CASE 275 - The History of the caribbean

The history of the Caribbean was a constant colonial struggle of power for the European powers since the 15th century. In the 20th century the Caribbean was again important during World War II, in decolonization wave in the post-war period, and in the tension between Communist Cuba and the United States (US). Genocide, slavery, immigration and rivalry between world powers have given Caribbean history an impact disproportionate to the size of this small region. There are 41 islands. HOWEVER the are around 7000 islands close to, and part of, all of these countries. The Caribbean consists of the West Indian islands. These islands are subdivided into two groups, namely the British West Indies and the French West Indies. The West Indies is made up of the following islands: the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) and the Lesser Antilles (which is further subdivided into the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands.)

The British West Indies islands are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas (New Providence), Barbados, Cozumel, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, the Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curacao, Saba and St. Eustatius), Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, , St. Vincent and the Grenadines, San Andres, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands (Anegada, Tortola and Virgin Gorda) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas).

Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy (St. Barts) and St. Martin/Sint Maarten (a part of the Netherlands Antilles) are collectively called the French West Indies.





The oldest evidence of humans in the Caribbean is the Casirimoid culture in Cuba and Hispaniola which dates back to 4500 B.C. and is associated with edge grinders similar to those used in Archaic Age Central America. There is also another series of Archaic Age sites discovered by Christi Torres Trinidad at Banwari Trace where 4000-year-old remains have been found. These sites, which belong to the Archaic (pre-ceramic) age, have been termed Ortoiroid. The earliest evidence of humans in the Lesser Antilles are from 2000 BCE in Antigua. A lack of pre-ceramic sites in the Windward Islands and differences in technology suggest that these Archaic settlers may have Central American origins. Whether an Ortoiroid colonisation of the islands took place is uncertain, but there is little evidence of one. Between 400 BCE and 200 BCE the first ceramic-using agriculturalists, the Saladoid culture, entered Trinidad from South America. They expanded down the Orinoco River to Trinidad, and then spread rapidly up the islands of the Caribbean. Some time after 250 CE another group, the Barrancoid entered Trinidad. The Barancoid society collapsed along the Orinoco around 650 and another group, the Arauquinoid, expanded into these areas and up the Caribbean chain. Around 1300 a new group, the Mayoid entered Trinidad and remained the dominant culture until Spanish settlement.

At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major Amerindian indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the Greater Antilles, The Bahamas and the Leeward Islands; the Island Caribs and Galibi in the Windward Islands; and the Ciboney in western Cuba. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, Western Taínos, who occupied Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamian archipelago, and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the Leeward Islands. Trinidad was inhabited by both Carib speaking and Arawak-speaking groups.

Colonial era

Soon after the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, both Portuguese and Spanish ships began claiming territories in Central and South America. These colonies brought in gold, and other European powers, most specifically England, the Netherlands, and France, hoped to establish profitable colonies of their own. Colonial rivalries made the Caribbean a cockpit for European wars for centuries.



Map of Antilles

Haiti the former French colony of Saint-Domingue on Hispaniola, was the first Caribbean nation to gain independence from European powers in 1804. This followed 13 years of warfare which commenced as a slave uprising in 1791 and quickly became the Haitian Revolution under the leadership of Toussaint l'Ouverture, where the former slaves defeated the French army (twice), the Spanish army, and the British army, before becoming the world's first and oldest black republic, and also the second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. This is additionally notable as being the only successful slave uprising in history. The remaining two-thirds of Hispaniola were conquered by Haitian forces in 1821. In 1844, the newly-formed Dominican Republic declared its independence from Haiti.
The nations bordering the Caribbean in Central America gained independence with the 1821 establishment of the First Mexican Empire - which at that time included the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. The nations bordering the Caribbean in South America also gained independence from Spain in 1821 with the establishment of Gran Colombia - which comprised the modern states of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama.
Cuba and Puerto Rico remained a Spanish colonies until the Spanish American War in 1898, after which Cuba attained its independence in 1902, and Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the United States, being the last of the Greater Antilles under colonial control.

Between 1958 and 1962 most of the British-controlled Caribbean was integrated as the new West Indies Federation in an attempt to create a single unified future independent state - but it failed. The following former British Caribbean island colonies achieved independence in their own right; Jamaica (1962), Trinidad & Tobago (1962), Barbados (1966), Bahamas (1973), Grenada (1974), Dominica (1978), St. Lucia (1979), St. Vincent (1979), Antigua & Barbuda (1981), St. Kitts & Nevis (1983).
In addition British Honduras in Central America became independent as Belize (1981), British Guiana in South America became independent as Guyana (1966), and Dutch Guiana also in South America became independent as Suriname (1975).

CASE 274 - Top 50 countries

Top 50 countries - Includes many facts, states, opinions

These 2 links have lots of information, stats and figures
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/top50.html
http://www.blogs-collection.com/top-50-countries/

World's 50 Poorest Countries

Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia.

Top 50 most stable and prosperous countries in the world

A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane's Information Services has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations with the US at 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th.

Here is the full list:

Vatican, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Gibraltar (UK), San Marino, Liechtenstein, UK, Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Austria, Andorra, Germany, Iceland, Switzerland, Portugal, Australia, Norway, Malta, France, Canada, US, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Japan, Finland, Czech Rep, Samoa, Falkland Islands, Singapore, Guam, Slovakia, Anguilla, Cyprus, Qatar, Montserrat, Costa Rica, Greece, St Pierre and Miq, UAE, Cayman Islands, American Samoa, Virgin Islands (UK), Poland, St Lucia, Oman, 50 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands



SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

This list is based on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database which calculates military expenditure data for 2010 (in constant 2009 US$). It also includes military expenditure data as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009.

The world's top 5 largest military budgets in 2009. Figures sourced from SIPRI.

Military spending

Military spending as percentage of GDP

Rank Country Military expenditure % of GDP, 2009
1 United States 687,105,000,000 4.7%
2 China 114,300,000,000 2.2%
3 France 61,285,000,000 2.5%
4 U K 57,424,000,000 2.7%
5 Russia 52,586,000,000 4.3%
6 Japan 51,420,000,000 1.0%
7 Germany 46,848,000,000 1.4%
8 Saudi Arabia 42,917,000,000 11.2%
9 Italy 38,198,000,000 1.8%
10 India 34,816,000,000 2.8%
11 Brazil 28,096,000,000 1.6%
12 South Korea 24,270,000,000 2.9%
13 Canada 20,164,000,000 1.5%
14 Australia 19,799,000,000 1.9%
15 Spain 15,803,000,000 1.1%
16 UAE 15,749,000,000 7.3%
17 Turkey 15,634,000,000 2.7%
18 Israel 13,001,000,000 6.3%
19 Netherlands 11,604,000,000 1.5%
20 Greece 9,369,000,000 3.2%
21 Colombia 9,191,000,000 3.7%
22 (Taiwan) 8,535,000,000 2.4%
23 Poland 8,380,000,000 1.8%
24 Singapore 7,651,000,000 4.3%
25 Iran 7,044,000,000b 1.8%b
26 Norway 6,322,000,000 1.6%
27 Chile 6,198,000,000 3.5%
28 Indonesia 6,009,000,000 0.9%
29 Algeria 5,586,000,000 3.8%
30 Belgium 5,382,000,000 1.2%
31 Sweden 5,248,000,000 1.2%
32 Portugal 5,213,000,000 2.1%
33 Pakistan 5,160,000,000 2.8%
34 Mexico 4,859,000,000 0.5%
35 Iraq 4,663,000,000 5.4%
36 Denmark 4,588,000,000 1.4%
37 Kuwait 4,411,000,000 4.4%
38 Switzerland 4,392,000,000 0.8%
39 Thailand 4,336,000,000 1.9%
40 Oman 4,047,000,000 9.7%
41 Egypt 3,914,000,000 2.1%
42 Angola 3,774,000,000 4.2%
43 South Africa 3,735,000,000 1.3%
44 Finland 3,718,000,000 1.5%
45 Austria 3,650,000,000 0.9%
46 Ukraine 3,442,000,000 2.9%
47 Malaysia 3,259,000,000 2.0%
48 Morocco 3,256,000,000 3.4%
49 Argentina 3,179,000,000 1.0%
50 Venezuela 3,106,000,000 1.3%
51 Czech Republic 2,529,000,000 1.4%
52 Vietnam 2,410,000,000

CASE 273 - Developed countries / 3rd world countries

When people talk about the poorest countries of the world, they often refer to them with the general term Third World, and they think everybody knows what they are talking about. But when you ask them if there is a Third World, what about a Second or a First World, you almost always get an evasive answer. Other people even try to use the terms as a ranking scheme for the state of development of countries, with the First world on top, followed by the Second world and so on, that's perfect - nonsense.

To close the gap of information you will find here explanations of the terms.

The use of the terms First, the Second, and the Third World is a rough, and it's safe to say, outdated model of the geopolitical world from the time of the cold war.
There is no official definition of the first, second, and the third world. Below OWNO's explanation of the terms.



Four Worlds

After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the "First World".
2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World".
3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."
4 - The term "Fourth World", coined in the early 1970s by Shuswap Chief George Manuel, refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, "First Nations" living within or across national state boundaries.

First there was the three worlds model

The origin of the terminology is unclear. In 1952 Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer, wrote an article in the French magazine L'Observateur which ended by comparing the Third World with the Third Estate: "ce Tiers Monde ignoré, exploité, méprisé comme le Tiers État" (this ignored Third World, exploited, scorned like the Third Estate). Other sources claim that Charles de Gaulle coined the term Third World, maybe de Gaulle only has quoted Sauvy. However...

Definitions

The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.

Countries of the "First World"



"Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.

Countries of the "Second World"

"Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries, as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries.
Below

Countries of the "Third World"



Third World Countries classified by various indices: their Political Rights and Civil Liberties, the Gross National Income (GNI) and Poverty of countries, the Human Development of countries, and the Freedom of Information within a country.



What makes a nation third world?

Despite everevolving definitions, the concept of the third world serves to identify countries that suffer from high infant mortality, low economic development, high levels of poverty, low utilization of natural resources, and heavy dependence on industrialized nations. These are the developing and technologically less advanced nations of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America. Third world nations tend to have economies dependent on the developed countries and are generally characterized as poor with unstable governments and having high rates of population growth, illiteracy, and disease. A key factor is the lack of a middle class—with impoverished millions in a vast lower economic class and a very small elite upper class controlling the country’s wealth and resources. Most third world nations also have a very large foreign debt. (What makes a nation third world? from Encyclopedia of World Geography)

The term "Fourth World" first came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel's: The fourth world : an Indian reality (amazon link to the book), the term refers to nations (cultural entities, ethnic groups) of indigenous peoples living within or across state boundaries (nation states).

CASE 272 - Social media network sites

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.
Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Businesses may also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value.[citation needed]
Social media may have been integral to the Arab revolutions and revolts of 2011. As one Cairo activist succinctly put it, "“We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." However, there is some debate about the extent to which social media facilitate this kind of change.



Examples

The Dutch man Ramon Stoppelenburg traveled around the world for free, without spending any money, from 2001 to 2003, thanks to his blog on Letmestayforaday.com. His website was his profile with which he created his own necessary network of online offered places to stay for the night. This made Stoppelenburg one of the first people online who used the online media in a social and effective manner.
Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking. By applying a set of theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure) Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme for different social media types in their Business Horizons article published in 2010. According to Kaplan and Haenlein there are six different types of social media: collaborative projects, blogs and microblogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms.

Communication

Blogs: Blogger, ExpressionEngine, LiveJournal, Open Diary, TypePad, Vox, WordPress, Xanga
Microblogging: FMyLife, Foursquare, Jaiku, Plurk, Posterous, Tumblr, Twitter, Qaiku, Google Buzz, Identi.ca Nasza-Klasa.pl
Location-based social networks: Foursquare, Geoloqi, Gowalla, Facebook places, The Hotlist
Social networking: ASmallWorld, Bebo, Cyworld, Diaspora, Facebook, Hi5, Hyves, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Orkut, Plaxo, Tagged, XING , IRC, Yammer
Events: Eventful, The Hotlist, Meetup.com, Upcoming
Information Aggregators: Netvibes, Twine (website)
Online Advocacy and Fundraising: Causes, Kickstarter
[edit]Collaboration/authority building
Wikis: PBworks, Wetpaint, Wikia, Wikimedia, Wikispaces
Social bookmarking (or social tagging): CiteULike, Delicious, Diigo, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, folkd
Social Media Gaming: Empire Avenue
Social news: Digg, Mixx, NowPublic, Reddit, Newsvine
Social navigation: Trapster, Waze
Content Management Systems: Wordpress, Drupal, Plone
Document Managing and Editing Tools: Google Docs, Syncplicity, Docs.com, Dropbox.com
Collaboration: Central Desktop



Multimedia

Photography and art sharing: deviantArt, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, SmugMug, Zooomr
Video sharing: sevenload, Viddler, Vimeo, YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Nico Nico Douga, Openfilm
Livecasting: Justin.tv, Livestream, OpenCU, Skype, Stickam, Ustream, blip.tv, oovoo, Youtube
Music and audio sharing: ccMixter, Pandora Radio, Spotify, Last.fm, MySpace Music, ReverbNation.com, ShareTheMusic, The Hype Machine, Groove Shark, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Soundclick, imeem.
Presentation sharing: scribd, SlideShare
[edit]Reviews and opinions
Product reviews: epinions.com, MouthShut.com
Business reviews: Customer Lobby, Yelp, Inc.
Community Q&A: Askville, EHow, Stack Exchange, WikiAnswers, Yahoo! Answers, Quora, ask.com
[edit]Entertainment
Media and entertainment platforms: Cisco Eos
Virtual worlds: Active Worlds, Forterra Systems, Second Life, The Sims Online, World of Warcraft, RuneScape
Game sharing: Kongregate, Miniclip, Newgrounds, Armor Games
[edit]Brand monitoring
Social media measurement: Attensity, Radian6, Statsit, Sysomos, Vocus

CASE 271 - Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is one of the largest food and nutrition companies in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, which was established in 1866 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and the Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé Company, which was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé. The company grew significantly during the First World War and following the Second World War, eventually expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. Today, the company operates in 86 countries around the world and employs nearly 283,000 people. Nestlé has 6,000 brands, with a wide range of products across a number of markets including coffee (Nescafé), bottled water, other beverages (including Aero (chocolate) & Skinny Cow), chocolate, ice cream, infant foods, performance and healthcare nutrition, seasonings, frozen and refrigerated foods, confectionery and pet food. They are also major funders and supporters of Israel



Boycott Nestle

In order to sell more of its infant formula in third world countries, Nestle would hire women with no special training and dress them up as nurses to give out free samples of Nestle formula. The free samples lasted long enough for the mother's breast milk to dry up from lack of use. Then mothers would be forced to purchase the formula but, being poor, they would often mix the formula with unsanitary water or 'stretch' the amount of formula by diluting it with more water than recommended. The result was that babies starved all over the Third World while Nestle made huge profits from this predatory marketing strategy. In 1977, a world-wide boycott was launched against the Nestle Corporation, which was found to be the most unethical of the several companies selling baby formula at the time. Consumers all across the world stopped purchasing Nestle products. The World Health Organization drafted the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes, which was signed by much of the world in the early '80's and finally by the United States in 1994. After a brief hiatus the Nestle boycott was relaunched in 1988 and continues to this day. A recent report called "Cracking the Code" outlines the many present-day violations of the W.H.O. code.



What you can do

Nestle, is the world's largest baby food company and increases it's profits by promoting artificial infant feeding in violation of the W.H.O. code that has been signed by the US and many other nations. Nestle knows that once a bottle has become between a mother and her child breastfeeding is more likely to fail and the company has gained a customer. Because of Nestle's continued disrespect for the International Code and infant health the best thing you can do is stop purchasing Nestle products.

Palm oil use

Rapid deforestation in Borneo and other regions to harvest hardwood and make way for oil palm plantations sends massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In particular, where peat swamp forests are cleared, destroying the habitat for many threatened species of animals such as the orangutan, much public attention has been given to the environmental impact of palm oil and the role of multi-nationals such as Nestlé in this. There is ongoing concern by various NGOs including Greenpeace.

Nestlé were met with "a deluge of criticism from consumers, after a large number of Facebook users posted negative comments about the company's business practises." Nestlé's attempt to engage with the issue were met with criticism, including headlines stating: "Nestlé fails at social media", and "Nestlé Loses Face On Facebook". Nestlé Chairman, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, in answer to a question from Greenpeace, told the Company’s Annual General Meeting in Lausanne on April 15, 2010 that in 2009 Nestlé used 320,000 tonnes of palm oil worldwide, comparing this with the 500,000 tonnes of palm oil used for biodiesel in Germany and Italy alone. In May 2010 Nestlé said it was inviting The Forest Trust, a not-for-profit group, to audit its supply chain and promised to cancel contracts with any firm found to be chopping down rainforests to produce the palm oil which it uses in KitKat, Aero and Quality Street. Greenpeace welcomed the agreement promising to monitor it closely.

CASE 270 - The History of Denmark

For a relatively small country, the history of Denmark is a bit of a convoluted one and in history Denmark has been a very powerful country. The culture of Denmark, too, has taken many twists and turns throughout the years. The Danes were actually a Swedish tribe who migrated south to Jylland in 500 AD. For three hundred years they maintained this land, before unleashing themselves onto Europe under the name “The Vikings.”

This is a bit of a misnomer, however – thanks to cultural ignorance and competing stories, the term Vikings has been cast upon hundreds of different tribes and groups of warriors. Since many of the tales of Vikings were related by fleeing victims that didn’t see the point in taking the time to question the invaders about their cultural heritage, various Viking clans were attributed to Norse marauders when really they were Danes, and vice versa. Swedish clans only helped to confuse things. One thing they all had in common (and its influence on the culture of Denmark today is obvious) is extremely advanced shipbuilding skills, a trade that has earned many a Dane a paycheck throughout the years.



One of the most interesting questions in Denmark History is: why did the Vikings, after hundreds of years of living in the wildernesses of Scandinavia, suddenly decide to explode across Europe, delving into lengthy battles with the British and Germanic tribes, even going so far south as to fight the Muslims in Seville? Many historians continue to debate whether it was over economic or religious issues. The former was only exacerbated by lengthy warfare, while the latter was solved by the Vikings gradual conversion to Christianity. Either way, Viking descendants were scattered all across the continent, with large populations in France, Germany, and even Spain during this time in Denmark history. The reign of the Vikings was short, but an important chapter in the history of Denmark. As the dark ages moved along, the people of Europe grew better skilled at defend themselves, and the Vikings continued a crippling war against England. Though they eventually won, trying to keep the two kingdoms aligned proved even harder and they only ruled England for 50 years.



The shift towards a kingdom also came gradually, and the oldest monarchy in the world was born. In the 14th century, the kingdom had stretched to include Sweden, Norway, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. With such a vast empire at this point in Denmark history, it’s no wonder why the culture of Denmark influenced both Western Europe and Scandinavia. It also set the seeds for civil war, though, as the Swedes eventually broke away in the 1500s, and then promptly began a long and brutal war between the two countries for hundreds of years. The most volatile era in the history of Denmark since the days of the Vikings, the siege of Copenhagen lasted three years just by itself, and the Danes were never to return to rule in Sweden. The renaissance was kind to the culture of Denmark, marked mainly by an architectural boom throughout the islands, as castles and cathedrals sprouted up all across the countryside. Everything seemed to be going well for the Danes, and would continue until the kingdom foolishly (in hindsight anyway) sided with Napoleon in the early 1800s. Mercilessly attacked by the British for this transgression, much of Copenhagen was destroyed. Disheartened, this period of Denmark history also saw the loss of Norway to Sweden in 1814.



Since then - outside of an unfortunate Nazi occupation in World War II - Denmark has been at peace, quietly growing into one of the most advanced and progressive nations in the world. Their high standard of living was derived from their post-war efforts to look inward and focus on their shipping and agricultural industries, as well as a highly successful welfare and healthcare systems. While Denmark may never again enjoy the political relevancy of the past, it has carved its niche out as a land of prosperity, a land of highly educated people that preach responsibility and affability.

CASE 269 - landfills, waste and recycling

landfills, waste, recycling and toxins





Landfills



A landfill site (also known as tip, dump or rubbish dump and historically as a midden), is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organized waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world.
Landfills may include internal waste disposal sites (where a producer of waste carries out their own waste disposal at the place of production) as well as sites used by many producers. Many landfills are also used for other waste management purposes, such as the temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or processing of waste material (sorting, treatment, or recycling).
A landfill also may refer to ground that has been filled in with soil and rocks instead of waste materials, so that it can be used for a specific purpose, such as for building houses. Unless they are stabilized, these areas may experience severe shaking or liquefaction of the ground in a large earthquake.





Waste



Waste (also known as rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage, junk) is unwanted or useless materials. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly.
In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms; such as urea, sweat or feces.
Waste is directly linked to human development, both technologically and socially. The compositions of different wastes have varied over time and location, with industrial development and innovation being directly linked to waste materials. Examples of this include plastics and nuclear technology. Some components of waste have economical value and can be recycled once correctly recovered.
Waste is sometimes a subjective concept, because items that some people discard may have value to others. It is widely recognized that waste materials are a valuable resource, whilst there is debate as to how this value is best realized. Such concepts are colloquially expressed in western culture by idioms like "One man's trash is another man's treasure."
There are many waste types defined by modern systems of waste management, notably including:
Municipal Waste includes household waste, commercial waste, demolition waste
Hazardous Waste includes Industrial waste
Bio-medical Waste includes clinical waste
Special Hazardous waste includes radioactive waste, Explosives waste, E-waste



Recycling

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.
Recyclable materials include many kinds of glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Although similar in effect, the composting or other reuse of biodegradable waste – such as food or garden waste – is not typically considered recycling. Materials to be recycled are either brought to a collection center or picked up from the curbside, then sorted, cleaned, and reprocessed into new materials bound for manufacturing.
In the strictest sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper, or used foamed polystyrene into new polystyrene. However, this is often difficult or too expensive (compared with producing the same product from raw materials or other sources), so "recycling" of many products or materials involves their reuse in producing different materials (e.g., paperboard) instead. Another form of recycling is the salvage of certain materials from complex products, either due to their intrinsic value (e.g., lead from car batteries, or gold from computer components), or due to their hazardous nature (e.g., removal and reuse of mercury from various items). Critics dispute the net economic and environmental benefits of recycling over its costs, and suggest that proponents of recycling often make matters worse and suffer from confirmation bias. Specifically, critics argue that the costs and energy used in collection and transportation detract from (and outweigh) the costs and energy saved in the production process; also that the jobs produced by the recycling industry can be a poor trade for the jobs lost in logging, mining, and other industries associated with virgin production; and that materials such as paper pulp can only be recycled a few times before material degradation prevents further recycling. Proponents of recycling dispute each of these claims, and the validity of arguments from both sides has led to enduring controversy.

CASE 268 - Mobile phones

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular telephone, cell phone, or hand phone (in Southeast Asian English) is an electronic device used to make mobile telephone calls across a wide geographic area. Mobile phones are different from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within a limited range of a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office.
A mobile phone can make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed-line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network owned by a mobile network operator.
In addition to functioning as a telephone, a modern mobile phone typically supports additional services such as SMS (or text) messaging, MMS, e-mail and Internet access; short-range wireless (infrared or Bluetooth) communications; as well as business and gaming applications, and photography. Mobile phones that offer advanced computing abilities are referred to as smartphones. The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 kg. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first to be commercially available. In the twenty years from 1990 to 2010, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew from 12.4 million to over 4.6 billion, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid



Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s.
The first mobile telephone call made from a car occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on June 17, 1946, using the Bell System's Mobile Telephone Service, but the system was impractical from what is considered a portable handset today. The equipment weighed 80 pounds (36 kg), and the AT&T service, basically a massive party line, cost $30 USD per month (equal to $337.33 today) plus $.30 to $.40 per local call, equal to $3.37 to $4.5 today.
In 1956, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was launched in Sweden. MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and had a weight of 40 kg. In 1962, a more modern version called Mobile System B (MTB) was launched, which was a push-button telephone, and which used transistors in order to enhance the telephone’s calling capacity and improve its operational reliability, thereby reducing the weight of the apparatus to 10 kg. In 1971, the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success.


In 1905, phones were not so mobile.
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for handheld use in a non-vehicle setting, after a long race against Bell Labs for the first portable mobile phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a handheld mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.
The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G) was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nationwide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming. The first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago-based Ameritech in 1983 using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early-to-mid 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada.
The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard, which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.
In 2001, the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.
One of the newest 3G technologies to be implemented is High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.



The world's largest individual mobile operator by subscribers is China Mobile with over 500 million mobile phone subscribers. Over 50 mobile operators have over 10 million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators have at least one million subscribers by the end of 2009 (source wireless intelligence). In February 2010, there were 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, a number that is estimated to grow.
Competitive forces emerged in the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) region at Q3 2010 to the detriment of market leader Nokia. Brands such as Micromax, Nexian, and i-Mobile chipped away at Nokia's market share plus Android powered smartphones also gained momentum across the region at the cost of Nokia.
Based on IDC India, Nokia's market share dropped significantly to 36 percent in the second quarter, from 56.8 percent in the same quarter last year and further drop to 31.5 percent in the third quarter, reflecting the growing share of Chinese and Indian vendors of low-end mobile phones.
Based on IDC in the last quarter of 2010, RIM has been knocked out from the top five list global mobile phone sellers. The number one rank is still Nokia followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, ZTE and Apple. For the first time Chinese ZTE is among the top five list and mainly make of lower cost phones.
For the year of 2010, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are out from the top of five list and have been replaced by LG Electronics and Apple. Significant increase from 16.5 percent to 30.6 percent has been done by many small not yet recognized brands (some of them are new brands) - Others-2. Total sales in 2010 to end users were 1.6 billion units or increase by 31.8 percent from the year of 2009.
At April 6, 2011 market capitalization of HTC surpassed Nokia with $33.8 billion over $33.4 billion respectively. The credit agency was also downgraded Nokia's debt from A2 to A3