Thursday, November 28, 2019

George Wallace Essays - George Wallace, Arthur Bremer, James Hood

George Wallace annon Former Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama, who built his political career on segregation and spent a tormented retirement arguing that he was not a racist in his heart, died Sunday night at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery. He was 79 and lived in Montgomery, Ala. Wallace died of respiratory and cardiac arrest at 9:49 p.m., said Dana Beyerly, a spokeswoman for Jackson Hospital in Montgomery. Wallace had been in declining health since being shot in his 1972 presidential campaign by a 21-year-old drifter named Arthur Bremer. Wallace, a Democrat who was a longtime champion of states' rights, dominated his own state for almost a generation. But his wish was to be remembered as a man who might have been president and whose campaigns for that office in 1968, 1972 and 1976 established political trends that have dominated American politics for the last quarter of the 20th century. He believed that his underdog campaigns made it possible for two other Southerners, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, to be taken seriously as presidential candidates. He also argued ceaselessly that his theme of middle-class empowerment was borrowed by Richard Nixon in 1968 and then grabbed by another Californian, Ronald Reagan, as the spine of his triumphant populist conservatism. In interviews later in his life, Wallace was always less keen to talk about his other major role in Southern history. After being elected to his first term as governor in 1962, he became the foil for the huge protests that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to destroy segregation in public accommodations in 1963 and to secure voting rights for blacks in 1965. As a young man, Wallace came boiling out of the sun-stricken, Rebel-haunted reaches of southeast Alabama to win the governorship on his second try. He became the only Alabamian ever sworn in for four terms as governor, winning elections in 1962, 1970, 1974 and 1982. He retired at the end of his last term in January 1987. So great was his sway over Alabama that by the time he had been in office only two years, other candidates literally begged him for permission to put his slogan, Stand Up for Alabama, on their billboards. Sens. John Sparkman and Lister Hill, New Deal veterans who were powers in Washington and the national Democratic Party, feared to contradict him in public when he vowed to plunge the state into unrelenting confrontation with the federal government over the integration of schools, buses, restrooms and public places in Alabama. It was a power built entirely on his promise to Alabama's white voting majority to continue the historic oppression of its disfranchised and largely impoverished black citizens. And it was snapshots of the peak moments of Wallace's campaign of racial oppression that burned him into the nation's consciousness as the Deep South's most forceful political brawler since Huey Long of Louisiana. First, on Jan. 14, 1963, there was his inaugural address, written by a known Ku Klux Klansman, Asa Carter. In it, Wallace promised to protect the state's Anglo-Saxon people from communistic amalgamation with blacks and ended with the line that would haunt his later efforts to enter the Democratic mainstream: Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. Wallace's next signature moment came on June 11, 1963, when he mounted his stand in the schoolhouse door to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Within days, it was convincingly reported that Wallace, fearing jail for defying a federal court order, had privately promised President John Kennedy that he would step aside if first allowed to make a defiant speech. Wallace's in-state critics denounced him for a charade that embarrassed the state. But the cold splash of reality did not dampen his plans to use Alabama as a stepping stone to the national political arena and to the anti-Big-government speeches by which he obsessively longed to be remembered by history. Wallace talked of running for president in 1964 as a neo-Dixiecrat candidate. But he backed off when the Republican nominee, Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, came out against the bill that later became the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Goldwater's move undercut Wallace's trademark assertion that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two main parties on race. After the election, Wallace regretted his timidity because he thought Goldwater had run a campaign of comical ineptitude, and when 1968 came around, he invented a party, drafted the eccentric retired Air Force general Curtis LeMay as his running mate, and began draining away the lunch-pail vote from Nixon. One reason for his success was that Wallace always campaigned

Sunday, November 24, 2019

How to make your writing at work engaging

How to make your writing at work engaging How do you make writing engaging? How can you make your writing engaging? Or, more specifically, how can you make your business writing engaging? Why, surely thats a contradiction in terms! Right †¦? A lot of people do seem to make a distinction between 1) Work Writing, and 2) Pretty Much Every Other Kind of Writing. It essentially amounts to this: type 2 has the potential to be entertaining and engaging and type 1 doesnt. After all, prestigious prizes are awarded for literature, journalism and non-fiction writing. Meanwhile, the kind of writing they have to do at work can be, yes, functional – but probably also dry. Thats just how it is. You may be unsurprised to hear we dont think thats true. OK, you might not win a Pulitzer Prize for your latest proposal, this months management report or that email you wrote to Stuart in Accounts. But you can make the reading experience for your potential client, the management team or old Stu a more interesting one. Better still, doing so will make a huge difference to how successful and effective what youve written is. We live in a world of too many documents and too little time, and anything thats actually a pleasure to read already has an advantage. So heres how you can help topple the myth that business writing has to be B-O-R-I-N-G: Begin at the beginning Begin with your reader. This is always our number one rule, simply because who youre writing for should colour all the decisions you make when writing. A reader is much, much more likely to be engaged by what youve written if it feels relevant to them. Lets face it, if someone concludes by sentence three that this particular document or email has no relevance to them, what do you suppose the odds of them continuing to read are? Yep – not good. Ideally, youd be writing about a topic that already interests them, naturally – but there again, you may not have a choice. And even if you know theyre unlikely to be instantly gripped, you still have the chance to find a way to make it seem as important as you can to them. Ask yourself these questions every time you write, to prime yourself. And it might sound obvious, but be clear on what you want to say before you get going. Plan the structure first. Combining the thinking and writing processes tends to result in a message that meanders all over the place. And (tough love time), you cant expect anyone to follow you round the houses on the off-chance they find a point along the way. Hook em in Engaging writing has to engage from the start. Those first lines are when your reader is weighing up whether to keep going or do something else instead (like reading another document or email, checking social media or simply leaving their desk and grabbing a coffee). Its at this point that you set their mood for facing the rest. Clearly, it doesnt bode well if their reaction to the first few lines is, Wow, this is going to be a slog. So make your introduction work hard to captivate from the beginning. Its the gatekeeper to the rest of your work. Of course, the reader isnt the only one who may find this section problematic. You will still be getting into the swing of writing when you compose your introduction (unless youre writing it in a panic at the end). This makes it easy to start out a bit long-winded, waffly or flat. But an introduction must have impact. So keep your first sentence or two tight, and definitely dont go in with reams of background. One great technique you can use to kick off is the surprise intro: a strong statement that – youve guessed it – will come as a surprise and shake the reader out of autopilot. Something like More than 60 per cent of Acme Widgets business comes from just 20 customers or One in six people are at risk of flooding in England has a good chance of making them want to read on to find out more. Invisible ink Hands up everyone who likes working really hard to understand something. Thought so. Its very important to make your writing effortless to read. The best writing is invisible. This means that the language used doesnt draw attention to itself – its just a stealth vehicle for the message, which then seems to arrive in your readers head as if from nowhere. And how do you achieve this? Using simple language is a good place to start. Make short words your first choice. Mind you, what this doesnt mean is that you shouldnt ever use longer words. It means, when you do, you do so because the longer word is the best fit, not because it seems like a high-class upgrade. So, you might put utilise in place of the shorter use for its specific meaning of employing something to do a job it wasnt necessarily designed for. But replacing help with ameliorate wont gain you extra points or frequent flyer miles – it just might lose you readers. The points less about always using the shortest word and more about choosing words that are familiar – theres where your knowledge of the reader comes in. Try to avoid a word thats likely to send them off to the dictionary, or that could make them feel frustrated, small or stupid because they dont know it. Treat jargon words the same way, and ban any that wont be understood. (Do use ones that youre sure will be a useful shorthand, though – again, its about knowing whats appropriate for the reader.) In fact, try to write more or less as youd speak in a meeting: professional but conversational. Reading your work aloud can help to check your written voice is as natural as your speech. Doing this will also remind you to pick verbs over the noun equivalent where you would say something using verbs – we agreed rather than we reached an agreement, for example. The same goes for favouring the active voice, where you put the doer before what he, she or it did: we discussed the matter not the matter was discussed by us. (But if you would naturally say it in the passive, use the passive.) Two-way conversations You can draw on more conventions of conversation to engage a reader as you would a listener. Borrow its directness. Would you ever refer to yourself – or the other person – in the third person if you were having a chat? Catie would like to determine if a cup of tea would be of value to the addressee. No-one wants to sit next to that person in the office. Yet we often switch to this kind of indirect, detached language when we write. Weve all seen it. Management would appreciate it if colleagues comments were received by Friday, says the memo to no-one in particular, as if written by a disinterested outsider. But guess what? To be engaging, you have to engage with people. So use you to address the reader if you can, plus the odd I, or we for the company. Youll sound much more human too. And try using questions. Even closed ones with a simple yes/no answer can be powerful, as you cant help but answer them in your head (can you?). Make them see it, feel it and believe it A common piece of advice in fiction writing is show, dont tell – but it applies just as well to business writing. Showing is more visual and convincing than just proclaiming a fact and hoping youll be believed. Check if youre relying too heavily on describing words, whether theyre describing things or actions. Either way, they can sound a bit thin if theres nothing backing them up. So dont just say sales have been impressive, get specific: say theyve doubled or increased by 30 per cent in a month. And dont just call your team of trainers experienced – say how many years theyve been in the industry or whom theyve successfully helped. What did that success look like? Did they increase productivity or sales? Be sure to put numbers in a context people can actually relate to. Commit to what youre saying. Confident words are compelling, while continually using hedge words like perhaps, its possible, and it is our intention to will chip away at your readers faith in you. Find your rhythm When it comes to the sound of your writing, think less techno and more jazz. Mix up the length of your sentences to vary the rhythm and keep your reader (who will hear your words in their head) interested. You probably can – and should – go much shorter with your sentences than you think, sticking to a maximum of 35 words and an average of 15–20. But variety is key. If theyre all similarly longish, itll be dull; all short and the effect is like that of being on a bus during rush hour – endless stop-starting, a sense of nausea and a desperate desire to escape. Use punctuation to keep the rhythm interesting too – a strategically placed dash (like that one), for example, can add a nice dramatic pause. Meanwhile, brackets give the sense of an aside. If youre feeling particularly creative, you can play with some literary techniques thatll make your writing more visual and memorable. One is alliteration – repeatedly using the same letter, as above in stop-starting and desperate desire. The other is the power of three. No-ones sure quite why, but three does indeed seem to be the magic number. One way you can exploit this is by illustrating with three examples, as (again) with those side effects of riding a bus, or the subheading Make them see it, feel it and believe it. Theres no need to overdo these last two tricks, but they do give your writing a bit more punch and staying power – which is why advertisers use them. And finally One last thing: remember that for your writing to be engaging, you have to be engaged while youre writing it. Going through the motions wont result in anything that sounds fresh, especially if youre still getting used to trying out these techniques. With all that in mind, lets go forth and be engaging – yes, even at work. As well as giving everything we create the best chance at success, we just might make the world of business writing a bit more interesting. And that would indeed be something to prize. Image credit: A and N photography / Shutterstock

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Supply chain management - Essay Example A push system however can meet the requirements of a system which needs large inventory which would be difficult for a pull system to manage. Therefore push systems are good for demand that doesn’t depend on conditions that is, it is ‘independent’ and thus they are dependable sources especially when uncertainty exists in the environment. (Hirano, 2009) Just in time inventory (JIT) is one of the models of inventory and it follows the pull system that can react quickly to demand changes. It is a production strategy which aims to improve business models by increasing their return on investment (ROI) by reducing the time and costs associated with inventory. The process is built around the importance of signals which exist between processes and which will signal the production process when to produce the next part. The signals also called ‘Kanban’ are simply visual and they show shelf space etc. JIT inventory management can lead to improvement in the organ ization of manufacturers and enhances quality, efficiency and investment. The focuses are on the quality, flow of products and the employees. The process is such that depletion in stock will signal personnel to order in new stock and overall inventory reduction is achieved which is the main purpose of this style of management. (Dennis, 2002) This will lead to lower costs of warehousing; however JIT has other elements involved such as the fact that it is not independent of the other proponents of the system. Manufacturers have tried to better this process over the years by forecasting better such as using methods such as trailing. JIT seems to be an appropriate plan for companies...A push system however can meet the requirements of a system which needs large inventory which would be difficult for a pull system to manage. Just in time inventory (JIT) is one of the models of inventory and it follows the pull system that can react quickly to demand changes. Good information system Manufacturing resource planning (MRP) is a push method of inventory management. MRP and JIT compared Since JIT doesn’t allow for pushing of products visibility in JIT is less than in MRP system where forecasting allows for visibility. MRP process also protects each part of the process of operations from being disrupted and therefore it is a more proactive process as compared to JIT approach. The main sacrifice a firm has to make in JIT management system is the inventory and capacity. However in MRP system the stock of extra products allows the system to be continuous and work all the time including when it is not needed. JIT is also a more decentralized approach to operations management which isn’t the case with MRP system or any other system for that matter. A hybrid system Firms were using MRP push model initially and then they started looking towards pull systems like JIT.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE - Essay Example Abstracts are meant to let readers know what to expect in an article they are about to read; this article, according to the author investigates, in form of a case study, a control framework resulting from a strategic lean manufacturing initiative in a natural environment. The author suggests that, a theoretical framework is developed that assists in comprehending accounting practices, organizational structure, and control choices associated with lean manufacturing (Kennedy & Widener 2008). Additionally, the abstract is very clear about numerous bidirectional and intervening relations that the article identifies. The introduction is very informative, extensive and well researched; it makes reference to various studies by different authors. It thus offers a vivid introduction to various concepts of business systems such as total preventive maintenance TPM, JIT, and TQM. It is interesting how the author dedicates time to offer readers with a vivid background on lea accounting coupled with a clear mention of the aims and objectives of the study (Kennedy & Widener 2008). Finally, the introduction outlines how the article would be subdivided from literature review, to a discussion on methodology, case study description, summary and

Monday, November 18, 2019

Fiction compare 2 stories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fiction compare 2 stories - Essay Example In the story The Land of Sad Oranges, the narrator’s character is a round character. While the narrator begins the story as a child, by the end of the story, the narrator’s childhood has departed, never to come back again. The story is about a family that leaves Palestine to Lebanon. When the journey starts, the narrator thinks that â€Å"we were just like anybody who goes to spend the festival season every year in another city† (Kanfani 137). But as they travel, the destruction of the family follows along with its occupation to Lebanon. Eventually, the family makes its way to a refugee camp in a lorry with all its belongings. As the family of the narrator bundles up in a lorry, the land of the family is left behind forever. The defeated Arab armies crush any hope of the family that still lingers. The family notices the harsh reality of permanent exile from Palestine staring in its face. The narrator’s father decides to grab hold of the matters and out of anger, perplexity, and emotional outburst attempts to kill his own children as well as himself which however, does not happen eventually. While the story ends in failure and defeat at this point, the narrator does mention how the whole situation impacted him and took his childhood away from him in these words, â€Å"As I left the house behind, I left my childhood behind too. I realized that our life had ceased to be pleasant, and it was no longer easy for us to live in peace† (Kanfani 141). What follows in the last few lines of the story is a depiction of an altogether change in attitude of the narrator that provides evidence of his lost childhood. The narrator tells how he tried to behave in suitable ways understanding the complexity of the situation that had snatched his childhood from him; the narrator no more asked for food when he was hungry, remained silent while the father shared his difficulties, and simply smiled and obeyed when he was told to go to the mountain and not return till the midday. â€Å"You were huddled there, as far from your childhood as you were from the land of oranges† (Kanfani 141). In the story A Family Supper, the character Wantanabe is a round character. In spite of being a man of honor and principle, Wantanabe could not sustain the grief of having his firm collapse and thus took not just his own life but also the life of his whole family including his wife and two daughters. As a man of principle, Wantanabe should have understood that the collapse of his firm was a natural incident and had nothing to do with his family. As the narrator’s father tells him, â€Å"After the firm’s collapse, Wantanabe killed himself. He didn’t wish to live with disgrace† (Ishiguro). This suggests that for Wantanabe, taking the life of his whole family and committing suicide was a less disgraceful act or was not disgraceful at all as compared to having his firm collapsed. Had Wantanabe been a man of principle , he would never have displayed such cowardice and lack of courage that he did by taking the life of his family and committing suicide. Wantanabe’s act of killing his family and committing suicide makes the audience think that Wantanabe was never a man of principle in the first place. However, the narrator’s father says that he had known and worked with Wantanabe as a partner for seventeen years, which is definitely a

Friday, November 15, 2019

Relationship between energy consumption and economic development

Relationship between energy consumption and economic development In the recent years China has rapidly developed into one of the largest economies in the World. China has shifted from the 108th to the 72nd rank on the World Development Index. The economic growth, industrialization and the urbanization have resulted to an annual average real GDP growth rate of 8 to 9 percent. The real income per capita has increased in this period, with the factor 10. This impressive growth however also implies higher environmental pressures despite new technological improvements of resource utilization being applied. The enormous growth of China results in substantially higher energy consumption. This goes hand in hand with higher CO2 emissions. The primary energy consumption in China has grown at an annual average rate of 6% between 1965 and 2008, with the first measurement of 183 oil equivalent million tonnes in 1965, and the latest measurement of 2003 MTN in 2008 (BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2009). The emission emitted by China in 2007 was 6.466 MTN and 6.897 MTN in 2008, indicating an increase of 6.4%. The global CO2 emission has increased from 31.007 MTN in 2007, to 31.578 MTN in 2008. This represents an increase of 1.6 %. The share of China in the global emission in 2008 according to this information is a stunning 21,8% (BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2009). The projection of the IPCC (2007) is that the CO2 emission from energy consumption between 2000 and 2030 are estimated to increase with 40 to even 110%. The CO2 emissions in China has exceeded the maximum amount stated in the Kyoto Protocol, which is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change focusing on preventing global warming. China has not been able to meet 10 of the 13 critical points in the current five-year plan, with targets for air and water pollution control (The World Bank, State Environmental Protection Administration, P.R. China, 2007). The overall environmental pollution costs in China are estimated to be about 5.8% of the GDP in China. For example it is estimated that in 2003 the acid rain which is mainly caused by fossil fuel emissions, has caused over 44 million dollars (30 billion Yuan  [1]  ) damage to crops, and an estimated 10,3 million dollars (7 billion Yuan) in damage to building materials in China (The World Bank, State Environmental Protection Administration, P. R. China, 2007) It is clear that economic growth contributes to a higher CO2 emission and global warming. Is this economic growth sustainable in the long term due to the impacts on air pollution? Is it worth the growth of China given the limited amount of resources available and the need for environmental conservation? Countries will have to find a balance between their consumption and economic growth. Various studies have analyzed the relationship between economic growth and the emission of CO2. For instance B. Friedl and M. Getzner (2003) found a significant relationship during the period of 1960 and 1999, with a structural break in the seventies due to the oil price shock. J. B. Ang (2007) found a dynamic relationship between pollutant emissions, energy consumption and economic development. They point out that the more energy is used in the economy, the more CO2 emissions are released, which in its turn has a quadratic relationship with the output in the long run. This indicates that output growth is a reactor for CO2 emissions and energy consumption. This relationship between output and the pollution level has been widely documented as the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The EKC hypothesis indicates that the relationship between economic development and the environment is shown as an inverted U-curve, whereas environmental damage first increases with income and over time will stabilize, and eventually declines. China is one of the main driving forces of global warming, with the highest emission value and the highest economic growth rate. Since energy consumption has a direct impact on the level of environmental pollution, China is an interesting country to examine. Amidst the animated debate of global warming and sustainability, the energy consumption will be related as an input factor for economic activity along with the emission of CO2 in China. Other influences which are included are price indices, total gross fixed capital, population and the technological developments. I will make use of the measurements published by the following databases excluding the Chinese Statistical Yearbooks due to incoherent results with these databases; the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, the World Development Indicators database, The Conference Board Total Economy database and the World Intellectual Property Organization database. The outcome of the research could contribute to the debate of the mitigation of global warming and should imply that China has to speed up the technological developments to create or implement energy efficient technologies to reduce the CO2 emissions in line with the targets of the Kyoto Protocol. This implies that policies should be reformulated to stimulate the use of alternative resources and technological developments. The nexus of energy consumption economic development CO2 emission, with price indices, total gross fixed capital, technological development and population. Price indices and fluctuations Investment in Pollution Treatment and RD Technological development Air pollution: CO2 Emission Economic Development: GDP TGFC Consumption Total Energy Consumption: Oil / Gas Coal / Nuclear / Hydro-electricity Households Population Literature review/Background There are two strands of literature relevant in the nexus of energy consumption à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ economic development à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ CO2 emission. The first strand focuses upon the relation between energy consumption and economic development. More energy consumption leads to higher economic development through the enhancement of productivity. The second strand focuses upon the relation between economic growth and CO2 emission. The latter strand represents the interrelation between energy consumption and the increase of CO2, which is well known and obvious. Various studies indicate that more energy use results in more CO2 emission (J.Ang, 2007). Thus any movement of energy use will positively react to the emission level. 2.1 Strand 1 Energy consumption and economic development  [2]   This first strand divides the causality between energy consumption and economic growth in three possibilities. Firstly the causality that runs from energy consumption to economic growth. Secondly the causality that runs from economic growth to energy consumption. Thirdly bidirectional causality which implies there is an effect, or no effect in either direction between energy consumption and economic growth. 2.1.1 Unidirectional from energy consumption to economic growth The traditional neo-classical model based upon economic growth uses the energy inputs as an intermediate. The factor inputs land, labor and capital are used as basic factors, in order to neutralize the function of energy in production. Energy is an intermediate function; however it is the consumption of energy that causes economic growth. Energy remains an important aspect in the determination of income. National economies therefore depend upon the use of energy and will be affected by changes in energy consumption. Therefore the elasticity is expected to be high between energy consumption and economic growth, since it is an important aspect. Jia-Hai Yuan et al (2008) tests the causality between output growth and energy use in China at both aggregated total energy and disaggregated levels as coal, oil and electricity consumption and find that there exists Granger causality between the electricity and oil consumption to GDP. However they do not find Granger causality from coal and the total energy consumption of these three energy inputs to GDP. Soytas and Sari (2007) found the same Granger causality from electricity consumption to GDP in Turkey. Previous research by Soytas and Sari (2003) examining the G-7 countries, indicated an unidirectional relationship running from energy consumption to GDP in Turkey, France, Germany and Japan covering the period 1950-1992. Stern (1993) also found a Granger causality from total energy to GDP, employing a four-variable model with capital, labor, energy consumption and GDP. A.E. Akinlo (2006) results indicate that energy consumption is co-integrated with economic growth within seven out of eleven African countries, using an autoregressive distributed lag bound test (ARDL). The study also implies that there exists a significant long run effect on economic growth in four African countries. Fatai et al. (2004) showed that energy consumption has a significant positive effect on economic growth in Indonesia and India. C. Lee and C. Chang (2007) report a nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and an economic growth in Taiwan for the period 1955-2003, as inverse U-shape. They state from their previous research that in the long run energy unanimously acts as an engine of economic growth, and that energy conservation may harm economic growth. J. Ang (2007) found a unidirectional causality from the increase of energy and the output growth in the short run. The existence of unidirectional causality has some policy implications; it could suggest that a country is dependent upon the inputs of energy to establish economic growth. The restriction of energy may directly lead to lower economic growth or even a restrain and could result in a fall in employment or equivalently an increase in unemployment rate (N. M. Odhiambo 2009, A.E. Akinlo, 2008). It is difficult for governments to implement energy conservation policies as a part of a green future, and face the trade-off between energy consumption and growth. Environmental conservation will constantly be a part of every economic development process. Policies to conserve energy could be quotas, taxes, subsidies or the promotion of efficient use of technology (C. Lee, C. Chang, 2007) 2.1.2 Unidirectional from economic growth to energy consumption On the other hand I expect the increase in GDP will influence the energy consumption in various ways, firstly through an increased energy-intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) in households due to more spendable income. Also the private consumption of fuels in households and private car use seem to have a significant effect on the emission level (C.Lee and C. Chang, 2007). Population can thus be an indicator for the amount of energy consumption, whereas air pollution levels could be directly associated with population. The article of Lee and Chang (2007) discusses that the energy consumption in Taiwan has risen sharply due to rapid economic growth and higher living standards. Secondly increases in income will increase activities as investment, which is an important input factor for production processes. If the economy grows, this will result to an increased demand for energy will increase. Pioneering in this strand is the article of Kraft and Kraft dated in 1978. It is one of the first articles to examine the phenomenon. They found a unidirectional causality running from output to energy consumption for the United States during the period 1947à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1974. Jia-Hai Yuan et al (2008) is consistent with this result and found Granger causality in the short run from GDP to total energy consumption, coal and oil consumption. However there does exist causality from GDP to electricity consumption. Soytas and Sari (2003) found in their panel research a unidirectional relationship from economic growth to energy consumption for Italy (1950-1992) and Korea (1953-1991). Total gross fixed capital can be an indicator for the amount of energy consumption. This form of unidirectional causality from GDP to energy consumption can imply that a country is not solely dependent upon the energy consumption or energy input, leading to economic growth. Therefore policies can be implemented to conserve energy sources with no adverse or small effects on the economic growth (N. M., Odhiambo, 2009, A.E., Akinlo, 2008) 2.1.3 Bidirectional between energy consumption and economic growth The third view implies that there exists a bidirectional relationship within the nexus of energy consumption and economic growth. N. M. Odhiambo (2009) and A.E. Akinlo (2008) found this bidirectional causality. Soytas and Sari (2003) found this relationship for Argentina (1950-1990) within the G-7 countries. A.E. Akinlo (2008) analyzed three African countries in the short and long run show that this relationship holds for developed countries, while developing countries endure economic growth through more energy consumption only in the short run. C. Lee and C. Chang (2007) empirical findings suggest that energy consumption and economic growth are positively interrelated under a certain threshold. They stress the implications for future economic growth to the extent of resource scarcity. The finding of causality in both directions implies that energy conservation policies will have an impact on economic growth. The other bidirectional causality is known as the neutrality hypothesis, which implies that energy conservation policies do not affect economic growth. The insignificant impact in Taiwan beyond the mentioned threshold indicates that conservation policy is effective. The conservation policy could be implemented through energy taxes, new subsidies, quantity restriction and promoting efficient usage of energy such as innovation. However such environmental protection policies will lead to high costs and avoidance of rules. Eventually this will results in control expenditures. 2.2 Economic growth and CO2 emission The more energy consumed the more CO2 emission will follow up to a level of total clean technology. The direct relationship between energy consumption and the amount of CO2 emission is logical and empirically proven in several articles. The relationship between economic growth and CO2 emission is a more interesting one. Well known in the literature is the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Studies show that the EKC describes the relation between income and several local pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and water pollutants. This relationship is an inverted U-curve, whereas environmental damage will first increases with income and over time will stabilize to its maximum. The curve will eventually decline, creating the inverted U-shape. It appears that economic growth can solely lead to environmental degradation (Soytasa Saria 2007). This implies that at low-income levels we might see a positive relation between national income and pollution, and at high levels of income we can trace a negative relation between the two variables (Liu, X. 2005). This non-linear relationship between environmental pollution and income levels can be explained by three factors: scale, composition, and technique effects. The scale effect refers to the increase in pollution along with the size of the economy. The composition effect refers to the change in the production structure and reallocation of resources, from an agriculture based economy to an industry and service based economy. The technique effect refers to the used techniques of production which may reduce the amount of pollutant emissions. (J. Ang, 2007) B. Friedl and M. Getzner (2003) analyzed the CO2 emissions in a small open economy (Austria) and found a cubic relationship between GDP and CO2 emissions in their research for the period of 1960 and 1999, meaning that the relationship has two inflection points, and change direction twice. They concluded that the Austrian emission and GDP are cointegrated and run parallel. J. Ang 2007 shows that there is a quadratic relation between CO2 emissions and output in the long run (parabola), in France for the period of 1960 to 2000. The results suggest that output growth causes CO2 emissions and energy consumption in the long run. A. Jalil, S.F. Mahmud 2009 analyzed the EKC hypothesis for China in the period 1971à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2005 with an ADRL framework. From their analysis there appears to be causality from economic growth to CO2 emissions, and a significant effect of energy consumption on the CO2 level. 2.3 Other factors affecting energy consumption and economic growth Another import factor is the research activity or investments in RD to reduce the amount of emissions. The common believe is that improvement in productivity and research activity will lead to a reduced amount of emission. An example is the Investment in technical upgrades and transformation in China in the electricity sector which increased sufficiently in 1990 and accelerated further since 1996. This should be one of the most important economic impulses driving energy efficiency improvements (L. Wu et al.2006). They also point out that the rising prices of energy since 1993 have provided strong economic incentives for the industry to decouple energy use from economic growth. This has driven the incentive to technically innovate. This refers to an economy that is able to sustain economic growth, without also experiencing a worsening of environmental conditions. However contra dictionary is the case of Taiwan, which has substantial changes in the structure of production in the economic sectors and enormous increases in development. This has led to a rapid increase in energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Cole et al. (2008) show that productivity improvements and research activity will reduce the amount of emission. The article of J.Ang 2009 indicates that there exists a declining trend in CO2 emissions with the increase in research activity in China. From the data covering 1953 to 1999, it becomes clear that more innovation and RD activity will lead to beneficial influences in decreasing CO2 emissions. Policies created to decrease emission levels will lead to more research activity which will contribute directly through improved production techniques. This will decrease emissions and it will indirectly enable China to absorb green technology more efficiently from other countries. It is also likely that more efficient use of energy may require a higher level of economic development. That is, better economic performance may be a catalyst for energy efficiency, which makes energy consumption and economic development jointly determined (J. Ang 2007) This is based on the premises that different countries are in different stages of development. There are different effects on the developing process and impacts on the energy and growth relation. Two countries with similar levels of technology and factor endowments may have significantly different industrial structures as a result of past investment decisions. Their aggregate capital levels may be similar, but differences in the composition of capital may lead to differences in the opportunity cost of reducing emissions. A regression of only emissions on income may lead to a misspecification and bias, without controlling for the industrial structure. Therefore the total gross capital formation is important to include (Liu, X. 2005) Besides innovation and total gross capital formation, reforms of energy pricing systems in China since 1993 led to a dramatic rise in fuel prices and consequently to an economic decreased condition in the electricity generation sector, petroleum refinery sector and coal mining sector. B. Friedl and M. Getzner (2003) directly relate this structural break in energy consumption as a result, to a lower CO2 emission in Austria after the oil price shock. The recent price hikes stresses the importance of energy policies for conservation (R. Mahadeva, 2006). Theoretically if the fuel price increases, it will stimulate energy conservation behavior if the demand is relatively elastic. Practically the effect of rising prices can be seen by the oil price shock from 1973, which did not fail to leave its mark on CO2 emissions. Economic growth in this period slowed down, and due to changes in energy policies, such as rationalizing private consumption of fuels by restricting private car use, CO2 emissions dropped to about 57 million MTNE in 1975.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Art and Literature in MacLachlan’s Arthur For the Very First Time and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad Together :: Compare Contrast Comparison

Art and Literature in MacLachlan’s Arthur For the Very First Time and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad Together When it comes to an artist, the perspective of the environment will be very different from individual to individual. This leads to the difference in technique and style When art and literature are put together the picture adds to the words and shows what the literature is describing, rather than just something to look at. Although Lloyd Bloom’s illustrations of MacLachlan’s, Arthur For the Very First Time and Arnold Lobel’s, Frog and Toad Together can not compare to the famous Leonardo, the art in each is very unique. Bloom gives very sharp, detailed drawings, almost like a photo, where as Lobel gives loose, cartoon like drawings. These two books are very different in terms of reading level, which allows Bloom to create more detailed and real life drawing, where as Lobel can get away with a less life orientating, rounded picture, almost like a cartoon. Bloom’s illustrations stay consistent throughout the book with vibrant, life oriented drawings. The black and white, pencil drawn pictures, create almost an exact replica, like a photo, for an older audience which leaves little to the imagination. In the book there is a picture of two children sitting by a pond. There is so much detail in the picture that you can see underneath the water if you look hard enough, along with both children’s reflection in the water. There is an incredible amount of detail which is put together by small amounts of shaded sections and very fine touches of the pencil. This all brings the realism of the picture in order. Realism shows through when the text is read. This book is fiction but very well could be non fiction. It isn’t a pretend book, there aren‘t people with blue hair or even frogs that talk. The amount of detail in the book’s words go along well with the amount of detail in the pictures. The pictures bring and add to the real life situations of the story, and complement the realism of the words. Lobel’s pictures in comparison, are poor drawings and weak in technique. They lack specific detail , like small markings and create an overall round picture. This book was intended for an audience of grades 1-3, much different from the upper level MacLachlan book. Its use of colors and earth tones are dull.