Alan Greenspan essays

Alan Greenspan essays Bob Woodwards book, Maestro, is sort of a mini-political biography of Alan Greenspan. The book doesnt get into Greenspans personal life at all, rather it sticks to the discussion of Greenspans work as an economist for the U.S. government. There is very little criticism of Greenspan in this book. Woodward himself just tells Greenspans story. He doesnt make any criticisms or offer any analysis. The only criticism at all, comes from some of Greenspans fellow Federal Reserve members, on the Board of Governors, and from some of the other members of the Federal Open Market Committee. But even this criticism is weak. There are fifteen chapters to this book, much of it explaining how the Federal Reserve Board works. The board meets once every six weeks with twelve voting members and seven Federal governors plus five of the twelve Presidents from the Federal Reserve district banks around the country. The Federal Reserve headquarters is located on Constitution Avenue in Downtown Washington D. C. This board is called the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which Alan Greenspan is Chairman. Woodward explains that the main concern of the Federal Reserve Board is to keep control of the interest rate that the Fed controls and the short-term fed funds rate, the interest rate the regular banks charge each other for over night loans. Greenspan understood that controlling the fed funds rate was the key to the power over the economy. The Federal Reserve also had power in the bond market, to ease credit by having a trading desk in the New York Stock Exchange to buy U. S. Treasury Bonds. This pumps money into the banking system and eventually into the economy, giving the fed and ultimitly Greenspan himself, a lot of power over the economy. Much of the book covers these Federal Reserve Board meetings and how Alan Greenspan maneuvered his people on the board to go along with whether to ra ...

Amiable vs. Amicable

Amiable vs. Amicable Amiable vs. Amicable Amiable vs. Amicable By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between amiable and amicable? Their etymology is identical, but their senses are distinct. Amiable means â€Å"agreeable,† â€Å"friendly,† suggesting a person or an experience marked by a congenial personality or atmosphere: â€Å"He seems like the amiable sort†; â€Å"They were engaged in an amiable conversation.† The word ultimately derives from amicus, the Latin word for â€Å"friend,† which is related to amare, meaning â€Å"love.† (The latter term is the basis of amatory and amorous, both of which refer to sexual feelings.) Amicus itself was borrowed into English as a legal term; it is part of the phrase â€Å"amicus curiae† (sometimes shortened simply to amicus), which translates literally to â€Å"friend of the court† and refers to an individual or an organization that files an amicus brief or otherwise requests of a court the opportunity to weigh in about a legal issue. Amicus also survives in the Spanish word amigo, which means â€Å"friend† and is sometimes used as such in American English. Amicable means â€Å"peaceable, marked by goodwill, as in â€Å"We were relieved when we came to an amicable understanding about the issue.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Bare or Bear With Me?How to Punctuate Descriptions of Colors30 Words Invented by Shakespeare

Group field work report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Group field work report - Essay Example It is aggravated by shortage of entry points into the city and roundabouts. Currently, Parramatta is going through a development program that will focus mainly on transport within the area to encourage economic growth. The city council resurfaces roads, installs traffic lights and takes measures to enhance usability of the roads by motorists. In addition, it is putting up new footpaths and paid parking meters. not fully aware of the traffic rules and various road signs. Motorists, who over speed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, ignore safety measures results into accidents. Children usually get excited when they are on roads. The motorists have to limit their speed in the school zones, drive ways and car parks. Drive ways and car parks pose a bigger risk to children because the vehicles move slowly which they may misinterpret thinking the vehicle has stopped or they may start motion without children noticing or the driver noticing the children (Kids and Traffic 2010). According to Preston (2010), bicycles, scooters, rollerblades and skateboards are popular with children who use them for playing. The parents should advise them to use proper safety gear. These play wheels should be used within adult supervision preferably in parks away from active traffic or on safe routes prescribed by the City Council. Recent statistics show that road crashes are the biggest killer of school going children: a fact that is quite frightening (Kids Safety 2010). When children are travelling by bus, it is essential to fit and maintain child restraints. According to the new laws implemented by the RTA, all children under the age of four should travel in the rear seat while children between the ages of four and seven can only travel in the front seat if all the rear seats are occupied by younger children. Children Road Safety (2010) is of the opinion that restraints are

Granite South Carolina Train Disater Term Paper

Granite South Carolina Train Disater - Term Paper Example ion was train number 192 of the Norfolk southern train while the other stationary one was also a Norfolk Southern train number P22 and was effectively stationed on a siding adjacent to the Avondale Mills factory. One of the most probable causes that could have fundamentally fueled this particular event was the fact that the train number 192 was potentially misdirected using switching of train lanes from the main one to a subsidiary track into the region of where the train number 192 was directed and hence this accredited to the collision near the Avondale Mills plant. Norfolk southern train number 192 was also scheduled to carry and in effect was carrying bulk amounts of chlorine, sodium hydroxide, and cresol while when the incident took place one of the containers loaded with latter chemicals punctured on site and the surrounding block of topography was potentially exposed to hazardous elements in these course of events. The non-static locomotive was carrying forty two cars from which sixteen were derailed at the point of impact. Further to this the stationary engine labeled train number P22 had two cars docked from which one of them fell out at the point of impact. It may also be imperative to note that one of the freight cars loaded on train number 192 had ninety tons on chlorine from which sixty ton of the gas was emitted again during the crash. It was established later in a NTSB (National transport safety board) that the leak was due to a puncture in the chlorine container and hence this was the particular reason the hazardous gas was emitte d into the atmosphere. The NTSB report also showcased that three emergency calls were made right after the crash with potential eyewitness claiming to have seen and heard a train wreck in the area. The report also stressed that one of the three callers claimed to have smelled bleach near the crash site after which the call was abruptly ended. The fact again signifies that the chlorine containers did in actuality break from

New Media Technology Essay Example for Free

New Media Technology Essay Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the worldwide web, initially intended his invention to be a haven of collaboration where people could share their knowledge (Gauntlett 2009:39). Although the prospect of such public journalism corresponded with democratic and egalitarian principles, journalists took this idea with a pinch of salt. This was almost 20 years ago, before the information highway had, for better or for worse, stretched its limbs across the globe. Today, the new media has redefined both journalism and self expression in conflicting ways that leave an individual wondering at the veracity of digital information. In the last decade, internet has gone through an explosive growth and diversification. No one could have foreseen how the internet would pervade our lives and transform the very notion of being part of a society. It has provided the ultimate freedom of the new age: a single blogger can speak to the entire world, a concept virtually impossible two decades ago. However, with this flourishing and unbound growth, the internet brings a unique set of predicaments and dilemmas. The most profound and relevant of such problems is the age-old clash of a person’s right of self-expression with the hazards of misinformation of the whole society. Whether this deceit comes about due to ignorance or design is irrelevant; in a society that promotes freedom of speech, misinformation is bound to occur on both grounds. While conferring infinite freedom to the common person, this means of self-expression comes with the acrid realization that words from a layman, presented as the predominating views of his community, are not necessarily a blessing. The news on the new media of today is more about gossip and entertainment then first-rate journalism. Since when did journalism begin to cater to the ever-growing need of the populace to be entertained? In an interview to BBC World News America, Ted Koppel, former Nightline presenter, criticized the digital journalist of today for being a mere supplier for consumers (Whitlock 2010). The commercial expansion of new media and ever-growing competition in the free market means that journalists have to write what sells; or rather, gets the most â€Å"hits† on a website. How did we come to a situation where the populace demands not to be informed, but to be perpetually entertained? Discussing news on the television, Daya Kishan Thussu (2007: 9) states: â€Å"There is a concern that too much news is creating an information overload, contributing to a structural erosion of the public sphere in the Habermasian sense, where the viewer, bombarded with visuals, is unable to differentiate between public information and corporate propaganda. † If that is true regarding television news, it most definitely holds water concerning internet news. The gargantuan flow of information, most of which lacks in credibility, is bombarded on any user who wades through the mire of pop up advertisements, banners, and mass e-mailing. Although, these devices are some of the tools used in the race to get more traffic on ones website, the capitalist agenda is far from being the most unfavorable feature of journalism. It is the ubiquitous use of new media, especially by the youth that yields the most detrimental effects. The frivolous writing that is spilt across the new media today may be the first literature some of us encounter, and draw heavily from. However, there have been examples of the internet doing its job where other media have failed. Earlier this year, on January 12th, an earthquake hit the Caribbean island of Haiti. All landlines and mobile connections were suspended. The production team of the news program Sunrise at Sky News, London, was finding it difficult to channel in the first reports from the disaster-struck area. It was to be a young member of their team, Emily Purser, who used Twitter and instant messaging via Google and Skype, to secure the first reports of the incident (Elward 2010). Another, much publicized affair was the use of Twitter by the political opposition in Iran to protest the presidential elections. The protestants took to all sorts of media, but the loudest dissent was voiced, surprisingly, through microblogging. This medium proved to be fast, portable, and most importantly very difficult to contain. Ironically, this very accessibility makes the medium too erratic, unreliable, and mundane to be of any journalistic value (Grossman 2009). An obvious embodiment of the debate between free speech and quality journalism is Wikipedia. This resource epitomizes the â€Å"by the people, for the people† ideology, but this trait alone does not give it any credibility whatsoever, at least not in academic circles. A former editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Britannica compared Wikipedia to a â€Å"public toilet†, accusing it of delivering information that has no authenticity (Shirky 2006). On the other hand, notions that anything that appears in print media will always be more accurate than digital information are absurd. What Wikipedia envisions is the process through which one can witness the knowledge of its users evolving and perfecting itself through countless revisions (Shirky 2006). The trump card in the argument for Wikipedia comes from a comparison of veracity of data between itself and Britannica; the scientific journal Nature declares them to be of similar accuracy (Giles 2005:900). This collaboration is a sign for those who think people are becoming ever more antisocial and misanthropic, for this is a global effort in creating something for the benefit of all and no monetary gain (Gauntlett 2009:42) . Patricia Wallace, in her book, The Psychology of the Internet writes about how free flow of information can be used to cultivate critical and analytical thinking amongst students who access it (1999:245). Nevertheless, the fact remains that the new media is losing credibility day by day. Although, the global sharing of information and its revision by collaboration is a noble idea, public journalism makes it exceedingly difficult to acquire accurate information; and to accept the new media as a genuine journalistic medium. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gauntlet, David. (2009). Case Study: Wikipedia. Eds. Creeber, G Martin, R. Digital Cultures. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Thussu, Daya Kishan. (2007). News as Entertainment: The Rise of Global Infotainment. London: SAGE Publications. Wallace, Patricia. (1999). The Psychology of The Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shirky, Clay. Interviewed on Imagine, BBC1, UK (aired 5th December 2006) Giles, Jim. (2005). Internet encyclopedias go head to head, Nature, 438:900. www. nature. com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a. html (5th May, 2010) Grossman, Lev. (2009). Iran Protests: Twitter, the Medium of the Movement. Time. http://www. time. com/time/world/article/0,8599,1905125,00. html (5th May, 2010) Whitlock, Scott. (2010). Ted Koppel Slams Undisciplined Internet Journalism. NewsBusters. http://newsbusters. org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2010/04/13/ted-koppel-slams-undisciplined-internet-journalism-longs-good-old-da (5th May, 2010) Elward, David. (2010) Work of a trainee newspaper journalist. (5th May, 2010) http://davidelward. com/2010/03/09/the-digital-revolution-need-not-sound-the-death-knell-for-good-journalism/

Why Is Monopolies Harmful And How Can Regulation Ameliorate These Harm :: essays research papers

Why Is Monopolies Harmful and How Can Regulation Ameliorate These Harmful Effects? Why is monopoly ‘harmful? How can regulation ameliorate these harmful effects? What problems confront the regulators? In order to deduce that a monopoly is ‘harmful', there must be another market system which is preferable to monopoly so as to offer greater benefits to the public. A monopoly can therefore be compared to perfect competition. If the benefits of perfect competition outweigh the benefits of monopoly then a monopoly can be regarded as ‘harmful' since the consumers are not receiving the maximum possible utility for their purchases. Monopolies are criticised for their high prices, high profits and insensitivity to the public. Some governments therefore, in the light of these protests, advocate policies relating to monopolies, in order to regulate their power in favour of the public's interest. There are several reasons why monopolies may be against the public interest. It is claimed that monopolies produce at a lower level output and charge a higher price than under perfect competition in both the short run and the long run. Consider the diagram above. Assume that this monopolist attempts to maximise profits. Equating MC=MR yields an output of Qm and a price of Pm. If the same industry existed under perfect competition however, the price would be Ppc and output would be Qpc since under perfect competition P=MC=AR. The price in such a situation would thus be lower than under monopoly and output would be greater. Consumers obviously benefit if this is the case since P=MC implies P=Marginal utility so that consumers are maximising their total utility(Under monopoly P>MC and therefore arguably, not the optimum). In the long run under monopoly, supernormal profits persist. Under perfect competition complete freedom of entry leads to the elimination of these profits and forces firms to produce at the bottom of the long run average cost curve. Under monopoly however, there are barriers to entry so as to prevent new firms from entering the industry and reducing the monopolist's profits to the normal level. Higher prices and lower output thus continue to persist in the long run. Due to lack of competition, it is argued, a monopolist has no incentive to develop new techniques in order to survive. A monopolist can therefore make supernormal profits without using the most efficient techniques. Under perfect competition, in order for firms to survive, the most efficient techniques must be adopted or developed whenever possible or else the firm which fails to do so will be forced to shutdown. This argument leads to the conclusion that monopolies have higher cost curves than firms under perfect competition(Assuming

Book Review – Simply Jesus

We can go about Sunday after Sunday worshipping the Lord Jesus and praying out to him in our own ways but at the end of the day, are we ready to deal with the challenges of the â€Å"real life†? Would we question ourselves on the reality of Jesus' existence? â€Å"With Jesus, Its easy to be complicated and hard to be simple†, described the author. And it is so true that with our Limited ability to fully comprehend the works of Christ Jesus, he becomes rather â€Å"under-utilized†, grossly under-valued with Its full potential nowhere near realized. The gospels, like his computer, have every right to feel restated, says the author.Jesus, though he was actually king, did not come fully recognizable as â€Å"the king†, so that his believers need to â€Å"exercise faith† in believing that Jesus is indeed the real king through all his miraculous works! Jesus is unavoidable. But he is also deeply mysterious. While we know so much about Jesus, yet there Is only so little that we really understood of him. Jesus puzzled people then, and he puzzles us till this day! Firstly, we know that Jesus' world was a strange, foreign country. Those days the people then thought differently. They coked at the world differently in cultural habits, practices and lifestyle.Secondly, Jesus' God seem to strange to us! There are so many â€Å"gods† from some of the world's great religions that it is not sufficient Just to ask, â€Å"Do you believe? † but to also ask, â€Å"Which god dowdy believe In? â€Å". We need to get Inside Jesus' world and try to catch a glimpse of what he meant when he spoke of God. Only then, we can begin to look Into think you were allowed to do, and he explained them by saying he had the right to do them! Of course, with all that said, Jesus didn't have â€Å"authority' over us. Nevertheless, the right to â€Å"choose† still lies in our hands today.

Cipp Model of Evaluating a Curriculum

CIPP Model of Evaluation The CIPP model was developed by Stufflebeam (1983) to evaluate curriculums through Context, Input, Process, and Product. The Context defines the operation within which the curriculum will be delivered. It determines the specific characteristics of the learners. Most importantly, it helps to establish a rationale for the determination of the curriculum objectives. In evaluation the context is used to define the environment relevant to the curriculum, describing the actual and intended conditions of the program, identifying unmet needs, and diagnosing barriers that prevent needs from being met.Input identifies and assesses the capabilities, strategies, and designs available for implementing the curriculum as related to the curriculum’s objectives. It determines what internal resources are needed to enable achievement of the objectives and to search for external resources when required. Also, the input phase considers the cost to implement the curriculum. In evaluation the input determines to what extent available resources were used to achieve the curriculum objectives. Process identifies the procedural design that will be used to implement the curriculum.The curriculum objectives are translated in specific activities that constitute the instructional design. In evaluation the process is used to identify deficiencies in the procedural design or in the implementation of the curriculum, i. e. , what actually took place during instruction. To provide information necessary to make modifications to the implementation strategies used during instruction. Product defines the measurable outcomes of the curriculum both during and at the completion of instruction. These outcomes are directly related to the curriculum objectives.In evaluation the product is used to compare actual outcomes against a standard of what is acceptable to make judgments to continue, terminate, modify, or refocus an activity. Evaluation of the Primary Science Curricul um (Levels Infants-Standard5) using the CIPP Model. This curriculum is sequenced into six (6) strands per level of the seven (7) syllabi in which it aids teachers in producing a lesson which helps pupils to develop important concepts in primary science. They help the pupil develop a sound understanding of the living and material world. The strands are: 1) Living things 2) Ecosystems 3) Matter and Materials ) Structures and Mechanisms 5) Energy 6) Earth and Space Context The relation of these courses to the other courses from level infants to standard 5 is the dept in which the topics have evolved in order for the students to gain a deeper understanding of the scientific method and broaden their minds. It is time adequate because it is spread throughout the three terms and is continued to a higher extent every level change. The critical/ important external factor is the ministry of education in which they develop the curriculum to host particular outcomes specific for the exams which follow these lessons at the end of each term.The courses can be integrated into each other for students to grasp knowledge of the methods used in understanding science as well as some of the courses implementing more hands on activities to further the learning process of each student. The links between the courses and research/extension activities are grounds in which the students gain more understanding of each topic through a combination of the new information to the already learnt knowledge from ideas like experiments and projects which help each student understand the content of the course.The course is needed for the students to develop skills in inquiry and the scientific method of investigation to boost the capacity of their learning abilities and will be very useful in society as employers are in need of employees with the ability to think critically and problem solve through the scientific method of investigation. Inputs The students enter with the ability of competence, c uriosity, understanding, creativity, and sensitivity in the event of new knowledge within the science program.The learning styles of each student will differ but from the activities preformed by the teacher and fellow students to further understand the content the students will grasp the new information than if it were just â€Å"wrote learning†. The students become motivated when activities are introduced to the lesson. Some students may live in homes where they are not able to get information for projects which pertain to the lesson and the teachers make arrangements to accommodate these students.The student’s existing knowledge is that of life experience and when they are explained in class the students not have the capability to take the new knowledge and assimilate it with the old knowledge to form new schemes. The aims of the lessons are suitable to the levels in which they are specifically proposed. The objectives, specific to the lesson whether it be senses or space and time or enquiries, are derived from and complement these aims effectively. The course is very clearly defined and the knowledge skills and attitudes match each student’s ability to cope with the content of the lesson.The content of the lesson is appropriate to the age group in which it will be taught and is relevant to real life situations and experiences which makes it easier for the students to develop problem solving skills. The resources and equipment needed will be to further impart knowledge on the students such as field trips, charts, pictures, and experiments. The teachers and the students each have the specific texts books are the ministry provides these books for the schools.The teachers should have the ability to develop new methods in which to teach these lessons to the students as it centers on discovery by the students guided by the teachers. The time available is very different compared to the workload that must be done to accomplish the tasks set for ward by the aims and objectives as the preparation for the lesson takes more time that other lessons due to the fact that the teach now has to facilitate and guide the learning rather than teach the content.Process The workload of students is now broaden as the students have more to accomplish on their own with the other subject areas to take into consideration as these science lessons require more from students. Students will participate in these types of lessons more than the others because it centers on students discovering their potential to investigate and acquire new information on their own with guidance from their teachers. There are little to no problems related to teaching and learning.Also there is an effective two way communication in which the teachers as specific question to arrive at the answer that facilitate critical thinking and problem solving in each student. The students use the knowledge transferred to them to further their understanding of the real world and a pply this knowledge to new situations that arise. The students have no issues with using/applying/analyzing the knowledge and skills being learnt as they understand that it is present in everyday experiences. The teaching and learning process is continuously evaluated in the form of activities and written assignments such as projects and portfolios.The teachings of these lessons are not affected by practical/institutional problems because the teachers teach to one particular syllabus which can fit into any program whether different in terms of culture or religion. The students and teachers need to be very understanding to each student for the duration of imparting knowledge as it develops interpersonal skills. The discipline is maintained by the teacher who asserts the time in which each student must speak and quickly disciplines while teaching the class.Unknown to the class the teacher controls the level of noise through transitional methods which grasp the attention of each studen t. Product At the end of each term an examination is conducted to evaluate the content taught during the course. There is no information on the final assessment of the science curriculum but there are assessments at the end of each lesson. The assessments of the lessons are designed toward the KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes) of each student towards the content of the lesson.The KSA after a course was reported as improved as each child developed new skills in which they can process new information and investigate new ways in which to respond to questions. Students use what they have learnt to develop new skills in the simple processes like play. Each student has developed an understanding of the overall experience during each lesson and has developed new skills of deduction. The main lessons learned were to stimulate curiosity and creativity, develop competence in the use of knowledge and scientific method, and develop a critical awareness of the role of science in everyday li ving.The official report is done and sent to the ministry to further evaluate the determine the effectiveness of the curriculum and to alter what may be needed to change. Teachers whom have the ability to successfully teach the science curriculum will have an added merit to their reputation and the ministry will see no need to change the curriculum while if there were more teachers that have failed to effectively teach the science curriculum the ministry will reevaluate the content make amendments to the curriculum.

Green Revolution Essay Example

Green Revolution Essay Example Green Revolution Essay Green Revolution Essay The success of industrialization in the world has led to environmental issues through the world. As the 21st century begins, many nations are trying to deal with with the environmental effects of industrialization. Therefore began the green revolution, an attempt to change and if not change at least make progress. Starting in the early 19th Century the United States underwent an industrial revolution. The work that many people did changed as they moved from farms and small workshops into larger factories. They tended to buy things in stores, rather than make them at home or trade with their neighbors. They used machines, and purchased the products of machines, more than they ever had. The small-scale centers of textile production discussed in Unit 1 lasted well into the 19th century. But the manufacture of textiles began to change dramatically, starting as early as the sasss, as these traditional sources were first Joined, and then replaced, by a new material, a new kind of agriculture, and a new kind of factory. : The material processed changed, from linen and wool to cotton; the way that cotton was grown and prepared changed, with the invention of the cotton gin and the reinvention of the plantation; ewe machines, invented to process the cotton, found a new setting in larger and more complex factories. Together, these changes added up to an industrial revolution. This textile revolution did not happen everywhere in the United States at the same time, and its effects were quite different in different areas. Perhaps the largest change came in the South, where the new demand for cotton was supplied by plantations based on slave labor and mechanized processing of the cotton by the cotton gin. (Gin is short for engine. ) The Northeastern United States changed aromatically as home spinning and weaving, and small-scale carding and filling mills gave way to large integrated mills where a new kind of worker used new machines to produce cotton cloth on a scale previously unimagined. Smaller mills remained, and would remain for the rest of the century, but for the most part, only in areas of low population far from the commercial markets of the Northeast. This account of the American Industrial Revolution is different from the usual one found in textbooks. Many textbooks claim, for example, that the Industrial Revolution did not occur until he end of the 19th century, with the coming of massive steel mills and the end of small-scale production. And they omit the mechanization and reorganization of Southern plantations, on the grounds that agricultural production is not part of the history of industry. While this traditional story is not wrong, it leaves out an important part of the story. Let also leaves out many people who participated in and whose lives were changed by industrialization. To focus on factories, which have traditionally employed native white and immigrant workers, and from which African Americans ere kept by racial prejudice, leaves out a large group whose story is a key element of American history. Slaves produced the cotton that made possible Northern factories, a piece of history often slighted in favor of stories about those factories. In this curriculum we have widened our point of view to include Southern cotton production as part of textile history. So slavery, and later sharecropping, becomes an of the history of technology; and technology becomes part of African American history. Such an inclusion view should help students of color imagine themselves s people who, like their ancestors, use and control technology. Based on an ancient technology, the introduction of the saw gin at the end of the 18th century changed the nature of American cotton cultivation. Developed Just as the world-wide demand for raw cotton was skyrocketing because of the expansion of textile mills in Britain and the United States, the machine removed the principal bottleneck to cotton production. Even the early machines allowed one person to clean the seeds from fifty pounds of green-seed cotton in one day. Soon cotton became the most important market crop in the South. Production went from 3,000 bales in 1790 to 1 million bales in 1835. With the opportunity to make a good profit from cotton came dramatic changes in Southern agriculture: increased size of plantations, and to work them, increased numbers of slaves. African slaves had been used in Southern agriculture almost from the beginning of European settlement. Tobacco planters had used slaves since the 17th century; slaves were critical to the rice cultivation that developed in the 18th century. Plantations, large farms using slave labor to grow a single crop, were created to make a profit for the owners before technology made cotton a cash rope and before slavery was the only labor system. But plantations were adapted to produce cotton in the 19th century and by then many of them employed only slaves. Planters became wealthy by exploiting the labor of Africans in America, men and women who could not choose another way of life. The growth of cotton as a cash crop in the 19th century meant the growth of slavery throughout the South. Slavery, which had been in decline, became an integral part of the new agriculture. It might seem odd that a new labor-saving machine like the cotton gin meant an increase in the size of the labor force. But the lower price meant an enormous increase in cotton production, and even with the cotton gin, cotton production still required an enormous amount of labor. Cotton demanded large plantations; it made money only when plantation owners could put more workers in the field. From an investors point of view, slaves were a capital investment, comparable to the machinery a northern factory owner might purchase. Many nations throughout the world have to deal with the effects of industrialization. This problem goes back all the way to the Industrial Revolution that started in the mid-sass in England. As a result, these countries are now trying to find ways to resolve these problems. New organizations and countries are working to resolve these problems, such as the Greenback, the United Nations, and the ROI Conference. The Industrial Revolution was the time of change from making goods in the home to making them in a factory. These factories led to an increase of pollution. Industrialization causes many problems in todays nations. Some of these problems include air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, global warming, and the destruction of forests and forest life. Air pollution is event in highly industrialized countries. Industrialized is a term that means producing many goods, usually in factories. The smoke giving off these factories include high amounts of CO and carbon emissions. Countries that are highly industrialized are putting out six times the amount of CO gas developing, non-industrialized countries. This CO gas is harming the environment and ruining the ozone layer. The rate of carbon emission the amount in highly industrialized countries by the year 2020. Most of these gases are formed in industrial cities. Factory smokestacks and car exhaust pipes put these out. When countries do not have the natural resources for farming and food they build up their cities so they have a means of production. Japan is one such country. Because it lacks fertile soil for growing crops it relies on industry to get the products it needs. She has to trade manufactured goods for food products. Cities such as Tokyo have become highly developed and crowded so they are having high amounts of air pollution. Air pollution contributes to smog and acid rain. The burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are causing great problems including global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer. The problems may eventually cause the destruction of the earth. The disposal of toxic chemicals in water are forming problems for underdeveloped countries who dont have purifying systems before they drink their water. The green trend resulted from the introduction of hybrid strains of wheat, rice, and corn and the adoption of modern agricultural technologies, including irrigation and heavy doses of chemical fertilizer. The Green Revolution was launched by research establishments in Mexico and the Philippines that were funded by the governments of those nations, international donor organizations, and he U. S. Government. Similar work is still being carried out by a network of institutes around the world. The Green Revolution was based on years of painstaking scientific research, but when it was deployed in the field, it yielded dramatic results, nearly doubling wheat production in a few years. The extra food produced by the Green Revolution is generally considered to have averted famine in India and Pakistan; it also allowed many developing countries to keep up with the population growth that many observers had expected would outstrip food production. The leader of a Mexican research term, U. S. Agronomist Norman Burglar, was instrumental in introducing the new wheat to India and Pakistan and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The key breakthrough in Mexico was the breeding of short-stemmed wheat that grew to lesser heights than other varieties. Whereas tall plants tend both to shade their neighbors from sunlight and topple over before harvesting, uniformly short stalks grow more evenly and are easier to harvest. The Mexican dwarf wheat was first released to farmers in 1961 and resulted in a doubling of the average yield. Burglar described the twenty years from 1944 to 1964 as the silent revolution that set the stage for the more dramatic Green Revolution to follow. Len the sass, many observers felt that widespread famine was inevitable in the developing world and that the population would surpass the means of food production, with disastrous results in countries such as India. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization calculated that 56 percent of the human race lived in countries with an average per-capita food supply of 2,200 calories per day or less, which is barely at pubescence level (cited by Mann, p. 038). Biologist Paul Earlier predicted in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb that hundreds of millions would starve to death in the sass and sass in spite of any crash programs embarked upon at the time he wrote his book (Earlier, p. X). In 1963, Just such a devastating famine had threatened India and Pakistan. Burglar went to the subcontinent to try to persuade governments to impo rt the new varieties of wheat. Not until 1965 was Burglar able to overcome hundreds of tons of seed to Jump-start production. The new plants caught on rapidly. By the 1969-1970 crop seasonabout the time Earlier was dismissing crash programs55 percent of the 35 million acres of wheat in Pakistan and 35 percent of Indians 35 million acres of wheat were sown with the Mexican dwarf varieties or varieties derived from them. New production technologies were also introduced, such as a greater reliance on chemical fertilizer and pesticides and the drilling of thousands of wells for controlled irrigation. Government policies that encouraged these new styles of production provided loans that helped farmers adopt it. Wheat reduction in Pakistan nearly doubled in five years, going from 4. Million tons in 1965 to 8. 4 million tons in 1970. India went from 12. 3 million tons of wheat in 1965 to 20 million tons in 1970. Both nations were self-sufficient in cereal production by 1974. As important as the wheat program was, however, rice remains the worlds most important food crop, providing 35-80 percent of the calories consumed by people in Asia. The Inter national Rice Research Institute in the Philippines was founded in 1960 and was funded by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the government of the Philippines, and the U. S. Agency for International Development. This organization was to do for rice what the Mexican program had done for wheat. Scientists addressed the problem of intermittent flooding of rice paddies by developing strains of rice that would thrive even when submerged in three feet of water. The new varieties produced five times as much rice as the traditional departed varieties and opened flood-prone land to rice cultivation. Other varieties were dwarf (for the same reasons as the wheat), or more disease-resistant, or more suited to tropical climates. Scientists crossed thirty-eight different breeds of rice to rate AIR, which doubled yields and became known as miracle rice. AIR served as the catalyst for what became known as the Green Revolution. By the end of the twentieth century, more than 60 percent of the worlds rice fields were planted with varieties developed by research institutes and related developers. A pest-resistant variety known as IR was planted on nearly 28 million acres, a record amount for a single food-plant variety. In addition to Mexico, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines, countries benefiting from the Green Revolution included Afghanistan, Sir Lankan, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malay, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia, and Turkey. The Green Revolution contributed to the overall economic growth of these nations by increasing the incomes of farmers (who were then able to afford tractors and other modern equipment), the use of electrical energy, and consumer goods, thus increasing the pace and volume of trade and commerce. As successful as the Green Revolution was, the wholesale transfer of technology to the developing world had its critics. Some objected to the use of chemical fertilizer, which augmented or replaced animal manure or mineral fertilizer. Others objected to the use of pesticides, some of which are believed to be persistent in the environment. The use of irrigation was also criticized, as it often required drilling wells and tapping underground water sources, as was the encouragement of farming in areas formerly considered marginal, such as flood-prone regions in Bangladesh. The very fact that the new crop varieties were developed with foreign support caused some critics to label the entire program imperialistic. Critics also argued that the Green Revolution primarily benefited large equipment, and that it helped displace poorer farmers from the land, driving them into urban slums. Critics also pointed out that the heavy use of fertilizer and irrigation causes long-term degradation of the soil. The success of the Green Revolution also depended on the fact that many of the host countriessuch as Mexico, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Chinahad relatively stable governments and fairly well-developed infrastructures. These factors permitted these countries to diffuse both the new seeds and technology and to bring the products to market in an effective manner. The challenges were far more difficult in places such as Africa, where governments were unstable and roads and water resources were less developed. For example, in mid-sass Mystique, improved corn grew well in the northern part of the country, but civil unrest and an inadequate transportation system left much of the harvest to rot. According to the report by David Gayety, with the exception of a few countries such as Kenya, where corn yields quadrupled in the sass, Africa benefited far less from the Green Revolution than Asian countries and is still threatened periodically with famine. The Green Revolution could not have been launched without the scientific work done at the research institutes in Mexico and the Philippines. The two original institutes have given rise to an international network of research establishments dedicated to agricultural improvement, technology transfer, and the development of agricultural resources, including trained personnel, in the developing countries. A total of sixteen autonomous centers form the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CIGAR), which operates under the direction of the World Bank. These centers address issues concerning tropical agriculture, dry-area farming, corn, potatoes, wheat, rice, livestock, forestry, and aquatic resources, among others. Future advances in agricultural productivity depend on the development of new varieties of plants such as sorghum and millet, which are mainstays in African countries and other less-developed areas, and on the introduction of appropriate agricultural technology. This will probably include biotechnologythe genetic alteration of food plants to give them desirable characteristics. For example, farmers in Africa are plagued by hardy, invasive weeds that can quickly overrun a cultivated plot and compel the farmer to abandon it and move on to virgin land. If the plot were planted with corn, soybeans, or other crops that are genetically altered to resist herbicide, then the farmer could more easily control the weeds and harvest a successful crop. Scientists are also developing a genetically modified strain of rice fortified with vitamin A that is intended to help ward off blindness in children, which will be especially useful in developing countries.

Use Windows Hooks in Delphi Applications

Use Windows Hooks in Delphi Applications Code submitted by Jens Borrisholt. Text by Zarko Gajic. By Jens: Hooks, I’ve seen a lot of people trying to make a clean solution for hooking messages in an application. So I decided some time ago to implement hooks as a class, with nice events and stuff :) Hook.pas makes it possible to assign a method pointer to a procedure pointer (with some help from assembler). For example: if you want to trap ALL keystrokes in your application - simply declare an instance of TKeyboardHook, assign an event handler for OnPreExecute or OnPostExecute, or both. Set you KeyboadHook active (KeyboardHook.Active : True) and you are out and running .. On Windows Hooks A hook is a point in the system message-handling mechanism where an application can install a subroutine to monitor the message traffic in the system and process certain types of messages before they reach the target window procedure. Put shortly, a hook is a function you can create as part of a dll or your application to monitor the goings on inside the Windows operating system. The idea is to write a function that is called every time a certain event in windows occurs - for example when a user presses a key on the keyboard or moves the mouse. For a more in depth introduction to hooks, take a look at What Windows hooks are and how to use them within a Delphi application. Hooking mechanism relies on Windows messages and callback functions. Types of Hooks For example:You can use the WH_KEYBOARD hook to monitor keyboard input posted to a message queue;You can use the WH_MOUSE hook to monitor mouse input posted to a message queue;You can a WH_SHELL hook procedure when the shell application is about to be activated and when a top-level window is created or destroyed. Hooks.pas TCBTHook - called before activating, creating, destroying, minimizing, maximizing, moving, or sizing a window; before completing a system command; before removing a mouse or keyboard event from the system message queue; before setting the input focus; or before synchronizing with the system message queue.TDebugHook - called before calling hook procedures associated with any other hook in the systemTGetMessageHook - enables an application to monitor messages about to be returned by the GetMessage or PeekMessage functionTJournalPlaybackHook - enables an application to insert messages into the system message queue.TJournalRecordHook - enables you to monitor and record input events (to record a sequence of mouse and keyboard events to play back later by using the WH_JOURNALPLAYBACK Hook).TKeyboardHook - enables an application to monitor message traffic for WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP messages.TMouseHook - enables you to monitor mouse messages about to be returned by the GetMessage or PeekMes sage function. TLowLevelKeyboardHook - enables you to monitor keyboard input events about to be posted in a thread input queue.TLowLevelMouseHook - enables you to monitor mouse input events about to be posted in a thread input queue. TKeyboardHook example Download hooks.pas demo application uses hooks, .... var   Ã‚  KeyboardHook: TKeyboardHook; .... //MainForms OnCreate event handler procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject) ; begin   Ã‚  KeyboardHook : TKeyboardHook.Create;   Ã‚  KeyboardHook.OnPreExecute : KeyboardHookPREExecute;   Ã‚  KeyboardHook.Active : True; end; //handles KeyboardHooks OnPREExecute procedure TMainForm.KeyboardHookPREExecute(Hook: THook; var Hookmsg: THookMsg) ; var   Ã‚  Key: Word; begin   Ã‚  //Here you can choose if you want to return   Ã‚  //the key stroke to the application or not   Ã‚  Hookmsg.Result : IfThen(cbEatKeyStrokes.Checked, 1, 0) ;   Ã‚  Key : Hookmsg.WPARAM;   Ã‚  Caption : Char(key) ; end; Ready, set, hook :)

Crowdfunding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Crowdfunding - Essay Example The four main types of crowdfunding are donation-based crowdfunding, reward-based crowdfunding, lending-based crowdfunding and equity-based crowdfunding. In this type of funding, there are no financial returns to the contributors or investors. In many cases, this type of crowdfunding is used for raising money for charitable projects. Some of these projects include disaster relief and medical bills (Nesta, 3). For example, an organization such as the Red Cross might conduct a campaign aimed at getting people to donate. Such donations have no returns attached to them. The donors are satisfied when a given project is completed. The motivation for the donors is non-monetary. Many organizations that use this type of crowdfunding rely on their websites to get contributors, although other outlets such as social media may be used. In this type of funding, the donations are gathered and assigned to a given project (Gadja &Walton, 8). This then helps get more donations because the funders understand that their money will be used for a specific purpose. In the end, the donors may give repeated donations if the organization keeps on updating the m of the progress of the ongoing project. Examples of such platforms include JustGiving (England), Startme (South Africa) and m-changa (Kenya) (Gadja &Walton, 8). This type of funding involves people contributing to a given business or project in exchange for some type of reward. In many cases, this reward is in the form of product or service offered by the organization seeking the funding (Nesta, 3). This is the most popular type of crowdfunding and is mainly used for creative and entrepreneurial projects. Usually, this model allows for the rewards to be given to the contributors based on the amounts contributed; the more a person donates, the better the rewards received. The donation is usually higher than the monetary value of the reward given, and this