Medical Uses and Dangers of Marijuana Research Paper

Medical Uses and Dangers of Marijuana - Research Paper Example benefits and side effects. Although marijuana is not unique in that its implementation has both a series of side effects and benefits, this analysis will attempt to categorize this, discuss their nature, and draw inference as to the overall balance sheet with regards to whether medical marijuana is worthy of continuing to be used as a drug due to the preponderance of its inherent benefits or should be discontinued as a drug/treatment as a function of the risk it poses to the individual. First and foremost, the analysis will need to consider the question of what specific disease is attempted to be treated with marijuana. This issue is central to a full and nuanced understanding due to the fact that medical marijuana basically breaks down into two subgroups (Gold 29). The first of these is concentric upon how the drug can assist terminally ill patients in reducing the overall level of pain they experience before eventually succumbing to a known disease. Secondly, medical marijuana has been known to be used to assist those patients who are not necessarily predisposed to death in that it has been used to treat patients with glaucoma and those patients who are undergoing heavy doses of chemotherapy/radiation. ... These include but are in no way limited to the following: lip cancer, tongue cancer, cheek cancer, esophageal cancer, and lung cancer but to name a few (Cohen 655). Similarly, it has been proven that smoking marijuana also demonstrably weakens the body’s immune system. This is of vital importance to many individuals who will be taking it to assist in providing them with a means to survive a given illness or extreme situation that requires such a method. In this way, the individual is likely to prolong the amount of time that they are suffering from an illness due to the fact that the prolonged use of marijuana has a negative effect on the total white blood cell count and the body’s inherent ability to fight off infection. In addition to the increased risk of a litany of cancers, the user is also at a highly increased risk of respiratory illness due to the fact that inhaling the smoke from even 1 joint per day can noticeably affect the bronchial linings in the air way wh ich serve to protect the individual from a host of airborne viruses. Additionally, as many people are well aware, the amount of tar in a single cigarette is itself one of the most harmful factors of smoking as it is this specific action that causes a plaque like buildup to form within the lungs of the user over time (Earlywine et al 234). A little known fact is that a single joint contains 4 times the level of tar as a single cigarette. In this way, the individual can see that even smoking a single joint per day is the equivalent of smoking 4 cigarettes with respect to the overall level of tar and the negative health effects that this portends for the user. As well as

Facebook's IPO Fallout Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Facebook's IPO Fallout - Research Paper Example Even though Google like companies tried to stop Facebook’s progress with the help of Google plus like social networks, such efforts impacted only moderately upon Facebook. â€Å"Between 2009 and 2010, the company's revenue nearly tripled. In the first quarter of this year, revenue climbed 44 percent. In the second quarter, Facebook Inc.'s revenue increased 32 percent to $1.18 billion from $895 million a year earlier† (â€Å"Quarter earnings: Facebook stock crashes†, n.p.) Even though Facebook’s’ progress was untroubled until recent times, some of the most recent reports show that Facebook is facing some severe problems at present. The interests of people in Facebook shares have been diminishing slowly even though the company management is working hard to bring the company back on track. Facebook investor’s concern is about the slow revenue growth of the company in recent times. Even though recession like economic problems was almost over, Fac ebook still shows no signs of revival. Analysts expect lower revenue of $1.16 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 for Facebook (â€Å"Quarter earnings: Facebook stock crashes†, n.p.). The decline of share value of Facebook has surprised many people. Even though such a decline was expected, nobody thought that it may take place in near future itself. Plenty of reasons were cited for the unexpected and sharp decline of share value of Facebook. This paper analyses some of the major reasons of the decline of the share value of Facebook.... They do believe that the company has cheated them. In short, the reputations of the company are getting damaged as time goes on. Some analysts believe that the macroeconomic conditions in Europe are the reason for the dip in the value of Facebook shares. It is a fact that Europe is currently undergoing through a bad patch. Some of the prominent members of the EU such as Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal are facing severe economic problems at present. Therefore, the popularity of Facebook like social networks is declining in Europe. However, there is no logic behind blaming Europe alone for the problems facing by Facebook now. In fact Facebook failed change their business strategies based on the changes in the modern world. The most important reason cited by many people for the decline of Facebook share is its failure in concentrating more on mobile advertising. It should be noted that the popularity of smartphones and tablets is growing day by day and many people have already shifted their attention from laptops and desktops to tablets and smartphones for their computing needs. In fact the number of people who access social networks through smartphones and tablets are more or less same with the number of people accessing the same with computers. Facebook failed to forecast this changing trend properly. As a result of that they failed to develop a proper mobile platform for exploiting the possibilities and opportunities. More consumers are using smartphones instead of computers to access Facebook, and the company hasn’t figured out the best way to make money from mobile ads. The result has been a slowdown in the growth rate of advertising revenue: revenue expanded by 36% last quarter, compared with 69% in 2011.New attempts to tap the mobile market are

How German propaganda differed between WW1 and WW2 Essay

How German propaganda differed between WW1 and WW2 - Essay Example In 1914, European nations called upon their friends to face up the possibility of going to war and prepare for it. By this time, the United States was faced with isolationism in a bigger part because of President Wilson’s worry of snarling foreign alliances. This isolation slowly started to fade when the united States lend large sums of money to the British and the French. The United States responded to the British propaganda where they considered the British as the unflinching defenders of the right, French and the Belgians as miserable heroes and the Germans as the deep-dyed scoundrels (Schulman, 1990, pp.13) Often, propaganda was used more tactically in WWII. Robert Sherwood, one of Roosevelt’s speech authors, led a committee whose main objective was to battle a war of word in opposition to the axis. Not only did this board act to super charge United States support but also sought to disseminate information on America’s participation to Axis-controlled regions abroad (Schulman, 1990, pp.13). In the late 1920’s and 1930’s, the Nazi party grew stronger while the mass media became a extremely mighty passage for assembling the huge support they were to soon have ( Osley, 1995, pp.7). Carefully and persistently the government officials avoided the word propaganda. The U.S successively preferred using the word information. In 1917, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) was designed by the U.S government to yield support for the war, improve on patriotism and a stronger faith in democracy. The Germans were featured in wartime films as ruthless and life threatening animals. Patriotic colors were used in the posters to show the might of America and its allies. A movement that had Kaiser Wilhelm’s head in a jar was started by the National War Garden commission which requested the public to plant and can vegetables. Cans of vegetables that read, â€Å"Can Vegetables, Fruits and the Kaiser too† smothered the

Effects of Modernity on the City

Effects of Modernity on the City Cities in the modern age have fast been experiencing the notion of modernity. In this essay, I will examine how Cities experience it modernity different ways and their consequent relationships. Modernity is the cultural experience of contemporary city life and the associated cultural valorisation and celebration of innovation and novelty. It can occur through economic development as cities progress financially; also, it can be imported from other nations and cities that are perceived as ‘modern’. However, the limited criteria as to what is classed as ‘modernity’ will also be challenged as well as the predictions for the future of cities and modernity. Cities allow and help achieve modernity primarily through being prime hotspots for economic development. Within a city environment a range of different functions exist, all of which combine to increase the economic and political stronghold of a particular city. Economic development is seen as a key means to reaching a perceived ‘modernity’, closely associated with the west. Until recently, focus was not concerned with Cities but rather international and national policies but World Bank indicatives in the 90s that saw ‘cities as engines of economic growth with the importance of stretching the urban development imagination’ changes this viewpoint. Large Cities were now looked upon as the functioning core of national economies. For instance, city development strategies (CDS) had the common objective of incorporating the diverse concerns of citizens, businesses and governance, which meant that the needs of globalizing sectors and the needs of the poorest citizen s were satisfied. This can be seen in the case study of Johannesburg where the unevenness of development between white and black people was very high. Post-apartheid still saw the city being fragmented and divided with local governance, which were still racist and prejudiced. For instance, one fifth of the city’s population were living in informal settlement while more than 10 % of the city’s population had to make do without access to most basic services. This meant that a city wide perspective was vital, schemes emphasised on the provision of of infrastructure both within townships and also to support new connections between segregated townships and economic opportunities in the central city. Overall, the scheme was effective, although a number of factors undermined its efficiency. It has helped contribute Johannesburg into the world city realm with many people benefitting and flourishing with a strong sense of culture and community. This shows that schemes to enhanc e the economic growth of cities go hand in hand with modernity since Johannesburg is significant better relatively than before. However, for increased effectiveness more schemes must focus on on the ‘ordinary city’ and their various specifics and complexities. Cities also supposedly reach a higher stage of ‘modernity’ after embracing other cultures, identities and values. For example New York, which is symbolised as the most powerful city in the world and the most popular international symbol of urban modernity, was dependent on borrowings from other places. Lewis Mumford stated that ;one would not do justice to the American tradition in architecture if one neglected the part played in our own development by forces originating outside our country’. Some of the influences notes were cleans forms of Japanese design, the importation of the veranda from India and the heavy European beaux-arts influence on American architectural design. The many different styles which made New York iconic and distinctive and which was an icon of the west can mostly be originated from elsewhere. The ‘iconic’ west was also seen as a yardstick and ideal for modernity in many different cities. This was the case in Brazil where local narratives about the ambition to become modern were inextricably bound up with the framing as coming from outside. Cities using other ideas demonstrates the interconnectability of modernity and despite differences in values, a heavyweight type of modernity may be favoured. This is also normally the primary view of elites such as decision makers, businessperson and generally those with authority as ‘the importation of modern styles from other places in Brazil (London, Paris, and Buenos Aires) was as a source of delight and a marker of achievement of the elite’. Although this may have exterior motives such as attracting visitors, tourists and workers that will directly and indirectly help an economy. Although this is a two-way relationship as ‘Latin America also had considerable impact on Europe in terms of the development of the competing modern architecture of the international style’. This shows that modernity is also subject to constant changes and is no t dependent on any country but rather a wide range. The definition as to what is recognized as a modern city is challenged. Some writers have suggested that the urban West with its institutions, buildings and entertainment is the ideal and anything which doesn’t share characteristics of a similar nature is seen as ’primitive’ and ‘backward’ and in needed of reformation. Current meanings of the term modern have been largely defined by early twentieth-century Western scholars. To be crude, modernity could be understood as simply the Wests self-characterisation of itself in opposition to others and elsewheres that are imagined to be not modern, an opposition that was strongly reinforced through the mundane practices of colonisation (King 2004: 71). Although in recent urban studies, the consensus points towards the notion that Modernity is complex and encompassing of a variety of contemporary cities. Cities are places where a collection of people assemble and engage in economic and social relations in man y different ways and links which leads to unique cultural meaning developing. ‘Cities everywhere perform this function of facilitating circulation, assemblage and interaction of enabling diverse forms of modernity to be imagined and practised’. For the supposed idea of western modernity to exist, it has to be counter posed with other societies that are deemed backward and more traditional. As ‘The city has performed an important function in theorising modernity: it has coalesced and helped to make visible a certain range of self-descriptions for the West’. Park 1967: 33) ‘To the city then, rationality, thought, distanciated social relations; to the ‘primitive, intimacy, feeling, sentiment, instinct and the absence of reason’. However, the key argument is that cities, which contrast this perspective, still have aspects of ‘modernity’ as they are constantly changing and becoming different in varieties of ways. The relationship between cities and modernity in the future is unlikely to remain constant. With the population of urban cities expected to double by 2030, increasing by an extra 2 billion inhabitants, structural changes are of great importance. Subsequently policy makers and practitioners are focusing on much stronger development interventions without increasing inequality. This could have an impact on modernity as cities now have increased funds and resources that are much more aligned to specific needs to compete. Secondly, with globalisation growing in importance day by day, modernity has become even more important. The world is becoming urban and cities are becoming integrated into globalisation, which means that it is vital that cities are to the needs of various stakeholders that are interested. For instance, globalisation has led to city management strategies focusing on efficiency and effectiveness to encourage inward investment from transnational companies, bilateral and mu ltilateral aid agencies as well as individuals. In addition, business clusters are becoming of increased importance, as proximity is valued highly so again these are focused on in City Development Strategies (CDS). Thirdly, the primitive is becoming more embodied into ideas of modernity because despite great scientific strides, tradition is becoming increasingly emphasised. It is vital that a variety of modernities can co-exist in a harmonising way and not necessarily contrary to each other. To conclude modernity is an ongoing process where anyone and everyone can be in. A city can still in its realms despite being completely abstracts to another city in ‘modernity’. A limited scope in terms of perception of it denotes that cities are all ordinary. They diverse, dynamic and complex arenas of political, social and economic life. Cities are also developing constantly due to economic developments that helps to develop modernity and change; despite limitations various schemes and initiatives are really making significant changes to development and modernity. The borrowed aspects of modernity from other nations also supports this idea, modernity is dynamic and cities all rely on each other for inspiration. The future is also uncertain, with many changes occurring, modernity may be heightened tremendously, with cities possibly becoming places of unique, distinct and pleasant realms.

Dizziness - The Search for Balance :: Biology Essays Research Papers

On the Search for Balance: A Balancing Act in the Midst of Dizziness Imagine that you are 6 years old again. You are at a playground clutching a pole on the merry-go-round, which is whirling as fast as your friends can run to keep the merry-go-round going. Your friends let go and when you jump off as the merry-go-round stops spinning, you fall because the world seems to wobble out of control. Although you have stopped spinning on the merry-go-round, your brain tells you otherwise. This is the everyday reality for a chronically dizzy person. Following headaches and lower-back pain, dizziness is the third most common medical complaint in the United States. More than 90 million people in the United States will experience a spell of dizziness at some point in their lives (1). Dizziness is a sensation people feel when they lose their sense of spatial orientation. In other words, people feel dizzy when they lose some of their immediate contact with their physical surroundings. A simple disoriented feeling may occur, or one may experience a feeling of movement or of being off balance (2). In most cases, dizziness arises naturally from unusual changes that disrupt the normal feeling of stability. However, a disturbance or a disease in the system that maintains balance can also cause dizziness (3). What could be the cause of this internal lack of balance? Although many forms of dizziness exist, such as Meniere's disease, I am going to focus on what keeps us balanced. The issue of balance first interested me when my mother had gone to see an acupuncturist concerning her high blood pressure. Not only did she come in hopes of finding a cure for her high blood pressure, she also found that she suffers from balance problems. The Chinese guru of an acupuncturist said, "Your whole body is out of balance. Fire blazes within you without equilibrium. You should take a vacation." Apparently, correlation exists between blood pressure and physical balance. Immediately, I became worried and confused. I have been searching for the cause of my mother's problems for some time now. Why is it that she never even noticed that the world was out of balance in her perspective? She always subtly mentioned the feeling of dizziness and the constant coldness of her right shoulder. But I never realized how serious her situation was. I now know that these symptoms are due to an imbalance.