...gas. * Our solar system consists of _________. * the Sun and all the objects that orbit it * A typical galaxy is a _________. * collection of a few hundred million to a trillion or more stars, bound together by gravity * Which of the following best describes what we mean by the universe? * The sum total of all matter and energy * What do astronomers mean by the Big Bang? * The event that marked the beginning of the expansion of the universe * What do we mean when we say that the universe is expanding? * Average distances between galaxies are increasing with time. * Based on observations of the universal expansion, the age of the universe is about _________. * 14 billion years * A television advertisement claiming that a product is light-years ahead of its time does not make sense because _________. * it uses "light-years" to talk about time, but a light-year is a unit of distance * The term observable universe refers to _________. * that portion of the universe that we can see in principle, given the current age of the universe * On a scale in which the distance from Earth to the Sun is about 15 meters, the distance from Earth to the Moon is _________. * small enough to fit within your hand * On a scale where the Sun is about the size of a grapefruit and the Earth is about 15 meters away, how far away are the nearest stars besides the Sun? * About the distance across the United States * The...
Words: 15299 - Pages: 62
...include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone . Carbon dioxide, as well as other greenhouse gases, is a very important factor in the vital cycles which sustain life on this planet, plants use carbon dioxide in photosynthesis and release oxygen necessary to maintain the lives of animal species, who through exhaling return carbon dioxide in atmosphere, completing the cycle .Greenhouse effect is a natural process which made life on Earth feasible. Our planet's surface temperature would have been 33 degrees Celsius cooler, -18 C instead of present 15 C, if not for naturally occurring greenhouse gases . The temperature of Earth's atmosphere is regulated by a process in which the quantity of energy Earth gets from the Sun is poised by the amount returned back into space. Greenhouse gases in atmosphere let the energy in and prevent it from escaping, directing it back to Earth's surface . By the greenhouse effect, in the discussions of the global warming and other environmental problems, people mean "the enhanced effect which is caused by the increase of greenhouse gases from human sources” . Science brings different theories about the primary causes of the global warming of atmosphere. Eventually, the processes that happen in the environment are so complex even on local scale, that analyzing causes and effects of global processes leads scientists to controversial conclusions. Most scientists agree on certain facts. Arguments start upon interpretation of...
Words: 2376 - Pages: 10
...Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th century and its projected continuation. Since the early 20th century, Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. scientists are more than 90% certain that it is primarily caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gasses produced by human activities. A greenhouse gas (sometimes abbreviated GHG) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. The causes of increasing greenhouse gases are: Burning fossil fuels, thus releasing into the atmosphere carbon that has been safely stored for millions of years by burning coal, oil and natural gas for transport and electricity. An enormous demand for electricity. The growing population of the earth all want cars, refrigerators, air-conditioning and a double garage. Most electricity is generated by burning coal. A constant and growing demand for red meat. Cattle belch out methane, a toxic greenhouse gas, much more dangerous than carbon dioxide. More and more forests and bushland, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air, are being cut down so more cattle can graze. A reduction in the planet's ability to remove...
Words: 4029 - Pages: 17
...PRI (Personal Reading Inventory): The Sun Also Rises Context_______________________________________________________________________ 1. Historical: Hemingway based his book The Sun Also Rises on the time period of the Lost Generation, a wandering "lost" time period after WWI. While Hemingway explores the superficiality of his characters' indulgent lifestyles, he touches upon a number of themes, many of which have to do with new notions of masculinity arising after the war. Jake's purported impotence is a powerful symbol for the emasculated postwar male psyche, and bull-fighting describes sex as warfare on a metaphorical level. In addition, Hemingway conceived of the idea for The Sun Also Rises while attending the Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain, with friends in July, 1925. The novel is a roman à clef where the characters are based on real people and the action is based on real events. 2. Biographical: Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899, was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, heavily influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. He produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. In 1925, Hemingway took a trip to the famous Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain that would later provided the basis of Hemingway's first novel, The Sun Also Rises. The novel is widely considered Hemingway's greatest work...
Words: 3488 - Pages: 14
...Accessed: 29/09/2013 06:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Journal of Sociology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 203.101.161.82 on Sun, 29 Sep 2013 06:25:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Lawyers, Political Embeddedness, and Institutional Continuity in China’s Transition from Socialism1 Ethan Michelson Indiana University, Bloomington This article uses the case of Chinese lawyers, their professional troubles, and their coping strategies to build on and develop the concept of political embeddedness. Data from a first-of-its-kind 25-city survey suggest that political embeddedness, defined broadly as bureaucratic, instrumental, or affective ties to the state and its actors, helps Chinese lawyers survive their everyday difficulties, such as routine administrative interference, official rent seeking, and police harassment and intimidation. The article draws...
Words: 26553 - Pages: 107
...Systems six years to rise from start-up to star. By 2000 the software company was raking in $US1.8 billion annual revenues and ranked third on Fortune's 100 fastest growing companies list. This status came from forging alliances where it made sense and where it could. Siebel, founded in 1993, was early to market with e-business software, but being first wasn't enough. Siebel needed to fight off rival start-ups by developing critical mass fast; and that demanded the support of seasoned partners to help break into international corporate accounts. Today the company refers to its web of alliances with hardware companies, software companies, consulting firms and service providers as a "partner ecosystem". Siebel's is not an entirely benign ecosystem, though; it is inhabited by some of the most dangerous corporate predators in the IT sector - companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Compaq and IBM. These are companies that compete and yet collaborate, and even while they collaborate they compete. Siebel's ecosystem is the tense model with which millennial management will have to come to grips. Dean Blomson, vice-president of consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, says mergers and alliances in the networked economy are "the structural response to the digital era". Technology has catalysed the alliance trend on two fronts. First, technology has delivered the information and communications infrastructure, plus transport systems that can support global business. Second, technology is prompting...
Words: 2251 - Pages: 10
...China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1965 Prehistory (cont.) Neolithic – – – – – – Stone Tools The Neolithic age traced back to 10,000 BC Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is carbon-dated to about 7,000 BC Population was increased due to agriculture, the ability to store and redistribute crops and to support specialist craftsmen and administrators In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a culture center, and the first villages were founded Early history of China is complicated by the lack of a written language during this period At Damaidi site in Ningxia, 3172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered “featuring 8453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing”; these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese Mythical Era Nuwa (goddness) Yellow Emperor The Three Sovereigns – – – – Sometimes known as the Three August Ones, were said to be god-kings or...
Words: 4650 - Pages: 19
...so-called Peking Man discovered in 1965 Prehistory (cont.) Neolithic – – – – – – Stone Tools The Neolithic age traced back to 10,000 BC Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is carbon-dated to about 7,000 BC Population was increased due to agriculture, the ability to store and redistribute crops and to support specialist craftsmen and administrators In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a culture center, and the first villages were founded Early history of China is complicated by the lack of a written language during this period At Damaidi site in Ningxia, 3172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered “featuring 8453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing”; these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese Mythical Era Nuwa (goddness) Yellow Emperor The Three Sovereigns – – – – Sometimes known as the Three...
Words: 4650 - Pages: 19
...impacts on a daily basis. We are losing our lands, water is disappearing, it rains when it shouldn’t rain, and we have freezing temperatures, when we shouldn’t have freezing temperatures. Also, warmer temperatures in our farming area have spurred plant diseases, and the quality of agricultural seeds has degenerated cutting into local women’s ability to earn a living. Because our yields are down, it is difficult to feed our children.” (Jaime Baily 14). Climate change has become a very contested and debated matter. Some scientists say that the earth is warming; skeptics contend that it is cooling. Glaciologists say that the polar ice on earth is melting, and skeptics say that Antarctic ice is growing. Skeptics-that have also concluded that the earth is warming-point out that the earth has gone through many such warming periods (interglacials or periods of desertification) in between cooling periods and that these are natural cycles. But the long-running debate over whether or not global warming is anthropogenic is arriving to its end. Not only it is caused by man, it’s real, it’s here. All across the world, in every place known to man, glaciers and ice-sheets are melting, the average temperature is increasing and dangerous weather events are occurring as an integrated response to green house gases produced by man’s activity such as motor vehicles, factories, fossil fuel plants, etc . We are already suffering the consequences of the global warming...
Words: 3299 - Pages: 14
...SKIN CANCER & TANNING The idea of a “healthy tan” is a myth which must be corrected in order to reduce the increasing incidence of skin cancer in the world. An individual's skin color is determined by their genes and their environment. Our skin can change color in reaction to sun exposure. This is called the "tanning response." When skin absorbs UV radiation, melanin is produced and transferred to the keratinocytes cells within the skin thereby darkening the color of the skin. Melanin in the skin absorbs and scatters UV radiation entering the body and helps protect the skin from adverse reactions to radiation. Thus, the "tanning response" is really a defensive reaction by the body to the presence of damaging radiation, and an effort by the body to protect itself from the harmful affect of ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B (UVA and UVB) rays (“Anatomy”). A tan still remains in the minds of many as socially desirable. Each day we are confronted with images on television and in magazines of golden-brown models and celebrities. In addition, we are the targets of local advertising and promotion of tanning salons. People must understand that a tan is not necessary; and that in addition to the premature aging of the skin, there are serious and possibly deadly consequences from the overexposure of one’s body to UVA and/or UVB rays. The deadly consequence is skin cancer. When people think of cancer they relate to the threat of colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate...
Words: 3695 - Pages: 15
...SIMPLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS HANS JURGEN PRESS 1. Astronomy Image of the Sun Place a pair of binoculars in an open window in the direct path of the sun’s rays. Stand a mirror in front of one eyepiece so that it throws an image of the sun on to the opposite wall of the room. Adjust the mirror until the image is sharp, and darken the room. You would risk damaging your eyes if you looked directly at the sun through binoculars, but you can view the bright disc on the wall as large and clear as in the movies. Clouds and birds passing over can also be distinguished and. if the binoculars are good even sunspots. These are a few hot areas on the glowing sphere, some so big that many terrestrial globes could fit into them. Because of the earth’s rotation, the sun’s image moves quite quickly across the wall. Do not forget to re-align the binoculars from time to time onto the sun. The moon and stars cannot be observed in this way because the light coming from them is too weak. 2. Sun clock Place a flowerpot with a long stick fixed into the hole at the bottom in a spot, which is sunny, all day. The stick’s shadow moves along the rim of the pot as the sun moves. Each hour by the clock mark the position of the shadow on the pot. If the sun is shining, you can read off the time. Because of the rotation of the earth the sun apparently passes over us in a semi-circle. In the morning and evening its shadow strikes the pot superficially, while; it midday, around 12 o’clock...
Words: 23291 - Pages: 94
...Revista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses (nueva época) Asociación Mexicana de Estudios sobre Canadá, A.C. erika@amec.com.mx ISSN (Versión impresa): 1405-8251 MÉXICO 2007 Will Straw GLOBAL METRO: THE RISE OF THE FREE COMMUTER NEWSPAPER Revista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses (nueva época), primavera-verano, número 013 Asociación Mexicana de Estudios sobre Canadá, A.C. Culiacán, México pp. 45-53 Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México http://redalyc.uaemex.mx GLOBAL METRO: THE RISE OF THE FREE COMMUTER NEWSPAPER WILL STRAW Resumen In the last half-decade, the newspaper industries of Canada and the United States have been transformed by the introduction, in most major cities, of free newspapers distributed to commuters at the principal nodes of public transportation systems. English-lanuage newspapers such as 24 and Metro and French language papers such as Montreal’s 24 heures have transformed the economics and geographical bases of the newspaper industry. The largest chain of free newspapers is the Metro chain, based in Sweden, which adapts a standardized format for each metropolitan market, mixing news produced on an international basis with local or “localized” material in each city. Free commuter newspapers are embraced by some industry analysts as a solution to the declining circulation of traditionally daily newspapers, particular insofar as they attract...
Words: 4058 - Pages: 17
...Answers to Conceptual Integrated Science End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 1: About Science Answers to Chapter 1 Review Questions 1 The era of modern science in the 16th century was launched when Galileo Galilei revived the Copernican view of the heliocentric universe, using experiments to study nature’s behavior. 2 In Conceptual Integrated Science, we believe that focusing on math too early is a poor substitute forconcepts. 3 We mean that it must be capable of being proved wrong. 4 Nonscientific hypotheses may be perfectly reasonable; they are nonscientific only because they are not falsifiable—there is no test for possible wrongness. 5 Galileo showed the falseness of Aristotle’s claim with a single experiment—dropping heavy and lightobjects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 6 A scientific fact is something that competent observers can observe and agree to be true; a hypothesis is an explanation or answer that is capable of being proved wrong; a law is a hypothesis that has been tested over and over and not contradicted; a theory is a synthesis of facts and well-tested hypotheses. 7 In everyday speech, a theory is the same as a hypothesis—a statement that hasn’t been tested. 8 Theories grow stronger and more precise as they evolve to include new information. 9 The term supernatural literally means “above nature.” Science works within nature, not above it. 10 They rely on subjective personal experience and do not lead to testable hypotheses. They lie outside...
Words: 81827 - Pages: 328
...http://www.portal.euromonitor.com/portal/analysis/tab TOP FIVE CONSUMER TRENDS Consumers remain optimistic about their financial futures In recent years Latvian consumers have come back from several challenges. As noted in a recent article in the Financial Times, “The Baltic state of Latvia endured a harsh recession following the global financial crisis, with 25% pay cuts in the public sector and an exodus of young workers to friendlier economic climates. However, tough austerity measures meant its economy was one of the first in Europe to bounce back”. Consumer confidence wavered slightly in late 2013 due to uncertainty about transition to the Euro. But the changeover in early 2014 worked relatively well, with little immediate price or inflation rises and, as a result, optimism returned. According to a recent study of consumers and households by the Swedbank Institute of Private Finance, 37% of Latvians believe that there were no significant changes to their family budgets in 2014; 30% believe that their financial situations improved; and 30% believed their financial situations got worse. Compared to 2013 results, Latvians were clearly more optimistic. At the same time, the same study identified consumers’ primary concerns over the coming short term. These included rising electricity costs (cited by 72% of respondents), rising food costs (57% of respondents) and rising housing costs (48% of respondents). According to Swedbank’s Evija Kropa, “The food and housing costs are at the top of...
Words: 5060 - Pages: 21
...without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. One hundred and nineteen years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life's work, unfairly labeling him "The Merchant of Death" because of his invention – dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, t he inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace. Seven years later, Alfred Nobel created this prize and the others that bear his name. Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose. Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, "We must act." The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: "Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the...
Words: 2830 - Pages: 12
