Reflection # 2

Reflection 2:

During this course I really like the way we are learning and doing our homework because it helps us to improve our way of Writing, reading, summary and learned how to extract the sources and writing articles. But the best part in this course is the summary and extract information from the Internet (referencing), and has improved my way of writing articles and organized in a clear and easy way. Referencing was the most important and interested part because it supports my essay and making my writing strong. Otherwise, the summary part was the easiest part in this course, in fact I learned some techniques that will helped me in summarizing article in future. All this skills could help me in my major and my future career. Later on, if I have any research or report to do, I will know how to do it in a simple and scientific form, Besides that, I will know how to write this research in my own words and that the important part. In my opinion this course is very important to us as an undergraduate’s student because in the next years many subject will needed these skills which will facilitate to us a lot of effort. Lastly, I would say thank you to Mr. John Vrhovnik for teaching us and being patient with us. And thank god that he gave us such a good teacher, and I really enjoyed your course very much.

Essay 2

Introduction:

In our time, consumption usually became a habit for all people, so companies compete with each other for increased business at the expense of the environment. In the last 50 years, the environment was significantly damaged with the increase development of industries and frequent consumption. In fact most of the factories are destroying the environment to meet their demands. So the Story of Stuff video (2007) was talking about the material process system, which contained 5 steps as Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal. And explained that this system has some negative impact to the health and the environment.

Extraction:

The first main step of the material process is extraction. Extraction is taking the natural resources out of the earth, such as wood, plants, water, animals, fuel, and many others. Nowadays many factories destroying forests and mountains, and using a drinkable resources as river and lake as a place to put their trash on it. And if they finished from their own places, they go to the 3^rd world to destroy more natural resources. So extraction has a side effects on environment, which pollutes the air with the toxin materials used in extraction process, also reduces the percentage of natural resources. On the other hand it’s not a problem that we’re extracting from the nature, but the problem is how to balance extraction. In the last 3 decades we used 1/3 of our natural resources, so we are using too much stuff (Story of Stuff, 2007).

Production:

The next stage is production. Production is using energy to mix the natural resources with toxic chemicals to make toxic products. This means that the products with chemical additions will have a negative impact on the health and environment. As for our health, it’s affected by the production activity which pollutes the air, food and water. On the other hand people who run this toxic operation are pregnant women who don’t have any choices, even though they know that they are more susceptible to the cancer and many other dangerous diseases. The duty of the government is to save the lives of these people and judge some factories. Otherwise we can make the production less poison and safer by reducing the toxic materials in the process.

Distribution:

Distribution is defined as “The movement of goods and services from the source through a distribution channel, right up to the final customer, consumer, or user” (Business Dictionary, 2012). The aim of this process is to reduce the price of products to make people consume more and more. As for the company workers, many work hard and then don’t get what they deserve. As long as the distribution process is going on, it increased people's consumption and exceeds the resulting waste. Elsewhere studies have demonstrated that in America that 99% of the products are turned into useless waste (Story of Stuff, 2007).

Consumption:

The fourth step is Consumption. “Current consumption patterns are unsustainable and inequitable and must be changed” (The Story of Stuff Project, 2007). With the increase of the consumption habit over around the world, more negative impacts arise on the planet, which means more lost natural resources. Relating to a research that show the 1% of the items will still be in use after 6 months in the US (Story of Stuff, 2007).

Disposal:

The last step of the material process system is Disposal. “Virtually all the resources flowing through the materials economy eventually end up as waste to be disposed somewhere” (The Story of Stuff Project, 2007). So usually they get rid of the waste by burn it or put it in big hole in the ground. In both cases the air, water, and ground will be polluted, that could change the climate of the weather because of the toxic materials used in the industry, which go in the air when we burn them. Otherwise, recycling is the one of the solutions of this problem because it’s safe and doesn’t have any bad effects the environment. As consumers the responsibilities we have are, we must moderate our shopping and take products that we can recycle.

Consumerism in UAE:

In the UAE, many people think that the one who buys luxury items he’s the unique one. And for example the person who buy 2 to 3 cars for only that the people will talk about him. In fact that in the last 10 years, the rate of consumption in the UAE increased rapidly. One example of this is “UAE people have emerged as the world’s largest water consumers, with the average per capita consumption standing at 500 liters per day” (Emirates247, 2011).

Conclusion:

To be concluded, now I know the importance of limiting my consumption, that if we continue consuming a lot we will enjoy it now but later on it will smack us in the face with its negative impacts on our health and on the environment. We could solve this problem by enlightening people to consume less by informing them about what will happen if we continue living the over consumer life.

Word Count: 841

References

Al Bawaba. (2007, September 25). Consumerism in Middle East. Retrieved May 26, 2013, from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hct.ac.ae/docview/194818602/13E3392CB387300ECAB/1?accountid=1215

Ligaya, A. (2009, June 30). Consumer thrift to hamper UAE retail rebound - The National. Latest and breaking news | thenational.ae - The National. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://www.thenational.ae/business/retail/consumer-thrift-to-hamper-uae-retail-rebound

Natural resource - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2013, May 22). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resource

Richardson, A., & Garson, J. (2008, October 4). 'Consumerism and foreigners' greatest identity threats - The National. Latest and breaking news | thenational.ae - The National. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/consumerism-and-foreigners-greatest-identity-threats

Story of Stuff (2007, OFFICIAL Version) - YouTube. (2009, March 22). YouTube. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

The Story of Stuff Project. (2007, January 1).  The Story of Stuff Project. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/learn/

The Story of Stuff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2013, April 25). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved May 23, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Stuff

UAE is the world’s top water consumer - Emirates 24/7. (2011, December 18). Breaking News, UAE, GCC, Middle East, World News and Headlines - Emirates 24/7. Retrieved May 23, 2013, from http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/uae-is-the-world-s-top-water-consumer-2011-12-18-1.433289

What is distribution? Definition and meaning. (2013, January 1). BusinessDictionary.com - Online Business Dictionary. Retrieved May 22, 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/distribution.html

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Essay 1

Early history

Satellite is the vehicle that flies in space to perform a specific task. Satellites have different tasks, some of them used for communications service such as satellite NileSat or used for remote sensing such as KitSat or used to serve scientific research such as Geos, and many other tasks.

Robert Goddard was one of the first explorers to the idea of ​​satellites. Born in 1882, and died in 1945. He finished his studies at Clark University with Doctoral degree. He held many research to improve the propellant rockets, and furthermore proved to the world that the principle was valid by firing the world's first successful propellant rocket on March 16, 1926.

In 1955, USA and the Soviet Union (former) announced their plans about launching satellites that carry scientific measuring devices, starting from July 1957. On the 4th of October 1957, the world was stunned and amazed when the Soviet Union succeeded in launching the first satellite ever (Sputnik). United States responded immediately by trying to launch its first satellite in 1957 but unfortunately it failed, then they succeeded in doing so in 1958 with the launch of Explorer 1 satellite. Furthermore, various space satellite where send to space in order to accomplish different tasks such as military, communications, scientific exploration and edge science.

Development

The use of satellites in the field of communications began in 1962 while TV programs in America, France and Britain were watched at the same time. The first satellite to broadcast from space is called "Telstar", contacted through the establishment of large antennas in the northern United States, which enabled the satellite to zoom these signals ten million times before re-broadcast to Earth to receive her receiving antennas in both England and France. And this pilot television service was assigned for less than an hour because of the movement of the satellite away from the imaginary line of sight, which sent a signal from the earth. This has introduced upgrades continuing in the sixties on this technology and took advantage of the television industry to use this technology until it was transferred proceedings of the Olympics held in Tokyo in 1964 to all over the world via satellite reserve Telstar, which preached the beginning of a new era for international television, especially since the launch of the most sophisticated satellite has begun to dribble in a series of "Intelsat" that allowed international communications and large-scale of data transfer to include computer-mail, telephone and radio communications, weather monitoring or even many other uses .

The first launch occurred in 1967 of the second generation of satellites, "Intelsat" above the Atlantic that made contact with two-thirds of the globe.

The third generation between 1968-1970, which was located above the Pacific and Indian Oceans have already contacted each hemisphere. And had been added to the international contact via Intelsat satellites and other satellites on a regional level in Canada, India, France and the Arab satellite, which was launched in 1985.

Modern developments

According to the overall development that verify the implementation of the ideas of the Physicist Arthur Clark, which states that three satellites can cover the entire surface of the earth if they in a static orbit and at higher of 30,000 km. As already launched three satellites (Intel Sat 1) over the Atlantic Ocean in 1965, then (Intel Sat 2) over the Pacific Ocean in 1967, and finally (Intel Sat 3) over the Pacific in 1968. “Over the next few years, some $50 billion will be spent on new satellite communications systems” (Evans, A.2010). This will facilitate the services that provided by the satellite and develop it.

603 words

References

Bellis, M. (2011, October 4). The History of Satellites - Sputnik I. Inventors. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsatellite.htm

Evans, A. (2010, June 9). The future of satellite communications. The McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hct.ac.ae/docview/224541273?accountid=1215

Eye in the Sky--Earth, environment. (n.d.). Inspiring People to Care About the Planet since 1888. Retrieved April 25, 2013, from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/eye/satellites.html

Renee, D. (2007, June 11). The use of satellite-based technology in developing countries. DSpace. Retrieved April 25, 2013, from http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/46371

Satellite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2013, April 23). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite

Stillman, D. (2011, June 16). NASA - What Is a Satellite?. NASA - Home. Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-satellite-k4.html

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