Properties and Functions of Money

Properties and Functions of Money Money is an important feature of virtually every economy. Without money, members of a society must rely on the barter system, or some other exchange program, in order to trade goods and services. Unfortunately, the barter system has an important downside in that it requires a double coincidence of wants. In other words, the two parties engaged in a trade must both want what the other is offering. This feature makes the barter system highly inefficient. For example, a plumber looking to feed his family would have to search out a farmer who needs plumbing work done on his house or farm. If such a farmer were not available, the plumber would have to figure out how to trade his services for something that the farmer wanted so that the farmer would be willing to sell food to the plumber. Luckily, money largely solves this problem. What Is Money? In order to understand much of macroeconomics, its crucial to have a clear definition of what money is. In general, people tend to use the term money as a synonym for wealth (e.g. Warren Buffett has a lot of money), but economists are quick to clarify that the two terms are not, in fact, synonymous. In economics, the term money is used specifically to refer to currency, which is, in most cases, not an individuals only source of wealth or assets. In most economies, this currency is in the form of paper bills and metal coins that the government has created, but technically anything can serve as money as long as it possesses three important properties. The Properties and Functions of Money The item serves as a medium of exchange. In order for an item to be considered money, it must be widely accepted as payment for goods and services. In this way, money creates efficiency because it eliminates uncertainty regarding what is going to be accepted as payment by various businesses.The item serves as a unit of account. In order for an item to be considered money, it must be the unit that prices, bank balances, etc. are reported in. Having a consistent unit of account creates efficiency since it would be pretty confusing to have the price of bread quoted as a number of fish, the price of fish quoted in terms of t-shirts, and so on.The item serves as a store of value. In order for an item to be considered money, it has to (to a reasonable degree) hold its purchasing power over time. This feature of money adds to efficiency because it gives producers and consumers flexibility in the timing of purchases and sales, eliminating the need to immediately trade ones income for goods a nd services. As these properties suggest, money was introduced to societies as a means of making economic transactions simpler and more efficient, and it mostly succeeds in that regard. In some situations, items other than officially designated currency have been used as money in various economies. For example, it used to be somewhat common in countries with unstable governments (and also in prisons) to use cigarettes as money, even though there was no official decree that cigarettes served that function. Instead, they became widely accepted as payment for goods and services and prices began to be quoted in the number of cigarettes rather than in official currency. Because cigarettes have a reasonably long shelf life, they do in fact serve the three functions of money. One important distinction between items that are officially designated as money by a government and items that become money by convention or popular decree is that governments will often pass laws stating what citizens can and cannot do with money. For example, it is illegal in the United States to do anything to money that makes the money unable to be further used as money. In contrast, there are no laws against burning cigarettes, aside from those banning smoking in public places of course.

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work

Why Brainstorming Doesnt Work Brainstorming doesnt work. It leads to ideas that conform to each other, and not to novel new ways of thinking.  The idea of brainstorming in a group seems to make sense, but the end result, the final product, is less than it could have been if group brainstorming could have been avoided. Sounds sacrilegious to say that, doesnt it? Why Do We Brainstorm? You have a blank screen in front of you. Youre pretty  desperate for an idea. Youre not sure about where to  find something to write about. Your project or product is in need of something and youre not sure where to go. It seems that you cant come up with the idea on your own, so you turn to the group and brainstorm. Brainstorming originates from Alex F. Osborn who, in the 1940s, wrote a book sharing the creative secrets he used at his advertising agency, Batten, Barton, Durstine Osborn. He called his book Your Creative Power and it became a runaway success. His idea of   getting a group together and storming the problem with your brain caught on and pretty soon the idea of brainstorming was the standard way for business, education, government, and the military to solve problems. The concept behind Osborns idea is that brainstorming was a method that would free participants from inhibition, self-criticism, and criticism by others so that a specific problem might receive the maximum ideas possible. For years, no one questioned the validity of the concept.  Brainstorming seems like the best way to apply the idea that we are stronger as a group than we are if we are alone. It seems logical to bring in your whole team, start throwing around ideas, and building on them. The best will rise to the top and youll get ideas that one person alone could not have come up with. We assumed that the group, and not the individual, can achieve more success with each persons creativity springboarding off of anothers. We were wrong. Brainstorming is where the ideas are born before reality sets in.In A Brainstorming Group, We Think Alike Strong personalities rule the show. Leadership unconsciously steers ideas towards preferred conclusions, or asks questions that beg a specific kind of answer. Team members fear negative evaluation from those higher up and their input is limited and the ideas they share are only the ones they deem reasonable. Why does group brainstorming so consistently fail despite the protestations of those who swear by it? How could they miss seeing whats happening? 1. We see what we expect to see. The end of a brainstorming session will leave us with exactly what we intended it to: lots of ideas to choose from.  From all appearances, it looks like a success. Clearly, the group can come up with more ideas in total than an individual person can. (Taylor, Berry, Block; Administrative Science Quarterly 1958, PDF) But mere quantity doesnt answer the question: does group participation help or hurt creative thinking? You dont know about all the ideas that were stifled in the process. In fact, if youve ever heard a team member say, weeks or months down the road of a project when something needs changing, I thought of that but didnt want to say anything you can bet your brainstorming session didnt work. A full whiteboard doesnt mean your brainstorming session gave you the best possible results. It might have only given you lots of output. 2. Personalities that dont mix. Any time you get a group of people together, you quickly see who is dominant, who is vocal, who is quiet, who is meek, who is extroverted, who is introverted, who is passive, and who is aggressive. To expect this group to provide creative ideas unfettered and freely is a foolish assumption. Personalities are always at work (and sometimes at war) in a group. Our ideas are a personal thing. We all naturally have a tendency to both want to get along with others, and to not appear foolish in front of others. Asking certain personality types to be willing to temporarily throw these driving forces to the wind is asking too much. Consider the introvert, whose creative energy is derived by not being around other people. Putting him or her in a group with extroverts and expecting a great performance is asking too much. The introverts best ideas often come when people are not around to distract and wear on them. A passive person might prefer to not have conflict, while an aggressive person requires it as fuel for their engine. Who do you think will speak up and who will quietly acquiesce to the popular idea? 3. The rise of the lowest common denominator. Brainstorming curtails creativity unconsciously. We all want to get along. Few people actually like conflict (though some do). A kind of equilibrium is reached, to the detriment of the group. Brainstorming also makes us lazy. When in a group focused on being creative, the idea is that you will feed off of each other, and springboard even further with the help of ideas that you would not have come up with.  The reality is that brainstorming allows for social loafing, a term used in a 2010 Applied Cognitive Psychology study by Nicholas W. Kohn and Steven M. Smith. According to Kohn and Smith, group brainstorming means that the participants compare themselves to the others, leading to social loafing and social matching. Social loafing occurs when individuals give less effort in a group because responsibility is diffused. Social matching is a tendency to conform to peers. According to Latanà ©s (1981) social impact theory, larger groups lead to greater conformity and greater downward performance matching. The larger the group, the more they conform to each other and actually match their input and performance to the lowest common denominator. In other words, group brainstorming participants are less productive than they would be on their own. 4. Idea plagiarism and fixation is rampant. Kohn and Smith continued their exploration of groups and the creation of ideas, explaining that we are unconsciously influenced by the ideas around us. Using Dunckers candle problem as an example, they showed how the ideas of others infect our own ideas in such a way that we cannot even discern when flaws that were present in the original idea are carried over into our own ideas. We create a solution built on the flaws of another. If we are left to come up with ideas without the input of others, our ideas tend to truly be unique and not merely derivative. The moment we are surrounded by the ideas of others, we absorb them as our own. Sometimes the idea of another unconsciously becomes our idea. This ties into fixation, or how, in a group, we become fixated on a solution and though we might generate many ideas, they are all fixated on a relatively narrow set. In other words: you might end up with lots of quantity after a brainstorming session, but did you ever have that feeling that not a single idea even came close? That they were all off in the same way? You had a group of people who absorbed each others ideas, flaws and all, and the solution became a too-narrow one despite the number of ideas that surrounded it. Brainstorming works best on your own. A group weakens the results.Solving The Group Brainstorming Problem Re-injecting anonymity to the procedure will directly reduce several of the barriers that make group brainstorming fail. It removes the fear of being judged by fellow team members and by leaders for possible silly ideas or suggestions. It allows voices to be heard that would otherwise be drowned out by others in a verbal-dominant meeting. These methods dont, however, address the social loafing aspect and the problem that comes with wanting our ideas to fit together and conform to levels perceived as appropriate or acceptable. Brainstorming, One Person At A Time The idea of brainstorming, a no-holds creative attack at a problem, isnt wrong. We cant rely purely on passive luck and gestalt to solve all of our problems. There are times we have to run hard at a problem from any and all directions to find a chip in its armor. Its when we mix this brainstorming with a group that those group dynamics are put into play and the creative power of individuals is actually lessened. Thats where singular brainstorming comes into play.  You can brainstorm on your own, as one person, without a group. The same rules apply regarding the removal of inhibition and self-criticism.  When brainstorming on my own, I use a few basic techniques as I attack a problem: 1. Get The Obvious Out Of The Way There will always be one or two ideas that immediately pop into your head. Just write them down. Get the obvious solutions out of the way so you can move on from them. I find that I free up thinking space once I write down all of the obvious solutions and ideas. Its one way I get past the self-criticism and inhibition problem that brainstorming is meant to avoid.  I tell myself that, if all else fails, I can always come back and revisit those initial sensible solutions.

My Laptop, the Culprit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My Laptop, the Culprit - Essay Example Admitting lack of funds, one discovers, is not a great conversational piece, nor does it leave one with many friends. However, upon acquiring some wealth of my own, hard earned I should add, I decided to replace my comatose computer with a new laptop. This necessitated a trip to the nearest retail store to buy the best laptop I could afford, which in turn resulted in my triumphant return with a brand new shiny, black laptop. The laptop is efficient, silent (a much-appreciated quality after having to endure the noise of the previous computer) and very much in line with current technology. Of course, I dare not mention the model and make of the laptop for fear that one man’s treasure is another’s garbage. Suffice it to say that I hold it very dear to me and it is one of my most prized possessions. I have noticed, however, that this acquisition has resulted in a few changes in my character. Firstly, whereas before I had time for all of my friends and family, now I want to be glued to the screen of my laptop, either playing some online game, or reading some article, or just mindlessly surfing on the internet – working on assignments are kept to a minimum. My old computer barely functioned, so I had limited myself to only working on my assignments on it – how it managed to run Microsoft Office is beyond me, but thank God it did, because otherwise I would have had to resort to going to the public library for even the smallest of assignments and for even the shortest of emails (yes, surprisingly, I could check my email on it too). Now, however, I can run just about any application on my laptop. So, I can be spotted sitting in my room alone, either trying to master some obscure technique to finish some obscure level of some obscure game, or watching a movie, or just surfing around looking for anything I might find interesting.

A close analysis & comparative study on two pieces of Romantic Poetry Essay

A close analysis & comparative study on two pieces of Romantic Poetry - Essay Example of a prosperous and growing England, with an exciting increase in worldly importance, others viewed the bustling city in a much more negative light, in which individuals became lost members of a crowd and social ills became much more apparent. These aspects of the city can be traced through the poetry of William Blake in poems such as â€Å"London† from Songs of Experience and William Wordsworth as it is reflected in book seven of his Prelude. In â€Å"London† for example, Blake describes the way in which the human spirit had been shackled in 1794, the year when the poem had been written. Through careful imagery, Blake expresses an abiding belief in the unchristian nature of the restrictions on freedoms being experienced by the British people. The French Revolution had just occurred and sentiment in Britain had reached an all-time low as expressed in lines such as â€Å"How the chimney-sweepers cry† (9) and â€Å"†¦ the hapless Soldiers sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls† (11-12). These lines reflect the way in which even time-honored occupations such as chimney sweeps and soldiers had fallen into disrespect and despair. Although he is describing physical situations in lines 3-4: â€Å"A mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe†, he makes it clear that he is also discussing the state of the souls of people he meets. The signs of decay and desperation are seen in ever y face encountered as the speaker walks down what is presumed to be an average London street. This is reinforced in the second stanza as the speaker says, â€Å"In every cry of every man, / In every infant’s cry of fear, / In every voice, in every ban, / The mind-forged manacles I hear† (4-8). In this, it is apparent that someone is controlling these people, although it remains unclear if the ‘mind-forged manacles’ are of their own creation or someone else’s. However, because of the inclusion of infants, who cannot possibly be imposing harsh punishments on themselves

Effects of monopolies in the Usa economy Essay Example for Free

Effects of monopolies in the Usa economy Essay The concept of a monopoly is largely misunderstood and the mere mention of the term evokes lots of emotions that make clear judgment almost impossible. The standard economic and social case for or against monopolistic businesses is no longer straightforward. According to Mankiw (2009) a monopoly is defined as a market structure characterized by a single seller of a unique product with no close substitutes[1]. When a business dominates a market, it becomes a monopoly by virtue of its power. A company (or a group of affiliated companies) is considered to have a dominant position in a particular market if it exerts a decisive influence over the general conditions of trade in that market or can restrict access to that market for other businesses. Markets keep changing with the times and so are the conditions in which businesses must operate regardless of whether they have any noticeable market power. [2] Monopolies have contributed significantly in transforming the US economy to be the leading economy worldwide. This is largely due to the benefits arising from legal monopolies created by the Patent and copyrights law. Monopolies are in effect powerful tools of spurring economic growth in the US. How do monopolies arise? Two major conditions contribute to formation of a monopolistic trade environment. A product which has no close substitutes faces no competition thus its producer becomes a monopolist. Exclusive ownership of a key resource may lead to creation of a monopoly. A classical case is exemplified by the control of the computer hardware, market by International Business Machines (IBM) for nearly forty years. Due to its market dominance over the hardware, institutions that intended to initiate a project had to do so with IBM. (Rise in Monopolies, n. d. ) Monopolies also develop where there are barriers to market entry. These barriers are obstacles that make it difficult or impossible for any potential competitors to penetrate a particular market. Such barriers could either be natural or legal constraints that protect a firm from competitors. A natural monopoly arises when technology for producing a product enables one firm to meet the entire market demand at a lower price than two or more firms could. Legal monopolies develop in a market in which competition and entry are restricted by the concentration of ownership of a natural resource or by the granting of a public franchise, government license, patent, or copyright. When Microsoft licensed an operating system from Seattle Computer Company in 1981 their explosion into dominance began. Microsoft’s dominance over the operating systems enabled it to diversify into producing spreadsheets and word processors. These new software were made such that they worked best with its operating system hence tightening Microsoft’s grip of the market. (Mises,1981, p. 86). Certain circumstances do lead to creation of near monopolies or oligopolies. An oligopoly arises when a small number of firms have relatively large market shares. Though each firm is independent, interdependence may arise whereby one firm’s actions influence the profits of the other firms. In addition, when a small number of firms share a market, they can collude to increase their profits by forming a cartel and acting like a monopoly. Default monopolies may arise when there is lack of sufficient knowledge or interest on a particular subject[3]. A firm may end up being a small monopoly by having an upper hand when it comes to accessing knowledge on a particular trade. A case in point is the sole garbage collecting company in Taos. Are monopolies beneficial or detrimental to the US economy? Monopolies have been in existence throughout business history and several corporations have achieved complete dominance over a wide array of industries. The monopolies have been accused of charging exorbitant prices to earn super profits with little regard to consumer welfare . A fundamental question is; Are these business practices ethical? (Haas, 2006) Citizens of The United States value competition in their market system. Competition not only keeps prices low and encourages production of new products to the market place but also fosters innovations that help to bring down the cost of doing business. Contrary to popular belief, monopolies are not illegal in the United States . Indeed a government-created monopoly is exemplified by the patent and copyright law. This is a law that governs intellectual property. A pharmaceutical company that develops an original drug can patent it for several years during which it enjoys exclusive production rights. Such a patent offers the producer monopoly status where the producer can charge higher prices and earn greater profits. On the other hand, such a law is beneficial because it encourages innovation and continuous research within pharmaceutical companies to develop new and more superior products. Moreover only big monopolies with significant market power have the capacity to carry out research and development on their products. This leads to innovation since new knowledge is applied to the production process. The nearly twenty year monopoly enjoyed by Microsoft in manufacturing of its computer software has not only ensured harmony and uniformity in computer software but also facilitated accessibility of computers by the greater population. Consequently, this has lead to the information technology revolution characterized by easier access to information by US citizens and thus the US economy remains to be the world’s superpower. It is through such innovations that new channels of business for example e-commerce have sprung up . Citizens can now buy items and find good deals through iPods and other innovative devices arising from research and development by giant firms. From a different perspective, in the absence of real competition a monopolist may lack an incentive to invest in new ideas or consider consumer welfare. Monopolies may in certain instances offer inferior services or products. Amtrak enjoys a monopoly status in the passenger rail system. It has been criticized severally for failing to develop hybrid high-speed locomotives that save on energy consumption as well as failing to service some of its tracks that remain to be under- par conditions. Donald,D (1997) suggests that monopolization can be advantageous to the consumers by enabling cheaper production due to economies of scale. A monopolist may manage to maintain lower marginal costs due to economies of scale and the advantages of division of labor . Consequently; this translates into higher output at lower prices than would have been possible under competitive conditions. Such economies of scale also tend to guarantee uniform output and harmony in product characteristics. The benefits arising from economies of scale may be eroded due to X inefficiencies[4]. Monopolistic organizations cut on expenses that would have been wrought about by competition and by so doing they deny business opportunities to various support organizations like advertising and public relations firms. This has the net effect of creating unequal wealth distribution since vast wealth ends up in the hands of a few individuals. Another issue to ponder over is what to make of those monopolies that have come into existence simply by being better than all the rest. A case in point is the Wal-Mart stores which has been accused of running small shop-owners out of business in locations where it opened stores due to its retailing efficiency. Sometimes a market dominated by few firms/sellers does not always indicate the absence of competition, it can reflect the success of leading firms in providing better quality products, more efficiently, than their smaller rivals. Some monopolies throttle the creativity of enterprises and are a detriment in certain sectors. A classical example is the United States Postal Service that has continuously offered US citizens poor quality services at the expense of taxpayers. This sector needs to undergo restructuring in order to give market access to potential investors and thus improve on service delivery to the citizens. Inefficient production firms that enjoy monopoly status in essence fail to make optimal use of their scarce resources and in such circumstances, government intervention may be warranted through application of competition policy of market liberalization. A major preposition that makes monopoly undesirable is that monopoly leads to a failure in the market mechanism because the monopoly price is generally higher than both the marginal and average costs. This in turn results in the monopolist offering an exploitative price to the consumer since this price is above the cost of resources used to make the product. Such actions restrict free trade and consequently the consumers’ needs and wants are not properly satisfied because the product is being under-consumed. Some monopolies especially in the pharmaceutical industry have been criticized for monopolizing drugs for certain ailments like cancer and Aids though the patent laws. Such giant pharmaceutical companies have been accused of engaging in profiteering schemes at the detriment of the welfare of the American citizens. The higher average cost of production that may arise if there are inefficiencies in production also means that the firm is not making optimum use of its scarce resources. This may necessitate some form of government intervention for example by market liberalization in order scale down the monopoly dominance. Government created monopolies in sectors that require enormous capital outlays have ensured consumers have access to certain crucial services which would not have been possible were such ventures to be entrust solely to private investors. These state-run monopolies are service providers whose main motivation is not profit but to cater for the welfare of the citizens[5]. Their services are crucial in providing enabling environments for the citizens to explore and achieve their goals in life. Monopolies arising from merges and restructuring can operate more efficiently and thus provide better quality services to the citizens. The mergers eliminate several layers of bureaucracy and create efficient standardized processes. [6]However it is worth noting that some mergers may deprive consumers the benefit of choice. Conclusion Monopolies apparently exist because the quantity demanded in the market is completely satisfied by the monopoly (Peter 2003). The widespread view that the monopolist can fix prices at will is erroneous because the laws determining monopoly prices are the same as those which determine other prices. A monopolist can best serve its interests by separating consumers into classes based on their purchasing power. A company that controls all aspects of a field can ensure harmony and uniformity. Microsoft offers an outstanding example on this front whereby the greatest proportion of computers run on their software thus enhancing compatibility. Monopolies have resulted in great innovations and immense growth in several sectors of the economy while in others they have been detrimental for example through collapse of small enterprises or delivery of poor quality services. Monopolies are both beneficial and detrimental to the economy and a cost benefit analysis needs to be done to ascertain the role played by individual monopolies in any particular market. This demands a precise definition of what actually constitutes a market because in almost every industry, the market is highly segmented into different products. Globalization has made it very difficult to ascertain the real effects of monopoly power in any particular market more so due to the effects of the rapidly increasing competition. With proper regulation, monopolies have not only positively contributed towards economic progress but they also provided a stimulus for liberalization of major market segments. Liberalization in return has opened up many channels of investment and the net effect has been a great expansion in available business opportunities on a global scale. References Donald,D. (1997). Microeconomics: The Analysis of Prices and Markets . New York, Oxford University Press. Haas,W. (2009) Microeconomics : The Effects of Monopolies . Retrieved Nov. 17, 2009, from http://www. associatedcontent. com/article/85453/microeconomics_the_effect_of_monopolies_pg3_pg3. html? cat=3, Mankiw,N. G(2009). Principles of Microeconomics: South Western Cengage Learning Mises,V. L. (1981). Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. Peter,P. (2003)†Bullying the Monopoly Arflington VA: Security Management. .47, 12; Rise of monopolies. Retrieved Nov. 17, 2009, from http://cse. stanford. edu/class/cs201/projects-95-96/corporate-monopolies/development. html [1] This applies largely to pure monopoly where by the monopoly has total control over output and prices within a free and fair market with near perfect competition. [2] A common assumption is that a company is said to dominate a market if it controls over 65% of that market. As a rule of thumb, if a company gains control of 30 % of a market, it poses the risk of acquiring monopoly status but this depends on the size of other competitors in the market. [3] Default monopoly is in reference to a hypothesis advanced by Mankiw in an effort to explain how some non-convectional monopolies come into existence. [4] X inefficiency is a term first coined by Harvey Libenstein. It refers to the production losses incurred by monopolies arising from economies of scale and lack of incentives to be innovative. [5] The services of some of the state run monopolies are crucial in supporting the American citizens carry out their daily duties and thus their output in all spheres of their lives is thought to be enhanced by such ‘enabling environments’ [6] Mergers create more stable organizations that can guarantee continuous output of quality services and for an extended period of time unlike smaller companies that can be under constant threat by negative market threats.

A Tale of Two Heroes Essay -- Novels Enders Game Orsen Scott Card Ess

A Tale of Two Heroes Ender's Game written by Orsen Scott Card and The Matrix the movie by Warner Brothers may not have much in common at least at first glance. There is much that the two charcters Neo and Ender share. In fact one common theme in both their stories is the battle between free will and fate. Both Ender and Neo also share a battle between good and evil. Our heros also face a battle between themselves and their own desires. Neo who is our hero from The Matrix is a young man who is seeking the truth about the matrix, a computer generated system. He encounters Morpheaus who becomes his guide and mentor in finding and then dealing with the truth about the matrix. Neo finds out that the matrix has control of the human race except a select few who have been freed from this "computer generated dream world" that controls them. The reality of mankind being used as battries to generate power for the machines does not come true for Neo until he is freed from the matrix. Through Morpheaus, Neo discovers that he could be the fullfilment of prophecy which promises a savior to free humanity from the matrix and end its reign over all mankind. Ender, on the other hand, is just a child when he is taken away from his family to be trained as a soldier to fight an alien civilization that is known as "buggers." These buggers have invaded Earth twice before and it is feared that they will invade again. It is believed that Ender is the only one who will be able to defeat the buggers. He is taken up into space to be trained at a battle school which teaches students the art of combat in space. Once he passes the tests that are set before him, Ender moves on to combat school where he learns to be a comandor and faces his last test... ...or small they may be. Both of our heros started off not thinking of themselves as heros but found that common ground between fate and free will where what we want to do and what we are meant to do colide. We all, even if we don't want to admit it, end up finding ourselves fighting within our own desires and what we know we must do. If we are evil we will one day have to fight good and if we are good we will one day have to fight evil. As Ender and Neo found out that they were the ones to fight and win the battles that faced their lives we too can see that like Neo and Ender we to are the ones to fight the battles that face our lives. Later on in our heros stories we find Neo was not just the one but one of many ones and like Neo, Ender was just one of many ones. We two are just one of many ones. Enjoy fighiting your battles, pick them wisely, and fight them nobaly.

The Place of Nonhumans in Environmental Issues Essay

1) Do you agree with singer that, morally, animals have an ‘equal consideration of interests’ with humans? Explain the reason for your answer. The suffering and happiness is the main moral principles of equal consideration of interests. Humans and non-humans both have the ability to feel pain and pleasure, so they should be considered equal in regards to these two aspects. However, due to ‘Speciesism’ which is our society’s way of thinking that non humans are inferior and that we should favor the human species over them, is how we morally justify acts like, for example, experimenting of animals rather than on humans (Parenethical.com, 2014). Singer says that no matter if you’re human or non-human, if someone suffers or will suffer, it is important to consider this suffering and not find ways to morally justify them (Parenethical.com, 2014). Equal consideration does not mean treating everyone the same and place equal value on both humans and non-humans lives. It only means considering the interests of both sides and not just giving preference to humans. As mentioned above, if animals interests are considered, and their pain and pleasure are measured against the pain and pleasure of humans, things like factory farming can be considered immoral (Parenethical.com, 2014). Some people also morally justify speciesism because they misinterpret and think that animals feel less pain than humans do. For example, slapping a horse across its back and slapping a baby in the same way. Due to the horse’s thick skin, the horse wouldn’t feel as much pain as the baby would because babies have sensitive skin. However, this is not the same amount of pain between the two, the horse being hit with something harder, for example a stick, might then feel the equal amount of pain as the baby being slapped. So if we claim that it is wrong to inflict that much pain on a baby, we must then agree that it is wrong or immoral to inflict the same amount of pain on a horse (Stafforini, 2014). To conclude, it is important for animals to have equal consideration because of the fact that animals do suffer, so humans and non-humans do have the  same interest in avoiding pain and that there is no non-speciesist way to draw the line between animal interests and human interest (MacKinnon, 1995). 2) Do the economic interests of humans come before the well-being of animals? People see animals as sources of food and clothing. Experimenting on animals is also viewed beneficial to test the safety and effectiveness of drugs, detergents and cosmetics. In other words, animals are known as economic commodities (MacKinnon, 1995). In the case study, Singer talks about how people are willing to allow animals to live and endure in the bad, unsuitable conditions for the duration of their lives just so they can eat meat at low enough prices that they can afford. This is an example of how society would rather not pay extra money on meat for their own economic interest, over the interests of the animals. The other example in the case study is the timber industry, instead of obtaining timber from forests by cutting only certain dead and matured trees, they use clear cutting, which means cutting down everything in a given area which destroys wild animals habitat. Despite the fact that cutting down dead and mature trees will cause little disturbance. Timber companies use clear cutting method due to the fact that it is a lot cheaper than if they gave equal consideration to animals and went with selecting to cut the mature and dead tress instead (Barry, 1979). Other environmental issues are water and air pollution and other effect such as global warming. People and industries change the environment for their own economic interest. However, these changes not only affect the non-humans but also the humans. The case study gives an example of humans discharging cadmium into the bay and eating shellfish from the bay which can make people ill and can potentially be fatal (Barry, 1979). Due to speciesism and other factors, humans cause pollution and global warming which destroy habitats and tend to not give equal consideration of interests to animals because it results in an economic gain for them whether it is a short term gain or long term economic gain. References Barry, V. (1979). Moral issues in business. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co., pp.361-365. MacKinnon, B. (1995). Ethics. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co. Parenethical.com, (2014). Equal Consideration for Animals  « Introduction to Ethics. [online] Available at: http://parenethical.com/phil140sp11/2011/05/08/equal-consideration-for-animals/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2014]. Stafforini, P. (2014). Equality for Animals?, by Peter Singer. [online] Utilitarian.net. Available at: http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1979—-.htm [Accessed 25 Nov. 2014].

Cellular Respiration Study Guide

Cellular Respiration Study Guide 1. What is cellular respiration? Cellular respiration is the process by which cells get their energy from food. It is a pathway where ATP is produced from the working cells. 2. What are the raw materials for cellular respiration? The raw materials are glucose and oxygen. 3. What is the simple reaction for cellular respiration? C6H12O6+6O2=6CO2+6H2O+Energy 4. Why is it not practical for an organism to release all of the energy in glucose at once? There wouldn’t be any energy left to repeat cellular respiration and create more energy. . List and briefly describe the events of the stages of respiration? Glycolysis is where glucose is split into two molecules of 3-carbon sugars. This produces 2ATP, 2 pyruvic acid, and 2 high energy. In The Citric Acid Cycle, Acetyl CoA is created. NAD and FAD are reduced carrying the high energy electrons to the next stage. In the Electron Transport, high energy electrons are passed to oxygen where ATP is then prod uced. 6. What are the three stages of cellular respiration in the correct order? Glycolysis, The Citric Acid Cycle, and Electron Transport. . What is released during cellular respiration? Energy stored in the chemical bonds of glucose. 8. How many molecules of ATP do you get from 1 molecule of glucose in cellular respiration? 28-30 molecules of ATP. 9. What part of cellular respiration occurs in the cytoplasm? Glycolysis 10. What is the net gain of ATP from glycolysis alone? 2 is the net gain of ATP. 11. What is the starting molecule for glycolysis? Glucose 6-carbon sugar 12. What are the two main types of fermentation? Lactic acid fermentation and alcohol fermentation.

Korea essays

Korea essays The Sun Is Setting on the Sunshine Policy Upon his inauguration in February 1998, President Kim Dae Jung initiated a groundbreaking process of engagement with North Korea called the "sunshine policy, h aimed at dispelling mutual distrust and hostility, while promoting peaceful co-existence between the two Koreas. Progress has been shown through tourist development at Mt. Kumgang and increased meetings of divided families, yet the positive aspects of the sunshine policy have recently been clouded by unforeseen actions taken by the Kim Jung Il regime in North Korea. Essentially the policy adopts the liberal institutionalism view that the utilization of institutions plays an important role in creating cooperation among the two nations. However, due to the ever increasing uncertainty of cooperation in the North, it is becoming clear that the sunshine policy is neither sufficient nor productive in ameliorating relations between the two Koreas and that perhaps South Korea should decide to implement a more realist approach i n policy-making which stresses security above all things. On July 27, 1953, the United States, North Korea and China signed an armistice in Panmunjeom, thus ending the Korean War. This settlement called for a temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement, a cease-fire, and a truce in hostilities, to allow for talks and negotiation regarding a real end to hostilities, and to possible reunification. By no means was this a peace treaty and even if it were, it is noted that South Korea refused to sign. Although the Korean War ended in 1953, conflict between the two countries remains to this day, especially in the vicinity of the Demilitarized Zone at the 38th parallel. The sunshine policy is an attempt to improve relations in accordance to the armistice. It is based on three central principles: non-tolerance of any military provocation by North Korea, the official abandonment of the idea of unification by abs...

Calculating Area - A Primer

Calculating Area - A Primer Understanding how to calculate area is important to understand at the early age of 8-10. Calculating area is a pre-algebra skill that should be well understood prior to beginning algebra. Students by grade 4 need to understand the early concepts of calculating the area of a variety of shapes. Formulas for calculating area use letters which are identified below. For example the formula for the area of a circle will look like this: A π  r  2  This formula means that the area is equal to 3.14 times the radius squared. The area of a rectangle would look like this: A lw This formula means that the area of the rectangle is equal to the length times the width. Area of a triangle -    A ( b x h ) / 2.   .( See Image 1). To best understand the area of a triangle,   consider the fact that a triangle forms 1/2 of a rectangle. To determine the area of a rectangle , we use   length times width ( l x w ).   We use the terms base and height for a triangle, but the concept is the same. (See Image 2 ).   Area of Sphere -   ( the surface area )   The formula is 4 Ï€ r 2    For a 3-D object the 3-D area is termed as the volume.Area calculations are used in many sciences and studies and have practical daily uses such as determining the amount of paint required to paint a room. Recognizing the various shapes that are involved is essential to calculating area for complex shapes.  Ã‚   (See images)

Piager's Cognitive Developmental Theory Research Paper

Piager's Cognitive Developmental Theory - Research Paper Example The sensorimotor stage is representative of the early-aged youth, from birth to age two. It is a period where the child begins to recognize basic mobility and hand-eye coordination as well as a variety of foundational mental representations accumulated through vision, touch, and motor conditioning. The preoperational stage is a period where more formal logic is developed, ranging between age two through seven, in which the child maintains rather egocentric behaviors and attitudes. It is in this stage where the youth maintains centric-style thinking, which is placing all of their focus and attention on a singular characteristic rather than thinking abstractly about various alternatives. Centration in this stage will often have a child stating that the volume of liquid in two similar beakers, when poured into a taller and more slender container, remains the same even though there was a transition. Thus, broader logic has not yet been developed. The next stage is the concrete operationa l stage, appropriate for youths between seven and 12 years of age, where conservation is now understood, comprehending concepts of reversibility, the ability to classify objects based on common shapes and sizes, and the youth begins to reject their previous egocentric thought. The final stage is formal operations, occurring between the ages of 12 to late adolescence. This stage involves maintaining an understanding of abstract moral and ethical principles, where the child is able to reasonably determine potential consequences to an action, and where some egocentric behaviors and attitudes re-emerge as a product of identify formation. Having provided a brief summation of the different stages, the one particular stage of development appropriate for more intensive examination is the concrete operational stage, the stage where egocentric behavior begins to diminish and where elementary logic begins to surface. In order to facilitate more effective learning, a child in the concrete opera tional stage of development requires a tactical approach to learning, using hands-on methodologies to gain attention and comprehension. Shaikh (2003) suggests that youths in this stage must have recurrent trial-and-error in experimentation where knowledge findings are repeated with instructor-generated feedback in order to retain learning from experiential lessons. Shaikh (2003) further emphasizes that lectures as a tool for imparting knowledge will be ineffective during this stage of development due to the rationalization processes within the child between seven and twelve. The child in the concrete operational stage gains more curiosity about the world around them as they are able to establish logical patterns and shape distinctions with the shedding of their self-motivated thought patterns. Their curiosity will demand hands-on applications to learn complex concepts such as mathematics, thus students being taught in the classroom will require dice, algebra blocks, spinners, or oth er appropriate experiential tools (Burns & Silbey, 2000). Why is this? Students have not yet developed the verbal capabilities to express their newfound logic and reasoning (e.g. classification and conservation), thus they require more fundamental learning tools to fill this void in self-expression (Santrock, 2008). Thus, to properly

Topics in Cultural Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Topics in Cultural Studies - Essay Example Globally, cultures have faced colonization, which facilitated the confrontation of the non-western and western cultures (Oberg, 2010). This led to the realization that non-western cultures occurred as outposts in the colonial empires developed by Europeans. This loss of centeredness of the Native American culture led to the weakening of their traditions, political and social systems, as well as practices. This means that the European culture had immense impact on the culture of Native Americans. Native Americans occupied the vast American land before their interaction with Europeans. The natives can be considered as the indigenous or original occupants of North America. They comprised of people from distinct American ethnic and tribal groups. Despite their interactions with the Europeans and the subsequent loss of centeredness, some of the tribes and ethnic groupings survived as intact political communities (Schwab, 2010). The first contact of Europeans with Native Americans came aft er the exploration of Christopher Columbus (Oberg, 2010). Thereafter, the 15th century saw an influx of Europeans into the American continent and they brought Africans as their slaves. This led to widespread confrontations, adjustments and conflicts between the two societies. The lives of Native Americans were uncomplicated because they followed traditional practices in society and political set-ups. For instance, they lived as hunters and gatherers within well-set communities. In addition, the societies told their histories on oral traditions. In most of the groupings, women performed sophisticated cultivation of staple foods such as squash, maize and beans (Schwab, 2010). The cultures of the indigenous people were extremely dissimilar from the cultures of agrarian, proto-industrial and Christian cultures. The native cultures were matrilineal meaning that they occupied land for communal use, which included activities such as agriculture and hunting (Oberg, 2010). This differed from European cultures, which followed patriarchal trends. The European society had concepts for developing individual property rights on land. This differed from the rights and approaches of Native Americans on land. These cultural differences between the immigrant Europeans and Native Americans, and the shifting alliances between the nations led to extreme political tensions, social disruption and ethnic violence (Schwab, 2010). The natives did not only suffer a loss of centeredness in social and political activities, but they also contacted the infectious Eurasian disease, which they had not developed or acquired immunity. This epidemic led to immense loss of life for the indigenous population (Oberg, 2010). The cultural conflicts between the Europeans and the natives resulted from their differences in approaches such as religion, social practices, land and political rule. The Europeans wanted to impose a religious system on the natives. This was met with resistance from the natives because they only wanted to commit to their religious system. However, the Europeans relentlessly forced Christianity on the natives. The first European missions to encounter the natives were trappers and fur traders. The missionaries and colonists then followed them. Miner migrants and settlers began arriving later, and they heightened the