Near-Earth Asteroids

The majority of asteroids within our solar system reside in the Asteroid Belt, orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. A large number of asteroid groupings, however, have their orbits elsewhere. This includes the Trojan asteroids, which orbit the sun in the Lagrangian points of Jupiter’s orbit; the Apollo asteroids, which cross Earth’s orbit; the Amor asteroids, which cross Mar’s orbit, and the Aten asteroids, which cross Venus’s orbit and approach from within Earth’s orbit (JPL). Vulcanoids have aphelia completely within the orbits of Mars or Venus, but as of this date no confirmed Vulcanoid asteroids have been found (Wikipedia.org). Alindas are in a 1:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter, resulting in a 1:4 orbital resonance with Earth. Most Alindas, due to their highly eccentric orbits and orbital resonance, pass near the inner planets (especially Earth) every 4 years (Wikipedia.org). Many but not all Alindas are also considered Atens.

Mother's Day Milk

“That’ll be $33.00, please,” I say, as I pull my cab up to the Departures Terminal at Denver International Airport.

“Here ya go – keep the change.”

He closes the door, waves at me briefly, and enters the airport. I pull away and head towards the Holding Zone. All taxis, limos, and shuttle vans wait for our next runs at a large concrete lot about a quarter-mile from the terminal. As I pull into the Zone, I breathe a sigh of relief: there are only about thirty other cabs here. I won’t have to wait too long for my next run. Most of the time, there are more than a hundred cabs here.

The Zone is cool. The lot is divided into five lines; we each pull into the back of the line as we enter the Zone. At the front of the line is a traffic-light that flashes red when no taxis are needed, and green along with a number showing how many taxis are needed at the terminal. We park our taxis and wait in line, moving up as the front cabs go to the terminal.

Dead

"You know we shouldn't be doing this."

"I haven't agreed to anything yet. But, thank you anyway," she says as they walk past the scrap of faded crime scene tape blowing in the wind.

How ridiculous, she says to herself, I'm thanking him for allowing me to enter my own home! Brushing a few raindrops off her coat, wishing she could remove the wet wig, she instinctively reaches for the light switch then laughs gently as she remembers there is no electricity now.

Third World Workers Need Western Jobs

In the article, “Third World Workers Need Western Jobs,” Radley Balko pushes forth his argument that exporting jobs from the West to third-world and developing countries increases the quality of life of the citizens of those countries; in particular, the quality of life of the children. Throughout the article, Balko uses several reports and research projects as examples, evidence, and analogies to argue that moving low-paying jobs to developing countries is good for these countries. Unfortunately, primarily due to the way he words his recaps of these reports and projects, he ends up committing several fallacies.

Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”

In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato relates a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, where Socrates puts forth his beliefs on the nature of enlightenment, education, and what makes a good leader. To achieve this purpose, Plato, through the voice of Socrates, describes a cave where people live their entire lives chained up, only able to view a wall upon which shadows created by the movement of people and objects outside the cave are shown. This limited view, according to Socrates, is their reality and truth: they have no awareness of any other way of life much less the nature of the world itself. These prisoners represent the unenlightened and uneducated – the majority of the people.

After a time, one of the prisoners is released and exposed to the outer world, resulting at first in great confusion and physical pain. At first, Socrates states, the released prisoner (the newly educated man) will view the new world through the lens of the old: only able to understand the new in how it relates to the old. Over time, the new reality will become the truth to the released prisoner and the old reality (the cave) becomes small, limited, and false. Once exposed to the larger world and greater understanding of the reality of the world at large, they would pity those left behind and desire to return to their former world and educate the prisoners they left behind. Upon returning to the old world, however, the former prisoner, having lost the skills previously needed in the cave, would not be able to compete with his old comrades as he did before. The imprisoned would view his new knowledge and ideas with ridicule and pity. The imprisoned would believe that the returned prisoner is “proof” that one should not leave, much less even think of leaving the cave.

This represents Socrates’ belief that it is the responsibility of the enlightened man to educate as many others as possible – to pull as many out of the cave as he can. The only way to do this, however, is to retain the skills necessary to live in the cave and return there occasionally. By returning to the old cave occasionally, it also serves the purpose of preventing the enlightened world from becoming a cave, albeit a larger, brighter one. Through this metaphor, Socrates represents his view of the lives and beliefs of the majority of people and uses it to put forth his idea that the best leaders should be able to live in both worlds: that of the educated and that of the uneducated.

Written for Professor Stephenson's English Composition II class at Pikes Peak Community College, 15th June 2004

Research Proposal: Our Backwards Approach to Marriage and Divorce

In several of Robert Heinlein’s future-fiction books, the author puts forth the concept of “Contract Marriage” – where people marry for a set period of time (i.e., 5 years, 20 years, etc.).  While the idea of predetermining the length of a marriage may be unrealistic in our society, the idea of requiring a marriage contract that covers issues such as assets, children, support, the termination of marriage, and premarital counseling is one that should be considered seriously today.

The Guest

In Albert Camus’ “The Guest,” a mild-mannered schoolteacher finds himself stuck with an unwanted guest and obligation: taking his guest, an Arab accused of murdering his own cousin, to prison. Through this obligation, the schoolteacher, Daru, must deal with concepts of honor, choices, and individual responsibility. Ultimately, Daru decides the choice of whether or not to deliver the man to prison is a decision best made by the prisoner and not himself. The Arab decides to turn himself in to the prison, leaving the reader with the question of why. Although Camus does not give the reader easy answers to the question of why, there are several reasons the Arab chooses the path to prison.