Democracy – Essay

That is to say we want to analyze the meaning of democracy and its efferent forms, study its efficiency (so to say), ponder over its limitations and compare It to other forms of government. Whether democracy was conceived of In Athens, Sparta or India Is not a topic of Interest In this paper (although there may be references to historical events In the evolution of the Idea when pertinent). What does democracy mean? Democracy comes from the Greek â€Å"rule of the people†. But as I searched for a definition of democracy in the course of research for this paper, a consistent deflation of it seemed to elude me.So we must examine some of these definitions ND try to find a core to the idea of democracy, if there exists one. Bunch of different ideas and quotes are out thro on internet †¦ Put about 4-5 of them here and discuss if them from a current or historical perspective.. Vive written down one for u: â€Å"The right to dissent without repercussions to one's personal well- being is the core value of Democracy' * Nathan Shrank Discuss quotes such as this to evaluate how these Ideas are Implemented In practice.. All this should take up about 500 words..The only core value seems to be people get to elect their government.. How much of he peoples rights are respected after that greatly varies.. Forms of democracy Representative.. Constitutes parliamentary and liberal(most democracies are these) Constitutional Direct Socialist Totalitarian .. Discuss all these†¦ About 300 words.. A critique of democracy An illusion â€Å"There was no stone-pelting, nothing. There was no curfew They fired indiscriminately. † (http://www. Lengthened. Co. UK/news/world/salsa/Kashmir-burns- again-as-India-responds-to-dullest-Walt-violence-2045905. HTML).The above was said by Abdul Rasher, a Kashmir youth whose friend was gunned down by Indian army officials for holding a peaceful, nonviolent, anti-government rally in the summer of 2010 But tons was not an anomaly I n ten process AT democracy In IANAL . Kashmir still remains the most militaries zone in the world with about a half a million troops on active duty (for the sake of comparison, the United States had about 165,000 troops in Iraq at its peak)(I read these fugues on CIA. Gob.. I don't remember the exact link ). How is that a government for the people is killing its own citizens for holding a nonviolent demonstration?How is such a huge implementation of a province in a democracy justified? Even a basic understanding of the ideas of freedom and liberty that democracy entails shows how abhorrent these actions are. But these things happen, not Just in India, but in other developed counties like the United States Pansies Americans in 1942), where the rights of their citizens are violated Just when they would want to exercise them. So one must ask, are democracies really for the people? A study of history of government brutality in countries like India and the United States seem to suggest o therwise. The almost forceful takeaway of land by theIndian government in eastern India from farmers (actions which directly led to the Nasality-Moist insurgency, something the current prime minister of India called â€Å"the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country. â€Å"( http:// www. Ploughshares. Ca/libraries/Execrate/CAR-Lillian. HTML)), seem to suggest otherwise. The locking up of Japanese Americans in internment camps in 1942 by Franklin Roosevelt and the Unites States government seem to suggest otherwise. The indiscriminate shooting of unarmed, nonviolent Kashmir youths (some as young as 9 ears old)shouting â€Å"Acadia! Said! â€Å"(â€Å"freedom! Freedom! â€Å") by Indian security officials seem to suggest otherwise. One gets the idea. So maybe people like Vilified Parent and Agitate Masc. are correct after all. The masses are always characterized by apathy and division, the powers to be by drive and unity (Femme, Joseph V. â€Å"Agains t the Masses†, Oxford 2001). Maybe all democracy does is shift the power scale, from domination by a despotic leader to manipulation by a democratic government. Maybe the people don't really have much of a say after all. Maybe it's Just an illusion.Majority rule Majority always gets its way.. Discuss gay rights.. Civil rights in us.. Women's rights historically.. Religious parties like ship seen in Iambi.. Rising intolerance of secularism in India.. Majority rule can get tyrannical and the minority issues ignored when people get to decide resolutions to minority issues. The irrational voter â€Å"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. † – Winston Churchill Talk about how the common man is largely ignorant about serious issues and hence can vote against his/her interests.. An greatly discuss the recent midterms in us to make this point†¦ Basically our saying if we must solve economic issues we talk to economi st.. If we must solve environmental issues we talk to climate scientists.. If we are talking bat what to teach in science class we take the consensus of scientist not what the common people of the state think (talk bat teaching creationism in schools.. A lot of states in us have majority of it people wanting creationism be taught as science even though almost no scientist believe it to be science)†¦ Not everything should be up for a vote†¦..Economically inefficient Our a better person to write bat this Idealistic now Its Nora to apply macerate principles In practice†¦ Corrupt officials.. Apathetic citizens.. Uprisings etc.. Instable Frequent elections make the government instable†¦ Castillo of examples on the internet bat this.. Best we have? â€Å"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. â€Å"- Winston Churchill Compare democracy to other forms of governments like dictatorships, communist stat es, anarchist, socialist,etc.. Define ND discuss each with respect to western liberal democracy.. Eve done some of it for anarchist Anarchist – Anarchists are those who advocate the absence of the state, arguing that common sense would allow people to come together in agreement to form a functional society allowing for the participants to freely develop their own sense of morality, ethics or principled behavior. (from wisped). One such current society is Somalia, and it would not be hyperbole to suggest they are not doing very well. The lack of a state and police have led to nationwide lawlessness, violence and parallel the country into utter chaos.I think Somalia really characterizes the severe consequences of not having a state and is not a direction one would want their country to go in. Giving people all the power has resulted in the most powerful and the most brutal of them to take power and the rest of people losing all freedom(ironically). Conclusion/reflections Every form of government has been deemed the best by its people at its peak of popularity (the soviets considered socialism to be the best form of government until the collapse of USSR). Democracy might be the best we have, but not the best we could do.It needs to evolve as times and conditions change. When fissures arise in its implications, they must be aptly addressed instead of wallowing in the supposed preferences of democracy by saying things like â€Å"Hey, its the best we have†. But most of all people need to realize that the power that comes with democracy is not a privilege, it's a duty that must be exercised to give it any real meaning. People need to understand the violent convulsions the state of things have gone through so they ay live in a democracy, it is not something to be taken for granted.People need to substitute their subservience with an exertion of their hard won independence. But I must confess, all the above paragraph may Just be an empty howl to the tamed and the satisfied population that constitutes most modern democracies. We may have already fulfilled Aloud Huxley prophecy of us becoming a trivial culture, drowning in a sea of irrelevance (Brave new world-aloud Huxley). So even as gays are treated as second class citizens and young gay teens are committing suicide by significant embers, Americans are more busy voting for the next American idol than care for Prop 8.Even as corruption and immorality in Indian politics continues to eat away at the nations very fabric of the nation, its citizens are preoccupied with arguing about the squad that was picked for the Indian cricket team's next tour of wherever and pondering which Plywood movie must they see next. Hence, for all of Lemon's passionate singing about power to the people, the hard truth might Just be that the people don't want power, they want pleasure, and therein lies the inherent flaw of democracy.

The Soldier X

In â€Å"Soldier X,† by Don Wulffson, lies a boy who was drafted into the German army at age 15. His birth name was Erik Brandt, but after his second battle in Russia, he switched his clothes with a Russian Soldier to stay alive. When he entered the enemy lines, he was known to others as Aleksandr Dukhanov, serial number K487944. Two Hundred Twentieth Armored Division. But, he hated being called that. So, Nikolai Mikhailovich, his friend (the injured man who lost both of his legs and was the patient right next to X), came up with a new name for him. X. He meets nurses named Tamara, Katrina, and Zoya. There was a mental patient, who pretended to be the hospital's only guard was named, Sergio. When the Germans attack the hospital's town, all the patients, doctors, and nurses try to escape to another field hospital. But, as the trucks left, Katrina was shot. X, Tamara, Zoya, and Sergio were knocked out of the truck. They ran. But, Zoya died along the way. Then, later on, Sergio was shot by a German. X and Tamara, continued on their journey, making friends and making enemies. The journey they take is their only way to find their freedoms. First, does war bring out the best in some people and the worst in others? Yes, war does bring out the best in people. When a bomb might've exploded a building, some people might run in and see if there is anybody still alive and help them. But, that doesn't mean war doesn't bring the worst in people either. People react to war in different ways. Some might react the right way and become better people then they were before. Or they might react in the wrong way and become a horrible person then they were before. When in war, soldiers might fight for the right thing and some might fight for the wrong thing. Some soldiers might fight for what they love. Their families and friends or the people who love them back. Or they fight for themselves. Not thinking of others in any way. Sometimes people could change for the better. Or sometimes people could change for the worse. In â€Å"Soldier X†, when Tamara and X were injured from escaping the hospital attack, they walked for days. They went up to a house and the father wouldn't help them, but their daughter gave bread and apples to them. Then when the got to a town Klatovy, Czechoslovakia, a car went by. They asked for help and the lady named, Elena Novak let them stay in her home until her hometown was attacked by the Russians and the Germans. She gave the food, water and a place to sleep. A quote to support my thinking is, â€Å"Tamara got to her feet. She was bone-thin, pale, and wheezing. ‘You're ill,† said the women in her sort of lilting German. I leaned forward, down to the open window. ‘Please help us,' I said. ‘We are so tired and hungry and we can't think straight anymore.' ‘Who are you?' ‘We are from a medical unit,' I answered. ‘I don't know where any of the others are. I think most of them are dead.' Little blue eyes in a big pink face looked us over. Gear shifted raggedly. ‘Well, we can't have you dead, too!' she said. ‘Come, come. Get in the car.' We got in.† (p.176-p.177) Even though there was a war going on around Elena Novak's home, she still gave others a home as well. Even though she didn't know X or Tamara, she still knew that it was the right thing to do. The right thing to do was help them. In the beginning of the book, after X and the other German soldiers were defeated by the Russians, Russian soldiers would go and stab either the dead or wounded of the enemy. Making sure that the Germans were dead. A quote from the book to support my thinking, â€Å"I heard someone pleading in German—then another shot. I belly-crawled a half meter and peered out. What I saw sickened me and terrified me. A Russian officer was methodically seeking out the German wounded and shooting them. A lumbering oaf of a foot soldier, using a bayonet, was dispatching other Germans. He seemed to be enjoying what he was doing. And many of those he was bayoneting looked already dead; he was just making sure.† (p. 74)When X was in the hospital, X met a blurring friend named Nikolai. Nikolai later lost both of his legs. He was like the father X never had. When X left the hospital, he left his father-figure behind. X also met two nurses who were his friends. Katrina and Zoya. They were the ones who let Tamara stay in their house. When they were killed, those were the pieces of Tamara that she could never forget. Sergio, the pretend guard of the hospital made it out of the Hospital attack but was killed by a German during their journey. Even though in his mind he was gone, he still had good intentions in helping X and Tamara survive. Elena, who gave them a place to call home for a few days was the person who really made the impact on their journey. If X and Tamara hadn't met Elena, they probably wouldn't have completed their journey to their freedoms. But, they also met a blurring enemy. Before they met Elena, they needed food and water. So, when they were in line.

How do TV crime shows and authentic forensic analysis compare and contrast? Essay

What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of a TV crime show? If I had to choose, it would be clue gathering, or even problem solving. TV crime shows are generally known for the murders and cases behind solving who committed the crime; because who would want to watch a show about a robbery. In these shows, the producers attempt to exaggerate and speed up the process of forensic analysis. As a result, this would contrast to the authentic, or real life process of crime scene investigations. Although I do believe that there are many great TV crime shows, I’d have to pick two specific episodes that would clearly identify a realistic and unrealistic visualization of what a forensic analysis looks like; an episode of CSI New York, as most realistic, and an episode of Bones, as the most unrealistic. First, I would like to identify a realistic visualization of forensic analysis by using the episode of CSI New York, Clue SI. To begin, the CSI’s collected evi dence and examined it in a way that exemplified how authentic forensic analyzers would collect/analyze evidence. For example, they placed some of the evidence in plastic bag in an effort to protect the evidence from possible damage, trace evidence was used, and they took pictures of evidence that was uncollectable, or easier to analyze with a photograph. This showed that they were taking into consideration the inherent problem with crime scene investigation; they knew that evidence would need to be carefully collected, to ensure the smallest amount of modification. Subsequently, the investigators used bits and pieces of forensic psychology to determine patterns in the crimes committed. To illustrate, they established connections, and reviewed potential motives of the killer. Specific to this episode, the board game â€Å"Clue† plays a part to the story; as investigators dig deeper into the crime, they notice that a specific drug was ingested by the two victims, Ellen White, the original victim, and Jane Doe, the later found victim in the series of crimes committed, and only some psychiat rists have access to this drug; the investigators find the psychiatrist, Carly and plot out the crime to find the killer. Second, I would like to establish an unrealistic visualization of a crime scene investigation, using the episode of Bones, The Memories in the Shallow Grave. Initially, I would group this episode in the unrealistic category because with the evidence they had, they came to conclusions almost instantaneously. To continue, when the investigators were  using missing persons reports to compare suspects, they came to a direct conclusion without further investigation; in other words, they knew they had the suspect without corroborating information. The team of CSI’s got the news of who the suspect was, and without deeper consideration, they just followed along. Additionally, evidence they had from the gum underneath the paintball splatter was easily identified with only one tooth impression. Bones, one of the investigators said, â€Å"That’s as good as a fingerprint!,† when one complete dental impression may not have been enough to establish who actually did the crime . With this in mind, they had evidence, but not enough to conclude the suspect as guilty of committing the crime. Finally, I would like to pose the question of â€Å"Do crime TV shows really influence jurors or legal professionals when it comes to the criminal justice system?† My answer to this question would be yes for two reasons. To start, in the article by Donald E. Shelton, The ‘CSI Effect’: Does It Really Exist, I found an interesting statement about expectations based off of TV crime shows. More specifically, â€Å"As one district attorney put it, â€Å"Jurors now expect us to have a DNA test for just about every case. They expect us to have the most advanced technology possible, and they expect it to look like it does on television.†Ã¢â‚¬  Jurors wanted more proof to guide them through the conviction process, but could there have been any other information the court could have given them? To continue, based off a survey taken from the same article mentioned above, jurors had specific apprehensions of what scientific evidence they wished to receive when certain cases were brought before them. To explain deeper, â€Å"a higher percentage wanted to see fingerprint evidence in breaking and entering cases (71 percent), any theft case (59 percent), and in crimes involving a gun (66 percent).† (Same article as credit given before.) From shows like Law & Order, and CSI, jurors thought evidence portrayed on TV crime shows, were taken into consideration in real crimes. Established from the findings, jurors overall expected evidence from TV crime shows to be used in authentic forensic analysis. Does the same word come to mind when you think of a TV crime show? Or has it changed? Depending on your original opinion, your side may have changed or it might have stayed the same. But I still believe that there are many great TV crime shows, and if I had to pick two specific episodes that would clearly identify a realistic and unrealistic  visualization of what a forensic analysis looks like, I’d choose these two episodes; CSI New York, as most realistic, and the episode of Bones, as the most unrealistic.

Issues of poverty in U.S Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Issues of poverty in U.S - Essay Example In the year 2003, the rate stood at 63 percent from a previous 42 percent in the mid 1990s.Research by OECD indicates that with the formation of the coalition government, the GDP growth rose to 7.8 percent in 2011 as a result of the economic recovery in the country. Uganda has seen a lot of improvements with the poverty rates declining to 31.1% in 2006 as compared to 56% in the early 1990s. World Bank (2011) indicates that the country is likely to attain the millennium goals set by the year 2015. As compared to U.S.A. the poverty levels in India have decreased. This is according to World Bank (2011) who indicates that in India, through the process of poverty reduction has been slow; the government is doing its level best to hasten the pace of poverty reduction. This work also emphasizes that the reduction of poverty in India has improved as contrasted to the earlier periods. Even though the country is rated as one of the poorest in the globe, poverty cutback is an explanation of the fact that the proviso of services will get better, ranging from health services to

Remove Uncertainty for Iraqi Translators Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Remove Uncertainty for Iraqi Translators - Essay Example Tariq informed that after withdrawal of the US forces, he prefers to stay at home and spends most of his time in cultivating hobbies such as gardening, until the time he receives his visa to migrate to the US. Tariq is much dismayed at the delay in getting the visa and he feels that senior officers in the command that he worked for are also helpless in speeding up the visa process because of the several formalities and processes that have to be completed. Despite the validity of an American law that provides for expedited visas under provisions of the Special Immigrant Visa Program to almost 20,000 Iraqi citizens that worked for the US in Iraq, not much headway has yet been made in making it possible for these Iraqis to relocate to the US (US Immigration, 2011). Tariq is disappointed because despite having excellent recommendations from the US army officers with whom he worked, the State Department simply takes the plea that it is helpless because a number of security checks have to be carried out by several departments. During the talk on the radio, Marie from Rhode Island was the first to join in. Marie informed she too was in Baghdad for about one year and was required to work with interpreters. She was in agreement that interpreters often received threats and informed that two of them were shot dead while she was in Baghdad. She was aware that there is a great deal of paper work and red tape involved in getting these interpreters to migrate to the US, which is obviously very depressing.

Trends of violence in juvenile crimes Research Paper

Trends of violence in juvenile crimes - Research Paper Example This paper investigates the current trends in violent juvenile crimes and its reasons. Criminal and violent activities among children are increasing day by day because of the changing life styles among children. Lack of parental care, drug and alcohol addiction, influence of print media, television and internet upon children were some of the main reasons for the childish offenses. Adult crime and juvenile crime are dealt separately by the court. For example, shooting and killing of another person by an adult and a juvenile will be considered differently by the court. â€Å"There are somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 cases of child sexual abuse each year in the U.S.† (Understanding Juvenile Sex Offenders) â€Å"Juveniles account for about one-quarter of the sex offenses in the U.S.† (JONES, p.1) Most of the juveniles who suffered sexual abuse will hide it from the public view because of shame. Compared to adults, juvenile offenders are more dangerous since in most cases, their abusive behaviour will continue throughout their life span. Some of the juvenile crimes may not be much harmful to the society whereas some other crimes may be violent also. Gun usage is not controlled much in the American society and the juveniles are using it just like a toy in their hands. Even simple juvenile clashes result in shooting incidents which kill or injure lot of innocent people because of the immaturity. The accused terrorist, Mohammad Kazab, who has been caught alive from the recent Mumbai terrorist attack, has argued that he was not an adult, in the court where the trial of the Mumbai attack is going on. Whether it is right or wrong it is a proven fact that juveniles are currently engaged in more dangerous violent activities than before. AK 47 or Missile launchers are not a surprising thing for at least some of them. Reports from Sri Lanka have showed that the Liberation tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) have

Contemporary issues in employment relations - topic EMPLOYEE Essay

Contemporary issues in employment relations - topic EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT - Essay Example As part of organization, engagement of employees in the process line of production and running of organizations defines important tool in ensuring improved performance and institutional productivity. McLeod and Clarke (2011, pg. 1) define employee engagement as creation of opportunities for workers to interact with manager, colleagues and the wider organization. Engagement in employment setting also involves creation of environment that motivates employees and makes them want to link with work and care about performing their tasks appropriately. McLeod and Clarke elaborate that engaged employees are aware of the fundamentals of operation of a given business as well as its objectives and goals. Engaged employees also understand frameworks of practice prescribed by the given organization in ensuring achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. It is within these contexts that engaged employees work closely with their colleagues to improve job performance and maximize benefits for the given organization. According to McLeod and Clarke, it remains the responsibility of organization and its leadership to establish and nurture employee engagement that builds upon emplo yer-employee interrelationship. Effective employee engagement manifests through three items that include attitude, behavior and outcome. Attitude relates to feelings of loyalty and pride among employees that make them act responsibly and with great accountability. Behavior manifests when employees become great advocates of the individual organizations to clients or make extra efforts to complete a piece of task. Outcomes synonymous with effective employee engagement include low incidents of accident due to enhanced care when performing duties, higher productivity and reduced conflicts. In addition, outcomes also manifest through more innovativeness of employees, lower rates of sickness and few employee exits or resignations. McLeod and Clarke (2011, pg. 4) argue that

Womens Leisure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Womens Leisure - Essay Example However, derby is popularly known as a type of rough contact sport. This is the reason why both male and female players may allow themselves some form of violence, roughness or even cheating strategies if they believe they have to win. At my school, athletes are perceived as physically healthy individuals and ones who are popular among members of the opposite sex. Moreover, the girls’ and boys’ athletic programs are usually perceived as a way for athletes to improve not only their physical health but also their self-esteem and popularity. Personally, I watch men’s professional sports more than women’s, especially basketball as NBA is more exciting to me than WNBA. It is hard to say why but as a man who is into basketball myself, I would usually prefer watching men play sports than women do it. Perhaps, it is the relatively higher level of aggression in men’s professional sports that makes them widely watched compared to women’s. Nevertheless, occasionally I am amazed whenever I see a woman doing a man’s job, especially when professional female athletes get to be really rough on the field, in the court or in the ring. Sports are basically all about competition, and so people are expecting a good and rough fight. This is akin to something that will maintain the adrenalin rush. This is also the same feeling the Romans perhaps once had while watching gladiators kill each other at the bottom of the Colosseum more than two thousand years ago. When it comes to the movie Whip It, Bliss seems to show doubt about trying out for the derby team because she herself is an indecisive woman with no idea about what the future would bring her. Moreover, she does not believe her mother Brooke would be proud of her if she played derby. Brooke wants her to be a beauty contestant like her in the past. Moreover, Bliss may be hesitant at attempting to do derby. This is because she knew that in order to be a professional derby player, on e has to be extra tough although one is female. She may have observed this since the first time she saw the Hurl Scouts and Holly Rollers played. Bliss and Brooke are very different from each other when it comes to leisure and recreation. Brooke likes shopping and is into beauty contests and other activities that bring out the refined woman in her. She views herself as usually right in her decisions, opinions and perspectives. Nevertheless, she shows her humility and love as a mother. This is evident when she tells Bliss that the latter need not join the Blue Bonnet pageant if she is only doing it for her mother. On the other hand, Bliss is into professional derby, men like Oliver, and something that will bring out the best in her. Bliss’ desire to bring out the best in her somehow translates as a desire to join the hurl Scouts and defeat the Holy Rollers. Little does she know that it is one way for her to prove her own worth to herself. In the process, she also indirectly pr oves to her mother that she can make decisions of her own. Nevertheless, at several instances in the movie, Bliss does not feel that she is making the right decisions. Thus, compared to her mother, who is righteous most of the time, Bliss shows some indecisiveness. Furthermore, perhaps this is the same way Bliss views herself at the beginning of the movie – a young woman with no direction. This view, however, changes in the end as her mother accepts her decision to be on the professional derby team. This is also the point where Bliss realizes her calling (Barrymore). The way I see it, Brooke is just the strict, conservative mother that mothers are supposed to be. On the other hand, Bliss is the picture of an ordinary girl who defies her own parents’

Organisations and behaviour Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Organisations and behaviour - Coursework Example If managers are able to understand how different culture and structure can influence the performance of the organization, they will be able to manipulate their organizations performance through varying structure and culture of their institutions. Organizations can be defined as collection of individuals with an aim of achieving a common target (Flamholtz & Randle 2011, p.51). Therefore, every organization has a specific arrangement that determines the levels and flow of powers. This determines who is in charge of the others and also stipulates individuals’ status in the organization. The arrangement is determined by the functions individuals perform according to the area of their occupation. Individuals carry out the same task in the organization from time to time hence increases their work efficiency. This reduces the time of performing their duties hence saving cost of operation in the organization. Culture refers to the practices, standards and conducts that every individual member in an organization has to adhere to during their normal discharge of duties (Flamholtz & Randle 2011, p.54). Every organization has unique traditions that every member to that organization must uphold in order to be able to cope with other members and discharge their duties effectively (Fairfield-Sonn 2001, p.64). Therefore, the culture of each organization determines the conducts of the organizations’ employees and how the level of performance attained by the organization. Organizational structure defines the channel of flow of power within the workers in an organization (Jenks 2004). This streamline the flow of information within the organization as it moves from a specific source to the rest of the members. Organization structure affects individuals within an organization while organization culture may have a uniform impact on the organization (Jenks 2004). This is because structure

Exercise is Important for Fitness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Exercise is Important for Fitness - Essay Example Regular exercise is an important measure of good health and fitness. If we do not work out our bodies in the form of exercises, we will lose the freshness and fitness that is necessary to keep our bodies in shape. Our bodies need exercise in order to prevent diseases. Regular exercise prevents heart diseases, cancer, high blood pressure and obesity. It improves our look and increases longevity since aging slows down. It improves the stamina of body to do regular tasks. For example, aerobic exercises make us use energy for the continuous and rhythmical motions. So, our stamina builds up, and when we have to do similar tasks, our bodies need less energy because they have been tuned. Moreover, exercises strengthen our bones and tone our bodies so that they remain in perfect shape. For example, exercising with weights develops muscles and strengthens ligaments which results in increased potency and endurance. Stretching exercises like abdominal stretching increases flexibility and improves posture. They help our bodies to move, twist and turn more flexibly. Our weight also gets controlled since we burn the extra calories which are not required by our bodies. Burning more calories than we take in helps us lose weight. In short, exercises are an excellent means of keeping our bodies fit and in perfect working condition. Since the quality of life increases due to reduced bodily stress and controlled weight, we can say that exercises are very important for our health and longevity.

Libraire Gallimard Essay Example for Free

Libraire Gallimard Essay With people nowadays trying find the meaning of their existence and the true way to live, one can understand why there would be confusion among the members of society since there will, inevitably, exist differences and approaches on how to find the answers one is looking for. Yet we tend to forget the basics and focus on the outside, on the world and let other people dictate how we are supposed to live our lives and who we are supposed to be. I, on the other hand, believe that existentialism is the only way to truly live one’s life. To live is to ‘hold the reigns’ and refuse to let other people define how you must act. Quoting one of the passages from the book by Albert Camus entitled The Stranger: â€Å"With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still. † The protagonist in the novel clearly demonstrates the basic idea of existentialism—where man is free and is the author of his life and his decisions help shape his destiny, personality and where his life will lead him; a man who is free also asserts himself and does not conform and is â€Å"against totality or the collectivity or any tendency to depersonalization. † (Copleston 22). The protagonist, in the end, realized the indifference of the cosmos and accepted the fact that in the end, there is no meaning and letting one’s care (for how other people see him) control him entraps him in the label that is ‘unhappy’ when in fact he was happy all along. With these tendencies, it is not surprising that individuals themselves forget how to live and concentrate on pleasing others by living by the terms that are imposed by other people. In the novel, The Stranger, the protagonist was on trial for the murder of a man—what condemned him in the end was not the murder itself but for the fact that he refused to show remorse at his mother’s wake, which is absurd. Yet, if we think about it, in principle, those situations tend to happen, from simple gossip of ordinary people to the accusations hurled by powerful figures in the government. People tend to set a definition of good or evil, what is socially acceptable and what is not; the tendency is that people are trapped by these set definitions whereas in the total schema of things, life and the world itself is meaningless. There is no real definition since definition itself is manmade. In the end, the protagonist realized that he was happy and he was free despite the fact that other people have ‘defined’ him as a heartless murderer and an indifferent son. Most of us tend to take into consideration how other people see us; how we ‘fit in’ our society and refuse to be ostracized and be different; example is the wake of the protagonist’s mother in the novel. In a wake of a loved one, one is expected to show remorse. If one fails to do so, one is automatically branded negatively. If one would let go of these ‘cares’ and live life according to their definition, one can be happier and can truly live. What is ‘happiness’ or ‘being alive’ for us will and must be defined by none other than ourselves; for if we let other people set the standards for ‘happiness’ and ‘living’, it is not our ‘happiness’ and ‘life’ but theirs. Of course, one must never see existentialism as an excuse to murder a man or commit a wrong—one should always remember that even if ‘existentialists’ would live life by their own definitions, these people are still principled people and answer to themselves. Works Cited: Camus, Albert. The Stranger. France: Libraire Gallimard, 1943. Copleston, F. C. â€Å"Existentialism. † Philosophy Vol. 23, (1948): 19-37.

Harley Davidson’s Just-in-Time Essay Example for Free

Harley Davidson’s Just-in-Time Essay This case is about the Just-in-Time (JIT) implementation at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. After World War II, they faced  with  competition from Japanese companies, which were able to produce better quality motorcycles at comparatively lower cost. Harley-Davidson found that there were three most important practices of Japanese companies, which differentiated their production process from that of others: JIT manufacturing, employee involvement, and statistical process control. Harley-Davidson adopted those three principles and formulated different strategies to make this move possible and to make its manufacturing processes as efficient as that of its Japanese counterparts. The company finally succeeded in achieving its goals of reducing the cost of production, improving quality, and increasing its market share. With the company again getting into hard times, this case presents how it was trying to focus on â€Å"continuous improvement† in a bid to bring itself back into profits. Question #1: Why has continuous improvement been so successful at Harley Davidson? Continuous improvement is ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek â€Å"incremental† improvement over time or â€Å"breakthrough† improvement all at once. Under continuous improvement, a task or series of tasks were identified as the problem area in the business process, manufacturing operations, and product development where improvement could be made. Harley-Davidson required the active participation and commitment of its employees to help in eliminating unnecessary steps and complexity for the process and to bring more flexibility into the system. Continuous improvement helped the company identify savings opportunities and put those mechanisms into places, also improved the quality standards and the reduced the waste in the forms of cost, time and defects. Therefore with a year, all Harley-Davidson’s manufacturing operations were being converted to JIT: components and sub-assemblies were â€Å"pulled† through the production system in response to final demand. Question #2: Considering the road ahead, what specific actions can Harley Davidson take that will move them toward their goals? Harley Davidson could keep doing â€Å"continuous improvement. Take a closer look at its operations in a bid to get its cost structure right and manage shipments consistent with the expected slowing of consumer spending. For continuous improvement, its begins with identify the current process and take a vote on which process would most benefit from improvement, then map out the existing process using a project board like A3 report. After fully understand the process, identify areas of opportunity surrounding the mapped process, to do this teams should analyze the current process and scrutinize areas that may be streamlined. Finally, the team will decide on a new process. In order to reduce excess capacity or costs and gain efficiencies, the company has consolidated some of its production facilities, and parts, accessories and general merchandise distribution operations to improve its overall process. The company also made it a high priority to manage supply in line with demand. In addition, the company started restructuring its production process to reduce complexity and create the flexibility to produce multiple product families on the same assembly line every day at the beginning of 2009.

Production Of Speech Sounds English Language Essay

Production Of Speech Sounds English Language Essay The production of speech sounds involves two essential components: initiating a flow of air in and through the vocal tract; Some method of shaping or articulating the air-stream so as to generate a specific type of sound articulation; A third component, present in most, but not all sounds phonation. Initiation Initiators: lungs in English the only initiator (in other languages also closed glottis or tongue (combined with velar closure). Lungs sponges that can fill in with the air, contained within the rib cage. The expiratory air stream is further processed to bronchi, then to trachea/windpipe and then the larynx  [1]  . The space between the vocal cords/vocal folds is the glottis. Articulation Organs participating in articulation are called articulators (above the larynx): Pharynx  [2]   a tube stretching from above the larynx, its top end is divided into two parts: One part being the back of the mouth; The other part beginning off the way through the nasal cavity. In the production of English sounds it serves mainly as a container of a volume of air that is set into vibration in accordance with the vocal folds vibration  [3]   Oral cavity plays the most important role. It is within the oral cavity that the greatest variety of articulatory motions occurs. The articulatory organs in the mouth: i/ passive the maxilla, the teeth, the alveolar ridge, the hard palate. ii/ active the jaw, the lower lip, the soft palate. The velum/soft palate raised (the airflow cannot escape through the nose) or lowered a (the air passes through the nose). The most active organ in the mouth is the tongue. The tongue: the tip (apex), the blade (dorsum) and the root (radix). The outer end of the mouth is provided with the upper and lower lip. The vibration of the vocal folds inside the larynx/voice box produces the sound of voice and this process is called phonation. The larynx is situated in the neck. It has several parts; its main structure is made of cartilage (material similar to bone but less hard). The larynx consists of four cartilages: 1 cartilago thyreoidea 2 cartilago cricoidea 3 cartilagines arytenoideae 4 epiglottis covering the entrance into the larynx Inside the larynx there are vocal folds (two thick flaps of muscle rather like a pair of lips). At the front the vocal folds are joined together and fixed to the inside of the thyroid cartilage. At the back they are attached to a pair of small cartilages called arytenoid cartilages, so that if the arytenoid cartilages move, the vocal folds will move too. The arytenoid cartilages are attached to the top of the cricoid cartilage but they can move so as to move the vocal folds apart or together. The term glottis is used to refer to the opening between the vocal folds. States of the glottis: 1. Not vibrating: 1) If the vocal folds are closely together and they part after the final phase of articulation Voiceless Plosives 2) If the vocal folds are loosely open, no vibration, no voice is produced Voiceless Fricatives and Affricates are produced. 3) If the vocal folds are held closely only in their front part, the cartilage-like part is set apart Glottal Fricative (the sound /h/) is produced. 2. Vibrating: Further narrowing of the glottis brings it into position for the production of voice. The vocal folds can be held closely together and vibrate. This produces tones /vowels. The vocal folds can be loosely together and their vibration is weak. This produces: Voiced Plosives, Affricates and Fricatives. The number of cycles of opening and closing the glottis per second is referred to as the fundamental frequency of voice (Hz). A single cycle happens in the region of 1/100th second, therefore, the cycle repeats at the rates in the region of between approximately 80-200 cycles per second. This rate is far too rapid for the human ear to be able to distinguish each individual opening /closing of the folds. However, human ear is able to perceive variations in the overall rate of vibration as changes in the pitch of the voice  [4]  . The vibration averages roughly between 200 and 300 times per second in a womans voice and about half that rate in adult men. Acoustic aspect Sound is formed by means of the vibration of air molecules and is transmitted in sound waves in all directions. The voice comes into existence on the basis of vocal folds vibration. The periodic vibration gives rise to tone, whereas aperiodic vibration results in the production of noise. The tone is characterized by three basic qualities: The pitch given by the frequency of the vibrations in cps. The pitch is in direct proportion to the number of cps and in indirect proportion to the cycles period. The intensity is the amount of energy transmitted through the air. It is related to the amplitude of vibration. The intensity is proportionate to the square of the amplitude. The timbre is given by the composition of the tone. Simple tones are non existent because any object vibrates not only as a whole but also in its individual parts. The vocal folds vibrate in such a manner that in addition to the fundamental frequency (a basic vibration over their length) they produce a number of overtones or harmonics which are simple multiples of the fundamental or first harmonic. The combination of these components makes up the acoustic spectrum. A visible recording of speech is produced by computer analysis and it refers to the following dimensions: Time / duration on the horizontal axis, given in ms Frequency on the vertical axis, given in cycles per second Intensity indicated by relative blackness of the markings. The component bands are called formants and are numbered from bottom upwards. It is the first two formants (F1 and F2) that contribute most to the distinctive character of the vowels. From articulatory point of view F1 is correlated with tongue height (the pharyngeal formant), F2 with front-to-back tongue placing (the oral formant). Auditory aspect The perception of a sound is mediated by the brain rather than by ear itself. The ear has three major functions: To collect stimuli To transmit them To analyze them. The upper limit of frequency which can be perceived is maximum 20, 000 cps. The ear is subdivided into the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear leads to the ear drum. The middle ear is a small air-filled cavity containing a chain of three tiny bones connected to the ear drum at one end and the inner ear at the other. The main part of the inner ear is the cochlea shaped like a snails shell whose function is to convert sound vibrations into nerve impulses. Speech sounds are perceived in terms of four categories (pitch, loudness, quality and length). The categories are subjective and must not be equated exactly with the related physiological and physical categories. Consonants: Plosives, Fortis Lenis The differences between vowels and consonants are in the way they are produced (vowels voices, consonants noises); vowels fulfill the role of the peak of the syllable whereas consonants fulfill the marginal function.. Classification of consonants see Chart of Consonants (P. Roach, p.62). It is customary to divide consonants into several groups according to several criteria. The most important are: According to their place of articulation According to their manner of articulation A/ Classification according to the manner of articulation: The articulators involved form a closure: /p, t, k/; /b, d, g /. The consonants produced in this way are called Stops/Plosives. The articulators involved form a narrowing (as for /f, v, s, z,  Ã¢â‚¬ ,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾,  Ã¢â‚¬Å",  Ã… ¡, h/). The consonants produced in this way are called Fricatives. The articulators form a closure combined with a narrowing (as for t Ã¢â‚¬Å", d Ã… ¡). The consonants produced in this way are called Affricates. Plosives As for place of articulation: bilabial, apico-alveolar, velar. Plosives four phases (approach, hold, release, post-release). Distributions All the three plosives in all positions: initial, medial and final. Initial position: CV In /p, t, k/ during the transition to voiced sound the wide-open glottis takes some time to close sufficiently so that the vocal folds can start vibrating, consequently there is a period of voicelessness aspiration (puff of air). Final position: VC The syllables closed by voiceless consonants are considerably shorter than those that are open, or closed by voiced consonants. Fricatives They include /f,  Ã¢â‚¬ , s, v,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾, z, h/. Manner of articulation: Two organs are brought and held sufficiently close together for the escaping air-stream to produce strong friction. This friction may or may not be accompanied by voice. A/ Place of articulation: /f, v/ labiodental / Ã¢â‚¬ , Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ dental /s, z/ alveolar / Ã¢â‚¬Å",  Ã… ¡/ palato-alveolar /h/- glottal Length of the preceding sound: The value of the final /f,  Ã¢â‚¬ , s, v,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾, z/ is determined by the length of the syllable which they close. Dental fricatives: / Ã¢â‚¬ ,  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ / Ã¢â‚¬ / spelling: always th distribution: word initial, word medial, word final; word initial clusters, word final clusters / Ã¢â‚¬Å¾/ spelling: always th distribution: word initial, word medial, word final; word initial clusters /d/ does not occur in initial clusters, word final clusters Manner place of articulation: The tip of the tongue makes a light contact with the edge and inner surface of the upper front teeth. With some speakers the tongue-tip may protrude through the teeth. Affricates Affricates are complex consonants, beginning as plosives and ending as fricatives (Roach). Palato-alveolar Affricates /t Ã¢â‚¬Å", d/ /t Ã¢â‚¬Å"/ when final in syllable: effect of reducing the length of the preceding sounds. Nasals Bilabial nasal /m/ Alveolar nasal: / Ã‚ ®/ Velar nasal: / Ã… ½/ (spellings: ng or n followed by a letter indicating a velar consonant: tongue, anxious) distribution: word medial: singer, hanger, anxiety; word medial + g: finger, angle, angry, hunger; word medial + k: anchor, monkey, donkey; word final: sing, wrong, tongue; word final + k: sink, rank; word final syllabic: bacon, taken, organ Roach: rules for the pronunciation of the nk and ng digraphs: in nk the /k/ is always pronounced in ng the following /g/ is pronounced in mono-morphemic words (finger, anger, linger) and in comparatives superlatives of adjectives (younger, the longest) otherwise the /g/ following the / Ã… ½/ is never pronounced!!! Laterals Articulatory features: articulated by means of a partial closure, on one or both sides of which the air-stream is able to escape through the mouth. Only one, alveolar, lateral consonant occurs in E. Within the /l/ phoneme 3 main variants occur: a/ clear /l/, with a relatively front vowel resonance, before vowels and /j/ Roach /i/ resonance b/ voiceless /l/ following accented (aspirated) /p, k/ (less considerable devoicing after /f, s,  Ã¢â‚¬ /, or weakly accented /p, t, k/) c/ dark /l/, with a relatively back vowel resonance, finally after a vowel, before a consonant, and as a syllabic sound following a consonant Roach u resonance Clear /l/ the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate at the same time as the tip contact is made. Dark /l/ the front of the tongue somewhat depressed and the back raised in the direction of the soft palate. Approximants /r/ Distribution: word initial (red, raw), word medial, intervocalic (mirror, very), word final /r-link/ (far away, poor old man); in consonantal clusters (price, crow) Manner place of articulation: the tip of the tongue held in a position near to, but not touching, the rear part of the alveolar ridge. Lip position according to the following vowel. BBC /r/ distribution: only before a vowel. /j/ palatal /w/ labio-velar English vowels: short vowels long vowels Vowels are specified in terms of 3 parameters: vertical tongue position (high low; close half-close half-open open) horizontal tongue position (front back) lip-position (unrounded rounded) In accented syllables the so-called long vowels are fully long when they are final or in a syllable closed by a voiced consonant, but they are considerably shortened when they occur in a syllable closed by a voiceless consonant. The same considerable shortening before fortis consonants applies also to the diphthongs. Diphthongs The sequences of vocalic elements included under the term diphthong are those which form a glide within one syllable. They have a 1st element (the starting point) and a 2nd element (the point in the direction of which the glide is made). BBC diphthongs: 1st element is in the general region of / Ã¢â‚¬ °, e, a, ÊÅ  , Ɔ , Æ / 2nd element is in the general region of / Ã¢â‚¬ °, ÊÅ  , Æ / division into closing (direction towards / Ã¢â‚¬ °, ÊÅ  / and centering (direction towards /Æ /. Generalizations referring to all RP diphthongs: 1/ Most of the length and stress associated with the glide is concentrated on the 1st element, the 2nd one is only lightly sounded; in Slovak the ratio between the lengths of the two elements1:1, in English it is approximately 2:1; 2/ They are equivalent in length to long vowels and are subject to the same variations in length; in the reduced forms there is a considerable shortening of the 1st element; 3/ No diphthong occurs before /ņ¹/; Phonetics Phonology Phonetics phonology are the two linguistic sciences investigating the phonic aspect of language communication and its generalization in the minds of the language users. Phonetics investigates the phonic material of speech (the sounds). The speech sounds are analyzed from two aspects; Aspect of the speaker/producer; Hearer/receiver. The former aspect covers the activity of articulatory organs, the latter: the transmission of acoustic entities perceived by the listener and the process of decoding. According to the subject of investigation, phonetics is further subdivided into: i/ genetic/articulatory production of speech sounds ii/ acoustic transmission of sounds, acoustic characteristics of speech sounds iii/ auditory perception of speech sounds Phonology speech sounds from the aspect of their function they fulfill within a linguistic system, how they are organized into systems, how they are utilized in languages and what the relationships among them are. We can divide speech up into segments and we can find great variety in the way these segments are made (their pronunciation differs from speaker to speaker; even the same speaker never pronounces the same segment in the same way. But there is an abstract set of units as the basis of our speech; otherwise we would not be able to understand other speakers of the same language, communication among people would be impossible. These units are called phonemes, and the complete set of these units is called the phonemic system of the language. The phonemes themselves are abstract (the sound patterns stored in our mental grammar), we do not produce phonemes, we produce sounds or phones. Phonemes are the minimal sequential contrastive units of the phonology of languages, (Catford). contrastive: phonemes are contrastive in the sense that they are the bits of sound that distinguish one word from another: bit , pit: solely by the contrast between the initial consonants /p/ /b/ the two words are distinguished. The bits of sound manifesting these contrasts are phonemes. minimal: phonemes are minimal units, because if you take a stretch of speech and chop it up into a sequence of phonological units, the shortest stretch of speech sounds that functions as a contrastive unit in the buildup of the phonological forms of words is the phoneme. The phonological structure of English, like that of other languages, can be described as a hierarchy of units. The largest, or most inclusive, unit in English is the intonation contour or tone-group: Jane was here yesterday. We can chop up each tone-unit into smaller units, namely into successive rhythmic units, or feet: (the fact that these feet are contrastive, meaning differentiating units, is demonstrated by the fact that we could divide the utterance into feet differently, and this would convey a slightly different meaning). Next, we can divide each foot into still smaller chunks, namely into a sequence of syllables. Finally, we can divide up each syllable into a sequence of still smaller units and here it is necessary for us to go into phonetic transcription: At this point we can do no further chopping. We have reached the lowest rank in the phonological hierarchy, the smallest sequential; or linear units phonemes. There are no smaller meaning-differentiating units. Sequential: following in sequence. Phoneme an abstract unit operating on the level language as a system. Symbols Transcription Types of Transcription 1/i/ Phonological transcription, phonemic transcription: The choice of symbols is limited to one symbol per one phoneme. 2/ Phonetic transcription: Very detailed, each single realization of a sound is recorded. The Syllable Human beings cannot produce a sound smaller than a syllable. The syllable seems to be the essential unit of speech segmentation and speech recognition. J. Lavers definition of the phonological syllable is as follows: The syllable is a complex unit, made up of nuclear and marginal elements. Nuclear elements are vowels, and marginal elements are consonants. A/ Languages differ in syllable types: The minimum syllable V (I, Oh); CV (consonantal beginning an onset): (e.g. me) open syllable; VC (consonantal end a coda): (e.g. am) closed syllable; Some syllables have both onset and coda: (e.g. him). The most common type of syllable among the languages of the world is CV. CVC is also common among the languages of the world. English syllables: a wide variety of syllable types, both open and closed. B/ Languages also differ on constraints on the segments which can occur at the beginning or end of a syllable. No syllable in E can begin with /ņ¹/; /Ê’/ and /ÊÅ  / are rare. Almost any consonant can occur in syllable-final position, except for /h/, /j/, /w/, /r/ (only in rhotic accents). Syllable types in E: Beginning: a vowel (see the constraints above), one, two or three consonants. Ending: a vowel, one, two, three or four consonants. Syllable structures in English: Beginning: a vowel zero onset (/ÊÅ  / rare); a consonant except for /ņ¹/, /Ê’/ having an onset; two or more consonants a consonant cluster. C/ Initial two-consonant clusters: i/ pre-initial /s/ is followed by one of about 10 initial consonants (p, t, k; f; m, n; l; w, j, r); with /l, r, w, j/ a two-way analysis is possible (e.g.: slow, sky, swim); ii/ initial (p, t, k; b, d, g; f, ÆÅ ¸, s, h, v; m, n; l) followed by a post-initial /l, r, w, j/ (e.g. proud, queen, friend). D/ Initial three-consonant clusters: There is a clear relationship between the two groups: /s/ is the pre-initial /p, t, k/ are initial and /l, r, w, j/ are post-initial (e.g. split, square, strike). E/ Final consonant clusters: No final consonant means that there is no coda, i.e. it is an open syllable. One consonant means that the syllable is closed. Any consonant except for /h/, /w/, /j/, /r/ can occur in syllable-final position. F/ Two-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final (m, n, ņ¹, l, s) is followed by a final (e.g. bend, bench ask); ii/ a final consonant is followed by a post-final /s, z, t, d, ÆÅ ¸/ (e.g. fifth. asks, robbed). The post-final consonant often corresponds to a separate morpheme. Pronunciation: the release of the first plosive of a plosive + plosive cluster is usually produced without plosion and is therefore practically inaudible. G/ Final three-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final + final + post-final: (e.g. helped, twelfth); ii/ final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 (e.g. fifths, next); H/ Final four-consonant clusters: i/ pre-final + final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 (e.g. twelfths); ii/ final + post-final 1 + post-final 2 + post-final 3 (e.g. sixths). The syllable: onset + rhyme / peak + coda Difficulties encountered by foreign learners: Unknown consonant clusters: usually two strategies are applied: i/ vowels between the consonants are inserted; ii/ one of the consonants is deleted. That is simplification of the syllable structure of the E word by making it conform to the pattern of the native languages of the learners. Deletion exists in E but these deletions do not occur randomly. Stress in English The syllable or syllables which stand out from the the other szllable or szllables of a word are said to be stressed, to receive the stress. Gimson: a stressed syllable the one upon which there is relatively great breath effort and muscular energy. As for perception the stressed syllables are perceived to be more prominent because they are louder, longer, pronounced on the pitch different from that of the other syllables and they contain a vowel sound differing in its quality from neighboring vowels. The most powerful effect is produced by pitch, the length comes second, loudness and quality of the vowel sounds is less important. Types of stress: (Kenworthy): Three levels of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary are heard in long E words: i/ when said in isolation; ii/ the word is in a position in a sentence where it is very strongly stressed; iii/ full vowels are used. Placement of stress: English stress is: A/ Variable, i.e. the main stress is not tied to any particular syllable (in Slovak it has delimitative function, i.e. denotes word boundaries; in E it has distinctive function, i.e. it differentiates the meanings of words); B/ Fixed, i.e. the main stress always falls on a particular syllable in any given word; C/ Mobile, i.e. having become familiar with one form of a word, learners will assume that the stress stays on the same syllable in other forms of the word (or they will assume that prefixes and suffixes make no difference to the placement of the stress) but this is not the case of the E language (e.g. photography photographer photograph; advertising advertiser advertisement; librarianship librarian library). Word Stress Rules When considering the stress placement several factors should be taken into account: the structure of the word (whether the word in question is a simple or complex); the grammatical category of the word (noun, adjective or verb) the number of the syllables in the word; the phonological structure of the syllables. 1. The structure of the word: Simple word not consisting of more than one grammatical unit morpheme (although this is sometimes difficult to decide); Complex words two major types: i/ words made from a basic stem word with the addition of an affix (derived words) affixes: two sorts: prefixes and suffixes. They have three possible effects on word stress: the affix itself receives the primary stress (i.e. -ee, ese); the affix will not influence the placement of stress, (i.e. -ing the word will be stressed just as if the affix was not there); The stress remains on the stem, not on the affix, but it is shifted to different syllable (i.e. magnet magnetic). ii/ compound words made of two (or occasionally more) independent E words. There is no clear dividing line between two-word compounds and pairs of words that simply happen to occur together quite frequently. Spelling inconsistency: solid (one word, e.g. sunflower); words separated by a hyphen (e.g. fruit-cake, whistle-blower, cabinet-maker); two words separated by a space (e.g. coffee table, tax inspector, weather forecast). Word stress rules 2. The number of the syllables syllable structure TWO-SYLLABLE WORDS Verbs: Oo 60%. If the second syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant the second syllable is stressed (e.g. apply, attract, achieve). If the final syllable contains a short vowel and one/no consonant or the diphthong / Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬ ¢/ the first syllable is stressed (e.g. enter, open, follow). Adjectives: follow the verbs (e.g. lovely, even, hollow, divine, correct). Nouns: Oo 90%. If the second syllable contains a short vowel, the stress will usually come on the first syllable. (e.g. table, sofa, picture). Otherwise it will be on the second syllable (e.g. estate, balloon). Adverbs, Prepositions: behave like verbs and adjectives (e.g. evenly, correctly). THREE-SYLLABLE WORDS Verbs: oOo, ooO. If the last syllable contains a short vowel and ends with not more than one consonant that syllable will be unstressed and the stress will be placed on the preceding/penultimate syllable (e.g. encounter, determine). If the last syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or ends with more than one consonant, that final syllable will be stressed (e.g. entertain, resurrect). Nouns: Ooo, oOo. If the final syllable contains a short vowel and the middle syllable contains a short vowel and ends with no more than one consonant, both final and middle syllables will be unstressed and the first syllable will get the stress (e.g. library). If the final consonant contains a short vowel or /Éâ„ ¢u/, it is unstressed if the middle syllable contains a long vowel/diphthong, or it ends with more than one consonant, the middle syllable will be stressed (e.g. potato, mimosa, disaster). Adjectives: follow the nouns (e.g. derelict, insolent). DERIVED WORDS Prefixes stress rules governed by the same rules as in words without prefixes. Suffixes: carrying stress themselves (e.g. -ee, -ese, -eer, -ette); not affecting the stress placement (e.g. -able, -al, -ful, -less); influencing the stress in the stem (e.g. -ive, -ic, -ion, -ious); stress on the penultimate syllable (e.g. words ending in -phy (e.g. photography); -cy (e.g. democracy); -ty (e.g. reliability); -gy (e.g. prodigy); -al (e.g. critical). COMPOUNDS Nouns: Two noun elements: the first element stressed (e.g. typewriter, suitcase, sunflower). Adjectives: Adjective + -ed: the second element is stressed (e.g. bad-tempered); first element a number: the second element is stressed (e.g. first-class, five-finger, three-wheeler) Adverbs, Verbs: usually final stressed (e.g. ill-treat, down-stream, North-East, half-timbered). Note: What a beautiful black bird! Look at that big blackbird! Stress tending to go on syllables containing a long vowel/diphthong and /or ending with more than one consonant. 3. The grammatical category of the word nouns, adjectives, verbs. Compounds nouns usually stressed on the first element (e.g. summertime, grandfather, silverware, schoolteacher, bathtub). When the second element is a polysyllabic word it retains its stress pattern, but when speaking more rapidly, the stress of the second element may be lost (the secondary stress, e.g. trade exhibition). Some compound nouns late stress exceptions: Late stress: First element material, ingredient the second element is made of (e.g. plastic cup, turkey sandwich, cherry pie). Compounds containing juice, cake take an early stress!!! (e.g. fruit juice, fruit cake, lemon juice). Names of squares and roads thoroughfares (roads for public traffic, e.g. Walnut Avenue, Cambridge Crescent, Belgrade Square, Oxford Drive). Those containing street, however, have an early stress (e.g. Baker Street). The first element identifies a place or a time (e.g. town hall, kitchen window, summer holiday, London transport, April showers). Sentence Stress In sequences (sentence, clause, discourse) not all the words are equally important, which in E is shown by means of sentence stress and sentence focus. Why is it important? As listeners, it is essential that we are able to spot points of importance in the stream of speech; As speakers, we must highlight points in our messages, or E listeners will have difficulty in interpreting what they hear, in deciding how it relates to what has just been said and predicting what the speaker is possibly leading up to. Thus sentence stress and sentence focus are vital for intelligibility. The placement of sentence stress is closely related to the function the word fulfills within a sentence. According to their function the words in E are divided into: Content words/lexical words; Grammar words/function words/structure words. The former bear the lexical meaning while the latter are structural markers, denoting grammatical categories and syntactic relations. The classes appear to have physiological and neurological validity. Some brain damaged persons have greater difficulty in using, understanding or reading content words and structure words (e.g. in inn; which witch). Content words normally carry the most of information. They generally have in connected speech the qualitative pattern of their isolate form and therefore retain some measure of qualitative prominence even when no pitch prominence is associated with them and when they are relatively unstressed. Structure words do not carry so much information. They do not have a dictionary meaning in the way we normally expect nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs to have. All structure words

Argument Against Gun Control :: Second Amendment The Right To Bear Arms

Gun Control is when you keep firearms plus guns away from people. Many people think that gun control is right because they think keeping people away from guns will reduce the amount of deaths each year. They also think that guns cause many of the deaths that had been committed each year. Also when ever people hear the word gun, the thoughts are of violence and negativity. Many people, myself included think gun control is wrong because we know that it is not necessary, since we know that guns were not involved in many of the deaths caused each year. While many other people disagree and think it is good because of the safety for people. In this essay I will tell you why gun control is unnecessary and why there shouldn?t be any gun control at all. There have been many gun control laws established throughout the U.S., but they vary from state to state. For example, in Colorado you can purchase any type of gun: handgun, machine gun, shotgun, rifle, automatic rifle, etc. at the age of 18, while in other places you would need a hunting license.1 I think this is unfair because when I?m at the age of 18 I would want to buy a gun, but I can?t because I?m living in California and another 18 year old could in Colorado. Also, another example is that in some states, they allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, while in other states citizens can?t. I don?t think this is fair at all because I think they should make laws that suits the whole U.S., and not make different laws in different states. Another reason that makes me think that they shouldn?t have different gun control laws in different places is because I knew a person that buys guns in New York, and some how got them over here and sells them to people by tripling the price. I have asked him how he got them over here, but he never told me how he did it. He told me that he has done this for many years until one time he got caught when he was selling them and was jailed for 6 or 7 months. If gun control laws were applied the same in every place he could of never have gotten the guns. This also means that criminals could have done the same thing that my friend had done, but not sell the guns but use them to do bad things.

Picasso Essay -- essays research papers fc

Art represents beauty. It represents the soul and spirit of the artist. It's a form of communication that the artist can use as a substitution for words. Art has flourished the world for thousands of years and it has no intentions on stopping. One of "the most important figure's in modern art" (Selfridge, 15) is a man by the name of Pablo Picasso. He has taken the world into many places and has enabled us to see many abstract creations through his artwork alone. (Selfridge, 20) Born on October 25, 1881, Picasso was a miracle right from the start. There were complications with birth and everyone was sure that he wasn't going to make it, but then Picasso's uncle, Salvador Ruiz, was able to make this tragedy a miracle. He "exhaled a puff of cigar smoke into the baby's nostrils and suddenly†¦, he joined the world of the living"(Selfridge, 23). Picasso's miraculous ways didn't end there. He was soon to become one of the most well known artists of all times. Picass o's love for art was somewhat genetic. (Duncun, 45) His father, Jose Ruiz Blasco, was a painter as well and he loved art. Picasso was quick to express his desire for art. At the age of four, he was drawing detailed pictures with astounding results. (Duncun, 47) During school, Picasso would pay little if any attention to his work or the lecture that the teacher was giving. Instead, he spent his time making sketches of his fellow classmates. (Duncun, 52) At the age of 13, Picasso was enrolled at an art school where his father taught, and suddenly his academic habits changed. He began to apply himself to his work, showing interest in what he was doing, and his grades showed a vast improvement. (Galwitz, 92) The family moved to Malaga and on the way there they stopped at their uncle Salvador's house. While they were there, Salvador was so intrigued by Picasso's work that he provided him with a studio and an allowance. (Galwitz, 95) The family moved to Barcelona and Picasso attended scho ol at the Lota, a school of fine arts. He was beyond everyone else in the school and it wasn't much of a challenge. (Galwitz, 96) Picasso continued to paint, but he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more and had dreams to revolutionize painting. He realized that the only way of doing this would be to attend Madrid's Royal Academy of San Fernando, which is well known for having the most demanding artistic trainin... ...ciety" area c. very quickly moved back to less elite area d. started an affair with 18 year old Marie Theresa Walter J. Served as a director of a Spain's Prado Museum 1. Painted a mural for the Spanish Pavilion K. Nazi Party 1. Harassed Picasso a. taking and damaging his paintings 2. Prohibited displaying his work 3. Was over when liberated from Germans L. Joined communist Party M. Met Francoise Gilot 1. Was 40 years younger than him 2. Moved in together 3. Had a son in 1947, daughter in 1949 N. Won Lenon Peace Prize O. Health Problems 1. in 1965,at age of 83, health started to fail 2. in 1973 passed away P. Conclusion 1. Many great achievements 2. Art genius 3. Was committed to life 4. Personal Comment Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Ø Duncun, David Douglas. Goodbye Picasso. New York: Grossel & Dunlap; 1974. Ø Galwitz, Klaus. Picasso at 90; The Late Work. New York: G.P. Putman's Sons; 1971. Ø Jaffe, Hans L.C. Picasso. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1983. Ø Selfridge, John W. Pablo Picasso. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994. Ø Wertenbaker, Lael. The World of Picasso 1881-1973. New York: Time-Life Books, 1967

Educating Children about the Effects of Smoking :: Cigarettes Smoking Nicotine Education Essays

Educating Children about the Effects of Smoking Many children are unaware of the effects of smoking cigarettes. Children do not know that they can cause cancer. Are companies influencing adults or little children? Cartoons easily impress children at a young age. Cartoons promote violence laughter. Cartoons like Joe Camel promote the use of tobacco.† Old Joe Camel because they believe that such figures will appeal to adult smokers and encourage them to change brands.† As if cartoon interest adults over 18 years of age. Cartoons like Joe Camel is more likely to appeal to a younger generation. As I see little kid’s eyes stuck to the television screen, watching the famous cartoons that they like, the cartoons have these characteristics; they have bright colors and they act cool. I noticed that they like those cartoon. â€Å"old Joe Camel has demonstrated appeal and recognition among young youth†. Joe Camel has the same characteristics he wears bright clothes and wears sunglasses. Wearing sunglasses has always been â€Å"cool† to wear. And as they see Joe Camel acting cool they notice that smoking is also cool. Those commercials show that smoking is cool. The boy’s dream of becoming a cowboy has always existed in little kids. â€Å" cowboys on the open range (the Marlboro image). Have long been a part of childhood fantasy.† I as a child also had that fantasy. My little brother likes to wear tight jeans, squared shirts and his cowboy hat. He admires the real cowboys he even has a plastic horse he rides in. one day I caught him with a stick saying it is a â€Å"cigaro† (cigarette). â€Å"undoubtably , some adults also respond to these campaigns.† If the Marlboro appeals adults figure what ensures us that kids would not. Kids are very easily to be influenced by what may seem cool. Tobacco industries abuse the innocence of children with these advertisements. Smoking is an expensive habit. The average cost of a pack is $3.00 and the average smoker smokes a pack a day. In one year that’s wasting about $1095 or more a year! That’s a lot of money. The Tobacco industry makes billions of dollars each year and they don’t care about your existence all they want is your money.

Reaction Paper to Common Schools Essay

When I first started watching this video, I thought that it was just going to be another boring homework assignment like in all my other classes. To my surprise, the video actually wasn’t boring at all. I enjoyed watching it and would recommend it to anyone to watch. I enjoy informative videos and documentaries. What stands out in my mind about the video is how God was actually brought up and taught in the schools back then. The children were given the book The Primer and the hornbook which had a prayer in it. It’s crazy how much has changed since that time. Now in many schools when the Pledge of Allegiance is said, people will leave out â€Å"under God† because nobody wants to offend anybody who doesn’t believe in God. Even now when I look back at my elementary days, times have changed quite a bit. I remember when my teachers would have the class pray before we would go to eat lunch. As I child, I never thought that it was a bad thing to do. If anything, it would make children feel a little more appreciative of what they have instead of what they do not have. There was also times around Christmas and Easter when we would do projects that would involve God but nobody would ever make a big deal about it. Recently I have gone back and observed in a few classrooms in my hometown and it is totally different. Teachers don’t mention religion at all. Children don’t even say the Pledge of Allegiance and if children have a conversation about religion amongst themselves, the teacher has them stop talking about it. As a child that had religion in school, I feel grateful I was able to have that. Some children don’t have parents that take them to church or have anything to do with it and that little bit of prayer in school was the only thing they had. That gives children a sense of comfort that there is a higher power that is on their side. As a future educator, I feel like I know the boundaries as to where to draw the line with religion and school. I know not to be pushy or make any students feel uncomfortable about religion when they don’t believe the same way as someone else.

The Return: Midnight Chapter 6

Bonnie couldn't get to sleep after Damon's words to her. She wanted to talk to Meredith, but there was an unseeing, unhearing lump in Meredith's bed. The only thing she could think of was to go down to the kitchen and huddle up with a cup of cocoa in the den, alone with her misery. Bonnie wasn't good at being alone with herself. But as it turned out, when she got to the bottom floor, she didn't head for the kitchen after al . She went straight to the den. Everything was dark and strange-looking in the silent dimness. Turning on one light would just make everything else even darker. But she managed, with shaking fingers, to twist the switch of the standing lamp beside the couch. Now if only she could find a book or something†¦ She was holding on to her pil ow as if it were a teddy bear, when Damon's voice beside her said, â€Å"Poor little redbird. You shouldn't be up so late, you know.† Bonnie started and bit her lip. â€Å"I hope you're not stil hurting,†she said coldly, very much on her dignity, which she suspected was not very convincing. But what was she supposed to do? The truth was that Bonnie had absolutely no chance of winning a duel of wits with Damon – and she knew it. Damon wanted to say, â€Å"Hurting? To a vampire, a human fleabite like that was†¦Ã¢â‚¬  But unfortunately he was a human too. And it did hurt. Not for long, he promised himself, looking at Bonnie. â€Å"I thought you never wanted to see me again,†she said, chin trembling. It almost seemed too cruel to make use of a vulnerable little redbird. But what choice did he have? I'l make it up to her somehow, someday – I swear it, he thought. And at least I can make it pleasant now. â€Å"That wasn't what I said,†he replied, hoping that Bonnie wouldn't remember exactly what he had said. If he could just Influence the trembling woman-child before him†¦but he couldn't. He was a human now. â€Å"You told me you would kil me.† â€Å"Look, I'd just been knocked down by a human. I don't suppose you know what that means, but it hasn't happened to me since I was twelve years old, and stil an original human boy.† Bonnie's chin kept trembling, but the tears had stopped. You are bravest when you're scared, Damon thought. â€Å"I'm more worried about the others,†he said. â€Å"Others?†Bonnie blinked. â€Å"In five hundred years of life, one tends to make a remarkable amount of enemies. I don't know; maybe it's just me. Or maybe it's the simple little fact of being a vampire.† â€Å"Oh. Oh, no!†Bonnie cried. â€Å"What does it matter, little redbird? Long or short, life seems al too brief.† â€Å"But – Damon – â€Å" â€Å"Don't fret, kitten. Have one of Nature's remedies.†Damon pul ed out of his breast pocket a smal flask that smel ed unquestionably of Black Magic. â€Å"Oh – you saved it! How clever of you!† â€Å"Try a taste? Ladies – strike that – young women first.† â€Å"Oh, I don't know. I used to get awful y sil y on that.† â€Å"The world is sil y. Life is sil y. Especial y when you've been doomed six times before breakfast.†Damon opened the flask. â€Å"Oh, al right!†Clearly thril ed by the notion of â€Å"drinking with Damon,†Bonnie took a very dainty sip. Damon choked to cover a laugh. â€Å"You'd better take bigger swigs, redbird. Or it's going to take al night before I get a turn.† Bonnie took a deep breath, and then a deep draft. After about three of those, Damon decided she was ready. Bonnie's giggles were nonstop now. â€Å"I think†¦Do I think I've had enough now?† â€Å"What colors do you see out here?† â€Å"Pink? Violet? Is that right? Isn't it nighttime?† â€Å"Wel , perhaps the Northern Lights are paying us a visit. But you're right, I should get you into bed.† â€Å"Oh, no! Oh, yes! Oh, no! Nonono yes!† â€Å"Shh.† â€Å"SHHHHHH!† Terrific, Damon thought; I've overdone it. â€Å"I meant, get you into a bed,†he said firmly. â€Å"Just you. Here, I'l walk you to the first-floor bedroom.† â€Å"Because I might fal on the stairs?† â€Å"You might say that. And this bedroom is much nicer than the one you share with Meredith. Now you just go to sleep and don't tel anyone about our rendezvous.† â€Å"Not even Elena?† â€Å"Not even anybody. Or I might get angry at you.† â€Å"Oh, no! I won't, Damon: I swear on your life!† â€Å"That's – pretty accurate,†Damon said. â€Å"Good night.† Moonlight cocooned the house. Fog misted the moonlight. A slender, hooded dark figure took advantage of shadows so skil ful y that it would have passed unnoticed even if someone had been watching out for it – and no one was.

George Walker Bush Leadership Style Essay

Barbara and George H. W. Bush are the parents of the 43rd president of the United Sates, George W. Bush. The two were married on January 6th, 1945 and it was said that they experienced love at first sight when meeting. George Bush Sr. was 17 when married, and Barbara was 16. The two have lived in 29 homes located in 17 cities, and is the first presidential couple to reach 60 years of marriage. Barbara’s background includes working a summer job sorting nuts and bolts during World War II as well as working at the Yale Coup while her husband was attending the college, and until her first child was born. She is the second woman in history to have both a son and husband serve as president of the United States. George H. W. Bush served as the 41st president, as well as numerous other positions within our government. Some of these include vice-president to Ronald Reagan, director of the CIA, congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, and chairman of the Republican National Committee. Besides these governmental positions he was also a pilot in the navy as well as an oil businessman in Texas. George Walker Bush was born on July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the oldest of his five other siblings: Pauline (Robin), John Ellis (Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy (Doro). George’s sister Robin died at the age of three from leukemia when George was only seven years old. His brother Jeb would also go on to become the 43rd governor of Florida. In 1948, George Sr. and Barbara moved the family to Midland, Texas, where H. W. would make his fortune in the oil business. George attended private school in Massachusetts where he was a great athlete in baseball, football, and basketball. He was good in school, but was also known for being a bit of a troublemaker. He went on to be accepted to Yale University where he was the president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, played rugby, and was a member of the secretive Skull and Bones society. Two weeks before graduation George enlisted in the Texas National Guard. Although there is a lot of speculation as to whether or not he completely fulfilled his duty, he was honorably discharged in 1974. In 1977, Bush met Laura Welch and married her after only three months. The couple has two children together, twins Jenna and Barbara. Family is huge to George, and he attributes Laura for stabilizing his life and helping him to give up alcohol in 1986. As for George W. Bush’s leadership style, many things through his life have affected how he chooses to lead. In 1978 he lost in an election for a House of Representatives seat in Texas, which helped him to humble himself and realize that things would not be given to him just because of his father. He helped with his father’s presidential campaign in the year 1988, and this helped him to learn the ins and outs of campaigns as well as doing the dirty work required of such a position. After this, George bought a share of the Texas Rangers baseball team and served as managing general partner for five years, where he learned how a business works and runs. He became governor of Texas in 1995 and served until 2000, when he won the presidential election on the republican ticket. He served two terms as president, and dealt with disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and September 11th. George has been quoted speaking about Katrina saying, â€Å"Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, go help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives†. George W. Bush’s leadership style can be described as problem solver, delegator, decisive, visionary, and composed. He was a problem solver because he believed that getting problems solved right when they needed to be was key, and did not push them off until the next person came around to fix it. As for delegator, Bush was good at knowing when it was his place to get something done, or when he should let someone else take over the job for him. George was a decisive leader in that he made tough decisions throughout his presidency, but always did what he believed was best for our country. Visionary is one way to describe his leadership style seeing as he had a clear vision set out at the beginning of his presidency for how he wanted our country to run, and this is something that he is known quite well for. Lastly, during Bush’s presidency he had to lead our country through two terrible incidents. Through all of this, he was able to maintain his composure and remain an effective leader through tough times, which shows his composure as a leader. One of the things that George W. Bush is most well known for would be his speech that he gave at the sight of ground zero a few days after 9/11. I can hear you; the rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon. † I believe that this quote from him helps to show all of the different leadership styles that he exhibited throughout his stint as governor of Texas as well as president of the United States. Nowadays, you can find George spending time with his wife Barbara on his ranch in Texas. He recently wrote his book, â€Å"Decision Points† and had a library put up in his name on the Southern Methodist University in the great state of Texas.

Released from prison Essay

Being released from prison and being free from the blame and the responsibility of a crime that one did not commit is supposed to be happy and relieving. Exonerated prisoners have this fleeting feeling of happiness and relief but after awhile it is replaced by frustration and grief over the lost years of his life as he is trying to rebuild the life and the identity that was taken from him. Because of social stigma placed on people behind bars, these exonerated prisoners are treated much the same as the other convicts. The psychological trauma that they have gone through inside the prison is replaced by the stress that they face when they try to rebuild their lives. Getting out of prison is one thing, living the life outside of prison when you have lived inside one is the more difficult part. Rebuilding his life has been hard for Scott Fappiano as he tells his story of finding it difficult to get identification cards that is needed for him to own his identity once again, and in the longer run give him a job to earn his living. Being an exonerated prisoner, he has no release papers to accompany his inmate ID. This created problems for him as institutions, particularly, the Department of Motor Vehicles, did not acknowledge his inmate ID, Social Security Card and newly issued credit card. The reentry of exonerated prisoners to the society is harder because of the social stigma that is associated with prison. Having a criminal background, though one is innocent and has been proven innocent of the alleged crime, causes people to shun them. This destabilizes the cultural values and norms of the individual causing psychological problems and turning to suicide or substance abuse as an escape from the stigma. This, in turn, makes them prisoners of the marred reputation that they have. The interaction and relationship between the individual and the society is based on the shared values and meanings placed on these values. This signifies that the social relationship of individuals and the different institutions of the society have different implications in the behavior and perspective of the individual and the society. Because of being institutionalized, living in a world in which there is no individuality and identity, the exonerated prisoners have stunted personal and social development. When they come out of prison, their values significantly change, thus, changing their perspectives and relationships with other people. The social stigma that is attached on their identities is difficult to erase and there is a need to counsel these individuals on social relationships outside of prison. This will ultimately prevent them from turning into what they have been exonerated from or committing other criminal acts or turning into substance abuse or suicide. Since socialization is the best way to reinforce behavior, it is important that these individuals be treated with the same respect and value as other individuals who have not been in prison. This will allow the exonerated prisoner time to adjust to his new environment. Within prison, they should have been prepared for their re-entry to the society, whether or not they will be able to get out. This will maintain social order and avoid deviance when they come out of prison since the destabilization of their identities and beliefs will go from being in an institution to becoming free men.

Business Continuity Planning Pros and Cons

Business Continuity Planning Pros and Cons Advantages and Disadvantages of Business Continuity Planning In a Financial Organization under the Incident Command System Abstract This research paper is primarily focused on highlighting the specific pros and cons of a business continuity plan that is used in a financial organization under the incident management system. The advantages associated with the use of incident command systems in a BCP in any financial organization are paramount including being able to install preventive and corrective measures that can either reduce partial or complete impact in cases of disruptions. However still there exist some cons associated with its usage i.e. fast amounts of time required for its implementation, asset acquisition and in most cases the size of the organization might hinder the implementation of an incident command system. Introduction A business continuity plan is very critical in the facilitation of the smooth running of the organization or guidelines that can help reco ver from disruptions hence ensuring the provision of services even in cases of disturbances. The process focuses on assessment and identification of all the potential threats that might disrupt service delivery and their potential impacts with the aim of creating measures to ensure the resilience of the system. Technology should enable recovery of applications from disruptions and other critical data through the disaster recovery plan. An incident command system is the technical developments for a given company that entails its main functionality being to mitigate the impacts of the unforeseen incidents that can result in loss of critical data. Business continuity planning are corrective measures established in an organization or an institution to govern the daily and future activities within it (Ramakrishnan et al., 2015). These measures are for ensuring that there is smooth running of the necessary activities. Failure to establish the plan could lead to the company collapsing, l ow profit in the day to day sales or even shut down of the business which is a big loss to the business. Business continuity planning should be done to any organization that takes its customers or clients seriously. Continuous planning takes the owner of the business miles ahead of the other competitors within the same field (Heng, 2015). Advantages I. During planning the potential of the business booming up is established plus the possible weaknesses and challenges the company might face are outlined and effective solution are established in advance. II. The main advantage that any financial institution stands to gain from the use of an incident command system is the ability to identify potential threats and plan in advance hence avoiding suspension of critical financial operations. The threats might range from natural epidemics, cyber-attacks or just computer failures as a result of hardware or software issues. III. The financial organization has increased abilities to mai ntain effective coordination and to maintain the response directions. Besides, the organization can gain insights on the importance of coordination of resources and the ability to identify the incident priorities. IV. The financial institution has a good platform for testing and reviewing the most likely threat hence allowing for coordination of BCP with external stakeholders. V. The long-term use of incident command systems is an advantage in itself as it leads to gaining of experience hence I the long run will lead to higher efficiency in restoration and fast recoveries. However, the full implementation becomes a disadvantage as it is time-consuming. VI. The financial section of the organization if it implements the recovery systems well can work as a competitive advantage as it safeguards against financial losses of the organization VII. Although this is later on stipulated as a disadvantage, it can still be an advantage. Incident command system can be used to accomplish tasks that people couldn’t do in disaster – prone areas hence preventing payment disorder whereas reducing the risks associated with miscommunication between the responder. VIII. Embracing the current evolution computing technology brings efficient fast and timely delivery of the service given by the organization. This can help in record keeping and monitor the business activities. IX. Business continuity planning helps one in marking the best insurance cover that matches the criteria of business. The cover is of great help in case of disasters like fire or thefts or any other disaster that could strike the organization. X. Business continuity planning helps one building best platforms for marketing and branding of the business and products.one is in a position to establish the effective and most suitable mode of reaching out that is fault tolerant and can assure customers of uninterrupted service delivery. XI. The target audience is created. He/she is in a pos ition to outline the reach people or group one is aiming at. This helps one avoid going out of the set individuals. Disadvantages Failure to do business continuity planning one is at a significant risk of either: I. The implementation process is often considered as tedious hence requiring professionals to handle it. Besides the organization has to employ qualified personnel to handle that. No business intends to invest heavily in preparing for unknown threats as they rather wait for it to happen then defend (Systems, 2012). II. The process of using incident command systems as a business continuity planning tool is both costly and time-consuming. This may lead to over investment of funds that could have otherwise been dedicated to other business operations. III. Business collapsing or failure that is as a result of poor management skills, techniques, and evaluation techniques. Hence, one is not in a position to establish the coming danger and ends up regretting the already outcome. IV. The death of individuals could occur after the fire, building collapsing where the insurance covers have been ignored, have not been implemented by professionals or due to lack of adequate testing of the possible scenarios. Conclusions The implementation of a business continuity plan through incident command systems has been faced with numerous advantages and disadvantages. Some of the benefits include; response, recognition of threats, competitive benefits, coordination mechanisms, experience and an excellent testing platform with the option testing and reviewing. The main disadvantages include the need for specialized skills in handling the recovery systems. In addition to this, small businesses cannot implement the system as this may result in losses through maintenance cost. However, analysis of the pros and cons suggests that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. All this indicates the importance for all financial institutions to implement the incident c ommand system as part of the business continuity plan (Drennan, 2014). References Drennan, L., McConnell, A., & Stark, A. (2014). Risk and crisis management in the public sector . 2 nd ed. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group London and New York. Heng, Goh Moh. (2015) â€Å"Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology†. International Journal Of Disaster Recovery And Business Continuity , vol 6, 2015, pp. 9-16. Science And Engineering Research Support Society , doi:10.14257/ijdrbc.2015.6.02. Ramakrishnan, R. K., & Viswanathan, S. (2015). The Importance of Business Strategy in Business Continuity Planning. The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, 31-35. doi:10.1002/9781119205883.ch3 Systems, S. (2012) The CEO’s Guide to Succession Planning: Managing Risk & Ensuring Business Continuity. SSRN Electronic Journal . http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1633523