Morten Rand-Hendriksen Interview - On Bringing Ethics Into Web Design (#WCEU Series)

Heya, everyone! It’s time for the second interview from our #WCEU series. If you missed our first  interview with Hajj Flemings, be sure to check it out when you get a chance. Today, we’re sharing an insightful interview with Morten Rand-Hendriksen about ethics in web design.If you missed our other interviews, you can catch them all in their  dedicated category.For the first time, Themeisle was an official  WordCamp Europe media partner, which gave us a great opportunity to catch up with some of the conferences many interesting speakers.If you are familiar with WordCamps, then you have seen a Morten Rand-Hendriksen speech. Not only is he a great WordPress speaker and contributor, he remains a much-loved teacher and instructor from LinkedIn, Lynda.com, and Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He also finds time to regularly publish articles and books on web design, web standards, design, and UX. He has also been known to dabble in philosophy.In this interview, Morten shares his insights on ethics and web design. Ethics in tech is a hot-button issue. As a variety of platforms, business strategies, and networks mature, we are seeing some negative impacts bleed into public life, most notably in fake ads during elections, fake stories, wild rumors, and more. It is in this context that Morten developed his ethical framework for web design.Not a web designer? Dont go anywhere just yet. Youll still find some interesting nuggets in this interview, for sure!Because this interview was originally a video, weve slightly edited the text version for clarity and brevity. If you want to see the original videos, though, you can click the embedded Tweet to the right. Make sure to click to see the full thread of videos, as the embedded Tweet only shows Mortens answer to the first question.Now that the Morten Rand-Hendriksen interview is Twitter limit friendly we posting it in a single thread.Question 1: What do you mean by ethical web design and how is it d ifferent from user centered design? #WCEU pic.twitter.com/jsdxVlq9cY ThemeIsle (@ThemeIsle) June 16, 2018 A lot of the decisions that were made early on about how we do things, and the kind of services we provide, over time have turned out to be really bad decisions that have then piled on top of one another and created these huge problems. So, what youre seeing with social media right now where the way people behave on social media, or the way social media makes people behave actually alters people and alters their behavior and alters the society they live in. And, its all done to get people to click on ads. If we thought about that in the beginning, we wouldnt have done it that way.It turns out that a lot of people in the beginning were thinking about that and kept saying You know if you do this then bad stuff is going to happen but then everyone was like Oh who cares about that? Its not that important. So ethics is that; its taking the time to think through what youre doing, why youre doing it, and how youre doing it, what you become by doing it and what happens when you do it.So that instead of saying Im doing this because I want some result youre actually thinking through the process. The other part of it is, because you were asking how this is different from user-centered design, I like to say that its capability-centered design.What is capability centered design? Morten Rand-Hendriksen: You think about what capabilities you either give or take away from the user in your design options. Instead of just thinking about what the user can do, you think about how does that change their life, what kind of future do they end up in if you do this.Its easy to say that ethics is a list of things. You say I do this thats why Im ethical. Ethics is actually two things: its a way of thinking about the world, but the second part is its a tool that you can use to evaluate your decisions. So, when youre talking to philosophers, like me, about ethics, what well say is tha t ethics is basically a craft for figuring out, or judging, the rightness or wrongness of an act,  and figuring out a way of doing that in an objective way.So, if you say you want to do something I can give you a judgement and it will be my moral judgement based on my personal ideas. Which is a very subjective thing. Ethics will then say is there a way we can make it so that everyone can agree to some sort of structure so that you say I want to do this and everyone would say yes or no, based on that.So, for web design or design in general what we need is a way of building ethical thinking into our process. So that ethics becomes a tool like user research, like personas and all those sorts of things that are a natural part of the process. You go through these steps think through the consequences of what you are doing and how they change the world, before you move forward, in a natural way because then it actually helps inform your designs instead of just being this blanket that you put on top of it to suppress creativity.How do you see ethical web design becoming a process inherent to web design? Morten Rand-Hendriksen: So, Ive been talking about ethics and web design for many years now, and its funny because when I first started talking about it it was this thing where people said: I dont want someone telling me what to do. People often see ethics as this moralistic way of thinking: That is wrong; you should never do that because then youre a bad person.The first step in the process, I realized, was helping people to understand what ethics is and what it isnt.It is not a list of right and wrong actions. Its a set of tools and skills you can use to evaluate every situation in the context. In certain circumstances, doing something can be the right choice; in certain circumstances it can be the wrong choice. And you have to decide how you figure out why; why is it the right choice here but the wrong choice here. Then you need to kind of roll back and say what a re the causes of this.So, what Ive come up with, and what Im presenting today, is this notion of to do this, instead of picking unethical theories, because there are all these different moral philosophies, instead of picking one, why dont we use all of them? Take the best parts of four different moral philosophies and put them in kind of a chain.Then say for a decision to be a good one that I feel comfortable with it needs to pass tests on all these philosophies because each of them will have holes in them. Like deontology is a great idea except there are all these use cases where it doesnt work, and its actually bad.Consequentialism is great except for all these things. But then if you say consequentialism has these problems which can be solved by deontology, which has these problems that can be solved by virtue ethics, which has these problems that can be solved by a capability approach, and you can stick them together. And you think that sounds crazy complicated, but its not. Its actually super simple because, well, you can make it as complicated as you want but it can start very simply.So, youre a designer and you want to do something where you want to start thinking ethically about your decisions. Heres what you do: Start by asking one question: Why am I doing this?And the answer is not I want to make money or I want to make money for my client. Its I want to grant the end user a capability to do something. So, that would be if youre making a shopping assistant and youre selling some products. Lets say youre selling a boat. The website youre building, you are granting the user the capability to find out enough information about this boat to know whether or not this is the right boat for them. And then that would inform your design, right? Because youre not just ramming information and saying You must buy this boat right now because it is the best boat ever.Youre more thinking What information will enable the user to make the right choice? Because this boa t might be the wrong choice and we need to make sure that people dont accidentally buy the wrong boat. Thats the first question.The second question we ask is Who do I become when I design this? What do I believe in? Am I comfortable with who I become by doing this? So when you make a decision youre not just thinking about the business itself youre thinking about what kind of standard you set by doing this. And, thats where all these codes of ethics and everything come in, thats virtue ethics. Like I aspire to be this and Im going to model that kind of behaviour in my design process.Then you say What are my duties of care? What am I responsible for? Who am I responsible for? What are my responsibilities? How do I uphold those responsibilities to other people? What kind of best practice am I establishing by doing this? If I do this, Im basically saying every other person in the situation should do the same thing; am I comfortable with everyone doing the same thing I just did?Finally, you say What are the consequences? If I put this into the world whats actually going to happen? The thing I want will happen but what else will happen. What happens to that person after they interact with this thing? Where do they go? Who do they interact with?Then by those four questions,   youve now used the capability approach, virtue ethics, deontology, duty ethics, and consequentialism. And if you can pass those four questions, then you have a better ethical framework. Theyre there to start the conversation. If youre an entry-level person in a company these four questions give you the tools you need to go to your boss and say Hey theres a problem, and heres why. Instead of saying I dont feel right, you can actually say theres a problem and this is why. You can walk through the process with them.Is it possible to ethical in the digital world when everyone is so easily offended? Morten Rand-Hendriksen: Theres no such thing as being 100% ethical. So, when youre talking about eth ics youre not actually talking about a definition of right and wrong. Theres no such thing as right and wrong decisions; its all grey. The question is in what direction does it lean and does it lean very heavily in one direction? Is that ok? What you often see is people will pass moral judgments on things; its tricky because you have two terms ethics and morals. Ethics is the science of morals, and morals are the foundation of ethics.So, the way it works is: you can think of morals as I may have a personal opinion about the something like the pruning of trees. I am against the pruning of trees; you should never cut trees because its bad for the trees, right? I can try to convince you that its a bad idea and I can try to convince the world that its a bad idea.Theres a very small chance that everyone will be Yeah, lets stop cutting tree right now. But, I can have that opinion and that is my moral judgment of the world. To make that into a system you have to then say can we create som e sort of process where we can objectively judge the cutting of trees. So that the majority of people feel comfortable with the process. And, in that not say you can or you cant but more say this is how we adjudicate whether or not its ok.So, we agree on a method and then the outcome depends on the people involved and it becomes more flexible. The danger is that you get subjective or moral relativism where each individual person can justify anything because it doesnt affect them. Thats the problem with a lot of these theories seen as individual theories. Consequentialism often leads to moral relativism because you can say I personally think that these views are irrelevant. Theyre not irrelevant you just decided that, but youre comfortable with that so thats fine. With duty ethics, you can say Well, I think everyone should have crypto miners on their websites. Other people will not agree with you, but you can say that and feel comfortable with it. What ethics does is it allows you to say No. Before you put those crypto miners on your site we have to have a conversation about this. And actually, map out what that does to the world. After that conversation, if you still want to put crypto miners on your site, youre welcome to. Fine, but everyone else is not going to do this, right. And, youre probably not going to get anyone on your site anymore because everyone is going to be aware of it. But, it gives you this way of talking through it.Its less about making a list of rights and wrongs than giving you the tools to help discuss it and figure out whats actually going on. And, why you feel strongly in one thing and someone else feels strongly in another. It opens the door to communication.Does ethics kill creativity? Morten Rand-Hendriksen: No, it doesnt. If you think about ethics as a moral blanket, then it does. You can imagine a government entity being like Red is wrong. No one designs with red anymore. Its bad for the eyes.  That  would kill creativity.   The moralistic blankets that exist usually come from a position where someone wants to impose their view of the world onto other people.The difference between that and ethics is that in ethics we use tools to help each individual judge the situation in an objective way.  And allow them to have a conversation with other people  to figure out what is this. Whereas the moralistic approach is to say we have defined whats right and wrong.When we talk about ethics people often say I dont want someone to tell me what to do. Thats not what it is. It is someone saying Heres a set of questions you need to answer and be comfortable with answering and have conversations around before you make this decision. Which is  totally different; its not the same thing at all. Once people realise that they see that when you start asking these questions you actually discover opportunities in your design that you previously didnt see.If you have a client and they want to do something; they want to get people to sign up to their newsletter. If you say What capabilities does this newsletter give them? What is the value to the end user in this newsletter? What does the end user get out of it? And, not only get out of it, but how does it make their life better and open the door to more things for them? Once, your client can answer that question their newsletter will be much easier for people to sign up to. It will be something they actually want, something they care about, something that does something to them.It changes the whole dynamic of the design process. From saying we are designing this to meet some company goal to we are designing this to help  our end user do something. And because were helping them, we benefit from that because theyll end up buying or interacting. So, it changes the conversation and actually opens the door. I think I said once that ethics in design helps us harness the power of the creative fires without burning down the house. What do you think about M ortens framework? If you find it valuable and want to share your own ideas or experiences, then be sure to leave your questions, thoughts, and suggestions in the comments section below. And while you’re at it, sharing this interview with your connections will help further the ethical debate and provide fuel for the conversation.Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.

Camping Out by Ernest Hemingway

Camping Out by Ernest Hemingway Before publishing his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926, Ernest Hemingway worked as a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star. Though he thought it was unflattering to see his newspaper stuff compared to his fiction, the line between Hemingways factual and fictional writings was often blurred. As William White notes in his introduction to By-line: Ernest Hemingway (1967), he regularly took pieces he first filed with magazines and newspapers and published them with virtually no change in his own books as short stories. Hemingways famously economical style is already on display in this article from June 1920, an instructional piece (developed by process analysis) on setting up camp and cooking outdoors. Camping Out by Ernest Hemingway Thousands of people will go into the bush this summer to cut the high cost of living. A man who gets his two weeks’ salary while he is on vacation should be able to put those two weeks in fishing and camping and be able to save one week’s salary clear. He ought to be able to sleep comfortably every night, to eat well every day and to return to the city rested and in good condition. But if he goes into the woods with a frying pan, an ignorance of black flies and mosquitoes, and a great and abiding lack of knowledge about cookery, the chances are that his return will be very different. He will come back with enough mosquito bites to make the back of his neck look like a relief map of the Caucasus. His digestion will be wrecked after a valiant battle to assimilate half-cooked or charred grub. And he won’t have had a decent night’s sleep while he has been gone. He will solemnly raise his right hand and inform you that he has joined the grand army of never-agains. The call of the wild may be all right, but it’s a dog’s life. He’s heard the call of the tame with both ears. Waiter, bring him an order of milk toast. In the first place, he overlooked the insects. Black flies, no-see-ums, deer flies, gnats and mosquitoes were instituted by the devil to force people to live in cities where he could get at them better. If it weren’t for them everybody would live in the bush and he would be out of work. It was a rather successful invention. But there are lots of dopes that will counteract the pests. The simplest perhaps is oil of citronella. Two bits’ worth of this purchased at any pharmacist’s will be enough to last for two weeks in the worst fly and mosquito-ridden country. Rub a little on the back of your neck, your forehead, and your wrists before you start fishing, and the blacks and skeeters will shun you. The odor of citronella is not offensive to people. It smells like gun oil. But the bugs do hate it. Oil of pennyroyal and eucalyptol are also much hated by mosquitoes, and with citronella, they form the basis for many proprietary preparations. But it is cheaper and better to buy the straight citronella. Put a little on the mosquito netting that covers the front of your pup tent or canoe tent at night, and you won’t be bothered. To be really rested and get any benefit out of a vacation a man must get a good night’s sleep every night. The first requisite for this is to have plenty of cover. It is twice as cold as you expect it will be in the bush four nights out of five, and a good plan is to take just double the bedding that you think you will need. An old quilt that you can wrap up in is as warm as two blankets. Nearly all outdoor writers rhapsodize over the browse bed. It is all right for the man who knows how to make one and has plenty of time. But in a succession of one-night camps on a canoe trip all you need is level ground for your tent floor and you will sleep all right if you have plenty of covers under you. Take twice as much cover as you think that you will need, and then put two-thirds of it under you. You will sleep warm and get your rest. When it is clear weather you don’t need to pitch your tent if you are only stopping for the night. Drive four stakes at the head of your made-up bed and drape your mosquito bar over that, then you can sleep like a log and laugh at the mosquitoes. Outside of insects and bum sleeping the rock that wrecks most camping trips is cooking. The average tyro’s idea of cooking is to fry everything and fry it good and plenty. Now, a frying pan is a most necessary thing to any trip, but you also need the old stew kettle and the folding reflector baker. A pan of fried trout can’t be bettered and they don’t cost any more than ever. But there is a good and bad way of frying them. The beginner puts his trout and his bacon in and over a brightly burning fire; the bacon curls up and dries into a dry tasteless cinder and the trout is burned outside while it is still raw inside. He eats them and it is all right if he is only out for the day and going home to a good meal at night. But if he is going to face more trout and bacon the next morning and other equally well-cooked dishes for the remainder of two weeks he is on the pathway to nervous dyspepsia. The proper way is to cook over coals. Have several cans of Crisco or Cotosuet or one of the vegetable shortenings along that are as good as lard and excellent for all kinds of shortening. Put the bacon in and when it is about half cooked lay the trout in the hot grease, dipping them in cornmeal first. Then put the bacon on top of the trout and it will baste them as it slowly cooks. The coffee can be boiling at the same time and in a smaller skillet pancakes being made that are satisfying the other campers while they are waiting for the trout. With the prepared pancake  flours  you take a cupful of pancake flour and add a cup of water. Mix the water and flour and as soon as the lumps are out it is ready for cooking. Have the skillet hot and keep it well greased. Drop the batter in and as soon as it is done on one side loosen it in the skillet and flip it over. Apple butter, syrup or cinnamon and sugar go well with the cakes. While the crowd  have  taken the edge from their appetites with flapjacks the trout have been cooked and they and the bacon are ready to serve. The trout are crisp outside and firm and pink inside and the bacon is well done- but not too done. If there is anything better than that combination the writer has yet to taste it in a lifetime devoted largely and studiously to eating. The stew kettle will cook your dried apricots when they have resumed their predried plumpness after a night of soaking, it will serve to concoct a mulligan in, and it will cook macaroni. When you are not using it, it should be boiling water for the dishes. In the baker,  mere  man comes into his own, for he can make a pie that to his bush appetite will have it all over the product that mother used to make, like a tent. Men have always believed that there was something mysterious and difficult about making a pie. Here is a great secret. There is nothing to it. We’ve been kidded for years. Any man of average office intelligence can make at least as good a pie as his wife. All there is to a pie is a cup and a half of flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt, one-half cup of lard and cold water. That will make  pie  crust that will bring tears of joy into your camping partner’s eyes. Mix the salt with the flour, work the lard into the flour, make it up into a good workmanlike dough with cold water. Spread some flour on the back of a box or something flat, and pat the dough around a while. Then roll it out with whatever kind of round bottle you prefer. Put a little more lard on the surface of the sheet of dough and then slosh a little flour on and roll it up and then roll it out again with the bottle. Cut out a piece of the rolled out dough big enough to line a pie tin. I like the kind with holes in the bottom. Then put in your dried apples that have soaked all night and been sweetened, or your apricots, or your blueberries, and then take another sheet of the dough and drape it gracefully over the top, soldering it down at the edges with your fingers. Cut a couple of slits in the top dough sheet and prick it a few times with a fork in an artistic manner. Put it in the baker with a good slow fire for forty-five minutes and then take it out and if your pals are Frenchmen they will kiss you. The penalty for knowing how to cook is that the others will make you do all the cooking. It is all right to talk about roughing it in the woods. But the real woodsman is the man who can be really comfortable in the bush. Camping Out by Ernest Hemingway was originally published in the  Toronto Daily Star  on June 26, 1920.

Genealogy of the Titans and Gods in Greek Mythology

Genealogy of the Titans and Gods in Greek Mythology The genealogy of the Greek gods is complicated. There was not one uniform story all the ancient Greeks and Romans believed. One poet could directly contradict another. Parts of stories dont make sense, seemingly happening in reverse order or contradicting something else that was just said. You shouldnt throw up your hands in despair, though. Familiarity with the genealogy doesnt mean your branches always go in one direction or that your tree looks like the one your neighbor prunes. However, since the ancient Greeks traced their ancestry and that of their heroes to the deities, you should have at least a passing acquaintance with the lineages. Further back in mythological time than even the gods and goddesses are their ancestors, the primordial powers. Other pages in this series look at some of the genealogical relationships among the primordial powers and their other descendants (Chaos and Its Descendants, Titans Descendants, and Descendants of the Sea). This page shows the generations referred to in the mythological genealogies. Generation 0 - Chaos, Gaia, Eros, and Tartaros In the beginning were primordial forces. Accounts differ as to how many there were, but Chaos was probably the first. The Ginnungagap of Norse mythology is similar to Chaos, a sort of nothingness, black hole, or chaotic, swirling disordered state of conflict. Gaia, the Earth, came next. Eros and Tartaros may also have sprung into existence at about the same time. This is not a numbered generation because these forces were not generated, born, created, or otherwise produced. Either they were always there or they materialized, but the idea of generation involves some sort of creation, so the forces of Chaos, the earth (Gaia), love (Eros), and Tartaros come  before the first generation. Generation 1 The earth (Gaia/Gaea) was the great mother, a creator. Gaia created and then mated with the heavens (Ouranos) and the sea (Pontos). She also produced  but did not mate with the mountains. Generation 2 From Gaias union with the heavens (Ouranos/Uranus [Caelus]) came the Hecatonchires (hundred-handers; by name, Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes), the three cyclops/cyclopes (Brontes, Sterope, and Arges), and the Titans who numbered as follows: Kronos (Cronus)Rheia (Rhea)Kreios (Crius)Koios (Coeus)Phoibe (Phoebe],Okeanos (Oceanus],TethysHyperionTheia (Thea)Iapetos (Iapetus)MnemosyneThemis Generation 3 From the Titan pair Kronos and his sister, Rhea, came the first Olympian gods (Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia). Other Titans like Prometheus are also of this generation  and cousins of these early Olympians. Generation 4 From the mating of Zeus and Hera came: AresHebe the cup-bearerHephaestusEileithuia the goddess of childbirth There are other, conflicting genealogies. For instance, Eros is also called the son of Iris, instead of the more conventional Aphrodite, or the primeval and uncreated force Eros; Hephaestus may have been born to Hera without aid of a male. In case it is not completely clear where brothers marry sisters, Kronos (Cronos), Rheia (Rhea), Kreios, Koios, Phoibe (Phoebe), Okeanos (Oceanos), Tethys, Hyperion, Theia, Iapetos, Mnemosyne, and Themis are all offspring of Ouranos and Gaia. Likewise, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia are all offspring of Kronos and Rheia. Sources Timothy Gantz: Early Greek MythHesiod Theogony, translated by Norman O. Brown

Special Needs Rule Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Special Needs Rule - Essay Example In the case of a student who requires to be searched, the authority directly involved is the school officials, and therefore should be directly involved in the search. A clear example is the case, New Jersey v.TLO, and in this case, the Supreme Court ruled that searches that do not have probable causes can only be legal if they are done by the school authority. School setting is always a special setting, and the allowed officials are the school authorities. However, the presence of the police is welcome, but has to be regulated. As posited in the case, New Jersey v. TLO, the setting of a school may require modification especially in terms of suspicion or suspecting. The police cannot just move in to make unwarranted searches, rather, the school officials should be the one to be used. After the suspicion is confirmed, then, the law would take its course, and this time it would be implemented by the police. According to Gardner & Anderson (2009), the move to control searchers due to individualized reasons is to avoid seizures without deeply based suspicion. There is always a high need to differentiate an emergent issue in terms of searches and searches within special situations. Emergent searches are only when in the confines of police administration or not in a confine of a special situation. Special searches have to be

Inter-Global Medicares Expansion Strategy Essay

Inter-Global Medicares Expansion Strategy - Essay Example Having good quality product and service packages would likely attract upper and middle class citizens in the market. These people can afford quality health care. In most cases in the developing countries, such people usually seek alternative opinion on medication from the developed countries. The U. S is one such destination for such patients. This puts into perspective the strategic position that the company would have in such markets. Having a health facility that will be able to offer these services within their countries will thus be a relief as it will save on the travel expenses besides the timeliness in cases of emergencies.The potential audiences for this business plan include potential financers such as monetary lending institutions and possible partners. All these have a common interest in the plan; its viability and the promise for returns. The plan must therefore prove beyond any reasonable doubt that it is achievable and practical. In proving these, it is common knowledg e that most African countries are underdeveloped. They lack the quality basic services such as health care. Despite the poverty levels in the continent, it is also evident that it has some of the world’s richest men. The firm is not setting foot in Africa to exploit the people there, but to assure quality for the money that every single client will opt to invest in own health.Inter- Global Medicare offers both services and product delivery. This thus divides its potential market into two.... All these have a common interest in the plan; its viability and the promise for returns. The plan must therefore prove beyond any reasonable doubt that it is achievable and practical. In proving these, it is common knowledge that most African countries are underdeveloped. They lack the quality basic services such as health care. Despite the poverty levels in the continent, it is also evident that it has some of the world’s richest men. The firm is not setting foot in Africa to exploit the people there, but to assure quality for the money that every single client will opt to invest in own health. Inter- Global Medicare offers both services and product delivery. This thus divides its potential market into two. The company runs both a private hospital and an all-inclusive pharmacy. The first market segment includes those who will seek medical services on the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. These will be the hospital’s clients. Offering both out and in-patient services , the hospital looks forward to having a very busy schedule. On the other hand, the hospital will run a pharmacy. This is a facility which will be developed within the premises of the hospital. This follows an understanding that there are some ailments in which self-medication is effective in controlling. At one time everyone uses such. However, in the purchase of these, the clients normally attach a lot of importance in the effectiveness of the drugs they buy (Tabbush, 2011). To ensure this, the facility plans to have drugs which are affordable availed to the customers at their convenience. This further widens the customer base because of the price disparity between

Miami Dade Country Disaster

Miami Dade Country Disaster The entire nation is facing an era where being technologically skilled is in high demand. However, some people are inevitably being left behind not just because of the high cost of computers or even the fact that there is lack of internet access where they live but, the fact they have no interest in the content causing a digital divide amongst each other. Natural and man-made disasters strike suddenly and leave behind lives shattered by either physical injury or psychological upset. Different variables affect everyone differently. In order for the Emergency Management System to be effective they must overcome many obstacles such as the response to emergencies by the different cultures within a community. Clarifying safety measures the public should take during a catastrophic event, ensuring the public can be part of the disaster response, or not having an effective partnership with community business are some factors that can be detrimental to the structure of the Emergency Management System. However, despite the obstacles emergency management system face they play an important role during a disaster. Catastrophic loss can be minimized with early warning systems, better preparedness among the populations at risk, and having early and effective response systems in place. Miami- Dade County experiences a wide range of natural disaster including hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding. Similar to natural disaster, the increase in terrorist activities is becoming a prominent concerns among citizens because they can strike any place, any time with any weapon. Although it remains impossible to predict when and where a disaster will occur, recognizing risk before a disaster strikes is critical for people to realize.ÂÂ   The impacts can be reduced if personal safety measures would be taken. Every community should be prepared for different disasters and have a plan of action in place. Board range of factors influence the preparedness actions during and after a disaster. Risk perception is strongly associated with disaster preparedness because individuals must perceive a risk to be motivated to initiate preparedness actions (Sattler et al. 2000, Miceli et al. 2008).ÂÂ   Disaster preparedness varies by education at the community levels, race and ethnicity , socioeconomic, and community characteristics. Cultural and religious influences can affect responses to natural disaster. Having a valid assessment of vulnerability and risk is crucial to avoid additional burdens after a disaster strikes. Broad range of factors that could influence preparedness actions within the Miami-Dade County is contingent on social factors that influence the ability to recognize the risk of a disaster no different than their everyday social conditions. For instance, minority populations live in less desirable locations with increased crime rates. Many find themselves secluded to their homes and everyday situations and tend to perceive the true risk of hazards because they may not have access to social media or even have cable television. Unfortunately, technology is sweeping the globe and causing a gap between generations and even those across poor nations (Carey, 2011). Having access to information can enhance individual cognitive and learning skills promoted better preparedness for disasters. Disaster ed ucation interventions is influential in raising awareness and knowledge of a disaster. Serious changes must be accepted within a community to increase resiliency and enhance disaster preparedness actions. As Flynn said People must be willing to make pragmatic changes, such as relocating when their homesÂÂ   are repeatedlyÂÂ   destroyedÂÂ   orÂÂ   reaching deeper into their pockets to pay for the communications and other tools communities need to improve their robustness, resourcefulness, and recovery capabilities before the next crisis. (Flynn, 2007, p. 7) Therefore, psychological and social changes in post disaster can be minimized with early psychosocial interventions.ÂÂ   Of course people make adjustments, but for some it will never be the same. Disasters can cause many people to have a hard time coping and returning to normal daily functions especially if it was witnessing some sort of terrorism event References Bourque, L. B., D. S. Mileti, M. Kano, and M. M. Wood. 2012. Who prepares for terrorism? Environment and Behavior 44:374-409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916510390318 Carey, B. (2011, April 11). Three in 10 in South Florida dont have internet access. Miami Herald, p. 2. Retrieved from http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-04-27/business/mh-digital-divide-20110427_1_internet-access-computer-access-computer-stations Flynn, S. E. (2007). America the Resilient Defying Terrorism and Mitigating Natural Disasters. (1999). The digital divide bridging the technology gap hearing before the Subcommittee on Empowerment of the Committee on Small Business. Hundred Sixth Congress, second session. Sattler, D. N., C. F. Kaiser, and J. B. Hittner. 2000. Disaster preparedness: relationships among prior experience, personal characteristics, and distress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 30:1396-1420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02527.x Miceli, R., I. Sotgiu, and M. Settanni. 2008. Disaster preparedness and perception of flood risk: a study in an alpine valley in Italy. Journal of Environmental Psychology 28:164-173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2007.10.006

Loretta Lynn Essay

Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb April 14, 1935) is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. (b. 1926, d. 1996), nicknamed â€Å"Doo†. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he had affairs and she was headstrong. Their experiences together became inspiration for her music. On her 21st birthday, Lynn’s husband bought her a $17. 00 Harmony guitar. She taught herself to play and when she was 24, on her wedding anniversary, Doo encouraged her to become a singer. She learned the guitar better, started singing at the Delta Grange Hall in Washington State with the Pen Brothers’ band, The Westerners, then eventually cut her first record in February, 1960. She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s, and in 1967 charted her first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner[1]) that include â€Å"Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)†, â€Å"You Ain’t Woman Enough†, â€Å"Fist City†, and â€Å"Coal Miner’s Daughter†. She focused on blue collar women’s issues with themes of philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, and pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control (â€Å"The Pill†), repeated childbirth (â€Å"One’s on the Way†), double standards for men and women (â€Å"Rated â€Å"X†Ã¢â‚¬ ), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War (â€Å"Dear Uncle Sam†). Country music radio stations often refused to play her songs. Nonetheless, she became known as â€Å"The First Lady of Country Music† and continues to be one of the most successful vocalists of all time. Her best-selling 1976 autobiography was made into an Academy Award winning film, Coal Miner’s Daughter, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones in 1980. Her most recent album, Van Lear Rose, was released in 2004, produced by Jack White, and topped the country album charts. As of 2011, Lynn continues to tour and has received numerous awards in country and American music.