Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Geology for Baccalaureate

Natural and Technological Catastrophes

Natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes are catastrophic events that originate from natural phenomena, unlike technological catastrophes caused by human activities, accidents, etc. An example of a technological catastrophe is the Bhopal gas disaster, which caused the first major toxic release of its kind.

A natural phenomenon is not in itself a risk. It becomes a risk when it is likely to produce harm to the population in an area. The value of the risk depends on three factors:

• Hazard: the potential for the event to occur and its frequency.
• Exposure: the people and goods that may be affected.
• Vulnerability: the degree to which a community is damaged.

The magnitude of a risk also depends on human decisions,...

Institutions of the European Union

European Parliament

The European Parliament is made up of MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) who are elected by direct universal suffrage since 1979. Elections are held every 5 years, and the most recent ones were in 2009 and 2014. Each country elects a number of MEPs that corresponds to its population, and the different political forces of each country are represented. However, the Parliament does not represent the political forces of the EU as a whole.

The European Parliament does not initiate legislation, but it passes the EU legislation together with the Council. It also approves the EU budget each year. The Parliament meets in Strasbourg. It is one of the few democratic institutions of the EU, as...

Hume's Theory of Knowledge

Descartes, a representative of rationalism, held that both data and ideas lead to rational knowledge. There is no evidence that experience has value unless its contents are subjected to an ordered, rigorous and methodical procedure (methodical doubt and rules), so that we may arrive at clear and true ideas.

In the act of thinking, the mind acts according to its own content of thought, and not merely according to the first thing that depends on what it represents. Descartes admitted innate ideas, but only of three kinds: the self, God and the world. Through these, he explained the extrinsic attributes of bodies and their movements, which are the res cogitans and res extensa, whose modes or accidents act upon them.

Knowledge

Typology and Tourist Interests

Typology and tourist interests. Spaces have a fairly high influx of tourists (or national and foreign visitors). Destinations are grouped by their tourism profile: areas of high tourism are given to sun and beach (the Balearic and Canary Islands and the Mediterranean and peninsular coastline) and cultural tourism (Madrid). Destinations of medium density include the northern coasts and sightseeing in the peninsula.

There exist northern and isolated destinations (ski resorts, rural tourism and historic cities). According to their use in qualifying for tourism, they may be developed with medium seasonality, superior to stabilize, or tourism with punctual views related to extended heritage and historical tourist interests....

Sponges (Porifera)

Sponges are asymmetrical or radially symmetrical animals with a body wall that surrounds an atrial cavity. Their bodies are covered in pinacocytes and their water canals are lined with choanocytes, which create a current of water through the body. The intermediate layer, the mesohyl, contains amoebocytes, which digest food particles, transport nutrients and manufacture spicules. Sponges reproduce both sexually and asexually.

Types of sponges

• Calcareous sponges: with calcium carbonate spicules.
• Siliceous sponges: with silica spicules.
• Demosponges: the most common sponge group.

Cnidarians

Cnidarians occur as polyps and medusae. They have cnidoblasts in the epidermis containing stinging cells (cnidocytes). Amoeboid cells in the mesoglea...

Descartes' Method of Doubt

The methods described in Discourse on Method. Descartes proposes an alternative method for discovering what is true and what is false, and for finding a certainty and conviction that lead to security. Matmata, Kier, and others have sought an alternative method of philosophy that leads to the same security. Through the alternative methods of mathematics, deduction, and reasoning from the first truth, some truths follow. In this way, a philosophical building could be built on a solid foundation.

The Purpose of Doubt

Doubt: Descartes' first step in his method is to doubt, in order to achieve his goal of distinguishing what is true from what is false. He thinks that doubting at the beginning removes apparent knowledge. This...