Pluto First Reconnaissance Complete

As the  New Horizons mission flew by the small planet Pluto on July 14, 2015, collecting images and data of the planet and its moons, an amazing chapter in planetary exploration began to unfold. The actual flyby occurred early in the morning on July 14, and the signal from New Horizons telling its team that all went well arrived at Earth at 8:53 p.m. that night. The images told the story that people had been waiting on for nearly 25 years. The spacecraft’s cameras revealed a surface on this icy world that no  one expected. It has craters in some places, icy plains in others. There are chasms, dark and light areas, and regions that will take some detailed scientific analysis to explain. Scientists are still getting a grip on understanding  the scientific treasure trove theyve uncovered at Pluto.  It took 16 months for all the data to make it back to Earth; the last bits and bytes arrived in late October 2016. Pluto Up-Close The mission scientists found a world with amazingly varied terrains. Pluto is covered by ice which itself is darkened in many areas by materials called tholins. They are created when ultraviolet light from the distant Sun darkens the ices. The surface of Pluto appears to be covered with newer, fresher ice in the bright areas, along with craters and long-running cracks. Pluto also has mountain peaks and ranges, some as high as those found in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. It now appears that Pluto has some kind of heating mechanism under its surface, which paves parts of the surface and shoves mountains up through others. One description likens Plutos interior to a giant cosmic lava lamp.   The surface of Charon, the largest moon of Pluto seems to have a reddish dark polar cap, possibly coated with tholins that have somehow escaped Pluto and were deposited there.   The mission scientists knew going into flyby that Pluto has an atmosphere, and the spacecraft actually â€Å"looked back† at Pluto after it passed by, using the light of the Sun shining through the atmosphere to probe it. That data tells more precise information about the component gases in the atmosphere, as well as its density (that is, how thick the atmosphere is) and how much of each gas is there. They are looking mostly at nitrogen, which is also escaping the planet to space. Somehow, that atmosphere is replaced over time, possibly by gases escaping from beneath Plutos icy surface. The mission took an in-depth look at the moons of Pluto, including Charon with its distinctly gray color  and dark pole. The data from the spacecraft will help them understand what the icy components are on its surface, and why it appears to be a frozen world with little of the internal activity that Pluto exhibits. The other moons are smaller, oddly shaped, and move in complex orbits with Pluto and Charon.   Whats Next? The data from New Horizons  has all arrived after 16 months of trickling back across the great distance between Pluto and Earth. The reason it took so long for the flyby information to arrive here is that there was a lot of data that must be sent. The transmission is only 1,000 bits per second across more than 3 billion miles of space. The data have been described as a â€Å"trove† of information about the Kuiper Belt, the area of the solar system where Pluto orbits. There are many questions that remain to be answered about Pluto, which include â€Å"Where did it form?†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If it didn’t form where it currently orbits, how did it get there?†Ã‚  and â€Å"Where did Charon (its largest moon) come from, and how did it get four other moons?† Humans spent more than 85 years knowing Pluto only as a distant point of light. New Horizons revealed it as a fascinating, active world and whetted everybody’s appetite for more! Heck, its probably not a dwarf planet  anymore! The Next World is in View Theres more to come, especially when New Horizons  visits another Kuiper Belt object  in early 2019. The object 2014 MU 69 is along the spacecrafts path out of the solar system. It will sweep by on January 1, 2019. Stay tuned!

Misuse of Bailout Funds and Ways to Prevent the Inappropriate Use of

Essays on Misuse of Bailout Funds and Ways to Prevent the Inappropriate Use of Assistance Funds - Developing Ethical and Transparent Aid Policies to Maintain Investor Confidence Term Paper Misuse of bailout funds Bailout funds refer to monetary advances to the financial industry to boost performance or solve a financial crisis. This paper seeks to explore misuse of bailout funds. The paper will discuss reported cases of misuse of bailout funds and possible solutions to the cases. Fear of misuse of bailout funds Misuse of bailout funds entails application of the funds for alternative purposes other than the intended. The year 2008 presented an example of a threat to misuse of bailout funds. Almost immediately after federal legislation for rescuing banks, politicians cited possibility of misuse. While the bailout, according to the then â€Å"chairman of the house financial services,† was meant to boost bank’s lending capacity, there were fears that the advances would be used for different purposes including paying shareholders’ returns and expansion of the banks. The situation was however blamed on flaws in the legislations that provided for the bailout (Noguchi, p. 1). One of the possible ways to preventing misuse of bailout funds is development of ethical and transparent policies in granting bailouts because the advances has an effect on investors’ confidence. Another possible solution to predicted misuse of bailout funds is restraint from conflict of interest in formulation and implementation of bailout policies. Developing transparent and ethical policies has the advantage of facilitating confidence in investors for availability of supplementary funds for the institutions. As a result, funds from bailout would be limited to their intended purpose. This measure however lacks legal authority to regulate banks’ use of the availed funds. Absence of conflict of interest in either the banks or the government on the other hand has the advantage of minimizing misappropriation though it also lacks authoritative control of misuse of the bailed funds (Painter, p. 132). The available measures to preventing possible misuse of bailout funds, transparency, and ethics, and lack of conflicting interest, are inadequate because they lack authority over application of such funds. Actual instance of misuse of bailout funds An actual misuse of bailout funds was however realized in the year 2009 following federal government’s initiative in the previous year to aid the then crippled financial industry. While the government granted bailout funds to increase banks’ lending, the banks reportedly used part of the funds to â€Å"make investments, repay debts, or buy other banks† (Appelbaum, p. 1). Investigative report indicated that more than 75 percent of banks misused their receipt of bailout funds and recommended close supervision of the financial institutions following advancements, a move that the treasury was not keen to adopt (Appelbaum, p. 1). Possible solutions to controlling running misuse include treasury’s call for regular submission of statements by the recipient banks and congress’ sensitivity to predictabilities. While the treasury, in its supervisory role, can monitor and control the misuse, its strict authority over financial institutions may be illegal. Similarly, the congress can provide legislations to control such misuse but such legislations normally have flaws (Appelbaum, p. 1; Commoncause, p. 1). Misuse of bailout funds are predictable occurrences that possibly controllable or preventable by either the congress or the treasury. The systems are however, weak to take comprehensive effect the control measures. Works cited Appelbaum, Binyamin. â€Å"Financial rescue I.G. says banks funneled TARP aid to various expences.† The Washington Post. 20 July 2009. Web. 02 June 2012. . Commoncause. (2009). â€Å"The financial bailout; Your tax dollars cone missing.† Common Cause. 9 February 2009. Web. 02 June 2012. . Noguchi, Yuki. â€Å"Frank warns banks against misuse of bailout funds.† National Public Radio. 31 October 2008. Web. 02 June 2012. . Painter, Richard. â€Å"Bailouts: An essay on conflicts of interest and ethics when government pays the tab.† McGeorge School of Law. N.d. Web. 02 June 2012. .

Prince Essay Example For Students

Prince Essay Niccolo Machiavelli tells of the methods that have been the most successful ingaining and maintaining power in non-democratic governments in his classicnovel, The Prince. Through a meticulous analysis of political history up to hispoint in time, he tells of the political strategies that had worked for rulerstime and time again and also of those that had failed. Machiavelli maintainsthat any opposition to a rulers power should be disposed of. He gives theexample of Agathocles who had his army quickly and ruthlessly killed the senateof Syracuse and all of the other powerful people in the city so that he couldeasily take control with no one to oppose him. Machiavelli does not glorifythese actions. He merely states that they work. Machiavelli also put a greatvalue on having a military made up of citizens of the state rather thanmercenaries. He concluded that a citizens army has more to lose if defeatedand more to gain if victorious. A citizens army is also more likely to beloyal to its r uler while mercenaries fight purely for profit. At the moment itbecomes more profitable to take some other course of action than to follow theorders of their employer, mercenaries will do so. Machiavelli cites severalexamples where having an army of mercenaries limited the capabilities of thestates military. King Louis XI employed Swiss mercenaries who fought alongside his own troops. In time the French troops were so accustomed to fightingwith the Swiss that they felt they couldnt be victorious without them. Machiavelli also gave some examples of times when mercenaries actually turned ontheir employers such as the Carthaginians mercenaries that turned on themafter they fought the Romans. Machiavelli said that it was critical for a rulerto be constantly thinking of the art of war. He should come to know thelandscape of his own country in order to know the best strategies for battleshould his nation every be attacked, and through this he should also be able todeduce how to react in similar terrain in another place. Francesco Sforza raisedhimself from a private person to the station of Duke of Milan through battle. Machiavelli believed that a ruler should know how to do wrong. He who tries todo what is morally right instead of what needs to be done will soon lose hispower. Machiavelli states that it is better to be feared than loved if onecannot be both. A ruler should not be too merciful. Ruthlessness that sets a fewexamples is ultimately more merciful when it prevents disorder because many maydie in disorder. Hannibal was ruthless and cruel, and he was both revered andfeared in the eyes of his enormous army, allowing him to keep them under hiscommand. Machiavelli explains that a ruler should have the cunning of a fox andthe strength of a lion. Without cunning a ruler is susceptible to tricks andtraps, but without a strong military he is likely to be overwhelmed by theopposition. Alexander VI was an especially cunning ruler. He was alwaysdeceiving someone. Deceit can often be used to manipulate others. NiccoloMachiavelli is one of the most widely read authors of all time. His book, ThePrince, has been studied by many people including Hitler and several U.S. presidents. By the age of 29 Machiavelli was active in the Florentinegovernment, participating in several diplomatic missions to other nations thatafforded him the opportunity to observe their practices.

Stalin Essay Much Like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin Was One Of The Most

Stalin Essay Much like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin was one of the most ruthless and diabolical people in the history of the world. Hitler once said of Stalin, " He is a beast, but he's a beast on a grand scale who must command our unconditional respect. In his own way, he is a hell of a fellow!" (Stalin Breaker of Nations, p.xvi) What Hitler said of Stalin is only his opinion, and it is not a valid one at that. For you must consider the source, it takes a beast like Adolf Hitler to know a beast and Stalin was a horrible beast. He was also a murderer. Stalin abused his people when he starved them to death, and systematically murdered them. Stalin also abused his country by halting Russia's progress and economic growth. Stalin was a breaker of nations. Stalin first enter the Russian political system in the early nineteen teens. With the help form Lenin, Stalin proposed an answer to the National Question, which was self determination. Stalin's ruthlessness is first discovered by Lenin, when Stalin is sent to Georgia to convince the Georgia leader not to practice self determination. When the leader does not agree with what Stalin has to say, Stalin punches the man out and threaten to kill them all. Years after that incident Lenin end up dying and Stalin takes over as the leader of Russia. Because Trotsky was hated by many of the influential political figures in Russia, Stalin becomes the leader of Russia even after Lenin's dying last wishes. 1929 was the first of many years in which Stalin stunted Russia's growth. In that year the "Engineer Trials" were held. During these trials the Russian elite was brought forth by Stalin on the account of treason. Confessions by the elite which consisted of engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers and clergy were extracted by many means including torture. After these trials were through thousands of the Russian elite were murdered, with their blood on Stalin's hands. These trails had a horrific effect on the progress of Russia, the re was now nobody left to lead Russian into the future, and the few elite's that still remained in Russia lived in constant fear of their lives. Around 1932, Stalin had put his plan into action that was later called the Terror Famine. In the Terror Famine, Stalin started to order grain requisitions from the lower class in the Ukraine. Stalin used his army to retrieve the grain from the people, following the orders by Stalin, the army takes too much grain and causes a famine among the lower class. Stalin justified the taking of the grain by saying that it was just a way for the state to regulate the price of grain. By doing this Stalin ended up breaking the back of the Georgians and the Ukrainians. Knowingly, Stalin eliminated millions upon millions of Russian, between 30 and 50 million, in his attempt at an absolute totalitarian rule in Russia. By killing so many of the Russian's who were the ones which the economy was supported on, Stalin has broken the nation of the Ukraine. From around 1936 through 1938 Stalin extracted his Great Terror. The Great Terror consisted of many events including the Purge Trials and the Katyn Massacre. During the purge trials, Stalin once again haltered Russian progress. The Purge Trials eliminated many military officers and engineers. The numbers are not exact, but between 250,000 to 500,000 Russians died because of Stalin's orders. These trials caused mass paranoia of the elite's, afraid to make a difference, for if they did then they would ultimately end up dead. Stalin not only haltered the growth of his own country, but he haltered the growth of neighboring counties, on being Poland. In Poland during the Great Terror, Stalin ordered the Katyn Massacre to occur. The top 15,000 officers in the Polish army were rounded up and killed in the forests of Belarus. This was a deep wound, the stunted the Polish progress, since now there were would be no more experienced leaders in Poland's future, since Stalin killed most of their mili tary elite. Once again Stalin had broken another nation. During all this time, Stalin was