Essays on Self-Sufficiency

During the Third Session of the 2010 National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge, Vikram Rao an Executive Director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium discussed strategies that could be applied by the current generation to promote energy self-sufficiency ("Summit Series on the NAE Grand Challenges"). In his opinion, one of the key strategies that modern engineers can apply to achieve this objective is to develop energy efficient machines such as the Electric Car. However, he went further and noted that this could be a temporal solution to the current energy challenges experienced by consumers and developmental stakeholders. Besides, Vikram ...

The concept of the natural state of man is discussed in detail by both Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe in their books Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe respectively. While Swift takes the reader through his opinion of the natural state of man by describing the journey of Gulliver, Defoe does this through an evaluation of the life of Crusoe. However, despite appearing to focus on the same topic, the two hold divergent views on the same. Defoe appears to make a more compelling argument as compared to Swift in Gulliver’s travel because he appears to be more ...

1. The term dystopia refers to an imaginary place where people suffer from all kinds of dehumanization, pain, torture, oppression, and diseases while they have a feeling of unhappiness and unpleasantness regarding themselves being unfairly treated in the overcrowded surroundings. The dystopias do exist in the real world in places like Gaza, where the common man is subjected to prejudice, poverty, intimidation, hunger, hopelessness, depravity, insecurity, and consistent surveillance by the oppressive rulers. The story, Speech Sounds, definitely connects to the state of dystopia where the people are in misery because their ability to communicate has been hampered and ...

Proposal Overview

This is a proposal of a continuous volunteer project involving the collection of data for the Friendship House of Skagit County in Mount Vernon, Washington. The main theories relevant to this project include ethics of care, feminist political, economic understanding, and politics of interconnection. The main goal of this project is to reduce the incidence of substance abuse by analyzing data from individual accounts. The style of engagement will be that of research. The process of validating the economic, political, as well as cultural realities of the homeless in Skagit County will enable the organization to suitably group individuals. ...

Introduction

The modern world is increasingly facing the development and advancement of the social media, which has become an essential part of the contemporary society. Most of the common platforms of social media include gaming sites, video sites such as YouTube, blogs, and Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, and LinkedIn among others. These channels have provided different and convenient ways of communication and hence changing and revaluing the ties that bind people together. These ties involve the emotional interconnection between different individuals in the society regardless the adverse or positive aspect of this interconnection. Through verbal and ...

Since the dawn of industrialization, reducing the poverty levels has been a common challenge across nations. Poverty is the unrelenting duty of trying to survive. It is the regular hustle to make ends meet. Some of the few things that can define poverty involves lack of the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, security and education, which are vital to human life Poverty, is a worldwide concern, which has affected not only developing countries but also industrialized ones. For instance, the United States being one of the prosperous countries in the world has one of the uppermost levels ...

- The intra-industry trade index analysis has been done for many years, the latest being 2008. With regards to overall manufacturing, Japan, Germany and Canada had an index of 53.7, 77.2 and 75.6 respectively. With regards to machinery and equipment, Japan, Germany and Canada had an index of 66.3, 76.2 and 67.5 respectively. With regards to transport equipment, Japan, Germany and Canada had an index of 24.8, 67.1 and 93.4 respectively. For the three industries, Japan achieved prominently low indices when compared to Germany and Canada. By these indicators, the statistics show that Japan was lagging behind in the ...

Introduction

China is the most populous country in the world. It is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The population of this country is also growing at a steady rate. As a result, the demand for food in the country is growing with time. One of the reasons why the demand for food in China grows with time is the steady growth in the economy. As people’s purchasing power in the country increases, their eating habits change thus causing them to demand different varieties of food. Food security is important to a country’s growth and sustainability. Food security ...

Japan is a mountainous region where arable land is scarce and therefore Japan is far from food self-sufficiency, importing 60% of its annual grains consumed (McDonald, 2011). Rice is a national crop in Japan, and the government has put subsidies and support means to encourage its farmers to produce rice in large quantities for its population. Once the earthquake hit Japan and consequently by the tsunami, the country was left with destroyed land and infrastructure. Lands were flooded therefore, agricultural activities couldn’t take place and, even after flooding the land could not be used because of the salt left behind ...

"Mein Kampf" is a Hitler's book in which he in details stated his political program. In Hitlerite Germany "Mein Kampf" was considered as the bible of national socialism, it gained fame even before issue, and many of Germans believed that the nazi leader is capable to realize everything that planned on pages of the book. The racial doctrine of Hitler was the main subject of the book. Germans, he wrote, have to realize superiority of Aryan race and store racial purity. Their obligation is to increase nation population to execute the mission - to reach world supremacy. Despite defeat ...

As the price of oil and its derivatives fluctuate and reserves of easily accessible sweet crude decline, the cost of energy consumption has increased. Conversely, world energy consumption increased over 49% between 1984 and 2004 [1]. Based on calculations of extraction costs and energy needs, it is clear that fossil fuels are an unsustainable source of energy and as a result, there has been increasing interest in finding alternative methods of energy generation and reducing current use. This interest has been exacerbated due to the negative environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. Buildings are an enormous part of overall energy ...

One of the traits that is commonly associated with the writing of Southern storyteller Flannery O’Connor is the use of shocking violence in order to advance her rhetorical arguments. One of the more ironic uses of violence occurs when she chooses to use it for the representation of salvation, frequently through the use of characters who are physically and/or spiritually grotesque in nature. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is one of O’Connor’s most popular stories, and it demonstrates this principle. The Misfit is a murderer who shocks a Pharisaically pious grandmother into authentic spiritual awareness even ...

Narcissism

The trait in question is narcissism. The unit of measure of this trait is Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Narcissism is the quality of one who seeks gratification from vanity; an egotistic person who admires excessively his or her attributes (Holmes, 2001). This is usually derived from arrogance. A person suffering from narcissism is said to have Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It is considered to be a societal ill and is a concept of psychoanalytic theory. The Narcissistic Personality Inventory is a measure that is taken to measure the standards of Narcissism psychological research (American Psychological Association, 1987). The measure is used to measure ...

The growing number of homeless families over past few decades has captured people’s attention . Initially, it was considered to be a problem confined to single men or woman. More recently, we have seen it getting common with single women with children. Typically, a transitional housing is a one or two bedroom apartment complete with kitchen. They are usually in a group in 20 to 40 multi-unit complexes. They differ from other similar programs that “provide temporary shelter, such as emergency assistance and temporary rental assistance (TRA)”. The difference lies in the fact that it integrates services such as social support and ...

Introduction

“We have created a great money making machine and it is now out of control” (Bakan, 2005). Bakan was referring to corporations when he said this in his book. Corporations have had adverse effects on our environment and various other sectors of the social life. Bakan talks of the history of the complications and problems that develop from excess corporate power, defines some of its consequences, and suggests ways of bringing corporations back in line with decency. The corporation is a film by Joel Bakan which expresses corporations in a negative light. The corporation sheds light on the development of a corporation ...

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements in

Abstract Australia is one of the top three countries for refugee resettlements. The Australian Government has successfully established a responsive humanitarian program that aims to assist and protect refugees and facilitate their resettlement and integration in Australian society. Australia aims to help various groups including African refugees. In Australia, African refugees have developed a negative reputation because of their involvement in crime and their inability to gain employment, thus, fueling their dependency on welfare and the Government’s other services. These factors have contributed to African refugees’ social identity in Australia. Since African refugees came from poor developing countries in ...

Faulkner remains one of America’s iconic writers still studied in higher education today for his style of writing engaging the reader in his characters. His characters in “As I Lay Dying” are no different in their challenge to the reader placing their symbolic meaning in the themes Faulkner incorporates in this story of a sequence of tragedies. “As I Lay Dying” exhibits an almost textbook example of a dysfunctional family of poor white Southerners on a farcical journey where the reader becomes familiar with the characters through Faulkner’s use of them several of them as the narrator of this tale. ...

For many years the working class has implored the government to make welfare recipients subject to drug tests. Often thought as abusers of the system, welfare recipients have resisted this idea, insisted that they are not criminals. They are simply people who are down on their luck. However, with the Census Bureau reporting that more people were on welfare than were working full time in the fourth quarter of 2011, it was time for something to be done . States began to pass legislation enforcing that all welfare recipients would be subject to random drug screenings, as well as an ...

Often our enthusiasm and ideals hinder our perception of reality, and can influence our liveliness in the society. The significance of our ideals can either be astonishing or deplorable, and the truth of that ideal one renders, can transform our lives for better or worse. The memoir of Jeannette Walls in The Glass Castle captures both the splendor and regret that surround her past and present life (Lewis 98). In life, we accept the truths that align well with our aspirations as we advance our achievement. Truth has close ties with our aspirations and we cannot favor a convenient lie. ...

More than 30,000 people experience homelessness in Baltimore annually. According to Genberg et al (2013), at least 3,000 people spend their night in streets every day. These statistics are provided by the emergency and transitional shelter services. Considering the large number of homeless people, it becomes apparent that this is a real problem in the area. Homelessness fundamentally results from poverty. With the increasing poverty levels in the area, the problem is likely to persist and the health threats will increase with time. Communicable diseases, hypothermia, foot bite, and frostbite arise due to increased cases of homeless people ...

Essay Question # 1:

Aristotle’s work that displays his beliefs on happiness and how one should live is his Nicomachean Ethics, which is a conclusive work that governs what he considers to be both the “ultimate” good and specific “goods” attainable for man. He believed that things were directed towards specific ends, and that a virtuous entity was one that stayed true to it’s objective. These things, because of their universal nature, have not changed in their essence, but the world of today is certainly much different than the one that Aristotle was interacting with. This essay seeks to explain his belief on ...

No one debates the vast influence that Aristotle has had on Western culture. It seems every discipline, from Science, to art, to literature, bears the mark of his influence. His ideas and his succinct ordering of them have incalculable influences in today’s world. He had rigid ideas regarding human relationships, happiness, virtues, deliberation, justice and friendship. His Nicomachean Ethics is a conclusive work that governs what he considers to be both the “ultimate” good and specific “goods” attainable for man. He believed that things were directed towards specific ends, and that a virtuous entity was one that stayed true to ...

Survey monkey tool was used facilitate responses of the questionnaire instrument. This has its unique data analysis technique. Specific to Monkey Surveys’ retrieval and processing of data are five steps, which ought to be followed distinctly. First it is viewing the survey responses. All responses pertaining to each page are saved. They are then displayed in the analyze section when the navigation button is clicked by respondents. After this mechanism the next survey page shows up. Here three types of data are be scrutinized. They are the response summary; individual responses (where the research has access to soft that ...

The survey targets healthcare workers in hospitals across the nation. They will voluntarily submit to the survey in order to expose their most recent knowledge concerning the nursing shortage. They have been allowed to volunteer at chance as no selected times were chosen for the survey. The respondents targeted could be from any category of the general healthcare community and as noted above will share one more characteristics that are shared and is relative to the nursing community and related by the claim of knowledge concerning the nursing community. In the spirit of the quantitative simple designed research ...

Introduction

Japan is among the countries that experienced vigorous adjustments in agricultural structures in the economic development process and liberalization of the world trade. Paths of adjustment in agriculture that have been taken by Japan are different from other countries that are advanced like North America and Western Europe. This makes them conflict during negotiations of trade and world agricultural policy reforms. The agricultural sector in Japan has become the main talk of other nations concerning its strategy towards trade and liberalization. Many nations want to form partnerships with Japan. Policy makers have not created any sustainable policies towards agricultural ...

Abstract

Democratic Kampuchea was one of the most violent regimes to ever rule. During the course of their rule, they were responsible for the death of more than two million individuals; as a proportion of the nation’s size, this is an incredibly large number. The deaths were the result of a nearly fundamentalist adherence to the philosophies espoused in The Communist Manifesto, and were incredibly damaging to the nation in both the long term and the short term. The years following the second world war were a tumultuous time for the world as a whole. The world knew that to have another ...

China on Oil

Nowadays, the headlines now indicated that there is a rising power in Asia that can rival the United States in terms of political, military, and economic power, this country is China. News organizations see this rising power as the one who would ultimately dominate the world economy and state of affairs in the international arena. However, despite its growing international influence and power, China is still resolving several problems it had acquired from before they opened up its doors to the public. The major problem the Chinese had to face is their current deficiency in oil, a major energy source in ...

Which is better?

The Presidential election is coming up so a lot of important subjects are being discussed. One popular topic is over the type of economic system that is best for the United States. The two most talked about are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum: the Capitalist Self-Sufficiency model and the Social Welfare Net model. Both models seem to have valuable characteristics. For example a social welfare safety net maintains that to help people who have fallen on hard times is a good idea for the economy. When people are given some support during hard times it is easier for ...

Advantages/benefits

a) After Japan’s strenuous and prolonged struggle with depression all the way through the 1990’s, nevertheless, numerous spectators, whether outside or inside Japan have questioned the efficiency of some customary Japanese administrative strategies. Example: Numerous of these methods were attributed with assisting to uplift the Japanese financial system to its existing position as the world’s next largest after the United Sates of America, and thus enabling the Japanese businesses, in particular the manufacturing segment, to be more aggressive than their international equivalent.

b) As a consequence, during the 21st century, the Japanese administrative modus operandi are ever in a state ...