Fall Begins 2012 Part 3

Engineering

Engineering is a very special portion of human endeavors. Its existence spans thousands of years. Engineering is very much important in the development of cities, buildings, mechanical tools, and other basic functions of a civilization. Ironically enough, engineering is vital in our time just as much as it was important thousands of years ago. Engineering is the skill or science that allows people to design plus build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials, and processes. You have to learn scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge. Any engineer participates in engineering. A person learns many sub disciplines in order for a person to be a great, efficient engineer. The simple tools of the pulley, level, and wheel were organizing tools of ancient man that worked to engineer civilizations. The Roman water powered grain mill (as described by Vitruvius), the Pharos of Alexandria, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Brihadeshwara temple of Tanjavur and tombs of India, etc. require the mastery of engineering skills. Imhotep of ancient Egypt is known as the first civil engineer. Some view him as the man who first used columns in architecture. In our modern age, we have electrical engineering. This includes the use of motors, microchips, and batteries as a means to power electrical devices. Electronics evolved rapidly from vacuum tubes and transistors to nanotechnology of the 21st century. The inventions of Thomas Savery and Scottish engineer James Watt help to develop modern mechanical engineering. John Smeaton of the UK was a modern civil engineer. He constructed the third Eddystone Lighthouse with the use of hydraulic lime (it is a form of mortar which will set under water). Smeaton formed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse. Civil engineering that John Smeaton was involved in worked with the design of bridges, canals, harbours, and lighthouses. He was a mechanical engineer and a physicist. A physicist is a person that studies the motions of objects in the Universe including natural forces, etc. Physics requires an understanding of science, mathematics, and engineering in a great degree. You have aerospace construction, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and other branches of this important field. It's one of the fastest growing career choices in the world. Engineering is fun since a person can use problem solving, logic, knowledge, economics, and mathematics in order to test the best method in constructing a machine or an invention. In our generation, we can use computers in general the models of physical processes and perfect designs for aircraft. Computer aided design or CAD software can assist engineers to create 3-D models, 2D drawings, and schematics of their designs. From the workings of helicopters to the construction of business, engineering will forever become a part of our daily lives. It's a great time to alive indeed since futuristic technology is ever developing all around us.

In Engineering, there are numerous laws and formulas that real to this great subject. One such law is called Hooke's law. Hooke's law deals with the extension of a spring that's directly proportion with the load applied to it. Some materials obey this law as long as the load doesn't exceed the material's elastic limit. Hooke's law in simple terms says that stress is directly proportional to strain. Mathematically, Hooke's law states that F=-kx. X is the displacement of the spring's end from its equilibrium position (a distance, in SI units or meters). F is the restoring force exerted by the spring on that end (in SI units: N or KgXm/s2) and K is a constant called the rate or spring constant. The K is found in the units of N/m or kg/s2. The behavior is linear when this holds. The negative sign on the right hand side of the equation means that the restoring forces always acts in the opposite direction of the displacement. For example, when a spring is stretched to the left, it pulls back to the right. This law was created by the 17th century British physicist Robert Hooke. He first proclaimed this law as a Latin anagram in 1660. He words were published in 1678 in the words of Ut tensio, sic vis (or as the extension, so the force). Hooke's law relates to objects that quickly regain their original shape after being deformed by a force (with the molecules or atoms of their material returning to the initial state of stable equilibrium). Also, Hooke's law will describe how far the spring will stretch under a specific force. Hooke's law only holds for some materials under certain loading conditions. Steel exhibits linear-elastic behavior in most engineering applications; Hooke's law is valid for it throughout its elastic range. Rubber is a non-Hookean material because its elasticity is stress dependent and sensitive to temperature and loading rate. This law can apply to spring operated weighing machines, stress analysis, and modeling of materials. The potential energy stored in a spring is PE=1/2kx2. The potential energy comes from adding up the energy it takes to incrementally compress the spring. Another famous formula is called Ohm's Law. It is a mathematical equation that shows the relationship between Voltage, Current, and resistance in an electrical circuit. V is Voltage, I is the current or intensity and R is resistance. In the law, V=I times R. R is V/I and I is V/R. I is found in the unit of amperes. V can also be the potential difference measured across the conductor in units of volts. The resistance or R is found in the units of ohms. Ohm's law states the current through a conductor between 2 points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. The law is named after the German physicist Georg Ohm, who in a treatise published in 1827. In that treatise, he described measurements of applied voltage and current through simple electrical circuits containing various lengths of wire. Resistors are circuit elements that impede the passage of electric charge in agreement with Ohm's law and are designed to have a specific resistance value R. There are graph that define this law called the I-V curve. The I is in the Y-axis and the V is in the X-axis. There are numerous applications where this law is applied to circuits and unique forms of electronics indeed.

Australia

I never described the modern history of this nation in detail before. There are so many individuals that look at my words from Australia (or the land down under). Therefore, I decided to write thoroughly about Australia. Now, it's time to do it. In order for any human being to witness a cogent history of Australia, a person must understand the history of the Aboriginal peoples. They are the first human beings that arrived in Australia. They traveled from Africa of course, then into India, Sri Lanka, and other parts of Asia into the continent of Australia. Australia's history therefore is incredibly linked to the wonderful Aborginal peoples. Like my people, they suffered oppression and triumphs. They endorsed unjustifiable hard aches and glorious improvements in their lives. They have arrived into the continent of Australia in the time frame between 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. All humans come from Africa (that means that everyone genetically has its origin from the Black African melanated people). According to researchers, they devised extremely ancient artistic, musical, and spiritual traditions. At first, the Aborigines organized a hunter gatherer lifestyle, which is typical of the Neolithic human lifestyle. The early population in Australia back then at the time of the first European contact could of been a population of 750,000. During glaciation, New Guinea and Tasmania were joined to the continent causing travel to be more readily available among human beings during that time period. The early Aboriginals stopped hunting during certain times of the years in order for populations plus resources to replenish. They enacted fire stick farming. They introduced the dingo dog (from 3,000-4,000 B.C.) into the continent. Religious practices including cremations were common during the ancient times of Australia. A lot of art and the religious Dreamtime religious practice are loved by the Aboriginal individuals. Like any indigenous people, the Aboriginals suffered through massive, unjustified oppression. This oppression will be written by me in further detail in the near future. You know me, so no stone will be left unturn. The good and the unfortunate portions of Australia history will be exposed by me. Like my people (or black people), the Aboriginals have organizations and strong activists that promote equality and true justice for humans in general. The people of color inside of Australia experienced genocide too in their homeland. That should be a reminder to us that we have a long way to go in conclusively opposing inhumanity towards man. People of color definitely should have that right of self determination. Australia is diverse obviously. It has 250 distinct language groups. The famous Australian Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas designed the Aboriginal flag back in 1971. It's one of the officials flags of Australia under section 5 of the Flags Act 1953. It's a shame that it had to take until 2008 for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to make a formal apology to the Aboriginal peoples. There are tons of role models for Aboriginals. Many of them include of course Cathy Freeman (She participated in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Sydney is a beautiful city with great architecture), Christine Anu, Jessica Mauboy, Ernie Dingo, David Unaipon, Noel Pearson, David Guilpilil, Albert Namatjira, and so many others.

You can't talk about Australia without talking about the Aboriginal peoples. As a black man, I understand where the Aboriginals come from when they talk about their oppression. Still, there are issues of discrimination in Australia like there are in the United States of America. The good news is that people of every color exist today that want equality and justice for all people. The Aboriginals thousands of years ago had a great culture like today. Back in those days, they organized themselves into clans or tribes. They ate foods, developed art, and instituted an environmentally friendly existence. They were hunter gatherers, because back thousands of years ago, there were no domesticated animals or crop cultivations. Therefore, the Aboriginals were very nomadic human beings. Their existence in Australia came be found in the Mungo Man remains as far back as 40,000 years ago. In the early 1600's, Dutch sailors by the names of William Janszoon and Drik Hartog contacted Aboriginals in the 1600's. Captain James Cook from Britain went into the more fertile eastern coast of Australia by 1770. The Brits later decided to create the policy of making Australia a penal colony. The Brits came to the east coast of Australia in 1788. This was the first UK major settlement of the island, which according to some was an invasion of the island. In many cases, the English wanted private property rights and massive cultivation of the land. Yet, the Aboriginals (like the Native Americans) didn't have a concept of land ownership, because to the Aboriginals,tthe land belonged to the whole human race collectively. Soon, the Aboriginals suffered many massacres. Some suffered diseases like smallpox. Some starved to death. It's a common history of seeing how people of color being murdered by terrrorists basically. Their population dramatically decreased. The white elites tried to assimilate Aboriginals into their culture, which is sick, because a person of color has the God-given right to preserve their own culture without cultural destruction. It's like the great burden situation where some people believed that the Aboriginals needed to be educated in order to integrated into white society. This was called the Aboriginal "stolen generation" where biracial children were forcibly removed from their parents. They were educated to be trained in domestics, tradesman, farm workers, etc. The children couldn't travel without permission, they couldn't vote or own property unless they renounced their culture and cut family ties. This is blatantly criminal and immoral.

The crazy thing about it is that very few people on Earth knows about this history. In America, we Americans made the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. We fought for our rights. People from across the Earth (rom the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, Asia, etc.) helped us in the American civil rights movement too. Their actions will not be forgotten. Also, the Aboriginals back then and today fought for their rights too. The Aboriginals created their own Civil Rights Movement as well. During the 1960's, the Aboriginals received the right to vote and the right to human citizenship. This was achieved by many people in Australia. Many Aborginalls and students from the University of Sydney protested against racial discrimination in February of 1965. The Freedom Rides included visits to Walgett, Gulargambone, Kempsey, Bowravielle, and Moree (where violence ensued. Many student Freedom riders were spat at by the racists in Moree. The students opposed segregation in a pool). Albert Namatjira was an Aboriginal who fought for his citizenship rights too in the late 1950's. Aboriginals also fought for equal wages and economic rights as well. We can't forget the Aboriginal heroes that fought for human rights. Their names include Faith Bandler, Harriet Ellis, Lupna Giari, Gary Foley, Vincent Lingiari, Jean Jimmy, Pincer Manguari, and so many other brave souls. Many white people wanted freedom for Aboriginals like Doris Blackburn, Shirley Andrews, Robert Anderson, Mary Bennett, Marjorie Broadbent, and others. Yet, the movement for Aboriginal rights were headed by Aboriginal peoples period. They headed their own movement for justice and human dignity. A referendum in 1967 for equal rights received a 90 percent yes vote. This caused a benefit to the Aboriginals along with the Aboriginal flag coming about. As the decades passed, Australia became more multicultural and multi ethnic. By the 1990's, large tracts of land were being returned to the descendants of the original Aboriginal inhabitants. The Aboriginals and all other Australians for that matter still aren't free. Aboriginals still suffer alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, and other issues. The good news is that Aboriginals and non-Aboriginal Australians day in and day out are fighting for the same equality, justice, and freedom in Australia. Their efforts today ought to be respected.


Australia is continuing forward in the 21st century. In the 1990's, Australia worked with the Western forces in the First Gulf War. Carmen Lawrence became the first premier of the Australian state by 1990. Labor won the 1990 federal election. In the early 1990's, the Strathfield Massacre came about. It happened in Sydney, Australia where a deranged shooter named Wade Frankum killed himself and 8 others in an attack. 6 others were wounded as well. This 1991 event increased the issue of gun control discussion in Australia. Regardless of what we feel about gun rights, we should do all we can to prevent such tragedies from occurring in any location of the world. Victims of the massacre included Roberta Armstrong, Robertson Kan Hock Voon, Patricia Rowe, Carole Dickinson, Joyce Nixon, Rachell Milburn and George Mavris. Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia was famous in the 1990's. The Liberal Prime Minister John Howard made uniform gun laws after the deaths of 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre. The Howard government dealt with issues of East Timor too. Australia sent military forces to handle the humanitarian and security crisis inside of East Timor from 1999-2000. This program was called International Force for East Timor or INTERFET. The program involved a multinational peacekeeping task force that was mandated by the U.N. to handle the crisis in East Timor. INTERFET was commanded by an Australian Major General Peter Cosgrove. The situation was that East Timor wanted independence from Indonesia and some anti-independence militia factions caused violence there. Later, East Timor rightfully became an independent state by May 20, 2002. In 2000, Sydney Australia hosted the 27th Olympic Games. I remember those games like yesterday. It was the time just before I was a senior in high school. Of course, the courageous Kathy Freeman practipated in track and field including other Australian althetes. In the year of 2001 Australia celebrates its centenary of Federation.. Howard formed the Goods and Services Tax in the year 2000 as well. After 9/11, Australia worked with the West to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. Australian governmental leaders support the evil war on terror. In 2002, about 88 Australians died in the 2002 Bali bombings. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd lead a bipartisan Parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generation. Quentin Bryce became the first female Governor General of Australia. Julia Gillard in 2010 became the first female Prime Minister of Australia, which is very historical indeed. Now, the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants more spending cuts as a means to have a fiscal surplus. This include cuts to funds to parents of new children, education, and training. Swan also announced that large companies will soon have to pay company tax on a monthly rather than quarterly basis, a measure that boosts government revenues through interest payments. They assume that the surplus will be just 1.1 billion dollars. The corporate media in Australia still wants more evil cuts to social programs. For the most part, Julia Gillard is more centrist on issues (except on a few). Gillard is wrong support to support some militarism, austerity measures, and controversial actions on basic democratic rights. Gillard is in error to support the agenda of the criminal war on terror. I will give Julia Gillard positive on one issue though. Julia Gillard legitimately defended herself against sexist attacks from conservative party opposition members in Australia. Even Tony Abbott went too far in criticizing Gillard and Prime Minister Julia Gillard responded to him in a strong, courageous fashion as a means to defend her dignity.

By Timothy