Thursday, December 26, 2019

Computer Programming - What is it 2019

If youre contemplating a career in the computer industry and youve always been clever with software, perhaps youre considering computer programming. It always helps to make sure everyone is in agreement on terminology and in this area; there can be a little confusion. Computer programs are conceived by software engineers and by computer systems analysts. These are the professionals that sketch the big picture: it is the job of the computer programmer to actually draw the picture. A computer programmer writes the code, the computer language that creates the program and makes it do what the analyst and the engineer intended it to do. Computer programmers execute program instructions in one of several program languages: a sampling of language names includes COBOL, Java and C++. Their use depends often on the type of software. COBOL is used in many business applications; XML is a tool that has gained popularity among web programmers; Fortran is found in science and engineering. C++ is popular with both business and scientific applications. Programmers can become familiar with more than one language, as there are similarities among them. Often a programmer develops expertise in a certain area and becomes known, perhaps, as a database or a web programmer. There are even programs to assist programmers today, CASE or computer assisted engineering tools that will automate certain program functions and save the programmer the task of writing the code. .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0:active, .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0 .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0 .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .ud3b2cc7d660c985c18ff42dded01f4d0:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ Succeed with a Marketing DegreeLearning how to become a professional in this business can often start with experience. Many job postings will ask first for experience: three years experience working in C++ before listing educational requirements, if any. However, in order to gain experience, youve got to learn how to use the tools and that means going to school. Online colleges are an excellent resource for programming training and degrees. Kaplan University is an online institution that has six information technology (IT) associates degrees in such programming specialties as Java and web development. They have an IT bachelors degree in database studies as well as a bachelors in overall programming. Kaplan University also has an IT certification program in Internet and Website Development. That gives a good idea of the academic options available online. Ranging from a certification program that might take months to complete, to a bachelors degree that will provide a full college education over two to three years, there are quite a few options for those who want to major in programming or some element of it. .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7:active, .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7 .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7 .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .ud0193c46cad037d0225e3b346329b8a7:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ Online Colleges For Health CareCapella University is another online institution with a number of options for computer programming degrees. They have an IT masters program in system design and programming that is designed to educate not only the beginner but working professionals who are seeking to upgrade their professional status. In their discussion of their masters program, Capellas presentation says you may be closer than you think. That is in reference to credits from previous college experience that may streamline your pursuit of this degree considerably. Included in the curriculum for Capellas masters in system design and programming are such courses as advanced programming strategies; object oriented design and development; database analysis and design; introduction to XML and web services; and programming strategies in a Microsoft environment. Here is a degree that provides the strategic, design and the programming tools for a career in computer programming. If that is your goal, you can find the resources online. .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3:active, .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3 .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3 .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .ube7e79760d6a8c9599ef72ed113610f3:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ Accounting - The Heart of BusinessRelated ArticlesAn Introduction to Computer ProgrammingHow to Teach Yourself Computer ProgrammingComputer Science TechnologyProgramming in JavaThe Career Builder A Masters Degree in Computer ScienceComputer Programming Concepts

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Understanding A Data Breach - 1111 Words

Understanding a Data Breach Ten years ago business professionals were grappling with the decision of whether to implement cloud computing into their organizations. Today, we no longer have the luxury of â€Å"If† we will embrace the new technology but rather â€Å"How† we will make it as safe as possible. The Article In his November 2013 article published in Business Finance Magazine, â€Å"The Real Security Risks of Running Finance Apps in the Cloud†, Ramesh Rajagopal suggests that the real threats with cloud computing fall into two main categories, data compromise through exploit and data compromise through user misstep. Data Compromise through Exploit Rajagopal maintains that the very nature of browsers themselves lends itself to exploitation.†¦show more content†¦These computers would only be used for one purpose for example accessing a company’s banking portal. I find this theory to be impractical at best. Most companies that are leveraging cloud services are doing so for the benefit of ease of use. Larger companies often have employees or consultants working off-site or in multiple locations. Accountants and executives are increasingly pushing to be able to access their data at any time, from anywhere, using any device. Data Compromise through User Misstep Rajagopal does not cover the topic of BYOD extensively in his article. â€Å"In the consumerization of IT, BYOD, or bring your own device, is a phrase that has become widely adopted to refer to employees who bring their own computing devices – such as smartphones, laptops, and PDAs – to the workplace for use and connectivity on the secure corporate network.† (Beal, 2014) This can cause increased security risks as there is no way for corporate IT to insure that the traditional protections methods are up to date and functioning properly or even installed at all. While it may be cost effective to allow employees to furnish their own

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Marketing Plan of Australian Football League-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Plan of Australian Football League highlighting health and wellness issues of the players. Answer: Background of Australian Football League The Australian Football League(AFL) is one of the top professional competition in football. AFL is a governing body who are responsible for controlling the laws of the game. This league consists of 18 teams that are spread over six states. The matches are played in mainland states and territories of Australia, China and New Zealand for promotion of football in other countries. Presently, AFL consists of a pre-season competition which is followed by 23 round regular seasons. The matches are played between March-September every year. AFL was established on permanent basis in Gold Coast in Queensland (afl.com.au., 2017). The Victorians Football Association (VFA) was established in 1877 and it became a major football rules competition of Australia. The inaugural session of VFA was held in 1897. In addition, VFA has also made several innovations for the fulfillment of public interests. VFA took initiative in organizing annual final tournaments rather than the establishment of modern scoring system and premiership in the team. In 1925, VFA has expanded from nine teams to twelve teams. Collingwood became the first team to win VFL competition and they has won four successive premierships. In 1952, VFL has hosted National Day and the six matches were played outside Melbourne (News.com.au, 2017). Moreover, Melbourne became the powerhouse during 1950s. The VFL premiership trophy was awarded in 1959. In 1970, the VFL match was played in VFL Park and this has helped to gain interdependence from Melbourne Cricket Club. In 1976, National Football League was the administrative body of Australian football. It has also established the NFL Night series to succeed the Australian Football Championship. In 1977-1981, VFL has left the Australian National Football Council. In 1990-2005, a national competition was played and the Australian Football League was renamed which reflected a new national perspective. In 2006, AFL established its permanent field in Gold Coast of Queensland, which is one of the most populous city. In 2008, a meeting was held by the AFL team and several discussions were held of the AFL competition. Moreover, in March 2008 AFL has won the support of the league of 16 club President to establish in Western Sydney and Gold Coast (Afl.com.au., 2017). The sub categories of Australian Football League has 10 subcategories such as AFL Rising Star winners, Brownlow Medal, Australian Football Hall of fame inductees, Colerman Medal winners, Herald Sun of the Player, Greek Team of Century, Italian team of century. Market Research The research of Australian Football League related to health and wellness of the players were carried out with the help of questionnaires. The participants and the sponsors of AFL were given to fill up a questionnaire. On the basis of research, it has been found that 4 people supported that AFL paid great attention to the health and wellness of the workers. 1 player denied the concern of the AFL towards health and safety. This player has denied because the use of social drugs like methamphetamines and cocaine were on rise and AFL did not care about the health of the players. The AFL Club Essendon were under a separate supervision to investigate Australian Sports anti-Doping authority over the administration of different kinds of supplements The sponsors of AFL also paid great attention to the health and wellness of the workers in the Australia. AFL has developed various benefits for the players such as aerobic fitness, and development of motor skills. The sponsors also played great a ttention in improving teamwork and leadership among the players. AFL community also encouraged the players to develop new friends and the players while conducting research through questionnaires stated this clearly. Moreover, the players have also stated that they were provided special mouth guard and football shoes to protect themselves from any injury and harm. SWOT analysis of AFL Strength Australian Football League is one of the top most organizations who are responsible for management and administration of football in Australia. Its main aim was to support the various levels of footballs from junior to the elite level. It is operating as a non-profit organization and this generates one of the greatest surplus costs in the developmental cost. The players are provided prevention training on injuries and they must focus on safety. Moreover, there is a provision of online injury website that provides information on the common injuries, which are suffered by majority of the players. The website also provides detailed description of the injury treatment techniques, stretches and exercises and an important section i.e. ask from expert. Moreover, fitness also constitutes an important role in the players. The players of AFL are equipped with various instruments so that they can meet the heavy demands of the pre-season training and play the final match properly. AFL also pays great attention on the nutrition of the players. The players are paid great attention so that they eat correctly before the onset of the game. Moreover, they also check that the players have sufficient energy to get through the game. Weakness The professional clubs have trainers, doctors and physiotherapists to deal with different kinds of incidents and mishaps. However, AFL does not have their own trained doctors or physiotherapist. The players are rushed to the nearest hospital and then they are taken for treatment. The players are also supported rehabilitation in the nearest hospital. It can be said that AFL does not have their own doctors or trainers. The players also do not like to talk about the mental health. They always show a sign of weakness. The players find it humiliating and shameful and thus they are not ready to share their opinions with others. AFL does not support the players in such case. They have claimed that the players are not immune and they always complain about their health problems. Mental health remains unaddressed in Australian sporting landscape. The high profile athletes have also opened up several battles with their depression and anxiety and this has been highlighted several times in the ne wspaper, televisions and media (Weston et al., 2015). Opportunity The CEO of Australian Football League has highlighted the importance of the game in the global environment. This was an important opportunity for the new AFL leaders to convey their vision to the national audience (Bradbury OBoyle, 2017). Moreover, AFL has announced a record of $2.508 billion broadcast deals with the other network channels such as Foxtel and Telstra. AFL must take the opportunity to improve the environment for the engagement of women payers. It has been found that recently AFL recruits women players on a large basis. If these players are not provided with safety and security measures, the players will not be willing to participate or join the AFL clubs. Moreover, the players must also be provided health camps and refreshment tours so that it will reduce the mental depression and tension of the players. Threat Lack of proper health and safety measures of the players are regarded as the main threat of AFL. One of the main objectives of AFL is to drive high level of participation in the community programs for the people of Australia. This is considered as a threat because if AFL do not pay attention to the health of the players, they will not be willing to join the AFL club. The competitors of AFL has the provision of providing more importance in the health and wellness of the employees. Marketing Goals and SMART Objectives SMART objectives are those objectives of an organization, which are set according to the criteria of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time oriented (Moore, 2017). AFL helps in the recognition of community football clubs and they make contribution in the recognition of thousands of volunteers to form the cornerstone of the Australian Football unit. The SMART objectives of AFL are as follows. SMART Specific AFL must establish a national structure for the implementation and administration of the AFL programs. They must develop and implement an integrated range of program to promote enjoyment, fun, social skills and skill development for the players that must be facilitated by the umpires, managers and the trainers. Measurable It is necessary to identify the goals to focus on the direction and the energy of the players.. In identification of the short term and long term goals of the players, AFL must understand the needs of the players. AFL must also recognize health camps from time to time Achievable AFL must arrange the funds to implement such a health and wellness promoting program. A team of health professionals, counselors and motivational speakers should be hired on a full time basis. Relevant Improvement of health and wellness of the players is very much relevant to improve their life as well as performance. With the rise in injuries and agitation among the players, it is the right time to launch a wellness program Time Oriented The program will be launched in the next month. Workshops and seminars will be held every month to motivate the players Assessment workshops will be held every three months to assess the improvement of the players health and mental wellness. Target audience The target audience for this agenda of AFL would be the players of the league. From the market survey, it has been found that majority of the players thinks that the AFL must improve the health and wellnesss initiatives for the players. Hence, it can be said that, the target audience for such objectives would the players, who are directly involved in the game and will be directly benefitted from the improvement programs (Armstrong et al., 2015). All the objectives under the SMART approach has the same target audience in this agenda, as the initiatives will be designed for improving the health and wellness of the players of AFL. Message to be communicated A good message should be developed by AFL to spread their vision and purpose across the players. The message in this context can be written like the one below. AFL wants to provide the opportunity and scope for each of the players of each club to stay healthy and fit for all the time. Therefore, AFL aims to ensure that it provides the best quality health, fitness and wellness services to the players so that they can stay fit and healthy, not only physically, but mentally also. We have taken various health and wellness initiatives that would be suitable for the players of each province and make those convenient for each of them. Health and wellness of the players is the first and foremost priority of AFL and the purpose of this initiative is to improve the life of the players, which would be reflected in their performances. Communication method The communication methods within a sports organization are varied. In the era of advanced technology, the organizations use the technological methods to communicate with their members. In the present case, AFL needs to communicate their initiatives for improving the health and wellness of the players of each club to improve their health and fitness, which would be reflected in their performances (Pedersen et al., 2016). The players of each club of each of the regions are the target audience of AFL for this initiative. The organization uses various channels for internal communication. Before launching the programs, the players must be intimated about that. Hence, firstly, they can use the emails to send an intimation to all the players for such a program to be organized (Li, 2017). Secondly, AFL can utilize their website to make the announcements about their health and wellness programs. Since, the website is the most visited platform for any kind of notices, the organization can put up the notice in the website and provide details of the programs there itself. Thirdly, AFL can put up advertisements in radio, television and various social networking sites to make the target audience aware about the initiatives (Eagleman, 2013). Fourthly, they can send notices to the member clubs, which they can put up in the public places, such as, notice boards, so that the players get aware about this. Fifthly, AFL can organize presentations, workshops and seminars for the clubs in their respective regions. Sixthly, it can print leaflets, brochures and flyers and hand it over to the target audience. This method is very effective in drawing the attention of the target audience (Patti et al., 2017). Thus, through the above mentioned methods, AFL can communicate with the players about their new initiative. References Afl.com.au. (2017).Awards - AFL.com.au.afl.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.afl.com.au/stats/awards afl.com.au. (2017).The official website of the Australian Football League. afl.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.afl.com.au/ Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., Brennan, R. (2015).Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Bradbury, T., OBoyle, I. (2017). The continuing evolution of sport management.Understanding Sport Management: International Perspectives, 273. Eagleman, A. N. (2013). Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies.Sport Management Review,16(4), 488-497. Li, M. (2017). Research on Information Communication Channel and Monitoring of Sports Events. Moore, J. (2017). Setting SMART objectives.Headteacher Update,2017(6), 14-14. News.com.au. (2017).AFL | AFL Ladder AFL News.News.com.au. Retrieved 4 December 2017, from https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl Patti, C. H., Hartley, S. W., van Dessel, M. M., Baack, D. W. (2017). Improving integrated marketing communications practices: a comparison of objectives and results.Journal of Marketing communications,23(4), 351-370. Pedersen, P. M., Laucella, P., Kian, E., Geurin, A. (2016).Strategic Sport Communication, 2E. Human Kinetics. Weston, M., Siegler, J., Bahnert, A., McBrien, J., Lovell, R. (2015). The application of differential ratings of perceived exertion to Australian Football League matches.Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport,18(6), 704-708.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Kurt Cobains Death Essays - Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

Kurt Cobain's Death "It's not fun anymore. I just can't take it anymore." The words that would later haunt the world are clumsily scribbled onto a pad of paper. The room grows silent and cold...then BANG! On April 7, 1994, the music world died with a single gunshot wound to the head. Kurdt Donald Cobain took away a music legend and left a void in the music world. When Cobain ended his life on that fateful day, he not only stunned fans, but also destroyed one of the most talented bands of all-time. The sad sense of loss that Seattle began to feel quickly spread to the rest of the country and to the world as well. The youth of an entire sub-culture was devastated. A few days after his death, 7,000 mourners gathered in Seattle to remember the musician. As Cobain's widow, Courtney Love read her husband's agonizing suicide note, people lit candles, and threw burning toilet paper for the iconoclastic anti-hero. Although today some of the pain may have faded, the loss of Cobain and his band Nirvana is still being felt by teens across the country. "Good men die young. Kurt was a great songwriter, musician and person. He has joined the ranks of great artists such as Jimi Hendrix, and the Nirvana legacy will be with us forever," expressed Ryan Runkewich, a Nirvana fan. The sediment is not only expressed by fans, but also by such famous musicians as R.E.M., Neil Young and the Cranberries who have all dedicated songs in Cobain's memory. Before the boom of the phenomenon known as Nirvana, the Seattle music scene was most famous for its hard-rock blues. In 1988, the Aberdeen native along with Krist Anthony Novoselic and Dave Grohl began with a demo song entitled "Big Cheese" and captivated the hearts and souls of a forgotten generation that had yet to make a name for itself. Nirvana had the guts to express the emotions that young people were too afraid to display. The band and its ringleader Cobain truly became the vocal point for struggling teens. As the sixth anniversary of Cobain's death quickly approaches, fans are afforded another painful year to reflect on his music, life and the very moment when everything ended. In fact, most fans can even remember what they were doing when they heard the news that Cobain was dead. "When I heard, I was playing a video game and listening to the radio. I got real upset and my friends and I sat around all day listening to his music. I personally pay tribute to his on that dreadful day every year," said James V., a Cobain fan. From the dawning of the 90s grunge music era, Nirvana has been the undisputed leader of alternative music. The music was not only a part of life, but rather it was life for millions of teens searching for an outlet to express themselves. For that reason, the memory of Cobain and the Nirvana sound will never die in the hearts of fans. Inner-peace what Cobain wanted for everyone: "If you die you're completely happy and your soul lives on...I'm not afraid of dying. Total peace after death becoming the someone else is the best hope I've got."?Kurdt Donald Cobain. If you have elements that I can add to this article let me know...I have lots of information and I have done a lot of research!!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Free Energy Definition in Science

Free Energy Definition in Science The phrase free energy has multiple definitions in science: Thermodynamic Free Energy In physics and physical chemistry, free energy refers to the amount of internal energy of a thermodynamic system that is available to perform work. There are different forms of thermodynamic free energy: Gibbs free energy is the energy that may be converted into work in a system that is at constant temperature and pressure. The equation for Gibbs free energy is: G H – TS where G is Gibbs free energy, H is enthalpy, T is temperature, and S is entropy. Helmholtz free energy is energy that may be converted into work at constant temperature and volume. The equation for Helmholtz free energy is: A U – TS where A is the Helmholtz free energy, U is the internal energy of the system, T is the absolute temperature (Kelvin) and S is the entropy of the system. Landau free energy describes energy of an open system in which particles and energy may be exchanged with the surroundings. The equation for Landau free energy is: ÃŽ © A - ÃŽ ¼N U - TS - ÃŽ ¼N where N is the number of particles and  ÃŽ ¼ is  chemical potential. Variational Free Energy In information theory, variational free energy is a construct used in variational Bayesian methods. Such methods are used to appoximate intractable integrals for statistics and machine learning. Other Definitions In environmental science and economics, the phrase free energy is sometimes used to refer to renewable resources or any energy that does not require monetary payment. Free energy may also refer to the energy that powers a hypothetical perpetual motion machine. Such a device violates the laws of thermodynamics, so this definition presently refers to a pseudoscience rather than hard science. Sources Baierlein, Ralph (2003). Thermal Physics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-65838-1.Mendoza, E. (1988). Clapeyron, E.; Carnot, R., eds. Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire – and other Papers on the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-44641-7.Stoner, Clinton D. (2000). Inquiries into the Nature of Free Energy and Entropy in Respect to Biochemical Thermodynamics.  Entropy Vol. 2.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Email Marketing Analytics How to Measure and Report Important Metrics

Email Marketing Analytics How to Measure and Report Important Metrics Measuring email marketing and extracting actionable insights from your performance data doesn’t have to feel like rocket science. Once you know what to measure, how to set goals, and report progress, you can easily build a repeatable analytics process to refine your strategy. In this guide, you’ll learn: How to choose which email metrics matter most for your business. How to calculate and measure those data points (and understand what they mean). How to develop a simple email marketing analysis and reporting process. Now, let’s turn you into an analytics maestro. + Email Marketing = Success: , the industry’s top marketing management platform, now integrates with MailChimp and other popular email service providers. See how you can organize your email marketing here. in oneplace. Save 20 hrs this week alone and every weekafter. If youve ever kicked the tires on , nows the time to see what its reallylike. Schedule Your Demo Success! Your download should start shortly. Clean up the chaos with your editorial calendar! With , youll Save time with blogging, social, and email think HOURS every week Schedule your social posts in batches and increase your posting frequency super easily Get your sht together and hold yourself accountable to publishing like the boss you are! Now’s the perfect time to start your 14-day free trial to see for yourself! Start Your Free Trial

Thursday, November 21, 2019

No title needed Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

No title needed - Article Example According to CBO, if the legislation is passed, it will grant $1.047 trillion in ordinary appropriated funding for government functions on yearly basis. The funding is line with the discretionary spending caps found in the Budget control Act. The ordinary appropriated financing in the bill is $7.9 billion which is 0.6% above that of FY 2012. It includes the financing of overseas contingency functions /global war on terrorism (c.9 billion) and disaster aid at $6.4 billion. Therefore, as stated by CBO, the total expenses in the bill are said to be below the FY 2012 total spending levels by $26.6 billion.1 The requirement of the legislation to grant $1.047 trillion in ordinary appropriations is steady with spending maximum enclosed in the BCA. To arrive at this financing level, the legislation would appropriate amounts suitable for offering ordinary discretionary financing at the FY 2012 levels raised by 0.612% across the board. The appropriated finances would be obtainable until the prior of enactment of valid appropriations legislation, that is, march 27, 2013. The BCA permitted modifications to discretionary spending perimeters for appropriations to grant disaster funding, lessen waste and exploitation in social security disability and healthcare financial support and ensure global war on terrorism. One of the hurdles the bill had to overcome is the long running disagreement among the parties over how much expenses should be allowed in the FY 2013. The debt ceiling agreement for the previous year ascertained a discretionary expenses cap of $1.047 trillion but earlier 2012 the House GOP surpassed a budget resolution, which restricted overall expenses at $ 1.028 trillion2. Hence this led to the disagreements between the two parties in the house regarding this bill. The bill has as well overcome the hurdle of being considered to increase expense limits beyond the open limits in the bill, a focus to a point of order. This is because;

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Marketing Research Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Marketing Research Plan - Essay Example with dependable services can be the best available means to capture the market well in time when the idea is still new to capture the cell phone users’ attention by a successful company like JF Electronics. What is a customizable mobile phone? A customizable mobile phone is a built-to-order phone that comes with the feature of snapping the unwanted functionality or adding the functionality as per the customer demand. It could be a GSM phone to be customized or the other. The customer will decide whether the phone should be touch screen, bar, flip or smart phone; whether it has a keyboard or the customer prefers a mobile phone without a keyboard. The customized mobile phone to be introduced by JF’s Electronics will offer the customers the choice to select the operating system of their choice from Google Android, apple, OS X or Microsoft and others. It has been the JF’s Electronics unique selling point to offer custom-made computers of high quality in affordable price range, which has helped it expand throughout the US Northeast. The marketing research plan for the customized mobile is going to follow the same USP of providing a cost-effective mobile phone of high quality. Customers would have the freedom to choose their preferred service provider; no need to subscribe to a particular service provider. The custom-ordered mobile would be available with warranties, after-sale service and repair (Elgan, 2008). The research objective of my marketing plan is to know the response of the customers if a customized mobile phone is offered for sale in the company’s store and on the company’s website. As the idea of a customized mobile phone has been not just in the offing, customers have been purchasing through online stores, so it means ours is not the only company; other companies are there for our company JF’s Electronics to compete with. Considering the current market situation at macro level, research needs to be made first of all at legal level to know

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Physics ISA Thermistor generalised Paper 1 guide Essay Example for Free

Physics ISA Thermistor generalised Paper 1 guide Essay 1. My hypothesis is that the resistance decreases as the temperature increases. I predict my results will have a negative correlation, and that as the temperature 2. http://www.gcsesciencemethods.co.uk/2014/05/thermistor-resistance-dependent-on.html http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/practical-physics/effect-temperature-thermistor The first method contained a risk assessment as well as a choice of two methods, one with a digital multimeter as well as one with a power supply and an ammeter. The second method has an explanation as to how a thermistor works, but I chose the first method because it had a multimeter method, which is easier than using a power supply and an ammeter, as it reads resistance directly in Ohms. 3. The equipment I will use is an NTC Thermistor, Hot Water (200ml), Cold Water (200ml), Beaker (500ml), Thermometer (0-100c), Digital Multimeter, and Connecting leads. You will need to boil water (at least 200ml) and put it in a beaker of at least 250ml, and then the same with normal water. You will then need to use connecting leads to connect the digital multimeter to the thermistor. You will need to turn the multimeter on, and set it to read Ohms, which is the unit for Resistance (Pd/current). You will then pour the hot water in the 500ml beaker, and immerse the thermistor into the 500ml beaker. You will then wait until the hot water reaches 70c, and then measure the resistance in Ohms. You will then repeat the experiment, to increase accuracy and to spot anomalies that might affect your final results. You will take a mean by adding up both results and dividing them by two.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Essay --

People from all over come to experience the Grand Canyon National Park, located exclusively in North Arizona. Covered with unexplored caves and valleys, and immense canyons, the Grand Canyon is very well liked for hikers, whether that hiker is experience of a beginner. This park offers recreational events for everyone. Today, the Grand Canyon stretches out to be eighteen miles long in some places. The Grand Canyon has much to offer from hiking along a rough, yet narrow landscape, bringing the family out to camp for a few days, gazing at the amazing scenery, or visiting the Indian reservations. This area contains several ecosystems and also hundreds to thousands of unique plants and animals. â€Å"It contains fossils of corals, crinoids, and brachiopods that indicate warm tropical conditions in a sea that once stretched across the continent. The stone looks different from the red wall, because 500 million years ago the ocean was closer to the ancient continent, and any mud and sand t hat washed off the land mixed in with the lime, making it crumbly and yellow† (Weintraub 24). The rock layers in the canyon make a magnificent color of stripes in the canyon walls that could be seen miles and miles away. Not only is this canyon enormous, but also this vast canyon can be seen from space. Although the canyon is not the deepest canyon in the world, it is known for its tremendous dimension and its vibrant landscape. This terrain reserves more than two thousand archeological sites of Native Americans, who have also resided there for four thousand years. The park itself became a National Park in the year 1919. The Grand Canyon is a stunning place to visit for all ages, and for the family to see the remarkable canyon formed not only by the erosi... ... patches along the river† (Halvorsen 5). Separate from the eroding motion of the Colorado River, the flow of the debris played a major, yet foremost role in the broadening and expanding of the Grand Canyon. All these elements contributed to the creation of the Grand Canyon, which still till this day remains a fascinating story and feature for every one of us, especially geologists, who still have many thoughts as to how the Grand Canyon was even formed. Rock layers that have formed the Grand Canyon, as everyone has seen, are created due to the sedimentations of the seas and the oceans. All of this is precisely evident of the fact that the rocks that are found on the sides of the canyon are made of sedimentary rocks. Scientists have said that the erosion is how the Grand Canyon was form, but there can always be something new to every evaluation of the Grand Canyon.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Human Development Index

What is HDI? HDI (Human Development index) is a way of measuring development by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. The breakthrough for the HDI was the creation of a single statistic which was to serve as a frame of reference for both social and economic development. The HDI sets a minimum and a maximum for each dimension, called goalposts, and then shows where each country stands in relation to these goalposts, expressed as a value between 0 and 1.It is also used to distinguish to a large extent, whether the country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. NEED FOR HDI ————————————————- The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic gro wth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with such different human development outcomes.For example, the Bahamas and New Zealand have similar levels of income per person, but life expectancy and expected years of schooling differ greatly between the two countries, resulting in New Zealand having a much higher HDI value than the Bahamas. These striking contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. ————————————————- CALCULATION OF HDI 1) Life expectancy index (LEI) = (LE-20)/(83. 4-20) 2) Education index (EI) = v(MYSI*EYSI)/ 0. 951 3) Income Index (II) Log (GNIpc)-log(100)]/ [Log (107721) – log (100)] LE: Life expectancy at birth MYS: Mean years of schooling (Years that a 25-year-old person or older has spent in schools) EYS: Expected years of schooling (Years that a 5-year-old child will spend with his education in his whole life) ————————————————- GNIpc: Gross national income at purchasing power parity per capita COUNTRY| GDP RANK| HDI RANK| HDI| India| 4| 134| 0. 571| U. S| 1| 4| 0. 910| U. K| 8| 28| 0. 863| China| 2| 101| 0. 87| Pakistan | 29| 145| 0. 50| Oman| 77| 89| 0. 705| India ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in terms of the human development index (HDI), which assesses long-term progress in health, education and income indicators, said a UN report released on Wednesday. Although placed in the â€Å"medium† category, India's standing is way behind scores of economically less developed countries, including war-torn Iraq as well as Philippines. India’s ranking in 2010 was 119 out of 169 countries Sri Lanka has been ranked 97, China 101 and the Maldives 109.Bhutan, otherwise respected fo r its quality of life, has been placed at 141, behind India Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked 145 and 146 in the list of countries that is headed by Norway and in which the Democratic Republic of Congress is at the bottom. The other two countries in South Asia, Nepal and Afghanistan, occupy ranks 157 and 172. According to the â€Å"UN Human Development Report, 2011: Sustainability and Inequality†, India’s HDI is 0. 5 compared to 0. 3 in 2010. COMPONENTS OF THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEXThe education component of the HDI is now measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. Mean years of schooling are estimated based on educational attainment data from censuses and surveys available in the UNESCO Institute for Statistics database and Barro and Lee (2010) methodology). Expected years of schooling estimates are based on enrolment by age at all levels of education and population of official school age for each level of education.Expected years of schooling are capped at 18 years. The indicators are normalized using a minimum value of zero and maximum values are set to the actual observed maximum value of mean years of schooling from the countries in the time series, 1980–2010, that is 13. 1 years estimated for Czech Republic in 2005. Expected years of schooling are maximized by its cap at 18 years. The education index is the geometric mean of two indices. The life expectancy at birth component of the HDI is calculated using a minimum value of 20 years and maximum value of 83. 4 years.This is the observed maximum value of the indicators from the countries in the time series, 1980–2010. Thus, the longevity component for a country where life expectancy birth is 55 years would be 0. 552. For the wealth component, the goalpost for minimum income is $100 (PPP) and the maximum is $107,721 (PPP), both estimated during the same period, 1980-2011. The decent stand ard of living component is measured by GNI per capita (PPP$) instead of GDP per capita (PPP$) The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI.The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. The HDI facilitates instructive comparisons of the experiences within and between different countries. FACTORS AFFECTING HDI There are various factors that affect the economic development of any economy like health, education, per capita income, gender inequality, deforestation, population, pollution levels, literacy rate, infant mortality rate etc. Let us see a few of them one by one and try to find where India lags behind majority of the economies and why there is a mismatch in India’s growth and evelopment. A) Education index Education is an important indicator of a nation’s wellbeing, standard of living and is a measure of the economic development and quality of life which further helps in determining whether an economy is developed, developing or underdeveloped. India’s Shortfalls The Indian government has been lethargic in this aspect and has failed in ensuring a better education framework. Here, the government alone is not to be blamed. A majority of Indian population tend to neglect primary education. Poverty has been a major cause leading to lower literacy rates in India.Poor parents in underdeveloped states and backward regions make their children work to support the family financially. Girls in rural areas are forced to stay back at home and do daily chores. Also, education funding in rural areas is quite low. Uneducated parents don’t find it important to educate their children and this vicious cycle continues leaving the whole community uneducated. The government is not spending enough in education. Currently around 4% of GDP is being spent on education much lower than the target of 6% of GDP.Lower enrolment, high dropout rates, teacher absenteeism, poor instruction qualities, poor infrastructural facilities like classrooms, libraries, low encouragement and gender inequality are the root causes of low education index in India. About 30% of the world’s illiterate population belongs to India. COUNTRY| EDUCATION INDEX| India| 0. 450| The U. S| 0. 939| The U. K| 0. 815| Pakistan| 0. 386| China| 0. 623| Oman| 0. 539| SCALE| EDUCATION INDEX| Very High| 0. 894| High| 0. 715| Medium| 0. 561| Low| 0. 392| B) Health Index 2% of India’s children below the age of three are malnourished, almost twice the statistics of sub-Saharan African region of 28%. Although India’s economy grew 50% from 2001–2006, and its child-malnutrition rate only dropped 1%, lagging behind countries of similar growth rate. Malnutrition impedes the social and cognitive development of a child, reducing his educational attainment and income as an adult. These irreversible damages result in lower productivi ty. Infant mortality rate Approximately 1. 72 million children die each year before turning one.The under five mortality and infant mortality rates have been declining, from 202 and 190 deaths per thousand live births respectively in 1970 to 64 and 50 deaths per thousand live births in 2009. However, this rate of decline is slowing. Reduced funding for immunization leaves only 43. 5% of the young fully immunized. Infrastructure like hospitals, roads, water and sanitation are lacking in rural areas. Shortages of healthcare providers, poor intra-partum and newborn care, diarrheal diseases and acute respiratory infections also contribute to the high infant mortality rate.Inadequate safe drinking water Access to protected sources of drinking water has improved from 68% of the population in 1990 to 88% in 2008. However, only 26% of the slum population has access to safe drinking water,  and 25% of the total population has drinking water on their premises. This problem is exacerbated by falling levels of groundwater caused mainly by increasing extraction for irrigation. Insufficient maintenance of the environment around water sources, groundwater pollution, excessive arsenic and fluoride in drinking water pose a major threat to India's health. Rural healthRural India contains over 68% of India's total population with half of it living below  struggling for better and easy access to health care and services. Health issues confronted by rural people are diverse and many – from severe malaria to uncontrolled diabetes, from a badly infected wound to cancer. Postpartum maternal morbidity is a serious problem in resource-poor settings and contributes to maternal mortality, particularly in rural India; however, Misoprostal has been identified as a cost-effective maternal mortality intervention for home births. A study conducted in 2009, using multinomial logistic regression methods, found that 43. % of mothers reported to have experienced postpartum morbidities six weeks after delivery. Rural medical practitioners are highly sought after by people living in rural India as they more financially affordable and geographically accessible than practitioners working in the formal public health care sector. The  National Rural Health Mission  (NRHM) was launched in April 2005 by the Government of India. The goal of the NRHM is to provide effective healthcare to rural people with a focus on 18 states which have poor public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure. COUNTRY| HEALTH INDEX| India| 0. 717| The U. S| 0. 923| The U.K| 0. 949| Pakistan| 0. 717| China| 0. 843| Oman| 0. 836| SCALE| HEALTH INDEX| Very High| 0. 946| High| 0. 838| Medium| 0. 784| Low| 0. 611| C) GDP per capita (PPP) It is defined as GDP divided by the total population of a country. Per capita income is often used as a measure of the wealth of the population of a nation, particularly in comparison to other nations. The very fact that India in spite of being the 4th larg est economy stands 140th in terms of per capita income indicates that the income is distributed unevenly where a very percentage of the population is rich while majority is poor. COUNTRY| GDP per capita($)|India| 2933| The U. S| 41761| The U. K| 32147| Pakistan| 2369| China| 6200| Oman| 23333| COUNTRY| INCOME INDEX| India| 0. 508| The U. S| 0. 869| The U. K| 0. 832| Pakistan| 0. 464| China| 0. 618| Oman| 0. 778| Poverty in India  is widespread, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. In 2011,  World Bank  stated, 32. 7% of the total Indian people falls below the  international poverty line  of  US$  1. 25 per day (PPP) while 68. 7% live on less than  US$  2 per day. Lack of a market economy & over government regulation and red tape, known as License Raj is the main cause of poverty in India.While other Asian countries like China, Singapore and South Korea started with the same poverty level as India after independence, India adopted a soc ialist centrally planned, closed economy. Another cause is a high population growth rate, although demographers generally agree that this is a symptom rather than cause of poverty. While services and industry have grown at double digit figures, agriculture growth rate has dropped from 4. 8% to 2%. About sixty percent of the population depends on agriculture whereas the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is about eighteen percent.The surplus of labor in agriculture has caused many people to not have jobs. Farmers are a large vote bank and use their votes to resist reallocation of land for higher-income industrial projects. D) Gender Inequality Index There is strong evidence to suggest that India is a country of high concern in relation to missing women. The 2011 Census found a worrying trend in child sex ratios with only 914 females for 1,000 males, a drop from 927 in 2001. Using data from the 2011 Census in India, after adjusting for excess mortality rates in girls, the estimate s of number of selective abortions of girls rose from 0 to 2 million in the 1980s, to 1. to 4. 1 million in the 1990s, to 3. 1 to 6. 0 million in the 2000s. The study shows that the problem is in fact growing amongst the middle class which suggests that missing women cannot be attributed to poor socio-economic status. The male/female sex ratio for the total population in 2012 is 1. 08. According to data from the 2006-2007 Demographic and Health Survey for India, 41. 5% of girls and 45. 3% of boys under the age of two had received all their vaccinations. Under-five mortality rates were higher for girls than for boys (79. 2 per 1000 live births for girls, 69. % for boys), while malnutrition rates were equal or slightly higher for girls. Given that in most contexts, rates of under-five mortality and malnutrition are higher for boys than for girls, this would indicate bias towards sons in regard to early childhood care. Gender-disaggregated data in regard to child labor was unavailable. Primary and secondary school enrolment and attendance rates are lower for girls than for boys indicating some son preference in regard to access to education. COUNTRY| GENDER INEQUALITY INDEX| India| 0. 646| The U. S| 0. 311| The U. K| 0. 216| Pakistan| 0. 611| China| 0. 224| Oman| 0. 09| Conclusion â€Å"Economic growth† and â€Å"development† of any economy should go hand in hand unlike Indian economy where there is a huge contrast in this regard. India should focus on primary education, basic healthcare, gender equality and other social, environmental and economic aspects to ensure sustainable development. India has been very slow in reacting to the transformation of economy restructuring. Masses need to be educated about family planning, importance of education, gender inequality especially in rural areas so that they don’t take much time to adapt to an environment which is essential for development.Educational institutes should be set up on a large scale f ocusing more on basic education. Healthcare sector needs to be given prime importance. We need to take advantage of the technology available to us. Corruption is the biggest hindrance coming in the way of development and thus should be kept in check. India has till date come up with many schemes and programs for the poor section but has repeatedly failed to implement them effectively. So, while economic growth is vital to the economy, human development is to be given equal importance which decides or shows the true picture of the economy. Human Development Index What is HDI? The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of â€Å"human development†, taken as a synonym of the older terms â€Å"standard of living† and/or â€Å"quality of life†, and distinguishing â€Å"very high human development†, â€Å"high human development†, â€Å"medium human development†, and â€Å"low human development† countries. HDI was devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, followed by Indian economist Amartya Sen in 1990. The HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living of a country.It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is also used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. There are also HDI for states, cities, villages, etc. by local organizatio ns or companies which have interest in the matter. The HDI formula result is a number from 0 to 1, 1 being the best outcome possible. Components of HDI What does HDI tell us?The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with such different human development outcomes. For example, the Bahamas and New Zealand have similar levels of income per person, but life expectancy and expected years of schooling differ greatly between the two countries, resulting in New Zealand having a much higher HDI value than the Bahamas.These striking contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. What are the criteria for a country to be included in the HDI? The Human Development Report Office strives to include as many UN member countries as possible in the HDI. To include a country in the HDI we need recent, reliable and comparable data for all three dimensions of the Index. For a country to be included, statistics should ideally be available from the relevant international data agencies. India’s position in the worldIndia ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in the list that is headed by Norway and in which the Democratic Republic of Congo is at the very bottom in terms of the human development index (HDI). India's ranking in 2010 was 119 out of 169 countries. According to the â€Å"UN Human Development Report 2011: Sustainability and Inequality†, India's HDI is 0. 5 compared to 0. 3 in 2010. Comparison of India with few other countries Countries| Per Capita income in US $| Literacy Rate| Life Expectancy in years| HDI Rank| India| 1600| 74%| 67. 1| 134|US| 48,147| 99%| 79| 4| Canada| 51,147| 99%| 80. 7| 6| Germany| 40,631| 99%| 79. 4| 9| Nepal| 650| 68. 2%| 66. 5| 157| Pakistan| 1250| 70%| 66 . 3| 145| Growth Pattern of India Factors responsible for growth of India The then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, along with his finance minister Manmohan Singh, initiated the economic liberalization of 1991. The reforms did away with the Licence Raj, reduced tariffs and interest rates and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors.Since then, the overall thrust of liberalization has remained the same, although no government has tried to take on powerful lobbies such as trade unions and farmers, on contentious issues such as reforming labour laws and reducing agricultural subsidies. By the turn of the 20th century, India had progressed towards a free-market economy, with a substantial reduction in state control of the economy and increased financial liberalization. This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy, literacy rates and food security, although urban residents have benefited more than agricultural reside nts.Also the boom in IT and other industries in services sector helped India to achieve economic strength whereby foreign currency started pouring in into the market. This was supported by the availability of skilled labours, talented brains and large young population. Growth Pattern of Nepal Nepal’s economic growth continues to be adversely affected by the political uncertainty. Nevertheless, real GDP growth is estimated to increase to almost 5 percent for 2011/2012. This is a considerable improvement from the 3. 5 percent GDP growth in 2010/2011 and would be the second highest growth rate in the post-conflict era.Sources of growth include agriculture, construction, financial and other services. The contribution of growth by consumption fueled by remittances has declined since 2010/2011. While remittance growth slowed to 11 percent (in Nepali Rupee terms) in 2010/2011 it has since increased to 37 percent. Remittances are estimated to be equivalent to 25-30 percent of GDP. In flation has been reduced to a three-year low to 7 percent. The proportion of poor people has declined substantially in recent years. The percentage of people living below the international poverty line (people earning less than US$1. 5 per day) has halved in only seven years. At this measure of poverty the percentage of poor people declined from 53. 1% in 2003/2004 to 24. 8% in 2010/2011. With a higher poverty line of US$2 dollars per-capita per day, poverty declined by one quarter to 57. 3%. However, the income distribution remains grossly uneven. Growth Pattern of Canada Factors responsible for growth in Canada The Canadian economy improved dramatically after 1896, and from that year until 1914, Canada had the world's fastest growing economy. The west was settled, the population grew quickly.The cause of this boom is debated. Whether the settlement of the west was a cause or effect of the boom is one of the most important issues. Globally the economy was improving with the end of the Long Depression. The last semi-humid farmland in the United States was exhausted, leaving Canada with the best unexploited farm land in North America. Technological changes from the steel plow to combine harvesters played an important role, but perhaps the most important development was the practice of dry farming that allowed farmers to profitably grow wheat on the semi-arid southern prairies.The most noted expansion was in western Canada, but at the same time Central Canada was undergoing a period of significant industrialization. While western and central Canada boomed during the pre-World War I years the economies of the three Maritime Provinces grew far more slowly. Investors from US and UK helped fuel country’s economic growth. Growth pattern of USA Factors responsible for growth in USA In the early years of American history, most political leaders were reluctant to involve the federal government too heavily in the private sector, except in the area of transportatio n.In general, they accepted the concept of laissez-faire, a doctrine opposing government interference in the economy except to maintain law and order. This attitude started to change during the latter part of the 19th century, when small business, farm, and labor movements began asking the government to intercede on their behalf. By the turn of the century, a middle class had developed that was leery of both the business elite and the somewhat radical political movements of farmers and laborers in the Midwest and West.Known as Progressives, these people favored government regulation of business practices to, in their minds, ensure competition and free enterprise. Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act). Many of today's U. S. regulatory agencies were created during these years, including the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Tra de Commission. Electrification in the U. S. started in industry ca. 1900 and by 1930 about 80% of power used in industry was electric.Tractors began being mass-produced. In the 1980s, Japan was accelerating its speed and catching up to the USA. In the face of competition from Japan, Americans did not give up hope, but acted with a great sense of urgency. Ronald Reagan called on the industrial association and think-tanks to discuss countermeasures. Through investigation and analysis, they found that the computer and communications industries were beginning to show vitality and had large market potential. In the future, it was possible that they would develop into the world's largest industries.Therefore, the Reagan administration declined to adopt a short-term, profit-oriented competition strategy; rather, it adopted methods that allowed universities to work collaboratively with enterprises to co-develop the computer and communications industries. During the Clinton administration, a large investment was made in building up the world’s internet highway. Growth Pattern of Pakistan Growth Pattern of Germany Factors responsible for growth of Germany Germany's economic growth stemmed from a number of causes. One of the main physical reasons behind economic growth was the sophistication of infrastructure.Between 1845 and 1870 5000 more miles of rail had beenbuilt and in 1850 Germany was building her own locomotives. This increase of rail transport created a huge demand for coal, iron and buildings, therefore industry began on a plant style level. All of this increased the amount of labour needed. The labour need was fuelled by a population growth. From 35 million people in 1840 Germanygrew to 49 million people in 1875 creating a young dynamic workforce,full of innovated ideas for the new industry. Not only was the workforce gained from a population increase, urbanisation also added to the need.People working in factories grew from 4% to 10%. Banks, particular ly investment banks gave a great stimulus to industrialization. It was a combination of commercial enterprise, investment, and investment trusts backed by large central banks. The second industrial revolution was promoted by a number of important factors. Most important of these was probably the scientific-technological developments at the end of the century. Another factor which propelled German industry forward was the unification of the monetary system, made possible in part by political unification.Another economic factor was the increased markets,domestic and overseas. Comparison of growth patterns Why HDI of India is low? While we are steadily increasing our investments in health and education, we have been let down at the most basic level: female mortality rates. Our maternal mortality figures are 450 deaths per 100,000, which is the worst in south Asia. Our adolescent fertility rates also let us down, as do figures for female education. Yet, a quick stroll through the HDI fi gures does show some improvement across sectors in most parts of the country.The stumbling blocks are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, parts of West Bengal and even Maharashtra. Quite obviously, in our race to get ahead, we have forgotten the basics. It has taken us over 60 years since the Constitution was adopted to pass the Right to Education Act for free and compulsory secondary education to all, even though it has long been a part of our Directive Principles. Our dropout rate is high and the girl child is the first to lose the race to school. More painful is the rich-poor divide.Our cities may be full of state-of-the-art hospitals, ready to cater to medical tourists, but village after village in India does not even have access to primary health care. We supply doctors all over the world but are unable to service our own needy. It is almost as if we have got so used to being a poor country that we hardly notice it any more. But as the Sensex and the economy show, India is no longer an ultra-poor country in the aggregate. But we still have a shockingly large proportion of poor people who are being deprived of just about everything.This HDI report is just one more reminder of how far we have to go. It tells us where our priorities should be. India has made huge strides in the field of education and water supply system but the biggest block in the human development indices for India is in the field of sanitation where 58 per cent of open defecation in the world takes place in India. A mere expenditure of Rs 2000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in the field of sanitation is being made while the budget for water supply was Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion). AgricultureSlow agricultural growth is a concern for policymakers as some two-thirds of India’s people depend on rural employment for a living. Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India's yields for many agricultural commodities are low. Poorly maintained irrigation systems and almost universal lack of good extension services are among the factors responsible. Farmers' access to markets is hampered by poor roads, rudimentary market infrastructure, and excessive regulation. Agricultural output of India lags far behind its potential.The low productivity in India is a result of several factors. According to the World Bank, India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-enhancing investment. While overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty, governmental intervention in labour, land, and credit markets are hurting the market. Infrastructure such as rural roads, electricity, ports, food storage, retail markets and services are inadequate. Further, the average size of land holdings is very small, with 70% of holdings being less than one hectare in size.The partial failure of land reforms in many states, exacerbated by poorly maintained or non-existent land reco rds, has resulted in sharecropping with cultivators lacking ownership rights, and consequently low productivity of labour. Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs, illiteracy, slow progress in implementing land reforms, inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce and impracticality in the case of small land holdings. The allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable.The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating. Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 39% of the total cultivable land was irrigated as of 2010, resulting in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the monsoon season, which is often inconsistent and unevenly distributed across the country. Corruption Corruption has been one of the pervasive problems affecting India. A 2005 study by Transparency International (TI) found that more than half of those surveyed had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office in the previous year.A follow-on 2008 TI study found this rate to be 40 percent. In 2011, Transparency International ranked India at 95th place amongst 183 countries in perceived levels of public sector corruption. In 1996, red tape, bureaucracy and the Licence Raj were suggested as a cause for the institutionalised corruption and inefficiency. More recent reports suggest the causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations and approval requirements, mandated spending programs, monopoly of certain goods and service providers by government controlled institutions, bureaucracy with discretionary powers, and lack of transparent laws and processes.The Right to Information Act (2005) which requires government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerisation of services, and various central and state governmen t acts that established vigilance commissions, have considerably reduced corruption and opened up avenues to redress grievances. The number of people employed in non-agricultural occupations in the public and private sectors. Totals are rounded. Private sector data relates to non-agriculture establishments with 10 or more employees. The current government has concluded that most spending fails to reach its intended recipients.A large, cumbersome and tumor-like bureaucracy sponges up or siphons off spending budgets. India's absence rates are one of the worst in the world; one study found that 25% of public sector teachers and 40% of public sector medical workers could not be found at the workplace. The Indian economy has an underground economy, with an alleged 2006 report by the Swiss Bankers Association suggesting India topped the worldwide list for black money with almost $1,456 billion stashed in Swiss banks. This amounts to 13 times the country's total external debt. EducationInd ia has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately three-fourth of the population. India's literacy rate had grown from 52. 2% in 1991 to 74. 04% in 2011. The right to education at elementary level has been made one of the fundamental rights under the eighty-sixth Amendment of 2002, and legislation has been enacted to further the objective of providing free education to all children. However, the literacy rate of 74% is still lower than the worldwide average and the country suffers from a high dropout rate.Further, there exists a severe disparity in literacy rates and educational opportunities between males and females, urban and rural areas, and among different social groups. Infrastructure In the past, development of infrastructure was completely in the hands of the public sector and was plagued by slow progress, poor quality and inefficiency. India's low spending on power, construction, transportation, teleco mmunications and real estate, at $31 billion or 6% of GDP in 2002 had prevented India from sustaining higher growth rates.This has prompted the government to partially open up infrastructure to the private sector allowing foreign investment, and most public infrastructure, barring railways, is today constructed and maintained by private contractors, in exchange for tax and other concessions from the government. While 80% of Indian villages have at least an electricity line, just 44% of rural households have access to electricity. Some half of the electricity is stolen, compared with 3% in China. The stolen electricity amounts to 1. 5% of GDP.Transmission and distribution losses amount to around 20%, as a result of an inefficient distribution system, handled mostly by cash-strapped state-run enterprises. Almost all of the electricity in India is produced by the public sector. Power outages are common, and many buy their own power generators to ensure electricity supply. 6] Substantia l improvements in water supply infrastructure, both in urban and rural areas, have taken place over the past decade, with the proportion of the population having access to safe drinking water rising from 66% in 1991 to 92% in 2001 in rural areas, and from 82% to 98% in urban areas.However, quality and availability of water supply remains a major problem even in urban India, with most cities getting water for only a few hours during the day. Economic disparities A critical problem facing India's economy is the sharp and growing regional variations among India's different states and territories in terms of poverty, availability of infrastructure and socio-economic development. Six low-income states – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh – are home to more than one third of India's population.Severe disparities exist among states in terms of income, literacy rates, life expectancy and living conditions. The five-year plans, especially i n the pre-liberalization era, attempted to reduce regional disparities by encouraging industrial development in the interior regions and distributing industries across states, but the results have not been very encouraging since these measures in fact increased inefficiency and hampered effective industrial growth.After liberalization, the more advanced states have been better placed to benefit from them, with well-developed infrastructure and an educated and skilled workforce, which attract the manufacturing and service sectors. The governments of backward regions are trying to reduce disparities by offering tax holidays and cheap land, and focusing more on sectors like tourism which, although being geographically and historically determined, can become a source of growth and develops faster than other sectors.In fact, the economists fail to realize that ultimately the problem of equitable growth or inclusive growth is intricately related to the problems of good governance and tran sparency. HDI for Indian states State| HDI| Rank| Maharashtra| 0. 689| 12| Madhya Pradesh| 0. 375| 33| Kerala| 0. 921| 1| Reasons for low HDI in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra as compared to Kerala: Life Expectancy: The life expectancy in MP is 56. 5 years for male and 56. 2 years for females averaging around 56. 4. The life expectancy in Maharashtra is 64. 5 for males and 67 for females averaging to 65. 8 years for the total population.The life expectancy in Kerala is 73. 5 years. As an important component of HDI life expectancy should be higher, but here it is low as compared to Kerala. Literacy rate: The literacy rate in MP is only 64. 11% which is very low. More than that literacy rate of women is very low. The literacy rate in Maharashtra is 77. 21 % whereas in Kerala it is 90. 92 %. Literacy is reasonably a good indicator of development in a society. Spread and diffusion f literacy is generally associated with essential trait of today’s civilization such as urbanization , modernization, industrialization, communication and commerce.Standard of living: The main factors influencing standard of living are poverty, physical infrastructure, regional imbalance. Poverty is very high in MP. Also the physical infrastructure is very poor. Poverty is high I Maharashtra because of high population. The physical infrastructure varies from region to region. In cities like Mumbai and Pune the infrastructure is world class, but in other regions of the state the infrastructure is not so good which shows regional imbalance Poverty in Kerala is very low. All over Kerala the physical infrastructure is good, there is no regional imbalance. Human Development Index Introduction: The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of â€Å"human development† and separate â€Å"very high human development†, â€Å"high human development†, â€Å"medium human development†, and â€Å"low human development† countries. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. There are also HDI for states, cities, villages, etc. by local organizations or companies. Background: The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These were devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990 and had the explicit purpose ‘‘to shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people centered policies’’. To produce the Human Development Reports, Mahbub ul Haq brought together a group of well-known development economists including: Paul Streeten, Frances Stewart, Gustav Ranis, Keith Griffin, Sudhir Anand and Meghnad Desai. But it was Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s work on capabilities and functionings that provided the underlying conceptual framework. Haq was sure that a simple composite measure of human development was needed in order to convince the public, academics, and policy-makers that they can and should evaluate development not only by economic advances but also improvements in human well-being. Sen initially opposed this idea, but he went on to help Haq develop the Human Development Index (HDI). Sen was worried that it was difficult to capture the full complexity of human capabilities in a single index but Haq persuaded him that only a single number would shift the attention of policy-makers from concentration on economic to human well-being. Data collection: Life expectancy at birth is provided by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs; mean years of schooling by Barro and Lee (2010); expected years of schooling by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics; and GNI per capita by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. For few countries, mean years of schooling are estimated from nationally representative household surveys. Many data gaps still exist in even some very basic areas of human development indicators. While actively advocating for the improvement of human development data, as a principle and for practical reasons, the Human Development Report Office does not collect data directly from countries or make estimates to fill these data gaps in the Report. Dimensions and calculation: Published on 4 November 2010, starting with the 2010 Human Development Report the HDI combines three dimensions: 1. A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth 2. Access to knowledge: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling 3. A decent standard of living: GNI per capita (PPP US$) The HDI combined three dimensions up until its 2010 report: 1. Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity 2. Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). 3. Standard of living, as indicated by the natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. New methodology for 2010 data onwards: In its 2010 Human Development Report the UNDP began using a new method of calculating the HDI. The following three indices are used: LE ¬-20 1. Life Expectancy Index (LEI) = 63. 2 vMYSI . EYSI 2. Education Index (EI) = 0. 951 ln (GNIpc) – ln (163) 3. Income Index (II) = ln(108,211) – ln (163) Finally, the HDI is the geometric mean of the previous three normalized indices: HDI = v LEI . EI . II 2010 report: The 2010 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program was released on November 4, 2010, and calculates HDI values based on estimates for 2010. Criticisms: The Human Development Index has been criticised on a number of grounds, including failure to include any ecological considerations, focusing exclusively on national performance and ranking (although many national Human Development Reports, looking at subnational performance, have been published by UNDP and others—so this last claim is untrue), not paying much attention to development from a global perspective and based on grounds of measurement error of the underlying statistics and formula changes by the UNDP which can lead to severe misclassifications of countries in the categories of being a ‘low', ‘medium', ‘high' or ‘very high' human evelopment country. Other authors claimed that the Human Development Reports â€Å"have lost touch with their original vision and the index fails to capture the essence of the world it seeks to portray†. The index has also been criticized as â€Å"redundant† and a â€Å"reinvention of the wheel†, m easuring aspects of development that have already been exhaustively studied. The index has further been criticised for having an inappropriate treatment of income, lacking year-to-year comparability, and assessing development differently in different groups of countries. Economist Bryan Caplan has criticised the way HDI scores are produced; each of the three components are bounded between zero and one. As a result of that, rich countries effectively cannot improve their rating (and thus their ranking relative to other countries) in certain categories, even though there is a lot of scope for economic growth and longevity left. â€Å"This effectively means that a country of immortals with infinite per-capita GDP would get a score of . 66 (lower than South Africa and Tajikistan) if its population were illiterate and never went to school. † He argues, â€Å"Scandinavia comes out on top according to the HDI because the HDI is basically a measure of how Scandinavian your country is. † Economists Hendrik Wolff, Howard Chong and Maximilian Auffhammer discuss the HDI from the perspective of data error in the underlying health, education and income statistics used to construct the HDI. 18] They identify three sources of data error which are due t o (i) data updating, (ii) formula revisions and (iii) thresholds to classify a country’s development status and find that 11%, 21% and 34% of all countries can be interpreted as currently misclassified in the development bins due to the three sources of data error, respectively. The authors suggest that the United Nations should discontinue the practice of classifying countries into development bins because the cut-off values seem arbitrary, can provide incentives for strategic behavior in reporting official statistics, and have the potential to misguide politicians, investors, charity donators and the public at large which use the HDI. In 2010 the UNDP reacted to the criticism and updated the thresholds to classify nations as low, medium and high human development countries. In a comment to The Economist in early January 2011, the Human Development Report Office responded[24] to a January 6, 2011 article in The Economist which discusses the Wolff et al. paper. The Human Development Report Office states that they undertook a systematic revision of the methods used for the calculation of the HDI and that the new methodology directly addresses the critique by Wolff et al. in that it generates a system for continuous updating of the human development categories whenever formula or data revisions take place. The following are common criticisms directed at the HDI: that it is a redundant measure that adds little to the value of the individual measures composing it; that it is a means to provide legitimacy to arbitrary weightings of a few aspects of social development; that it is a number producing a relative ranking which is useless for inter-temporal comparisons, and difficult to compare a country's progress or regression since the HDI for a country in a given year depends on the levels of, say, life expectancy or GDP per capita of other countries in that year. However, each year, UN member states are listed and ranked according to the computed HDI. If high, the rank in the list can be easily used as a means of national aggrandizement; alternatively, if low, it can be used to highlight national insufficiencies. Using the HDI as an absolute index of social welfare, some authors have used panel HDI data to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Ratan Lal Basu criticises the HDI concept from a completely different angle. According to him the Amartya Sen-Mahbub ul Haq concept of HDI considers that provision of material amenities alone would bring about Human Development, but Basu opines that Human Development in the true sense should embrace both material and moral development. According to him human development based on HDI alone, is similar to dairy farm economics to improve dairy farm output. To quote: ‘So human development effort should not end up in amelioration of material deprivations alone: it must undertake to bring about spiritual and moral development to assist the biped to become truly human. [31] For example, a high suicide rate would bring the index down. A few authors have proposed alternative indices to address some of the index's shortcomings. However, of those proposed alternatives to the HDI, few have produced alternatives covering so many countries, and that no development index (other than, perhaps, Gross Domestic Product per capita) has been used so extensively—or ef fectively, in discussions and developmental planning as the HDI. However, there has been one lament about the HDI that has resulted in an alternative index: David Hastings, of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific published a report geographically extending the HDI to 230+ economies, whereas the UNDP HDI for 2009 enumerates 182 economies and coverage for the 2010 HDI dropped to 169 countries

Sunday, November 10, 2019

God and the Philosopher Essay

Abstract Philosophers are known to be great thinkers.   The discipline itself is concerned with ethics, what things exist and their essential natures, knowledge, and logic.   Typically, when one is asked about his or her beliefs, the subject of God comes up. Whether or not God exist is the biggest and most ultimate question that people have ever asked. The topic of God is important to the philosopher.   He enjoys the contemplation of the subject. â€Å"Proofs of the existence of God† developed over the past 2,400 years by different philosophers. It is the foundation of most introductions to philosophy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Does God exist?   The existence of God can be compared to space.   We know that space does not have an ending.   God â€Å"has no beginning and no end.   He is eternal† (Cameron, 465).   Some people don’t believe in anything that is not visible to the eye (Cameron, 471). The link to God for most philosophers is the world.   Thomas Aquinas, a theologian, â€Å"specialized in the philosophical analysis of the nature of God and God’s relation to the world† (McCarty, 196). He refers to Aristotle as â€Å"The Philosopher†; â€Å"Aquinas uses Aristotle’s emphasis on the importance of empirical evidence to offer the creation of the world as proof for the existence of God as its cause† (McCarty, 197).   He saw the creation of the world as proof for the existence of God.   â€Å"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.   Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:1-2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Big Bang Theory tries to disprove the Genesis account of creation by stating that the universe was formed from an explosion.   Usually an explosion produces disorder and chaos, not trees, flowers, and animals (Cameron, 418).   Also, in order for an explosion to occur, there must be something present to explode and a means to cause the explosion.   â€Å"You cannot create something out of nothing† (Cameron, 419).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Proofs of the existence of God† is a set of arguments that were developed over the past 2,400 years by different philosophers.   The purpose was to demonstrate that â€Å"there is, or exists, an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent creator of the universe who goes by the name of God† (Wolff, 364).   The first and â€Å"philosophically weakest† proof is the Argument from Design.   William Paley presented his argument in his book â€Å"Natural Theology†.   He noted that man-made objects were designed to serve a purpose by its maker.    We can compare this to the creations of nature, like the human eye or the brain.   They are sophisticated and cannot be duplicated.   The conclusion is only God must be the â€Å"all-powerful Maker† (Wolff, 366).   The second proof is the Cosmological Argument, which is offered by thirteenth-century Christian philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas.   His first argument is that some things move in the world.   Secondly, there must be a first movement to precede other movements.   A â€Å"first mover† must exist.   That â€Å"necessary being is God† (Wolff, 373). The final proof and â€Å"the most famous, the most mystifying, the most outrageous and irritating philosophical argument of all time† is the Ontological Argument (Wolff, 378).   Saint Anselm writes about this proof in his philosophical work the â€Å"Proslogion†.   The concept of the existence of God was based on the idea of the perfect being.   Nothing greater than God is inconceivable (Wolff, 370).   Some philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant, have defended this proof over the past nine centuries.   On the other hand, it has also been rejected by other philosophers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and claimed as invalid because it cannot be proven. In addition to the Cosmological Argument, Aquinas argues his case using five proofs of his own (McCarty, 197).   The first proof is motion.   As with the Cosmological Argument, a â€Å"first mover† must exist to cause motion.   His second proof is causation.   â€Å"The natural world holds together through a tight chain of cause-and-effect relationships† (McCarty, 198).   For example, rain causes vegetation to grow.   The third proof is necessity/possibility. Aquinas argued that all events either have to be necessary or possible.   â€Å"A Necessary Being must exist that actualizes the possibility of the world as we know it† (McCarty, 199). The fourth proof is gradation. Some natural beings are more advanced than others.   Humans are at the top of the evolutionary chain.  Ã‚   â€Å"God has given him dominion (authority) over all the animals (Genesis 1:28) â€Å" (Cameron, 427).   This leads into the final proof of governance.   Humans are intellectually superior to animals and have priority over them (Cameron, 427). This is part of God’s Order (McCarty, 200). Most arguments for the existence of God start with some fact about the world and all of its components and activities (Morris, 243).   The topic of God is important because He is the backbone of any philosophical discussion. The Bible states that God is holy (Psalm 99:9).   Webster’s definition of holy is â€Å"sanctified†, which means to be free from sin. Ethics is a big part of philosophy. It embraces right conduct and good life.   â€Å"Ethical conduct is behavior that respects and nurtures truth, beauty, goodness, and unity, in our own lives, and in the lives of people we deal with day to day† (Morris, 111).   Good people struggle daily to resist temptations and pressures that they would not consider to be proper behavior.   â€Å"A good person is a person who shoots at the target of human happiness and flourishing for other people as well as himself† (Morris, 101).   On the other hand, there are people that don’t think about the consequences of their behavior. They act to satisfy their own selfish needs (Morris, 111). Philosophers view the concept of morality as a set of many rules (Morris, 112).   The Bible lists many of them.   Exodus 20 in the Old Testament lists The Ten Commandments.   The book of Leviticus contains many rules for work, worshipping God, and cleanliness. Another aspect of morality is The Golden Rule.   It states: â€Å"So in everything, do to others what you would have the do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets† (Matthew 7:12). In other words, treats others, as you would like to be treated.   â€Å"It captures the main attitude of an ethical person regarding the impact of his actions on others† (Morris, 114). In conclusion, the existence of God is a link for philosophers to the world. The topic of God is important when discussing ethics, morality, and nature to twentieth century philosophers as well as thirteenth-century ones. References Cameron, Kirk, & Comfort, Ray. (2004). The School of Biblical Evangelism.   Gainesville:   Bridge-Logos Publishers. International Bible Society. (1984). The Holy Bible.   Grand Rapids:   Zondervan Publishing House. McCarty, Marietta. (2006). Little Big Minds:   Sharing Philosophy With Kids.   New York:   The Penguin Group. Morris, Tom. (1999). Philosophy For Dummies.   New York:   Wiley Publishing Company. Wolff, Robert Paul. (2000).   About Philosophy (8th).  Ã‚   Upper Saddle River:   Prentice Hall.   

Friday, November 8, 2019

Categories of Hurricanes

Categories of Hurricanes The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale sets categories for the relative strength of hurricanes that may impact the United States based on the sustained wind speed. The scale places the storms into one of five categories. Since the 1990s, only wind speed has been used to categorize hurricanes. To estimate wind speed, the wind and wind gusts are measured over some period of time (typically one minute) and are then averaged together. The result is the highest average wind observed within a weather event.   Another measurement of weather is the barometric pressure, which is the weight of the atmosphere on any given surface. Falling pressure indicates a storm, while rising pressure usually means the weather is improving.   Category 1 Hurricane A hurricane labeled Category 1 has a  maximum sustained wind speed  of 74–95 miles per hour (mph), making it the weakest category. When the sustained wind speed drops below 74 mph, the storm is downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. Although weak by hurricane standards, a Category 1 hurricanes winds are dangerous and will cause damage. Such damage could include: Roof, gutter, and siding damage to framed homesDowned power linesSnapped tree branches and uprooted trees In a Category 1 hurricane, coastal storm surge reaches 3–5 feet and the barometric pressure is approximately 980 millibars. Examples of Category 1 hurricanes include Hurricane Lili in 2002 in Louisiana and Hurricane Gaston, which hit South Carolina in 2004. Category 2 Hurricane When the maximum sustained wind speed is 96–110 mph, a hurricane is called a Category 2. The winds are considered extremely dangerous and will cause extensive damage, such as: Major roof and siding damage to framed homesMajor power outages that could last days to weeksMany uprooted trees and blocked roads Coastal storm surge reaches 6–8 feet and the barometric pressure is approximately 979–965 millibars. Hurricane Arthur, which hit North Carolina in 2014, was a Category 2 hurricane. Category 3 Hurricane Category 3 and above are considered major hurricanes. The maximum sustained wind speed is 111–129 mph. Damage from this category of hurricane is devastating: Mobile homes destroyed or heavily damagedMajor damage to framed homesMany uprooted trees and blocked roadsComplete power outages and unavailability of water for several days to weeks Coastal storm surge reaches 9–12 feet and the barometric pressure is approximately 964–945 millibars. Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana in 2005, is one of the most devastating storms in U.S. history, causing an estimated $100 billion in damage. It was rated Category 3 when it made landfall.   Category 4 Hurricane With a maximum sustained wind speed of 130–156 mph, a Category 4 hurricane can result in catastrophic damage: Most mobile homes destroyedFramed homes destroyedHomes built to withstand hurricane-force winds sustain significant roof damageMost trees snapped or uprooted and roads blockedElectrical poles downed and outages lasting several last weeks to months Coastal storm surge reaches 13–18 feet and the barometric pressure is approximately 944–920 millibars. The deadly Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900 was a Category 4 storm that killed an estimated  6,000 to 8,000 people. A more recent example is Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall at San Josà © Island, Texas, in 2017. Hurricane Irma was a Category 4 storm when it hit Florida in 2017, although it was a Category 5 when it struck Puerto Rico. Category 5 Hurricane The most catastrophic of all hurricanes, a Category 5 has a maximum sustained wind speed of 157 mph or higher. Damage can be so severe that most of the area hit  by such a storm could be uninhabitable for weeks or even months. Coastal storm surge reaches more than 18 feet and the barometric pressure is below 920 millibars. Only three Category 5 hurricanes have struck the mainland United States since records began: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 in the Florida KeysHurricane Camille in 1969 near the mouth of the Mississippi RiverHurricane Andrew in 1992 in Florida In 2017, Hurricane Maria was a Category 5 when it devastated Dominica and a Category 4 in Puerto Rico, making it the worst disaster in those islands histories. When Hurricane Maria hit the mainland U.S., it had weakened to a Category 3.