Expedition College Essays Samples For Students

In May 1996, teams led by Scott Fisher and Rob Hall attempted to summit Mt. Everest, resulting in five deaths. Many have analyzed mistakes causing disastrous outcomes. This paper examines how sunk cost bias influences events.

Sunk cost bias refers to seemingly irrational decisions based on past rational choices regarding the same issue. It is a psychological trap where past successes make present choices appear rational despite the danger. The Everest case demonstrates sunk cost bias through perilous decisions resting on past triumphs.

Involving inexperienced climbers reflects sunk cost bias. Though leaders could have aborted the climb to protect novices, they proceeded based on past summits with them (Roberto & Carioggia, 2003). Canceling was rational, but prior investments prevented it.

Several issues before the attempt could have prompted abandonment, including oxygen delivery delays, porter pay disputes further slowing things, and a high-altitude tent failing to arrive (Krakauer, 1997). The sunk cost bias of having invested heavily generated the risky decision to continue, downplaying the hazards.

Using few radios also exhibited bias (Roberto & Carioggia, 2003). Despite the danger of inadequate communications, the sunk expedition costs led members to overlook the problem instead of delaying until obtaining more radios. Later radio issues could have been prevented by canceling when the shortfall was noticed.

These examples show how prior rational choices and expenses shaped reckless decisions through sunk cost bias, demonstrating how such bias can undermine organizational decision-making.

References

Krakauer, J. (1997). Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. New York, NY: Villard.
Roberto, M. & Carioggia, G. (2003). Mount Everest-1996. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark expedition would go where no American had gone before. The journey ventured through the last greatest wilderness of the world. Many believed that Woolly Mammoths still existed and it was unknown what plants and species would be found. It was well known that Native Indians had lived there for centuries. The journey was funded by President Thomas Jefferson who was looking for a way for America to expand into the west of the country. He chose his chief aid Meriwether Lewis as the captain of the expedition because he was a soldier and woodsmen. Lewis asked William ...

Christopher Columbus was a sailor and discoverer of the Sargasso Sea, the Bahamas and the archipelago of Antilles. He first reached the northern coast of South America and the Caribbean coastline of Central America.
Christopher Columbus is one of the most enigmatic historical figures. There is no certain information about his birth, origin, education, professional activities before the first expedition to the West India. That’s why historians and biographers wrote more than hundred books about his discoveries. Therefore, the history of Columbus contains continuous mysteries, assumptions and doubts.
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451, the day between ...

History is considered to be humanity’s legacy drawing the path which is to be paved upon the learnings of the past. It was Aristotle, the great Ancient Greek philosopher, who had said that history is a series of homocentric cycles, aiming at pointing the importance of studying it. Evolution and progress may achieve to make people’s lifestyle much more progressive than they could ever imagine but human nature is not easily changeable. As a conclusion studying history contributes to our understanding human nature, the inner needs generating certain actions, and leads us to learning on what could have been ...

Roanoke is the name of English colony established at similarly named island in 1585 by Sir Walter Raleigh whose purpose was to create a first regular settlement in North America, but colony’s existence did not last long as all of its settlers disappeared under mysterious circumstances and left almost no traces. The history of colony disappearance for centuries has been staying in the focus of attention of sailors, historians, archeologists and mystery fans, but the answer is still not found. For this reason Roanoke went down in history as the “Lost Colony”; its image later served as a ...

Roanoke was a colony located on Roanoke Island that disappeared. The colony was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 16th century on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Elizabeth I had wanted to create a non-temporary English town in the United States. The colonists later disappeared during the Anglo-Spanish War while waiting for supplies from England. The last shipment of supplies that they had received had been three years prior and when Raleigh’s men returned both the colonists and city were gone, with no evidence of what had occurred.
The charter and financing for the colony ...

Almost everyone in the world today agrees that the United States is the only superpower in the world. The reason as to why the United States is a superpower is because of its military achievements, particularly during the 20th century. During the First World War, the United States fought alongside and against the best armies in the world. However, the U.S. showed why it was the best among the best. One of the outstanding military regimens that contributed the military success of the U.S. military during the First World War is the American Expeditionary Force. The American Expedition Force ( ...

Introduction

Tourism is comparatively recent development in the Far North. In the last 15 years, the numbers of tourists have been increasing to experience the spectacular wildlife, landscapes and pursue the unique settings of Arctic. In the year 2000, the Arctic tourist count has reached above 1.5 million, with the northern Fennoscandia drawing around 70% of them. The Arctic cruise ship traffic has increased from 50 ships in the year 2004 to around 250 in 2007, most of them in Greenland and Nunavut (Canada). Most of the tourists travel to Arctic during the summers, when they can enjoy and pursue ...

Both Alexander the Great and Ferdinand Magellan are prominent historian figures, who made a significant contribution to the world’s record. Though they lived in the different centuries, were born in families with a diverse background and each is known for completely opposite endeavor, they do have something in common. The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast these two personalities.

Early Years of Life

Alexander the Great is the son of King Philip II. His mother is Queen Olympia. From the early age, he was taught to fight and at the age of 18 he had already took part in ...

Changing Attitudes towards Native Americans during the Early National Period

During the gone twenty-five years, the general publics’ attitude towards the Native Americans has changed in some ways. This has been represented due to the presence of some federal laws allowing these Native Americans to practice their almost forgotten traditional religious ceremony and in at the same time, this has also affected their religious ceremonies that are traditional. The Congress passed laws that allowed the general public to be considerate and sensitive to the Native American people’s culture. With regards to this, it has always been practiced that when any land issues concerning the federal government or any ...

Themes in U.S. and World History

The Nile River was more than just a geographic factor in Egypt it was one of the main drivers behind Egyptian society, it enabled Egypt to become one of the most recognized and celebrated civilization in human history. Before settling around the Nile the largest population groups in the region were small and could not support large numbers as most of the area was desert. As people began to settle around the Nile, the population grew (The Nile and Ancient Egypt, 2011). The Nile enabled people to farm in the area, and every summer ...

Fiction and satire characterizes the two literature works; the modest proposal by Jonathan Swift and the Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin. Satire is a stylistic device that is used to communicate a serious issue in an indirect manner; fiction also serves the same meaning because it presents as issue to the audience in a similar manner. In essence, the two stylistic devices are critical in literature as they offer the audience a chance to inquire and interrogate the narrator’s statements in a more detailed manner. The Modest Proposal and the Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas present a social ...

The theory of the continental drift was proposed by the German geographer and geologist Alfred Wegener on basis of the accumulated scientific facts. He formulated the first scientific theory of the slow continental drift in 1912. He mentioned the numerous similarities in the geological structure of the continents and the generality of the fossilized flora and fauna in the geological past. The weighty proof also was the coincidence of the climate in the distant geological eras.
Alfred Wegener was born on first of November in 1880 in the center of Brooklyn in the family of the famous scientist. ...

Introduction.

Born in Genoa in 1451 between August and October, Christopher Columbus started going to the sea at a teenage stage. He travelled extensively making Portugal his area. He tried to gain royal patronage to no avail for Indies enterprise. During his time in the sea, he made other 2 voyages to the new territories and in the long run he was defeated and humiliated along the way. He was indeed great navigator, but failed in matters regarding administration and management. The study below shows his history in two historian’s perspectives.

A summary of the history of Columbus by Howard Zinn in “A People’s History of the United States”

In the treatment of individuals who are referred to ...

Terms Used: Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, Henry Clay, John Tyler, Calhoun

Introduction
United States has come a long way through from where it used to be in history. The present map of US is driven by the doctrine of manifest density that caused enormous expansion across North America in the last century. Although, expansion of the boundaries would be useful but dangerous too because it comprises the land of Native American who were living in most areas of the western region and it has highlighted one of the most prominent issue of the country, slavery. Most importantly, the native black Americans were facing slavery in 18th century and in the ...

Ray Bradbury is a renowned science fiction writer whose works have an overwhelming number of fans around the globe. The Sound of Thunder, one of his short stories, is a masterpiece in both its content, stylistic devices, and method of delivery. This fiction story not only focuses on the building of a solid plot, but also leaves the audience in suspense leaving many questions unanswered. Despite the story’s ability to capture the attention of its audience, Bradbury is able to bring out a take home message that he would like to impart into his readers. Though subject to debate, Ray Bradbury builds ...

Sensing the possibilities of America, Spaniards started their American expedition in earlier sixteenth century under administration and support of Spanish monarchy. Christopher Columbus started his mission in the year, 1492. He sailed to America with a motive to sell, buy spices as well as other goods and to hunt for the potential trade opportunities of the new places. Spanish sailors were among the first explorers of different new places of the world including the North American territory. This paper discusses the Spanish mission, establishment of Spanish colonies and other related aspects of the story.
Spanish colonies were established in ...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the traditional institution of trade and economics among the Trobriand Islanders. The primary focus is on the symbolic interpretation of the acts involved in the kula ring and in yam production, display and distribution. The first section of the paper explains the kula ring and how it operated in Trobriand society at the time of the first ethnographic description of the Trobrianders by Malinowski in 1914. The second section examines how social hierarchy is expressed in trade within the kula ring. The third section looks at the difference between symbolic gift ...

Part IV Question

Colonization of America by the European countries began in the late 15th century. The colonization was mostly motivated by the Europe desire to acquire wealth. The European colonialists justified their move by stating that they wanted to civilize indigenous people. The famous phrase “God, Gold and Glory” incredibly summarizes the colonialists’ motives. Explorers, Amerigo Vespucci, Diego Alverez Chanca, Hernando Cortes, and Samuel de Champlain spoke on their aspiration to extend the political boundaries of Europe and to advance European economies. Vespucci, Chanca, Cortes, and Samuel de Champlain emphasized their intent to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. Some of the ...

- So this is the ship they say is unsinkable.
- It is unsinkable. God himself could not sink this ship.
Every once in a while the conversations with friends or newly met acquaintances turn to favorite movies. Every once in a while “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion comes on radio or music TV channel. Every once in a while close people talk about how true love never dies and how legends are never forgotten. And every single time Titanic is mentioned like a strongly attached, inseparable, and ultimate representation of the above mentioned categories, ever-present and ever-green.
...

Introduction

Black Robe is a movie made in the Canadian province of New France, commonly known as Quebec. It was shot in 1991, but the setting of the movie was the 17th century, which detailed France’s exploration and settlement into medieval Canada. The movie is an adaptation of Brian Moore’s novel that had the same title (Amazon.com 1997).
The story revolves around an ancient Jesuit priest from France who, in 1634, begins an expedition to bring Christianity to the Indian natives of what is present day Quebec, Canada. The film chronicles a difficult, brutal, and dangerous 1500-mile journey to a ...

[Professor]

History as we know it is always written in the bird’s eye view. It is always in the perspective of the victors. Those who subjugated lands and people that include Christopher Columbus wrote heroic actions of expedition to save the wretch from damnation or to civilize the savages. Spain, Portugal and other conquistadores in the 13th to 18th century used Christianity in their search for gold, slaves and glory. Howard Zinn’s book entitled, “History is a Weapon” mentioned that the conquests of Spain and other powerful countries during the colonial era was written in history in a way ...

“The Last Place on Earth” an epic TV series based on the controversial true story of two rivals, Captain R.F. Scott and Roald Amundsen carrying a common dream of reaching the South Pole. Amundsen was a professional explorer began his planning secretly to go to South Pole. The biggest obstacle in his expedition was the finance. So he officially declared that he will get to North Pole but his real intentions were to conquer South Pole before Captain Scott reaches there. But he officially announced that he will go the North Pole so as to get finance from the big industrialists, ...

The great geographical discoveries ( or large Navigations ) is the name given to the period of history that took place between the fifteenth century and early seventeenth century during which Europeans explored the world extensively in search of new trade routes . Historians often refer to the " Age of Discovery " as the pioneer Portuguese and Spanish navies studies performed between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who built a relationship with Africa , America and Asia, looking for an alternative way to " India " , driven by trade in gold, silver and spices ( Martin 6).
In 1543 , by chance, three Portuguese merchants Francisco António ...

Science fiction is a fairly new genre in the spectrum of literature; the earliest practitioners include Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and even Mark Twain (if you’ve read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, then you’ve read an early work of science fiction) – both of whom wrote in the nineteenth century. Some of this has a lot to do with the fact that science and technology did not really take off until the early 1800’s, which brought the Industrial Revolution. What with steam engines powering vast machines, the imagination of writers soon foresaw the wonders that those ...

Thanksgiving is a holiday that has been long celebrated over the years but is has had its roots in a cultural and religious perspective. There are many myths that surround the origin of thanksgiving but the most known one is that it was a feast to celebrate the successful fall harvest. The pilgrims celebrated it as they made through the winter and with the great assistance of the Wampanoag tribe, they got a bounty harvest to sustain them to the next winter season (Smith 79-85). The feast took place for three days, usually between September and November, though there ...

Geography

Colombia is one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia back in the year 1830. Colombia is bordered by Panama to the Northwest, Venezuela and Brazil to the East, Ecuador and Peru to the Southwest. Colombia is the forth-largest country in south America with a total area of 1,138,910 square kilometers. Colombia has tropical climate as most of it mainland is located within the tropics. The climatic variations in the country Colombia are mainly influenced by altitude. The country can be divided into climatic regions, the hot country, ortierra caliente this is ...

The Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion shook Qing China. Two armed conflicts between China and the states of West, known as the "Opium Wars" (1839-1842 and 1858-1860), led to a terrible Chinese national disgrace, completely loss of political independence and the separation of China to zones of influence between foreign powers.
At first, the casus belli was closure of the vast China market for countries of West. All the foreign states were forced to market only to certain Chinese companies situated at the port area in the Guangdong Province, without possibility of trade within the city, this caused artificial ...

Question 1 – The Silk Road

The Silk Road is thought to have been pioneered by Zhang Qian who chose to open well known ancient trade roads. Between 139 BC and 119 BC, he traveled bring with him massive amounts of data about Western Asia and Central Asia. Originally thought to be termed as such by German geographer Ferninand on Richthoten during the 1870s, the Silk Road was not actually one single road but a series of routes, treks and trips throughout Central Asia, as East met North; the major players in this new intra-territorial and overseas ventures were the Mediterranean, Greece and Asia (Waugh, ...

Recommendation of near-earth Asteroids mining to the company board

Introduction
The space mining operations are extremely prominent option for mining companies who are in pursuit of rare metals that are abundant on these celestial bodies. The man’s space expedition reached a landmark with the lunar expedition and since then a lot of mining activities are already planned for this segment of the space. However, the future prospects for mining of asteroids near to earth are very high as this idea is relatively newer to the world of mining. These are almost 13,000 celestial bodies flying very close to the earth in the space and they are ...

Introduction

In a learning environment, like a high school, students have different characters adopted from their environments, for instance, there are cool students and “blockheads.” For some learners, high school life is fascinating, educational, and interesting, while other learners find the environment suffocative and a long, infuriating period. The diversities in perceptions of learners can be attributed to the popular culture they subscribe. Popular culture also known as pop culture refers to different perspectives, attitudes, ideas, pictures, or other experiences associated with a particular culture. Different high schools have different cultures and cultures can offer benchmarks learners apply to identify ...

The Holy Crusades were a series of nine major military campaigns led by Roman Catholic Church to take back Jerusalem from Muslims. Religion played a much larger part of everyday life in the time of the crusades, so it is difficult for modern people to truly understand the motives of people involved in the crusades. While the crusades did seem to be fought generally in the name of God, it appears many people involved in the crusades fought more out of self-interest rather than some deep religious devotion. The Holy Crusades were not very holy.
Evidence suggests that one of ...

The colonization of North America began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus and his Spanish expedition sailed west in such for a new trade route to Far East. As such, the first European power was Spain. Spain colonized the largest areas of North America and Caribbean and extended its colonial territories to the Southern part of South America. Some of the Spanish cities that were founded at the time of colonization were Santo Domingo in 1496, Puerto Rico in 1508, Panama in 1519 and Veracruz or Mexico 1496.
In North America, the Spanish missions were Christian missions and they had ...

Imagine you’re watching a horror movie – the young, blonde protagonist is alone in her home, with the lights out, and she hears a creepy sound from the other end of the house. “Hello?” she cries innocently, while she slowly walks in the darkness toward the sound. As an audience member, you have seen this scenario play out many times, usually ending in the unceremonious and gory death of the woman by a mysterious serial killer or monster, and you can’t help but think “Don’t go in there!” You castigate the poor woman, who does not have the same information ...

Imagine you’re watching a horror movie – the young, blonde protagonist is alone in her home, with the lights out, and she hears a creepy sound from the other end of the house. “Hello?” she cries innocently, while she slowly walks in the darkness toward the sound. As an audience member, you have seen this scenario play out many times, usually ending in the unceremonious and gory death of the woman by a mysterious serial killer or monster, and you can’t help but think “Don’t go in there!” You castigate the poor woman, who does not have the same information ...

This is the hardest thing that a friend can ever be called to do. I was up the entire night thinking of the best words to speak of our beloved Xerxes.
However, I will share with you the life stages and major achievements of my friend and your king Xerxes. He was a man passionate about life and extensively determined to make change in his environment. As a king, he won a clear path for peace in our society. He possessed true values of leadership.
My friend Xerxes was born in 519 BC in Persia. He was a child to Atossa, the ...

‘Enter dragon’ is a vivid example that fits within the Chinese martial art film genre. The film was produced by Hollywood studio (Warner Bros) in association Gold Harvest, and Concord Company, and the movie was set up in Hong Kong. The seven Little Fortunes were used as the stuntmen in the movie, i.e. Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan. During the opening sequence of the movie, portly Hung fights Lee, while Chan fights presented as a Henchman when Lee is found in the Han’s underground lair. Lee intended to use the Shaolin Monastery fight sequence, which would be very ...

Between 1500 and 500 B.C, San Jose Mogote city in the modern day state of Oaxaca was the most important and largest settlement in the region. Oaxaca was inhabited by more tan sixteen subcultures during the pre-colonial period. Each of these subcultures had its customs, language and traditions. However, the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs were the majority and the most sophisticated. The Zapotecs were highly skilled in excavation and astronomy. The Mayan people lived in the tropical lowlands of the modern day Guatemala. The Mayan culture reached the peak of its power and influence around sixth century A.D. The ...

Kim’s Strafford’s essay “A Few Miles Short of Wisdom” found in the book Having Everything Right is about his visit to the Big Hole Battlefield in Montana. The essay is about an author’s insatiable appetite for a clearer view of the world and having a deeper meaning of events in the world. This is the appetite that most of us always have when we visit places that have a special meaning for us. Kim Strafford’s visit is a learning experience as he is driven by the hunger for the absolute reality and the quest to know the kind of ...

The Acoma myth origin story is about two sisters Iatiku and Nautsiti. They emerged from the underground and were given a basket with small carved animals and seeds and were informed by the spirit that the components of the basket would help them for completing the world. The supernatural or spirit taught everything to the sisters to help them live in the world. The spirit taught them to pray, grow & prepare food, how to use salt and interdependence of plants, earth, humans and animals. Then the spirit told them to shape the earth, starting with the first mountain they made ...

English

The English patient is a painful story of four people residing in an Italian Villa in the hills of Tuscany during world war second. It is a historical reminiscence of an English patient who is burnt beyond recognition, a nurse serving and taking care of the patient in the dangerous villa ignoring the dangers of mines and bombs in the villa, an Indian Sikh sapper who is an expert in diffusing bombs and a thief. The novel deals with the traumatic experiences of the four characters during the war and the identity crisis of the people. It is the painful story of the ...

In general terms, public relations refer to the various methods used by a company to disseminate messages and information about its services, products, overall company image, employees, customers, suppliers, and other interested community members. The main point or aim of public relations is to make the general public think positively and favorably about the organization and its products. Some of the tools used for public relations include press conferences, speaking engagements, news releases and community service programs. Public relations is often confused with another marketing element called advertising, but there is clear-cut difference between the two terms. Advertising is a process ...

Charles the Great popularly known as Charlemagne, born in 1972, was the son of Bertrada Pepin the Short. Charlemagne was born out of the wedlock and many people though that he was illegitimate. He grew up to become the king of the Franks and between 800 and 814 he was the emperor of the West (Einhard & Notker, 42). His strong believe in religion accelerated him to form the Holy Roman Empire; an empire that grew to be quite different from other ancient empires in Europe and the world over. He additionally strengthened the status of political and European economic life. ...

- Did Columbus have a profound or mild impact on the American Dream?
There are two views about Christopher Columbus’ expedition to North America. Yes, he discovered a new land of opportunities, and paved way for millions of people to follow suit. These immigrants contributed to the building of a great nation and in the process achieved their personal ambitions. But, there is also an other faction which opines that, though Columbus found the sea routes for reaching this land, he was by no means the founder of the country, because indigenous people where living in this land having a civilization of ...

One would wonder how it feels witnessing the Vietnam war firsthand in the combat. Well, Tim O’Brian takes us through a journey that portrays the emotional and physical burdens that the soldiers of war had to deal with during the Vietnam warfare in his book The things they carried. However, this is not a book about the Vietnam war but its story about the experiences of the soldiers and the emotional effect that was bestowed onto them. O’Brian skillfully employs various stylistic techniques of specific and a conscious selection of detail. The predominant theme in the book revolves around the ...

The frontier development was the turning point in the history of the United States because it marked the beginning of European colonies in America and defined the character and spirit of America for centuries ahead, together with the conflicts between Native Americans and the colonists. According to the Oregon model, the frontier development passed through three distinct stages marked by contact through trade, penetration, and settlement of the America by the European colonists.
According to the Oregon model, the first stage of frontier movement involved exploration by European expeditions of the territory beyond the frontier. The European travelers ...

Frame narrative form

A frame narrative or a frame story is a story or narrative that contains another story or several other stories within the main story (Richardson 159). The main part of the narrative is usually introduced which sets the precedence of the other stories that build up the entire story. The proceeding stories are usually smaller but part of the main narrative introduced at the onset of a particular story.
Frame stories are a convenient for the purpose of setting up the entire story as a whole. This technique helps to juxtapose the individual stories into one. The smaller stories included in the longer ...

When most people think about the discovery of America by European explorers, the first person they think of is Christopher Columbus. However, the north and south continents of America are not named after Colombus, but another person, Amerigo Vespucci. Both of these people have important roles in the discovery and understanding about the lands known at the time as the New World.
Columbus was an explorer, and he was motivated to try to find an easier route for traders to reach India and China; he believed this could be accomplished by travel across the Atlantic Ocean. After many ...

The people of Monterrey, Mexico's modern city in northern part heard the gunshots in the month of November this year and as a result, a twenty one years old innocent student was killed when an assailant opened fire in an overcrowded place. After the incident, the government has decided to deploy more police force along with the army in the city but people are in a state of shock due to the open bloodshed in their neighborhood. The Monterrey is Mexico’s third wealthiest and largest city, known for some very good educational institutions but in the recent years, the Mexican drug ...