Archive for April, 2010:
About Water Supply
Secure, plentiful water is often taken for granted by most guests, employees, and managers in food service-which is ironic when you think about what a really scarce resource it’s. In fact, salt drinking water makes up about 97% of all the water on earth. An additional 2 percent is inaccessible, frozen in remote ice caps and glaciers.
A lot more than half of the single percentage that remains worldwide is now diverted for human use, and yet the combination of increased population, industrial technology, and irrigation have pushed individuals to use an incredible 35 times more water than our ancestors did just three centuries ago. In 2003, the United Nations Population Fund estimated that if drinking water consumption rates continue to rise at their existing rates, humans will be utilizing more than 90 % of all obtainable fresh water within 25 years, and 5 billion from the world’s 7.9 billion people will live in areas where safe water is scarce. Read more »
It’s Tough to Shop in This City
Shopping in Tracy, California can be financially tougher on you than shopping in nearby cities or towns. It’s not that the stores charge more, it’s the $400 fee you may be hit with if you require emergency services brought about by a 911 call. This punch to the wallet is not quite as painful if you are a Tracy resident, as they are only required to shell out $300 for similar services.
Normally residents pay for emergency services through property and sometimes other taxes. In these tough economic times, the Tracy city council realized it would be difficult to maintain all city services and salaries at their current level without cutting costs or bringing in more revenue. Yet a new or higher tax would be unpopular or difficult to enact. Couching it as a fee that most Tracy residents will not have to pay must have seemed like a great solution.
Clearly, shopping is not the only activity that may be more expensive here than elsewhere. If you experience a health issue while in the city limits for any reason and paramedics respond, your insurance company will likely be hit with a $400 bill. Tracy’s fast food establishments, other restaurants and gas stations are convenient stops for Bay Area residents traveling to and from Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. They may want to consider waiting until they get to Stockton or Livermore before getting off the freeway, lest their planned $40 expenditure balloon to $440.
Those making the trip from the South Bay may decide to skip Highway 205 (which travels through Tracy) altogether and take 880 or 680 north to Highway 80 East. The cities along those routes have no extra surprises in store should an emergency arise.
How Will You Define The Philosophy of Law?
We all know what is law? We are social animals and we live in such a society which is run by us. If you want to live with others in amicable ambience, you will have to follow the norms and basic principles which are set for bringing the clarity and efficiency to the social structure. However, that doesn’t mean that we all know the definition of law. If someone ask you what is the exact definition of law, perhaps you can’t give answer as the philosophers and the experts have tried their best to find out the accurate way to define law which will be apropos in every circumstance. From the very beginning of the society, different schools of philosophers and the social reformers have researched extensively to scoop out the proper definition about law and to what extent it plays an important role in modifying our society.
There are many opinions and views about law and the legal machinery. In straightforward way, many will tell you that law means a set of rules and regulations which are designed for the modification of society or for the regulation of the behavior. In clear cut terms it is ok as we are bound to follow the basic principles and rules for bringing the transparency and clarity to our behavioral pattern and character.
However, the probing doesn’t end here. If we think deeply and more vastly, we all face a number of shortcomings to define the law within short framework. If the law is meant for a regulatory device of rules and regulation, then it must lose its importance. Rules can’t perform duties or regulate the society independently. For executing laws, there must be the proper arrangement of another system like enforcement to enact laws. The existence of prison and penalty charges is the byproduct of such legal machinery. Therefore the meaning of law is somehow lost in between. Law has the broader meaning magnifying different aspects of the society and it also produces the huge impact on modification of the human character.
Again there are two conceptions or mindsets in explaining the law in right manner. In case the law is a body of rules, how these rules and regulation operate. It must be prescriptive. That means how fantastically a person behaves or reacts. On the other hand, it is descriptive. That means how the major portion of the society behaves.
If the law is prescriptive, you must learn from your childhood days how to perform your duties legally without overtaking the legal machinery of the society. Secondly, if the law is meant for descriptive, there is the next problem about the authenticity of such statement or belief. In case the society is branded descriptive, there should be doubt and confusion about the exact role of the authoritative force. Law is based on a strong communicative force which will bind the society, man and the state as well to form a society within a legal framework. The society will be built on mutual understanding and agreement.
There are many well known philosophers like Aristotle, Dworkin and HLA Hart who have tried to give a clear cut conception on law. However, the research is on to find out the exact definition of law which will be applicable to every country and society as a whole. Numerous schools, research centers, universities and social institutions have been built so far to continue the research work to explaining the true nature of law in broad perspective.
Florida’s Great Tiki Bars
I have been going to South Florida for the last three years and I love it. I’ve stayed at 3 and 4 star hotels and I do prefer the other. The best part of going to Florida from New Jersey is the time it takes to get there, a whopping 2.5 hours and sometimes a tad longer if there is any sort of delay. Once I arrive, I grab a cab, get to the hotel and unpack and get to the nearest tiki bar by the ocean and draw a long sigh of relief and take a sip of the well-deserved cocktail of the day, which for me is a nice margarita.
One of my favorite places to go is the Ocean Manor Hotel in Fort Lauderdale where they have a huge tiki bar right on the beach, with music, a large pool, fun people, and great food. I need to find more of these on my next trip at the end of April, but that is probably the largest one I have seen lately. The hotel where I am staying, the Atlantic Hotel, has a great outdoor pool bar in which you look directly at the ocean from the fifth floor pool area. Wonderful breezes, nice and quiet, laid back, music, and there are TVs for the sports enthusiast in your life. When it comes to a TV at the bar, I understand, but please mute it. For the majority of vacationers, music is a priority and we don’t care to be bothered with the blaring sports channel. Read more »
What You Should See in Glasgow
Glasgow is a very popular city with tourists as there is plenty to see and do. In the past the city has been both the UK’s City of Architecture and Design and the European City of Culture.
Glasgow has a number of museums and art galleries that are usually free to enter. On the south side of the city, Pollock Country Park boasts two excellent museums – Pollock House and the Burrell Collection. The Burrell collection is a gallery which houses over 9000 works of arts and has a number of rooms that resemble the home of Sir William Burrell, who donated the collection to the city. The People’s Palace is another fine museum which is devoted to the history of the people of Glasgow. It is located alongside the Winter Gardens where visitors can relax.
One of Glasgow’s most famous sons is Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the artist and architect. Evidence of his work can be seen in a number of tourist attractions including the Willow Tea Rooms in Sauchiehall Street, the Glasgow School of Art, Martyr’s Public School and The Lighthouse, which used to be the offices of the Glasgow Herald but now houses the Centre for Architecture, Design and the City. Read more »
