Question: What Is The Verb Form Of General?

What are the 20 verbs?

100 Most Common English Verbs ListNo.VerbPast Participle17to givegiven18to telltold19to workworked20to callcalled21 more rows.

How can I learn verb form in English?

The 8 Top Tricks for Remembering Irregular English VerbsGroup common irregular verbs together. … Learn all new vocabulary with its tense forms. … Memorize the 10 most common irregular verbs first. … Turn memorizing into a game. … Learn in sentences. … Learn with songs. … Leave lists where you can see them. … Ask people to correct you.

Is the word could a verb?

What is verb and its forms?

Verbs are words that express action or state of being. There are three types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs. Action Verbs. Action verbs are words that express action (give, eat, walk, etc.) or possession (have, own, etc.). Action verbs can be either transitive or intransitive.

What is the noun of high?

noun. /haɪ/ level/number. the highest level or number Profits reached an all-time high last year.

Is had a verb?

Is could a adverb?

An adverb describes, modifies, or provides more information about a verb in a sentence. … Adverbs can be confused with adjectives, which also modify things. However, adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. If you said “I have a nice dog,” then “dog” is the noun which is being modified by the adjective “nice”.

How do you define availability?

Availability is the probability that an item will be in an operable and committable state at the start of a mission when the mission is called for at a random time, and is generally defined as uptime divided by total time (uptime plus downtime).

What is v1 v2 v3 v4 v5?

Answer: v1 is present ,v2 past ,v3 past participate ,v4 present participate, v5 simple present.

What’s a synonym for high?

SYNONYMS. tall, lofty, towering, soaring, elevated, giant, big. multistorey, high-rise, sky-scraping.

What does general use mean?

: suitable to be used for two or more basic purposes.

What’s the meaning of in general?

phrase. You use in general to indicate that you are talking about something as a whole, rather than about part of it. I think we need to improve our educational system in general. Synonyms: as a whole, generally, overall, altogether More Synonyms of in general.

Can and could grammar?

What is another word for availability?

In this page you can discover 23 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for availability, like: accessibility, inherence, hereness, unavailability, delivery, pricing, usage, distribution, availableness, thereness and utilizability.

Is high a noun or verb?

high (adverb) high (noun) high–class (adjective) high–definition (adjective)

What is general word?

of or relating to all persons or things belonging to a group or category: a general meeting of the employees. of, relating to, or true of such persons or things in the main, with possible exceptions; common to most; prevalent; usual: the general mood of the people.

How do you spell availability?

Correct spelling for the English word “availability” is [ɐvˌe͡ɪləbˈɪlɪti], [ɐvˌeɪləbˈɪlɪti], [ɐ_v_ˌeɪ_l_ə_b_ˈɪ_l_ɪ_t_i] (IPA phonetic alphabet).

What means availability?

1 : the quality or state of being available trying to improve the availability of affordable housing. 2 : an available person or thing.

How many regular verbs are there in English?

130 common regular verbsRegular Verbs in English! Learn the definition and a list of over 130 common regular verbs in English.

What is the verb form of available?

What is the noun form of general?

general Definitions and Synonyms  noun countable. UK /ˈdʒen(ə)rəl/ Other entries for this word. + general adjective.

What are the 3 forms of verbs?

There are 3 forms of verbPresent.Past.Past Participle.

What is the verb for high?

What are the 5 verb forms?


Quick Answer: Why Are My Graphics Drivers Failing To Install?

How do I install a WLAN driver?

Open the Device Manager (You can do this by pressing the Windows but and typing it out) Right click on your wireless adapter and choose Update Driver Software.

Choose the option to Browse and locate the drivers you downloaded.

Windows will then install the drivers..

How do I enable Intel HD graphics?

Why can’t I install Intel HD graphics driver?

When installing the Intel graphics driver, it may fail to install. The most common reason is that the hardware is not supported. … Download the appropriate drivers from Dell.com/Support/Drivers and extract the file (Figure 1). Instead of installing the driver to a new folder.

How do you fix Nvidia installer errors is not compatible and could not find compatible graphics?

Steps to Fix Nvidia Graphics Driver cannot find compatible graphics hardware Issue:Get your device ID: click on CONTROL PANEL, then CLICK on SYSTEM, then CLICK on DEVICE MANAGER.Under Other Devices/ (or if your video card already has a driver under Display Adapter) click on Video Adapter.More items…

How do I fix my Intel HD graphics?

Restart the computer. Right-click the start menu and go to Device Manager. Click Display Adapters. Right-click the Intel® HD Graphics Adapter and click Update Driver.

What happens if I don’t update my graphics driver?

How do I update my graphics driver?

How do I manually install a driver?

How do I install missing drivers?

Right-click on any device that has an error and click “Update Driver Software.” Select “Search automatically for updated driver software.” Windows will search for the best applicable drivers and install them for you. Click “OK” when the drivers are found to allow Windows to complete the install.

Why can’t Nvidia installer continue?

To upgrade NVIDIA Graphics Card Driver Manually to fix the NVIDIA Installer Cannot Continue error, first of all, you will need to download the latest compatible driver for your graphics card on your computer. … Now, right click on the NVIDIA Graphics Card option from the expanded list, then click on Update driver option.

Why is my graphics card not being detected?

Sometimes the ‘Graphics card not detected’ error will occur upon the installation of new drivers when something goes awry. Be it a faulty driver on its own or new drivers’ incompatibility with another component inside the PC, the options are too numerous to name.

Do I have the latest Nvidia drivers?

Why can’t I update my Nvidia driver on Windows 10?

Go to Start -> Settings -> Update & security, then Check for updates and install any available updates. … If you have an nVidia, AMD ATI video card or Intel HD graphics installed, you can download the latest drivers from their website.

Why can’t I download Nvidia drivers?

How do I force a graphics driver to install?

msc”, and press Enter. Expand the “Display adapters” section in the Device Manager, right-click the “Intel(R) HD Graphics” device, and select “Properties”. Click the “Driver” tab in the properties window and click the “Update Driver” button. Click “Browse my computer for driver software” here.


How do Buddhists handle coronavirus? The answer is not just meditation

How do Buddhists handle coronavirus? The answer is not just meditation

Millions of Buddhists seeking protection and healing from the novel coronavirus are turning to traditional religious rituals.

Since the emergence of COVID-19, the Dalai Lama, other senior monks and Buddhist organizations in Asia and worldwide have emphasized that this pandemic calls for meditation, compassion, generosity and gratitude. Such messages reinforce a common view in the West of Buddhism as more philosophy than religion—a spiritual, perhaps, but secular practice associated with mindfulness, happiness and stress reduction.

But for many people around the world Buddhism is a religion—a belief system that includes strong faith in supernatural powers. As such, Buddhism has a large repertoire of healing rituals that go well beyond meditation.

Having studied the interplay between Buddhism and medicine as a historian and ethnographer for the past 25 years, I have been documenting the role these ritual practices play in the coronavirus pandemic.

Talismans, prayer and ritual

Buddhism originated in India about two and a half millennia ago. Today, with well over a half-billion adherents across the world, it is a highly diverse tradition that has adapted to many cultural and social contexts.

There are three main schools of traditional Buddhism: Theravāda, practiced in most of Southeast Asia; Mahāyāna, the form most prevalent in East Asia; and Vajrayāna, commonly associated with Tibet and the Himalayan region.

In Buddhist-majority places, the official COVID-19 pandemic response includes conventional emergency health and sanitation measures like recommending face masks, hand-washing and stay-at-home orders. But within religious communities, Buddhist leaders also are using a range of ritual apotropaics—magical protection rites—to protect against disease.

In Thailand, for example, Theravāda temples are handing out “yant,” talismans bearing images of spirits, sacred syllables and Buddhist symbols. These blessed orange papers are a common ritual object among Buddhists in Southeast Asia who see crises such as epidemic illnesses as a sign that demonic forces are on the rise.

Theravāda amulets and charms trace their magical powers to repel evil spirits not only to the Buddha but also to beneficial nature spirits, demigods, charismatic monks and wizards.

Now, these blessed objects are being specifically formulated with the intention of protecting people from contracting the coronavirus.

Mahāyāna Buddhists use similar sacred objects, but they also pray to a whole pantheon of buddhas and bodhisattvas—another class of enlightened beings—for protection. In Japan, for example, Buddhist organizations have been conducting expulsion rites that call on Buddhist deities to help rid the land of the coronavirus.

Mahāyāna practitioners have faith that the blessings bestowed by these deities can be transmitted through statues or images. In a modern twist on this ancient belief, a priest affiliated with the Tōdaiji temple in Nara, Japan, in April tweeted a photo of the great Vairocana Buddha. He said the image would protect all who lay eyes upon it.

The third major form of Buddhism, Vajrayāna, which developed in the medieval period and is widely influential in Tibet, incorporates many rituals of earlier traditions. For example, the Dalai Lama has urged practitioners in Tibet and China to chant mantras to the bodhisattva Tārā, a female goddess associated with compassion and well-being, to gain her protection.

Vajrayāna practitioners also advocate a unique form of visualization where the practitioner generates a vivid mental image of a deity and then interacts with them on the level of subtle energy. Responses to COVID-19 suggested by leading figures in traditional Tibetan medicine frequently involve this kind of visualization practice.

Buddhist modernism

Since the height of the colonial period in the 19th century, “Buddhist modernists” have carefully constructed an international image of Buddhism as a philosophy or a psychology. In emphasizing its compatibility with empiricism and scientific objectivity they have ensured Buddhism’s place in the modern world and paved the way for its popularity outside of Asia.

Many of these secular-minded Buddhists have dismissed rituals and other aspects of traditional Buddhism as “hocus pocus” lurking on the fringes of the tradition.

Having documented the richness of the history and contemporary practice of Buddhist healing and protective rituals, however, I argue that these practices cannot be written off quite so easily.

In most living traditions of Buddhism, protective and healing rituals are taken seriously. They have sophisticated doctrinal justifications that often focus on the healing power of belief.

Increasingly, researchers are agreeing that faith in itself plays a role in promoting health. The anthropologist Daniel Moerman, for example, has identified what he calls the “meaning response.” This model accounts for how cultural and social beliefs and practices lead to “real improvements in human well-being.” Likewise, Harvard Medical School researcher Ted Kaptchuk has studied the neurobiological mechanisms for how rituals work to alleviate illnesses.

Source: Read Full Article


By: Bruce Buchanan, Sebelist Buchanan Law

Office of Chief Administrative Hearing Officer (OCAHO) was incredibly quiet in calendar year 2017 issuing only 5 substantive decisions against employers in I-9 penalty cases. Why so few decisions? Did employers stop committing any I-9 violations? Did employers stop appealing decisions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? The answer to both questions is no.

The answer is that there has been such turnover of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) at OCAHO that very few cases have been heard by OCAHO. In 2016, ALJ Ellen K. Thomas retired and ALJ Stacy Paddack transferred to another agency after less than two years at OCAHO. In late 2016, James McHenry was named an OCAHO ALJ. However, his tenure was short-lived as less than six months later, he was named Acting Director of EOIR and in January 2018, he became the permanent Director of EOIR. So, after ALJ McHenry issued four OCAHO I-9-related decisions in first five months of 2017, only one such decision issued the rest of 2017. In the last nine months, ALJs have been “detailed from other agencies.

The rest of my 2017 yearly review will be published by LawLogix in the coming weeks. So, look for it there.


Will Nigeria generate more than $6 billion through blockchain by 2030?

By Giorgi Mikhelidze - 28 Nov 2020

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Nigeria is one of those African nations that try hard to take part in the blockchain and crypto adoption process.

As cryptos continue to become more and more popular as payment transactions around the world, Nigeria contributes a lot to expand its market and remain the biggest crypto market in the world.

But if until now the market was slowly emerging and no big step was taken in order to raise the market, recently Nigeria announced that they target to generate $10 billion in revenue using blockchain technology and they hope to achieve this goal by 2030.

As it’s reported the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) wants Nigeria to use the whole potential of blockchain and gain as much as possible. According to the general director of NITDA, there’s the possibility of revenue between $6-10 billion in the next ten years when taking the current circumstances of the country into account.

Specifically, the operation of blockchain technology is pretty beneficial for the country nowadays and this decentralized ledger technology has the potential to boost the Nigerian economy.

Does blockchain make the Nigerian economy grow?

It has already been several months since the Nigerian government realized that if the country wants to stimulate economic growth, they have to start thinking about diversifying the economy.

Throughout the years, most parts of the economy of Nigeria was strongly dependent on the crude oil industry. In fact, oil makes about 10% of the GDP and 70% of the government revenue as it’s said in the latest report of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Besides, more than 80% of the export is made by the oil industry.

However, Nigeria banked hard on having its financial sector as a safety net besides its oil industry. One of the sectors that have played a significant role in boosting the economy is forex trading. But, even though trading volumes have increased with Nigerian forex trading companies specifically, it’s still not nearly enough to keep the economy floating. Forex exchange trading is legal in Nigeria and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria and today more and more people are joining the market because of the consequent benefits but it’s not the main reason for the success of the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria is at the forefront of the leader crypto places today. There are tons of crypto companies in this country and there are even more of them that aim to start investing in Nigeria. In fact, most of the “trading volume” already belongs to cryptos, so betting on its success is probably the safest route this African nation can take at the moment. And considering the fact that investments in blockchain technology rise at a rapid speed, predictions about the revenue to increase so much to make no less than $10 billion in ten years, seems pretty reasonable.

Global image

Before the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) actually fulfills its aim, there are still ten years and a lot can change during this time. Just a year ago no one could have imagined that the world would face anything like the pandemic. So anything can change before 2030 but for now, the success of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, is so obvious in Nigeria and the whole world that it’s highly unlikely that something can really harm this digital currency.

Even studies show that because of its wide range of use blockchain has the potential to add $1.76 trillion to the global gross domestic product and it will be about 1.4% of the global GDP in the next ten years. Probably, Nigeria will play a major role in the global image of blockchain’s success, and for this, the country should use its provincial services, digital identity, payment services, customer engagement, and also, the discussion on the resolution applications is needed.

Therefore, blockchain will play a major role in creating various products and services in Nigeria, taking a huge part in the Nigerian and worldwide economy. It’s important to mention that according to Arcane Research Nigeria had the second-highest rate of crypto-ownership, as well as the usage of crypto among the internet users in the whole of Africa. In fact,  11% of the population uses blockchain which is a great amount.

Finally, we can certainly say that Nigeria actually has the potential to generate up to $10 billion using blockchain technology by 2030 but many things have to be taken into account for achieving this success. If Nigeria truly adopts the technology, then it must be regulated to avoid fraudsters like abuse by Ponzi schemes and other malicious technologies that usually harm financial platforms.

As the director of the NITDA believes, if stakeholders contribute to the adoption process, it would be easier for the country to adopt blockchain. He mentioned that other benefits related to using blockchain technology would be reduced budgeting cost, ensured security, and increased globalization. Also, blockchain would definitely create more jobs and provide new opportunities for businesses, as well as ensuring transparency in the governance process. However, it’s vitally important for the adoption of blockchain to develop a legal framework and avoid possible dangers. That way it will be guaranteed that the country operates using a common global standard.

Giorgi Mikhelidze
Giorgi Mikhelidze

Giorgi is a Georgia software developer with two years of experience trading on the financial markets. He is now working to spread the knowledge about the Blockchain in his country and share all of his findings and research to as many crypto enthusiasts as possible.


The Preschool Paradigm

No, I didn’t send my son to Preschool. Yes, I am still a good Mom.

Remember that time I promised you more posts on mom-shaming? Yeah, well I was serious about that and here it goes. Yes, this is a mini rant, but I promise it’ll be worth reading.

Ladies, I’m over it. I am so sick and tired of people’s reactions and judgement when they learn that my son did not attend preschool before he started Kindergarten. No matter where I am or who I am discussing this with, the moment I bring up the fact that my oldest son did not attend preschool, the general reaction is always shock and surprise with varying amounts of disapproval. Please, someone enlighten me. Why is this a thing?

Yes, I am well aware that most people send their children to a year or maybe even two of preschool but this should not mean that if I choose not to send my kid, that I should automatically be seen in a negative light. Why does the fact that I kept my son home with me mean that I’m a bad mother? Why do people treat me like I’ve done a disservice to him?

If you sent your child to preschool because that’s what was best for your family, then I am proud of you and applaud you for making that choice. I should receive the same type of judgement (or non-judgement in this case). Instead of being made to feel ashamed, embarrassed and like a failure, I should receive the same agreement, encouragement and praise that those that send their kids to preschool do.

When I first started getting reactions like this, I would find myself embarrassed and would try to explain the reason why I kept my son home. Even now as I type this, I feel like I should be explaining to you why I kept him home. I yearned for understanding and wanted others to see my reasoning so they would approve of my actions. As I explained, some people were just politely nodding along but I could tell they thought I had made some grave mistake.

But you know what? I am so done feeling shame over this. There is nothing to be ashamed of. I have my reasons for keeping him home and I shouldn’t have to explain myself to anyone (other than God and my husband!). And I don’t feel embarrassed anymore; I feel anger, frustration and sadness. Sadness that our society has made it commonplace for one mother to judge and cause feelings of shame to arise in another mother like this.

Mom-shaming another mama for any reason only causes a further divide among moms. God knows how hard being a parent is and we need all the support, love and understanding we can get to make it through. Why would we normalize actions that further divide us all?

You guys, we are all just doing the best we can do as we navigate through motherhood. We each have the heavy task of making the best decisions possible for our family unit. I’m not sure if ya’ll noticed, but all of our families are different. Why would we be expected to make all of the exact same decisions for different families?

Here’s my request of you all: First, stop feeling shamed or condemned for your decisions. YOU are the mom. Choose what’s best for your family and make those decisions proudly. Second, stop looking at other mom’s decisions and judging them. Let’s give fellow mothers the benefit of the doubt that they’re making the best decision possible for their family, regardless of us understanding why or not. Let’s support one another and offer understanding and encouragement. Let’s unite the moms!

No, I didn’t send my son to preschool and yes, I am a good mom.

The Preschool Paradigm


Suddenly you notice the person you’ve been living with chews with their mouth open

While a certain amount of conflict is inevitable in relationships, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated matters, experts say. The Coronovirus has meant that partners across the world have less time and money and are dealing with an unprecedented amount of chaos and uncertainty.

Michael Kallenbach featured in the Saturday Star, June 20 2020.

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East Asia

Is China on the brink of a food crisis?

It is not a secret that the current COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting people all around the globe. The virus touched almost all spheres of regular life – i.e. it resulted in temporary or permanent closure of businesses, a rise in the unemployment rate, inability to physically spend time with family and friends. Such drastic changes in times of uncertainty significantly impacted the well-being of the world population. Moreover, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned about the emerging food shortages worldwide. According to FAO statistics, global food prices have been on the rise for four consequent months, hitting their maximum in September 2020. China – the place where the virus originated – is one of the states that have been seriously affected by the disruptions, including production and distribution of food.

In his speech on August, 11 Chinese leader Xi Jinping did not admit any food shortages. However, he promoted food security through the campaign “operation empty plate,” thereby encouraging people to stop wasting food. It is interesting to note that Mao Zedong introduced a similar food campaign before the 1959 Great Chinese Famine. Meanwhile, there has undoubtedly been a significant increase in food prices in China. Many experts claim that China is on the brink of a food crisis that has been manifested as a result of lockdowns, infected livestock, and poor weather conditions. It is difficult to give any predictions or estimations about the future food situation in China because the country does not share enough of its data with the rest of the world, yet it is possible to answer the question why the state faces food difficulties.

Average food prices increase

The National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that, on average, food prices have increased by 11.2% compared to 2019. The price level of vegetables increased by 6.4% in one month; egg prices soared by 11.3% within the same period. Pork prices grew the most, by 52.6% compared to the last year’s statistics. Why is it important?

Firstly, many workers and their families who faced loss or decrease of income or remittances became food insecure. That, in turn, has had social repercussions for the overall level of crime, health concerns among adults and infants, high death rate, different demographic and economic challenges. Furthermore, international trade will also suffer: due to the lack of labor force Chinese imports in foreign countries will seemingly increase in price.

Secondly, China, along with other countries, was in a period of recession earlier this year. Food insecurity will cause difficulties in coming out of this financial downturn.

The impact of lockdowns on food supply chains

One of the main factors contributing to the declining agricultural productivity and spiking food prices in China is the restrictions on personal mobility and transportation of goods. In January Chinese authorities adopted measures to limit mobility within the country; they imposed “city lockdowns, traffic control, and closed management of villages and communities.” Such restrictions impacted food supply chains. For the production part many workers experienced difficulties getting to work that created a shortage of physical labor. That is why some crops were not picked, others were not even planted. As a result, the supply of agricultural goods decreased. On the other hand, at the beginning of the year, the demand for them also fell as restaurants and bars were closed. Thereby, many crops went to waste, while farmers did not make enough profit to purchase the seeds and fertilizers for the next season. It is a problem because businesses continue to open up, raising the demand and prices on crops. Immobility also impacted the distribution of seeds and fertilizers to the farms that disrupted the plantation season. Furthermore, the distribution of agricultural goods to grocery stores became difficult. Particular inconveniences associated with the restrictions on mobility all added up to the spike of prices on crops.

African Swine fever outbreak

Another factor impacting the emerging food crisis in China is the failure to rebuild last year’s loss of pigs due to the infection. Chinese porcine farms were hit by the African swine fever outbreak that infected and killed a large number of pigs (40% of total Chinese pigs’ population), decreasing the supply but increasing the prices on pork in 2019. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, pork prices were 52.6% higher in August this year than the year before, while corn prices – the main porcine fodder – increased by 20% compared to last year. Chinese farmers failed to improve the situation in 2020 due to severe flooding. The increased amount of precipitation caused considerable losses of corn and thus the inability to feed pigs. China began to import crops from abroad – particularly, corn from the US. As the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) stated, China had been importing 195,000 more tonnes of American corn than the year before.

Shuttered diplomatic relations between China and Western states

Some experts claim that Chinese diplomatic relations with such Western countries as Australia, the US and Canada shattered due to the fire of four ballistic missiles on the Indian border on August, 26. These states are China’s major food exporters. If their diplomatic relations with Beijing worsen, then the trade has a high chance of being negatively affected as well. In other words, Chinese imports of crops have the risk of becoming more expensive, meaning that the prices of pork and other goods might rise even more.

Severe flooding and drought

Finally, worsened weather conditions – some parts of China experienced drought, others were hit by flooding – led to a decrease in crops and a significant increase in food prices. Southern, Central and Eastern China underwent a period of heavy rain and the worst flooding in the last hundred years. Excessively high water levels in major Chinese rivers, including the Yangtze River, resulted in the evacuation of 15 million people in July 2020. Moreover, the flooding destroyed 13 million acres of agricultural land, which is estimated to cost at least $29 billion of economic damage. In the meantime Northern (Xinjiang province) and Southwest (Yunnan province) China have gone through a period of severe drought. In April 2020 nearly 1.5 million people in Yunnan province were caught in an emergency situation: shortages of drinking water, damage of hundreds of hectares of crops and livestock. Consequently, the supply of many agricultural goods and pork decreased, which spiked the prices on these goods.

Chinese long-term prospects toward food security

To conclude, immobility, African swine flu, worsened weather and security conditions led to the growing food shortages and increasing food prices in China. This being said, the Chinese government has been working on that problem. It has taken special measures to ensure sufficience of agricultural goods by investing in various disaster relief funds for different crops, particularly rice and wheat. For example, Chinese authorities allocated 1.4 billion yuan to save the agricultural harvest in Hubei province. Due to the substantial loss of agricultural products, China has also increased its imports. General Administration of Customs reported that China’s grain imports rose by 22.7% in July 2020 compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, the Chinese leader took a gentle approach to solve this problem. He did not announce the issues related to the insufficient number of crops; instead, he adopted a program for encouraging people to be more frugal with their eating habits. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences followed the same path as it denied anticipation of a food crisis in the short-term perspective, yet warned about possible food shortfalls by 2025 if no agricultural reforms take place. As of now, China is not on the break of a food crisis; however, its shuttered prospects for long-term food sustainability are subject to dangerous repercussions.

From our partner RIAC

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East Asia

Pro-Communism warping Hong Kong

The latest turmoil in the Covid-ridden strata of mainland China is not servile to any pandemic, however, the issue has been one of the most queer and rare kinds, enough to be classified as one of the endemic issues in the global affairs. The tension at helm is the chaos following the announcement of a “New Security Law” by the Chinese regime which is being eyed as one of the monumental events of this decade; slicing off a sliver of attention from the deadly Corona virus that continues to exponentiate around the world in its second wave and sporadic variants.

The law that set out by the Chinese lawmakers back on 22nd May 2020, threatens the liberties of subversion and sedition enjoyed by the citizens of Hong Kong under a constitution. Simplistically named “Basic Law”, it aims to tame the country scaffolded by the “One country, Two systems” framework since the power handover by the former colony to China back in 1997. This act came around amidst strained economic relations between the two superpowers of the world; China and USA, each passing the baton in the blame game of who sustains the blood-crown of the catastrophe impending on the world courtesy of the lethal virus that engulfs every periphery in each continent on the globe. The matters seem complex at sight and a glimpse to the historical timeline of how riddled the relations were could hint at how strained they could reach.

The colony, known as ‘Hong Kong’ today, had been the battle ground, figuratively, to the major competitors of the 20th century: The Great Britain and China. The British dominated the colony for more than 150 years, tracing back to the late 19th century; leasing the territory for the span to morph it into the modernised metropolis marking it as the hub we know today. In 1997, an agreement was reached via an accord, ‘The Sino-British Joint Declaration‘ between the two sides. The treaty allowed Hong Kong a semi-autonomous status, that is, relaying self-sufficiency in all the national domains except in defence and foreign affairs. The allotted autonomy arches under the sovereignty of China until year 2047, henceforward melding into the mainland China as harkened by the Chinese hegemony over decades.

Despite of the granted protection of Hong Kong’s own legislation, borders and freedom of speech, the liberties have been trampled on by the Chinese government over the last couple of decades. A similar law abolishing the right to sedition was initiated in 2003 yet mass protests calling out up and about 50,000 citizens impeded the efforts that went futile and drastically ended up being shunned for good. The Communist party under the wings of Chinese president Xi Jinping have expounded further in tightening their talons on the city since 2012 as efforts were made to corrode the educational system of the country via meddling with the curriculum, biasing the foundation to hail Chinese communism. These acts were proactive reactions to the advances of the United States forging relations with the city. China even tried to manipulate the elections in 2014, tampering with the selection their Chief Executive leading to a 3-month long protest known as the ‘Umbrella movement’ and ultimate downfall of Hong Kong’s autonomous political system.

The security law falls in tandem to the events of 2019; the legislation allowing the convicts from Hong Kong to be extradited in China causing a rave of fear of a massive tactical crackdown of the Anti-communist activists of Hong Kong, sighting it just as ruse to underwhelm the right of sedition of the people of Hong Kong. The Law passed by the parliament notions to only one thing; The ultimate end to Hong Kong. The lawmakers in China, hailing from the National People’s Congress (NPC), sight this move as extricating a threat to the national security and stability of the country while many of the pro-activists in Hong Kong deem the law as betrayal, accusing China of walking back on its promise of high-degree autonomy and freedom of speech, marking it as the final straw, the last struggle before the country could override the laws in the city and indirectly, transition from the entity holding the right to veto the laws to now gripping the law altogether.

Despite of the speculated protests to spark like the history dictates, many of the sage minds predict either a relatively dormant demonstrations or none at all, having a tint of finality in the statement shote the protests are “high stake in risk and repression”. The recent arrest of the leading activists of Hong Kong standing up to voice their disdain to the separatist efforts of China further solidify the notion. Despite of a global condemnation to the new law, the efforts of China resume to subdue any opposition in Honk Kong no matter how sparse. Foreseeing no way out for Hong Kong this time; the Covid-19 paralysis the United States in its own crisis and the legislature inclining towards the Chinese pressure, a complete erasure of Hong Kong is sighted and could not be restrained- for better or for worse.

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East Asia

The Belligerent Chinese Diplomacy and Its Failure

The Chinese media has recently reported of Xi Jinping writing a letter to George Schultz the former chairman of Starbucks, the US coffee giant. In the letter, he has requested Schultz to play a positive role in advancing the US-China relations. While head of a major state writing letter to big corporate heads is not a common but not an unusual development either, this letter from Jinping should be seen in a relevant context. It indicates a certain amount of desperation and difficulty of China in its dealings with the US.

It suggests that after months of aggressive posturing and verbal duels against Trump, the State Department and Pentagon, China is now cosying up to the new Joe Biden administration. Further, it also means the recent Chinese aggressive posturing, wolf diplomacy has failed to bring in the desired results and that the Xi Jinping-led CCP is under more pressure now to soft-pedal the recent acrimonious ties between the two.

The year 2020 had been a very disappointing and calamitous year for the world. And Corona pandemic could well be cited as the most important reason. While the world as a whole has struggled to fight this unknown enemy individually as well as collectively, one country that has been in the limelight, for all the wrong reasons, been China.

Foreign policy and diplomacy is all about protecting and promoting the perceived national interests of a country. While achieving its objectives, the country tries to create and maintain a favourable image in the international community. The Chinese diplomatic endeavour since the ascension of Xi Jinping has been starkly opposite. From the most likely origin of Corona virus, to rebuking leaders, diplomats and media of other countries, China has been trying to create a new diplomatic norm, a new normal where none of the countries would dare criticising China, through political discourse, media or any other way while silently acceding to its territorial expansionary designs.

There  have  been  unusually  vitriolic  reactions  by  Chinese  diplomats against seemingly innocuous comments or actions by governments, politicians, diplomats  or  media  in  various  countries.  A  very  rational  request  by  the Australian government to initiate investigations by the international community into the genesis of Corona virus, made China so furious that apart from making crude undiplomatic comments, it even created a virtual political, diplomatic and trade war against the country. Critical comment by certain politicians in Brazil and Japan, led Chinese diplomats to publicly issue personalised attacks against them.

The Chinese ambassador to Sweden has went on to lambast the country’s media in most rustic manner. No wonder, in the last two years, he has been summoned to the Swedish foreign ministry an unprecedented 40 times and there have been demands from native politicians for his expulsion. In India, a country that is being seen as the closest political and military rival by China but is scared of admitting it publicly, the diplomats have kept on reminding the government and media not to play the so-called Tibet card or must adhere to One-China policy by not getting close to Taiwan, have repeatedly been ignored by the government as well as the media.

No wonder, a recent Pew Research study has revealed that globally China has lost a huge amount of goodwill. A significantly very high majority of natives in nine of the advanced economies like the US, UK, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Sweden, Netherlands think negatively of  China. Australia (81%), UK (74%), Sweden (85%), Netherlands (73%) show a very high increase in the negative perception against China, very recently and that has affected their politico-commercial relations too.

With the US, the Trump administration acting aggressively in the backdrop of the November Presidential elections, the Chinese actions of challenging the lone superpower has not helped the country anyway. On the contrary, US has become more supportive of Taiwan, politically as well as militarily, making it even more difficult or virtually impossible to China to even think  of  occupying  the  territory  forcibly  in  near  future.  India  that  had maintained a cautious approach towards Taiwan till recently, have started enhancing political and commercial relations with the country.

In Asia, its aggressive military designs against India’s northern borders has had a very rude awakening for China. Used to a timid Indian approach since 1950s under Nehru, it never expected the aggressive Indian response that even put its own military positions in Moldo and other strategic positions vulnerable. To further undermine political and military calculations, its adversaries in South China seas like Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines today are in advance negotiations with India to secure sophisticated missiles and armaments.

A very significant strategic development in the form of QUAD has taken the preliminary shape and that whenever gets in a concrete form, could well portend an ominous future for China, politically and militarily. The belligerent Chinese behaviour, especially since the onset of Corona virus has brought India, Australia, the US and Japan very close. With talks of Vietnam, Philippines and others in south-east Asia joining it later, the future of a QUAD could well be a security nightmare for China.

In the economic realm, India has reacted sharply too. Being a huge market for Chinese cheap goods and scores of apps till recently, India has not only banished  hundreds  of  apps  but  has  also  been  working  on  a  mechanism  to regulate, control and even stop imports in a number of segments from China. A big share of enormous infrastructural contracts in telecommunications, roads, ports, airports and railways in India too, have become difficult for Chinese companies. And taking a leaf out of India, the US and other countries too, are making it difficult for Chinese organisations to secure big contracts in their respective countries.

Over the next few years, China is going to lose a huge chunk of its popular and big market in India while territorially too, it has failed to make any significant gains.  Strategically what China  wished to see was  countries like Japan, India, Australia, Vietnam, US all having disputes with it dealing individually  rather  than  getting  together  and  forming  a  coordinated  and collective political, economic and strategic response against it.  And the very opposite has happened. There have been greater and collective political, military and economic coordination amongst all these countries today and most of the strategies are aimed against one country, China.

All these developments including Xi’s letter to Schultz, indicate one point very  certainly  that  Chinese  belligerence  has  backfired  hugely.  It  needs  to reorient its diplomacy and political behaviour significantly and if it fails to do so, its position in the emerging post-Covid geopolitical order could be anything but that of an emerging superpower.

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East Asia

The Problem of Uncontrolled Nationalism: The Case of Japan before the WWII

Authors: Chan Kung and Yu(Tony) Pan*

Throughout the modern history of the world, Japan is undoubtedly an interesting country: it went from the edge of becoming a colony to one of few independent countries in Asia before World War II, and after the Great War, Japan even became a great power. From a broader level, Japan’s success at that time showed that Asians were not inherently inferior to Westerners. Unfortunately, Japan which was supposed to be the leader of Asia to a bright future, chose the path fascism and imperialism. Eventually, Japan became the source of the Pacific War.

It is undeniable that from the Meiji Restoration until the early Showa period (the end of World War II), Japan adapted an expansionary policy, which brought deep suffering to its neighboring countries and ultimately dragged itself into the abyss of destruction. When World War II ended, nearly 70 years of development achievements were utterly wiped out by the war.

In this context, an important question we need to ponder is: What led Japan to embark on an expansionary and self-destructive path? At what point in time did Japan’s policymakers start to lose its mind? What can future generations of nations learn from Japan’s tragic experience to prevent the same fate from happening again? As a country that has been entangled with Japan for generations and has a complicated relationship with Japan, these issues are of even greater relevance to Chinese researchers today.

Fortunately, there is actually a fair amount of scholarly research on the subject, and there exist four main explanations. The first is the “international structure theory” most commonly used by IR scholars (especially the realists), and the second, more common among Western scholars, is the “weak democratic government theory. The third is the “Pan-Asianism,” which focuses on the constructivist perspective. Finally, there is the political economy explanation of expansionary policies.

At the first glance, it seems that each of these explanations has its own rationale. Of the four, the view that the navy and the military were increasingly extreme in their struggle for policy dominance is the most possible explanation. However, it seems that each of the four existing explanations can, in fact, be incorporated into a new one, namely, that Japan’s self-destructive expansionary policies prior to World War II were the material manifestation of an uncontrolled nationalism. More specifically, these four explanations answer why the Showa government was unable to control the nationalist forces in the country. On the other hand, however, the question of whether nationalism would necessarily expand without outside interference and lead to expansionist policies was left unexplained.

Because of the natural characteristics of nationalism, it seems to us that there is a natural tendency for nationalism to expand in the course of its development. The main reasons for this phenomenon are not complicated. First of all, nationalism is a group ideology, which means that nationalists have a common goal at the macro level, but the boundaries of national interest are not consistently defined by different individuals. On this basis, because of the unreliability of group rationality, nationalism as a groupthink is prone to overstretch in the course of its development. Moreover, when such currents are not rationally controlled and end up holding state policy hostage, the state tends to follow a self-destructive path of expansionism. Pre-World War II Japan is a classic case in point.

It should be noted that the positive effects of nationalism is not being denied here, but it is crucial that a country’s policymaking process should not be ultimately being a hostage to nationalist forces. The question then, is how to prevent nationalism from spiraling out of control. From an empirical point of view, there are two different directions to prevent nationalism from getting out of control at the macro level: first, to eliminate “group irrationality” in nationalism; Second, to establish a corresponding gatekeeper between nationalism and state policymaking.

The first direction is essential to improve the thinking capacity and cultural literacy of society as a whole. This is a radical way to solve the above problems, and the improvement of the education system is the most crucial part of it. However, for reasons that are easy to understand, this approach often takes too long to implement, and the process is not really controllable. As a result, this approach, while very important, is often insufficient for policymakers.

The second approach, on the other hand, is a short-term solution (relatively speaking). To use the common metaphor of treating a bodily disease, a gatekeeper-kind-of-approach is not to eradicate the disease but rather to prevent it from damaging health amid acceptance of its existence. There are two other ways to establish gatekeepers: one is to establish a mature political system that uses institutional factors to insulate people from the negative effects of nationalism. This is also the more popular approach in developed Western countries. It should be noted that this approach has proven itself to be effective, most notably in the case of the United States, which also has two populist leaders, as opposed to Brazil, where institutional constraints and the resulting establishment have been significantly more effective in containing the negative effects of nationalism on the policy.

The alternative is to rely on a small number of political authorities within society to isolate the scourge of nationalism through the elite’s prestige and quality. Again, this is also an approach that has worked before. The best example is the significant role played by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the “reform and opening-up” process.

So, which is more effective, institutions or authority? This is not a question that can be easily answered. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, and because every country and society is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

First of all, the main advantage of institutional gatekeepers is that once established, the containment is apparent and fairly solid; however, the disadvantage is that institutions may take a long time to develop and may come at a cost (e.g., the French Revolution). An authoritative gatekeeper’s advantage is its high degree of operability, while the disadvantage is the unsustainability and instability of the individual factor. On this basis, the realization of either approach needs to be linked to local realities; in other words, neither is necessarily successful. However, despite the different possibilities of approaches and paths, one issue is certain: in this day and age, uncontrolled nationalism is still a problem that threatens national interests, and this issue must be given sufficient attention and focus by policymakers.

Lastly, for contemporary China, the case of Showa Japan has another area of critical research value: how to deal with the current international order? History has shown that almost every attempt to challenge the existing international order independently has often ended in self-destruction. Successful transformations of the international structure tend to be incremental. In the case of pre-World War II Japan, the immediate effect of nationalism was to push the Japanese government to place itself on the opposite side of the prevailing international order. Today’s China has certainly not come that far. In fact, as Professor Wang Jisi says: “In those days, Japan was an ‘institution’ in the international order, while China was rejected and discriminated against by the West as an ‘other.’ Today, Japan is still ‘within the system’ of the international order, while China has risen to become the world’s second-largest economy and its military power is not what it used to be, but there is still the question of how China views the existing international order and how to deal with its relationship with the existing international order. ” In dealing with this problem, preventing the negative effects of nationalism on state policy is undoubtedly an important aspect.

*Mr. Yu(Tony) Pan serves as the associate research fellow and the research assistant of Mr. Chan Kung, Founder, Chairman, and the Chief Researcher of ANBOUND. He obtained his master’s degree at George Washington University, the Elliott School of International Affairs; and his bachelor’s degree in University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Mr. Pan has published pieces in various platform domestically and internationally. He currently focuses on Asian Security, geopolitics in Indo-Pacific region and the U.S.-Sino Relations.

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Conflict Resolution Skills

.jpg photo of 2 men talking
Conflict resolution is good and healthy

Building the Skills That Can Turn Conflicts into Opportunities

Conflict is a normal part of any healthy relationship.  After all, two people can’t be expected to agree on everything, all the time. Learning how to deal with conflict—rather than avoiding it—is crucial.

When conflict is mismanaged, it can cause great harm to a relationship, but when handled in a respectful, positive way, conflict provides an opportunity to strengthen the bond between two people.  By learning these skills for conflict resolution, you can keep your personal and professional relationships strong and growing.

Understanding conflict in relationships

Conflict arises from differences, both large and small. It occurs whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, or desires.  Sometimes these differences appear trivial, but when a conflict triggers strong feelings, a deep personal need is often at the core of the problem.  These needs can be a need to feel safe and secure, a need to feel respected and valued, or a need for greater closeness and intimacy.

Conflicts arise from differing needs

Everyone needs to feel understood, nurtured, and supported, but the ways in which these needs are met vary widely.  Differing needs for feeling comfortable and safe create some of the most severe challenges in our personal and professional relationships.

Think about the conflicting need for safety and continuity versus the need to explore and take risks. You frequently see this conflict between toddlers and their parents.  The child’s need is to explore, so the street or the cliff meets a need.  But the parents’ need is to protect the child’s safety, so limiting exploration becomes a bone of contention between them.

The needs of both parties play important roles in the long-term success of most relationships, and each deserves respect and consideration.

In personal relationships, a lack of understanding about differing needs can result in distance, arguments, and break-ups.

Conflict 101

A conflict is more than just a disagreement.  It is a situation in which one or both parties perceive a threat (whether or not the threat is real).

 Conflicts continue to fester when ignored. Because conflicts involve perceived threats to our well-being and survival, they stay with us until we face and resolve them.

We respond to conflicts based on our perceptions of the situation, not necessarily to an objective review of the facts.  Our perceptions are influenced by our life experiences, culture, values, and beliefs.

Conflicts trigger strong emotions.  If you aren’t comfortable with your emotions or able to manage them in times of stress, you won’t be able to resolve conflict successfully.

Conflicts are an opportunity for growth.  When you’re able to resolve conflict in a relationship, it builds trust.  You can feel secure knowing your relationship can survive challenges and disagreements.


Provide citation and reference to the material(s) you discuss

Discussion: Answer each question accordingly. Discuss, elaborate and give example on each question. Please use on the module chapter 7 and 8 as reference or sources. The Author of the Modules is (Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E, & Sturman, E. D. (2018). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill).

1.Of the major factors that affect a test’s utility (psychometric soundness, cost, benefit), which is most important and why? 175 words

2.What are the differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests? What are some of the pros and cons of each, and when would each test be more appropriate?175 words

3.Review this week’s course materials and learning activities and reflect on your learning so far this week. Respond to one or more of the following prompts in one to two paragraphs: 175 words

1. Provide citation and reference to the material(s) you discuss. Describe what you found interesting regarding this topic, and why.

2. Describe how you will apply that learning in your daily life, including your work life.

3. Describe what may be unclear to you, and what you would like to learn.


New Risk Measures in Effect for Defined Benefit Plans
ID 27459069 © Robert Cabrera |

New Risk Measures in Effect for Defined Benefit Plans

ASOP No. 51 is meant to help pension plan sponsors better understand and manage pension risk.

A new actuarial standard intended to help governments and public officials better understand the financial risks associated with their defined benefit (DB) pension plans will be included in plans’ funding valuations dated after November 1, 2018. Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOP) 51—also known as the “Pension Risk” ASOP, will provide stakeholders with a better understanding of their plan and any potential risks associated with their pension obligations.

What are ASOPs?

Actuarial standards of practice identify what an actuary should consider, document, and disclose when performing an actuarial valuation. According to the ASB, ASOPs “serve to assure the public that actuaries are professionally accountable.” In addition to the public benefits, ASOPs also provide the actuaries themselves with a basis for assuring that their work conforms to appropriate actuarial practices.

“Pension Risk” ASOP Measurements

In addition to the routine actuarial calculations included in a funding valuation—which cover a range of elements including the system’s funded status, the “normal cost” of annually pre-funding employee benefits, employer and employee contribution requirements, and more—actuaries will be expected under ASOP 51 to identify and report potential risks that can possibly impact a plan’s future financial condition, including:

  • Investment risk: Investment returns could be different than the plan’s assumed rate of return;
  • Contribution risk: Contributions to the plan could be different from expected contributions;
  • Longevity and other demographic risk: The possibility that demographic assumptions (mortality rates, disability rates, termination rates, retirement rates) will differ from expectations;
  • Plan maturity risk: The potential risks associated with fewer active employees supporting more and more retirees.

One of several ways to measure these risks is through a sensitivity analysis, which is a test on the impact of a change in a plans’ assumptions. One example—which is already used due to recently enacted reporting rules promulgated by the Government Accounting Standards Bureau (GASB)—is to direct plans to calculate their funding levels on a projected investment return of plus and minus one percent of their assumed investment return.

ASOP 51 expands on the GASB analysis by recommending plan actuaries use a multitude of tests on potential stressors to the plan, which will help guide stakeholders through times of poor plan performance.

Investment Risk

The investment return assumption is the most important of all actuarial assumptions in terms of its effect on pension finances. This is because earnings on investments typically account for over 60% of a plan’s revenues. Earnings that consistently fall below the plan’s assumed rate of return will result in underfunding and will require larger contributions from employers and employees to make up the gap.

Historical performance data from Cliffwater, a global investment advisory firm, shows that over the last 18 years, state pensions’ investment returns have been almost two percentage points below their assumed rate of return (7.75% assumption versus 5.87% actual return). This gap between assumptions and actual returns is the primary reason the average plan’s funded status dropped from 100% to 73% over the last two decades.

ASOP 51 encourages plans to compare its liabilities using its current return assumption to what its liabilities would be if it used a risk-free return assumption. The risk-free rate is most commonly tied to the current treasury bill rate.

Contribution Risk

Contribution risk is the possibility that actual future contributions deviate from what was expected. One measurement of contribution risk is the plans’ ability to rapidly raise contribution rates due to funding shortfalls from not making the actuarially determined employer contribution (ADEC). The risk of underfunding may manifest from either the adoption of benefit enhancements, or from poor experience as it relates to plan assumptions. Another measurement is the risk for plans that have a locked contribution rate in the statute. If the ADEC is higher than the locked-in rate, contribution rates will inevitably have to rise in the future for the plan to stay solvent.

Longevity and Other Demographic Risk

Longevity risk exists due to the increasing life expectancy among those receiving benefits, which results in more pension payouts than what the plan had accounted for. Actual experience deviating significantly from the plan’s demographic assumptions also presents risk. For instance, if the number of people in the plan comes in low, which directly affects the payroll level used to determine contributions, then contributions will be lower than what was assumed. This can lead to funding shortfalls, decreasing plan solvency, and decreasing plan affordability in the long run.

Plan Maturity Risk

Older, more mature pension plans tend to operate under different dynamics than newer pension plans. Older plans have an active to retiree ratio that is steady, while newer plans will have a rapidly decreasing ratio as members reach retirement age. Nationwide this ratio continues to fall, meaning plans are seeing more retirees in relation to actives, which adds more risk into future employer contributions. This is because any increase in unfunded liabilities—usually due to poor investment returns or poor plan experience—will have to be amortized and funded using the payroll of a smaller group of active members.

Another measure is net cash flows, the difference between what the plan pays in benefits and what it takes in through contributions. Most mature plans have negative cash flows, which means the benefits the plan is paying out exceeds the plan’s contributions. Negative cash flows alone are not a symptom of a plan in distress. Cash flow risk manifests when a plan is poorly funded because those negative cash flows now represent a much larger percentage of the assets; or when retirees are outpacing the growth in active membership, resulting in a smaller contribution base to help fund existing benefits during a market downturn.

Benefits of New Measurements

ASOP 51 is a direct result of the volatility that pension plans have seen this century. Most plans were not educated enough on the potential risks that come with missing their actuarial assumptions and were too slow to implement a course correction to improve solvency. The more informed stakeholders are on risk, the better decisions they can make to keep their plans healthy.


The Importance of Steel Pipes in Mechanical Engineering

The Importance of Steel Pipes in Mechanical Engineering

What is the importance of steel pipes in mechanical engineering?

  1. Automotive
  2. Aerospace
  3. Power Generation
  4. Food and Beverage
  5. Residential

Mechanical engineers use the principles of motion, energy, and force to create objects that will meet the needs of people. This is a broad branch of engineering which involves research, creation, and testing of mechanical objects to ensure their safety and effectiveness. One of the most common materials used in mechanical applications is pipes. It may look simple, but its usage affects people’s everyday lives. In this blog, you will learn more about steel pipes in mechanical engineering. Read on!

An automotive is an object that involves force and motion. If you own a car, ride the public commute, and use any form of transportation to travel far distances, then you’re experiencing the gift of mechanical engineering.

Steel pipes are used in the important parts of a vehicle. You will see it in the coolant tubes, muffler, exhaust, intercoolers, fuel lines, and steering tubing. It is also used for gas injections every time you need to add fuel to your car.

Steel is used in vehicles because it is lightweight and durable. This gives it a very high strength to weight ratio. It is also malleable, which means that the tubing can be bent to fit inside a small vehicle.

To keep the flight in space safe, aerospace engineers design and test aircrafts, space crafts, satellites, and missiles. They are responsible for the engines, frames, wings, and smaller parts. One of the important materials they use is piping.

In a standard airplane, there are more than 3 kilometers of pipes that are used to transfer fuel, air, water, waste, oxygen, hydraulic fluid, and coolants. Without these maze of pipes, transporting a mass of people from place to place is not possible.

Because fuel is expensive, an airplane must use lightweight but durable materials. Ordinary materials will break under high pressure as it goes up to the atmosphere. This where steel pipes come in. Because of their high strength to weight ratio, they are suitable for building aerospace vehicles.

Power Generation

People rely on electricity to live their daily lives. Almost everything that we do rely on this power source. Without it, we will need to use candles to light our homes, winter and summer will be unbearable, and phones and computers wouldn’t even be invented.

There are many kinds of plants that can generate power. They are powered by coal, geothermal energy, water, natural gases, or nuclear energy. To run these plants, one of the materials used is piping. These pipes should withstand extreme temperatures, environments, and wear and tear. Stainless steel is a popular choice because it can resist corrosion and work with high pressures and heat.

These tubes and pipes run all around the facility to transfer high-pressure wind, water, steam, and heat. It is used in combustion, boiler heating, coolant systems, radiators, and storage. Without these pipes, the conversion of primary energy sources to electricity is not possible.

Food and Beverage

Colleagues working in the bottling plant at a wine factory

Even in the food industry, mechanical engineering is still a necessity to improve the processes used in agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing. It makes operations smoother, faster, and safer.

In agriculture, pipes are used to transport water in irrigation systems. This makes it easy to control the number of water that plants need. Other uses of these tubular materials are in drainage systems where moisture could be a problem.

In manufacturing and processing food, sanitation and hygiene is a big requirement. This is where stainless steel pipes can be used because they resist corrosion and won’t affect water and food quality.

When homes are built, people call on civil engineers and architects to ensure a solid house that can stand on its own. But the role of mechanical engineers in building homes should also be appreciated.

One of the most important things that mechanical engineers check is the plumbing system of a structure. They manage the piping design so both water supply and drainage works flawlessly. Tubular materials are also used in creating heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system in a house.

Without these piping systems, water and energy will not be properly distributed all around the home. Odors could also build up in places that need sufficient ventilation like the kitchen and bathroom.

Key Takeaway

In this blog post, you learned more about the importance of steel pipes in mechanical engineering. Engineers use these piping systems in different industries such as automotive, aerospace, power generation, food manufacturing, and building of residential homes. Without these simple but versatile materials, these places could not function.

If you need assistance in choosing the best pipes for your next project, do not hesitate to send a message here. As your one-stop-shop steel pipe supplier in the Philippines, Supreme Pipe will do its best to assist you.


Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Japanese iron jizai okimono of a mantis with fully articulated parts, signed Myochin Hiroyoshi 明珍弘美, Meiji Period.

Jizai literally translates as moving freely object, were articulated animals with movable bodies, legs and antennas.

They were first made during the Edo period (1615-1868) by armorers who crafted samurai armour, sword guards and equestrian equipment some say to advertise the craftsman's skill.

When the wearing of the swords was prohibited in 1876 the metal smiths and armorers lost their jobs and started to produce them for the Western collectors during the Meiji era.

h. 9 cm x w. 21 cm


Gallery 1 – Space A
Present Adolescent
Elle Ross

Elle Ross is a Melbourne-based artist working predominantly in photography. Her practice centres on the traditional male ‘gaze’ and attempts to subvert and disrupt these social conditions, which saturate our visual landscape. As photography is the primary vessel carrying these ideas, Ross uses the medium to dislocate complacency, this time re-presenting the male nude as vulnerable and submissive, components Ross recognises as characteristic of the male ‘gaze’. In her works Ross reacts to the absurdity of ‘gender privilege’ through the frank nudity that is displayed her images, which becomes a tongue in cheek nod to the ‘freedom’ that male bodies represent. They are an ironic homage to the way in which women’s bodies are highly sexualised, yet highly controlled by the autocratic, patriarchal society in which we live. Furthering her investigation, Ross looks to the body undergoing transition to locate and understand the ways in which preconceived prejudices are imposed onto and effect those who define themselves as different to the gender they were assigned at birth.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH


George B. Bishop, Jr. PA
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How road debris causes accidents

| Mar 3, 2020 | Personal Injury |

Besides drunk and distracted drivers, motorists in South Carolina also have to keep an eye out for road debris that may trigger an accident. One thing worth pointing out about road debris is that it can cause personal injuries as well as fatalities.

In late 2018, MarketWatch took a deep dive into how dangerous road debris can be. Drivers should brush up on the dangers of road debris and what they can do to avoid it.

Dangerous highways

Usually, drivers encounter road debris while zipping along at high speeds on the highway. Flying debris is one of the most dangerous types, mainly because of the force of the impact created by the speed of the debris combined with the speed of the vehicle that the object strikes. This type of debris can cause injuries, car damage and even deaths. Shredded truck tires are another type of debris that highway motorists should keep their eyes peeled for. Besides damaging the underside of a vehicle, shredded truck tires may also trigger car tire blowouts.

What is the best thing drivers can do if they encounter debris on the highway? It is actually better to hit the debris rather than try to avoid it. Swerving to avoid objects in the road could lead to a loss of control, which could result in a fatal accident.

Tips for avoiding road debris

AAA notes that one way that drivers can avoid hitting debris is by looking ahead down the road for oncoming objects. Leaving plenty of room between vehicles is another recommendation, as is keeping an eye out for animals in the road during the evening and early morning hours.

Should an injury result from a shredded tire, truck drivers may become liable. The same applies if the debris came from a negligent owner’s property.


Scotland isn't known for having the most pleasant weather.

But its persistent winds make the country a great place for renewable energy.

Over the past few years, officials have overseen the construction of numerous wind turbines, in hopes of turning Scotland's weather into a useful resource.

CHECK OUT: What Country Powered Itself Entirely On Renewable Energy For 75 Days? (Mar 2015)

Those plans finally came to fruition August 7, when gusts of wind produced enough electricity to power all of Scotland for the first time, according to The Washington Post.

This put Scotland into an elite club of nations that have powered themselves for periods of time using only renewable energy.

Other countries that have pulled off that feat include Costa Rica, Denmark, and Portugal.

wind farm

wind farm

Since August 7, Scotland has reportedly achieved 100-percent renewable power multiple times.

On a regular basis, more than half of Scotland's electricity comes from renewable sources, and the country is targeting a consistent 100 percent as soon as 2020.

Scotland's current position as a renewable-energy leader is the result of roughly a decade of concerted efforts to wean the country off fossil fuels.

ALSO SEE: Scotland Launches New Electric-Car Incentive: Interest-Free Loans To Buy (Aug 2015)

Scotland sits atop large oil and gas reserves, but Scots came to the consensus that those resources would eventually run out, meaning alternatives would need to be found.

It should also be noted that there has never been any question in Scotland as to whether climate change is a man-made phenomenon, according to The Washington Post.

Scotland has closed its last coal-fired power plant, and officials have diligently fast-tracked renewable-energy projects.

Eigg, an island in Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. [Photo by Flickr user kevinzim]

However, Scotland must still work against the U.K. government, which reportedly plans to emphasize nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing to obtain new supplies of fossil fuels—otherwise known as fracking.

As a result of this policy, subsidies for solar and onshore wind power have been slashed, one of several factors deepening the long divide between the U.K. and Scotland.

The majority of Scots also disapproved of Britain's June "Brexit" vote to leave the European Union.

MORE: World's First Entirely Renewable-Energy Place: Wind-Swept Scottish Island (Feb 2014)

That vote is expected to have an adverse effect on renewable energy in Britain, since the country will no longer be required to meet lower EU carbon-emissions targets.

But Scotland is committed to renewable energy regardless.

Now that the country has a handle on electricity supply, officials hope to target other areas—such as heating and transportation—for renewable-energy use as well.

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Environmental Awareness

973 Words4 Pages
Recently, different countries have started to strive for environmental development, protection and sustainable use of environmental resources by establishing environmental agencies, but actions are still not compatible with the magnitude of the environmental challenges. Environmental awareness needs a political answer. This is an emergency and emergency situations need emergency actions (UNEP 2007).
The pressing problems of the 21st century, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, floods and droughts need to inform to our society. Degradation of environment is one of the most serious challenges before us (UNEP 2012). The lack of action on climate change will not only threats our prosperity out of reach of millions of people in the developing
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It gives information about the key drivers of future climate, which clarify the relationship between developing emanations of GHG and temperature change, and anticipated changes in the atmosphere framework in the 21st century and past. It additionally gives data about long term changes, including sea level rise and ocean acidification, and the danger of irreversible and unexpected changes (IPCC 2014).
Recent climate changes have affected human and natural ecological system. Human impact on the climate has as of now been cleared, and late anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses are the most surprising ever (IPCC 2015). For diminishing and dealing with the danger of environmental change impact, there is a need of adaptation and mitigation strategies and procedures. This need the decreases in the emissions of greenhouse gasses in the 21st century and beyond, effective adaptation contribute to strong pathways for sustainable development (IPCC
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Our society is already struggling to manage the planet’s natural resources. Escalating resource use is causing significant environmental degradation and depletion of key natural resources, impacting long-term economic growth and sustainability, and contributing to global inequalities. With the population set to grow from seven to 9 billion by 2050, and global urbanization levels to reach 70 per cent, planetary resources will come under increasing pressure under current consumption and production processes, the demands of a growing middle class, expanding cities and building construction and the need for enhanced services and infrastructure development (UNEP
Open Document


Seasons of Change: Guest Post by Ann Gimpel, Author of Tarnished Legacy

Tarnished Legacy:
Soul Dance
Book 2
Ann Gimpel
Narrated by Gregory Salinas
Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
Series: Soul Dance, Book 2
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 06-26-17
Publisher: Ann Gimpel Books, LLC
Tarnished Beginnings
Egypt is a haven for magic-wielders of all kinds. Vampires hold court, staying one step ahead of the priests who want them dead. Gypsy caravans roam the Nile, plying their wares.
Hurt, lost, confused, and fearing for her own life, Tairin runs away, leaving her mother’s smoking funeral pyre behind. With her survival on the line every single day, she and her wolf face hard choices.
Tarnished Legacy
Half Romani, Tairin’s no stranger to hiding her mixed blood from gypsy caravans. What she can’t hide is her perpetual youth, courtesy of her shifter heritage. She’s overstayed her welcome where she is, but Germany is at war, and travel has become impossible for everyone targeted by the Reich.
Elliott’s clairvoyance is strong. Seer for all the caravans in Germany, he catches Tairin eavesdropping outside their leader’s wagon. He should turn her in, but he can’t bring himself to do that. Instead, he interrogates her. Her magic is different, but he can’t figure out quite what she is.
Any association between Romani and shifters is forbidden. Tairin should leave right now, tonight – before he discovers what she is and destroys her.
©2017 Ann Gimpel Books, LLC

Seasons of Change

I’m a four-season gal, myself. I like cold winters, balmy springs where things are coming alive again, and long, languid falls with that crispness in the air that promises winter is just around the corner. The only season I’m not crazy about is summer. I’ve never liked heat much, so twenty years ago we moved to the mountains. The first few years were great, but the advent of climate change has brought ninety degree days to the High Sierra. I’m not terribly pleased about that, but there’s not much I can do, either. One good thing is that it always cools off at night at eight thousand feet, which is where I live.

Weather is a potent element in fiction. It can actually be a character in its own right. I’ve written some books where the weather was one of the antagonists. Quite aside from that, there’s something delightful about misty, foggy moorlands. Or rainy, blustery days. Or the rollicking southern ocean. Real people have to deal with weather, so story characters should have to as well. It makes the book seem more real, at least to me.

Writing convincingly about weather is a challenge. After all, how many ways can you describe a blizzard? It turns out, there are a whole bunch of them. What a wonderful opportunity to show the reader watery eyes, shivers, frosty whiskers, and half-frozen fingers and toes. It’s impossible to write a whole book from a “show” perspective, plus it would be exhausting to read. But there are tricks that can make a manuscript come alive to a reader’s senses. Weather is one of them. Smell is another. The world smells different after a winter rain than it does after a gentle spring shower. Writers who pay attention to their surroundings come up with the best descriptions of how their characters react to elements in their environments. Maybe it’s clichéd, but Margaret Mitchell’s description of Atlanta burning in Gone With the Wind is amazing. I could almost smell the smoke reading it as a thirteen year old long after lights-out by flashlight under the covers.

I’m not quite old enough to remember when families gathered around the radio, because TV either hadn’t been invented, or was in its infancy. I have, however, listened to some old radio programs like Mystery Theater. Radio used a lot of sound effects, many of them weather-related. There was the patter of rain, the whoosh of wind, and people huffing and puffing against a storm in progress.

How about you? What’s your favorite season and why would you pick that one? Do you have a favorite book where the weather played a significant role?

About the Author:
Find Ann At:


Saturday, July 31, 2010

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Paul Bowles- The Sheltering Sky

Ain’t it funny how time slips away
Willie Nelson

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Defending your life

I watched one of my favorite movies last night called “Defending your life,” with Albert Brooks. Although there have been hundreds of books and movies that speculate about what happens to us when we die, this movie did it in a way that has stuck with me since I first saw it when I was a kid. The premise is, that at the end of your life a small panel of judges examines 10 or so representative days of your life to see if you have conquered your fear during the duration of your time on earth. If they found you had, you got to move on to a higher level of consciousness, if not, you got sent back to earth to do it all over again.

The thing that resonated with me so much about this process was the emphasis on the role that fear played in determining the quality of a person’s existence, and how, according to the movie, our lives came down to a small handful of choices that gauged how much we allowed fear to influence our most important and pivotal choices.

When I first watched the movie I was a teenager, and found this to be a powerful way to think about living my life. Beyond morality or stability or security, I wanted to become truly fearless in my life, and shortly afterward took to the road. At the time I was, in my own mind, living a life without fear, perhaps even recklessly so. I spent my twenties traversing our great county, working in 5 of our national parks, traveling, performing comedy, and slinging a whole lot of liquor both as a bartender as well as a patron. Taking stock at the age of 30, I realized I had covered a lot of ground, but had little to show for my behavior but a lot of wonderful memories. A priceless thing to be sure, but it was at this point in my life that I first began to question if fearlessness was the only value worth living for.

Somewhere around this time I began to understand that there was a difference between conquering one’s fear and simply living in pursuit of pure hedonism. On a grand scale, conquering your fear was an amazing thing. It helped me bungee jump, get on stage as a terrified performer, travel into worlds unknown again and again, and hang out with a few women drastically over my head.

I look upon that period of my life with great nostalgia, but now, having been a therapist for several years, I have a little different take on tackling fear in our lives, and I find my position has changed a bit since the days of my sky-diving, hard-drinking youth.

You see I don’t think fear is conquered on a grand scale, although I certainly thought that for many years of my life. No I think the battle with fear is encompassed in a million little moments of our lives. The person we lock eyes with who we don’t quite work up the nerve to talk to. The promotion at work we don’t apply for because we don’t think we’re good enough. These are the little battles we face all the time, and as days give way to years, these are the choices that become the stories of our lives.

Even beyond these things however, there lies another layer of fear that rests at the deepest core of our psyches. This is the stuff we deny and put away on the back shelves of our minds to deal with on some faraway rainy day. This is the stuff that speaks to our deepest feelings of inadequacy and unclaimed baggage from the wounds that we never quite got around to dealing with. Stephen King describes this eloquently, saying, “So do we pass the ghosts that haunt us later in our lives; they sit undramatically by the roadside like poor beggars, and we see them only from the corners of our eyes, if we see them at all. The idea that they have been waiting there for us rarely if ever crosses our minds. Yet they do wait, and when we have passed, they gather up their bundles of memory and fall in behind, treading in our footsteps and catching up, little by little.”

So how do we stare these ghosts down? Some of the ways that have worked for me are honesty and laughter, which at least in my life are intertwined in a kind of perfect union. All of those things, those little nagging things I don’t always like about myself? We’ve all got a box that’s full of them, and sharing them in a funny way is both liberating as well as generative. Others can use them, learn from them, and through your own self-deprecating spin on these things perhaps begin to diffuse the power of some of their own fears. This is our shared absurdity as human beings, and so often the only thing that separates intense disappointment and fantastic shared laughter is a little time and perspective. It’s a useful idea to keep in mind that has personally helped me conquer a lot of my own fears, both large and small.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Dancing on your own grave

Dancing on your own grave
“Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
Do not go gentle into that good night

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas- Do not go gentle

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Choose your own adventure

“One book, Inside UFO 54-40, revolved around the search for a paradise that no one can actively reach; one of the pages in the book describes the player finding the paradise and living happily ever after, although none of the choices in the book led to that page. The ending can be found by disregarding the rules and going through the book at random, sequentially, or by accident. Upon finding the ending, the reader is congratulated for realizing how to find paradise.”

"Happiness is like a butterfly.
The more you chase it, the more it eludes you.
But if you turn your attention to other things,
It comes and sits softly on your shoulder."
Henry David Thoreau

When I was a young man I used to love a series of books called, Choose your own adventure. For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure, reading these books allowed you to make various choices as you read through the book, each of which altered your destiny in the story in some significant way. Whether it was chasing ghosts, or roaming through the old west, or even traveling through space, I loved the idea that each one of our little choices could lead to much more important consequences

In one particular story, referenced at the beginning of this essay, you found a kind of utopia by not playing the game correctly. You had to essentially stumble on the page by accident, or even totally disregard everything you had been told about how to read the book to find it. Upon finding it, you are congratulated on realizing how to find your own personal utopia.

I was wildly fascinated by this. What was the author trying to say? That the rules were completely unimportant? I’d always thought this myself, but that philosophy had resulted in a lot of trips to the principal’s office and lots of trouble. Was there some hidden message encoded in these children’s books? I thought about this for several years and then slowly but surely slouched into adulthood, never really following the rules without making a conscience decision not to do so. Cut to 20 some years later and I was in a thrift store looking for books, and while browsing stumbled across a copy of Inside UFO 54-40, the very book I had been so intrigued by as a kid.

I sat there for almost two hours taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and inevitably, just like I had when I was a kid, I somehow found my way back to utopia by not following the rules. It was a moment of cosmic significance that I was desperately in need of. This was it. Finding happiness by ignoring the rules had been the secret to whatever happiness I had found thus far, although, much like that kid in the principal’s office so many years before, this road less traveled had come with plenty of less than perfect consequences.

All of this was particularly fascinating because I had just been though a situation where my life as a comedian and my life as a psychotherapist had collided. Like I had been reminded of so many times before in my life, I was told there was a time and place for comedy, and that I was going to have to continue to evaluate when exactly this was. But I already knew the answer. Laughter is always appropriate.

Many people would take issue with that. What about death and suffering and disease and all kinds of other things that come up in our lives? Is laughter an appropriate response to these things? I still think the answer is yes. That is not to say that there aren’t situations that require empathy and gravitas and somber reflection. There are. These tragedies are not only possibilities in our lives, but downright inevitabilities. As RD Laing said so eloquently, “life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is 100 percent.”

What other possible response to this is there than laughter? None of these storms that reverberate in our heads are really of any consequence. We are dying ashes on a cosmic fire that will burn so much brighter and longer than our little moment of time here. What we do leave behind in this echo chamber of collapsing time is the way we made people feel about their time here while we knew them, and that is why I have tried to spend so much of my time trying to make people laugh. I have failed often, and will continue to fail, as what looks funny through my personal kaleidoscope does not always register in someone else’s. I accept that, but also think there is perhaps no greater tragedy than becoming convinced that our little cubicle or office is the center of some kind of terribly important business that the universe cannot do without it. That’s a lie that takes some people a lifetime to understand.

The takeaway for me is therefore that it is not the what of life, or even the why, but actually the how that is most important. We don’t get to chose not to be sick or not to lose people we love, and we sure don’t get to chose immortality, but what we do get to choose is how we are going to spend this little handful of fairy dust we are given to sprinkle around the universe. Jean Houston said, “At the height of laugher the universe is thrown into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.” I think this is incredibly wise, as by taking this idea into our hearts we can not only share our own absurd view of the kaleidoscope, but also begin to look more deeply into other people’s as well, and really, to me at least there is nothing that connects people more strongly in this world than shared laughter. We are screeching through the universe on a malfunctioning rollercoaster, and we can choose to suffer through this reality or chose to laugh about it, even laugh hysterically about it, and that is the way I want to take the ride.


Inventions for school projects

What can I invent for a school project?

Easy Invention Ideas for School Fruit-powered lights and clocks. Egg drop crash test dummy. Duct-tape wallets. Smartphone projector. Toilet paper roll Kaleidoscope. Popsicle Stick Christmas Ornaments. Balloon Powered Car. Stethoscope.

What are some ideas for inventions?

Check out our list of the most outstanding and impressive inventions made by designers from all over the world. It’s a real pillow fight! A thundercloud lamp. A heat/cold charging device. A sign projector for bike riders. A bookmark lamp. A bathsphere. ‘The Loch Ness monster’ ladle. A balloon -shaped lamp.

What are the 10 most important inventions?

What are some new inventions?

Who invented homework?

Roberto Nevelis

Who invented school?

Horace Mann

Does InventHelp steal ideas?

In fact, the suit alleges, InventHelp does not make sure it sends clients’ inventions to legitimate, operational companies still interested in receiving new ideas . Indeed, the lawsuit claims, the industry “matches” were “baffling.”

What inventions are not made yet?

What is the coolest invention ever?

The Greatest Inventions In The Past 1000 Years

You might be interested:  1920s inventions timeline
Invention Year
1 Printing Press 1450
2 Electric Light 1879
3 Automobile 1885
4 Telephone 1876

What is man’s greatest invention?

Who invented time?

Who is the greatest inventor?

TOP 10 inventors of all time Thales of miletus. Call us biased, but we think the top slot goes to Thales of Miletus, who lived in the 6th century BC. Leonardo da Vinci . Leonardo was an all-round genius. Thomas Edison . Archimedes . Benjamin Franklin. Louis Pasteur and Alexander Fleming . the Montgolfier brothers and Clément Ader . Nikola Tesla .

What is latest technology in world?

IT and communications

Emerging technology Status Potential applications
Civic technology Research and development, projects Smart cities, more responsive government
Cryptocurrency Diffusion Money supply, World reserve currency
DNA digital data storage Experiments Mass data storage
Exascale computing Projects

What inventions make life easier?

What are the greatest inventions of the 21st century?