Saturday, January 25, 2020
andersonville :: essays research papers
Prisoners began arriving at the prison in late February of 1864 and by early June the prison population had climbed to 20,000. Consequently, it was decided that a larger prison was necessary, and by mid-June work was begun to enlarge the prison. The prison's walls were extended 610 feet to the north, encompassing an area of roughly 10 acres, bringing the total prison area to 26.5 acres. The extension was built by a crew of Union prisoners consisting of 100 whites and 30 African Americans in about 14 days. On July 1, the northern extension was opened to the prisoners who subsequently tore down the original north stockade wall, then used the timbers for fuel and building materials. By August, over 33,000 Union prisoners were held in the 26.5 acre prison. Due to the threat of Union raids (Sherman's troops were marching on Atlanta), General Winder ordered the building of defensive earthworks and a middle and outer stockade around the prison. Construction of the earthworks began July 20th. These earthworks consisted of Star Fort located southwest of the prison, a redoubt located northwest of the north gate, and six redans. The middle and outer stockades were hastily constructed of unhewn pine logs set vertically in wall trenches that were about four feet deep. The middle stockade posts projected roughly 12 feet above the ground surface and encircled the inner prison stockade as well as the corner redans. The outer stockade, which was never completed, was meant to encompass the entire complex of earthworks and stockades. The posts of the outer stockade extended about five feet above the ground surface. By early September, Sherman's troops had occupied Atlanta and the threat of Union raids on Andersonville prompted the transfer of most of the Union prisoners to other camps in Georgia and South Carolina. By mid-November, all but about 1500 prisoners had been shipped out of Andersonville, and only a few guards remained to police them. Transfers to Andersonville in late December increased the numbers of prisoners once again, but even then the prison population totaled only about 5000 persons. The number of prisoners at the prison would remain this low until the war ended in April of 1865. During the 15 months during which Andersonville was operated, almost 13,000 Union prisoners died there of malnutrition, exposure, and disease; Andersonville became synonymous with the attrocities which both North and South soldiers experienced as
Friday, January 17, 2020
Causes of Tsunamis
sunami: the Great Waves Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, â€Å"harbor wave. †Represented by two characters, the top character, â€Å"tsu,†means harbor, while the bottom character, â€Å"nami,†means â€Å"wave. †In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as â€Å"tidal waves†by the general public, and as â€Å"seismic sea waves†by the scientific community. The term â€Å"tidal wave†is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term â€Å"seismic sea wave†is also misleading. â€Å"Seismic†implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a nonseismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact. Tsunamis are a threat to life and property to anyone living near the ocean. For example, in 1992 and 1993 over 2,000 people were killed by tsunamis occurring in Nicaragua, Indonesia and Japan. Property damage was nearly one billion dollars. The 1960 Chile Earthquake generated a Pacific-wide tsunami that caused widespread death and destruction in Chile, Hawaii, Japan and other areas in the Pacific. Large tsunamis have been known to rise over 100 feet, while tsunamis 10 to 20 feet high can be very destructive and cause many deaths and injuries. What Cause Tsunamis? Tsunamis, also called seismic sea waves or, incorrectly, tidal waves, generally are caused by earthquakes, less commonly by submarine landslides, infrequently by submarine volcanic eruptions and very rarely by a large meteorite impact in the ocean. Submarine volcanic eruptions have the potential to produce truly awesome tsunami waves. The Great Krakatau Volcanic Eruption of 1883 generated giant waves reaching heights of 125 feet above sea-level, killing thousands of people and wiping out numerous coastal villages. Ring of Fire About two-thirds of the earth is covered by the waters of the four oceans. The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest, covering more than one third of the total surface area of our planet. The Pacific Ocean is surrounded by a series of mountain chains, deep ocean trenches and island arcs, sometimes called a â€Å"ring of fire. †The great size of the Pacific Ocean and the large earthquakes associated with the â€Å"ring of fire†combine to produce deadly tsunamis. Tsunamis on the Move Wave Height and Water Depth In the open ocean a tsunami is less than a few feet high at the surface, but its wave height increases rapidly in shallow water. Tsunamis wave energy extends from the surface to the bottom in the deepest waters. As the tsunami attacks the coastline, the wave energy is compressed into a much shorter distance creating destructive, live-threatening waves. In the deep ocean, destructive tsunamis can be small–often only a few feet or less in height–and cannot be seen nor can they be felt by ships. But, as the tsunami reaches shallower coastal waters, wave height can increase rapidly. Sometimes, coastal waters are drawn out into the ocean just before the tsunami strikes. When this occurs, more shoreline may be exposed than even at the lowest tide. This major withdrawal of the sea should be taken as a warning of the tsunami waves that will follow How Fast? Where the ocean is over 20,000 feet deep, unnoticed tsunami waves can travel at the speed of a commercial jet plane, nearly 600 miles per hour. They can move from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other in less than a day. This great speed makes it important to be aware of the tsunami as soon as it is generated. Scientists can predict when a tsunami will arrive since the speed of the waves varies with the square root of the water depth. Tsunamis travel much slower in shallower coastal waters where their wave heights begin to increase dramatically. How Big? Offshore and coastal features can determine the size and impact of tsunami waves. Reefs, bays, entrances to rivers, undersea features and the slop of the beach all help to modify the tsunami as it attacks the coastline. When the tsunami reaches the coast and moves inland, the water level can rise many feet. In extreme cases, water level has risen to more than 50 feet for tsunamis of distant origin and over 100 feet for tsunami waves generated near the earthquake's epicenter. The first wave may not be the largest in the series of waves. One coastal community may see no damaging wave activity while in another community destructive waves can be large and violent. The flooding can extend inland by 1000 feet or more, covering large expanses of land with water and debris.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Process Analysis in Composition
In composition, process analysis is a method of paragraph or essay development by which a writer explains step by step how something is done or how to do something. Process analysis writing can take one of two forms, depending on the topic:  Information about how something works (informative) An explanation of how to do something (directive). An informative process analysis is usually written in the third-person point of view; a directive process analysis is usually written in the second person. In both forms, the steps are typically organized in chronological order--that is, the order in which the steps are carried out. Examples and Observations Planning a good process analysis requires the writer to include all the essential steps. Be sure you have all the tools or ingredients needed. Arrange the steps in the correct sequence. Like all good writing, a process essay requires a thesis to tell the reader the significance of the process. The writer can tell the reader how to do something, but also should inform the reader about the usefulness or importance of the endeavor.(G. H. Muller and H. S. Wiener, The Short Prose Reader. McGraw-Hill, 2006)Reviewing Your ProcessWhen you revise your process writing, think about the people who will be reading it. Ask yourself these questions:(Robert Funk, et al., The Simon and Schuster Short Prose Reader, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2000)Have I chosen the best starting point? Think about how much your audience already knows before you decide where to begin describing the process. Dont assume your readers have background knowledge that they may not have.Have I provided enough definitions of terms?  Have I been specific enough in the details?Example: How to Remove Chewing Gum From Hair(Joshua Piven et al., The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting. Chronicle Books, 2003)Prepare an ice sack.Place several cubes of ice in a plastic bag or thin cloth. Seal or hold it closed.Apply an ice pack to hair.Move the affected hair away from the scalp and press the ice against the gum for 15 to 30 minutes or until the gum freezes solid. Use a rubber glove or a dry washcloth to hold the ice compress if your hand becomes chilled.Crack the frozen gum into pieces.With one hand, hold the stuck section of the hair between the gum clot and the scalp, and break the frozen gum into small pieces.Remove the gum.Gently pull the frozen gum pieces from the hair using your other hand. If the warmth of your hand begins to melt the gum, refreeze and repeat until all the gum has been removed from the hair.Example: How to Mark a BookThere are all kinds of devices for marking a book intelligently and fruitfully. Heres the way I do it:(Mortimer Adler, How to Mark a Book. Saturday Review, July 6, 1940)Underlining: of major points, of important or forceful statements.Vertical lines at the margin: to emphasize a statement already underlined.Star, asterisk, or another doo-dad at the margin: to be used sparingly, to emphasize the ten or twenty most important statements in the book. . . .Numbers in the margin: to indicate the sequence of points the author makes in developing a single argument.Numbers of other pages in the margin: to indicate where else in the book the author made points relevant to the point marked; to tie up the ideas in a book, which, though they may be separated by many pages, belong together.Circling of keywords or phrases.Writing in the margin, or at the top or bottom of the page, for the sake of: recording questions (and perhaps answers) which a passage raised in your mind; reducing a complicated discussion to a simple statement; recording the sequence of ma jor points right through the book. I use the end-papers at the back of the book to make a personal index of the authors points in the order of their appearance.Izaak Walton on How to Dress a Large Chub (1676)[I]f he be a large Chub, then dress him thus:First scale him, and then wash him clean, and then take out his guts; and to that end make the hole as little and near to his gills as you may conveniently, and especially make clean his throat from the grass and weeds that are usually in it (for if that be not very clean, it will make him to taste very sour); having so done, put some sweet herbs into his belly, and then tie him with two or three splinters to a spit, and roast him, basted often with vinegar, or rather verjuice and butter, with good store of salt mixt with it.Being thus drest, you will find him a much better dish of meat than you, or most folk, even than Anglers themselves do imagine; for this dries up the fluid watery humor with which all Chubs do abound.But take this rule with you, that a Chub newly taken and newly drest, is so much better than a Chub of a days keeping after he is dead, that I can compare him to nothing so fitly as to Cherries newly gathered from a tree, and others that have been bruised and lain a day or two in water. Being thus used and drest presently, and not washt after he is gutted (for note that lying long in water, and washing the blood out of the Fish after they be gutted, abates much of their sweetness), you will find the Chub to be such meat as will recompense your labour.(Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler, 5th edition, 1676)The Limitations of LanguageThose who think they are testing a boys elementary command of English by asking him to describe in words how one ties ones tie or what a pair of scissors is like, are far astray. For precisely what language can hardly do at all, and never does well, is to inform us about complex physical shapes and movements. . . . Hence we never in real life voluntarily use language fo r this purpose; we draw a diagram or go through pantomimic gestures.(C.S. Lewis, Studies in Words, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 1967)The Lighter Side of Process Analysis         How to Make a Swing With No Rope or Board or NailsFirst grow a moustacheA hundred inches long,Then loop it over a hickry limb(Make sure the limb is strong).Now pull yourself up off the groundAnd wait until the spring--Then swing!(Shel Silverstein, How to Make a Swing With No Rope or Board or Nails. A Light in the Attic.          HarperCollins, 1981) How to Pack a Suit So It Wont Come Out Wrinkled         Lay the suit on its back on a flat surface such as a tennis court. Take the sleeves and place           them at the side. Take the left sleeve and place it on the suits hip, and hold the right sleeve           over the suits head as though the suit is waving in a jaunty manner. Now put both sleeves            straight up over the suits head and shout, Touchdown! Ha ha! Isnt this fun? You may feel            silly, but trust me, youre not half as silly as the people who think they can fold a suit so it wont         come out wrinkled.(Dave Barry, Dave Barrys Only Travel Guide Youll Ever Need. Ballantine Books, 1991)
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