The name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adámas), "unbreakable, untamed", from (a-), "un-" + δαμάω (damáō), "I overpower, I tame". However, diamonds are thought to have been first recognized and mined in India, where significant alluvial deposits of the stone could then be found many centuries ago along the rivers Penner, Krishna and Godavari. Diamonds have been known in India for at least 3000 years but most likely 6000 years.
Diamonds have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient Indi. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history. Popularity of diamonds has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns.
In 1813, Humphry Davy used a lens to concentrate the rays of the sun on a diamond in an atmosphere of oxygen, and showed that the only product of the combustion was carbon dioxide, proving that diamond is composed of carbon. Later, he showed that in an atmosphere devoid o oxygen, diamond is converted to graphie.
The most familiar usage of diamonds today is as gemstones used for adornment, a usage which dates back into antiquity. The dispersion of white light into spectral colors, is the primary gemological characteristic of gem diamonds. In the twentieth century, experts in the field of gemology have developed methods of grading diamonds and other gemstones based on the characteristics most important to their value as a gem. Four characteristics, known informally as the four Cs, are now commonly used as the basic descriptors of diamonds: these are carat, cut, color, and clarity.
Diamond is the hardest natural material known, where hardness is defined as resistance to scratching. Diamond has a hardness of 10 (hardest) on Mohs scale of minerAL hardness.Diamond's hardness has been known since antiquity, and is the source of its name.
The hardest natural diamonds in the world are from the Copeton and Bingara fields located in the New England area in New South Wales, Australia. They were called can-ni-fare (cannot be cut) by the cutters in Antwerp when they started to arrive in quantity from Australia in the 1870s. These diamonds are generally small, perfect to semiperfect octahedra, and are used to polish other diamonds. Their hardness is considered to be a product of the crystal growth form, which is single stage growth crystal. Most other diamonds show more evidence of multiple growth stages, which produce inclusions, flaws, and defect planes in the crystal lattice, all of which affect their hardness.
The hardness of diamonds contributes to its suitability as a gemstone. Because it can only be scratched by other diamonds, it maintains its polish extremely well. Unlike many other gems, it is well-suited to daily wear because of its resistance to scratching—perhaps contributing to its popularity as the preferred gem in engagement or wedding rings, which are often worn every day.
Industrial use of diamonds has historically been associated with their hardness; this property makes diamond the ideal material for cutting and grinding tools. As the hardest known naturally occurring material, diamond can be used to polish, cut, or wear away any material, including other diamonds. Common industrial adaptations of this ability include diamond-tipped drill bitsand saws, and the use of diamond powder as an abrasive. Less expensive industrial-grade diamonds, known as bort, with more flaws and poorer color than gems, are used for such purposes.
Diamond is not suitable for machining ferrou alloys at high speeds as carbon is soluble in iron at the high temperatures created by high-speed machining, leading to greatly increased wear on diamond tools when compared to alternatives.
These substances can scratch diamond:
Some diamonds are harder than others.
Nanocrystalline diamond aggregates produced by high-pressure high-temperature treatment of graphite or fullerite (C60).
Borazon - a boron nitride allotrope
Boron nitride
Hexagonal form of diamond called lonsdaleite, is theoretically predicted to be 58% stronger than diamond.
Gem quality diamond may be colorless or occur in any hue including the non-spectral hues of gray, brown and black. Diamond is the only gemstone composed of a single element, carbon. The diamond crystal lattice is exceptionally strong and only atoms of nitrogen, boron, hydrogen, phosphorus and maybe beryllium can be introduced into diamond during the growth at significant concentrations. Transition metals Ni and Co, which are commonly used for growth of synthetic diamond by the high-pressure high-temperature techniques, have been detected in diamond as individual atoms, however the maximum concentration is 0.01% for NiL and even much less for Co. Note however, that virtually any element can be introduced in diamond by ion implantation.
Nitrogen is by far the most common impurity found in gem diamonds. Nitrogen is responsible for the yellow and brown in diamonds. Boron is responsible for the gray blue colors. Color in diamond has two additional sources: irradiation (usually by alpha particles), that causes the color in green diamonds; and physical deformation of the diamond crystal known as plastic deformation. Plastic deformation is the cause of color in some brown and perhaps pink and red diamonds. In order of rarity, colorless diamond, by far the most common, is followed by yellow and brown, by far the most common colors, then by blue, green, black, translucent white, pink, violet, orange, purple, and the rarest, red.[ "Black," or Carbonado, diamonds are not truly black, but rather contain numerous dark inclusions that give the gems their dark appearance. Colored diamonds contain impurities or structural defects that cause the coloration, while pure or nearly pure diamonds are transparent and colorless. Most diamond impurities replace a carbon atom in the crystal lattice, known as a carbon flaw. The most common impurity, nitrogen, causes a slight to intense yellow coloration depending upon the type and concentration of nitrogen present. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) classifies low saturation yellow and brown diamonds as diamonds in the normal color range, and applies a grading scale from 'D' (colorless) to 'Z' (light yellow). Diamonds of a different color, such as blue, are called fancy colored diamonds, and fall under a different grading scale.
In 2008, the Wittelsbach Diamond, a 35.56 carats (7.11 g) blue diamond once belonging to the King of Spain, fetched over US$24 million at a Christie's auction In 2009 a 7.03 carats (1.41 g) blue diamond fetched the highest price per-carat ever paid for a diamond when it was sold at auction for 10.5 million Swiss francs (6.97 million Euro or US$9.5 million at the time) which is in excess of US$1.3 million per carat.
Monday, May 25, 2009
WORLDWIDE FOREX
Forex is a trading 'method' also known as FX or and foreign market exchange. Those involved in the foreign exchange markets are some of the largest companies and banks from around the world, trading in currencies from various countries to create a balance as some are going to gain money and others are going to lose money. The basics of forex are similar to that of the stock market found in any country, but on a much larger, grand scale, that involves people, currencies and trades from around the world, in just about any country. Different currency rates happen and change every day. What the value of the dollar may be one day could be higher or lower the next. The trading on the forex market is one that you have to watch closely or if you are investing huge amounts of money, you could lose large amounts of money. The main trading areas for forex, happens in Tokyo, in London and in New York, but there are also many other locations around the world where forex trading does take place. The most heavily traded currencies are those that include (in no particular order) the Australian dollar, the Swiss franc, the British pound sterling, the Japanese yen, the Eurozone eruo, and the United States dollar. You can trade any one currency against another and you can trade from that currency to another currency to build up additional money and interest daily. The areas where forex trading is taking place will open and close, and the next will open and close. This is seen also in the stock exchanges from around the world, as different time zones are processing order and trading during different time frames. The results of any forex trading in one country could have results and differences in what happens in additional forex markets as the countries take turns opening and closing with the time zones. Exchange rates are going to vary from forex trade to forex trade, and if you are a broker, or if you are learning about the forex markets you want to know what the rates are on a given day before making any trades. The stock market Is generally based on products, prices, and other factors within businesses that will change the price of stocks. If someone knows what is going to happened before the general public, it is often known as inside trading, using business secrets to buy stocks and make money - which by the way is illegal. There is very little, if any at all inside information in the forex trading markets. The monetary trades, buys and sells are all a part of the forex market but very little is based on business secrets, but more on the value of the economy, the currency and such of a country at that time. Every currency that is traded on the forex market does have a three letter code associated with that currency so there is no misunderstanding about which currency or which country one is investing with at the time. The eruo is the EUR and the US dollar is known as the USD. The British pound is the GBP and the Japanese yen is known as the JPY. If you are interested in contacting a broker and becoming involved in the forex markets you can find many online where you can review the company information and transactions before processing and becoming involved in the forex markets.
Forex markets deal with foreign currencies. By foriegn currency we mean currencies that are not your national currency. If you are an American, then the USD is your currency. Any other currency other than the US dollar is foreign currency.Because countries trade with each other, they pay each other in their currencies, or generally on an agreed currency. This trade of currencies goes on through the day and night, and throughout every day of the year.The value of a currency depends upon various factors, such as economic stability, political stability, economic policies, market access, exports and imports, and many others. Currency values against other currencies vary daily. When there is a sharp fluctuation between the rates that's when one sits up and tries to find out what happened to cause it.Currency, or forex trading is an highly speed intensive and intellectually draining experience. Further traders must constantly update themselves on the countries that constitute the market, or read up on various reports prepared by skilled economists or analysts, who predict, generally correctly, where a particular country is headed, and what their present position is. Currency, or forex trading exchanges currencies either on a daily basis, or by taking short or long positions, based upon the inputs received by each of the dealers in their respective countries.This requires some explanation. Assume that 'x' country today has a shortage of dollars, because it is importing large amounts of capital equipment or goods and services. This capital equipment will have a gestation period of say six months. Thus, after this capital equipment is commissioned, and it starts exporting, obviously, the country is going to get more dollars than it has now. it can take a position with another country that on a particular day in a particular month, it will give that other country dollars for 'a' price. That's a short position. Increase the period you have a long position. Meanwhile in between if the country which has taken this position undergoes some changes in politics, or economics, then that would drive down its currency value against a benchmark, which is generally the USD so far. However, if there is substantial inflow of investment going into a country, then that country's currency shows up a lower value for the dollar. To wit, 'x' country's ratio with the dollar was 35.50 per dollar; perked up by foreign investment and parking of dollars in that country, today that rate would be 33.00 against the dollar. That's called appreciation of that country's currency. if investment is streaming out, obviously the dollar would be stronger, because more of that country's currency would be required to purchase one dollar! In today's free market environment, where most countries have liberalised their economies, the forex market determines the value of each currency against other currencies, that is, each country now allows their currency to find its own value, instead of having a fixed value as maintained by Governments before. Therefore, the foreign exchange market is much higher today, and deals with trillions and trillions of dollars, to put it mildly.Generally the basket of currencies that dominate the forex market are the US Dollar (USD), the Great Britain Pound (GBP), the Japanese Yen (JPY), the Swiss Franc (SFr), the European Union (EURO), the Australian Dollar (AUSD), the Canadian Dollar (CAN). The words in the brackets show the symbols used in forex market trading. The currencies that do not figure in the basket of currencies are generally forced to convert their currency to one of the above, putting them at a disadvantage because of having to convert twice - twice to buy and twice to sell.In earlier days, when communications facilities were not as good as they are now, there was a time lag between the rates because half the world goes to sleep every day, and others start working at that very time! In today's world with excellent (compared to the past) communication facilities, and with the use of the internet, and specialized software available, currency or forex desks work around the clock throughout the year, making it easier and better to market, convert, buy and sell, at all times. In one way, this is good, because competition being always online, the buyer or seller can get a good bargain.The one area of convergence with the stock markets is that of reports. Stock markets are driven by the results of the companies which have their stocks listed. In the case of forex markets, they are driven by reports from various sources of how their economy is doing, the long term forecasts, the delays in implementation of projects, the deficits that the Government is having, the inflation rate and so on. This may have been repeated in this article, because it bears repetition. You are aware of stock markets, but not of forex markets, hence the repetition.
Forex markets deal with foreign currencies. By foriegn currency we mean currencies that are not your national currency. If you are an American, then the USD is your currency. Any other currency other than the US dollar is foreign currency.Because countries trade with each other, they pay each other in their currencies, or generally on an agreed currency. This trade of currencies goes on through the day and night, and throughout every day of the year.The value of a currency depends upon various factors, such as economic stability, political stability, economic policies, market access, exports and imports, and many others. Currency values against other currencies vary daily. When there is a sharp fluctuation between the rates that's when one sits up and tries to find out what happened to cause it.Currency, or forex trading is an highly speed intensive and intellectually draining experience. Further traders must constantly update themselves on the countries that constitute the market, or read up on various reports prepared by skilled economists or analysts, who predict, generally correctly, where a particular country is headed, and what their present position is. Currency, or forex trading exchanges currencies either on a daily basis, or by taking short or long positions, based upon the inputs received by each of the dealers in their respective countries.This requires some explanation. Assume that 'x' country today has a shortage of dollars, because it is importing large amounts of capital equipment or goods and services. This capital equipment will have a gestation period of say six months. Thus, after this capital equipment is commissioned, and it starts exporting, obviously, the country is going to get more dollars than it has now. it can take a position with another country that on a particular day in a particular month, it will give that other country dollars for 'a' price. That's a short position. Increase the period you have a long position. Meanwhile in between if the country which has taken this position undergoes some changes in politics, or economics, then that would drive down its currency value against a benchmark, which is generally the USD so far. However, if there is substantial inflow of investment going into a country, then that country's currency shows up a lower value for the dollar. To wit, 'x' country's ratio with the dollar was 35.50 per dollar; perked up by foreign investment and parking of dollars in that country, today that rate would be 33.00 against the dollar. That's called appreciation of that country's currency. if investment is streaming out, obviously the dollar would be stronger, because more of that country's currency would be required to purchase one dollar! In today's free market environment, where most countries have liberalised their economies, the forex market determines the value of each currency against other currencies, that is, each country now allows their currency to find its own value, instead of having a fixed value as maintained by Governments before. Therefore, the foreign exchange market is much higher today, and deals with trillions and trillions of dollars, to put it mildly.Generally the basket of currencies that dominate the forex market are the US Dollar (USD), the Great Britain Pound (GBP), the Japanese Yen (JPY), the Swiss Franc (SFr), the European Union (EURO), the Australian Dollar (AUSD), the Canadian Dollar (CAN). The words in the brackets show the symbols used in forex market trading. The currencies that do not figure in the basket of currencies are generally forced to convert their currency to one of the above, putting them at a disadvantage because of having to convert twice - twice to buy and twice to sell.In earlier days, when communications facilities were not as good as they are now, there was a time lag between the rates because half the world goes to sleep every day, and others start working at that very time! In today's world with excellent (compared to the past) communication facilities, and with the use of the internet, and specialized software available, currency or forex desks work around the clock throughout the year, making it easier and better to market, convert, buy and sell, at all times. In one way, this is good, because competition being always online, the buyer or seller can get a good bargain.The one area of convergence with the stock markets is that of reports. Stock markets are driven by the results of the companies which have their stocks listed. In the case of forex markets, they are driven by reports from various sources of how their economy is doing, the long term forecasts, the delays in implementation of projects, the deficits that the Government is having, the inflation rate and so on. This may have been repeated in this article, because it bears repetition. You are aware of stock markets, but not of forex markets, hence the repetition.
Friday, May 22, 2009
ECONOMIC
The city states of Sumer developed a trade and market economy based originally on the commodity money of the Shekel which was a certain weight measure of barley, while the Babylonians and their city state neighbors later developed the earliest system of economics using a metric of various commodities, that was fixed in a legal code.The early law codes from Sumer could be considered the first (written) economic formula, and had many attributes still in use in the current price system today... such as codified amounts of money for business deals (interest rates), fines in money for 'wrong doing', inheritance rules, laws concerning how private property is to be taxed or divided, etc. For a summary of the laws, see Babylonian law and Ancient economic thougHt.
Economic thought dates from earlier Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Persian and Arab civilizations. Notable writers include Aristotle, Chanakya (also known as Kautilya), Qin Shi Huang, Thomas Aquinas and Ibn Khaldun through to the 14th century. Joseph Schumpeter initially considered the late scholastics of the 14th to 17th centuries as "coming nearer than any other group to being the 'founders' of scientific economics" as to monetary, interest, and value theory within a natural-laW perspective. After discovering Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, however, Schumpeter later viewed Ibn Khaldun as being the closest forerunner of modern economics, as many of his economic theories were not known in Europe until relatively modern times. Nonetheless, recent research indicates that the Indian scholar-philosopher Chanakya (c. 340-293 BCE) predates Ibn Khaldun by a millennium and a half as the forerunner of modern economics. and has written more expansively on this subject, particularly on political economy. His magnus opus, the Arthashastra (The Science of Wealth and Welfare), is the genesis of economic concepts that include the opportunity cost, the demand-supply framework, diminishing returns, marginal analysis, public goods, the distinction between the short run and the long run, asymmetric information and the producer surplus. In his capacity as an advisor to the throne of the Maurya Empire of ancient India, he has also advised on the sources and prerequisites of economic growth, obstacles to it and on tax incentives to encourage economic growth.
In Smith's view, the ideal economy is a self-regulating market system that automatically satisfies the economic needs of the populace. He described the market mechanism as an "invisible hand" that leads all individuals, in pursuit of their own self-interests, to produce the greatest benefit for society as a whole. Smith incorporated some of the Physiocrats' ideas, including laissez-faire, into his own economic theories, but rejected the idea that only agriculture was productive.
In his famous invisible-hand analogy, Smith argued for the seemingly paradoxical notion that competitive markets tended to advance broader social interests, although driven by narrower self-interest. The general approach that Smith helped initiate was called political economy and later classical economics. It included such notables as Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill writing from about 1770 to 1870
While Adam Smith emphasized the production of income, David Ricardo focused on the distribution of income among landowners, workers, and capitalists. Ricardo saw an inherent conflict between landowners on the one hand and labor and capital on the other. He posited that the growth of population and capital, pressing against a fixed supply of land, pushes up rents and holds down wages and profits.
Economic thought dates from earlier Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Persian and Arab civilizations. Notable writers include Aristotle, Chanakya (also known as Kautilya), Qin Shi Huang, Thomas Aquinas and Ibn Khaldun through to the 14th century. Joseph Schumpeter initially considered the late scholastics of the 14th to 17th centuries as "coming nearer than any other group to being the 'founders' of scientific economics" as to monetary, interest, and value theory within a natural-laW perspective. After discovering Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, however, Schumpeter later viewed Ibn Khaldun as being the closest forerunner of modern economics, as many of his economic theories were not known in Europe until relatively modern times. Nonetheless, recent research indicates that the Indian scholar-philosopher Chanakya (c. 340-293 BCE) predates Ibn Khaldun by a millennium and a half as the forerunner of modern economics. and has written more expansively on this subject, particularly on political economy. His magnus opus, the Arthashastra (The Science of Wealth and Welfare), is the genesis of economic concepts that include the opportunity cost, the demand-supply framework, diminishing returns, marginal analysis, public goods, the distinction between the short run and the long run, asymmetric information and the producer surplus. In his capacity as an advisor to the throne of the Maurya Empire of ancient India, he has also advised on the sources and prerequisites of economic growth, obstacles to it and on tax incentives to encourage economic growth.
In Smith's view, the ideal economy is a self-regulating market system that automatically satisfies the economic needs of the populace. He described the market mechanism as an "invisible hand" that leads all individuals, in pursuit of their own self-interests, to produce the greatest benefit for society as a whole. Smith incorporated some of the Physiocrats' ideas, including laissez-faire, into his own economic theories, but rejected the idea that only agriculture was productive.
In his famous invisible-hand analogy, Smith argued for the seemingly paradoxical notion that competitive markets tended to advance broader social interests, although driven by narrower self-interest. The general approach that Smith helped initiate was called political economy and later classical economics. It included such notables as Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill writing from about 1770 to 1870
While Adam Smith emphasized the production of income, David Ricardo focused on the distribution of income among landowners, workers, and capitalists. Ricardo saw an inherent conflict between landowners on the one hand and labor and capital on the other. He posited that the growth of population and capital, pressing against a fixed supply of land, pushes up rents and holds down wages and profits.
FIRE
A flame is a mixture of reacting gases and solids emitting visible and infrared light, the frequency spectrum of which depends on the chemical composition of the burning material and intermediate reaction products. In many cases, such as the burning of organic matter, for example wood, or the incomplete combustion of gas, incandescent solid particles called soot produce the familiar red-orange glow of 'fire'. This light has a continuous spectrum. Complete combustion of gas has a dim blue color due to the emission of single-wavelength radiation from various electron transitions in the excited molecules formed in the flame. Usually oxygen is involved, but hydroge burning in chlorine also produces a flame, producing hydrogen chloride (HCl). Other possible combinations producing flames, amongst many more, are fluorine and hydrogen, and hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.
The glow of a flame is complex. Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas, and fuel particles, though the soot particles are too small to behave like perfect blackbodies. There is also photon emission by de-excited atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of the radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands. The color depends on temperature for the black-body radiation, and on chemical makeup for the emission spectra. The dominant color in a flame changes with temperature. The photo of the forest fire is an excellent example of this variation. Near the ground, where most burning is occurring, the fire is white, the hottest color possible for organic material in general, or yellow. Above the yellow region, the color changes to orange, which is cooler, then red, which is cooler still. Above the red region, combustion no longer occurs, and the uncombusted carbon particles are visible as black smoke.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has recently found that gravity plays a role. Modifying the gravity causes different flame types.The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In micro gravity or zero gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become mre blue and more efficient (although it will go out if not moved steadily, as the CO2 from combustion does not disperse in micro gravity, and tends to smother the flame). There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is evenly distributed enough that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in micro gravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry, especially concerning fuel efficiency.
In combustion engines, various steps are taken to eliminate a flame. The method depends mainly on whether the fuel is oil, wood, or a high-energy fuel such as jet fuel.
Typical temperatures of fires and flames
Oxyhydrogen flame: 2000 °C or above (3645 °F)
Bunsen burner flame: 1300 to 1600 °C (2372 to 2912 °F)
Blowtorch flame: 1300 °C (2372 °F)
Candle flame: 1000 °C (1832 °F)
Smolderin cigarette:
Temperature without drawing: side of the lit portion; 400 °C (750 °F); middle of the lit portion: 585 °C (1110 °F)
Temperature during drawing: middle of the lit portion: 700 °C (1290 °F)
Always hotter in the middle.
The glow of a flame is complex. Black-body radiation is emitted from soot, gas, and fuel particles, though the soot particles are too small to behave like perfect blackbodies. There is also photon emission by de-excited atoms and molecules in the gases. Much of the radiation is emitted in the visible and infrared bands. The color depends on temperature for the black-body radiation, and on chemical makeup for the emission spectra. The dominant color in a flame changes with temperature. The photo of the forest fire is an excellent example of this variation. Near the ground, where most burning is occurring, the fire is white, the hottest color possible for organic material in general, or yellow. Above the yellow region, the color changes to orange, which is cooler, then red, which is cooler still. Above the red region, combustion no longer occurs, and the uncombusted carbon particles are visible as black smoke.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States has recently found that gravity plays a role. Modifying the gravity causes different flame types.The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a general flame, as in a candle in normal gravity conditions, making it yellow. In micro gravity or zero gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become mre blue and more efficient (although it will go out if not moved steadily, as the CO2 from combustion does not disperse in micro gravity, and tends to smother the flame). There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is that the temperature is evenly distributed enough that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in micro gravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in micro gravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry, especially concerning fuel efficiency.
In combustion engines, various steps are taken to eliminate a flame. The method depends mainly on whether the fuel is oil, wood, or a high-energy fuel such as jet fuel.
Typical temperatures of fires and flames
Oxyhydrogen flame: 2000 °C or above (3645 °F)
Bunsen burner flame: 1300 to 1600 °C (2372 to 2912 °F)
Blowtorch flame: 1300 °C (2372 °F)
Candle flame: 1000 °C (1832 °F)
Smolderin cigarette:
Temperature without drawing: side of the lit portion; 400 °C (750 °F); middle of the lit portion: 585 °C (1110 °F)
Temperature during drawing: middle of the lit portion: 700 °C (1290 °F)
Always hotter in the middle.
IELTS
The IELTS incorporates the following features:
A variety of accents and writing styles presented in text materials in order to minimise linguistic bias.
IELTS tests the ability to listen, read, write and speak in English.
Band scores used for each language sub-skill (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking). The Band Scale ranges from 0 ("Did not attempt the test") to 9 ("Expert User").
The speaking module - a key component of IELTS. This is conducted in the form of a one-to-one interview with an examiner. The examiner assesses the candidate as he or she is speaking, but the speaking session is also recorded for monitoring as well as re-marking in case of an appeal against the banding given.
IELTS is developed with input from item writers from around the world. Teams are located in the USA, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other English speaking nations.
IELTS Test Structure
All candidates must complete four Modules - Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking - to obtain a Band, which is shown on an IELTS Test Report Form (TRF). All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking Modules, while the Reading and Writing Modules differ depending on whether the candidate is taking the Academic or General Training Versions of the Test.
The total test duration is around 2 hours and 45 minutes for Listening, Reading and Writing modules.Listening: 40 minutes, 30 minutes for which a recording is played centrally and additional 10 minutes for transferring answers onto the OMR answer sheet.Reading: 60 minutes.Writing: 60 minutes.(n.b. No additional time is given for transfer of answers in Reading and Writing modules)
The first three modules - Listening, Reading and Writing (always in that order) - are completed in one day, and in fact are taken with no break in between. The Speaking Module may be taken, at the discretion of the test centre, in the period seven days before or after the other Modules.
The tests are designed to cover the full range of ability from non-user to expert user.
Band Scale
IELTS is scored on a nine band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English.Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest whole or half band.
For the avoidance of doubt, the following rounding convention applies; if the average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band.
The nine bands are described as follows:
9 Expert User
Has full command of the language: appropriate, accurate and fluent with complete understanding. It is very hard to attain this score.
8 Very Good User
Has fully operational command of the language with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Handles complex detailed argumentation well.
7 Good User
Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriateness and misunderstandings in some situations. Generally handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning.
6 Competent User
Has generally effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings. Can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations.
5 Modest User
Has a partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes. The candidate should be able to handle communication in his or her own field.
4 Limited User
Basic competence is limited to familiar situations. Has frequent problems in using complex lan 3 Extremely Limited User
Conveys and understands only general meaning in very familiar situations. Frequent breakdowns in communication occur.
2 Intermittent User
No real communication is possible except for the most basic information using isolated words or short formulae in familiar situations and to meet immediate needs. Has great difficulty understanding spoken and written English.
A variety of accents and writing styles presented in text materials in order to minimise linguistic bias.
IELTS tests the ability to listen, read, write and speak in English.
Band scores used for each language sub-skill (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking). The Band Scale ranges from 0 ("Did not attempt the test") to 9 ("Expert User").
The speaking module - a key component of IELTS. This is conducted in the form of a one-to-one interview with an examiner. The examiner assesses the candidate as he or she is speaking, but the speaking session is also recorded for monitoring as well as re-marking in case of an appeal against the banding given.
IELTS is developed with input from item writers from around the world. Teams are located in the USA, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other English speaking nations.
IELTS Test Structure
All candidates must complete four Modules - Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking - to obtain a Band, which is shown on an IELTS Test Report Form (TRF). All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking Modules, while the Reading and Writing Modules differ depending on whether the candidate is taking the Academic or General Training Versions of the Test.
The total test duration is around 2 hours and 45 minutes for Listening, Reading and Writing modules.Listening: 40 minutes, 30 minutes for which a recording is played centrally and additional 10 minutes for transferring answers onto the OMR answer sheet.Reading: 60 minutes.Writing: 60 minutes.(n.b. No additional time is given for transfer of answers in Reading and Writing modules)
The first three modules - Listening, Reading and Writing (always in that order) - are completed in one day, and in fact are taken with no break in between. The Speaking Module may be taken, at the discretion of the test centre, in the period seven days before or after the other Modules.
The tests are designed to cover the full range of ability from non-user to expert user.
Band Scale
IELTS is scored on a nine band scale, with each band corresponding to a specified competence in English.Overall Band Scores are reported to the nearest whole or half band.
For the avoidance of doubt, the following rounding convention applies; if the average across the four skills ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band, and if it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band.
The nine bands are described as follows:
9 Expert User
Has full command of the language: appropriate, accurate and fluent with complete understanding. It is very hard to attain this score.
8 Very Good User
Has fully operational command of the language with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriacies. Handles complex detailed argumentation well.
7 Good User
Has operational command of the language, though with occasional inaccuracies, inappropriateness and misunderstandings in some situations. Generally handles complex language well and understands detailed reasoning.
6 Competent User
Has generally effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriacies and misunderstandings. Can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations.
5 Modest User
Has a partial command of the language, coping with overall meaning in most situations, though is likely to make many mistakes. The candidate should be able to handle communication in his or her own field.
4 Limited User
Basic competence is limited to familiar situations. Has frequent problems in using complex lan 3 Extremely Limited User
Conveys and understands only general meaning in very familiar situations. Frequent breakdowns in communication occur.
2 Intermittent User
No real communication is possible except for the most basic information using isolated words or short formulae in familiar situations and to meet immediate needs. Has great difficulty understanding spoken and written English.
INSURANCE
A large number of homogeneous exposure units. The vast majority of insurance policies are provided for individual members of very large classes. Automobile insurance, for example, covered about 175 million automobiles in the United States in 2004.The existence of a large number of homogeneous exposure units allows insurers to benefit from the so-called “law of large numbers,” which in effect states that as the number of exposure units increases, the actual results are increasingly likely to become close to expected results. There are exceptions to this criterion. Lloyd's of London is famous for insuring the life or health of actors, actresses and sports figures. Satellite Launch insurance covers events that are infrequent. Large commercial property policies may insure exceptional properties for which there are no ‘homogeneous’ exposure units. Despite failing on this criterion, many exposures like these are generally considered to be insurable.
Definite Loss. The event that gives rise to the loss that is subject to the insured, at least in principle, take place at a known time, in a known place, and from a known cause. The classic example is death of an insured person on a life insurance policy. Fire, automobile accidents, and worker injuries may all easily meet this criterion. Other types of losses may only be definite in theory. Occupational disease, for instance, may involve prolonged exposure to injurious conditions where no specific time, place or cause is identifiable. Ideally, the time, place and cause of a loss should be clear enough that a reasonable person, with sufficient information, could objectively verify all three elements.
Accidental Loss. The event that costitutes the trigger of a claim should be fortuitous, or at least outside the control of the beneficiary of the insurance. The loss should be ‘pure,’ in the sense that it results from an event for which there is only the opportunity for cost. Events that contain speculative elements, such as ordinary business risks, are generally not considered insurable.
Large Loss. The size of the loss must be meaningful from the perspective of the insured. Insurance premiums need to cover both the expected cost of losses, plus the cost of issuing and administering the policy, adjusting losses, and supplying the capital needed to reasonably assure that the insurer will be able to pay claims. For small losses these latter costs may be several times the size of the expected cost of losses. There is little point in paying such costs unless the protection offered has real value to a buyer.
Affordable Premium. If the likelihood of an insured event is so high, or the cost of the event so large, that the resulting premium is large relative to the amount of protection offered, it is not likely that anyone will buy insurance, even if on offer. Further, as the accounting profession formally recognizes in financial accounting standards, the premium cannot be so large that there is not a reasonable chance of a significant loss to the insurer. If there is no such chance of loss, the transaction may have the form of insurance, but not the substance. Calculable Loss. There are two elements that must be at least estimable, if not formally calculable: the probability of loss, and the attendant cost. Probability of loss is generally an empirical exercise, while cost has more to do with the ability of a reasonable person in possession of a copy of the insurance policy and a proof of loss associated with a claim presented under that policy to make a reasonably definite and objective evaluation of the amount of the loss recoverable as a result of the claim.
Limited risk of catastrophically large losses. The essential risk is often aggregation. If the same event can cause losses to numerous policyholders of the same insurer, the ability of that insurer to issue policies becomes constrained, not by factors surrounding the individual characteristics of a given policyholder, but by the factors surrounding the sum of all policyholders so exposed. Typically, insurers prefer to limit their exposure to a loss from a single event to some small portion of their capital base, on the order of 5 percent. Where the loss can be aggregated, or an individual policy could produce exceptionally large claims, the capital constraint will restrict an insurer's appetite for additional policyholders. The classic example is earthquake insurance, where the ability of an underwriter to issue a new policy depends on the number and size of the policies that it has already underwritten. Wind insurance in hurricane zones, particularly along coast lines, is another example of this phenomenon. In extreme cases, the aggregation can affect the entire industry, since the combined capital of insurers and reinsurers can be small compared to the needs of potential policyholders in areas exposed to aggregation risk. In commercial fire insurance it is possible to find single properties whose total exposed value is well in excess of any individual insurer’s capital constraint. Such properties are generally shared among several insurers, or are insured by a single insurer who syndicates the risk into the reinsurance market.
Definite Loss. The event that gives rise to the loss that is subject to the insured, at least in principle, take place at a known time, in a known place, and from a known cause. The classic example is death of an insured person on a life insurance policy. Fire, automobile accidents, and worker injuries may all easily meet this criterion. Other types of losses may only be definite in theory. Occupational disease, for instance, may involve prolonged exposure to injurious conditions where no specific time, place or cause is identifiable. Ideally, the time, place and cause of a loss should be clear enough that a reasonable person, with sufficient information, could objectively verify all three elements.
Accidental Loss. The event that costitutes the trigger of a claim should be fortuitous, or at least outside the control of the beneficiary of the insurance. The loss should be ‘pure,’ in the sense that it results from an event for which there is only the opportunity for cost. Events that contain speculative elements, such as ordinary business risks, are generally not considered insurable.
Large Loss. The size of the loss must be meaningful from the perspective of the insured. Insurance premiums need to cover both the expected cost of losses, plus the cost of issuing and administering the policy, adjusting losses, and supplying the capital needed to reasonably assure that the insurer will be able to pay claims. For small losses these latter costs may be several times the size of the expected cost of losses. There is little point in paying such costs unless the protection offered has real value to a buyer.
Affordable Premium. If the likelihood of an insured event is so high, or the cost of the event so large, that the resulting premium is large relative to the amount of protection offered, it is not likely that anyone will buy insurance, even if on offer. Further, as the accounting profession formally recognizes in financial accounting standards, the premium cannot be so large that there is not a reasonable chance of a significant loss to the insurer. If there is no such chance of loss, the transaction may have the form of insurance, but not the substance. Calculable Loss. There are two elements that must be at least estimable, if not formally calculable: the probability of loss, and the attendant cost. Probability of loss is generally an empirical exercise, while cost has more to do with the ability of a reasonable person in possession of a copy of the insurance policy and a proof of loss associated with a claim presented under that policy to make a reasonably definite and objective evaluation of the amount of the loss recoverable as a result of the claim.
Limited risk of catastrophically large losses. The essential risk is often aggregation. If the same event can cause losses to numerous policyholders of the same insurer, the ability of that insurer to issue policies becomes constrained, not by factors surrounding the individual characteristics of a given policyholder, but by the factors surrounding the sum of all policyholders so exposed. Typically, insurers prefer to limit their exposure to a loss from a single event to some small portion of their capital base, on the order of 5 percent. Where the loss can be aggregated, or an individual policy could produce exceptionally large claims, the capital constraint will restrict an insurer's appetite for additional policyholders. The classic example is earthquake insurance, where the ability of an underwriter to issue a new policy depends on the number and size of the policies that it has already underwritten. Wind insurance in hurricane zones, particularly along coast lines, is another example of this phenomenon. In extreme cases, the aggregation can affect the entire industry, since the combined capital of insurers and reinsurers can be small compared to the needs of potential policyholders in areas exposed to aggregation risk. In commercial fire insurance it is possible to find single properties whose total exposed value is well in excess of any individual insurer’s capital constraint. Such properties are generally shared among several insurers, or are insured by a single insurer who syndicates the risk into the reinsurance market.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
FOREX
The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies. FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.Presently, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was
reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.The foreign exchange market is unique because ofits trading volumes,the extreme liquidity of the market,its geographical dispersion,its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)the use of leverageMain foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:$1.005 trillion in spot transactions$362 billion in outright forwards$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps$129 billion estimated gaps in reportingOf the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in London accounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%. In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).Top 10 currency traders % of overall volume, May 2008RankNameVolume1Deutsche Bank21.70%2UBS AG15.80%3Barclays Capital9.12%4Citi7.49%5Royal Bank of Scotland7.30%6JPMorgan4.19%7HSBC4.10%8Lehman Brothers3.58mnjl0o]'.9Goldman Sachs3.47%10Morgan Stanley2.86%Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms. Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey. These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 . For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.Foreign exchange marketFinancial regulationUnlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the foreign exchange market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. Within the inter-bank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and usually unavailable, and not known to players outside the inner circle. The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for some currencies such as the EUR). This is due to volume. If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread. The levels of access that make up the foreign exchange market are determined by the size of the “line” (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. After that there are usually smaller investment banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail FX-metal market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size” Central banks also participate in the foreign exchange market to align currencies to their economic needs.
reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.The foreign exchange market is unique because ofits trading volumes,the extreme liquidity of the market,its geographical dispersion,its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)the use of leverageMain foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:$1.005 trillion in spot transactions$362 billion in outright forwards$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps$129 billion estimated gaps in reportingOf the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in London accounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%. In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).Top 10 currency traders % of overall volume, May 2008RankNameVolume1Deutsche Bank21.70%2UBS AG15.80%3Barclays Capital9.12%4Citi7.49%5Royal Bank of Scotland7.30%6JPMorgan4.19%7HSBC4.10%8Lehman Brothers3.58mnjl0o]'.9Goldman Sachs3.47%10Morgan Stanley2.86%Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms. Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey. These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 . For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.Foreign exchange marketFinancial regulationUnlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the foreign exchange market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. Within the inter-bank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and usually unavailable, and not known to players outside the inner circle. The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for some currencies such as the EUR). This is due to volume. If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread. The levels of access that make up the foreign exchange market are determined by the size of the “line” (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. After that there are usually smaller investment banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail FX-metal market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size” Central banks also participate in the foreign exchange market to align currencies to their economic needs.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
NATURAL RESOURCES
Natural resources (economically referred to as land or raw material) are naturally forming substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. A natural resource's value rests in the amount and extractability of the material available, associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation. Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource industries, while agricUlture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E. F. Schumacher in his 1973 book Small is Beautiful.The term is defined by the United States Geological Survey as "The Nation's natural resources include its minerals, energy, land, water, and biota.
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters is British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's first published work. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British middle class. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, such as how to care for an infant. An early version of the modern self-help book, the eighteenth-century British conduct book drew on several literary traditions, such as advice manuals and religious narratives. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published Thoughts. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. Although it was excerpted in popular magazines of the time, it was not republished until the rise of in the 1970s. The book encourages mothers to teach their daughters analytical thinking, self-discipline, honesty, contentment in their social position, and marketable skills (in case they should ever need to support themselves).
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters is British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's first published work. Published in 1787 by her friend Joseph Johnson, Thoughts is a conduct book that offers advice on female education to the emerging British middle class. Although dominated by considerations of morality and etiquette, the text also contains basic child-rearing instructions, such as how to care for an infant. An early version of the modern self-help book, the eighteenth-century British conduct book drew on several literary traditions, such as advice manuals and religious narratives. There was an explosion in the number of conduct books published during the second half of the eighteenth century, and Wollstonecraft took advantage of this burgeoning market when she published Thoughts. However, the book was only moderately successful: it was favourably reviewed, but only by one journal and it was reprinted only once. Although it was excerpted in popular magazines of the time, it was not republished until the rise of in the 1970s. The book encourages mothers to teach their daughters analytical thinking, self-discipline, honesty, contentment in their social position, and marketable skills (in case they should ever need to support themselves).
MEDICAL
Medicine is the art and scienc of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness.
Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnos and treat injury and disease, typically through medication, surgery, or some other form of therapy. The word medicine is derived from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.
Though medical technology and clinical expertise are pivotal to contemporary medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering continues to require the application of ordinary human feeling and compassio, known in English as bedside manner.
Prehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal parts and minerals. In many cases these materials were used ritually as magical substances by priests, shamans, or medicine me. Well-known spiritual systems include animism (the notion of inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (an appeal to gods or communion with ancestor spirits); shamanism (the vesting of an individual with mystic powers); and divination (magically obtaining the truth). The field of medical anthropology studies the various prehistoric medical systems and their interaction with society.
Early records on medicine have been discovered from early Ayurvedic medicine in the . Early Greek doctor Hippocrates, who is also called the Father of Medicine, and Galen laid a foundation for later developments in a rational approach to medicine. After the fall of Rome and the onset of the Dark Ages, Islamic physicians made major medical breakthroughs, supported by the translation of Hippocrates' and Galen's works into Arabic. Notable Islamic medical pioneers include polymat Avicenn, who is also called the Father of Modern Medicine,Abulcasis, the father of surgery, , the father of experimental surgery, Ibn al-Nafis, the father of circulatory physiology, and , who is called the father of pediatrics, first disproved the Grecian theory of , which nevertheless remained influential in Western . While major developments in medicine were occurring in the Islamic world during the medieval period, the Western world remained dependent upon the Greco-Roman theory of humorism, which led to questionable treatments such as bloodletting. Islamic medicine and medieval medicine collided during the crusades, with Islamic doctors receiving mixed impressions. As the medieval ages ended, important early figures in medicine emerged in Europe, including Gabriele Falloppio and William Harvey.
An ancient Greek patient gets medical treatment: this (circa 480-470 BCE, now in , probably contained healing oil
The major shift in medical thinking was the gradual rejection, especially during the in the 14th and 15th centuries, of what may be called the 'traditional authority' approach to science and medicine. This was the notion that because some prominent person in the past said something must be so, then that was the way it was, and anything one observed to the contrary was an anomaly (which was paralleled by a similar shift in European society in general - see Copernics's rejection of Ptolem's theories on astronomy). Physicians like and Vesalius led the way in improving upon or indeed rejecting the theories of great authorities from the past (such as Hippocrates, and Galen), many of whose theories were in time discredited.
Modern scientific (where reSults are testable and reproducible) began to replace early Western traditions based on herbalism, the Greek "four humour" and other such pre-modern notions. The modern era really began with Robert Koch's discoveries around 1880 of the transmission of disease by bacteria, and then the discovery of antibiotics around 1900. The post-18th century
Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnos and treat injury and disease, typically through medication, surgery, or some other form of therapy. The word medicine is derived from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.
Though medical technology and clinical expertise are pivotal to contemporary medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering continues to require the application of ordinary human feeling and compassio, known in English as bedside manner.
Prehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal parts and minerals. In many cases these materials were used ritually as magical substances by priests, shamans, or medicine me. Well-known spiritual systems include animism (the notion of inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (an appeal to gods or communion with ancestor spirits); shamanism (the vesting of an individual with mystic powers); and divination (magically obtaining the truth). The field of medical anthropology studies the various prehistoric medical systems and their interaction with society.
Early records on medicine have been discovered from early Ayurvedic medicine in the . Early Greek doctor Hippocrates, who is also called the Father of Medicine, and Galen laid a foundation for later developments in a rational approach to medicine. After the fall of Rome and the onset of the Dark Ages, Islamic physicians made major medical breakthroughs, supported by the translation of Hippocrates' and Galen's works into Arabic. Notable Islamic medical pioneers include polymat Avicenn, who is also called the Father of Modern Medicine,Abulcasis, the father of surgery, , the father of experimental surgery, Ibn al-Nafis, the father of circulatory physiology, and , who is called the father of pediatrics, first disproved the Grecian theory of , which nevertheless remained influential in Western . While major developments in medicine were occurring in the Islamic world during the medieval period, the Western world remained dependent upon the Greco-Roman theory of humorism, which led to questionable treatments such as bloodletting. Islamic medicine and medieval medicine collided during the crusades, with Islamic doctors receiving mixed impressions. As the medieval ages ended, important early figures in medicine emerged in Europe, including Gabriele Falloppio and William Harvey.
An ancient Greek patient gets medical treatment: this (circa 480-470 BCE, now in , probably contained healing oil
The major shift in medical thinking was the gradual rejection, especially during the in the 14th and 15th centuries, of what may be called the 'traditional authority' approach to science and medicine. This was the notion that because some prominent person in the past said something must be so, then that was the way it was, and anything one observed to the contrary was an anomaly (which was paralleled by a similar shift in European society in general - see Copernics's rejection of Ptolem's theories on astronomy). Physicians like and Vesalius led the way in improving upon or indeed rejecting the theories of great authorities from the past (such as Hippocrates, and Galen), many of whose theories were in time discredited.
Modern scientific (where reSults are testable and reproducible) began to replace early Western traditions based on herbalism, the Greek "four humour" and other such pre-modern notions. The modern era really began with Robert Koch's discoveries around 1880 of the transmission of disease by bacteria, and then the discovery of antibiotics around 1900. The post-18th century
AUTOMOBILE
An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. However, the term automobile is far from precise, because there are many types of vehicles that do similar tasks.
As of 2002, there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people). Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.
Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnet is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some[citation needed], who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam-powered vehicle around 1672 which was of small scale and designed as a toy for the Chinese Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger, but quite possibly, was the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile) What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.
In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.
François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with others such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobil, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.
In November 1881 French inventor demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.
An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, , which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components and including several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888.
Karl Benz
A photograph of the original Benz Patent Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.
His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886 and approximately 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and the Maybach and Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked together because by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially-ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands.
On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929 and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well.
In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.
The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler MotoR Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896 after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897 and they bore the name Daimler.
In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine. Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional pisto and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
As of 2002, there were 590 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people). Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; they burn over 260 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.
Although Nicolas-Joseph Cugnet is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in about 1769 by adapting an existing horse-drawn vehicle, this claim is disputed by some[citation needed], who doubt Cugnot's three-wheeler ever ran or was stable. Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam-powered vehicle around 1672 which was of small scale and designed as a toy for the Chinese Emperor that was unable to carry a driver or a passenger, but quite possibly, was the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile) What is not in doubt is that Richard Trevithick built and demonstrated his Puffing Devil road locomotive in 1801, believed by many to be the first demonstration of a steam-powered road vehicle although it was unable to maintain sufficient steam pressure for long periods, and would have been of little practical use.
In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearings; however, it was not developed further.
François Isaac de Rivaz, a Swiss inventor, designed the first internal combustion engine, in 1806, which was fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen and used it to develop the world's first vehicle, albeit rudimentary, to be powered by such an engine. The design was not very successful, as was the case with others such as Samuel Brown, Samuel Morey, and Etienne Lenoir with his hippomobil, who each produced vehicles (usually adapted carriages or carts) powered by clumsy internal combustion engines.
In November 1881 French inventor demonstrated a working three-wheeled automobile that was powered by electricity. This was at the International Exhibition of Electricity in Paris.Although several other German engineers (including Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach, and Siegfried Marcus) were working on the problem at about the same time, Karl Benz generally is acknowledged as the inventor of the modern automobile.
An automobile powered by his own four-stroke cycle gasoline engine was built in Mannheim, Germany by Karl Benz in 1885 and granted a patent in January of the following year under the auspices of his major company, , which was founded in 1883. It was an integral design, without the adaptation of other existing components and including several new technological elements to create a new concept. This is what made it worthy of a patent. He began to sell his production vehicles in 1888.
Karl Benz
A photograph of the original Benz Patent Motorwagen, first built in 1885 and awarded the patent for the concept
In 1879 Benz was granted a patent for his first engine, which had been designed in 1878. Many of his other inventions made the use of the internal combustion engine feasible for powering a vehicle.
His first Motorwagen was built in 1885 and he was awarded the patent for its invention as of his application on January 29, 1886. Benz began promotion of the vehicle on July 3, 1886 and approximately 25 Benz vehicles were sold between 1888 and 1893, when his first four-wheeler was introduced along with a model intended for affordability. They also were powered with four-stroke engines of his own design. Emile Roger of France, already producing Benz engines under license, now added the Benz automobile to his line of products. Because France was more open to the early automobiles, initially more were built and sold in France through Roger than Benz sold in Germany.
In 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine, called a boxermotor in German. During the last years of the nineteenth century, Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899 and because of its size, Benz & Cie., became a joint-stock company.
Daimler and Maybach founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company, DMG) in Cannstatt in 1890 and under the brand name, Daimler, sold their first automobile in 1892, which was a horse-drawn stagecoach built by another manufacturer, that they retrofitted with an engine of their design. By 1895 about 30 vehicles had been built by Daimler and Maybach, either at the Daimler works or in the Hotel Hermann, where they set up shop after falling out with their backers. Benz and the Maybach and Daimler team seem to have been unaware of each other's early work. They never worked together because by the time of the merger of the two companies, Daimler and Maybach were no longer part of DMG.
Daimler died in 1900 and later that year, Maybach designed an engine named Daimler-Mercedes, that was placed in a specially-ordered model built to specifications set by Emil Jellinek. This was a production of a small number of vehicles for Jellinek to race and market in his country. Two years later, in 1902, a new model DMG automobile was produced and the model was named Mercedes after the Maybach engine which generated 35 hp. Maybach quit DMG shortly thereafter and opened a business of his own. Rights to the Daimler brand name were sold to other manufacturers.
Karl Benz proposed co-operation between DMG and Benz & Cie. when economic conditions began to deteriorate in Germany following the First World War, but the directors of DMG refused to consider it initially. Negotiations between the two companies resumed several years later when these conditions worsened and, in 1924 they signed an Agreement of Mutual Interest, valid until the year 2000. Both enterprises standardized design, production, purchasing, and sales and they advertised or marketed their automobile models jointly—although keeping their respective brands.
On June 28, 1926, Benz & Cie. and DMG finally merged as the Daimler-Benz company, baptizing all of its automobiles Mercedes Benz as a brand honoring the most important model of the DMG automobiles, the Maybach design later referred to as the 1902 Mercedes-35hp, along with the Benz name. Karl Benz remained a member of the board of directors of Daimler-Benz until his death in 1929 and at times, his two sons participated in the management of the company as well.
In 1890, Emile Levassor and Armand Peugeot of France began producing vehicles with Daimler engines and so laid the foundation of the automobile industry in France.
The first design for an American automobile with a gasoline internal combustion engine was drawn in 1877 by George Selden of Rochester, New York, who applied for a patent for an automobile in 1879, but the patent application expired because the vehicle was never built. After a delay of sixteen years and a series of attachments to his application, on November 5, 1895, Selden was granted a United States patent (U.S. Patent 549,160) for a two-stroke automobile engine, which hindered, more than encouraged, development of automobiles in the United States. His patent was challenged by Henry Ford and others, and overturned in 1911.
In Britain there had been several attempts to build steam cars with varying degrees of success with Thomas Rickett even attempting a production run in 1860. Santler from Malvern is recognized by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain as having made the first petrol-powered car in the country in 1894 followed by Frederick William Lanchester in 1895 but these were both one-offs. The first production vehicles in Great Britain came from the Daimler MotoR Company, a company founded by Harry J. Lawson in 1896 after purchasing the right to use the name of the engines. Lawson's company made its first automobiles in 1897 and they bore the name Daimler.
In 1892, German engineer Rudolf Diesel was granted a patent for a "New Rational Combustion Engine". In 1897 he built the first Diesel Engine. Steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered vehicles competed for decades, with gasoline internal combustion engines achieving dominance in the 1910s.
Although various pistonless rotary engine designs have attempted to compete with the conventional pisto and crankshaft design, only Mazda's version of the Wankel engine has had more than very limited success.
FOREX EX
The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies. FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.
Presently, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.
The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.
The foreign exchange market is unique because of
its trading volumes,
the extreme liquidity of the market,
its geographical dispersion,
its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),
the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.
the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)
the use of leverage
Main foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.
As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:
$1.005 trillion in spot transactions
$362 billion in outright forwards
$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
$129 billion estimated gaps in reporting
Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in London accounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%. In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.
Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.
Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.
FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).
Top 10 currency traders % of overall volume, May 2008
Rank
Name
Volume
1
Deutsche Bank
21.70%
2
UBS AG
15.80%
3
Barclays Capital
9.12%
4
Citi
7.49%
5
Royal Bank of Scotland
7.30%
6
JPMorgan
4.19%
7
HSBC
4.10%
8
Lehman Brothers
3.58mnjl0o]'
.
9
Goldman Sachs
3.47%
10
Morgan Stanley
2.86%
Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms. Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey. These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 . For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".
These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.
Foreign exchange market
Financial regulation
Unlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the foreign exchange market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. Within the inter-bank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and usually unavailable, and not known to players outside the inner circle. The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for some currencies such as the EUR). This is due to volume. If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread. The levels of access that make up the foreign exchange market are determined by the size of the “line” (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. After that there are usually smaller investment banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail FX-metal market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size” Central banks also participate in the foreign exchange market to align currencies to their economic needs.
Presently, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements. Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.
The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.
The foreign exchange market is unique because of
its trading volumes,
the extreme liquidity of the market,
its geographical dispersion,
its long trading hours: 24 hours a day except on weekends (from 22:00 UTC on Sunday until 22:00 UTC Friday),
the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.
the low margins of profit compared with other markets of fixed income (but profits can be high due to very large trading volumes)
the use of leverage
Main foreign exchange market turnover, 1988 - 2007, measured in billions of USD.
As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks. According to the Bank for International Settlements, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion. Trading in the world's main financial markets accounted for $3.21 trillion of this. This approximately $3.21 trillion in main foreign exchange market turnover was broken down as follows:
$1.005 trillion in spot transactions
$362 billion in outright forwards
$1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
$129 billion estimated gaps in reporting
Of the $3.98 trillion daily global turnover, trading in London accounted for around $1.36 trillion, or 34.1% of the total, making London by far the global center for foreign exchange. In second and third places respectively, trading in New York accounted for 16.6%, and Tokyo accounted for 6.0%. In addition to "traditional" turnover, $2.1 trillion was traded in derivatives.
Exchange-traded FX futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts.
Several other developed countries also permit the trading of FX derivative products (like currency futures and options on currency futures) on their exchanges. All these developed countries already have fully convertible capital accounts. Most emerging countries do not permit FX derivative products on their exchanges in view of prevalent controls on the capital accounts. However, a few select emerging countries (e.g., Korea, South Africa, India—) have already successfully experimented with the currency futures exchanges, despite having some controls on the capital account.
FX futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, and accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).
Top 10 currency traders % of overall volume, May 2008
Rank
Name
Volume
1
Deutsche Bank
21.70%
2
UBS AG
15.80%
3
Barclays Capital
9.12%
4
Citi
7.49%
5
Royal Bank of Scotland
7.30%
6
JPMorgan
4.19%
7
HSBC
4.10%
8
Lehman Brothers
3.58mnjl0o]'
.
9
Goldman Sachs
3.47%
10
Morgan Stanley
2.86%
Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues have made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. In 2006, retail traders constituted over 2% of the whole FX market volumes with an average daily trade volume of over US$50-60 billion (see retail trading platforms. Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 34.1% in April 2007. The ten most active traders account for almost 80% of trading volume, according to the 2008 Euromoney FX survey. These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually 0–3 . For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203 on a retail broker. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually 100,000 units of base currency, which is a standard "lot".
These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100/1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000/1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e., 0.0003). Competition is greatly increased with larger transactions, and pip spreads shrink on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.
Foreign exchange market
Financial regulation
Unlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the foreign exchange market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. Within the inter-bank market, spreads, which are the difference between the bid and ask prices, are razor sharp and usually unavailable, and not known to players outside the inner circle. The difference between the bid and ask prices widens (from 0-1 pip to 1-2 pips for some currencies such as the EUR). This is due to volume. If a trader can guarantee large numbers of transactions for large amounts, they can demand a smaller difference between the bid and ask price, which is referred to as a better spread. The levels of access that make up the foreign exchange market are determined by the size of the “line” (the amount of money with which they are trading). The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions. After that there are usually smaller investment banks, followed by large multi-national corporations (which need to hedge risk and pay employees in different countries), large hedge funds, and even some of the retail FX-metal market makers. According to Galati and Melvin, “Pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other institutional investors have played an increasingly important role in financial markets in general, and in FX markets in particular, since the early 2000s.” (2004) In addition, he notes, “Hedge funds have grown markedly over the 2001–2004 period in terms of both number and overall size” Central banks also participate in the foreign exchange market to align currencies to their economic needs.
MOUNTAIN N PEAKS
Mount Everest – also called Sagarmatha (Nepali: सगरमाथा), Chomolungma or Qomolangma (Tibetan: ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ) or Zhumulangma (Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰 Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng) – is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height above sea level of its , 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal.
In 1856, the of India established the first published height of Everest at 29,002 ft (8,840 m), although at the time Everest was known as Peak XV. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the upon recommendation of , the Surveyor General of India at the time. Waugh was unable to propose an established local name because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners at the time, although Chomolungma had been in common use by Tibetans for centuries.
The highest mountain in the world attracts climbers of all levels, from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route (other such as or Nanga Parbat are much more difficult), still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. By the end of the 2008 climbing season, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals. Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US$ 25,000 per person. Everest has claimed 210 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain. Conditions are so difficult in the that most corpses have been left where they fell. Some of them are visible from standard climbing routes.
In 1808, the British began the Great Trigonometric Survey of India to determine the location and names of the world's highest mountains. Starting in southern India, the survey teams gradually moved northward using giant 1100 pound (500 kg) theodolites (each requiring 12 men to carry) to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country because of suspicions of political aggression and possible annexation. Several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were turned down.The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas. Conditions in Terai were difficult owing to torrential rains and malaria — three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire owing to failing health Nonetheless, in 1847, the British pressed on and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to 150 mi (240 km) away. Weather restricted work to the last three months of the year. In November 1847, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India made a number of observations from Sawajpore station located in the eastern end of the Himalayas. At the time, Kangchenjunga was considered the highest peak in the world, and with interest he noted a peak beyond it, some 140 mi (230 km) away. John Armstrong, one of Waugh's officials, also saw the peak from a location further west and called it peak 'b'. Waugh would later write that the observations indicated that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga, but given the great distance of the observations, closer observations were required for verification. The following year, Waugh sent a survey official back to Terai to make closer observations of peak 'b', but clouds thwarted all attempts.
In 1849, Waugh dispatched James Nicolson to the area. Nicolson was able to make two observations from Jirol, 118 mi (190 km) away. Nicolson then took the largest theodolite and headed east, obtaining over 30 observations from five different locations, with the closest being 108 mi (174 km) away from the peak.
Nicolson retreated to PatNa on the Ganges to perform the necessary calculations based on his observations. His raw data gave an average height of 30,200 ft (9,200 m) for peak 'b', but this did not take into account light refraction which distorts heights. The number clearly indicated, however, that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga. Unfortunately, Nicolson came down with malaria and was forced to return home, calculations unfinished. Michael Hennessy, one of Waugh's assistants, had begun designating peaks based on Roman Numerals, with Kangchenjunga named Peak IX, while peak 'b' now became known as Peak XV.In 1852, stationed at the survey's headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal, was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak, using trigonometric calculations based on Nicolson's measurements. An official announcement that Peak XV was the highest was delayed for several years as the calculations were repeatedly verified. Waugh began work on Nicolson's data in 1854, and along with his staff spent almost two years working on the calculations, having to deal with the problems of light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature over the vast distances of the observations. Finally, in March 1856 he announced his findings in a letter to his deputy in Calcutta. Kangchenjunga was declared to be 28,156 ft (8,582 m), while Peak XV was given the height of 29,002 ft (8,840 m). Waugh concluded that Peak XV was "most probably the highest in the world". In actuality, Peak XV was found to be exactly 29,000 feet (8,839 m) high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft (8,840 m). The arbitrary addition of 2 feet (60 cm) was to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate.
In 1856, the of India established the first published height of Everest at 29,002 ft (8,840 m), although at the time Everest was known as Peak XV. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the upon recommendation of , the Surveyor General of India at the time. Waugh was unable to propose an established local name because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners at the time, although Chomolungma had been in common use by Tibetans for centuries.
The highest mountain in the world attracts climbers of all levels, from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route (other such as or Nanga Parbat are much more difficult), still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. By the end of the 2008 climbing season, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals. Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US$ 25,000 per person. Everest has claimed 210 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain. Conditions are so difficult in the that most corpses have been left where they fell. Some of them are visible from standard climbing routes.
In 1808, the British began the Great Trigonometric Survey of India to determine the location and names of the world's highest mountains. Starting in southern India, the survey teams gradually moved northward using giant 1100 pound (500 kg) theodolites (each requiring 12 men to carry) to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country because of suspicions of political aggression and possible annexation. Several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were turned down.The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas. Conditions in Terai were difficult owing to torrential rains and malaria — three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire owing to failing health Nonetheless, in 1847, the British pressed on and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to 150 mi (240 km) away. Weather restricted work to the last three months of the year. In November 1847, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India made a number of observations from Sawajpore station located in the eastern end of the Himalayas. At the time, Kangchenjunga was considered the highest peak in the world, and with interest he noted a peak beyond it, some 140 mi (230 km) away. John Armstrong, one of Waugh's officials, also saw the peak from a location further west and called it peak 'b'. Waugh would later write that the observations indicated that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga, but given the great distance of the observations, closer observations were required for verification. The following year, Waugh sent a survey official back to Terai to make closer observations of peak 'b', but clouds thwarted all attempts.
In 1849, Waugh dispatched James Nicolson to the area. Nicolson was able to make two observations from Jirol, 118 mi (190 km) away. Nicolson then took the largest theodolite and headed east, obtaining over 30 observations from five different locations, with the closest being 108 mi (174 km) away from the peak.
Nicolson retreated to PatNa on the Ganges to perform the necessary calculations based on his observations. His raw data gave an average height of 30,200 ft (9,200 m) for peak 'b', but this did not take into account light refraction which distorts heights. The number clearly indicated, however, that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga. Unfortunately, Nicolson came down with malaria and was forced to return home, calculations unfinished. Michael Hennessy, one of Waugh's assistants, had begun designating peaks based on Roman Numerals, with Kangchenjunga named Peak IX, while peak 'b' now became known as Peak XV.In 1852, stationed at the survey's headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal, was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak, using trigonometric calculations based on Nicolson's measurements. An official announcement that Peak XV was the highest was delayed for several years as the calculations were repeatedly verified. Waugh began work on Nicolson's data in 1854, and along with his staff spent almost two years working on the calculations, having to deal with the problems of light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature over the vast distances of the observations. Finally, in March 1856 he announced his findings in a letter to his deputy in Calcutta. Kangchenjunga was declared to be 28,156 ft (8,582 m), while Peak XV was given the height of 29,002 ft (8,840 m). Waugh concluded that Peak XV was "most probably the highest in the world". In actuality, Peak XV was found to be exactly 29,000 feet (8,839 m) high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft (8,840 m). The arbitrary addition of 2 feet (60 cm) was to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet was nothing more than a rounded estimate.
Friday, May 8, 2009
IMMIGRATION
Immigration is a modern phenomenon. It owes its existence to the needs of an ever more intensely integrated global capitalist economy to have people move around for the purpose of work, for reproduction of labor power (studies, particularly higher and more specialized forms of knowledge) or political asylum across the borders of, some believe, an increasingly obsolete inter-state system. Immigrants are people who obtain legal status marked, at a minimum, by some form of residence permit that regulates the terms of their employment state where they work. Immigrants are different from the in that the latter does not have legal status in the country in which s/he works. (There can be a host of complex reasons for lack of legal status: lack of interest on part of the worker, the state's refusal to grant such permits to categories of foreign workers, institutional racism, etc.) Not all undocumented workers are, strictly speaking, illegal: Because of the complex history of global migrations, several powerful states, such as the United States, Canada, etc. have had legal systems in which work without explicit consent of the state has fallen through legal "cracks." Both immigrants and undocumented workers differ from as the latter do not engage in income earning activities in the countries they visit, so their economic impact is restricted mainly to consumption and environmental consequences. Seasonal labor migration is often treated in the press and in political rhetoric as a form of immigration.
The modern concept of immigration is related to the development of and and/or in a nation-state confers an inalienable right of residence in that state, but of non-citizens is subject to conditions set by . The emergence of modern nation-states made immigration a political issue: by imagining its populations, in violation of multi-ethnic, multi-'racial', multi-cultural realities 'on the ground', as homogenous blocks, constituting a defined by shared, single ethnicity, 'race' and/or culture. Legal and political restrictions on the presence of foreigners is a highly controversial political theme because such restrictions are introduced and maintained by states whose citizens have had a major, sustained and deeply consequential presence in states other than their own
The said there are more than 200 million migrants around the world today. hosted the largest number of immigrants, with 70.6 million people in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. , with over 45.1 million immigrants, is second, followed by, which hosts nearly 25.3 million. Most of today's migrant workers come from Asia.The global volume of immigration has been strikingly low in relative terms. The International Integration and Refugee Association estimated a mere 175 million international migrants in 2005, under 3 percent of the Contrast that to the average rate of globalization (the proportion of cross-border trade in all trade), which exceeds 20 percent.
The Middle East, some parts of Europe, small areas of South East Asia, and a few spots in the West Indies have the highest percentages of immigrant population recorded by the UN Census 2005. The reliability of immigrant censuses is, however, lamentably low due to the concealed character of undocumented labor migration. The has estimated the number of foreign migrants to be over 200 million worldwide today.
A now outdated theory of immigration distinguished between and Push factors refer primarily to the motive for from the country of origin. In the case of economic migration (usually labour migration), differentials in are prominent. If the value of wages in the new country surpasses the value of wages in one’s native country, he or she may choose to migrate as long as the travel costs are not too high. Particularly in the 19th century, economic expansion of the U.S. increased migrant flow, and in effect, nearly 20% of the population was foreign born versus today’s value of 10%, making up a significant amount of the labor force. Poor individuals from less developed countries can have far higher standards of living in developed countries than in their originating countries. The cost of emigration, which includes both the explicit costs, the ticket price, and the implicit cost, lost work time and loss of community ties, also play a major role in the pull of emigrants away from their native country. As transportation technology improved, travel time and costs decreased dramatically between the 18th and early 20th century. Travel across the Atlantic used to take up to 5 weeks in the 1700s, but around the time of the 1900s it took a mere 8 days. When the is lower, the immigration rates tend to be higher Escape from (personal or for relatives staying behind) is a traditional push factor, the availability of is the related pull factor. and can amplify poverty-driven migration flows. This kind of migration may be in the destination country (emigration is also illegal in some countries, such , and The main problem with push-and-pull theories is three-fold: first, they state the obvious (i.e., people from poorer places will seek to go to richer ones); second, they are unable to explain the emergence of migrant flows (if push and pull were the only things in existence, people from the poorest countries would migrate to the richest ones, when in reality such flows are well-nigh non-existent); third, they are unable to explain the stability of the emerging patterns of migration (i.e., once a flow from country A to country B is established, it will stay on for a relatively long time, even if the initial conditions that had given the push and pull to the migration are not there any more (as the case of the German case of the, or program shows.
Emigration and immigration are sometimes mandatory in a contract of employment: religious , and employees of international and the expect, by definition, to work 'overseas'. They are often referred to as , and their conditions of employment are typically equal to or better than those applying in the host country (for similar work).
For some migrants, education is the primary pull factor (although most are not classified as immigrants). migration from rich countries to lower-cost countries with better climate, is a new type of international migration. Examples include immigration of retired British citizens to Spain or Italy and of retired Canadian citizens to the U.S. (mainly to the U.S. states of Florida and Texas).
Non-economic push factors include persecution (religious and otherwise), frequent abuse, bullying, oppression, ethnic cleansing and even genocide, and risks to civilians during war.
Political motives traditionally motivate refugee flows - to escape dictatorship for instance.
Some migration is for personal reasons, based on a relationship (e.g. to be with family or a partner), such as in family reunification or transnational marriage. In a few cases, an individual may wish to emigrate to a new country in a form of transferred Evasion of criminal ju (e.g. avoiding ) is a personal motivation. This type of emigration and immigration is not normally legal, if a crime is internationally recognized, although criminals may disguise their identities or find other loopholes to evade detection. There have been cases, for example, of those who might be guilty of war crimes disguising themselves as victims of war or conflict and then pursuing asylum in a different country.
Barriers to immigration come not only in legal form; natural and social barriers to immigration can also be very powerful. Immigrants when leaving their country also leave everything familiar: their family, friends, support network, and culture. They also need to liquidate their assets often at a large loss, and incur the expense of moving. When they arrive in a new country this is often with many uncertainties including finding work, where to live, new laws, new cultural norms, language or accent issues, possible and other exclusionary behaviour towards them and their family. These barriers act to limit international migration (scenarios where populations move en masse to other continents, creating huge population surges, and their associated strain on infrastructure and services, ignore these inherent limits on migration.)
Some states, such as, have opted for technological changes to increase profitability (for example, greater ), and designed immigration laws specifically to prevent immigrants from coming to, and remaining within, the country. However, globalization, as well as low birth rates and an aging work force, has forced even Japan to reconsider its immigration policy.Japan's colonial past has also created considerable pockets of non-Japanese in Japan. Most of these groups, e.g., Koreans, have faced extreme levels of discrimination in Japan.
As a principle, citizens of one member nation of the are allowed to work in other member nations with little to no restriction on movement. For non-EU-citizen permanent residents in the EU, movement between EU-member states is considerably more difficult. After new waves of accession to the European Union, earlier members have often introduced measures to restrict participation in "their" labour markets by citizens of the new EU-member states. For instance, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain each restricted their labour market for up to seven years both in the 2004 and 2007 round of accession.
Due to the European Union's--in principle--single internal labour market policy, societies that have seen relatively low levels of labour immigration until recently--which have sent a significant portion of their population overseas in the past--such as and the Republic are seeing an influx of immigrants from EU countries with lower per capita annual earning rates, triggering nationwide immigration debates.
meanwhile, is seeing growing illegal immigration from As Spain is the closest EU member nation to Africa--Spain even has an old colonial city on the African continent,, not to mention the west of north Africa, in the Atlantic--it is physically easiest for African emigrants to reach. This has led to debate both within Spain and between Spain and other EU members. Spain has asked for border control assistance from other EU states; the latter have responded that Spain has brought the wave of African illegals on itself by granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
The and have seen major immigration since the end of World War II and have been debating the issue for decades. Foreign workers were brought in to those countries to help rebuild after the war, and many stayed. Political debates about immigration typically focus on statistics, the immigration law and policy, and the implementation of existing restrictions. In some European countries the debate in the 1990s was focused on asylum seekers, but restrictive policies within the European Union, as well as a reduction in armed conflict in Europe and neighboring regions, have sharply reduced asylum seekers
In the United States political debate on immigration has flared repeatedly since the US became independent. Some on the far-left of the political spectrum attribute anti-immigration rhetoric to an all-"white", under-educated and parochial minority of the population, ill-educated about the relative advantages of immigration for the US economy and society. While this mentality shows an obvious bias, it is often hard for civil discussion to occur regarding immigration due to its highly emotional underpinnings.
Since September 11, 2001, the politics of immigration has become an extremely hot issue. It was a central topic of the 2008 election cycle.The Mayor of New York City, is noted for having a pro-immigration stand
The politics of immigration have become increasingly associated with other issues, such as , and in western Europe especially, with the presence of as a new major religion. Those with security concerns cite the that point to the as an example of the value conflicts arising from immigration of while failing to recognize the fact that most participants of the 2005 civil unrest were citizens of France, not immigrants themselves, and the essence of their protest was denial of equal rights, and blatant racism, on the part of the state. Because of all these associations, immigration has become an emotional political issue in many European nations.
The modern concept of immigration is related to the development of and and/or in a nation-state confers an inalienable right of residence in that state, but of non-citizens is subject to conditions set by . The emergence of modern nation-states made immigration a political issue: by imagining its populations, in violation of multi-ethnic, multi-'racial', multi-cultural realities 'on the ground', as homogenous blocks, constituting a defined by shared, single ethnicity, 'race' and/or culture. Legal and political restrictions on the presence of foreigners is a highly controversial political theme because such restrictions are introduced and maintained by states whose citizens have had a major, sustained and deeply consequential presence in states other than their own
The said there are more than 200 million migrants around the world today. hosted the largest number of immigrants, with 70.6 million people in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. , with over 45.1 million immigrants, is second, followed by, which hosts nearly 25.3 million. Most of today's migrant workers come from Asia.The global volume of immigration has been strikingly low in relative terms. The International Integration and Refugee Association estimated a mere 175 million international migrants in 2005, under 3 percent of the Contrast that to the average rate of globalization (the proportion of cross-border trade in all trade), which exceeds 20 percent.
The Middle East, some parts of Europe, small areas of South East Asia, and a few spots in the West Indies have the highest percentages of immigrant population recorded by the UN Census 2005. The reliability of immigrant censuses is, however, lamentably low due to the concealed character of undocumented labor migration. The has estimated the number of foreign migrants to be over 200 million worldwide today.
A now outdated theory of immigration distinguished between and Push factors refer primarily to the motive for from the country of origin. In the case of economic migration (usually labour migration), differentials in are prominent. If the value of wages in the new country surpasses the value of wages in one’s native country, he or she may choose to migrate as long as the travel costs are not too high. Particularly in the 19th century, economic expansion of the U.S. increased migrant flow, and in effect, nearly 20% of the population was foreign born versus today’s value of 10%, making up a significant amount of the labor force. Poor individuals from less developed countries can have far higher standards of living in developed countries than in their originating countries. The cost of emigration, which includes both the explicit costs, the ticket price, and the implicit cost, lost work time and loss of community ties, also play a major role in the pull of emigrants away from their native country. As transportation technology improved, travel time and costs decreased dramatically between the 18th and early 20th century. Travel across the Atlantic used to take up to 5 weeks in the 1700s, but around the time of the 1900s it took a mere 8 days. When the is lower, the immigration rates tend to be higher Escape from (personal or for relatives staying behind) is a traditional push factor, the availability of is the related pull factor. and can amplify poverty-driven migration flows. This kind of migration may be in the destination country (emigration is also illegal in some countries, such , and The main problem with push-and-pull theories is three-fold: first, they state the obvious (i.e., people from poorer places will seek to go to richer ones); second, they are unable to explain the emergence of migrant flows (if push and pull were the only things in existence, people from the poorest countries would migrate to the richest ones, when in reality such flows are well-nigh non-existent); third, they are unable to explain the stability of the emerging patterns of migration (i.e., once a flow from country A to country B is established, it will stay on for a relatively long time, even if the initial conditions that had given the push and pull to the migration are not there any more (as the case of the German case of the, or program shows.
Emigration and immigration are sometimes mandatory in a contract of employment: religious , and employees of international and the expect, by definition, to work 'overseas'. They are often referred to as , and their conditions of employment are typically equal to or better than those applying in the host country (for similar work).
For some migrants, education is the primary pull factor (although most are not classified as immigrants). migration from rich countries to lower-cost countries with better climate, is a new type of international migration. Examples include immigration of retired British citizens to Spain or Italy and of retired Canadian citizens to the U.S. (mainly to the U.S. states of Florida and Texas).
Non-economic push factors include persecution (religious and otherwise), frequent abuse, bullying, oppression, ethnic cleansing and even genocide, and risks to civilians during war.
Political motives traditionally motivate refugee flows - to escape dictatorship for instance.
Some migration is for personal reasons, based on a relationship (e.g. to be with family or a partner), such as in family reunification or transnational marriage. In a few cases, an individual may wish to emigrate to a new country in a form of transferred Evasion of criminal ju (e.g. avoiding ) is a personal motivation. This type of emigration and immigration is not normally legal, if a crime is internationally recognized, although criminals may disguise their identities or find other loopholes to evade detection. There have been cases, for example, of those who might be guilty of war crimes disguising themselves as victims of war or conflict and then pursuing asylum in a different country.
Barriers to immigration come not only in legal form; natural and social barriers to immigration can also be very powerful. Immigrants when leaving their country also leave everything familiar: their family, friends, support network, and culture. They also need to liquidate their assets often at a large loss, and incur the expense of moving. When they arrive in a new country this is often with many uncertainties including finding work, where to live, new laws, new cultural norms, language or accent issues, possible and other exclusionary behaviour towards them and their family. These barriers act to limit international migration (scenarios where populations move en masse to other continents, creating huge population surges, and their associated strain on infrastructure and services, ignore these inherent limits on migration.)
Some states, such as, have opted for technological changes to increase profitability (for example, greater ), and designed immigration laws specifically to prevent immigrants from coming to, and remaining within, the country. However, globalization, as well as low birth rates and an aging work force, has forced even Japan to reconsider its immigration policy.Japan's colonial past has also created considerable pockets of non-Japanese in Japan. Most of these groups, e.g., Koreans, have faced extreme levels of discrimination in Japan.
As a principle, citizens of one member nation of the are allowed to work in other member nations with little to no restriction on movement. For non-EU-citizen permanent residents in the EU, movement between EU-member states is considerably more difficult. After new waves of accession to the European Union, earlier members have often introduced measures to restrict participation in "their" labour markets by citizens of the new EU-member states. For instance, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain each restricted their labour market for up to seven years both in the 2004 and 2007 round of accession.
Due to the European Union's--in principle--single internal labour market policy, societies that have seen relatively low levels of labour immigration until recently--which have sent a significant portion of their population overseas in the past--such as and the Republic are seeing an influx of immigrants from EU countries with lower per capita annual earning rates, triggering nationwide immigration debates.
meanwhile, is seeing growing illegal immigration from As Spain is the closest EU member nation to Africa--Spain even has an old colonial city on the African continent,, not to mention the west of north Africa, in the Atlantic--it is physically easiest for African emigrants to reach. This has led to debate both within Spain and between Spain and other EU members. Spain has asked for border control assistance from other EU states; the latter have responded that Spain has brought the wave of African illegals on itself by granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
The and have seen major immigration since the end of World War II and have been debating the issue for decades. Foreign workers were brought in to those countries to help rebuild after the war, and many stayed. Political debates about immigration typically focus on statistics, the immigration law and policy, and the implementation of existing restrictions. In some European countries the debate in the 1990s was focused on asylum seekers, but restrictive policies within the European Union, as well as a reduction in armed conflict in Europe and neighboring regions, have sharply reduced asylum seekers
In the United States political debate on immigration has flared repeatedly since the US became independent. Some on the far-left of the political spectrum attribute anti-immigration rhetoric to an all-"white", under-educated and parochial minority of the population, ill-educated about the relative advantages of immigration for the US economy and society. While this mentality shows an obvious bias, it is often hard for civil discussion to occur regarding immigration due to its highly emotional underpinnings.
Since September 11, 2001, the politics of immigration has become an extremely hot issue. It was a central topic of the 2008 election cycle.The Mayor of New York City, is noted for having a pro-immigration stand
The politics of immigration have become increasingly associated with other issues, such as , and in western Europe especially, with the presence of as a new major religion. Those with security concerns cite the that point to the as an example of the value conflicts arising from immigration of while failing to recognize the fact that most participants of the 2005 civil unrest were citizens of France, not immigrants themselves, and the essence of their protest was denial of equal rights, and blatant racism, on the part of the state. Because of all these associations, immigration has become an emotional political issue in many European nations.
BIKES N CARS
motorcycles/motorbikes - keep it flooded!User NameRemember Me?PasswordSearch ForumsShow Threads Show PostsGo to Page...Page 2 of 4vbmenu_register("threadtools");10-07-2007, 03:57 AMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13066", true);So shallow I love my C30Join Date: Jul 2007Location: Newcastle, AustraliaPosts: 770Great looking bike__________________Black RodMY08 T5/SA Calcite Scotia Prem +6 stack KeylessBlack Rod10-12-2007, 10:58 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13627", true);Swedish C30 lover in USAJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Irvine, CAPosts: 142Looks like I might be the only person with a love for cruiser bikes... Currently my primary mode of transport is this little weakling:I would love to have a Triumph America... but I went for the C30 instead... good choice, no? The bike can come later. :-)mrpeachum10-14-2007, 07:52 AMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13700", true);So shallow I love my C30Join Date: Jul 2007Location: Newcastle, AustraliaPosts: 770Quote:Originally Posted by mrpeachum . . . good choice, no? . . .Looks like a Yamaha XV250 "Virago"? I rented one back in 1994 when I was getting back into bikes after many years of being sensible. I wanted to know if it is true that you never forget how. And, fortunately, it is true, I hadn't forgotten. It was a lot of fun and very practical machine in a big city.On the same afternoon I also rode a Yamaha 600 cc sports bike and was amazed how much bikes had improved inmy absence. I couldn't believe how hard they went, how well they cornered and that they now had brakes that actually worked quite well. In my view, there are no bad bikes. It's a bit like red wine (and boats), there are good ones and better ones but none that aren't worth a try.__________________Black RodMY08 T5/SA Calcite Scotia Prem +6 stack KeylessBlack Rod10-14-2007, 01:40 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13717", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311It's really a fine line with cruisers. Some are functional and safe being an old design, while other (choppers) are mostly "art" that doesn't belong on public roads. Not sure about straightline acceleration, but they can't turn and can't brake. I'd be scared to ride one in traffic. Being so vulnerable, the bike really has to exceed cars' agility in all three aspects: accelerating, braking, and turning, to be safe.Alex R10-14-2007, 09:05 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13747", true);So shallow I love my C30Join Date: Jul 2007Location: Newcastle, AustraliaPosts: 770I'd love to say all (big especially) cruisers are crap but, with the exception of the sweet little Virago, I've never ridden one. I've avoided Harleys and their immitators for many reasons including the ones Alex refers to. The biggest objection I have to Harleys though is having to wear the H-D "uniform". This comprised of unsuitable/unsafe riding apparel and making a racket that would wake the dead in a "look-at-me" sort of way while pretending in some way to be a rebel. Baloney, I think is the (polite) American expression. more likely.__________________Black RodMY08 T5/SA Calcite Scotia Prem +6 stack KeylessBlack Rod10-16-2007, 04:10 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13881", true);in need of a euro hatchJoin Date: Nov 2006Location: Northern VAPosts: 52i really like the idea of making mine own street fighter bike. Looking at prices, it doesn't seem to outrageous, but its certainly not cheap (if you are picky). Using a CBR f4i as a base, its not very cheap.. but cheaper than a ducati or triumph equivalent. It'd just be nice to learn a lot about the bike along the way.zer0_thirteen10-16-2007, 05:26 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13890", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311Buy it used with rashed fairings and it'll be cheap. You don't need plastics anyway. Check out the new KTM 690 Duke. That'd be my choice. Underbelly exhaust!!!Alex R10-16-2007, 09:06 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13908", true);So shallow I love my C30Join Date: Jul 2007Location: Newcastle, AustraliaPosts: 770Quote:Originally Posted by zer0_thirteen . . . Using a CBR f4i as a base . . .013, the CBR600 is a high revvin' sport bike that, to enjoy, you need to be a fairly experienced rider. You have to push it quite hard to get the best from it. The KTM Alex mentions has the right style of engine with low end urge but may be a bit tall in the saddle. Obviously, we don't know your stature, but you probably need long legs for a Supermoto style of bike. Right Alex?BMW used to make a 650 "Funduro" which is a great all rounder but may also have a relatively high seat height.But, I think you were on the right track with the SV650 as a better basis for an unfaired street fighter - don't forget to fit some hero blobs!Attached Images__________________Black RodMY08 T5/SA Calcite Scotia Prem +6 stack KeylessBlack Rod10-16-2007, 09:22 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13911", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311Did I say SV650? And then edited it? :) Yeah, this is pretty much the iconic easy to ride v-twin: extremely popular bike. All of those naked models look the same to me, sorry. So honestly I don't know how SV is much different from Monster stylistically. It's just less expensive, way more reliable, and has enormous aftermarket support. SV would require suspension mods (GSXR front-end swap, etc.) after you start getting serious (like in a year), but by then you may crave something else. The KTM I recommended has 65hp which probably means 45 at the wheel whether F4i has about 100hp. There's a trick though. I4 bikes like F4i only come to life after 10K rpm, so they have less power in the midrange you typically use on the street. That's the major difference. Try both. As a beginner I bet you'd like v-twins or singles for their even and predictable pull.Last edited by Alex R; 10-16-2007 at 11:56 PM.Alex R10-16-2007, 11:29 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13928", true);So shallow I love my C30Join Date: Jul 2007Location: Newcastle, AustraliaPosts: 770That KTM looks gerat - as modern as tomorrow! Seat could be a bit thin? Muffler could double as a toe-warmer?__________________Black RodMY08 T5/SA Calcite Scotia Prem +6 stack KeylessBlack Rod10-17-2007, 12:03 AMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13933", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311I don't have much luck with linked pictures today. The seat looks OK to me. It's the easiest thing to change anyway. I don't know how anyone can buy another naked bike after looking at the new Duke. You gotta really hate [very subtle] MX styling to not like that bike. And owning a KTM I can attest to the highest quality. They're like BMW cars: addictive. Not to mention they're way more reliable than Ducatis on average though European bikes (and cars) of course don't compare to Japanese in terms of reliability. I also totally forgot about the upcoming RC8. It's outside of my price range, but I'd totally get it over any high end Ducati or MV.Alex R10-17-2007, 12:26 AMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13935", true);in need of a euro hatchJoin Date: Nov 2006Location: Northern VAPosts: 52seeing the pricing of the sv650, and then hearing them in person, i think they are probably the best choice. v-twin would definitely be the way to go (for me!), but one of my good friends has a CBR and really enjoys it. Not to be lame, but I think its too "sporty" for me. I don't really want to be crouched (or reclining for that matter!). Not yet anyways. Motorcycle Safety Class before anything though!zer0_thirteen10-17-2007, 03:32 AMvbmenu_register("postmenu_13944", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311Yeah, MSF is a must. Then full leather gear. Jeans are not acceptable. End of discussion.First you need to take it easy as it's a lifetime journey. And second: be serious about this hobby. I've been extremely serious about sportbikes, but not supermoto lately. Obviously due to lower speeds. I've crashed both several times (on the track). High-speed sportbike crashes never resulted in any injuries (see above about gear), but my recent 20mph supermoto lowside caused me a broken ankle. Just be serious. Crashes do happen, but for the most part they're avoidable, at least on the street.I personally prefer Japanese sportbikes (inline fours), but I rode my friend's SV on the track and loved it. It was fully built, but that's relatively simple and not expensive at all. It's a very nice smooth forgiving bike. And fast too. Contrary to popular belief 600cc I4s like F4i are not torque monster. Neither you're crouched down. Squids and posers do that. You don't have to. It looks silly on public roads. Those bikes are civilized versions of race machines. Modern Japanese bikes have excellent ergonomics. Ducati superbikes don't being designed for the track. I've done 400+ mile rides on my 600RR (which is more aggressive than F4i) with no problems. Stopping only for gas. As far as power, don't worry about it too much. I4s don't make much power down low or in the midrange. If you're ham fisted or generally not attentive/alert person, or for any other reason don't have the right mindset for motorcycles, you'd injury or kill yourself on any bike, even Ninja 250 highly recommended for newbies here in the US. There are primarily two aspects to starting this hobby: being safe and learning. If you get a bigger faster bike it doesn't mean you'd go down. You'd learn slower, that's all. I started on a Thundercat and I didn't drop it within the first year like the statistics say. See, it's your choice to be part of statistics and averages. You should strive (and believe) that you're above average and those statistics don't apply to you. Don't blatantly ignore them; just believe and try as hard as you can. Believing is everything in this hobby. Primarily believing that you're in control. The bike does what you want it to do: accelerates, stops, and turns where you guide it. You are in control. Always. Nothing can make you lose control. You plan your path and the bike follows.Now to the second part: learning. A faster, but more than anything heavier bike will affect your learning big time. So you'll learn slower, big deal. But in exchange you will go through fewer trade-ins on your way to the bike you always wanted. Learning time is largely irrelevant. You have your whole life in front of you. Like I said above, take your time. Don't rush things. They'll come. Guaranteed. And learning never stops. Every minute in the saddle you're learning something. The main point is to enjoy it, not to try to learn everything quickly. If you're not enjoying every minute in the saddle, just sell the bike.Weight is very important as it affects your turning. Heavier bike will resist cornering and you'd find yourself turning wide and even possibly crossing the double yellow. They'll teach you at MSF that the bike follows your vision, so you need to look where you want to go. Heavier bikes don't do that (ridden by beginners). I don't care about the power, as we all have basic hand coordination for safe throttle management. But please do your research and try to find the lightest bike that you still like. One more thing. If you're buying new, especially a sportbike, get the latest model, not some stale design like F4i, Thundercat, or ZZR even though they're still in production. The newer sportbikes are smoother, lighter, have better brakes and compliant suspension. As a result they're easier to operate and safer. Don't worry about power too much like I said. You won't drop it. The worst that can happen to a mature level-headed person is that you'll learn slower.Sorry for the late night post whoring. Hope it was helpful.Last edited by Alex R; 10-17-2007 at 03:45 AM.Alex R10-17-2007, 05:40 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_14029", true);in need of a euro hatchJoin Date: Nov 2006Location: Northern VAPosts: 52Your post was incredibly helpful Alex. There has been some good literature on the topic lately (new york times even) and the thought of getting a motorcycle seems pretty attractive, I know its definitely worth the $100-150 on MSF. I may even find its not for me (which would be best to do without any kind of heavy investment). I'll make sure to get the proper gear too. Just out of curiousity, you mention that heavier bikes affect the speed of your learning. What would be a good starting weight bike? Obviously, the Ninja250 weighs about 300lbs and that would be "lightweight" but a SV650 or a 599 weigh about 430lbs are these starting to be "heavy" or heavy enough that impede turning?zer0_thirteen10-17-2007, 07:13 PMvbmenu_register("postmenu_14044", true);C30WORLD SJoin Date: Jul 2007Location: Southern KaliforniaPosts: 311Ha-ha. That's what I thought before the MSF too. What if I don't like it or I just can't learn it, blah, blah, blah. Not that I wanna brag about myself, but see, I’ve made it safely that far (minus the recent ankle break), I enjoy it, and continue improving my skills (and lap times on the track). I only started it four and a half years ago. You have exactly the same mindset, so connect the dots. You’ll do well both in terms of safety and performance. Motorcycles ARE for you. Don't worry and don't let anyone affect your confidence. You already have the right mindset and that’s the main thing. MSF is kinda hard for first-timers, but almost everyone passes. I must confess I struggled with it. Consider it an introduction to the sport. Riding a motorcycle requires a lot of effort compared to driving a car (even with manual transmission). An introduction to that effort may be shocking at first, but everything will quickly become automatic.The "lightness" of the bike is defined both by the weight and geometry (front forks rake angle, rear swingarm length, etc. etc.) The weight of course is the main thing that affects it. There are two characteristics of bike's handling that don't apply to cars and you'll struggle with them at first because of that. It's stability vs. flickability. I didn’t know SV is over 400lbs, but it feels light due to wide handlebar (and thus the leverage). Yes, at 430lbs (450-460 wet) they’re starting to get heavy. 3200lb (real-world number) Ninjai 250 is flickable no matter what. Modern flickable sportbikes are around 380-400lbs wet. The SV650 I rode was fully built (including lighter components) and had different geometry due to the GSXR front-end. It felt very light and nimble. As you can tell from my numbers Japanese companies play with theirs: both power and weight. Read an unbiased third-party comparison review with real-world “wet” weight, but more than anything bike’s feeling tpo the tester: does it resist turning or not. Motorcycle-usa.com has those comparos. There’s no weight threshold you should obey religiously; 500lbs maybe. Overall it’s more important to buy the bike YOU want. To fully enjoy it. So if you have several choices, just pick the lightest, that’s all.It’s not like the bike would not turn at all, but it’s very unnerving when it refuses to cooperate at the exact moment needed. Let’s say you’re approaching a 90-degree turn. So you plan your path with your eyes. A lighter bike would instantly start turning at this moment like it reads your mind. A heavier “stable” bike would continue going straight and you risk missing your turn-in point. So you panic, as you have no space left and the bike keeps going straight. The less space you have, the sharper you need to turn to make it. Then you finally fight the panic and recall what to do (push on the inside bar), but you don’t know how much you can push safely. You’ve never been at this frightening lean angle before. All of this wouldn’t happen if you didn’t mess up the line by missing the turn-in point. And you wouldn’t miss it if everything happened automatically without any conscious effort (pushing) and occupying your mind worrying about it. You just approach the turn, look, and the bike turns. Pushing does become automatic even with heavier bikes, but you’d rather struggle with it less in the beginning. The bike’s handling (stability, flickability, etc.) can be greatly manipulated by suspension as both the geometry (think of car alignment), the range of movement (sag), and stiffness/plushness are adjustable. Maybe you shouldn’t rush to upgrade the suspension immediately, but at least go to the specialist and get a good baseline setting to match your weight(sag) and suit your riding style. That’s another consideration: pick the bike with more modern higher quality suspension that allows for greater adjustability.
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