Essay on The Pros and Cons of the Internet - 795 Words

Positive and Negative Aspects of the Internet The new age of technology was born late last century in the form of the silicone chip. Since this early invention computers have progressed in leaps and bounds from the very basic early models to the now very complicated and very powerful computers of today. In between this growth the Internet developed into a mega market where billions of dollars are traded daily. It is a place where you can pretty much buy and sell anything you can think of. But with the development of such a powerful tool there are always going to be problems such as pornography, hackers, dodgy chat rooms and authenticity of information. But like with any argument you have to weigh up the good with the bad, the†¦show more content†¦These programs are regularly up dated barring more and more inappropriate pages as the net is constantly growing. A major threat that nearly everyone who goes on the internet faces is the attack of hackers who can pretty much strike anyone at any time inflicting major damage and loss of money. These hackers are able to gain your confidential information using special hacking tools, this means they can get your credit card number that you gave out when doing online shopping and use it much to there benefit. These people are also able to create viruses that have the sole purpose of destroying and damaging your computer software. The â€Å"I love you† e-mail that was circulating the web recently is a good example of what people are capable of. Many people now days us chat rooms and the like to make new friends and meet different people. This in turn can create problems as there is a danger of meeting weird people who may want to harm you. They can make themselves seem to be different from the person they really are, this can be a real danger if someone decides to meet a stranger they met on the net as he or she may turn out to be someone you really do not like. Yet they could become obsessed with you which would result in a lot of fear and possibly worse. But on the other hand it can be a very good way of forming new friendships or relationships with other businesses that are on the other side of the world Although there are many threats to take into considerationShow MoreRelatedThe Internet : The Pros And Cons Of The Internet786 Words   |  4 Pagesboth pros and cons when there is a discussion about the internet. We can learn so much of what we can read on the internet. Which is great news considering most of us are using the internet. To prove my point we visit page 116 in the book The Shallows, the book supports our solution. Nicholas G. Carr discusses all about the internet in our generation and how we use it. He talks about the internet being beneficial for us to attain useful knowledge. He also discusses the cons of the internet in ourRead MorePros and Cons of the Internet2810 Words   |  12 PagesMinistry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kazakh British Technical University English Language Department RESEARCH PAPER Pros and cons of the Internet HUM 317 Spring 2008 Advisor: Balia Jalgasbaevna Jolamanova Done by Tikhonenko Christina Temirbekova Kamila Nadyrova Farida Supiyeva Nargiza Sagiyev Yerkebulan Group Friday 13:00 Almaty 2008 Acknowledgements We thank all people who helped us in this work, especially BaliyaRead MoreCons and Pros of Internet16245 Words   |  65 PagesAccounting and Business Research, International Accounting Policy Forum. pp. 5-27. 2006 5 International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): pros and cons for investors Ray Ball* Abstract—Accounting in shaped by economic and political forces. It follows that increased worldwide integration of both markets and politics (driven by reductions in communications and information processing costs) makes increased integration of financial reporting standards and practice almost inevitable. But mostRead MoreEssay on The Pros and Cons of the Internet1897 Words   |  8 Pages The internet is a vast network of computers that connects many of the world’s businesses, institutions, and individuals. It allows millions of people throughout the world to send and receive messages to each other, share information, and play games (Naughton 4). It was initially designed to aid the government and help people expand academically, but it is now becoming more commercialized and used in ways that it was not made for. The thought of the internet was first introduced in 1960 when theRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Internet Privacy1309 Words   |  6 PagesNow, the Internet is not only a way people access information, but also the net that connects them. People use it to communicate with friends and family, keep current events and shop online. The using of Internet sometimes involves personal data, triggers fraud and abuse. These are the reason people have laws to protect themselves. People now much more cherish their privacy, so the government takes the responsibility of establishing the Internet privacy law and develop them. However, the legislativeRead MoreEssay on Pros and Cons of Internet1258 Words   |  6 PagesInternet has become new service for helping most of the time but, there are certain occasions where it becomes a nuisance The internet has become a very popular tool at the hand of every one who is a computer literate person of course, used mostly to get information, shop online and download files, music and so on. But while surfing the internet for appropriate or specific information, we often end up wasting time with unwanted jargons and reacting to scam. We shall discuss deeper into theseRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Internet Censorship1042 Words   |  5 Pagescomes in many forms and for a lot of different reasons but when it comes to the internet, for the most part it is beneficial. It can provide security for sensitive material. The things that minors are exposed to can be limited. Also you can make sure that it is not used to cause chaos. Furthermore it would seem to be a beneficial part of online life. It can provide security for important documents and conversations. Internet censorship can help with cyber security when important information or secretsRead MorePros and Cons of the Internet Essay1138 Words   |  5 PagesThe Internet is more popular today than it was years ago. As technology advances, the use of the Internet grows yonder and is an amazing addition in our lives. The Internet has been perhaps the most outstanding innovation in the field of communication in the history of humanity. It is a global meeting place where people from all parts of the world can collaborate. Additionally, it is a service available on the computer, through which anyone who has access to the Internet can receive. The InternetRead More The Pros and Cons of Internet Chat Rooms Essays834 Words   |  4 PagesThe Pros and Cons of Internet Chat Rooms Computers have affected our lives in so many ways. To the way we finance things, to the way we find our future significant other. The outcomes of computers probably happen with in the last five years, give or take some. It had made people become in love with being in a virtual world and new people. That now in â€Å"real† life the people do not know how to act around not virtual people. In this report I plan to take a look at the pros and cons of meeting/talkingRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of The Internet Has Changed The World1785 Words   |  8 Pages CHow the Internet Has Changed the World The internet and technology has changed the world and how we live in many ways. It has changed our daily lives and everything about how we share information. Some people may argue whether the cons outweigh the pros of the internet, but overall it has brought so much more advantages and opportunities for us humans. The internet has changed the world for the better because it has allowed research to be found at the click of a button, helped connect people worldwide

The Dissimilarity Between Working Mother And Stay Home Mother

Sang Min Yue Professor Dr. Rosalyn Jacobs ENGL 1102 24, April 2016 â€Å"The Dissimilarity between Working Mother and stay home Mother† During the early years of the 1900’s most women were not allowed to work, they also did not have any rights to vote. All the women during these times could only stay inside the house and take care of the familial duties and chores. Women were primarily cooking meals, cleaning inside the house, and also taking care of their own child. On the other hand, most of the men were kings in the household who were in charge as they are the main source of income for making money. Most of the kids growing up during this time period ensured to consume a strong family background because the marriage was everlasting one. Back in the day, the maximum of divorce rates was very low compared to a present day, as of now, but how is that the divorce rates are high in the present today? That is because of the authorization in the 19th Amendment which were giving women right to vote, as they became more self-governing (Harr is). Women did not just want to cook, and clean working as a house wife at home any longer, but however women desired to have a job outside just like their husband earning all the money and have a nice working life. They wanted to challenge themselves as they wish to follow their husbands footsteps, to prove that women can also do just like how the men does. Even though how women began to work and women equal rights movement have beenShow MoreRelatedWorkplace Inequality And Gender Inequality1678 Words   |  7 Pagessalaries increasing at a much slower speed than before and in 2014 women who had full-time employment in the United States in general remained around 79 percent of whatever a male individual was compensated, making a gap of 21 percent in pay gap just between gender. (By the Numbers) The Pay Gap Gender pay gap which is defined as the pay difference in men and women’s average incomes, typically described as either the earnings ratio among men and women and could be called the real pay gap. For instanceRead MoreBreaking The Mold : A Feminine Perspective1265 Words   |  6 Pagesto pursue Ms. Yeobright. To continue, many little problems occur between all the couples but, Clym Yeobright (Thomasin cousin) returns to Egdon Heath after working in Paris. Clym eventually marries Ms. Vye after she discovers the marriage of Wildeve and Ms. Yeobright had proceeded. In Hardy’s novel, The Return of The Native, the imaginative city of Wessex is critiqued with a female perspective in class, marriage, and language between both sexes. Before continuing, one must understand feminist criticismRead MoreThe Industrial Revolution And The Cult Of True Womanhood1666 Words   |  7 Pageswere made. During the American Revolution, women were responsible for in-home production that aided the war effort, using their production as a means to contribute publically. As America transitioned from this period into the period of the Industrial Revolution, these widened roles became more restrictive, women were no longer producers, they were consumers, and it was not a common practice for women to work outside of the home. This generated an opportunity for women to challenge newly forming genderRead MoreThematic Analysis Of Bless Me, Ultima1580 Words   |  7 Pagesand opinions that expresses an individual s personality. In Rudolfo Anaya’s bildungsroman, Bless Me, Ultima, the struggle between two families and their extreme differences cause numerous conflicts that are constantly present throughout his novel. In this ch icano inspired novel, Antonio Marà ©z, the six year old protagonist, is perpetually faced with instances of dissimilarity throughout his life that often make it a challenge to stand out instead of fitting in with the rest of the crowd. When AnayaRead MoreWhat It Means to Be Defined as Female in the 21st Century1803 Words   |  7 Pagesthe amount of roles she took on in the household whether it was cooking, cleaning, or simply caring for the children. On the other hand, society had associated men with fewer jobs in the home and more in the workforce. Granting those typecasts have improved over the years, there still remains an imbalanced gap between women and men that needs to be filled. The responsibilities of women and men in the 21st century refer to women taking over more â€Å"masculine† roles and challenging the role of femininityRead MoreTo What Extent Were Hitler and Stalin Similar?1405 Words   |  6 Pagesalthough he incorporated fear into his tactics of leadersh ip, like Hitler did, his actual claim of control over Russia was visibly dissimilar. Hitler’s early adulthood was difficult, after leaving his school in Vienna he was devastated by the loss of his mother to cancer. Shortly after which he was struck by another heavy blow, as he was rejected from art school and forced to give up his dream of becoming an artist. He was now very poor and living in a doss house with the homeless, it was at this time manyRead MoreWomen And Gender During 20th Century America3566 Words   |  15 PagesIntroduction At different times all through history, working ladies were seen as shameless and unfeminine objects of compassion. A few pundits blamed working ladies for being careless moms. Regularly, ladies representatives were not considered important by their supervisors, partners, or society. Having a vocation postured difficulties for ladies because of their family obligations. Ladies were required to perform obligations as wife and mother, notwithstanding satisfying their expert obligationsRead MoreAdolescent Development And Development Of Today s Adolescents2986 Words   |  12 Pageseventually becomes starting with the onset of puberty and formation of career interests. Adolescence is typically split into three areas, early adolescence from the ages 12 to14, middle adolescence from the ages 15 to 16, and late adolescence that occurs between the ages of 17 to 19. Every stage plays a unique role in an individual’s development that marks various development milestones throughout the process of adolescence. Early Adolescence First of all, early adolescence is marked by the transition fromRead MorePoverty And Minimum Wage Is Low4438 Words   |  18 Pagescollege he/she need more than just a minimum wage job. We are poverty level because of our wages is entirely to below average, overwhelmingly, high-wage states are all for workforce being highly educated. There is such a strong and accurate link between educational achievements of the workforce in the state and median wages in the state. Any state can increase the strength of its economics and its ability to grow as well as attract employers that are high-wage by increasing the sum of workers thatRead MoreBenefits Of The Wage Separation2811 Words   |  12 PagesWage separation exists when specialists are just as qualified and perform the same work however one gathering of laborers is paid more than an alternate. Truly, wage segregation has favored men over likewise qualified ladies. Salary uniqueness between sexes originates from courses of action that focus the nature of occupations and income connected with employments. Profit connected with occupations will result in wage imbalance to take structure in the situation of people into specific employments

Corporate Volkswagen Emission Scandal

Question: Discuss about the Corporate Volkswagen Emission Scandal. Answer: Introduction: In September 2015, Volkswagen was alleged by the Environmental Protection Agency of eluding US emission tests. It was observed by EPA that the company had intentionally organized TDI (Turbocharged Direct Injection) diesel engines, in order to initiate specific emission tests only during emissions examination in laboratories. The company had provisioned around 4.8 billion for cost replenishment that was needed to recall automobiles with cheat devices in millions. Ultimately, the company encountered a loss of 2.5bn in October 2015. Furthermore, as the company utilized the defeat device on its four-lakh vehicles to cheat emission tests, EPA also imposed a huge penalty of $37500 per vehicle for contravention of regulations (Spence, 2015). This led to the decline of the companys stock by 20%, together with the resignation of the companys CEO. As a result of the scandal, VW became the soft target of the regulators in various countries. The stock price plunged more than 1/3rd as the company has to announce a quarterly loss of 2.5 billion. The negative influences surpassed the very thinking. The awareness of the scandal raised strong concerns over pollution being emitted from the cars and questioned the ethical validity. Ethical issues The scandal of Volkswagen can be evaluated as a business ethics case and can be said to be a deception or an issue in terms of sustainability. It is even a case of leadership, corporate governance, culture, etc. Specifically, it is an issue of CSR because the social responsibility of the company that comprises of customer and public, regulators manipulation, the responsibility of the environment like pollution, standards of emission and economic responsibility like fall in the price value, fall in the value of stocks, etc (Jonsson et. al, 2009). The first ethical issue arising from the Volkswagen case is not only the disregard of EPA laws and regulations but also the invention of a device to get rid of them effectively. Furthermore, the company did not take proper steps to control the massive amounts of nitrogen oxides that were emitted by its vehicles into the environment (Nelson, 2016). Furthermore, this intentional scandal surely goes against their own values of establishing a gre ener vehicle. Last, but not the least, the major stakeholders of the company was also badly affected due to such scandal. These include shareholders, employees, management, car owners, and the diesel industry as a whole (Suddaby Greenwood, 2005). These issues clearly suggest that Volkswagen contravened the principles of ethics, which was initially approved by the company itself. However, it failed to do so, thereby disrupting the smooth performance within the company by attracting penal provisions and terminating employer-employee relationship as a whole (Volkswagen, 2015). Norms, Principles, and Values There are various norms, principles, and values relevant to the scandal. Firstly is justice wherein the company cheated the consumers because they paid a premium for vehicles, which let out fewer emissions. However, it turned out to be the opposite as emissions were 40 times more. Secondly is the responsibility factor, which states that despite owing a significant responsibility towards the society and the environment, the company did not take due steps to fulfill its duties (Das, 2013). Thirdly is the autonomy factor wherein the manufacturers of the device were incapable to make self-ethical decisions due to extreme pressures from the management. Last is beneficence wherein the company only gave due priority to itself and did not offer help or advantage to its consumers (Klinger, 2016). Stakeholders and their concerns Many stakeholders like customers, partners, society, and the capital market were negatively influenced by the Volkswagen scandal. The consumers were betrayed because of the tarnished brand image of the company that turned out to be a major scam. The immediate impacts of the scandal could be easily observable when the company shares depreciated by one-third (Freeman Harrison, 2010). Hence, in relation to investors and shareholders, this was a key setback for them because they had asserted extreme trust, huge funds, and hopes into the company, thereby making way for the loss of confidence and sentiments of these stakeholders (Fracarolli Lee, 2016). In addition, stakeholders like employees, suppliers, and business partners of the company significantly give priority to health, income, customer satisfaction, and unprejudiced opportunities (Ballou et. al, 2006). Even these concerns were influenced because of the uncertainty regarding the companys performance. The concerns of society that includes municipal authorities, law framers etc have also been observed to concur in terms of climate, environment safeguarding, and vehicle safety (Klinger, 2016). Thus, the concerns of all these stakeholders have been highly put at stake by the scandal. Reason behind the scandal According to various studies, when the company promised public of a new diesel line car that is fuel efficient, green, and would offer better performance, it had little knowledge of what will happen in the future (DeVilliers Van, 2011). It invested billions of euros to develop such a technology that would outperform other competitors, but sooner it started facing various difficulties. Along the path, delays started happening in the development of such technology and the downstream leaders were terrified of mentioning issues about the project to their bosses (Fracarolli Lee, 2016). Hence, the engineers were left with no option than to develop a program that could just falsely pass the test for regulatory certification. However, this implies that the cars were neither in compliance with the law nor it delivered performance that was marketed by the company. This states that the senior leaders must have developed a sense of fear that paved way for such a disaster. Hence, accounting issues like imposition of fine up to $18 billion on the company, 2.5billion loss due to the scandal that led to the decline in the company shares by 20%, decline meant of goodwill and trust leading towards destruction of brand image, and strength and sales as a whole, etc had to be encountered by the company. It does not matter whether it was intentional or unintentional because corporate ethics is very vital for effective results (Balbir, 2016). CSR (Corporate Sustainability Reporting) The VW scandal highlights various portions of the advantages of CSR reporting. It suggests that CSR may be very significant and improving for the companies. As per the CSR reports since 1990, it has been observed that companies have been more transparent in relation to human rights, environmental practices, and impacts. However, Volkswagen had failed to adopt such reporting, thereby leading towards various difficulties. The depreciation of the companys shares clearly highlights the significance of CSR reporting by depicting the dangers of lying about social attributes (Nzuve, 2011). Therefore, the company must accept its responsibility for which it was liable and reporting is its primary duty, even it is not compulsory (Elson et. al, 2015). Had it reported about its activities through CSR, the scenario would have been different. Therefore, it can be concluded that sustainability reporting must be regulated in the future, taking into account the recent corporate scandals. The Volkswagen scandal sheds light that both voluntary CSR measures and government regulations will be inefficient if the corporate managers do not establish significant assumptions about ethical conduct. As the government authorities cannot possess control over the companies behavior at all times, CSR reporting can distil that confidence that can encourage the public in relation to law compliance and broader social anticipations (Janssen, 2013). Hence, the entire idea of CSR must be enhanced, not disregarded. Both the directors report and declaration are essential documents incorporated in the annual report of a company. On one hand, the directors report provides relevant information about the condition of the company, together with its compliance with a set of CSR (corporate social responsibility), financial, and accounting standards, and on the other hand, the directors declaration offers the opinion of the directors regarding assured compliance under Corporations Regulations, Accounting Standards, and other consensus viewpoints of the Group. Directors report is relevant as it assists shareholders in making informed decisions in future. They can find out whether the company possesses adequate resources and whether it can make ways for further expansion in future. In addition, as directors declaration is signed in accordance with their resolution, they are obligated to ensure that the companys records are accurate and adequate through the introduction of proper accounting policies and co ntrols. Therefore, it is required as it establishes confidence in the minds of public that sound policies and processes are utilized within the company. The universal accounting equation if followed by Virgin Australia Group. The assets of the business are the resources of the company and are generated from two main sources. In short assets = liabilities plus the equity of the owners. Owner equity comprises of revenues, gains, and contributions minus the expenses, losses and withdrawals. KPMG audit the financial statements of the company. It issued an opinion that the companys financial statements were in accordance with the Corporations Act, 2001 and Australian Accounting Standards, thereby providing a true and fair view of its performance and financial position. It was also opined that the financial statements complied with the IFRS requirements. During the year, KPMG also offered various other services (non-audit) in addition to its primary services. These were taxation services, assurance services associated with debt raising transactions, sustainability, compliance with service level agreements, and other due diligence services associated with divestments, capital restructuring, etc. PPE (Property, Plant, and Equipment) is the largest asset owned by the company. Its opening net book value reports at $3,081.9 million while its closing value as at 30th June 2016 reports at $2,872.8 million. Furthermore, such PPE is stated at cost minus impairment losses and depreciation (accumulated). Here, cost involves the purchase price plus costs that can directly be attributed to the acquisition. This can accommodate transfers from other comprehensive gains on qualifying cash flow hedges on the purchase of PPE through foreign currency. Depreciation for PPE of the company is identified on a straight-line basis over its anticipated useful life. This is done after considering the anticipated residual values of these assets. In other words, depreciation of PPE is done from the date these are installed or are ready for utilization. Furthermore, when different parts of PPE have different useful lives, then these are accounted as separate items of the PPE. In relation to financed leased assets, these are depreciated over the shorter of their useful lives and lease period until it is assured that the company can attain the ownership by the termination of the term of the lease. The largest source of revenue of Virgin Australia comes from its airline passenger services. Such revenue refers to revenue from the sale of passenger tickets by the company. It reports at $4,194.8 million as at 30 June 2016 and it identified in loss or profit when the performance of carriage is completed. Furthermore, other ancillary revenue of the company consists of revenue from credit voucher redemption when the carriage is complete, or when it is not anticipated to be redeemed by passengers. It also comprises of revenue from airline services including freight, charter, product, unutilized carriage, and on-board sales (Virgin Australia Group, 2016). The net finance costs increased in 2016, as it reported at $169.6 million, whereas it was $93.2 million in the year 2015. The primary reason behind such increase was weaker Australian Dollar, the introduction of new financing facilities within the company, and increment in the rate of interests by the US Federal Reserve (Virgin Australia Group, 2016). Virgin Australia issued $529.2 million ordinary shares in the year 2016. This is the major reason why the share capital of the company enhanced by $158.8 million, in comparison with the last year. The net cash flow from operating activities reported at $198.5 million in the year 2016 whereas net loss reported at $224.7 million in 2016. The directors of Virgin Australia have not identified any contingent liabilities for 2016. Furthermore, as contingent liabilities arise from past events that can only be confirmed by the happening or non-happening of future events, the company could not recognize any such contingent liabilities. There are several elements of unearned revenue reported by the company as a liability. These unearned revenues comprise of revenues that are received in advance by the company and that has been deferred by it in its statement of financial position for the year until the performance of carriage is completed. These unearned revenues have increased by $51.1 million since 2015 as it reports at $990.4 million in 2016 (Virgin Australia Group, 2016). Furthermore, these revenues also accommodate credit vouchers, revenue from the unearned loyalty program, unearned passenger revenue, etc. References Balbir, S 2016, Do You Own a Volkswagen? Values as Non-Functional Requirements. In Human-Centered and Error-Resilient Systems Development, Springer. Ballou, B., Heitger, D. L. Landes, C. E. 2006, The future of corporate sustainability reporting: A rapidly growing assurance opportunity, Journal of Accountancy, vol. 20, pp. 65-74 Das, S 2013, Cultural Due-diligence for Global Operation: Basic Steps, Vilakshan, The XIMB Journal of Management,vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 12-20. DeVilliers, C Van S. CJ 2011, Where firms choose to disclose voluntary environmental information, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 504- Elson, C.M., Ferrere, C.K. Goossen, N.J 2015, The bug at Volkswagen: Lessons in co-determination, ownership, and board structure, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol. 27, no. 4, pp.36-43. Fracarolli N,M. Lee P, C 2016, Caught red-handed: The cost of the Volkswagen Dieselgate, Journal of Global Responsibility, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 22-38 Freeman, R. E., Harrison, J. S., Wicks, A. C., Parmar, B. L., De Colle, S 2010, Stakeholder theory, The state of the art, New York: Cambridge University Press Janssen, C.I., 2013, Corporate historical responsibility (CHR): Addressing a corporate past of forced labor at Volkswagen, Journal of Applied Communication Research, vol. 41, no. 1, pp.64-83. Jonsson, S., Greve, H. R., Fujiwara-Greve, T 2009, Undeserved loss: The spread of legitimacy loss to innocent organizations in response to reported corporate deviance, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 54, pp. 195228. Klinger, A 2016, On the Dynamics of IdentityThe Interplay between Volkswagen's Organizational and Consumer Identities in Light of the 2015 Emissions Scandal. Springer International Publishing. Nelson, J.S 2016, The Criminal Bug: Volkswagen's Middle Management, SSRN 2767255. Nzuve S, 2011, Some Thoughts of How to Allocate Indirect Costs in a Corporate Environment, School of Business, University of Nairobi. Suddaby, R., Greenwood, R 2005, Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy, Administrative Science Quarterly vol. 50, pp. 3567. Spence, P 2015, VW emissions scandal: what's it all about?, viewed 7 December 2016, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/11884738/VW-emissions-scandal-whats-it-all-about.html Volkswagen 2015, Volkswagen: Annual report and accounts 2015, viewed 7 December 2016, https://www.volkswagenag.com/presence/startseite/dokumente/Volkswagen_AG_Gesch%C3%A4ftsbericht_en.pdf

Politicization of Climate Change and Polarization - Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Politicization of Climate Change and Polarization. Answer: Introduction: Global warming is the change in the earths climate over a period of time. It is characterized by an increase in temperatures. This has mainly been contributed by the human activities all over the world. These activities mostly involve the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide as well as methane. For example, in the recent studies, it has been predicted that the temperatures on the surface may rise from 0.3? to 1.7? in the lowest place scenarios and 2.6? to 4.8? in the highest scenarios ( McCright et al,155). Several human activities that have led to this periodical change in climate and the effect to polar bears are discussed below. The industrial revolution has been using power machines powered by fossil fuels management. This means that everything we use has used fossil fuel at some point. For instance, when we buy a car, the process of coming up with the car involves machines that use fossil fuels resulting to the production of carbon dioxide and monoxide released into the atmosphere (Cox,184). The cars themselves also release carbon into the air from their exhausts (Crowley,270). In agriculture and from animals, there is the emission of methane. It is ranked second worst after carbon dioxide. Bacteria break down organic matter in less oxygen dominated areas to produce methane. Sometimes, this occurs in the bodies of herbivores, yet the population of this animals is the high hence increased amount of the said gas in the atmosphere. Methane clathrate found in the ice`s crystal structure is also another source of methane. When methane escapes the seabed of the Arctic, it greatly contributes to the increase in global warming. Transportation is also a human activity. The increase in human population has led to increasing in demand for many more cars and products consumption. This leads to using more fuel for transportation and manufacturing. This fuel is then emitted to the atmosphere in form of greenhouse gases which have an adverse effect on the climate. Mining also contributes to climate change. Mining is the extraction of minerals from underground. During this process, methane is trapped underneath. Rearing of cattle also leads to trapping of the methane below the earth as it is also released from the manure. This gas leads to the destroying of the ozone layer hence increased temperatures leading to change of climate. The burning of fossil fuels is an activity that lets carbon out into the atmosphere. The carbon is also from industrial activities that include manufacturing of cement and flaring of the natural gas. These fossil fuels are important to the human because they provide energy used for transportation, cooling of buildings, production of electricity, heating and most industrial activities. Oil and coal are mainly used for these purposes. The dramatic increase in emission of gases is mainly occurring due to activities going on in the developing nations like urbanization and industrialization. China is a very good example. Its industrial activities in order to export goods have led to increased emissions from that country (Jacob et al,51). Deforestation is the cutting down of trees without replacement. Cutting of trees is done to produce wood, build, make timber and papers. Logging of trees is not good for the climate because when it happens, the carbon that was being stored by those trees is released into the air. Once it is in the atmosphere, it intermingles with other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. In order to reduce the release of the carbon into the air, activities that are awarded from forest destruction should be avoided. Instead, people need to start preserving the tropical forests so as to maintain the climate change and prevent wiping away of the bio-diversity. Farming includes agricultural activities. These activities provide man with food to eat for survival. Farming also has a positive impact on climate through yielding of carbon in the soil. However, it has negative impacts as well. In this century, chemical fertilizers are being used more. For example, nitrogenous fertilizers that affect the heat of the land on which the crop is planted are used. These nitrogen oxides trap more heat than even carbon oxides. More activities that revolve around farming like the manufacture of the fertilizers, cooling of products management, emissions from tractors, gases from the greenhouses, heating activities and lighting from electricity all contribute to climate change. Climate change has had an adverse effect on polar bears. The polar bears happen to be one of the bio-diversity that has had a great negative impact due to its dependence on sea ice for survival. They live in the Arctic regions of The United States, Norway, Canada, and Russia. Mostly during summer seasons, they happen to be affected due to changes in the oceans forcing them to stay on the mainland or unfavorable polar waters which have led to decline in their numbers. This means that they are facing the risk of extinction from the increasing temperatures twice as fast the world`s average (Harvey,2018). Their dependence on the sea ice makes highly vulnerable to any change in climate. They use the sea environment to travel, mate, hunt, rest and as maternal dens. Their prey, the bearded seals, are also sea ice-dependent. They feed on the seals from which they get the two-thirds of their energy for their use in the early summer and late spring. With the current change in climate, summer comes earlier and winters late hence they are unable to hunt for long making them go without food for a long time. This leads to decline in their bodies and lightweight in the female adult bears. Few cubs are able to survive. This change will make the polar bears food-stressed. The increased temperatures cause contamination and increase exposure to diseases. Sometimes the dens collapse from warm weather. These dens are where the female bears give birth and protect the new-born cubs. Polar bears have a long life expectancy and low rate of reproduction making them to nearly not adapt to new climate changes (Dey et al,94). Polar bears don`t respond the same to the change in sea ice. Other human factors like hunting, activities involving oil and gas, shipping and tourism have led to a reduction in the population of the polar bears. The polar bears currently declining in the population are those of Baffin Bay, Kane Basin, and the Beaufort Sea. Though those stable regardless of the climate change for 12 years up to 2015 are those of Davis Strait, Foxe Basin, Gulf of Boothia, Northern Beaufort Sea, Southern Hudson Bay and Western Hudson Bay. The remaining sea ice should be conserved in order to protect these creatures. This is through reduction of greenhouse gases and stabilization of the sea ice in the Arctic leading to the long survival of the polar bears (Rode et al,2018) In conclusion, it is good for people to be more involved in activities that help protect the biodiversity at large. Just to name a few, for example, if a tree is cut, another one should be planted to replace the other one hence controlling the release of carbon from deforestation. New methods of production and manufacturing and equipment that dont involve releasing of hazardous gases to the environment should be invented. More friendly fertilizers in farming should be utilized. Investment in appliances that are energy efficient should be a major plan in order to reduce emissions. Water wastage should be reduced because too much water is used to treat it, heat or pump the water leading to carbon pollution. The will to preserve climate should be inculcated in everyone so that further damage to the ozone layer that has been affected leading to increased climate change is curbed. Work cited Cox, Peter M., et al. "Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model." Nature 408.6809 (2000): 184-7.Berkshire:Hadley Centre,2000.Print. Crowley, Thomas J. "Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years." Science 289.5477 (2000): 270-277.Oceanography Dept., Texas A M U,web.n.d. Dey, Cody J., et al. "Forecasting the outcome of multiple effects of climate change on northern common eiders." Biological Conservation 220 (2018): 94-103. Ontario: the web.21 March. Harvey, Jeffrey A., et al. "Corrigendum: Internet Blogs, Polar Bears, and Climate-Change Denial by Proxy." Neurosurgery (2018).ResearchGate GmbH.Web.25 Nov.2017. Jacob, Daniel J., and Darrell A. Winner. "Effect of climate change on air quality." Atmospheric Environment 43.1 (2009): 51-63. Elsevier Ltd,n.d.Web.Jan.2009. McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. "The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public's views of global warming, 20012010." The Sociological Quarterly 52.2 (2011): 155-194.Elsevier B.V. Web.March.2011. Rode, Karyn D., et al. "Den phenology and reproductive success of polar bears in a changing climate." Journal of Mammalogy (2018).New York:Oxford University Press,2018.Print.

Gun Control in the USA

Alices Adventures in Wonderland Study Questions

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' Study Questions Alice in Wonderland (Alices Adventures in Wonderland) is a famous and beloved childrens classic by Lewis Carroll. You may find these questions useful for book club discussions, Â  to help you with your studies, or to help with any discussion of the book. Questions for Study and Discussion What is significant about the title?What are the conflicts in Alice in Wonderland? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional)?How does Lewis Carroll reveal character in Alice in Wonderland?What are some themes in the story? How do they relate to the plot and characters?What are some symbols in Alice in Wonderland? How do they relate to the plot and characters?Is Alice consistent in her actions? Is she a fully developed character? How? Why?Does Alice change and/or develop as a human being?How does Alice relate to other characters in the book?Do you find the characters likable? Are the characters persons you would want to meet?Does the story end the way you expected? How? Why?What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?How does the past figure into the novel?How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?How does Carroll use poetry in this novel? Why?Would you recommend thi s novel to a friend?

Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers - Essay Example There are mainly 10 major types of political risks, such as Nationalization, expropriation, confiscation, deprivation, contract frustration, currency inconvertibility, trade disruptions, unfair financial guarantee calling, devaluation and several disasters like strikes, war, civil commotion, terrorism and communal riot. Between 2008 and 2011, the issuance of PRI has increased due to volatile political condition of several countries. US achieved government backed terrorism insurance scheme (Miga, 2012). These steps will effectively guide the risk managers to buy political risk insurance. Selection of underwriter or broker is important. Brokers or underwriters are the first contact line. Therefore, it is important for the managers to undertake effective selection process. It is true that there are several underwriters who can share the views about political risk but only few of them can perform adequately in the limited and critical insurance market. Next step is service requirement. I t is an effective part of the selection process. The managers should know what services are required for exports. Moreover, they should try to protect their valuable assets like filing of applications, financing, exposure review, contract review, political risk intelligence, claims handling and loss of control. Fees and commissions should also be effectively examined. The risk managers should try to combine several political risk exposures under a single policy. Broker prefers several important package policies as these are typically more predictable and stable. Effective communication among employees, managers, top management is an important work culture of the organizations. The risk managers should organize an in-house seminar to inform the employees about possible risks and educate them to prevent those risks. Managers should establish a formal and simple communication structure including weekly status and updated reports. They should appoint effective local and familiar coordin ators to publicize operating plan and subject area. Contract review is important for the risk managers. They should conduct a thorough review process including review and analysis of terms of payment and sale, contract and other important documents associated with the exposure. It will help the managers to assure appropriate coverage is obtained. Political risk intelligence is another important step. It is an important part of brokerage service. The qualified facilities will help the managers to assist in the support, information and updated intelligence area. In addition to the 10 Political risk coverage areas, the managers should understand about terms, conditions and rates. These will help the risk managers to address co-insurance, waiting period, deductibility, exclusions, warranties, rescheduling, protection of profits and business interruption. Majority of the political risk coverage does not include export credit. Export credit insurance is an effective sales tool as banks ar e more appropriate to grant export financing. Loss of control is another critical step. Loss of control measure helps the risk managers to minimize the loss. It can include the contract analysis to protect the organization interests in the future (Fita, 2007). The organization’s interest can be protected through favorable treatment security. Last step is claims procedures. Before the occurrence of loss, a written documentation procedure should be developed. It will help to address who is handling the

Plato's design systems that reduce the apparent irregularities in the Essay - 2

Plato's design systems that reduce the apparent irregularities in the motions of the planets to regular motions in perfectly regular cicles - Essay Example But it is very difficult to let go of traditional beliefs and very often people cannot recognize anything that is not correct scientifically or morally. â€Å"In The Sleepwalkers, Koestler traced what he thought to be the mainstream of the development of science through exquisitely researched and written biographies of some of sciences leading figures.† (Adler) Plato writes in his book ‘Republic’ that stars form a section of the ‘visible world’ which it not real or actual world. While being very beautiful they are a ‘copy of the real world’. For Plato real world is the ‘world of ideas’. He would rather study the stars in abstract than find about their rotation and revolution. Only by paying full attention to the intellectual can we in actual understand and capture the essence of astronomy. Plato was a very prominent scientist till the last years of twelfth century. But he lost to Aristotle for two hundred years. Plato did make a comeback but both these scientists complemented each other. For Plato change goes hand in hand with deterioration and he describes the creation as â€Å" story of the successiveemergence ofeven lower and less worth forms of life†¦Ã¢â‚¬ the ladder which he climbs down starts from god to ‘the world of reality’ which is made up of ‘perfect form and ideas’. Then comes ‘the world of appearance’ that is a pale reproduction of the real world. Plato believes in the philosophy of decline and devolution rather than that of growth by ascent. To judge whether Platois sarcastic or is to be believed word for word or symbolically is very difficult. Plato hated change and looked down upon the idea of evolution and changeability. The middle ages echoed this along with its simultaneous desire for everlasting and unchanging flawlessness. The author is very critical of Plato and his view seems like a tunnel vision phenomena, but he feels that this is ‘what he came to mean to a long row of future generations- the one sided

PepsiCo Team-Board of Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

PepsiCo Team-Board of Governance - Essay Example The board of directors is tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the activities of a company. The activities of the board of directors are only delegated powers that are outside the organization itself, which have authority given to it by the bylaws of the organization (Malline 82). The board often faces challenges, and at this team company’s board, the most crucial governance issue is the compliance of public policy issues. There are countless issues that are put across that try and restrict the movement and actions of the board, which tries as much as possible to comply with these policies. In this firm’s case, by bringing in public persons, there is a chance for the organization to find a clear-cut channel to address the compliance of certain policies. It also creates transparency that the firm really needs. Conscious capitalism is what may be used to refer to the philanthropic activities that a firm is willing to undertake (Malline 87). This is in order to help the surrounding external environment benefit and also assist the firm benefit. The firm often participates in different sports activities for some of the different organizations that exist in the area. This is often done as a means to have donations for the groups involved, and also build awareness for the group in question. The skills and capabilities that the firm boasts of make it possible to have different activities in different areas, which also help in fostering exceptional relations between the firm and the people in the external environment.

Arguments for Short and Longer Term Capitalism

Arguments for Short and Longer Term Capitalism Introduction Reason Dominic Barton’s article on the â€Å"Capitalism for the Long Term† and in particular his â€Å"Fight the Tyranny of Short-Termism† essentially asserts ‘there is a myopia plagues all Western institutions in every sector’ and in his article, he suggests solutions to potentially treat thus problem He believes that this short-sighted perspective leads to the crippling of corporations, and the economy and creates social problems. Research that supports Barton’s claim of this pervasive myopia was presented during a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in June 2011, where it was shown that the majority of chief investment officers from top asset management firms focused on short-term horizons that are disconnected from the organic process that typically value in businesses (Generation Investment Management LLP, 2012). In addition, former United States of America (USA) Vice-President, Al Gore said that ‘capitalism is coming under increased scrutiny and needs to change as short-term thinking has driven a wedge between investing and the creation of value for corporations’ and capitalism needs to change (Johan Carlstrom, 2013). This problem of short-term capitalism has attracted many institutional bodies such as International Monetary Fund and Harvard Business Review to conduct studies looking at its negative impact. The short-fall of short-term capitalism can be seen and felt most recently by th e financial crisis in 2008 that saw the collapse of major firms such as Lehman Brothers and the lives of many employees and their families destroyed along with the economy (Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 2011). In summary, his argument calls for the review of a shift from short-term capitalism towards long-term capitalism in order for capitalism to continue to thrive in this modern age. Assumptions Potential Problems Barton’s main argument of transferring from short-term capitalism to long-term capitalism is problematic for a few reasons. Firstly, he assumes that short-term capitalism always leads to short-term management. Next, he assumes that short-term management is the root problem of short-term capitalism. Conversely, he assumes that long-term capitalism is better than short-term capitalism. However it is not possible to determine the true lasting advantages and disadvantages of long-term capitalism as it may not has not run its full course yet. Disadvantages may not be readily apparent initially and may end up being more potent as they have had more time to fester and snowball. Barton makes a further assumption that all investors are short-term and thus value-orientated which is false because that is a sweeping judgement on a diverse group of investors, of which a notable example to the contrary is Warren Buffet. He also believes that because investors are value-oriented, they are the ones at the root of problem as they pressure the board and management to practise short-term capitalism too. There may be some truth in that value-orientated investors will lead to short-term management this creates a vicious cycle. In theory, the management should be autonomous but in reality their investors usually influence them. A case in point would be that Chief Executives Officers (CEOS) are pressured by their investors to meet quarterly targets for the company’s share price may depreciate if they fail to meet them. CEOs then go to great lengths to achieving them, even if it could damage longer-term health of the business (Tim Koller, Rishi Raj Abhishek Saxena, 2013). As such, in order to avoid a conflict of interest, any board of directors should be fully independent (Lawrence Weber, 2011). This is important as the board would then be able to choose what is best for the corporation and should they choose to practise long-term capitalism, they would need to filter out the growth-orientated investors from the value-orientated investors (Bill George, 2013). Hence, the board decides the type of capitalism they want to undertake and the type of investors they wish to attract. Thus, it is not the investors who determine the corporation’s take on capitalism and should not be where we start from to solve this problem of short-term capitalism as mentioned by Barton. Another assumption that he makes is that ‘short-term capitalism is a tyrant that needs to be rid of for before the social contract between capitalist system and citizenry ruptures.’ The reality is that capitalism is by its very nature is governed by an inanimate non-living economic model and therefore cannot be corrupt. The misuse and abuse of the model by its users is to blame. Clayton Christensen provides an alternative explanation Businesses are created to meet demands and in exchange seek revenue. There are mainly two ways businesses can do that, they can either create empowering innovation which creates value or reinvest capital with capital but does not create any value. Reinvestment is obviously much faster than the creation of empowering innovations and as a result this is the choice of many firms (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), 2013). It is because of this choice, that the flow of value creation is broken (Refer to Appendix A) as reinvestment only serves to stagnate the economy (Clayton Christensen Derek Van Bever, 2014). This flow broke when the professionals in finance started to advise companies on the fastest way possible to maximise profit margins. Hence, it is clear then that short-term capitalism, which was more beneficial than detrimental in the past, was ruined not because of what it is but r ather the people who abused it. Barton’s suggestion for the transformation to long-term capitalism by focusing on long-term results and removing short-term targets makes a grave assumption that is meritocracy can still function in this era of career-minded people. Using his example that financial firms ought to adopt an approach that encourages fund managers using favourable methods in achieving their benchmark targets, meritocracy may be an obstacle because by adopting favourable methods and merely achieving their targets, it will be hard for these career-minded managers to distinguish themselves from the pack (Emilio J. Castilla Stephen Benard, 2010) and thus his suggestion will crumble over time. He also assumed that the reason why CEOs may take up actions that would damage the company’s long-term health in exchange for meeting quarterly targets is because of value-orientated investors. When in fact, the reason may simply be these CEOs are using the company as a stepping-stone to further their car eer advancement. This may then be the better explanation as to why the avenge tenure of CEOs has decreased from 1992 till now (Steven N. Kaplan Bernadette A. Minton, 2008). So then we realise that even by changing from short-term to long-term targets, it may not solve the issue at hand because meritocracy needs to be improved upon. On top of the need to evaluate the relevancy of our current version of meritocracy, another underlying assumption that he made when he said that we should look towards long-term capitalism and to move away from short-term capitalism is actually the relevancy of capitalism in today’s world. Taking into account of all available psychological research Daniel Kahneman, 2011) and living in our technology dependent world, many economic models that are proving to be outdated (Steven D. Levitt Stephen J. Dubner, 2005). By this reasoning, capitalism, which is actually governed by the many economic models, may no longer be relevant today and should not be the default model used even though it is widely accepted because it generates capital. However, there are no other appropriate models available, then perhaps modification and adaption of capitalism to keep it relevant in today’s context is the way forward. Further Potential Problems Barton proposed on first focusing on the people who provide capital first as they account for 35% of the world’s financial assets. Aside from the above-mentioned points, he is actually suggesting that these investors should take up a growth-orientated mentality. Realistically speaking, only major investors have the ability to influence the management team’s view on capitalism. It is difficult to convince them as these investors are unlikely to forsake guaranteed instant returns in exchange for less guaranteed future returns even if it may be higher. Investors being rationale beings would seek what is best for them and they may weigh that uncertainty too risky for that slight increase in return. He also suggests that firms should not encourage employees (fund managers) to meet the high benchmark indexes if the employees use favourable methods in achieving those targets. This is a noble proposal but unfortunately would collapse in the working world. The reason would be because firms use benchmarks to evaluate one employee against the other. In addition, favourable methods can easily be facades of unscrupulous methods as employees pit against each other to meet or beat the benchmark indexes. These methods, whether favourable or not, can only be evaluated at a later date. By then, the damage may already be irreversible. The definition of favourable is open to multiple subjective interpretations. This may result in employees may result in employees being unsure of what is allowed and as a result standards may be sub-par or may even result in a uniform standard of work produced, which would result in the failure of the incentivized promotion system. All of this is under the assum ption that everyone has high moral standards. In this era of career-minded people, it is also high unlikely that they will settle to be an average Joe for the sake of long-term capitalism as they will strive to be different by achieving higher benchmark indexes. Conclusion His assumption that there is something wrong with the current system (short-term capitalism) in place now is founded but the methods in which he employs to tackle the problem, in my opinion, are only scratching the tip of the iceberg. Actions need to be taken, but to create a noticeable difference, the actions cannot target certain groups or firms with wrongdoing policies but must target the fundamentals such as the validity of meritocracy and capitalism. We should focus on fixing the fundamentals of meritocracy and adjusting capitalism to make it relevant to today’s context by reviewing the economic models, which they are based upon. Thereafter, then we should heed the Barton’s suggestions on transferring from short-term to long-term capitalism, if capitalism is still deemed to be a relevant economic model for our modern world. Reference: Anne T. Lawrence and James Weber. (2011). Stockholder Rights and Corporate Governnance: Chapter 14 from Business and society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy, 13th Edition Bill George. (2013, December) Bill George on rethinking Capitalism/ Interviewer: Willian George and Rik Kirkland [6:50]. McKinsey Company. Retrieved from  http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/bill_george_on_rethinking_capitalism Castilla, Emilio J., and Stephen Benard. â€Å"The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations.† Administrative Science Quarterly 55 (2010): 543-576.  © 2010 by Johnson Graduate School, Cornell University. Clayton Christensen. (2013, September) The Capitalist’s Dilemma/ Interviewer: Rohan Silva [24:47]. Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Retrieved from http://www.thersa.org/events/video/vision-videos/the-capitalists-dilemma Derek Van Bever and Clayton Christensen. (2014, June). The Capitalist’s Dilemma. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2014/06/the-capitalists-dilemma/ar/1 Generation Investment Management LLP. (2012). Sustainable Capitalism. Johan Carlstrom. (2013, June). Gore Says Capitalism’s Short-Term focus is Hurting Companies. Bloomberg. Retrieved from  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-17/gore-says-capitalism-s-short-term-focus-is-hurting-companies.html Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. (2005). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. United States of America: HarperCollins. Steven N. Kaplan Bernadette A. Minton. (2008, August). How has CEO Turnover changed. Tim Koller, Rishi Raj and Abhishek Saxena. (2013, January). Avoiding the consensus-earning trap. McKinsey Company. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/corporate_finance/avoiding_the_consensus-earnings_trap United States of America. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. (2011). Final report of the National Comission on the causes and economic crisis in the United States. Daniel Kahneman. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. United States of America: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Appendix A The Economic Engine (Clayton Christensen, 2013)

An American Jew :: essays papers

An American Jew In this large city of ours situated on big spinning ball, inside a vast galaxy, and even larger universe. We sometimes tend to leap out into the unkown embracing and fearing life on other planets, when we can not embrace life or learn not to fear life on our own planet. We as a society have formed our own barriers when those placed upon us have been removed. We rarely see mixed neighborhoods outside of large cities. Even in our own borough we can see this; for example Borough Park is mostly Religious Jews, the area surrounding Brooklyn College is mostly black, and Gerritsen Beach is mostly Italian. When someone who doesn't belong in a community invades that community, that community then will fear and reject the invaders. The community is like the indiginous people of an island, when the island recieves its first visiter from the outside, the indiginous people fear the visiter and fear the change they may bring. My family was the first Russian family to move to an all Italian neighborhood, I was told to go back to where i cam from "damn rooskies", the children used to yell and taunt my sisters and myself. They would scream go back to Russia eventhough we had never been there. But soon I made freinds with a local girl who accepted me for me, not for being Russian, but for being Diana. My parent's didn't want me to get involved with the wrong kids and they also feared my friendship with people of different backgrounds. But our families began to talk and then we went over to each others houses for dinner and pretty soon, we were having block parties and backyard BBQ's. We weren;t Russian anymore, and they weren't Italian we had met somewhere in the middle. My mom now makes an amazing lasagna and the Laura's mom (the girl I befriended) makes a great Chicken Kiev. We didn't belong to any one class, our neighborhood was no longer Italian and it didn't become Russian it just was. It was just a neighborhood, no classification, just a middle class neighborhood, it was gray. Gray is that color inbetween black and white, its not black, and its not white, its just in the middle. If you think about there are a lot of colors like that; take pink for example its a mix between red and white, its not red and its not ehite, its just in the middle its just pink.

Allowing Evil to Triumph Essay

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke). In order to stop evil and malicious acts from occurring, the people whose responsibility it is to enforce the laws must step up and stop these terrible acts. By ignoring the evil and not attempting to stop the evil, the good can harm themselves or other innocent people. If there is no resistance to evil, it is just like a football team allowing a player to score a touchdown without trying to tackle the player with the ball. In each case, it is extremely easy for one side to overcome the other. Therefore, by not exerting any effort to oppose the evil, the good are just inviting the evil to do as they wish. Being one of the themes of the poem The Hangman, this quotation can be related to the actions of the Hangman and the people he killed. Once the Hangman began killing, nobody tried to step up and stop the Hangman (except for one person who was killed). In this case, the good men did not attempt to stop the evil. As a consequence for this lack of action, each person was killed because he serves the Hangman best. The way in which the good served the Hangman was by letting the evil triumph over the town. If a group had attempted to stop the Hangman, he could have possibly been stopped. Because only one person attempted to stop the evil, those who kept quiet were killed for helping the Hangman without realizing it. If the good men do nothing and make no attempt to halt the evil, then the evil will triumph as a result of this lack of action. In today’s society, many people complain about all the political corruption that occurs in government, but none are willing to step up and take on this opposing evil. If one would look at the United States’ voter turnout in comparison with other nations, one would notice that the turnout is extremely low. This is a great example of how good men doing nothing allows the evil to triumph. If all of those people who talked about getting the evil politicians out of office actually voted, then they could possibly be removed from office by the voters. Therefore, if all of those good people acted upon their spoken words, the evil people of the government might be  able to be removed from office. In the life experiences of an average person, there are many things that occur that could be stopped if the good would try to stop the evil. Often times, two parents of a household work and do not spend enough time with their children. Because the parents do not act as a good influence in the child’s life, the child may begin to do drugs, get bad grades, and become involved in crime. Each of these things is evil but could have been prevented if the parent had done something and acted as a good influence in the child’s life. This is an example of how the good doing nothing allows the evil to triumph in the life of an average person. Also, many times there are bullies within a school who threaten other students with physical actions or language. Many times, these bullies go unreported because the good who are violated by the evil are scared of being known as a ‘tattle-tale.’ In each of these above cases, the good has the chance to prevent the evil from doing any damages, but chooses not to based upon their actions. By attempting to do nothing, the good shows little concern for what the evil is capable of doing. In the above paragraphs, there are examples of good allowing the evil to triumph that result in death. Also, there are examples of things in which the evil does not offer as horrendous a consequence. Within either extremity, there always has and always will be problems of evil triumphing to an easy victory. Perhaps one should think twice about whether to let something evil go without notice. One must remember that, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke)

Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Essays - Email, Communication, Free Essays

Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Essays - Email, Communication, Free Essays Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Assignments Exercise 1.1: Communication Process Model Directions: Think of a misunderstanding you experienced when communicating with someone else at work, home, or school. Then fill in the blanks of the chart below. Misunderstanding Number 1 Who was the sender? My Manager Dan Who was the receiver? Myself What was the message? My manager was communicating to be the way the produce department was to be reset and stocked. What channel was used to send the message? Verbal communication. What was the misunderstanding that occurred? His instructions on the way that the produce was to be stacked was clear but the information on where each item was to be reset at was unclear. How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? This miscommunication could have been avoided in my manager would have given me an outline of where each item was to be place. 1.What did you learn about the communication process from this activity? With this communication process what I learn is that when unsure of something ask more questions and make sure that all instructions are all completely understood that are given. 2.What seemed to be the main causes of the misunderstandings? The main cause of this was the lack of communication between the two of us and making sure that the receiver had complete understanding of what the message was saying. Misunderstanding Number 2 Who was the sender? Supervisor Gale Who was the receiver? Myself What was the message? Time requested off What channel was used to send the message? Email What was the misunderstanding that occurred? A few months prior to needing time off I submitted a request for a few days off. A few day before the time that was needed off I emailed my supervisor to remind her that I would be off the next few days off. She called me and informed me that she had sent me an email back that she had denied me the time off. Found out later that day that she had sent the message to another person in the building with the same name and that the other employee had forgot to tell me or forward the email to me. How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? This type of misunderstanding could have been avoided if I would of followed up with another email or making a call her after not hearing back within a week of sending the email. 1.What did you learn about the communication process from this activity? That one should always follow up when important message are sent to other to prevent a lack of communication between the sender and receiver. 2.What seemed to be the main causes of the misunderstandings? The main cause for this misunderstanding was that my manager Gale or I did a follow up to make sure that the messages was received.

Swatch Group Essays

Swatch Group Essays Swatch Group Paper Swatch Group Paper The global watch Industry Is an Industry that Is In midst of change, where technology considered high-tech Is now considered behind or companies who were leaders are now just fads. The Swatch group falls in this category as it is a company facing the issues of the necessity of reposition itself, facing increased competition and higher than normal production costs. The swatch group seems to be in a stage in their company that has kept growth low, and the future shaky thus a strategy has been set forward for the company. The recommended strategy of partnering with Titan Industries is a strategy, If Implemented properly will be able to deal with someone of these core Issues at hand. The strategy Is aimed to reposition the company, while taking advantage of external opportunities such as international expansion and lower production costs. In the following document, a closer insight into the watch industry and the swatch group itself gives a better more in-depth look of its current strategies, external/internal threats and opportunities and other possible strategies with the partnership as the ultimate outcome. External The global watch industry has been consistent and continually provoking more interest. The watch industry has usually in the past used a horizontal structure in which suppliers, craftsmen and sub-contractors supply movements and external parts to assemblers , who in turn put the final product all together. Although in rare instances the use of vertical structure has been used in the Industry, where the company builds the product completely within the company. The Industry takes more of a fragmented stance with more of a spread of players in the Industry. The products primarily offered in the global watch industry revolve around electronic, prestigious, luxurious and appealing watches. Various opportunities and threats in he industry are discussed below as well as in Exhibit A Major opportunities in the industry include the continued technology advances occurring In society, with technology continually advancing opportunities for more Innovative product lines exists and at potentially lower cost production. Another opportunity that exists in the industry is international expansion, as the watch market continues to become more relevant in the world, international expansion is up for grabs. The keys to success for companies in the industry will revolve around companies investing more heavily in R and D to maintain with the technology advances and take advantage of the international opportunities. Another opportunity in the Industry revolves around the ability to continue to produce watches at cheaper costs. Keys to success Include companies being able to locate sufficient outsourcing opportunities with production being cheaper in these locations. The major threats that occur in this industry involve around the market becoming too saturated. Since the ability to produce will become cheaper, in a sense the opportunities for companies already in the industry will also be considered a threat as continued new entrants in the market segments will appear. The same goes for International expansion, as companies expand Internationally, messmates companies are being threatened and requiring defense of their companies. Both these threats will lead to profits being diluted and a market shares being cut in to. Keys to success for companies will be able to fall heavily on their reputation along with maintaining strong existing connections customers to maintain the competitive advantages that exist, taking a more focused differentiation strategy and possibly looking for mergers to defend the international expansion and take advantage of the international expansion at the same time. Internal Assessment The swatch group is a diversified multinational holding company that was formed in 1983 through two Swiss watch manufactures. The swatch group manufactures and sells finished watches, Jewelry and watch components. The group is the leader in the world when it comes to watch making and the group supplies nearly all the components required for the watches. The groups production companies supply watch components and movements to third part watch makers in Switzerland and around the world. The swatch group has a reputation and customer loyalty that is rare and quite positively unmatched in the watch making world. Switzerland had commonly been known well for their ability to produce high quality clocks and relies heavily on its reputation based in its watch market. The Swiss watch represents wealth, power and status and with the swatch group as representative of the Swiss watch market, its stance in strong and trustworthy. The swatch group also relies heavily when it comes to their research and development segment in there company. And this is done rightly so as the companies R and D segment has continued to show innovation that has kept them as a world class company and watch maker. The many continues to enhance and develop the design of watch. This is a vital strength because the swatch group utilizes the end-user as a starting point of the departments research. The issue that arises is that with the continued development of R and D in competitors, this is considered an imitable strength and temporary distinctive competency A rising weakness that the swatch group continues to face is the high production costs the company faces. While most watch companies locate manufacturing activities in countries with lower production costs, swatch continues to remain committed to its Swiss home production. While they may consider this important to their D. AN. F the company, it will and has already started to deteriorate profits which have started to plateau profits. Swatch group can convert this into strength if other options of manufacturing their product is realized and considered. Financial Analysis The Swatch group continues to be a leading force in the global watch industry, as it is considered in value terms as the worlds leading watch manufacturer with 14 percent of the world market. The company continues to see consistent growth around 15 25 per cent per year, and saw an increase in gross sales and gross profits y 7. And 7. 5 percent respectively in 1998. This can be primarily attributed to a repositioning strategy initiated in the early asss, by replacing expensive metals with cheaper brands used to refresh the company and by also reducing its streamlined models from 2500 to 130. Another successful initiative that saw the company become stronger financially was a marketing campaign that saw increase its awareness Tort ten omega watch Increase, Ana Decode stronger especially Witt an average of a 50 percent price point below its main competitor Role. Financially where the swatch group lacked was the fact that there sales have began o plateau at levels around 18 to 20 million units a year. The issue the company faces would be that if sales continue to plateau the company will have to rely more heavily on debt and borrowing as the company moves the future. Attempting to utilize its assets more efficiently is one step, another is reducing costs. Current Strategies The Swatch Group and Hayes currently deploy a differentiation strategy in their company which relies on their ability to create a watch that is able to stand out when grouped in with their competitors. The Swatch group has implemented this strategy and sustained its competitive advantage through innovation and their dedication to quality. Innovation at the Swatch group has been an important cornerstone in the groups development and progress towards the future. Innovation from adapting to technology advances in the watch market to their vertical integration strategy by keeping cost production costs lower through reducing the numbers of parts and automating the manufacturing process. Swatch cut the number of parts from 91 to 51 resulting in production costs of under 10 Swiss francs. The Swatch group also relied heavily on their marketing campaign to create brand wariness for their brands and reinvent the watch concept for consumers. The Swatch group positioned their products as accessory items opposed to time keeping. They did this through creating fashionable designs, creating large scale advertisements, limited editions and event sponsoring. The ass they switched their distribution channel to swatch concept stores where the brand products were displayed. A final important part to the Swatch group was the vision set out by Hayes (CEO). The Swatch group wanted to convey a message like no other watch brands in the watch market. Hayes and the swatch group made it clear that the group wanted to target ND be present in all market/ price segments from top to bottom and willingness that the group would be able compete in the markets. Key Issues After clearly seeing the nature of business the swatch group takes, it is clear the Swatch group has a couple of different issues that need to be addressed in order for the company to move in the right direction. The issues the swatch group faces is first that currently their position in the industry is ambiguous and needs to be re organized/ re positioned to give a clearer out look o the future. They are being seen by consumers as Just a fad of the earlier days and Ewing over looked by upcoming and exciting watch industries like Timex. Another is their high manufacturing costs of producing watches in Switzerland which is becoming a strain on the company financially. With more and more of the competition looking for outsourcing possibilities in countries with low cost production solutions, the swatch group has started to fall behind. The problem has really started to affect the company and stands at the forefront of their issues. Continuing to manufacture in one of the most expensive countries in the world and began to take a toll on the company. Another issue that is posed on the swatch group is the increasing competition and different market niches. With companies beginning to take Autocue Transliteration strategies In tenet companies, certain market segments and price segments are becoming increasingly more competitive. This stands as a serious issue for the swatch group as they are present in all market segments and price categories and can result in decreased net margin. Strategic Alternatives The first alternative that Swatch group can pursue is moving manufacturing out of Switzerland into Asia, countries with lower cost production solutions. This will lead to watch taking a cost focused strategy approach. By moving production out of Switzerland the swatch group will be able to maintain with its competitors in regards to production and its productions costs will move from a weakness to strength. By moving production out of Switzerland and still be compliant with the Switzerland government, the swatch group will be able to continue forward with growth and have more to invest in their R and D department. The second alternative that the Swatch group can pursue is a strategic partnership with titan industries (a watch making company based out of India) which will help with the many reposition itself internationally, significantly helping its efforts of gaining more international recognition. Titan industries is also another extraordinary success story in the industry, there expansion has been quick, profitable and recognized by the industry. In this broad differentiation strategy an alliance with a company like titan suits swatch well, as both are looking to continue to grow internationally and avoid the wide spread of competitors continuing to enter the market while both focusing primarily on the watch industry. With immense domestic demand and low cost labor, titan seems to be an exciting and profitable opportunity. The third alternative that swatch can explore is reorganizing its product portfolio. With continued increase in competition especially with competition in niche markets tightening up, swatches current strategy of attempting to be present in all market and price segments seems to have expired. In this focused differentiation alternative swatch will focus their attention on their product lines that are more profitable for the company and abandon their other markets. This means swatch will put more focus on their middle to luxury market segments. This will create a more of a focused differentiation approach strategy. Criteria and evaluation of alternatives by criteria In determining which option will best suit the Swatch group and lead them to more prosperous future, the alternatives that have been discussed need to be asses against three criteria. The first criterion that needs to be met in order to ensure future success for the alternatives would be to produce a positive NP (Net Present Value). The second criterion that needs to be assessed is how each alternative will affect the companys long term sustainability. The final criterion that will be assessed or each alternative is risk level of each possible direction, in the sense evaluating if any of the alternative imposes any greater risks on the Swatch group or the risk of the strategy failing In the first alternative of moving production out of Switzerland with regards to the first criteria of NP, this criterion would produce a NP of $5,333,543,488 which satisfies the criteria. In terms of long term sustainability, moving production out of Switzerland could play a positive role with this criterion. As production is being moved out, costs will De raceme, growth can De Increased as cap tall can De ovate to toner important initiatives of the company and the selling price can be readjusted. The risk level of alternative is tarnishing the Swiss made label that has been the foundation of the company. If consumers drop the product because the prestigious label has become cheaper the company could lose market share in the higher to middle end market segments, which would hurt growth in the company and the futures outlook. The second alternative of partnering with titans industries, creates an NP of $9,027,460,032 which is not only positive, satisfying the first criterion it is the largest NP produced, a important factor to consider. With regards to long term sustainability, this alternative seems to be the strongest in this criterion. With the company needing to reposition itself and create a firmer outlook in a fickle industry, partnering would create the companys outlook stronger and create a synergy between two rising companies looking for international expansion. The partnership would assist in lowering costs, opening up new markets, benefiting from economies of scales, combining assets, advanced growth and competition advantages. The risk level of this alternative is the possibility of losing some of its Swiss made label, which could hinder the future. Also since titan had failed in an alliance earlier, the possibility of failure is possible. The last alternative of reorganizing their portfolio by reducing their product line to the most profitable product, satisfies the first criterion producing an NP of $5,447,279,600. With long term sustainability, the company would be able to see growth through focusing on their most profitable product lines, except costs would increase because the producing these higher end market segments would be more expensive. The risk level of this alternative is that consumer would be lost resulting n lower revenues and if they cant attain higher market share in the product lines they focused on the company would not see growth. The pay out of this alternative might not be worth the risk of consolidation of the products. Recommendation and Implementation Based on the evaluation of the alternatives, the recommended strategy to implement is to create a strategic partnership with Titan industries. The criterion shows that this alternative would be the most attractive in dealing with the key issues the Swatch group faces in the future. Profits would be increased, costs would be reduced b, intention reduced and the company would be repositioning itself for the future. Implementing this strategy would have be done delicately and ensured that not too much time is spent to distract them from moving forward. First part of production would be moved to India resulting in redistributing the cost savings in R and D and some production kept in Switzerland to attempt to keep the Swiss made label. A marketing campaign would be implemented to create a view of the future for the organization and ensure consumers know where the organization stands. The marketing campaign would involve social networks, heavy advertising and the SE of celebrities from all over the world wearing the watches. Then continue to produce product lines, with a more international aspect being implemented so new markets are created. Competition will then be targeted, innovating together by destroying images of others and increasing market share of their own. Avoidance of WOO De nope In tens partnership to rely more on current assets AT ten alliance. Limitations and critique of recommendation While this strategy of partnering with Titan industries seems to look strong and quite promising for the organization certain limitations exists. The first one being that Titan had already tried to work with a partner to develop internationally and move forward, this company being Timex. While a failure seems possible, the difference in this scenario is that both companies are more suitable for a partnership opposed to the partnership with Timex, who really never needed one and was becoming strong on their own. In this scenario swatch and titan need each other more then Timex needed titan. Another limitation that occurs is the fact that even though some production stays in Switzerland, the Swiss made label needs might be tarnished. While this risk seems possible, a proper advertising campaign can mitigate this risk and help the organization move forward without fear of this really hurting the company. The limitations are a concern only if the Swatch group does not commit fully to this strategy. Exhibit 1 External Analysis Opportunities and Threats: Opportunity: New Markets * Opportunity to expand internationally with new markets being produce * Deciding whether to enter the markets or not * With new markets being entered, hype/ attention will be back on swatch * Technology advances creating new markets Opportunity: Low Cost Production solutions Over seasons markets open to inexpensive cheap labor * Could be considered a threat if not taken advantage of * Lower costs of production leads to lower overall costs and higher profits Threat: Market saturation * Companies investing more in research and development in niche markets(RD) * Heightened competition in focused markets, creating tougher markets to compete in Threat: New Markets * International expansion helping companies move internationally, and steal market share from other companies * New competition taking advantage of innovation in the industry, creating new product lines Conclusion: To take advantage f these opportu nities means to take advantage of them now before they disappear. In the watch industry, it seems of late its becoming an ever changing industry where position needs to be firm. With regards to the threats, if they arent dealt with they can be a serious detrimental issue to a business in the industry.

Homicide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Homicide - Research Paper Example Many have identified that the actual number of the criminals and serial killers are increasing by challenging he laws and the authorities. As such, the study of homicide deserves greater importance for the researchers and the general public. An overview of the various books and other writings published on this issue unveils that there has been many attempts to identify murder and homicide. However, even after various studies over this issue, one can still view it as an argumentative issue among the researchers and the intelligentsia. Only a thorough wider analysis and research, one can make clear certain issues regarding homicide and or murder. Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. If the killing is not excusable or justifiable, then it is called criminal homicide. Murder and Manslaughter are the two general categories of criminal homicide. In most countries, First Degree Murder is the most serious crime that people can commit, where manslaughter is a less serious cr iminally homicide. Considered the most heinous crime that could be committed in society, the intentional or unintentional act of murder brings lasting affects to the families of the victims and the murderers and their families. The consequences of these heinous actions have the potential to also affect the current laws that are in place, possibly having them amended. The proposed research seeks to explore certain realities concerning homicide and will conclude by analyzing the various types of homicides and the negative effects which may hamper the lives of modern people. 1. HOMICIDE - KILLING OF ANOTHER Homicide has often been identified as the killing of one human being by another human being due to various factors. Homicide is broader in scope than murder, though it has often referred as synonymous it. An overview of homicide reveals that murder is a variety of criminal homicide which is punishable where other forms of homicide might not constitute criminal acts. Other forms of h omicides are often accounted as justified and excusable. Law has clearly defined or categorized various types of homicides which includes killing intentionally, murder for self-defense, planned murder, and so on. Individuals may engage in murder for self-defense, ‘kill a person who threatens them with death or serious injury, or they may be commanded or authorized by law to kill a person who is a member of an enemy force or who has committed a serious crime’ (The free dictionary, 2011). As per the laws existing in majority of the world nations, it is the circumstance surrounding a killing that decides whether a man is a criminal or not. The more specific legal terms takes into account the intent of the killer to regard his/her action as criminal homicide which is generally considered as murder or man slaughter. Regarding homicide, it can be brought under two main categories called Lawful killing and Unlawful killing. a. LAWFUL KILLING As per the legal statutes, English courts developed the body of Common Law on which U.S. jurisdictions already depending to develop their verdicts concerning homicides. The legal dictionary identifies the two types of homicides when it writes thus, â€Å"Early English common law divided homicide into two broad categories: felonious and non-felonious. Historically, the deliberate and premeditated killing of a person by another person was a felonious homicide and was

Analyze how innovation, design, and creativity at Mcdonalds support Research Paper

Analyze how innovation, design, and creativity at Mcdonalds support the organizations goals and objectives - Research Paper Example When it comes to its design of leadership, McDonalds top management has ensured that they are customer oriented and hence has engaged in corporate social responsibility to work hand on hand with its customers who are part of the larger community in order to fulfill its values and objectives. This step has increased the fame of the food stores and even increased its customer base. McDonalds have also invested in having different designs of their worker’s uniforms depending on the occasion or where they are serving their customers, this range from entertaining children in their numerous playgrounds and even serving customers in their dinners. Their creativity is evident from their logo which is unique and identifies it wherever it is. They are also creative in their advertisements and in the advertisements they sponsor. McDonald’s different designs of their restaurants including drive-in ones that serve the customer needs wherever they are is also an indication of their creativity and which goes a long way to fulfill the goal of McDonalds of serving fast food to all people and at their own

Meaningful use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Meaningful use - Essay Example Meaningful use refers to the application of certified EHR technology in attaining specific healthcare objectives. Meaningful use is centered along the roles of healthcares professions and hospitals with respect to the adoption and implementation of EHR technology in their respective practice (CDC, 2013). This claim can be justified by the guidelines of the EHR incentive program, which requires medical professionals and hospitals to demonstrate that their chosen certified EHR has met specific health outcomes priorities. The concept of meaningful use is based on a number of vital health outcome priorities which include but not limited to improved population and public health; enhanced privacy and security of patient medical information; superior quality, efficiency, safety and minimized health disparities; enhanced care coordination; and increased engagement of patients and their families in the care (â€Å"Policymaking, Regulation†, 2012). This means that eligible medical profe ssions and hospitals must ensure that their certified EHR meets the above results before they get CMS inventive payment. The healthcare outcomes will be used as the criteria for establishing effective use of the deployed health IT tools by healthcare providers. According to the CMS incentive program eligible medical professionals, hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) will receive up to $44,000 over 5 years and up to $63,750 over 6 years through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program respectively (CDC, 2013). It is noteworthy that CMS inventive program is voluntary, but negative consequences especially financial ones have been put in place for medical providers who fail to join the program by 2015. The concept of Meaningful Use was first introduced during the Obama administration though enactment and final signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 into law (Flanders, 2010). The ARRA through a number of measures particularly the "Health In formation Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act" has witnessed improved national healthcare IT infrastructure. The HITECH proposed the concept of meaningful use of the EHR through the country’s healthcare delivery system as a vital national goals and it remains to be the critical focus for legislative, financial and ethical concern for hospitals and professional in the healthcare sector (â€Å"Policymaking, Regulation†, 2012). The initiative for automating medical records is facilitated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) in conjunction with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) after the current administration realized that IT infrastructure is impetus for addressing longstanding healthcare challenges which range from escalating healthcare costs, low quality and safety, as well as high wastage (CDC, 2013). Meaningful Use has been divided into phases in order to encourage gradual widespread EHR adoption and implemen tation universally besides relieving excessive burden on medical care providers. The first phase which covers 2011 involves aspects of data capture and sharing; the second face, which involves advanced clinical processes elements covers up to 2013 while the final phase involves

Power and Knowledge Essay Example for Free

Power and Knowledge Essay Poststructuralism as one of the contemporary political philosophy gain its popularity because of its radical assumptions that veered away from the traditional structuralist thinking. The project of the renaissance scholars to control everything including nature through the used of knowledge particularly scientific knowledge did not gain much fame in this late century. Structuralism although it offers much in looking how institutions served as parts of a social system tend to believe that society could control the individual with the aid of science. However, the ideas of Jean Lyotard, Michel Foucault and Jean-Luc Nancy proved otherwise. The dream of grand theorists to integrate knowledge and create a unified social system is the very idea that most contemporary theorists avoid. Prior to the development of poststructuralism, discussion on power and knowledge is always a feature seen within the structures and not something that emanates from the individual, this structure-agency pendulum continues to fascinate theorists. Structural functionalists believed that social structures such as religion, culture, and government have strong hold over the individual particularly in their socialization process. Talcott Parsons (1951) for instance, look society as the social system divided by subsystems that have specific functions. Each part of society functions and creates mutual interdependence thus maintaining the dynamism of whole social system(Parsons: 1951). The Contemporary political philosophy opens a lot of venues in analyzing society with proposing meta narratives. Much of the themes of contemporary thinkers would be on the consequences of modernity, globalization among others. Topics on power and knowledge are just two of the basic issues that philosophers continuously are gaining interest. It provides a picture on how the development of knowledge transformed power relations in contemporary society. Contemporary political philosophy as it is advanced by the writings of three philosophers mentioned in the previous paragraph, look at power and knowledge in a different light. Before, the scholars would think that the development of knowledge is in a continuum and that power is exerted by institutions to the individual as if power has a center or a fixed point. In Contemporary political philosophy one can view that the source of power comes from various agencies,and the struggling character of power is in every discourse. Power is not only evident on political apparatus, on the religious order or on the intellectual community but power is seen on all arrays of everyday existence. Our day to day social relations are power relations. One of the contemporary thinkers who would employ much time in discussing power is Foucault. Some thinkers considered him as a poststrcuturalist or a postmodern thinker, because of the fluidity of his ideas. Moreover, there are critics who accused him of relativism because of his theory favors, intersubjectivity, the discursive method, discourse among others. Foucault (2002) did not suggests a central power or a solid one that one can see for instance in an authoritarian society, rather in looking at society, one could see ‘pockets’ of power or a decentralized one coming from various discourses. On the other hand, in his theory of knowledge one can see its deviation from Descartes Cogito. Reason as the underlying principle of the enlightenment period, did not escaped the gaze of Foucault. In his Madness and Civilization (1965) he examined that through history, madness became an invention that would serve as the opposite of reason. With the definition on madness as â€Å"non-rational† or irrational, it justifies the power of reason during the enlightenment period. Only through its binary opposition which is madness can reason hold its power. The control of the patient with the development of psychiatry in Madness and Civilization (1965) also served as a critique that looks at how modern society manifests the same features as that one can find in the discipline of psychiatry. There are various means by which society controls the individual. Foucault discussed that in the modern era, exercising power need not necessarily be brute and obvious. One example is his idea of punishment as a result of deviating from the norm. Foucault in Discipline an Punish (1977), discussed in what way torture as a form of punishment in the 18th century was transformed by discipline. With the birth of the prison, instead of attacking the physical body the institution inculcate discipline as a form of punishment. This feature of the prison, and even the birth of the clinic shows how slowly modern society is becoming more authoritarian and all of these are possible because of the different knowledge that people believe as true and moral during their times. Foucault in his Archeology of Knowledge (2002) look at historical development not in a continuum because he did not believed in a unified discourse as proposed by grand narratives such as that of the Parsonian theory. What one can see through history are various realities, are what he called discontinuities. Much of his theory of power and knowledge could also be seen in the History of Sexuality (1990) wherein he is not interested in sexuality per se, but in looking at the underlying struggle within the discourse of sexuality. While in the earlier periods, society repress one’s sexuality, this kind of discourse even propagates it. The more that society for instance repressed homosexuality, the more that people become interested in exploring the topic. In the History of Sexuality (1990)), he sees the reciprocal relation of power and knowledge. One example is the different meanings that society give on sexual relations such as relations out of marriage and the one allowed by the community. These definitions creates divisions in society, thus exercising power over the individual through social norms. By propagating a certain kind of knowledge, this could lead to a power relation between groups. The one who is in control of knowledge will therefore exercise power to the other group. However, it must be clear that the reciprocal relation of power and knowledge is not fixed rather it transform through every discourse. Apart from Foucault, Jean Lyotard also contributes to the debate on the relationship of power and knowledge. In his book, the Postmodern Condition (1979) Lyotard mentioned that the transformation of society into industrialized and complex system leads into the redefinition of the nature of knowledge. In Modern societies, the power of the capitalists to open the market leads to the question that, what kind of knowledge is acceptable or is legitimate provided that there are a lot of choices. Lyotard(1979) sees the complexities in modern times because when one looks at it, it is in no longer a question of simple legitimacy of knowledge but a question of who has the power to decide what is acceptable or legitimate. In addressing the uncertainties of knowledge, Lyotard suggests that one should employ the value of speaking the same language game. How can people speak the same language provided that there are various ways of learning things? Lyotard believes that one must contextualize, and in this part he adopts Wittgensteins’ language game. ’ By contextualizing, the person should be aware of the rules before making considerable actions. Lyotard believes that to be able to analyze knowledge in contemporary society, one must consider what kind of society it is situated. The split between Parsonian theory and that of Marxism will definitely help in looking at the problem of knowledge. Initially one will decide whether to maintain the status quo or radically change it. Because of the ability of language to bind society through communication, Lyotard favors this framework in addressing the issue of knowledge in the postmodern era. Greatly influenced by Heidegger on the other hand, Jean -Luc Nancy (1991) believed that we are thrown into the world therefore we should not rely on God for our existence. Contemporary society according to him is becoming more chaotic in the sense that the harmonious relation in traditional society is transformed into a complex society where there are a lot of uncertainties. Uncertainties are brought by the unintended consequences of modernity. With the advent of globalization, the closed and neatly tied community is transformed into a complex one. While some thinkers consider the development of society into industrialized one as beneficial, still there are paradoxes to this rationality. Nancy in his concept of community critique the grand project of some societies to create a well-planned system such in the case of the socialist state where it only leads to violence. Much of the discussions of contemporary political philosophy dwells on how you can locate the discourse on power as a consequence of the accumulation of knowledge. The Unintended consequences of man’s search for knowledge and the transformation of knowledge into its many forms leads to different power relations. These power relations are seen on every realm of life, on every discourse in society. It is crucial to note that in the analysis of power, power lies to those who have control over knowledge, and in this age of information technology where there is an easy access to all forms of knowledge, it is only logical to think that power is distributed therefore decentralized. While the contemporary era provide a lot of alternatives,undeniably there are consequences that not even scientific knowledge can calculate. Yet the quest for further knowledge continues because beneath those ideas there you can always find power. Various forms of power operates on every realm of life. These are the fascinations of philosophers of the twentieth century.