The ethics of care as compared to the ethics of competition causes a very hot debate. My team split in half on sides and we had a debate over which side was right and which side was wrong. While most people usually have a strong opinion for one side or the other, they can still see the arguments the other side has. On the side of care, the point arises that no one should be left behind. It is kind of like the military’s version of “No man left behind”. One argument against the side of the competition is that many people cheat and this cause the incompetent cheaters left to get caught, and so this leaves the flip side of good cheaters being rewarded. People can not just be told that you shouldn’t cheat because you will be punished, but instead taught that cheating is bad and just immoral. They should be taught to not want to cheat. Another argument is that in a team effort there should not be competition. People should share all their work and therefor the productivity of the team goes up allowing the team to succeed more then if they worked a lone like in competition.

On the other side of the debate is the competition. The world is full of competition to weed out the weak and find the people who will get the job done in the most efficient way. This competition between people causes people to work harder and become better at what they do. In school people try harder in school know they one day want to get into another school or graduate and get a high paying job. When they go to apply for a job it is every person for themselves so they want the best possible portfolio to help them get a job. In a team the members need to work together but they should still compete in order to produce the best results in order for the team to succeed in the best possible way. The care side allows room for people to be lazy and allow the other members to carry the person who does not contribute like the other members. In school you are trying to educate yourself and not others. You want to help expand your mind and so competition helps provide the drive to continue to learn and develop your skills.

In our debate in class the other day both sides provided very valid arguments for their cause. I personally am on the side of competition even though i argued for the side of care to help spark the debate and provide input for the other side. One member brought up the point that caring for the education of your team members is an important quality, but that is all it should be. When you go for a job you will be sitting in an interview by yourself making a case why you should be getting a job and not other people. The world we live in is a dog eat dog world and if you want to be a winner you must have the competitive drive. One reason I am truly on the competition side comes from my love of sports. All the way from the time i was born until I graduated i was competing in sports. In high school I played football, basketball, and baseball. While I loved my team and would do anything for them in order to help them win games, I still competed against them every single day to remain in the starting line up so I could be on the field or court and help my team win games. The key to winning is having a team act like a team, and in order for that to happen players must be willing to compete every day in order to make themselves better which in turn makes everyone else better because they are competing to try and be better then you. While I believe every human should care for everyone else in order to create a better world, they still can not slack off themselves. I believe the key to life striving to always be a winner. While you will fail, you must have the drive to get back up every time you are knocked down and continue competing. That is when your true character is revealed.

https://sites.psu.edu/dfwaw/2013/11/08/the-ethics-of-care-vs-the-ethics-of-competition/

Jerry Walsh

Energy can be converted into different forms and transferred between objects, but it can never be created or destroyed. Considering we use energy as power for our technology, we must harness and collect this energy. There are many different ways in which to collect energy, so the discussion becomes which one is the most efficient and least harmful on the environment. One major supplier of energy is something we see everyday, the sun. Solar power is a very new idea. Back in the 1980’s, the idea of solar power seemed like a ridiculous idea. Today’s solar power designs are light years ahead of where we pictured we would be in only a decade or two. Heat is a form of energy and so the heat from the suns rays is collected by the system and the electrons are captured and turned into electricity. In addition the price of installing has gone way down, where in say the late nineteen eighties it would have cost around twelve dollars for every watt of energy produced. The idea of using solar power is no longer an unrealistic idea. In fact is can be so beneficial as to where more energy can be produced then used in a single year so every homeowner should at least consider the possibility of installing solar panels.

Nuclear energy is created from the splitting of an atom of Uranium in a process called nuclear fission. The heat is then used to make steam which is collected and turned into electricity. Some say nuclear energy poses a threat to the environment and humans. Including disasters like Chernobyl, nuclear energy has caused less fatalities per unit of energy created then any other system. Nuclear energy also has the least harmful effect on the environment because nuclear plants do not produce harmful gases and require a relatively small area for production. There are also no effects on the water and the land in the surrounding. Nuclear energy is also very reliable because plants can run extended periods of time. They run between 540 and 730 days before shutting down for refueling, providing a consistent source of energy.

Wind energy was an idea used a long time ago even before electricity. It was used for things like sailing by using the wind to push the boat in a certain direction. Farmers also have been using wind for a long time using windmills to pump water in wells. It is also used to pump water from low-lying areas, or to turn a grinding stone which crushes wheat or corn. Wind can also be used to make electricity which powers a lot of today’s technology. A wind turbine is like a windmill, except it isn’t used to pump water or grind wheat, but is instead creates electricity as it spins. Wind farms are used to collect wind together and then send the electricity through high powered lines to other places. In California there are three wind farms which if combined could power a city the size of San Francisco. There are many new adaptions every day as energy continues to become better for the environment and more efficient.

http://solarenergy.com/

http://www.westinghousenuclear.com/Community/Reliability.shtm

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter16.html

The world in which we live in is composed of seventy percent water. The only problem is humans can not breathe underwater so staying submerged for an extended period of time was not possible until around the year 1800, and the first official submarine wasn’t in use until 1900. Water naturally fascinated humans and legend goes Alexander the Great used an old bell to allow himself to travel a distance underwater. Whether or not this story is true development of underwater travel became a heavily researched topic. A man named David Bushnell developed a boat that could travel underwater before the American Revolution. Encouraged by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson this new invention called the Turtle was put to the test in order to try and surprise attack the British. While both attempts failed Bushnell’s Turtle proved that a boat could possibly be used for underwater travel. Between the time of the American Revolution and the Civil War a man named Robert Fulton divulged into the development of a vessel to travel underwater. Using a dual system of propulsion and a compressed air system he developed a submarine called Nautilus that allowed the crew about four hours of underwater travel. While submarines were still considered experimental, the Hunley, named after the financier Horace L. Hunley, was tested as a possible weapon in the Civil War. During its two test runs it failed both times killing eleven men including Hunley himself. Despite the failures it was still called into battle on February 17, 1864. It set out for the Charleston harbor planning on attacking the U.S.S. Housatonic. It was powered by a nine man crew with a hand crank propeller and a spar torpedo.  It sunk the ship becoming the first underwater vessel to ever sink a ship, but it never returned to the surface killing its crew. Although the men were killed it proved an underwater vessel was a viable threat for war.

The development in the United States was advanced signifancatlly by Simon Lake and John Holland. In 1875 Holland’s design was rejected by the U.S. Navy as impractical, so Holland went back to the drawing boards. In 1888 the United States held a competition for submarine designs which was one by Holland. Five years later he built a submarine named plunger. After problems arose with plunger Holland went back to work on a new one he named Holland VI. This submarine he applied new techniques using a gasoline engine. He was able to persuade the United States to buy the submarine in 1900, and six months later it was added to the Navy as U.S.S. Holland.

In today’s modern Navy warfare the United States and Great Britain have removed a lot of funding for submarines and put it to the ever expanding Aircraft Carriers. Many people forget how much effect it took to take care of the U-Boat problem in the World Wars. Now the technology has advance them even farther and can possibly be the biggest threat in a naval battle. In both world wars many subs spent as much time on the surface as underwater using turret guns as much as torpedoes. The current nuclear submarines regularly spend months submerged and there is also the threat of them carrying nuclear war heads. Since 1945 the average destroyer speed as been able to consistently travel at about 30 knots, with only nuclear vessels being able to maintain that speed for a constant amount of time. Since 1945 though the submarine has tripled or even quadrupled going from about 10 knots to about 30-40 knots submerged. With this technology advancing this fast we must keep pace with the rest of the world or risk the possibility of a country being able to get the upper hand on us. Submarine warfare could be the key to us remaining the number one superpower.

http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/dive/hist1.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/submarine-development-modern-submarine.html

http://newwars.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/submarine-threat-worse-than-you-think/