Volkswagen

Information about Volkswagen

Lim Jerome On Friday, August 20, 2010

Volkswagen (abbreviated VW) is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. The company is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Volkswagen is the original marque within the Volkswagen Group, which includes the car marques Audi, Bentley Motors, Bugatti Automobiles, Automobili Lamborghini, SEAT, Škoda Auto and heavy goods vehicle manufacturer Scania.

Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, in which it is pronounced [ˈfɔlksˌvaːɡən]. Its current tagline or slogan is Das Auto (in English The Car). Among its largest owners are the Porsche family, the Emirate of Qatar and the state of Lower Saxony. For a long time, Volkswagen has been Europe's largest automobile manufacturer with a market share over 20 percent. Worldwide, Volkswagen officially ranks as the 3rd largest manufacturer as measured by OICA in 2009. Volkswagen is aiming to become, sustainably, the world's largest car maker by 2018.

Volkswagen is a publicly traded company, which issued ordinary shares and preferred shares. The ownership structure is complex. The following table shows the current shareholder structure. Note that neither the Porsche Automobil Holding nor the Porsche GmbH are identical with the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, which is responsible for the production of Porsche sports cars. The Porsche Automobil Holding is owned by the Porsche family, the Emirate of Qatar, 49.9% are owned by the Volkswagen AG. The Porsche GmbH was sold to the Volkswagen AG.

Volkswagen has always had a close relationship with Porsche, the Zuffenhausen-based sports car manufacturer founded in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche, the original Volkswagen designer and Volkswagen company founder. The first Porsche car, the Porsche 64 of 1938, used many components from the Volkswagen Beetle. The 1948 Porsche 356 continued using many Volkswagen components, including a tuned engine, gearbox and suspension.

Volkswagen has been selling low sulphur diesel-powered engines for the European market since 2003. VW developed Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) technology for diesel engines, and it offers a wide array of TDI powertrains. As modern diesel fuel economy is 30 percent higher than gasoline engines, a proportional reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is achieved with clean diesel technology. Volkswagen is also developing hybrid technology for diesel-electric. A VW Golf turbo-diesel hybrid concept car was exhibited at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, which has a fuel economy of 70 mpg (3.3 litres per 100 km).

Volkswagen and Sanyo have teamed up to develop a battery system for hybrid electric vehicles. Volkswagen head Martin Winterkorn has confirmed the company plans to build compact hybrid electric vehicles. He has stated "There will definitely be compact hybrid models, such as Polo and Golf, and without any great delay", with gasoline and diesel engines. For example, Golf is the ideal model to go hybrid as the Golf 1.4 TSI was recently awarded the “Auto Environment Certificate” by the Oko-Trend Institute for Environmental Research, and was considered as one of the most environmentally friendly vehicles of 2007. Also underway at Volkswagen's Braunschweig R&D facilities in Northern Germany is a hybrid version of the next-generation Touareg.

VW intends all future models to have the hybrid option. “Future VW models will fundamentally also be constructed with hybrid concepts,” VW head of development Ulrich Hackenberg told Automobilwoche in an interview. Hackenberg mentioned that the car based on the Up! concept seen at Frankfurt Motor Show, as well as all future models, could be offered with either full or partial hybrid options. The rear-engine up! will go into production in 2011. Nothing has been said about plug-in hybrid options.

Volkswagen announced at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show the launch of the 2012 Touareg Hybrid, scheduled for 2011. VW also announced plans to introduce diesel-electric hybrid versions of its most popular models in 2012, beginning with the new Jetta, followed by the Golf Hybrid in 2013 together with hybrid versions of the Passat.

The Project Finals

Lim Jerome On Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Days before my project finals, My group members and I started preparing and modifying the powerpoint slides. But, after some thoughts, I changed my mind and decided to use the Prezi platform to carry out our presentation as it is more engaging than normal powerpoints. Prezi allows you to type in a word as a title and put your slides around the title. You will then be able to create a path whereby the Prezi software would be able to move on to the next slide after clicking. Sometimes, the slides have words covered or have other words in them. In order to solve this problem, much time has to be taken to shift words to other places or make the words smaller. Other than that, the Prezi platform is still manageable. I was quite enthusiastic at first as I have never used Prezi before. After finishing the powerpoint slides, my group menbers and I worked together to create our own short story as an end product as an end product is needed for the finals. We faced some difficulty in getting the storyline at first but later started writing our short story smoothly. The day before the project finals judging, My group members and I went to meet our mentor, Mrs Anu, and asked her if any amendments should be made. She pointed out a lot of mistakes and so, we spend that whole night rushing to amend our mistakes. The next day, we went for the project finals judging. The judges were very strict and asked us many questions. We managed to answer all of them except for one, which was how our end product, the short story was related to our powerpint slides. We tried giving all sorts of answers, but to no avail. Even though I did not pass the finals, at least my group members and I have tried our best and did all the best we can. It was a great experience for me, to be able to survive until the finals.

My Term 3 Infocomm Studies Test

Lim Jerome On

I just had my Infocomm Test. I was surpised at how simple the test was after doing it. I expected more difficult questions to come out in the exams. In the last two terms, the tests set by the Infocomm Studies teacher, Mr Kent have always been very difficult and I often get undesirable marks. I was also worried about my Infocomm Studies after Term 2 and have vowed to work harder for Infocomm Studies in Term 3. Term 3's Infocomm Studies was taught by Mr Koh, the person who set up the school's EMB if I am not wrong. I have noticed that the way he taught us is different from Mr Kent. He will patiently go through every new topic step by step and when we do not understand anything, he will explain and clear our doubts. He would also let us do a quiz, assignment or project after every lesson to let us recap what we have learnt and apply them. We would then be able to absorb more things and score better in the test. A few days before the Infocomm Studies test, I have already started revising and preparing for the test. I tried to familiarise myself with all the topics Mr Koh has tested and therefore, it would be easier to answer the questions in the test. But I was shocked after doing the test that the test was quite simple, except for the bonus question, which many students could not solve. Mr Koh gave us our scores immediately after we have finished and displayed them on the screen. My heart was thumping loudly at that time as I was eager to know my results. I looked for my name and saw that I have gotten full marks! I was very esctatic at that time and shouted a loud "Yes!". Now I do not have to worry about my Infocomm Studies anymore and can now score a lower MSG than the first few terms.

My poem on primary school days

Lim Jerome On Monday, May 24, 2010

This is a poem on my primary school days:

Everyday when I step into my school
I can see students pushing their way through
With nurses standing by the side
To attend to their needs

Everyday when I step into my classroom
My teacher will shout at the top of his lungs
With the students covering their ears
The naughty ones will think of it as a choir song
While the sleepy ones will think of it as a wake-up call

Everyday when I step into the toilet
Brown solids will be all around you
A smell worse than a garbage dump
Will travel right up to your nose

Everyday when I step into the canteen
Students as fat as a hippopotamus
Will eat as if they have not eaten for a decade
And end up becoming a hot air balloon

Everyday when I step out of school
A wide grin would be stretched across my face
My heart starts thumping
School is finally over

Analysis of 'The Son is in Secondary School' by Affian Sa'at

Lim Jerome On

The poet felt that his school days were unpleasant ones as there were 'black crows' that interrupted him when singing the National Anthem. This states that the school is not very peaceful and quiet in the mornings but rather noisy because of the chirping of the 'black crows'. His shoes are very 'difficult to maintain' its whiteness which means that the school's environment is not very clean and thus, his shoes are often dirty. The fact that the poet mentions 'Seven to the power of five is unreasonable' shows that the poet felt that the school's mathematics is too difficult for him to work out. He is also not clever in the way that he is not able to solve the 'Seven to the power of five' question. 'The capital of Singapore is Singapore' means the poet thinks that Singapore is so small and tiny that it does not even have a capital to the extent that its capital is still 'Singapore'. His friend 'Shaded all A's' for the multiple choice of the Chinese test gives the poet an impression that his friend does not take the test seriously and thus, uses 'a heroic thing' to further exaggerate this incident. A photo was taken when the poet's eyes were closed shows how much he hates the school for taking such an ugly photo of him. Thus, his school days were overall unpleasant ones with very little good days.

Child Labour in India

Lim Jerome On Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Children in India began working at a very young and tender age. Many children have to work to support their families and some families even expect their children to continue the family business at a young age. India has always thought of ways to tackle and eliminate child labour in India. Fortunately, compulsory universal elementary education and labour protection are secured for the children.

Now, let us take a look at the Human Rights, India’s government and my perspectives on child labour in India:

Human Rights:

The Human Rights has agreed to protect the children from child labour. They think the child labour is a serious offence and are concerned about the rights to life survival and development of the child. They think that children should not work at such a young age and ensure the survival and development of the child to the maximum possible extent. They will enable the children to have opportunities and facilities to lead a healthy life style, and protect them against child labour. They have provisions to recognise that the child has the right not to perform any work which is likely to harm the child’s development. They decided to provide free and compulsory education for children up to the age of fourteen. They will try their best to do anything to prevent child labour from taking place.

India's Government:

The India’s government thinks that child labour talks more of regulation than prohibition of child labour. The government feels that child labour can never be eliminated and that certain forms of child labour are inevitable, it is even less likely to serve any purpose. Thus, the government refuses to provide any solutions to prevent child labour. They do not even care to modify its approach and change the policies. They are pessimistic to the problem on child labour. They think that children are supposed to work at such a young age to earn profits, which are essential to the family. They do not seem to have pity for the child labourers. No action is taken by the government to prevent child labour from happening.

Me:

I am deeply impressed by the Human Rights actions and optimistic reactions to child labour. I believe that once measures are taken to protect the children form child labour, the cases of child labour will surely decrease. What the Human Rights is doing is good, as they are at least trying their very best to prevent child labour. If I were them, I would do the same, unlike India’s government, who are pessimistic, thinking that child labour can never be eliminated and did nothing to help child labourers. We have to give it our all not to let child labourers suffer. I will think of ways and methods to prevent child labour. We have to put ourselves into the children’s shoes. If you are working at such a young age, would you like it? Would you love to be working everyday under the hot sun? The answer is definitely no. So, why not give a helping hand and help the child labourers? If we keep trying to overcome the odds of child labour, the cases of child labour will decrease and eventually, it will be eliminated.

Similarities between Child Labour and Village by the Sea

Similarities:

1. Poverty in the family

2. Children working at a young age

3. Children have to start work early in the morning

4. Children lack of education
5. Families lack of food

6. Families lack of medical care

7. Children have to support family

My Birthday

Lim Jerome On Monday, April 12, 2010

1 April is my birthday. Woohoo! It falls on the same day as Aprilfool's Day. Too bad.as i still had to go for my EP3 after school until 7 pm. After my EP3, i rushed home to take part in the activities my parents had planned for me. First, we went to a famous restaurant to eat dinner. I ate many delicious dishes but among all of them, i love the chicken the most, just for a simple reason. I like to eat chicken. After that, we went home to cut the birthday cake. It was made specially for me. I was surprised. It looked so delicious that i thought it was brought from a cake shop. But there was one problem. It was too big. In the end we have to cut the cake into half and then eat the other half the next day. The last part was the presents. I opened them slowly and was delighted to see a car magazine and a Wii car game! I immediately read the magazine and played the game. It was my best birthday ever.