Military Intervention and Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Military Intervention and Human Rights - Essay Example However, a general consensus has been developed about the basic idea behind humanitarian intervention; Humanitarian intervention is essentially an armed effort in which a state or a group of states intervene in the internal affairs of another state and it often involves the violation of international borders or airspace of that particular state. Moreover, the state against which the humanitarian intervention is being conducted does not necessarily pose a threat to the peace or security of other states therefore the military action is taken solely on humanitarian grounds for the protection of human rights. Humanitarian intervention is a matter of great debate today because it involves two of the fundamental pillars of the United Nations system; one of them being state sovereignty and other is the protection of human rights; and unfortunately the scenario of a humanitarian intervention involves dealing with very complex circumstances in which one of the two pillars mentioned have to be compromised for the greater good (Jokic, 2003). The proponents of humanitarian intervention argue that it is imperative in certain circumstances to conduct military operations in states where the people are being opressed by the government, particularly in states which are ruled by dictators because in such states the change of government is not possible without intervention from outside. However, the critics of humanitarian intervention argue that it can be used as a pretext for a military action for the achievement of the vested interests of strong actors in the international political scenario. The issue of humanitarian intervention is also important because of the fact that there are a large number of lives associated with a military action taken against a state. In this paper an analysis based on the scenarios in various countries various military interventio

Premarital sex Essay Essay Example for Free

Premarital sex Essay Essay Our fathers understood that sex was a blessed experience made only for married couples as a way to express their love and desire for each other. However, our youths today think of sex as a fun-thing; they have the belief that it is okay to have sex with who ever one is having a relationship with, and youths engage in several relationships before deciding to settle down. Yet, our fathers were right with their opinion about sex; sex should be a blessed ordeal and not a fun thing. Youths should try and preserve themselves for marriage, but in a situation where a person cannot hold himself he should then try and protect himself by using a condom because of the effect that unprotected sex would have on him. One of the major effects of unprotected sex is the risk of the female getting pregnant. In some situation the youths involved might not be ready to raise a child yet, and with the female getting pregnant they have problems deciding on what to do. The man might decide to deny being the father of the baby and puts down the woman. This leaves her with the decision of either aborting the child, raising the child as a single mother or dumping the child off anywhere. Each of these three choices is not to the best interest of the child. If the mother aborts the child that means she has taken the life of a human being, and it doesnt matter if the child is unborn yet or not the child has the right to his life. Even if the mother succeeds in aborting the child she may encounter some complications in the process, and this may affect her later life when she will finally decide to get married and have kids. Another dire option is to dump the child. Some mums dump their kids off in trash, in front of people front doors or at the motherless baby centers. There was even this case of a woman trying to flush down her baby down the toilet; the neighbors heard the baby crying as if it was drowning they called the police, but when the police arrived the child was already dead and the mother too because she killed herself. The best of the three options is the mother raising the child as a single parent, but this is also not a very good idea knowing that no child would want to grow up without his father, at least I know I dont. Also some of  the kids who turn out to be a menace to the society fall in the group of kids raised by a single parent. This is because the parent may not have enough time to spend with the child since she has to work a great amount of time so as to provide both of their necessities and to pay bills; the child therefore spends more time with friends and on the streets since he is not being monitored by his parent. All these are caused because of one small mistake; having sex unprotected. In many American Universities college students engage in unprotected sex, but most of them are not conscious of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Among college students who live away from home, 56 percent had been sexually active while attending college, and 73 percent of that group reported having unprotected sex while in college, says the survey by the Society for Adolescent Medicine. (http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=514693). From the above survey it means that youths in colleges who engage in sex have high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. These students are very well exposed to these diseases because they would have the tendency of having intercourse with several people due to the fact that they converge in an enclosed environment, and also peer pressure. The female involved may also get pregnant and would have to drop out of school and get a job so as to earn some money to take care of her and her kid. Unprotected sex can also result to early marriage. When a female conceives after having sexual intercourse, the couple involved may decide to get married and raise the baby together, but things dont always turn out well after the marriage; these couples may not know themselves too well. In the event of the marriage they might find out different sides of the opposite person that they dont like, and they may finally break up. This doesnt go to the betterment of the child either because he may end up being raised by a single parent and deprived of the other. All these dreadful things can be avoided by merely abstaining from sex till one is married, but when the urge to have sex cannot be overcome then the person involved should use a condom to protect himself.

Critique of the Movie Matchstick Men :: Movie Film Essays

Critique of the Movie Matchstick Men I recently read a review of Matchstick Men by Nicolas Bardot who said of the movie: â€Å"very touching but lacking a certain panache.† The Matchstick Men starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman, is the story of Roy (Cage) who with his â€Å"numerous disorders† and his partner Frank (Rockwell) tries to pull off a con job. Unfortunately, Roy’s daughter Angela (Lohman) suddenly shows up and things don’t go exactly as planned. Although Roy’s â€Å"disorders† are not mentioned specifically, I can’t imagine they would make his job easy in the first place, but throw a long lost teenage daughter into the mix and I can not wait to see what happens next. Matchstick Men is an adaptation from an Eric Garcia novel and runs one hour and fifty six minutes. Bardot seems to vary on his opinion of this movie. He makes special note of John Mathieson’s photography declaring it as â€Å"superb,† as well as expressing delight in the soundtrack which was compiled by Hans Zimmer. Bardot seems to praise the movie for it’s depiction of anti-heroes, yet at the same time says that at times it becomes â€Å"slightly dull and uninteresting.† Despite his lack of glowing praise for the picture, Bardot expands upon the â€Å"expansive and spectacular† past pictures by Ridley Scott, the director. Having directed such films as Gladiator and Black Hawk Down among others, Bardot seems to think Scott has found a hidden talent in his new genre, comedy, declaring that his work on this picture is â€Å"marvelous.† Although Bardot mentions the performances of Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman, I wish he had gone into more detail as to what was good about them, or in Cage’s case â€Å"unnerving.† He also refrains from mentioning other details such as setting, costumes, and camera angles which I would find interesting.

Automatic Speech Recognition Systems

In addition, the author will evaluate his level of inform in speaking the contents of term paper as opposed to typing one. And lastly, the level of organization required to use speech recognition as opposed to typing. The first automated speech recognition system the author will analyze is produced by a company called Application Technology, or Pupate. Pupate is located in McLean, Virginia, and has been in the Human Language Technology field for over 20 years. Appetites CARS product is called Plainspoken, and is used for speech dictation, broadcast and telephony.This program can do anything from a simple chain of numbers to vocabularies of up to 100,000 words. Plainspoken recognizes continuous speech, offers gender-independent speech recognition, as well as speaker dependent and speaker Independent modes. Opalescence also offers a scalable vocabulary as well as a scalable number of recognized languages. At this time however, the author of this paper was unable to locate a price for t his product on the manufacturers also known as Dragon Naturally Speaking.Nuance offers several different versions from the basic to a more advanced version for legal professionals. Nuance offers several different accent features from Spanish to Southern as well as several vocabulary options. Nuance allows for custom creation of text-to-graphics commands. This software works with PC's as well as multiple types of mobile devices, and is compatible with a multitude of applications. The price range of this product varies from $99 to $1199. (nuance. Com, 2009) The final company and product the author will review is Namespace.Namespace was established in 1996, when Andrew Taylor realized that the Macintosh platform was losing ground in the speech recognition software arena. Like the product from Nuance, Namespace offers several different versions. Their versions vary from a standard dictation version up to a legal reflections version. What is unique about Namespace is that it offers an In ternational version, which supports English, French, German and Italian. The price range is from $195 to $595 for the Namespace program.The drawback here is that this program is primarily written for the Mac computer. (namespace. Com, 2009) Unfortunately, the author was unable to find as much information as he would have liked about the companies and products. If the author had to use this type of product to produce a term paper, I would feel very uncomfortable. I feel I would have lost some aspect of control if I were to use an CARS to produce a term paper. In addition, it would be difficult to Judge the effectiveness and accuracy of an CARS.

Emerging Leadership Trends And Theories Essay

The contingency theory of leadership concentrates on the efficiency of leadership in terms of organizing, leading and making decisions for an organization, and it is dependent on matching a leader’s style to the right situation. This theory was introduced by Fielder, who analyzed various leaders in different contexts, but mostly he studied on the military. The theory assumes that behavior and styles cannot be influenced or modified; it is contradictory to ‘’situational leadership† which emphasized the need for the leaders to adapt to the situation. Besides, the term ‘’situation† implies to a complex combination of leader-member relation, task structure, and position power. 1. Leader-member relation is an evaluation of leadership acceptance between the organizational hierarchies. Therefore, the relationship is high when the leader is respected and accepted by his or her juniors. 2. Task structure is an evaluation of the simplicity of the task or project and their methods used to achieve the end product. 3. Positional power is an evaluation of amount power the leader has to manipulate the productivity of the juniors. Therefore, the power is high if a great deal of power is formally attributed to the position of the leader. Transformation Leadership Theory Leadership expert James Burns introduced the transformation leadership theory. As per Bass, transformation leadership can be identified when leaders’ and followers cooperate in order to advance or change to a higher level of motivation. Therefore through the strength of their personality and vision, the leaders can inspire followers to change perceptions, expectation and motivation to work to attain a common goal. There are also four components of transformations leadership theory; 1. Intellectual stimulation arises when the leader motivates the followers to explore new ways of doing things and invent new opportunities to learn. Individual consideration that  involves encouraging and offering support to individual followers 2. Inspirational motivation arises when the leaders have a clear perspective that they can articulate to followers. 3. Idealized influence occurs when the followers emulate and internalize the leader’s ideas that they usually respect and trust as their role model. Situational Leadership Theory Situational leadership theory was developed by a professor known as Paul Hersey. The fundamental underpinning situational leadership theory is that leadership depends on each situation. Therefore, there is no single leadership style that can be considered the best. A good leader is the one who can adapt to his or her objectives and goals in accomplishing his leadership. In fact, the capacity to assume responsibility, education, experience and goal setting are the main factors that make a leader successful. Also, the maturity or ability of the followers is a critical factor as well which facilitate good leadership.

Learning the Italian Alphabet

Learning the Italian Alphabet If you choose to learn the Italian language, youll need to start by learning its alphabet. When you have an innumerable amount of other â€Å"useful† languages to choose from, why would you choose Italian a language spoken by about 59 million people, compared to, let’s say Mandarin’s 935 million Despite the fact that every day more and more Italians are learning English, there is still a huge appeal to learn la bella lingua. Many people feel drawn to Italian because it’s a part of their ancestry, and learning Italian can be a great tool to utilize as you dig deeper into your family history. While you can do a lot of research in English, actually visiting your great grandfather’s birth town in Naples will require more than just a list of survival phrases to truly get a feel for the locals and hear stories about what the town was like while he was alive. What’s more, being able to understand and tell stories to your living family members will will add a depth and a richness to your relationships. Learning the Alphabet The Italian alphabet (lalfabeto) contains 21 letters: Letters / Names of the lettersa  Ã‚  ab  Ã‚  bic  Ã‚  cid  Ã‚  die  Ã‚  ef  Ã‚  effeg  Ã‚  gih  Ã‚  accai  Ã‚  il  Ã‚  ellem  Ã‚  emmen  Ã‚  enneo  Ã‚  op  Ã‚  piq  Ã‚  cur  Ã‚  erres  Ã‚  esset  Ã‚  tiu  Ã‚  uv  Ã‚  vuz  Ã‚  zeta The following five letters are found in foreign words: Letters / Names of the lettersj  Ã‚  i lungok  Ã‚  kappaw  Ã‚  doppia vux  Ã‚  icsy  Ã‚  ipsilon Learning the Basics If youre pressed for time, focus on the fundamentals. Study the Italian ABCs and Italian numbers, learn how to pronounce Italian words and ask questions in Italian, and brush up on the euro (after all, youll have to reach into your portafoglio- wallet- eventually). However, the quickest and most effective way to learn Italian is the total-immersion method. This means traveling to Italy for an extended period, studying at any of the thousands of language schools throughout the country, and speaking only Italian. Many programs include a home-stay component that enhances the cultural exchange. You literally eat, breathe, and dream in Italian. Whether its reading an Italian textbook, taking a language course at a university or local language school, completing workbook exercises, listening to a tape or CD, or conversing with a native Italian speaker. Spend some time every day reading, writing, speaking, and listening to Italian to become accustomed to the target language. Slowly but surely, your confidence will build, your accent will become less pronounced, your vocabulary will expand, and youll be communicating in Italian. Maybe youll even start speaking Italian with your hands!

Wife of His Youth essays

Wife of His Youth essays People often make the categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, physical condition, etc., contend for the title of most oppressed. Within race, various populations groups then compete for that top spot. Through the book, The Wife of His Youth, by Charles Wadell Chesnutt one can learn that racism existed within the race, colored mattered, and that racism evolves throughout the racial history. Racism existed within the race. People within the groups competed to be at the top. In The Wife of His Youth, the main character Mr. Ryder is a highly respected man in his society called the Blue Veins. The Blue Veins is a society for the colored people who have white skin that their veins show. Mr. Ryder is faced with a situation where he has to choose to stay at the top by hiding the truth and marrying a highly respected woman in the Blue Veins, Mrs. Molly Dixon or reveal his secret and be married to a woman who is considered low among the races. However Mr. Ryder chooses to reveal that a former slave is his wife, but in order for him to come to the conclusion he struggles much about how the others would feel about this situation because mostly likely people of his society would look down upon him. Color matters within the race. In The Wife of His Youth, the Blue Veins is a society that does not emphasize culture of the race, but how light the color of their skins are. The people of the society must have really light skin to be even considered to be a member of the Blue Veins. The wife of his youth, a former slave, Liza Jane would never be considered to be a member of the Blue Veins because she was very black and her social status in society was of a former plantation worker. One could also see that Mr. Ryder struggles whether or not to reveal his secret to the Blue Veins because colored mattered and he did not know if they would be able to accept the fact that he was marr ...

50 Free Social Media Marketing Templates To Get More Done

50 Free Social Media Marketing Templates To Get More Done Social media can be a time suck, but it doesn’t have to be. With the right tools and templates, social media can be a powerful platform to connect with your audience. At , we’ve published tons of content helping marketers execute social media marketing more easily. Most of those posts include some useful templates and other resources. And in this post, we’ve gathered 50 of our best social media templates, all in one handy ZIP file you can download. These templates will walk you through everything you need to plan, execute, and measure a complete social media marketing strategy. Grab your templates now, then read through this post to learn how to use em all. 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

Logistics management assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Logistics management assignment - Essay Example The fruit juices remained a regional delicacy and were served at costlier establishments or meant for special occasions. During the second half of the twentieth century interest in fruit juices revived mainly due to factors that they too became available in better packaging, competitively priced, a far greater variety for all tastes and above all was considered healthier especially by people engaged in sports. Diet consciousness grew among the general population and the youth among them considered this as an essential supplement for nutrients they needed for energy needs of the fast pace of life and the rigours of exercise. The one factor that packaged fruit juices lagged behind in was its relatively smaller shelf life. Further this was what is known as the Ambient variety that could be stored, displayed and sold off the ordinary shelf. In such conditions the taste would normally change over a period of time as it was exposed to vagaries of weather and temperature. To overcome this factor the concept of Chilled Juices was introduced. This involved different production and packaging techniques that added to the shelf life as well as preserved the taste of the product for a much longer time. Although this did not yet match the longer shelf life of the cola’s, yet it was a vast improvement and an inducement for its sale. The worldwide popularity of the cola’s and similarly packaged carbonated drinks was not just the low price and the packaging; it was the easy availability of the product almost any where in the world. Since cola’s were mass produced and mass consumed it was possible to set up plants across the globe to make them available closer to their respective markets. The main ingredients were the cola concentrates that could be mass produced at the mother plant and shipped across to subsidiaries to be converted into the carbonated drinks. The logistics over smaller area around each plant was possible through local transportation. The trucks

Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Abortion - Essay Example Canada has totally different policies regarding abortion. It has been legal since 1969 and women have a right to decide whether they want to keep a child or not. Restrictions are imposed by Canadian health regulations and they vary in different provinces of Canada. Abortions were illegal before 1969; however, in 1969 new regulations allowed women to resort to abortion if their pregnancy threatened them by mental or physical harm. In 1989 Canadian Supreme court rules that existing criminal laws restricting abortion were unfair; as a result Canada is one of the nations were there are no criminal restrictions to abortion (Norman, 2012). Even though there are still difficulties in access of therapeutic abortion, it is quite common in Canada. According to Norman (2012), almost one third of Canadian women experience abortion in their reproductive years. Around 50-52% of these women are in their 20-s. There is a tendency that young people tends not to risk their health and do abortion being pregnant for the first time. Overall, women in Canada can do abortion if child birth threatens their health. It is very liberal as women can access quality medical services and care if they happen to be in this situation. The situation in South Korea is totally different because abortions are illegal there. According to Sung (2012), there are 440,000 childbirths registered in South Korea every year. At the same time, there are 340,000 abortions performed each year. There is a controversy between legal background in South Korea and reality because many women search for illegal opportunities to do abortion. Moreover, Korean women want to legalize abortion since they are becoming more important for social and political life in the country but social expectations and role of females in Korean society. Despite great progress of Korean women they are still oppressed by these expectations. The truth is that being technically

Read the requirement paper carefullyall of the requirements are in the Essay

Read the requirement paper carefullyall of the requirements are in the documents - Essay Example Thus based on the product the segmentation is decided. Here segmentation will be done based on demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural variables. Demographic segmentation tends to divide the market in segments based on factors such as gender, age, income and others (Ferrell & Hartline, 2010, p.117). Based on demographic segmentation, Sleep Bug application will be made available to both the genders male and female as the application which is designed for windows phone 7 and iOS are used by both the segments and thus the segmentation are done keeping in mind the female market and the male market segment. The sound and the music along with feature installed in the application have also been developed according to the segments likes and dislikes. Age is the next factor in demographic segmentation, and the sleep bug pro will be segmented to the age group 16 years and above. The reason behind selecting the age bar to 16 years is that since everyone in today’s generati on has an access to iPhone, iPad and iPod therefore the application is made available for all the people within the particular age group so that they can enjoy the application and have a sound and proper sleep. Based on the income level, the application are targeted to those having iPhones, iPod and iPads dividing the segment into middle to higher level of income group who has the capacity to afford an iPhone and related product. Geographic segmentation is the process of segmenting the market by region, market size, climate and also market density (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2008, p. 234). Based on geographic segmentation, Sleep Bug will be segmented on population density to the urban people who have problem while sleeping due to heavy work pressure, and other related problems. Behavioural segmentation segments the market based on the usage of the product. Sleep Bug will segment it for those who are conscious about their health and improve memory as proper sleep will boost up health, pe ople who are fascinated towards new applications , who would use it on regular basis and status conscious that is the segment who are not price sensitive. Based on the above segmentation a detailed customer profile has been developed, Sleep Bug is an application which can be used in Windows Phone 7 and iOS and focus mainly on the customer segment. The target market for Sleep Bug is those segments that suffers from poor sleep, secondly the working group who demands peaceful and sound sleep, thirdly for those who like handling new application and show it as a status symbol. The third target market also includes students apart from the college goers. Analysing the growth of mobile application which is expected to grow from $6.8billion to about $25billion in the next four years (App Muse, 2012), there seems to exists potential customer base helping Sleep Bug to generate revenue and profit in the long run. Task 2 Consumer Behaviour Factors Consumers are the centre for the marketers and w ithout satisfying the customer the marketing manager cannot be termed to be successful in his given task. The behaviour of consumers tends to differ from person to person as each of them behaves in respect to their inner motives. As per the definitions given by Philip Kotler, â€Å"Consumer buying behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of final consumers who buy goods and services for personal

Human Resource- Succession Planning & Strategic International HRM Essay

Human Resource- Succession Planning & Strategic International HRM - Essay Example Soft competencies, is what the organization needs to focus on. Because of the highly volatile business environment, skill needs change rapidly, making it imperative to focus on soft competencies. Employees should be evaluated based on their capabilities to solve complex issues. The company should focus on long-term succession planning so that any emergency replacements are automatically taken care of. Competencies are groups of related behaviors essential for successful performance. Because of the global operations, the organization needs managers competent with general mobility skills and knowledge. This would ensure managers are effective in group processes, possess the necessary communication skills and are ready to adapt to the changing business needs and environment. Other general competencies that would facilitate success in the global economy include the ability to build a cohesive team and the competency to encourage and motivate employees to accept change. This requires developing a talent management culture within the organization so that talent when recognized should immediately be tapped, trained and developed. Talent management should best be left to the HR personnel as they are professionals and are aware of the benefits and pitfalls of succession planning. They are better positioned to identify gaps between current competencies and those that may be required in the future. To identify talent gaps, more sophisticated rating system should be used. Once high-potential employees have been identified they should be provided with developmental opportunities and experiences. This is strategic replacement strategy where formal identification follows training of successors. In addition, comprehensive job profiles for managerial position would attract the right candidates. The organization should also focus on rewarding loyal and hardworking individuals as this serves to enhance

How Do You Define Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How Do You Define Religion - Essay Example Different people define religion differently as different belief systems are ubiquitously accepted, and there is no one way to determine who is right and who is not. Different versions of religion are accepted throughout the world. There are two different definitions of religion. One is the formal definition that is coined by the notable figures of a religion, while other is one’s individual definition. In this paper, my personal definition of religion will be presented. My personal thoughts on religion and idea of God will be explored in the paper. I believe there is God, but He is different from how different religions portray him. I am a catholic but I believe in evolution and other scientific facts and theories. My idea of God is quite different from established religions. Personal Definition of Religion Religion is formally defined as a set of belief that surrounds around a moral system and a deity. Emily Durkheim defined religion as a set of beliefs that distinguish practices that are forbidden from practices that are sacred (p. 62). A formal religion also has a host of rituals and involved worshipping of a single being.

Human Resource- Succession Planning & Strategic International HRM Essay

Human Resource- Succession Planning & Strategic International HRM - Essay Example Soft competencies, is what the organization needs to focus on. Because of the highly volatile business environment, skill needs change rapidly, making it imperative to focus on soft competencies. Employees should be evaluated based on their capabilities to solve complex issues. The company should focus on long-term succession planning so that any emergency replacements are automatically taken care of. Competencies are groups of related behaviors essential for successful performance. Because of the global operations, the organization needs managers competent with general mobility skills and knowledge. This would ensure managers are effective in group processes, possess the necessary communication skills and are ready to adapt to the changing business needs and environment. Other general competencies that would facilitate success in the global economy include the ability to build a cohesive team and the competency to encourage and motivate employees to accept change. This requires developing a talent management culture within the organization so that talent when recognized should immediately be tapped, trained and developed. Talent management should best be left to the HR personnel as they are professionals and are aware of the benefits and pitfalls of succession planning. They are better positioned to identify gaps between current competencies and those that may be required in the future. To identify talent gaps, more sophisticated rating system should be used. Once high-potential employees have been identified they should be provided with developmental opportunities and experiences. This is strategic replacement strategy where formal identification follows training of successors. In addition, comprehensive job profiles for managerial position would attract the right candidates. The organization should also focus on rewarding loyal and hardworking individuals as this serves to enhance

Moratorium on Deep-Water Drilling For Retail Gas Prices Coursework

Moratorium on Deep-Water Drilling For Retail Gas Prices - Coursework Example Marathon’s Product Process The production process in MPC takes place in three phases, i.e. refining, transporting, and marketing. The refining phase is executed with the assistance of sis-plant refinery network system. Crude oils gathered from the supply markets of Midwest and various parts of Southeast are refined in these plants with the capacity of around 1,142,000 barrels per day (bpd) accumulatively. Notably, two different types of crude oils are refined in these plants, i.e. sweet crude oils (46% approx) and sour crude oils (54% approx) which are collected from national as well as international suppliers. These refineries are located in six different parts of the continent, i.e. Louisiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. The refineries are not only different in terms of their location but are also diverse in terms of sizes and their strengths (as cited in Marathon Petroleum Corporation, 2011). ... In this context, the biggest limitation of the company shall be recognized as the integrated management system implemented in its refining phase of production. This indicates the refining phase of production process to be open for greatest number of efficiency improvements. It is due to the fact that all the six plants tend to be different from each other to a large extent in terms of operations, size and strengths. Thus, it is likely to become quite challenging to manage the vivid operations through the implementation of an integrated plan. 2.0. Relationship between the Retail Price of Gasoline and World Demand for Crude Oil Experts have stated that the retail price of gasoline and the price for crude oil are asymmetrically related to each other. To be illustrated, the retail price of gasoline is examined to rise substantially with the rise in the price of crude oil. However, the retail price of gasoline tends to fall leisurely when the price for crude oil substantially minimizes. This presents an asymmetric relationship between the two fac tors (Balke, Brown, & Yucel, 1998). On the similar context, the price elasticity of demand for crude oil is termed to be least, i.e. with a significant rise in the crude oil prices; it is likely that the demand for the product will diminish but not extensively (Cooper, 2003). Therefore, it can be stated that the global demand for the crude oil and retail prices of gasoline are asymmetrically related. This indicates that fall in demand due to the price increase of crude oil will have an inverse impact on the retail price of gasoline resulting in substantial price hike of the commodity.

Contemporary Canadian Business Law Essay Example for Free

Contemporary Canadian Business Law Essay A minor named Alice entered into a contract with Silver Flatware Ltd. for purchasing silverware on a long-term credit contract. The goods was delivered but the payment was not yet been fully made by Alice. Before she attain the age of majority, Alice repudiated the contract and refused to return the silverware. The company demanded a return of the silverware and refused to refund. The company sued Alice for the balance of purchase price. The legal issues in this case are whether Alice has the legal capacity to the contract and whether Alice has the right to repudiate the contract. If the second question is answered affirmative, what the effect of repudiation will occur in this case? Should Alice return the silverware and should she be liable to the lost of teaspoons? Finally, should the Silver Flatware Ltd. Refund the money had been paid by Alice? The plaintiff’s argument would be that the defendant must return the goods if she wants to repudiate the contract. The lost of teaspoons should be counted as damage to the goods and the plaintiff is entitled to recover the loss by charging compensation from the defendant. The defendant’s argument would be that she has the right to repudiate the contract since she was a minor while entering into the contract and she repudiated the contract before her attaining of the age of majority. The defendant has the option to repudiate the contract because the contract has not been fully performed and it was signed for purchasing non-necessary goods. The defendant was entitled to a return of the payment as she was a minor at the time she entered into the contract. The defendant was not liable to the lost of teaspoons since it was not a direct result of the minor’s deliberate act and it was not recoverable by the merchant. In my opinion, the probable decision of the court would be that the defendant must return the goods and the plaintiff must refund all the monies paid by the defendant. The defendant must return the goods before the plaintiff is obliged to return the monies paid. The defendant is not liable to the lost parts of the goods. The reasons for the probable decisions are as follows. Firstly, public policy dictates that minors should not be bound by their promises. The defendant did not have the legal capacity to a contract since she entered into the contract and repudiated the contract before her attaining of the age of majority. Secondly, the contract has not been fully performed as the defendant has not made full payment of the goods, so the contract is voidable at the defendant’s option. Thirdly, the goods purchased was a non-necessary goods since the silverwork is commonly considered as luxury but not necessary. Therefore, the plaintiff is not liable on such contract. According to the reasons stated above, the defendant who is a minor has the right to repudiate the contract at any time and at her option, for the reason of the contract has not been fully performed and it was for purchasing non-necessary goods. Additionally, once the contract has been repudiated, the minor is entitled to a return of any deposit paid to the adult contractor. Since the minor has purchased the goods on credit and taken delivery, the minor must return the goods before the merchant is obliged to return any monies paid. Finally, the loss of loosing teaspoons is not recoverable by the merchant because there is no evidence provided to proof that the loss is a direct result of the minor’s deliberate act.

Examining Theories On Deviance And Deviant Behavior Criminology Essay

Examining Theories On Deviance And Deviant Behavior Criminology Essay The conditions under which deviant behavior exists have presented an enduring question for researchers. Within the literature the majority of definitions of deviance share one commonality: that social norms and values subjectively label behaviors as deviant. Similar to the number of theories of deviance there exist a number of motivations why individuals choose to engage in deviant behavior. Existing theories-general strain, anomie, labeling, control, and learning-examine these factors and attempt to clarify the hows and whys of deviant behavior. The most common factors which facilitate individual deviance include personal strain, social disorganization, a lack of self-control, and the perception that the benefits for engaging in deviance outweighing the potential costs. Because of these variations there is currently no universally-accepted theory of deviance. Introduction An urgent question in contemporary social sciences is how and why certain behaviors, attributes, or classes of individuals come to be defined as deviant.  [1]  Since social groups make the rules, deviant behavior results from individuals who fail to adhere to said rules. When behaviors are defined as deviant it is assumed that they will either promote or inhibit individual motivation to engage in such acts and will evoke certain social responses which serve to influence subsequent behavior by those within said society.  [2]  A number of theorists attempt to identify a commonality to the different types of deviant behavior. The underlying theme is that this type of behavior offends societys normative order and deviance becomes a theoretical construct of this consensus. There exist a number of theories which seek to define how individuals and their behavior are identified as deviant. Definitions of and Motivations for Deviant Behavior Despite a wide variety of definitions of deviance there is consensus that deviance refers to behaviors or attributes manifested by specified kinds of people in specified circumstances that are judged to violate the normative expectations of a specified group.  [3]  This consensus perspective serves to promote collective agreement as to what core values, norms, and goals should be. Behavior that falls outside of the specified parameters are deemed deviant. The degree of deviance is directly correlated to the perceived serious of the punitive response it elicits. Many questions abound as to individual motivations to engage in deviant behavior. Fundamentally, if one anticipates that satisfaction will ensue from engaging in the behavior then he will do so. Hirschi (1969) asserts that the motivation for deviance is always present and that research should examine the circumstances which permit individuals to act on these motivations.  [4]  In another view, Merton (1938) argues that societal strain increases motivation for deviance in order to achieve certain unattainable culturally-sanctioned goals.  [5]  Where the majority of individuals will embrace conformity as a response to strain others resort to deviance. Similarly, Tittles (1995) control balance theory assumes that individuals have a strong need to exercise control over themselves and to escape having control exerted over them by others while Katz (1988) argues that the motivation to deviance occurs to protect ones self esteem, encourage a desired reputation, establish autonomy, [ or] demonstrate competence, for example.  [6]   These theories all share the presumption that deviance is motivated by the need to adapt to psychological distress which results from the failure to achieve desired goals through conventional means. Accordingly, when pushes, or psychological impulses which compel an individual to engage in deviant behavior, and pulls, or the attraction of deviant opportunities, interact then motivation for deviance increases.  [7]  Deviance results from individuals motive to engage in deviant behavior being stronger than the motive not to amidst the existence of the opportunity to do so. Theoretical Foundations There are two primary types of theories to explain deviance: structural and processual. Structural theories are labeled sociological theories while processual ones are termed social psychological theories due to the differences in goals and scope.  [8]  Structural theories emphasize the relationship of deviant behavior to particular structural conditions within society and attempt to explain why deviance is higher in certain areas, such as those with lower socioeconomic status.  [9]  On the other hand, processual theories seek to describe the processes by which people engage in deviant behavior by attempting to explain the conditions which lead to the commission of deviant acts.  [10]  With respect to scope, structural theories address the epidemiology, or distribution in time and space of deviance and processual theories focus upon the etiology, or specific causes, of deviance.  [11]   Specific Theories of Deviance General Strain Theory (GST) GST addresses the interrelatedness of strain and its emotional response, individual coping mechanisms, and deviance.  [12]  As a theory it focuses not upon strain itself but upon individual responses to strain and seeks to identify those characteristics which enable non-deviant responses amid strain. Sharp, Brewster Love (2005) argue that certain types of strain create certain actions which influence delinquent behaviors. Anger, for example is an emotional response which has a high likelihood of encouraging deviant behavior. Therefore, where there is a strain-particularly one perceived as unfair-low social control creates pressure which, in turn, causes deviant behavior.  [13]  Research indicates that gender is a strong predictor of strain-induced deviance with males more overt in their responses than females who tend to internalize strain. GST has been used considerably in the study of juvenile deviance. Repeated exposure to stressful life experiences has been found to both escalate and accelerate juvenile delinquency and depending upon when during ones life-course trajectory the strain occurs different implications ensue. The literature suggests that involvement in delinquency begins to increase during early adolescence, peaking around age 16 and 17, and followed by a decline in such behavior.  [14]  Agnew (1997, 2006) claims that this life-course trajectory highlights that adolescence is a period of high transitions, that adolescents perceive their environment as negative more so than adults, and that there is an increased propensity for juveniles to react to adversity through deviant behavior.  [15]  The lack of useful coping mechanisms in juveniles makes it difficult to react to strain more effectively. Anomie Theory According to anomie theory-much like GST-deviance results from social disorganization in that elements in society promote deviant behavior by making such behavior a feasible adjustment to society. Where the earliest form of this theory hypothesized that anomie results from a failure to achieve positively-valued goals Agnew (2001) expanded upon this theory by including that anomie can also result when positive stimuli are removed and when negative stimuli are applied.  [16]  One criticism of anomie theory is that it assumes universality in what should be defined as deviant and how most individuals should behave; however, in reality, deviance is a relative concept so this universality is erroneous.  [17]   Labeling Theory Labeling theory presents an interactionist perspective to the study of deviant behavior by stressing the importance of the processes through which society labels a particular act as deviant and the subsequent negative social sanctions which influence the individual to engage in further deviance.  [18]  Becker (1973) claims that deviance is a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender.  [19]  Therefore, while the act or the person may not be inherently deviant, existing social controls create deviance by defining acts that the majority believes to be so and, consequently, labeling individuals who engage in such acts as deviant. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy by amplifying the very phenomenon that it is intended to suppress.  [20]  Of primary importance is that subsequent events serve to reinforce the deviance because an individual internalizes the label attached to him by societys stigmatizing and creates secondary, or tertiary, deviance. The labeling itself serves to ensure that every society has a percentage of deviants which is critical to maintain the majority consensus.  [21]   Control Theory Control theory is similar to anomie and social disorganization theories to the degree that deviance results from the lack of social controls on individual restraint to engage in deviant behavior.  [22]  Durkheim (1933) asked why people conform to social norms instead of why they engage in deviant behavior. Under this theory it is assumed that everyone would engage in deviant behavior if given the chance, that a small amount of social controls will increase deviance, and that there exists a central value system which defines deviance in society.  [23]  There are four components of an individuals societal bond which serve to prevent deviance: attachment to specific groups through affection, respect, and socialization; commitment to accepting conforming behavior; involvement in non-delinquent behavior; and a belief in the dominant value system of any particular group.  [24]  When social bonds are reestablished or strengthened then the deviant behavior ceases. Accordingly, individuals who engage in deviant behavior do so due to low self-control. Under this theory low self-control is comprised of six personality traits: anger, impulsivity, preference for simple tasks, risk-seeking, being more physical than mental, and being self-centered.  [25]  Gottfredson Hirschis (1990) self-control theory asserts that inadequate child-rearing results in lowered self-control which facilitates a predisposition to engage in deviant behavior.  [26]  They also claim that individuals who engage in one type of deviant act will commit other deviant acts. Learning or Socialization Theory These theories suggest that deviance is a learned behavior similar to how non-deviant individuals learn conforming behavior. By attempting to distinguish variations in behaviors theorists assume that differences in rates of deviance among various groups can be determined. One of the most widely-cited learning theories is Sutherlands (1947) differential association theory which postulates that deviant behavior results from normative conflicts in neighborhood structures, peer group relationships, and the organization of family in society.  [27]  The fundamental tenets of Sutherlands theory are that criminal behavior is learned, that learning is a result of personal interaction, that primary learning occurs in intimate group settings, that people learn that socially-normative attitudes are either favorable or not, that deviant behavior results when conditions favorable to deviance exceed those unfavorable to violating the law, and that deviant behavior cannot be explained by general needs and values.  [28]  Accordingly, an individual learns various motives which are favorable to engaging in deviant behaviors as well as rationalizations and techniques for achieving them. While the behavior may be defined as deviant to the rest of society, within a particular individuals in-group the behavior may adhere to the groups norms. Akers (1985, 1989) expanded upon Sutherlands work by adding that deviance results when a person learns definitions that portray some conduct as a desirable, even though deviant, action.  [29]  If an individual is rewarded for a deviant act by his in-group then he becomes socialized to continue the behavior under the expectation of similar positive experiences for subsequent acts. Other Theories Deterrence theory asks whether the expectation of certain, severe, and swift punishment for engaging in deviant behavior would deter such behavior.  [30]  Rational choice theory addresses an individuals anticipated cost-benefit ratio of acting on deviant impulses. A greater expected or perceived benefit increases the likelihood that the individual will commit the act. Finally, conflict theory asserts that the development of formal social controls and laws are legitimized by the more powerful societal groups.  [31]   Conclusion The wide variation of social psychological theories of deviant behavior seeks to answer why individuals become motivated to engage in deviant behavior, how behaviors and attitudes are defined as deviant, what factors facilitate deviant behavior, why some deviant behavior is escalated, and what consequences exist.  [32]  Despite the number and variety of theories of deviance the commonality is that this concept is a socially-defined construct utilized to maintain a societys normative values. The disparities in definitions of deviance among societies make it difficult to establish an all-encompassing theory to explain the existence of deviant behavior in contemporary society.

JUVENILE LAW :: essays research papers

ARE YOU A JUVENILE OR AN ADULT?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mo. Laws make this question very complicated. Some times we might think we are juvenile’s, but by law we can be and treated as an adult. At age 13, you can go to some health clinics and get some medical treatments and testing done without your parents permission, such as pregnancy, alcohol/drug, and sexual transmitted diseases. Most of the time, if you are under 18, you need your parents permission, unless you are married, or in the military. At 15 1/2, you can get a special permit to drive with a legal guardian, but if you break a traffic law you are considered an adult. But at 16, you can get your own drivers license. If you are under 18 and even at age 12, you can be considered an adult if you commit a serious crime, such as killing, drug related. rape, repeated offenses, or stealing a car. If you are under 18, and are picked up by a police officer and taken to juvenile court, a juvenile officer will decide how to handle your case. Then a juvenile judge hears the evidence with you and your parents. The judge studies the whole complete picture of you, and your whole life and everything in and around you, and your crime, and then decides as to whether or not your case will be held in Juvenile Court or in a Adult Court. If your case is held in Juvenile Court and you are found guilty, and since he has made a complete study of you and your case, he will be the one to decide how and what will happen to you. If you are tried as an adult and found guilty, naturally the punishment will be more severe such as:

Moving Towards a Global Community Essay

With Communism finally thought of as discredited, the US believed that it could finally assume sole dominance of global political and economic affairs. The US was wrong, as Communism was replaced with a new foe – terrorism. The 1990s saw the emergence of Islamic terrorist groups, all of which have a single-minded goal to destroy the US. These terrorist organizations justify their actions by arguing that it is their duty as good Muslims to wage a war against all enemies of Islam (Halliday, 2003). Roots of the â€Å"Jihad† Most Islamic terrorist organizations came from Third World countries, where poverty and government corruption are rampant. Furthermore, majority of the countries from which these terrorist groups originated are governed by pro-US regimes. In exchange for unlimited access to the raw materials of their respective countries, the US would grant them political, economic and military assistance. The aforementioned scenario is conducive to the rise of Islamic terrorist organizations. Impoverished and desperate, many Muslims from the Third World find solace from these groups, who offer them overly simplistic explanations for their destitute state. Leaders of Islamic terrorist organizations usually brainwash neophytes into believing that the US is responsible for the political, economic and social ills in their country. Thus, as good Muslims, they must fight the US even at the cost of their very lives. The US, on the other hand, would protect itself by calling on lackey regimes to â€Å"fight terrorism† by crushing these groups, often at the expense of civil rights and liberties of their constituents (Palmer and Palmer, 2004). References Halliday, F. (2003). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East (2nd ed. ). London: I. B. Tauris. Palmer, M. , & Palmer, P. (2004). At the Heart of Terror: Islam, Jihadists, and America’s War on Terrorism. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

How does Steinbeck present the culture of the migrant worker in the novel? Essay

John Steinbeck wrote a novel called Of Mice and Men in 1937. At the time America was in a period of economic depression following the Wall Street crash. John Steinbeck saw the effects and saw how people had to work hard away from home as migrant workers and this motivated him to write this novel. The story is about 2 migrant workers; Lennie and George. In this essay we will be looking at the character of the migrant workers, their motivations and their dreams for the future. Also we will be looking at the language and then conclude by answering the question ‘how does Steinbeck present the culture of the migrant worker in the novel? Migrant workers are people who go looking around for work away from home. They normally do not form long term friendships and normally do not form relationships with women. However in Steinbeck’s novel there are two friends called Lennie and George who have a long term friendship. Lennie is a big man with a mental age of about 8. He always relies on George to tell him what’s right and wrong. We can know that normal migrant workers are lonely. This is supported when George says â€Å"guys like us that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. The way he says loneliest, he doesn’t just say lonely he refers to migrant workers as â€Å"the loneliest people†. The migrant worker is shown to be lonely by Steinbeck. Also when Candy says â€Å"of course I ain’t got family† it tells us that it is usual to not have family and is a common feature shared by the migrant workers. Each character in the novel has his or her own characteristics, and this is how Steinbeck presents the culture of the migrant worker. Candy is characterised as being old and useless -the one who they use and Crooks is the lonely and isolated one. We come to know that Crooks feels lonely when he says â€Å"books ain’t no good a guy needs somebody to be near him†. The way he says ‘somebody’ means that he is desperate to have a friend and this desperation shows his loneliness. So Steinbeck presents us with different characteristics of each character like anger and loneliness. We also see signs of selfishness when Carlson shoots Candy’s dog. This novel is about hope and despair, love and disgust but Carlson isn’t really plugged into these things. This world is black and white to him with no subtitle for example when slim leads George away from the riverbank as he has gathered what has just happened Carlson says â€Å"what the hell do you thinks is eating them two guys†. This shows he is clueless to his surroundings but this is how he survives the life of the migrant worker. So overall there are different characteristics of the migrant workers. This is due to their circumstances like Crooks being black, Candy being old and Curley’s wife not loving him and not being loved by him. So Steinbeck presents the culture of the migrant workers to be selfish and lonely. But there are two characters that are different to the others; they are the dreamers, Lennie and George who symbolise hope for the migrant worker. What’s different about them is that they are friends who stick together till the end of the novel. This is shown when George says â€Å"with us it aint like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us†. This tells us that they have a dream the way George say â€Å"we got a future†. This shows us hope. Also when Lennie says â€Å"I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you†. This shows us lots of things, firstly it shows us friendship between them but it also shows that Lennie relies on George. George’s dream is to have is own piece of land and Lennie’s is to tend rabbits on that piece of land. But there are also other characters that have dreams like Curley’s. Her dream is to become an actress when she says â€Å"he was going to put me in the movies†. This shows us that she wanted to become an actress and therefore shows us that even she has a dream. Also Crooks dreams of being seen as equal to everyone else. He remembers his childhood, when he played with white children who came to his family’s chicken ranch. Even the old and useless Candy has a dream which merges with Lennie and George’s dream which is to have their own piece of land. So overall Steinbeck presents us with a lot of different characters of the migrant workers. He shows anger, aggression and even loneliness, but he also shows other things like hope, friendship and the dream of the migrant workers. He also shows the dream of the migrant worker and how it is pointless to have a dream. He shows us that dreams lead to disappointment. In the novel nobody’s dream comes true for example Crooks doesn’t get that equality he thinks he deserves, Curley’s wife doesn’t get to be an actress and Candy’s dreams get shattered along with George of having their own piece of land. The best way to avoid disappointment is to not have a dream this is what Steinbeck is explaining in this novel. Steinbeck uses a lot of descriptions to show the scenery. For example he describes a place at the beginning to be â€Å"close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too†. Then at the beginning of section 2 he describes were they work when he says â€Å"the bunk house was long, rectangular building. Inside the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted†. He gives a contrast because at the beginning he describes a place that is beautiful and colourful by the way he says deep and green and when he describes the work place he uses very plain description like rectangular bunk house and ‘the floors unpainted’. This gives us a contrast between the life of nature and then the life of the migrant worker. The language used tells us that they were uneducated and had an accent by the way Lennie says ‘purty’ instead of ‘pretty’. Also we can tell that they are uneducated by the way they speak like when Lennie says â€Å"make um let me alone†. Steinbeck is recreating an authentic sense of the spoken voice. However people who sound uneducated can still have brains for example Crooks. He reads law books but his language is just as bad as the others when he says â€Å"I ain’t so crippled I can’t work like a son of a bitch if I want to†. They also use racist words towards crooks like ‘nigger’. This is only said to show us that they were all living in a time, in society that was racist. Overall I think that Steinbeck shows the culture of the migrant workers in numerous ways, he gives us different characteristics of the migrant worker for example anger, suspicions, selfishness and loneliness, but the most important thing is the dream of Lennie and George that one day they will have their own piece of land and this is what keeps them going. This shows hope for the migrant worker. Candy and his dog provides a parallel to George and Lennie. When candy’s dog got old and useless he got killed, but not by Candy but by Carlson, Candy felt that he should have killed the dog himself when he says â€Å"I should have killed him myself†. At the end of the novel George kills Lennie because he knew it would be better for him to kill Lennie and not regret it like Candy did with his dog. Steinbeck shows us that not all migrant workers are selfish and don’t make long term friendships by the characters Lennie and George. Steinbeck tells us how quickly hopes and dreams can get destroyed. The title ‘of mice and men’ refers to a poem which tells us of a mouse and how the mouse builds up his nest and how the nest is destroyed. The mouse symbolises Lennie and George and the nest is symbolises their dream and how it is destroyed so suddenly.

Population & The Environment Essay

Discussions regarding the environmental impact of increasing population densities across the globe never lose their currency. From Thomas Malthus to Paul R. Erlich and onwards, there is a persistent concern that a growing international population may not only reach a tipping point in which the planet’s ability to provide for it is stretched to its limit, but begin to experience detrimental effects in the form of environmental problems. This concern is not simply a matter of numbers, but a matter of how industrial civilizations have consistently failed to curtail anthropogenic impacts. As Donella Meadows (199) opines, â€Å"not only are there so many more of us, but each of us is bigger† when one measures the amount of energy and material we use and the amount of pollutants and waste created by the industries we have created to support our energy and material use. In effect, â€Å"The number of people is not what degrades the earth; it’s the number of people times the flow of energy and material each person commands. † One of the most frequently cited means by which highly dense populations negatively impact the environment is through intense car use. Alex Steffen (2008) notes that intensive car use within a finite geographic territory is not only a massive contributor to greenhouse emissions that are warming the planet, but they also command a large amount of resource use through the inputs necessary to maintain highway infrastructure, build the actual cars and fuel them. Granted, the resource consumption and greenhouse emissions caused directly by private automobile ownership is absolutely no surprise to anyone, but the less obvious implication that Steffen reports is that exhaust emissions are only a fraction of the environmental impact of the automobile. Over the course of the mid-20th century onwards, the increasing prominence of the automobile as part of modern living has necessitated the construction of massive highway infrastructure. The result is that when you factor dense populations with intense private ownership and use of automobiles is that not only is there a massive amount of greenhouse emissions, but the amount of pavement this infrastructure commands can contribute significantly to the heat island effect which has become a concern among urban planners as of late. Heat islands not only increase the amount of energy expended on indoor air conditioning, but they can worsen air quality. (Steffen, 2008) As such, Steffen argues that no matter the great lengths that today’s automobile manufacturers go to in order to make their automobiles into shiny fuel-efficient emissions-reduced green things to sate the eco-minded consumer, it will not be enough to remediate environmental impacts brought about by car use. Take for example the push towards biofuels, which is essentially, a push for auto manufacturers, in collaboration with energy companies, to make automobiles that run on renewable agricultural products that emit a reduced amount of greenhouse gases. While there is much fuss in the mainstream press about the extent to which the biofuel industry is cannibalizing the food supply, a more overlooked concern is the manner in which the expansion of industrial agriculture to such a massive scale negatively impacts the environment. Simply put, the principal concern is not the ability of agriculture to feed populations, but rather how the expansion of the food supply, combined with the accommodations made for biofuels, has a deleterious effect on the environment. Manning (85-89) notes that the homogenous and unsustainable approach of industrialized corn-based agriculture is detrimental to the health of the soil. As such, there is a possibility that the massive conversion of lands towards the production of corn could recreate the conditions of The Great Dust Bowl, a period in the American heartland which saw hundreds of thousands of would-be wheat farmers plow the soil to death to profit from golden grain. Thus, as civilizations increase in population density, so too do their demands in food and automobile use, effectively exerting a greater toll on the planet’s natural environment. In any case, we must be mindful to remember that the problems inherent with a massive human population should not lead us to conclude that humans have no ecologically acceptable place in the planet. Humanity is not a virus on the operating system of the planet. Rather, what human society should begin to acknowledge is that it must begin to take a more comprehensive look at its impacts in order to correct them thoroughly. REFERENCES Meadows, Donella. â€Å"The Deep Six. † Grist. 12 October 1999. Retrieved online on March 14, 2009 from: http://www. grist. org/comments/citizen/1999/10/12/deep/index. html Steffen, Alex. â€Å"My Other Car is a Bright Green City. † Worldchanging. 23 January 2008. Retrieved online on March 14, 2009 from: http://www. worldchanging. com/archives/007800. html Manning, Richard. Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization. New York: North Point Press, 2004.

Theoretical Studies In Fashion SOCIAL MEDIA Essay

Theoretical Studies In Fashion SOCIAL MEDIA - Essay Example The essay "Theoretical Studies In Fashion SOCIAL MEDIA" argues that false identities cause manipulation and exploitation, psychological harm to others, bullying, and other forms of cyber crime. The essay further talks about the issues of appropriation and authenticity, and gaze in relation to false identity and fashion. False identity enables people to appropriate ideas in fashion. It also promotes female gaze which represents sexuality and sometimes may cause intimidation of the subjects. The purpose of this essay is to find out the relationship between the use of social media and the creation of false identity. It attempts to establish whether the social media has encouraged the creation of false media. If the social media enhances the creation of false identity, then it is important to understand in what ways the social media does so. The essay also identifies the positive and negative effects of fake identity in the social media. The results of the essay will enable the public to identify situations of false identity in the social media and avoid its repercussions such as psychological trauma, conning, and other effects of false identity. The growth of the social media has acted as a medium to create alternation or false identity, causing sinister opportunities. Performance artists such as Leigh Bowery and Cindy Sherman have expressly been used as examples of celebrities who alternative their identities in the social media. Fake identity in the social media has positive effects as a form of self-expression.

How can IR theories be brigged Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

How can IR theories be brigged - Essay Example Some of the core theories surrounding international relation are that of idealism, Realism, Marxism, Functionalism, Dependency theory, Critical theories and other areas such as international ethics and rationalism. There are some major gaps between the international relation theory owing to the time factor as well as the evolution of new ways and dimension to the theories. It is possible to bridge the theories in international relation and bring in a whole new dimension to the area. There were two distinct enterprises when it comes to international relations. The first set of theories dealt with the organization and dynamics of international relations. These theories provided concrete policies that are directly aimed at international relations. Proliferation of theories based on these few areas gave rise to concern and opened the arena for the new theories. The second set of theories that came about at a later point of time aims at giving us a thorough understanding of the internatio nal relation but in an indirect manner. Some of the first set theories include liberalism and realism whereas the second set comprises of ontological and epistemological issues that indirectly leads us to international relations. ... Instead, both the areas should be read together and thus bridging of international theories becomes very much crucial to get to the crux of the subject matter. Such implicit and explicit area of international theory will open new arenas or close unwanted views. This bridging will definitely help us understand the world of politics in a better manner. For instance, let us take the example of bridging of the Constructivism and Feminism in International Relations. Both of these theories belong to Critical international relations theory which believes that the behavior of the state as well as an individual can be changed. Constructivism is a discipline in international relation which believes that a prominent portion of the international relation is subject to historical and social contingency than the influence of the necessary consequences of human activities or that of world politics. Feminism, on the other hand, is the area of that target at the gender concerns in the international r elations and politics arena. The IR feminism looks into to the areas of international politics affected by men and women and the gendered factors surrounding some of the major areas of international relations. Both feminism and constructivism seems way apart but they seem to merge at a single point. Feminism is a historical and social contingency that has a major influence in the international politics. This is where the merging happens, thereby providing us a new area called Feminist constructivism. Feminist constructivism is an IR theory that is built upon the concept of construction as well as studies as to the influence of gender in world politics. A deeper look into construction will lead you through a way to understand

Asbestos at the Regional Airport in Virginia Case Study

Asbestos at the Regional Airport in Virginia - Case Study Example Asbestos fibers do not have any detectable odor or taste. They do not dissolve in water or evaporate and are resistant to heat, fire, chemical and biological degradation. Because of these properties, asbestos has been used in a wide range of manufactured products, mostly in building materials, friction products, and heat-resistant fabrics. Asbestos has been used in building-construction materials, cement, textiles, missile and jet parts, asphalt and caulking compounds and paints, and in friction products such as brake linings. These materials are needed for the construction for the new Virginia airport. According to (Timbrell, 2000) "Exposure to asbestos fibers and dust, however, can cause asbestosis, a disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of asbestos particles, and, after a latent period of up to 30 years and more, various cancers, especially lung cancer and mesothelioma, which is an inoperable cancer of the chest and abdominal lining" Since some materials are not as hazardous like asbestos its better to discontinue patronizing all the products that contain high in asbestos materials for constructing the airport.

EBay Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

EBay - Case Study Example eBay’s fee structure is based on the principle of charging more for the initial amount and less for additional ones. It is therefore focused more on building big with bulk sales, which indeed exponentially increases on the sales graphs for an organization. The high volume sellers get attracted and even companies that have made it huge within the industry now bank on eBay for their inventory sale (Munir, 2010). As of today, eBay’s fee structure needs no tinkering because it takes care of both the buyers’ and sellers’ needs. Hence incremental improvements can always be brought about but no wholesale changes would as such be required at this stage. The next steps for eBay are to acquire renowned businesses that exist in the virtual world and build on the strategy to take over companies for its own betterment and in a desire to increase profits in the long run. The capabilities shall continue to expand in the times to come which would further the cause of eBay and enhance its vision to grow and expand across the board. It continues to grow when there is a need for both the buyers and sellers to get in touch through a collective mindset of growth and advancement whereby eBay benefits just about everyone who comes in contact with it (Reuer, 2009). This growth comes from a collective mesh of connecting with eBay which paves avenues for such participation which in the end increases on the profits for

AP English Language and Composition-Timed Writting Essay

AP English Language and Composition-Timed Writting - Essay Example licy whose implementation was intended to save power usage and practiced by countries such as United States, Britain, France, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand and other countries (Source C). Its expanded use however believed to have other benefits in other areas such as traffic safety and crime reduction (Source A) According to a study made by U.S. Department of Transportation in the 1970s, DST reduces America’s electricity usage â€Å"by about one percent† daily when the DST is in effect for an eight month period (Source C). This result is replicated in other countries that also practice DST. It was also observed by the same study that crime rate was reduced by as much as 10 to 13 percent when DST was in effect attributing to the fact that the extended daylight decreases the opportunity for crimes against those people who are returning from work (Source C). Study also showed that traffic accidents were reduced when DST is in effect (Source C). Daily Savings Time policy intent of saving electricity consumption however is not without its share of detractors. There are also several sectors that opposed its implementation among them was the airline industry who believed that the extension of DST from a uniform six months to eight months would cause problems in airline’s schedules that would incur them millions of dollars in losses. The perceived benefit of saving electricty consumption through the implementation of DST was also challenged by another study that reported that contrary to the policy’s intent, DST in fact increases the use of electricy consumption for about one percent and there are even instances during fall that the increase rose between 2 and 4 percent (Source –Kotchen). The expanded benefit of DST of crime reduction and traffic safety was also attempted to be offset by the study that reported that DST can cause sleep disruptions and possibly other serious consequences (Source E). These findings however are not that conclusive

The Modern Era Essay Example for Free

The Modern Era Essay Early Modern World Historians sometimes refer to the era between the premodern (or medieval) and late modern eras as the â€Å"early modern world.† The world during this era was increasingly united by the projection of European power abroad, especially in the Americas. Although early modern Europeans still had little knowledge of, let alone hegemony (influence) over, the inland regions of Africa and Asia, the links created and dominated by Europeans made the entire world a stage for fundamental historical processes. Historians debate, or pass over in silence, the problem of determining the precise starting and ending dates of the early modern world and have produced only the vaguest consensus. Roughly, the era of the early modern world began during the fifteenth century with the Timurid (relating to the Turkic conqueror Timur) and Italian cultural renaissances. The year 1405 serves as a convenient starting date because it marks not only the death of Timur, the last great central Asian conqueror to join farmers and nomads into a single empire, but also the first of the Chinese admiral Zheng He’s (c. 1371–1435) naval expeditions to the â€Å"Western Oceans.† The era might be taken to end in the late eighteenth century with the French and Industrial revolutions, both European events of global consequence in the late modern world. The uncertainty of this periodization derives in part from the concept of an early modern Europe, with its own uncertain chronological boundaries, and in part from the unconsidered way in which both phrases entered historical scholarship. Origins of the Concept Although conceptually the phrase early modern world is an extension of the phrase early modern Europe, the initial histories of both phrases have some surprises. The earliest known appearance of the phrase early modern world occurs in Willard Fisher’s â€Å"Money and Credit Paper in the Modern Market†Ã‚  from The Journal of Political Economy (1895). Although Fisher writes, â€Å"We all know that the system of bank credits and bank money, which was introduced into the great commercial centers of the early modern world, has now attained a quite marvelous development† (1895, 391), the geographical sense of his statement is strictly, if implicitly, European. On the other hand, the phrase early modern Europe first shows up twenty years later, in Dixon Ryan Fox’s â€Å"Foundations of West India Policy† in Political Science Quarterly (1915). Fox remarks, â€Å"It was now realized by students of colonial history that in the Caribbean [the â€Å"West India† of the article’s title] might best be traced the application of those principles which formed the working basis for the old empires of early modern Europe† (1915, 663). Ironically, the phrase early modern Europe first appeared in the Caribbean, in the global context of colonialism, in an article advocating trans-Atlantic history. In their debu ts each phrase bore something of the other’s sense. Fox’s usage was an anomaly, and when the phrase early modern Europe arrived in Europe, it had come to stay. The phrase early modern world, however, for decades would imply world to mean, in an indefinite way, immediate rather than global surroundings; because this historical scholarship dealt with European subjects, the â€Å"early modern world† was in fact â€Å"early modern Europe.† The early modern world became global only with C. F. Strong’s grammar school textbook The Early Modern World (1955) and S. Harrison Thomson’s 1964 review of J. H. Parry’s The Age of Reconnaissance, in which Thomson uses the phrase to describe the â€Å"story of the successive expansion of European venture, from Africa to the reaches of the Indian Ocean by Arabs and Portuguese by sea, the movement westward to the Americas and the early transition from discovery to fishing, trading, and exploitation†(1964, 188). The first considered analysis of the early mo dern world came after the posthumous publication of Joseph Fletcher’s article â€Å"Integrative History† in 1985. Such analysis has tended to adopt either a deductive or an inductive approach. Deductive Approach A deductive approach to the early modern world compares premodernity and late modernity, devises the characteristics necessary to bridge the two stages, and only then seeks confirmation in the historical record. This approach assumes the existence of a modernizing trajectory, which the early modern world shared with (and perhaps inherited from) early modern Europe. Informed by a Marxist perspective, the essentials of the early modern world would highlight transitions from feudal to bourgeois, from serfdom to wage-earning proletariat, and from local subsistence to regional market economies. A functionalist understanding of modernity, of the sort theorized by the German sociologist Max Weber, the U.S. sociologist Talcott Parsons, or the French sociologist Emile Durkheim, explains social phenomena in terms of their ability to fulfill social needs and broadens this base beyond the mode of production. Here the critical shifts would be from belief in miracles to belief in science, from household-based craft production powered by muscle, dung, water, and wood to factory-based mass production powered by electricity and fossil fuels, and from government justified by tradition to government consciously invented. Even in the context of early modern Europe critics challenge the effectiveness of a deductive approach by condemning its implication of an inevitable progress from premodernity to modernity. A deductive approach takes little cognizance of the possibilities of various starting points, different destinations, and particular paths. In some twentieth-century cases the transition to modernity was less a progression than a violently dramatic change. When expanded to a global context this approach becomes not only teleological (assuming a design or purpose in history), but also artificially Eurocentric. Inductive Approach Rather than specify theoretical factors to be sought in the time period, an inductive approach examines what happened in different places and extracts from what happened a set of common features. Although such an approach removes the theoretical obstacle of a modernizing trajectory, the historian is left with the Herculean task of specifying processes that united all,  most, or many of the world’s peoples. Such an approach need not focus on Europe, nor need it measure the success of various regions in terms of their progress along Europe’s path. How closely do the rough chronological parameters suggested here match the conventional historiographies (the writings of history) of the various regions outside Europe?  Traditional periodizations in African and American history are directly linked to European expansion. Marked by a European presence that could not yet dominate the continent, an early modern Africa might last from the Portuguese capture of Ceuta, a port on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar (1415), until the development of quinine and steamships in the nineteenth century. The first Niger steamship expedition returned without casualties in 1854. An early modern America might stretch from the encounters of 1492 until the period of independence movements, from 1776 to the independence of Brazil in 1822. An early modern India might begin with the fifth generation descendant of Timur, Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur, whose ancestry inspired him to conquer northern India. The Mughal dynasty he founded (1526) would rule effectively for two centuries; the British would take charge of its Delhi nucleus in 1803. An early modern Japan stretches from the unification efforts of Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate (the dictatorship of a Japanese military governor) in 1867. Other regional historiographies fit less naturally. Although the Ottomans’ 1453 conquest of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) was timely, the Chinese Ming dynasty began too early (1368) and ended inconveniently in the middle of our early modern period (1644). Worse, key modernizing revolutions came late relative to the western European timetable the Chinese Revolution in 1911, the Russian Bolshevik revolution in 1917, and the Kemalist (relating to the Turkish soldier and statesman Kemal Ataturk) revolution in Turkey in 1923. The actual use of the phrase early modern in the periodization of regional histories varies. Outside of Europe, it is most commonly used in Asia, especially in works on China, Japan, and, to a lesser extent, India. Historians of China sometimes extend the period into the twentieth century. Far fewer historians write of an â€Å"early modern Africa† or an â€Å"early modern Brazil.† This fact is due in part to the power of the word colonial to identify these time periods. Latin American periodization is so consistently divided into pre-Columbian, colonial, and national periods that there is no need for the phrase early  modern, which should correspond to the middle, colonial period. In fact, the phrase early modern Mexico sometimes refers to the period immediately after independence. The divergence of these traditional periodizations of regional histories, so often linked to high-level political history, should not surprise. The global historian in search of an early modern world can look beyond these periodizations to seek processes that enveloped wide swaths of the planet. Development of Global Sea Passages Nothing is more characteristic of the early modern world than the creation of truly global sea passages. Before 1492 the Americas remained essentially isolated from Eurasia. In 1788 the last key sea passage was completed by the first permanent settlement of Europeans in Australia. This passage also concluded the integration of the Pacific Ocean as a geographical concept, a process that began when the Spanish explorer Vasco Nuà ±ez de Balboa became the first European to see the Pacific from America in 1513. During the early fifteenth century the Europeans were unlikely candidates to fill the key role in this process of exploration. Portuguese exploration of the African coast was declining, and mariners were reluctant to sail out of sight of land. Even the overland excursions undertaken by Europeans had become more modest. Muslims still controlled southern Iberia, and in 1453 the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. Smart money would have looked rather at the Chinese admiral Zheng He, whose seven expeditions between 1405 and 1433  reached even the shores of eastern Africa. A change in Chinese imperial policy halted these expeditions, and the voyages that finally connected the world were directed by Europeans. In 1522 the survivors of the expedition of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. During the following centuries a skilled captain and crew could navigate a ship from any port to any port and reasonably expect to arrive. In 1570 the Flemish cartographer Ortelius published what has been described as the first modern atlas, the Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theater of the World); this comprehensive yet handy and inexpensive work enjoyed immediate success. By the end of the period the best mapped region of the world would be China. Global Demographic Interconnections The world’s population doubled during the early modern period, from approximately 374 million (1400) to 968 million people (1800). Although demographic data are limited, some patterns emerge. Rapid growth was punctuated by a seventeenthcentury decline in Europe, Russia, Iran, Central Asia, China, and Korea and recovery from this decline occurred globally, even in the Americas. The more populous regions tended to grow more rapidly. The new global sea passages set the stage for a transatlantic â€Å"Columbian exchange† (the biological and cultural exchange between the New World and the Old World that began with the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus) and for a transpacific â€Å"Magellan exchange† of crops and disease pathogens that put the peoples of the world in a more direct demographic relationship than ever before. The arrival of American maize and potatoes in Eurasia, and later in Africa, facilitated an intensive agricultural, and thus demographic, growth, and the appearance of tomatoes in Italy and chili peppers in India had important dietary and culinary consequences. Disease also became a global phenomenon. First appearing in Europe in 1494, venereal syphilis reached India four years later, and by 1505 it had  outraced the Portuguese to China. The New World’s isolation and limited biodiversity (biological diversity as indicated by numbers of species of plants and animals) did not afford its indigenous peoples the same immunities enjoyed by Europeans, who as children were exposed to a multiplicity of infections. Measles, smallpox, and other diseases brought by Europeans triggered a long-term demographic catastrophe. The indigenous population of central Mexico declined from 30 million in 1518 to 1.6 million in 1620 a genocide unintended, misunderstood, and undesired by the Spanish who sought souls for salvation and laborers for their mines. Contact with the wider world wrought similar demographic calamities on other isolated peoples, including Pacific Islanders, Siberian tribes, and the Khoikhoi of southern Africa. Increased contacts distributed pathogens more evenly throughout the world and generally reduced susceptibility to epidemic disease. Development of a Global Economy The development of global sea passages integrated America into a truly global economy. Rapidly growing long distance commerce linked expanding economies on every continent. Dutch merchants in Amsterdam could purchase commodities anywhere in the world, bring them to Amsterdam, store them safely, add value through processing and packaging, and sell them for profit. Intensive production fueled by the commercialism of an increasingly global market gave new importance to cash crops and sparked an unprecedented expansion in the slave trade. The movement of manufactured goods from eastern Asia toward Europe and America created a chain of balance-of-trade deficits, which funneled silver from American mines to China. Regular transpacific trade developed during the decades after the founding of Manila in the Philippines in 1571 and followed the same pattern: Exports of porcelain and silks from China created a trade imbalance that sucked silver from the Americas and from Japan. Through military-commercial giants such as the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602), European merchants disrupted traditional trading  conditions in Africa and Asia to muscle into regional â€Å"country trade.† The expansion of settled populations, as well as the new ocean trade route alternatives to the Silk Road that linked China to the West, contributed to the decline of nomadism. The agriculture of settled peoples supported large populations and tax bases that an efficient state could translate into permanent military strength. Development of Large and Efficient States The global trade in firearms and similar weapons contributed to the growth of large and efficient states, known as â€Å"gunpowder empires.† Expensive and complex, the most advanced weapons became a monopoly of centralized states, which employed them to weaken local opposition. During the mid-fifteenth century the king of France used artillery to reduce some sixty castles annually. Administrative procedures also became increasingly routinized and efficient. Ever more abstract notions of state authority accompanied the evolution of new  sources of legitimacy. From the Irrawaddy River in Asia to the Seine River in Europe, religious uniformity served to reinforce and confirm centralized rule. The ideal of universal empire was native to America, Africa, and Eurasia. The early modern unification of England with Scotland and Ireland was paralleled throughout Europe. If in 1450 Europe contained six hundred independent political units (or more, depending on the criteria), in the nineteenth century it contained around twentyfive. About thirty independent city-states, khanates (state governed by a ruler with the Mongol title â€Å"khan†), and princedoms were absorbed into the Russian empire. By 1600 the Tokugawa shogunate had unified Japan. Fourteenth century southeastern Asia had two dozen independent states that evolved into Vietnam, Siam (Thailand), and Burma (Myanmar) by 1825. The Mughals unified India north of the Deccan Plateau for the first time since the Mauryan empire (c. 321–185 BCE). Unification was also an overture to expansion. In addition to an increasing European presence worldwide, Qing China (1644–1912) invaded Xinjiang,  Mongolia, Nepal, Burma, and Formosa, and during the seventeenth century Romanov Russia stretched out to the Pacific. The new unities led relentlessly to new fragmentations and hierarchies, and resistance to such centralizing political forces was equally universal. During the century between 1575 and 1675, for example, uprisings occurred in China, Japan, India, Armenia, Georgia, Kurdistan, Ukraine, the Balkans, the German lands, Switzerland, France, Catalonia, Portugal, England, Ireland, and Mexico. At the end of the period, the French Revolution (1789) would enjoy global influence as the first revolution modern in its progressive, absolute, and sudden nature. Intensification of Land Use The concurrence of population growth, global markets, and aggressive states led to wider and more intensive use of land. Displacing or subordinating indigenous peoples, pioneers backed by aggressive states drained wetlands and cleared forests to create new lands for intensive commercial, agricultural, and pastoral regimes. (Similarly, commercial hunters pursued various species of flora and fauna to extinction for sale on a global market.) Oblivious to any land claims held by indigenous peoples, states would offer pioneers low taxes in exchange for settlement and land rights. For example, the Mughal Empire provided land grants, Hindu merchants provided capital, and Sufi (Muslim mystic) brotherhoods provided leadership for the communities of Muslim pioneers who transformed the Bengal wetlands into a key rice-producing region. These efforts compensated for the extended disobliging weather patterns that plagued temperate zones throughout the Northern Hemisphere a â€Å"little ice age† affecting climate throughout the early modern world. Religious Revival The most distinctive religious characteristic of this era was the global  expansion of Christianity. Indeed, the impetus driving the creation of global sea passages was religious as well as commercial. The efforts of Catholic religious orders predominated the great Protestant missionary societies would be founded only in the 1790s. Sufi brotherhoods such as the Naqshibandiyah expanded Islam in Africa, India, China, and southeastern Asia.Tibetan Buddhism pushed into northwestern China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Buryatia, and to Kalmikya, on the shore of the Caspian Sea, which remains today the only Buddhist republic in Europe. The increased emphasis on orthodox and textual conventions of Latin Christendom’s Reformation had a parallel in the Raskol schism of the Russian Orthodox Church during the 1650s. Elsewhere, Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703–1792) founded the Wahabbi movement to reform Sunni Islam under strict Quranic interpretation. Many people believed that the era that historians call â€Å"early modern† would be the last. Franciscan apocalyptic thought inspired Columbus, and the belief that the god Quetzalcoatl would return from the East in a One Reed year led the Aztec sovereign Montezuma II to regard the Spanish conqueror Hernà ¡n Cortà ©s and his comrades as divine envoys. A Jesuit at the court of Akbar in 1581 found the Mughal ruler open to the idea of the imminent end because that year was eleven years from the thousandth anniversary of the Hijra, which was the journey the Prophet Muhammad took from Mecca to Medina in  622 CE. The Jewish Sabbatian movement expected the end of the world in 1666. In late eighteenth-century central China the White Lotus Society awaited the return of the Buddha to put an end to suffering. All these developments might best be understood in the context of notions of history in which significant change was either absent or sudden and awesome. Outlook Neither a deductive nor an inductive approach to the early modern world is  entirely satisfactory. A deductive approach expects to see the entire world following a Eurocentric roadmap to modernization (one that Europe itself might not have followed). An inductive approach respects the diversity of historical experience, but this diversity itself can frustrate attempts to delineate a discrete list of unifying features. If historians can tolerate the inconveniences of regional exceptions to every â€Å"global† process, the idea of an early modern world has its attractions. Although a perspective that twists the world around a European center is unproductive, the regions of the early modern world were increasingly named (in America) and mapped (as in China) by Europeans. Nevertheless, in its application beyond Europe the idea of an early modern world redresses the distortions of the Orientalist assumption of parochial, timeless, and conservative inertias unaltered by European expansion. It recognizes that peoples of the early modern era in some ways had more in common with each other than with their own ancestors and descendents that time unites just as powerfully as place. It facilitates comparative analysis and abets inquiry that trespasses across national boundaries. It sees the entire world as a stage, not only for comparative study, but also for the broadest possible analysis for a historian’s scrutiny. Further Reading Benton, L. (2002). Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400– 1900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Black, J. (Ed.). (1999).War in The Early Modern World, 1450–1815. London: UCL Press. Fisher,W. (1895). Money and Credit Paper in the Modern Market. The Journal of Political Economy, 3, 391–413. Fletcher, J. (1985). Integrative History: Parallels and Interconnections in the Early Modern Period, 1500–1800. Journal of Turkish Studies, 9, 37–57. Flynn, D. O., Giraldez, A. (1995). Born with a Silver Spoon: World Trade’s Origins in 1571. Journal of World History, 6(2), 201–221. Fox, D. R. (1915). Foundations of West India Policy. Political Science Quarterly, 30, 661–672. Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Goldstone, J. A. (1991). Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Goldstone, J. A. (1998). The Problem of the â€Å"Early Modern† World. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 41, 249–284. Huff,T. E. (1993). The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lieberman,V. (1997). Transcending East-West Dichotomies: State and Culture Formation in Six Ostensibly Disparate Areas. Modern Asian Studies, 31(3), 463–546. Mousnier, R. (1970). Peasant Uprisings in Seventeenth-Century France, Russia, and China (B. Pearce,Trans.). New York: Harper and Row. Parker,G. (1996). The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Pomeranz, K.(2001).The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Richards, J. F. (1997). Early Modern India and World History. Journal of World History, 8, 197–209. Richards, J. F. (2003). The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Starn, R. (2002). The Early Modern Muddle. Journal of Early Modern History, 6(3), 296–307. Strong, C. F. (1955). The Early Modern World. London: University of London Press. Subrahmanyam, S. (1997). Connected Histories: Notes Towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia. Modern Asian Studies, 31(3), 735– 762. Thomson, S. H. (1964). The Age of Reconnaissance, by J. H. Parry. The Journal of Modern History, 36(2), 187–188. Wallerstein, I. (1974). The Modern World-System. New York: Academic. Wiesner-Hanks, M. (2000). Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World: Regulating desire, reforming practice. London: Routledge. Wills, J. E., Jr. (2001). 1688: A Global History. New York: Norton. The Modern Era The modern era is the briefest and most turbulent of the three main eras of human history. Whereas the era of foragers lasted more than 200,000 years and the agrarian era about 10,000 years, the modern era has lasted just 250 years. Yet, during this brief era change has been more rapid and more fundamental than ever before; indeed, populations have grown so fast that 20 percent of all humans may have lived during these two and a half centuries. The modern era is also the most interconnected of the three eras. Whereas new ideas and technologies once took thousands of years to circle the globe, today people from different continents can converse as easily as if they lived in a single global village. History has become world history in the most literal sense. For our purposes the modern era is assumed to begin about 1750.Yet, its roots lay deep in the agrarian era, and we could make a good case for a starting date of 1500 or even earlier. Determining the end date of the modern era is even trickier. Some scholars have argued that it ended during the twentieth century and that we now live in a postmodern era. Yet, many features of the modern era persist today and will persist for some time into the future; thus, it makes more sense to see our contemporary period as part of the modern era. This fact means that we do not know when the modern era will end, nor can we see its overall shape as clearly as we might wish. The fact that we cannot see the modern era as a whole makes it difficult to specify its main features, and justifies using the deliberately vague label â€Å"modern.† At present the diagnostic feature of the modern era seems to be a sharp increase in rates of innovation. New technologies enhanced human control over natural resources and stimulated rapid population growth. In their turn, technological and demographic changes transformed lifeways, cultural and religious traditions, patterns of  health and aging, and social and political relationships. For world historians the modern era poses distinctive challenges. We are too close to see it clearly and objectively; we have so much information that we have difficulty distinguishing trends from details; and change has occurred faster than ever before and embraced all parts of the world. What follows is one attempt to construct a coherent overview, based on generalizations that have achieved broad acceptance among world historians. Major Features and Trends of the Modern Era The modern era is the first to have generated a large body of statistical evidence; thus, it is also the first in which we can quantify many of the larger changes. Increases in Population and Productivity Human populations have increased faster than ever before during the modern era, although growth rates slowed during the late twentieth century. Between 1750 and 2000 the number of men and women in the world rose from approximately 770 million to almost 6 billion, close to an eightfold increase in just 250 years. This increase is the equivalent of a growth rate of about 0.8 percent per annum and represents a doubling  time of about eighty-five years. (Compare this with estimated doubling times of fourteen hundred years during the agrarian era and eight thousand to nine thousand years during the era of foragers.) An eightfold increase in human numbers was possible only because productivity rose even faster. The estimates of the economist Angus Maddison suggest that global gross domestic product rose more than ninety fold during three hundred years, whereas production per person rose nine fold. These astonishing increases in productivity lie behind all the most significant changes of the modern era. Productivity rose in part because new technologies were introduced. In agriculture, for example, food production  kept pace with population growth because of improved crop rotations, increased use of irrigation, widespread application of artificial fertilizers and pesticides, and the use of genetically modified crops. However, productivity also rose because humans learned to exploit new sources of energy. During the agrarian era each human controlled, on average, 12,000 kilocalories a day (about four times the energy needed to sustain a human body), and the most powerful prime movers available were domestic animals or wind-driven ships. During the modern era humans have learned to harvest the huge reserves of energy stored in fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas and even to exploit the power lurking within atomic nuclei. Today each person controls, on average, 230,000 kilocalories a day—twenty times as much as during the agrarian era. A world of planes, rockets, and nuclear power has replaced a world of horses, oxen, and wood fires. City Sprawl As populations have increased, so has the average size of human communities. In 1500 about fifty cities had more than 100,000 inhabitants, and none had more than a million. By 2000 several thousand cities had more than 100,000 inhabitants, about 411 had more than a million, and 41 had more than 5 million. During the agrarian era most people lived and worked in villages; by the end of the twentieth century almost 50 percent of the world’s population lived in communities of at least five thousand people. The rapid decline of villages marked a fundamental transformation in the lives of most people on Earth. As during the agrarian era, the increasing size of communities  transformed lifeways, beginning with patterns of employment: Whereas most people during the agrarian world were small farmers, today most people support themselves by wage work in a huge variety of occupations. Innovations in transportation and communications have transformed relations between communities and regions. Before the nineteenth century no one  traveled faster than the pace of a horse (or a fast sailing ship), and the fastest way to transmit written messages was by state-sponsored courier systems that used relays of horses. Today messages can cross the world instantaneously, and even perishable goods can be transported from one end of the world to another in just a few hours or days. Increasingly Complex and Powerful Governments As populations have grown and people’s lives have become more intertwined, more complex forms of regulation have become necessary, which is why the business of government has been revolutionized. Most premodern governments were content to manage war and taxes, leaving their subjects to get on with their livelihoods more or less unhindered, but the managerial tasks facing modern states are much more complex, and they have to spend more effort in mobilizing and regulating the lives of those they rule. The huge bureaucracies of modern states are one of the most important byproducts of the modern revolution. So, too, are the structures of democracy, which allow governments to align their policies more closely with the needs and capabilities of the large and varied populations they rule. Nationalism—the close emotional and intellectual identification of citizens with their governments—is another by-product of these new relationships between governments and those they rule. The presence of democracy and nationalism may suggest that modern governments are more reluctant to impose their will by force, but, in fact, they have much more administrative and coercive power than did rulers of the agrarian era. No government of the agrarian era tried to track the births, deaths, and incomes of all the people it ruled or to impose compulsory schooling; yet, many modern governments handle these colossal tasks routinely. Modern states can also inflict violence more effectively and on a larger scale than even the greatest empires of the agrarian era. Whereas an eighteenth century cannon could destroy a house or kill a closely packed group of soldiers, modern nuclear weapons can destroy entire cities  and millions of people, and the concerted launch of many nuclear weapons could end human history within just a few hours. A subtler change in the nature of power is the increased dependence of modern states on commercial success rather than raw coercion. Their power depends so much on the economic productivity of the societies they rule that modern governments have to be effective economic managers. The creation of more democratic systems of government, the declining importance of slavery, the ending of European imperial power during the twentieth century, the collapse of the Soviet command economy in 1991, and the ending of apartheid (racial segregation) in South Africa in 1990 and 1991 all reflected a growing awareness that successful economic management is more effective than crudely coercive forms of rule.