Misuse of power Essay

The Crucible is largely concerned with the abuse and misuse of power in Salem. Discuss with reference to any three characters. The misuse of power in The Crucible leads to horrible suffering and even the deaths of some innocent people, in the town. Some characters in the play misuse their power towards other characters; some characters misuse their power in the courtroom and some misuse their power in religion (in church). In this essay I intend to look at the misuse of power focusing on the characters of Abigail Williams, Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris. Abigail Williams Misuses her power extensively throughout the play. She has most of the adults in Salem believing that she is a sweet innocent girl and so is never accused or suspended of doing anything sinful or unlawful. She also has most of the girls of Salem obeying her, due to a mixture of respect and fear, fear of Abigail and also a fear of getting in trouble for the dancing. The women of Salem are also afraid of Abigail as she could quite easily accuse them of witchcraft with no questions asked, as she is known to be sweet and innocent. Abigail did have power over John Proctor when he was having an affair with her, as he lusted after Abigail. Although she no longer has power over John Proctor as he learns during the play what she is really like when he turns her down. In act 3 of The Crucible Abigail seems to have power over court officials. When Abigail is accusing Mary Warren of witchcraft in the courtroom, Governor Danforth begins to question Abigail. Abigail replies with shock and says that she is hurt, Governor Danforth then swiftly backs off. Abigail then begins to threaten Danforth with how hell could take him in: â€Å"think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits? Beware of it†. Danforth then seems to be wary of Abigail in the next reply to her, the book describes what he says as ‘apprehensively’. Danforth has began to be aware of what Abigail is doing and decided to not get in her way or upset her, as he didn’t want her to accuse him of being in contact with the Devil. If she did this it would be him on trial as well as all the others. Another point about Abigail is that she is a liar and she is very good at it. This is how she is so respected by some people and feared by others. In my opinion the reason Abigail is so manipulative and weird, and also seems to have no feeling or a conscience, is because her parents were murdered by Indians in front of her. She describes this to the girls in a hard-hearted way, which shows that her emotions have all been drained apart from her love/lust for proctor and her jealously of Elizabeth. Reverend Parris misuses his power in The Crucible because he does not think the townspeople of Salem respect his position as ‘a man of God’. The Churches power at that time was very strong and so Reverend Parris has no problem in using his power the wrong way. The way in which he misuses his power is mostly from the pulpit of the church in his sermons. He believes that the church is the authority of all people in the town. He also believes himself an authoritative figure. He believes that anyone who does not commit his or her lives to the church should be questioned. He also demands that the people of Salem are obedient to the church and himself. He says that if they are not obedient, then they will burn in hell. Reverend Parris preaching things like this in his sermon strikes fear into the townspeople, as they begin to think Hell is upon them and this causes chaos to break out, as they begin to yell and scream at one another. Reverend Parris hates to be wrong, in the courtroom even when he realised that he is wrong to accuse all the people involved, he still sticks to his beliefs however wrong they may be. Parris causes innocent peoples deaths all because of his beliefs, stubbornness, selfishness and his misuse of power. I have reached the conclusion that the characters in The Crucible do misuse their power; the two characters I chose demonstrate this theory very well. Not all the characters in the play do, but there are many characters that do. This selfish act of misusing power in The Crucible is very influential to how the plot develops. Without Abigail Williams acting like a selfish, irresponsible strumpet, or Reverend Parris being selfish and power-hungry The Crucible would have lost its whole page-turning ominous, experience.

Cross-Cultural Communication Essay

To participate effectively in today’s world, we must recognize that communication is profoundly related to culture. To achieve effectiveness in social and professional life, we need to be sensitive to culture difference and adapt our interaction to people of varied culture background. The following scenario highlights the importance of adapting interaction to people with different culture. Five years ago, when I just came to Singapore, I came across an incident which made me realize that different cultures may influence people behaves differently under the same circumstance. After we finished a school group project, all the team members Wu Gang (Chinese), Samuel (Singaporean) and I (Chinese) decided to have a dinner together at a Chinese restaurant for celebration. When the dinner came to the end, Wu Gang took out his wallet and would like to pay the bill. At that moment, Samuel asked Wu Gang how much he should pay for his share. â€Å"No need, no need! It’s my treat.† replied by Wu Gang. Seeing this, I tried to took the bill from Wu Gang and insist that I pay the bill this time. Wu Gang stopped me, saying to me â€Å"Leave it to next time†. Meanwhile, he stood up and approached to casher for payment. Samuel still insisted on paying his own share and left the money to him after Wu Gang came back. At the end, Wu Gang accepted Samuel’s money unhappily. Samuel was confused and uncomfortable with Wu Gang’s reaction. At that time, I didn’t understand Samuel’s insistence either because it is so common in China for one to pay for everybody in dinner. People pay the bill for you to treat you as a close friend as if you were a family member. Rejection means that you reject to be a close friend. That’s why Wu Gang was unhappy to Samuel in the above scenario. The appropriate respond in China culture is to treat your friend back next time. Now, after living in Singapore for several years, I understand that Singaporeans are more comfortable to split the bill even they are close friends. In Singapore culture, it reflects respect and fairness to your friend that each one pays his/her own share. In this incident all of us chose our own â€Å"correct way† to deal with the situation but ignore others’ different cultural background. Many people evaluate others based on the standards of their own culture. Some people think their standards reflect universal truths. They aren’t aware that they are imposing the yardstick of their particular culture and ignoring the yardsticks of other cultures. Devaluing whatever differs from our own ways limits human interaction and leads misunderstanding. . In China, one preson usually pays for __6__ . In Western countries, one preson pays if he or she is entertaining clients , but __7__ friends eat together , they usually share the cost. This is called ‘going Dutch’.

Reality Television Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Reality Television - Dissertation Example Media provides knowledge through a never-ending list of channels like News, history, education, sports and so on. Initially, this field was restricted only to professionals. But with the advent of reality television shows, normal people found their way to participate and contribute towards media development. The initial efforts were first applied for on-air voice shows and after their resounding success made way into the visual screen; television. Reality television shows, which show real life, are generally unscripted drama or real events pictures on ordinary people rather than professional actors. In addition, hundreds of reality TV websites are devoted to keeping viewers informed about a different range of TV programmes related to merchandise, news, and fan activities1. Ever since TV gained popularity, it is the fore-runner among media development giving the real-time account of happenings in the world. Based on featuring style, purpose and used situations, these shows can be broadly classified in categories like documentary-style, elimination game/quiz shows, self-improvement/makeover, dating shows, talk shows, hidden camera, and hoaxes2. There are lots of controversies regarding reality TV about being real. Many accidents happened during shows. And even many people don't like it due to various reasons. Sometimes these persons are family members of the participant. In spite of these many obstacles, reality TV business in expanding daily and gaining more and more popularity. Reasons for this is its use to ordinary people, many social issues raised and many more. Next sections explain about reality TV in detail and convince the reader about how reality TV efficiently deals with issues like work, home, public, domestic, competition, co-operation, relationships, betrayal, deception, testing, trust, success, winning, failure, celebrity, voyeurism, surveillance, and control.

HRD Needs Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

HRD Needs Analysis - Essay Example It further identifies the gaps that persist between the employees and the skills that are required in order to adequately perform the current responsibilities (Rouda & Kusy, 1995). Need analysis also attempts at describing the gaps between the existing and needed skills of the concerned employees so that they can complete the assigned tasks comprehensively. It can be stated that the needs can prevail in any of the three levels such as organization, the job/ tasks and the individual. For the purpose of ensuring effectual HRD efforts, it is important to measure the needs at each level (Slideshare, 2012). The organizations are required to assess three types of needs such as organizational analysis, task analysis and person analysis. Strategic analysis recommends the need for training and the circumstances under which it is likely to take place. Task analysis demonstrates what needs to be done in order to perform a specific task and person analysis reveals who is required to be trained a nd what sort of training is needed (Werner & DeSimone, 2012). Diagnosis of Issue It has been noted that RACQ’s reported surplus was majorly affected by factors that were not forecasted to take place in the coming years, specifically the release of preceding years’ Compulsory Third Party (CTP) related exceptional claim provisions along with mutual aids to communities which was influenced by natural disasters in late 2010 as well as early 2011. It was because of the natural disasters that the organization confronted major rise in the operational costs of road services along with its call centers. Reasons for Issue Operating costs rose in the organization after the disaster because of the disruption caused by the devastation of physical infrastructure. Operating costs are the routine costs required to run a business or service provider. Disaster leads to disruption because of the temporary interruptions in water and sanitation, transport services and electricity as well i n the organization. Hence, the company had to invest significantly in order to repair the damages that took place and increase the effectiveness. Along with it, the disruptions in the personal lives as well as businesses had a major influence upon the revenues in areas such as travel as well as driver training during and after the natural disasters. Rise in operational costs because of the natural disaster had adversely affected the profits of the organization and hence hampered its successful operations. It can be mentioned that the issues that has been raised here calls for needs analysis at all the three levels namely strategic analysis, person analysis and task analysis. These issues can be linked with the organizational analysis of need assessment. It is considered to be vital for the organization to focus upon the aspect of contingency planning by reserving sufficient funds so that it can be most effectively utilized when such mishaps takes place. There is also a need of train ing that shall focus upon the effective management of the unforeseen events in the organization (Blackman, 2012). Diagnosis of Issue The other challenge that the organization encounters have been related to the relationship management pertaining to the new members which offers the staffs as well

The High Price of Materialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The High Price of Materialism - Essay Example Using results from several psychological and scientific studies on materialistic persons, Kasser argues that materialistic persons experience abnormal levels of unhappiness, anxiety, low self-esteem, and relationship problems. Kasser blames mostly the media and advertising industry for influencing individuals’ psychology into believing that pursuit of material goals will fulfill their necessity for sanctuary, self-esteem, community partaking and personal freedom. The main assumption especially that rendered to young people and teens is that, even though every person has needs to satisfy, a successful attainment of such needs results in higher quality of life. To Kasser, materialism is an inefficient means of attaining personal needs, since the act of buying and consuming products only brings about a feeling of goodness, and which lasts for a while leaving only a feeling of discontentment. As Kasser puts it â€Å"materialism†¦.more of eating junk food†¦ it fills you up for a while; but doesn’t really meet your body’s need for nutrients in the right balance; so you feel like eating more and end up fat and unhealthy† (Kasser, 2003, p 24). Hence, materialism turns out to be a vicious unfulfilling circle. Notably, they value wealth and popularity as their intrinsic objective, forgetting that these two are not founded on self-growth but are instead based on the self as epitomized by others. Furthermore, he asserts that the current strong projection of materialism is based on capitalism and cultural fracture, since the extensive projection of materialism by the media, advertising, and the economy and pushes a common theme of individuals expressing themselves by following other people interests instead of having ownership of individual behaviors (Kasser, 2003). In effect, materialism is not about having a sense of self-direction or being free but being controlled by needs. Impact of Materialism Kasser is right to assert that materi alism interferes with authentic self-expression and intimate relationships (2003). This is more so because most people especially teens and young working class people judge each other value and success based on what they own or possess. In particular, a person is judged on the type of sport car he or she drives, latest smartphone or up to date fashion, instead of acumen, kindness and community contributions. It is about having more or better than what others have instead of having enough that can comfortably satisfy personal needs. My observation is that individuals who are already unhappy and suffering from poor psychological health turn into materialism as a means of meeting their psychological needs. Materialism has not influenced my life entirely but some of my friends and family members have, especially in the sense that they concentrate more on acquiring expensive items not because they necessarily need them but because they want to be part of the affluent. Such individuals ha ve this strong tendency to envy what other people possess as they lack self-esteem or are not able to express themselves in relationships. They normally exhibit a strong sense of displeasure when other people possess items they personally desire. This is despite the fact that most normally goes through difficulties in trying to attain financial stability and social acceptance (Kasser, 2003).

Instruction and Assessmrnt plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Instruction and Assessmrnt plan - Essay Example This paper puts forth some writing and reading learning activities to enhance the same in 5th graders. (Hurley, 2001) Day/Dates Lesson Objective Instructional methods Material Needed Reading Activity 1 Monday Start Reading the story â€Å"Because of Winn Dixie† It will be a read-aloud method in class for the first day followed by some home-reading To get the students geared up for what is to follow ; develop their reading habit and ability to appreciate good literature A brief introduction on the story to be given by the teacher followed by READ-ALOUD sessions of the story and prospect discussions. Get the students to introspect on the characters that they might encounter in the story and what do they expect the plot to be like. White board Marker Flash cards Reading Activity 2 Tuesday Follow-up session on the reading home-assignment given on Monday. To develop the thinking skills of the students and their ability to comprehend the context and predict plots. Preview. Predict G et the students to discuss: 1. What part did Winn Dixie had to play in what happened at the library? 2. Is it possible for a girl to be on friendly terms with an elderly librarian White board Marker Flash cards Reading Activity 3 Wednesday Reader Groups will be made Centered activity and reading would be of : 1. Something to Do Help Students sequence the story, to summarize, and develop story board. 1. Students will be put in leveled groups. 2. During the class, the teacher will put forth story board activities related to sequencing and vocabulary. 3. Students will be expected to take part in the story board activities on rotational basis. White board Marker Posters for story board activities Reading Activity 4 Thursday Reader groups will again be made. Reading would be of: Child of the silent Night Help students In sequencing and vocabulary comprehension. 1. Participation during the entire group discussion. 2. Get students to infer meaning of vocabulary words like grand, memorial, pitfalls etc. 3. Students will be expected to attend to questions put forth by the instructor : What experiences bring forth people from diverse culture together. ; How did Laura recover (Describe the sequence) 4. Words will be read from the context and pictures will be provided to give cue to their meanings from the context. 5. Students will be expected to solve practice work sheet page 4 White board Marker Posters for story board activities Reading Standards: To inculcate an understanding of figurative language in students. Students at grade 5 level are not pro at their understanding of figurative language. They find it difficult to draw inferences and meanings given the context at this level. They still tend to delve on the literal meaning of words. So the idea would be to develop their understanding of figurative language. Secondly, it would also aim at inculcate student understanding and ability to connect different ideas and arguments, in a given context. In general the abilit y to understand and comprehend information will be developed at this level. Day/Date Lesson Objective Instructional Method Materials Needed Writing Activity 1 Monday Narrative Prompt The objective of this activity is to help students put in words what they feel about a certain aspect of their life/life in general. It is simply

Individual Argument Assignment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Individual Argument Assignment - Research Paper Example The argument shows that God is responsible for allowing evil to exist. God has the power to stop evil by stopping the evil persons from that since there is evil in the world (Lavery & Hughes, 2008). Further, Einstein’s argument Evil is the absence of God, who exists shows a logical argumentation. Einstein uses the logic of the darkness and light to prove his argument. Einstein insists that cold and darkness was invented by people to explain the absence of heat and light. However, God did not create darkness and cold. Similarly, evil is the absence of God in the lives of the evil persons. Consequently, God did not create evil but some individuals chose to exercise their free will to be evil by making God from their daily lives (Asheim, 2006). Furthermore, there are weaknesses in the arguments between the professor and the student, Einstein. In every rule there is always an exemption. Just because God created everything does not literally include creating evil. On the other hand, individuals commit evil by refusing to obey God’s laws to be good citizens. In the Einstein statement Evil is the absence of God, who exists may not be all true. In the story of Noah’s Ark, God flooded the entire earth to kill the evil people of the world (Tucker, 2005). God can do something to remove the evil individuals from society. God can lend a hand to stop the evil persons’ acts. The use of a better premise will translate an argument to a more effective one. If the premise is erroneous, the conclusion is questionable. If the premise is logically persuasive, the conclusion is tenable (Louw, 1998). Further, the professor and Einstein could have done a better job at improving their concepts. The professor could have stated: God did not create everything in this world. The revised statement shows that persons exercise their free will to do evil acts by refusing to obey God’s laws. The professor is using wrong logical reasoning. Using the same argument, God

Government Regulations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Government Regulations - Essay Example Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is an age-old problem. Counterfeit drugs are readily and cheaply available in need. Patients can't differentiate in between the fake and real drugs and fall easy prey to the counterfeiting. Counterfeit drugs pose health problems to public. It is necessary to prevent these fake drugs to enter the drug supply chain to become legitimate. The legitimacy has to be broken by attacking the chain and identifying the culprits. Through strict regulations, a relatively comprehensive system of laws, and enforcement by Federal and state authorities has kept drug counterfeiting rare in United States. Recently it is gradually raising its head again. Most of the countries worldwide could not fight the menace effectively.. This has put the genuine drug companies, wholesalers and retailers into big loss. Many that are involved in shady deals have to face legal actions and punishments. It is through accepting the problem, going into the depth and abiding by the government regulations firms in drug dealing and manufacturing could take strategic decisions to get rid of the problems. Strategic decisions by pharmaceutical companies in cooperation with FDA have been taken in USA to develop comprehensive framework for pharmaceutical supply chain to secure against threat of counterfeiting in drugs. Multinational pharmaceutical companies are developing inter-firm cooperation with supply chain and partnering with government and health advocates to work on the new methods to fight the problems. Track and trace method with the help of new technology of Radio frequency Identification (RFID) has been adopted to foil counterfeiting in drugs. The RFID would enable to tag all products by manufacturers, wholesales, and retailers which can't be altered easily and be verified when required with authentication It will make copying of medicines either very difficult or very costly to deter counterfeiting. Many other authentication technologies such as holograms,

- ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

- ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE - Research Paper Example Sukuk have gained popularity in Islamic finance as one of the best strategies to raise funds over the last few decades. Sukuk can be termed as legally acceptable certificates or securities issued in the Islamic economy with the intention to raise capital. These certificates serve the same purpose as bonds in the western economies. Bonds are not accepted in the Islamic finance structure since they carry an interest rate. Charging interest on securities is not acceptable under the Islamic sharia laws since it violates the principle of contractual certainty and mutual benefit between the financier and the debtor. According to the Islamic faith, wealth is God given, and mankind was created to guard and make good use of wealth and resources. In this regard, charging interest on bonds is against God’s will on equality and brotherhood. The Islamic sharia law is the foundation on which the Islamic finance is built. For any financial decision to be acceptable in the Islamic economies, it must fulfill all the requirements enshrined in the sharia law. Sukuk is an Arabic word used to refer to securities that are structured in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic law and intended to raise capital (Ariff, Iqbar, and Mohamed 13)Sukuk are used to stand in place of undivided shares in the ownership of real/visible assets concerning a specific investment undertaking. For Sukuk to be issued, there must be a clear record of the existing tangible assets on the balance sheet of the entity intending to raise capital. The process of issuing Sukuk starts by identifying the assets of the entity to assess their validity. The next step involves arrangement of an effective organizational structure that respects the Sharia law. Once an effective organizational structure has been established, the adjacent step involves the application of a suitable Sariah structure. Once that has been accomplished, a lead manager is

Business Letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Letter - Essay Example Our story hereby attests to the deep love, affection and respect for my wife: We had only been married last year, specifically on January 27, 2012. Our love story actually started since we were just in grade three in Zhanjiang Chunhui Elementary school, a private school where students from wealthy families are enrolled. When she transferred to a new school without notice, we lost contact for almost 16 years. I was so disappointed when I could not find a way to know her whereabouts. In these 16 years, I frequently would think about her. Luckily, in 2010, a miracle happened. I accidentally got contact with her through a web application called Renren, it’s a Chinese application like Facebook. We picked up our childhood stories, and she told me she has fallen in love with me when she was still a very little girl. At that time, I really wanted to meet her, but she had to complete co-op work terms as her program required, and I understand my company was just started. I didn’t have any capital so were not qualified to apply a Canadian entry visa. In addition, my father invested over 10 million in my company. I did not want to disappointment my parents. We started long distance relationship since then. In almost two years, we chatted every day through internet or phone. Long distance love is painful and very challenging. Long distance became the main obstacle for our relationship; and in fact, we argued over it frequently and almost caused a break-up. In Christmas of 2011, she completed her second coop work term in Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA). She finally had a vacation, and traveled back to China on January 1, 2012. I introduced her to my parents, my family, and my friends. We finally got married on January 27, 2012. As a mature adult, I promised to give her better life as she grew up in a wealthy family. Last year, when my hard work got paid off, I have generated enough

Fluency & Learning Essay Example for Free

Fluency Learning Essay The purpose of this paper is to specify an interesting story and design reading activities around it to increase the reading fluency of students. The paper starts with a synopsis of The Cay, a tale of survival, in which a young boy is blinded by a severe blow on the back of his head while his ship which makes him entirely dependent on Timothy. The adventurous nature of this story makes it interesting for the students to read and carry out different activities on it, thus contributing to their reading fluency The Cay The book is written by Theodore Taylor. The story deals with a young boy’s misconceptions about race and a black sea man, Timothy, with whom he gets shipwrecked on a deserted island. The young boy, Philip, is blinded by a severe blow on the back of his head while his ship was destroyed by the enemy torpedo. This makes him entirely dependant on Timothy, at least initially through his stay at the island. As Philip explores the island and learns the art of survival and relies less on Timothy, their relationship and mutual respect grows for each other, when they learn to survive and live within the means available at the island. Their struggle to face the odds and survive on an isolated island with no food and water, indeed makes this an interesting tale of survival. (Polette, 1995) I’ll be employing following five different activities for the children to work with the story. Student-Adult Reading In student-adult reading, the class will be divided into small groups and each group will be assigned a chapter from the novel to read. The student will read out loud from the novel with me while the rest of the children listen. I will read the text first, which will actually give the student a model of fluent reading. This is followed by the student reading the same text, while I would assist and encourage him or her during the process. I would repeat this process with individual student until the subject gains fluency in reading the particular passage. (Fluency Learning to Read Reading Fluency) c In this activity the students will read a particular passage from the novel along with me as a group. To carry out this activity, each student will be provided his/her own copy of the novel. I would read a particular passage starting from the first chapter so that the children begin to comprehend the story ad they are familiarized with the words. After reading a particular passage I would re-read the passage aloud to model fluent reading but this time asking the students to join in and read the passage along with me. This would be repeated three to five times on selected days of the week. At the end of this routine students should be able to read the text independently. (Reading Fluency, 2002) Tape-assisted Reading This activity follows a different method. Students are supposed to read from their books while they hear and follow a fluent reader read the text from the book on an audiotape. For this activity to be a success the recorded voice should be reading the text at about 80-100 words per minutes. Each student must have his/her copy of the novel in front of him/her and the recorded voice should be loud and audible. To start with, student should point along the text with his finger while listening to the recorded voice. After this practice the student must read out the text aloud with the tape. Reading the text loud with the tape must continue until the student gains fluency and can read the material without the support of the recorded voice. Fluency is important in readind as it allows the particiants to groud words together and focus more on their meanning rather than decoding the text. On the other hand less fluet readers direct more attention towards word recognition than comprehension of the given text. The above mentioned exercise is therefore aimed at easing the hesitation in reading. (Fluency, 2001) Partner Reading Partner reading is an activity which involves a couple of students taking turns to read the text aloud to each other. This would turn out to be an effective reading practice in which fluent readers can be paired with less fluent ones. The less fluent reader will use the fluent reader’s style of expression as a model and learn quickly. The better skilled reader provides help to the weak reader with word recognition and assists him in the process. Another approach to partner reading is check list reading where both the partners are given checklists. After explaining the students how they can change the pitch of their voice to make it more realistic, each students is asked to read out the passage to their respective partners thrice following the above instructions. At the end each students submits a report regarding their partner’s fluency which can be improved upon in the next session. (Murray) Readers theatre Readers theatre involves students rehearsing and performing a play for their fellow students and friends. Characters from the novel can be assigned to different students who can then act out the play by reading from their individual scripts derived from the novel. ‘The Cay’ will be a suitable book for this practice as it is rich in dialogues. This kind of activity makes reading more appealing and enhances fluency by providing students with the opportunity to interact with their peers on a different level. References Fluency Learning to Read Reading Fluency. (n. d. ). Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. time4learning.com/readingpyramid/fluency. htm Fluency. (2001). Retrieved July 2008, from Reading Rockets: http://www. readingrockets. org/teaching/reading101/fluency Murray, D. B. (n. d. ). Developing Reading Fluency. Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. auburn. edu/%7Emurraba/ Polette, N. (1995). The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Retrieved July 2008, from http://www. nancypolette. com/LitGuides/cay. pdf Reading Fluency. (2002). Retrieved July 2008, from http://readingserver. edb. utexas. edu/downloads/primary/guides/Fluency_Presentation. PDF

Iceland’s Economy During the Credit Crunch

Iceland’s Economy During the Credit Crunch Icelands economy used to be based on fishing and high-energy industries such as aluminium until it experienced a sharp boom period in the late nineties. Money flooded into Icelands economy creating enormous growth rates and unemployment fell to almost zero. The three major banks in Iceland Landsbanki, Glitnir and Kaputhing used this money to leverage debt and invest heavily abroad. They bought everything from Hamley’s to the Somerfield supermarket chain to West Ham United Football Club. However, towards the end of this decade Icelands economy was becoming increasingly reliant on debt and once the credit crunch arrived their banks were fatally exposed. They had made the same mistake as Lehman Brothers and the other large, now defunct, US investment banks. They had borrowed short-term cash to make long-term investments. Icelands economy was hinged on the continuous rolling over of debt, which had posed no difficulties in the boom years. However once the credit became more diffic ult to acquire, then the situation of the banks became perilous and so did that of Icelands economy. The bank’s share prices began to fall as did the exchange rate of Iceland’s Krona currency. The more difficulty the banks experienced, the more Icelands economy looked to be built on an unsustainable debt bubble. The banks funding was rapidly drying up and in 2008 the Icelandic government began nationalising them as depositor’s were panicking and taking their money out. But it did not stop there for Icelands economy; foreign reserves began to dry-up as the government now also found it difficult to borrow money because the international markets didn’t believe the government could rescue the banks as well as repay their own debt. One economic commentator said that it was not just a case of it being a run on a bank; it was a run on Icelands economy! Just how serious it is has been for Icelands economy can be seen from the fact that the government announced in early Oct 2008 that they were going to attempt to get a loan from the Russian government. This is a shock move considering that Iceland is a member of NATO. In the end however Icelands economy was saved, in the short-term at least, by a loan from the Swedish government. It is hoped that this will help support Icelands economy but there are fresh fears that they are facing a sovereign default. The government confirmed this when the Prime Minister stated in a TV broadcast that Icelands economy faced ‘a real risk of bankruptcy’ due to the credit crunch. It is worth elaborating on the discussion on Icelands economy during the credit crunch by looking at the impact it was, and is, having on real consumers in the country and then on those living outside the country who might think that what happens in Icelands economy will have no impact on them. During the height of the credit crunch in Iceland, the BBC interviewed a number of people to assess their sentiment. One young woman spoke of the rapidly rising prices because so much of the food was imported and with the Krona falling, prices on the shelves were soaring. People were even bulk buying food and hoarding it according to this interviewee. Icelands economy had gone from being one the wealthiest countries to this dire situation very quickly. Another Icelandic resident said he had bought his house for 13 Million Krona last year but because of the credit crunch causing higher interest rates, he now owed 16 Million Krona on it! He said Icelands economy had been built of debt and many p eople had borrowed at low interest rates not thinking they could rise – but they did. Another couple who had recently moved from the UK to live in Iceland said they were considering moving back. They could not access their savings because their bank had been nationalised and they were panicking. They thought Icelands economy was prosperous and wealthy but now they realised it was heading for an enormous recession and they did not want to stay there to experience it. Those living in the UK might believe they are immune from problems with Icelands economy but on Oct 7th, they realised they were not. On that day, the online savings bank, Ice Save declared they had suspended withdrawals in the UK because their parent bank Landsbanki, had run out of cash. It is estimated that 300,000 UK residents had a savings account with Ice Bank. Those who believed that problems with Icelands economy would stay in Iceland were seriously misinformed. It is also worth looking at some background information on what precisely caused the difficulties with Icelands economy and why the credit crunch impacted them particularly. The question most people might ask were why Icelands economy was so affected and the simple answer to this is size. Size really matters when it comes to economic problems. The UK and US economies were big enough and diversified enough to be able to move in and recapitalise their banking systems with national resources. Iceland has a population of only 400,000 people and their banks had ballooned in size. Icelands economy, no matter how productive it was, could never bail out their banks which had been investing huge sums outside of Icelands economy. Yet the Icelandic government was caught in a trap; without a functioning banking system, it knew an economy cannot function and so they were determined to prop up their banks. However, the government poured too many of the national reserves into its banks before it re alised it was all in vain. Icelands economy was destroyed during the credit crunch because it ultimately lacked a big enough central bank like the Bank of England or Federal Reserve. In fact, some individual Iceland’s banks were far bigger than Icelands economy itself and so could never have been rescued. The lesson to learn from the experience of Icelands economy during the credit crunch is to ensure that banks are well regulated and that their loans do not grow beyond the capacity of the government to rescue them should the need occur.

The Game Of Volleyball Physical Education Essay

The Game Of Volleyball Physical Education Essay Volleyball is a team sport that has earned his place in every competitive level, based on very quick and explosive movements, such as jumping, hitting, diving and blocking (Mario. C Marques, Roland Van Den Tillaar, Tim J. Gabbett, Victor M. Reis, and Juan J. Gonzalez-Badillo, 2009). The squad consists of 12 players with team positioning depending on the attributes the player has, the positions are broadly defined as setters, hitters, opposite and outside hitters (left and right), middle blockers and liberos, each of the positions have a specific role within a match (Mario C. Marques et al. 2009). The left and right outside hitters positioning is at the net, and the priority for these players is to spike the ball and block opponent attacks. The percentages of attack and block jumps performed according to the position played in the court were 33 and 67 % for Position 2(right side outside hitter), 29 and 71 % for Position 3 (middle blocker), and 59 and 41 for position 3 (left side outsi de hitter). The left outside hitter focuses more in spike jumps than blocking because the right outside hitter is the one that helps more the middle blocker, focusing mostly in block jumps (Black, 1995). Every spike is made approximately at 100MPH, the player with the greater strength blocking or spiking will be the one that wins the joust (Scates et al.,2003). The athletes in volleyball generate a great deal of force when landing after performing an approach jump, blocking a spike, during a spike and while diving (Gadeken, 1999). Data gathered within the past competition seasons tells us that the athletes that are involved in volleyball sport do short run distances, vertical jumps and change directions frequently in a matter of seconds during the games. The trainings made by coaches should be based on this data to increase the attributes needed for a maximal performance but keeping a minimum reduction in performance due to fatigue (Black, 1995). According to Gadeken (1999) players must have a solid strength, plyometric and conditioning foundation in order to be able to absorb the forces generated while performing jumps and sudden movements. Certain abilities must be developed during training activities such as the high jumps, hand-eye coordination, fast response to change positions rapidly maintaining body balance, short distance running amongst others. Volleyball is a high speed sport in which anaerobic training is needed to gain energy; the source is the phosphagen system which provides ATP (adenosine triphosphate) (Scates, et al. 2003). Athletes according to Scates, et al. (2003) do not only have to be in good physical condition to play volleyball, an athlete has to be in volleyball condition in order to be able to perform as expected, this involves the capability of the athlete to perform high jumps at the same height during a match, and must have the energy to maintain the physical feats while sustaining their levels of strength, power and agility. Timothy J. Piper tells us that in womenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s intercollegiate volleyball the most important factor for success is the upper-body strength and for spiking velocity the main factor is the shoulder extension strength at high speeds. The major muscle groups utilized while hitting, blocking, passing, setting and moving at a volleyball game or training drill were studied to determine the movement patterns. Balance and coordination are required in order to comply with the demands of body movement while the athletes are on their feet (Gadken, 1999). In order to produce a greater force while jumping the glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves work together to produce the power necessary to impulse the body up (Scates, et al. 2003). According to Marques et al. (2009) there are differences in anthropometric, muscular strength and power characteristics of volleyball athletes according to the position they are playing. The outside hitters have a significant difference in maximal bench press strength, parallel squat and throwing distances than the setters and liberos, demonstrating to have greater lower-body strength. Outside hitter skills and drills are different from a setter or libero, while the setter focuses in well set passes, an outside hitter will focuse on block jumps, backpedaling for 4 m, rapid spike approaches and spike jumps, every exercise done within a short period of time (Allen Hendrick, 2007). Volleyball training is in need of anaerobic conditioning due to the short and explosive movments and high power outputs, games may last a long period of time but the game plays are not continuous with many breaks during the game (Scates, et al., 2003). Specificity and overload are necessary to increase the body efforts and improvement, according to Black (1995) the overload training must be stimulus; this means that the weights, speed, height and duration must be greater than usual in order to have a direct impact in body resistance, strength and conditioning. Increasing the speed, power and overall coordination is important and it can be achieved by doing Olympic-style lifts and Power cleans to develop the hip and back power (Timothy J. Piper, 1997). The volume of strength training varies depending on the exercise. Olympic style lifts never exceed 6 repetitions in some programs due to the fact that performing more than 6 repetitions may place the athlete at risk for injury (Gadeken, 1999). The use of free weights and of upper and lower body ballistic training is important in developing strength and power (Gadeken, 1999). Like basketball players, volleyball athletes need to be able to leap with agility and power but also be able to hit the ball with an enormous force while suspended in mid-air (Scates et al., 2003). Importance made on movements in which the athletes are on their feet, the exercise is similar to the demands of volleyball, and balance and coordination are required (Gadeken, 1999). It is necessary for the volleyball player to have a great upper-body strength, stability of the shoulder socket, and functional trunk strength to allow the athlete to swing faster and more powerfully (Scates et al., 2003). The shoulder joint musculature and rotator cuff muscles are of major concern because of their roll in stabilization of the shoulder and because of the high forces produced while spiking and blocking (Gadeken, 1999).

Comparing Jane Smileys A Thousand Acres and William Shakespeares King

Comparing Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and William Shakespeare's King Lear Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres is a modern version of William Shakespeare's King Lear.   The tragic ideas brought out by King Lear are revisited in A Thousand Acres both containing universal themes in which societies from past to present can identify with.   Tragedy is a form of drama that depicts the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove.   The novel and play each contain distinct tragic elements that lead to the development of similar characters, plot, and images but both have distinct themes.   A Thousand Acres provides a new interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy allowing the reader to create a unique twist to their opinions of the Lear family. William Shakespeare's tragedy of King Lear begins with the King's decision to divide his kingdom between his three daughters.   He gathers them all together, and tells them he will divide up the kingdom according to whoever has the most love for him.   Goneril and Reagan, the two older daughters, make big declarations of love in order to get the shares they want of the kingdom.   The youngest daughter, Cordelia, tells Lear that she loves him, as a daughter should love a father.   Lear becomes angry and disappointed with Cordelia's response feeling she has shown a lack of devotion so he takes action and banishes her.   When Kent, a close friend of Lear, attempts to defend Cordelia, but as well he is banished by Lear.   Cordelia marries the King of France and goes to live there. The kingdom is equally divided between Goneril and Regan.   These two daughters are evil and decide if Lear becomes too much of a problem then they will take d... ... which would have prevented this tragedy.   The blinding Gloucester becomes ironic because when he is blinded he is able to see that he has judged his son Edgar wrongly and it is Edmund who is evil.   Similarly, in A Thousand Acres   Loren the loyal son is the cause of his tragedy.  Ã‚   Both Lear and Larry become mad after giving up their power too early.   When Lear turns his kingdom over to his daughters he looses respect and power which cause him to go mad.   When Larry signs his farm over to his daughters he looses control of the land and goes mad.   Works Cited and Consulted Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear.   Ed. Russell Fraser.   New York: Penguin, 1998. Smiley, Jane.   A Thousand Acres.   New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1991.

Consumer Good and Evil :: essays research papers

Consumer Good and Evil   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is the difference between good and evil? What is good? What is evil? These are questions we humans ask ourselves at least once in our short lives. Is good right? Is Evil wrong? We waste out lives pondering these meaningful questions. I believe the definition of good and evil can be defined by the economic services offered to the public. For example the difference between Charitable Crusaders* and Stuff Mart*, Mom and Pap’s cafà ©* and McDoogles*, Joe’s barbershop and Bidel Basson Hair salons*, I believe good and evil, right and wrong, are evident through these stores and businesses.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charitable Crusaders is an independents organization similar to a thrift store. This organization cares for the people they serve. In the month of December they raise a lot of money so they can afford to sell their items cheaper. Charitable Crusaders cares, unlike Stuff-Mart, who is stingy and only care for the profit. They care nothing for the people they serve or the people that they employ. Stuff-Mart is the definition of evil because of its greedy and uncaring ways. Because of Stuff-Mart’s practices, people have to spend more money and life is just overall harder. Charitable Crusaders is good and right because they love the people that they serve. They strive to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, unlike fairytales, the evil wins over good. Stuff-Mart is shopped at more because the quality is better and more survives are available, at a fe e. Charitable Crusaders, being a nonprofit organization, cannot compete with Stuff-Mart and lives off do nations. In this case, evil triumphs over the good in the form of profits and overall consumerism. I believe that, sometimes, this is how life works out.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  McDoogles is the spawn of all evil in the restaurant world. It was crated to be a prostitute: fast, cheep, and easy! But in the process of being so has stopped caring about the people it was serving. Their food is high in fat, unhealthy and has contributed greatly to the obesity that is becoming rampant in America. Because of its cheap prices it is more readily available than other restraints. If McDoogles is the spawn of all evil then Mom and Pap’s cafà © is all that is good and right in the world. These small restaurants are privately owned and well-taken care off. In this respect, the people who own them care more about the people that they serve.

The Innocence of Daisy Miller Essay -- Henry James, Daisy Miller

In 1878, Henry James wrote, Daisy Miller, a novella about a young American girl and her travels in Europe. Daisy Miller is a complex short story with many underlying themes such as appearance versus reality, knowledge versus innocence, outward action versus inward meditation, and Nature versus urbanity. In this short story, one is left to judge whether Daisy Miller, the main character of the story, is â€Å"a pretty American flirt† or a misunderstood, modern young woman. By probing into the complexities and contradictions of Daisy’s character, it is obvious that Ms. Miller is merely a misunderstood young woman. Through his novel, Henry James shows his readers that the gap between what people believe to be true and the actual truth can be large, hence the theme of appearance versus reality. To the Europeanized Americans in the novella, Daisy’s independence causes her to appear immoral. She is innocent and uncultured and incautious but the circle sees only the surface of her character and the actions that character takes. She rebels not by having a great knowledge of the rules which bind the society and consciously deciding to throw them out the window, but by being limited in her scope of experience and by refusing to change her natural ways in order to please a culture to which she does not belong. The great theme of the disparity between reality and appearance is at its greatest strength in the relationship between Winterbourne and Daisy because of the conflict which roars inside of Winterbourne regarding the appearance he cannot overcome and the reality he cannot accept. Daisy's lack of knowledge and experience deceives Winterbourne who is incapable of seeing life through the lens of inexperience after leaving America. He thus fails to understand her inexperience as innocence. Winterbourne attempts to apply the conventional rules he has accepted since leaving America to Daisy without realizing that she is not dissecting the world with the same meditating process that he undertakes. In Europe, Daisy behaves just as she had back in America. She even goes as far as to say â€Å"I’m a fearful, frightful flirt! Did you ever hear of a nice girl that was not?† (44). It is through this quote that one can see that Daisy does not realize in Europe, nice girls are most definitely not â€Å"flirts†. It is such behavior that scandalized the conservative Americans that she... ...y. At one point, Winterbourne tells Daisy that it did not matter whether he thought she was engaged or not. This so upsets Daisy that she cries, "I don't care...whether I have Roman fever or not!" (56). Winterbourne's ultimate rejection of Daisy, his decision to side with the American circle in Daisy's condemnation, hits Daisy so cruelly that she no longer cares to live. He refuses to believe in Daisy's innocence and she quickly fades away. Her resiliency and natural spontaneity have died. Winterbourne does not realize his mistake until Mrs. Miller relays Daisy's message to him and Giovanelli speaks to him at the funeral. Giovanelli looks to Winterbourne and states, â€Å"She was the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable...and she was the most innocent† (58). It was through this conversation that Daisy's innocence triumphs. The lasting message of this novella is Daisy's innocence and the cruelty of the society, which condemned her to death. Works Cited James, Henry.   Daisy Miller:   A Study.   The Heath Anthology of American Literature.   3rd ed. Vol. 2 Eds. Paul Lauter and Richard Yarborough.    Boston:   Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.  Ã‚   452-92. 2 vols.

Title E-books or print books: which do you prefer?

The purpose of this paper Is to present the some basic aspects of e-book and print book. The methodology of this paper Is using the bibliography and the statistics attempts to give some specific analysis about e-book and print book as a whole. The study found a much higher use of e-book over print book, and the trend of personal preference is not only restricted to the group of students but the whole younger generation. The result of this paper offers the individuals a new idea to insider for eBooks purchase.Keywords User preference, Surveys, E-Books, Print books Paper In the contemporary society, it is generally believed that books play an indispensable role in the development of human society. Apart from the print books, there is another kind of books—electronic books, which poses a challenge to the position of paper quality books. However, there is no unanimous consensus on whether the print books should be substituted for the digital books yet. On the one hand, some people think the golden age of print books In gone, and we should pay ore attention to the modern technological products.On the another hand, the view that print books will not be supplanted by electronic books was held by some individuals. As far as I am concerned, I am in favor of the latter's side. Some people have a tendency to choose the print books rather than the eBooks. Here are a few possible reasons for that. For one thing, the tangibility, which gave by the print books, cannot be showed in any aspects of eBooks. Therefore, people usually purchased print books instead of eBooks because they can get a tangible item for their memory y buying a paper printed book.For another thing, print books offer a sense of accomplishment to people. Specifically, consumers believe that they will feel more accomplished when the mass of the book moves from the right side to the left and they know they are almost done. Furthermore, print books afford the people opportunities to use them for other p urposes. In fact, It Is Impossible that one person could use a stack of eBooks to maintain his couch If the leg fell off. In all, some people lust choose the print books as their prefer because that Is what reading Is about to hem.Reading is something like going to a bookstore and browsing through hundreds, maybe thousands, of books to find the right one. Admittedly, the profitable problem is the crucial factor which the E-book producer should mainly concern about. A questionnaire survey was distributed among 27 students at a library and information science school in the USA to find out what users and potential users think about e-books in this transition period, when the US economy has experienced downtime, and the e-book world cannot see profitability In Its business as predicted.Among the 27 survey participants, a third of them has used e-books in the past, mostly reading computer-based e-books without special readers. â€Å"Available around the clock † and â€Å"searchab le † are both chosen and ranked as the most Important reasons. Those who have never used e-books mainly think that eBooks are â€Å"hard to read and browse † or â€Å"need special equipment However. About half of the non- would agree that e-book have its peculiar advantages as a whole. Firstly, one of the most significant aspects is portability. The reason for that is e-book has a smaller illume and less weight than the majority of the printed book.In fact, the worst thing of reading might be that you finishing a book and not having another book to carry on reading due to the lack of your bag's volume. Secondly, another advantage of e-book is a host of books can be made available for your electronic books without worrying about the number of your saved books. Thus, people can bring a digital device with hundreds or even thousands of books stored in your digital books. In conclusion, eBooks are available for purchase and reading at any time and any place with battery re mitting.These aspects of s-book indicate that the individuals tend to purchase e- books when the print and electronic version all are available for them. What's more, the Association of American Publishers reported that the annual growth rate for e- book sales fell abruptly during 2012, to about 34%. (2) That's still a healthy clip, but it is a sharp decline from the triple-digit growth rates of the preceding four years. Another survey conducted by Neurosurgeons. Org suggests that Of the respondents who took the survey, 25. 2 percent indicated that they would â€Å"very likely † arches an reader in the next six months; 36. Percent said that they â€Å"may † purchase an reader; while almost 40 percent indicated that they were â€Å"very unlikely. (3) Of the 7,880 titles that were available in print and e-book, 58 e-book titles were accessed and 2,799 print titles were circulated during the study period. In print and e-book format, 1,688 titles were used. In e-book form at, but not in print, 1,484 titles were used. In print, but not e-book format, 1,125 titles were used. In either format, 3,597 titles were unused. (4) The above three surveys show a trend of the increasing rate of e-book purchase. Personally, I consider the position of paper books is irreplaceable.Not only because it contains a vast number of historic values, but it represents the civilization evolution of human society. From the view of human civilization, print books play a pivotal role in human society. Books have been books have been the cornerstone of our society for centuries, especially after the invention of the printing press – perhaps the most important invention in human history. Len other words, the development of electronic books is advancing at a staggering tempo, ay turn out to be Just another format-an even lighter-weight, more disposable paperback.That would fit with the discovery that once people start buying digital books, they don't necessarily stop purcha sing printed ones. In fact, according to Pew, nearly 90% of e-book readers still read physical volumes. The two forms seem to serve different purposes. However, the transformation from print books to E-books is inevitably popular. Dominique Reach, Publisher and CEO of Successors, said that â€Å"the digital transformation is bringing with it an onslaught of content. In fact, more intent was published last year than ever before.Booker (the ISBN agency) reported that 2009 self-publishing or what they call the non-traditional book publishers drove total book production over 1,000,000 units for the first time-that's over a million books produced last year. Think about that as a reader, an author or a publisher. † (5) In sum, paper books have its unparalleled superiority and so eBooks does. No one knows what the future book market will be. Time will tell whether eBooks are a viable alternative. At the moment, the whole thing is still in its infancy, and a decent

Love and Family Essay

The short story â€Å"Eveline,† by James Joyce is a story of a young girl who must make a decision between an unhappy life that she is familiar and comfortable with and a life of possible happiness, love, and the unknown. If she leaves with the sailor she has become fond of, she would have the chance to run off to unknown fun, unlimited dreams, and the possibility of love, or the possibility of a life of solitude. If she chose to stay with her father who was abusive and unwilling to change his ways, she would most certainly have a life of predictability and unhappiness. This made life with Frank sound more appealing. Also, Eveline had made a promise to her dying mother to take care of the home and her younger siblings for as long as she could. She would have to go back on her promise. Could she break a promise to her dying mother? The neighborhood she lived in was predictable and comfortable. She knew everything about it. As hard as the decision was, Eveline made the right decision to stay with her family because she is afraid to fail. Although Frank was a sailor that promised fun, dreams, and the ability to be happy, he could never make Eveline completely happy without love. When they would meet in secret she would always have fun with him. He made her happy. They would go to shows and he would sing to her. He made her feel special, which was something Eveline yearned for. Frank was mysterious. He told her stories of the many things he would do on his travels. He told of how he traveled through the Straights of Magellan and of when he had fallen on his feet in Buenos Ayres. His stories were always elaborate and often seemingly unbelievable at times. He told her he would take her to Buenos Ayres; this is where they would live happily ever after. He had a house waiting for her, he told her. She would be his wife. He never actually told her though, what would become of them or how they would survive. She knew Frank could give her life, but only perhaps love too. Eveline was not in love with Frank. At the end of this short story when she tells him good bye her eyes showed him no sign of farewell, or recognition, or love. When she decided to stay, Eveline knew what the rest of her life had in store with her family. Eveline was comfortable with her family and knew what to expect for the rest of her life. She had food and shelter. Her father was abusive and demanding but, he was always there for her and her family. One time when she was sick he read her a story and made her toast by the fire. This shows that even if his actions don’t always prove it, he cares about her and loves her. She would have to give up her family to stay with Frank because her father did not like him. Once her father had quarreled with Frank, after that she had been forbidden to see him any longer. She loved her family. It would be too difficult to give up on her family to be with a man she did not love. If she failed she would not have her family. Eveline never wanted to disappoint anyone in anything she did. If she left she would even disappoint her dead mother. Eveline had made a promise to her dying mother, on her death bed, the night she died, to keep the house together for as long as she could. This was hard for Eveline, but she knew it must be done. Eveline was the only person who could take on the task of caring for her siblings after her mother had passed away. Her father was often in a bad way, and would become violent with everyone that he came in contact with. Eveline would give all her money to the family for what they needed and wished she could give more. If Eveline stayed she would have to continue to work hard to keep her family together, but it was familiar and did not threaten failure and loneliness. She knew what was expected of her and knew she could do it. She would go to work, come home, and take care of her family that was her routine. Eveline was comfortable. She would work hard to keep her family together. She would not fail and she would forever be able to stay in the house she was familiar with and loved. Eveline was so accustomed to the neighborhood she lived, it had become comfortable. This was where she had grown up. She used to play in the streets and she knew everybody. She even knew the sounds of the people walking down the street, like the familiar footsteps clacking on the pavement of the man in the last house on his way home. She knew the familiar smells of the area. She was fond of the smell of her house. Eveline often mentioned the familiar odor of dusty creatone. Everything in the house was familiar and she had wondered at times if she would ever see them again. She had never dreamed of being divided from them. She was unsure if she could leave and not come back. She would never be able to see these things again. This was something Eveline could never face. Eveline was a weak woman brought down by a man all her life. Eveline made the right decision by staying because she had no idea what was ahead and was too afraid of failure. The risk of failure was too real. There were no promises of success. Eveline realized she only had one family and if you turn on them you have nobody left. If she were to fail with Frank she would have to fail alone, she than would have nobody to be there to help pick up the pieces. She would never again have the familiar sounds in the street, the house she grew up in, or her family. She would have to break a promise she made to her dying mother. Eveline did not believe it was worth the chance of failure. Eveline made the right decision to stay with her family.

A Comparison of Attitude, Personality, and Knowledge Predictors of Service-Oriented Essay

The research design that was used in this study was correlational non-experimental. The variables that were studied included confirmatory factor analysis, item-to-total correlations, improvement in the Cronbach’s alpha statistic, and attitudinal and personality antecedents. With the use of antecedents, the job satisfaction measure incorporated seven items on a variety of extrinsic and intrinsic work related aspects and one global job satisfaction item. Two studies were conducted to investigate the attitude, personality, and knowledge antecedents of service oriented OCBs. It consisted of participants, whose responsibilities included answering customer service inquiries, responding to customer problems, and selling and recommending services over the phone. There were 325 employees who agreed to participate in the study in exchange for 1 hour of overtime pay. With the second study, the participants included staff and part-time employees of five libraries at a university who had customer contact as part of their daily responsibilities. They represented several departments that have customer contact including circulation, document reserves, and government publications. The relationships proposed were that job satisfaction would be positively related to the service-oriented OCBs of loyalty, service delivery, and participation. Also it expects POS to be positively related to contact-employee loyalty, service delivery, and participation OCBs. They also expected the following: a positive relationship between service orientation and loyalty, no relationship is expected between empathy and loyalty OCBs, the trait richness will be positively related to contact employee loyalty, service delivery, and participation OCBs, and lastly that strategy richness will be positively related to contact employee loyalty, service delivery, and participation OCBs. The study concluded that the results in both studies were virtually identical. The hypotheses in this study were proven after the information was gathered and evaluated. There are no recommendations that I would change within this study, however, I would have applied the study to other employee types. The Influence of Motivation to Attend, Ability to Attend, and Organizational Commitment on Different Types of Absence Behaviors Journal of Managerial Issues James P. Burton, Thomas W. Lee, Brooks C. Holtom This study used the experimental design to conduct data. There were three types of variables that were used in this study which included independent, dependent, and controlled. The dependent variable was a time lost measure of absence that was used where the total number of days absent per employee was observed for a period of ten months following the administration of the survey that was used on 214 employees. The independent variable was the motivation to attend work which was measured by three items that assessed the degree to which an employee is motivated to go to work every day. Also the ability to attend was measured by four items along with organizational commitment which was measured by the items from Meyer and Allen’s. The controlled variables were age, gender, tenure, and level of education. There were five hypotheses that were proposed: 1) Ability to attend will be positively related to the frequency of absenteeism that is attributed to family issues, 2) Ability to attend will be positively related to the frequency of absenteeism that is attributed to transportation problems, 3a) Motivation to attend will be negatively related to the frequency of absenteeism that is attributed to illness, 3b) Ability to attend will be positively related to the frequency of absenteeism that is attributed to illness, 4) Motivation to attend will be negatively related to the frequency of absenteeism that results in failure to notify the organization, and 5) Motivation to attend will mediate the relationship between affective, normative, and continuance commitment and absenteeism. Hypothesis 1 was proven to be accurate, hypothesis 2 and 4 failed to gain significant R2 when the various absenteeism variables were regressed onto motivation to attend and ability to attend. Hypothesis 3a was supported after data was conducted, and Hypothesis 5 could not be conducted because motivation to attend was not significantly related to overall absenteeism. I was unable to find any flaws with this study and do not have any recommendations to change.

Agile V. Waterfall

Waterfall to Agile References Pavolka, R. , Mount, V. , Neymeyr, A. , & Rhodes, C. From Waterfall to Rapid Prototyping (2005). Supporting Enterprise-wide Adoption of the Oncourse Collaboration and Learning (CL) Environment at Indiana University. SIGUCCS ’05 Proceedings of 33rd Annual ACM SIGUCCS Fall Conference, 312 – 319. Northrop, Robert (2004). The Fall of Waterfall. Intelligent Enterprise 7. 3, 40-41. Adams, John (2013). Change in Software Techniques Helps FHLB Reduce Defects. American Banker, Technology Section, Volume 178 No. 3. I. Agile v. Waterfall Agile Development Methods (Agile) and the Waterfall Method (Waterfall) are two different styles of designing and managing the Soft Development Life-Cycle (SDLC) within an organization. Waterfall being the more traditional approach and Agile newly born just twelve years ago, there is much debate over which approach works best and when. Companies have used Waterfall for decades of successful projects and in most compani es the approach has been ingrained into the very fabric of the company.The organization of teams and human resources in information technology (IT) can be anywhere from loosely to entirely based on the method that the organization is using. More and more organizations are starting to see the advantages of Agile now and are questioning older methods almost entirely because of the fast-paced business world of the twenty-first century. Agile allows an organization to respond to that change more quickly without sacrificing quality work or customer satisfaction.Waterfall, on the other hand, with its precise planning can offer better time management and money savings. In a fast-paced society where the time it takes to bring a product to market could mean the difference between success and failure, Agile is making its way into more and more organizations everyday. And, everyday more and more of these organizations are struggling with the change that is required to adopt Agile methods as we ll as the woes that this fast-paced development style introduce to the organization. II. What is WaterfallWaterfall is the classical system development model. The model of software development hones its ideas from the manufacturing world. It is based on a step-by-step approach to creating products from the conceptual phase to implementation and maintenance. Waterfall focuses its development strategy on the distinct phases of a project: concept, design, implementation, testing, installation, and maintenance. In larger organizations and on larger scale projects these phases of production are often handled by different people and even different teams.Using Waterfall, the concept phase of a project tends to be the single most important phase. This is the step during which the development team gathers and analyses its customer’s needs and documents the problem that the software solution is expected to solve. The documentation and analysis needs to be precise, in depth and even fla wless because once the phase is complete there is no turning back—modifications to a project, no matter what phase its in when the modification or change order is received, require that the project fall back to the concept phase.While several techniques such as use cases and customer interviews are used to gather this information the results of the analysis and requirements gathering that are carried out in this phase are typically relayed to the next phase in the form of a formal document. This document serves as the sole resource for the team who handles the second phase: design. Design entails actually making determinations as to exactly how a team intends to in later phases execute the solution.This is when platforms, programming languages, data storage methodology, equipment types, standards and graphical user interface decisions are made. Design also entails other high-level project decisions on ideas such as how security will be handled and resource management. The des ign step delivers its decisions on these matters, commonly know as the design specifications to the third phase: implementation. Implementation is very simply put the execution of the requirements in the design specifications document.During this phase, developers actually write the code that makes the software system work. Hardware specialists similarly setup the equipment and hardware that are necessary for the solution. The application is developed, debugged and tested against the design document and once it passes muster, the product is handed off to the next phase: testing. Testing is often handled by a quality assurance team. The team upon taking delivery of the product refers back to the documents created during conception and ensures that all of the requirements are satisfied by the solution.This team documents the project and uses business cases or test cases to determine whether the solution actually is the complete solution and whether or not it actually works in its enti rety. This team generally hands off the functioning solution, its documentation and a user manual to the next phase: installation. An installation or delivery team then hands the product over to the customer. This team also often provides formal training to the end-user. Delivery is followed by maintenance. Maintenance of a product usually includes end-user support, debugging of system flaws that are discovered after delivery, and change requests.If Waterfall is executed to the letter of its design, there will be no overlap between the separate phases of the project. Clearly defined timelines for each step are known at the onset of the project and serve as milestones for progress during development. The requirements in a well executed Waterfall project will be so very detailed of point driven that little time is wasted in later phases on things like re-writing blocks of code or back-and-forth’s that question ambiguity in understanding on the developers part.It is a tried and true and has advantages such as minimal wasted time and easy handover—handover of the project or a part of a project in waterfall can be a very smooth process because of all of the documentation that is produced in the analysis and design phases of the project. The documentation can even smooth over team-member attrition. III. What is Agile Agile Software Development is an umbrella for a particular style of development methods that focus on self-organization or cross-functional teams to develop smaller packages of a product more quickly than has been traditionally done.The basis for all of these methods is The Agile Manifesto (www. agilemanifesto. org). The author of the manifesto argues that working software, delivered in small packages, delivered in shorter timeframes (weeks not months) by teams who are self-organized and able to communicate freely throughout the process with both the customer and other stakeholders can respond to change and deliver a more effective approac h to software development in the volatile business world today.The manifesto declares that individuals and interactions are more important than processes and that following a design document is not as necessary as having the ability to change quickly. Agile’s focus is on a rhythmic continuity in the lifecycle of a project. The packages that are delivered tend to be broken down into timeframes as small as a week and generally not more than four weeks long. Customers receive working software continuously and the project is more of a living, breathing software that can overtime change to meet the needs of a rapidly changing marketplace.Agile teams meet frequently, as often as daily to discuss status and approach. Teams focus on reusing code blocks and making decisions about platforms and languages as necessary and with a better chance that standards and new technologies won’t change or become outdated before delivery takes place. IV. Which is the better way? The question so many teams and organizations are debating regularly these days is ‘which is better Agile or Waterfall? ’. Both Waterfall and Agile offer benefits and shortcomings and neither can be called universally better or universally out-of-date.The decision must be made based on each organization’s and each project’s circumstances. Team size can be a significant factor. Waterfall methodology is hard to manage with a small team. Waterfall relies on division of responsibilities and in very small teams this may result in an overwhelming workload for team members. Time to market with Waterfall; however, is longer whereas Agile methods can get product to market quicker so if time is a very high priority Agile may be the methodology to use.Indiana University documented a case in which its own IT Training and Education (ITTE) department underwent the change from its previous standard Waterfall approach to an Agile methodology. The team started questioning its approach t o development of training materials first when its materials started becoming obsolete before they were even delivered. The team found itself being tasked to develop and deliver training materials for a product that it saw as a â€Å"moving target†. It quickly became clear that the old Waterfall methodology would not work given the rapidly changing requirements.The situation required more constant contact with the stakeholders and that the team be able to deliver consistently changing and updated training materials as the system it was training on was an ever-changing system itself. ITTE faced problems in the transition. One such hurdle was changing the mindset of its customer. The team’s customer had grown used to having ITTE deliver large Waterfall sized training packages on static, tried and true, well planned, designed, thought-out and fully-functional software systems.The overhaul of it Course Management System (CMS) was, however, being updated constantly and the customer often expressed feeling of being Beta Testers rather than end users. In addition, ITTE’s own team members struggled with the behavioral changes that were necessary to adapt in order to make a more Agile model of development work for the team. Communications amongst team members, for example, became more necessary on a more frequent basis. The team also faced the task of training users on a system that was not fully functional.Users were, at times, resistant to the change themselves and found confusion in the fact that incomplete software was being delivered. The users were as accustomed to receiving fully functional systems and training as the ITTE team was used to delivering. ITTE also soon learned it necessary to assign team members exclusively to this project. In the past, the team’s Waterfall approach had allowed resources to be more spread out, whereas with the new Agile approach team members were so consistently involved with the living project that they were necessarily exclusively assigned to the CMS project.With all of the challenges that it faced, ITTE concluded that the change in methodology improved its reputation with the customer. More frequent face time and feedback response made the customer happier. It also concluded that, as a team, ITTE was able to produce more products cheaper, faster and more efficiently using its new approach to the SDLC. A single case, however, can’t be used to make a determination for the next company facing this decision. The fact is the right approach to software development is the approach that works best on a case-by-case basis.While Waterfall may still be the best approach for fixed-price, fixed-scope, short-term projects, Agile may be better suited to a project where the scope is expected to creep because of a changing marketplace. And there are teams that have even begun applying Agile methodologies to a Waterfall approach and vice versa. So perhaps the appropriate approach for an or ganization is to not decide on one or the other for the organization but to embrace both Agile and Waterfall methodologies and to learn to apply each appropriately.

Multinational Companies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Multinational Companies - Essay Example The two companies equally believe in being socially, ethically as well as environmentally responsible and accept their duty towards the society, making every effort on their part, to come up with safe products which contribute towards creating prosperity and opportunity for the global citizens. It is not unusual to find out that customers are considered to be the most valued stakeholder by both the companies. Samsung as well as GE strive to deliver first-rate products and services to their customers, while focusing on integrity and excellence simultaneously. Another vital similarity that exists between the companies is with regard to innovation and change. Samsung, with its innovative products ranging from camcorders to refrigerators, considers innovation to be extremely critical for a company’s survival in today’s fast-paced world. On the other hand, GE too, with its vast array of innovations in light bulbs to aircraft engines, has always believed in innovation to be a major factor for a company’s growth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Apart from the similarities, there exist certain definite differences between the two Multinational Corporations. Though both the companies believe in workforce diversity and in hiring the best talent from across the world, GE is more all-encompassing in its view on diversity. GE not only believes in diversity on the basis of nationalities but it also considers diversity on the basis of class, gender, race and community as equally important. As stated in (GE, 2012), GE commits itself to support the Gay, Lesbian.

Professional portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Professional portfolio - Essay Example To the contrary, I consider my service a priceless gift to people who need it. Diligence in delivery of care, advocacy, and awareness are my fundamental principles into practice. As an advocate, I strive to learn health care needs for better quality of health and collaborate with professionals from other fields to identify possible strategies for meeting the needs. I then strive to influence policy changes at different levels of the health care sector such as at facility level and local government levels. I also participate in research for efficient and effective prevention and management of diseases through direct delivery of care and through community empowerment towards self-care. I have worked as an emergency room nurse for 12 years, an experience that has exposed me to the need for sacrifice for patients’ lives. I am currently a clinical coordinator in liver transplant where experience motivates my nursing values. My priority growth areas are policy development, leadership, and scientific research because of their significance to generation of contemporary knowledge and strategies and mobilization of resources towards policies and policy implementation. Developing and implementing SMART goals is my plan for improving my leadership, research, and policy development potentials (Powers, 2013). My goal on leadership development is to be competent in transformational and charismatic leadership styles. These are important to my advocacy and leadership in policy development that are collaborative initiatives. I plan to attend trainings and workshops o leadership and to seek mentorship from distinguished leaders. A six-month period, beginning from next month, will be dedicated to the goal that I will evaluate monthly using online assessment tests and observation on successful leadership based on the two styles. I currently have knowledge and experience in research but improvements are necessary. I plan to attend part time classes on statistics and research

How Stress Management and Decision Making affect the Hospitality and Essay

How Stress Management and Decision Making affect the Hospitality and Events Industry - Essay Example A combination exhibiting of any of these conditions is normally a good indicator that a person is experiencing stress. In addition to these physical symptoms of stress, over time stress can end up affecting a person’s immune system to the point whereby the person easily gets sick, low fertility, stress can also cause someone to experience lower back, shoulders and neck pain form the constant muscle tension that results from stress. Skin conditions, muscle and lung problems are also greatly worsened by stress (Banyard, 2009). Psychological Effects of Stress In addition to the physical symptoms of stress, there are also some psychological effects of stress that can severely affect a person’s thoughts and emotions. These include tendencies by persons suffering from stress to worry too much about relatively small and unimportant things; the person may also feel tired or even jumpy all the time in addition to finding it to be invariably difficult for them to focus on even si mple mundane tasks. A person will also tend to constantly imagine that bad things are happening or almost happening in addition to their feeling cranky, having a short temper that causes them to keep on yelling at others for no apparent reason which ultimately causes them to feel extremely frustrated (Fink, 2010). Consequences of Stress and Coping Behaviors in the Hospitality and Events Industry There have been a few studies conducted focusing on investigating the consequences of stress in the hospitality industry. Some of these consequences of stress include sleep disorders, annoyance, nervousness, high blood pressure, heart diseases, lack of appetite and smoking among others (Topaloglu and Tuna, 1998). Studies conducted by Bymer et al. (1991) aimed at trying to examine stress and the subsequent coping mechanisms specifically in the hospitality industry among managers working in 23 hotels across the United States indicated that job stressors had a negative impact on how the manager s conducted their managerial duties as well affecting the employee attitudes at the various hotels resulting in high numbers of on-the-job accidents, turnover, sick days, absenteeism low levels of productivity and job satisfaction (Landy and Conte 2010). The Relationship between Stress and Work Performance The Inverted U is one of the oldest and most important stress management ideas used to try and establish the relationship that exists between stress and work performance. When the pressure being exerted on a person

Essay (see instructions) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

(see instructions) - Essay Example Every neighboring country of China finds its support in the matter of international relations. For instance, Pakistan seeks Chinese vote in the UN for the disputed territory of Kashmir. Similarly, Bangladesh finds (and gets) military support from China. This tactic might be based on China’s interest of keeping the upper hand against the rising power of Indian military but in the process Chine wins a strategic ally. There are very few economic powers in the world that are non-threatening. When it comes to Chinese neighbors, the country has kept neutral or friendly relations with most of them. Soviet Union was a Eurasian giant, but it was ruthless and had volatile relations with its neighbors. China is relatively non-threatening to its neighbors. Its policies are helpful and seek long term stability with its partners. Chinese trade relations with other countries are based on the preferences of their leaders. This is a long term and a highly rewarding strategy for China. It also helps win China the influence it needs to dominate Asia. In recent times, China has dramatically improved its relations with Korea and South East Asia. For this reason, it was the mediator in the North Korean nuclear crisis. The Chinese economic exchange with its neighbors also supports its internal economics. Its economic engine gets the essential fuel it requires to run at a steady pace. Its influence in Asian territories is non-threatening because China engages with its neighbors frequently. Its neighbors are not afraid of its rising economic and military power. Asian countries also support China because they consider it an icon for the international balance of power. The U.S. has significant voice and presence in the international politics. It is only natural to have the power (like China) that can counter the American dominance in the world. In addition, there is an urge in the Chinese people to return China to its

Discourse community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Discourse community - Essay Example ut Chelsea FC is how they care about their fans and the community and how it is different than a lot of other clubs which only look for winning the league. For example, The Chelsea FC foundation supports children in elementary school by providing them with â€Å"Quality Effort Award†, which is a free program that is meant to be used in classrooms by teachers to motivate their students for their creative thinking and rewarding the children for good performance. Chelsea FC is a big discourse community that shares the same goals and purposes with fans. Swales defines a discourse community as a group of people who communicate with each other by words and conversation to be able to reach their goals that they all share. The discourse community also has their own lexis and they communicate in one language. In Chelsea FC, there are common goals that the whole community shares. The first is winning the premier league, champions league, FA cup and the Capital One Cup. These are some of the goals that the community has and there are also other goals like inspiring children, and making their fans happy. Therefore, I can say that Chelsea FC discourse community shares the same goals. What is special about this club is that the coach of the team who is known to be one of the best coaches in soccer history Jose Morinho placed a rule as soon as he moved to the club that all members of the team including staff and players must discuss after training the issues they should do and fix problems if there are any. Jose Morinho knows how important it is to communicate with the team mates and staff such that he made a rule that whoever is absent or tardy has to pay a fine even if it was the coach himself. Chelsea FC discourse community makes sure to provide most ways possible for people to give them feedback. They use a lot of different ways to receive this feedback for example, Chelsea FC account on Twitter, Chelsea FC T.V, Chelsea FC Facebook and Chelsea FC Instagram account. They

Definitional Arguments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Definitional Arguments - Essay Example Notably, definitions appear in almost every argument, though sometimes they are hidden or tacitly accepted. But they rarely appear in isolation; the challenge in definitional arguments is for an individual to find the definitional claims that underlie other claims in academic, civic or other types of arguments. Pier Jennifer and Pattakos Alex provide a deeper understanding of definitional arguments through their respective articles â€Å"The Reprehensibility of the White Lie† and â€Å"The Meaning of Friendship in a Social-Networked World†. In each article there is a central issue or argument, which has been developed through a series of steps. In the article â€Å"The Reprehensibility of the White Lie†, the central issue is the white lies. In this article, Pier uses various examples that are familiar to provide an understandable definition of white lies. For instance, Pier uses daily conversations to define the concept of white lies. Amongst the aspects that Pie r uses to define white lies include of course, it was a blast, and it wasn’t me. Pier’s main concern is the evasion of responsibility in as far as white lies are concerned throughout her article. In order to support her definition, Pier uses various criteria. ... Another claim that Pier uses to justify the definition of white lies is the creation of the distinction between white lies and other forms of duplicity. Thirdly, Pier claims that white lies are destructive. The second criterion that Pier uses to justify the definition of white lies is crafting of definitions. One of the definitions crafted by Pier is the operational definition of white lies. Pier tries to find a common ‘perfect’ lie capable of fitting all the mentioned claims or qualifications. Lastly, Pier used the criterion of mapping the formulated claims and crafted definition to come up with a convincing conclusion in regards to definition of white lies (206-209). In the second article, â€Å"The Meaning of Friendship in a Social-Networked World†, Pattakos’ main or central issue is friends and how their acquisition contributes to a meaningful life. Just like Pier, Pattakos uses familiar examples and concepts to help in defining friends. In addition, Pa ttakos uses ideas from different stakeholders and scholars such as Aristotle and Mark Zuckerberg to try and establish the definition of friends and its relationship with meaningful life. In a bid to justify the definition, Pattakos employs various criteria. The first criterion employed by Pattakos in the article is the use of claims. Pattakos has employed various claims in a bid to justify the definition of friends. The first claim is that friends significantly contribute to meaningful life. Another claim that Pattakos makes in relation to finding the definition of friends is that various reasons prompt the search for the meaning of friends. For instance, the intrinsic motivation of persons and the fact that it is a megatrend within the 21st century to understand and

Awareness movie Solving Educational behaviors problem in intermediate Thesis Proposal

Awareness movie Solving Educational behaviors problem in intermediate schools by using 2d animation - Thesis Proposal Example In essence, if the wrong educational behaviors among students can be dealt with, students will be saved from bad influence. There are some of the educational malpractices that can be alleviated through animation and youtube movies as a tool of demonstration where students are left to make their own conclusions. The impact of new media on the third world countries has been debated for long. Boyd and Straubhaar (1985) established that new media such as video cassettes recorders had a significant behavioral influence on youths in the third world countries, and this hypothesis was supported by a study carried out by Greeson and Williams in 1986. In the same line of thought, Zimam (2008) conducted a study on new communication and established that it has impacted on the education of teenagers. Toda and Ezoe (2008) further established that internet on mobile phones had impacted greatly on female students and on the role of parents in guiding the attitudes of their children. With the proven negative impact on teenagers, this literature sets a background for a call for quick sustainable intervention. On alcohol influence, Sargent et al. (2006) agree that motion pictures encourage schooling teenagers to start drinking early. On smoking and drinking, Dalton et al. (2006), Hanewinkel et al. (2008a) and Hanewinkel et al. (2008b) agree that movie viewing on whatever channel, youtube, cinema and television expose teenagers to smoking and alcohol misuse behavior. On sexual behavior, mass media is analyzed by Brown et al. (2005), Hawk et al (2006) and Brown et al. (2006), and they contend that movies, music and television as the ones viewed from youtube and other channels influence sexual behavior among teenagers. In another study by Hawk et al. (2006), the researchers agree with findings of Calfin et al (1993) where music and video were found to greatly influence teenagers to