Author: chris

The United States has been rated as the most populous country after China and India and is estimated to have a population exceeding 265 million. Further, statistics indicate that the country’s population is growing at 2.5 million people per year; hence the United States is one of the world’s fastest-growing industrialized nations. For instance, in 1994, there were approximately 3.95 million births versus 2.29 million deaths in the United States, resulting in a net natural increase of nearly 1.7 million. Net immigration therefore stood at approximately 816,000 people. By 2050, the country’s population is projected to increase by approximately 130 million people whom critics place as the equivalent of adding another four states the size of California. However, for such an industrialized country, it experiences one of the largest cases of unintended teenage pregnancies indicated by 60 percent of pregnancies and 40 percent of births. The world’s population is currently approximated to be growing at 74 million people every year and projections put forward by the United States indicate that the world’s population shall hit the 9.0 billion mark by the year 2050 assuming the projected decline in fertility rate of 2.65 children per woman shall decline to 2.05. This decline is projected under a comparative analysis since the 1950’s was double this rate at 5 children per woman. The less developed countries such as Uganda, Nigeria and Pakistan are expected to account for the largest quota of 5.3 billion with a world’s population of 7.8 billion. The United States however is an exception to this since it’s expected to grow by 44% from a population of 305 million in the year 2008 to 439 million in 2050. Global life expectancy has also increased from 46 years in 1955 to 65 years in 2000-2005 and is projected to rise to 75 years in 2045-2050. Population increase in more developed countries will further be boosted by high immigration rates whereby the net immigration rate is projected at 98 million. Further, deaths are projected to exceed births in developed nations by 73 million by 2050; international immigration shall play a key factor in the net population increase. By 2100, the Unite States population is expected to be at 3,145,049,297. This essay therefore endeavors to show that overpopulation is a major problem in the United States and further discusses its social, economic, political and environmental impact.
There are various merits and challenges of overpopulation. The resultant advantages are however few and it has largely been detrimental to various aspects such as the environment. The large population has largely driven consumption and demand for various goods and services higher. This therefore has created a vibrant market which has boosted the country’s economy. Already, demand for beef and grain has reached staggering levels. In fact, the per capita grain consumption in the United States is four times higher than that in less developed nations.
Rapid population increase has prompted the growth of megacities and rapid urbanization. By 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. 47 percent of the world’s population had already migrated into cities by the twentieth century. In 1950, there were already 83 cities with a combined population exceeding 1 million. In 2007, this had risen to 468 agglomerations. In 2000, there were 18 megacities and conurbations such as New York City with populations exceeding 100 million. Greater Tokyo already has a population of 35 million which exceeds Canada’s entire population. By the year 2025, Asia alone shall have over 10 hyper cities each with a population exceeding 20million such as Jakarta with 24.9 million. Currently, cities the world over hold 3.2 billion of the population which is expected to rise to 5 billion by the year 2030 whereby 3 out of every 5 people are expected to live in cities. In the next 25 years, most melodramatic changes are expected to take place in developing countries. This however may not be positive in its totality since cities encourage the rise of shanty towns which are breeding sites for drug addiction, crime, alcoholism coupled with problems such as high unemployment rates, poverty resulting in high child and infant mortality rates and diseases due to poor sanitation, malnutrition and poor basic health care. Currently, one billion people, which is one-sixth of the world’s population and a representative of one-third of the overall urban population, lives in shanty towns and is expected to rise as urbanization and the consequent industrialization sets in.
There are however multiple challenges resulting from overpopulation. The greatest challenge of them all is the unavailability of adequate fresh water for domestic purposes as well as sewage treatment and effluent discharge. This has prompted nations such as Saudi Arabia to use highly energy-intensive desalination to solve water shortages. The world over, 1 billion people cannot access a clean glass of water every day. This has resulted in the starvation to death of 10 million children and 8 million adults. These water shortages have not been limited to other nations only. Contrary to popular belief of immunity to this critical problem by the United States citizens, various states have experienced water shortages. Atlanta, Georgia has exceeded its water carrying capacity in the past 4 years yet its population is expected to double from the current 8.2 million to 16.4 million. In Florida, wells have been sunk resulting to the environmental hazard of sunk holes. Yet, homes and malls are rapidly being built and the population is expected to double from 18 million to 36 million by the year 2050. This is truly absurd and uncalled for. In Colorado, 11.5 billion gallon annual shortfall is estimated in contrast to a projected population growth of 5-6 million by 2050. Therefore, Colorado’s water resources shall not only be unable to support humans but also animals and crops. In Denver, 2 million

In the initial paper, I was able to solve various issues in our institution. The school library system is now running smoothly, the back-up system has been installed and book theft cases have easily been dealt with and minimized. The system is highly advantageous and productive though its durability is yet to be tested by time. In the printing section, examinations, reports and any other material is being reproduced at a fast and reliable rate and there are no more failures after a shift from impact technology to laser jet. Hence, I have managed to increase speed while improving quality and reliability.
I have managed to identify various new areas of research given TRIZ analysis. Car companies like Johnson & Johnson, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler; aeronautics companies such as Boeing and NASA and computer giants Hewlett Packard and IBM, and mobile phone companies like Motorola, General Electric, Xerox, LG and Samsung have been using TRIZ methods in their projects. The global scale competition has become very stiff. It requires crisis and problem management while endeavoring to create opportunities. In any field of technologies, only the innovative enough to resolve current problems will succeed.
The problem of copyright protection in moving images can be solved by the TRIZ matrix. Recent progress in development of digital image handling has the contradiction of easing unlawful copying and plagiarism. Hence the world is contemplating on how to enforce copyright claims in the moving images to ensure copyright protection. I have come up with a solution based on TRIZ on visible watermarking which is based on contradiction. In the contradiction matrix: the improving factor is: the copyright mark must be clearly visible for it to work as a well-put statement on copyright yet the worsening factor, that is it should not be overly disturbing and very conspicuous to the viewers. The requirement necessitating that it should be seen but in the background is a physical contradiction in applying the TRIZ methodology. To solve this, I decided to use separation of time theorem. Therefore, the patent statement that will be drafted should make the copyright mark clearly visible in the static mode, but it will endeavor to make it unnoticeable in the display mode of the moving image due to the short display duration. This illustrates application of TRIZ principle of invention that recommends on skipping whereby it covers works on high-rapid performance of dangerous work. This brings a solution that cleverly and tactfully includes a copyright statement that is not intrusive at all.
Applications of TRIZ in science and technology have become very widespread and crucial. I up with a way of applying USIT standing for Unified Structured Inventive Thinking which uses simplified TRIZ to an actual technological problem. I have in particular looked at formation of polymers using a modification of the Smart-Little-Method as proposed by Altschuller to look at formation of a porous polymer sheet in order to increase its form ratio. In particular, when molten polymer is dissolved in a gas and is then forcefully extruded at a high pressure through a narrow slit-shaped nozzle, some gases manage to escape minimizing the size of the polymers. An ideal solution needs to be created such that no gases escape at all. The problem analysis can be tackled by using the Particle’s method. The bubbles in the polymer should not grow large enough, increase in number, escape or increase in size. Therefore, I came up with a strategy to introduce a substance with desirable properties that can induce desirable actions such as a catalyst. Then, the desirable actions desired should be analyzed. Possible properties of the Particles that can be used in performing these actions are then analyzed.

When the analyst is listing up these actions and properties individually, some ideas may be generated in fragments and they require to be organized for implementation. By listing these elements in an organized and systematic scheme, a system of conceptual solutions on formation of polymers are clearly visualized.
TRIZ has been very instrumental when it comes to the field of aerodynamics. In this field, fuel efficiency needs to be improved since fuel costs are too high. It therefore necessitates solving the enigma through innovative thinking. Aerodynamics had been exhaustively covered until NASA came up with the idea of vertical winglets. This has been found to reduce drag at the wingtips which previously consumed a lot of fuel during lift force creation. The broad concept is fuel maximization in order to reduce costs. An ideal situation implies zero costs at zero harm. Since this is not possible, we shall settle for the closest approximation.

This paper sets out to discuss explicitly the war crisis in Darfur and whether Canadian troops should be sent to the war-torn region. The Darfur crisis is ongoing guerilla warfare in Sudan. The issue of contention has been poor treatment of the black Christian Africans in the south by the Arab northerners. This led the southerners to form militia namely the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Justice and equality movement (JEM) in order to combat oppression and genocide attacks carried out by the mainstream Sudan military forces and the police in conjunction with the Janjaweed. The government sponsors the Janjaweed in an effort to wipe out the Southerners in joint combat.
In 2005 officials at the U.S. Department of estimated 63,000 to 146,000 dead. The United Nations estimates show that over 300000 people have been displaced both internally and to neighboring nations like Kenya. In 2007, The displacement monitoring centre estimated Kalma camp was holding over 100000 refugees while Kakuma in Kenya held 50,000 refugees which represented 21% Kenyan refugee population This numbers are some of the largest the world over.
In February, 2010 the government of Sudan signed an agreement with the Justice and equality movement, with further pledges to further pursue peace. The JEM, which is predominant in Darfur shall gain the most in the talks could to a semi-autonomous state similar to South Sudan. However, these talks are currently disrupted after the Sudanese government launched air strikes and raids on a village. This was a violation of the agreement and JEM has boycotted the talks pending further action. The conflict in war-torn Sudan is predominantly between Arab Muslim North and the Christian black South. This is not only a racial supremacy struggle where the Southerners are fighting against being viewed as slaves and the Arabs as the masters but also touches on religion

Higher education in the United Kingdom is highly subsidized by taxes and various financial aid programs. Further, it has some of the best standards the world over. However, tuition fees have been in the rise the world over. Lately, there has been a lot of debate as to whether student fees should be increased. This is after the government proposed an increase in university education fees from £ 3000 to £ 9000 an year and a slash in the university funding. There were proposals that students from poor backgrounds shall get grants while others shall finance their education through banks. This shall be then repaid after the students finish school and start working. This however presents a myriad of problems to the students. It is therefore imperative to explore ways as to which possible alternative courses of action that can be taken to reduce this financial burden faced by students.
First, the government has proposed that over-subscribed and popular universities should charge higher for their services while institutions that are struggling should charge les so as to encourage more people to apply. However, research has shown that the current funding crisis is not sufficiently sustainable to support these lower-end institutions. Therefore, the incentive shall not only be impossible but it shall fail leading to the closure of this institutions. This shall lead to a situation whereby both popular and lower-end institutions shall have insufficient students due to the costs associated with schooling. Further, most students shall drop-out due to the inability to pay fees leading to accumulation of debts up to a level that they can no longer be sustained in schools.
Secondly, only the rich shall be able to obtain education. Education shall be out of reach for most middle class citizens and the poor. This will trigger a long term situation whereby the economic disparities between the rich and the worker shall increase even further. This is since education lays the basics for future self-sustenance. Ironically, some economists have identified the long-term effect on savings and investments which the government is trying to save today. Minimal investment in the youth today shall lead to a situation whereby little professional skills are gained. They shall then earn less in future. Consequently, savings will decline which has a direct impact on the investments. This therefore leads to lower national productivity and the onset of a vicious cycle. Evidence in support of this theory is recent study conducted by UCAS who have already observed a shortfall in 12,000 applications in the United Kingdom owing to the ongoing speculation. The government has phrased the counter-argument that working class families shall still pay a similar amount due to large salary increase of up to an average of £30,000 and a maintenance grant of an average amount of £2,002 for any persons earning below £30,000.Working class students are expected to pay not more than £1,100 per year and not less than £300 for their university education (1).This is however not the case for this is a comparative ratio analysis and excludes students from poor families who largely depend on maintenance grants for their upkeep rather than education

An art movement is a style in art with explicit common philosophy which is adhered to by a group of artists during a restricted period of time or its heyday. Over the years, various art forms have been developed. Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, Surrealism, cubism, Futurism, Post-Impressionism and Realism has been discussed here-in on a basis of characteristics, themes and examples of artwork.
Neoclassicism was an art and style developed during the late 1700’s in the French revolution. It has various visual characteristics: It is solidly modeled using strong direct lights and darks to show form, the compositions are rational in that they are balanced and orderly, presence of strong acidic colors, there are no marks left by the artist since brush strokes are carefully controlled to hide individual strokes and it stresses virtues of classical civilizations of the Greeks and Romans such as discipline, athleticism, education, and moral principles, honesty and charity. Angular and sculptural shapes are normally assigned to males while soft and curvilinear forms depict women. Neoclassical themes are normally centered on classical stories heroic acts and virtues carried out by males who are depicted as gallant and stoic. Felinity in women, on the other hand, is depicted and confined to the domestic and private realm. Neoclassicism is therefore depicted as masculine whereby the male body depicts topical issues on politics, society and sexual attributes. The Neoclassic painting of the famous violinist Paganini by Ingres shows this form perfectly. (Brumfield, 1991)
Romanticism was an art style during the mid 1800s that was a resultant of the revolt against Neoclassicism. The major characteristics of Romanticism are: It attempts to display ideal beauty through dramatic scenes, individual marks of the artist can be viewed, it is a form of art that is based on feelings basically of love rather than thoughts hence gets the viewer to experience strong emotions and it is based on an exotic subject matter. In its theme, it is normally based on atmospheric landscapes with a nostalgic depiction of the past especially the Gothic with a bias towards the primitive such as traditional folk culture, cult of individual heroic figures who are often revolutionaries in art or politics, mysticism, the cult of sensibility that emphasizes on women and children, passion for romance and a fascination with death. The romantic painting of Paganini by Turner attempts to show the feeling of his music through the emotional qualities of the man and physical traits of the composer. (Tekiner, 2000)

This essay focuses on Vitronics Soltec, a global leader in the world of soldering equipment and their accessories. An outline of the company’s mission statement is: Vitronics Soltec aims at design and manufacturing of high quality mass soldering equipment for the ever-expanding global circuit board assembly market. Key preference is given to continued growth, through use of advanced technology, in ways that benefit our customers by coming up with highly innovative soldering accessories which fit the unique needs of our customers in the rapidly changing global market.
Vitronics Soltec manufactures soldering equipment and products ranging in the Reflow, Wave and Selective Soldering. Its factories are are in the U.S notably at Stratham, NH, in Netherlands at Oosterhout and in China at Suzhou. Direct sales and customer support centers are found in United States, Netherlands, Singapore, Germany, Korea, Shanghai and Malaysia. Vitronics Soltec has invested noteworthy resources in the advancement of superior soldering process knowledge, which serve their customers directly and caters for the development of easy to upgrade high quality products. Vitronics Soltec’s child company, Advanced Technology Group, hires the best soldering experts who collaborate with institutes of technology and particular end users to develop in-depth tools and expertise for in the circuit board assembly industry. Vitronics Soltec’s products are highly used in application engineering, on the field service, help-desk support and selective tooling development.
Inventory management involves a direct sales and support centers acquiring and maintaining sufficient merchandise assortment levels in order to ensure stock holding and handling expenses are kept at a minimum. Proper inventory management should be ensured throughout ordering, handling and shipping. A system to identify requirements, set aims, provides replenishment techniques and report actual and projected inventory status should be put in place. It should be capable of tracking materials entering and leaving stock rooms and reconcile the stock balances (Vitronics Soltec, 2007)

Cyber crime refers to outlawed use of the network and a computer with an aim to commit a crime be it to copyright, hack or conduct cyber warfare. These crimes cannot go unpunished. There are several laws that have been put in place to curb this though deterrent measures have not been very successful. In 1820, the first case was recorded in Joseph-Marie Jacquard’s textile factory, whose machine was considered as the earliest form of a computer. His workers committed sabotage to discourage him from implementing further changes in technology since they feared losing their jobs. Various countries have effected various legislation against cyber crime and the installation of malware on unsuspecting network users. In this essay, I will discuss various cyber crimes, legislations put in place to curb these and then propose various ways of punishing cyber criminals.
The first crime I am going to discuss is computer fraud. This entails use of the internet to misinterpret facts by changing the content with an aim of causing loss. The objective of fraud may or may not be beneficial to the perpetrator. This may include altering, misusing, suppressing or stealing information related to input of data, concealment of transactions, change of stored data, application programs or operating software, change of a person’s identity, bank fraud and altering classified data. This crime is punishable by a jail-term varying according to a particular country and gravity of crime committed. The perpetrators of these crimes should be heavily fined in addition to a considerable jail term. Where the criminals are not able to pay for liability damages, countries should amend their laws to incorporate a clause allowing confiscation of personal property.
Harassment entails use of threats, spread of slander and libel, obscenities and displaying obscene content about a person. This might be based on gender, religion, country of origin or race. In popular social sites and chat rooms, these crimes have become very prevalent. Cyber stalking entails spreading false statements and encouraging others to do so, monitoring and threatening in order to solicit minors for sex commonly known as online predator, or gather information in order to cause distress to another party. Hate crime occurs when one is prejudiced over another’s race, gender or religion and holds certain stereotypes against them which one chooses to spread over the internet. Combating this crime has been challenged by federal law which limits the ability of law agencies to track down the stalkers. The U.S Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 provides anonymity to persons who use cable companies to acquire their Internet Service Providers (ISPs).Proper laws which are easy to implement should be put in place. Once a user is suspected, data about him should be collected to ensure sufficient evidence in law courts against them and when making liability claims. Their ISP addresses should be disconnected and data about the perpetrator floated in the net to warn all companies about this.

The Punic Wars were a sequence of three battles that were fought in the period 264 to 146 BC between Rome and Carthage. They were the largest battles of the time. The main reason for the occurrence of the battles was the conflict in the vested interests of the Carthagian Empire and the rapidly expanding Roman Empire. The Romans saw the need to expand their vast empire through Sicily, which was then an important hub, and was partly under Carthagian control. Carthage, being the dominant power in the West of the Mediterranean and strong in its naval power, resisted all advances by the Roman Empire, which was an extensive maritime empire. This resulted in the first of three major wars that were characterized by a number of battles. At the end of wars fought for over a century, Rome emerged victorious in the Roman-Syrian War with the defeat of Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great and went on to be one of the most powerful empires of the time till the fifth century A.D
Carthage was a powerful thalassocratic city in modern day Tunisia. It had the largest navy and fought its wars through mercenaries, especially Numidian, rather than a permanent, standing army as was the case with the Roman Empire. In 264 BC, the Roman Empire conquered the Italian peninsula to the south of River Po bringing the conflict between the two rivals to a boiling point. This triggered the First Punic War that lasted between 264-241 BC.
The First Punic War was mainly a naval war which was also partly fought on land in Sicily between Hiero II of Syracuse and Mamertines of Messina. The Mamertines first enlisted the help of the Carthagians but went on to betray them and sign a treaty with the Roman Senate. This led to the Carthagians to directly support Hiero bringing them at loggerheads with the Roman Empire for the control of Sicily. In 261 BC, after a defeat at the Battle of Agrigentum, the Carthagians resolved to fight their battles at sea rather than on land. They consequently successfully fought the Romans at the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC. Rome decided to expand its existing fleets to over 100 warships in two months so as to counter the all-powerful Carthagians in the sea. They were specifically designed to incorporate a Corvus so as to facilitate sinking and ramming of Carthagian ships. This guaranteed a stream of successes for the Roman infantries except for the Battle of Tunis. In 241 BC, the Carthagians signed a peace treaty with the Romans in which they were forced to evacuate Sicily In addition to paying an enormous war indemnity. Further, in 238 BC, the Carthagians lost the islands of Sardinia and Corsica to Rome during the Mercenary War. This ensured that Rome was the superpower and could comfortably control any sea-borne or land invasion of Italy, all sea trade routes in the Mediterranean and further invade foreign shores so as to expand the Empire. Rome further fought and conquered colonies through the Illyrian Wars. Carthage was however forced to retreat and build its finances and expand its empire in Hispania.

In the last half of the 18th century, thirteen colonies ganged up in a political upheaval so as to break free of the colonial rule imposed by Britain giving rise to the United States. These states first rejected the overseas authority without representation expressed by the Parliament of Great Britain and went further to expel all Royal officials in their states. Each former colonial province established a Provincial Congress so as to form a self, internal government. In response, the British sent troops so as to recover these provinces. This marked the onset of the American Revolutionary War that lasted between 1775 and ended in 1783 when the last of the British troops surrendered and both parties signed Treaty of Paris. The States therefore chose to reject all acts of tyranny and control collectively instigated by the British monarchy in favor of self-rule, as stated in the July 1776 United States Declaration of Independence.
There are various events that led to the American Revolution. In the events timeline, these events triggered and inspired the decision, cause and clamor for independence by the colonies at the time. Key among these was the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. Prior to this, most people in the states were content with how it was being run. The British governed through indirect rule which allowed the states a degree of their own identity. However, at the onset of 1764, a pamphlet, ‘The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Approved’ was written by James Otis. He argued that all colonists, be they black or white, deserved freedom and that American colonies, being the larger, could not revolve around the smaller England. This was the earliest clamor for independence. In that same year, Oxenbridge Thatcher wrote a pamphlet, ‘The Sentiments of a British American’ which furthered the arguments put forward by Otis such as taxation without representation. At that time however, there were very few radicals in support of independence. In 1764, several acts came into place. First, the British monarchy attempted to seize control of the America’s economy by putting into place the Currency Act which outlawed the printing of all money in the colonies and further nullified all the America-printed money. Secondly, the Sugar Act, which ensured colonists were taxed for sugar, coffee, wine and indigo, came into force. This was a means of the British Government to earn revenue so as to recover from the losses of the French-Indian War. This angered both merchants due to the arbitrary searches and other colonists since they were being taxed without representation. Several other pamphlets were published such as ‘The Right of Colonies Examined’ by Stephen Hopkins and ‘The Pennsylvania Gazette’ written by Benjamin Franklin. In March 1765, the Stamp Act came into force which required all colonists to buy a stamp whenever a document was to be printed. The colonies however revolted and the British Government responded by publishing the Declaratory Act in which total control of the colonies was expressed. In June 1765, the intolerable Quartering Act was published. It required colonists to pay and supply vital necessities to the British troops. This highly increased unrest especially as the army was deemed incompetent after the loss in the Chief Pontiac’s Rebellion.

There are a number of bridges in and around Birmigham which were mainly built to accommodate the railway system like the Bromford Bridge and others to accommodate highways like the famous Aldridge Road Bridge. In this essay, I will highlight on several bridges along various rivers like Tame and Perry which are in and around Birmingham. Some of these bridges are still in use or have been closed awaiting refurbishment though most of these bridges are no longer in use and have been classified as national ancient sites or listed structures.
Galton Bridge is a canal bridge that serves as a railway station located at Smethwick which is in Midlands, United Kingdom. It was constructed by Thomas Telford in 1829. It spans Telford’s Birmingham Canal Navigations New Main Line which holds Roebuck Lane. Birmingham Canal Navigations entails a network of navigable canals connecting Birmingham to Wolverhampton, and eastern Black Country. The canal is then connected to other English channels over a wide range of other points. At the time Galton Bridge was built, its single span of 46 meters was the highest in the world. Although it is currently used by pedestrians only, it used to be a roads bridge. It is listed as a Grade I building. It’s situated at the junction of two cross lines: the line from Birmingham Snow Hill to Stourbridge Junction and the line in Stour valley .This bridge has four platforms, two located on either line. London Midland manages and operates the most of the services, with others like Chiltern Railways and Arriva Trains Wales. The present station was built in order to replace the nearby Smethwick West station and opened in 1995.This is when the line from Birmingham Snow Hill was reopened. Most people find it convenient to change trains at this station which accounts for most of its trade. Statistics indicate it is only slightly busier than Smethwick Rolfe Street. Trains to Birmingham either split off or go on to Dorridge or Shirley and Stratford-upon-Avon.