Final Project 1960 Time Capsule Essay

After receiving a very intriguing call from my colleagues, about a great time capsule find, I made my immediate departure for a little place we call the Red Zone previously known as Colorado. As I arrive I help my colleagues to unearth a time capsule from the period of the 1960s. We carefully opened the capsule that had intrigued us all so much to find five articles inside that told a great story of our past and of the decade beginning in 1960. The following is a summary of my findings within the capsule. The first of the five articles contained within the capsule was The Berlin Wall of 1961, also known as â€Å"The Iron Curtain†. This wall once more than 30 miles of barbed wire was a barrier between the Communist East Germany and the Democratic West Germany, became a series of concrete walls up to fifteen feet high, 96 miles long and guarded by towers armed with guards. After WWII Germany was split into four zones, three controlled by France, Britain, and The United States, and the other one by The Soviet Union; the Berlin Wall was constructed to separate the zone (East Germany) that was controlled by the Soviet Union from the zones (West Germany) controlled by France, Britain and the United States. It was here at the Berlin Wall that John F. Kennedy gave one of his memorable speeches, â€Å"There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to B erlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.† The construction and demolition of the Berlin Wall(1989-90) are important milestones of the Cold War. The second item found in the capsule was the March on Washington of 1963. Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation’s capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage (Ross, 2007). The stated demands of the march were the passage of meaningful civil rights legislation; the elimination of racial segregation in public schools; protection for demonstrators against police brutality; a major public-works program to provide jobs; the passage of a law prohibiting racial discrimination in public and private hiring; a $2 an hour minimum wage; and self-government for the District of Columbia, which had a black majority (Ross,2007). Demanding jobs and freedom from the nation’s capital this march successfully pressured the Kennedy administration to initiate a civil rights bill in Congress. This is also when Martin Luther King gave his â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech. Although it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that the demands of the march were met, it was a major point in the peaceful war for civil and equal rights for all Americans. Without this peaceful demonstration the civil rights movement could have been pushed even further back in its effort for an equal nation. The effects of this event can still be seen today as we are now seen as American rather than white and black or rich or poor. The third item discovered in the capsule was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. On this day President Kennedy accompanied by his wife, John Connelly and his wife Nellie rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, TX. It was during this ride that President Kennedy was shot around 12:30 pm the driver then rushed the President to Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 1:00pm. This horrible travesty shook America for years to come. News of the assassination changed the source of news from then on. Until this point newspapers had been the main source of news, until the assassination which brought on the longest uninterrupted television broadcast to date. The assassination also stuck fear in the African-Americans that the assassination would put a halt to the progress for civil rights. However, the assassination seemed to spur the civil rights movement which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The assassination also changed the way the secret service operates today. Although during those times the President  was freer to move around openly, now secret service agents keep the president more secure and his availability limited. It is also thought that had the president not been assassinated the Vietnam War would have ended and many of our troops would not have died. The assassination opens up the possibility of â€Å"what if?†, and fueled conspiracy theorist for many, many years to come. This showed the weakness of American by its own hand. The fourth item in the capsule was the moon landing in 1969. July 16, 9:32am three astronauts (Neil Armstong, Buzz Aldridge, and Michael Collins) sit waiting for launch permission. By 9:44am they are in Earth orbit, July 20 at 10:56pm Neil Armstrong takes his first step on the moon. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbs down the ladder and proclaims: â€Å"That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.† (htt5). This was proof of great technological advancement and completion of the challenge set forth by President Kennedy over nine years ago. Project Apollo took on a life of its own over the years and left an important legacy to both the nation and the proponents of space exploration. Its success was enormously significant, coming at a time when American society was in crisis (htt6). This event showed the world and Americans everywhere that The United States was still the ultimate power by demonstrating to the world what the United States could achieve. The moon landing changed the way we viewed the Earth as they pointed a small portable camera toward Earth, showing just how small and fragile the planet really is in the scheme of the universe. The samples taken and brought back from the moon landing opened up knew scientific testing and led the way to multiple other moon landings and advancing our knowledge of space itself. The last item in the intriguing capsule was the Woodstock Music Festival of 1969. This was a three day concert at Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the town of Bethel. More than half a million people came together – united in a message of peace, openness and cultural expression – and demonstrated how a generation could be heard (htt7) Woodstock is committed to living by its principles – we believe in universal human rights, ethical business practices, unfettered creative expression, free trade, the loving care of our planet, the power of the individual to make a difference, and the  overwhelming impact of communities to act as agents of peaceful change (htt7). However, the festival involved music (rock ‘n roll), drugs, sex and nudity. This festival came at a time when American had been through hard times. With the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of Martin Luther King the United States was tired and weary. The peaceful concert changed the way music was marketed from then on, now knowing that fans were willing to give up popular amenities to have sight of the musicians they loved. The change on music and pop culture of the time was historic. In 1969, rock critic Ellen Sander appraised the immediate impact of the Festival this way: â€Å"No longer can the magical multicolored phenomenon of pop culture be overlooked or underrated. It’s happening everywhere, but now it has happened in one place at one time so hugely that it was indeed historic †¦. The audience was a much bigger story than the groups. It was major entertainment news that the line-up of talent was of such magnificence and magnitude (thirty-one acts, nineteen of which were colossal) †¦. These were, however, the least significant events of what happened over the Woodstock weekend. What happened was that the largest number of people ever assembled for any event other than a war lived together, intimately and meaningfully and with such natural good cheer that they turned on not only everyone surrounding them but the mass media, and, by extension, millions of others, young and old, particularly many elements hostile to the manifestations and ignorant of the substance of pop culture.† (htt8). This change in pop culture has left an undying footprint on the history of the world with its new found music, art and literary styles. It is clear after examining and researching the incredible articles within the time capsule that the 1960 era was an extreme time of change for the American people. This decade in our history so full of such life changing events not only in the United States but also in other countries that rely on support from the United States. Its story shows our ability to adapt to ever changing situations around us and the resilience of the American people. Whether it is fighting Communism, the loss of a great leader, fighting for our rights, landing on the moon, or expressing or freedom in culture we are a strong nation and when faced with a great challenge we answer that challenge with a great success. Although many have been lost  along the way as a whole we stand one nation, united. References (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tenfactsabout.co.uk/0003berlinwall.htm (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_march_on_washington_for_jobs_and_freedom/ (n.d.). Retrieved from â€Å"Civil Rights March on Washington (History, Facts, Martin Luther King Jr.) | Infoplease.com.† Infoplease. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/19/john-f-kennedy-assassination-racial-equality-jfk (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11_40th.html (n.d.). Retrieved from http://history.nasa.gov/ap11-35ann/legacy.html (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.woodstock.com/ (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.woodstockpreservation.org/SignificanceStatement.htm http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1867.html. (n.d.).

Founding Fathers of Psychology Essay

These four men that we are about to talk about are some of the, if not the most important people in psychology. One developed psychology as a school of thought and published the first book on the subject which opened the door for another to develop his theories. Years after the book came out another thinker was inspired to look into the human mind and this time with a more scientifically critical mind and approach, there was a common reason people had problem, he just was not positive what. This lead two of his students to move on and one focus on the individual versus what the majority has a problem with and made sure that treatment focused on them. The second looked more in depth into what naturally came into our subconscious and how that affected us and our development. These were the non-official founding fathers of psychology. This man never even practiced medicine yet, after graduating from Harvard he went on to become an influential person in psychology (Stone, 2000). In addition to many other things that William James did to help with the field of psychology, especially the psychological aspects of religion he also dabbled in the use of scientific methods to investigate the mostly untouched spiritual and psychic realm. He was also the first one to fight for psychology to be recognized as a science, everyone after him has him to thank for the distinction as a science (Croce, 2010). The way he fought was just a more unorthodox way of going about it, he did not even like to be called psychologist, in fact he preferred the term philosopher (Goodwin, 2008). He eventually developed a position that would become the foundation for the functional psychologists, this was known as pragmatism. This was based on the belief that a person had control over what they do and life changes those experiences. This lead to a book that would change the way people looked at psychology as something to take seriously, the Principles of Psychology became the first text book type publication on this subject which led to people like Sigmund Freud and others to develop their theories as well. Freud is one of the most famous of them all, when anyone thinks of psychology that has not looking in depth into its history will always think of Freud. Freud was not all the way people portray him either if something seemed to be too damaging for his patient it was stopped (Chessick, 2000). Psychoanalysis is hard on everyone on the situation because it digs deep into what makes a person act the way they do. Freud was said to have a unique approach to his patients for his time frame. He realized that when a person learns something new or experiences something new it does indeed change something about that person, he also knew that the past had something do with it and that there were layers of consciousness to a person that has an effect as well. He made them a part of their therapy and listened to what they wanted out of their therapy instead of dictating to them what they should do with themselves (Frank, 2008). He wanted his patients to be able to be free with themselves and learning their own hindrances that may keep them from doing something that they should be doing with themselves. He wanted them to be their own person and not held back by whatever has brought them to him. Freud himself focused more on assigning a general reason for people to behave the way they did which is what influenced his students to branch out. Alfred Adler joined Freud’s psychoanalytic movement in 1902, but he left the group in 1911 because of persistent disagreements with Freudian theory (Overholser, 2010). This approach that Adler created was called the Individualistic approach this approach focuses solely on the patient and what experiences have shaped them over the course of their life. This is one of the most in depth ways to psychoanalyze people, realizing the perceived flaw in Freud’s theory; he took a look at what made the individual unique and how that changed their human experience. This helps improve the one so that eventually that one will go out into society and become responsible for themselves and each other as good members of it. Adler continued to believe that Freud had made a point by looking back at ones childhood for answers but rather than focusing on the sexual root to the problem, he focused on the feelings that came out of a situation (Lafountain, 2009). For example, if one grew up afraid to take charge of situations because someone else always did it for them, they could have trouble later in life trying to be in charge of themselves or other people. After studying with Freud he went on to focus on how society affects an individual and how that individual functions in society. He believed there were three things a person needed to accomplish in life to be a healthy socially minded person. First is the task of finding how to survive, a job, maintaining ones house, the responsible things. Second is cooperating and being civil as well as respectful to society. Third are intimate relationships, having children, friends, a spouse. All three of these were crucial to being a normally functioning person in society (Lafountain, 2010). Basically a person is unique in nearly all aspects of their life and that needs to be taken into account in each and every case from psychology to teaching because not everyone is going to fit together well. Carl Jung, as with Adler was inspired and influenced by Freud in the early years of his career and as with that came the eventual disagreement and him going his separate way. He redefined some of terms that we are more familiar with today. He gave us the terms; introvert, extrovert, conscious, unconscious, collective unconscious, persona, archetype, and more importantly psyche. These were terms to simplify and classify different processes going on in the brain at any given moment, one of the other more important and less verifiable is the theory of collective unconsciousness, this is the belief that collectively humans have a psychological knowledge that they can draw on that is inherent in our genetic make-up (Carter, 2011). This was closely followed by the archetypes which without collective unconscious as a theory would not be feasible, the archetypes are what those thoughts are made up of in the collective unconscious, something like innate nature that says we are inherently supposed to fear things that would do us harm. Studying this brings out what is instinctual in humans versus what is something that they are aware of doing, much like Freud’s subconscious thought theory. Both agreed that there are things that are in humans that are unconscious and just happen and those needed to be studied and understood as well (Carter, 2010). Jungian followers believed that like Freud dreams had meaning but in Jung’s school this allowed the person analyzing the dreams to free associate the meaning based off of their own knowledge of mythology and life versus what would be from the person who is being analyzed own life. The thought was that collective unconscious would make the analyst come to the correct conclusion based on unconscious thoughts going back and forth between the two. These four individuals shaped psychology as what it is today, they both indirectly and directly influenced each other even when some of them never met and history has diminished their accomplishments. James started it all with the mind of a philosopher who enjoyed the concreteness of what science proved but also the mystery of what it left open. Freud was a philosopher who thought more as a scientist and therefore opened the idea that the brain has hidden information in it that needed to be discovered to learn what makes a person themselves. This led Jung and Adler to take his ideals and expand on them where they agreed and where they disagreed. Without them psychology would not be where it is today and you can see little bits of what they contributed throughout its history.

Introduction, review of accounting process and financial statement Essay

Part 1 General acceptable accounting principle General accounting principles are set of rules generated by accounting board to guide accountant in preparation and reporting of financial statements. General acceptable accounting principles are accounting guidelines (GAAP) used in United States and are issued by financial accounting standard board (FASB). Other countries uses the guideline issued by international accounting standard board (IASB) supplemented by their own local laws. GAAP guide selection of events to be accounted for, the measurement of these events, and the mean of summarizing and communicating them to interested parties. In recording transactions GAAP make use of the following principles a) historical cost principle b) revenue recognition c) marching principle d) full disclosure GAAP facilitate comparability of financial statement for various firms. Information that has been measured and reported in a similar manner for different enterprise is considered comparable. Comparability enables users to identify the real similarities and differences in economic phenomenon. Comparability is achieved when companies use similar accounting procedures (e.g. use of same inventory method, depreciation) to account for similar economic circumstance (Porwal, 2008). Double entry accounting This is the method of recording accounting transaction where every debit entry must be accompanied by a credit entry and vice versa. If this method of accounting is not enforced then the basic accounting equation i.e. ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITY will not balance. Therefore double entry accounting is used to ensure that financial record are complete and thus ensures that final statements give a true and fair view of financial performance at a given date otherwise if an accounting transaction is recorded on one side i.e. a debit or credit the balance sheet will not balance which indicate an error in preparation of financial statement (Fridson & Alvarez, 2002). Historical cost Historical cost is the original cost incurred in acquisition of assets. All assets and liability are recorded in financial statement under historical cost principle.   Under this principle the exchange price established or cost incurred at the time a transaction occurs is the basis for initially recording assets and liability. Cost is usually the best estimates of an asset or liability i.e. cost and fair value of an asset are equal at acquisition date. Historical cost principle ensures that there is consistency in recording asset and liability where assets are recorded at historical cost and subsequent loose of value is shown as depreciation and adjusted from historical cost to show the book value of an asset at a given date. Accrual basis vs. cash basis accounting Measurement of revenue can either be through accrual method or cash accounting basis. The two accounting method consists of rules that determines how and when expenses and revenue are reported. With accrual basis of accounting, revenue is recorded in the period in which it is earned and not necessarily when cash is received while expenses are recorded when they have been incurred. This method of accounting is used by all publicly traded company and large businesses. With cash basis of accounting revenue is recognized when cash is received while expenses are recorded when cash is paid (Fridson & Alvarez, 2002). The major difference between the two methods is that 1). In using the cash basis of accounting there are no any payables or receivable recorded in the balance sheet while in using the accrual basis both receivables and payables are recognized in the balance sheet. While reporting revenue using accrual basis both collected and uncollected revenue are recorded while for cash basis only the cash amount collected from sales and other activities are recorded. For instance if a customers pay $ 100,000 for goods which he has not yet received by the end of accounting period, using the cash basis this will be shown as revenue in the income statement but while using the accrual basis $100,000 is described as deferred revenue and   will appear in balance sheet as current liability. On the other hand when the firm deliver goods or offers a service but such amount remain outstanding at the end of the period using cash basis such a transaction will not be recorded but while using the accrual basis such amount will be described as accrued  revenue and will be recognized as revenue in the income statement and recorded in balance sheet as current asset (Siegel, 2007). 2) In a cash basis report, only the cash paid to vendors are shown as expenses while in accrual reports both paid and unpaid amount are included as expenses. For instance if a company pay rent amounting to $120,000 for 12 month but by the end of accounting period only rent for six month have been utilized using the accrual method $60,000 will be recorded as rent expense in the income statement while the remaining $ 60,000 are described as prepaid expense and are recorded as current asset in the balance sheet. For cash basis the whole amount of $120,000 will be recorded as rent expense during the current period. In preparation of financial statement the accrual basis of accounting is used where revenue is recorded in the accounting period it is earned irrespective of whether cash is received and associated cost used in generation of this revenue are also recorded in the same period. This is used in order to show the correct profit generated by an enterprise during a certain period. Current assets and liability vs. non-current items Assets include anything of value that is owned or due to the business. Current asset are those that mature in less than one year e.g. inventory, debtors, prepayment and note receivables. Liabilities represent a company’s obligation to creditors. Obligations that have to be paid within one year are called current liabilities. In preparation of financial statement asset are recorded as either current or non-current while liabilities are dividend  into current and non-current liability and companies have to adhere to this rule of financial reporting. Part 2 Bp group BP group present it final statement in term of income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. All the statement are presented in vertical format and each item is shown together with the corresponding item in the previous year. The income statement shows the income generated and division of this profit to various stakeholders i.e. among the total profit generated in year 2008 which amounted to $ 35,239 million the providers of finance received $1,547 million, government received $12,617 million and the shareholders received $ 21,666. The group balance sheet is dividend into five categories namely current assets, non-current assets, current liabilities, non-current liabilities and equity. The cash flow statement is dividend into three category i.e. the operating activities the investing activities and the financing activities. It financial statement are prepare in accordance with applicable UK law and international financial reporting standard. Quicksilver Inc The company also presents it final account in term of income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. The income statement show the profit generated and distribution to various stakeholders i.e. shareholders, government and minority interest. For each item in year 2008 the corresponding item in year 2007 and 2006 is also shown. The balance sheet is also presented in a vertical format where items are categorized into non-current assets, current assets, current liability, non-current liability and equity.  The cash flow statement is dividend in to operating, investing and financing activities. It financial statement has been prepared in accordance with the general acceptable accounting principles. RTL group It general presentation of financial statement is like in above two companies with the balance sheet dividend in to current asset and liabilities vs. non-current item and equity. The balance sheet and income statement are prepared in vertical format and show corresponding figures of previous year. Cash from operating activities is the best measure of company performance since it indicates whether or not the company will be able to meet it financing and investing need. Even if the company may have generated sufficient profit it may be in financial difficulty and may even be declared bankrupt for failure to meet obligation of creditor. Higher profit may be as a result of a change in accounting policy and not improvement in performance. More detail relating to each companies associate and subsidiaries can be collected from the filing they make in the respective country in which they are incorporated and their final report. Predicting company’s future trend Quick silver The company net income increased by 19% in 2007 compared to 2006. In 2008 the net income increased by 11% and in the year 2009 income is expected to grow by between  5%-8%. The company management also expect a hard time ahead due to current financial crisis which has led to a decline in household income and lower demand. RTL group In year 2008 revenue grew by 0.01% compared to and in year 2009 revenue are expected to decline by 2-5%. The company management and directors expect a drop in revenue in key market due to global economic crisis which has heightened the intensity of competition. Bp group The net revenue in year 2007 grew by 7% compared to 2006. In 2008 income grew by 27%. In 2009 revenue is expected to grow between 30-35%. Despite the harsh economic condition the management expects to increase it revenue earnings through higher fuel price.

The Future of CADCAM Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Future of CADCAM Assignment - Essay Example It was in the 1950's that the Numerically-Controlled machines were based upon the technology of paper tapes which had proper spaced holes punched into the papers. it is similar to the paper roll which makes piano works having only an inch width which is used to feed the numbers into controller machines. These are wired to join the motors positioning work over the machine tools. These controllers are electro mechanical that allows easy incorporation of the digital technologies in their original form. During the period of late 1960's these Numerically-Controlled machining centers were very easily available for the commercial incorporation of a variety of machining processes, and also enabling the automatic tool changing process. So these tools were capable of performing any work on the many faces of any kind of work further enabling the movement of the work piece to the specified positions which were previously programmed. This programming was done making use of a variety of automatic tools. Thus making it possible to do the same piece of work over and over, automatically with perfection and very little human input. The NC was immediately automated giving a newer level of manufacturing. The incorporation of feedback loops was also done. The development of APT was a breakthrough in the success of the NC technology which is a universal NC programming language. The Automatically Programmed Tools developed in1962, enables the programmers to develop the postprocessors, tailored to each type of NC tool. This helped in the output sharing between different units having different manufacturing capabilities. CAD and CAM Together now: CAD basically uses the software known as TTUA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAD/CAM). It assists engineers, architects, designers in their activities. This geometrical tool in the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) also involves a special hardware. These tools are used and incorporated in almost every sector like manufacturing, designing, planning etc using the tools CIM, CAPP, FMS, and JIT etc. The development of Computer-aided design had its effect on the NC technology due to the differences in the formats of various files which were used initially by the drawing and manufacturing programs. " in the CAD world, we take a pencil out of the hand of the operator and place it into the hand of the computer" (Jan Bone,1994). With the newer and variety of CAD applications like Solid Works and Auto Cad and CAM applications like Master Cam, both designing and manufacturing sectors now use these variety of CAD/CAM software. Most of the CAD/CAM software are used more by architects these days, along with product designing and manufacturing. Future trends in CAD/CAM: Though the current CAD/CAM applications are much user friendly and satisfactory, and people do not think there is nay need for advances in the same, but the coming decade will have many advances in techniques and implementation of CAD/CAM, for the creation and manipulation of the work piece geometry. The standards for its applications will give more flexibility to its users in the interfaces, data transfer, computer designing and architecture etc. thus it can be said that these future developments will have a solid impact on both, the numerical control system and the manufacturing applications. By anticipating the basic questions like what is the direction of NC and CAD/CAM What are the

Merchants PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Merchants PLC - Essay Example The capacity of raising funds depends on the resources from which funds might be accessible. The company forms of partnership and sole proprietor have limited chances for raising funds. Banks will generally only desire to finance businesses where there is a revenue stream or short risk assets i.e., assets which can safeguard loans. The company can raise money by several ways by increasing short- term and long-term capital; they can also include -issue of shares and debentures, loans from financial institutions, loans from banks, public deposits. â€Å"Capital may also be raised by development taxes levied on either developers or households, or both. For example, a value-capture tax may be levied on the estimated increase in land value due to the development of related infrastructure.† http://www.appliedeconomics.com.au/pubs/papers/pa03_trans.htm The main benefits of the sources of finance for the company includes decreasing the reliance on outside sources of finance; it raises the credit value of the company, allowing the company to withstand complicated circumstances and allowing the company to accept a constant dividend policy. â€Å"Merchants has for many years focused on a simple proposition, to deliver a high and rising income stream, together with long term capital growth through investing predominantly in large UK companies.† http://www.alliancetrustsavings.co.uk/resource/taking-stock/june2012/merchants-trust-plc.htm

To what extent did diplomacy effect the rise of the modern state from Essay

To what extent did diplomacy effect the rise of the modern state from 1648-1815 - Essay Example 1997). This requires a less teleological view of the emergence of the modern state by placing far more emphasis on the interrogation of the ostensible and hidden motivations of the diplomats of each era, who after all were the catalysts for change in the political arena. The ‘Westphalian’ state arose from the chaos of more than hundred years of European power struggle and it was brought about by the fiscal and military exhaustion of the participants. The need to put an end to the human, financial and environmental devastation brought the parties together in a five-year long diplomatic undertaking, with the goal of establishing collective security and a balance of power. Agreement was finally reached in 1648 on a new configuration of Europe that curtailed the power of the Holy Roman Empire and increased the number of member states substantially to allow sufficient numbers of states to form alliances that would constitute a ‘balance of power’ to avoid future c onflicts. The Peace of Westphalia also empowered diplomacy to be the first and foremost means of maintaining security. Also enshrined in the ‘Westphalian peace treaties’ was the ideal that ‘state interests’ prevailed beyond all other reasons, based on the hope that princes would not let themselves be ruled by ‘disorderly appetites’ (Nathan J., 2002). It was thus firmly established that from then on, secular state interests were to be of primary importance and they were to be guarded by loyal, professional servants of this state, who were skilled in states craft and diplomacy. The underlying aim was to achieve that no one state could ever again gain supremacy. Many of the theories underlying the negotiations of Westphalia, had their origin in the politics of the Italian city-states but it was in Munster and Osnabruck that they were consolidated and shaped into rules and regulations, which from then on occupied politicians and theoreticians alike (Cruz, L. 1997). The value the Italians had placed on diplomacy had depended on ‘balance of power’, counteracting the dominance of Venice with the alliance of the remaining four states, under the watchful eyes of Lorenzo de Medici and Ferdinand of Naples, whose vigilance acted as ‘preventative diplomacy’ (Rucellai and Guicciardini in Sheehan, M., 2002). There were, however flaws in the system set up in 1648 that were not present in the Venetian, particularly in relation to diplomacy and the concept of ‘balance of power’, which in the much larger European theatre lacked clear definition and prominence. Most importantly, however, there was no diplomatic mechanism in place during peace times and no watchful group of sovereigns as there were in Venice (Treasure, M., 2003). This effectively meant that every act of aggression could directly lead to war, in the absence of a diplomatic charter that would prescribe arbitration and despite the fact that ‘recourse to arms was outlawed’, (Nathan, J., 2002) The treaties of Westphalia called for ‘great conferences’ in the case of impending conflict (Grotius cited in Nathan, J., 2002), but the ‘collective response’ was to prove problematic in the coming decades, as few states

Pros and Cons of Private Schooling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pros and Cons of Private Schooling - Essay Example This paper analyzes the pros and cons of private schooling as explained in four articles, links to which are given in the references section. Private schools have conventionally played a very important role in promoting and strengthening UK’s economy despite being lesser in number as compared to the public schools. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that individuals educated in private schools gain a lot of economic advantages in their professional career. They get better jobs and are employed at higher salaries than the graduates of public schools, though there is little know-how about the way the social and economic influence of the private schooling has surfaced. In their paper, Green et al (2010) have provided empirical evidence for the degree of change experienced in the education differentials and school wages over the period of time. The reasons why pupils educated in private schools have more advantages than those educated in public schools include but are not limit ed to substantive increase in the number of resources, increased emphasis of the private schools upon the academic achievement of students through internal transformation, and increased fee amounts that parents do not have problem with paying given the widespread knowledge economy and increase in the number of women participating in the labor force. ... (Green et al, 2010). The authors conclude that half of the increase in salary differential between the graduates of private and public schools is because of the better qualifications of the former than the latter. Homeschool Academy (2007) discusses a number of advantages of the private schools. The academic performance of private school students is much better than that of the public school students. One of the several reasons behind this is increased parental involvement in the child education in private schools. Private schools are characterized by freedom from the constraints imposed by the government over public schools. Private schools are free to select core academic subjects for teaching. They do not have to bear the pressure of political advocacy groups while designing the curriculum for their students. Because of their increased freedom, private schools are better able to enforce discipline within the classroom as well as in the campus. They are greatly facilitated by the p arents of the students in implementing discipline in the schools because parents are as concerned about making the private school education a success as the school administrators and owners themselves are. However, private schools still have to overcome the challenges of age segregation in classrooms and the inflexibility of teachers with respect to their speed of teaching. NCSPE (n.d.) explains why private schools are so controversial. Private schools provide the families with a way to retreat from their responsibilities towards the society as citizens and also promote inequality. The fundamental cause of injustice is the use of public dollars by private schools that are potentially