Bottled Water Essay Example for Free

Bottled Water Essay A couple of decades ago, people turn to the tap for drinking water. Now, most people, both young and old, drink water from bottles. In fact, the demand for bottled water is so great that it has become a multimillion-peso business in the country today. Why is there a substantial growth in the demand for bottled water? The main reason is the increasing health consciousness of the people. Many people prefer bottled water because they question the cleanliness of tap water. The quality of tap water has been decreasing. To be safe, people choose bottled water to avoid drinking water that may be contaminated with harmful microorganisms. Contaminated water can cause diarrhea and other stomach disorders that kill, like dysentery, gastroenteritis, amoebiasis, cholera, and hepatitis. Mostly, the bottled water that you buy is either mineral water or purified water. Water plants use surface water or ground water as the main raw material. These plants are located in places far from cities and industrial centers to avoid contamination. MINERAL WATER Mineral water comes from mineral springs. It normally contains a high content of mineral salts or gases, and which consequently may have an action on the human body different from that of ordinary water. Mineral waters are usually classified as alkaline, saline, chalybeate (iron-containing), sulfurous, acidulous, and arsenical. Mineral springs are generated deep underground, where, under intense heat and pressure, calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, and other minerals are leached from the surrounding rocks. Mineral water is also called aerated water. (The term aerated means charged with gas.) The most common gases that are in mineral water are carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. GUIDELINES FOR BOTTLED MINERAL WATERS There are strict rules for water to be labeled as mineral water. Genuine mineral water should contain the right percentage of such minerals as manganese, chromium, selenium, zinc, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, and other minerals. In California, United States, to be labeled mineral water, the water must contain 550 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids (TDS). In Europe, mineral water must meet several criteria. One is that the water must flow freely from its source, meaning it may not be pumped or forced from the ground, and the water must be bottled directly at its source. Furthermore, the waters properties, such as its temperature, mineral balance, and pressure have not varied in ten years. Some better known brands of mineral water in Europe include Evian and Ferrier of France, Ferarrele of Italy, and Apollinaris of Germany. All these conatin 330, 560, 1,400, and 2,250 ppm of TDS, respectively. MEDICINAL EFFECTS OF MINERAL WATER It has long been believed that mineral springs possess great curative powers. In fact, people have used mineral water since ancient times to cure such ailments as rheumatism, skin infections, and poor digestion. Also, many effervescing waters (impregnated with carbon dioxide gas) are used as table beverages and to dilute spirits or wines. Because of the springs medicinal effects, medicinal spas have been built around mineral springs. These spas are frequented by people who are hoping that the springs waters will relieve them of their ailments, such as gout, liver trouble, indigestion, and rheumatism. DISTILLED WATER Water that is treated by the process of distillation forms distilled water. This substance is purer than the original water because salt and other impurities do not evaporate with the water. Distillation is the principal method for purifying water. In this process, the water is vaporized into steam, the steam is condensed back into liquid water, and the water is collected in a separate container, leaving behind the impurities. Other methods of water purification include chlorine treatment, ozone treatment, ultraviolet decontamination, and oxidation-reduction media. Also, one method of water purification is with the use of iodinated resin. Iodinated resin can destroy even the smallest viruses through electrostatic attraction. Negatively charged contaminants are drawn to the positively charged resin. This ensures contact, no matter how small the microorganisms that might otherwise escape if filters are used. Upon contact, the resin releases sufficient iodine to penetrate and kill the microorganisms. PRODUCING SAFE, PURE WATER One of the most effective methods of producing safe, pure water consists of a three-step process. The first step is the use of sediment filters to remove large particles. The sediment filter acts to screen out suspended matter and can also remove many harmful bacteria and protozoa that may be present in the water. The second step is to purify the water through the use of iodinated resin. This devitalizes even the smallest harmful microorganisms within the water. Biological contaminants could also be removed by exposure to ultraviolet light, killing the microorganisms that may still be in the water. The third step is the use of carbon filters to remove taste- and odor-causing contaminants. The filters activated carbon and its ion exchange resin remove unwanted ions and molecules from water, leaving those that make water  pleasant to drink. The activated carbon also initiates a chemical reaction that converts free chlorine, which water utilities put in water to kill germs, into chloride and hydrogen ions, which are safe and taste all right. Other systems in bottling water consist of several steps that utilize both purification and filtration processes. In some systems, water is passed through as many as 16 stages in the whole process. Water is an all-important substance that sustains life here on earth. However, safe, pure water is becoming a rare commodity everywhere. Bottled water, whether mineral or distilled, offers safe drinking water for all of us.

The Importance of Roger Spottiswoode’s Screen Adaptation of And The Ban

The Importance of Roger Spottiswoode’s Screen Adaptation of And The Band Played On [1] Hollywood is no longer just a name, it is a business, a living entity holding America’s people in its grasp, and it is not about to let them go. Gradually taking on more responsibility and trying to build up its reputation over the years, Hollywood has progressively assumed the position of history-teller for the American public. This role, whether or not an appropriate one for an industry such as Hollywood to tackle, has catapulted actors and actresses into high paying, high visibility positions. History has and will continue to be one of the main subjects that the movie industry has been fascinated with. It is an alive and very fragile subject that, through its multi-dimensional character, requires careful attention by everyone involved in the project. Whenever Hollywood tackles an historical topic, whether portraying a non-disputable factual event or only a vaguely one, the industry is bound to encounter dispute and criticism. [2] Regardless of how careful the director, producer, and actors are at being loyal to the subject matter, then, the question still remains whether or not Hollywood is a legitimate resource for historical matter. Is it possible for a dramatic, high priced and glitzy medium to be honest and true to its subject matter in such a way that viewers are not confused but more educated walking out than they were walking in? Is the Movie Theater any place for history to be learned? Directors fight and argue that indeed Hollywood is equally as reliable and legitimate a source as other "texts." The movies provide a more immediate resource, allowing history to change from the dreaded school subject to an appea... ...-. Conduct Unbecoming: Lesbians and Gays in the U.S. Military: Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993. ---. The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life & Times of Harvey Milk. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982. â€Å"The True Virus.† The Economist 8 June 1991 (v319 n7710): 83. Video Against AIDS. v1-3. Curated by John Greyson and Bill Horrigan. The Video Data Bank with V Tape/Canada, 1988 Voices From the Front. Video. Dir. Robyn Hutt, David Meieran and Sandra Elgear. Cinemax/Vangaurd Cinema, 1991. Wallis, Claudia. â€Å"Battling AIDS; More Misery, Less Mystery.† Time 29 April 1985: 68. Weintraub, Bernard. â€Å"Stars Flock to Be in HBO Film About the Early Years of AIDS.† Rev of And the Band Played On, by HBO Productions. New York Times 11 Jan 1993, Current Events ed.: C11. Werth, Barry. â€Å"By AIDS Obsessed.† GQ Aug 1991.

Barbara Corcoran Effective leadership qualities Essay

Barbara Corcoran is an American businesswoman, consultant, investor, speaker, author and TV personality. She is the owner of $5 billion business ‘The Corcoran Group’. She is known as one entrepreneur with a real story of ‘rags to riches’. Barbara was born in the year 1949 in Edgewater, New Jersey. She graduated with a degree in Education from St. Thomas Aquinas College in the year 1971. Upon graduation, she got a teaching job which she did for about a year. Barbara was never settled at teaching, so she quit and sought other jobs. However, things did not go as smooth as she had expected, as she had to quit one job after the other. By the time she was 23, she had been in and out of more than 20 jobs. It is her last trial at jobs that would ultimately change her life completely, making her one of the richest women in America. After trying different odd jobs, Barbara felt that she wanted to become her own boss. So she started a small real estate agency, dealing with brokering entry to vacant houses. However, this transformation needed money which she did not have at that moment. She asked for a loan of $1000. On one trip to see a vacant house with a client, things turned out for the best she had never imagined- the client became interested in buying the property rather than renting it. From the sale, she earned a commission of $3000 for the Corcoran-Simone partnership. This excited her, giving her the idea to transform her business into more than just the letting of vacant houses, to include even property on sale. The business began to grow, and the couple was reaping considerable profits until Barbara’s boyfriend, Simone, decided to quit the partnership after running away with Barbara’s secretary and marrying her. The division ended in 1978, when she immediately founded The Corcoran Group. When Simone withdrew his shares, he mocked Barbara that she would never make it without him. This particular incident encouraged her even the more to work hard and prove him wrong. Her determination paid, with The Corcoran Group, the first female-owned realty firm in the Big Apple, expanding to a workforce of 7 agents and over $350,000 in revenue in just her first year. Corcoran Group thrived under Barbara’s leadership, thanks in large part to her unique style. By the year 2006 when she decided to sell the company, The Corcoran Group was so big, with a staggering sales force of 850 agents and annual revenue approaching $100 million. It was sold at $66 million to NRT Inc. I chose Barbara Corcoran because her rise to the top is outstanding, thanks to her exceptional leadership skills. Barbara motivates me to push on despite my humble present- theirs is so much room up there! My vision is to grow into one of the most celebrated leaders of my time, and she fit perfectly as a person who started with nothing and turned every small thing she got into something big. Her definition of leadership is quite unique. â€Å"I never thought of it as leadership, but I knew I wanted to be loved by the people who worked for me,† Corcoran says. â€Å"I built the business exactly the way my mother built and ran her family. I wanted a replication of the big, happy family I grew up in. I wanted happy people having fun†, Barbara says (entrepreneur.com). She believes that leadership is making people feel they belong to the company like it was their family. That is how she enabled others to act, a quality discussed by Kouzes and Posner (2012). Barbara says, â€Å"I found out that the more fun I created in the company, the more creative and innovative it became,† she says. â€Å"That was the big kahuna–the fun piece. That’s what built that culture upside down and inside out. You got innovation. You got loyalty. You got people who would recruit for you.† (entrepreneur.com) She effectively encourages the heart (Kouzes and Po sner, 2012). Barbara Corcoran displays many qualities of a good leader. One unique is that she understands the value of other people she works with. Despite being the boss, Barbara respected every worker in her firm and she let them carry out their tasks with a lot of trust and space. As she says, she never knew what the firm’s revenue was, having delegated accounting duties to Esther Kaplan, the first agent she brought in. Secondly, Barbara believes in rewarding workers for their exemplary performance. She personally put colored ribbons on those workers who performed well. Her rewarding quality became even more evident when she eventually rewarded Kaplan’s hard work with a 10 percent commission in the firm, allowing her to cash in when the firm was sold. Corcoran is a leader who models the way (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). She never sat down and let her agents do all the work. She continued to make sales herself, working very hard. This encouraged her employees to develop a similar determined character. Barbara also exercised her authority very strictly. She gave all new employees a grace period of three months to make a first sale, failure to which they would leave the firm. The fifth leadership quality in Barbara is that she never let her past failure’s pull her down. In high school she scored D’s, but it never bothered her later in life. She was determined to move from one success to the other. Her undying spirit is a clear way of challenging the process (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). However, it is not all that easy for Barbara; she faces various problems as an investor in the New York realty market. While she is a popular investment consultant in the city, she admits that she has problems advising because other factors come into place. After selling her realty company, she was left with several buildings in the city; these building are her source of income, beside other investments. For instance, the values of properties have plummeted and interest rates have gone down tremendously. This gives her problems in deciding what to tell investor to do, especially because they look upon her success for guidance. References Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Hann, C. (2014). Barbara Corcoran’s Leadership Style: Rainbows and Steel-Toe Boots. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 15 August 2014, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222798 Source document

The Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer - 1073 Words

In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer introduced and described a variety of fictional characters that lived in the Middle Ages. It was the time period that European civilians were governed by a system called feudalism. Where kings were the head of the system and everyone was categorized in social classes. In the prologue of The Canterbury Tales the first character introduced was the knight. Geoffrey Chaucer depicts the knight correctly by characterizing him as a chivalrous and honorable man, which contrasted him from the rest who had bad behaviors and that he was a heroic figure. The prologue began with the descriptions of the knight that showed how such a perfect and heroic man he was. It was seen when Chaucer wrote, â€Å"who from the day on which he first began to ride abroad had followed chivalry, truth, honor, generousness and courtesy† (44-46). Unlike the other characters that were presented, Chaucer never spoke negative about him. He literally said, â€Å"He was a true, a perfect gentle knight† (Chaucer 74). Besides the descriptions of the knight’s moral values, he also told about nobility. The author stated, â€Å"In fifteen mortal battles he had been and jousted for our faith at Tramissene† (Chaucer 63-64). He implied that the knight was a noble warrior. Overall the knight was a distinguished man, and the most prestigious person in the pilgrimage. Based on the research this is how Chaucer’s fictional characters were in actual life during the Middle Ages. An article stated,Show MoreRelatedThe Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer1582 Words   |  7 Pages Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury tales a collection of short tales in the 14th century. The compilation of stories are told by different characters within the narrative as part of a game proposed by the host. Each individual must tell two stories on their journey and two stories on their way back. Each story tells some aspects of English life during the time and often added satire like qualities to the English life. In particular Chaucer often tells stories with elements of the relationshipRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer913 Words   |  4 PagesThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer consists of frame narratives were a group of pilgrims that are traveling from Southwark to the shire of St. Becker in the Canterbury Cathedral, tell each other to pass time until they arrive at their destination. During The Canterbury Tales the reader is exposed to many characters that represent all of the social classes of medieval England and the reader gets to know them from t he general prologue to each individual tale. One of these characters is the PardonerRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer2127 Words   |  9 PagesIt is unknown when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, but it is assumed that he wrote it in 1387. There are many different aspects and themes throughout this paper that are very prominent. One theme that is very important is the importance of company. This entire tale is about twenty-nine pilgrims who all tell tales while on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The importance of company is that this is a pilgrimage that requires companions and friendship. ThoughRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer1585 Words   |  7 Pageswas published toward the end of his life, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was his longest and most popular work. The plot is made up of tales told by thirty-one different pilgrims as they embark on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Bec ket in Canterbury. His initial idea was to have each pilgrim tell four stories a piece during the pilgrimage, but Chaucer either died before finishing or decided to change this idea, as only twenty-four tales presently make up the work. The prologue ofRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer963 Words   |  4 PagesThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of 24 stories written during the Middle Ages. The tales were written with the intent of criticizing the functions of societal standards as well as the beliefs of the Church. â€Å"The Miller’s Tale,† one the most popular stories, offers unique insights into the customs and practices of the English middle class during the Middle Ages. The story follows the lives of John, Absolon, and Nicholas, three men who are involved with a beautiful woman namedRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer2664 Words   |  11 PagesThe Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392, during the medieval period in Europe. Three important aspects, his family’s ties to the court, his schooling and working for royalty (XI), and his love for reading and learning (XII) all combined and enabled him to create his greatest work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer includes many different characters, pilgrims, all from very unique walks of life. Although there are not as many women included as men, their storiesRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer2648 Words   |  11 PagesThe Canterbury Tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392, during the medieval period in Europe. Three important aspects, his family’s ties to the court, his schooling and working for royalty (XI), and his love for reading and learning (XII) all combined and enabled him to create his greatest work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer includes many different characters, pilgrims, all from very unique walks of life. Although there are not as many women included as men, their stories give some extraordinaryRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer2221 Words   |  9 Pagesin medieval literature is the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer. This research seeks to examine the life of Chaucer, the Canterbury Tales, and the impact and legacy of both the author and the work. Agnes Copton gave birth to a baby boy c. 1340, whom she named Geoffrey. The baby took the surname of his father John Chaucer, who came from a family of wine merchants. The family relied on strategic relationships to subsidize where they lacked in wealth. Chaucer was fluent in French, ItalianRead MoreCanterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer1380 Words   |  6 PagesCanterbury Tales Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer was a story of not the people themselves but a social statement of how the people of higher standing were viewed by the middle class. In the time that Canterbury Tales was written it was a time of corruption of the Church. There were many clergy members that were mentioned in this story. Each of the characters was unique in the way they went against the standards they should be held to. The most interesting this story was definitely TheRead MoreThe Canterbury Tales By Geoffrey Chaucer1777 Words   |  8 PagesCanterbury Tales takes place in the late 1300’s also known as the Middle ages. Prior to and at this point in time, people tend to be more conservative and to themselves. Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of these stories does something most authors didn’t do at this time, he ironically pointed out the flaws of the medieval English society. He does this by using estate satire. The Canterbury Tales is a great example of the B ritish human experience at that point in time. Chaucer does a great job describing