Monday, January 22, 2007

Global warming

------The result of global warming basically reflects on human activity.The burning of fossil fuels pollutes the atmosphere and alters the balance of radiation on Earth through both visible particulate pollution (called aerosols) and gases that change the composition of the atmosphere. The latter are referred to as greenhouse gases because they are relatively transparent to incoming solar radiation, while they absorb and reemit outgoing infrared radiation, thus creating a blanketing effect that results in warming. For example, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by about 30% over preindustrial values as a result of human activities.
------Increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produce global warming through an increase in heating at the Earth’s surface. This not only increases surface temperatures but also evaporates surface moisture. In fact, most of the heating at the surface goes into evaporating moisture which enhances the hydrological cycle. The analogy here is with the human body: if the heat is turned up, we sweat. The same is true for planet Earth.
Industralization has a hugh impact on global warming. Because the gases accumulated by the manufacturing machines it makes everything hotter. The burning of fossil fuels pollutes the atmosphere. The environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th Century have produced no deleterious effects upon global weather. The global temperature is warmer now than at any time since at least 1400 AD, which is as far back as scientists have good estimates of temperatures from direct and indirect observations.
------The Kyoto Protocol started in 1997, it which calls on industrialized nations to carry out, within one decade, drastic cuts in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) that stem mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. Some of the major countries that are part of this are Australia, Canada, China, German, Russia, and the United States. Not only did it consist of those countries but also another 163 different ones.
EFFECTS: extreme weather, the rise of sea levels, and forest fires
REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION: ride a bike to get from place t place, use CFL bulbs, and turn things off more frequently
------A new invention that has had a positive influence on global warming is the Hybrid car. These cars now run on less gas then a normal car so there are less gases in the atmospher which mean it is less polluted.
http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/documents/mmbralmanac.html
http://naturalscience.com/ns/articles/01-09/ns_ket.html
http://www.hoover.org/publications/epp/2834741.html?show=notes

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Atomic #- 21

Mass#- 44.9589

Discovered- 1879 By using spectral analysis, they found a new element within the minerals euxenite and gadolinite. They named it scandium, from the Latin Scandia meaning "Scandinavia"

Uses- New Lacrosse shafts, USSR submarine-launched ballistic missiles, makes high-intensity lights,

5 facts-50th most common element on earth, 23rd most common element in the sun, melting point is 1814 K,1541 °C, 2806 °F, A soft, silvery, white metal scandium ore occurs in rare minerals from Scandinavia and elsewhere, and it is sometimes considered along with yttrium, and the lanthanides and actinides, to be a rare earth. Density is 2.985 g·cm−3

Websites-www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1452
www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Sc/key.html

Monday, August 14, 2006

Reflection

This has been a great experience. I have become an intellectual nut. For years now my learning experiences has been based on taking notes and watching videos. I feel that basing my learning on a topic I love(lacrosse) is a great way to learn. This class thought me the basics to microeconomics of economics in an easy and fast manner. The positives to this blog project is that we are all able to learn economics using topics that we are interested in. Also, after blogging on every chapter people were able to comment on what you blogged. This was a very positive factor to this project because if you were getting to a point that our blogs were getting inaccurate, people would comment about it and would usually correct it though this class turned out to be very effective, I still feel that there could have been a few changes. For example, instead of just blogging about a topic that interests us every time, we could have made up our own business using the economic terms shown in each chapter and establish an even better understanding of economics. This would work a little better in my opinion because I would have to understand the economic terms to talk about my business. Another change that I would have liked was to have more lectures everyday that involved economic issues. I feel that this is definitely a great source that other teachers should develop in the future. Because not only did it enhance my knowledge but also stressed thinking outside the box. This will help us as we expand our knowledge.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Hello everyone, this is Joes blog. I am an aspiring lacrosse player that plays for a high school varsity team. If you have any interesting lacrosse discussions I will be glad to comment. I am recently took an economics course and for it I need to understand the basics to economics. For my first few blogs I will be discussing lacrosse related typics to understand basics to economics.

British airline attacks

The U.S. have just arrested 21 British citizens in London, England Thursday August. 10th. British citizens plan to blow up commercial airlines with explosive in hand carried."They were not yet sitting on an airplane," but were very close to traveling, the official said, calling that the plot was "the real deal". Because of this the U.S. president raised the airline treat level. What is the world coming to? Why is this still happening? It seems to me that the world is still not uniting as one but dispersing more everyday. People are not realizing that the world really is not becoming peaceful but hateful. You would think that after 9/11 peoples viewpoints would have changed.

"The U.S. government raised its threat warning to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to the United States early Thursday in response to a terror plot disrupted in London. Terrorists had targeted United, American and Continental airlines, two U.S. counterterrorism" officials said.

Have the treat been entirely eliminated? From the experiences in the past I am not sure that it is.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Economics #4

Labor, Employment , and Wages

Wage rate is the price of labor. Labors can consider a pro lacrosse player. The wage rate is higher than minimum wage but is lower than living standards. Minimum wage is the lowest possible wage rate given to an employee. This is guaranteed by the minimum wage law. The minimum wage law is a federal law that specifies the lowest hourly wage rate that can be paid to workers.

Derived demand is a demand that is the result of some other demand. This is shown extensively in lacrosse because, for example once you buy a unstrung the demand to buy the string would increase.

Labor union are organizations that seeking to increase the wages and improve the working conditions of its members. In most lacrosse stores employees are not required to join the union.
the opposite of this is call union shop, an organization that requires employees to join the union within a certain period after being hired. Lacrosse organizaions are not closed shop which are organizations that hire only union members. This is probably because of the Taft-Hartley act. This act banned closed shops.

Through out lacrosse history there has ever been a huge strike, a work stoppage called by union members to put pressure on an employer.The right-to-work law doesn't affect lacrosse organizations; the right-to-work law makes union shops illegal.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Economics #3

The setting in which a seller finds itself is a market structure. Market structures are defined by their characteristics, such as the number of sellers in the market, the product that sellers produce and sell, and how easy or difficult it is for new firms to enter the market. Since lacrosse is becoming such a popular sport the lacrosse market is increase incredibility. The market has increased their sellers and their products. The lacrosse market is doing so well that it is categorized as a perfectly competitive market:

  • the market has many buyers and many sellers
  • all firms sell idectical goods
  • buyers and seller have relevant information about prices, products quality, sources of supply, and so on
  • firms have easy entry into and exit out of the market

Most products in the lacrosse market are at equilibrium price. this means that if a shafts costs $75 it will stay at that price, it will not go up nor down. Those sellers are called price takers. Price takers are sellers that can sell all its output at the equiiblrium price but can sell none of its output at any other price.

There are many single sellers in the lacrosse market, these sellers are catagorized in a monopolistic market.

The lacrosse market is a public franchise. It is not run by the government. because the lacrosse market is increasing they don't have to deal with a natural monopoly. A natural monopoly is when a firm with such a low average total cost that only it can survive in the market.

Antitrust laws were drawn up in order to control monopoly power. This, now does not conflict with the lacrosse market just because their are not a lot of seller, but in the future this will conflict with lacrosse a lot.

A monopolistic competitive market is were the market includes many buyers and many sellers, firms produce and sell slightly differentiates products, and firms have easy entry into and exit out of the market. I feel that the lacrosse market is not yet at this point but yet very close. The opposite of a monopolistic competitve market is a oligopolistic market. An oligopolistic market is a market structure that is characterized by few seller, the production and sale of identical products, and signigicant barriers to entry. I feel that the lacrosse market is starting to walk away from this.

Cartel agreement is an agreement that specifies how the firms that entered into the agreement will act in a coordinated way to reduce the competition among them. Price discrimination is a practice by which a seller changes different prices for the product it sells when the price differences do not reflect cost differences.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Economics #2

Business firms are organizations that use resources to produce goods and services that are sold to consumers, other businesses, or the government. Mikey Powell and Casey Powell are two famous college lacrosse players that have a huge impact on the business firms. Business firms love these two people because the business firms use them to produce DVD's, lacrosse heads , lacrosse shafts, lacrosse gloves and more. One organization that is very well-known is Brine Inc.(a corporation is a legal entity that can conduct business in its own name in the same way that an individual does). Brine took these two players and had them produce there own head, shaft, and glove designs. As a result Brine made a large amount a money.

Other corporations are STX, Warrior, Gait/deBeer, and Harrow. Corporations are also owned be its stockholders. Stockholders are people who buy shares of stock in a corporation. A share of stock represents a claim on the assets of the corporation. Assets are anything of value to which the firm has a legal claim. An example of this could be a popular lacrosse head that people are buying. Corporation have advantages such as limited liability, which is a condition in which an owner of a business firm can lose only the amount he or she has invested in the firm. Other advantages are that corporations continue to exist even if one or more owners sell their shares or die and that corporations are usually able to raise large sums of money by selling stock. In a lacrosse corporation the board of directors would be thinking of a head people would want to buy. They would find a popular lacrosse player and ask if he or she would design a new head for them. The board of directors are an important decision-making body in a corporation. It decides corporate polices and goals, among other things.

Shirking is putting forth less than the agreed- to effort. This is seen quite often in lacrosse because once a play is a veteran on their team they don't feel they have to work as hard, since they made it this far. Most lacrosse businesses such as nickel City Sports is owned by one person this is called sole proprietorship, not a partnership which is where two people own a businesses.

A franchise is a contract by which a firm lets a person or group use its name and sell its goods and services. A franchise in the lacrosse world is Dick's Sporting Goods. The franchiser is the entity that offers the franchise. the person or group that buys the franchise is called the franchisee.

In the lacrosse market all expenses or costs are called variable cost. Variable cost is a cost or expense, that changes with the number of units of a good produced. The only way that change this can change is if the product on sale, and that is usually because the demand for the product and gone down, this is called fixed cost. Fixed cost is a cost or expense, that is the same no matter how many units of a good are produced. When you add fixed and variable costs it is converted to the total cost. Once the products are sold you divide the total cost by the quantity of the output and get the average total cost.