History of LEGO -- Everyones Favorite Building Blocks

History of LEGO Everyone's Favorite Building Blocks The small, colorful bricks that encourage a childs imagination with their multitude of building possibilities have spawned two movies and Legoland theme parks. But more than that, these simple building blocks keep children as young as 5 engaged in creating castles, towns and space stations and anything else their creative minds can think of. This is the epitome of the educational toy wrapped up in fun. These attributes have made LEGO an icon in the toy world. Beginnings The company that makes these famous interlocking bricks started as a small shop in Billund, Denmark. The company was established in 1932 by master carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who was aided by his 12-year-old son Godtfred Kirk Christiansen. It made wooden toys, stepladders, and ironing boards. It wasnt until two years later that the business took the name of LEGO, which came from the Danish words LEg GOdt, meaning play well. Over the next several years, the company grew exponentially. From just a handful of employees in the early years, LEGO had grown to 50 employees by 1948. The product line had grown as well, with the addition of a LEGO duck, clothes hangers, a Numskull Jack on the goat, a plastic ball for babies and some wooden blocks. In 1947, the company made a huge purchase that was to transform the company and make it world-famous and a household name. In that year, LEGO bought a plastic injection-molding machine, which could mass produce plastic toys. By 1949, LEGO was using this machine to produce about 200 different kinds of toys, which included automatic binding bricks, a plastic fish and a plastic sailor. The automatic binding bricks were the predecessors of the LEGO toys of today. Birth of the LEGO Brick In 1953, the automatic binding bricks were renamed LEGO bricks. In 1957, the interlocking principle of LEGO bricks was born, and in 1958, the stud-and-coupling system was patented, which adds significant stability to built pieces. And this  transformed them into the LEGO bricks we know today. Also in 1958, Ole Kirk Christiansen passed away and his son Godtfred became head of the LEGO company. By the early 1960s, LEGO had gone international, with sales in Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, and Lebanon. Over the next decade, LEGO toys were available in more countries, and they came to the United States in 1973. LEGO Sets In 1964, for the first time, consumers could buy LEGO sets, which included all the parts and instructions to build a particular model. In 1969, the DUPLO series, bigger blocks for smaller hands, was introduced for the 5-and-under set. LEGO later introduced themed lines of LEGO. They include town (1978), castle (1978), space (1979), pirates (1989), Western (1996), Star Wars (1999) and Harry Potter (2001). Figures with movable arms and legs were introduced in 1978. By 2015, LEGO toys were sold in more than 140 countries. Since the middle of the 20th century, these small plastic bricks have sparked the imagination of children around the world, and LEGO sets have a strong hold on their place at the top of the list of the worlds most popular toys.

US Government Study Guide to the Legislative Branch

US Government Study Guide to the Legislative Branch Before any bill is even debated by the full membership of the House or Senate, it must first successfully make its way the  congressional committee system. Depending on its subject and content, each proposed bill is sent to one or more related committees. For example, a bill introduced in the House allocating federal funds for agricultural research might be sent to the Agriculture, Appropriations, Ways and Means and Budget Committees, plus others as deemed appropriate by the Speaker of the House. In addition, both the House and Senate may also appoint special select committees to consider bills relating to specific issues.Representatives and Senators often try to be assigned to committees they feel best to serve the interests of their constituents. For example, a representative from a farming state like Iowa might seek assignment to the House Agriculture Committee. All representatives and senators are assigned to one or more committees and may serve on a variety of committees durin g their terms in office. The  congressional committee system  is the burial ground for many bills. The US House of Representatives Known as the lower house of the legislative branch, the House of Representatives currently has 435 members. Each member gets one vote on all bills, amendments and other measures brought before the House. The number of representatives elected from each state is determined by the states population through the process of apportionment. Each state must have at least one representative. Apportionment is recalculated every ten years according to the results of the decennial U.S. census. Members of the House represent the citizens of their local congressional districts. Representatives serve two-year terms, with elections held every two years. Qualifications As specified in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, representatives: Must be least 25 years of ageMust have been a U.S. citizen for at least 7 yearsMust be a legal resident of the state he or she is elected to represent Powers Reserved to the House To vote on charges of impeachmentTo initiate bills involving the raising of revenue, such as tax bills and the annual appropriations (spending) bills of the annual federal budget House Leadership Speaker of the HouseMajority LeaderLeads the majority party (the party with the majority of votes in the House)Assists the Speaker of the House in making committee appointmentsSchedules floor debate on billsCreates and maintains the House agendaMinority LeaderLeads the opposition party (the party with the minority of votes in the House)Confers with the Majority LeaderFormulates minority party response to the majority party policy and agenda The US Senate Known as the upper house of the legislative branch, the Senate is currently comprised of 100 senators. Each state is allowed to elect two senators. Senators represent all citizens of their states. Senators serve 6-year terms, with one-third of the senators elected every two years. Qualifications As specified in Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution, senators: Must be at least 30 years of ageMust have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years at the time of their election to the SenateMust be a legal resident of the state they are elected to represent Powers Reserved to the Senate To try officials impeached by the HouseTo confirm presidential nominations, including Supreme Court justices, federal judges, ambassadors and cabinet secretariesTo ratify treaties Senate Leadership The Vice President of the United States: Serves as president (presiding chairman) of the SenatePresident Pro tempore: Presides over the Senate in the absence of the vice president; Is selected by the majority partyMajority and Minority Leaders: Lead their respective party delegations; maintain the Senate agendaMajority and Minority Whips: Attempt to make sure party members vote for bills supported by their party.

Labor and The Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Labor and The Civil War - Essay Example This demands laid in the constitution went unattended since African America slavery grew once again mainly in the southern part of U.S.A. Among the major reasons for slavery reinvigoration were cotton gin discovery and its consequent spreading (Shapiro, 17). Such is the case that this machine permitted southern farmers to cultivate a variety of cotton, short staple, which thrived in the Deep South climate. Even with such an invention, the farmers still experienced another major problem with regard to removing seeds from cotton fibers. A later invention of the Eli Whitney’s gin offered solved this problem and even made it more economical. Following this, many planters in the south got attracted to cotton growing, a factor that increased labor demand. During this time, cotton growing was labor intensive, and African Americans became the main target to supply the labor. A day in the life of a slave would commonly constitute long working hours on the farm. When considering a field hand, working day would always begin just before dawn and last until the sun sets, usually with a lunch break of about two-hours. African Americans lacked control over working as they worked under strict supervision, constantly threatened with physical punishment by their supervisors. Indeed, even with the most kind hearted slave owner, the slaves still missed that very fundamental gift of every human being, â€Å"freedom† The better part of the period preceding Civil war, majority of the planters employed physical violence not only to boost productivity but also maintain labor discipline (Shapiro, 60). Certainly, the nature of work in the cotton field demanded lots of endurance and slaveholders understood this. Consequently they employed force and threats of force to persuade their slaves to endure the gruesome demands of cotton growing in the south. Colonial farmers forced their enslaved servants that included the elderly, children and pregnant

Leading and Building Effective Teams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leading and Building Effective Teams - Essay Example are many issues such as ethnicity, race, age, work experience, aptitude, and values that hugely interfere with the team’s capabilities hence making it hard for them to get things done implying that the qualities that that trigger success also undermines success. The objective of this article is to examine the importance of leading and building effective teams in a diverse range of organizational settings as well as exploring team diversity and team performance. â€Å"Managing the diversified team: challenges and strategies for improving performance,† by Agrawal highlights some of the significant factors that require close attention for successful management of a diversified team. The author aims at providing business managers and executives with an elaborate framework of how to ensure utilization and implementation of teams in the organizations in a manner that leads to maximization of both internal and external variety of skills. Agrawal believes that there are essential diversified skills present amongst team members that should be tapped to achieve the best out of a team. The author has dwelt on the existing literature to collect and synthesize the views of other authors on the issue of managing a diversified team. Agrawal carried out SWOT analysis in evaluating and analyzing diversified team as well as strong inclusion of both primary and secondary research to strengthen his views and opinions on the issue of diversified team. I n conclusion, the author’s findings indicated that teamwork requires that members view themselves as a unit with common objectives for better results. This article has highlighted some of the vital information that leaders and managers may use in ensuring that diversity of team members is fully utilized to produce positive results. â€Å"Motivating and demotivating forces in teams: Cross-level influences of empowering leadership and relationship conflict,† by Chen et al., addresses team-level stimuli that include motivating

Best Economic Rotation of Various Farm Grown Tree Species

Best Economic Rotation of Various Farm Grown Tree Species TITLE: DETERMINING THE BEST ECONOMIC ROTATION OF VARIOUS FARM GROWN TREE SPECIES. Abstract The innovative knowledge relating to the excellent economic rotation of Dalbergia sissoo (Shisham), Acacia nilotica (kikar) and Albizzia lebbeck (Shareen) grown in the farmlands of Pakistan, is still inediquate and erratic. It should be calculated on tehsil level as the growing rate of trees differ from area to area controlled by climate. According to this requirement, the present study has been planned. Tehsil Kot Addu of District Muzaffargarh will be choosen for this study. 5 villages of Tehsil Kot Addu will be selected randomly. From selected villages five fields having an area of five acre will be selected through random selection technique. Common type trees growing there will be assigned successive numbers. Tree height diameter at breast height (DBH) will be measured. The price of every standing tree will find out from the land owner. The data will be arranged in tabular form, organized and discounted at appropriate discount rate. Return on investment (R.O.I), Benefit cost rat io (B.C.R) and Net present worth (N.P.W) will be used as economic tools. Various rotations of trees will be checked to discover the economic rotation of each tree species. V. INTRODUCTION Forest plants supply basic necessities of life (food, fiber shelter) to a great size of people. The population of the world is increasing day by day and is predicted to be about 10 billion in the mid of 21st century. As a result, wood and wood products demand will also increase manifolds (UNO, 1995). In Pakistan there is deficiency of about 29 million cubic meters of timber. The rate of deforestation is increasing continuously at a rate of 2.5% annually. Population increase rate is 1.90% per annum, if the same situation continues, urban population will be doubled in the next 20 years and will surly lead to more deforestation for making way for humanity (Government of Pakistan, 2005). It has been narrated that eighty to ninety percent of rural need of home fuel demands are fulfilled by fire wood, in the primitive countries. Forests have a huge importance in Pakistan’s economy by supplying timber, fire wood and shelter for animals (Nouman et al., 2006). It has been narrated that, total houses of Pakistan in 2006 were 22.8 million, from which Punjab has 54.85% (12. 280 million houses). Out of the total houses (22.38 Million) just 20% (4.476 million) units had been provided natural gas while 80% (17.904 million) were depending on the other energy resources as fuel wood, dried animals dung, residues of crop, Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), kerosene oil and charcoal (partial burnt wood) etc (Government of Pakistan, 2009). Nearly 32% energy demand is met by the wood biomass (FAO, 2009). As stated by Energy-Pakistan (2011) all the energy extracted from the informal energy means like mechanized waste, charcoal , residues of crops , cow dung, metropolitan waste and fire wood was 28Ãâ€"106 ton in 2008, from which 26.5Ãâ€"105 ton (95%) was acquired from fuel wood. This alarming situation had highlighted by (Government of Pakistan, 2005) which proposed that our forest resources will be destroyed in next 15 years due to huge deforestation for fuel wood and timber. Pakistan is at the 110th country in the world by his forest resources as announced in 2011 by United Nations General Assembly (Chaudhry, 2011). The world’s forest cover is about 30% whereas Pakistan has only 4.8% (4.2 million hectares) out of 88 million hectares (Anonymous, 2005). On the other hand, it is only 2% as stated by (FAO, 2011). Thus, Pakistan has the scant quality forest resources along with minimum ratio as compared to the world (Mcketta, 1990). Pakistan has 0.001ha per capita forest resources while in the world it is devoted 1.00 ha per capita (FAO, 2011) including small contribution of forest sector to our economy. Cultivation of trees with agricultural crops is an old method of obtaining various benefits from the same piece of land. Kalinganire et al., 2008) stated that Farm forestry is a beneficial combination of trees or woody plants with agricultural crops at the same land piece either in a chronological or longitudinal arrangement in such a way that both cost-effective and biological collaboration occurs between them. In Pakistan about 60% of timber and 90% of total fuel wood needs are acquired by the tree plants grown on farmlands. (Rahim and Hasnain, 2010). Land owners grow tree plants on their farms and they harvest them without any proper/optimum rotation. This may cause economic loss because inflation and market price strongly affects the farmer’s economic benefits. The present research has been planned to determine the optimum economic rotation of various farm grown tree species. It may lead the farmers to maximum benefit. All this needs to carry out at the gross root level (D istrict Tehsil level) because the tree growth rate strongly differs from place to place. Present research is lacking in literature. There is no any information available in the literature related to the best economic rotation of different farm grown tree species in Pakistan, Punjab at tehsil level. So, this study was planned with these two objectives. To find out the best economic rotation of various farm grown tree species in Kot Addu. To determine the level of profitability of farmers/ tree growers in Kot Addu. VIREVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Farm forestry has numerous benefits so farmers raise various woody plants along with agricultural crops for obtaining shelter for animals, fire wood and timber. Trees also beneficial as bio remedial measures for the control of pollution and erosion (Zubair and Garforth, 2005). Farmers prefer Acacia nilotica because it is a fast growing species and easily propagated. Similarly, Dalbergia sissoo and Albizia lebbeck are very important for production of fuel wood and timber. Naturally grown trees make haphazard landscape in farms but genius farmers adjust the tree plants on suitable place like boundaries of fields. In addition, Acacia nilotica render the economic benefits at the age of 10-15 years to the farmers. Timber merchants confer in order to reach an agreement with the farmer regarding to the price of fuel wood and timber wood. Nouman et al., 2006) reported that Daphar irrigated plantations were running in the profit with a benefit cost ratio of 1.29. High mortality rate of tree plants lead to less income in first 10 years. But next twenty years lead to greater income due to greater number of tree plants. In the study, the rotation of Dalbergia sissoo was 20 year (Azharet al., 2011). In 3 Tehsils of District Faisalabad viz; Samundari, Jaranwala, Faisalabad linear and compact plantations of Eucalyptus camaldulensis were evaluated. Economic benefits of those 3 plantations were considered. For Eucalyptus camaldulensis linear and block plantations of Short rotations (5-6 years) were most profitable (Majid, 1995). Friday et al., 2000) determined the net present worth of 50 acres teak (Tectonagrandis) plantation. He determined that 35 years rotation was more profitable than 40 or more years rotation. Posavec et al., 2004) determined the best economic rotation in Croatia for even aged tree stand. The net present value of 20 years and 150 years of trees was calculated. He stated that 20-130 years stand was continuously increasing because the mean annual increment for the stand was increased. But the net value for the age of 130-150 decreased because of decrease in mean annual increment of the stand for the same period. Tanvir et al., 2002) stated that in different zones of Central Punjab Eucalyptus camaldulensis gained maximum volume /mean annual increment in 8th year of its growth. Although Maximum increase in volume was in 7th year. But the worth of tree don’t rise in the ratio to the volume/year. Although the price per tree gradually increased with increase in volume per year but price per cubic foot decreased continuously after 8th year .Therefore, his suggestion is to harvest the tree plants during early age (within 7 year) in order to get maximum income. Economic evaluation of Eucalyptus camaldulensis plantation was carried out. It was determined that the plantations established for the betterment of soil provide more socio economic and environmental values at the age of 11 years. If the plantation is harvested after the economic age then it will surly lead the farmers to economic loss. On the other hand, Eucalyptus camaldulensis plantation grown for the purpose of pulp wood production achieved the maximum growth at 5-8 years of age. At this age, there is maximum net present worth and mean annual increment of the plantation. After this economic age, there is a decrease in mean annual increment, so, the owner of the plantation is directed to the economic loss (Niskanen, 1997). Chaudhry et al., 2003) determined the comparative growth of Poplar under pure stand and agroforestry system. He reported that rotation of Poplar in intercropping agroforestry system was more economic at 4th and 6th years of age as compared to the pure Populus deltoids stand. It was further reported that 8 year rotation age of Poplar was uneconomical for both systems of plantations.

Disc Brake System: How Does It Work Essay

Brake system is a device that creates frictions to slow down and eventually to stop the movement of an object. There are a few different types of brakes; however, they are all built on the same principle of friction. In automotive, the most common type of brake today is the disc brake because it provides higher efficiency and more safety to users. Disc brake consists of brake fluid, a piston, a caliper, brake pads, a rotor, and a hub. The following is a basic description of a disc brake’s mechanism. 1.When the brake pedal is pressed, the brake fluid is forced to enter the caliper cylinder where the piston is sitting in. In turn, that fluid pushes the piston, which is attached with a brake pad on the other end, toward the rotor. 2.Once the brake pad is in contact with the rotor, the caliper contracts to bring the other brake pad to contact with the other side of the rotor as well. The pushing of both brake pads against the rotor generates a friction force that will slow the rotation of the rotor and eventually bring it to a stop. 3. Because the wheel attaches to the hub and the hub attaches to the rotor, thus, when the rotor is slowed down, the wheel is also slowed down. 4.Meanwhile, the friction between the tire and the surface of the road also acts to slow the rotation of the wheel. Disc brake can generate a significant amount of friction. This is why its main applications usually involve movement with great velocity such as cars and aircraft. Because disc brake does require more maintenance than other simpler brake and because brake is directly related to your safety when driving, it is recommended to have your brakes checked regularly by a licensed brake technician/specialist.

Criminal Behavior And The Lack Of Education - 1367 Words

Criminal behavior is something that affects everyone, even if you don’t particularly engage in the act itself. Every time a crime is committed, we often find ourselves wondering what led that person to do that crime. We wonder why they did it because it is something that we could never do, so therefor we cannot fathom the act of engaging in criminal activity. Some people feel that people only engage in it just because they lack the thing that they try to steal or because of their specific background and race. In actuality, there is a link between criminal behavior and the lack of education. However there is also a link between the attainment of education and criminal behavior. There are several ways that theories suggest the affect that education can have on decisions that a criminal may make beforehand. According to chapter seven (Conformity, Deviance, and Crime) of the textbook Introduction to Sociology, functionalist theories along with Emile Durkheim and his concept of a n anomie, which is a situation where social norms loose their hold over individual behavior gives us insight into the struggle between education and criminal behavior. â€Å"Functionalist theories see crime and deviance resulting from structural tensions and a lack of moral regulation.† (Page 172) Students dropping out of school and coming from difficult backgrounds is seen as a norm within society. Due to their being a failure to try and alter these things, students seek comfort elsewhere. As a result,Show MoreRelatedThe Correlation Between Acquired Education, Environment And Crime770 Words   |  4 Pagesnumber of people are concerned about which factor mainly decides people’s criminal act, due to people still living in the environment of higher crime rates. 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