published inaccurately, other scientists who use these publications in their own research will be misinformed. Each subject relies on another in some way. It is easier to understand each branch of the tree better if you can see how it is involved universally: where it stemmed from, and how it is dependent upon other branches; what branches stemmed from it, and how they are dependent upon it. John Henry Newman, in his "The Idea of a University", said, "true enlargement of mind ... is the power of viewing many things at once as one whole, of referring them severally to their true place in the universal system, of understanding their respective values, and determining their mutual dependence"(38). Newman is saying quite directly that in order to understand something, it must be looked at as one component of a universal picture. He is saying that when something is closely examined, there are no guidelines or basis for comparison, but when it is looked at universally, it is easier to see relationships and similarities making innovations more attainable. For example, the mathematical operations of algebra fulfill many practical needs in science. The ability to find values for unknown variables within sets of equations is a tool that science heavily relies on. The reason algebra is so conveniently practical in relation to science is because it was developed as a tool for science. The tools of algebra would not be present if Diophantus, the developer of algebra, had not been aware of the overall conditions his mathematical system needed to fulfill. Algebra serves society through science and its accomplishments. From building a nuclear reactor to altering chromosomes in a person's genetic makeup, every scientific field originates back to the basic rules of algebra. All of the groundbreaking advancements in society through science are functions of this mathematical tool developed to aid and expand science. When the students have acquired a liberal arts education, a freedom to explore new ideas and concepts comes with it. Studying under one subject restricts students to rules and regulations held within the field, which sometimes act as barriers to the students keeping them from developing unconventional or abstract ideas. Newman uses a metaphor to explain this concept of freedom: Seafaring men, for example, range from one end of the earth to the other...They sleep, and they rise up, and they find themselves now in Europe, now is Asia; they see visions of great cities, and wild regions; they are in the marts of commerce, or amid the islands of the South; they gaze on Pompey's Pillar, or on the Andes; and nothing which meets them carries them forward or backward, to any idea beyond itself. Nothing has a drift or relation; nothing has a history or a promise. Everything stands by itself, and comes and goes in its turn, like the shifting scenes of a show, which leave the spectator where he was(38). Newman is describing the lifestyle of liberal arts students in metaphorical context symbolizing exotic places as different fields of study. He is saying that the students can go any place that sparks curiosity without hesitation and without limits, and that there are no barriers or restraints that confine or restrict the students from wandering into an innovation. The students are carried by the flow of the current and that is all. Some of the greatest inventions have been discovered though the most abnormal experimental procedures. The telephone was an invention that was not invented on behalf of need, but rather a stroke of good luck combined with the innovation of a free-thinker. While working on another invention, Alexander Graham Bell heard the vibrations of a plucked wire running from one room to another and hypothesized that voices could be carried by the same method. Bell created the first working telephone just over nine months after this incident and the impact of the telephone on society over the past 120 years is immeasurable. Others may not have indulged in such a wild idea, but the result revolutionized communication and advanced society to another level. The telephone made it possible to relay and distribute knowledge and information, enjoy the sound of a loved one's far away voice, and communicate danger in any regard. It allows us to settle disputes, avoid misinterpretation, and keep up positive relations with leaders of other countries. Inventions that advance society, such as this, demonstrate the value of a liberal arts education. A liberal arts education provides students with a strong foundation of universal knowledge that allows them to think without barriers or restrictions. It allows imaginative thoughts to develop freely and blossom into discoveries and inventions which, in turn, advance society to higher levels. Society gains control, stability, and a higher standard of living with these new inventions and theories. It is evident that a liberal arts education is one of the most useful tool for advancing society in a positive direction.

Griffin's Egg

Griffin's Egg is a story about Gunther, a man who lives on the moon. And his adventures,as he gets into all kinds of situatutions. He, along with many others, have inhabited the moon because Earth is engauged in a full thermonuclier war. The dangers of the moon however, also come along. Solar flares, dangerous robots, CMP chips, and many more dangers await Gunther on the moon. As gunther is delivering some fuel rods to the G5 Assembly Plant, a Surface Warning is broadcast, this is high levels of radiation caused by a solar flare. He is 30 minutes away from the nearest shelter, and the advisory is for 20 minutes. He finds a way to make a rig to sit under the truck, so he would be shielded from the radiation. He also uses his robot, Siegfried, to control the movement of the truck while he is riding under it, on his way to the plant. When he finally made it so the plant, he went inside to find it filled with thick, smoke-like mist. His light only distorts the images, so he turns it off and gets used to the dark room. When his eyes finally got adjusted, it was just in time, because just then a big metal puncher came by and punched a hole in the ground right next to him. He stumbled away, only to find that the robot was following him. He ran into the shelter and closed the door, sealing the robot outside of the shelter. The shelter was s small room, just big enough to fit a cot, a chemical toilet, and a rebreather with spare oxygen tanks. A while later, after the flare was over, the CMP chips, which has been implanted in everyone's brain that had come to the moon, was being used against them. Krishna, a scientist, found that if he broadcasted over the chips frequency, he could make hypnotic suggestions to the people with the chips. Gunther had to find a way to stop this, so he and another scientist, Hiro, teamed up and after a while of research, found a way to stop Krishna from broadcasting over the chip's frequency, and therefore, stopped him from taking over peoples minds. Finally, in the end, the war on earth died down, then was over. The world was at peace once again. Earth send up space ships to bring the moon inhabitants back down to earth. Gunther returned to earth along with the rest of his friends, and lived a peaceful life from then on.