Orion Essays - Orion, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Oenopion, Canis Major

Orion Essays - Orion, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Oenopion, Canis Major Orion Orion Down fell the red skin of the lion Into the river at his feet. His mighty club no longer beat The forehead of the bull; but he Reeled as of yore beside the sea, When blinded by Oenopion He sought the blacksmith at his forge, And climbing up the narrow gorge, Fixed his blank eyes upon the sun. The Occultation of Orion by Mr. Longfellow This poem was written about the Greek myth of Orion. The story says that Orion, the son of Neptune, was a handsome giant and a mighty hunter. His father gave him the power of wading through the depths of the sea, or, as others would say, walking on its surface. Orion loved Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, king of Chios, and sought her in marriage. He cleared the island of wild beasts, and brought the spoils of the chase as presents to his beloved; but as Oenopion constantly deferred his consent, Orion attempted to gain possession of the maiden by violence. Her father, incensed at this conduct, having made Orion drunk, deprived him of his sight and cast him out on the seashore. The blinded hero followed the sound, of a Cyclops' hammer till he reached Lemnos, and came to the forge of Vulcan(Hephaestus), who, taking pity on him, gave him Kedalion, one of his men to be his guide to the abode of the sun. Placing Kedalion on his shoulders, Orion proceeded to the east, and there meeting th e sun-god(Helios) was restored to sight by his beam. After this he dwelt as a hunter with Diana(Artemis), with whom he was a favorite, and it was even said she was about to marry him. Her brother was highly displeased and often chid with her, but for no purpose. One day, observing Orion wading through the sea with his head just above the water, Apollo pointed it out to his sister and maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the sea. The archer-goddess discharged a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled the dead body of Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error with many tears, Diana placed him among the stars, where he appears as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion's skin, and club. Sirius, his dog, follows him, and the Pleiads fly before him. Orion, the brightest constellation in the sky, is easy to find if you look for the three bright stars that make up Orion's belt. Once you have found this distinctive pattern, two other very bright stars will help you define the rest of the constellation. The first star, Betelgeuse, is located at Orion's right shoulder. The second, Rigel, is at his lower left. Orion is the great hunter, aiming his arrow and holding his club over his head. His sword hangs from his belt. In the area of this sword are found a number of very exciting star formation regions, including the Great Nebula of Orion. The nebula is visible with the unaided eye, as a smudge about halfway down his sword. The Great Nebula of Orion(star M42) is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. This area is a collection of gas and dust where stars are being born. The central bright star that is illuminating the gaseous cloud is actually four stars known as the Trapezium. The nebula itself is one of the nearest star formations at only about 1,500 light years away. It has formed stars recently, only 300,000 years ago. In Orion many of the stars have different colors, colors tell us about a star's temperature, composition, age, size, and distance from us. Red stars are generally older, cooler stars that have used up much of their hydrogen fuel. Blue stars are generally younger and hotter. Most of these stars are blue, with the exception of the very red star, Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, Rigel is a blue supergiant. The red streak in the sword area is the Orion Nebula. Orion is located in the celestial equator and Orion's outstretched upper arm is located in the Milky Way. Orion is followed by two hunting dogs at his right. One of these, Canis Major, contains the brightest star in the sky. This star, Sirius, is located just where the dog's neck meets his body. Sirius should help

The Origin of Wildfires and How They Are Caused

The Origin of Wildfires and How They Are Caused It is interesting to note that, of the four billion years of earths existence, conditions were not conducive for spontaneous wildfire until the last 400 million years. A naturally-occurring atmospheric fire did not have the chemical elements available until major several earth changes occurred. The earliest life forms emerged without needing oxygen (anaerobic organisms) to live about 3.5 billion years ago and lived in a carbon dioxide based atmosphere. Life forms that needed oxygen in small amounts (aerobic) came much later in the form of photosynthesizing blue-green algae and ultimately changed the earths atmospheric balance toward oxygen and away from carbon dioxide (co2). Photosynthesis increasingly dominated earths biology by initially creating and continuously increasing the earths percentage of oxygen in the air. Green plant growth then exploded and aerobic respiration became the biologic catalyst for terrestrial life. Around 600 million years ago and during the Paleozoic, conditions for natural combustion started developing with increasing speed. Wildfire Chemistry Fire needs fuel, oxygen, and heat to ignite and spread. Wherever forests grow, the fuel for forest fires is provided mainly by continued biomass production along with the resulting fuel load  of that vegetative growth. Oxygen is created in abundance by the photosynthesizing process of living green organisms so it is all around us in the air. All that is needed then is a source of heat to provide the exact chemistry combinations for a flame. When these natural combustibles (in the form of wood, leaves, brush) reach 572 º, gas in the steam given off reacts with oxygen to reach its flash point with a burst of flame. This flame then preheats surrounding fuels. In turn, other fuels heat up and the fire grows and spreads. If this spreading process is not controlled, you have a wildfire or uncontrolled forest fire. Depending on the geographic condition of the site and the vegetative fuels present, you might call these brush fires, forest fires, sage field fires, grass fires, woods fires, peat fires, bush fires, wildland fires, or veld fires. How Do Forest Fires Start? Naturally caused forest fires are usually started by dry lightning where little to no rain accompanies a stormy weather disturbance. Lightning randomly strikes the earth an average of 100 times each second or 3 billion times every year and has caused some of the most notable wildland fire disasters  in the western United States. Most lightning strikes occur in the North American southeast and southwest. Because they often occur in isolated locations with limited access, lightning fires burn more acres than human-caused starts. The average 10-year total of U.S. wildfire acres burned and caused by humans is 1.9 million acres where  2.1 million acres burned are lightning-caused. Still, human fire activity is the primary cause of wildfires, with nearly ten times the start rate of natural starts. Most of these human-caused fires are accidental, usually caused by carelessness or inattention by campers, hikers, or others traveling through wildland or by debris and garbage burners. Some are intentionally set by arsonists. Some human-caused fires are started to reduce heavy fuel buildup and used as a forest management tool. This is called a controlled or prescribed burn and used for wildfire fire fuel reduction, wildlife habitat enhancement, and debris clearing. They are not included in the above statistics and ultimately reduce wildfire numbers by reducing conditions that contribute to wildfire and forest fires. How Does Wildland Fire Spread? The three primary classes of wildland fires are surface, crown, and ground fires. Each classification  intensity depends on the quantity and types of fuels involved and their moisture content. These conditions have an effect on fire intensity and will determine how fast the fire will spread. Surface fires typically burn readily but at a low intensity and partially consume the entire fuel layer while presenting little danger to mature trees and root systems. Fuel buildup over many years will increase intensity and especially when associated with drought, can become a rapidly spreading ground fire. Regular controlled fire or prescribed burning effectively reduces the fuel buildup leading to a damaging ground fire.Crown fires generally result from intense rising ground fire heat and occur in the higher sections of draping trees. The resulting ladder effect causes hot surface or ground fires to climb the fuels into the canopy. This can increase the chance for embers to blow and branches to fall into unburned areas and increase the spread the fire.Ground fires are the most infrequent type of fire but make for very intense blazes that can potentially destroy all vegetation and organic manner, leaving only bare earth. These largest fires actually create their own winds and weat her, increasing the flow of oxygen and feeding the fire.

Post Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Post - Assignment Example This way, it will be possible to make accurate assumptions that will impact on planning positively because assumptions have influence on planning (Bush, 2005). I perfectly agree with the position you took on the purposes of EOP, especially when it comes to the aspect of planning. I would agree with you that planning is an important tool for achieving efficiency and for avoiding waste (Dudo, Dunwoody & Scheufele, 2011). Very often, emergency workers approach emergency events with virtually no idea about outcomes to expect. This happens when there is poor planning towards such events. Having an EOP can therefore help in ensuring that emergency workers abreast themselves with possibilities of emergency outcomes so that they can make the right preparations to them. An additional insight that I will like to add to your point is that whiles preparing emergency operations plans, it is important to take much inspiration from past events. I believe that it is based on past events that the right planning can be made to achieve efficiency. While you were opining on the questions/issues that must be addressed by an EOP, you made very important points which I agree with very perfectly. One of these was the point you made about the community. I agree with well that the community has a role to play in emergency management and that it is always very important to ask questions about the roles that the community can play in times of emergency. Once the role of the community is clearly defined, it will be possible to get the very best from them in times of emergency. The situation where community members interrupt the work of the emergency workers will also be avoided. This is because there will be distinctions between what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to you. With all the lessons above, it can be conclude

Safe work environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Safe work environment - Essay Example Visitors language should be checked for any harmful devises carried by him. Work stations are to be design to make the employees more comfortable as they would be working long hours sitting. The work station and the equipments like tables and chairs are to be designed to ease the pressure on the employees' body thus avoiding the stains and pains at various back parts. New employees are to be made known about the safety and security measures prior to their joining. They should be given a book let explaining about the privacy and safety policies for their kind reference. The parcels and other goods coming through courier service are to be checked at the ground floor security and should forward to their floors. If the goods are having some offense contents the objects are to be kept at the ground dispatch room and the consignee has to be called for cross check. An in-house doctor has to be placed at the work station for addressing concerns. Reference: Employee safety handbook, Office of research safety and office of risk management, Northwestern university, 2003 viewed on 21/12/2006 available at http://www.northwestern.edu/risk/EmpSafetyHandbook2003.pdf Safety tips,