US Involvement in Nicaragua essays

US Involvement in Nicaragua essays Some might say that Nicaragua has been a pawn in the US battle against Soviet-Cuban Communist control in Latin America. Relationships between the US and Nicaragua go back to the Gold Rush and Cornelius Vanderbilt's attempts to expedite the travel between the two coasts of the US. Vanderbilt bought the rights to shuttle fortune-seekers across Nicaragua to avoid their having to cross the width of the United States or travel around Cape Horn. Eventually, controversy among the Nicaraguan people led to a civil war in 1853. The US was further drawn into the conflict when the left-wing army hired an American, William Walker, to fight for them. Walker and his mercenaries quickly conquered Grenada, the stronghold of the Conservative parties and found themselves in charge of the army. Walker, however, had his eyes on the presidency, which he eventually took. Walker was not the end of US intervention in Nicaragua. The government had aligning aspirations with Cornelius Vanderbilt and decided to build their canal through Nicaragua, which was less disease ravaged than the other contender, Panama. However, due to previous treaty agreements, the US would have to share control of any canal built through Nicaragua with Great Britain, and so the plan was abandoned. Instead, the US built an exclusively controlled canal through Panama. From 1893 – 1909, a general by the name of Zelaya had exclusive control of the Nicaraguan government. However, in 1909, with US support, this government was overthrown and a pro-US government was established. Throughout the early 1900's, US Marines helped quell minor rebellions throughout Nicaragua and occupy much of the country. Finally, in 1933, the marines leave under the premise of peace with the guerrilla leader Gen. Sandino. A man named Anastasio Somoza is put in charge of the National Guard and therefore controls the country with an iron fist. Until 1979, the Somoza family serves as the totalitarian government i...

Work out vs. Workout

Work out vs. Workout Work out vs. Workout Work out vs. Workout By Maeve Maddox A reader who frequents health and fitness sites is disturbed by a lack of professional editing: Ive noticed that nobody, literally nobody makes a distinction between the noun workout and the verb work out. On every website, I find statements like You have to workout three times a week. So I was wondering if you could address that issue in one of your upcoming posts. The reader is not exaggerating by much. Here are some examples from health and fitness sites and forums that I visited: How often should you workout per week? Should be: How often should you work out per week? Where do you workout? Should be: Where do you work out? First, warm up with some joint rotations, in order to lubricate your joints and prepare them for  the work out.   Should be: First, warm up with some joint rotations, in order to lubricate your joints and prepare them for  the workout.   I’m a night person and prefer to workout at night. Should be: I’m a night person and prefer to work out at night. A few people have asked me what  my work out  routine is. Should be: A few people have asked me what  my workout  routine is. NOTE: One-word workout is also used as an adjective as in â€Å"my workout routine.† One way to avoid the error is to look for words that precede the terms. The noun workout is often preceded by an article or an adjective: â€Å"the workout,† â€Å"my workout.† The verb is often used in its infinitive form, so the preceding to provides a useful clue. Here are some examples of other noun/adjective/verb combinations that are confused in this way: 1. turnout (noun) / turn out (verb) Big turn out  for launch of new play area Should be: Big turnout  for launch of new play area We had many parents turnout for the second high school informational meeting Should be: We had many parents turn out for the second high school informational meeting. 2. washout (noun) / wash out (verb) It is during this time that most  recruits washout. Should be: It is during this time that most  recruits wash out. Authorities concerned over wash out rate. Should be: Authorities concerned over washout rate. Three more such combos are: rollout/roll out, checkout/check out, and cutout /cut out. I’m sure you can think of more. Here’s a mnemonic written in pig propaganda style (Animal Farm) that may help: One word, Noun, Two words, Verb. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:When to Capitalize Animal and Plant Names50 Types of Propaganda45 Idioms with "Roll"

Investment Banking ( calculation and short answer) Essay - 1

Investment Banking ( calculation and short answer) - Essay Example The accretion analysis provides an platform for evaluating control premium of purchasing the acquisition and hence its profitability. Further, accretion analysis is also triggered by the need to evaluate project earnings from for an acquisition. Intuitively, application of accretion analysis helps the acquirer to evaluate the effect of the acquisition on the expected earnings per share and hence the ability of the project to provide favorable earnings. In LBO, assuming the sponsor sells ValueCo at the end of year 5 at an exit multiple equal to its entry multiple, determine enterprise value and equity value at exit given the ending debt balances provided. Based on equity returns and leverage levels, LBO analysis helps in evaluating purchase price. Intuitively, the firm would have to calculate the maximum price that can yield enoughreturns and also cover the debt levels. In which case, the firm in questin will apply LBO analysis to determine a maximum price through the calculation of IRR. Consequently, this ensure that the expected equity returns from the investment is adequate and can cover administrative costs and expenses for the operations. A financial buyer can also use LBO analysis to serve in characterizing the leverage and equity at various prices available for the investment. The financial buyer would consider it suitable to choose a price that would readily yield expected returns on equity for the post-transataction. Further, evaluating the charateristics of the price also allows the buyer to make a decision that would increase the potential returns from the financial leverage of the same. In this case, IRR is an essential tool used in the analysis to depict the charactertisitcs of the various prices. In a case of absence of a strategic buyer for the transaction, LBO analysis proves essential in making LBO firms to be willing buyers. Through determining

Self Values and Listening Habits Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Self Values and Listening Habits - Essay Example It gave me huge opportunity to reflect on my non verbal communication that significantly impact on relationship building. Eye contact shows that person would be honest in his communication and upright posture would indicate that one is confident that one would be given leverage to give his or point of view of the situation. Listening intently would reassure speaker that I understand viewpoint. Hence rather than looking at pictures and elsewhere, I must make eye contact with people and nod occasionally. A feedback at the end would help to convey my proactive participation in the interaction. I believe that improving non verbal communication would significantly promote relationship building. As a manager, it helped me communicate effectively with the workforce and inculcate an environment of trust and mutual respect. It has given me huge opportunity to improve both as an individual as well as a manager. I am more confident and am better able to exploit the potential of my workers. (246 ) Self values We are all driven by the long term goals and larger mission in our life. It generally comprises of achieving socio-economic security for oneself and one’s family, happiness, a comfortable life and sense of achievement. Our value system helps us in meeting our personal and professional goals and objectives. The three most important values for me are: accountability of action; commitment to people and work; and lastly positive attitude. The self values are critical elements that play vital role in my interaction with the people in the work place. These values have been greatly influenced by my family and highlight integrity, power and authority tempered with empowerment of individuals. I have imbibed them through my association with my family and peers and know that commitment towards other people not only promotes trust but is also key to happiness. Happiness is important as it greatly contributes towards improved productivity. My priorities in life are to become financial secure, have a large family and use my authority for the wider welfare of the people. I try to fulfill the priorities by correlating my values within the broader framework of my professional life as a manager. As a manager, I have achieved financial security for myself. Though I have not yet my own family (meaning children), I believe that as a manager, I have judiciously used my power and authority. Indeed, commitment to organizational goals and welfare of people, have been intrinsic parts of my managerial leadership initiatives. I have developed effective communication skills and positive attitude that helps to motivate workers to be creative and highly productive. Time management has been other key factor which had adversely impacted my performance. I realized that there were three major aspects of work which must be addressed. Minor tasks were ignored, I lacked motivation at the beginning of the work and lastly I used to forget important assignments or meetings. These were very crucial issues which were hindering not only my professional development but also undermining my authority and power as an effective manager. Hence, the thing that I did was to keep a diary where I could jot down all the work that needed to be done. It was a great help because it helped me to streamline my work and significantly reduced mental tension and worry. The diary also helped me to plan my work and schedule work so that I could address all the work/ projects and workplace

Electricity and Economy in Kenya Essay Example for Free

Electricity and Economy in Kenya Essay ICT has been the main driver of Kenyas economic growth over the last decade, growing on average by 20 % annually, and propelling the combined transport and communications sector into the economys second largest after agriculture. In chapter three I have discussed the impact of electricity on key economic sectors in Kenya which are agriculture, educational services, banking and communication services, microenterprises and tourism all of which are key pillars of Kenya Vision 2030. It costs approximately Ksh. 5,000 to connect to the grid and about 15 US cents equivalent per kWh of electricity service. This high cost is a major obstacle to the expansion of electricity connection to low-income households. Chapter 1: Introduction 1. 1 Overview and statement of the problem Broad agreement exists that the level and the intensity of energy use in a country is a key indicator of economic growth and development. A number of researchers claim that for modern energy to make a difference on poverty, it must necessarily contribute to productive uses that generate income and create jobs. Kenya’s Vision 2030 identified energy as one of the infrastructure enablers of its pillars and it is expected that more energy will be required to realize the objectives of the Vision. The economic pillar of Vision 2030 aims at providing prosperity for all Kenyans through an economic development programme aimed at achieving an average GDP growth rate of 10% per annum over the next 25 years. Electricity remains the most sought after energy source by the Kenyan society and access to it is normally associated with rising or high quality of life. Its current consumption is at 143 kilowatt hours (kWh) per capita and national connectivity rate of about 28. 9% which is below the average of 32% for developing countries. Electrification plays an important role in the start-up and growth of microenterprises which may lead to sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction. Energy can be directly linked to improved food security because energy can be used in any part of the food supply chain, from growing, processing, storage and cooking, through to marketing and distribution.

Essay --

Have you ever wondered how one person can make such a substantial difference and inspire so much change? In The Hunger Games novels Suzanne Collins creates Katniss Everdeen, the main character and protagonist. She is the empowered female character who through her atypical qualities and actions inspires incredible change. Collins uses Katniss as a lead because she disrupts the natural order of power in Panem and she is the unconventional representation of a heroic figure. The Hunger Games take place in Panem, a dystopian society that is divided into twelve districts and ruled by the Capitol, a totalitarian power. The people of the districts are suppressed; they have no rights and no freedom of speech. In Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults, literary criticism by Patrick Smith, he contributes to the idea of a dystopian society saying â€Å"dystopias feature totalitarian regimes and shattered economies, global war, climate change, the lack of meaningful personal relationships and lost identities, and the underdog fighting against near-impossible odds. All current societies, dystopian novels suggest, are just one cataclysmic event away from collapse.† This accurately describes the occurrences in Panem. Every year a male and female tribute between the ages of twelve and eighteen are selected from every district in a ceremony called the reaping. They are then forced to fight to the death in the hunger games while all of Panem watches on screen until there is one left standing, the victor. The hunger games were created as a means of which to restore order after the â€Å"Dark Days†, a rebellion that happened decades ago. The people must watch their young be slaughtered on screen to pay for the rebellion. â€Å"Taking the kids from our districts, forcin... ...ames is the rebellion that breaks out in district eight. Katniss gets an unwarranted glance at a TV with updates on the action taking place there. She sees masses of people, flags with the Capitol’s emblem being burned and banners with her face waving from the tops of buildings. The disorder is ultimately traced back to Katniss. Collins uses Katniss as the protagonist because she is the unconventional representation of a heroic figure due to her strong characteristics and her powerful representation; she inspires many people and gives them hope because of her sincere and self-sacrificing nature. As she defies the rules of the Capitol others follow in her lead and over time the natural order of power in Panem is not only disrupted but turned upside down. Katniss shows that it is possible for one person to make substantial differences and inspire unbelievable change.

Poverty: Causes and Effects Essay

I. Introduction Most of us today experience the feeling of being poor. It might be in material things or in monetary matters. We can even see the people around begging just to live. It can somehow be the picture of our corrupt government. Officials don’t see the thirst and hunger these people are experiencing. They just think of themselves. Thus, worsening the increase of those people in the poverty line. Isn’t bad to look after our country full of beggars? Asking for pennies and food to eat. We might not be effective in terms of monetary problems, but at least we can give them the feeling of love and care. The supply of basic needs can be restricted by constraints on government services such as corruption, debt and loan conditionalities and by the brain drain of health care and educational professionals. Strategies of increasing income to make basic needs more affordable typically include welfare, accommodating business regulations and providing financial services. Today, poverty reduction is a major goal and issue for many international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. The English word â€Å"poverty† came from Latin pauper = â€Å"poor†, via Anglo-Norman povert. There are many definitions of poverty depending on the context of the situation and the views of the person giving the definition. Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation. Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life. II. Literature Review The individuals who are most at risk of developing problem drug use are those who are at the margins of society. They are individuals who are socially and economically marginalised and disaffected from school, family, work and standard forms of leisure. However the relationship between these factors and drug use is not linear. For example although the majority of problem drug users may have experienced a number of these problems the converse may not hold true; that is, individuals who are economically and politically/socially marginalised will not necessarily become problematic drug users. Neale suggests however that particular sub-groups of the population such as the homeless, those who have been in care and/or excluded from school and those in contact with the criminal justice system or mental health services are more susceptible to the various risk factors and that drug misuse is more prevalent among these particular groups (Neale 2002). According to Spooner (2005) the social environment is a powerful influence on health and social outcomes. In this context drug use and related problems result from the complex interplay of the individual and the environment whereby social institutions or structures can influence the environment in a manner that can influence drug use and related problems. Societal structures include government policies, taxation systems, 11 laws and service systems such as welfare, education, health and justice. As such increased attention to the ‘social’ determinants of drug use is required. People from all backgrounds and classes take drugs for many reasons: for pleasure, to treat physical or emotional pain, for stress or anxiety, or because their friends do. But the pattern of who develops a drug problem and encounters other problems shows a close link between drug misuse and social exclusion. The first signs of the link between problematic drug use and social exclusion became apparent in the US post-war period as some of the big cities encountered the first shocks of de-industrialisation. A series of studies by the Chicago School of Sociology showed clearly that poverty and decay in inner cities were the key causes of the heroin epidemics of the 1950s and 1960s in New York, Chicago and other US cities. In the 1980s those same factors helped to fuel the crack epidemics in the US. An influential study by Parker et al (1986) undertaken in the Wirral during the 1980s showed the average prevalence of heroin users across the peninsular was 18.2 per 1,000 among 16-24 year-olds. But the spread ranged in different districts from zero to 162 per 1,000. The variation in geographical prevalence was highly correlated with seven indicators of background deprivation levels in each area: unemployment rate, council tenancies, overcrowding, larger families, unskilled employment, single parent families and lack of access to a car. A study by Dr Laurence Gruer of some 3,715 drugrelated emergency hospital admissions in Greater Glasgow from 1991 to 1996 plotted them by postcode using a standard index of deprivation (cited ACMD 1998). The admission rate from the most deprived areas exceeded that from the least deprived areas by a factor of 30, so that if the admission rate for the least deprived area had applied across the city, the number of admissions would have been 92 per cent lower. It was noted that the relationship between deprivation and drug misuse is higher than any other health variable they had studied. III. Discussion Health One third of deaths – some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day – are due to poverty-related causes: in total 270 million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990. Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease. Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, hunger andmalnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world’s public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all case. Hunger Rises in the costs of living making poor people less able to afford items. Poor person spend agreater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. As a result, poor households and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. For example, in late 2007 increases in the price of grains led to food riots in some countries. TheWorld Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty. Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis. Intensive farmingoften leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields. Approximately 40% of the world’s agricultural land is seriously degraded. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to United Nations University’s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa. Every year nearly 11 million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night. According to the Global Hunger Index, South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of the world’s regions. Nearly half of all Indianchildren are undernourished, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa. Every year, more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth. Almost 90% of maternal deaths occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world. Women who have born children into poverty may not be able to nourish the children efficiently and provide adequate care in infancy. The children may also suffer from disease that has been passed down to the child through birth. Asthma and rickets are common problems children acquire when born into poverty. Education Research has found that there is a high risk of educational underachievement for children who are from low-income housing circumstances. This often is a process that begins in primary school for some less fortunate children. Instruction in the US educational system, as well as in most other countries, tends to be geared towards those students who come from more advantaged backgrounds. As a result, these children are at a higher risk than other children for retention in their grade, special placements during the school’s hours and even not completing their high school education. There are indeed many explanations for why students tend to drop out of school. For children with low resources, the risk factors are similar to others such as juvenile delinquency rates, higher levels of teenage pregnancy, and the economic dependency upon their low income parent or parents. Families and society who submit low levels of investment in the education and development of less fortunate child ren end up with less favorable results for the children who see a life of parental employment reduction and low wages. Higher rates of early childbearing with all the connected risks to family, health and well-being are majorly important issues to address since education from preschool to high school are both identifiably meaningful in a life. Poverty often drastically affects children’s success in school. A child’s â€Å"home activities, preferences, mannerisms† must align with the world and in the cases that they do not these students are at a disadvantage in the school and most importantly the classroom. Therefore, it is safe to state that children who live at or below the poverty level will have far less success educationally than children who live above the poverty line. Poor children have a great deal less healthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from the academic year. Additionally, poor children are much more likely to suffer from hunger, fatigue, irritability, headaches, ear infections, flu, and colds. These illnesses could potentially restrict a child or student’s focus and concentration. Housing Poverty increases the risk of homelessness. Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world’s urban population, live in a poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional focus of the poverty in the developing world, according to a report by the United Nations. There are over 100 million street children worldwide. Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty. Experts and child advocates maintain that orphanages are expensive and often harm children’s development by separating them from their families. It is speculated that, flush with money, orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died. Violence According to experts, many women become victims of trafficking, the most common form of which is prostitution, as a means of survival and economic desperation.] Deterioration of living conditions can often compel children to abandon school in order to contribute to the family income, putting them at risk of being exploited, according to ECPAT International, an NGO designed to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children. For example, in Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to prostitution for foodto survive because of the increasing poverty. In one survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported witnessing a homicide. 51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for a household: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 3212% in Washington, DC(mean income for a household: $40,127) IV. Conclusion The main problem in our country nowadays is poverty. Many experts made a research on how to solve it. Most in the community of the Philippines are graving. But sad to say that until now it is still in the stage of calamity. Poverty happens everywhere. They think citiesmay offer them a better-off living. They think they’ll be much better off living in the cities than in their own villages, which only offer them natural resources. Being rich and having a great sum of money instantly are often the cause of massive exodus. What happens later is beyond their expectations; they become jobless, homeless, and the worse impact is that they are unable to return to their villages for they don’t even have money to return. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. Poor children are the most prone to this and are often the victims to malnutrition, deficiencies, diseases and ultimately deaths caused by hunger. The persons who are in the position must have enough knowledge about the solutions on the problem. They should make a step by step process to ensure the proper on the global major problem.

Poems by Emily Dickinson: An Overview

However, to most efficiently express her thoughtful yet Judicious mannerisms would be through her choice of words to create an Image. Emily Dickinson uses Dalton (a style and choice of words) and Imagery (a description of a setting or Image) to paint a picture of splendor and stoically. For Instance, In the poem â€Å"Some keep the Sabbath,† when she writes words Like â€Å"Bobolink† Instead of easy terminology like, hem, a bird! Other Interesting words she chooses to use are â€Å"Chorister (a choir singer), â€Å"Dome† (a church roof Sabbath† (Sunday), â€Å"Surplice† (robes for the choir) and â€Å"Sexton† (the person who tolls the bells for a church).Not only are all of these words unorthodox, but they are all capitalized, whereas all the other words not beginning each verse are lower case, as if they are of another allegorical importance. She also shows the reader a halcyon orchard, where the birds sing as beautifully as the church choir , where the songs ring as delicately as the bells. Emily Dickinson uses the same type of diction in â€Å"There is no Frigate. She writes words like â€Å"Coursers† (horses), â€Å"Traverse† (a journey), â€Å"Toll† (she's expressing no cost), and the word â€Å"Frigate† itself (a large boat or vessel).With a new intention and theme of travel, Dickinson uses word choice in yet another didactic poem. And she draws the reader a new purpose to read, a chance to let go, and enter a utopian world, without a penny's cost. Through her diction and imagery, Emily Dickinson personifies majestic beings and animals into humans, and also personifies objects into vessels persons use. With bird and human-like attributes, Emily Dickinson uses personification (the attribution of human characteristics to things) illuminate a pleasant natural setting.As Dickinson says she sees a â€Å"Bobolink,† she personifies it as a â€Å"Chorister,† but the â€Å"Sextonà ¢â‚¬  who â€Å"toll[s] the Bell† is entitled to sing, which is only an action that can be taken by a human or bird. When she notes God, she claims him to be a â€Å"Clergyman† (a Christian minister). She also writes about how she wears her â€Å"Wings† instead of â€Å"Surplice,† which signifies freedom and naturalist views. Emily Dickinson uses personification In â€Å"There Is no Frigate,† nevertheless, in a peculiarly different way.. She turns man's use of vessels and travel Into miscellaneous things through comparison.She compares a â€Å"Frigate† to a book and â€Å"Coursers† to pages of poetry. Progressively, Dickinson becomes more abstract and makes a connection between a â€Å"Chariot† and the human soul. It Is almost as If she Is making negative connotations about ways of travel, compared to the more special things like the Imagination a person uses, the special feeling a person gets room reading a book in the comfor t of his/her own home (which In turn enlightens the human soul). Lastly, Emily uses biblical allusions and references to God in both poems, to slightly tenet elastic themes.According to most Talent, Is Like ten ultimatum. Or the Lord of all that is categorized as objective or subjective. Emily Dickinson uses God variously in her poetry, there are a plethora biblical allusions (references) and Godly references because of her religious background. The fact that she writes about wearing a pair of â€Å"Wings† caught me by surprise.. To be honest, at iris, we thought she meant a bird, but now we are almost positive Dickinson is saying she will become an angel and return to Heaven.Even mentioning â€Å"Heaven,† going to â€Å"Church† on â€Å"Sabbath† and â€Å"God† preaching are all biblical allusions. Unlike her poem â€Å"Some keep the Sabbath,† which is buzzing with all sorts of allusions, we could only find one relevant reference to the bibl e in â€Å"There is no Frigate. † When the Bible was written, the common way of transportation was by â€Å"Chariot. † In the Bible, the king of Canaan owned nine-hundred chariots, Philistines had thirty thousand chariots.. There were even horses designated to carry the chariots, and there were chariots made for war alone.

Displaying a PDF File in a VB.NET Form

Displaying a PDF File in a VB.NET Form PDF files have an internal document format that requires a software object that understands the format. Since many of you might have used the functions of Office in your VB code, lets look briefly at Microsoft Word as an example of processing a formatted document to make sure we understand the concept. If you want to work with a Word document, you have to add a Reference to the Microsoft Word 12.0 Object Library (for Word 2007) and then instantiate the Word Application object in your code. Dim myWord As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass Start Word and open the document. myWord CreateObject(Word.Application) myWord.Visible True myWord.Documents.Open(C:\myWordDocument.docx) ( must be replaced with the actual path to the document to make this code work on your PC.) Microsoft uses the Word Object Library to provide other methods and properties for your use. Read the article COM -.NET Interoperability in Visual Basic to understand more about Office COM interop. But PDF files arent a Microsoft technology. PDF - Portable Document Format - is a file format created by Adobe Systems for document exchange. For years, it was totally proprietary and you had to get software that could process a PDF file from Adobe. On July 1, 2008, PDF was finalized as a published international standard. Now, anyone is permitted to create applications that can read and write PDF files without having to pay royalties to Adobe Systems. If you plan on selling your software, you still may be required to get a license, but Adobe provides them royalty-free. (Microsoft created a different format called XPS that is based on XML. Adobes PDF format is based on Postscript. XPS became a published international standard on June 16, 2009.) The Uses of PDF Since the PDF format is a competitor to Microsofts technology, they dont provide a lot of support and you have to get a software object that understands the PDF format from someone other than Microsoft right now. Adobe returns the favor. They dont support Microsoft technology all that well either. Quoting from the latest (October 2009) Adobe Acrobat 9.1 documentation, There is currently no support for the development of plug-ins using managed languages such as C# or VB.NET. (A plug-in is an on-demand software component. Adobes plug-in is used to display PDFs in a browser.) Since PDF is a standard, several companies have developed software for sale that you can add to your project that will do the job, including Adobe. There are also a number of open-source systems available. You could also use the Word (or Visio) object libraries to read and write PDF files but using these large systems for just this one thing will require extra programming, also has license issues, and will make your program bigger than it has to be. Just as you need to buy Office before you can take advantage of Word, you also have to buy the full version of Acrobat before you can take advantage of more than just the Reader. You would use the full Acrobat product in about the same way that other object libraries, like Word 2007 above, are used. I dont happen to have the full Acrobat product installed so I couldnt provide any tested examples here. How To But if you only need to display PDF files in your program, Adobe provides an ActiveX COM control that you can add to the VB.NET Toolbox. It will do the job for free. Its the same one you probably use to display PDF files anyway: the free Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader. To use the Reader control, first make sure that you have downloaded and installed the free Acrobat Reader from Adobe. Step 2 is to add the control to the VB.NET Toolbox. Open VB.NET and start a standard Windows application. (Microsofts next generation of presentation, WPF, doesnt work with this control yet. Sorry!) To do that, right-click on any tab (such as Common Controls) and select Choose Items ... from the context menu that pops up. Select the COM Components tab and click the checkbox beside Adobe PDF Reader and click OK. You should be able to scroll down to the Controls tab in the Toolbox and see the Adobe PDF Reader there. Now just drag the control to your Windows Form in the design window and size it appropriately. For this quick example, Im not going to add any other logic, but the control has lots of flexibility that Ill tell you how to find out about later. For this example, Im just going to load a simple PDF that I created in Word 2007. To do that, add this code to the form Load event procedure: Console.WriteLine(AxAcroPDF1.LoadFile( _   Ã‚  Ã‚  C:\Users\Temp\SamplePDF.pdf)) Substitute the path and file name of a PDF file on your own computer to run this code. I displayed the result of the call in the Output windows only to show how that works. Heres the result: Click Here to display the illustrationClick the Back button on your browser to return If you want to control the Reader, there are methods and properties for that in the control too. But the good folks at Adobe have done a better job than I could. Download the Adobe Acrobat SDK from their developer center (adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/). The AcrobatActiveXVB program in the VBSamples directory of the SDK shows you how to navigate in a document, get the version numbers of the Adobe software you are using, and much more. If you dont have the full Acrobat system installed - which must be purchased from Adobe - you wont be able to run other examples.

Favorite House Styles in the USA

Favorite House Styles in the USA Cape Cod and Ranch style houses were once the rage, but Americas tastes have changed over the past decade. Here are todays favorite house styles, according to our Dream House Survey. Mind you, this survey isnt scientific, but the results suggest some interesting trends. Readers are choosing homes homes with cozy details and a romantic flavor. Do you agree? 1. Craftsman Bungalow House Style Homey bungalows with low-pitched roofs and exposed rafters took America by storm in the early 1900s... and then faded from favor after 1930. But perhaps the style is making a comeback. Craftsman and Arts Crafts homes and bungalow homes were the most popular pick in our Dream House survey. 2. Tudor and English Country House Styles Scoring a close second in our Dream House Survey, this cozy style with half-timber details is reminiscent of Medieval English cottages and manor homes. Readers who responded to our survey were drawn to the small, diamond-paned windows and exposed wood framing found in many Tudor Revival homes. 3. Victorian Queen Anne House Styles Victorian is not actually a style, but a period in history, and Victorian architecture comes in many forms. There are the austere stick style homes, the fanciful Gothic Revival cottages,  and the majestic Italianates. But when people discuss Victorian architecture, they are often thinking of Americas so-called Queen Anne  style an elaborate, rather feminine, fashion with lavish details such as towers, wrap-around porches, bay windows, and elaborate trim. Queen Anne ranks number three in our survey, falling behind the more restrained Craftsman and Tudor styles. 4. Georgian Colonial House Styles Symmetrical, orderly Georgian houses became a prominent Colonial house style. Today, Georgian Colonial Revival is a model often imitated for elegant new homes. 5. Prairie House Styles Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered this style in Chicago at the turn of the century. Low-pitched hipped roofs give Prairie style  homes the appearance of hugging the earth, and the square, often symmetrical lines suggest strength and homespun values. 6. Dreams for the Future Borrowing ideas from the past, modern-day styles take on many shapes. One imaginative reader said that he dreamed of owning a home designed for desert living. The floors, he said, would be polished concrete. Air conditioning and heat will duct through the cement slab up through sand-filled interior walls, he wrote. Sounds very modern. Desert Modern. 7. Homes for Right Now Dream houses dont have to be big. In fact. sometimes our deepest passions come in small packages. One man from Ohio has created his own dream house. The 150-year-old cottage has no electricity, so hand tools and elbow grease were used to paint the shutters, sand the floors, and decorate the rooms with an admittedly eccentric style. A quirky man with dogged independence, he writes, This was meant to be fun, not some job to be instantly done. We cant argue with that. More Top Picks A few more questions: Out of all the styles to choose from, whats your favorite? Why do you love it? Here are responses:   High Victorian: Queen Anne, Second Empire, and the like are a showcase of fine craftsmanship not likely to be seen on such a grand scale again. I own an original foursquare. While I appreciate the nice woodwork, its too rectilinear.I like Colonial Revival and Ranch homes, but I also like Foursquare houses because that is what my grandparents had.Arts and Crafts: As a design enthusiast, my favorite style is Arts Crafts. Its wide and low pitched roofs, use of natural materials, earth-toned color schemes, and overall craftsmanship makes the Arts Crafts style hard to ignore and almost impossible to duplicate today. Morris, Greene, Stickley (Sears Roebuck) and, to a great extent, Wright owe much of what they did for architecture in this country, to the East (Asia if Im not mistaken). From Bungalow to Craftsman to Prairie, you will find very, very few people who are NOT taken with the Arts Crafts style.Tidewater: I love the tidewater houses. The wrap-around porches are efficient ventil ation systems. Living in the South, we are able to enjoy a lot of porch weather! Tropical Architecture: This is not a very recognized style but I love it because it addresses issues of the humid climate.Dutch Colonial: I like the dutch colonial revival with the gambrel roof, and also the standard colonial revival..Give Me a Ranch: I love the classic Raised Ranch. The home can be small in square footage but has potential to be designed in such a way that it feels bigger.Federalist Style House: The look of size is impressive in itself but the appearance of sturdiness and durability says home. Even Katrina couldnt blow this house down.Greek Revival: Greek Revival is American architecture at its besta style that is distinctly American for Americans. Chaste and classical, while formal and informal, yet beautiful and timeless are just a few of its many attractive qualities.Spanish: I absolutely love the Spanish-Mediterranean-Pueblo-Missionary type houses. They have a beautiful tropical warm appearance with a comfortable at home feel. Its like living a dream.

PESTLE Analisys Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

PESTLE Analisys - Essay Example There is minimal political interference since the company deals with entertainment products. Though, the government once ordered the CDs produced by HMV to be investigated. This is simply because the company was making too much profit that led to a rise in suspicions of the eligibility of the CDs. Economically, several factors pose a great effect on the company. The crash on the company finances due to the acquisition of Waterston’s agency had a severe impact. The company’s shares performed poorly in the London stock exchange. The great impact made the company to have a partial closure. The unstable currency in the past recession years had a great impact on the company’s economy. This is because currency exchange from the signed deals produced futile results. Another factor that greatly affects the economy of HMV is the decline in the company’s performance in 2009.This affected the market as many customers felt that the company did not offer the best. The overall decline in the entertainment industry by 3.4% in 2008 had diverse effects on the company too. Firms in other countries working under the brand name of HMV contribute revenue to the company empowering it economically. The sales revenue of the company rose by 3.1% in 2010. This increased popularity of the brand and the cash inflow. On the sect of social factors, change in consumer demands or else lifestyle changes affects the company. This is whereby the customers drift their demand from one product completely to the other. If there were large stocks of the product, the company may experience a loss. It is mostly brought about by celebrities and other influential people. Advertising these items on a more apparent note helps to adhere to the lifestyle changes by reducing stock. The tapping of music and entertainment is another social factor. Most people can easily burn personal CDs posing a great challenge on the markets of HMV. They can also transfer music from one device to t he other without necessarily purchasing it. On the technology trends, several factors are considered. These include; Online business. Most of the music and computer games can be sold online. This is in line with business protection. The use of DVD s may not be applicable anymore since the sale of music can be easily done through the internet. The company can direct its focus on dealing with such issues to keep up with the pace of the fast developing technology.HMV has created a website whereby it sells its products through an online market. Another one is filming technology. There is the use of high filming technology that provides a live coverage of events. It can be used to record live performances of celebrities. The performances can be sold online for example through YouTube. This easily copes the growing technology. The company also utilizes the social media sites, for example face book. These sites can be used as advertisement centres. This is because they can be accessed by a large number of people. The various products offered by the company are displayed to the customers giving updates on the trending issues (Adams, J. L, 2002, 44). There are ecological factors that can be depicted. The shift from plastic DVDs to using the internet in order to protect the environment is a considerate factor. The plastic CDs that are not re-used but instead disposed off, can affect the environment since they are non-biodegradable. The cost of purchasing CDs is higher than that of selling music