The Rainforest and their Importance

As part of my geography coursework, I writing a piece on the rainforest, it's ecosystems and it's relevance to the world as a whole. I will produce a piece which is informative and helps to highlight the rainforest and I will demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of it's workings, and greater implications for the wider world. We are all familiar with the rainforests, but do we really understand them or have any real knowledge of them? These questions I will seek to answer in this piece of work. Rainforest form an integral part of the earth's biosphere, covering around 2% of the earth's surface and being present in every continent except Antarctica. A rainforest is a forest characterized by its extremely heavy rainfall (which is usually a mammoth 1750 to 2000mm each year! ). These rainforests form two common subtypes; the temperate and the tropical rainforests. Over a fifth of the world's water can be found within the boundaries of the rainforest, and similarly, so can a large chunk of the world's wildlife. The rainforest is estimated as being home to around 50% of the world's plants and animals. If you were to take a sample of a 4 mile patch in the rainforest, then you would probably find around 1,500 flowering plants, 150 species of butterflies, 400 species of birds, and of course 750 species of trees- which just goes to highlight how expansive the forest's flora and fauna is. Most people will commonly associate the rainforest with its vast abundance of trees, and indeed, this is true. As with all forests, the rainforest's trees are the very base of its ecosystems, and form a structure of layers based on height and shared characteristics. At the base of the rainforest is the forest floor, this is a dark and damp area- receiving only 2% of the forest's sunlight, and a large amount of collected water. It is dark, warm and humid; and it is difficult for common plants and animals to survive in; so it is only really a habitat to specially adapted organisms. Just above the forest floor comes the shrub layer, it is very dark- covered by the canopy, but can provide a habitat to specially adapted plants which are usually small, but with large leaves so that they can catch as much of the minimal light which shines through as possible. Above this is comes the understorey. It is a lot darker than the layers above, but has a larger amount of sunlight than the layers beneath (though it still only claims a mediocre 5% of the forest's sunlight). It hosts quite a large array of lizards, snakes, wild cats and birds who have adapted to its environment, and there are plenty of insects to be found there, too. Also, many of the infant trees on the understorey layer may grow to reach the canopy. Above this again, is the canopy layer. This layer has by far the greatest biodiversity, and hosts the largest amount of trees, plants, animals and other wildlife (it is estimated as housing a quarter of the world's insect population! ). The trees are very tall here; usually ranging from 30 meters to 24 meters in height, but some can grow even taller and reach into the emergent layer. And the emergent layers are the tallest trees which surpass the canopy and form a new layer. These trees can often reach up to 70 m in height! This air is usually very sunny and hot, as there are no other layers to keep out the heat and light. Animals must be specially adapted to this very high, light and hot layer; and animals such as monkeys, birds and butterflies are usually best suited to it. It's no surprise that the rainforest's plants have many human uses too. Everyday things which we consume come from the rainforests. Some of these include coffee, cocoa, hardwoods, rubber and latex. No doubt the rainforest is a huge source of income for Brazil and contributes a substantial amount to its Gross National Product. The plants of the rainforest also have great scientific and medicinal qualities. Indigenous peoples of the rainforest have utilized the health properties of the plants for thousands of years, and modern western medicine often originates in the rainforest. It is estimated that around 2,000 different plant species have anti-cancer properties, and indeed many of them are being used in anti-cancer treatment today. Less than 1% of rainforest plants have been tested for medicinal applications though- so who knows what answers the rainforest may hold for future medicine. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the rainforest to both the whole world's geography and human society, and difficult to imagine just how different our lives would be without products derived from the rainforest. And in conclusion, I can't think of anything more vital to the earth's ecosystem than the rainforest.

How did government affect agriculture Essay

The period of 1865-1900 was classified as an era of Republicans, where laissez-fare governments favored big businesses. Technology was significantly evolving, focusing mainly on urban manufacturing. New technological advancements in farming were sold to the farmers at high prices and shipped at high freight rates. Also, the prices of cash crops dropped during this period, causing many farmers to live in poor conditions. In government, the power of urban industry and big businesses overcame that of the pro-farming politicians. Technology, government policy, and economic conditions effectively declined agriculture politically, industrially, and economically. Impediments such as industrial issues, poor representation in government, and waning agricultural prices that the farmers were forced to face, made agriculture suffer greatly during the late 19th century. During this period, the U.S. was technologically evolving at a rapid rate. New inventions and advancements made life easier for the working class. Railroads, after spreading all over the nation, made any part of the country accessible and expanded the national market. Document B displays that the years 1870-1890, the number of railroads in the nations increased massively. Also, the number of railroads with major land grants grew as well. At first glance, this change seems to have benefited the farmers, but actually did the opposite. It is true that railroads allowed the farmers to expand and have a way to ship their harvest and cattle a lot faster to more markets. However, greedy men like Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled the railroads. Extremely high freight rates made the farmers lose more than they expected. Likewise, the cost of shipping, taxes, low buying prices, overproduction, and cost of equipment, the farmer gained a mere profit. The technological advancements did make farming easier, but often were too expensive for the farmer to afford. In document D, a farmer during a wheat harvest preferred to use a team of about 30 horses instead of the possibly motorized mechanical harvester. New agricultural technology didnt help much or not even as effective as old methods and also was too expensive so farmers chose to stick with the old methods. Technology seemed better when looked at, but not in reality when it was put to use. This is an example that can be characterized by the era named by Mark Twain, The Gilded AgeThe nations government policy at the time was laissez-fare or hands-off government. The  Republicans were in power during this period and favored industry and the big businesses. Consequently, farmers had a poor representation in government both in-state and nationally. Agri cultural process was made, but still were limited gains. For example, a law was carried through the Illinois legislature and then Supreme Court to limit the freight rates and it was passed (Document C). As you can see, it was a small victory for the farmers and others, but still limited to only Illinois. Furthermore, the ones that contributed to the growth of agriculture were those part of the Populist party. The party consisted of people who favored the rights of the farmers. Several organizations were established to favor the farmers. For example, the Grangers and the Farmers Alliance were organizations that allowed its members that shared common goals to organize and unite. In document G Mary Elizabeth Lease delivers a speech to the people, telling them that the government lied to the people and deceived them. She proves her argument with the crop price reductions and claims of overproduction. Also, the government had problems dealing with the Indians and the settling of agricultural acres for Americans (Document I). A huge controversy during this period was the issue of the gold vs. silver standard. The Populists of course wanted the silver standard, for inflation and to flood the economy. This would help out the farmers and miners out west. William Jennings Bryan claimed that the country depended on farmers and without them the country would fall. Also, that the country should be in favor of the farmers because they provide for the nation and are more important than the cities (Document J). The hand-off policy of the Republicans did not allow for much improvement of the nations economy and even let it suffer as did the farmers. Not only did the farmers suffer, but as well as the whole nation because of presidents such as Grant and Hayes. Economic conditions for the farmers were poor and no one was there to help them. The farmers tried, but could not gain the silver standard they needed to improve their positions and finance themselves. Moreover, the big businesses and pro-wealthy Republicans were in the way of the farmers and holding them back. In document A, one can see that as the farmers produced more and more to make more money, the price of the crop dropped as well, thus, leading to overproduction and loss of money. Even if the farmer was  successful, he would have to give up his success to the government and railroads with more power in the industry. Nevertheless, on occasion contracts were signed, for example the one in North Carolina shown by Document E where the farmer would sign away half of his net proceeds, leaving him with hardly anything. The farmer was left crippled in a nettlesome cycle. Many times, the cattle and crops were shipped to far away markets such as Chicago, and the transit fare would increase as the distance increase (Document F). This struck hard at the pockets of the farmers. Many farmers were left to starve, out of work, and poor. Additionally, the poor weather such as hail would ruin the crops or the businessmen would take the crops (Document H). Consequently, the economic conditions did not favor the farmer, even though they provided for the nation, they were ruined by the people they help feed. This period part of the Gilded Age, America suffered because of a weak government policy and the big businesses had the real power. Unfortunately, the farmers were struck with the negative side effects that occurred from all this. American agriculture greatly declined, even though at first it seemed to have been benefited, it was industrially, politically, and economically destroyed and left in a tormenting cycle.

Analysing Product Development Within Dell Computers

Analysing Product Development Within Dell Computers The Product Development at the Dell Computer Corporation case can be summarized with just its name, product development. The case focuses on development of Dell’s personal computers, highlighting the area of the laptops. The personal computer industry can be dated back to the 1830’s and Charles Babbage with his invention of the first digital computer. However with limitations of materials and marketing his vision mainly stayed on what is called â€Å"the drawing board.† It was not until the time period of World War II when a factory size computer was created by army engineers, they were named Mark I and Colossus and they were 50 feet in size. Through the 1960s and the 1970s only the government, mainly for defense, and big business had the opportunity to use computers. As technology increased and microchips replaced the wires and transistors, and financial availability became friendlier for consumers the microcomputer revolution began. In the 1970s and 1980s Appl e Computer was a successful leader in a commercialized interface that was easy to use. Apple set the technological pace for cramming as much new technology in to their products as possible. IBM who was always trying to play catch up with Apple kicked off its traditional corporate based computer line, with strong direct sales and service. Dell also released its own branded personal computer in 1981. During the 1980s personal computer sales grew from nothing to $40 billion dollars. It was in 1983 when Dell Computer was started by Michael Dell, who at this point in time was a freshman at the University of Texas. He would upgrade IBM compatible computers and go door to door selling them. The success was overwhelming for Dell, and he moved off campus and dropped out of school, with the initial idea of returning back to school if there was failure with the business. However, with $180,000 in sales during his first month the idea of going back to school never entered his mind. The next ste p for Dell was to buy and assemble his own brand name personal computers and get them directly to the customers. This is where Dell’s principle to eliminate the middle man began. With this premise in mind, high growth rates and attractive margins the building of the Dell name began. Soon, Dell would start a 24 hour complaint hotline and they would offer a supply of backup replacement equipment. By 1990, Dell computers had a distinctive line of its own personal computers which won several trade magazine awards for service and products. By 1990 microcomputers accounted for 40% of all computers sold. And there was major competition the brands helping to drive down the costs of manufacturing as well the cost for the consumers. With the development and success of Dell and their direct to consumer sales as well as their laid back sales manner, imitators such as Gateway 2000 and CompuAdd began business. While focusing on the competition Dell expanded in to the retail market attempti ng to gain more revenue. However, this was unsuccessful since Dell overshot the target budget of sales, finding them in a cash crunch. It was then decided on that that needed to do something different. They needed to stand out again

Russian Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Russian Economy - Essay Example However, as to how oil prices influenced Russia's GDP growth, measures have to be limited to indicators with the share of the oil industry in the overall GDP, specifically on the value added of the sector as measured by trade margins, and finally extrapolate on how these influenced the other sectors that make up Russia's GDP. Some manifestations of the Dutch disease, defined as the negative growth impact on domestic industries due to inflationary pressures on domestic spending brought by the high exchange rate of the Russian currency, have been observed in the 1990s. The ruble which traded on the average at about 540 rubles to the dollar in 2006, started to recover its value in 2004, reached just before 1998 when it traded 400 rubles to the dollar. In 1998, the ruble was devalued to 220 rubles to a dollar and economists observed that it influenced the high growth rates recorded in manufacturing industries, machinery, metallurgy, chemicals and textiles until 2001. The negative effects of the competitiveness of oil exports and the way it affected the ruble, has revealed the vulnerability of Russian industries which was just making its transition from being centrally planned and managed by the State to being market-led where the reflection of real prices and costs would have to take precedence. This vulnera bility has in a way roused Russian authorities to make the necessary changes in its macroeconomic policies - not just in the energy sector which for better or for worse, would take a big part in the economic future of the country, but also in the field of fiscal policy and public spending, to attract the necessary investments and uplift the standard of living of citizens that would boost consumer spending. GDP and oil prices One estimate of the actual contribution of the oil sector (which includes gas) was placed at a high of 18.9% in 2002, due to the sharp increase in oil prices and its volume of value added to exports. This is the largest increase since 1999 among the economic sectors. The value of total trade margins of oil and gas almost doubled by 2000 to 997.3 billion rubles from just 552.3 billion rubles in 1999. While it slowed by down to 942.7 billion rubles in 2001, trade margins of the sector again was up to 1.15 trillion rubles in 2002. However one comprehensive study on the influence of high oil prices on Russia's GDP growth by Shinichiro Tabata, analyzed the contribution of the oil and gas sector (under industry) included not just under goods production (manufacturing), but also under trade (already mentioned above in the analysis of trade margins) as well as under taxes (net taxes on products). He noted that during the period of the recovery from the financial crisis in 1998, the industrial sector's contribution which includes oil and gas, "was remarkable". The trade sector has become the largest contributor to Russia's GDP growth since 2002. Since some values on trade margins and taxes of oil and gas were not yet available for the years after 2002, the analysis of the contribution of oil and gas sectors would have to be confined only until the period of 2002. The total contribution of oil and gas to the growth of GDP grew from 0.3 in 1999 (when GDP grew by 6.3%) and hit a high of 2.2% in 2000 (when GDP was clocked at 10%). When

Master Production Schedule Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Master Production Schedule - Assignment Example Good laboratory practices (GLP) significantly influence the accuracy and reliability of results of an experimental research. They focus on method processes, research design, facility and equipment, personnel, documentation, and validation of all process components to the established specifications such as Standard Operating Procedures (SPOs). By having well-maintained laboratory equipment and calibrated instruments, diagnostic and other related errors can be avoided thus ensuring the integrity of the results. In addition, GLP reduces variations in laboratory processes that can affect the accuracy of lab results. Appropriate testing procedures, elimination of contaminated data and preventing any unanticipated occurrences in the data ensure that results are obtained with utmost accuracy and precision. While observing GLPs in ensuring quality during the laboratory processes, the personnel are required to maintain ethical standards at all time. The principle of accountability should be applied at all levels of the organization starting from the laboratory director to the junior staff members. It would ensure that any action taken in the process of laboratory work can be traced, thus helping in monitoring errors. Documentation of all the laboratory steps signed by the lab technicians is also a practice that ensures easy assessment and promotes personal responsibility for actions.

RESPONSIBLE RESEARCHER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

RESPONSIBLE RESEARCHER - Essay Example Another set of motivations deals with pressures that students claim to be under, some of which may be real and others of which may be rationalizations for dishonesty, but all of which shift the responsibility for their behavior away from themselves. I realize my responsibility in delivering authentic papers and will not try to place other person's success or failure on me. I am positive that it will not bring any genuine realization to myself, but rather will show me in a different light, present me as a person with different qualities and talents. I now realize that academic dishonesty might be the first step to dishonest behavior in gradually all areas in life that will sooner or later lead to failure. The next factor of academic dishonesty that I would like to note is a pressures and overloads during academic years. These factor along with improper explanation of the material are often results of academic cheating. There were times when I had to work during my studies and thus sometimes failed the courses, however I have never plagiarized or conducted any other unacceptable behavior. I have learnt to manage stress and meet the deadline and have realized that this, along with honesty and clearness of education goals is guarantee of success. While my education, I am going to divide my time effectively and make it possible to accommodate my work to studies and not conversely. That, by means, effective time management: devoting a reasonable part of time on involvement in Campus life when making studies of academic subjects and keeping the excellent academic performnce the bsic priority. ccording to recent sttistics, provided in research by Philip Langlais, proportion of college students who chet t some point in their creers rnge from low of 25% to high of 80%, but the most common estimte is bout hlf. Not ll of these, of course, re hbitul cheters; mny students chet only under wht they regrd s extreme circumstnces nd my chet only "two or three times in their whole creers." Some students claim that cheating is a means of "balancing the books, " as it were, with professors whom they perceive to be acting unfairly, such as requiring too heavy a work load, giving tests that are too difficult, and grading too harshly. Some students admit to a lack of effort-not attending class, not wanting to do the work-as a reason for their academic dishonesty. Other students claim that, as it were, "the devil made me do it": They say they gave into an irresistible temptation when an opportunity to cheat arose. Still others see cheating as a game or contest of wits between themselves and their professors. Finally, students say that facilitation of academic dishonesty is motivated by adherence to loyalties outside the

In the present day, why are some countries rich and other countries Essay

In the present day, why are some countries rich and other countries poor - Essay Example markable victory of capitalist financial systems in North America, Western Europe and East Asia and by the miserable breakdown of socialist schema in the eastern part of Europe and the former Soviet Union (Sachs, Mellinger and Gallup 2000). The ever-changing world system of economy aggravates discrimination and inequality in the Third World. Foreign ventures carry further wealth for the already highly-industrialised rich nations as manufacturing employments are lost to the underdeveloped nations. Hunger and poverty, being the most crucial dilemmas facing the Third World today will continue to prevail unless the gulf between the two nations is mended. This paper will explain the standpoints of the theories of Third World Dependency on the First World; the Capitalism and Protectionism by the Rich Nations; and Globalisation of markets. The uneven distribution of world income will likewise be presented, as well as the debt crisis that worsens the economic conditions of the deprived civilisations. Moreover, it will attempt to explain the gap between the developed and underdeveloped countries, which when not quickly bridged may aggravate hunger and poverty in the Third World and may cause the economic collapse of both worlds. The greatest distinct gauge of a nation’s success is gross national product (GNP) per capita or gross domestic product (GDP) per capita– the overall worth of a countrys economic production, divided by its population (Sachs, Mellinger and Gallup 2000). Figure 1 below shows the world distribution of GDP per capita obviously exposing the immense gap between the first and third worlds. The richest countries or the highly industrialised nations of the world include the United States, majority of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. These countries have high per capita output and highly developed market economies based on the huge supply of capital goods, innovative technologies, and a highly-educated labour force. The

S.O.A.P Analysis for the ten essays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

S.O.A.P Analysis for the ten essays - Essay Example Once being an ordinary man the narrator could enjoy sensitively the beauty of the sunset on the river but since he became an adept in steamboating he started reading rivers like signs: â€Å"Now when I have mastered the language of the water, and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition†. (100) The author supposes that each and every person can share this experience that is why the auditory is broad. Twain refers to personal experience of every adult. As an example besides his steamboating the author mentions probably one of the most evident professions for such issues- doctors. The author thinks how doctors perceive people knowing so much about person`s body: â€Å"What does the lovely flush in a beauty`s cheek mean to a doctor but a â€Å"break† that ripples above some deadly disease?†. However, this comparison can be applied to every person with broaden consciousness and awareness (96). On the one hand, the author wants to feel compassion for his lost ability to see beauty of the most ordinary things. This observation is painful for him and he regrets that the knowledge of steamboiling made him â€Å"read† nature instead of â€Å"drinking† it. He applies his argument to the doctor`s work: â€Å"Since those days, I have pitied doctors from my heart†. On the other hand, the writer understands that such changes of perception are inevitable for human and he addresses the reader with a rhetorical question: â€Å"And doesn`t he (a doctor) sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning this trade?† (106). The author describes his previous pure perception of the river first. This picture is full of beautiful details: â€Å"A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the

Job interview questions and answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Job interview questions and answer - Essay Example I’m proven to be a fast learner, have an extremely outgoing personality and ability to work under situations of pressure. I have well proven communication skills. My professional achievements would be a driving force encouraging me all through my career. I have proved my leadership skills and have the aptitude to train. Another added strength of mine is the ability to work efficiently in both self driven and team environments. I need more training in research processes. As my experience had been more into the managerial aspects, I could hardly get any chance to get trained in the area. However, if given a chance to get trained in the area, I am quite sure to acquire expertise in research as well. With regard to the experience I hold in the field, I am confident to be fit for a number of career options. However, considering the success I have had as a leader, I would fit in best into the slot of a leader who is assigned to lead the team towards newer heights of success. If given the opportunity to work in your prestigious organization, I shall endeavor to fulfill the requirements of the position to the best of my ability and to the satisfaction of the management. Moreover, I can contribute largely towards the cause of the company with the expertise I have acquired. I am confident to lead the team towards the vision of the

Hw pt1 wk3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hw pt1 wk3 - Assignment Example The other reason for the choice of insurance companies not to offer flood insurance is that they have to research on risks of floods and if they offer flood insurance, they have to set premiums at equilibrium with expected loss. Frequent floods make payments of premiums frequent leading to zero insurance, except for high end clientele who can afford to pay high premiums. Insurance in the United States and United Kingdom exist only owing to funds and subsidization but runs at a loss. There are two reasons suggested for Canada to adopt cross-subsidization scheme. The first reason is the belief by people that they are covered for floods yet in reality they are not, which hurts the insurance industry’s image. Secondly, it will provide growth opportunities owing to the fact that the insurance industry is a mature industry. Cross-subsidization entails payment of premium by non-risk homes but may result in moral hazard including building homes in high risk areas because they are insured. Watson, William. William Watson: Why universal flood insurance is a bad  idea. July 4, 2013. Retrieved from http://opinion.financialpost.com/2013/07/04/william-watson-why- universal-flood-insurance-is-a-very-bad-idea/ on February 19, 2014.

The Lord of the Flies Journal Entry Chapter 2 Essay Example for Free

The Lord of the Flies Journal Entry Chapter 2 Essay Day 1 Today’s events have left me thinking a bit. After we got back from exploring the island, Ralph assembled another meeting to spread our new discoveries. We realized everyone would not stop talking at once, so Ralph decided that whoever holds the conch has the right to talk and can only be interrupted by Ralph himself. Great idea at first, until that fat, useless oaf Piggy took it. He wouldn’t stop worrying and whining about getting rescued. Ralph said it himself, his dad’s a navy commander and will probably have us rescued in a few days. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have faith in Ralph like the others. After a while, Ralph brought up the great idea of making a fire in order to signal the rescuers we would be on the island. I knew there was little time to waste just sitting around, so I led the group into the forest to gather firewood. Upon gathering wood, I was the one who came up with the idea of using Fatty’s specs as burning glasses. Still, I had never imagined that keeping a fire burning would be so hard! Later, I humbly offered the choir to maintain the fire in shifts. Everything went well until that swine Piggy decided to speak out again. He kept repeating himself about how building a fire was a bad choice, even though he didn’t contribute squat to anything to begin with. Still, bigger problems arose to overshadow his stupidity. The fire we thought had been put out actually spread and began burning down a chunk of the forest. To top it off, we are now missing a little shrimp with a mulberry-colored scar on his face. I remember him as the one who wouldn’t stop scaring others by talking about the â€Å"beasties in the forest†. Stupid kids always getting themselves into trouble. As the leader of the hunters, I will definitely find him.

Holy The Firm by Annie Dillard Essay Example for Free

Holy The Firm by Annie Dillard Essay ​â€Å"Death of a Moth† is a short essay from the author, Annie Dillard, called Holy the Firm, and also one of her most personal essay that she’s ever written. It is about the burning moths, her belief in God, and acceptance of her faith to being a writer. She uses the death of the moths to tell us nature’s cycle of life. Everything is the same, human and animal, life and death. In the end, they will all end up like the moth being burned up by candle light. ​In the essay of Annie Dillard, Death of a Moth, she writes about a woman who lives alone on Northern Puget South in Washington State, with one enormous window, one cat, and one spider(2). She has a flashback about two summers ago when she tried to run away from society to read and write her book, To Mountain. She tries to find herself to becoming a writer. She wants to leave the world behind and enjoy herself alongside animal and nature. She sees a moth landing on her candle light and gets burnt. She, then, describes the moth in such realistic ways which remind the readers about nature’s cycle of life. As she looks at the moth, she falls asleep. ​In the essay, the author has mentioned in her class about â€Å"you must go at your life with a broadax† (10). In theory, a broadax is a weapon or a tool used to chop down trees. At this point, Annie wants to explain to her class if you want to be something or get something in your life, you have to be willing to overcome anything to be able to get what you want. Your life is like a battle. When in battle, you need to equip yourself with a broadax, and be prepared to fight and struggle. In addition, it also shows you are willing to hack down at anything standing in your way. In practice, students also face the same situation. They try their best to overcome obstacles teachers give them to be able to pass their classes. ​In â€Å"Death of a Moth† essay, Annie Dillard tells us about nature’s cycle of life. Everything will have the same ending, being born, living for a certain period of time, and then dying. The same as the moths or ephemera stabs by fire. George has mentioned about significance of butterfly to her moths essay by posting his post on bookcritics.org(5). I would say that butterfly is the most beautiful insect I have even known. To be obtaining this beauty, it also has suffered so many miseries. It has to endured ninety months to a year in a cocoon, then it breaks pupa without any help, and transforms to a beautiful butterfly. The pity is it only lives for 3 days or a month, depending on what type it is. From the butterfly example, effort is what we can’t lack in our life. If we live without any obstacles, we will never learn or become stronger like a butterfly’s ability to break cocoon and fly up high. ​It can be seen that Annie Dillard is focusing more about the nature’s cycle life and also, expressing her effort to being a writer. She uses the moths as an example to describe her idea about nature to the readers, which is accept faith and move on with your life. In my own opinion, I would recommend or love to hear the significance of butterfly in her moth essay than reading about the moth being burned by the candle light. It was not a waste of time to write an essay about a moth, but replacing the moth to a more gracious creature like a butterfl y would better capture the audience.

Skills And Competencies Of Change Leaders Management Essay

Skills And Competencies Of Change Leaders Management Essay This essay analysed the skills and competencies of change leaders with the support of literature references and real life examples. Later, the essay focussed on the challenges of change leaders during the implementation of their skills and competencies on change processes, and how these skills and competencies are varying across different levels of leaders in an organization. Finally, the conclusion is drawn on the basis of critical analyses on change leadership and identified the possibility of acting as a change leader by anyone. Introduction For the past two decades, the amount of significant change that the organizations faced in order to survive has tremendously increased, and many of the researchers argued that this situation will continue and demand more of future leaders (Wren Dulewicz, 2005; Senge et al., 2002). Leadership is such a crucial component for undergoing these changes, and identifying the key components of leadership is important for the success of these transformation efforts (Beer Nohria, 2000). Kotter (1996) considered that, leadership is the key to creating and sustaining the successful organization, because it helps the organization to shape its future and sustain its growth. In addition, leadership competencies are also essential to lead the change processes in an effective way (Christensen Overdorf, 2000). According to Sanchez et al., (1996), leadership competencies have a cognitive aspect, in terms of knowledge and skills the leader possesses, and an action aspect that enables a leader to depl oy their competencies in a coordinated manner. Leaders competencies and skills will influence the actions, structures and processes that enhance the change and it further strengthen the effectiveness in implementing change (Gilley et al., 2009). This essay will critically analyse whether anyone can adapt these leadership skills and competencies which is necessary to be a successful change leader. The analysis will be done based on the references of academic research that has been already conducted in this field. Necessary Skills and Competencies to be a change leader Leadership is different from management; leadership complements management but it does not replace it. Because management is about coping with complexity but the leadership is about coping with change (Kotter, 1990). The leadership-skill requirements will vary based on the leaders positions and their levels. The most important skills where the leaders need to be possessed are cognitive skills, business skills, strategic skills and interpersonal skills. Across all the leadership levels cognitive skills are founded to be more important. In addition, interpersonal skills are required for a leader in greater degree than business or strategic skills (Sparks Gentry, 2008). For example) during the group work on simulation game, the leader of the successful team had contributed a great part by understanding the views of the team members and through the organization of team meeting. This helped the team to bring out fruitful ideas and plans uniquely and also it helped the group leaders to emphasize their cognitive and interpersonal skills effectively. Compared to other skills, the significance of business and strategic skills is more required for the leaders in managerial level (Sparks Gentry, 2008). Possessing these leadership skills in change management has been linked to bringing about effective and successful organization change. Although, some of the factors are considered as the barriers for the success of the change, they are lack of understanding of change implementation techniques and the inability to alter ones leadership style or organization functions (Bossidy Charan, 2002; Gilley, 2005). The other barriers identified by the analysis include the inability of the leaders to motivate others to change, poor communication skills, and failure to reward or recognize the individuals who make the effort to change (Kotter, 1996). Hence the ability to understand and manage the change processes is valued as a necessary capability of change leaders. Many of the scholars defined this ability as a social intelligence skill, which is the ability to understand ones own and others feelings, behaviours and thoughts in interpersonal situations and to respond appropriately, which includ es emotional ability (Burke, 2002). Finally, leaders thoughts and skills are manifested through the actions of implementing change across the organization. In this stage, the leaders need to be aware about avoiding coordination issues when the different functional groups in an organization work on a common task. Because lack of coordination will raise conflicts in implementing change and it reduce the success (Kuhl et al., 2005). For example, while working for the multi-product task, the lack of coordination across the leaders from different departments affected the implementation of change. There were lot of conflicts aroused in allocating the budget across each department of the organization and hence it led to the ineffective change implementation. As per Zaccaro (2002), effective leadership requires social reasoning skills to understand, judge and diagnose social situations accurately, and relational competencies to respond to the change and manage them successfully. Since change implementation involves the understanding of multiple level of people (i.e., individual, group and organizational), social-emotional competency is regarded to have a direct impact on the capacity to lead change. It acts as a greater predictor of leading change than managing complexity. Social-emotional competency includes observing the employees views, providing constructive feedback, encouraging the cooperation among team members, maintaining effective interpersonal relationships with others and treating others with respect to regardless of their position or rank (Mathew, 2009). For example) while working for the simulation game, in some of the groups, there was a long debate happened among the team members about the implementation of change strategi es with different views and hence conflicts aroused. The leaders of those teams were also failed to maintain cooperation within the team. This led them to choose inappropriate change strategies and directed towards failure to reach their target. But while enquiring the team who reached the target, I came to knew that the team leader had delegated the roles to each team members based on their knowledge about the game and by providing constructive feedback on their views. This helped them to maintain a good cooperation within the team without giving the ways for any conflicts and also it provided a way to reach their target within the time limit and budget. Within a change specific context Higgs and Rowland (2000, 2001) indicated a cluster of change leadership competencies associated with coaching and developing others. In addition, Giglio et al. (1998) also emphasized the importance of leaders coaching role in the change process. Because a good leader should motivate their employees in order to make them aware of the change process. This will be done by providing appropriate coaching to them. According to Hudson (1999), coaching skills enable leaders to approach situations from new perspectives and to question the status quo. Moreover, the leaders who coach their employees can enhance their renewal capacity and resilience, which has significant influence on organizational success. Finally and more importantly it allows others to make and learn from mistakes. Huq (2006) argued that the leadership competencies can help to create the six sigma cadre in an organization. He argued that the personal and corporate competencies play a vital role in creating this six sigma cadre. Personal competencies include the technical knowledge and charisma of the leader. Whilst the corporate competencies include the combinations of skills and knowledge or experience that enable a leader to implement the change program successfully. However, the available evidence shows that, even the experienced leaders were deviated from these competencies in some circumstances. The most recent examples of sudden corporate implosions (Enron, Lehman Brothers) have apparently raised concerns about the nature and influence of bad leadership. Higgs (2009) have identified that the causes of this leadership failure were due to combination of personal flaws and performance shortfalls. While exploring this concept, he also identified a range of causal factors for these implosions which are skill deficiencies, being insensitive to others, betraying trust, arrogance and being overly ambitious. He argued that the personal flaws were more vital than skill deficiencies as drivers of derailment. Finally, Northouse (2010) emphasized the importance of charismatic/value-based leadership in change management. Value-based leadership reflects the ability to inspire, motivate and to expect significant performance from others on the basis of core values of the change process. This kind of leadership comprises being visionary, decisive, inspirational, trustworthy, self-sacrificing and performance oriented. The powerful example of value-based leadership is the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. Challenges on implementing leadership Skills and Competencies during change Initiating and managing organizational change is a significant challenge for todays leaders. The leaders role in change process is to make their employees to understand about the need of change. Understanding organizational change involves analysing types of change within the organization. No matter its size, any change has a ripple effect on an organization (Gilley et al., 2009). At the macro level, frequent organizational change focus on strategy and business models, technology, product and services, structure, processes, culture, acquisitions or expansion or downsizing (Lewis, 1994).Consequently, it challenges the leaders of all level in an organization in terms of managing the complexity of the change (Biech, 2007). One of the challenges that good leaders often face is solving the unsatisfactory performance of the staff in an effective way. Leaders who failed to clarify their expectation to employees and to respond openly against the performance problems are considered to be an ineffective leader (Redfern, 2008). While working on the multi- product task, in some of the groups, the leaders did not clearly respond against the performance problems of their team members. It is not possible to expect all the members in a group to work effectively, but the leaders could give prior instructions to the each individual about their expectation from them. Hence many of the groups lacked the complete participation of all the members in their team. As an effective leader, they should make all the team members to get involved in a work to achieve success. The crucial challenge that many of the leaders consider is the resistance to change, and it have a noticeable impact and influence upon the success of an organizational change project. Resistance is commonly regarded as a behaviour which is not congruent with the attempts of the change leader (Bartunek, 1993). In this case, the leaders should analyse the resistance from motivational perspective and, more particularly, from an identity-based perspective, that is examining the employee attitudes to the change and their own attitudes to the resistance (Dijk Dick, 2009). Some of the literature evidence suggests that changing organizational behaviour is the fundamental challenge for a leader while leading organizational change (Argyris, 1993; Kotter Kohen, 2002; Burke, 2002). Burke (2002) emphasized that leaders should deal with competition for resources, power and political dynamics; dispel resistance; and exemplify desired behaviour change. Finally and more importantly, the distinctive feature that leaders need to possess is the ability to identify the right person for the right job and to train employees to succeed at their jobs. To succeed consistently, good leaders need to be skilled not just in evaluating people but also in evaluating the abilities and disabilities of their firm as a whole. During change implementation the leader must ensure that the right message has been communicated through right approach. Implementation is perhaps the most adverse phase of change. In this stage, communication plays a significant role during the throes of the implementation phase. Without an effective human communication, the change process cannot be implemented successfully. Hence the implementation of change challenges communication skills of a leader (Russ, 2008). In addition to communication challenge, the leaders may also face the challenge on time constraints to implement the change. This kind of challenge impacts the success of the change process, because a change process which is not completed in time budget cannot be considered as a successful process (Meyer Stensaker, 2006). For example) during the simulation game, many of the groups were not able to reach the specified target in time. Hence the teams which did not meet the target in time were considered as unsuccessful te ams. An effective leader used to display effective leadership behaviours in order to reduce the stress on change work, such as coordination with other leaders in an organization, concern for wellbeing of the staff, frankness and willingness to involve in two-way feedback, and self-awareness. They recognize and give importance to effort of others in an organization and support their initiatives. They will share problems, engage colleagues in their solutions, and try to achieve the goal in a way that further problems do not arise (Redfern, 2008). But in real-time implementation, conflicts may arise between the change leaders of different departments or between the change leaders and employees. However, it can be avoid using open communication and through mutual coordination (Higgs, 2009). For example) even when implementing the multi-product task, such kind of misunderstanding aroused between the leaders from different departments due to different leadership behaviours. But the conflict cou ld be avoided by focussing towards the organizations objective rather than focussing on leaders departmental objectives. This could be done through effective negotiation and careful consideration of organizations current key change requirements. The central aspects of the change leadership are creation and promotion of commitment and trust. It is the leaders role to bring conditions for learning by stimulating fruitful conversations. Fruitful conversation can take place only when the relationships are characterised by trust, commitment and integrity. Hence the challenge of change leadership is promoting commitment, trust and integrity in firms. Obviously, change leaders cannot promote these qualities unless they themselves possess these qualities (Nilakant Ramnarayan, 2006). The managers who focus solely on managerial tasks may fail to provide strong leadership or to sustain the performance. Because over management of employees could lead to impairment of motivation (Redfern, 2008). Hence the leaders should learn to acknowledge the sustainability challenges and then develop appropriate skills and competencies to meet those challenges (Ferdig, 2007). Leadership skills of different levels Based on the literature references on change leadership, many of the researchers suggests that, an effective leadership depends on three basic personal skills, they are technical, inter-personal and conceptual skills. Technical skill is knowledge about specific type of work or activity and the inter-personal skill is ability to work with people. Finally, conceptual skills are abilities to work with different ideas and concepts. Leaders from different management level require different proportion of these basic skills. Leaders from top management level mainly require inter-personal and conceptual skills rather than technical skills, whereas the leaders from supervisory management level require greater proportion of technical and inter-personal skills than conceptual skills. But the leaders from middle management level require all these three basic skills in equal proportion (Katz, 1955; Northouse, 2010). As per the research conducted by Sparks and Gentry (2008), leading employees towards change and resourcefulness were found to be important for leaders across different managerial levels. Leading employees towards change includes setting clear performance expectations, delegating the change work to employees based on their skills and being patient and fair with employees. Resourcefulness includes being a strategic thinker; being a flexible problem solver during any stage of change implementation; understanding and working efficiently with top management. Charismatic leadership usually emphasize the leaders at top management level during change (Waldman et al., 2004). But some of the literature evidences implies that not only top-executives can motivate employees by formulating a compelling vision or by providing a behavioural role model, but also non-executives at lower management levels can possess charismatic leadership during change (Michaelis et al., 2009; Seyranian Bligh, 2008). Conclusion The above analyses and findings revealed that effective leaders should possess cognitive skills, business skills, and strategic skills for the successful implementation of change. But the available evidences show that, even the experienced skilled leaders have failed to possess the above leadership skills in certain circumstances. The corporate implosions of Enron and Lehman Brothers were illustrating the same. In addition, during the simulation game, many of the team leaders were not able to lead their team towards success. This was due to lot of conflicts and misconception prevailed within the team while implementing the change strategies. Apart from this, some of the barriers also exist against change leaders which impacts the change processes directly. They are lack of understanding of coordination in team, poor communication, inability to identify the right person for the right job and inability to motivate others. And the analysis on leadership competencies shows that the social-emotional competency has a significant impact on leading change across the organization. However, many of the challenges exist in implementing the leadership skills and competencies during change. They are resistance to change, changing the organizational behaviour, communication challenge, time constraint challenge, and finally challenge in promoting trust, commitment and integrity in organizations. While working on multi-product task, the team leaders were faced these kinds of challenges in implementing the change. Hence, these kinds of issues, barriers and challenges on change raised the question that whether anyone can act as a leader during change. Because, the above analyses and evidences shows that many of team leaders often faced issues while implementing the change and even the experienced leaders were also failed to lead the change effectively at some situations. So it is not possible for anyone to be a successful leader of change. The skills, competencies and behaviour of a person can only determine whether they can act a change leader or not.

Anne Moodys Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement Essay -- Anne Mo

Coming of Age in Mississippi   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, talked extensively about the civil rights movement that she had participated in. The civil rights movement dealt with numerous issues that many people had not agreed with. Coming of Age in Mississippi gave the reader a first hand look at the efforts many people had done to gain equal rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anne Moody, like many other young people, joined the civil rights movement because they wanted to make a difference in their state. They wanted their freedom and the same rights as the white people had. Many other young people joined the civil rights movement because they felt that a change was needed in the way black people were treated. They felt that this change would not come if they did not join the civil rights movement. Anne Moody was a strong believer of black rights and felt that it was important for her to help black people fight for equal rights. These civil rights workers felt that their freedom would only come if most of the black community supported the efforts of the civil rights workers. Anne Moody, and other young people, thought that the only way that they would get equal rights for black people was to prove that they really wanted them. These civil rights workers, for example, showed that they really did care by joining various civil rights orga nizations and engaging in Freedom Marches. These Freedom marches were very organized, and they occurred all over the United States, which proved that black people wanted the same rights as the white people had. Anne Moody, and many other young people, joined the civil rights movement because they felt a change was needed and that it was their duty to fight for equal rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anne Moody had thought about joining the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but she never did until she found out one of her roommates at Tougaloo college was the secretary. Her roommate asked, â€Å"why don’t you become a member† (248), so Anne did. Once she went to a meeting, she became actively involved. She was always participating in various freedom marches, would go out into the community to get black people to register to vote. She always seemed to be working on getting support from the black community, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Son after she joined the NAACP, she met a girl that was the secretary to the ... ...tunity Commission that prevented discrimination in the workplace. Anne Moody was very optimistic about the desegregation cases. She always tested the Supreme Court decision of Brown versus the Board of Education numerous times by doing sit-ins and freedom marches. She was determined to fight for her rights, despite numerous threats against her life. When Kennedy was assassinated, she was devastated. Anne really thought that Kennedy was the answer that she and other members of SNCC were waiting for. She walked around in a daze wondering what would happen next. Governmental leaders were essential during the civil rights movement. Without the help of government officials, black people would not have had the same rights they have today. Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, talked extensively about the civil rights movement that she had participated in. The civil rights movement proved successful in achieving equal rights for Black Americans, despite strong opposition. Black Americans got equal rights because of the untiring efforts young people, like Anne Moody, had. Without the efforts of these young people, the role of Black Americans in society may have been different today.

The Epidemic of Steroid Abuse in America Essay -- Athletic Athletes Sp

The Epidemic of Steroid Abuse in America We as a people are preoccupied with the notion of greatness. Our role models are athletes, actors and actresses, and other figures in the public eye. Many of us often desire to be better off than our current state; to look better, to be in better shape, etc†¦ We compete with each other for jobs, for mates, for grades, for parking spots, and in sporting activities. This competitive nature is a way of life, especially in sporting activities, often learned as a child and built upon throughout adulthood. But where do you draw the line? At what point do the â€Å"costs† of winning or being â€Å"better† outweigh the benefits? Maybe it’s too much when you start putting your own health in serious jeopardy just to look better or run faster. The use of steroids, other than for medical purposes, has extremely negative effects on one’s health. Nonetheless the use of steroids, to enhance athletic performance and increase muscle mass, is on the rise. There needs to be mandatory steroid testing in all professional, and where applicable, amateur sports. Steroid testing is a good as start as any to help curb steroid abuse. Anabolic-Androgenic steroids, often solely called anabolic steroids, are: â€Å"chemicals that act like hormones--substances normally in your body that regulate bodily functions† (Kowalski 1). They are synthetic substances, meaning man-made, which have two functions: the anabolic effect which causes an increase in the growth of muscle mass and the androgenic effect which causes, or increases, the development of male sexual characteristics. It’s the anobolic effect that most steroid users, or abusers, are after. Steroid abusers take steroids for a couple of different reasons.... ...pac.library.csupomona.edu/>. Sherman, William. â€Å"Growing Nightmare of Steroid Abuse: Athletes’ Cocktail Big in Nation’sGyms.† Daily News (New York). 28 July 2002, Sports Final ed.: p. 4. Lexis Nexis 4 Nov. 2002. . United States. Consumer Affairs, Tourism and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Hearing. Washington D.C.: Senate Office Building, 2002. Lexis Nexis 4 Nov. 2002. . Verducci, Tom. â€Å"Totally Juiced.† Sports Illustrated. 3 June 2002, V. 26: No. 93. Wilson Web Article Index 4 Nov. 2002. . Yesalis, Charles E., and Virginia S. Cowart. The Steroids Game. Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1998.

Saint Bridit and African American Women Saints :: travel, saints, African Americans,

One of my class mates traveles to Ireland every year. My class mate stated each time she visits Ireland that she gets a greater understanding of women in the early days. We both come from a baptist, penecostal and apstolic background, I would like to compare the roles of Saint Bridit and women in the church, the only black women preachers preached about in the baptist church was harriet tuckman. The other women talked about in church was Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. However Mary the mother of Jesus did increase my faith, however I know it was much knowledge to be gained concerning women. My Classmate who traveled to Ireland last year was able to share with me about Saint Bridit, I was anxious to know about the great saints in Ireland. I was eagered to know about Saint Bridit because when I was born my mother named me Cassandra and back in Celtic tradition my name meant Prophetess and Godesss and Bridit was considered to be a Godess as well. While attending Ohio Dominican my instructor gave an lecture on Saint Bridit and women in the ancient Celtic Tradition, which drove me to write about Bridgit. I wanted to know who this women was who brought a powerful presence to Ireland, her name was so recognized that she was honored by man and women in highplaces. I was overwhelmed when I read an article on Saint Bridit, I felt so apart of this women. Back in my mothers day and in some churches today women are not honored let alone recognized for any five fold ministry gifts in the church. My class mate recently told me she did visit a well in Ireland that was named after saint Brigit. This was overwhelming to me because when we was growing up I did know of any wells named after any African American Women Saints. When we attended the Baptist Church coming up as children, women in the Baptist church ironed the Choir robes, raised money for Pastors Aide, Coordinate Mission trips, raised money for outreach, taught Sunday School and over the Nursey. Women was not recognized as Pastors, Bishops and Founders, We knew men was in charge in the church, I noticed only time women was recognized in the churrch is when they was raising money for church and Pastor.

Process Analysis Essay on Process Writing

AnalasysiPROCESS ANALYSIS WRITING Firstly, Process  or  processing  typically describes the action of taking something through an established and usually routine set of procedures or steps to convert it from one form to another, such as processing paperwork to grant a mortgage loan, processing milk into cheese, or converting computer data from one form to another. A process involves steps and decisions in the way work is accomplished, and may involve a sequence of events. The source of this information can be found on the website: Wikipedia (www. ikipedia. com) Secondly, ANALYSIS is when you tell your results to prove or disprove your original guess or hypothesis. Explaining why your results turned out this way. For example: If a scientist believes that he has found the cure for Aids, he then has certain steps to take. He first has to observe, identify, describe and experiment the drug or substance that he is certain it is the cure for aids, he then have to state everything in steps, from what he did, from the very beginning .This is called analysis. To tie the both in one: Process Analysis is basically a form of technical writing and expository writing. † designed to convey to the reader how a change takes place through a series of stages†. Technical writing is where The description of scientific and computer-related activities, whereas expository writing is a type of writing   where the purpose is to inform, explain, describe, or define the author's subject to the reader.Expository text is meant to deposit information and is the most frequently used type of writing by students in colleges and universities. A well-written exposition remains focused on its topic and lists events in chronological order. Examples of expository writing include driving directions and instructions on performing a task. Key words such as first, after, next, then and last usually signal sequential writing. Most importantly first-person pronouns (I) should be avoide d.Expository essays do not reveal the opinion of the writer or writers. When someone is reading a matter of Process Analysis, they are most likely interested in the chronological component; this is  a sequence of events arranged in their order of occurrence in time, such as a timeline. Process Writing is an approach which encourages English as a Second Language (ESL) – youngsters to communicate their own written messages while simultaneously developing their iteracy skills in speaking and reading rather than delaying involvement in the writing process, as advocated in the past, until students have perfected their abilities in handwriting, reading, phonetics, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. In Process Writing the communication of the message is paramount and therefore the developing, but inaccurate, attempts at handwriting, spelling, and grammar are accepted, know that within the process of regular writing opportunities students will gain control of these sub-skills.Thes e skills are further developed in individual and small group conference interviews. † Some steps to process writing are: STEP 1: Pre-writing, which deals with your ideas and building on your ideas, Planning. STEP 2: Writing, this is when you do a rough draft of your plan. This stage is sometimes called the â€Å"don’t worry stage’’ you can have spelling errors, grammatical errors, here is why it is called a rough draft. Also remain focus on writing and go away from all distractions.STEP 3: Revising, here is where you do grammatical changes, omitting unimportant sentences, where you add or expand your word-count, or you can go back to your pre-writing notes for ideas as-well as re-arranging. STEP 4: Editing, this is distinct form revision. Here is where you actually go through line by line searching for errors, repetitiveness, punctuations. Also to make sure your writing is very clear and understandable and last but not least, to check for spelling.STEP 5: Publishing, this depends on what piece you are working on: student will need to produce a final copy including, bibliography, journalist will submit their copy, fiction writers sending their story to magazines. Etc. In conclusion these five steps are â€Å"a frame work of writing well and easy. † BIBLIOGRAPHY * Ali Hale -: Writing process * Heald -Taylor (1986): process writing method. *   Linda Flower and John R. Hayes in â€Å"A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing† (1981). * URL: http://leo. stcloudstate. edu/acadwrite/process. html * http://www. library. ualberta. ca/guides/index. cfm  to researching and writing essays.

US Military Scandal

Weber Miscarried University In today's world a topic that is becoming more popular by numerous infamous scandals is that of business ethics. With companies and businesses alike now realizing that their consumers care about how the operations work in the company can affect their sales they are becoming more aware of how to run operations ethically.Although it is every groups goal to run plans ethically there are still many instances in which they fall short of this bar, whether it be because of greedy influences or being unaware of the laws it is a dilemma that must be approached wisely and handle with care. While most scandals involve a corporation or business while scanning the Internet I came across one that really caught my attention, a scandal within the US Military about cheating on tests, drug use, and the mishandling of missiles.First news broke about this scandal in early January when the Air Force reported its open investigation of unknown exam cheating and scandals involvi ng multiple officers in charge of our country nuclear forces. This recent scandal is one that was roughs to attention after the Air Force was investigating a non-related drug scandal at 6 other bases. This should come as a great concern to all people living in the US, for these are the generals and officers who are responsible for controlling the 450 nuclear missiles and fate of our country.When further looked into it was found that 34 officers, all high class lieutenants or captains, were somehow involved in this scandal, some who were either caught cheating on the monthly proficiency tests or those that were aware of what was going on and did not report the actions. Along tit these accusations it was made clear by Air Force officials that two of the suspected officers also had relations regarding illegal drug use with an officer from an air base in Wyoming.Being one of the most structured and toughest parts of the defense forces to get into the Air Force is not taking this situati on lightly as nuclear launch officers have no room for error handling such dangerous and destructive weapons. ‘The root of all this madness is still unknown but there has been one major discharge of a commander from the Base at Minot because it was seen that there as a â€Å"loss of confidence† in his leadership skills as well as the firing of a commander in charge of training missile crews after a large number of launch officers did poorly on tests.This is not the first scandal that the Air Force has faced after an incident in 2008 where the past secretary of defense Robert M. Gates fired a top general and civilian leader after a crew made a cross-country Journey unaware that 6 missiles on board were armed with nuclear warheads. The major dilemma in all this is these people are supposed to be the ones we as citizens look up to and protect our country et when we read news like this it really hinders our idea of what safety really is.With such difficult guidelines, laws, and requirements it is amazing that such a scandal would be present in an area as important as the protection and well being of the United States as a country, but also goes to show that scandals and dilemmas are present in every aspect of this world no matter what the subject at hand. US Defense Secretary Chuck Haggle has not taken lightly to this situation as he explained that he is â€Å"deeply troubled† by the slue of military scandals in recent months (Talisman, 2014).In January when becoming fully aware of all the problems inside the Air Force and military as a whole Haggle forced a review of operations which also included the Navy. In shear numbers 30 senior instructors have been accused of sharing answer sheets to nuclear qualification tests and 1,200 Navy soldiers, 200 of which were officers, took part in a long-term scheme involving fraudulent recruiting in order to collect roughly $100 million in promised recruiting payments (Talisman, 2014). Hazel's biggest worry is that none of this is by accident and is all a result of unethical behavior by people in uniform†.He along with many others believe that this is an issue that should be put on the top of the list and needs close attention and although it only involves a small number of those in service it is a matter of integrity that he wishes the forces can maintain regardless of those few who disobeyed the law. I felt that this issue was handled greatly and will continue to be throughout the rest of the investigation. Haggle understands the importance of the well being of the country and is not going to let this be something that could be the season for our downfall.Although investigations may take more than a year to complete I trust the decision of the Secretary of Defense as he made if the first problem to be addressed when regarding the military. If this were the situation for a company or business I think that they would have handled it the exact same way, firstly be removing those that were involved or believed to be involved in the problem. Second course of action would be getting down to the bottom of the problem and finding the source, which were ultimately the loosely supervised exams restored by senior leaders and lieutenants.After finding who was to blame for these faults it became evident that those people were to be interviewed immensely for why they took the course of actions they did. A document regarding this even went as far as saying that the â€Å"group testing† was viewed as â€Å"taking care of each other† and easing the pressure as the officers felt they needed a perfect score on the exams (Burns, 2014). So in the end I think this is being handled effectively and that it should have been done in no other manner.Although it is evident that this can instill a lot of fear in the eyes of those who live in this great country the military wanted to make it apparent that there was no evidence that the recent problems lead to mishandlin g of nuclear weapons or Jeopardized any citizens safety. Following this event it will be interesting to see how it progresses as the investigation continues with the interviewing of many officers and those involved in the scandal. Being that the scandal involves nuclear weapons I am curious to see if there will be any new laws or regulations that will be put in place during such vents such as exams and testing.

Negative Utilitarianism: An Overview

Most utilitarian theories deal with producing the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. Negative utilitarianism (NU) requires us to promote the least amount of evil or harm, or to prevent the greatest amount of suffering for the greatest number. Proponents like Karl Popper, Christoph Fehige and Clark Wolf argue that this is a more effective ethical formula, since, they contend, the greatest harms are more consequential than the greatest goods. Karl Popper also referred to an epistemological argument: â€Å"It adds to clarity in the fields of ethics, if we formulate our demands negatively, i. e. if we demand the elimination of suffering rather than the promotion of happiness. †(Karl R. Popper,1945) Most forms of utilitarianism hold that we ought to do that which maximises the good and minimises the bad. There is some disagreement about what the good and the bad are– whether the good is people being happy and the bad is people being unhappy, or the go od is people getting what they want and the bad is people not getting what they want, or whatever–but most utilitarians agree that whatever the good and the bad are, we ought to bring about as much of the former and as little of the latter as is possible. Negative utilitarians disagree. Negative utilitarians are concerned only with minimising the bad. They don't think we ought to maximise the good and minimise the bad, and that when we must choose between the two we must weigh the difference that we can make to the one against the difference that we can make to the other; rather, negative utilitarians hold just that we ought to minimise the bad, that we ought to alleviate suffering as far as we are able to do so. Suppose that I have a choice to make: I can either make the happiest man in the world even happier than he already is, or I can alleviate some of the suffering of the unhappiest man in the world. Suppose further that the difference that I can make to the happy man is much greater than the difference that I can make to the unhappy man. Most utilitarians would say that in this case I ought to help the happy man. As I can make a greater difference to the life of the happy man than I can make to the life of the unhappy man, it is the happy man whom I should help. Negative utilitarians disagree. Negative utilitarians hold that it is more important to alleviate suffering than it is to promote pleasure, and that I should therefore always choose to alleviate suffering rather than promote pleasure when forced to choose between the two. In most supporters of moderate NU the preference to survive is stronger than the wish to be freed from suffering, so that they refuse the idea of a quick and painless destruction of life. Some of them believe that, in time, the worst cases of suffering is defeated and a world of minor suffering can be realized. The big problem with negative utilitarianism is that it appears to require the destruction of the world. The world contains much suffering, and the future, presumably, contains a great deal more suffering than the present. Each of us will suffer many calamaties in the course of our lives, before those lives finally end with the suffering of death. There is a way, however, to reduce this suffering: we could end it all now. With nuclear weapons technology, we have the capability to blow up the planet, making it uninhabitable. Doing so would cause us all to suffer death, but death is going to come to us all anyway, so causing everyone to die will not increase the suffering in the world. Causing us to die now, though, will decrease the suffering in the world; it will prevent us from suffering those calamaties that were going to plague us during the remainder of our lives. Destroying the planet, then, will reduce the suffering in the world. According to negative utilitarianism, then, it is what we ought to do. That, though, is surely absurd. Negative utilitarianism, therefore, is false.

Dystopia Essay

Dystopia is a Utopia gone wrong to create a society that rather than making people happy, makes people unhappy. That is exactly what the town in Fahrenheit 451 had become, a dystopia. The creation of this dystopia was the result of the government fearing the power given to the citizens through the knowledge in books so they took them away. The ban of books formed the dystopia, the people’s fear of being burned for reading made the social principles, and the people who didn’t fear to be burned rebelled and showed their society what was wrong with the way they were living.What started this whole dystopia in the first place was the government’s fear of being overpowered by the citizens who read and gained power from the knowledge they had collected. Because of the government’s fear, books were completely banned and anyone who decided to break the law was burned with the books inside the house. People called the firemen were the ones to start the fire which di ffers from their former job of putting them out.Everything changed when the books got banned whether it was as simple as people getting an urge to read even if they never wanted to before or as drastic as a worker who once saved people from fires was someone who killed people with fire. Because the penalty was so extreme, the law was followed in most cases and a lot of people were afraid of being burned. The only thing that kept this law in action was the fact that the people were afraid of the consequence which made society obedient as they quaked in fear. Because of the obedience, there always seemed to be routine.Nobody really knew how to feel about it because they didn’t want to know how to feel about it in fear that they would feel negatively towards it and be burned for the thought. The social principles throughout the whole novel, Fahrenheit 451, revolved around the fear of the people and the government as a whole. What really scared the government, however, were the p eople who were not afraid of the government or the consequences of reading. They were the ones that had the power in knowledge and could see the fault in the society.Rebels in society tried to make everyone see what was wrong but failed. In the novel, they had a plan that worked and put an end to the ban of books using the government’s war to get rid of the rebels against them. What the rebels showed the rest of the town was that the government took away power we had a right to and knowledge we created and were entitled to and that the government took it away from the people so that they would be the only one with power and the citizens were to always be the obedient ones.The realization of the dystopia is what destroyed the government with help from the rebellious ones. Within knowledge comes power and in that power, people are the welders. If you try to take away power that people are given and entitled to, you’re not going to get very far. That’s what happene d in Fahrenheit 451 that made it a dystopia. The government took away the power of the people and in the end, society rebelled. Making the novel, Fahrenheit 451, a dystopia.

You can chocse name for topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

You can chocse name for topic - Essay Example The company develops a system that combines various password preferences and any other payment platform into one single click in the form of a button. Mae’s colleagues become active in the company’s social media platform and pressure mounts on her to join in (Eggers, Page 25-85). The company is more of a control freak as its quiet policy requires every member of the organization to join its social media platform on the basis of truth and transparency something it later envisions to do to all the U.S citizens. Everyone appears comfortable except Mae’s ex-boyfriend who is of the opinion that they should not record every single detail of their daily lives. The book brings to fore the argument as to whether it is right to expose every detail in our lives (Eggers, Page 36-96). According to Mae’s ex-boyfriend, some issues about our lives should never be let out for the whole world to know. Privacy is paramount and the whole world should not be aware of where we are and the things we do at every time. This amounts to privacy trading whereby we give every detail of our life with the hope that we will receive some kind of global connectedness which in the real sense is none existent. We end up losing our self-sovereignty as our privacy disappears the moment we expose every detail about our life to the whole world as it happens to Mae in the book The

Article brief Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Brief - Article Example The methodology used by the study to come up with a fraud model involved three steps. The first step was to data of a public company from 1995 to 2002. A sample of 100 companies was split into fraud and non-fraud companies (McKee, 2014). The third step was to test 15 predictive variables to determine those that were good predictors of fraud status. The fraud companies were selected from SEC Enforcement Release that provided publicly reported fraud. Non-fraud companies were matched with the fraud companies in terms of three criteria including market value, positive change of 25% in net income, and standard industrial classification (McKee, 2014). The predictive variables were derived from prior research literature. Analysis of the data involved binary logistic regression using fraud status as the variable to be predicted. The variables used when analysing the 15 predictive variables include company size, auditor tenure, and McKee-Lensberg bankruptcy probability. The fraud model was tested with 91 companies which were in the original sample. The other 9 companies not included in testing did not have data for at least one of the three variables used to analyse the predictive variables (McKee, 2014). A company with fraud probability greater than 50 was regarded as a fraud company while a company with less than 50% probability of fraud was regarded as a non-fraud company. The results of the study are that the model predicted 63 of the tested companies’ fraud status correctly. This reflected 69.2% level of accuracy. The model also predicted fraud status of 28 companies incorrectly, reflecting 30.8% rate of error. This model can be compared favourably to the fraud model developed by Alden et al (2012) which showed 75% accuracy of training rates and 64% accuracy of validation. This article is important because it provides a fraud model that can be used by auditors to develop standards

Engineers create artefacts and processes through design. Design is Essay

Engineers create artefacts and processes through design. Design is open ended and creative. Discuss design processes with refere - Essay Example The design process in many cases involves the application of mathematics, engineering, and basic sciences principles to optimally convert resources to meet specified aims. This paper discusses the design process from the perspective of mechanical engineering. Steps Involved in the Design Process Need or Problem Identification and Research In order to be able to solve an engineering or design problem, it is vital to identify the problem or need (Ullman 2009). When a design engineer fails to identify a problem or need properly, the engineer may end up wasting a lot of time and resources. In order to stick to the project goals, the mechanical engineers often rely on subjective and measurable metrics. Once the need or problem has been identified, the engineers must engage in research to establish the issue as it is currently and to establish the solutions that exist (Eide, Jenison, Mashaw and Northup 2002). By engaging in research, the engineers equip themselves to be able to come up wit h the best possible solution to the problem or need. The engineers must establish if there are products that have been designed to solve the same problem in the market and their advantages and disadvantages. Based on their findings, the engineers have to narrow down to what is relevant to their case. Potential Solutions The engineers often end up with a lot of information regarding products currently on the market and how they are designed. They have therefore to engage in brainstorming to come up with possible solutions and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the possible solutions (Eide, Jenison, Mashaw and Northup 2002). At this stage, the design engineer needs to think of ways of improving each of the possible solutions. The engineering designer needs to be creative in coming up with improvements to the products in the market or in designing a product that is novel. The performance of each of the possible solutions is then analyzed through the application of engineering science and mathematical principles (Eggert 2010). The analysis may be geared toward reducing risks and detecting problems that may come with the improved solutions. Best Possible Solution With several possible solutions to the problem or need, the design engineer then has to choose the solution that best meets the original requirements (Lumsdaine, Lumsdaine, and Shelnutt 1999). Making a decision regarding the solution to proceed with may be challenging and involves making the evaluation of competing needs. Some of the factors that may affect the choice of the best possible solution include cost, size, weight, and safety just to mention a few. Prototype Creation, Testing and Evaluation It would be imprudent at this stage for the engineers to proceed with the actual production of the product as designed before having it tested and evaluated. The engineers therefore need to create a prototype of the product if possible modeling in 2D and 3D using computer applications such as CAD soft ware (Hyman 1998). The prototype is then tested and evaluated to establish if it works and meets the original design requirements and limits. Redesign The prototype may be slightly changed or improved in case of need once the prototype has been tested and evaluated. The changes or improvements are normally implemented to optimize the

What you think about tattoos and piercings Essay

What you think about tattoos and piercings - Essay Example There are different reasons why I consider tattoos and piercings as undesirable. First, these are costly. In order to get yourself tattoos and piercings from qualified professionals, it will cost a considerable amount of money. If there are other more important things to do with one’s money, an individual would reconsider spending money on getting a tattoo or body piercing. Tattoos are also undesirable since they are permanent. When one gets the first tattoo or body piercing, they will be motivated to get some more. This has resulted to some people having their bodies covered by tattoos. Since these are permanent, removing them is quite challenging. If one wants them to be removed, he or she will equally spend more money paying specialists to remove the tattoos. Furthermore, tattoos and piercings are painful. This is mainly during the process of tattooing and piercing. No one wants to feel pain. Therefore, I do not consider the pain of getting a tattoo or piercing to be worthwhile. Equally, the process of removing a tattoo is also more painful. Finally, tattoos and piercings might expose an individual to the risk of diseases, such as HIV/AIDS. However, this depends on who performed the tattooing and where it was performed. This is because; needles or sharp instruments are used on an individual during piercing and tattooing. Therefore, failure to clean and sterilize needles, might lead to the infection with diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Nonetheless, each person has their likes and dislikes; and this is to some extent influenced by their culture. Therefore, even though I dislike tattoos and piercings, I understand and appreciate those people that adore them, hence this is not a major issue to

Developmental Timeline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Developmental Timeline - Essay Example The final stage is the formal operational stage and this stage goes from the age of 12 and ends at death. In this stage, children can think articulately about concrete objects and they have a strong sense of reasoning. There are also substages to these stages. The first substage to the sensorimotor stage is from the ages of birth to one month and it occurs through reflexes like grasping and sucking. In this stage knowledge is acquired through these reflexes. Substage 2 happens from the ages of 1 to 4 months. Reflexes are organized into larger more complex behaviours where behaviours like grabbing a rattle to suck occurs. Substage 3 occurs from the ages of 4 to 8 months where repetition of actions causes pleasing or interesting things to happen as in the case of banging a rattle. Substage 4 occurs from the ages of 8 to 12 months. This occurs when objects can be imagined with the mind even when they are out of sight. Substage 5 occurs from the ages of 12 to 18 months where an object is used in a variety of ways. For example, banging a spoon against a high chair.

Assignment 4 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

4 - Assignment Example During the flood, one is unable to face the harsh behavior of water and thus people are advised to move to the higher regions before the flood. 1. List and describe the most common causes of floods. Causes of Floods Three major causes are found to cause the floods. Theses causes include Tropical storms, Seasonal flooding, Coastal Flooding (Library.thinkquest.org, 2013). Tropical Storms Tropical storms and hurricanes remain to have high impact on our lives due to the devastating impact of the heavy winds carrying immense amount of water with them. The resulting rains in response to the hurricanes and tropical storms become a cause of flood. Tropical Depression produces a wind of speeds less than 38 miles per hour. In the tropical depression situation winds have relative less speed as compared to that in the hurricane (Erh.noaa.gov, 2013). However, the tropical depressions are found to produce immense rains. Such a type of phenomenon produces some major damages in Georgia with a tremen dous rainfall of about 28 inches that caused flooding. During a tropical Storm the speed of the wind can reach as high as 73 miles per hour and tropical storms are categorized due to having more wind speed (39-73 miles per hour) as compared to the tropical depression. Tropical storms produce immense rain falls that are followed by flooding but some damages are due to the heavy winds. The rainfalls during the tropical storms produce more water than the capacity of the rivers, streams and lakes and thus heavy flooding occurs. Seasonal Flooding In rainy season, (a prolonged raining period mostly in spring or peak summer) the rains may fall more than the capacity of the rivers, streams and lakes and thus the flooding occurs. The flooding is not the sudden rush of water into the streams, lakes and rivers but due to the prolonged period of rains. The water on the rivers, streams and lakes rushes out. The major reason of less absorption of water into the ground is that due to the rains, th e soil becomes saturated and the absorption rate due the unsaturated behavior of the ground lowers and thus the flooding occurs. The melting of the snow during the start of the summer is another reason of the seasonal. It is due to the heavy snow falls in the winter season and during the start of the summer, snow melts and is being converted to huge amount of water that rusher into the streams and at some instance it may become more than the capacity of the streams and rivers that thus the flooding occurs. Both melting of the snow and the rainy seasonal rainfalls may contribute in occurring flooding in combination. Coastal Flooding Due to the severe tropical storms and heavy winds, the winds tend to carry away the ocean water in hevy amounts and thus occur of the coastal areas. In this situation, the sea level rises to the ground level and winds tend to produce waves more than the ground level and flooding occurs. Higher velocity winds create surface turbulence and thus the ocean wa ves present flooding of the coastal areas. The phenomenon is often recognized as storm surge. Coastal flooding is also due to the impact of Tsunamis, volcanic eruption and landslides in the oceans. Tsunamis are caused due to the earthquake which occurs in the ocean not very far from the coastal region. An under oceanic earthquake

Do countries that vote against the US trade less with the US Research Paper

Do countries that vote against the US trade less with the US - Research Paper Example The last report compiled in 2011 confirmed that these countries typically contradict US efforts at the UN. Trade relations between the US and countries, which continually oppose US initiatives at the UN, are significantly stringent. Some of the most affected countries by such stringent trade and economic relations with the US include Syria and Iran. Notably, countries, which vote against the US at the UN typically, trade less with the US. This paper will provide a succinct description of how countries that oppose the US at the UN have stringent trade relations with the US. Bilateral trade relations and tax treaties are established in order to assist countries enhance their foreign direct investment, as well as foreign affiliate activities through dual taxation relief. However, in order for countries to enjoy such benefits, they must have amiable relations, both politically and economically. These benefits are only part of the advantages enjoyed by countries having amiable political a nd economic relations that facilitate fluid trade transactions. ... As a world super power, the US relatively requires that countries support its proposals at the UN (Worlton, Reynolds, and Stinebower 215). Therefore, when countries vote against the US at the UN, the US pulls out or reduces its monetary support for such countries or reduces its trade with the nation, as well. Syria has presently voted against the US at least 67% of the time. This move has detrimentally affected Syria’s relations with the US, particularly with regard to the political and economic relations. As a consequence, trade between Syria and the US has suffered rather significantly. Prior to the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks meted towards the US, Syria’s relations with the US were quite amiable. In fact, after the attacks, Syria provided intelligence to assist the US track Al Qaeda plans (Worlton, Reynolds, and Stinebower 219). However, Syria’s contradiction of the US efforts to initiate war against Iraq started the long progression of deteriorated re lations between Syria and the US. Another serious contention between the US and Syria emerged when the Syrian government refused to provide assistance to foreign fighters to make use of the Syrian borders to infiltrate Iraq (Elliott 58). The US is also concerned by Syria’s efforts to interfere in the affairs of Lebanon, Syria’s protection of the control of Palestinian rejectionist groups located in Damascus. Other issues of contention include Syria’s human rights record, as well as the countries pursuit of weapons of mass destruction (McLean and Whang 439). This last issue is one of the most critical areas of contention between the US and Syria, and remains a thorny issue at the UN. The US

CEO's letters to shareholders - Coca-Cola Company Essay

CEO's letters to shareholders - Coca-Cola Company - Essay Example CEO's letters to shareholders - Coca-Cola Company During 2007, Coke was able to register a gross profit margin of 64% showing its strong ability to control the critical costs and maintain its cost leadership in the market. Further Operating Income was 25% with net income of 21%. Probably the strongest sign for the investors remained the fact Coke has been able to provide a dividend of $1.36 per share which is a very strong indicator from the company to show its concern for its investors. In the current year; Coke has been able to successfully launch its new brand of Coke Zero in more than 37 countries and has proved itself as the best selling brand of coke so far. The future outlook of the coke seems good as it has been continuously making new acquisitions in order to penetrate and develop new markets to broaden its product base. As a future strategy, Coke is considering to enter into the Sparkling Beverages business which according to Coke is its business of future. Overall the analysis of the CEO’s letter to the shareowners of the company clearly indicate the direction which the company is going to sought in the future and proposed plan of action to remain more competitive in the market by acquiring and making new strategic moves to solidify its position not only in North America but out of it too.Pepsi Co has not yet been able to present its annual accounts for the year 2007 however based on the annual audited accounts of 2006, we can analyze the letter of CEO to the shareholders of Pepsi Co. during 2006, Pepsi Co has been able to achieve a volume growth of over 5% with net revenue growth of 8% whereas the earnings per share grew by 13% showing a very significant performance of the company in the year under review.

Some Moral Minima Essay Example for Free

Some Moral Minima Essay In Some Moral Minima, Lenn Goodman argues that there are certain things that are simply wrong. Do you think Goodman is right? Using specific examples, explore the challenges Goodman presents to relativism. Determine whether you think there are such universal moral requirements, and defend your answer in a well-argued three-page paper. Your paper must be formatted according to APA (6th edition) style. You dont need any sources other than the Goodman paper and the text for our course. However, you must cite all your references properly. If you would like to refer to APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, within the Learning Resources tab in the left navigation bar, in your online course. Some Moral Minna By Lenn Goodman The Morally Right In â€Å"Some Moral Minima† I believe Lenn Goodman is right when he says certain things are simply wrong. I agree with Goodman on the issues he discusses such as slavery, genocide, terrorism, murder, rape, polygamy, and incest. I agree with Goodman on these issues because there is never a good time to kill for the sake of killing, rape for the sake of sex, or take ones rights away for the sake of gaining respect or wealth. Goodman basically discusses that every person whether it be man, woman, or child has the rights to live and be free from any and all inhumane treatment. Goodman’s main understanding is not to be quick on judging things we don’t understand, but to judge those things that are not morally right. I believe that all people are equal and have the right to live their own life as do the violators should have no rights to commit these unruly acts of wrong. Who are we to judge anyone or why should others have the right to murder, rape, or rip the rights of people away from them? The bible states, â€Å"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you† (Matthew, 7:12, Standard Version). I believe this is the best way to look at the situation on any of the issues that Goodman discusses. We should never judge anyone due to their sexual orientation, physical/mental handicapness, or any other feature in which they have no control over, such as the poor and the wealthy. Goodman discusses slavery as a act of wrong in the article and I really agree with his views on this issue. In the past some of our forefathers thought of slavery as a racially ethical right. Today in our society there are still some of the older generation that still look down upon the African American population simply because of the color of their skin.