...A key theme in The Martian by Andy Weir is to persevere through difficult situations, even when you feel that you have no hope. “Of course, I don’t have any plan for surviving four years on one year of food. But one thing at a time here. For now, I’m well fed and have a purpose: fix the damn radio.” -Mark Watney (page 11) This reveals Mark’s ability to take one issue at a time and not give up hope. He knows the odds are against him, but he stays optimistic, tackling issue by issue. “Remember those old math questions you had in algebra class? Where water is entering a container at a certain rate and leaving at a different rate and you need to figure out when it’ll be empty? Well, that concept is critical to the “Mark Watney doesn’t die” project I’m working on.” - Mark Watney (page 18) This is just one example of many instances where he explains his situation and the math behind it in a very clear yet lighthearted fashion. He goes on to explain his needed daily caloric intake and the amount of food he has to work with....
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...Training Needs Assessment Martian Ranch & Vineyard Martian Ranch and Vineyard is a startup biodynamic and sustainable vineyard and winery. Due to the time it takes grapevines to mature, Martian Ranch and Vineyard has not hired any employees at the moment. It is recommended that grapevines do not produce fruit for 3-5 years in order to establish a root system. Martian Ranch is expected to become a fully functional and up and running by spring of 2011. Martian Ranch will be hiring employees starting in spring 2011. An immediate area of focus is on the biodynamic aspect of the winery and vineyard. The winery and vineyard is located in the Santa Ynez Valley. At this current time, there are only a few competitors in biodynamic field in this region. There is a competitive advantage with this and should be capitalized. Knowledge training for new employees will be imperative. The organization will be certified in biodynamics so adherence to rules and applications is crucial. The owner and CEO of Martian Ranch has asked for a training program to be created so that it can be implemented spring of 2011. Identifying the needs of the organization will consist of organizational, person and task analysis. Methods used to collect data will be questionnaires, benchmarking and focus groups. Since Martian Ranch and Vineyard is in the beginning-to-middle stages of development, training needs should focus on Internal Growth Strategy with concentration on: new markets, product development, innovation...
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...Life on Mars Mars (Greek: Ares), our fourth planet in the Solar system, is named after the ancient roman god of war, Mars. People also called it the “Red Planet” as its surface if covered by iron oxide (loose dust and rock) which gives it a red bright rust colour surface appearance. During the Solar System's formation, Mars was created out of the protoplanetary disk. Also, Mars has two moons: Phobos and Deimos. Mars’ size is relatively smaller than our Earth and approximately half the size of the Earth; therefore, it takes longer to orbits the Sun (about two Earth years). Mars also has a surface area about the same as the land surface area of Earth. The Earth is about nine times more massive than Mars. Truly, there are some similarities between Mars and Earth which kept our interest to discover this mystery planet over decades. For example, Mars have a relatively thin atmosphere similar to Earth’s. Its atmosphere contains oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon, but proportionally different to our Earth. Moreover, it has similar observable features like volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps. Mars’ seasonal cycles are likewise similar to those of Earth as well. These integrated features give rise to our suspect about the past or existing presence of life and many more questions related to its history. As Mars is the neighbour of Earth, its history of ideas about the presence of life has been a controversy issue over decades. Therefore, the research...
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...The topic of Mars has long been of interest to astronomers and science fiction enthusiast alike. The premise of another planet supporting life excites people like no other. In 2004, The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, began preliminary science experiments and instrument proposals for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and a robotic space probe mission to Mars. After long testing and development stages, the mission birthed a rover, Curiosity, which was launched in November 2011 and subsequently landed August 6th 2012. As we speak Curiosity is collecting invaluable data for our understanding of mars including: habitability, climate and geology, and possibly setting up a manned mission to mars in the future. The possibilities that this new information can bring are the main reason that scientist and nonscientists alike are so excited for this pivotal mission. The Curiosity project began development in 2004. Astronomers and engineers worldwide entered their instrument proposals to NASA so they could hopefully be a part of the final mission. These components were sifted thoroughly and select components were developed for four years. By 2008, they were mostly finished with the hardware and software developments and they carried on testing. This extensive testing delayed liftoff, which was originally slated for September 2009, until November 2011. NASA then administered a poll on their website to decide the name of the rover, with Curiosity ultimately...
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...Theme Analysis Prompt Are you pleased or satisfied of where you are from? Or would you change it? In the story, “Dark They Were and Golden Eyed” by Ray Bradbury, a character named Harry Bittering adapted to the lifestyle of becoming a Martian, or in other words, he changed his culture. In the article, ‘I Am From” by Alicia Bareno, Alicia is possibly an immigrant who refuses to forget her culture. In each of these texts, the characters or authors themself either lose a culture or holds onto one. Changing or keeping a culture changes who you are, inside and out. Changing a culture affects you because it determines what you look like and what you act like. ”Mr. Bittering gazed at the Earth settlement far way in the low valley. ‘Such odd, such ridiculous houses the Earth people built.” This quote from the text indicates that Mr. Bittering (and his family) are no longer accepting their culture they had when they were on Earth, that he is not even referring to himself. Because Mr. Bittering and his family drew away from their original culture, it has changed what they act and look like. “The town’s empty, but we found native life in the hills, sir. Dark people. Yellow eyes. Very friendly. We talked a bit, not much. They learn English fast. I’m sure our relations will be most friendly with them, sir.” Because the Bittering family was willing to lose their culture they became Martians. The story acts as a metaphor, because people are willing to give up a culture, they will become...
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...John Carter – An Astronomical Analysis Plot Summary: Following the death of John Carter, his nephew, Edgar Rice Burroughs attends his funeral to find that Carter has left him all his belongings as well as a small journal. Burroughs begins reading the journal to find that it is a diary with instructions. He finds out that in 1868, Colonel Powell tried to force Carter in joining the army to help fight and arrest Apache. However, Carter escapes and Powell begins chasing him before they are ambushed by Apache's men. This can be seen in the trailer attached when the two men are chased on horseback. They eventually hide in a cave where Carter, surprised by a Thern (a martian race which closely resembles humans), kills him. Carter inspects the body and finds a medallion which ultimately transports him to Mars, also known as Barsoon. Upon arriving on Mars, Carter finds that he has the ability to jump extraordinarily high and yields increased strength and speed due to the planets low gravity. Carter quickly becomes a prisoner shortly after to the Tharks (15 feet tall green martians), and discovers that Mars has been at war for thousands of years and is destroying the planet; the evil Zodangan led by Sab Than and the good Helium led by Tardos Mors. The Zodanga have recently received a special weapon from Thern leader Matai Shang and proposes that he will spare the lives of the Helium if he is to marry the princess, Dejah Thoris. However, Carter and Dejah have fallen in love...
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...carbon dioxide. (more info from NASA Spacelink) Mariner 3 launched on November 5, 1964, was lost when its protective shroud failed to eject as the craft was placed into interplanetary space. Unable to collect the Sun's energy for power from its solar panels, the probe soon died when its batteries ran out and is now in solar orbit. It was intended for a Mars flyby with Mariner 4. Mariner 4 the sister probe to Mariner 3, did reach Mars in 1965 and took the first close-up images of the Martian surface (22 in all) as it flew by the planet. The probe found a cratered world with an atmosphere much thinner than previously thought. Many scientists concluded from this preliminary scan that Mars was a "dead" world in both the geological and biological sense. Mariner 9 Mariner 9, the sister probe to Mariner 8 which failed on launch, became the first craft to orbit Mars in 1971. It returned information on the Red Planet that no other probe had done before, revealing huge volcanoes on the Martian surface, as well as giant canyon systems, and evidence that water once flowed across the planet. The probe also took the first detailed closeup images of Mars' two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. Apollo 6 manned landings on the Moon and sample returns 1969-72. (The seventh landing,...
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...During my research, some very interesting facts were accumulated. By accumulating modern data on Mars, I attempted to outline the possibilities of colonization in my own perspective. One consideration is that not only is technology lifting mankind up into new heights, but we are on the verge of a new cooperation on a global scale. This cooperation that I am conveying is that world governments are now working together to eventually go to Mars. This exploration will be a culmination of data produced from the rovers that are currently sending data to us from Mars. (http://www.googleearth.com, go to Mars entry) We now know there are natural resources available to use to sustain life, and harvesting them will lead to our first colony being started and expanding there. The question arises, as to how to get there, and with careful thought, the technology that we now possess will certainly deliver us there to Mars. The first fact to consider is that we have a natural satellite that is only approximately 252,000 miles away from us, which is the Moon. (www.answers.ask.com) (http://www.chacha.com) We also have the International Space Station, revolving around the earth. (http://wiki.answers.com) We are also going to be building an outer space vehicle that is larger than the Gemini space capsule, but will be built to go deeper into space and stay there longer. On January 14, 2004, then President George W. Bush announced the “Orion” spacecraft. This spacecraft is a replacement of the space...
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...These images give scientists the information they need to select promising geological targets that tell part of the story of water in Mars' past. Then, the rovers drive to those locations to perform on-site scientific investigations. These are the primary science instruments carried by the rovers: Panoramic Camera (Pancam): for determining the mineralogy, texture, and structure of the local terrain. Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES): for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. The instrument is designed to look skyward to provide temperature profiles of the Martian atmosphere. Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB): for close-up investigations of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils. Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): for close-up analysis of the abundances of elements that make up rocks and soils. Magnets: for collecting magnetic dust particles. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer are designed to analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. They can also analyze the composition of magnetic minerals in airborne dust and rocks that have been ground by the Rock Abrasion...
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...THE WAR OF THE WORLDS FINAL WHITE Barré Lyndon December 18, 1951 FADE IN: 1. H. G. WELLS' BOOK We see the colorful cover, then the first page. A VOICE with a Wells-like accent quotes the opening words: VOICE No one would have believed, in the first decades of the twentieth century... DISSOLVE: 2. SPECIAL EFFECT - SKY FULL OF STARS The planet Mars shows just above the spires and roof- tops of a city on the horizon. VOICE (Continuing) ...that human affairs were being watched...
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...Should We Give Up on Reductive Physicalism? Paul Sperring Richmond Journal of Philosophy 8 (Winter 2004) Should We Give Up on Reductive Physicalism? Paul Sperring Supposing you were a physicalist in the late 1950s, early 1960s, and supposing you were Australian too 1 , it is highly likely you would have thought that mental properties could be reduced to physical properties. Now, suppose you are a contemporary philosopher of mind and suppose further that you are also of a physicalist stripe. Will you be inclined to think that mental properties are reducible to physical properties? It’s by no means certain. These days physicalists fall into two, broadly conceived, camps: (i) the reductionist physicalists who think that minds (or mental properties, or states or events 2 ) can be reduced to brains (or something smaller) and; (ii) the nonreductive physicalists who think that minds are not straightforwardly reducible to some lower level set of physical properties. In truth if one were to carefully classify all the physicalist positions in contemporary philosophy of mind we would need distinctions of a much finer grain than this story suggests. For the purposes of this paper, however, those philosophers who have thought that mental properties can be reduced to lower level properties will be lumped together (and called ‘reductionists’) and those philosophers who, although embracing physicalism, have thought that mental properties in principle defy reduction to something lower...
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...Imagine this scenario set in the future. We know that a decently large rogue planet will be crashing into Earth in a certain number of years and we cannot do anything to stop this from happening. However, we do have the ability to terraform a planet. If we could also move humanity to either Mars or Venus, which one should we go for and why? Hi Jessica! Interesting question. To start off, I will define what terraforming is for those who do not know what it means. Terraforming refers to the hypothetical process of modifying a planet or other heavenly body in order to make it habitable by humans. This outcome can be achieved by changing the atmosphere’s competition, the body’s temperature, the surface topography or the planet’s ecology. In order for terraforming to be successful and the planet to be able to sustain life, NASA has defined that such a body must have extended regions of liquid water, favourable living conditions and enough energy sources to sustain metabolism (). Mars is generally understood to be the planet that is closest to fulfilling these criteria because in many respects it is the most Earth-like planet in the Solar System(). It is generally accepted by scientists that Mars once had an Earth-like characteristic including a thicker atmosphere and abundant sources of water. These characteristics have diminished over the course of hundreds of millions of years due to carbon dioxide/carbonates reactions, a lack of magnetosphere and numerous asteroid impacts. The...
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...What is Music? The problem with answering the question “What is music?” is understanding what would constitute a proper answer. Music arises from human behaviour, and the study of human behaviour is part of biology. So any question about music is a question about biology, and every question about biology requires an answer within the framework of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. 2.1 Music is Something We Like What is music? It’s what comes out of the speakers when we play a CD on our stereo. It’s what we hear on the radio. Music is singers singing and musicians playing. Music is a sound that we enjoy hearing. Is this a proper answer to the question “What is music?”? If I asked “What is a car?”, you could answer by pointing at a large object moving up the street and saying “It’s one of those.” But this may not be a satisfactory answer. A full explanation of what a car is would mention petrol, internal combustion engines, brakes, suspension, transmission and other mechanical things that make a car go. And we don’t just want to know what a car is; we also want to know what a car is for. An explanation of what a car is for would include the facts that there are people and other things (like shopping) inside cars and that the purpose of cars is to move people and things from one place to another. By analogy, a good answer to the question “What is music?” will say something about the detailed mechanics of music: instruments, notes, scales, rhythm...
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...John Gray Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus Scanned by NOVA Scanner: Canoscan D1250 U2F Software: Omnipage Pro 9 Date: 28 August 2002 Proofed by eb00ks Date: 18 March, 2004 Note: As this proofing was done purely on the scanned text copy, this copy needs to be compared to a hardcopy to correct errors resulting from the source text file. eb00ks Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships John Gray, Ph.D. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Contents: Introduction _________________________________________________________________ i Chapter 1: Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus 1 4 12 18 26 40 50 59 67 78 92 Chapter 2: Mr. Fix-‐‑It and the Home-‐‑Improvement Committee Chapter 3: Men Go to Their Caves and Women Talk Chapter 4: How to Motivate the Opposite Sex Chapter 5: Speaking Different Languages Chapter 6: Men Are Like Rubber Bands Chapter 7: Women Are Like Waves Chapter 8: Discovering Our Different Emotional Needs Chapter 9: How to Avoid Arguments ...
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...torical Analysis “Can Life Exist on Other Planets” Professor Danny Faulkner is the speaker in his article “Can Life Exist on Other Planets” and it summarizes the evolution of life on Earth and how we would need liquid water the gold standard to live and thrive on another planet. Faulkner’s purpose is to propose the idea of life on other planets by providing information of the evolution on Earth, searching for life on Mars, the need for liquid water, and the planets in our solar system's attributes. He acknowledges an informative tone to provide information of life existing on other planets for the audience. Faulkner begins to explain the broad definition of abiogenesis, the spontaneous appearance of life from a nonliving matter. He implies “if life did arise on Earth by itself, it would be inconceivable that this is the only planet upon which there is life”(Faulkner 7-8). He describes life on Earth as abiogenesis. If Earth were the only place that held life it would be a very “special” place; the definitive response from Faulkner suggests the evolution of life on Earth would support life on other planets. According to Lloyd Bitzer, exigence used for this article is that if life was found on other planets than ours. We would have a portion of people wanting to destroy...
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