The Worldwide Revolution

France had in the 17th and most of the 18th cent. kept pace with Britain, but it later lagged behind in industrial development, and the British victory in their long-standing commercial rivalry kept markets away from France. The revolution did not make the rapid progress that it did in Britain, but after 1830 it developed steadily. The railroad and improved transportation preceded the introduction of the revolution into Germany, which is conventionally said to have accompanied the formation of the Zollverein; industrial Germany was created after 1850.

The United States made some contributions to the early revolution, notably the cotton gin (1793) of Eli Whitney. But the transformation of the United States into an industrial nation took place largely after the Civil War and on the British model. The textile mills of New England had long been in existence, but the boom period of industrial organization was from 1860 to 1890. The Industrial Revolution was introduced by Europeans into Asia, and the last years of the 19th and the early years of the 20th cent. saw the development of industries in India, China, and Japan. However, Japan is the only country of E Asia that may be said to have had a real Industrial Revolution. The Russian Revolution had as a basic aim the introduction of industrialism.

Its Effects

The Industrial Revolution has changed the face of nations, giving rise to urban centers requiring vast municipal services. It created a specialized and interdependent economic life and made the urban worker more completely dependent on the will of the employer than the rural worker had been. Relations between capital and labor were aggravated, and Marxism was one product of this unrest. Doctrines of laissez-faire, developed in the writings of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, sought to maximize the use of new productive facilities. But the revolution also brought a need for a new type of state intervention to protect the laborer and to provide necessary services. Laissez faire gradually gave way in the United States, Britain, and elsewhere to welfare capitalism. The economic theories of John Maynard Keynes reflected this change. The Industrial Revolution also provided the economic base for the rise of the professions, population expansion, and improvement in living standards and remains a primary goal of less developed nations.

MODERN MUSIC

In an age of error the most influential thing in a child and or a teenagers life is music. Whether it is Reggae, Hip Hop, Gangster Rap, R&B, Oldies Rock, Latin, or Heavy Metal it still has a way to overpower a person’s mind no matter how old they are. Right now pretty much everybody that I talk to when I am on the Internet like Rap. I don’t understand how people could listen to non-stop cursing and fast-paced lyrics. Even though my opinion of the music isn’t so great the singers have to get some credit for being able to recite poetry in such a manner. I prefer the heavier stuff like Slipknot, KoRn, or Kittie because I enjoy talented people who play their own instruments, and personally I like very loud music. Reggae is well known because of one group and that group is Bob Marley and The Wailers. I happen to like them because they pretty much set the standards for a band that are known to people as Sublime. They are sort of a rock n roll/reggae band with hit songs like "What I Got" and "Santeria". My friends and I sometimes refer to Bob Marley as the "God" of music. Another popular style of music is the Pop music category. I think it features a bunch of no talent boy groups like N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys. It is artists like this who are ruining our countries youth. These bands are corrupting the minds of our teen and pre-teen girls, and I don’t believe its right that they are doing this because very rarely do girls like the same music as my friends and I. Finally we get to the music that gets more interesting the heavy metal/rock music. I happen to like this style of music the best because the music means something. I don’t think that it is right for the tabloids to go out every time something happens with shootings at schools and blame it on the rock music. Rap is the music that gives the message of killing and shooting people. I don’t think it is right that they can go blame artists like Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osbourne for children with weak minds when it comes to music that deals with death. Finally, my last point is that the tabloids judge a musician by the way that they look and from what they heard about them. They don’t look or listen to the lyrics to the songs they judge by their image and that is the wrong way to look at it.The newspapers add to the affect by talking about how heavy metal music and Goth music are bad for the child’s mind. "School Shootings are always caused by troubled teens who listen to heavy metal music," they say. The only reason they do the shootings is not because they listen to a certain kind of music; it is because they have weak minds that can’t handle the lyrics of the band. The tabloids not only blame the music but they also blame the movies. It isn’t right that they jump to conclusions that it is all the horror movies and the music’s fault. There are bands that write lyrics about things that they have experienced in their lives. The music I just happen to listen to is heavy metal and Goth metal. The bands in Goth metal have names such as Cannibal Corpse, Cradle of Filth, Six Feet Under, and Type O Negative. They are known for having songs that deal with death and other dark things. Six Feet Under is another band who I’m not too familiar with so I really can’t talk about how they can influence children. All I know is that their most recent album features a guy on the cover receiving a lobotomy by machines. Cradle of Filth is a band that combines witchcraft with music to make really sick and twisted lyrics. They are a band that I listen to because I like the way the singer alters his voice to sound all weird like a witch. The people of the United States do not approve of their music or concerts so the band is now banned from all 50 states. The decisions that these people make amaze me because the more they disapprove of the bands the more people listen to them. Ever since the "Columbine" school shooting music sales for Goth music and other paraphernalia has gone up. The U.S. did the same thing with Elvis, and look what happened he became even more popular because he was considered to be evil. They make such stupid decisions because it always blows up in their face. I think that they should use reverse psychology on the people and say to go out and buy the stuff and see what happens. The tabloids are always doing things to put down heavy metal music down. I think that they should blame some of it on rap. Rap talks about killing people in the other gangs, and it is always so vulgar with its sexual terms and language. It is the worst form of music because the different terms they use for killing someone is outrageous. Half of the songs that I heard were about "busting a cap" in someone, or sicking their dogs on a person. The tabloids say that rock/heavy metal is too violent for kids to listen to. I don’t see what the big deal is that people listen to heavy metal music. I think that the people who listen to, and take the lyrics seriously have a weak mind. Those are the kind of people who pull all of the school shootings, the people who can’t take listen to the song and say "hey it’s only a song, I shouldn’t take the words seriously". The people who are doing all of the shootings I think have a mental problem or have a hard problem telling what’s right and what’s wrong. The kids who orchestrated the shooting at Columbine high school had weak minds, and I bet that their life at home was very bad for them. I think that when they did what they did, they had no clue what they were doing. All they knew was that the music told them to go out and kill someone. It wasn’t their entire fault that they did that horrifying thing, it was also their parent’s fault. I say this because I highly doubt that the parents of those kids expressed their love for them very often. The tabloids make everything seem worse than it really is, or they never really uncover the real facts. They are always working off of other people’s opinions about the situations. I will leave you with this quote, "I think the music works around the people, not the world works around the music".

OLYMPIC GAMES

The Olympic Games have a very long history. They began in 777 BC in Greece and took place every four years for nearly twelve centuries at Olimpia. They included many different kinds of sports: running, boxing, wrestling, etc. All the cities in Greece sent their best athletes to Olimpia to compete in the Games. For the period of the Games all the wars stopped. So the Olympic Games became the symbol of peace and friendship.

In 394 AD the Games were abolished and were not renewed until many centuries later.

In 1894, a Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, addressed all the sport’s governing bodies and pointed out the significance of sports and its educational value.

Two years later the first modern Olympic Games took place. Of course, the competitions were held in Greece to symbolize the continuation of the centuries-old tradition.

In 1896 the International Olympic Committee was set up. It is the central policy-making body of the Olympic movement. It is formed by the representatives of all countries which take part in the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee decides upon the programme of the games, the number of the participants and the city-host for the Games. Over one hundred and fifty countries are represented in the International Olympic Committee now. Besides, each country has its National Olympic Committee.

Summer and Winter Games are held separately. There are always several cities wishing to host the Games. The most suitable is selected by the International Committee. After that the city of the Games starts preparations for the competitions, constructs new sports facilities, stadiums, hotels, press centers. Thousands of athletes, journalists and guests come to the Games, and it takes great efforts to arrange everything. There is always an interesting cultural program of concerts, exhibitions, festivals, etc., for each Games.

OZONE LAYER

Ozone layer or ozonosphere, region of the stratosphere containing relatively high concentrations of ozone, located at altitudes of 12-30 mi (19-48 km) above the earth's surface. Ozone in the ozone layer is formed by the action of solar ultraviolet light on oxygen.

The ozone layer prevents most ultraviolet (UV) and other high-energy radiation from penetrating to the earth's surface but does allow through sufficient ultraviolet rays to support the activation of vitamin D in humans. The full radiation, if unhindered by this filtering effect, would destroy animal tissue. Higher levels of radiation resulting from the depletion of the ozone layer have been linked with increases in skin cancers and cataracts and have been implicated in the decline of certain amphibian species.

In 1974 scientists warned that certain industrial chemicals, e.g., chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and to a lesser extent, halons and carbon tetrachloride, could migrate to the stratosphere. There, sunlight could free the chlorine or bromine atoms to form chlorine monoxide or other chemicals, which would deplete upper-atmospheric ozone. A seasonal decrease, or "hole," discovered in 1985 in the ozone layer above Antarctica was the first confirmation of a thinning of the layer. The hole occurs over Antarctica because the extreme cold helps the very high clouds characteristic of that area form tiny ice particles of water and nitric acid, which facilitate the chemical reactions involved. In addition, the polar winds, which follow a swirling pattern, create a confined vortex, trapping the chemicals. When the Antarctic sun rises in August or September and hits the trapped chemicals, a chain reaction begins in which chlorine, bromine, and ice crystals react with the ozone and destroy it very quickly. The effect usually lasts through November. There is a corresponding hole over the Arctic that similarly appears in the spring, although in some years warmer winters there do not result in a major depletion of the ozone layer. A global thinning of the ozone layer results as ozone-rich air from the remaining ozone layer flows into the ozone-poor areas.

Minimum ozone levels in the Antarctic decreased steadily throughout the 1990s, and less dramatic decreases have been found above other areas of the world. In 2000 (and again in 2003) the hole reached a record size, extending over 10.8 million sq mi (28 million sq km), an area greater than that of North America. In 1987 an international agreement, the Montreal Protocol, was reached on reducing the production of ozone-depleting compounds. Revisions in 1992 called for an end to the production of the worst of such compounds by 1996, and CFC emissions dropped dramatically by 1993. Recovery of the ozone layer, however, is expected to take 50 to 100 years. Damage to the ozone layer can also be caused by sulfuric acid droplets produced by volcanic eruptions.

PARIS

Paris, city (1999 pop. 2,115,757; metropolitan area est. pop. 11,000,000), N central France, capital of the country, on the Seine River. It is the commercial and industrial focus of France and a cultural and intellectual center of international renown. The city possesses an indefinable unity of atmosphere that has fascinated writers, poets, and painters for centuries. Paris is sometimes called the City of Light in tribute to its intellectual preeminence as well as to its beautiful appearance.

Paris is the center of many major newspapers and periodicals, as well as all the major French radio and television stations. Elegant stores and hotels, lavish nightclubs, theaters, and gourmet restaurants help make tourism the biggest industry in Paris. Other leading industries manufacture luxury articles, high-fashion clothing, perfume, and jewelry. Heavy industry, notably automobile manufacture, is located in the suburbs. About one quarter of the French labor force is concentrated in the Paris area.

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