Hurrican Katrina :: Natural Disasters

Hurricane Katrina is one of the most powerful storms ever to threaten the United States for the past 100 years. It is the third most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the United States. The duration of the storm was from August 23 through August 31, 2005. The storm had a short period of time but its damages were so tragic that left long term damages (Figure 1). As shown in figure 2 you can see that on August 23rd Hurricane Katrina at first seems to be just a tropical depression in southeastern Bahamas. Then the tropical depression turned into a tropical storm on August 24th. During the afternoon it made landfall in south Florida with stronger winds and it turned into a category 1 (wind speeds of 75mph or greater) hurricane on August 25th. Hurricane Katrina strengthened and the worst was about to begin. (NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, 2005) On August 26th atmospheric and sea-surface conditions were contributing to cyclone's rapid growth that lead to Katrina attaining major hurricane status (Figure 3 and 4). Katrina continues to strengthen and move northwards. Katrina had sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) in which the storm was labeled as a category 5 (Figure 5) hurricane. A category 5 hurricane is the most intense type of hurricane. As a category 5 hurricane Katrina continue to cause damages to many states for five days. (NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, 2005) Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damages along the central Gulf Coast states of the U.S. It affected cities such as New Orleans, Bahamas, South Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Hurricane Katrina caused damages of about $100+ billion and this is the most costly tropical cyclone of all time. It killed about 1,383 people and it can potentially be more. The Hurricane also left millions of people homeless and without anything to look forward to. Many people lost their homes, some their family and friends, and everything they own. The impact of Katrina's force will need weeks and months of recovery efforts to restore normality. We hope that the U.S does not have to face another hurricane like Katrina in a very long time. (Wikipedia, 2005) The rising sea and violent winds thrashing through the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama was not the only thing responsible for the damages that the Hurricane Katrina left behind. The area's natural environment had human-made changes that increased the effects of the storm; giving it the opportunity to become one of the largest natural disasters in the nation's history.

Management Information System and Business Strategy

Technology was designed to make our lives easier? This Is what we are being led to believe. But Is It truly the case? In today's society many people are finding It harder to concentrate on the Job, at home or school because of the constant information flow. We are now required to continuously educate ourselves with the latest technological tools making it more challenging to focus on accomplishing the mission. Module 1 Case states, â€Å"Information overload!The phrase alone is enough to strike terror into the hardiest of managers; it presages the breakdown of society as e know it and the failure of management to cope with change. † During this module I will discuss information overload and how it has become a problem requiring additional time and energy to research information that may not be necessary. I will also discuss how we people should deal with information overload by limiting the amount of time they spend on information tools learning to organize what they learn. AN ALYSIS Search Engines provide us with a wealth of Information. Information that we need and Information we don't need.This causes us to become Inundated with more information than we can use. Networked Information should simplify and expedite our research time. For some this is not always true. The information available on the internet is overwhelming. Blair, A. States, â€Å"It takes only one or two pages of Google hits to overwhelm the average reader. † This is true in so many ways. For example, someone searching for a particular subject will first be bombarded with many links relating to his subject. The user will also receive unrelated pop-ups for advertisements causing other window browsers to open for viewing.These castrations are preventing you from focusing on initial search results. Next thing you know there Is Information coming at you through numerous open links and you find yourself closing pop-ups as quickly as new ones appear. This unnecessary work can be very s tressful and overwhelming. D. E. Broadband states â€Å"The Filter Model suggests that human senses have a limited â€Å"channel capacity† and that people easily become â€Å"overwhelmed† by too much information. † People are being overloaded with information at work, school, and even the safe haven of home.It's not healthy for the mind and can lead to stress and anxiety.. Benjamin Ellis states, â€Å"Being overwhelmed leads to high levels of stress, resulting in the fight or flight response. † E-mail is the perfect example of information overload in my office. It is constantly filling co-worker's in-boxes. Checking e-mail throughout the day takes your focus away from the Job. Dry. Glen Wilson said â€Å"The human brain finds it difficult to cope with Juggling lots of tasks at once and that constantly breaking off from tasks to check e-mail slowed the brain down. Stress Is then added on top of this because we are required to put In over-time to make up f or the lack of productively. Gregory Northeast states â€Å"Technology has made us much more efficient, but much less effective. Time is being gained but Quality of relationships is states, â€Å"Information overload was experienced long before the appearance of today's digital gadgets. † People can become overwhelmed when starting a new Job. They come into the Job expecting to impress but find them self struggling to learn the basics. If they researched the information needed to do the Job things will run more smoothly.People have not forgotten how to research information, but they may require help I organizing what they have learned. Networked information will continue to grow at a fast pace, and it's up to us to keep up with it. Being organized and wanting to learn more should not be a problem for anyone. You will become more knowledgeable when practicing organizing. It starts with a little organization in knowing where you place those reference notes. We are fortunate to have developed continuity binders in my unit. They come in handy when there is no overlap in a position or someone has taken extended emergency leave.Staying organized can save a lot of time in a society that depends heavily on the internet. Oliver Mark states, â€Å"Data in a computer is like having a continuity book; it's only in existence when you make something of it. † The information on the internet had to be entered by someone. And these people had to make this information available to the World Wide Web so that others may refer back to it. There is Just so much of the same information out there. People learn from one another and we learn by doing. Just like the social learning theory, the cognitive theory is similar.The cognitive theory states, â€Å"A cognitive theory of multimedia learning based on three main assumptions: there are two separate channels (auditory and visual) for processing information; there is limited channel capacity; and that learning is an act ive process of filtering, selecting, organizing, and integrating information. † It is important to create your own preservation of notes, by sorting, selecting and summarizing to help overcome being overwhelmed by networked information. Blair, A. Describes to sort and keep notes of what you want to know.She states, â€Å"Today search engines can track the keywords chosen by individual users and writers, but e still need library cataloger and indexers who can identify relevant category terms that do not appear explicitly in the text and who can group related topics under consistent subject headings. Subject and index headings perforce change over time, as do the categories by which we remember and manage our own notes; they remain a uniquely powerful tool. † Next she describes to select only what you need to know and summarize it. With all the information out on the network you can sometimes have pages of information that you really don't need.Blair, A. States, â€Å"Ke yword earaches and data mining offer tempting alternatives to earlier methods used by readers and authors to select the â€Å"best bits† to store and later refer to. † Time management is part of being organized; Individuals that are organized will have less stress dealing with information overload, one really good network tool is outlook. In outlook you can create folders to help organize incoming emails. Above I stated that many individuals are overwhelmed or stressed because they have too many e-mail coming all at once. Outlook can synchronize them so that they can come back and read them later.Knowing how to use networked tools should make your life easier; however you must be willing to want to learn the new technology. Marks, O. State, â€Å"Machines communicate at ever more sophisticated levels with each other in bombarding us with information your time commitment can be significant. The flow of networked information into and through organization can be overwhelm ing, however, individuals must learn how to Just deal with what is coming their way and show initiative that they are willing to learn how these networked tools work to help them be organized, save time and be less overwhelmed.Networked information is like the news it reports what people want to hear and what the individual chooses to listen to, what people decide to take in is up to the individual to control how they are going to react. Blair, A. States, â€Å"It's important to remember that information overload is not unique to our time, lest we fall into doom saying. At the same time, we need to proceed carefully in the transition to electronic media. † EVALUATION I think technology is great, however it can be overwhelming. Many of us don't know how to research what we need or use because we always want to learn more.We overwhelm ourselves because we can't Just focus on a single thing. We would rather multi-task. But it is important that we learn how to take notes because someday our children may want the same information we have learned. Blair, A. States, â€Å"Like generations before us, we need all the tools for gathering and assessing information that we can muster?some inherited from the past, others new to the present. Many of our technologies will no doubt rapidly seem obsolete, but, we can hope, not human attention and Judgment, which should continue to be the central components of thoughtful information management.

Essay on Hero and Beatrice Vs. Women During the...

In William Shakespeares play Much Ado about Nothing there are sharp contrasts between Hero and Beatrice in comparison to women during the Shakespearean period. Hero is the typical example of a woman during the Shakespearean period. Hero is depicted in the play as a morally upright woman of good keep, and she seem to be a very loving and warm person in comparison to her cousin Beatrice. However she is made out to be a whore by Claudio at her own expense on her wedding day. Beatrice is the heroine of the play; she possesses a quick wit and a quick tongue. Beatrice does have the same warm and loving personality as her cousin however she constantly starts merry war or make fun of other individuals. Beatrice is not a typical woman of the†¦show more content†¦When Claudio maltreats Hero on her wedding day Beatrice says that, O that I was a man for his sake! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! I cannot be a man with wishing; therefore I will die a woman with griev ing (IV.i.312-318). At a time in the play Much ado about Nothing Claudio refers to Hero as a jewel. With this description of Hero as a jewel it can be thought that Shakespeare is using Claudio to convey to the audience the beauty of Hero. Shakespeare could also be explaining the way in which men own women and the way that women are property in the eyes of Shakespearean men. Beatrice clearly does not wish to be owned or considered property and worth of a woman. As it pertains to worth in regards to Hero, marrying Claudio can advance her fathers Leonato business endeavors. Marrying Claudio could be seen as marrying a financial, stable, secure future for Leonato and for Hero. The climax of the play is when the wedding ceremony is aborted and Hero is shamed and she is accused of disloyalty to Claudio. During the Shakespearean period women that were accused of unfaithfulness before marriage would lose social standing, a standing that could never be improved. This damaged social standing could ruin an entire family, therefore when Leonato buys into the fact that Hero was disloyal to Claudio he attempts to dismiss her totally