The Minerva Delusion

The Minerva Delusion Update on 6/26/2018: in the years since this post has been written, Minerva has significantly changed their educational and business model, and I have received a lot of questions from prospective or current Minerva students who have asked me about whether this post is still totally accurate. The answer is that it is probably not. I stand by my analysis at the time, and am leaving this post up because I still think the critique remains relevant to continuing ed-tech utopianism. However, if youre someone trying primarily to understand what Minerva is (and ought to be) today, you should probably read something else. This week the tech and educational press has been buzzing about the launch of Minerva University. According to its founder, Internet entrepreneur Ben Nelson, Minerva is intended to tap into the demand for an elite American education from the developing world’s rising middle class. His proposition is simple and compelling: there are more smart students in the world than there are seats in Ivy League schools, and the elastic enrollment afforded by Minervas online format will provide an elite electronic education for those huddled masses yearning to learn. In support of his subversive educational enterprise Nelson has mustered both heavy artillery and covering fire. The former comes from Benchmark Capital, the VC behemoth which has invested $25 million dollars to found Minerva. The latter comes from the long list of luminaries Nelson has recruited to form his advisory board, including such superstars as Larry Summers (former President of Harvard), Senator Bob Kerrey (former head of the New School), and Pat Harker (president of the University of Delaware and former dean of Wharton, Nelsons alma mater). I am a big believer in educational access. Education is awesome. Extending education to those who cannot presently achieve it is extra awesome. And yet Im troubled by the Minerva Project; specifically, by the lack of credible answers to a few questions that the painfully shallow news coverage have yet to actually address. So Im posting them here and trying to think through what some of the answers might be. Question 1: Who will the students be? According to Minervas website, their admissions process will rely strictly on the worlds most demanding intellectual standards, while giving no weight to lineage, athletic ability, state or country of origin, or capacity to donate. For the sake of argument Ill accept this as a reasonably meritocratic mission, at least for an online university that doesnt have to worry about cultivating diverse perspectives  in a brick-and-mortar classroom. But lets compare two quotes from adjacent paragraphs in this Economist interview: “I don’t want or need to disrupt Harvard. I care about the kid who should have got into Harvard but didn’t,” says Mr Nelson. The plan is for admission standards to be higher than current Ivy League levels, Wait, what? Who wrote this? Forget that: who edited it? Who allowed these two sentences to appear so closely together and make my brain feel like itd been filled with coarse sand? If Minerva has higher standards then Harvard, then how is a student who cant get into Harvard supposed to get into Minerva? Even the most cynical critics of elite admissions processes tend to make their cases at the perceived academic margins (legacies, athletes, disadvantaged students, etc) as opposed to the intellectual core of your class. Put another way: any student who is capable of meeting some undefined higher standard of admission than that held by an elite institution would by definition be one of the most attractive applicants in their pool. In other words the kid who should have gotten in already will have. An article in the Atlantic described Minervas mission slightly differently: [Minerva is for] those students who are being shut out, whether its a smart American kid who has to opt for a solid state school when they had their heart set on Brown, or the child of a well-to-do family in Beijing, by offering them a great education and a worldwide network of contactsWorldwide, [Nelson] believes there are anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 students who fit his target demographic. This is a different argument, one which does not suffer from the incongruity above. Here, Minerva is cast not so much as a university for Schrödingers student, who simultaneously is and is not one of the top students in the world. This goal is much more modest: Minerva is intended for very good students who wanted to attend elite schools which could not find the space for them. The problem with this goal is that it is driven, not by the merit or match of the educational environment, but for the desire for prestige, affirming, shining, oily; the sweet and sensual nectar of life-giving  prestige. Take the reference above of a smart American kid who has to opt for a solid state school when they had their heart set on Brown. This is a poignant example: it sounds tones of rejection and loss which resonate with everyone. But hopefully the reason that student had their heart set on Brown was because they felt it was the right match for them: because they loved its open curriculum and brick buildings and Providence location and fantastically creative culture and all of the other things that make Brown Brown. But just like that state school isnt Brown, neither is Minerva. In fact, the only thing Minerva has or could have over that solid state school is the glorious glow of prestige descending like an angel from the advisory board on high. I did not attend (or apply to) MIT as an undergrad. But I did have a prestigious private school I was in love with. I didnt get in. I went to a solid state school. I wasnt as happy as I thought I would have been at the private school, but that was not because of the (lack of) prestige: it was because my state school didnt have all of the things that made me fall in love with the private school in the first place. Neither would Minerva. When viewed from this angle, Minerva only solves one of two problems: 1) a problem which doesnt credibly exist, or 2) a problem of providing prestige to those who value it above all else. Either seems like questionable ground on which to found an institution. Question 2: How will they pay? But lets assume, for a moment, that there are hidden masses of  brilliant spurned students who feel matched to Minerva. How will they pay for it? Nelson makes a big deal of the fact that Minervas thus-unspecified tuiton will be half that of the Ivy League or less. The Atlantic ballparks this at $20,000 annually or less, which is indeed less expensive than MIT without financial aid, which will run a wealthy family north of $50,000 a year. However, MIT, like most of our prestigious peers, gives an awful lot of money away to students who need it: last year, our financial aid budget exceeded $100 million. And we do this because we try to make the best education in the world affordable to the best students in the world. This is particularly relevant to Minervas target demographic: smart students in the developing world. We give a lot of money to these students. And I mean A LOT. OF MONEY. Why? Because otherwise, they couldnt afford it. MIT is extremely expensive in America, where median household income is about $50,000 a year. Its unfathomably expensive in the rest of the world, with a median global income of $1,700 per annum. And of the difference is provided out of our own pockets because international students arent eligible for federal aid. But we still must and gladly give every student we admit enough money to attend. These financial realities are part of the reason why international spots are capped at a certain percentage of our class. It gives us the freedom to take the best students in the world, without having to compromise our process by taking only those international students who can pay, or rejecting top international students because they cant. So how is Minerva going to make itself accessible to all of these students in foreign countries? Nelson says he wants to make Minerva the elite university of choice for the child of a Foxconn line operator in China. But according to Forbes, average income in China is only $10,200 annually. Its hard to imagine even a relatively well-paid worker being able to balance a tuition check with rent and food and everything else. In short: if you dont have financial aid available to your best international applicants, you will not be able to enroll and educate your best international applicants. You will instead be left with a very, very small number of good students who can pay, and a larger number of not-so-good-students who can pay. This creates obvious problems for Minervas stated goal of high educational standards. But while discussions of financial aid appear nowhere on Minervas website, a recent tweet by them assured me that aid would be offered. So what kind of aid will it be? I apologize if this sounds cynical but I am extremely skeptical that a for-profit university is going to be profligate with grants. All colleges are businesses, but some are more businesses than others: in 2009 the President of Harvard made a very respectable $700,000, while the CEO of Strayer (a chain of for-profit universities) banked over $40 million. Believe it or not when you dont give any of your money away you can make an awful lot of it! This is not to say that for-profit schools cant give financial aid. To the contrary, as this article reports, the average for-profit college receives 75% of its revenue from federal grants and loans. This is accomplished in part by aggressively recruiting educationally risky students as a vehicle for securing federal aid, a set of practices which led to the recent Congressional investigation of for-profit colleges for educational fraud. Consider that though for-profit colleges only enroll about 12% of the nations students, those students are responsible for over 50% of student loan defaults. If I may draw a very deliberate analogy to the most recent debt-fueled financial crisis: counterparties (the student and the federal government) take on all of the risk of an asset of a questionable value, while the university, playing the role of financial intermediary, cleans up on the fees (the federal financial aid). But even this is beside the point, as Nelson envisions only 5-10% of Minervas students will be U.S. citizens, which is to say that only a very small portion of Minervas students will even be eligible for federal aid. So what happens with the other 90% of international students who need 90% of their tuition covered? There is, as Forbes reported one huge and relevant difference between Chinese and American households: debt, and the lack thereof. The average US household debt is 136% of household income, compared to 17% for the Chinese. This is especially true in education. Student loan debt in America now exceeds $1 trillion; the domestic loan market is already near the saturation point. But  the emerging markets of the developing world are not nearly so highly leveraged in higher education. Suppose Minerva provides not grants, and not federal aid, but instead extensive private loans to the students of the developing world. Then, the relevant questions of the university change from what education can we provide at what standard to are we achieving a sufficient return on investment for our student loans. If this is the case, then the old insight about ad-supported media maps nicely to Minerva. Remember: when you watch a show, or read a newspaper for free, youre not consuming the product of content; you are the product, and your attention is being sold to advertisers. If Minervas financial aid is primarily private loans at high rates of interest to underleveraged students in the developing world, then Id be willing to bet the  real product is the debt being sold to investors.   If thats true, then Minerva isnt a university: its an emerging markets fund hiding behind the mask of higher education. Question 3: Whats really going on? As far as I see it there are two explanations here. Explanation 1 is that Ben Nelson, altruistic visionary, earnestly believes, against the odds and experience of literally every other educational institution, that there are hundreds of thousands of students in the world who are: of equivalent or higher academic caliber than current students of elite, prestigious universities, but who are not admitted to elite, prestigious universities, and have the resources to pay Minervas tuition, which will likely many times global median income, without compromising the first two characteristics or being plunged into hopeless, crippling debt, because they have been given generous, reasonable aid by the  benevolent benefactors who inhabit the halls of high tech venture capital. Explanation 2 is that Ben Nelson, Wharton grad and former MA consultant, has realized that: there is more international demand for prestigious, name-brand American education than there is supply, and if he can conjure prestige ex nihilo then he can tap that demand by distinguishing Minerva from the unsavory, disreputable actors already choking the for-profit university market, and in the process, and of financial necessity, load his comparatively underleveraged international students with loans that will return an appreciable rate to his investors Now, I dont know which one of these explanations is true, but I do know which one I personally think is a hell of a lot more likely, and hint: its not the one that involves relying on the altruism of venture capitalists. In fact, in the Minerva spirit of treating colleges as investment properties, I came to conclusion that I didnt even care which explanation was true, because either way its awful junk that Id short in a second if given the chance. The truth is that if youre a student (especially an international student) who cant go to a place like MIT but still wants to learn something, the situation isnt great, but its better than it ever has been before. Here at MIT we give away OCW and MITx for free; I also highly recommend Khan Academy and Stanfords Engineering Everywhere. Granted, it might not be the same as actually attending an elite school with a terrific education and meritocratic admissions and financial aid. But then again, neither is the Minerva Project. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }

The Origins Of The World - 1513 Words

Every word has an origin. Some are only newly minted, having been brought into use, usually, by the younger generation. These often have their origins in an existing word as a shortening or pidgin form with a slightly or, occasionally, even wholly altered meaning. Some are ancient and can trace their roots back practically to the dawn of man. Many have their origins in a language other than English having originated, perhaps, in France, Germany, Egypt, Rome, or even in the Nordic tradition to name but a few possibilities. According to the writers of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, over one hundred and twenty languages have been used to form the words we use today. Also, according to these same authors, these words can be formed by any one or a combination of several methods. Sometimes words are formed by what is known as â€Å"clipping.† This occurs when the front or back part of a word is â€Å"clipped off† to form a new word with the same meaning, such as â€Å"exam† from â€Å"examination.† Other times the word is created by â€Å"back-formation,† where the prefix or suffix has been removed to form a new word. â€Å"Cherry† from the original word â€Å"cherise† would be an example of this. The most common method of creating new word is from bits of other, older words, prefixes, suffixes and roots combined together in differing ways to create new words. An example of this would be â€Å"brunch† having been formed from â€Å"breakfast† and â€Å"lunch.† Merriam-Webster names acronym formations as the most pleasing to theShow MoreRelatedThe Origins Of The World1797 Words   |  8 Pagesthe people who time almost forgot, the people whose story did not get told, the people Viking warri ors would have not even existed without. 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However, anyone who is well-versed in the history of World War I knows that the reasonsRead MoreThe Origins Of Christianity As A World Religion2485 Words   |  10 PagesBefore the predominance of Christianity as a world religion, a majority of the peoples of Europe and throughout the world acknowledged and worshiped a multitude of spirits. The Romans and the Greeks believed in a pantheon of gods while the Celts in the British Isles believed in the wildfolk or Faeries. These are just some examples of cultures who worshiped multiple beings. It would also be these same people who would be condemned for their beliefs and labeled by Christians as Heathens and PagansRead MoreThe Origins Of The First World War1792 Words   |  8 Pages The Origins of the First World War The Road To War Is Paved With Good Alliances Did a failure in alliance cause World War 1? Who’s who? Great Britain had a very large empire mostly in Africa and Asia. 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The Informative Message On Gender Division - 2100 Words

Bao Vo Professor Rivera ENG 112; Research Paper 26 April 2016 The impactful message on gender division From â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† Equality between men and women have always been a debatable topic over a long period of time in America. Women were known as the second class citizens during the late 19th century when they had no equal rights as men. It is depressing to remember the time period when women had to suffer in such a place without freedom. The struggle between men and women has been changed due to many different factors; however, one of them is a powerful effect of the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†. In the story â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper†, Charlotte Perkins Gilman specifically uses literary techniques to represent the gender role†¦show more content†¦The first person narrative is not only sending the actual feeling, emotional from the characters to the reader; therefore, it also illustrates the reality to the reader during the 19th century. The conflict between the protagonist and her husband portrays how her situation and many other wom en in marriage and society. As the narrator recognizes herself as the woman inside the wallpaper; however, she also realizes other women whom are being trapped outside, creeping around â€Å"I don t like to LOOK out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast† (Gilman 25). The protagonist’s situation with her husband has an important impact within her minds and her understandings of her powerlessness in marriage; consequently, it can provide the reader an actual perspective from the narrator. Additionally, the first person point of view allows the reader to go along into insanity and encourages the reader to feel sympathy for the protagonist and other women during that time period. As the narrator losing her sanity over the pattern of the wallpaper, she becomes happier and more exciting than ever before. By Gilman’s literary devices, the narrator’s life becomes happier as she becomes insane and obsessed wit h the pattern of the wallpaper: â€Å"Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be† (Gilman 21). The unnamed narrator

Requirements for Airline Cadet Program Candidates Free Essays

For candidates, airlines have few if any requirements on nationality, place of residence, gender, education, work experience, degree, school performance and etc. If you compare the requirements for a management trainee program in a big company, you will find the things airline ask for is just essential. But the number of people airline recruit is a lot more than the number of management trainee†¦ and I don’t see the need to compare their starting salaries†¦ But this does not mean it is easy to get into airline. We will write a custom essay sample on Requirements for Airline Cadet Program Candidates or any similar topic only for you Order Now Actually, airline pilot selection is one of the most, if not THE most, rigorous selection procedure you can find. Then what are the criteria airlines use to select their new hires? The answer to this question is, instead of appearance, education or other external factors, airline value more about professional knowledge and people skill. To be specific, the professional knowledge in flying theories, planes and flight environment and stress management under pressure, management and control of multiple tasks and accurate communication. In other words, the airline selection is structured around its professional knowledge and skill needs and the criteria are to test how passionate and committed the candidates are, how much efforts the candidates contributed and how their psychological development is. Concretely speaking, the basic requirements to be an airline pilot include: Age gender: between 18 to 35. There is NO discrimination in genders. So male and female have the same opportunities; Vision: The current normative on pilots affirms that â€Å"If normal sights can be restored with the help of lenses or glasses, visual defects are not a impediment for becoming a pilot†. This means that you can become a pilot if you suffer from visual defects that can be corrected by glasses or lenses. Astigmatism, Hyperopic (long sightedness), Presbyopia and Myopia are not cause for pilot rejection. LASIK or laser operation: Pay attention though not to do a LASIK or laser operation, because this in most of the cases will stop your career forever. A Lasik or Eye Laser operation, can have slight sight effects that are a deterrent for pilots. A common side effect is night starburst of halos effects. These are typical in low lights situation with bright lights sources, usually the cockpit is low light with bright lights coming from the instruments. These effects can reduce the ability to judge or read an instrument and therefore will impede the pilot to do his own job. Medical conditions: The medical conditions that will impede you to enter will be: serious heart problems or coronary problems, clinical hypertension, color blindness or retina damages, brain damages or reduced motor skills, serious psychological problems like clinical depression, or any serious life threatening problem. For sure you will have known in advance if you have such serious medical conditions. Candidate nationality: For the cadet pilots programs in China, like the one of China Southern, you need to be a Chinese citizen to apply. For most of the other cadet programs, like the one in HK or Singapore, any nationality can be admitted, including Mainland Chinese nationals; Education requirement: A degree or diploma is needed, in any discipline, or a Form 7 equivalent with a pass in Math or Physics will do the fare. There is no preference for any discipline, so even if your degree is in art it will be accepted and will not handicap you; Major: The airline companies do not have any requirement on the major in university. Well, they don’t even require a university degree, so†¦ The general belief is that actually, a business major will be good for the long term development if you want to get a management position after; Health conditions: In terms of health, a normal youngster health condition will be more than enough to enter and pass the medical selections. You will need to pass 2 medical checks called ICAO Level 1 and Level 2 Medical, but usually these are no hurdle for entering the cadet. Anybody who satisfies these requirements above is capable for the airline pilot career. Then, let’s move to how to change the â€Å"capable† into â€Å"very capable†. In other words, what are the key criteria the airlines value and how to improve these criteria so you can pass the interviews to be an airline pilot. How to cite Requirements for Airline Cadet Program Candidates, Papers

Oklahoma City Bombing free essay sample

This started a big government investigation. The bombing was quickly solved, but the investigation turned out to be one of the most exhaustive in FBI history. By the time it was over, the Bureau had conducted more than 28,000 interviews, followed some 43,000 investigative leads, amassed three-and-a-half tons of evidence, and reviewed nearly a billion pieces of information. In the end, the government that McVeigh hated and hoped to topple swiftly captured him and convincingly convicted both him and his co-conspirators. This was a great day for the government and the American people. At 9:45 am, minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing Governor Frank Keating declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential workers in the Oklahoma City area to be released from their duties for their safety. President Bill Clinton was the president at this time and was in a meeting when he learned about the bombing; he then addressed the nation of the tragedy that had occurred. President Clinton wanted to ground all planes in the Oklahoma City area to prevent the bombers from escaping by air, but decided against it; President Clinton declared a federal emergency in Oklahoma City to help the victims. The bombing in Oklahoma City was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. It was an act of cowardice and it was evil. The United States will not tolerate it, and he will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards. He ordered that flags for all federal buildings be flown at half-staff for 30 days in remembrance of the victims. Four days later, on April 23, 1995, Clinton spoke from Oklahoma City. No major federal financial assistance was given to the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, but the Murrah Fund set up in the wake of the bombing attracted over $300,000 in federal grants. Over $40 million was donated to the city to aid disaster relief and to compensate the victims. Funds were initially distributed to families who needed it to get back on their feet, and the rest was held in trust for longer-term medical and psychological needs. By 2005, $18 million of the donations remained, some of which was earmarked to provide a college education for each of the 219 children who lost one or both parents in the bombing (Terror Hits Home: The Oklahoma City Bombing). Although all of these things where made available to the survivors, nothing and change the pain the victims felt and the everlasting pain of the families that lost love ones. The U. S. government mounted a massive manhunt for Islamic terrorists. Three Arabs were supposedly seen fleeing the scene. Cable news shows, fed by tips from a former CIA official, reported that the bombing may have been the work of Saddam Hussein. The FBI had no doubt have been looking for suspicious Arab (Oklahoma City Bombing’s Unanswered Questions in New Book). Prosecutor Joseph Hartzler asked Timothy McVeigh if he knew that the bomb would cause a lot of deaths. Timothy stated that he considered all those people to be as if they were the storm troopers in the movie Star Wars. They may be individually innocent; but because they are part of the evil empire, they were they were guilty by association (Famous Trials Oklahoma City Bombing Trial ) I find this very alarming he had no heart for the children that he killed, totaling in 168 people lost their lives for the poor decision that he made. He had no heart for the innocent people that he kill for the hate he had towards the government. After over twenty-three hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict: guilty on all eleven counts. McVeigh sat expressionless at the defense table as the verdict was read. The jury listened to evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, with McVeighs life hanging in the balance. Stories of the victims sounded throughout the court. Doctors spoke of legs and arms being torn from the victims bodies. Wives told of husbands who would never see their children graduate or get married. Firefighters told of the nightmares they had seen. Police officers described finding dead babies in what was once the econd-floor daycare center at the Murrah Building. The last two witnesses were his divorced parents, Bill and Mickey McVeigh. Mickey cried as she read a statement she had composed the previous night. She told jurors that Tim was a child any mother could be proud of; I still to this day cannot believe he would have caused this devastation (Famous Trials Oklahoma City Bombing Trial ). For two days, the jury where debating on guilty or not guilty. The decision was then announced that death would be the sentence for the heinous crime that he had commented. Two months later, McVeigh returned to court to hear the formal pronouncement of his sentence. After Mc Veigh’s sentence was announced, he was then asked if he had anything to say. McVeigh then quoted from a 1928 dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. I wonder what his intentions were when stating this message. Mc Veigh was then transport to Florence, Colorado, the site of a federal prison known as Supermax† to spend the rest of his life. After this McVeigh for appeal, than later in December 2000, McVeigh asked a federal judge to stop all appeals of his convictions and to set a date for his execution(Oklahoma City Bombing: McVeigh and Nichols Sentenced). Mc Veigh was given a fair trial by the government; just like anyone else although he didn’t give the innocent lives he had taken the same opportunity. The government had already had laws made against this crime which was called â€Å"man slander† and this was taken into account when prosecuting Mc Veigh. I believe that government handled this crime as firm as possible. The government really did their research to build this case; they didn’t leave out any details of the day at hand. Because of their hard work they got a murder off the streets. During the time for the jury to be selected McVeigh believed that there was jury misconduct. McVeigh contended that one of the jurors committed misconduct by deciding his guilt before the case was submitted to the jury. I don’t believe that this was true at all; McVeigh was trying to drag out the process. McVeigh even tried to get retired for this crime, as if he had been wrong in the trail. I believe that all evidence has been presented correctly in court and true fully, some of the evidences were based on a video that caught McVeigh leaving the Ryder truck. When everything came to light and got the attention of the citizens, American’s found out that the Oklahoma City bombing was a retaliation of on the killing of David Koresh and 76 others including two pregnant women and over twenty children in the famous â€Å"Waco siege† of 1993, the government became cognizant of the fact that fringe elements existed in the country that could potentially seek to attack it in response to any controversial actions that it might make. This, together with the threat of foreign sponsored terrorism, initiated a process of securing and protecting government facilities that received new impetus after the 9/11 attacks and continues until this day and is a continuing impact of that terrible day in American history(The continuing impact of the Oklahoma City bombing). The Oklahoma City bombing has impacted our society because it was politicized by the President of the United States, Bill Clinton at the time of the bombing. It’s been many years later and the people that where harm from this ordeal is still in pain from the change that this made to their lives. I had the opportunity to speak with a woman who lost her mother in this ordeal. She described details of her mother such as height, skin color, and the hair style she would wear. Her mother had been missing for days and no one knew of her where a bout’s, at the time of her mother’s disappearances the woman was 17 years of age and her younger brother was 9. She and her family had thought her mother had gone out of town, but this was not the case. Her mother’s body was one of the last to be found in the rubble at the end of the search and rescue mission. She spoke of the gruesome seen she saw, of her mother deteriorating body. I can’t imagine the pain she and her family must have felt at the time they had received the news; and to instantly know that you where now homeless and would never see your parent again, would have left me breathless. As she told the story to me I could she see the pain she felt, her mother was taken from her a young age when she needed her most. Although this woman suffered a lot of pain at a young age, I know that God is still with her and will bring her through. She is now a mother of two young girls and she is trying her best to do what she can for them, because she knows how important it is to have a mother and not everyday is promised. In conclusion, I have learned a lot while doing this assignment. This assignment has given me a two sided view of how the government works, and also how a mass murder didn’t think his plan out very well. I’m happy to see how the government reacted fast in this case and put the victim’s families and America at ease. I hope that nothing like this would ever happen again. My heart goes out to the families that lost love ones on that April day. This horrible thing happened when I was five years old and I still remember the ground shaking in Tulsa Oklahoma, by Oklahoma City exit. I was shocked when I found out what had happened, even at a young age I was still very sadden for the children that lost their lives. Works Cited Terror Hits Home: The Oklahoma City Bombing. Famous Cases amp; Criminals. FBI. Web. 5 May 2013. lt;http://www. fbi. gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/oklahoma-city-bombinggt;. Oklahoma City Bombing’s Unanswered Questions in New Book. . The Daily Beast . Web. 5 May 2013. lt;http://www. thedailybeast. om/articles/2012/04/18/oklahoma-city-bombing-s-unanswered-questions-in-new-book. htmlgt;. Famous Trials Oklahoma City Bombing Trial . . N. p. , n. d. Web. 6 May 2013. lt;http://law2. umkc. edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/mcveightrial. htmlgt;. The continuing impact of the Oklahoma City bombing. Helium. N. p.. Web. 9 May 2013. lt;http://www. helium. com/items/1809275-the-continuing-impact-of-the- oklahoma-city-bombinggt;. Oklahoma City Bombing: McVeigh and Nichols Sentenced. Oklahoma City Bombing. N. p.. Web. 11 May 2013. lt;http://www. history. com/topics/oklahoma-city-bombinggt;.

Aviation management The WritePass Journal

Aviation management How did Stansted get the go ahead to become London’s 3rd airport? Aviation management ). It became apparent in the 1960s that there was need to meet considerable growth anticipated into the future. This gave rise to proposals for a new airport and expansion of existing capacity. Stansted, a former military airfield in Essex, was proposed as a third airport in 1963 and was thereafter endorsed by a Government White Paper in 1967 (HC Hansard, 1971; Stansted Airport, 2013). A subsequent inconclusive public inquiry led to the setup of the Commission for the Third London Airport, popularly referred to as the Roskill Commission tasked with review of sites for a third airport (Abelson and Flowerdew, 1972; UKCAA, 2013). With its evaluation of the timing of need, the requirement for expansion of capacity, and after a careful study of a total of 80 proposed project sites, four sites were finally chosen, principal among them a new airport at Cublington in the Vale of Aylesbury. It was deemed to offer best access situated in the key London-Birmingham axis away from built-up areas and would cost less than most of the alternatives (Abelson and Flowerdew, 1972). This proposal however met with strong opposition from local people, politicians and middle-class voters making it politically untenable (FT, 2014). An influential member of the Roskill Commission, Colin Buchanan, in dissent on grounds of environmental and planning concerns, proposed a new alternative at Maplin Sands, Foulness in the Thames Estuary. This opened the door to strong political opposition against Cublington with the latter proposal becoming the preferred option of the Conservative government of the day which thus disregarded Roskill’s proposal (FT, 2014; Helsey and Codd, 2012; Mishan, 1970). Maplin had interestingly been considered by the Roskill Commission and had been decisively rejected on the basis of cost (the most expensive option overall), distance and convenience to prospective passengers (the most remote) (FT, 2014; Mayor of London, 2013). With all the political support and progress towards the Maplin proposal, it was not built (FT, 2014; Helsey and Codd, 2012). The cost of the constituent deep-harbour, rail links, motorways, new towns to accommodate workers, and surface route to the airport was an astronomical  £825 million (estimated at  £8,448 million today) (Helsey and Codd, 2012). To many, including the opposition party then – the Labour Party, this was regarded as unacceptable (FT, 2014). With the coming to power of the Labour Party a change in complexion, the Maplin airport project was abandoned in July 1974 (FT, 2014). A reappraisal of passenger projections in the new regime indicated â€Å"over-optimism† in forecasts showing that there was adequate capacity until 1990 at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton, aided by regional airports (AOA, 2013; UKCAA, 2013). However, with increasing competition from abroad and passenger numbers once more rising, the need for expansion became apparent. British Airports Authority (BAA), owner of the Stansted Airport, submitted plans for its expansion and with significant lobbying by its Chairman Norman Payne and the enlisting of support from Margaret Thatcher, the Maplin scheme was abandoned in favour of a cheaper plan to enlarge Stansted (Mayor of London, 2013). This option had also been considered by Roskill and had not made the shortlist of key options (FT, 2014). The expansion of Stansted was accomplished a decade after its proposition but was a predictable failure challenged by a lack of success in attracting and supporting long-haul operations by airlines (World Airline Directory, 2001; UKCAA, 2013). It was however to benefit from the emergence of low-cost carriers, principally Ryanair, which were drawn by attractive landing charges which offset consequent inconvenience to their passengers (UKCAA, 2013; Mayor of London, 2013; BBC, 2011). Airport policy in the UK has been a case study of political short-termism with the location of an additional (3rd) airport for London in a dilemma. Heightened by uncertainy over demand and growth estimates and a general lack of bold political action, decisions are challenged by political considerations making inland airports unfeasible and economic considerations making coastal airports unfeasible. This has led to the postponement of requisite action with policy makers often prone to swaying given the intense and incessant lobbying and political pressures. References Abelson, P. and A., Flowerdew, 1972. Roskills successful recommendation. In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Vol. 135. No. 4, pp.467 Airports Operators Association, 2013. The Airport Operator, Autumn 2013. BBC, 2011. Heathrow and Stansted runway plans scrapped by BAA, 24 May 2010. Viewed on 30/1/2014 from: bbc.co.uk/news/uk Financial Times, 2014. Londons new airport held to ransom by folly. December, 2013 House of Commons Hansard, 1971. Third London Airport (Roskill Commission Report). 4th March. Vol. 812. cc1912-2078. HC Helsey, M., and F., Codd, 2012. Aviation: proposals for an airport in the Thames estuary, 1945-2012. House of Commons Library. Viewed from: http://cambridgemba.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/sn4920-1946-2012-review.pdf Mayor of London, 2013. Why London needs a new hub airport. Transport for London. Viewed from: tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/26576.aspx Mishan, E., 1970. What is wrong with Roskill? London: London School of Economics Stansted Airport, 2013. Press Release. Viewed on 1st Feb 2014 from: stanstedairport.com UKCAA, 2013. UK Airport Statistics – Aviation Intelligence. United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority. World Airline Directory, 2001. Flight International. Stansted Airport, Stansted, Essex, 27 March  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 2 April 2001. CM241SB, UK Given the urgent need to find a solution to UK airport capacity why do you think the government wishes to delay the process? Political intrigues and myriad arguments still mire the London airport expansion pursuit half a century later with the current Howard Davies Airports Commission set up in 2012 still wading in the long running controversy (FT, 2014). Continued political posturing, hedging and stonewalling still characterizes this pursuit for a viable solution given the readiness to oppose policies espoused by those of different complexions and political stand and complication of issues hindering bold decisions and action (FT, 2014; CAPA, 2013). With reference to previous government airport policies, this section evaluates the desire of government to postpone a decision on the final solution to meet need until after the 2015 general election. In the Davies Commission’s view, the capacity challenge is yet to become critical and there is need for action as there is potential for it to be (The Independent, 2014; Airports Committee, 2013a). These findings contained in its December 2013 interim report (preceding a final report expected in 2015) are based on the acknowledgement of continued growth of air travel, mainly in the South East of England with the need for an extra runway by 2030 and another possibly by 2050. For the short and medium term, the Commission has made a raft of proposals to enhance efficiency of airline and ground operations (Airports Commission, 2013b). Ideally, the latter proposal is arguably most appropriate given that operational and design improvements have hitherto enabled the handling of more volumes than anticipated, extending current capacity and enabling full and efficient use of available resource (UKCAA, 2013; The Independent, 2014). On the Commission’s shortlist of options for the short and medium term include a third runwayand lengthening of an existing runway at Heathrow, and a new runway at Gatwick. The proposal for a brand new airport in the Thames Estuary is side-lined citing uncertainties and challenges surrounding it with the Commission however promising to evaluate its feasibility and to arrive at a decision regarding its viability later in 2014 as well as longer term expansion options at Stansted and Birmingham (CAPA, 2013; Airport International, 2012). The government however says that it will not make a final decision in this regard until after the 2015 general election pushing the responsibility to the next government (CAPA, 2013; FT, 2014). When the Coalition government came to power in 2010, it scrapped former Labour government’s plan for a third runway at Heathrow to which it had been strongly opposed instead favouring the creation of a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary (Helsey and Codd, 2012). Given renewed focus on Heathrow, there seems to be a deliberate decision by government to avoid offending the electorate in its turnaround from its manifesto commitment, as well as to avoid political turbulence in the run up to the forthcoming elections (FT, 2014; CAPA, 2013). It is widely accepted that Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Davies Commission in a bid to postpone or to defuse controversy, maintaining a dishonest ambiguity until after the general election (FT, 2014). Heathrow is a popular preference given the support it receives from the majority of politicians (except those with constituencies on the flight path); business and powerful representative lobby bodies; airlines; air alliances; remote UK regional airports benefiting from international connections; as well as domestic and international aviation representative bodies (CAPA, 2013; FT, 2014). Critics state that the inclusion of other airports is intended at making the proposals not to seem too Heathrow-centric and is aimed at political expediency (FT, 2014, CAPA, 2013). It would have been political dynamite for the Commission not to have made positive clamours with regard to runway capacity warding off accusations of ministers trying to kick the controversy ‘into the long grass’, a scenario which has bedevilled such pursuits for half a century (CAPA, 2013; The Independent, 2014). From the 1967 Government White Paper permitting the expansion of Stansted, through subsequent inquiries and the Roskill Commission in the early 1970s, the quest for expanded capacity continues with arguments going back and forth around similar proposals and sites (FT, 2014; UKCAA, 2013). Expansion at Heathrow is an easy road given that it is relatively cheaper and has less challenges but for the environmental concerns of noise pollution and carbon emissions which cannot be ignored or wished away (Airports Committee, 2013a). The option for expansion at Stansted is impeded by previous capacity limitation by the 1985 White Paper, though it got reprieve in the 2003 ‘Future of Air Transport’ White Paper and an extension of passenger capacity limit by the courts (DOT, 2003). Yet, Stansted has historically been challenged with regard to its support of long-haul flights; preference by airlines; as well as environmental concerns (World Airline Directory, 2001; UKCAA, 2013). The T hames Estuary option despite being the most environmentally sound is challenged by economic considerations regarding not only the cost of building the airport but also the requisite surface links, and costs associated with imminent closure at Heathrow. There is also difficulty in the estimation of effects it will have on demand and airline operations (The Independent, 2014; Airports Commission, 2013b; Airport International, 2012). This scenario highlights the present dilemma facing political players and government, which is what leads to their general uncertainty and a general lack of boldness in approach. Intense lobbying and political pressure has consequently led to the postponement of decisions and the backtracking by government from its pledge. The divide in opinion and arguments causing uncertainty hands politicians a license to continue to do nothing at all. References Airports Committee, 2013a. Emerging thinking: Aviation Capacity in the UK. 7th October. Viewed from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/aviation-capacity-in-the-uk-emerging-thinking Airports Commission, 2013b. Short and medium term options: proposals for making the best use of existing airport capacity. 7th August. Viewed from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/short-and-medium-term-options-proposals-for-making-the-best-use-of-existing-airport-capacity Airport International, 2012. Thames Estuary Airport Is Not A Short Term Solution. 4 July 2012. CAPA, 2013. The Davies Commission’s Interim Report on UK airports: the big loser remains UK competitiveness. Centre for Aviation. Department of Transport, 2003. The Future of Air Transport White Paper and the Civil Aviation Bill. Viewed on 14/1/2014 from: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/whitepapers Financial Times, 2014. Londons new airport held to ransom by folly. December, 2013 Helsey and Codd, 2012. Aviation: proposals for an airport in the Thames estuary, 1945-2012 The Independent, 2014. Sir Howard Davies Airports Commission: Air travel could be transformed within a few years – with no more stacking. 17th December, 2013 UKCAA, 2013. UK Airport Statistics – Aviation Intelligence. United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority.

Archidamus and Pericles during the Greek Wars essays

Archidamus and Pericles during the Greek Wars essays Pericles of Athens and Archidamus of Sparta devised net assessments that both believed would provide strategies that would bring victory and peace for their respective states. This essay will show that Archidamus did a better job of net assessment prior to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. A clear definition and understanding of net assessment is necessary. Prof Thomas Mahnken of the Naval War College, provided the following definition: "Net assessment is a process that helps you understand the nature of the war upon which you are embarking, identify your comparative advantage, and devise a strategy to capitalize upon your strength and exploit your enemy's weakness" (Mahnken, Student Handout, p. 1). This definition can be broken down into three elements, 1) understanding the nature of the war, 2) identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy to identify a comparative advantage, and 3) devise a strategy to achieve victory. I will touch on these elements, other key p rinciples, and the history of the war itself as the foundation to support my argument. Before examining the main issue, it is important to note the goals in which the two leaders in question are attempting to achieve with their respective speeches and the impact these goals may have had on their assessments. Archidamus goal was to convince the Spartans that the time was not right for war, and if the Spartans were to go to war unprepared, they would certainly meet with disaster. The assessment in his speech focused primarily on the opponent's strengths and excludes any potential weaknesses of the enemy. Archidamus was fighting an up hill battle in an attempt to buy time, which would favor, in his assessment, a better long-term strategy for victory. Pericles, in quite the contrast, was advocating that the Athenians go to war, for it was impossible for them to be defeated. Therefore, Pericles highlighted all the strengths of the Athenian empire that...