Archive for September, 2009

A Practical Solution To U.S. Energy Needs May Exist

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

While both the demand for energy and energy prices continue to increase, nonrenewable sources of energy, particularly fossil fuels, are decreasing. These factors, coupled with the effects of pollution and global warming, are driving consumers and industry to call for a better solution to the world’s energy needs.

Some suggest that the solution might be found by making innovative technological improvements to an existing source of energy- nuclear power. Currently, nuclear power supplies 16 percent of the world’s energy.

Unlike coal, natural gas, or oil-all nonrenewable and subject to price volatility-nuclear power plants are fueled by uranium, a relatively abundant element that occurs naturally in the earth’s crust. Plus, nuclear energy is the world’s largest source of emission-free energy. Nuclear power plants produce no controlled air pollut-ants or greenhouse gases.

One of the latest developments in the production of nuclear energy comes from Westinghouse Electric Company. It has introduced what’s been described as the safest and most economical nuclear power plant available in the worldwide commercial marketplace-the AP1000. It’s the first reactor of its class to receive Design Certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
(more…)

5 Ways to Fund Your Child's College Education

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Did you know that the cost of a 4 year degree program is around $20,000 dollars per year.

The cost of a college education is probably the most expensive item in bringing up children today. When you take into account tuition fees, exam fees, living expenses, accommodation, books and computers it’s not surprising that the average cost of college education is over $20,000 per year and that’s before the social side of college life.

Today we live in a world where only the best educated and most prepared can succeed. The Job market is probably the most crucial and competitive element of our society and having a college education and degree goes a long way towards succeeding in it.

When our children are ready to enter the world of work it will be even more difficult and a college education will be essential to succeed. Here are 5 ways to fund your child’s college education.

1. The usual method of parental funding of college education is out of current income, that is out of your weekly or monthly salary.

Whilst this is the most common method of funding college education it is one that only the very rich or highly paid can afford to do with ease. Even if there are 2 salaries most families find it difficult and will require sacrifices, even more so if you have more than 1 child. At best most parents can only afford to contribute part of the costs of college education out of current income. Additional sources of income will be required.
(more…)

3 Reasons To Get Your Health Care Degree Online

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

You’ve made the decision to make more money. You know the only way to do that is to go back to school. The first thing you need to do is decide on a career. A job in health care is an obvious choice; this has always been of interest to you.

It’s a booming industry that will just keep growing in the coming years. With an increasing demand for health care professionals with all levels of training and education, you can look forward to unmatched job security.

And here’s the best part: you ultimately can decide how much money you want to make. Health care workers can find jobs fresh out of high school. However, the higher the degree, the higher the pay. So if you want to get going in the right direction, your best bet is pursuing a health care degree online.

Here are the top 3 reasons that pursuing a health care degree online makes the most sense.

Flexibility: This is the most obvious reason for pursuing a health degree online. You can take classes anytime and anywhere you have computer access. You can learn in your pajamas. Or, head over to a Starbucks. All you need is an Internet connection.

It couldn’t be more convenient. And, most likely, you lead a busy lifestyle. Maybe you already have a job. Maybe you have kids. With an online college, it doesn’t matter. You can make your classes fit around your schedule, not vice versa.
(more…)

NGOs – The Self-Appointed Altruists

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Their arrival portends rising local prices and a culture shock. Many of them live in plush apartments, or five star hotels, drive SUV’s, sport $3000 laptops and PDA’s. They earn a two figure multiple of the local average wage. They are busybodies, preachers, critics, do-gooders, and professional altruists.

Always self-appointed, they answer to no constituency. Though unelected and ignorant of local realities, they confront the democratically chosen and those who voted them into office. A few of them are enmeshed in crime and corruption. They are the non-governmental organizations, or NGO’s.

Some NGO’s – like Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Amnesty – genuinely contribute to enhancing welfare, to the mitigation of hunger, the furtherance of human and civil rights, or the curbing of disease. Others – usually in the guise of think tanks and lobby groups – are sometimes ideologically biased, or religiously-committed and, often, at the service of special interests.

NGO’s – such as the International Crisis Group – have openly interfered on behalf of the opposition in the last parliamentary elections in Macedonia. Other NGO’s have done so in Belarus and Ukraine, Zimbabwe and Israel, Nigeria and Thailand, Slovakia and Hungary – and even in Western, rich, countries including the USA, Canada, Germany, and Belgium.
(more…)