Wind Power Essay -- Wind Power Energy Sources Essays

Wind Power Harnessing the natural power of the wind is by no means a new concept. Asides from sailing, wind power has been utilised for many thousands of years, principally for agricultural purposes. Basic windmills are thought to have been used in Persia (now Iran) as early as the 7th century AD. Their ability to make use of otherwise untapped energy sources without the needs and costs of other alternatives, ensured that they remained the machines of preference in several industries throughout both agricultural and industrial revolutions. Whilst their basic concepts have remained true to the basic origins, technological advances have enabled engineers to adapt the mechanics of the mill to enable a more functional and useable source of power. In the 18th C, engineers developed spring sails (a device incorporating shutters onto the sails) to enable the mill to be run at constant speed during variable wind speeds automatically. The development of the fantail in 1745 also ensured the mills ran in the face of the wind and along with airbrakes meant that the mill could run at its most efficient at all times without the risk of doing itself damage in strong winds. Uses developed into water pumping, wood sawing, papermaking, pressing oil seeds and a variety of grinding uses. The use of wind turbines for generating electricity was pioneered in Denmark late in the 1890s. The concept was made a reality by Poul la Cour (1846-1908) who had originally trained as a meteorologist. He built the world's first electricity generating wind turbine in 1891 and although his project was a success, decided the greatest problem lay in storage of the electricity. As a result he used the electricity from his turbines for electrolysis in order to produce hydrogen for the gas lighting in his school.  ¡Ã‚ §One basic drawback of this scheme was the fact that he had to replace the windows of several school buildings numerous times, as the hydrogen exploded due to small amounts of oxygen in the gas (!) ¡Ã‚ ¨ DWTMA. As technological barriers were worked through, wind turbines became increasingly complicated. One of the greatest developments was the use of aerofoils instead of angled blades. Aerofoils have the benefit of using lift to turn the blades in the same manner as an aircraft ¡Ã‚ ¦s wing rises on an air current. This type of blade replaced the older type, which relied upon drag, t... ...9, www.foe.co.uk Energy without end, Michael Flood, Friends of the Earth, London 1991 Green Futures, Magazine of Forum for the Future, Issues 6 1997- issue 11 1998, London Johnston, Bryan, 'Landscape effects leave wind power up in the air,' Planning 1084, 2.9.94. Milne, Roger, 'Renewables feel the draught,' Planning no. 1095, 18.11.94. Microsoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopaedia, www.msn.com Rothe, David, 'Renewable energy and rural development,' Town and Country Planning, March 1993. Review of the impacts of wind farms and other aerial structures upon birds, J Paul Gill, Mike Townsley & Greg P Mudge, Scottish National Heritage Review no.21, Perth UK, 1996 UK Power 99, McMillan- Scott PLC Publications, Cheshire December 1998 Wood, Peter & Wade-Smith, Richard, 'Welsh decision sets the wind farm scene', Planning 939, October  ¡Ã‚ ¥91. Wind Energy Conservation- from theory to practice- Proceedings of the 19th BWEA Conference (16-18 July  ¡Ã‚ ¦97), Edited by Ray Hunter, The British Wind Energy Association, Mechanical Engineering publications Ltd, London 1997 Wind Energy- Power for a sustainable future, British Wind Energy Association, London 1997, www.bwea.com

Influence of Confucianism on China Essay

Confucianism is a system of philosophy and religious practice that sprouted in China around 500 B. C. E, and which has had a tremendous impact on Chinese culture and politics since. It was created by a social philosopher named Kong-Fu-Tzu, who being convinced of his ability to restore order to the world devised a philosophy of morality and social duty. Unlike other political philosophies of the time such as legalism, Confucius placed importance on proper action through a moral code, not a legal code. This moral code was solidified with the threat of intense shame, both in the eyes of the living and in those of your ancestors who watch over your actions. But in codifying his philosophies in such a manner, he also set his own short-sightedness, misogyny and dated thinking into an immutable morality that plagues the Chinese to this day. It is in this way that any positive characteristics of Confucianism give way to the corruption of politicians and the serious injustice of the concept of filial piety as laid down by Confucius’ disciples. And furthermore, it is difficult to address these issues within the scope of Confucianism because they are the ways of â€Å"ancient wisdom† transmitted by Confucius, and are treated as immutably righteous. So, the injustice of Confucianism and the social disparity it promotes plagued China for millennia even to this day in some respects. Indeed, I believe Confucianism has had on overall negative impact on China. Confucianism, like Hinduism with its Code of Manu, has a hierarchical system that separates peoples into castes ordained by heaven. These castes are slightly less specific than in the aforementioned example, but they are still a very real dynamic in Confucian thought. Each person is considered to have duties to certain people or â€Å"filial piety† (Confucius, 45), a subject must serve his h/er ruler, a child must respect h/er parents, a wife must obey her husband. And though these relationships are reciprocal, as a ruler has a duty also to his subject, they are each organized in regard to a superior to h/er inferior. Rulers are seen as having a â€Å"Mandate from Heaven†, and to disobey your ruler is to bring shame upon yourself and your relatives. So not only was there legal repercussion for disobedience, but also the engrained shame of having disobeyed at all, even if you are being wronged or abused. Besides these stringent class divisions, women are treated as intrinsically inferior to men as a whole, making it exceedingly difficult for Chinese women. Male offspring are extremely important to a family as the Chinese divine heredity through the male parent and a grown son can be considered in breach of his filial piety, and thus shame his family, if he does not give birth to a son. As mentioned earlier, a woman must also obey her husband as part of her filial piety. To do otherwise would be to shame herself and her family. Moreover, a woman’s duty to her family demands that she marry whomever her parents see fit, which makes her beholden to both her parents, and to a man whom she did not choose as her spouse. In the Book of Mencius, it describes women as living through three subordinations, to their fathers as a child, to their husbands as an adult, and to their sons in old age (Lin Yu Tang, 743). All in all, Confucianism served to heighten the struggles of women in an already patriarchal society. Having been introduced to these inequalities in Confucian thought, it may come as little surprise that Confucius described a serious mandate of the state over the individual. Those in such castes as were seen fit to rule over others afforded themselves much power, and little can be done to challenge a hierarchy in which defiance means shame in the eyes of all your ancestors. Subjects owe filial piety to their ruler, and as such a ruler must be righteous in his actions, but is considered the clear superior to the ruled. Should a ruler not fulfill his duties properly, the peasants are still controlled by him. So, while the ruler can break his duties to his subjects and still retain the power to control them, the ruled must risk a great deal in breaking their duties to the tyrant. Thus, the concept of filial piety to ones ruler only serves to embed tyrants, and does not provide any real recourse should a ruler break his own supposed filial piety to the ruled. An interesting example of this sort of filial piety to a ruler can be seen in the Chinese â€Å"Book of Songs†, in which this poem appears in the section set aside for â€Å"folk and peasant songs†: â€Å"To be rejoiced in are ye, noble men, The foundations of the State. To be rejoiced in are ye, noble men; — May your years be myriads and without end! † (Nan-Shan-You-Tai, Poem 172). That such a poem might be considered a folk song seems strange as it seeks only to glorify noblemen. Such is the bias engrained in the poor that the noblemen above them were to be â€Å"rejoiced in†. Another of the most important tents of Confucianism is deference to, and respect for your superiors, especially your parents. Filial piety to ones parents is paramount in Chinese families, and there are many stories of children in ancient times that went to absurd measures to please their parents. Some of the known ways that children have been made to bend to their parents will borders on utter child abuse. One story speaks of a child named Min Tzu-chien who let himself nearly freeze to death to appease a cruel stepmother (Brians, para. 4). Another relates the tale of Wu Meng, a boy in the Chin Dynasty who purportedly let his belly be feasted upon by mosquitoes numbering in the hundreds so they would not feed on his parents (Brians, para. 5). A particularly telling tale of this kind is the story of Kuo Chi, who lived during the Han Dynasty, was very poor, and who cared for his mother and three year old son. He could not feed either fully, and his mother often gave a portion of her food to her grandson so he would not hunger. Kuo Chi having seen this, told his wife â€Å"It would be better if we buried our son. We can always get another son, but it is impossible to get another Mother. † Kuo Chi then dug a grave in which to bury his son, but upon completing it he found a pot of gold which read â€Å"Officials cannot take it, people may not steal it† (Brians, para. 6-7). Kuo Chi was rewarded for his willingness to sacrifice the life of his inferior duty (his son) in favor of his greater duty to his mother. While the level of truth in such ancient stories is suspect, they represent the way in which Confucius’ idea of filial piety could be bent to allow for horrible injustice and child abuse. Confucian disciples also instituted a National Testing System for political office. The purpose of which was to insure that rulers were chosen on merit and not on lineage. But though Confucius advised a thorough education regardless of class, it was simply not the case in much of China. Learning was important, but the poor simply could not afford to give their children the full range of education necessary to succeed in the examinations. China became a watered-down sort of Oligarchy where only those wealthy enough to give their children a thorough education could hope to see their children into public office, and disparity between castes increased because of it. Meritocracy can not exist where equality of opportunity does not. All of these things can be considered unjust, unfair and even despicable in some instances, but the notion of changing them is difficult while maintaining Confucianism because like most philosophy rooted in spirituality, to deny the prophet often is seen as denying heaven. The traditional Chinese were severely limited by Confucianism because they believed any deviance from the righteous way of life prescribed by Confucius could lead to great shame and sorrow, to complacency and stagnation. And yet, Confucianism has continued in China even to modern times, though the Communist Government seeks to be rid of it. New troubles have been loosed because of Confucianism including but not limited to â€Å"sex specific infanticide† in which female babies are aborted in favor of male children because the Chinese Government has placed a cap on the number of children a family can have. The strong preference for male children, fed by Confucianism, is directly responsible for this horror. What new problems these outmoded ways of thinking, thousands of years dated, will bring up no one can tell. But as long as the tenets of Confucianism meet transgressors with shame and derision, it will no doubt continue to have a negative impact on China as a whole. Works Cited Confucius and Jennings, William trans. The Confucian Analects. New York: George Routledge and Sons, Limited, 1895. Waley, Arthur trans. Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry. New York: Grove Press, 1996. Yutang, Lin ed. The Wisdom of India and China. New York: Random House, 1942. Brians, Paul. â€Å"Examples of Filial Piety (14th Century CE). † Reading About the World, Volume I. 1998. Washington State University. 23 Mar. 2006, .

Online Shopping Reviewers Are Not All That They Seem

With the recent shift to web based communication, everything, including shopping, has gone online. With online shopping, consumers experience being in the comfort of their own home and they do not have to face bustling crowds. On the contrary, though, online shops allow for customer reviews on their items. The problem that these online stores are facing is that fake users are commenting on items to either boost or lower the ratings. Seventy percent of people trust online reviews (Fake Online Reviews). Online superstores like Amazon.com are popular because of their convenience. Amazon can post items themselves or independent stores can use their website to sell items. Since Amazon sells millions of items online each year, users have†¦show more content†¦If the review sounds more like a press release or a legal document, it probably is not a legitimate one. The main point of this article by Ngo is that reviews that fall between are more reliable. People that really did purc hase and use an item are more likely to talk about the reliability of an item and the overall value of the item Although one or two fake reviews will not affect the overall rating of an item, many of them can have a negative affect. Software developers have created programs to stop these fake reviewers from posting comments online. These programs have been programmed to tell the difference between the language used in a fake review and a legitimate one. Researchers sorted 2400 reviews written online and put them in categories of â€Å"spam, borderline spam, or non spam† (Marks). Researchers at Cornell University have attempted to create software that does the same thing. They found 400 false hotel reviews and 400 truthful ones and entered them in a database. The program’s job was to spot the difference between each review. The program got answered correctly 90 percent of the time. The average person can only spot the difference about 50 percent of the time. Creators of this software made it to work the same as plagiarism software. The creators also found that when a review is false, the review contains more verbs than a real one. The Cornell software developers’ next job is to try the softwareShow MoreRelatedThe End Of Solitude By William Deresiewicz1002 Words   |  5 PagesWriting Assignment # 1 â€Å"The End of Solitude† by William Deresiewicz Summary William Deresiewicz is a contemporary writer, reviewer, and literary critic. He taught at Yale University from 1998 to 2008. This essay, The End of Solitude, that Deresiewicz wrote, explains with the mixture of new technology it is becoming almost unheard of for people to be alone. He also goes on explaining that newer generations have no aspiration to be alone because they are afraid toRead MoreCompany Overview And Situation Analysis Of Tesla s Mission Statement1216 Words   |  5 Pagesconsidering building their own â€Å"giga plant† to start producing their own batteries and becoming their own supplier so that they can have control over the market price and their operating expenses (Putros, 2014). Tesla’s current market price is at $241 and seems to be growing strong as it grew from $181 in March. Tesla’s business portfolio consists of vehicles with a wide range of pricing. They started with the Roadster which was a luxurious sports car which had a high price, low volume strategy. Then theyRead MoreThe First Task Of Either A Writer Or A Critical Book Reviewer1735 Words   |  7 Pagescritical book reviewer is to imagine the audience for whom the work is intended. For us at Interface, that is those interested in the impact of the Internet. Some works, however, like the one under review, defy easy classification, perhaps because they fail to target an appropriate audience or to speak consistently to it. This might be a sign of a weak book, not actually suitable for anybody; too much of its content may miss the mark. Both a reader’s time and resources are, after all, limited. OurRead MoreSaving A Ton Of Money When You Shop Through Amazon2523 Words   |  11 Pagesindustry-leading online retailer employs dozens of ways to bring the savings to their customers, but many of these methods are often overlooked by those who lack either the knowledge of the deals or the time to search for them manually. In order to help you discover your true saving potential, we’ve outlined a few of the most effective yet simple ways to save while shopping with Amazon. 1. Amazon Gold Box Amazon Gold Box is a center of the best deals and bargains on Amazon, all brought convenientlyRead MoreThe Influence of Online Product Recommendations on Consumers Online Choices9028 Words   |  37 PagesRetailing 80 (2004) 159–169 The inï ¬â€šuence of online product recommendations on consumers’ online choices Sylvain Senecal a,âˆâ€" , Jacques Nantel a,1 a HEC Montreal, University of Montreal, 3000 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Que., Canada H3T 2A7 Abstract This study investigates consumers’ usage of online recommendation sources and their inï ¬â€šuence on online product choices. A 3 (websites) Ãâ€" 4 (recommendation sources) Ãâ€" 2 (products) online experiment was conducted with 487 subjectsRead MoreIntroduction : What Are Yelp?2436 Words   |  10 PagesIntroduction: What is Yelp? Yelp is mostly known for their business online reviews. It originally started as an online website and has grown into an application based for user generated reviews of local business and communities. Customers can use yelp for a variety of reasons other than writing reviews such as finding events, business openings, and communicate with other yelpers. â€Å"Yelpers† is a coined name given to users that write reviews and communicate with one another through the website andRead MoreOnline Voting For E Democracy3835 Words   |  16 Pages ONLINE VOTING FOR E-DEMOCRACY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IS IT POSSIBLE? Julius Jillbert Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) Indonesia Mustarum Musaruddin Haluoleo University (UNHALU) Indonesia ABSTRACT Issues such as reliability, security and affordability of voting procedures might be seen as factors that can stimulate enthusiasm upon democracy system among potential voters and increase participation. This paper argue that online voting may play important role on enhancing securityRead MoreAmazon vs Wallmart2716 Words   |  11 PagesAnother one is e-tailer model. It is close to the typical bricks-and-mortar storefront, except that customers only need to connect to the Internet to check their items and place an order. The value scheme of e-tailers is to provide convenient, low-cost shopping 24/7, offering large assortments and consumer choice. Some e-tailers, such as Walmart.com, indicated to as â€Å"bricks-and-clicks,† are divisions of existing physical stores and have the same products. Others, however, exist only in the virtual worldRead MoreAmazon. Case Study4926 Words   |  20 Pagesour customers low prices, convenience, and a wide selection of merc handise.† The vision is still to offer â€Å"Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer-centric company. Consider how these core marketing messages summarising the Amazon online value proposition are communicated both on-site and through offline communications. Of course, achieving customer loyalty and repeat purchases has been key to Amazon’s success. Many dot-coms failed because they succeeded in achieving awareness, butRead MoreBranding in Digital Age4372 Words   |  18 Pagesthe Digital Age by David C. Edelman †¢ You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary Idea in Brief—the core idea 2 Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places Reprint R1012C SPOTLIGHT ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE NEW RULES OF BRANDING Branding in the Digital Age You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places Idea in Brief Consumers today connect with brands in