FOOTBALL FACTS

  1. Did you know that in olden days the goal posts had tape instead of cross

bar.

  1. Young pele used to play footall with a graph or a sook stuffed with paper

before he was brought a football when he was six years old.

  1. The world cup is after the Olympics the most watched sport on television
  2. Pele scored Brails 100 fifa world cup goal with a superb header.
  3. A sport similar to football was played 3000 years ago in Japan.
  4. The goalies were the same uniform as teir teammates, until 1913.
  5. Goal posts became mandatory only in 1875
  6. The first time that red and yellow cards were used by the refers in the world

cup was in Mexico in 1970.

 

Student: Arnab Das

How Young Individuals Perceive GMO Foods: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of U.S. and Chinese High School Students

How Young Individuals Perceive GMO Foods: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of U.S. and Chinese High School Students

by

Z.Li

Keywords: Young Individuals, GMO Foods, Cross-Cultural Analysis, U.S. and Chinese High School Students


Abstract

GMO products have received considerable attention in recent years because of their ability to reduce pest damage and increase yields. However, the use of GMOs to produce food products is a controversial topic because of their of various safety issues. The study investigates high school students’ attitudes toward GMO foods and considers whether their cultural background and gender influence those attitudes. In addition, the study determines the key factors influencing their perception of GMO foods, including their safety, price, taste, and environmental impact. A total of 63 high school students (26 in the U.S. and 37 in China) were surveyed. According to the results, the students generally had negative attitudes toward GMO foods. U.S. students were slightly more likely to prefer GMO foods than Chinese students, but there was no significant difference. Male students were more likely to have favorable attitudes toward GMO foods than female students, and there was a significant difference. Finally, the respondents considered the safety of GMO foods the most important factor, followed by the environmental impact, reasonable prices, and taste, in that order. Both U.S. and Chinese students and male and female students were most likely to report safety as the most important factor. The results are expected to facilitate policymaking and practical marketing efforts.

Man Who Invented Computer Mouse

Douglas Engelbart a technologist conceived the computer mouse and laid out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market. Engelbart arrived at his crowning movement relatively early in his career in a winter afternoon in 1968 when he delivered an hour-long presentstion containing so many far reaching ideas that it would be referred to, decades later, as the ‘mother of all demons’.

Speaking before an audience of 1000 leading technologists in San Francisco, Engelbart, a computer scientist at Standford Researsh Institute, displayed a cubic device with two rolling discs called an X-Y position indicator for a display system. It was the Mouse’s public debut.

Engelbart then summoned in real time the image and voice of a colleague 30 miles (48kms) away. And he explained a theory of how pages of information would be tied together using text based links; an idea that would later form the bedrock of the Internet’s architecture.

At a time when computing was largely pursued by government researchers or hobbyists with a counter-cultural bent, Engelbart never sought or enjoyed the explosive wealth that would later become synonymous with Silicon Valley success. For instance, he never received any royalties for the Mouse which SRI patendted and later licensed to Apple.

He was intensely driven instead by a belief that computer could be used to augment human intellect.

Student: Raj Jaiswal

Allelopathic effects of kudzu (Pueraria montana) on seed germination and their potential use as a natural herbicide

Summary
Allelopathy is the inhibition of growth of one species of plants by chemicals produced by another, typically competing, species. The chemical compounds released in this phenomenon have the potential to be used as natural weed control agents. In this study, we tested kudzu (Pueraria montana) to determine its allelopathic potential for weed control and suppression. The aqueous extracts of different kudzu organs (leaf, stem, and root) were assessed for allelopathic properties on the seeds of several competing species: white clover, dandelion, bermudagrass, and ryegrass. Remarkably, both the kudzu leaf and root extracts significantly changed the majority of the measured germination indices, comprising total germination and the speed of germination. The total germination of white clover seeds was 25% less than the control in both the kudzu leaf and root extract bioassays, while speed of germination was reduced by 77% and 72%, respectively. Likewise, dandelion seeds demonstrated 53% and 73% reduced speed of germination when treated with kudzu leaf extract and root extract, respectively. Both leaf extract and root extract also reduced total germination in ryegrass and bermudagrass seeds by a minimum of 25%. These results suggest that the kudzu leaves and roots can be considered to be allelopathic and show potential as a weed control agent.

Shreya Mathur, Dr. Sunil Mathur

Click here for PDF file: December2013(1)

International Pink Tariff

International Pink Tariff
Yaxin CHen

Pink, a color that has been commonly used as a representation of femininity, has become a form of widespread gender discrimination towards female consumers in the economy. The pink tax is not an official tax expense established by the government, instead, it often refers to extra price paid by women for the same goods or services as men, mostly with female-targeted packaging. This implicit discrepancy has existed for decades in the U.S. even though there have been efforts from some legislators to employ legal instruments to reduce the apparent gender-based pricing disparity. The unfair issue requires high attention because it not only presents gender inequality in the domestic commerce, rather, it has further expanded to international trade as the pink tariff, which would potentially undermine the relationship and economy of different importing and exporting countries.
Many Asian countries, taking China and Vietnam as examples, are powerful in manufacturing on account of their cheaper labor markets, therefore, international companies are more prone to set their manufacturing factories in these countries in order to save costs, and later export finished products to international markets like the United States. However, although producers may choose to export similar products between males and females at the same price, women and men often see different prices as they arrive in the domestic market. The gender-based pricing almost always requires women to pay a higher price compared to men because of the higher import tariff rate on goods that are particularly for females. The recent trade war between the U.S. and China has added an even higher tariff rate on already existing pink tariffs without the adjustment to inflation, meaning that female consumers generally have to incur more tax burden for purchasing goods to their liking, such as shoes and clothes. Consequently, after acknowledging the gender price gap, domestic female consumers would be likely to restrict their buying power for more expensive female-targeted products. This does not only impact the domestic economy negatively, but also affects the further expansion of the global economy, especially in developing countries that make a myriad of exports as they lose broader opportunities to trade.
Legal intervention is a possible effective means to solve the price discrimination against the overall female group. There have been past efforts from companies in the fashion industry attempting to fight against the pink tariff legally. Nevertheless, the courts encountered difficulties to provide satisfactory rulings, given the current insufficient legislations and precedents. Some legislators in the U.S. have introduced the Pink Tax Repeal Act multiple times in the Congress a few years ago, but it has not been successfully passed by the legislative branch. Therefore, federal laws banning all pink taxes on goods for females and international legal regulations on all pink tariffs in international trade would be helpful in promoting gender equality and a better economy. To achieve this goal, it is essential to educate more women about the existence of pink tariffs and urge for legal interventions. The benefits of removing pink tariffs do not merely fall onto female consumers. They would resolve the dilemma faced by industries importing and exporting gender-specific products; they would likewise protect healthy trade and maintain good relationships between countries through international trade.