Sustainable Energy Sources Essay -- Environmental Energy Solar Power E

Sustainable Energy Sources Energy is life. Life on this planet depends upon a fixed amount of energy. The modern industrialized energy sources such as coal and petroleum were originally utilized for their seeming promiscuity and high energies yielded per unit volume. The world has now become painfully aware of how finite petroleum reserves are, not to mention the political complications associated with being dependent upon foreign countries for an energy supply. To add insult to injury, the limitedness of petroleum resources is not the most pressing problem, their polluting byproducts are. The enormous amounts of byproduct waste that finds its way into our environment is having effects which even the most renowned of experts cannot determine in magnitude. Speaking from an economic standpoint, petroleum will soon become more expensive to find and utilize than reasonable alternatives, raising it’s costs far above it’s benefits. Some could already make the point that the social and environmental cos ts never were weighed appropriately into the cost/benefit analysis of petroleum and that the benefits associated with petroleum combustion have rarely or never outweighed it’s costs. This point will gain a painful clarity in the years to come if the predictions of some meteorologists come true and the effects of global warming are felt. For years developing societies have been taking enormous amounts of potential energy locked within pressurized biomass that took millions of years to store in the Earth’s crust and releasing it into today’s world. The Earth is a relatively closed system and the enormous release of spent energy and its polluting byproducts will have untold effects upon societies for generations to come. The most brazen ... ...echreview/www/articles/july95/Smith.html) Absorbers, Their Coating and Performance, The World Directory of RENEWABLE ENERGY Suppliers and Services, 1996 Solar Glass and It's Transmissivity The World Directory of RENEWABLE ENERGY Suppliers and Services, 1996 Overview of Solar Water Heating in the Caribbean, Griffin R. Carrison , REIA '94 Conference (http://www.solarenergy.net/tsen/database/griff.html) Institute of Space and Astronautical Science Solar Power Satellite Working Group, 1997 (http://www.reston.com/nasa/solar.sats.html) Chemistry 4th Edition, Steven S. Zumdahl, 1997, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York http://www.eren.doe.gov (U.S. Department of Energy) http://www.solarenergy.net/ (Solar Energy Network) http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/ert_hmpg.html (State of Hawaii, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism)

Picasso’s Guernica and Tetler’s Reflection Essay

These are both massive pieces of art, ‘Guernica’ being 138 inches by 308 inches and ‘Reflections’ makes up panels 29 and 30 of the Vietnam wall. But their message is massive too  In some ways ‘Guernica’ is the more horrific with its stark black, grey   and white portrayal of nightmarish horrors, so much so, that when an international conference was held in the Prado the participants asked for it to be covered during their stay. It was painted in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 when German planes were in the service of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Usually referred to as an abstract painting, but figures are depicted   – a dying horse, a desperate woman in a burning house, a soldier with a broken sword, , and the wailing woman on the left holding her dead child and of course the Minataur, a mythical monster. The result must produce horror in all who behold it. Revulsion at what can occur   – at what man can do to man. It is an instantly uncomfortable and according to art author Jesse McDonald ‘a devastating attack on the cruelty and folly of man.’ (McDonald, front flap ‘Pablo Picasso’.) Lee Teter’s work, a memorial to a different war , that of Vietnam, is much more realistic, even though the majority of the figures in the picture are meant to be dead soldiers. It is not at first as uncomfortable as ‘Guernica’, but the longer one looks at it the more one realises there is very little difference. The figure standing in front of the wall was originally dressed in fatigues, but is now depicted as a business man – this was felt to be a truer reflection of life for many veterans. This man has lost comrades in what many felt to be a pointless war that America should not have been involved in. More than that though   – he has survived and carries in himself   the guilt that that involves. The dead are depicted as shadowy figures, one of them is a portrait of Micki Banks who actually lost his life in Vietnam. Picasso’s picture is like an instant snap shot, but Teter’s looks at the long term results, so surprisingly I find the Picasso easier to deal with, because in life people tend to get over problems, but Teter makes me realise that there are some things we cannot and should not forget.

Boeing Changes the Nature of Its Business with Global Collaboration Essay

Boeing, the $55 billion Chicago-based aerospace company, has been a major player in the global economy for almost a century. But now the company is undertaking a far-reaching transformation as it uses cutting-edge materials and electronics and high-level technology for the design and assembly process of its new passenger plane –the Boeing 787. The new plane, nicknamed the â€Å"Dreamliner,† is Boeing’s bid for market leadership in competition with Airbus. The new midsize passenger jet will have an outer shell and about half of its parts made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, which will make it lighter and give it better fuel economy. In January 2006, the company had 291 firm orders and 88 commitments from 27 airlines for the new 787, which will seat from 250 to 330 passengers in varying configurations. The list price is about $150 million per plane. The previous state of the art in aviation manufacturing was to have global partners work from a common blueprint to produce parts-actually, whole sections of the airplane-that were then physically shipped to a Boeing assembly plant near Seattle to see if they fit together. Prior to the 787, wood mock-ups of planes would be constructed to see if parts built by partners around the world would really fit together. When the process failed, the cost in time and production was extreme. Boeing’s shift goes beyond making planes faster and cheaper. The new business model takes Boeing from manufacturing to a high-end technology systems integrator. In 2004, Boeing’s IT systems people were consolidated into the Boeing Technology Group. Now parts are designed from concept to production concurrently by partners (including companies in Japan, Russia, and Italy) and â€Å"assembled† in a computer model maintained by Boeing outside its corporate firewall. Boeing’s role is integrator and interface to the airlines, while the partners take responsibility for the major pieces, including their design. Boeing still takes the hit if the plane fail and deliveries are late, but the actual cost of development and manufacturing is spread across its network of collaborators. At the same time, building such global relationships may help the company sell its planes overseas. The biggest savings are the time saved through the online collaboration process (from 33 to 50 percent), creating a huge competitive advantages. Collaboration is a necessity for Boeing for several reason. Airplanes are huge and enormously complex. Politically, sales of a â€Å"global product† are enhanced when people in other countries are building parts of the airplane. Companies in these countries may then buy from Boeing. Basic collaboration is done through information-flow tools such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint. Boeing and partners are using Dassault Systemes 3D and Product Lifecycle Management solutions. Other IT tools used are a product suite from Exostar LLC, with which Boeing can share two-dimensional drawings, conduct forward and reverse auctions, and respond to RFPs, and an application called Catia. The plane is designed at Global Collaboration Environment, a special online site maintained by Boeing. There levels of collaboration are facilitated between teams and companies. In the first level-design collaboration- all parties involved log in and make their changes electronically in the blueprints, and the team works together. Quality is improves because the computer finds the mistakes. The next level involves suppliers working with their supply chains. The third level is real-time collaboration involves a considerable amount of product lifecycle management across multiple countries enabled by technology that differentiates Boeing’s new model from the previous kinds of global relationships. Boeing also uses the new partnership to solicit ideas of how to improve designs, integration, and so on. This results in cost-cutting. Boeing maintains 10 multimedia rooms at its Everett, Washington, complex for the use of collaboration teams. These are open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A visualization application developed by Boeing allows the teams to do real-time design reviews of complex geometry without any Lag time as the models load. Meetings are conducted in English, with sidebar conversations, as needed, in a team member’s native language. Collaborative design also speeds the design process, helping Boeing to avoid expensive penalties from its customers if the plane is not delivered on time, and it gives the company more flexibility in simultaneously designing multiple versions of the 787 that are part of its wide-ranging appeal in the marketplace. Finished designs are stored in another Dassult product, Enovia, which is also maintained by Boeing. This has become an enormous data-management task. The issue of security has also been a concern; however, security technology has developed to the point that the security of the information is assured. Collaboration across cultures and time zones can raise a host of issues about the way people work together. The adjustment of management practice to the networked, team-oriented approach is important to consider when redesigning human resources practices to meet virtual resource needs and when developing a custom-tailored collaboration platform.

Biography of Elena Kagan

Biography of Elena Kagan Elena Kagan is one of nine  U.S. Supreme Court justices,  and only the fourth woman to hold a position on the nations highest court since its first session in 1790. She was nominated to the court in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, who described her as  Ã¢â‚¬Å"one of the nation’s foremost legal minds.† The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination later that year, making her the 112th justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Kagan replaced Justice John Paul Stevens, who had retired after 35 years on the court. Education Hunter College High School  in Manhattan, New York, class of 1977.Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; she earned  a bachelors degree in history in 1981.Worcester College in Oxford, England; she earned a  master’s degree in philosophy in 1983.Harvard University Law School; she earned a law degree in 1986. Career in Academia, Politics and Law Before she took a seat on the Supreme Court, Kagan worked as a professor, an attorney in private practice and as solicitor general of the United States. She was the first woman to supervise the office that handles litigation for the federal government before the Supreme Court.   Here are Kagans career highlights 1986 to 1987: Law clerk for  Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit.1988: Law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve on the court.1989 to 1991: Associate attorney in the powerful Washington, D.C., law firm of Williams Connolly, which was co-founded by  Edward Bennett Williams, the legendary trial lawyer who represented the likes of John Hinckley Jr., Frank Sinatra, Hugh Hefner, Jimmy Hoffa and Joseph McCarthy.1991 to 1995: Assistant professor of law, then tenured professor of law, at the  University of Chicago  Law School.1995 to 1996: Associate counsel to President Bill Clinton.1997 to 1999: Deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, and deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council under Clinton.1999 to 2001: Visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.2001: Professor of law at  Harvard Law School, teaching  administrative law, constitutional law, civil pro cedure, and separation of powers theory. 2003 to 2009:  Dean of the Harvard Law School. 2009 to 2010: Solicitor general under President Barack Obama.2010 to current: Associated justice of the Supreme Court. Controversies Kagans tenure on the Supreme Court has been relatively free of controversy. Yes, even Supreme Court justice invite scrutiny; ask Justice Clarence Thomas, whose absolute silence during almost seven years of oral arguments baffled court observers, legal scholars and journalists. Justice Samuel Alito, one of the most conservative voices on the court,  has openly criticized his fellow members, particularly following the courts  landmark decision on same-sex marriage. And the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was famous for his unrestrained opinions, once said homosexuality should be a crime. The biggest dustup surrounding Kagan was a request for her to recuse herself from consideration of a challenge to Obamas health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare for short. Kagans office of solicitor general under Obama had been on record as supporting the act in a legal proceeding. A group called Freedom Watch challenged Kagans judicial independence. The court declined to entertain the allegation. Kagans liberal personal beliefs and style of writing also came back to haunt her during her confirmation hearings. Conservative Republicans accused her of being unable to set aside her biases. In her memos to Justice Marshall as well as her work for Clinton, Kagan consistently wrote from her own perspective, prefacing her advice with I think and I believe and distinguishing her opinions from other members of Clintons White House team or from the presidents own opinions, said  Carrie Severino of the Conservative Judicial Crisis Network. Alabama Sen.  Jeff Sessions, a conservative Republican who would later serve in Donald Trumps administration, said: A troubling pattern has already emerged in Ms. Kagans record. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a willingness to make legal decisions based not on the law but instead on her very liberal politics. As dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan drew fire for her objection to having  military recruiters on campus because she believed the federal government policy that banned  openly gay individuals from serving in the military violated the universitys  anti-discrimination policy. Personal Life Kagan was born and raised in New York City; her mother was a school teacher and her father was an attorney. She is unmarried and has no children. 5 Important Quotes Kagan has not granted interviews with the news media, so court observers are left to scour her opinions, briefs and testimony during her confirmation hearings. Here are some select quotes on key issues. Sometimes you read these opinions and you think they must hate each other. Its just not true.  We have enormous respect for each other and a feeling that we are all operating in good faith. ... If you take this stuff personally, this is going to be a long life tenure. - Kagan speaking about the collegiality among the justices and the court, which she described as in some ways, the most intimate, warmest institution Ive participated in.â€Å"If you confirm me, you’ll be getting Justice Kagan. You won’t get Justice Marshall.† - Kagan defending herself against claims from Republican U.S. senators that she was a legal progressive, or judicial activist, during her confirmation hearings.The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people. - Kagan, explaining her philosophy of judicial restraint. All I can say about that paper is that it is dangerous to write papers about the law before youve spent a day in law school. I wrote that paper before I spent a day in law school. I was trying to think about whether to go to law school and I decided to write a paper about law in order to figure out whether I was interested in the subject... So I would just ask you to recognize that I didnt know a whole lot of law. - Kagan telling lawmakers to ignore a paper she wrote about justice who mold and steer the law.It means  Id have to get my hair done more often, Sen. Specter. Kagan replying to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specters question about allowing television cameras in U.S. Supreme Court arguments..

Free sample - A sound mind in a sound body. translation missing

A sound mind in a sound body. A sound mind in a sound bodyHuman Resource Management. A contemporary world arena of business making continuously watches an incessant competition race among contestants. They pursue the goals of getting profits and taking a prevailing position in a particular business field. No doubt, each company focuses on reaching success which is hard to imagine without leadership. It is true to assume that the dominance in the world market place requires huge resources involvement. Thus, the shareholders having invested in the company’s prosperity expect the ‘harvest’ to be visible and tangible. So, in this connection we speak about the feedback that the investing participants are eager to see. Here it is relevant to consider the paramount importance of the company’s human resource management (HRM), since it is the human resources (HR) that bring along the company’s exuberance. The personnel being the integral parts of the whole profit making machine comprise the ‘motive force’ that can’t be neg lected. In addition, the workforce is commonly quite varied, thus the HRM is supposed to apply a smart diverse managing program referring to and taking into account the employee-concerned factors. Such factors include race, gender, age issues. With the hindsight we may assert that the above mentioned aspects used to and still to some extent continue to be a sticking point on the way to individual recognition at workplace and field of activity. Hence the company’s management policy resorts to certain regulations in leveling inequalities when evaluating the personnel potential and proficiency. So, in 1960’ emerges the notion of ‘affirmative action’ aimed at minimizing and eventually eliminating the prejudiced attitude to the employees for the recruitment process to be regardless of race, religion, origin, gender etc. Thereby, on the grounds of this idea special affirmative action programs (AAP) became to be developed to provide equal   opportunities for such groups as minorities, women, disabled people, veterans (Berkley Lab, 2010, Oct 26). However, why was such practice in human resource management perceived in different ways? Perhaps we should mind that each notion, idea, process in our world faces diverse opinions and there can be arguments both ‘for’ and ‘against’. The AAP enclosed into the managerial policy evoked a dual response as well. One of the points to say ‘NO’ is a financial side of the matter, since the program presupposes expenses. Not the least of the aspects appears to be a complicated and long-term cultivation of the non-discrimination-prone standpoint and attitude. Still let’s analyze whether the game is worth the candle. Should the companies be obsessed only with revenues and ignore the role of the individuals and their direct impact on the business development? It’s a pure delusion to exploit human resources as soul-absent money-making mechanisms. As a matter of fact, the sound environment and fair non-biased approach to people is a substantially essential aspect of the company’s well-being, since the staff in such conditions w ill demonstrate loyalty and effective productivity. Moreover, even today and in the future perspective the company is likely to gain respect and acknowledgement for the efforts to adhere and spread the idea of equality. Thus, the company’s sound system – ‘body’ is sure to have a sound ‘mind’ – company’s human resources. So, maybe that is the key to success. References Aclu position paper. Affirmative Action (2000) European Academy of Legal Theory. Brussels. Affirmative Action Program (2002-2003) Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory. Affirmative Action Program (2010, October 26)

Canadas Economic and Political System in Context Research Paper

Canadas Economic and Political System in Context - Research Paper Example Liberal democracy is a political system found throughout the developed countries of the Western world and one in which there are both adherents and detractors. Liberal democracy is seen by many as the ideal political system which has its roots in the ancient Greek traditions, while others feel that it is not the most effective form of governance. What is a liberal democracy? For many, liberal democracy is characterized by universal suffrage, free and fair elections, and an open society in which a plurality of opinion is respected. In this context, the exercise of political power and transfer of this power occurs through peaceful means. In much of the world, democracy ensures political stability and democratic rules of governance denote political legitimacy. According to the tenets of democracy, everyone has given a voice and the elected political officials in a democratic regime derive legitimacy from the fact that everyone has been given a voice in the political process. Due to the fact elections are perceived as being free and fair, the political party or regime which is elected derives legitimacy from the fact that the election was fairly contested. Liberal democracy has led to the spread of stable political regimes in countries such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Australia.

Claiming feminism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Claiming feminism - Essay Example A feminist woman is, thus, someone who does not appear to be agreeable in any way and who indulges in fighting over every little issue, making it, it seems her worldview to argue with everyone. This stereotype has done quite a lot to damage the cause of feminism, and thus women liberation. Moreover, it is because of this stereotypical feminist that not only men, but women also, find themselves considering feminism and everything related to it in a very negative light. The myth is ever present and there seems to be a need to end it, however, just how it is to be done successfully, and just how one can convince the general population about the pivotal role of feminists when it comes to changing the worldview regarding women in general are questions that need to be answered with a lot of thought and consideration. During the 1970s and 1980s, the feminist movement found much success; women joined a struggle to create a world where they were the equal counterparts of men, and where they were not discriminated against based on their sex. These women, the pioneer feminists one can call them maybe, paved the road for those that came after them; they fought for equal rights when it came to employment, for wages that were equal to their male counterparts, for protection against sexual harassment against women. In short, all matters that were considered to be an issue for any women were considered to be part of the feminist agenda as well. The feminists were at a war-path, so to speak, to eradicate all forms of sexism found in their society. This was, indeed, a noble cause, however, it has been much maligned and misunderstood, and perhaps that is the reason of it being suspect to a lot of people. In her article â€Å"Fear of Feminism,† Lisa Maria Hogeland discusses just how hard it is for the woman of today to join the feminist movement. Many women of today do not