Explanation Text

1.  Explanation text about Religion

 

Ramadhan events

Islam's holiest month Ramadhan, is observed through many events. As Muslims must fast during the day during Ramadan, mosques will host iftar dinners after sunset and the fourth required prayer of the day, maghrib. Food is provided, at least in part, by members of the community, thereby creating nightly potluck dinners. Because of the community contribution necessary to serve iftar dinners, mosques with smaller congregations may not be able to host the iftar dinners daily. Some mosques will also hold suhoor meals before dawn to congregants attending the first required prayer of the day, fajr. As with iftar dinners, congregants usually provide the food for suhoor, although able mosques may provide food instead. Mosques will often invite poorer members of the Muslim community to share in beginning and breaking the fasts, as providing charity during Ramadan is regarded in Islam as especially honorable.

Following the last obligatory daily prayer (isha) special, optional tarawih prayers are offered in larger mosques. During each night of prayers, which can last for up to two hours each night, usually one member of the community who has memorized the entire Qur'an will recite a segment of the book. Sometimes, several such people (not necessarily of the local community) take turns to do this. During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques will host all-night programs to observe Laylat al-Qadr, the night Muslims believe that Muhammad first received Qur'anic revelations. On that night, between sunset and sunrise, mosques employ speakers to educate congregants in attendance about Islam. Mosques or the community usually provide meals periodically throughout the night.

During the last ten days of Ramadan, larger mosques within the Muslim community will host i'tikaf, a practice in which at least one Muslim man from the community must participate. Muslims performing i'tikaf are required to stay within the mosque for ten consecutive days, often in worship or learning about Islam. As a result, the rest of the Muslim community is responsible for providing the participants with food, drinks, and whatever else they need during their stay.

2.    Explanation text about Social     

Suicide

The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, along with many other studies, reported that the majority of people who completed suicide were either unemployed or had a long-term illness (Department of Health, 1999). Compared with the general population, people who attempt suicide belong more often to the social categories associated with social destabilisation and poverty.

Gunnell et al(1995) examined the relations between suicide, parasuicide and socio-economic deprivation. A strong association was found between suicide and parasuicide, with socio-economic deprivation accounting for much of this relationship. Furthermore, homicide and suicide occur more frequently in highly populated, deprived areas (Kennedy et al, 1999). This finding is also supported by Crawford & Prince (1999), who noted increasing rates of suicide in young unemployed men living in conditions of extreme social deprivation. It is also true that the mortality rates of overdoses involving cocaine and opiates are significantly associated with poverty status (Marzuk et al, 1997).

3. Explanation text about Economy

Monetary Policy

From the moment the financial crisis took hold in 2008, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has looked to lower the dollar’s value and cause asset prices to rise – especially in real estate. But his pitch has been wildly off the mark.

Real estate will be the last asset class to respond to the Fed’s dollar debasement strategy. Now, the Feds can’t control the ‘exact’ rate of inflation, nor can it direct where inflation will be distributed across the economy. In other words, inflation is like throwing a paper airplane: once you let it loose, you’re never really sure where it’s going to land. Rising prices is usually caused by an increase in the money supply or more commonly known as government money printing. And the recent increases in the prices of energy and other commodities are currently putting upward pressure on “inflation”.  Simply put, Inflation is often defined, as “too much money chasing too few goods”.

As it right now, we are seeing rising prices everywhere except where Bernanke really wants them – real estate. Commercial and residential real estate is vacant. As housing sales fall – so will big bank balance sheets. That means we could be facing another credit collapse. Unless the Fed starts to create credit to buy houses directly off the market, and remove mandates and regulations, it will be very difficult to get real estate values to move higher.

Commercial real estate properties are hemorrhaging and in order to short-circuit major commercial defaults, what we might see is the government attempt to step-in with another TARP-like funds or TARP-leftover funds.

• Housing is choked. Copper prices are in the toilet. Copper, is an indicator of new construction which means there is no new construction. Without an up tick in construction, the economy can’t really get much better
• If people were working again, they would be gobbling up housing foreclosures. Some are over 50% off their high. No one is touching them.
• Data released last week shows that the median price of existing homes declined 5.2% in February compared to the previous year. New home prices fared even worse; tumbling 9%!
• 11% of homes nationwide are being left vacant, causing nearly 25% of mortgage holders to be without any equity in the home.
• Bernanke and Obama have other problems, that is :

• Manufacturing reports are a mixed bag. Heavy equipment is doing well but they have over seas markets to rely on in a US downturn. 30% of every refined barrel of oil is used directly (as an ingredient) or indirectly (provides machinery energy) in the manufacturing of products, as the price of oil goes up, so does the cost of manufacturing.
• The American consumer, who makes up 70% of GDP, will be spending more and more disposable income they make on food and energy and necessities and less on luxury disposable income
• Auto numbers are being skewed. Dealer inventories are up from 30 to 90 days. The auto industry, especially GM, is pushing 0% financing. That is a sure sign that you are not moving units; especially with spring in the air.
• Economist uses bulk carload freight and transport indicators as one of the primary measures of economic activity. For the first eleven weeks of 2011, U.S. freight railroads originated an uptick of 5.3% from last year and trailers and containers were up 8.1% from the same point in 2010. That sounds like a nice gain — and it is — but to keep it in perspective, other than 2009 and 2010 it’s still the lowest March average since 1994. And, overall, intermodal traffic is the second slowest reading in over a year.

So,  by any reasonable account, Bernanke has failed. It is clear that by trying to channel his inflation into just one asset class, real estate, Bernanke has placed the entire US economy in severe danger.

He now faces a serious conundrum.

Does he raise interest rates significantly to fight inflation at the cost of a second housing market collapse, or does he sit idly by and watch the broader economy become just as unaffordable? Neither choice is pleasant, but one thing’s for sure: if the bond vigilantes start to raise interest rates for him, his paper airplane is headed for a crash.

Let me place this inflation discussion in more practical terms

Business operators believe that future prices for many goods and services will be higher next month than they are today. So, those companies and households with savings and capital that can afford to do so will buy the supplies they’ll need in the future today. This buying activity, which is driven by expectations of higher prices in the future, results in a transfer of future economic activity into the present. While some industries and companies enjoy pricing power, most do not. Those without pricing power will see weaker profit margins as higher raw material prices flow through the chain of production.

It’s the type of activity that Keynesian central bankers like Ben Bernanke want to encourage. But the transfer of future economic activity into the present hardly materializes and carries with it the same problems we saw during the housing and credit bubbles: when the “borrowed-against” future finally arrives, we see a collapse in demand for the pre-bought items. Pushing consumers and businesses to “buy now” with the expectation of higher prices in the future is hardly different from subsidizing the reckless growth in debt.

All this has lead to Bernanke’s quantitative easing experiments. Since last November, Bernanke has expanded the monetary base by over $325 billion and he’s not through. In all, it will be more than $600 Billion.

The result? We’ll see sugar rushes in economic activity, followed by hangovers. When the hangover sobriety settles in. The government prints more money. More sugar high.  His reckless monetary policy is driving down the dollar and driving up commodity prices. Central banks and the Obama government remain blind to the inflationary consequences of their policies. Based on his public comments, Bernanke seems to view rising energy and food prices as a deflationary shock to the US economy – which would, in his mind, necessitate even more money printing.

He sees no connection between the expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet and rising prices for everyday necessities. And, some fear that interest rates are being kept too low from the central bank.

The result will be stagflation.

Stagflation, in simple terms, can best be described as ‘elevated inflation and high unemployment’. Almost all the growth we have seen to date is from government orders. I’ve always been dubious of the inventory rebuild scenario. No one ever seems to have  solid numbers on it which makes it suspicious.

4. Explanation text about Sains

Sprightly Explanation For UFO Sightings?

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2009) — In legend, sprites are trolls, elves and other spirits that dance high above our ozone layer. But scientists at Tel Aviv University have discovered that some very real "sprites" are zipping across the atmosphere as well, providing a possible explanation for those other legendary denizens of the skies, UFOs.

Thunderstorms, says Prof. Colin Price, head of the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences Department at Tel Aviv University, are the catalyst for a newly discovered natural phenomenon he calls "sprites." He and his colleagues are one of the leading teams in the world studying the phenomenon, and Prof. Price leads the study of "winter sprites" ― those that appear only in the northern hemisphere's winter months.

"Sprites appear above most thunderstorms," explains Prof. Price, "but we didn't see them until recently. They are high in the sky and last for only a fraction of a second." While there is much debate over the cause or function of these mysterious flashes in the sky, they may, Prof. Price says, explain some bizarre reports of UFO sightings.

5. Explanation text about Politic

Political Corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties.

Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities.

The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption#cite_note-0











6. Explanation text about Environment

The Effect of Global Warming

At the beginning year of 2000, the world got shock with the global warming issue. This issue, of course, makes many people all over the world panic, because the research of the experts of nature said that it was the beginning of apocalypse of the world. Their opinion is strengthened by the melting of eternal ice in South and North Pole. If it continues in a periods, it will make the level of sea volume increase. This condition is proven by the lost of small Indonesian islands each year. Even the research show that there are about 200 small Indonesian islands lost each year. We can imagine what will happen if global warming can not be stopped. Gradually, the sea water will dig many parts of earth. As a result, there is no living anymore. Besides drowning many parts of lands, this case will also make the temperature of sea water cool. This condition, according to the research, will be the beginnings of ice era, the same case like in the past that make so many creatures disappear, because of unfriendly nature, of course, people. The other effect of global warming is the irregular changes of seasons. Actually, this condition makes many people uncomfortable, the day can be so cool and so hot that cause the illness, such as, cold, fever, asthma, and so on. This effect, irregular changeover of seasons, also influences the agriculture activity, many rice fields get dry because the period of dry season is become longer. So rice cannot grow. In fact, rice is the main food of human being. However, in rainy seasons there are too many rain fall, flood, landslides, are a few example of the effect of too much rain fall. It also influences agriculture activity. Many farmers can not plant their commodity well. Finally, the food stock decreased and it is the classic problem that causes a hunger and it is possible to make the world dangerous with the apparent of war. Among countries battle each other to get their needs like in the past time. Can you imagine there is colonialism again? It is too hard too explain just because of global warming. Global warming is really dangerous, isn’t it?

However, there is still an opportunity to save our earth from global warming effects. All people, I am sure, can be the environmental emissary by plant trees, at least a tree for a person. Why? Because global warming is the result of green house affect that is produced by carbon dioxide emission gas. The function of tree, I mean, its leaves, is to produce oxygen and absorb CO2. Be a good pedestrian is the other way to reduce global warming effect or use public transportation. The last, of course, it has to start today, at the moment.

How Nuclear Waste Affects People and the Environment

Although the benefits of nuclear power seem to make it the obvious choice for the power source of the future, nuclear power can be danger for our environment. Our environment does not have any protections features to protect it from the harmful effects of nuclear waste.

Obviously, nuclear waste consists of Uranium broken down during the fission process that creates nuclear energy. During the fission process, anything has come in contact with the energy created becomes radioactive.

Mostly, nuclear waste it just dumped in low population areas all over the Earth with the population growing as fast as it is. Nuclear waste begins to destroy the environment we are trying so hard to protect.

Contaminated soil and groundwater do not have to be a problem. Increasing the risk of cancer, birds defects, and infertility are just a few of the harmful of nuclear waste. The effects of nuclear waste on the population aren’t only physical, they are mental.
If humans become exposed to nuclear waste, their cells may become damaged, and repair themselves incorrectly, resulting in biophysical damage that more often than not results in cancer. Different types of cancer than have resulted from radiation exposure from nuclear waste leukemia, breast, lung, liver and so on (Military Nuclear Mess).

Humans become exposed to nuclear waste radiation when nuclear waste is disposed of improperly. One example is when low-level waste that is not properly stored seeps through its containment area and comes in contact with groundwater. The same goes for the soil. In this manner however, plants become contaminated, and in turn the organisms that feed on them, including humans

7. Explanation text about Culture

How Roman Roads were Built

The system of roads for mobility has been begun early decades. It was started since the Roman Empire conquered the world. The roads in Roman era were known as the best construction.

The Romans built roads are for the purpose of mobility, especially for the army. Having the best road, the army could march from one place to another. They built the roads as straight as possible, so that the army could take the shortest route.

It is interesting to know how the roads were built, which some of them are still in use today. First, the Romans builders would clear the ground of rocks and trees. Then they dug a trench where the road was to go and filled it with big stones. Next, they put in big stones, pebbles, cement and sand which they packed down to make a firm base. After that, they added another layer of cement mixed with broken tiles. On top of that rough construction, then they put paving stones to make the flat surface. These stones were cut so that they fitted together tightly. As the finishing touch, kerb stones were put at each sides of the road to hold in the paving stones. It was also used to make a channel for the water to run away.

Source : www.teachingideas.co.uk