Texas :: essays research papers

Texas, one of the West South Central states of the United States. It borders Mexico on the southwest and the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast. To the west is unseasoned Mexico, to the northeasterly and northeast double-dealing Oklahoma and Arkansas, and Louisiana bounds Texas on the east. Austin is the capital of Texas. Houston is the largest city.Texas is the sizing of Ohio, Indiana, and all the New England and Middle Atlantic states combined, and its vast domain of a function encompasses forests, mountains, deserts and dry plains, and a long, humid, subtropical coastal lowland. Texass wealth of mineral resources is almost unequaled among the other states. Its rapid economic development stimulated by these resources and its vast size have made Texas an American legend. Oil wells, chemicals, ranches, and cattle have played a major part in that legend.For more than 100 years, Texas was part of the Spanish Empire in America. When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, T exas was for a while joined to Mexico. The section from San Antonio southward retains the flavor of the Hispano-Mexican period in its architecture, foods, and festivals.The name Texas is derived from tejas or teyas, the version by the Spanish in the mid-16th century of the Caddo peoples word for friends or allies. It gradually became used to denote the region north of the Ro Grande and east of New Mexico, and was officially applied as Texas when the area was organized as a republic in 1836. Texas was an independent republic until it joined the Union on declination 29, 1845, as the 28th state. Its single-star flag dates from its independent period and has given Texas the nickname the Lone Star State.IIPHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Texas is the second largest state in the nation, after Alaska, and has an area of 692,244 sq km (267,277 sq mi), including 12,844 sq km (4959 sq mi) of inland water and 1046 sq km (404 sq mi) of coastal water over which it has jurisdiction. Extending for about 1240 k m (about 770 mi) from east to west and for about 1290 km (about 800 mi) from north to south, the state comprises about 7 percent of the land area of the United States. The mean elevation is about 500 m (1700 ft).ANatural Regions Texas can be separate into four natural regions, or physiographic provinces the Gulf Coastal Plain, the Central Lowland, the Great Plains, and the Basin and Range province.

Philip Tompkins Organizational Communicatin Imperatives :: essays research papers

Philip Tompkins Organizational Communicatin ImperativesINTRODUCTIONIn the book Organizational Communication Imperatives, by Philip K.Tompkins, we are introduced to a chapter that deals with an organization that isheld under high prestige by not only those who are employed by it, but by acountry as well. This American organization is NASA, (National AeronauticalSpace Administration), and although a very prestigious place to work, it is notfree of its share of wrongdoing and previse productive ways. Ten years ago(1986), NASA was faced with its biggest catastrophe, The Challenger Explosion.This preventable event , which claimed the life of a crew of seven, left manyquestioning the great power of discourse throughout NASA. The idea that acrucial element of the space shuttle, O-Rings, would pass inspection, althoughmany scientists doubted the success of these, would be the ultimate cause of thecrews demise abruptly after lift off. It seems these scientists doubts wereoverlooked by a higher authority who gave the go ahead knowing the risk atstake.The United States Army, well know for its maintaining of order andconduct, has fallen into a most peculiar and shameful predicament due to lack ofcommunication. The New York generation brought its readers to the attention that allwas not respectable in the military. An organization that shares a similar prestigeto that of NASA, an organization who has exemplified its leadership time andtime again by becoming a force, so powerful, that it is sometimes considered topolice the world, has fallen into a sex abuse scandal. It seems that severalwomen have come forward to proclaim their mistreatment from various acts rangingfrom rape to verbal harassment instilled upon them by members of the military.These women feel, had there been a genuine form of organizational communication,the study of sending and receiving messages, they would not have fell victimsto such hideous crimes. Senator Barbara Boxer stated (New York Times 11/ 96)that the complaints made by the women who came forward immediately were lostsomewhere along the line in an attempt to reach a higher authority, signifying aneed for some type of restructure.STRENGTHSIn the minds of many people today the United States Army Is consideredto have one of the best structured organizational communication networks. Thisis based upon the specified code of conduct that the Army is underlyingly ruledby. This is upheld by the specific chain of command which is easilydistinguished by rank and uniform. nonindulgent punishment is carried out upon thosewho violate rules and conduct, commonly accepted by this organization. Theauthority figures, in the Army, set tasks, and relay a common purpose to all