Further option for chinas farmland reform(chinese translation included) :: essays research papers

Alternatives for Further Reform in China's Farmland System from "Report of a pilot concentrate on destitution, land deserting and country institutions", created by the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, People's Republic of China, in a joint effort with the FAO Rural Development Division THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE in the arrangement of China's current country farmland framework focuses on uncertainty in the meaning of land proprietorship rights. In spite of specifications in the Constitution and Land Management Law, determining that provincial land is claimed by the aggregate, it is by the by indistinct which of the "three levels of proprietorship'' in the group - People's Communes, creation units and creation gatherings - is alluded to. Besides, regardless of whether it had assigned the possession to a specific level in the group, the issue would again rise up out of the absence of an away from of the group and its participation. Added to this uncertainty in the responsibility for is the deficiency of the chief land property right, as the State has the power to discard the land, while the rancher possesses the rental salary, bringing about a channel ashore income and troubles in land flow. Ãâ€"à Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£ Ã£â€"Â'㠦⠵ã„ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥ã…  ©Ã£Å"㠯ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠵ã„⠽⠨㠁⠢ãâ€"à Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¹Ã£ËœÃ¢ ¼Ã£ ¼Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢ããšããšã Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã£'㠥ã‰ã Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·[ã„⠣ã€ã ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã¢ ¿Ã£â€°]⠡⠣⠾⠡⠹ãÅ"㠏ãÅ"⠷⠨⠺㠍㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¹Ã£Å"ã€ã ­Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å"㠵⠿㠮ãâ€" ¸Ã£Æ'㠷㠁ã‹ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜ãšã‡â ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ »Ã¢ ¶Ã£ ¸Ã£Ë†Ã£ ½Ã¢ ¸Ã£ ¶Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ £Ã¢'ãžâ ¡Ã¢ °Ã£Ë†Ã£â€¹Ã£Æ'㠱⠹⠫ã‰ã §Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€°Ã£ ºÃ¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ¢'㠳⠶ã⠣⠬ã‰ã ºÃ¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ ¶Ã£Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ ±Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£â€" ¸Ã¢ ²Ã¢ ¢Ã¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãžã ºÃ¢ ¡Ã¢ £Ã¢'ã‹ã Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ¼Ã¢'ãšâ ¹Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¼Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ±Ã¢ »Ã£â€" ¸Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ¢ ½Ã£ Ã£â€¹Ã£'⠻⠸㠶ãÅ"ã˜â ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ £Ã¢'ãžâ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥⠣â ¬ ãã‰ããšâ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥⠼⠰ã†ã ¤Ã¢ ³Ã£â€°Ã£Ã¢ ±Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ±Ã£â€°Ã£â„¢Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ·Ã¢ ¶Ã£Å¾Ã¢ §Ã¢ ½Ã£ §Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠻⠹ãšã‡â »Ã£ ¡Ã¢ ³Ã£ ¶Ã£ Ã£â€" ¡Ã¢ £Ã£Ã¢ ­Ã£Ã£ ²Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£ Ã£ ªÃ£â€¢Ã£ »Ã£ Ã£Ã£'⠲⠼ãã‡â ¿Ã£ Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¢Ã£â€"Ãâ€" ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·Ã£ Ã£Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ±Ã£Ë†Ã£Ë†Ã£ §Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ¢ ¼Ã£'ã㠐ãˆâ ¨Ã£â€" ªÃ£Ë†Ã£Æ'㠍㠁⠵ã˜â £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ¢ «Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Æ'㠱ã•â ¼Ã£Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ ±Ã¢ »Ã¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã£â€"à ¢Ã£Ã£Æ'⠵ã„ãšã•ãˆã «Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ¢ ¼Ã£â€"Â㠁ã‹ã Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã¢ °Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¢Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¿Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã£Ã¿Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â‚¬Ã¢ §Ã£â€žÃ£'⠡â £ In this manner, it is important to audit the entire procedure of changes in the farmland framework and locate the right purpose of takeoff for change. Truth be told, such issues as libertarian control of land, dispersed land the executives, insecurity in farmland agreements and absence of course or productivity have all come about because of an equivocal land proprietorship. When the land proprietor is unmistakably characterized and the key property rights insisted, at that point, the farmland's administration, deal, renting (counting ranchers' contracting of aggregate land and re-contracting of their contracted land), acquiring and removal as blessing - all these and different issues of the executives and course would be effortlessly settled. Ã'㠲â'ã‹â £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ »Ã£ËœÃ¢ ¹Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¢Ã£ »Ã¢ ¸Ã£ ¶Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠵ã„⠱㠤⠻⠯⠹㠽⠳ãÅ"⠺㠍ã•ã'⠵⠽ã'⠻⠸㠶⠸ã„⠸㠯⠵ã„ã•ã ½Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ³Ã£ ¶Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¢Ã¢ µÃ£ £Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã¢ ºÃ£Å"⠱ã˜ã'⠪⠵ã„⠡⠣ãšã‚ãšâ µÃ£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ©Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠣⠬⠱ãˆãˆã §Ã£â€ Ã¢ ½Ã¢ ¾Ã£ ¹Ã¢ ·Ã£â€"Ã… à ¤Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ·Ã£â€"É⠢⠵ã„㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¹Ã£Å"ã€ã ­Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Å¾Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã£ Ã£Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã£'ã⠼⠰㠐⠧ã„ãÅ"⠵ã„⠲⠻ãâ€"à £Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¼Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã£Ã£â€°Ã£'⠻⠸㠶ã„⠣⠺㠽⠲⠻ã‡ã ¥Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ£â€°Ã£ ºÃ¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¡Ã¢ £Ã£'⠻⠵⠩㠍㠁⠵ã˜ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€¢Ã£Ã¿Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€ Ã£ ¤Ã£Ã¢ ­Ã£Ã£ ²Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£Æ'⠵⠽ãˆâ ·Ã£Ë†Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã ¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ »Ã¢ ºÃ£ ³Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬ Ã…  ©Ã£Å"㠯⠵ã„⠹ãÅ"ã€ã ­Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€šÃ£ ²Ã£â€šÃ£'⠣⠬ãâ€"à ¢Ã£ Ã£Å¾Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ °Ã£ ¼Ã£â‚¬Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Æ'㠱ã‡â ©Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ µÃ£Æ'⠼⠯ãÅ"㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¸Ã¢'ã‡â ©[ãã™ã‡â ©Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€" ªÃ£â€¡Ã¢ ©]ã'ã'⠾⠭ã‡â ©Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ½Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£'ã… Â'⠫⠺㠍â'⠦ã€ã ­Ã£Å¾Ã¢ ªÃ£Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ «Ã£Å¾Ã£ ¯ - Ë㠹ã㠐ã•ã ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€ Ã£ ¤Ã£â€¹Ã£ »Ã£'⠻㠐⠩⠹ãÅ"ã€ã ­Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠽⠫⠻㠡ã⠭ãˆã Ã¢ ¶Ã£ ¸Ã¢ ½Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ £ Adhering to and culminating aggregate proprietorship  ¼Ã£ ¡Ã¢ ³Ã£â€"à Ã£ ªÃ£â€°Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ Regarding the course of future change in China's rustic farmland proprietorship, there have been dubious perspectives from scholarly circles and the horticultural division, both of whom have approached with a wide range of thoughts. These incorporate the nationalization of provincial farmland, change and improvement of the current aggregate responsibility for land, private responsibility for just as an arrangement of blended proprietorship. Ãâ€"à Ã£Ã£Å¡Ã£â€"à Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å¾Ã¢'ã€â'⠸ã„⠸㠯⠷⠽㠏㠲⠣⠬ã㠐ã€â'ãâ€"Ãã'⠧ãšã µÃ¢ ½Ã£ §Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Ã£ Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¹Ã£'㠩⠵ã„⠸㠷ãâ€"Ãâ€" ¼Ã£ »Ã¢ ½Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£'⠵⠲⠿⠵ã„⠹ã›â µÃ£ £Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã£â€¢Ã£Ã¿Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¼Ã¢'㠸ã€â'⠸㠷ãâ€"Ã⠲⠻㠍⠬⠵ã„㠐㠭⠶ã ã'㠢⠼㠻⠡⠣ã†ã ¤Ã£â€"à Ã¢ °Ã£ ¼Ã£â‚¬Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¦  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£Ã£ Ã¢ »Ã¢ ¯Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ¸Ã£â€žÃ¢ ¸Ã£ ¯Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¸Ã£â€žÃ¢ ½Ã£ ¸Ã£ Ã£â€"Â'㠦⠵ã„ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠣⠬ã‹â ½Ã£Ë†Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠣⠬ã'ã⠼⠰ã'⠻ãâ€"Ãâ€" »Ã£ ¬Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€"Æã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠵ã„ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠡â £ In view of the attributes of China's rustic land assets and its kin land relationship, the course of change in the nation's country land framework ought to be the mission for a type of aggregate open proprietorship described by another relationship in property rights (under the precondition of the aggregate open responsibility for) to upgrade the lucidity in the relationship of aggregate land property rights.

Air Pollution in Colombia. Essay Example

Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Example Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Paper Topic: Air contamination Air contamination has gotten one of the most significant worries of the nearby specialists of Latin-American urban areas. Bogota, as other urban focuses in South America, for example, SAA Paulo, Mexico City and Santiago De Chile, shows noteworthy degrees of air contamination, levels that may speak to a high hazard for the populaces wellbeing and unquestionably a decrease in the personal satisfaction of its occupants. Bogota, capital of Colombia, is probably the biggest city of Latin America; with a populace of around 6. Lion and a yearly development pace of 2. 081 percent it is the biggest urban focus in Colombia; it likewise has the most elevated paces of natural decay of the nation. Air contamination has expanded significantly of late, due for the most part to the uncontrolled increment in the quantity of vehicles in the city. In spite of the fact that air contamination has been checked in Bogota since 1 967, it wasnt until 1 990 that the observing stations were spread generally al l through the city. Around then the Secretary of Health of the District with the coordinated effort of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (CIA) sought after an examination so as to decide the air nature of the city. This examination inferred that the most significant wellspring of contamination in Bogota was autos; 70% of the contamination could be ascribed to vehicles. Another significant wellspring of contamination was seen as blocks and battery plants, among others. The examination directed with the help of CIA distinguished just because the inconvenience of air contamination in Bogota and its chief segments. These were recognized to be the accompanying: Sulfur Dioxide (SYS), Nitrogen Oxides (Knox), Total Suspended Particles (TTS), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbons (HOC), and Ozone (03). It was evaluated that 75% of the poisons yearly discharges relate to Particulate Matter. The examination discovered that the degrees of CO, HOC, SYS and Particulate Matter were not over the cutoff points characterized as sheltered by the WHO. This prompted CIA s consideration that: in 1990-1991 air contamination in Bogota didn't arrive at levels of worry to the nearby specialists. In any case, the fast development in the quantity of vehicles in Bogota during the most recent decade started extra enthusiasm for this issue.

Local Motion

Local Motion INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in San Mateo in the Local Motion office. John, who are you and what do you do?John: Im John Stanfield and Im the CEO and co-founder of Local Motion, and we build technology for the car sharing industry.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?John: Its a great question. My first career was, I spent 12 years as a wild and forest fire fighter. So, after I finished my physics degree I didnt want to build bombs for the navy, so I continued doing what I did to put myself through school, and that turned into career. I exited that, came to the Bay Area, started a couple of companies, learned a lot about entrepreneurship, found myself at graduate school at Stanford, and thats where the idea for this company started out of my masters work in the mechanical engineering group and design group. I met my co-founder there and we started the company in 2010.Martin: And can you tell us a little bit more about the process, how you did come up with t his idea?John: Sure. So, originally we were looking at local mobility and how a third to half of all trips made by Americans are for less than 5 miles. And generally speaking, we do them in single occupancy, two to three thousand pound automobiles, and so my idea was to build a small, very efficient electric four-wheel vehicle, that was built from the ground up to be sharable, to occupy a lot of these local needs, and so we build a vehicle while I was at Stanford, got some attention, won a summer grant from Lightspeed ventures, studied the market, realized there was a big gaping hole in mobility that needed to be innovated in, and disrupted. And so I launched the company after meeting Clément Gires in 2010. We then raised some seed money, and we build a vehicle, and the idea was to sell it to places and not people, and be sharable from the ground up in its entirety of ethos of this vehicle would be a sharable asset. And what we learned in the process was that we could do much great er good and have much greater impact if we separate our ideas and became vehicle agnostic and stop trying to build cars because, I dont know if youre aware of this, but it takes a lot of money to start a car company. So, we separated the hardware and software that we needed to become vehicle agnostic, and thats what we have today, we install hardware in every vehicle that we deal with, we focus on large groups of assets and fleets, across the government agencies from federal to state and local, to university campuses and corporate campuses.Martin: Ok, great. And how did you get in touch with the first investors?John: Lets see. The first investors were visionary, angel investors, I would say. Were in the kind of the heart of entrepreneurship here in Silicon Valley. Through my Stanford network, I was put in touch with a great deal of entrepreneurs who had had success and are now angel investors, and the Lightspeed venture grant helped the great deal, so that expanded our network in Si licon Valley, and specifically on Sand Hill road. And so a few, as I call them, visionaries, believed in us and wrote us small checks, that allowed us to get started and really push our ideas forward. And without those visionaries, we wouldnt be here today.BUSINESS MODELMartin: John, lets talk about the business model. Can you briefly explain what your solution does and how it works technically, and then talk about the other components like what customers are you targeting, where are you using these technologies?John: Sure. So, I strongly believe that shared mobility can never succeed on a large-scale unless the experience from the users perspective at the door of the car, when theyre accessing that shared mobility. If that experience is better than owning a vehicle, than shared mobility will succeed, and until that day it wont expand in the dramatic way. And so the entirety of my company focuses on making that experience superior. And so what we do is we install hardware in every v ehicle that shows visually the status of that vehicle to the user. So now, when the user walks out to the group of vehicles, they can see, through an LED light, if the vehicle is available or not, and they just walk up with their corporate ID badge that lets them in the buildings or with their smart phone, touch on that reader, the doors unlocked, they get in and they drive away. Its that simple. So, you dont have to book your personal car. Its yours. So why would you need to book your shared car? So we give that on demand, real-time access to every vehicle. You can also step back and say ok, Im a planner, which about 3% of our current fleet rides are actually planned ahead of time, only about 3-5%, and you can go on our mobile app or on our web system, our web-based platform and book a ride ahead of time. And what we do is we take all that information and we analyze it in our own analytics engines and we give that information back to the fleet manager, so that they can make real de cision based on data. On how the ride size distributes, cut cost and increase utilization. And we just charge per vehicle that our system is installed in, right now basically we take the fleet size, we charge per vehicle and usually a 12 month subscription fee, and we dont charge for the hardware upfront. We actually maintain ownership of hardware, that way if we need to replace it we can.Martin: So, from my understanding, in Germany and Europe in general we have some kind of companies like BMW and Mercedes who are doing this kind of individual cars that you can rent via mobile platform etc. You are currently tied in fleets, like Sixt or something like that, and having them to manage the fleet more efficiently, so that dont you have to that much contact between their sales organization and their end customer. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it technically works, the product? And when does it get installed, who does it, how long does it take?John: So, lets just start with the market segment that you hit on. There are roughly 8 million vehicles in the US that are in fleets and that is a market that is very, very undeveloped for sharing. All these vehicles are intended to be shared across user groups, but the way they share them, still have a metal box on the wall with keys in it, or a few individuals that have the keys at their desk and they have a piece of paper when they sign these vehicles out. And so because of the barriers of using keys and having no real organization around the sharing of the assets, they dont get shared and they have far too many vehicles on their lots. We can walk in the door and from day 1 we can offer 20-30% savings across their fleet, just by helping them share and taking the keys out of the equation. So now, instead of the user having to go and find a set of car keys, they just walk to car and the access is at the door. So, really streamlining the use case is essential here.And then what we do technically is we plugin to the cars diagnostics port. That allows us to do two things: get power for a device and pull information from the car itself. When our device is powered up, we force the user to interact with it at the door so we know who it is. We are tracking all movement, so we know how they use the car. We know if theyre abusing the vehicles, we know if theyre driving, how theyre driving, we know where theyre going. So all the information is very important to the fleet manager, so that they can get a snapshot, a real, data driven snapshot of how the vehicles are being used and then make decisions based on that information, so they can, for example, if they see a portion of their fleet that never goes more than 40 miles, why wouldnt they replace that with electric vehicles. That is an efficiency gain, an utilization gain, and then through sharing it proper, proper scheduling, we can help push rides together into certain vehicles that are always going to the same place at the same time with the sam e people. So, really optimizing the entire operational process.Martin: So, would you say that your plan based on this kind of big data is also to provide other services like you said before, analyze on how the fleet is going, and maybe even optimizing insurance contracts based on user groups or car models, something like that?John: Exactly. So, what we do is right now we focus on our core model and then we will, as we grow, offer premium packages to people, so we can help them analyze fleets and slice it in whatever they want with the data that we have. And we will offer those as premium products, yes.Martin: How did you acquire and convince the first customer? Because I can imagine going to big fleet companies who have 500-1000 cars or so, and you are young startup. How did you convince them?John: Couple of things. One is, we were selling cars originally, when we were doing that, couple of the big Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, they were very interested in that local kind of show piece for mobility. So, Google was our very first customer, they wanted to buy cars. We were talking to them for long enough that when we went through our strong pivot, and removed the hardware and software to become vehicle agnostic, they saw the intelligence in that decision and they already have a fleet of 300-400 vehicles on their campus, and they said Great, lets just start using your devices in our cars. And so that started to progress, that was a great example for us, theyre a tremendous customers because they have a truly multi-model fleet, all the way from human-powered bicycles all the way to highway shuttles, big 60 passengers busses, and everything in between. Model S Teslas, Nissan Leaves, electric bikes, normal internal combustion vans. So were working across the subset of that fleet now and we hope to expand more. And what that did was give us something to point to and show how its working and data that we could pull and analyze and just show the b enefit of our platform. At one point, they were having trouble getting people to plug-in small electric vehicles on their campus, so we just communicated with the users and said Hey, could you please plug the car in when youre done?, and amazingly we went from 30% plugin rate to 90% plugin rate, just in a few weeks. So, proving to the Google that you can change user behavior in few weeks is magical, and taking that to the general population is very powerful.Martin: Currently, fleet management companies are having all the cares stored basically in one location, I assume because there is some kind of person who needs to check in the people and serve the cars, etc. With your technology, would you say that they can more distribute their cars over the city, because you, they dont need to have this kind of human interaction with the final customer?John: So, its an interesting conversation because right now the fleets are very distributed. There are a lot of use cases where there are one o r maybe 2 users per vehicle, and then you have a piece of the fleet that is very centralized, and they call that the motor pool. And so, what were trying to actually do is to take the entirety of the fleet, regardless of where its located, and put it in a centralized motor pool. So that no matter where you are, on the grounds in the city of San Francisco, for example, you as a user could access the vehicles that you have the right to access, with just your badge. And so, looking at it from kind of a geographically agnostic perspective, saying you have access to a centralized motor pool, regardless of where it is, is very powerful. And giving the managers the ability to restrict usage, because you dont want me driving in dump truck, right, I dont have the license or the ability. And so the people who can and are able to drive those high value assets they require licensing control, the manager can very easily manage that from his laptop or mobile phone. And so, the general population can have access to the general population of motor pool vehicles, you can do restrictions, etc, etc, and that is a centralized motor pool, but it may be distributed over a city or more, for a state or even a federal government.Martin: And the registration or validation of identity and all the properties of some of you final customers, how is it then done?John: So, in the states its all done around driving licenses. The beauty of working with fleets is that all that information checking is already done, because the company or the organization takes care of that, so we dont have to. What we do is, we come in and connect the dots between the services theyre already using. For example, most centralized fleets or fleet operators have service providers for maintenance or cleaning, that they already use. And what we do is we come in with our platform and we connect with those dots more efficiently. So, instead of having to fill out a piece of paper that says I need service on this vehicle at this day, and then someone having to go and find the keys, and taking it out of service for a week or two or three, so that they can schedule this maintenance, we give them the ability to push a button on their web interface that turns the light on the vehicle red, takes that vehicle out of service, sends the information and the geolocation of the vehicle to the service provider who can go straight to the car, with their service badge, unlock the doors, drive it to the shop fix and then put it back in service, and then the light turns back to green. So, really what we do is streamline all those operations, using the existing infrastructure that they already have and just connecting the dots very efficiently.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: John, lets talk about corporate strategy. What do you perceive the competitive advantage of your company?John: So, right now, to date, there havent been any of the connected car companies that had focused on the user side. So, we obsess about the user side, because, as I said, I really feel that in order to make this sharing economy work in the enterprise, you have to have a good user experience at the door. And so, for example, when you tap your badge on our device, it takes less than 2 seconds for the doors to unlock. Thats essential. Because if youre standing at the door for 2 minutes even, as a user, it feels like days, and people then dont trust the system, they refuse to use it, and go back to system where you might as well just be sharing keys. So, we obsess about that experience at the door. And then really the scheduling and the utilization increase is what we are pushing today, and like I said we take the auxiliary systems that theyre already using and connect them more efficiently. So, for us, we dont want to get down the road too deeply on the telematic side, so, for example DOT compliance, or long hold trucking optimization for fuel, stuff like that thats been done many, many times and its very crowded marketplace. Were focused really on the user experience and centralized motor pools for now, thats our core model. Were only 35 people so we have to pick an area thats right for disruption and thats it.Martin: Can you explain your go-to market strategy and your product strategy going forward?John: Sure. So, our go-to market strategy has always been focused on what were good at, and again, to reiterate is the user side. So, going forward we will just continually expend our product offering, looking at new technologies, looking at more interesting and simplified ways for users to gain access, through different sensor technology, through different near field communications, technology whether it NFC (Near field communication), Bluetooth, or RFID. Were just going to leverage what are users had already in their pocket. So we dont want to force them to use something new. And going forward we will start expanding more and more across other geographic areas, for example, we have an office in Paris, righ t now with 5 employees and were focused on European fleet market as well, so I feel that in a lot of ways, the European market is already primed and ready for the sharing economy, because theres a lot more use of mass transit, theres a lot more sense for sharing across large groups of high dollar assets. The car economy there is, the way that corporate executives have their own assigned cars is starting to change, people want to have more cash upfront but still options for mobility down the road, so thats screaming out for centralized motor pools. So, were very excited about the expansion across the Europe as well. And thats how well expand in the next 12 months.Martin: Can you explain your reasoning why you are internationalizing within the same business segment while not adding for other business segments, like individual cars, etc.?John: I feel its really essential to have a strong toehold on the user side and centralized motor pool and then expand out from there. My co-founder i s French, and so we had a very strong connection to talent in France, and we, like I said, we see the European market as very ripe, as well, so we wanted to get it toehold as soon as possible, and so we just took our exact same business model and expanded it into European market.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: So, lets talk about the market development. I mean, youve learned a lot in the case of mobility. Can you give us some kind of trends that you identified, without talking about sharing economy, because you have shared some knowledge of that already?John: Sure, so, if I was speaking straight to, and I do very frequently, speaks straight to OEMs, and lot of the innovation experts here in Silicon Valley come to us and say What do we do to be competitive in the future? and I just look straight at them and say Sell mobility and stop selling so many cars. And thats a very tough thing to understand, from the perspective of someone selling cars, but really thats kind of the just of it. I fee l that, in the near future, the companies that make mobility valuable are the ones that will win and that innovative process will stand out as you make each ride or each minute in the car more valuable than having a car sitting on your driveway 85-90% of the time unused. So, really, sharing is the core of that and selling mobility is the way that this economy will expand on forward.Martin: Do you see that the American car share is changing somehow? Because when you are driving 101 or 85, almost every car is occupied by only 1 person, everybody has a super large car and theres some kind of, lets say, the streets are full of cars.John: Absolutely. But, there are also great trends right now for young people who are waiting longer and longer to get their driving license. So, for example, in my era, you went out on your 16th birthday, you get your driving permit and on 16 and a half you are in line to get your driving license, on the day you can get it. Now, kids are waiting until theyre 17, 18 to get their driving license, because they are treating mobility as they treat applications in mobile devices. They want everything on demand, right now at their fingertips. They dont want to have to deal with the responsibility and the cost of owning a vehicle, its painful these days. And so I think the models are shifting, right now the infrastructure isnt built, and so the Bay Area is a great example. We have the Caltrain, which in America is amazing, but if you go to any other country in the world, 40, I guess its a 30 year old train is kind of laughed at. So, its great because we have it here, but its also very limiting because thats all we have here. So, trends are happening now, which are changing that and of course it happens slowly, but were doing what we can now. And thats why were not waiting for the OEMs to put the hardware in the cars, were making it ourselves. If they would give us access through API to the hardware that existed in the cars it would simplify an d speed this up, but thats not going to happen for 5-10 years, so were doing it ourselves.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS In San Mateo, we meet CEO co-founder of Local Motion, John Stanfield. John shares his story how he co-founded this startup and how the current business model works, as well as what the current plans for near future, and some advice for young entrepreneurs.The transcript of the interview is included below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in San Mateo in the Local Motion office. John, who are you and what do you do?John: Im John Stanfield and Im the CEO and co-founder of Local Motion, and we build technology for the car sharing industry.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?John: Its a great question. My first career was, I spent 12 years as a wild and forest fire fighter. So, after I finished my physics degree I didnt want to build bombs for the navy, so I continued doing what I did to put myself through school, and that turned into career. I exited that, came to the Bay Area, started a couple of companies, learned a lot about entrepreneurship, found myself at g raduate school at Stanford, and thats where the idea for this company started out of my masters work in the mechanical engineering group and design group. I met my co-founder there and we started the company in 2010.Martin: And can you tell us a little bit more about the process, how you did come up with this idea?John: Sure. So, originally we were looking at local mobility and how a third to half of all trips made by Americans are for less than 5 miles. And generally speaking, we do them in single occupancy, two to three thousand pound automobiles, and so my idea was to build a small, very efficient electric four-wheel vehicle, that was built from the ground up to be sharable, to occupy a lot of these local needs, and so we build a vehicle while I was at Stanford, got some attention, won a summer grant from Lightspeed ventures, studied the market, realized there was a big gaping hole in mobility that needed to be innovated in, and disrupted. And so I launched the company after meet ing Clément Gires in 2010. We then raised some seed money, and we build a vehicle, and the idea was to sell it to places and not people, and be sharable from the ground up in its entirety of ethos of this vehicle would be a sharable asset. And what we learned in the process was that we could do much greater good and have much greater impact if we separate our ideas and became vehicle agnostic and stop trying to build cars because, I dont know if youre aware of this, but it takes a lot of money to start a car company. So, we separated the hardware and software that we needed to become vehicle agnostic, and thats what we have today, we install hardware in every vehicle that we deal with, we focus on large groups of assets and fleets, across the government agencies from federal to state and local, to university campuses and corporate campuses.Martin: Ok, great. And how did you get in touch with the first investors?John: Lets see. The first investors were visionary, angel investors, I would say. Were in the kind of the heart of entrepreneurship here in Silicon Valley. Through my Stanford network, I was put in touch with a great deal of entrepreneurs who had had success and are now angel investors, and the Lightspeed venture grant helped the great deal, so that expanded our network in Silicon Valley, and specifically on Sand Hill road. And so a few, as I call them, visionaries, believed in us and wrote us small checks, that allowed us to get started and really push our ideas forward. And without those visionaries, we wouldnt be here today.BUSINESS MODELMartin: John, lets talk about the business model. Can you briefly explain what your solution does and how it works technically, and then talk about the other components like what customers are you targeting, where are you using these technologies?John: Sure. So, I strongly believe that shared mobility can never succeed on a large-scale unless the experience from the users perspective at the door of the car, when the yre accessing that shared mobility. If that experience is better than owning a vehicle, than shared mobility will succeed, and until that day it wont expand in the dramatic way. And so the entirety of my company focuses on making that experience superior. And so what we do is we install hardware in every vehicle that shows visually the status of that vehicle to the user. So now, when the user walks out to the group of vehicles, they can see, through an LED light, if the vehicle is available or not, and they just walk up with their corporate ID badge that lets them in the buildings or with their smart phone, touch on that reader, the doors unlocked, they get in and they drive away. Its that simple. So, you dont have to book your personal car. Its yours. So why would you need to book your shared car? So we give that on demand, real-time access to every vehicle. You can also step back and say ok, Im a planner, which about 3% of our current fleet rides are actually planned ahead of time , only about 3-5%, and you can go on our mobile app or on our web system, our web-based platform and book a ride ahead of time. And what we do is we take all that information and we analyze it in our own analytics engines and we give that information back to the fleet manager, so that they can make real decision based on data. On how the ride size distributes, cut cost and increase utilization. And we just charge per vehicle that our system is installed in, right now basically we take the fleet size, we charge per vehicle and usually a 12 month subscription fee, and we dont charge for the hardware upfront. We actually maintain ownership of hardware, that way if we need to replace it we can.Martin: So, from my understanding, in Germany and Europe in general we have some kind of companies like BMW and Mercedes who are doing this kind of individual cars that you can rent via mobile platform etc. You are currently tied in fleets, like Sixt or something like that, and having them to mana ge the fleet more efficiently, so that dont you have to that much contact between their sales organization and their end customer. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it technically works, the product? And when does it get installed, who does it, how long does it take?John: So, lets just start with the market segment that you hit on. There are roughly 8 million vehicles in the US that are in fleets and that is a market that is very, very undeveloped for sharing. All these vehicles are intended to be shared across user groups, but the way they share them, still have a metal box on the wall with keys in it, or a few individuals that have the keys at their desk and they have a piece of paper when they sign these vehicles out. And so because of the barriers of using keys and having no real organization around the sharing of the assets, they dont get shared and they have far too many vehicles on their lots. We can walk in the door and from day 1 we can offer 20-30% savings across their fleet, just by helping them share and taking the keys out of the equation. So now, instead of the user having to go and find a set of car keys, they just walk to car and the access is at the door. So, really streamlining the use case is essential here.And then what we do technically is we plugin to the cars diagnostics port. That allows us to do two things: get power for a device and pull information from the car itself. When our device is powered up, we force the user to interact with it at the door so we know who it is. We are tracking all movement, so we know how they use the car. We know if theyre abusing the vehicles, we know if theyre driving, how theyre driving, we know where theyre going. So all the information is very important to the fleet manager, so that they can get a snapshot, a real, data driven snapshot of how the vehicles are being used and then make decisions based on that information, so they can, for example, if they see a portion of their fleet that never goes more than 40 miles, why wouldnt they replace that with electric vehicles. That is an efficiency gain, an utilization gain, and then through sharing it proper, proper scheduling, we can help push rides together into certain vehicles that are always going to the same place at the same time with the same people. So, really optimizing the entire operational process.Martin: So, would you say that your plan based on this kind of big data is also to provide other services like you said before, analyze on how the fleet is going, and maybe even optimizing insurance contracts based on user groups or car models, something like that?John: Exactly. So, what we do is right now we focus on our core model and then we will, as we grow, offer premium packages to people, so we can help them analyze fleets and slice it in whatever they want with the data that we have. And we will offer those as premium products, yes.Martin: How did you acquire and convince the first customer? Because I can imagin e going to big fleet companies who have 500-1000 cars or so, and you are young startup. How did you convince them?John: Couple of things. One is, we were selling cars originally, when we were doing that, couple of the big Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, they were very interested in that local kind of show piece for mobility. So, Google was our very first customer, they wanted to buy cars. We were talking to them for long enough that when we went through our strong pivot, and removed the hardware and software to become vehicle agnostic, they saw the intelligence in that decision and they already have a fleet of 300-400 vehicles on their campus, and they said Great, lets just start using your devices in our cars. And so that started to progress, that was a great example for us, theyre a tremendous customers because they have a truly multi-model fleet, all the way from human-powered bicycles all the way to highway shuttles, big 60 passengers busses, and everything i n between. Model S Teslas, Nissan Leaves, electric bikes, normal internal combustion vans. So were working across the subset of that fleet now and we hope to expand more. And what that did was give us something to point to and show how its working and data that we could pull and analyze and just show the benefit of our platform. At one point, they were having trouble getting people to plug-in small electric vehicles on their campus, so we just communicated with the users and said Hey, could you please plug the car in when youre done?, and amazingly we went from 30% plugin rate to 90% plugin rate, just in a few weeks. So, proving to the Google that you can change user behavior in few weeks is magical, and taking that to the general population is very powerful.Martin: Currently, fleet management companies are having all the cares stored basically in one location, I assume because there is some kind of person who needs to check in the people and serve the cars, etc. With your technolog y, would you say that they can more distribute their cars over the city, because you, they dont need to have this kind of human interaction with the final customer?John: So, its an interesting conversation because right now the fleets are very distributed. There are a lot of use cases where there are one or maybe 2 users per vehicle, and then you have a piece of the fleet that is very centralized, and they call that the motor pool. And so, what were trying to actually do is to take the entirety of the fleet, regardless of where its located, and put it in a centralized motor pool. So that no matter where you are, on the grounds in the city of San Francisco, for example, you as a user could access the vehicles that you have the right to access, with just your badge. And so, looking at it from kind of a geographically agnostic perspective, saying you have access to a centralized motor pool, regardless of where it is, is very powerful. And giving the managers the ability to restrict usa ge, because you dont want me driving in dump truck, right, I dont have the license or the ability. And so the people who can and are able to drive those high value assets they require licensing control, the manager can very easily manage that from his laptop or mobile phone. And so, the general population can have access to the general population of motor pool vehicles, you can do restrictions, etc, etc, and that is a centralized motor pool, but it may be distributed over a city or more, for a state or even a federal government.Martin: And the registration or validation of identity and all the properties of some of you final customers, how is it then done?John: So, in the states its all done around driving licenses. The beauty of working with fleets is that all that information checking is already done, because the company or the organization takes care of that, so we dont have to. What we do is, we come in and connect the dots between the services theyre already using. For example, most centralized fleets or fleet operators have service providers for maintenance or cleaning, that they already use. And what we do is we come in with our platform and we connect with those dots more efficiently. So, instead of having to fill out a piece of paper that says I need service on this vehicle at this day, and then someone having to go and find the keys, and taking it out of service for a week or two or three, so that they can schedule this maintenance, we give them the ability to push a button on their web interface that turns the light on the vehicle red, takes that vehicle out of service, sends the information and the geolocation of the vehicle to the service provider who can go straight to the car, with their service badge, unlock the doors, drive it to the shop fix and then put it back in service, and then the light turns back to green. So, really what we do is streamline all those operations, using the existing infrastructure that they already have and just connect ing the dots very efficiently.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: John, lets talk about corporate strategy. What do you perceive the competitive advantage of your company?John: So, right now, to date, there havent been any of the connected car companies that had focused on the user side. So, we obsess about the user side, because, as I said, I really feel that in order to make this sharing economy work in the enterprise, you have to have a good user experience at the door. And so, for example, when you tap your badge on our device, it takes less than 2 seconds for the doors to unlock. Thats essential. Because if youre standing at the door for 2 minutes even, as a user, it feels like days, and people then dont trust the system, they refuse to use it, and go back to system where you might as well just be sharing keys. So, we obsess about that experience at the door. And then really the scheduling and the utilization increase is what we are pushing today, and like I said we take the auxiliary sy stems that theyre already using and connect them more efficiently. So, for us, we dont want to get down the road too deeply on the telematic side, so, for example DOT compliance, or long hold trucking optimization for fuel, stuff like that thats been done many, many times and its very crowded marketplace. Were focused really on the user experience and centralized motor pools for now, thats our core model. Were only 35 people so we have to pick an area thats right for disruption and thats it.Martin: Can you explain your go-to market strategy and your product strategy going forward?John: Sure. So, our go-to market strategy has always been focused on what were good at, and again, to reiterate is the user side. So, going forward we will just continually expend our product offering, looking at new technologies, looking at more interesting and simplified ways for users to gain access, through different sensor technology, through different near field communications, technology whether it N FC (Near field communication), Bluetooth, or RFID. Were just going to leverage what are users had already in their pocket. So we dont want to force them to use something new. And going forward we will start expanding more and more across other geographic areas, for example, we have an office in Paris, right now with 5 employees and were focused on European fleet market as well, so I feel that in a lot of ways, the European market is already primed and ready for the sharing economy, because theres a lot more use of mass transit, theres a lot more sense for sharing across large groups of high dollar assets. The car economy there is, the way that corporate executives have their own assigned cars is starting to change, people want to have more cash upfront but still options for mobility down the road, so thats screaming out for centralized motor pools. So, were very excited about the expansion across the Europe as well. And thats how well expand in the next 12 months.Martin: Can you exp lain your reasoning why you are internationalizing within the same business segment while not adding for other business segments, like individual cars, etc.?John: I feel its really essential to have a strong toehold on the user side and centralized motor pool and then expand out from there. My co-founder is French, and so we had a very strong connection to talent in France, and we, like I said, we see the European market as very ripe, as well, so we wanted to get it toehold as soon as possible, and so we just took our exact same business model and expanded it into European market.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: So, lets talk about the market development. I mean, youve learned a lot in the case of mobility. Can you give us some kind of trends that you identified, without talking about sharing economy, because you have shared some knowledge of that already?John: Sure, so, if I was speaking straight to, and I do very frequently, speaks straight to OEMs, and lot of the innovation experts here in Silicon Valley come to us and say What do we do to be competitive in the future? and I just look straight at them and say Sell mobility and stop selling so many cars. And thats a very tough thing to understand, from the perspective of someone selling cars, but really thats kind of the just of it. I feel that, in the near future, the companies that make mobility valuable are the ones that will win and that innovative process will stand out as you make each ride or each minute in the car more valuable than having a car sitting on your driveway 85-90% of the time unused. So, really, sharing is the core of that and selling mobility is the way that this economy will expand on forward.Martin: Do you see that the American car share is changing somehow? Because when you are driving 101 or 85, almost every car is occupied by only 1 person, everybody has a super large car and theres some kind of, lets say, the streets are full of cars.John: Absolutely. But, there are also great trends rig ht now for young people who are waiting longer and longer to get their driving license. So, for example, in my era, you went out on your 16th birthday, you get your driving permit and on 16 and a half you are in line to get your driving license, on the day you can get it. Now, kids are waiting until theyre 17, 18 to get their driving license, because they are treating mobility as they treat applications in mobile devices. They want everything on demand, right now at their fingertips. They dont want to have to deal with the responsibility and the cost of owning a vehicle, its painful these days. And so I think the models are shifting, right now the infrastructure isnt built, and so the Bay Area is a great example. We have the Caltrain, which in America is amazing, but if you go to any other country in the world, 40, I guess its a 30 year old train is kind of laughed at. So, its great because we have it here, but its also very limiting because thats all we have here. So, trends are ha ppening now, which are changing that and of course it happens slowly, but were doing what we can now. And thats why were not waiting for the OEMs to put the hardware in the cars, were making it ourselves. If they would give us access through API to the hardware that existed in the cars it would simplify and speed this up, but thats not going to happen for 5-10 years, so were doing it ourselves.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURSMartin: Over the last years, what have been your major learnings that you can share with other first time entrepreneurs?John: I think one of the biggest learnings that we had in early days is first of all, dont be too attracted to your first business model, because its going to change. And second, find your product market fit, and go out and get customers.So, I think one of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make, and I was very close to making this mistake, which is a fatal mistake for your company, is getting to wrapped up around what your first idea is. In my mind, the d efinition of a startup is an entity that can pivot their business model until they find something that sticks. Something thats needed in the market right now, something that you can sell to customers regardless of your size. And we were able to find that and sell that and gain revenue with our early prototypes, and weve done that now for three years. Weve been able to gain revenue and push our vehicle ideas and our entrepreneurial ideas into the marketplace while gaining revenue and testing our devices. And now we have a product thats scalable and ready to go and we just started hiring sales people. So, we focused on products, we focused on product market fit, weve been around since 2010 and weve just started hiring sales people three months ago. So, we obsessed about the product, we obsessed about how to make that product work in the marketplace, and found our niche and landed and now were expanding. So, really finding that product market fit and knowing that people want it and are willing to pay for it is essential.Martin: And what advice can you give somebody who is thinking about a product based company and then is thinking about how should he develop his product? Is there any kind of recipe that you can provide?John: I think simplification is the key. Were great example. Im mechanical engineer and can build a car, but that doesnt mean you should. Really take the idea and strip it down and try to understand fundamentally why youre doing what youre doing. Having a vision for solving problems in mobility and jumping to what youre good at is a way to get great ideas. But again, being fluid with how those ideas flow around the problem and finding the area of least resistance for your product to get into the market is the key.Martin: Great. John, thank you very much for your time.John: Youre welcome.Martin: And the next time you are starting your company focus on the simplicity of your product, and not make it over complex. Thank you very much.

Female Knights

There are plenty of fierce women who have battled their way through history in politics and warfare. Although from an academic standpoint women could not generally carry the title of knight, there were still many women in European history who were part of chivalric orders and performed the duties of female knights without the formal recognition. Key Takeaways: Female Knights During the Middle Ages, women could not be granted the title of Knight; it was reserved for men only. However, there were many chivalric orders of knighthood that admitted women and female warriors who performed the role.Documented stories of women—primarily high-born—prove that they donned armor and directed troop movement in times of war. Chivalric Orders of Europe The word knight was not just a job title, it was a social ranking. For a man to become a knight, he had to be formally knighted in a ceremony, or receive an accolade of knighthood for exceptional bravery or service, usually in battle. Because neither of these were typically the domains of women, it was rare for a women to carry the title of knight. However, in parts of Europe, there were chivalric orders of knighthood that were open to women. During the early medieval period, a group of devout Christian knights joined together to form the Knights Templar. Their mission was twofold: to protect European travelers on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, but also to carry out secret military operations.  When they finally took the time to write down a list of their rules, around 1129 C.E., their mandates mentioned a pre-existing practice of admitting women to the Knights Templar. In fact, women were permitted as part of the organization during its first 10 years of existence. Lorado / Getty Images A related group, the Teutonic Order, accepted women as Consorores, or Sisters. Their role was an auxiliary one, often related to support and hospital services during times of war, including on the battlefield. In the mid-12th century, Moorish invaders laid the town of Tortosa, Spain, under siege. Because the towns menfolk were already off at battle fighting on another front, it fell to the women of Tortosa to set up defenses. They dressed in mens clothing—which was certainly easier to fight in—picked up weapons, and held their town with an array of swords, farm implements, and hatchets. In the aftermath, Count Ramon Berenguer of Barcelona founded the Order of the Hatchet in their honor. Elias Ashmole wrote in 1672 that the count granted the women of Tortosa numerous privileges and immunities: He also ordained, that at all publick meetings, the  Women  should have precedence of the  Men; That they should be exempted from all Taxes; and that all the Apparel and Jewels, though of never so great value, left by their dead Husbands, should be their own. It is not known whether the women of the Order ever fought in any battles other than defending Tortosa. The group faded into obscurity as its members aged and died out. Women in Warfare During the Middle Ages, women were not raised for battle like their male counterparts, who typically trained for warfare from boyhood. However, that doesnt mean they didnt fight. There are numerous examples of women, both noble and lower-born, who defended their homes, their families, and their nations from attacking outside forces. Margaret of Anjou directed troops during the War of the Roses. Hulton Archive / Getty Images The eight-day siege of Jerusalem in 1187 relied on women for success. Nearly all of the citys fighting men had marched out of town three months earlier, for the Battle of Hattin, leaving Jerusalem unguarded but for a few hastily-knighted boys. The women, however, outnumbered men in the city by nearly 50 to 1, so when Balian, Baron of Ibelin, realized it was time to defend the walls against the invading army of Saladin, he enlisted the female citizens to get to work. Dr. Helena P. Schrader, Ph.D. in History from the University of Hamburg, says that Ibelin would have had to organize these untrained civilians into units, assigning them specific, focused tasks. ... whether it was defending a sector of the wall, putting out fires, or ensuring that the men and women doing the fighting were supplied with water, food and ammunition. Most astonishing, his improvised units not only repulsed assaults, they also sortied out several times, destroying some of Saladin’s siege engines, and two or three times chasing the Saracens all the way back to the palisades of their camp. Nicholaa de la Haye was born in Lincolnshire, England, around 1150, and inherited her fathers land when he died. Married at least twice, Nicholaa was the castellan of Lincoln Castle, her family estate, despite the fact that each of her husbands tried to claim it as their own. When her spouses were away, Nicholaa ran the show. William Longchamps, a chancellor of Richard I, was heading to Nottingham to battle against Prince John, and along the way, he stopped at Lincoln, laying siege to Nicholaas castle. She refused to yield, and commanding 30 knights, 20 men-at-arms, and a few hundred infantrymen, held the castle for 40 days. Longchamps eventually gave up and moved on. She defended her home again a few years later when Prince Louis of France tried to invade Lincoln. Women didnt just show up and perform the duties of knights in defensive mode. There are several accounts of queens who traveled into the field with their armies in times of war. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of both France and England, led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She even did it while dressed in armor and carrying a lance, although she didnt personally fight. During the War of the Roses, Marguerite d’Anjou personally directed the actions of Lancastrian commanders during battles against Yorkist opponents while her husband, King Henry VI, was incapacitated by bouts of madness. In fact, in 1460, she defeated the threat to her husband’s throne by calling on the Lancastrian nobility to assemble a mighty host in Yorkshire that ambushed York and killed him and 2,500 of his men outside his ancestral home at Sandal Castle. Finally, its important to note that over the centuries, there were countless other women who donned armor and rode into war. We know this because although medieval European writers documenting the Crusades emphasized the notion that pious Christian women did not fight, the historians of their Muslim opponents wrote of crusading women battling against them. The Persian scholar Imad ad-din al-Isfahani wrote, a woman of high rank arrived by sea in late autumn 1189, with an escort of 500 knights with  their forces, squires, pages and valets. She paid all their expenses and also led them in  raids on the Muslims. He went on to say that there were many female knights among the Christians, who wore armour like the men and fought like men in battle, and could not be told apart from  the men until they were killed and the armour was stripped from their bodies. Although their names have been lost to history, these women did exist, they simply were not granted the title of knight. Sources Ashmole, Elias. â€Å"The Institution, Laws Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter Collected and Digested into One Body.†Ã‚  Early English Books Online, The University of Michigan, quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26024.0001.001?viewtoc.Nicholson, Helen, and Helen Nicholson. â€Å"Women and the Crusades.†Ã‚  Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/7608599/Women_and_the_Crusades.Schrader, Helena P. â€Å"Surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187.†Ã‚  Defending the Crusader Kingdoms, 1 Jan. 1970, defendingcrusaderkingdoms.blogspot.com/2017/10/surrender-of-jerusalem-to-saladin-in.html.Velde, Francois R. â€Å"Women Knights in the Middle Ages.†Ã‚  Women Knights, www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/wom-kn.htm.

SAT Spanish Subject Test Information

If you have a particular gift for Spanish, or have just been studying for a long time in elementary and high school, then perhaps you should sign up for the SAT Spanish Test! Please note that this test is not the same or part of the Redesigned SAT Reasoning Test,, the popular college admissions exam. The SAT Spanish Subject Test is just one of the many SAT Subject Tests, which are exams designed to showcase your particular talents in all sorts of fields from World History to Literature to Chinese. SAT Spanish Subject Tests Basics Before you register for this test, heres what you can expect 60 minutes85 multiple-choice questions200-800 points possibleOffered 5 times a year in October, December, January, May and June3 types of reading questions SAT Spanish Subject Test Skills So, whats on this thing? What kinds of skills are required? Here are the skills youll need in order to master this test. Using parts of speech appropriatelyUnderstanding basic idiomsSelection of grammatically correct terminologyIdentifying main and supporting ideas, themes, style, tone, and the spatial and temporal settings of a passage. SAT Spanish Subject Test Question Breakdown The test is broken down into Part A, Part B and Part C. Here are the types of questions those three parts contain: Vocabulary and Sentence Structure: Approximately 28 questions Here, youll be given a sentence with a blank, and will be asked to choose the correct single-word response from one of four choices listed below. Paragraph Completion: Approximately 28 questions These questions provide you with a paragraph filled with blanks. Once you happen upon a blank, youll be asked to fill in that blank with an appropriate response from the choices below. Reading Comprehension: Approximately 28 questions These questions will provide you with a passage taken from prose fiction, historical works, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as advertisements, flyers and letters. Youll be asked a question related to the passage, and will have to choose the correct response from the answer choices. Why Take the SAT Spanish Subject Test? In some cases, youll need to, especially if youre considering choosing Spanish, or a Spanish-related field as a major in college. In other cases, its a great idea to take the Spanish Subject Test so you can showcase bilingualism, which is a fantastic way to round out an application. It shows the college admissions officers that you have more up your sleeve than your GPA, clubs or sports record. Plus, it can get you out of those entry-level language courses. Bonus! How to Prepare for the SAT Spanish Subject Test To ace this thing, youll need at 3-4 years in Spanish during high school, and youll want to take the test as close to the end of or during your most advanced Spanish class you plan to take. Getting your high school Spanish teacher to offer you some supplementary materials is always a good idea, too. In addition, you should practice with legitimate practice questions like youll see on the test. The College Board offers free practice questions for the SAT Spanish Test, too. Sample SAT Spanish Subject Test Question This question comes from the College Boards free practice questions. The writers have ranked the questions from 1 to 5 where 1 is the least difficult. The question below is ranked as a 3. Se sabe que la playa de Luquillo es muy popular porque la gente de San Juan la visita ------- . (A) en resumidas cuentas(B) en punto(C) a medias(D) a menudo Choice (D) is correct. The word that goes in the blank describes the frequency with which people in Puerto Rico visit a popular beach. The sense of frequency, as indicated by choice (D) a menudo, is appropriate.

Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend) Free Essays

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, to John and Elizabeth Barrow Dickens. The second of eight children, Dickens spent his childhood on the southern coast of England, where he attended a good school until the age of eleven. The family then moved to London and shortly thereafter his father was sent to debtor’s prison. We will write a custom essay sample on Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend) or any similar topic only for you Order Now Young Charles went to work in a blacking warehouse and was forced to live on his own in cheap lodgings in a state of near starvation. Although he was soon rescued by his father and sent to school in London, the brief period of abandonment and uncertainty affected his life and his writings for years to come. Dickens did not attend college but was admitted as a reader to the library of the British Museum, where he immersed himself in the study of great literature, particularly Shakespeare. He worked for some time as a clerk, as a shorthand reporter, and eventually as a news reporter for the Morning Chronicle, a position which required him to travel all over the country. Career Dickens’s first success, both critical and popular, was Sketches by Boz (1836), a series of short pieces on life in London. His first novel, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), was published, as were all of his novels, in serial form, and by the time the fourth monthly installment was issued, Dickens was the most popular author in England. His writing, once full of hope and optimism, grew increasingly pessimistic as he aged, w ith images of decay and corruption dominating the later works. Our Mutual Friend was his last completed novel; with its images of dustheaps and death, it is widely considered one of the author’s darkest visions. In 1870, while working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens suffered an aneurysm in the brain and died the next day. He was buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. – Dickens’ Works Over the next thirty years, he continued to publish successful novels, among them: Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol In Prose (1843), The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times for These Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations 1861). – View Charles Dickens distaste for the upper class and his strong interest in social reform is very evident in all of his writings. Throughout his life, he continually worked on writing novels that reflected his own view of the social classes. Dickens writes his characters of the lower social class to have more value than the aristocrats that in his own view he has grown to despise B. SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS World view: most people in england in the middle of 19th century did not have money. They could not become ladies and gentlemen. They were the working class. Some working class people, like Bradley Headstone and Charley Hexam wanted to do better in life. – Economy: England in the middle of 19th century grew wealthy. Many people suddenly became rich. People who have money could become part of Society. Society people were known as ladies and gentlemen. How to cite Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend), Papers

Jonas Brothers free essay sample

My taste in music is very selective. I prefer older bands, like Switchfoot, Snow Patrol – bands teenagers usually say, â€Å"Huh? Who are they?† But even with the Veronicas, the Beatles, and Bob Marley on my iPod, I had to check out the new pop sensation, the Jonas Brothers, when my best friend developed a severe case of OJD (thats Obsessive Jonas Disorder). She told me they were the perfect boys: wore purity rings, didnt use profanity, and went to church. It seemed the Jonas Brothers were causing an uproar wherever they went. This was definitely worth looking into. First impressions are everything. When I googled the Jonas Brothers, I found countless pictures of three dark-haired youths, forums started by loyal fans, and songs to listen to. Lets just say, I didnt hear what I expected. I always thought teen pop groups sang shallow rock songs that made girls scream, but these three brothers create an interesting blend of reggae, punk, smooth rock, and even some soulful acoustic music, definitely not what you would expect. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In addition to their unique music, the Jonas Brothers definitely possess the cute factor. Nick, the youngest, has brown curly hair that makes the decibel level in a room go up five notches when he walks in. Joe, the 19-year-old, is the â€Å"cute, funny one,† according to close friend Miley Cyrus. Kevin, the oldest at 20, is the guitar genius. Man, that boy can seriously rock out onstage with his  ­Gibson. So, what really draws throngs of teenage fans to these brothers? Their music makes sense. You can relate to the songs and feel what they felt when they wrote them. Also, they truly appreciate fans dedication, and give back with free concerts and meet-and-greets. Finally, they have amazing style: what guys you know would wear tight purple jeans? So check out this new band taking the spotlight. (Their  ­album â€Å"A Little Bit Longer† was released in August.) Jonas Brothers free essay sample The Jonas Brothers have been around the world playing for their millions of fans. The Jonas Brothers perform pop rock music. JB arent like other bands. They are very young and they write their own music unlike most other bands. My favorite Jonas Brother is Nick Jonas. He is very sweet, shy, and mature for a sixteen year old. He is a good role model for little kids. The popular songs of the Jonas Brothers are Burning Up, Tonight, Love Bug, and A Little Bit Longer. Tonight is the theme song for their new movie Jonas Brothers The 3D Concert Experience. Burning Up is very popular because they play it at all their concerts because its the name of their last tour. Love Bug is played at most of the shows they guest starred on like Dancing with the Stars and the Thanksgiving Day Football Game. A Little Bit longer is the name of their latest album and is a song about Nicks diabetes and how he struggles every day to keep himself healthy and tries to reassure himself. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Burning Up is my favorite song because I like the beat and the lyrics are kind of weird but they are about the difficulties that they go through. But they keep trying to keep themselves up. The Jonas Brothers Choice in vocals and instruments is very interesting because, they dont make their songs sound the same by using the same instruments. Also all of their songs have meaning to t hem like their life experiences. I recommend the Jonas Brothers to anyone from the age of four to sixteen because Nick, Joe, and Kevin are great role models for teens, toddlers, and children. Jonas Brothers free essay sample The Jonas Brother a rock band. The meber are Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas. There music is song that thay have ritten. Some of there song are Year 3000, When You Look Me In The Eyes, Hold On, Mandy, Please Be Mine and S.O.S. Thay all ready have to cd out. The Jonas Brother have girls of all ages going crazy. Right now the boys are on tour doing concerts. Thay have an upcoming movie call Camp Rock coming to Disney Channel on June 20. Also the Jonas Brothers have a new show also I Disney Channel called J.O.N.A.S.. The boys became popular in late 2005 and ever since than thay have been a big hit. Thay have guesed stared on Hannah Montana. I think tahy are one of the best bands out there with clean music thay kids and adults can enjoy. I rate the boys a pefect 10. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page

Ipl Boon or Bane Essay Example

Ipl Boon or Bane Essay After the grand auction was completed, there were quite a few surprises in the selection of teams and more on the amount of money spent on the cricketers. While some of them like Dhoni and Symonds might have secretly expected a payment similar to what they finally landed, others like Ishant Sharma, David Hussey would have been thrilled at such a windfall. The Bangalore team has done a thoughtful job of selecting the players who are multi-utility in nature and also those who are likely to play the inaugural season, something that the other teams have not considered.The Aussie players are not in the contention for the first season simply because of their Pakistan tour. In this context, was it worth the amount of money that was spent on their regular players? Even if they dont play, those who have signed the contract stand to gain 25% of the amount that was promised. This seems to be a bit on the higher side. Overall, cricket as a game is slowly becoming a profession of choice in India , with the money available. Few decades back, it used to be the passion of the youngsters that would decide the career.Of course, there are plenty of stories of how players had to fight against their parents to let them play the game that they love. Now, the financial viability is no longer left to be proved. This might lead to more players embracing the game. Let us see how it pans out in the near future. The other question that remains is how financially profitable this entire venture will be? Will it be a win-win situation for all the stakeholders involved? BCCI, the franchises and players. Obviously the players stand to gain but it remains to be seen how the profitability of BCCI and the franchises will work out.Innovative ideas will be worked out, so that the franchises can make use of their million-dollar players in their ranks. With all the money being splashed around, the talks of long cricketing schedules have gone out of the window. No longer are cricketers mentioning abou t how the IPL will eat into the time between tours. This only shows that cricketers are also humans and they would also like themselves to be paid reasonably for the efforts they put in on the field. Another interesting point arises then. What happens if a star player gets injured in the IPL tournament. Who will foot his bill? Will it be the BCCI or the players country?Also, if the injuries turn to be serious, it can lead to players not being able to turn out for the country in the international games. This is another aspect that all countries would do well to think about. So far, they have been agreeing for the IPL format, as they too stand to gain from the tournament (BCCI has agreed to share some of the spoils with them). Twenty20 as a game has finally emerged now after the World Cup was staged last year, this is the next prominent step. It remains to be seen if this format is used to the best impact or is it being treated just like the proverbial golden goose?

Deferred Compensation

Deferred Compensation Deferred compensation plans are arrangements by which a part of an employee’s compensation is paid at a later date, or put into investment instruments that the employee can only access at some point in the future Benefits and Hazards of Deferred Compensation There is a large variety of deferred compensation plans, arrangements by which a part of an employee’s compensation is paid at a later date, or put into investment instruments that the employee can only access at some point in the future. There are two basic reasons for deferred compensation. From the employee’s point of view, it reduces  or at least postpones his income tax liability. For employers, deferred compensation helps to manage payroll costs and can be used as an incentive for better employee performance. Types of Deferred Compensation The most common type of deferred compensation plan is the â€Å"defined contribution plan†: A  portion of the employee’s pay is deducted and invested on his behalf, usually in some form of mutual fund.   These are familiar to workers in the US as the â€Å"401(k)†, named after the section of Internal Revenue Code that pertains to them. The deferment from the employee’s salary is made before income taxes are withheld, which is a benefit to both employees and the employer. Employees do not pay taxes on their investments until they withdraw them sometime in the future, and employers are able to reduce the amount of withheld taxes they must remit to the government. Many employers also match all or part of the employee’s contribution, providing an extra incentive for employees to participate in the program; this helps to reduce the company’s transactions costs for maintaining the investment package. In the US, 401(k) programs have the added security of being protected by law from creditors in case of the company’s bankruptcy, although the value of the employees’ investments can fluctuate; in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, millions of US workers saw the value of their 401(k) savings drop as stock markets plummeted. Other kinds of deferred compensation packages not covered by the same regulations as 401(k) programs are more risky, although they generally offer higher returns. Non-401(k) programs are generally only offered to the highest-earning employees who also pay the highest rates of income tax. The main reason for these kinds of programs is that there are legal limits on the amount of money that can be deferred into a 401(k). The main risk is that there is much less regulation of non-401(k) programs, and they are not protected from bankruptcy. Many workers in the US discovered they had lost their investments in the wake of the financial crisis when their employers declared bankruptcy. Read also:  Financial Rewards  |  Money Makes the World Go Around Stock purchase plans and stock option plans are also common forms of deferred compensation: In a stock purchase plan, the company establishes a trust to receive employee contributions, which are converted to shares of the company’s stock.   Stock purchase plans are regulated in much the same manner as 401(k) programs, the only real difference being that instead of contributions being invested in an array of mutual funds, they are only reinvested in the company. The plan is popular with employers and employees alike; for employers, the stock purchase program is reflected in better cash flow and tax savings and is seen as a useful tool to increase employee productivity. Employees benefit by gaining an ownership stake in the company, and some small degree of control over the growth in value of their investments. Stock option plans differ in that the employee is not actually compensated in the form of stock, but â€Å"earns† options to purchase the company’s stock at a low fixed price in the future.   A stock option plan has most of the same benefits as a stock purchase plan  but allows the company to keep control over its shares for a longer period. Employees in rapidly-growing companies benefit the most from stock option plans; a well-known recent example is Facebook, which launched a highly-publicized – and unintentionally controversial – IPO in 2012. Facebook employees who had exercised their options prior to the IPO were able to profit handsomely from the high price Facebook shares fetched in the market, but their returns were reduced somewhat by a condition that they hold their shares for a time before selling them; Facebook’s share price dropped rapidly after the IPO, so employees who waited too long to sell shares saw very little profit, or even lost money in some cases. Another less well-known version of a stock-based deferred compensation plan is called the â€Å"phantom† stock plan: It provides employees benefits similar to those they would receive from owning company stock, without actually giving stock to the employees.   For example, employees might be compensated in â€Å"stock credits† equivalent to shares of stock, from which they can receive bonus payments based on the stock’s performance or dividends paid. Because phantom stock plans are hard to regulate and do not provide many benefits to employers as conventional purchase or option plans. What Should  Employees Look for in Deferred Compensation Plans? Because deferred compensation programs are based on investments that can lose as well as gain value, employees considering a compensation offer should make sure they understand the details of the deferred compensation package. 401(k) programs are the most highly-regulated and most secure  but vary in the specific funds or investment instruments they contain. In the 2008 financial crisis, many 401(k) holders watched their investments vanish  because a large number of 401(k) funds were heavily invested in popular but ultimately worthless mortgage-backed securities. For stock-based deferred compensation plans, the biggest issue is what part of the employee’s compensation the plan is supposed to represent since it is very difficult to quantify the future value of stock. Employees should ask for details about whether a certain level of returns or other incentives is guaranteed, and what limits are imposed on stock purchases or sales. Compensation is compensation, whether deferred or not, and it is up to an  employee  to decide whether or not what he can expect to earn, in whatever form he will receive it, is a fair exchange for his work.

Please look at case study number one I will upload the assisgnment

Please look at number one I will upload the assisgnment - Case Study Example This finding resulted in the change of focus for the company from the US market to the growing market of China. Also, it needs to be mentioned that during the year 2001, the inclusion of mainland China in the WTO resulted in the eradication of limitations in regards to investment of foreign nature. This provided significant amount of momentum to the new focus of Acer. Also, the factor associated with low cost skilled manpower that is available in the Chinese markets ended up in providing strong potential for growth. It is of considerable importance to state that while concentrating on the process of altering the focus of the company, the top management realized that the key to achieving growth in the foreign markets is highly linked to the factor of attaining significant strong point in the local market. Talking more specifically in regards to what has been desired as the ‘divide and conquer approach of Acer’, it can be said that the company’s top management assum ed that by gaining the economies of scale in the local market of China, it will develop an upper hand in regards to developing more innovative products that will help the company to strengthen its position in the local market as well as develop an edge in regards to capturing the international market (Electronic Business Asia, p .34). It is of considerable importance to highlight the fact that the paradox related to the company’s focus on the global and local markets is part of company’s long terms strategy. It is relevant to mention that during the middle of the 90’s period, the company was facing issues of depreciating sales in the markets of the United States. Significant analysis by the company in regards to the causes associated with the slowdown in sales resulted in a strategic change of the company. The top management of Acer realized that for

Research proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Research proposal - Essay Example The Kingdom is ranked number five in the globe in terms of fiscal freedom with highly secure earnings that have resulted from its stable currency. Further, the economy of the Kingdom is remarkably open to trade and boasts of the lowest mean weighted tariff in the whole MENA area. In order to boost trade further, port handling fees were reduced by the government by half in early 2008. When conducting business with the Arabs, it is likely to meet hard but polite bargaining from people who are experts at it, therefore, one has to be very confident in regards to the contents of contractual agreements (Elashmawi, 2001, p.  180). In the event that there are gaps, the Arabs are good at finding and exploiting them, however, in most of the cases, the Arab businesspersons meet their obligations completely and the experience of doing business with them can be enjoyable and approachable, with the creation of long-lasting trust. Parenthetically, it is rare to find Arabs saying a direct no and this requires that one pays attention and observes in a careful manner (Cullen & Parboteeah, 2014, p.  561). The possible gains of opening and operating a business are numerous but the endeavour is not for the fair hearted. One needs to remember that he or she is not a citizen of the Kingdom and when it reaches a time that he or she has to leave and sell the accumulated interests, t he individual may not have the same amount of time as his or her partner. The key purpose of this study is to amass information concerning the advantages and disadvantages of starting a new business in Saudi Arabia. The study’s objective will also entail proving a detailed review of the activities and requirements that should be met before one starts a new business in Saudi Arabia. The study will dwell especially in the following sub-objectives: The results of this study will be of importance to

A Review On Public Switch Data Networks Information Technology Essay

A Review On Public Switch Data Networks Information Technology Essay A public data network is a network established and operated by a telecommunications administration, or a recognized private operating agency, for the specific purpose of providing data transmission services for the public. A public switched data network (PSDN) is a publicly-available packet-switched network, distinct from the PSTN. A general wide area network used to provide circuit switched data services for commercial users A publicly-available network supporting packet-switched data It is an all digital communications line that allows for the transmission of voice, data, video and graphics, at very high speeds, over standard communication lines It is a computer network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure such as the Internet to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organizations network. It aims to avoid an expensive system of owned or leased lines that can be used by only one organization. A leased line is a service contract between a provider and a customer, whereby the provider agrees to deliver a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two or more locations in exchange for a monthly rent (hence the term lease). It is sometimes known as a Private Circuit or Data Line in the UK. Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a dialed connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) via telephone lines. The users computer or router uses an attached modem to encode and decode Internet Protocol packets and control information into and from analogue audio frequency signals, respectively. Feature Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voice Mail, and Call Forwarding à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Need a connection establishment between end nodes. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Connection is maintained until one of end nodes terminates. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Connection is dedicated to the communication between two nodes. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Reduces the number and the total length of the links Data are transmitted in short messages called packets. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬A connection between the two end-nodes is not maintained. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬A node-to-node link can be dynamically shared by many packets. à ®Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Example : Public Data Network (PDN) likes X.25, Frame Relay. There are two types of PDN: CSPDN and PSPDN. Mostly used to provide leased-line connections between local area networks and the Internet Circuit switch network work by allowing multiple sessions to run between end-user by simply switchingto the most direct or available path Because a circuit switch dedicates bandwidth to each session, it is less effective from packet-switch. The advantage of circuit switch is transparent, and the path is always open, thus the delay through SCPDN is constant, which is ideal for real time application such as video. One of the disadvantage of CSPDN is they are very wasteful of bandwidth, because if the device is not transmitting data, the bandwidth will always be availalbe. Packet switch provide bandwidth on-demand. Advantage of PSPDN is it saved bandwidth, because they only use the bandwidth when there is data to transmit. All data in Packet switching is transmitted in frame/packets over a trunk, where each packet or frame can belong to a different session. All of the data being sent to the network is marked with a sequence number. This mean PSPDN can correct any data corrupt or loss within a network. Disadvantage of PSPDN is buffering. It builds on groups of standard transmission channels. Bearer channels (or B channels) transmit user information at relatively high speeds, while separate Data channels (or D channels) carry call set-up, signaling and other information. It handles all types of information. Unlike some other digital communications technologies, ISDN handles all types of information voice, data, studio-quality sound, still and moving images. They are all digitized, and transmitted at high speeds in the same flow of data. It handles many devices and many telephone numbers, on the same line. It encapsulates data transfers between two or more networked devices which are not on the same private network so as to keep the transferred data private from other devices on one or more intervening local or wide area networks. There are many different classifications, implementations, and uses for VPNs. Typically, leased lines are used by businesses to connect geographically distant offices. Unlike dial-up connections, a leased line is always active. The fee for the connection is a fixed monthly rate. The primary factors affecting the monthly fee are distance between end points and the speed of the circuit. Because the connection doesnt carry anybody elses communications, the carrier can assure a given level of quality. Dial-up connections to the Internet require no infrastructure other than the telephone network. Dial-up is often the only choice available for rural or remote areas where broadband installations are not prevalent due to low population and demand. Dial-up access may also be an alternative for users on limited budgets as it is offered free by some ISPs, though broadband is increasingly available at lower prices in many countries due to market competition. Network Interface Circuit-switched Packet Switching Packet Switching Circuit-switched Packet Switching Device-to-device interfaces are called reference points Interface R Located between Non-ISDN Terminal Equipment (TE2) and a Terminal Adapter (TA) Interface S/T Located between ISDN user equipment and Network Termination (NT1) equipment Interface U Located between NT1 equipment and an ISDN central office RJ45/RJ11 RJ45/RJ11 RJ45/RJ11 Components/ hardware configuration Consists of telephone lines, fiberoptic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables all inter-connected by switching centers which allows any telephone in the world to communicate with any other. In a LAN packet-switched environment, such as with an Ethernet network, the transmission of the data packets relies on packet switches, routers, and LAN cables using permanent virtual circuits (PVCs). Uses TDM (Time Division Multiplexing), SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) and PDH (Pleisochoronous Digital Hierarchy) Uses Frame Relay and STDM (Statistical Time Division Multiplexing) TE1- Any ISDN-ready device that connects directly to ISDN or connects to ISDN via an NT1. For example: a digital telephone, a GT 70 Series router. TE2- Any non-ISDN device that needs to be used with a Terminal Adapter (TA) to work with ISDN. For example: an analog FAX, PC, or analog telephone. TA-A device that converts non-ISDN communication to ISDN to allow non-ISDN devices to work with ISDN. NT1- A device located between the S/T and U reference points that allows communication between functional devices. Secure VPNs use cryptographic tunneling protocols to provide confidentiality by blocking intercepts and packet sniffing, allowing sender authentication to block identity spoofing, and provide message integrity by preventing message alteration. Leased lines are made up of the following components: a router, usually managed by the service provider, is installed into a customers comms room. The circuit is presented with an RJ45 connector as standard. local loop circuit, , links the router to the service providers local point of presence (POP). Network termination equipment (NTE) is attached to the wall in a comms room and is connected to either a fibre optic or copper local loop circuit. depending upon location, a back haul circuit may be used to link a customer to their service providers point of presence and then onto the internet gateway. This will take place behind the scenes and may run over a third partys national network. Protocols X.25 X.25 X.25 X.25 X.25 The LAPD (Link Access Protocol Channel D) is a layer 2 protocol Ipsec (Internet Protocol Security) SSL (Transport Layer Security) DTLS ( Datagram Transport Layer Security) SSH (Secure Shell VPN) Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) Multi-Link Point-to-Point Protocol (ML-PPP) NetWare connect Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) Multi-Link Point-to-Point Protocol (ML-PPP) NetWare connect Standards ITU-T, E.1263, E.164 CCITT/ITU-T ITU-T ITU-T ITU-T CCITT Q.920/921 IETF Wide Area Network Standard Wide Area Network Standard

Defensive Driving

Defensive Driving Defensive driving is a method of driving I utilise which helps me to anticipate the actions of others in order to maintain safety for myself and vehicle plus my passengers in any road and weather conditions. I pay extra attention to my speed, judging gaps and distances, pulling off and braking, reversing and manoeuvring and tiredness/fatigue. By constantly looking and anticipating as far ahead as I can see, I can be prepared for potential hazards and associated risks before I get there. Observing what vehicles on either side or oncoming are doing and making constant use of my rear view mirrors further assists me in being a safe driver. Being aware of my vehicles’ characteristics, instruments and safety features are important factors. Knowing any blind spots on my vehicle and its dimensions are especially useful when reversing and manoeuvring. I am constantly aware of all that is happening around me, for example, when reversing I check for any potential hazards around and behind the vehicle before I move. Other vital factors are early and timely use of indicators, hazard warning lights, vehicle lights, hand signals and correct use of the horn in an emergency, as is regular maintenance and servicing. Smooth, careful acceleration and braking is important for safety and also good for the environment too. Examples of this are reduced fuel consumption, creating less pollution and prolonging the efficient working life of my vehicle. Stress and fatigue levels are also greatly reduced and, as adopting this driving policy inevitably reduces the chances of having an accident, my insurance premiums are keenly priced. Utilising all these methods and instruments correctly ensures a much higher degree of safety for me, my vehicle, my passengers, other road users, pedestrians and animals. In my opinion, I am a safe driver M. G. Spivey 17th May 2010

What Impacts Will the Aging Population of Germany Have on Its Economy

The objective of this research paper is to explore, analyze and survey the implications of Germany’s demographics on the country’s economy. The motivation behind this study is to add to the understanding of social-economic issues in one of the Eurozone’s heavyweights and its impact for years to come. This paper looks into Germany’s demographic trends, consumption trends, savings trends, Germany's pension policy and labor market effects.This paper draws on estimates and analyses from relevant literature, including scholarly journals and government publications to illustrate and quantify its points. Conclusions drawn from this study shows that the definitive impact of population aging on economic growth is reflected in consumption, savings, labor pool and dependency burdens. Practical implications can be surmised from this paper; policy makers, native citizens, immigrants and other stakeholders might wish to refer to this paper for an understanding and persp ective of the social phenomenon and derive solutions to problems in its sphere.However there are limitations to this research as it is done through literature review and the demographic-economic variables are not constant. Further research will be required to gather concise and quantifiable data to support its claims. Introduction Germany's aging problem is serious because during the past 30 years, German women have produced children at an average rate of less than 1. 4 babies per lifetime (Tim Colebatch, 2004). In 2009 The Federal Statistic's Office (Germany) forecast Germany's rapidly aging population was likely to decline by 20 percent to around 65 million by 2060.The drop will be accompanied by a dramatic shift in the amount of elderly people in Germany. Of the country's current 81 million inhabitants, some 20. 6 percent are now aged 65 (2011). But in 2060, assuming that fertility rate remain constant and life expectancy increase at a steady rate, that percentage will increase t o 33 percent. Following a rapid recovery from the 2008-2009 recessions, economic growth has slowed in the second half of 2011 for Germany (OECD,2012).Policy makers are faced with domestic issues interfering with mid-term growth potential, one of them namely rapid population aging. Deutsche Bundesbank published a report in April 2012 announcing that if the dampening effects of demographics can be mitigated by appropriate reform measures, it will largely be possible to maintain the current rate of potential growth of roughly 11/4% per y ear until 2020. With Europe struggling to cope with the Debt Crisis, an economic powerhouse such as Germany is under the pressure to come up with solutions and lead the union.However with its workforce fading into bottomless vacuum of tax dependents, it does not reflect well onto Germany’s financial health and strength as a sovereign nation. This paper intends to examine the situation in Germany and reach a conclusion that population aging incre ases the dependent population burden in views of both taxpayers and the nation’s budget; aggregate consumption expenditure decreases; the savings rate declines and shrinks the pool of available capital; working-age population reduces, while the labor productivity in Germany is not impacted heavily.Moreover, this paper will outline a perspective stakeholders should adopt to illustrate that as long as effective reform or measures can be implemented, the negative impact of the aging population on economic growth is likely to be minimized. Main arguments Dependency burdens Population aging increases the dependent population burden. Germany's pension system is known as the most generous pension system and public welfare. Costs of public retirement insurance are almost 12% of GDP, more than 2. times as much as the U. S. Social Security System (Axel Borsch-Supan, et al. ,2003), and it accounts for a high proportion of retirees' income. The weight of this tremendous systems is taxing on Germany's finances as well as the need for tax-payers' support. To ease the pressure of an aging population on the government budget, Germany has carried out a series of reforms. In what was called â€Å"the greatest social reform after war â€Å"by former Labor Minister Franz Liszt initiated in the spring of 2001.The main contents include reducing benefits, settling the level of premium expenditure, a pay-as-you-go pension system and developing a new type of private pension to fill the loss of welfare income. This reform, especially with measures to expand private pension types, will probably promote economic development. The Fund pension system is conducive for German government to supply a large number of retirees without increasing the load of employees and taxpayers. From a macroeconomic perspective, this series of system can help reduce the government budget pressure from an aging population.From micro-economic perspective, it can also bring higher personal income. Unfor tunately, there is a big difference between the actual implementation of Liszt reform and the government's promise. The new fund pension system in Germany is being undertaken on a relatively small scale, while the current non-accumulation fund insurance system is still in the highest flight. The final result is that, the German retirees are almost entirely likely to depend on the government. Overall, the public welfare accounted for 61% of net income after tax for families of 60 years old or above.The substantial increase in social welfare spending for the elderly in the GNP will continue to enlarge, as it is bound to limit the expanding of production, and influence the capital investment and economic efficiency, and add the burden on the national economy. Thus, with the development of population aging and extension of the average life expectancy of the aging of the population, it might be appropriate to extend the retirement age limit, in order to reduce dependent population and re latively increase the accumulation funds to expand production.Germany plans to raise the retirement age to 67 years of age, because of such considerations. But at the same time, the heavy new employment pressure requires Germany to strike a balance between extending retirement age and easing the employment pressure. Consumption The next section puts forward the argument that with the on-set of population aging, an increasing share of the elderly in the German market caused changes in its consumption structure.Overall, the consumption expenditure shows a gradual widening tendency during the aging process; however, Germany has already entered the aging society, so consumption expenditure showed a decreasing trend. This table shows the percentage of elderly family with an excess of the annuity income over expenditures. Annuity income is more than consumer spending and it increases with age. The decline in consumer spending is so significant that for about a quarter of the elderly aged 75 and above, the annuity income is more than 50% higher than consumer spending.In fact, almost all of this decline can be attributed to a decrease of food, travel and traffic expenses, the marginal utility of consumption reduction will probably decrease in the elderly, due to deteriorating health or being lonely. It is worth noticing that in Germany, food, travel and traffic expenses can hardly be offset by more health spending, because almost all health fees are covered by compulsory health insurance. (Wise, 2004) To some extent, the influence of population aging on consumption inhibited economic development.In this case, to speed up the development of older industries, government should focus on the development of travel, real estate and pension services for older people in order to promote consumption growth and the prosperity of the silver hair market. Savings The world's population is aging, accordingly, bank balances might probably stop growing. People tend to reduce their sa vings after retirement, while the younger generation are not as canny as older generations. As a result, savings rate will drop significantly (Diana Farrell, et al. , electric shavers, 2005).Because aggregate saving equals to investment (Lachlan McGregor, 2008), so if left unchecked, the slowdown of the global savings rate will reduce the amount of money available for investment and then hinder economic growth. It is not easy to find a solution. Stimulating economic growth in itself is not a solution, nor is the future productivity revolution or technological breakthroughs. To add to future global savings and financial wealth, the German government and the family need to increase their savings rate, and earn a higher return on assets. These changes involve tough choices, but it can provide a brighter future.As the elderly make up the larger proportion of the population, the total amount for investment and wealth accumulation will be reduced. The expected decline of growth rate for G ermany's financial wealth will fall to 2. 4% from 3. 8%. One thing is certain: the decline in the household savings rate can shrink the pool of available capital. Because of continuing budget deficit, government may push up interest rates and crowd out private investment. In the next few years, the rise in the cost of economic dependence will force government to implete better fiscal discipline.The only meaningful way to offset the population pressure to the upcoming global financial wealth is increasing savings rate of government and households, and a more efficient allocation of capital for the economy, thereby increasing the return. In Germany, to achieve the required rate of return, the policy makers must improve competitiveness, encourage innovation in financial sector and the economy as a whole, and raise the legal protection of investors and creditors. As for increasing the savings rate, the key to is to overcome inertia.When the enterprises automatically register their emplo yees on a voluntary savings plan rather than requiring people to become active, participation rate might increase significantly. Of course, the government can also increase the savings rate of Germany directly. Labor Pool With an increase in the proportion of the elderly population, the proportion of working-age population will accordingly decrease, which goes against German economic development (David E. Bloom, et al. , 2001). Labor force can be an effective motivation of rapid economic growth.However, a demographic draft report of the German federal government indicated that the working age population may reduce from 50 million to 26. 5 million in 2050, which is a decrease of nearly a half. According to the draft, the employment reduction would bring disastrous consequences to the economy of Germany. Moreover, it is much more difficult for older workers to adapt to the fast-paced production activities, especially in the labor-intensive production, so population aging is not conduc ive to the improvement of labor. In this case, a targeted immigration plan is very useful to enable Germany' to maintain its competitiveness.It is estimated that in order to make the employment potential of Germany remain at the level in 2004, at least 300 thousand to 500 thousand immigrants are needed annually. The appeal of that idea stems from two considerations: immigrants are relatively young, and hence their arrival reduces the average age of both the population and the labor force; and they can be expected to add more to the national product than they use up as consumers in terms of health-care, and thus to provide net support for the rising numbers of elderly dependents in the population.On closer inspection, however, there is a problem: immigrants get older, like everyone else, and a sustained policy of higher immigration has little long-term impact on either the median age or the age composition of the population. As Espenshade (1994, p. 766) noted, â€Å"immigration is a clumsy and unrealistic policy alternative to offset a shortage of domestic labor or to correct a perceived imbalance in the pensioner to worker ratio. †The effect of population aging to enhance labor productivity is negative which can be reflected on that the speed of aging workforce to accept new knowledge, science and technology is slower than that of the young. Relatively the elderly population shows a weak ability to adapt to new industries. Thus, to some extent, new product development and technological innovation are largely influenced by the aging problem. In the case of rapid scientific and technological development, and faster advancement of knowledge and increasingly keen competition, population aging has greater negative influence on labor productivity and economic growth.As for Germany, it gives priority to technology-intensive industries and to improve labor productivity mainly relies on science and technology, so the demand for mental exertion is much higher tha n physical. As a result, the negative influence of population aging on increase labor productivity is likely to be limited, on the other side, the experience of skilled older workers will have a positive effect to improve labor productivity in Germany. Conclusion Overall, it is argued in this essay that population aging in terms of the acroeconomics is not conducive to economic development, and its negative impact is mainly manifested in the above-mentioned four areas, while the elderly population do not entirely represent an economic burden as they can be profitable consumers, among them there are still some people engaged in economic activities with relatively abundant accumulation of experience and knowledge which can make up for the physical insufficiency. Thus, to some extent, these people contribute to the economic development.In fact, an effective way to mitigate the adverse effects of an aging population and labor force, is by accelerating the development of a knowledge-base d economy in high-tech industries. (i. e. to improve the level of automation in production and reduce the demand for workers' physical strength. ) We should also see that the development of the knowledge-based economy led to changes in the industrial structure and occupational structure and the increasingly high demand for workers intelligence.With the expectancy of population average life, the health status of the elderly is gradually improving, older workers will make a greater contribution than ever for economic development. Therefore, the rational development and utilization of elderly human resources, will become an important issue to mitigate the adverse impact of population aging on economic development. AppendixPercentage of Elderly in Age Group with a Ratio of Annuity Income to Consumption Expenditures in Germany [pic] Bibliography Asghar Zaidi and Malgorzata Rejniak (2010). Fiscal Policy and Sustainability in View of Crisis and Population Aging in Central and Eastern Europ ean Countries. Axel Borsch-Supan et al. (2005). aging, pension reform, and capital flows:a multi-country simulation model. Cambridge. National Bureau of Economic Research.David A. Wise (2004). Studies in the Economics of Aging. National Bureau of Economic Research. David E. Bloomet al. (2001). Economic Growth and the Demographic Transition. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research. David N. Weil (2006). Population Aging. Cambridge. National Bureau of Economic Research. Michael D. Hurd (2006). The Economics Of Individual Aging. University of New York at Stony Brook.