The Art of Procrastination Essay Example for Free

The Art of Procrastination Essay Have ever experienced that moment when you should do something, whether it is e-mailing back your great grand aunt from some lost country, cleaning up your room because you can’t even find your bed in that unbelievable mess, taking your obnoxious dog on a walk in the freezing cold weather, or just simply finishing your more than annoying homework in a class you can’t even stand, but instead you’re totally doing something else to hold up the fatal deadline? Don’t lie to me, I know you have. Our generation is victim of a particular disease that slows millions of people down against their weak wills : procrastination. Procrastination is the art of putting things off until tomorrow, and there is no need to tell you how good I am at that. Even the idea of this topic came up after long hours spending doing nothing.  «Nothing  » isn’t really the exact word, because the procrastinator always find something more appealing and stupid in most cases than what he or she should actually do. Access to entertainment has became amazingly easy in the last few decades and there are now thousands of ways to have fun exist nowadays. What normal person would honestly like better calculating the derivation of Pi instead of watching a funny movie under her or his warm blanket while eating rich, unhealthy and incredibly good food ? Every human behavior occurs for a reason, and procrastination is the witness of a society ruled by irksome people ignoring the pleasures of life. Facebook is another example of a procrastinator’s occupation. This website is the devil and poses as a huge ocean where Net surfers get lost needlessly. Nothing exceptional ever happens but people are ready to stay on it, stalking random strangers they will never meet for hours instead of undertaking something smart. Mark Zuckerberg succeeded in diverting millions of good people from the right path by putting his finger on a universel human trait : our weakness. Replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority doesn’t always mean that those lower priorities activities are pointless. While thinking about a topic for this column, I felt the sudden need to clean up my room. Let me tell you that I don’t often enjoy doing it, but in this case it seemed more distracting than scratching my head looking for something you might like to read. I also took the opportunity to paint my nails, to e-mail back some members of my family worried about my survival in Fat-Land a.k.a America, to count my pairs of shoes, to look everywhere for the forever missing sock undeniably eaten by the washing machine, and to prepare my upcoming trip to Barcelona by learning some dirty words in Spanish. You know you procrastinate when you discover the enormous entertainment potential of a paperclip, when you spend more time calculating the time you would have left if you start working right now than actually working and when you are reading this column instead of doing what you’re supposed to do.

Is Anyone Out There? Essay -- Astronomy

Earth is small. Many people find it hard to believe, but when one thinks of earth in its context, amongst billions of galaxies, stars, planets, and an infinite universe, earth is a mere grain of sand on the beach that is space. With this in mind, one may, quite understandably, find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet that sustains life. With today’s advanced technology and science, extensive evidence has been found suggesting a great likelihood of life on other planets. The discovery of life on other planets has huge implications for humankind, as it would likely give a more thorough understanding of what human life is, how it came to be, and possibly even insight into why humans exist. Oftentimes, people ignore rhetoric regarding the possibility of life on other planets. This may be for religious reasons or because many people see it as more science fiction than scientific, but there is a substantial difference between Hollywood’s perception of aliens and what is likely to be the first extraterrestrial life discovered (Borenstein). In all reality, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a few other basic elements are all it takes to create the miracle of life, and these chemicals could exist in countless places other than earth (Bryson 2). Some life may not even require that, like the microbe found in a lake in California, which was able to survive on arsenic and phosphorus alone (Borenstein). According to Borenstein, the â€Å"life† that scientists are looking for is more accurately described as a life form or microbial slime, much like the microbes that became humans via evolution. Approximately 140 billion galaxies inhabit the universe, with somewhere between one hundred billion and four hundred billion stars in Earth... ...rawstory.com/rs/ 2010/12/08/evidence-mounting-daily-proven/> Bryson, Bill. A Short History of Nearly Everything. New York: Broadway Books, 2003. Print. Cohen, Daniel. The Ancient Visitors: Have Creatures from Other Planets Ever Lived On Earth? Garden City, NY: Double & Comp., Inc., 1976. Print. Kaufman, Marc. â€Å"Reaching for the Stars: It’s Alive Out There! Scientists Seek Out the Evidence.† McClathy-Tribute News Service. 17 June 2011: n.p. Web. 15 Mar 2012. Spotts, Pete. â€Å"In Search of Life, More Planet ‘Candidates’ Are Found. Are Any Just Right?† Christian Science Monitor. 12 Sep 2011:n.p. Web. 15 Mar 2012. "Story of the Universe." European Space Agency, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2012.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

If the porters can organize their industry, hold their ranks, prove their fighting ability in the interest of the working class, it will have a profound effect on the attitude of white organized labor. And it will have a profound effect upon the organizable capacity of Negro workers in other industries. These men who punch our pillows and shine our shoes and stow our bags under the seats bear in their hands no little of the responsibility for the industrial future of their race (The Nation, June 9, 1926).Most observers would have thought it quite unlikely during the early 1920s that the sleeping car porters, those seemingly obsequious men, always bowing and scraping in the presence of whites with their hands held out for a tip, would ever have been able to start a union. Even more preposterous was the thought that they not only would start a union, but that their organization would become a nationally recognized symbol of the New Negro, a leader in the struggle of black people to att ain their rightful Place as part of the American working-class.Not only were porters servile and easily frightened men, people would say, but the vast majority of them worked for the Pullman Company, a giant among American capitalist enterprises. The company was the largest single employer of blacks in the country, and most black spokesmen believed that black people owed the Chicago-based corporation a debt of gratitude. Moreover, the Pullman Company was notoriously anti-union. Should porters attempt anything so foolish as forming a union, the company would crush the incipient movement before it ever began (Perata 45-47).However, by the end of World War II, Randolph and the brotherhood were major forces within American labor and society. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), was the first African American labor organization to affiliate with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP, founded by the labor leader Asa Philip Randolph in 1925, organized black Pullman ca r porters. Far more than a labor union, the BSCP was also a pivotal organization in the twentieth-century civil rights movement. Randolph was president of the BSCP from 1925 to 1968.Although he also held general organizer credentials, his role within the BSCP was largely that of public spokesperson and agitator, with practical matters being left in the hands of men like the BSCP organizers Milton Webster, Ashley Totten, and C. L. Dellums. The labor movement had done more for advancement of blacks than any other institution in America. Between 1928 and the 1935 convention, the laws governing labor-management relations bad changed dramatically. In July 1935, President Franklin D.Roosevelt signed into law the Wagner-Connery Act, which guaranteed workers the right to organize. But more important to the BSCP, Congress had passed the Amended Railway Labor Act of 1934 which guaranteed railroad workers that right. Moreover, that act required corporations to negotiate with unions that could prove that they represented the majority of a particular class of workers, and created the National Mediation Board to protect workers' interests. The emancipation of slaves following the Civil War did little to resolve their precarious social and economic status.As late as 1910, 83. 3 percent of African Americans resided in the South. The vast majority were engaged in agricultural work, with black artisanship suffering erosion when Reconstruction ended and Jim Crow systems became dominant. One of the few corporations to employ large numbers of African Americans was the Pullman Company, the maker and supplier of luxury cars for railroads. Founder George Pullman hired ex-slaves as servants for his cars as early as 1870, and by the turn of the century, Pullman was the single largest employer of black labor.Of the 12,000 porters employed by Pullman in 1925, all were black except for about 400 Mexicans and a handful of Asians. What emerged was a complex relationship between black employ ees, the Pullman Corporation, and rail passengers. From its origin the BSCP had three goals. First, of course, union leaders wanted to gain recognition from the Pullman Company as the official representative of porters and maids so as to improve their wages and working conditions.Second, and of equal importance, at least to Randolph, the BSCP was the means by which black workers would break down barriers to equal membership in organized labor. Thus, Randolph and his colleagues set their sights on an international charter from the AFL. The union's third goal stemmed from the first two. A union under black leadership strong enough to gain recognition from the Pullman Company and to wrest a charter from the AFL would serve as an example to other working-class blacks of the possibilities for improving their lives. Many of the black men (including J.Finley Wilson, president of the Improved and Benevolent Order of Elks of the World; Perry Howard, perennial Republican national committeeman from Mississippi; and Benjamin E. Mays, who became president of Morehouse College and of the Atlanta school board) who went on to make names for themselves worked for Pullman at one time. The harsh irony is that such men accepted jobs at Pullman largely because the company offered the best opportunities available for black men. Indeed, a porter's annual pay of $810 plus tips in 1925 far exceeded that of a black school teacher.In addition, porters were considered cosmopolites, men of the world who flitted back and forth across the country, visiting regularly places most blacks could never dream of seeing. Black women were instrumental in advancing the brotherhood from its earliest days. A small number of black women employed as maids by the Pullman Company took out memberships in the BSCP, but women were most active in auxiliaries. Wives and other female relatives of Pullman employees started to establish local auxiliaries in 1926, and that same year several auxiliaries combined to form the Colored Women's Economic Council.Women's auxiliaries were instrumental in raising money for the brotherhood in the days before an AFL charter boosted the organizational treasury. They also performed important community functions such as offering financial assistance to families left destitute when the Pullman Company dismissed black wage earners (Chateauvert 197). The BSCP took advantage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932. New Deal legislation outlawed company unions and granted workers the right to bargain through their own elected units.In 1934, the Railway Labor Act was amended to include sleeping car employees. Women continued their feverish activity on behalf of the union, and women's auxiliaries became so numerous that a coordinated network of Ladies Auxiliaries of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters emerged in 1938. Increased political, legal, and organizational activity gave Randolph the necessary leverage to call for a union election. In June 1935, despite massive layoffs by Pullman, the BSCP won collective bargaining rights by a nearly eight-to-one margin.BSCP officials not only sought legitimacy for their own union but looked on the union as a vehicle for the advancement of all black workers. During the Great Depression the Brotherhood participated in various grass roots activities and workers' actions. The union joined in the numerous protests throughout the country over the plight of the Scottsboro Boys, nine young blacks convicted of rape in Alabama, and was a leader in the successful efforts of organized labor and civil rights organizations to prevent the confirmation of judge John J.Parker, whom President Herbert Hoover nominated for the Supreme Court in 1930 (Santino 34). The BSCP alone tied together Parker's racist and anti-union sentiments. And though they would not go so far as to support Communist activities, Randolph and other BSCP spokesmen encouraged black workers to form workers' councils so as to demand equitable relief funds from the U. S. government, especially after the origin of the New Deal. The BSCP was the very first African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining agreement with a main U.S. corporation (Santino 67). All applicants were required to take the General Test the United States Employment Service. Each applicant was also given an intensive interview with an employment service counselor to determine whether he might have a substantial potential in the trade regardless of his ability to meet the minimum standards. Under the collective bargaining agreement, appointments as apprentices were to be made from among the highest scorers. Randolph's career is one of the most interesting in contemporary black history.As an opponent of participation in World War I and an angry critic of the Wilson administration, Randolph's writings earned The Messenger the title of ‘the most able and the most dangerous of all Negro publications' (Pfeffer 67). During the int er-war years he devoted himself to trade union organization and gained prominence as the leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Not only did he secure recognition of the union from the railroads, but in 1936 took it into the American Federation of Labor as an international union.This union's founding and struggle for recognition was a dramatic episode in the history of black workers (Harris 78). The black leaders of the period, including Du Bois and Randolph, who believed in programs of interracial cooperation also believed that such a policy of working with whites must be accompanied by a campaign of public enlightenment about black people. To win whites to the cause it was necessary to correct the black image in their minds. Beyond an appeal to the conscience of whites, or to their democratic ideals, it was necessary to remove the misconceptions they held about blacks.In the mid- 1930s the Brotherhood won two notable victories-the receipt of an international charter fr om the American Federation of Labor and recognition by the Pullman Company as the bargaining agent for the porters and maids. Strengthened by its international union status and by its victory over the Pullman Company, the Brotherhood had become a dominant force in Negro circles by the late 1930s. References Chateauvert, Melinda. (1997). Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Harris, William. (1977).Keeping the Faith: A. Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-37. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Perata, David. (1996). Those Pullman Blues: An Oral History of the African American Railroad Attendant. New York: Twayne Publishers. Pfeffer, Paula F. A. (1990). Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Santino, Jack. (1991). Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle: Stories of Black Pullman Porters. Urbana: University o f Illinois Press. The Nation, June 9, 1926, p. 3.

Gettysburg East Cavalry Field in the Civil War

Battle of Gettysburg: Union Order of Battle - Confederate Order of Battle Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Conflict Date: The East Cavalry Fight took place on July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and was part of the larger Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-July 3, 1863). Armies Commanders: Union Brigadier General David McM. GreggBrigadier General George A. Custer3,250 men Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuartapprox. 4,800 men Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Background: On July 1, 1863, Union and Confederate forces met north and northwest of the town of Gettysburg, PA.  The first day of the battle resulted in General Robert E. Lees forces driving Major General John F. Reynolds I Corps and Major General Oliver O. Howards XI Corps through Gettysburg to a strong defensive position around Cemetery Hill.  Bringing additional forces up during the night, Major General George G. Meades Army of the Potomac assumed a position with its right on Culps Hill and the line extending west to Cemetery Hill and then turning south along Cemetery Ridge.  The next day, Lee planned to attack both Union flanks.  These efforts were late in commencing and saw Lieutenant General James Longstreets First Corps push back Major General Daniel Sickles III Corps which had moved west off of Cemetery Ridge.  In a bitterly fought struggle, Union troops succeeded in holding the key heights of Little Round Top at the south end of the battlefield (Map).  Ã‚   Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Plans Dispositions: In determining his plans for July 3, Lee at first hoped to launch coordinated attacks on Meades flanks.  This plan was thwarted when Union forces opened a fight at Culps Hill around 4:00 AM.  This engagement raged for seven hours until quieting at 11:00 AM.  As a result of this action, Lee changed his approach for the afternoon and instead decided to focus on striking the Union center on Cemetery Ridge.  Assigning command of the operation to Longstreet, he ordered that Major General George Picketts division, which had not been engaged in the previous days fighting, form the core of the attack force.  To supplement Longstreets assault on the Union center, Lee directed Major General J.E.B. Stuart to take his Cavalry Corps east and south around Meades right flank.  Once in the Union rear, he was attack towards the Baltimore Pike which served as the primary line of retreat for the Army of the Potomac. Opposing Stuart were elements of Major General Alfred Pleasontons Cavalry Corps.  Disliked and mistrusted by Meade, Pleasonton was retained at the armys headquarters while his superior directed cavalry operations personally.  Of the corps three divisions, two remained in the Gettysburg area with that of Brigadier General David McM. Gregg located east of the main Union line while Brigadier General Judson Kilpatricks men protected the Union left to the south.  The bulk of the third division, belonging to Brigadier General John Buford, had been sent south to refit after playing a key role in the early fighting on July 1.  Only Bufords reserve brigade, led by Brigadier General Wesley Merritt, remained in the area and held a position south of the Round Tops.  To reinforce the position east of Gettysburg, orders were issued for Kilpatrick to loan Brigadier General George A. Custers brigade to Gregg. Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - First Contact: Holding a position at the intersection of the Hanover and Low Dutch Roads, Gregg deployed the bulk of his men along the former facing north while Colonel John B. McIntoshs brigade occupied a position behind the latter facing northwest.  Approaching the Union line with four brigades, Stuart intended to pin Gregg in place with dismounted troopers and then launch an attack from the west using Cress Ridge to shield his movements.  Advancing the brigades of Brigadier Generals John R. Chambliss and Albert G. Jenkins, Stuart had these men occupy the woods around the Rummel Farm.  Gregg was soon alerted to their presence due to scouting by Custers men and signal guns fired by the enemy.  Unlimbering, Major Robert F. Beckhams horse artillery opened fired on the Union lines.  Responding, Lieutenant Alexander Penningtons Union battery proved more accurate and succeeded in largely quieting the Confederate guns (Map). Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Dismounted Action:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the artillery fire subsided, Gregg directed the 1st New Jersey Cavalry from McIntoshs brigade to dismount as well as the 5th Michigan Cavalry from Custers.  These two units commenced a long-range duel with the Confederates around the Rummel Farm.  Pressing the action, the 1st New Jersey advanced to a fence line closer to the farm and continued the fight.  Running low on ammunition, they were soon joined by the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry.  Tangling with a larger force, McIntosh called for reinforcements from Gregg.  This request was denied, though Gregg did deploy an additional artillery battery which began shelling the area around the Rummel Farm.   This compelled the Confederates to abandon the farms barn.  Seeking to turn the tide, Stuart brought more of his men into the action and extended his line to flank the Union troopers.  Quickly dismounting part of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, Custer blocked this move.  As McIntoshs ammunition began to dwindle, the brigades fire started to slacken.  Seeing an opportunity, Chambliss men intensified their fire.  As McIntoshs men began to withdraw, Custer advanced the 5th Michigan.  Armed with seven-shot Spencer rifles, the 5th Michigan surged forward and, in fighting that became hand-to-hand at times, succeeded in driving Chambliss back into the woods beyond the Rummel Farm.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Mounted Fight: Increasingly frustrated and eager to end the action, Stuart directed the 1st Virginia Cavalry from Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lees brigade to make a mounted charge against the Union lines.  He intended this force to break through the enemys position by the farm and split them from those Union troops along Low Dutch Road.  Seeing the Confederates advance, McIntosh attempted to send his reserve regiment, the 1st Maryland Cavalry, forward.  This failed when he found that Gregg had ordered it south to the intersection.  Responding to the new threat, Gregg ordered Colonel William D. Manns 7th Michigan Cavalry to launch a counter-charge.  As Lee drove back Union forces by the farm, Custer personally led the 7th Michigan forward with a yell of Come on, you Wolverines! (Map). Surging forward, the 1st Virginias flank came under fire from the 5th Michigan and part of the 3rd Pennsylvania.  The Virginians and 7th Michigan collided along a sturdy wooden fence and commenced fighting with pistols.  In an effort to turn the tide, Stuart directed Brigadier General Wade Hampton to take reinforcements forward.  These troopers joined with the 1st Virginia and compelled Custers men to fall back.  Pursuing the 7th Michigan towards the intersection, the Confederates came under heavy fire from the 5th and 6th Michigans as well as the 1st New Jersey and 3rd Pennsylvania.  Under this protection, the 7th Michigan rallied and turned to mount a counterattack.  This succeeded in drove the enemy back past the Rummel Farm. Given the near success of the Virginians in almost reaching the crossroads, Stuart concluded that larger attack might carry the day.  As such, he directed the bulk of Lee and Hamptons brigades to charge forward.  As the enemy came under fire from Union artillery, Gregg directed the 1st Michigan Cavalry to charge forward.  Advancing with Custer in the lead, this regiment smashed into the charging Confederates.  With the fighting swirling, Custers outnumbered men began to be pushed back.  Seeing the tide turning, McIntoshs men entered the fray with the 1st New Jersey and 3rd Pennsylvania striking the Confederate flank.  Under attack from multiple directions, Stuarts men began to fall back to the shelter of the woods and Cress Ridge.  Though Union forces attempted a pursuit, a rearguard action by the 1st Virginia blunted this effort. Gettysburg-East Cavalry Fight - Aftermath:   In the fighting east of Gettysburg, Union casualties numbered 284 while Stuarts men lost 181.  A victory for the improving Union cavalry, the action prevented Stuart from riding around Meades flank and striking the Army of the Potomacs rear.  To the west, Longstreets assault on the Union center, later dubbed Picketts Charge, was turned back with massive losses.  Though victorious, Meade elected not to mount a counterattack against Lees wounded army citing the exhaustion of his own forces.  Personally taking the blame the defeat, Lee ordered the Army of Northern Virginia to commence a retreat south on the evening of July 4.  The victory at Gettysburg and Major General Ulysses S. Grants triumph at Vicksburg on July 4 marked the turning points of the Civil War.   Selected Sources Echoes of Gettysburg: East Cavalry FieldCivil War Trust: Gettysburg-East Cavalry FieldEast Cavalry Field: Battle of Gettysburg