Today’s societies are constantly seeking ways to improve their quality of life, and science and technology play a vital part in that search.

Experimentation, research and innovation, mean that more opportunities for improving people’s lives exist today than ever before. Take long distance communication, where the obstacles of time and geography have been dramatically reduced: people can now use mobile phones to be in instant contact virtually anywhere in the world, be it with a medical centre in the Himalayan mountains in Asia, a Pacific island school, a research facility at the South Pole, or even the international space station, beyond this planet altogether.

Advances in modern telecommunications are also having a marked economic effect on people from developing nations in the Commonwealth, helping to transform small to medium-sized businesses.

The internet is playing an important part in helping to nurture these fledgling markets but, as yet, it still remains an unaffordable option for too many of our Commonwealth citizens.

Progress in the fields of healthcare, manufacturing, and education have, for the most part, helped improve people’s lives throughout the world. In the health sector, the Commonwealth has shown how collaborative schemes can successfully assist member states to fight pandemics and diseases.

In making these advances the Commonwealth recognises that the best forms of innovation are those that unite, and help build resilient partnerships and better societies as a whole.

This is particularly important for the more than half of the Commonwealth citizens who are under 25 years of age. It is vital that their potential to build on the exceptional scientific expertise that exists in member states is also fully supported through education and social development. The Commonwealth understands this, and should continue to aid and encourage our young people to participate in the exciting new opportunities that lie ahead, in the knowledge that progress is something which must be sustained and shared by all.

Elizabeth R

Solar power for homes is becoming more popular each year. As the cost of production decreases it is becoming an affordable alternative for many homeowners. The government increases this possibility with the tax rebates it offers to those who choose to go green.

Solar power for homes is also good for the environment, since it does not contribute any green house gases. Just the use of solar power to heat our water can reduce tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. High CO2 levels can kill most life forms. It is predicted that the level needed to eradicate the human race will be reached in less than fifty years!

Solar power for homes is being encouraged by local governments; in 2007 California launched the nations’ largest solar energy campaign which is projected to save many jobs and push solar energy for homes ahead. Even the Pope is going “green” and using solar energy! He installed solar panels on the roof of the Vatican. This will offset 210 tons of carbon dioxide which is equivalent to 70 tons of oil. The solar panels will produce enough energy to light, heat or cool the hall!

Countries all over the world are trying to develop alternative energy sources and solar energy is on the top of the list. The United States has been the first to accomplish many things in the past. We had the first light bulb, the first car and were the first to the moon; we have a reputation to uphold! As citizens we should all be doing our part to push solar energy forward.

Solar power for homes does require a little effort to accomplish. As I see it, we have become too comfortable to make a change, even if it is for our own good. Our forefathers knew that trying new things would help future generations and were willing to do whatever was necessary to make it happen. Yes, solar energy for homes is truly in our future, but only if we are willing to make a few changes to bring it to reality.

Solar power for homes is available now. Today there are many guides and videos that we can use to accomplish this task. It is great that we are recycling more and driving fuel efficient cars, but our household energy use must also change. If we don’t do something soon it will literally be the end of our race forever.

Solar power for homes is in our future- are you ready to do your part? Then learn all you can about solar energy and begin building an earth friendly energy source. Whether you go totally green or even just a small amount of green, at least you will be doing something to help our future generations!

Solar power for homes is in my future; is it in yours too? Learn more about solar options for saving money and clean energy at http://www.mysunpowerideas.com

Civilization began with agriculture, our nomadic ancestors settled once they began to grow their own food. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through growing of plants, animals and other life forms on land. As of 2006, 45 percent of the world’s population is employed in agriculture. However, the relative significance of farming has dropped since the beginning of industrialization. Even though agriculture employs one-third of the world’s population, agricultural produce accounts for less than 5 percent of the gross world product.

Agriculture is important for not only providing food but also for providing raw materials for other industries like textile, sugar, jute, vegetable oil and tobacco. Besides being an occupation for people, agriculture is also a way of living. Most of the world’s customs and culture revolve around agriculture. A number of festivals and holidays around the world are in conjunction with reaping or harvesting or any other aspect of farming. It increases the supply of food and tax revenue to the government. “Investable surplus” is generated which further can be expanded to other industries and provides foreign exchange.

Due to the apparent abundance of food owing to technologies for growing, transporting and storage; modern day human has overlooked the fundamental dependence on agriculture. Agriculture provides nutrition which is a key determinant of health; it alleviates poverty and individual livelihood. Some other benefits are:
o Water – agricultural crops are the largest users of fresh water. Forests maintain the groundwater we draw from for our everyday uses. Husbandry affects the health of coastal waters.
o Energy – wood is a major source of fuel and energy. Modern biomass plants are fast growing in most countries. These provide clean energy and also aid economic growth.
o Health – agriculture provides nutrition to humans. We cannot live on meat, milk and poultry for more than 2 days without consuming grains or vegetables or fruits. Imagine what lack of agriculture could do to us.
o Biodiversity – ecological balances are maintained, changed or destroyed by agriculture alone. These are critical to sustaining development and health of our planet.
o Climatic changes – reduced agricultural growth adversely affects climate. Extreme events and ecological dysfunction will ultimately affect our planet and the human race.

It is a vicious cycle where environmental degradation is affecting agricultural productivity and agricultural practices are affecting the environment. To conclude agriculture, agricultural science and technology aids in reducing hunger, improving livelihood and increasing economic growth.

Indigenous and local agricultural practices need to be used along with scientific research and developments. There should be a co-ordination of international scientific programs for enhancing agriculture and agricultural produce. Policies and technologies that are conducive to sustainable use of natural resources must be shared internationally. It is imperative to alleviate hunger and look for the causes of nutritional insecurity and degraded natural resources. Productivity of crops, livestock and fisheries need to increased in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner which is acceptable to both the farmers as well as the consumers. Agriculture is an important aspect of every society for its social, economic and environmental growth.

By Christopher Schwebius

Christopher Schwebius is an entrepreneur who seeks out sharply defined, specifically focused topics to research. Upon finishing his research he provides relevant, un-biased information to his readers based on his discoveries and/or personal experiences.

One of his latest ongoing projects can be viewed at http://www.whyisagricultureimportant.com

Agriculture as we all know is production of agri goods through the cultivation of crops and also by the massive domestication of animals. This study is called agri science. Agriculture inventions have evolved massively by the years as farming and farm machines have grown too in these years. What was done by the threshing machine for so many years has been taken over by the combine.

One of the first agriculture invention was the iron plow used a lot those days in the 1700′s. Then came the wood plow in the 1800′s and the iron plow was discontinued as the wood plow was easier and better to use. And then man had a brain wave and discovered the use of animals in farming and tamed horses and used them in the Reaper which was used in harvesting wheat and were drawn by horses.

The Reaper was a huge success as an agriculture invention. After this man discovered he could do more and a little more machinery will be more helpful and work can be done faster and on a larger scale. The cotton harvester came in the 1920′s and it was a rage in agriculture invention. This was used in harvesting wheat on a large scale and really benefited the farmer.

Before this came the grain elevator in 1840′s it was used in separating the grain from the wheat plant. Soon the cotton gin followed which was used to separate the seeds and the hulls and the other stuff not required from the cotton. This was quite a successful agriculture invention. Man also developed the corn picker.

The most revolutionary agriculture invention was the Tractor which was invented in the 1940′s. This was the time when hand power was transformed into machine power. The tractor took over all manual work which used to take lot of time and energy of the farmers. This agriculture invention took farming to a different level.

To add on major agriculture inventions fertilizers were developed in early 1900′s. This accelerated the growth of the crops and produced very healthy crops too. A little later pesticides were also produced which helped in killing all the harmful pests which destroyed the crops, so this invention brought in a lot of development in agri-products. Open geared gas tractors were also made during this time. Disk harrow which is a machine used to cut the grain stubble which is left behind in the field after harvesting is over was also a big agricultural invention. This saved a lot of manual labor and time too as a machine can work much faster than humans.

One of the latest developments in agriculture invention is the bio-technology and genetical revolution. Bio-technology and genetics have changed the face of agriculture and farming. New ways and technology has come up in farming with this revolution.

New technology of farming has been developed by scientists and agriculturalists and has been named as urban farming. This is a big step in agriculture invention. Scientists have developed new technique called “hydroponics”, where plants are grown using mineral nutrient solutions instead of the normally used soil. Another new technique is called vertical farming where agriculturalists are growing crops in skyscrapers. This saves a lot of land problems and is a new beginning and a huge step in agriculture invention.

Man and times have grown tremendously in history and so has farming. Agriculture invention is growing as time grows by and it will take man places.

By Christopher Schwebius

Christopher Schwebius is an entrepreneur who seeks out sharply defined, specifically focused topics to research. Upon finishing his research he provides relevant, un-biased information to his readers based on his discoveries and/or personal experiences.

One of his latest ongoing projects can be viewed at http://www.whyisagricultureimportant.com

You’d be surprised to know that if there weren’t any greenhouse gases being released naturally in the earth’s atmosphere, it planet would be too cold to inhabit. Without these gases, Earth’s average temperature would be around -2

The need to carry out complex calculations has culminated the computer from its mechanical roots of relays and movable parts. While calculating devices have been around since around 3000 BC, modern computing technology traces its roots to 16-17th Centuries. The Evolution of computers is often categorized in Generations. It is relevant to note a period before these a “generation 0″ between 1640s-1940s whose machines were mechanical devices (e.g. relays and gears) including Pascal’s Pascaline, the first mechanical calculator.

Generations of Computers

First Generation (1945-1959) Vacuum Tubes

Relays were replaced by vacuum tubes which had no moving parts hence faster, eventually hybrids of both were built. The first electronic computers were the COLOSSUS (1943 – though not publicly-acknowledged) and ENIAC (1946) which contained 18000 vacuum tubes and 1500 relays. Also notable was UNIVAC which became the first commercially available computer.

Second Generation (1960-1965) Transistors

Vacuum tubes replaced by transistors (Invented at Bell Labs in 1948). High Level programming languages developed; FORTRAN and COBOL among others. Transistors were much smaller, and cheaper to make and far more reliable than valves.

Third Generation (1965-1971) Integrated Circuits

Machine speeds went from microsecond to the picoseconds (trillionth) range. Terminals replaced punched cards for data entry. This era saw the rise of Operating Systems and mass production of circuitry. IBM introduced compatible family of computers

Fourth Generation (1973-) VLSI – Very Large Scale Integration

Allowed thousands of transistors to be incorporated in a chip giving rise to the microprocessor- a processor on a chip. These reduced the price of computers giving rise personal computing.

The 1990s saw the Fourth Generation advance into ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) with millions of transistors per chip. In 1965 Intel’s Gordon Moore predicted “the number of transistors on an IC wills double every 18 months.”

Fifth Generation (1985- ) Parallel Processing and Networking

Still a debated generation. How high end machines (e.g. web servers) can have multiple CPUs and inter-connectivity between computers; networks.

Visit Peter Etelej’s Website at http://www.theonlinekenyan.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Etelej

Men have written many articles concerning the enormous benefits of Solar and Wind Energy. In this, I will Attempt to explore these benefits and see how best to draw out the Author (God’s) Master plan for this wonderful gift of nature.

Today, we are living in a world highly polarized with Green gas emissions- though thanks to civilization which has bridged a lot of gaps through the introduction of these machines and equipments that emit these gases. Imagine what our world would have been today without Airplanes, Ships, Motto- cars, the uncountable industrial Machines, ever busy sending out gases through their chimneys, trying to satisfy the wants of man.

We discovered that these developments are good, but the gases they emit on daily bases are so great and are immensely depleting the Ozone layer, accelerating the effects of Global Warming on the planet Earth. Where will Earth run to for cover? Thank God for Solar and Wind Energy Programs!

Yes, I said ab-initio, that Solar and Wind Energy are God’s special GIFT to Mankind as His Master Plan. Consider the early days of Shipping, I read in History how the first ships sailed. It was through the Power of the wind blowing against the mast, which was positioned in such a way that the boat can have forward thrust. Check the sea ports of the early days, i.e. before the introduction of engines; you will see a host of masts. Wind is still a powerful instrument to be tapped for the benefit of the Earth.

Let us look at the BIGGEST instrument of the Solar System – The Sun. If God were man, I can’t imagine how many days, months or years it would have taken him to build the sun which powers all the planets and Earth in particular. Day in day out, the sun is shinning and the Earth is rotating, evenly distributing the rays of the sun – God’s gift to nature, to all parts of the Globe in turns. What a wonderful sight to behold from the Spiritual realm! God’s Master Plan here is that man needs Solar Energy to illuminate every aspect of man. In fact, the Solar is the life of man on the planet Earth, Vision, Growth of plants and animals (Photosynthesis) and recently, powering of High -Tech. equipments – name it.

Solar and Wind Energy are environmental friendly and renewable in nature. I once had a dream, where I woke from sleep in a Solar Powered building, drove to my office which is also Solar Powered, in a car that is fully Solar Powered. When I asked Wise men the meaning of this, they told me it’s God’s Master Plan for the Solar and Wind Energy. This plan is also for you, the reader of this article. How Solar fitted are your buildings and cars? What about your industries and Agricultural farms are your windmills rolling? The cost is low and will be lower if you build yours today. Comparing this cost with the ever rising costs and hazards of carbon emitting Energy sources, the Earth is in safe hands. Currently, Australia is offering good incentives for Solar Energy fitted buildings. Americans and Asians are seriously building, what else are you waiting for?

Email: godwinsunny@yahoo.com

Professionally trained workers are waiting to assist you have your own Solar and Wind Energy supplies. From Internet Research and field work experience.

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