The History and Purpose of the European Union

The European Union (EU) is a unification of 28 member states (including the United Kingdom) united to create a political and economic community throughout Europe. Though the idea of the EU might sound simple at the outset, the European Union has a rich history and a unique organization, both of which aid in its current success and its ability to fulfill its mission for the 21st Century. History The precursor to the European Union was established after World War II in the late 1940s in an effort to unite the countries of Europe and end the period of wars between neighboring countries. These nations began to officially unite in 1949 with the Council of Europe. In 1950, the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community expanded the cooperation. The six nations involved in this initial treaty were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Today, these countries are referred to as the founding members. During the 1950s, the Cold War, protests, and divisions between Eastern and Western Europe showed the need for further European unification. In order to do this, the Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957, thus creating the European Economic Community and allowing people and products to move throughout Europe. Throughout the decades, additional countries joined the community. In order to further unify Europe, the Single European Act was signed in 1987 with the aim of eventually creating a single market for trade. Europe was further unified in 1989 with the elimination of the boundary between Eastern and Western Europe—the Berlin Wall. The Modern Day EU Throughout the 1990s, the single market idea allowed easier trade, more citizen interaction on issues such as the environment and security, and easier travel through the different countries. Even though the countries of Europe had various treaties in place prior to the early 1990s, this time is generally recognized as the period when the modern day European Union arose due to the Treaty of Maastricht on the European Union—which was signed on February 7, 1992, and put into action on November 1, 1993. The Treaty of Maastricht identified five goals designed to unify Europe in more ways than just economically: 1. To strengthen the democratic governing of participating nations.2. To improve the efficiency of the nations.3. To establish economic and financial unification.4. To develop the community social dimension.5. To establish a security policy for involved nations. In order to reach these goals, the Treaty of Maastricht has various policies dealing with issues such as industry, education, and youth. In addition, the treaty put a single European currency, the euro, in the works to establish fiscal unification in 1999. The EU expanded in 2004 and 2007, bringing the total number of member states to 27. There are 28 member states today. In December 2007, all of the member nations signed the Treaty of Lisbon in hopes of making the EU more democratic and efficient to deal with climate change, national security, and sustainable development. How a Country Joins the EU For countries interested in joining the EU, there are several requirements that they must meet in order to proceed to accession and become a member state. The first requirement has to do with the political aspect. All countries in the EU are required to have a government that guarantees democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, as well as protects the rights of minorities. In addition to these political areas, each country must have a market economy that is strong enough to stand on its own within the competitive EU marketplace. Finally, the candidate country must be willing to follow the objectives of the EU that deal with politics, the economy, and monetary issues. This also requires that they be prepared to be a part of the administrative and judicial structures of the EU. After it is believed that the candidate nation has met each of these requirements, the country is screened, and if approved the Council of the European Union and the country draft a Treaty of Accession which then goes to the European Commission and European Parliament ratification and approval. If successful after this process, the nation is able to become a member state. How the EU Works With so many different nations participating, the governance of the EU is challenging. However, it is a structure that continually changes to become the most effective for the conditions of the time. Today, treaties and laws are created by the institutional triangle that is composed of the Council representing national governments, the European Parliament representing the people, and the European Commission that is responsible for holding up Europes main interests. The Council is formally called the Council of the European Union and is the main decision-making body present. There is also a Council President here, with each member state serving a six-month term in the position. In addition, the Council has the legislative power and decisions are made with a majority vote, a qualified majority, or a unanimous vote from member state representatives. The European Parliament is an elected body representing the citizens of the EU and participates in the legislative process as well. These representative members are directly elected every five years. Finally, the European Commission manages the EU with members that are appointed by the Council for five-year terms—usually one commissioner from each member state. Its main job is to uphold the common interest of the EU. In addition to these three main divisions, the EU also has courts, committees, and banks which participate in certain issues and aid in successful management. The EU Mission As in 1949 when it was founded with the creation of the Council of Europe, the European Unions mission for today is to continue prosperity, freedom, communication, and ease of travel and commerce for its citizens. The EU is able to maintain this mission through the various treaties making it function, cooperation from member states, and its unique governmental structure.

The Great Awakening, By Jonathan Edwards And Benjamin...

Religion is a moral code essential to humanity, but it is not the only moral option. Throughout much of history, religion has had a monopoly on what is defining what is morality. However, that monopoly has been destroyed many times. In the 16th century, Martin Luther tore apart the Catholic Church, and in the 17th century, the Age of Reason arose. Two authors who exemplify these two historical events, respectively, are Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. Jonathan Edwards was brought up on deeply Calvinist and Lutheran teachings, and was one of the many people responsible for The Great Awakening in America. Benjamin Franklin, although he was also brought up on Calvinist teachings, chose to develop his religious beliefs around reason and argument. The differences and similarities between the religious experiences of Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards include the way they questioned Christianity, the way in which they viewed themselves, and the way in which they behaved. These t raits bear scrutinization for examining how different moral codes may have vastly different effects.. Although both Franklin and Edwards were raised in religious households, their response, from childhood to adulthood, to their religious teachings was vastly different. Being the grandson, and only male offspring, to â€Å"one of the most influential and independent figures in the religious life of New England†(Edwards 396), Reverend Solomon Stoddard, the religious expectations upon Jonathan EdwardsShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Innovators of American Literature1066 Words   |  5 Pageswritings, Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin illustrate American themes in their personal narratives that quintessentially make part of American Literature. Although they lived in different times during the early development of the United States of America and wrote for different purposes, they share common themes. Their influence by their environment, individualism, proposals for a better society, and events that affected their society generate from their writings. By analyzing Jonathan Edwa rds PersonalRead MoreEssay Benjamin Franklin Compared to Jonathan Edwards1773 Words   |  8 PagesEnglish 2327 March 24, 2010 Errata in the Hands of an Un-Angry God: A Comparison of Edwards and Franklin Oberg and Stout put it best in the introduction of their book Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Representation of American Culture, â€Å"It is difficult, if not impossible to, think of two more widely studied colonial figures than Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards. As Franklin and Edwards have been studied individually over generations, so also have they been looked at together†Read MoreThe Great Awakening By Jonathan Edwards And George Whitefield Essay937 Words   |  4 PagesJonathan Edwards and George Whitefield had an indirect impact on the American Revolution due the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was a revival of a person’s personal spirituality sparked by Whitefield and Edwards; which de-emphasized the church. The revolution preached similar messages regarding criticism and tensions of authority. Without these two men, the American Revolution would not have happened as early as it did, if it all. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were both two extremeRead MoreEssay about Individualism in History1061 Words   |  5 Pageswere two men who could not be more obviously different than Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. Although they had different beliefs and goals, they still had the same motivations to succeed and similar work ethics. Despite Edwards and Franklin’s obvious difference, they were very much alike. When it comes to portraying a powerful message though, these two men couldn’t be more different in their writing style and delivery. Edwards, being the Puritan he was, wrote a powerful sermon entitled,Read MoreJonathan Edwards And The Great Awakening1080 Words   |  5 Pagespreachers such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards sparked a religious shift and revitalisation known as the Great Awakening. Edwards, influenced by enlightenment thinkers Berkeley and Locke, pioneered ideas and practices that would reshape the protestant church and American society. Jonathan Edwards transformed the religious and ideological landscape of the American public because of his large scale influence and role in the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards had a large scale influence on AmericanRead MoreThe Search For Happiness By Benjamin Franklin And Jonathan Edwards1616 Words   |  7 Pagesheroes of the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards mastered the art of religious theology and the sciences. Although their uprisings differed, they shared a drive for success and individual approach. Sharing an interest in similar fields, their ideals of religion and fulfillment became very different, which helped shape their own future endeavors. I will consider Edwards and Franklin to be a few of the last â€Å"Do it all† men of the 18th century. Jonathan Edwards was born on 1703 in EastRead MoreThe Great Awakening By Jonathan Edwards And George Whitefield2041 Words   |  9 Pages12/07/2014 Research Paper for history class: The Great Awakening The Great Awakening was a revival of religion in North America in the 1740s, led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. During that time, people started thinking more about free will. In their sermons, religious leaders emphasized everyone can be healed by God, including people who the Christian church had previously denounced as not faithful, such as the Baptists and Quakers. The Great Awakening also caused democratization in the northRead MoreThe Great Awakening Of The 1730s1630 Words   |  7 Pages The Great Awakening of the 1730s significantly altered the social structure of early Americal colonial society. The laity’s internal subjectivity and passional experiences were validated in regards to religious sentiments. This novel type of engagement of the laity is significant, as previously voiceless social and racial classes were given the authority to proclaim and propagate their interpretations of biblical scripture. The New Lights’ emphasis on the transform ative power of the Holy SpiritRead MoreThe Enlighment and the Great Awakening Influence on the American Revolution741 Words   |  3 Pagesthe Enlightenment and the Great awakening caused the colonists to alter their views about government, the role of government, as well as society at large which ultimately and collectively helped to motivate the colonists to revolt against England. The Enlightenment was vital in almost every part of the founding of America, which included everything from government, to politics itself, as well as religion. Many of the ideas from the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening shaped our country as a wholeRead MoreEssay about Great Awakening912 Words   |  4 PagesThe Great Awakening was when religion was sweeping throughout New England with more conversions and church membership. This spiritual awakening took place from 1735 up until 1745. (Brief Outline Notes on the Great Awakening, 1735-45 ) Most of this had taken place within the American Colonies, especially New England.(McCormick, pars. 9) . The Great Awakening had many causes, however the consequences benefitted many. Many people were moving farther and farther away from religion, the Great

Hypothesis and Acquisition of Language-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Hypothesis and Acquisition of Language. Answer: Critical Period Hypothesis and Acquisition of Language The process by which the humans acquire the ability to understand and form a sense of a coherent language structure is known as language acquisition, through this process the human beings create and use the wordsto make sentences to communicate with others.Language acquisition most commonly refers tothe acquisition of first language, which deals with the study of the infants and their acquisition of their respective native language. The acquisition of second language differs from the first language acquisition, it deals with the children or the adults learning other languages than native language. There are some theories about the acquisition and development of language in the humans one of which is the Critical Period Hypothesis theorized by Eric Lenneberg, the hypothesis states that there is a certain critical period in the development and acquisition of language in human beings and if that age is crossed then the individual faces certain problems in learning language. This essay w ill argue the importance of the critical age hypothesis in the development of language in humans. Genie started learning language when she was almost 14 years old, after she was discovered it was observed that she had almost no skill in language or proper communication skills. She did not have control over the organs of speech (Curtiss et al., 1974). After she was taught by the linguists and the psychologists her language acquisition showed that even after suffering from tragic isolation for a long period of time and absence of vocabulary or language, she started showing a bit of progress in phonology, she could pronounce several sound sequences while imitating them but she did not use spontaneous speech till five months into the research. She gained quite a bit of vocabulary as well but her grammar did not improve, she could combine two sentences for example cat hurt dog hurt as cat dog hurt but the there was no use of grammar. Her syntactic acquisition, was also much slower than any normal child (Curtiss et al., 1974). The language development of Genie was different from that of the normal children in several aspects. The phonological words were a lot different for Genie than the normal children, the early two syllable words that she spoke were not reduplicated which normal children did speak. She had no intonation and while the normal children learns nouns at first, Genie learned all the nouns pronouns and verbs but was not able to put it into coherent sentences. In the comprehension training she was unable to understand the word order and was also unable to understand passive sentences. She omitted the verbs, objects and subjects from the sentences. In case of negative sentences the words she was able to speak was the angry ones. She was able to say "stop it," "no more," "no," and her stock of negative words were very few (Curtiss et al., 1974). In case of interrogative sentences when she was asked a question she used to respond by repeating the last words of the sentence uttered by the speaker, also she was never able to use any interrogative questions. The study of ASL or American Sign Language is important to contribute to the study of Critical Period Hypothesis as the study of sign language with the deaf and dumb children more evidently proves that the ability of acquiring a language decreases with the increase in age of an individual (Newport, 1990). The three groups of participants in the Newport study were the Native, Early and Late Learners. Native learners who already had exposure to the ASL from their birth, they were raised by their deaf parents and had an idea about the language from a young age. The second were the Early learners who learned ASL after they were taught by their peers who were also deaf at the age of 4-6 (Newport, 1990). The third group comprised of Late learners the first time that they were exposed to ASL was with the help of their deaf peers, they were more than 12 years of age at the time they learned the language or during the period when the tests were conducted (Newport, 1990). The results of the first ASL study suggests that a wide range of studies shows that acquisition of language occurs successfully in the learners after they have overcome certain primary problems (Ron, 2015). The purpose of these experiments were to find out how the language acquisition was affected with the increase of age in the subjects and after the tests were complete it was found that the children who were taught the language at the age of 12 had a lot less improvement in the development of the language, while the children who had early exposure to ASL they showed far better response to the experiments. In case of syntactical and morphological competence an experiment was conducted on the subjects, they had to listen to a recording consisting 276 short and simple sentences and they were asked whether the sentences were correct or not (Newport, 1990). The test score showed that the children who had early exposure to the language were more able in determining which of the sentences were correct and which were wrong, thus proving that the effects of age of acquisition are effects of the maturational state of the learner (Granena, 2016). In the process of comparing both the case studies, the experiments conducted on Genie and the experiments conducted on the deaf children and ASL study proves that the claims made in the Critical Period Hypothesis are true (Mayberry Kluender, 2017). In case of Genie it was seen that although she made some progress in certain aspects of language acquisition yet she had various problems related to phonology, grammar acquisition and in forming interrogative sentence (Choubsaz Gheitury, 2017). Although she made progress the researchers were unable to comment on the extent of improvement of language acquisition process in the future. In the ASL experiments the results were almost similar, the children who had been exposed to the language in their early age they were able top the experiment results (Diaz, 2016). Both of the studies prove that to acquire a proper form of language the individuals are required to be exposed to their respective native languages from an early age (Strid, 2017) . To conclude, it can be said that the critical period hypothesis which says that from childhood throughout adolescence, this period of time is perfect and most suitable for the acquisition of first and even second language acquisition. The external and inter factors prevent the adults to acquire a new language at that age. Judging from both the experiments this statement can be said to be true that Critical Period Hypothesis holds paramount importance in the development of language in human beings. Reference list: Choubsaz, Y., Gheitury, A. (2017). Is semantics affected by missing a critical period? Evidence from the Persian deaf.Journal of psycholinguistic research,46(1), 77-88. Curtiss, S., Fromkin, V., Krashen, S., Rigler, D., Rigler, M. (1974). The linguistic development of Genie.Language, 528-554. Diaz, C. (2016). The critical period hypothesis. Granena, G. (2016). Part 1: Age Differences, Maturational Constraints, and Implicit and Explicit L2 Learning.Major Research Issues in SLA, 9. Mayberry, R. I., Kluender, R. (2017). Rethinking the critical period for language: New insights into an old question from American Sign Language.Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1-20. Newport, E. L. (1990). Maturational constraints on language learning.Cognitive science,14(1), 11-28. Ron, C. (2015). Relationship between the Phonetic Aspect of Second Language Acquisition and Age: Testing on the Critical Period Hypothesis in a Selected Function of Language.The annals of Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University. Faculty of Foreign Languages,54, 15-28. Strid, J. E. (2017). The Myth of the Critical Period.TESOL Journal,8(3), 700-715.

Wind Power Essays (1059 words) - Wind Turbines, Renewable Energy

Wind Power Energy is the ability to do work. It surrounds us in all aspect of life. However, the ability to harness it and use it, as economically as possible, is the challenge before mankind. Alternative energy refers to energy sources, which are not based on the burning of fossil fuels or the splitting of atoms. The renewed interest in this field of study comes from the undesirable effects of pollution both from burning fossil fuels and nuclear waste by products. Fortunately, there are many means of harnessing energy that have less damaging impacts on the environment. One example wind power. Wind energy is a clean and renewable source of electric power and is also the worlds fastest growing energy source. More then five thousands years ago, the Egyptians used the wind to sail ships on the Nile. Later, people built the first turbines and used the wind to grind grain. These machines looked like paddle wheels and were used in Persia as early as 200 BC. By the fourteenth century, the Dutch had taken the lead in improving the design of windmills. They invented propeller type blades and used wind power to drain the marshes and lakes of the Rhone River delta. In America, Early European settlers used windmills to grind wheat and corn, to pump water, and to cut wood at sawmills. By the early twentieth century, small windmills were used for pumping water and electric power generation in Europe, the United States, Africa, and elsewhere. In addition to thousand of small wind electric generators, a few larger systems were built in North America and Europe. In the 1970s, the increase in oil and fossil fuel prices helped wind power return as an economical alternative energy source. Governments all around the world, especially in North America and Europe, instituted research and development programs. These efforts led to the development of modern wind turbines, which have dramatically reduced the cost of generating electricity from wind power. A wind turbine works the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity. The wind turns a blade, which spins a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity. Modern wind turbines fall into two basic groups, the horizontal axis and the vertical axis design. Horizontal axis wind turbines have blades that spin in a vertical plane like airplane propellers. The blades have a special shape so that when wind passes over them, it moves more rapidly over one side. This creates a low pressure behind the blade and a high-pressure area in front of it. The difference between these two pressures causes the blades to spin. The blades of a vertical axis wind machine work on the same principles as horizontal axis machine. The shape of the blades causes the pressure to differ when the wind blows over them. This causes the assembly to spin. In a vertical axis machine, however, the blades spin in a plane that is parallel to the ground like an eggbeater. Wind turbines are made in a variety of sizes, and therefor power ratings. The largest machine, such as the one built in Hawaii, has propellers that span more than the length of a football field and stands twenty stories high. It also produces enough electricity to power fourteen hundred homes. A small home sized wind machine has rotators between 8 and 25 feet in diameter. It stand upward of 30 feet and can supply the power needs of an all electric home or small business. Wind energy is also a partial solution to environmental problems. The electric Power Research Institute has stated that Alone among the alternative energy technologies wind power offers pollution free electricity that is nearly cost competitive with todays conventional sources. In 1991, for example, Californias wind power plants offset the emission of more than 2.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide. These same wind plants offset sixteen million pounds of nitrogen oxide, sulferdioxide, and particles. It would take a forest of one hundred and seventy five million trees to provide the same air quality. The environment, however, is not the only benefit wind turbines offer. Wind energy is already one of the most cost competitive renewable