Globalization and the International Political Economy Essay

Realism, Liberalism, Marxism and the Phenomenon of Global Integration Introduction Various theories and perspectives have been proposed by theorists and international relations observers in explaining International Political Economy (IPE). The most salient among these perspectives are Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism. These paradigms or ways of looking at IPE enables international relations students to study the forces at work in the international realm and analyze how these factors interact to create the state of affairs of the IPE. Through these perspectives, people can also take a look at how human nature, individuals, society, states, and markets relate to the economy and how they make it work. This paper†¦show more content†¦Each state in the international is motivated by national interest. As such, they are rational actors that are seeking to maximize their interest. Given this, they will only cooperate or ally with others if they perceive that the national interest is at stake. But on the whole, they are distrustful of such alliances. In being â€Å"rational actors†, states are always looking out for their national security and gather resources and economic power. Another important factor in the relationships of states is the level of their power as evidenced by military capabilities and level of economic progress. Lastly, there are really no universal and overarching principles that states can use in order to govern their actions. The only motivation that they may have is a pragmatic approach to international affairs (Doyle 60). Realism has stood a lot of challenges, especially with the advent of globalization and the emergence of groupings of states such as the European Union. With the trends of global integration, Realist theorists are looking for ways to reinterpret their assumptions and their findings so as to become meaningful in a world that has become enamored with integration and cooperation. The view of realism on global integration will be explored further in a latter section of this paper. Liberalism Liberalism is currently the most influential theory in the field of international political economy. ItShow MoreRelatedGlobalization And The International Political Economy1530 Words   |  7 PagesGlobalization the International Political Economy Globalization is a major factor in our international political economy. Globalization comes in many forms, some of which will be explained herein in more detail. According to Kegley and Blanton (2014), due to globalization, the number of questions about how changes in one country s economics and politics influence trends in the word politics and the global economy (p. 328), has resulted in an area of scholarly study being coined, to wit: internationalRead MoreEssay on Globalization: Sharing Our Prosperity With the World1388 Words   |  6 Pages Globalization is the growing interdependence of the worlds people that involves the integration of economies, technologies, and cultures (Bradshaw). It is described as the increased movement of people, knowledge and ideas, and goods and money across national borders that have led to the increased interconnectedness among the world. Globalization is often thought of in economic terms but as we know there are three major components implicated with this idea including: economics, politics, andRead Moreis globalization undermining state sovereignty?1559 Words   |  7 Pagesthrough primitive trade and migration, globalization has become a major factor in the world organization since the twentieth century. With the creation of transnational companies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, political and economic associations appeared new powerful actors that cannot be left apart in states’ decisions and whose influence may, according to some, threaten the authori ty of nation-states. Indeed it can be thought that globalization is causing the end of borders betweenRead MoreEssay on Globalization1614 Words   |  6 Pagestoday’s context. Globalization includes aspects like: economics, politics, ideas, knowledge, culture, society, environment, health, social etcetera. Though globalization can be traced back into time immemorial, but the extent and magnitude of present globalization is unprecedented. The integration and interdependence of globalization implies that today local event can have global impact and vice-versa. With the ongoing globalization process, it raises concerns about international security. AcademicRead MorePolitical Factors That Affect International Business1020 Words   |  5 PagesWhile Global businesses operate in overseas markets there is often a risk, the risk is referred to as political environment risk, and these factors can facilitate or hinder business operation. Some of the political factors that affect in ternational business include† (Justin Ervin. Zachary Smith A.2008). One significant political environmental factor that influences international business operation is trade agreements. Countries frequently enter into trade treaties to further facilitate tradeRead MoreGlobalization and Its Impact on International Business Essay1558 Words   |  7 Pages............3 What is Globalization....................................................4 The engines for Globalizations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Globalization’s impacts on international business†¦..7 The road ahead for international business†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 Summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..11 Reference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦12 Introduction Every day we hear it on the news, read it in the papers, overhear people talking about it†¦ and in every single instance the word globalization seems to have a differentRead MoreDrivers and Consequences of Globalization Essay examples1106 Words   |  5 Pagesdrivers of globalization and how these drivers impact organizations, describe the risks associated with global investing and explain the importance of cultural sensitivity and ethics in global finance. Global Finance Environment Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of economies, markets, and people across nations. Increasing globalization creates additional competition from around the world, which then affects both local jobs and company profits. Globalization also hasRead MoreWhy Is History Such Important?1460 Words   |  6 PagesAfter all, history indeed repeats itself, and politics and globalization are no different. Hegemons rise and fall, crises and wars breakout, political systems build-up and collapse, all in all decisions are made that will lead future outcomes that dictate not only the domestic landscape but also the international landscape as well. The modern history of globalization and integration has been tumultuous to say the least. The international economy has experienced both periods of openness and closenessRead MoreGlobalization of the Economy1729 Words   |  7 PagesEconomic globalization has voluminous positive influences on international security as well. The most important effect of economic globalization is that it curbs the authority of state. It also reduces states’ dependence on military based security and ultimately reduces states ’ monopoly on security. This effect is considered by many, a prime factor contributing towards peace and stability. There are number of factors associated with economic globalization which affects states authority. FirstlyRead MoreThe Three Areas of Globalization954 Words   |  4 Pages According to Thomas Friedman, â€Å"In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny.† It is not something one can pin point and define as a formal structure of the current international system. Globalization is a notion of the growing interconnectedness

Youth Sports Are Not Becoming Too Intense Essay - 1894 Words

Analysis: The purpose of this paper is to argue the fact that youth sports are not becoming too intense. After reading the New York Times article I decided to pick this topic and argue against this theory because as a division one athlete I have my own opinions. I picked three sources which can back up and prove that sports being too intense is very much your own opinion. Introduction: Being a professional athlete is one of the most commonly heard dreams of a young boy or girl who currently elementary school. Whether it is realistic or not, these kids will be participating in the sport that they wish to thrive in. But, time after time we hear adults complain about their child’s insane soccer schedule, or how they have to spend their whole weekend traveling for games. The parents complaints shouldn’t be the topic of discussion, in fact the only opinions that matter are the children. The question shouldn’t be asking whether or not youth sports are too intense, it should be asking if it is worth it. If a child loves what they’re doing then they have every reason to continue playing their sport, but if they are not all in, he or she has to question whether or not all the craziness is worth it. Source 1: Scholarly Source A study that many people have given little attention to is called â€Å"The Burnout†. This term means that after years of extreme training, competition and scrutiny, an athlete can become â€Å"burned out† and lose all desire to continue playing. People either realizeShow MoreRelatedSports : The Negative Side Of Youth Sports903 Words   |  4 PagesMany people think that sports help children develop teamwork, self-confidence, moral character, and other personal strength but others see the negative side of youth sports, believing young athletes develop aggressive traits such as bullying and the need to dominate their opponents not just on but off the field as well. Youth sports have become far too intense, especially in contact sports. It is true that participation in youth athletics has a number of benefits such as the building self-confidenceRead MoreSports Programs For Children And Young Adults1558 Words   |  7 Pagesin many contact sports. An example of a traumatic brain injury is a concussion. These are very serious injuries, killing over 50,000 people per year. Contact sports have a great contribution to this number, which causes people to inquire: Are contact sports programs for children and teenagers too intense? A bunch of people think they are too intense because of the injuries, deaths, and emotions that they sometimes cause. But some people think that the sports are not too intense because they keepRead MoreSports Violence Must Be Abolished963 Words   |  4 Pagesthese sports. I am indeed referring to the intense physicality that all three of these sports strongly value. As a devoted hockey fan, I am a witness to a great part of the physicality that takes place. Therefore, I am well aware and understand that physicality is crucial in order to compete in most sports, but we have to draw the line somewhere. When there is primary intent to injure and physically hurt someone this is considered â€Å"violence†. Violence is becoming increasingly prevalent in sports, andRead MorePros and Cons of Organized Sports for Youths1702 Words   |  7 Pages Pros and Cons of Organized Sports for Youths Sports in America are one of the biggest sensations around. They are everywhere you turn and they become a big part of most people’s lives, whether they actually participate in the sport or just watch it on television. Media and television play a huge role in the obsession for sports. Constantly you see a professional athlete on a commercial, and see games on throughout the day. Also sports becomes a business, they sell their jerseys, or picturesRead MoreWhat Does Football Mean?1410 Words   |  6 Pagesmean to you? To many, it means teamwork, competition, strategy, and tensions. Football has been around for many years, but recently, many are becoming aware and concerned about the deadly and life threatening dangers football harbors. There is also controversy in terms of age, and whether or not young children should be exposed to the brutality of the sport, given the high impact injuries. The important characteristics football instructs are tremendously important and valuabl e, although, consideringRead MoreWhy Coaches Should Be A Champion Coach1709 Words   |  7 Pagesin every sport, whether someone is playing football or even chess team. Each coach own his/her own special style of coaching intrigued me. I pondered about how each coaching style can affect the player’s performances, and how player’s personalities can connect better with some coaches than others. Some coaches even venture to cross over and coach multiple sports, propelling themselves into an entirely different atmosphere, where they must adjust their coaching specifically to the sport. I reallyRead MoreHow Basketball Has Changed Over The Years Essay1128 Words   |  5 Pagesmillion people play basketball in America and it is one of fastest growing sports in the world (Lynn). It is an exciting and a very intense sport to play and watch. Most people, however, do not know how or when it was created. The purpose of this paper is to inform people about when basketball was created, how much it has changed over the years, and to talk about some of the most influential players who ever played this amazing sport. In 1891, James Naismith was a gym teacher at the local YMCA in SpringfieldRead MoreThe Role Of Parental Role Models On Youth Athletic Participation1842 Words   |  8 PagesThis paper examines the prevalence of aggression in youth sports the impact of parental role models on youth athletic participation, which can often lead to early burnouts in sports; and whether sports draw out the children’s aggressive nature. In America alone there are 30-35 million children of the ages 5-18 participating in organized youth sports in America. (Fiore, 2003) Sports may give youth positive experiences, but may also cause stress, which may result in unneeded amounts of stress. YoungRead MoreA Correlation Between Stress And Adolescent Suicide1187 Words   |  5 Pagesthey don’t know how to have fun. Adolescents should be enjoying their youth, doing the things that teenagers do, but in today’s society, even those things that should be fun and enjoyable are stressful. In my opin ion, adolescents sometimes take on the pressures and expectations of others which can become overwhelming, often leading to suicidal ideations and behaviors. For example, adolescents could feel a ton of pressure in sports with the need to perform at their best to the expectations of theirRead MoreVideo Game : Violent Video Games927 Words   |  4 Pagesanimals for sport with huge number of people as an audience. Today the video game industry has found a way to bring that same violent killing times ten, straight to your living room TV. Tons of people play violent games both adults and children, but which are more effected by the violence and should stricter guide lines be set in making violent games. Violent video games for adults are rated adult, â€Å"content suitable only for adults ages 18 and up. May include prolonged scenes of intense violence,

What Makes Change Happen free essay sample

What makes change happen? Problems request for solutions and solutions leads to changes. Problems can be very simple and appear every day. Nevertheless, they can also be huge, complex transcendental and rarely appeared. However, they both should be faced with a series of solutions that will finally solve the problem. People are constantly trying to find solutions for their problems. Problems appear in their homes, in their Jobs or in their society. And those who take the initiative to face them are those who lead the changes. These people are described as very influential people.And history has a special chapter for them. Jesus Christ, Benjamin Franklin and Charles Darwin are very good example of people who positively influence changes. Jesus Christ, who is a spiritual teacher and the central figure of Christianity, led by his example and created a spiritual development stream that generated changes that reach our days. Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, ambassador, philosopher, statesmen, writer, businessman, celebrated free thinker and wit who changed the history of a nation ND founded a new country. We will write a custom essay sample on What Makes Change Happen? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Charles Darwin was a Natural scientist who changed the way we think about evolution. On the other hand, Hitler, or Josef Stalin are examples of people that generate negative changes for society. The solutions they focus were selfish and distorted and led to the death of many people. But you must not need to look far to find problems that need to be faced for solutions and change. For example, the parking at Newton College Is a problem that leads to he solution of reducing the number of cars that enter to school.The way this problem is been faced Is by making pull with another family, walking or riding a bike In the entrance. The change that will be generated Is that there will be more parking spaces available. But this would not be the only change, people are also mentally changed being aware about how much pollution they are making. In addition, students, parents and school members are taught generating a mentally change on the future generations.

Mining In Canada Essays - Mining, Occupational Safety And Health

Mining In Canada The Importance of Mining Industry The importance of mining is definitely significant to Canada. Mining, is an important industry, and Canadians are very advanced in their mining technology, but during the mining process, there is certain level of pollution produced. The Canadian government and the mining companies have very good plans and controls toward this problem, while ensuring the smooth running of the industries, and also helping to create strong economy and employment. The world of today could not exist without mineral products. Canada produces about 60 minerals and ranks first among producing countries1. As well, Canada is the largest exporter of minerals, with more than 20 per cent of production shipped to world markets2. In a typical year, the mining industry is responsible for almost 20 per cent of Canada's total export earnings3 (See Appendix A). As for the employment rate, over 70 per cent of the mines are owned by Canadians and approximately 108,000 Canadians are directly employed in the mining industry4. Mining is very important in Canadian life. Not only do the products power the family car and heat the family home, the manufacturing sector, the high tech industries and even the better known resource industries are all dependent, in some way, on the mining industry. The mining industry will continue to be an important support to the economy. Mining is taking full advantage of the quick expansion of computers and microelectronics. These technologies are found in nearly every aspect of mineral development activity - from exploration methods, through production, mineral processing and even marketing. Computers and related equipment now have a lot of different applications in geophysical logging, geochemistry, geological mapping and surface contouring5. At the mine planning stage, the job of designing a mine is now greatly simplified by automation. Through the use of advanced software, geological models can be produced from drill hole data. Computers are also being used to develop plans for mine expansion, develop mining schedules for yearly, quarterly and in some cases, weekly operations. At the operating stage, this new technology is everywhere6. Both in research and operational applications, automated mine monitoring systems now determine immediate information on the status of equipment in underground or remote locations. Canada produces its 60 mineral products from roughly 300 mines across the country7. Before these products can make the trip from mines to the marketplace, they must be searched for, staked, tested, analyzed, developed. There are many difference methods to mine for minerals, an open pit mine is one of the method we use today. The ore - waste material along with the minerals, is recovered directly from the surface. Drilling rigs are used to drill holes into the ore areas and blasting charges will be set in them to break loose the ore. The ore: first stop is at the primary crushing station, often located underground, where the large chunks of ore are crushed to a finer size. Further crushing is required prior to sending the ore to the mill where it is ground to a fine powder8. The purpose of crushing and grinding is to free the minerals from the rock. Treatment may consist of gravity or chemical concentration techniques. The end product of the mill is a concentrate, whereby the percentage of valuable mineral has been increased by a factor of 10 to as much as 50 times contained in the ore9. The concentration operation may be complicated or relatively simple, depending on the mineral content of the ore. Milling processes are designed to separate the valuable minerals from the undesired minerals. Although the milling process separates valuable minerals from waste, it does not actually recover the metals in final form. The smelting operation treats the metal-bearing concentrate further, up-grading it to purer form called matte. Basically: The ore concentrates are mixed with other materials and treated at high temperatures to change the material to other chemical forms. The metal in the matte can be separated further. Further treatment is applied to the final purification of the metal and finishing to the standards required in the metal-using industries. Mining, as we understanding, is a very important industry. But there are underlying dangers to our environment. Mining companies and the government have realized this problem, and regulations and controls have been applied to it. The major environmental problem usually results from the processing and transportation of mineral products rather than from the actual mining process. Example: when an oil spill has occurred in the ocean, the problem caused to the environment is very big, because gallons of oil is spilling over the ocean's surface, resulting in the death of many ocean organisms, and in the pollution of the ocean. (See Appendix B) In

Misuse of Connective Symbols with Numbers

Misuse of Connective Symbols with Numbers Misuse of Connective Symbols with Numbers Misuse of Connective Symbols with Numbers By Mark Nichol In each of the following sentences, a connective symbol is employed in a reference to numbers or numerical values, but the usage is incorrect. Explanation of the error, and a revision of the error, follows each example. 1. Open enrollment for 2018 runs from November 1 December 15. A connective symbol linking two values in a number range functions as a replacement for from and to (or between and and), not just the latter word (though only to is pronounced when the number range is read aloud, hence the confusion), so do not precede a number range formatted this way with from (or between): â€Å"Open enrollment for 2018 runs November 1–December 15.† If the word from is retained, to should replace the symbol. (Note also that the symbol should be an en dash, not a simple hyphen- except when a publication’s style guide specifies use of that symbol- and that no letter spaces should intervene.) 2. Five-thousand service members are expected to participate in the event. Hyphenation is used in spelled-out numbers only to link two words representing two place values, as in seventy-five. â€Å"Five thousand† modifies â€Å"service members† but is an open compound: â€Å"Five thousand service members are expected to participate in the event.† Note that large round numbers are often spelled out in isolation but should be treated as figures if other numbers appear in proximity, but numbers should always be spelled out at the head of a sentence. (If doing so is awkward, as in the case of a large precise number such as that representing a year like 2017 that requires more than a couple of words to convey, recast the sentence.) 3. The most fatalities occurred in the 15-24 year old age group. In most books and in some publications, style would dictate that the numbers in this sentence should be spelled out. However, in other content, or in a case in which using numerals is preferable (as when a concentration of numbers occurs), the phrase in which the figures appear should be treated as shown here: â€Å"The most fatalities occurred in the 15- to 24-year-old age group.† (When numbers are spelled out, the sentence should read, â€Å"The most fatalities occurred in the fifteen- to twenty-four-year-old age group.†) The hyphen does not function as a linking symbol connecting two figures in a number range; it links words that are part of a phrasal adjective, an abridgement of â€Å"15-year-old to 24-year-old† in which the first instance of â€Å"year-old† is omitted because it is clearly implicit. (This tactic, called suspensive hyphenation, renders such phrases more concise and less cluttered. In addition, the sentence can be further pared to â€Å"The most fatalities occurred among 15- to 24-year-olds.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Definitely use "the" or "a"At Your DisposalWhat the heck are "learnings"?

Trilobites, the Dinosaurs of the Arthropod Family

Trilobites, the Dinosaurs of the Arthropod Family Tens of millions of years before the first dinosaurs walked the earth, another family of strange, distinctive, weirdly prehistoric-looking creatures, the trilobites, populated the worlds oceansand left an equally abundant fossil record. Heres a look at the ancient history of these famous invertebrates, which once numbered in the (literal) quadrillions. The Trilobite Family Trilobites were early examples of arthropods, a vast invertebrate phylum that today includes such diverse creatures as lobsters, cockroaches and millipedes. These creatures were characterized by three main body parts: the cephalon (head), thorax (body), and pygidium (tail). Oddly, the name â€Å"trilobite,† which means â€Å"three-lobed,† doesn’t refer to this animal’s top-to-bottom body plan, but to the distinctive three-part structure of its axial (left-to-right) body plan. Only the hard shells of trilobites are preserved in fossils; for that reason, it took many years for paleontologists to establish what these invertebrates soft tissues looked like (a key part of the puzzle being their multiple, segmented legs). The trilobites comprised at least ten separate orders and thousands of genera and species, ranging in size from less than a millimeter to well over two feet. These beetle-like creatures appear to have fed mostly on plankton, and they inhabited a typical array of undersea niches: some scavenging, some sedentary, and some crawling along the ocean bottom. In fact, trilobite fossils have been discovered in pretty much every ecosystem on hand during the early Paleozoic Era; like bugs, these invertebrates were quick to spread and adapt to various habitats and climatic conditions! Trilobites and Paleontology While trilobites are fascinating for their diversity (not to mention their alien appearance), paleontologists are fond of them for another reason: their hard shells fossilized very easily, providing a convenient â€Å"road map† to the Paleozoic Era (which stretched from the Cambrian, about 500 million years ago, to the Permian, about 250 million years ago). In fact, if you find the right sediments in the right location, you can identify the various geologic eras by the types of trilobites that appear in succession: one species may be a marker for the late Cambrian, another for the early Carboniferous, and so on down the line. One of the interesting things about trilobites is the Zelig-like cameo appearances they make in ostensibly unrelated fossil sediments. For example, the famous Burgess Shale (which captures the strange organisms that began to evolve on earth during the Cambrian period) includes its fair share of trilobites, which share the stage with bizarre, multi-segmented creatures like Wiwaxia and Anomalocaris. Its only the familiarity of trilobites from other fossil sediments that decreases their Burgess wow factor; they are not, on the face of it, any less interesting than their less-well-known arthropod cousins. They had been dwindling in numbers for a few tens of millions of years before then, but the last of the trilobites were wiped out in the Permian-Triassic  Extinction Event, a global catastrophe 250 million years ago that killed off more than 90 percent of the earths marine species. Most likely, the remaining trilobites (along with thousands of other genera of terrestrial and water-dwelling organisms) succumbed to a global plunge in oxygen levels, perhaps related to massive volcanic eruptions.

Grusendorf v Oklahoma City, 816 F. 2d 539 (U.S. Court of Appeals for Essay

Grusendorf v Oklahoma City, 816 F. 2d 539 (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit 1987) - Essay Example The Supreme Court observed that only personal rights that can be deemed important in the concept of ordered liberty are included in this guarantee of personal liberty( Ducat, 2009).The Court outlined the current reach of these freedoms as embracing personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing and education. The defendant argues out that the law used to judge him was not applicable and did not match with his case (The federal reporter, 1987). To resolve the issue of whether or not Grusendorf’s rights of liberty or privacy were violated by the non-smoking regulation, it is instructive to study the Supreme Courts approach in Kelley v. Johnson. The case is similar as this one though the plaintiff there was a police officer rather than a firefighter and claimed a fourteenth amendment right to grow a beard rather than a right to smoke a cigarette (Bureau of National Affairs , 1995). A review of the record suggests that the district court found the defendants disputes influential. The defendants moved for an award of attorneys fees and submitted briefs in support of it, together with affidavits from their attorneys detailing their fees. Bowers v. Hardwick said that the federal courts should not take an expansive view of their authority to discover new fundamental

Ideology in Branding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ideology in Branding - Essay Example Good ideologies make a business enterprise to prosper despite the strong wave of competition in the world of business today. Thos paper highlights how ideology helps in branding in Apple and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Ideology in Apple Apple Company is among the best performing companies in the world. Its brands such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones continue to dominate the market. There is an increase in usage of the Apple’s products in the world. The Company enjoys a continued flow of loyal customers from all over the globe. Mobile phones such as iphone, ipad, and ipod touch users have a wide range of applications. The secret behind the big leaps of success in Apple lies in its branding strategy (O’Grady, 2008:5). The sound ideology in branding has propelled the Apple Company to enjoy enduring success in the competitive business environment. Apple business strategies and practices adapts to the ever-changing world. The branding ideologies in Apple Company p reserve the core values while stimulating its progress to achieve superior long-term performance. To keep them strong in the market, Apple manufactures products that suits customer demands and preferences. The branding ideologies constantly changes to fit the people’s lifestyles. The branding ideologists have developed a glossy product with a simple advertisement that captures the attention across all ages (O’Grady, 2008:23). ... This has helped the company to monitor and respond to the customers’ demands. Apple Company considers and cares its consumers. The company demonstrates this through taking the product beyond the basic function. It has transformed its products into a status symbol that accommodates the requirement of the customers (O’Grady, 2008:35). Ideology in Understanding Brand and Methods The branding ideology helps the Apple Company to compete in very competitive and vibrant markets. The participants in the electronic markets include personal computer industries and software, the consumer electronic industry that sells ipod. Other players comprise of digital music distribution through the iTunes, smart phone market with the Apple iphone, and ipad tablet-computing device. Apple Company is in the process of establishing an advertising tool in the presence to its competitor Google in the advertising markets through its Appications business and iAd network. Apple has concentrated in cr eating innovative products and services that are in line with technological advancement for a long time. The Apple Macintosh computer products functions as digital for hub for digital services. These include the Apple ipod, cellular phones, digital video, and cameras. The company has advanced and has incorporate customer experience in their strategies. The company offers harmonised, synchronised, and integrated user experience across all its principal products. It uses iCloud as the hub. This is in line with their competence to deliver exceptional experience through quality user interfaces. The company bases its strategy around this goal with the iTunes, the iPhone with touch screen re-used on iPad. The Apple Apps

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology Essay Example for Free

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology Essay Having culture as a field of psychology makes sense because culture plays a significant role in everyday life. Culture allows someone to define who they are how they survive. Expressions of who one is can be done in many ways, by behavior, appearance, and language. Without culture, one’s human nature would rely on instinct to remain alive. Culture is a product of one’s environment. How important culture is and how culture influences oneself and others will be discussed in this paper. Examining various types of relationships as it pertains to culture and cross cultural psychology will also be deliberated. Critical thinking and the role it plays in cross cultural psychology and the use of scientific method will also be covered. Definition of Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology There are many avenues when looking at what culture stands for, but for most there is an agreement that culture is passed down from one generation to the next, there is a strong influence of molding one’s behavior, and that culture is learned. One’s environment is based on the culture that he or she is subjected to. Culture influences humans in many ways that is what makes humans human. Culture separates individuals from any other species and affords one the opportunity to use instinct and cultural knowledge to survive. Culture is woven into one’s fabric of daily life, and aids in how one interacts with others. By definition psychology is the study of performance and human behavior, so when tying to define one’s actions, it is imperative that incorporating one’s culture into the equation. See more: how to start an essay The behaviors of a person can be directly related to the environment or various biological factors, but, behavior can not be solely answered by just those two things without examining the social cultural conditions which impact that person’s behavior. Cultural psychology looks for the connection between psychology and one’s culture. By looking at this link the correlation between culture and behavior is recognized. Acknowledging this permits that cognitive operations are the variable in culture and oneself based on the environment that he or she is surrounded by (Segal, Dasen, Berry Poortinga, 1999). Culture can bring people together as well as separate others. Cross-cultural psychology is a newer specialty in the field. This field does not just focus on one specific culture when attempting to clarify the actions of someone’s behavior. Rather it views many different cultures that could be affected a person. It is imperative to know not to confuse race, ethnicity and society with culture. They do offer a look at a person’s individualism but it is different than one’s culture. A society consists of people where a culture is a common interest shared by persons with in a group that lead to a given behavior. To understand human behavior, viewing other approaches like sociological, cultural mixtures, integrative approach, eco-cultural and evolutionary all help in understanding how a human’s behavior could fluctuate based on. For example, when looking at the evolutionary approach views the biological factors contributing to the behavior over the eco-cultural approach views the environment (Shiraev Levy, 2010). The Relationship between Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology There are two different disciplines, anthropology and philosophy, that overlap in cultural psychology. Then reviewing other disciplines there is a wider viewpoint when researching various actions that others do. The purpose of cultural psychology is to unearth how someone’s culture affects behavior as well as how the connection is generated. Human energy cannot be the only factory determining one’s predisposition. Cultural psychology interprets that one’s mind should not be viewed as separate when explaining behavior. However, cross culture psychology relates to not only history and anthropology but also similarities and differences between histories. Regardless, both disciplines take into account culture so their foundations are close. The difference occurs because cultural psychology is interested in the relationship with culture someone has versus cross-cultural being interested in comparison on cultures (Shiraev Levy, 2010). The Role of Critical Thinking in Cross-Cultural Psychology Using critical thinking the right way, there are many ways that critical thinking that be a benefit. Life can be complex and complicated to understand. Critical thinking provides someone the ability to steer through life with a certainty. This being said, critical thinking is learned, not n inherited trait. Being able to think hypothetically, decrypt puzzles, synchronizing thoughts and communicating all require critical thinking. Using critical thinking means that one asks questions that will ultimately solve problems. If someone is unqualified or unskilled, it is possible they will not develop to full potential. By developing the critical thinking skill, this means that one could grow and learn. The use of language, patience when making important decisions, and ability to organize (Hunter, 2009). All of those that were mentioned are influences in cross-cultural psychology. Language can lead to discrimination for example. The way words are translated can be confused because of the way that it is understood. Translating word for word could lead to an incorrect translation. Understanding that any language can be translated into other meanings causing traumatization or inspiring depending on the interpretation. The research is another part of cross-cultural psychology that is attached to critical thinking. Research that is conducted without bias, emotion, choosing right from wrong, and accepting validity and reliability of that research is a form of critical thinking. It is normal for there to be comparisons made when linking groups or cultures. Here are a few instances how critical thinking and cross-cultural psychology are intertwined. Without a critical thinking understanding how culture affects behavior could form the wrong impression (Segal, Dasen, Berry Poortinga, 1999). Methodology Associated with Cross-Cultural Research Research is a critical part of cross cultural psychology. Without having research the only information about cross-cultural psychology would be assumptions. Psychologists who focus their studies on cross cultural psychologists are intrigued with the commonalities between cultures. As psychologists explain, foretell and manage various behaviors of those they observe they do so because humans are consumed with the interactions he or she has with others resulting in behaviors. Generating research is done by scientific investigation. Cross cultural psychology research is subdivided into quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is done through observation by mode, median and mean. Qualitative research is nconditioned settings or a natural setting. This method is picked when the variables are impossible to gather because the tools are not available. There are two different strategies that are also available to use; the application orientated and comparativist strategy. The data collected by these strategies can be done through systematic or random sampling (Shiraev Levy, 2010). â€Å"Observation (naturalistic and laboratory), survey (direct and indirect), experimental studies (independent and dependent variables), content-analysis, psychobiography, meta-analysis, focus-group method† (Shiraev Levy, 2010, pp. 5-40) are all available to psychologists who are interested in cross cultural insestigations. When using cross cultural psychology hindrances could occur. Language could create problems when completing research consequently ensuring correct translation is of the utmost importance. Investigators should be able to decipher a specific method as realistically as possible. Attention should also be paid when associating two phenomena and also avoid biases at all times (Shiraev Levy, 2010). Conclusion Since culture plays a vital role in one’s life, it is critical to recognize that it is what causes one’s behavior. Culture is manmade and appears all of the time without much thought. It is important for one to be a successful psychologist that there is a clear understanding of both cultural and cross cultural psychology and how it effects the individual as well as his or her environment. Because of cultural psychology one can trace the connection between culture and psychology and eventually behavior. Viewing various parallels in cultural psychology can help see the differences as well as similarities between cultures and how it impacts one’s actions. Without it, there will always be a mystery surrounding humanity.

Mars, The Red Planet Essay -- essays research papers

Mars, it’s where aliens come from, a Hollywood Sci-Fi mainstay, the mysterious red planet. But, what is Mars really? Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, orbiting 227,940,000 km away. It’s diameter of 6,794 km and mass of 6.4219e23 kg, makes it the seventh largest planet in our solar system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mars, which is the Greek name for the god of War, probably got this name due to it’s red color, and is often referred to as the red planet. What makes Mars look red? Mars’ atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide, which oxidizes iron on the planet’s surface to create rust. Because there is very little water vapor on Mars, dry winds pick up and blow the dust around the planet, coloring it red.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What would you see if you went for a nature walk on Mars? Among the surface features are giant volcanoes and vast canyons. The largest volcano in the entire solar system is on Mars, Olympus Mons. It is classified as a shield volcano, similar to the volcanoes in Hawaii. Olympus Mons, three times higher than Mount Everest, is twenty- five kilometers high, surrounded by a 550 kilometer moat filled with lava. The Valles Marineris canyon is 4500 kilometers long and reaches seven kilometers deep and 600 kilometers across. There are also many meteorite impact craters.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Why couldn’t you take a nature walk on Mars? The atmosphere is not only very thin, it’s made almost completely of CO2 and known for its raging dust storms. You would...

Philosophy of Mozi Essay

Romeo and Juliet, the two young lovers in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, ended up becoming a large part of what could be called â€Å"fate†. Fate seemed to control their lives and force them together, becoming a large part of their love, and the ending of their parents hatred. In ancient China, a philosopher, Mozi, rejected fatalism because it is a belief that gives people excuses to doing nothing. He says: [I]f we were to accept the theories of the fatalists, then those above would not attend to affairs of state and those below would not pursue their tasks. If those above do not attend to affairs of state, then the government will fall into disorder, while if those below do not pursue their tasks, there will not be enough wealth and goods. There will be no way to provide security for the worthy and able men of the world below. There will be no mean to entertain and conduct exchanges with the feudal lords who come as guests from abroad, while within the state there will be no means to feed the hungry, cloths the cold, and care for the aged and weak. One should not believe that one is determined by one’s fate because this belief does not promote universal benefits for the world. For most people, when they think fate is at work on their situation, they stop thinking about their own solutions. They will think less, be less alert, and be more trusting. It is what they do, say and act as a result of believing in fate that can cause major disasters in their lives. When one stops thinking, stops acting, stops working the hardest one could towards something, then one is letting the ball drops. As a result, he is not achieving as much as he could, he may lose money, lose job and lose responsibilities. However, he would not care so much because he blames it on fate, not himself. Everything that happens in human life is a product of what they do to their life and not determined by fate alone. There is a saying goes, â€Å"Life is what you make it. † A man truly creates his life and should not rely too much on fate. There are many factors affect man’s life. These different factors either make him or unmake him. The circumstance depends on whether one has grabbed the correct reign to man the horse or one has missed it. What people do today that is crucial in what happens to him in the future. One of the critics Mozi makes of Confucians is that they encourage the idea that one’s fate was predetermined which lead to resignation and failure on the part of the people. Mozi seems to have believed to the contrary that a man’s fate was to be shape by a man effort; that Heaven might guide. A lot of successful and driven people in variety fields confess that fate seems to be against them at the launch of their career. It was hard, many successful folks say, but nothing could have held them back as they strove to the best. Besides that, sometimes a person whom one thinks cannot succeed will suddenly emerged as the most successful businessman. Without even noticing what had really occurred the man whom everybody had pinpointed as the useless and most unwanted person will turn out as the best person in one day. Sometimes the turn of the wheel is just so confusing that people find themselves confused and not being able to cope with what life provides. Everything depends on our determination, our strength to defeat the obstacles we meet on our life journey. Mozi states, â€Å"Heaven might guide. † The term â€Å"Heaven† here can be people around us, for instance, an elderly person, a teacher, a friend and etc. who lend helping hands in assisting our succeed. Opportunities and time wait for no man. â€Å"Heaven† will only guide people who are well prepared and highly determined and not who believe in Him sincerely but doing nothing. People choose what they do and what could happen to them in the future. If one is going to look what life really is, one should begin to analyze what one has done in the past that made one is today. You are what you did and not really destiny and fate. Man cannot really tell what is going to happen in the future and what should be avoid is a mistake that goes on and on until the person who made the mistake does not come out quagmire he has built around him. Mistakes do happen in everyone’s life but making the same mistake over and over in one’s life is not at all proper for a person who has knowledge unless he wants to ruin his life. A person who commits the same mistake throughout his life is trying to test what life is all about without thinking of the consequences that the mistake could do him in the future and not considering the future. In short, Mozi’s criticism of fatalism does not point to the proponent’s weakness in reasoning; it points specifically to the bad consequences such a theory will bring. Fate sometimes make an abrupt turnaround which will make people either lost balance or being thrown away so far that one cannot grasp anything to hold on it. For those people who have done good things in their life and have planned their future ahead in their younger years, they are the people who have smooth sailing boat. In contrary, those people who have thought fortune angel is always at their site, it would be a sorry state for them. REFERENCES Liu, JeeLoo. (2006). An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: from ancient philosophy to Chinese Buddhism. United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. HOL B126 L564 2006. Watson, Burton (1963). Mo Tzu Basic Writings. USA: Columbia University Press. HOL B128 M6 W3.

Managing Information Technology Essay

Question #1: What would be your prioritized list of IT investments? Four IT investments need to be prioritized; 1. 2. 3. 4. Ecommerce & Web sales Aligning the various systems (legacy, SAP, ERP) together. Hire relationship managers Make IT a â€Å"partner† 1. After only 3 years, KL’s Web sales have reached $156M, equalizing its in store sales, and now represent 15% of total sales. This is very encouraging and exciting. KL needs to continue to invest in Ecommerce & Web sales in order to continue this great growth. Selling via the Internet should be a priority because it’s cheaper than your ordinary brick and mortar sales points, there is less overhead expense, and this market is growing exponentially. The company should work towards gaining the most market share possible developing an industry leading website, timely and dependable delivery, and customer service. Accomplishing the above means getting all the company sharing information and data more efficiently (see point #2). 2. KL has a complex IT infrastructure with various systems in use around the world. The result is a frustrated bunch of employees upset with the fact that communication data sharing is awful. To remedy this the company needs to invest more in training to get the whole company, including the USA, to use SAP as soon as possible. 3. Assign/hire relationship managers to improve information sharing, facilitate plans, priorities, communications, and relationships, and in turn get the whole system to work together. 4. To avoid such problems in the future, KL needs to make IT a â€Å"partner† in the decision making process. In other words, the company needs to better involve IT in company strategy and tactical planning. With the IT team, the company needs to develop and define an Enterprise Operating Model and Architecture that include business strategy, current IT assessment, IT strategy and IT plans. Question #2: Would your colleagues on the executive committee agree with your selection and prioritization? The above priorities should be well received because they solve or improve many of the frustrating employees around the company. This answer will look at each division (upper management, sales & marketing, order fulfillment and distribution, and ITS) and see why the four IT priorities should be well received by the executive committee. The KL upper management is on record stating that the company has IT challenges â€Å"†¦around coordinating the various, and at times conflicting, business priorities across the enterprise. We sure could use better IT tools for this as well as ready access to timely performance data.†, CEO Joseph Campbell. In addition, COO Jens McCreary stated that the company needs to improve global supply-chain management and leverage the expertise to outpace out competitors and cut our operating costs†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Considering these quotes it’s safe to assume that the CEO and COO should be accepting of these four IT priorities because will want to see IT provide better services in order to reach their goals. The products, manufacturing and distribution divisions of the company want to see SAP standardized and compatible across the company in order to better share information. Priorities #2 and 3 should please this division. Sales & marketing hope to see inter-operating unit and communications and coordination issues to be resolved and they need real-time data. Priorities #1, 2 and 3 should encourage the sales and marketing team. The order fulfillment and distribution divisions need capabilities to forecast sales and manage our product and cash flows need to be more competitive. They want to be able to deliver in a J.I.T. basis (optimize effectiveness) and have data integration between the legacy systems, SAP, Oracle, etc. These issues should improve with priorities #2 and 3 and this making these priorities acceptable to this division. Finally, the information technology services (ITS) claim that not spending enough on IT (more spent on production and sales), and Web and ecommerce should be priority. Priorities 1 to 4 all favor the ITS team, and therefore should be well received.

Julia Ward Howe Biography

Julia Ward Howe Biography Known for: Julia Ward Howe is today best known as the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was married to Samuel Gridley Howe, educator of the blind, who was also active in abolitionism and other reforms. She published poetry, plays and travel books, as well as many articles. A Unitarian, she was part of the larger circle of Transcendentalists, though not a core member. Howe became active in the womens rights movement later in life, playing a prominent role in several suffrage organizations and in womens clubs. Dates:  May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910 Childhood Julia Ward was born in 1819, in New York City, into a strict Episcopalian Calvinist family. Her mother died when she was young, and Julia was raised by an aunt. When her father, a banker of comfortable but not immense wealth, died, her guardianship became the responsibility of a more liberal-minded uncle. She herself grew more and more liberal- on religion and on social issues. Marriage At 21 years old, Julia married the reformer Samuel Gridley Howe. When they married, Howe was already making his mark on the world. He had fought in the Greek War of Independence and had written of his experiences there. He had become the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, where Helen Keller would be among the most famous students. He was a radical Unitarian who had moved far from the Calvinism of New England, and Howe was part of the circle known as the Transcendentalists. He carried religious conviction in the value of the development of every individual into work with the blind, with the mentally ill, and with those in prison. He was also, out of that religious conviction, an opponent of slavery. Julia became a Unitarian Christian. She retained until death her belief in a personal, loving God who cared about the affairs of humanity, and she believed in a Christ who had taught a way of acting, a pattern of behavior, that humans should follow. She was a religious radical who did not see her own belief as the only route to salvation; she, like many others of her generation, had come to believe that religion was a matter of deed, not creed. Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe attended the church where Theodore Parker was minister. Parker, a radical on womens rights and slavery, often wrote his sermons with a handgun on his desk, ready if necessary to defend the lives of the runaway slaves who were staying that night in his cellar on their way to Canada and freedom. Samuel had married Julia, admiring her ideas, her quick mind, her wit, her active commitment to causes he also shared. But Samuel believed that married women should not have a life outside the home, that they should support their husbands and that they should not speak publicly or be active themselves in the causes of the day. As director at Perkins Institute for the Blind, Samuel Howe lived with his family on campus in a small house. Julia and Samuel had their six children there. (Four survived to adulthood, all four becoming professionals well known in their fields.) Julia, respecting her husbands attitude, lived in isolation in that home, with little contact with the wider community of Perkins Institute or Boston. Julia attended church, she wrote poetry, and it became harder for her to maintain her isolation. The marriage was increasingly stifling to her. Her personality was not one which adjusted to being subsumed in the campus and professional life of her husband, nor was she the most patient person. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote much later of her in this period: Bright things always came readily to her lips, and a second thought sometimes came too late to withhold a bit of a sting. Her diary indicates that the marriage was violent, Samuel controlled, resented and at times mismanaged the financial inheritance her father left her, and much later she discovered that he was unfaithful to her during this time. They considered divorce several times. She stayed, in part because she admired and loved him, and in part because he threatened to keep her from her children if she divorced him - both the legal standard and common practice at that time. Instead of divorce, she studied philosophy on her own, learned several languages - at that time a bit of a scandal for a woman - and devoted herself to her own self-education as well as the education and care of their children. She also worked with her husband on a brief venture at publishing an abolitionist paper, and supported his causes. She began, despite his opposition, to get more involved in writing and in public life. She took two of their children to Rome, leaving Samuel behind in Boston. Julia Ward Howe and the Civil War Julia Ward Howes emergence as a published writer corresponded with her husbands increasing involvement in the abolitionist cause. In 1856, as Samuel Gridley Howe led anti-slavery settlers to Kansas (Bloody Kansas, a battlefield between pro- and anti-slavery emigrants), Julia published poems and plays. The plays  and poems further angered Samuel. References in her writings to love turned to alienation and even violence were too clearly allusions to their own poor relationship. When the American Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act- and Millard Fillmore as President signed the Act- it made even those in Northern states complicit in the institution of slavery. All U.S. citizens, even in states that banned slavery, were legally responsible to return fugitive slaves to their owners in the South. The anger over the Fugitive Slave Act pushed many who had opposed slavery into more radical abolitionism. In a nation even more divided over slavery, John Brown led his abortive effort at Harpers Ferry to capture arms stored there and give them to Virginia slaves. Brown and his supporters hoped that the slaves would rise in armed rebellion, and slavery would end. Events did not, however, unfold as planned, and John Brown was defeated and killed. Many in the circle around the Howes were involved in the radical abolitionism that gave rise to John Browns raid. There is evidence that Theodore Parker, their minister, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, another leading Transcendentalist and associate of Samuel Howes, were part of the so-called Secret Six, six men who were convinced by John Brown to bankroll his efforts which ended at Harpers Ferry. Another of the Secret Six, apparently, was Samuel Gridley Howe. The story of the Secret Six is, for many reasons, not well known, and probably not completely knowable given the deliberate secrecy. Many of those involved seem to have regretted, later, their involvement in the plan. Its not clear how honestly Brown portrayed his plans to his supporters. Theodore Parker died in Europe, just before the Civil War began. T. W. Higginson, also the minister who married  Lucy Stone  and Henry Blackwell in their  ceremony asserting womens equality  and who was later a discoverer of  Emily Dickinson, took his commitment into the Civil War, leading a regiment of black troops. He was convinced that if black men fought alongside white men in the battles of war, they would be accepted as full citizens after the war. Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe became involved in the  U.S. Sanitary Commission, an important institution of social service. More men died in the Civil War from disease caused by poor sanitary conditions in prisoner of war camps and their own army camps than died in battle. The  Sanitary Commission  was the chief institution of reform for that condition, leading to far fewer deaths later in the war than earlier. Writing the Battle Hymn of the Republic As a result of their volunteer work with the  Sanitary Commission, in November of 1861 Samuel and Julia Howe were invited to Washington by President Lincoln. The Howes visited a Union Army camp in Virginia across the Potomac. There, they heard the men singing the song which had been sung by both North and South, one in admiration of John Brown, one in celebration of his death: John Browns body lies amouldering in his grave. A clergyman in the party, James Freeman Clarke, who knew of Julias published poems, urged her to write a new song for the war effort to replace John Browns Body. She described the events later: I replied that I had often wished to do so.... In spite of the excitement of the day I went to bed and slept as usual, but awoke the next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished-for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, I shall lose this if I dont write it down immediately. I searched for an old sheet of paper and an old stub of a pen which I had had the night before, and began to scrawl the lines almost without looking, as I learned to do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room when my little children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me. The result was a poem, published first in February 1862 in the Atlantic Monthly, and called Battle Hymn of the Republic. The poem was quickly put to the tune that had been used for John Browns Body - the original tune was written by a Southerner for religious revivals- and became the best known Civil War song of the North. Julia Ward Howes religious conviction shows in the way that Old and New Testament Biblical images are used to urge that people implement, in this life and this world, the principles that they adhere to. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. Turning from the idea that the war was revenge for the death of a martyr, Howe hoped that the song would keep the war focused on the principle of the ending of slavery. Today, thats what Howe is most remembered for: as the author of the song, still loved by many Americans. Her early poems are forgotten- her other social commitments forgotten. She became a much-loved American institution after that song was published but even in her own lifetime, all her other pursuits paled besides her accomplishment of one piece of poetry for which she was paid $5 by the editor of Atlantic Monthly. Mothers Day and Peace Julia Ward Howes accomplishments did not end with the writing of her famous poem, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. As Julia became more famous, she was asked to speak publicly more often. Her husband became less adamant that she remain a private person, and while he never actively supported her further efforts, his resistance eased. She saw some of the worst effects of the war- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause. Distressed by her experience of the realities of war, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality in its many forms) and seeing war arise again in the world in the Franco-Prussian War, she called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a  Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action. She failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mothers Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who had attempted starting in 1858 to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors. Ann Jarvis daughter, named Anna Jarvis, would of course have known of her mothers work, and the work of Julia Ward Howe. Much later, when her mother died, this second Anna Jarvis started her own crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mothers Day was celebrated in West Virginia in 1907 in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. And from there the custom caught on- spreading eventually to 45 states. Finally the holiday was declared officially by states beginning in 1912, and in 1914 the President, Woodrow Wilson, declared the first national  Mothers Day. Woman Suffrage But working for peace was also not the accomplishment which eventually meant the most to Julia Ward Howe. In the aftermath of the Civil War, she, like many before her, began to see parallels between struggles for legal rights for blacks and the need for legal equality for women. She became active in the  woman suffrage movement  to gain the vote for women. T. W. Higginson wrote of her changed attitude as she finally discovered that she was not so alone in her ideas that women should be able to speak their minds and influence the direction of society: From the moment when she came forward in the Woman Suffrage Movement ...  there was a visible change; it gave a new brightness to her face, a new cordiality in her manner, made her calmer, firmer; she found herself among new friends and could disregard old critics. By 1868, Julia Ward Howe was helping to found the New England Suffrage Association. In 1869 she led, with her colleague  Lucy  Stone, the  American Woman Suffrage Association  (AWSA) as the suffragists split into two camps over black versus woman suffrage and over state versus federal focus in legislating change. She began to lecture and write frequently on the subject of woman suffrage. In 1870 she helped Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, found the  Womans Journal, remaining with the journal as an editor and writers for twenty years. She pulled together a series of essays by writers of the time, disputing theories that held that women were inferior to men and required separate education. This defense of womens rights and education appeared in 1874 as  Sex and Education. Later Years Julia Ward Howes later years were marked by many involvements. From the 1870s Julia Ward lectured widely. Many came to see her because of her fame as the author of the  Battle Hymn  of the Republic; she needed the lecture income because her inheritance had finally, through a cousins mismanagement, become depleted. Her themes were usually about service over fashion, and reform over frivolity. She preached often in Unitarian and Universalist churches. She continued to attend the Church of the Disciples, led by her old friend James Freeman Clarke, and often spoke in its pulpit. Beginning in 1873, she hosted an annual gathering of women ministers, and in the 1870s helped to found the Free Religious Association. She also became active in the womans club movement, serving as president of the New England Womens Club from 1871. She helped found the Association for the Advancement of Women (AAW) in 1873, serving as president from 1881. In January 1876, Samuel Gridley Howe died. Just before he died, he confessed to Julia several affairs hed had, and the two apparently reconciled their long antagonism. The new widow traveled for two years in Europe and the Middle East. When she returned to Boston, she renewed her work for womens rights. In 1883 she published a biography of Margaret Fuller, and in 1889 helped bring about the merger of the AWSA with the rival suffrage organization, led by  Elizabeth Cady Stanton  and  Susan B. Anthony, forming the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1890 she helped to found the General Federation of Womens Clubs, an organization which eventually displaced the AAW. She served as director and was active in many of its activities, including helping to found many clubs during her lecture tours. Other causes in which she involved herself included support for Russian freedom and for the Armenians in the Turkish wars, taking once again a stand that was more militant than pacifist in its sentiments. In 1893, Julia Ward Howe participated in events at the Chicago Columbian Exposition (Worlds Fair), including chairing a session and presenting a report on Moral and Social Reform at the Congress of Representative Women. She spoke at the to the  1893 Parliament of the Worlds Religions, held in Chicago in conjunction with the  Columbian Exposition. Her topic, What is Religion? outlined Howes understanding of general religion and what religions have to teach each other, and her hopes for interfaith cooperation. She also gently called for religions to practice their own values and principles. In her last years, she was often compared to Queen Victoria, whom she somewhat resembled and who was her senior by exactly three days. When Julia Ward Howe died in 1910, four thousand people attended her memorial service. Samuel G. Eliot, head of the American Unitarian Association, gave the eulogy at her funeral at the Church of the Disciples. Relevance to Womens History Julia Ward Howes story is a reminder that history remembers a persons life incompletely. Womens history can be an act of remembering- in the literal sense of re-membering, putting the parts of the body, the members, back together. The whole story of Julia Ward Howe has not even now, I think, been told. Most versions ignore her troubled marriage, as she and her husband struggled with traditional understandings of the wifes role and her own personality and personal struggle to find herself and her voice in the shadow of her famous husband. Im left with questions to which I cannot find answers. Was Julia Ward Howes aversion to the song about John Browns body based on an anger that her husband had spent part of her inheritance secretly on that cause, without her consent or support? Or did she have a role in that decision? Or was Samuel, with or without Julia, part of the  Secret Six? We dont know, and may never know. Julia Ward Howe lived the last half of her life in the public eye primarily because of  one poem  written in the few hours of one gray morning. In those later years, she used her fame to promote her very different later ventures, even while she resented that she was already remembered primarily for that one small accomplishment. What is most important to the writers of history may not be necessarily the most important to those who are the subject of that history. Whether it was her peace proposals and her proposed  Mothers Day, or her work on winning the vote for women- none of which were accomplished during her lifetime- these fade in most histories beside her writing of the  Battle Hymn of  the Republic. This is why womens history often has a commitment to biography- to recover, to re-member the lives of the women whose accomplishments may mean something quite different to the culture of their times than they did to the woman herself. And, in so remembering, to respect their efforts to change their own lives and even the world. Source Hungry Heart: The Literary Emergence of Julia Ward Howe: Gary Williams. Hardcover, 1999.Private Woman, Public Person: An Account of the Life of Julia Ward Howe from 1819-1868: Mary H. Grant. 1994.Julia Ward Howe, 1819 to 1910: Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott. Reprint.Julia Ward Howe and the Woman Suffrage Movement: Florence H. Hull. Hardcover, Reprint.Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Biography of Julia Ward Howe: Deborah Clifford. Hardcover, 1979.Secret Six: The True Tale of the Men Who Conspired with John Brown: Edward J. Renehan, jr. Trade Paperback, 1997.

How Executives Should Answer One Scary Interview Question Who Wrote Your Resume

How Executives Should Answer One Scary Interview Question Who Wrote Your Resume Should executives write their own resumes? As an executive resume writer, I run into a certain number of people who believe every job candidate, regardless of industry, should write his or her own resume. While I agree very strongly that students should write their own academic papers and college application essays, I think very differently about whether executives should write their own resumes. Think about it. Executives are not being judged on their ability to format a beautiful document and craft powerful bullets about themselves. They have not spent years studying and practicing the art of resume writing. What is an executive’s job? All C-Level executives need forward-thinking strategy skills and the ability to manage and motivate teams. A CTO needs to know technology. A CFO needs to know finance. A CMO needs to know marketing. A CEO needs to implement high-level strategy; ensure that teams are functioning optimally; make key decisions that serve the best interest of both the company and its customers; keep operations running smoothly; and liaise between the board of directors and corporate operations. Nowhere in this list is being a great writer, graphic designer, or resume bullet crafter. So why should an executive ever write his or her own resume? I can’t think of a reason. In fact, the most talented and accomplished executive could be undersold and undercut by a self-constructed resume. And isn’t an executive’s job to delegate responsibility to others rather than get caught in the weeds? Successful executives are universally interested in leveraging their time. They do not have 10 hours to spend wrestling over how to present their accomplishments in writing. They would rather pay someone to do what that person does well, in service of a great result. The interview question Given all this, what should you do if you are an executive and in an interview, you are asked who wrote your resume? One hiring manager, whom I will call Mike, used that â€Å"trick† question to vet candidates. He writes, â€Å"I found out a lot by the reaction to that question. The best response I ever heard was an unruffled ‘I contracted with someone good in that business. Look, [Mike], you are interviewing me for the Chief Technical Officer position. I care about the quality of the end result. I dont write software as well as some of the folks in the Engineering group. I dont write resumes as well as the service. Quality of outcome and cost count.’† Mike continues, â€Å"Ive seen some candidates get flustered and talk in circles. I even had one candidate claim he wrote it, only to interrupt me ten minutes later to contradict himself.† I was struck in this story by the attributes this successful candidate’s answer showed: integrity, honesty, decisiveness, the ability to stay clear under pressure, a results focus, and a commitment to finding the best people to do any job. Those are qualities I would want in an executive. Executive responsibilities as a job candidate Even when someone else writes your executive resume, you go through the process of getting very clear about the challenges you faced, the actions you took, and the results you achieved. That is each executive’s work to do, with the support of a resume writer if desired. My advice is to put your best foot forward, and to leverage your resources optimally to do that. What do you think about executives writing their own resumes? Do you have any other favorite, revealing interview questions you want to share? Please comment below!

What Clausewitz would say about the strategies we are currently using Research Paper

What Clausewitz would say about the strategies we are currently using in the Global War on Terrorism - Research Paper Example The State Department defines terrorism as â€Å"the use or threatened use of violence for political purposes to create a state of fear that will aid in extorting, coercing, intimidating, or otherwise causing individuals or groups to alter their behavior† He wrote the book On War which was published only after his death. Translated into almost all the major languages, the book has been controversially interpreted in various ways by different authors. Clausewitz emphasized the traditional approach to war. He advocated combining the will of a nation with its resources and the efforts of the citizens in an immense campaign to defeat an enemy through warfare towards resolute conclusions. It is important to examine whether Clausewitz’s concepts on the essentials of war can be applied to the global war against terrorism. â€Å"Terrorists are not guerillas or irregulars who conduct unconventional warfare against recognized military targets for political purposes†2. Being no match for conventional armies, terrorists avoid a massive confrontion. They employ asymmetrical warfare through uncustomary means such as suicide attacks, to conduct illegal attacks against primarily civilian targets for political reasons. Terrorists operate in secrecy, Their objective is to compel legitimate political systems to change their policies, in order to gain unlawful advantages. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Clausewitz’s ideas on war are concurrent with the strategies employed in the global war on terrorism. Clausewitz’s Ideas: Whether Applicable to Global War on Terrorism Carl von Clausewitz’s key ideas include the following concepts: the purpose of diplomacy is for imposing a nation’s will on the enemy, war is essentially the pursuit of diplomacy through a different method, armies of citizens fighting for their country show greater determination than professional soldiers figting to gain new territory, to be victorio us in war, a nation must take risks and act boldly, and aggressors would prefer to take over another country unopposed rather than engage in conflict3. The State Department defines terrorism as â€Å"the use or threatened use of violence for political purposes to create a state of fear that will aid in extorting, coercing, intimidating, or otherwise causing individuals or groups to alter their behavior†4. Terrorists do not comply with the laws of war nor do they wear uniforms like regular soldiers. Terrorism is predominantly a form of political violence, and the purpoes of all terrorists is the same, in that they try to impose their will by force. Hence, terrorism is not confined to thugs and outlaws; international terrorism is a generic type of aggression towards realizing political goals through the threat of harm and destruction. Although terrorism frequently appears mindless, this is most often not the case. It is a means to an end, to change unacceptable circumstances th rough violence, and is not an end in itself. The source of terrorism which is a form of political violence lies in the basic structure of contemporary international politics. Structural terrorism contributes to the prevalence of terrorism by promoting the use of fear and violence for achieving political goals. The growth and spread or terrorism in its present day manifestations may be perceived as a new form of coercion. Thus global terrorism is not an accepted part of the rules and customs of international behavior. This violent creation of prevailing global cirumstances is â€Å"a product of the attributes of the global environment that came into being with the creation and spread of nuclear weapons – and the fear they elicit†5. Thus, terrorism has grown into a predominant means for international and intranational conflict resolution. Prior to 2006, the Pentagon leadership failed

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 29

Journal - Essay Example This bare feeling is enhanced by short, austere sentences which contrast the more extravagant role of a movie star. The syntax of this passage highlights the fact that despite of her being tough and practical, she still faces challenging circumstances, especially given that she feels betrayed by her husband due to the affair. The parallel structure and repetition which all begin with â€Å"She† stresses her despair, loneliness, pain and suffering as the two people she considers important to her life are not there for her. By placing â€Å"Try to smile proudly† in its own paragraph, Moore emphasizes the importance of her to rise above her present predicament and focus on the opportunity she has, and this establishes her as the primary focus of the story, as the paragraph marks the transition from her description of the babysitting jobs so as to compare it with being a child psychologists. â€Å"Why write? Where does writing come from? These are questions to ask you. They are like: Where does dust come from? Or Why is there war? Or: If there’s a God, then why is my brother now a cripple?† (1019). The purpose of these rhetorical questions is not to obtain a response, but to assert the implicitly. They serve the subtle means of insinuating the notion of why the author wants the readers to be writers, and which might be challenged by the readers when asserted directly. â€Å"†¦it will be about monomania and the fish-eat-fish world of life insurance in Rochester, New York. The first line will be â€Å"Call me Fishmeal† and it will feature a menopausal suburban husband named Richard, who because he is so depressed all the times is called â€Å"Mopey Dick† by his witty wife†¦Lets go out and get a big beer†(1019). This passage underscores Moore’s sense of humor and it accentuates some chilling, private revelations that give rise

Close Reading or Literary Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Close Reading or Literary Analysis - Essay Example As an apostrophe, Donne is addressing an anthropomorphized Death and informs the character that it is not as powerful as some people make it out to be. The poem â€Å"demonstrates the impotence and the self-destructiveness of the antagonist† (Tromly 391). Donne begins the poem by directly addressing death, â€Å"Death be not proud,† and then admitting that some people might hold death in a revered place: â€Å"though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful† (1-2). Obviously, it is rather banal to have to point out the fact that the single event that all people that are alive cannot deter is that they will all die. There are no exceptions to this, and this is one of the few truisms that goes without anybody being able to form an argument against it. Considering this, the position that death is a powerful figure that is deserving of fear and respect seems like a difficult position to try to argue against. Of course, this would not have been a memorable or interesting poem if it had merely stated this obvious fact. The paradox that Donne creates is what makes this poem so well known. After informing death that it had nothing to be proud of, Donne then informs the character why this is the case: â€Å"For those, whom thou thinks’t, thou dost overthrow,/ Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me† (3-4). As Donne states, the people that death thinks it has killed were not actually killed by death. Beyond this, death also does not have the ability to kill the poet as well. Considering that the poet has been dead for centuries, Donne is obviously going to have to thoroughly explain why exactly this is true. Donne then begins to explain his reasons. First he states that death is not much difference in appearance from taking a nap: â€Å"From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,/ Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow† (5-6). Following the reasoning that resting or sleeping reinvigorates people and make them more able to enjoy

Methanation in Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) Production

Methanation in Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) Production Methanation is the process of producing methane from H2 and CO. Methane (an odourless and colourless gas, composed of four hydrogen molecules attached to one carbon molecule) is found in natural gas that we can use in our homes for energy. Methane found in natural gas is produced by anaerobic bacteria, which break down organic material and the waste product is the natural gas. The natural gas that is sought after by companies such as BP drilling for oil and gas was produced by anaerobic bacteria millions of years ago. Methane is used in many processes some of which are explained below. We will mainly consider methanation in the production of Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) as this can be used instead of natural gas which has limited resources and supply. Methanation is the reverse reaction of steam methane reforming. It is one of the most important steps in ammonia plants as the COx produced in the overall steam reforming process need to be separated from the H2, as the H2 is to be used for ammonia synthesis. This process is also referred to as purification methanation. The content of oxides of carbon in the production of ammonia must be reduced to a very low level to prevent catalyst poisoning2. After the low temperature shift (LTS) reaction and deduction of CO2, the methanation reaction is used to remove any residual COx from the process stream before ammonia synthesis. Trace amounts of CO and CO2 are reacted with hydrogen in the presence of a nickel oxide catalyst to produce a mixture of methane and water. This process removes the residual 0.2-0.5% CO and 0.1%-0.2% CO2 to about 5ppm (it is vital to in the production of ammonia to remove the COx as even a low level significantly reduces the methanation rate) by reduction to methane with hydrogen in a fixed-bed reactor, with a 15-35 wt% Ni/Al2O3 catalyst (2).This catalyst is usually prepared by impregnating high surface area ÃŽÂ ³- Al2O3 with a soluble Ni salt. MgO can be used to impede sintering of the active Ni crystallites. For this process methanation is normally carried out in an adiabatic, fixed-bed reactor at 30 atm, with an inlet temperature of 300 °C and an exit temperature of 365 °C. This reaction is highly exothermic and the temperatures of the bed are kept below 400 °C so that catalyst sintering and carbon deposition is prevented. 3 What is SNG? Substitute/Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) is similar to natural gas but produced from coal or biomass (e.g. wood, straw, waste). It is a manufactured product which is chemically similar to natural gas. Natural gas is the worldwide fuel of choice but there is limited supply, so SNG is one of the options to overcome this. Producing SNG from biomass is also considered to be thought of as green gas as it avoids extra CO2 emissions, because it is carbon neutral. SNG has many advantages some of which are: the already existing gas supply infrastructure (e.g. pipelines) which allow the gas to be distributed throughout a country such as the USA and also worldwide  high conversion efficiency Efficient final use technologies that are well-established e.g. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG cars), Combined Heat and Power (CHP), and Heating. What is the methanation process and how is it used in the production of SNG? CO + 3H2 † Ã¢â‚¬  CH4 + H2O The reaction between H2 and CO can produce a number of different products depending on the reaction conditions, the catalyst used and the stoichiometry of the reactants. The reaction of great interest to us is the one producing methane. This reaction over a nickel catalyst was first reported by Sabatier and Senderens (1902, 1905) and even though a lot of research has gone into which catalyst is the best for methanation, nickel has continued as the key catalyst for methanation because of its selectivity for the production of methane, high activity, and inexpensiveness compared to other catalysts. Catalysts involved in methanation operate for a long time in catalyst beds and for that reason catalyst life and strength are also of major importance. Many problems such as sulphur poisoning are involved with these catalysts; they are mentioned in a later section of this report.5 The above forward reaction is exothermic, releasing heat (the delta H values are negative showing this) and the forward reaction is favoured by low temperature and high pressure, Product gas with a high fraction of CH4 can only be generated at low temperature (300-350 °C) and high pressure > 20 bar.6 We also know from Le Chateliers Principle that pressure favours the side with fewer moles which in this case is the forward reaction producing methane and water, so a high pressure should be used. The production of methane is a fundamental step in the process of manufacturing that gas from coal to produce SNG. The typical methanation process involved in SNG consists of three fixed-bed methanating stages that are used in series with a fixed-bed of catalyst. A single stage process can and has also been used for methanation, such as the IRMA Methanation pilot plant KFA project, the conditions for this single stage were P = 30 bar; T = 250-700 °C (1 stage); Volumetric flow rate = 600m3 (STP)h -1, (synthesis gas); 1100 operating hours since 19817. The three stage methanation process consists of: Total Gasification of the coal in steam, possibly with oxygen, C+H2O† Ã¢â‚¬ H2+ CO Changing the ratio of H2 to CO in the product gas by the water gas shift reaction, and then removing any residual CO2. CO+H2O† Ã¢â‚¬ H2+CO2 The hydrogen and carbon monoxide are converted to methane (following the removal of damaging material to the process such as hydrogen sulphide) using a catalyst (nickel is the most common for this process as explained later in this report.). This final stage is a straight through reactor operating at lower temperature than that of the previous stages as shown in Fig.1 below. This gives methane which contains typically less than 3% H2, 0.1% CO and has a thermal efficiency of approximately 70% for the total process. This methane produced can then be use in the production of SNG. CO + 3H2 † Ã¢â‚¬  CH4 + H2O 8 As the temperature needs to be controlled the product gases are recycled over the first stages with interstage cooling which prevents the temperature from increasing and also means that the process is more efficient as the gases are recycled and you dont have to put extra cooling in to keep the temperature from rising which saves money. The avoiding of high temperatures also protects the catalysts, if the reaction temperature becomes too high not only is the equilibrium state of the hydrogenation reaction adversely affected but the catalyst life is shortened by sintering of the metal particles9. Fig. 1 shows the three-stage process with fixed-bed reactors and the corresponding thermodynamic equilibrium temperatures for the synthesis gas with 10% CH4 at stage one and the desired dry product gas with more than 80% CH4. This diagram also shows that after the first stages the temperature decreases again and this is to avoid high temperatures in order to protect the catalyst but also to reach thermodynamic equilibrium at low temperatures. This is done by product gas recycling cooling as explained before. It is also important to know that when producing SNG by methanation the CO and H2 (i.e. the reactants) will contain a lot more of the monoxide than in the methanation process used for ammonia synthesis. In ammonia synthesis only a small amount of monoxides (less than 1%) are found however in SNG production the methanation process reactants can have 30-50% of the monoxide. It is also important to know that in the purification methanation even a low amount of monoxides can seriously deteriorate the methanation process by catalyst poisoning.8 This picture shows the process of coal gasification, and then the products being cleaned and readied for methanation. Gasification is simply the process of producing coal gas, a mixture of CO and H2 which is known as syngas. This syngas can then be used in the methanation process producing SNG. How methanation is used in industry From the 1970s quite a few methanation processes have been developed which consist of fixed bed and fluidised bed methanation. Most of the methanation processes used in industry use fixed bed reactors (used for the methanation in ammonia production, described before) as they are the most common type of reactor used in industry for many reasons such as having the simplest multi-phase reactor configuration where the solid phase is stationary and complications arising from the second phases mixing mode are not present.10 However, some processes use fluidised bed reactors also as fluidized bed methanation presents the advantage of good heat transfer from the process gas side to the cooling medium and the advantage of particular simplicity when exchanging the catalyst in case of catalyst poisoning or catalyst deactivation.11 The choice of the reactor also depends on the size of the reactor needed and the costs of setup and operating (does it need to be cleaned regularly or not as this cos ts money ad stops production). One of the biggest plants to make SNG from coal-derived syngas was started up in 1984; the Great Plains Synfuels Plant of Dakota Gasification Co. which cost $2.1billion was the only SNG plant of that scale operating in the world. The plant uses Lurgi GmbH gasifiers (a steel construction where around each time 8 tons of coal is fed into a compartment at its top, known as a coal lock, which is then sealed with a gas being fed into it ahead of the bottom of the lock opening to feed coal, in this plant the coal is Lignite which is 60-70%carbon, into the body of the gasifier, this builds up high pressure and the high pressure and temperature feed of steam and oxygen in the gasifier decompose the lignite to produce syngas). The syngas is then converted to SNG using DPT methanation catalysts. This plant produces approximately 153 million ft3/day of SNG which is piped throughout the US. This facility has also implemented CCS (carbon capture and storage) and as of the end of last year (31/12/ 2009) it has captured more than 17.4 million m.t. of CO2.12As you can imagine $2.1billion is a lot of money and was worth even more in 1984 showing that using methanation to produce SNG is not a small venture but a major player in the search for more fuel as the worlds gas and oil reserves are depleting. In 2009 the plant produced $264.7 million worth of SNG out of total revenue of $426.1 million. The operating costs for this plant (including maintenance) were $38,504,111.13This shows that the investment of $2.1billion was a really good decision not only in terms of producing SNG from methane but also a really great business return. FIGURE 3 DPTs methanation process is a refinement and further development of the Catalytic Rich Gas (CRG) process, which was first developed by British Gas Corp. in the late 1960s to convert naphtha into town gas. The process involves several methanator reactors in series, with heat recovered from the exothermic reaction (CO + 3H2 † Ã¢â‚¬  CH4 + H2O) used to raise high pressure superheated steam and to preheat the feed. Each reaction stage consists of a fixed bed of CRG catalyst operating adiabatically.12 However, new and more efficient processes are being implemented in industry, that especially focus on the conversion of biomass, such as the Milena process in the Netherlands. The ECN (Energy Research Center of the Netherlands) has developed a biomass gasification technology with high gas efficiency and a high methane yield which allows it to be used for gas-engine applications. This process has been given the name Milena, and the product gas can be upgraded to SNG and ECN has the ambition to turn this into large scale SNG production with an energy efficiency of 70%. This would be much needed as the Netherlands relies on 50% of its energy from natural gas (which is not renewable) so using SNG for biomass would be a substitute for this and the biomass is available in large quantities and it a lot cleaner and friendlier to the environment than natural gas.14 The biomass has to be converted into SNG by gasification and then methanation (theses processes and their outlines have been mentioned before). This allows it to reach efficiency, say from wood, up to 65% (this efficiency is calculated from the chemical energy output of SNG compared to the chemical energy input of wood). Biomass (e.g. wood and straw) being used to produce SNG has the advantage over coal based SNG of being almost CO2 neutral, without CCS. Production of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from coal and dry biomass.4 Catalyst Used The main catalysts that are used as methanation catalysts are nickel or nickel supported catalysts. This is because the key catalyst properties of nickel are excellent for methanation as it has long life, high activity, selectivity for the formation of methane in preference to other hydrocarbons and the low cost compared to other catalysts. One of the main disadvantages for nickel catalysts is the sensitivity to poisoning by sulphur, other catalysts are available that are sulphur-resistant and also catalyse the methanation reaction but these are much less active than nickel resulting in a slower rate of reaction. For example, one manufacturers catalysts are formulated on Ca aluminate base with the active nickel incorporated in a NiO/MgO solution, this leads to negligible nickel sintering.10In catalytic methanation many promoters for nickel have been studied such as copper, zinc oxide, magnesia, iron, calcium oxide, chromia and alumina. What was found was that alumina, chromia and magnesia were the best promoters in terms of activity and thermal stability. It was also found that for thermal and mechanical stability the best of a number of NiO methanation catalysts on supports of A12O3, a mixture of A12O3 and CaO, MgO, SiO2 and Cr2 O3 was NiO-AI2O3 containing 35% NiO.15 Many other factors are taken into consideration when choosing the catalyst for the methanation process. These are explained below: (i) Sulphur poisoning. Sulphur poisoning causes the methanation catalysts, to become inactive, this is because the reactants have brought in an alien molecule and this sits on the active site, the reactants now have to compete with this poison for the active sites and this results in a loss of the active surface area therefore decreasing the rate of reaction.10 (ii) Thermal stability. This reaction is highly exothermic it is very important to make sure that the reaction temperature does not become too high because it affects the equilibrium state of the reaction unfavourably and the catalyst life decreases due to sintering of the metal particles, where the particles come together, decreasing the surface area compared to when no sintering took place, thus less reaction is obtained. As mentioned previously the reaction temperature for this reaction is 300 °C-400 °Cfor which the nickel based catalysts used are sufficient in terms of longevity and activity. But there are catalysts tat are able to operate at higher temperatures than nickel based catalysts and these would be even more desirable as the higher the temperature at which the heat of methanation is released the more effectively can it contribute to overall thermal efficiency of the conversion process, for example of coal to SNG, it is also worthwhile to notice that at these higher temperatures the problem of sulphur poisoning decreases due to instability of the catalyst metal sulphide9. So why is it that in industry the use of catalysts that are suitable for operation at higher temperatures are not selected and for e.g. nickel catalysts are favoured? This is due to the fact that it is not always feasible to use the best catalyst for the process as it may cost too much to buy. (iii) Coke formation and fouling Carbon in its unreactive form, or as Ni3C produced on the Nickel catalyst, causes a loss of catalyst activity9. The coke formed blocks the reactants from reaching the active sites and the fouling is caused by the reaction forming a by-product which then sits on the active site, masking it. It is possible to avoid the unwanted carbon formation in the manufacture of SNG by controlling the water gas shift reaction. This is the 2nd step shown in figure 2 previously. The cost of nickel catalysts varies as the price of nickel fluctuates. The suppliers of these catalysts do not sell just a few kilograms of the catalyst they have a minimum orders quantity, e.g. 20 tons at the rate of $15000-$30000 per ton. An example of a Methanation catalyst used in industry is the SG-9701 (the name may be fancy but it is mostly nickel as shown in the table) produced by the global leader in catalysis, BASF who have found that although the catalysts operate at low temperature and show good conversion rates in the Methanation process, they eventually begin to age and lose their effectiveness, that is why through their current research they have identified that Methanation Catalyst relies on the mature combination of nickel oxide technology on an alumina matrix. However, through careful control of composition and geometry and the addition of a Rare Earth promoter, a number of performance improvements are achieved, these improvements are temperature resistance and long mechanical life. BASFs methanation catalyst also boasts a superior physical makeup reducing deterioration that can lead to increased pressure drop in the system16 For the future? Another SNG project was decided upon in this April between ConocoPhillips and POSCO (a Korean steel-manufacturing company) in which ConocoPhillips E-Gas technology is being used with POSCOs Gwangyang coal to SNG project. This facility has targeted production of 500,000 m.t. of SNG; I will not go further with this project as the methanation technology to be used has not yet been announced and a new technology to produce SNG using petroleum coke (petcoke) (an advanced technology that captures and sequesters CO2 emissions from an industrial source) is to be implemented with this at a further stage. 12 Hydromethanation-Peabody Energy and GreatPoint Energy Mass recently signed an agreement to produce SNG from coal, H2 from coal and also CCS projects. These are wanted to be developed with Bluegas technology, which uses catalytic Hydromethanation to produce H2 and SNG. The process is more efficient and cost effective than conventional gasification routes to SNG. In the bluegas process a propriety catalyst is dispersed with the feedstock (coal, petcoke, or biomass), and the mixture loaded into the reactor. Pressurized steam is injected from below to fluidize the mixture, which reacts to form CH4, CO2, H2 and CO.12 There is also a German-Austrian project that wants to produce methane from extra electrical energy that has been generated from solar or wind power and a process that combines methanation with electrolysis has been developed at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research, Germany. Conclusion Methanation is a very important process especially in todays environment where we look to reduce CO2 emissions further and producing SNG from biomass using the methanation process does this rather than using natural gas. Methane is used in the gas that provides our homes with energy and heating. We need to find even more efficient processes like the ones described above that use methanation to produce SNG.