Poverty and Pollution Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poverty and Pollution - Case Study Example In this case, ethical implications lies in the fact that businesses are using the third world countries for their own financial gain, at the expense of the people and environment of the host third world country. However, ethics dictate that any successful business should work within the existing framework of regulations for the benefit of all parties involved, which includes environment and local people. Furthermore, businesses that cause pollution only cater after their own interests and leave people to suffer the consequences of pollution. Moreover, strict ethical laws and regulations in the third world countries business sector has considerable impact relating to financial gains emanating from the said businesses due to the costs affiliated. This is because a country is not willing to let go of the revenue, hence, native people are left suffering the consequences of environmental exploitation and pollution in the quest for wealth. In addition, some of the mother countries of these businesses polluting the environment tend to be powerful and include handsome packages to the third-world governments, which are in return for unregulated exploitation of resources without limitations and liabilities. In addition, businesses operating in third world countries have a number of grounds to disregard pollution standards. One of the reasons leading to this problem would be weak regulations governing pollution menace in the developing countries. These weak guidelines facilitate businesses to disregard the law because little can be done to penalize them for their unethical acts. Thus, there is little to be lost by the said company as compared to countries with strict environmental pollution laws. Moreover, laws play a crucial role in the response of environmental agencies responsible for tackling these environmental issues. This is because weak laws do not foster law enforcement, thus, low motivation and increased pollution crimes in third world countries (Amnesty Interna tional, 2009). Corruption cannot to be left behind, as it is a critical aspect, this is in terms of regulation; where those charged with responsibility receive bribes from companies to allow pollution blatantly (â€Å"New A.T. Kearney...†, 2000). In addition, the issue of penalties leads to total disregard for standards of pollution control. This is in terms of leniency and harshness while punishing violators of these standards as they set examples to be emulated and followed. In this regard, companies that are leniently penalized have a possibility of repeating the same offence, as the income is much higher than the penalty. Besides, it could be cheaper to pay the penalty than follow the set guidelines. As a result, businesses may opt for the cheapest way out by maximizing their profits at the expense of conserving the environment. Pollution, economic growth and development all have a close relationship with each other since according to common belief, pollution is the price of progress, and that the cost of development is almost directly proportional to the resultant pollution in terms of industrial waste and pollutant material. This is evident in the case of china that doubled its Gross Domestic Product by over five times, and the results are a sharp rise environmental pollution, ecological destruction and increased carbon dioxide emissions (ZhiDong,

Video game technology Essay Example for Free

Video game technology Essay Humanity has a driving need for entertainment. Writers are constantly coming up with new movies, designers and engineers are always on the hunt for the next big idea for roller coasters and theme parks, and programmers are always designing and improving the most widely available entertainment software, video games. The video game industry generates 6 billion dollars a year, and in a field as large as this, there is a great amount of competition. Companies are constantly interested in creating new hardware and software to keep the competitive edge, which is why the technology behind video games has made huge leaps in the past 42 years. Video games started out as an interactive television built by Ralph Baer in 1966. Baer created a game called chase where 2 dots would pay a game of digital â€Å"tag† on a standard television. In 1967, a third dot was added to create a ping-pong type game. A deal was made with the company Magnavox to make the game available for public. Magnavox created and released the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. It was the first video game console; however, home video games reached popularity with the Atari Pong game which was released by Atari after seeing Magnavox’s ping-pong game in a demonstration. This was only the first-generation of video games, and already there was competition over who could get the best product on the market. The second generation of video game consoles is also known as the â€Å"early 8 bit years,† which came in the mid 1970’s to early 1983. This is the time where interchangeable game cartridges were created that actually held programs installed on them. Cartridges from the first generation were only a set of jumpers that played a game that was previously installed on the console. The introduction of these new game cartridges allowed for immense libraries of games to be created. The cartridges made early in the second generation were limited to 8 KB read-only memories (ROM), but the capacity for larger games slowly increased to 32 KB in the â€Å"early 8 bit era. † Even though the cartridge capacity grew, the games were still limited by the random-access memory (RAM) that was inside the console. Some of the consoles that came out in this time period was the Fairchild Channel F, the Atari 2600 and 5200, Mattel Intellivision, and the introduction of Sega with the SG-1000. The end of the second generation of video game consoles was apparent when the industry came to a standstill because of an overstock of games, dozens of choices of consoles for consumers, and competition from personal computers. This standstill was called the North American video game crash of 1983. After the crash, the video game industry recovered in a year. In the true â€Å"8 bit era,† of the third generation of video game consoles, the famous Famicon, or Nintendo Entertainment System, was released. This era is believed to be the first of the modern era of video game consoles. The Famicon dominated this time in the gaming industry, but others such as the Atari 7800, Sega Master System, Supergame VG 3000, and Super Cassette Vision were all closely competing with each other. It was in this generation that, although previous consoles had used 8-bit processors, consoles started labeling themselves by the speed of their processing units to differentiate between the generations of consoles. In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, which was a hand held, portable gaming console that was immensely popular. Also in this generation, the video game genre role playing game, or RPG, was created. This genre was dominated by games such as Super Mario Bros. , Final Fantasy, The Legend Of Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, and Castlevania; many of these games have spun off with sequels and prequels in the future generations of video game consoles to come, creating repeat sales of games just so people can see what happens to their favorite characters next. The fourth generation of video game consoles came with the release of the first 16 bit processor consoles. This era of consoles was dominated by the fierce competition between Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo released its Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega had the Sega Genesis. Franchises of games began to appear on these systems stemming from the success of the franchises of the third generations listed above. Sega released best selling game â€Å"Sonic the Hedgehog† as a cooler version of the Mario Bros, but soon, Sega dropped behind in the fourth generation and began working on their next generation unit. With the rise of 16 bit processor speed came an exponentially increased graphics rate. The graphics in between system generations are far superior to the previously released ones. From 1993 to 2002 was known as the fifth generation of gaming console. It featured 32- and 64-bit processor speed and was most noted for the rise of 3-dimensional games. Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider had 3-d environments that steered the industry standard away from side scrolling games. The ability to move around a 3-dimensional area offered players many possibilities and variants in game play. The consoles that were accepted best into the mainstream North American video game demographic were the Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, and the Sega Saturn. The Atari Jaguar could not compete in the fifth generation of consoles and was quickly beaten by its competition. The Sega Dreamcast, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony Playstation 2, and Nintendo Gamecube are the only viable consoles out during the sixth generation of video game consoles. It was in this generation that the video game industry stopped referring to its consoles by their processor size, since the performance depended on other factors, such as processor speed, the speed of the graphics processor, bandwidth, and memory size. The Playstation 2 and the Dreamcast were the final consoles to market their products as 128-bit to describe their capabilities. With the sixth generation came the hard task of differentiating which system was the most powerful. The Xbox uses a 32-bit CPU with a cache size of 128 kb. It has 64 MB RAM and runs at 733 MHz, making it the fastest of the sixth generation consoles. Many games that were geared to appear cross-platform for the Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube ended up releasing only for Xbox due to system requirement restraints while games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were still released on the three consoles, but their pixel shading, graphics polygons count, and the artificial intelligence of the non-player characters in game had to be reduced dramatically to work on the Playstation 2 and Gamecube. Some would argue that this fact alone makes the Xbox a superior gaming console. The current industry standards in video game consoles are the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo’s Wii. These consoles are the seventh generation of gaming technology. This generation’s consoles each introduced a new type of breakthrough technology. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 came out with High-Definition compatible graphics and audio/video output, and the Wii has focused on unique motion sensing controllers. All of these consoles come standard with wireless controllers. A major advance for the Playstation 3 is the integration of Blu-Ray technology – a Blu-Ray disc is the next generation of high definition movies. The Xbox 360’s best innovation is something that was already established with the original Xbox, and it is Xbox Live. Xbox Live enables the use of multiplayer games with people around the world, and it allows the downloading of new software and demos for new games to be released. It is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the multiplayer online experience. It’s user-interface and ease of use is unmatched in all other consoles. The Wii’s motion sensing controllers are an incredible tool in gaming. It allowed a more interactive experience and submerses the users in its games like never before. In Tiger Woods’ ’09, the player uses the controller exactly like a golf club to hit the virtual â€Å"ball. † It is an advance that even leads to fitness games, something never even considered by the video game industry before. Video game peripherals are the tools that gamers are most familiar with. Even if someone who is dedicated to games does not know that exact processor speed of a Playstation 3, or the Graphic Processor for an Xbox 360, he will intimately know the controller that he has in his hands while he plays. There have been many types of controllers made to suit gamers needs. The â€Å"old-school† controller from the first and second generation of consoles was the joystick. Usually a handle with buttons protruding from a controller base, a joystick allows basic movements and actions with the buttons. In the third generation, consoles were equipped with a â€Å"D-Pad. † This was a cross pointing up, down, left, and right that better suited the side-scrolling games of the time. The Nintendo 64 incorporated a joystick and a D-Pad on the same controller that allowed for better navigation of its 3-dimensional worlds. In the generations that follow, most controllers follow the Nintendo 64’s lead and incorporate even multiple joysticks along with a D-Pad. Other fun peripherals were the popular light guns used in shooting and sports games. I remember spending hours hunting in my living room with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt game. Foot pads were also used to simulate running in track games and dancing in the popular Dance Dance Revolution franchise. Video game technology has come a long way in the 42 years since the first console was released. The technology is sure to become even more awesome as time progresses and consumers demand more bang for their buck. In an industry as competitive as video games, there is no time for companies to become complacent in their technology. Works Cited How does the light gun for a video game work?. 01 April 2000. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Tyson, Jeff.How Video Game Systems Work. 16 October 2000. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Valdes, Robert. How PlayStation 3 Works. 14 June 2005. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Valdes, Robert. How Xbox 360 Works. 29 November 2006. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Tyson, Jeff. How Dreamcast Works. 19 October 2000. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Tyson, Jeff. How N64 Works. 18 October 2000. HowStuffWorks. com. 28 September 2008. Stahl, Ted, ed. Chronology of the History of Video Games. History of Computing: Video Games Golden Years. 26 July 2006. 25 Sept. 2008.

Sarah Weddington: Roe vs. Wade :: Essays Papers

Sarah Weddington: Roe vs. Wade St. Olaf College's theme for Women's History Month is "Women in Politics." The featured guest speaker was Sarah Weddington, the attorney who, in 1973, argued the winning side of Roe vs. Wade before the United States Supreme Court. This decision significantly influenced women's reproductive rights by overturning the Texas interpretation of abortion law and making abortion legal in the United States. The Roe vs. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. It invalidated all state laws limiting women's access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy based on the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights. The Court's decision in this case was that the Ninth Amendment, "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," protected a person's right to privacy. The alias "Jane Roe" was used for Norma McCorvey, on whose behalf the suit was originally filed, alleging that the abortion law in Texas violated her constitutional rights and the rights of other women. The defendant was the district attorney of Dallas County, Texas, Henry B. Wade. Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee were the plaintiff's lawyers. John Tolle, Jay Floyd and Robert Flowers were the defendant's lawyers. Those on the Supreme Court in support of the Roe vs. Wade decision were: Harry Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Chief Justice Warren Burger, William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Lewis Powell and Potter Stewart. Those in the dissent were William Rehnquist and Byron White. Although abortion has been legal for more than 30 years, the Roe vs. Wade decision is currently in jeopardy of being overturned by the Bush administration. Weddington divulged her personal fears about the decision being overturned by the court on any grounds. She stated that the damage will be long lasting and many women will suffer. Currently, there is a big effort by those opposed to abortion to give the fetus rights. Recent Bush administration regulations want to declare that a fetus is a child under the government's State Children's Health Insurance Program. This change would refute one of Weddington's arguments in Roe vs. Wade that the government has never treated the fetus as a person.

Intelligent Minds :: essays research papers

I am a twenty something male. most whom live in this town have no idea that i exist or am aware that i am even here. I have lived here for little less than four years. my name is tanner l. beltran. that is as far as i know of who i am.a label a person gave to me upon birth. a struggle of finding myself, knowing my identity as a person and my place in this life, are completely unkown to me. day to day i seek for this answer, finding it nill. to be quite frank, i have not graduated high school. I attempted going back to finish my ''much needed to survive this candy-land extistence'' education which was quite minimal in gaining for i had only 3 credits needed to obtain a peice of glorified paper that states i completed requirements to become proficient in facing the real world. Without any idea of who you are and what you are supposed to do in life, it may seem coping with this so called 'reality' is harsh.For me it is. struggling for identity and self acceptance from others, facing inner compications that only add to my horror that i may never figure out my own life. to quote Grace Hansen ''Dont be a fraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.'' this is something that i am deathly afraid of; afraid i will i fail the one person who cherishes who i am to her. But in all I feel I am failing my self. And that takes away all my hope to ever succeed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  You see the prominent people never believed in me or had faith in my abilities. At least not the ones that should have. They faltered in early judgement of me at quite an early age. I feel it has been that inflicted inhibition that makes me fear failure more than being alive. that judgement makes finding myself brutally agonizing. In additon to this loss of mistaken identity of who I think I am, finding what I am supposed to do in my existent as a person of this nation falling to all hell, I need a piece of paper that states I meet requisetes to pursue any given career. Why do I need that piece of paper? What is its nominal meaning? What does it represent?

Analysis of Computerisation at Pizza Hut Essay

In the economics of industrial society, the purpose of the computerization of the workplace is to replace labor with machines, thereby reducing the unit cost of production while increasing both productivity and efficiency. Instead of hiring twenty workers to accomplish one task, an employer can simply buy one machine to do the same task faster and more efficiently; less resources are invested while much more output is generated. In general theory, the introduction of technology into the workplace spurs economic growth and prosperity, resulting in the creation of more and better jobs, higher wages and an increased standard of living. However, when looking at specific data and analysis, it becomes apparent that each level of worker is distinctly affected by the computerization of the workplace. Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is one of the flagship brands of Yum! Restaurant Int. which also has subsidiary businesses and famous brands like KFC, Taco Bell, A&W and Long John Silver’s under one brand umbrella. It is the world’s largest pizza chain more than 13,000 restaurants across 97 countries. Pizza Hut increases his operations in last five years. In India, Pizza Hut has 143 restaurants across 34 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Banglore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad. Great taste and quality, variety of pizzas and trademark dining experience have made it possible for the company to for double-digit growth and scale up its presence to its current size. With a 27 per cent market share of the eating-out market and over 70,000 footfalls per day across the country Pizza Hut started its business from India in 1996, and opened its first restaurant in Bangalore. Pizza Hut maintained significant growth and acquires a maximum share of pizza market and sustained growth rate of above 40 per cent per annum. Pizza Hut operates through 95 outlets across 24 cities in India which gave employment nearly 5000 people by the end of 2009. When entering the delivery-segment of the pizza industry, Pizza Hut opted to use a computerized Customer Answering Service that would field all the calls from a particular area and then electronically send orders to the closest delivery-only units. Thus customers would only have to call one number and not have to talk to individual delivery unit managers. Pizza Hut believed that this system would reduce the costs needed for maintaining separate workers who would answer the phone at each unit. However, this system had several problems in its initial installation such as orders being mixed up and other inefficiencies. As a result, Pizza Hut’s reputation was damaged as consumers lost patience and faith in the company; this allowed Domino’s, Pizza Hut’s main competitor to increase its market share.

How to Make Pure Sand (Silicon Dioxide) in a Lab

How to Make Pure Sand (Silicon Dioxide) in a Lab Sand that you find on a beach consists of several minerals and organic matter. If you could separate out the impurities, you would have pure sand, which is silica or silicon dioxide. Here is how to prepare pure sand yourself in the lab. It is an easy project that only requires a few chemicals. Ingredients for Sand sodium silicate (make sodium silicate yourself)sodium bisulfatewater Make Pure Sand Mix together 5 ml sodium silicate solution and 5 ml water.In a separate container, use a glass stirrer to mix 3.5 grams sodium bisulfate into 10 mL of water. Keep stirring until the sodium bisulfate dissolves.Mix the two solutions together. The resulting gel that forms at the bottom of the liquid is orthosilicic acid.Place the orthosilicic acid into a heat-safe glass or porcelain dish and heat it over a burner flame for about 5 minutes. The orthosilicic acid dries to form silicon dioxide, SiO2, which is your pure sand. Sand is non-toxic, but it presents an inhalation hazard since the small particles could become trapped in your lungs if inhaled. Therefore, enjoy your sand, but dont play with it like you might with natural sand.

Exploring the Academic Credibility of Investigative Journalism

Exploring the Academic Credibility of Investigative Journalism Figure out what an investigative journalism is and how it is connected with the academic credibility. Hashtag: #SwissLeaks World of Superficiality Journalism in its original form is a separate world and far removed from academic sphere. The reason is that superficial thought and research are contradictory attributes of a scholarly article that by nature are systematic, in-depth, and well-structured pieces of writing. An academic complaint article is normally coherent, discusses all sides of the issue, makes use of scientifically acquired facts, properly acknowledged its sources, peer-reviewed, written and presented in technical language for informed readers. In contrast, popular journalistic publications such as newspapers, magazines, and others are mostly for the lay audience, thus informal, skimmed, and speculative. They are sometimes sketchy and one-sided, no author, and lack the credibility of scholarly works. However, the form of journalism responsible for #SwissLeaks or expose of secret billion Swiss bank accounts allegedly owned by HSBC clients seems unusual and more academic in nature than traditional journalism. The reporters that divulged secret bank accounts of known personalities (some may be facing tax invasion charges afterward) are practitioners of Investigative Journalism, an academic compliant form of journalism. This is the same form of journalism (best known as â€Å"Watchdog† journalism) responsible for unmasking corruptions, abuse of power, environmental and health scandals, and publishing of well-researched and written news articles in recent years. Academic Intellectual in Politics Academic Credibility of Investigative Journalism The definition of Investigative Journalism varies from author to author but it is commonly about a journalist’s own initiative to look into the significance of the issue, conduct a comprehensive and exhaustive research, make detailed information public, and inspire reform. Creating an outline of Investigative Journalism features found in literature would give us a form of journalistic undertaking that is truth-seeking, objective, systematic, in-depth, facts and evidence oriented, and consistent. Similarly, a careful analysis of academic research requirements will give us an idea that a certain result of a certain research must add value to existing knowledge. This new knowledge must be acquired through scientific methodologies, ethical, analytical, synthesized, and presented in succinct style and appropriate terminology. In other words, academic research is an objective, systematic, in-depth, and original piece of writing. Given that Investigative Journalism reports or articles are objective in its quest for truth, systematically and thoroughly researched, structured and presented with supporting facts and evidence, then they must be compliant to the  academic standard. The problem, however, is the fact that their method of data gathering will not pass academic ethical scrutiny. Certainly, scientific data gathering in academic sphere is never about #SwissLeaks or systematically stealing data from anyone. In fact, an academic research is about consent and confidentiality. It should be reactive to the welfare of data sources. There is no doubt that investigative journalists and academic intellectuals both seek after the truth. In fact, they are both systematic and support their claims with facts. However, they strangely vary in their values and ethical practices. For instance, although generating and promoting new knowledge is critical, the academic sphere gives more weight to the transparency and integrity of the research process. It is rational but passionate and sensitive to partiality, exploitation, and morality of its quest for truth.