Fair Value Accounting Essay

Topic: To what extent is â€Å"Fair Value Accounting† an effective method in measuring the values of financial instruments in financial statement? In recent years, the breakout of global financial crisis has raised controversial debates about whether or not fair value accounting (FVA) is an effective method in measuring the values of financial instruments (Laux & Leuz, 2009). As two main accounting standards around the world, both International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and US Financial Accounting Standards (FAS) have adopted FVA as an accounting method to judge the values of some financial instruments (Mala and Chand, 2011). This essay will argue that although FVA can provide timely and transparent price information to the users of accounting information in some cases, there are potential problems of FVA in measuring the values of financial instruments on account of unreliable evaluation models, biased prices in inefficient markets and a negative price contagion effect. There are three main parts in this essay. Firstly, it will give the definition of FVA and then it will analyze why the effectiveness of FVA may be limited from three aspects, namely unreliable evaluation models, biased prices in inefficient markets and a negative price contagion effect. At last, it will consider the pros of FVA regarding the timely and transparent information it provides in some cases and analyze the pros. According to Financial Accounting Standards 157, fair value accounting can be defined as â€Å"an accounting method to measure the values of assets and liabilities based on the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date†. That is to say, FVA relies on the actual market prices of the financial instruments and records the exact market prices on the financial statements. In fact, FVA replaces historical cost accounting (HCA) with the development of accounting standards (Boyer, 2007). Compared with FVA, historical cost accounting can be described as an accounting measurement of values based on the original or historical cost when the company got the assets or liabilities. For example, a company bought a stock for 50 pounds last year. In this year, the price of the stock increases to 100 pounds. Under FVA, the company should record the value of  the stock at 100 pounds this year while 50 pounds will be recognized under HCA. As the replaced FVA has been regarding as accelerating the global financial crisis, it draws a lot of attention in respect of its potential weaknesses in the accounting field. Firstly, the model to estimate fair values of financial instruments in illiquid markets seems to have insufficient reliability (Laux & Leuz 2009 and Mala Chand 2011). If the markets for the identical or similar financial instruments whose values need to be evaluated are active, the available prices can be used to evaluate the fair values of them (Laux & Leuz 2009). However, if the markets do not exist, which means the the markets are inactive or illiquid, the fair evaluation model is needed to estimate the fair value of the financial instruments (Ball 2006). Specifically speaking, the model to evaluate fair values of financial instruments rely on the future cash flow of the financial instruments and borrowing rate of the company. The future cash flow can be described as the future cash inflow (income) and outflow (expense) brought by the financial instruments whilst the borrowing rate of a company can be considered as the cost of capital which can be invested in other investments rather than the financial instruments. The users of the evaluation model should firstly predict the future cash flow of the financial instruments and then use the borrowing rate of the company to calculate the present fair values. Ljiri (2005) states that using model to estimate the values of financial instruments provides significant discretionary power to the users and gives uncertainty, which may influence the objectivity of the valuation of financial instruments. Indeed, the same financial instrument could be evaluated differently on account of different estimation of future cash flows and distinct borrowing rate. Because the users of the evaluation model have the power to forecast the future cash flow, different users may have distinct estimations of the same financial instrument based on their perspectives of its future profitability. In addition, different companies may have different borrowing rates due to distinct industries involved. Thus, the above two uncertain factors affects the objectivity of the fair evaluation of the financial instruments, which limits the reliability of the evaluation model. Secondly, the inefficient markets could distort prices, which has a negative effect on the basis of FVA (Laux & Leuz 2009). An inefficient market can be defined as a market in which the prices of financial instruments can not be measured accurately due to the inefficient information it provides (Aboody et. al 2002). Additionally, Lim and Brooks (2010) review the empirical literature about the evolution of market efficiency over time and find that the market cannot be always efficient and market inefficiency can be easily caused by investor irrationality and liquidity problems. That is to say, the market prices of financial instruments could be distorted by biased behaviors of investors, such as overconfidence or overreaction to a stock, and liquidity problems, such as illiquid market for a long-term bond. What’s more, the distorted prices can not reflect the real values of financial instruments, which makes FVA lose the reliable basis to measure the fair value of financial instruments. Therefore, the biased prices in the inefficient markets tend to the appropriateness of fair evaluation of financial instruments. Thirdly, Laux and Leuz (2009) argues that FVA could enforce negative price contagion in the financial markets, which has been considered as the main cause of rapid spread of global financial crisis. It is argued that FVA has stimulated the financial crisis in a vicious spiral and leading to the spread and depth of the financial crisis (Begtsoon 2011, Allen and Carletti 2007, Appelbaum 2009 and Jones 2009). To be specific, after financial crisis broke out, the liquidity of financial instruments’ markets dried up, which means very few trades of the financial instruments existed in the markets (Begtsoon 2011). As a result, the market pricing mechanism became dysfunctional because the prices should be evaluated from very few trades, which resulted in low prices of financial instruments (ibid). In turn, the low prices put pressure on the financial statements of some financial institutions in terms of assets depreciation under FVA (Allen & Carletti 2008). In order to keep capital requirements, the financial institutions had no choice but to sell assets at low prices, which led to lower prices of financial instruments in the markets and stimulated further assets depreciation on other financial instruments’ financial statements under FVA  (Plantin et al. 2008a). To sum up, the prices in the market could negatively influence the evaluation of financial instruments under FVA and at the same time, the evaluation of financial instruments under FVA could have a further negative effect on the market prices, which forms a vicious circle that can speed up the price contagion and fluctuations. Nevertheless, supporters of FVA believe that FVA can provide transparent and timely information for the users of accounting information (Brown 2008). As Hughes (2009) says, the function of FVA is â€Å"like that of the thermometer-it mirrors reality, it does not create it†. Since FVA can reflect what is happening in the market on the financial statements immediately, it allows the information users to get easy access to the most timely and transparent market information. In addition, Hinks (2009) argues that the useful information provided by FVA allows the investors and regulators to approach to the up-to-date position of financial institutions and encourage them to make corrective decisions. Indeed, it cannot be denied that FVA can provide prompt and transparent price information in some cases. However, it is not always the case which contributes FVA to an effective measurement to value financial instruments. First of all, in an illiquid or inefficient market for some financial instruments, even if FVA could provide timely price information of the financial instruments, the timely information provided is unreliable, which leads to the uselessness of the timely and transparent information provided by FVA. Secondly, even though the financial instruments have an active or efficient market, FVA cannot result in increased transparency of information in financial statements as expected (Krumwiede 2008). Thirdly, under FVA, timely price information would lead to volatility of financial statements (Barth 2004). The continuous volatility of financial statements causes confusion for the users of accounting information and raises the company’s cost to keep accounts. Hence, although FVA could offer some timely and transparent information to the users, these information limits to some extent because of unreliable information, limited transparency and volatility of financial statements. In conclusion, this essay has discussed three aspects limiting the effectiveness of FVA to measure the values of financial instruments, including evaluation model, inefficient markets and price contagion effect. In addition, it also considers the pros of FVA in terms of timely and transparent information provided in some cases. It can be concluded that even though up-to-date and transparent information could be provided by FVA occasionally, the effectiveness of FVA to measure the values of financial instruments has been limited due to the unreliable evaluation model, distorted prices in inefficient markets and a negative price contagion effect. Because of word limit, this essay cannot cover the detailed application of FVA to specific kind of financial instrument. However, the above discussion can clearly show that FVA has some general problems in measuring the values of financial instruments. Based on above analysis, it can be suggested that the problematic aspects of FVA could be improved or revised by providing more clear explanation and more specific regulations by the constitutors of accounting standards and for some specific financial instruments with illiquid or inefficient markets, it is better to use some other methods to measure their values.

From slavery to freedom Essay

Ironically, Fredrick Douglas all but snatched the Emancipation Proclamation from Abraham Lincoln’s hands to make of its flat rhetoric a sharpened call for freedom and equality. Douglass had never regarded the ending of slavery as enough, either for himself or for his people; it had to be the beginning of an embrace of the black individual’s fullness as a person, a beginning that would point straight toward an end, within quick reach. â€Å"For Douglass, each gain in the struggle, and the Emancipation Proclamation decidedly was one of the greatest, simply meant that America must move on to the next gain. † (Mcfeely, 1991) Douglass’s commitment to abolitionism, black elevation, and women’s rights outstripped his commitment to other social reforms. His major social reform passions — black liberation and women’s liberation — underscored his egalitarian humanism. The logic and motivation for his social reform odyssey derived essentially from his quest for morality, order, and progress. Even though his interrelated social reform enthusiasms were integral to his vision of a moral, orderly, and progressive civilization, he nonetheless evinced a keen sense of the need for priorities among them. (Martin, 1984) In retelling his journey from slavery to freedom in the middle of the decade, less than a year after the Cleveland emigration convention, Douglass was responding implicitly to the arguments of Delany and other pro-immigration supporters that in the foreseeable future blacks would remain slaves, or de facto slaves, in the United States — arguments that would appear to have gained added currency with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Central to Douglass’s continued hopefulness about blacks’ prospects in the United States, despite such obviously negative developments, was a renewed commitment following his 1851 break with Garrison to the informing ideals of the nation’s original revolutionary documents. In many ways during this period, Frederick Douglass became the prototypical American success: a peerless self-made man and symbol of success; a fearless and tireless spokesman; a thoroughgoing humanist. The most striking and enduring aspect of Douglass’s heroic legacy in his day — its classic, even archetypical aura — has persisted down to the present. Although often viewed and used differently by others, the heroic and legendary Douglass clearly personifies the American success ethic. The key to his eminently evocative essence is twofold. Douglass’s influence had a far reaching affect. In April 1855, Uriah Boston, a prominent figure in the black community of Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote a letter to Douglass in reference to his newspaper. Boston expressed concern over the increasingly separatist tone of prominent black abolitionists like William J. Wilson and James McCune Smith. Responding to pieces they had written in the black press, Boston criticized the two for â€Å"urging the colored people to preserve their identity with the African race. † He feared that any claim of distinct national identity on the part of black people might lend credence to â€Å"the propriety and necessity of African colonization†Ã¢â‚¬â€the dreaded scheme of the American Colonization Society. For Boston, blacks could never constitute a nation within the nation. â€Å"You cannot mix nationalities,† he wrote. â€Å"No man is a proper citizen of one certain country while he claims at the same time to be a citizen of any other country. †

Behaviorism, Its Origin, Purpose and Main Definitions.

Behaviorism, Its Origin, Purpose and Main Definitions. Behaviorism For as long as history can date back, humans have always had a certain interest in what makes up an individual; who they are, and what aspects of there being, have set them apart from others within there species. As behaviorist see it, these questions are answered by nothing more than the world in which you were brought up in. Behaviorism, focuses on variables we can observe, measure, manipulate; and avoid whatever is subjective, internal, and unavailable i.e. mental (1998, C. George Boeree). Behaviorism is a very old theory of personality. One of the oldest theories dates back to Rene Descartes. He introduced the idea of substance dualism, and called the person a machine dependent on external events whose soul was the ghost in the machine (substance dualism). Meaning that what is mental, and things that are physical are completely separate. Modern behaviorism however changes this theory in refusing to acknowledge any internal workings of the mind. Behaviorist believe that, persons are nothing more than mediators between behavior and environment (Skinner, 1993). Because the inner workings or the human mind are ignored, opponents to the theory make a strong case against it. Behaviorism is unable to explain human language, and memory. Although these criticisms indicate a failure in this theory. It isnt denied that behaviorism can teach the world a lot about human behaviors. Behaviorism as it is known today was founded on the ideas of John B. Watson. Watson claimed that behavior should be examined, rather than describe how the mind was working. He contended that it was possible to condition humans and animals. In his famous study, Watson conditioned a young child named Albert to fear a white rat. He did so by creating a loud noise whenever Albert touched the rat. Frightened by the loud noise, the child associated the rat to this feeling, and feared the rat the same way he feared the noise. Watsons work was backed by the most noted behaviorist B.F. Skinner. Skinners entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of operating on the environment (Skinner, 1993). While operating, the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. Operant conditioning is: the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future (Behaviorism, 1997). Skinner ran experiments to prove this by placing a rat in a cage called a Skinner Box. His cage would have a bar or pedal on one wall that, when pressed, causes a little mechanism to release a foot pellet. The rat would then bounce around the cage, doing whatever it is rats do, when he accidentally presses the bar, a food pellet falls out. The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the food pellet. In no time at all, the rat is furiously peddling away at the bar. A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future (Stacy Breslau, 2003 ). What if you dont give the rat any more pellets? After a few attempts, the rat will stop pressing the bar. This is called extinction of the operant behavior. A behavior no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behavior occurring in the future. (Stacy Breslau, 2003 ) Now, if you were to turn the pellet machine back on, so that pressing the bar again provides the rat with pellets, the behavior of bar-pushing will pop right back into existence, much more quickly than it took for the rat to learn the behavior the first time. This is because the return of the reinforcer takes place in the context of a reinforcement history that goes all the way back to the very first time the rat w as reinforced for pushing on the bar. A question Skinner had to deal with was how we get to more complex sorts of behaviors. He responded with the idea of shaping, or the method of successive approximations. Basically, it involves first reinforcing a behavior only vaguely similar to the one desired. Once that is established, you look out for variations that come a little closer to what you want, and so on, until you have an animal performing a behavior that would never show up in ordinary life. Skinner and his students have been quite successful in teaching simple animals to do some extraordinary things. Beyond fairly simple examples, shaping also accounts for the most complex of behaviors. You dont, for example, become a brain surgeon by stumbling into an operating room, cutting open someones head, removing a tumor, and receive a reward. Instead, you are gently shaped by your environment to enjoy certain things, do well in school, take a certain class, see a movie, and so on. This could be something your parents were carefully doing to you, but much more likely, this is something that was more or less uni ntentional. Another type of reinforcement is aversive stimulus. It is the opposite of a reinforcing stimulus, something unpleasant or painful. A behavior followed by an aversive stimulus results in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future (Stacy Breslau, 2003 ). This both defines an aversive stimulus and describes the form of conditioning known as punishment. If you shock a rat for doing something, it wont do what ever it is it got shocked for. If you spank Johnny for throwing his toys he will throw his toys less and less (maybe). If you remove an already active aversive stimulus after a rat or Johnny performs a certain behavior, you are doing negative reinforcement. If you turn off the electricity when the rat stands on his hind legs, hell stand a lot more. Notice how difficult it can be to distinguish some forms of negative reinforcement from positive reinforcement. If I starve you, is the food I give you when you do what I want a positive? Or is it the removal of a negative, the aversive stimulus of hunger? (1998, C. George Boeree) Skinner doesnt approve of the use of aversive stimuli, because they dont work well. Earlier I said that Johnny will maybe stop throwing his toys? Thats because whatever was reinforcing the bad behaviors hasnt been removed. This hidden reinforcer has just been hidden with an aversive stimulus. So, sometimes the child will behave, but it still feels good to throw those toys. All this boils down to a theory of personality that says that ones environment causes ones behavior. A man named Albert Bandura found this a bit too simplistic for the phenomena he was observing, aggression in adolescents, and decided to add a little to it, environment causes behavior, but behavior causes environment as well(Bandura, 2000). He labeled this concept reciprocal determinism. He then went a step further. Bandura began to look at personality as an interaction among three things the environment, behavior, and the persons psychological processes. Adding imagery and language to the mix allows Bandura to theorize much more effectively than someone like, B. F. Skinner, about two things that many people would consider the humans strong point, observational learning or modeling, and self-regulation. Of the hundreds of studies Bandura was responsible for, one group stands out above the others. The bobo doll studies. Bandura made of film of one of his students, a young woman, beating up a bobo doll. In case you dont know, a bobo doll is an inflatable, balloon creature with a weight in the bottom that makes it bob back up when you knock him down. The woman punched the clown, shouting sockeroo! She kicked it, sat on it, hit with a little hammer, and so on, shouting aggressive phrases. Bandura then showed his film to groups of kindergartners. The children then were let out to play. In the play room, were several observers with pens and clipboards, a bobo doll, and a few little hammers. The observers recorded: A lot of little kids beating on the bobo doll. They punched it and shouted sockeroo, kicked it, sat on it, hit it with the little hammers, and so on. In other words, they imitated the young lady in the film. This might seem like a worthless experiment at first, but the children changed their behavior without first being rewarded for that behavior. While that may not seem extraordinary to the average person, it didnt work well with standard behaviorist learning theories. He called the phenomenon observational learning or modeling, and Banduras theory is usually called the social learning theory. Bandura did a large number of variations in his study. All these variations allowed Bandura to establish that there were certain steps involved in the modeling process. If you are going to learn anything, you have to be paying attention. Likewise, anything that doesnt allow you to pay attention is going to decrease learning. If, for example, you are sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick, or nervous, you will learn less. Second, you must be able to remember what you have paid attention to. This is where imagery and language come in. We store what we have seen the model doing in the form of mental images, or verbal descriptions. When stored, you can later bring up the image or description, so that you can reproduce it with your own behavior. At this point, youre just sitting there daydreaming. You have to translate the images or descriptions into actual behavior. So you have to have the ability to reproduce the behavior in the first place. For example, I can watch Olympic swimmers all day long, and not be able to reproduce their times, because I may not even know how to swim. But if I can swim, my performance would in fact improve if I watch swimmers who are better than I am. Our abilities improve even when we just imagine ourselves performing. Many athletes, imagine their performance in their mind prior to actually performing. With all this, youre still not going to do anything unless you are motivated to imitate. Bandura says there are many motives, past reinforcement, promised reinforcements, vicarious reinforcement. These are, considered to be the things that cause learning. Bandura is saying that they dont cause learning but, only cause us to demonstrate what we have learned. He sees them as motives. The negative motivations are there too, giving you reasons not to imitate someone such as past punishment, promised punishment (threats), vicarious punishment. Like most traditional behaviorists, Bandura says that punishment in whatever form does not work as well as reinforcement and, in fact, has a tendency to backfire on us.

The Rise of Universities by Charles Homer Haskins Essay

The Rise of Universities by Charles Homer Haskins - Essay Example On the one hand, a university represented a traditional craft-type corporation (universitas), which brought together people of a specific occupation type.  At the same time, the internal organization of universities hold quite an unusual, for that sort of corporations, position - it was given the certain features of republicanism: all full-fledged â€Å"citizens† had the right to elect and be elected to various university positions. According to some researchers, the earliest university in Medieval Europe was the one in Salerno.  It was developing on the basis of the oldest medical school of Salerno, the first mention of which dates back to 197 A.D. The Hippocratic community (civitas Hippocratica), which existed there, preserved and developed the best of the ancient medical heritage.  Salerno medical school, as one of the largest educational centers, was known until 1812.  However, it did not become the university.  Mainly, because the school did not teach on the sam e high level (as medicine) all the remaining subjects.   The named above reason accounts for the fact that it’s considered that the most ancient European universities are the ones in Bologna, which was founded at the end of the 11th century, and Paris – the 12th century.  The named universities, although formed almost simultaneously, differed in their internal structure and epitomized the two main types of universities in Medieval Europe.  The first (Bologna) university developed as the major centre for study of Roman law in Western Europe.  According to contemporaries,  in the  early 13th century, more than  10  thousand people  from all over  Europe studied in  Bologna.   The famous Bolognese  professors  had so many  listeners  that had  to lecture  outside, in the streets.  Almost  all the languages  of Europe were  represented there.  The university became  known a global one.  It was Bologna, where  for the firs t time  appeared the  so-called fraternities. It grew up on the basis of urban secular schools (School of Glossators) and was the organization of students.  This means that the student guilds arrogated to themselves the right to manage the entire process of university life.  Teachers of the University of Bologna were denied the right to vote at university meetings; the entire training process took place under the strict supervision of students and professors could be fined for violations of academic activity. But especially famous in Medieval Europe was the University of Paris – Sinai of education.  Not without reason there was a common saying in those days - in Italy - the papacy, in Germany - the Emperor, in France – the University.  It had about seven thousand people, which included not only teachers and students, but operational staff as well (booksellers, scribes of manuscripts, makers of parchment, pens, ink powder, apothecaries, innkeepers and moneyl enders, who lend money to schoolmen and teachers).  Unlike the University of Bologna, it was controlled by associations of teachers, not schoolmen.  But those were not just teacher - students of senior faculties, who managed to complete the preparatory faculty (foundation studies).  They were both Masters of the seven Liberal Arts and students.  Naturally, they began to oppose themselves to other teachers, schoolies and townspeople, claiming to determine their status.  In 1215 ended the struggle for autonomy of the University of Paris against the bishop.  Paris masters received the support of the Pope, however, for that they were

Business Ethics Case Study - Chemical company Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Ethics - Chemical company - Case Study Example It characterises Bethany, Boris stone, and the company to represent the case. The plant is new to manufacture lubricants of high standard that could be sold in the most competitive market at the highest price possible. The waste from the production process is to be dumped into the neighbouring river Don. Most of the chemical companies in the vicinity dispose their wastes into that river only. This company has the valid licences from the government authorities for waste disposal in that river. Bethany is very conscious about environment and intelligent enough to read the advanced requirements of maintaining the environment standard. She could note that the permission granted is to release more wastes in the river than anticipated in the past. There was need for introducing additional process in the plant that could reduce the wastes by recycling it and thereby save the river from bearing extra burden. But because the licensing authority had already given the permission the company did not feel the need for this additional cost involvement. The company took opportunity to utilize funds for other essential profit motives. The company, however, was responsible for protecting environment from waste materials and had declared this publicly. Bethany pointed out the need for additional process machinery to her supervisor and sought for his advice to do the needful. Her boss did not advise with positive notes. That created a dilemma for her and therefore some ethical issues arose and identified in the followings. Ethical Issues: "There are two concepts of ethics have also been identified as right, which places an obligation on the individual to act in a certain way; good, which is the value individuals place on things or on human actions" (McEwan, 2001). As an individual Bethany could work for her self interest that is secure her job in the company and earn as much as possible with appreciation and promotion. But eenvironment is a social issue and she is to protect that. Environment is broadly the responsibility of the government. People, society and companies are supposed to co-operate with the government by actively following the rules and regulations framed by the government. Bethany is a professional and employee in the company whose duty is given to oversee the construction of the plant. When Bethany becomes concerned about the environmental problem in the future and approached her boss, the plant supervisor Boris he replies, "It's up to the government agency to protect the river from excess waste, and the company only had to meet the agency's standards" His concept was concentrated to the rule books on company motives and profits. Kant's FIRST principle requires that everyone be treated as a free and equal person. He advocates for treating humanity as an end and not only as means. What Kant means by "treating humanity as an end" is that everyone should treat each human being as a being whose existence as a free rational person should be promoted. What the supervisor has done is to deny this right to Bethany. Bethany must stand out to defend her moral right to do the right thing that promotes common good for all and not to an individual as Kantism stands for. The problem of ethics rises because the government agency has committed a mistake in measuring the standard and the lacuna has been identified by the intelligent and responsible Bethany. As a responsible manager and citizen her duty is to

Stress in Law Enforcement Results in a High Degree of Divorce and Research Paper

Stress in Law Enforcement Results in a High Degree of Divorce and Suicide - Research Paper Example Indications suggest what can be done to alleviate the problems both individually as officers, within their families, and within the organization as a whole. Finally, the information covers law enforcement officers’ duties regarding service to the community and how the community can avoid a disservice to the officers. Key words: double bind, stresses, high risk lifestyle Stress in Law Enforcement Results in a High Degree of Divorce and Suicide. How does this Problem Develop and How is it Mitigated? Introduction â€Å"If you ever find me like that (shot), you better start looking for the one who did it, because I would never do that to myself (Boyce, 2006).† This was a statement previously quoted by a State Trooper who did not come home as usual after his shift. The officer was found with a gunshot wound to the head and sitting in his own car after a long and diligent search. The State Crime Lab determined that he had taken his own life. What would cause an officer to do such a thing to himself? Sergeant Boyce can remember seeing warning signs, after the fact, that the officer was under much physical and emotional stress (Boyce, 2006). The dead officer had become withdrawn and did not work with the rest of the officers as he had in the past. Sergeant James Boyce recalls himself when dozing in a chair at his home on the couch, and his wife or one of the kids touched him, he would sit straight up and make a fist as if ready to fight. Is an incident such as this caused by the everyday stress of law enforcement? (Boyce, 2006). According to Hans Selye, a respected researcher in stress, â€Å"police work is the most stressful occupation in America (Boyce, 2006).† Law enforcement stress leads to one of the highest, suicide rates in the nation in comparison to other occupations. The divorce rate for other occupations is 50 percent while law enforcement divorce rates are as high as 75 percent. This makes the divorce rate among police officers second i n the nation. These facts alone are a warning sign targeted at law enforcement management. Extreme Negative Effects Dan Goldfarb covers the impact of stress on police officers at a union delegates meeting. He defines stress in a very unconventional way, but it relates very well to the job of police work. Stress is â€Å"that feeling and desire along with the ensuing bodily effects, experienced by a person who has a strong and true longing to choke the living shit out of someone who desperately deserves it, but you can’t (Goldfarb, 2011).† It is Goldfarbs’ contention that although this might be a very funny way to convey the information, however, there is a real truth to it. Law enforcement work calls for an incredible amount of discipline and restraint. This restraint is a continuing thing and it causes insurmountable stress. Goldfarb points out that between 1934 and 1960 police suicide rates were half that of the general population and between 1980 and the pres ent have almost doubled (Goldfarb, 2011). So the difference in the present vs. the past is, â€Å"You can’t choke em anymore,† as he puts it. He contends that street justice no longer exists, the media is continually showing the negative side of police work, and politicians cater to the public and new laws, therefore, your hands are tied. So, law enforcement officers start to feel like they are being choked. According to research the biggest stresses for police work are, 1. Taking a life in the line

Family Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Family Law - Essay Example Thus, the clause most applicable in this case is one of â€Å"unreasonable behaviour† on part of James. (Family Law Act 1996) It is important to note that the reason for divorce has very little bearing on how the court decides the award of maintenance amount, property ownership/share, etc (Cook 2006). Similarly, decisions regarding the children are made independent of property issues and spouse maintenance issues. Even though the Victorian house is inherited by James, there is no guarantee that he will retain his complete ownership of the house after divorce. Though Susan has not contributed financially to the home or the bills during the marriage, she still has a right to make a claim, for she has â€Å"contributed in kind†. Her complete care for the children allowed James to concentrate on his career. Thus, Susan has a â€Å"beneficial interest† on the property and the court will consider the house as â€Å"Matrimonial Property† (www.dca.gov.uk). The court even has the power to transfer ownership, if need be. Before deciding on how to share the property, the court will take into account the length of the marriage, the parties’ age, their lifestyle needs, their earning capacity and the children’s needs. (Family Law Act 1996) Essentially, when a couple seek divorce, a court can, and quite often does, divide up the matrimonial assets, his, hers and theirs, in any way it sees fit. The resolution of financial disputes in a divorce case is also known as â€Å"ancillary relief†. Regardless of who owns the property, the court may have it transferred to the other and this applies to all property owned either by James or Susan as well as the jointly owned ones. (Watson-Lee 2006) Ownership and Tenancy are two different things. Susan had indicated her wish to continue living in the house along with the children. Susan is being reasonable in making this claim. Given the previous case histories of divorce cases, it could be

Internet is good for human life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Internet is good for human life - Essay Example Only because of internet, we are able to interconnect communication entities and information systems all over the world. Internet has made it possible to pass on a vast range of information and services such as electronic mails. A network connects computers and other devices through communication channels. Network allows communication between users and it facilitates sharing of resources among users. With the help of computer networks information and resources can shared among users who are interconnected. Internet is a very convenient tool for the computer users. Through internet, one can interact with whomsoever him want provided that other person have internet connection. It is very easy to use and an encyclopedia of information. To be connected it is very easy, a broadband connection or USB modem is enough for user. With the help of internet one can get all the things in a remote place also. Rural and urban divide has diminished because of internet. Acohill has aptly pointed out the dynamics of internet. He says â€Å"in rural communities, the Internet has broken the chains of rural isolation and dramatically improved the quality of life in areas like shopping† (1999). Internet has brought the world at a click away from one’s computer. One can transfer money online, reserve a flight ticket online and could easily get information about developments taking place all over the world. Social networking services like Facebook, Twitter has really altered modes of human interactions. Above main factor, which has contributed in spread of Internet, is its affordability. To get internet connection is very cheap. Benefits are hundred times more than the cost and because of it, use of Internet has spread like wildfire. Latest data of internet users shows around 28.7% people use internet all over the world. Between 2000 to 2010 internet users all over the world have been increased by 444.8%. Growing use of Internet

Curriculum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Curriculum - Essay Example Mark Smith (1996) is one of the theorists who studied various definitions of curriculum as described by many educationalists. He described curriculum in a range of approaches. One of them is linked to syllabus or a body of knowledge to be transmitted to the students. Smith also stressed that curriculum is a set of objectives, where there is a drawn-up plan to apply intended objectives with a measurable outcome. Another alternative definition is that curriculum is a student’s total experience. It comprises teachers’ and students’ communication and relationships between them. Smith also recommends that curriculum is one’s ability to apply theory to practice. Language Arts is one essential subject area that hones communication skills of students. Being knowledgeable in literature, grammar and writing is one important goal for them that will greatly benefit them in their growth and development. This paper will compare 7th Grade Language Arts curriculum guides of three district schools in New Jersey, namely the Hillside, Union and Orange Public Schools. The comparison will only be based on the guides acquired from these schools and not from how their curriculums are implemented. Of the three schools, Hillside Public School provided the most comprehensive curriculum guide. Next was the Orange School which also provided a clear outline indicating the goals of the Language Arts program and how its assessment strategies. Union School provided the least comprehensive guide, with just the use of cue words in enumerating its curriculum content and suggested activities. Demographics The district of Union had the biggest population at 62,629 followed by Orange at 31,165 and Hillside at 21,229. Of these populations, Hillside had the highest number of children of school age (5-17 years) at 18.27%, closely followed by Union at 16.01 % and Orange at 15.29%. Union had the highest number of Caucasians at 71.15%. Hillside had 30.64% and Orange had the lo west number at 9.72%. Its majority is the Black population at 72.96%. Hillside has 53.3% share of the Black population and Union had the least number at 4.95%. Hillside had the highest population of Hispanics at 79.60%. Orange only had 19.73% followed by Hillside at 17.86%. Hillside had the most number of literate people with 83% high school graduates followed by Orange at 77.1%. Union had 64.4% high school graduates. With college graduates, Hillside has the highest number again having 23.2% graduates, followed by Union at 17.3% and Orange at 16.6%. Union had 49.54% of its people speaking one other language other than English. Hillside and Orange are closely tied at 19.04% and 19.85% respectively. In terms of family income, Hillside had the highest median family income at an average of $73,816.00. Orange follows at $48,873.00 and Union at $41,988.00. Consistently, Hillside had the lowest poverty at only 9.6%. Orange has 16.5% and Union had the highest poverty at 19.6%. (New Jersey S chool District Demographic Characteristics, 2013). Curriculum structure (Understanding by Design vs. Pacing guide) One of the widely adopted curriculum design is the ‘Understanding by Design’ Planning Framework (UbD) by Wiggins, Grant and McTighe (1998). This is also known as the Backward Design Model wherein the teacher starts with the end, the desired results, and then derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning called for by the expectations and the teaching needed to equip students to

The Renaissance Period Essay Example for Free

The Renaissance Period Essay The period in time referred to as the Renaissance started in the late   1300s and existed through the 1500s. The term translates into rebirth, and describes the process of intellectual and cultural change that began in northern Italy and eventually made its way to   countries lying further north. In this era, Christianity began to evolve and branch into different directions, weakening the power of the church and allowing the disciplines of philosophy and science the freedom to take new routes encouraging scientific observation as opposed to blind faith, or   reasoning (Gaardner 197, 202).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   These changes in Christianity, philosophy and science brought about the new ideas of renaissance humanism. When the author says, We speak of renaissance humanism, since now after the Dark Ages in which every aspect of life was seen through divine light, everything once again revolved around man., he is explaining how man has come to see himself in a new light. In the Dark Ages man viewed himself simply as a pitiful servant to God, unworthy of any form of greatness. During the   Renaissance, man saw himself not as a servant to God, but as an integral and more importantly, unique part of God and his greatness.   Man began to believe that God existed everywhere and in everything, including himself, and so man could now celebrate himself and his individual achievements, which became the basis of the new world view (Gaardner 197, 201).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The new world view consists mainly of two things: the way man viewed himself, and the way he viewed his surroundings. As previously stated, man viewed himself in a much higher light than in the previous era. He now also had a new view of nature. Previously, the world had only been looked at as a place of preparation for the hereafter, but now it was looked at as a place to investigate and explore. There was an exciting environment of freedom and exploration. Many people of the time were very aware that they were living in a special, exciting era of intellectual and cultural growth, and they wanted to play an active role in it. This led to huge advancements in all areas from the arts to the sciences, and to the ideal of the Renaissance man, the desire to be knowledgeable in all of these areas (Gaardner 200, 201).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There were three main technological developments that were necessary for the Renaissance   era to come to life. The compass, which made navigation simpler and encouraged the exploration of new lands, accrual of new observations, and information;   firearms, which gave the Europeans military power and made exploring the new lands safer, allowing them to easily overcome any native populations; and most importantly, the printing press, which allowed people greater access to all forms of information, promoting curiosity in the common person and encouraging the desire to know more, to explore, and to ask questions about their surroundings. The printing press also took away the authority of the church as the only source of written knowledge. All three of these developments came together to contribute to the spreading of the new world view over long distances, encouraging the growth of the Renaissance movement and its ideals (Gaardner 198).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The transition from a subsistence economy to a monetary economy also played a large role in the formation of the Renaissance era. The difference between the Renaissance economy and the economy in the Middle Ages was the formation of a large middle class. The formation of the middle class occurred during this time because at the end of the Middle Ages, large cities were fully developed, encouraging the growth of trade and commerce. A monetary economy with banking systems soon followed and the middle class was born, with people having the luxury to be able to buy the things that they needed or wanted. This type of system encouraged people to work harder and smarter, as opposed to feudalism, where working harder would not reap any personal benefits. As the author puts it, This state of affairs rewarded peoples diligence, imagination, and ingenuity.   New demands were made on the individual. This statement reflects the trademarks of individualism, experimentation and exploration that are present in the ideals of the Renaissance era (Gaardner 199).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another way that the printing press contributed to the Renaissance was by allowing the Bible to be translated and printed in different languages. Prior to this, in the Catholic church, only priests and monks read the Bible, because it was only available in Latin. Once it was translated and printed,   an individual could read it for himself, and interpret what it said in his own way. This led to an emphasis on an individuals personal relationship with God, and less of an emphasis on a persons relationship with his spiritual leaders. Eventually, it would lead to the Reformation (Gaardner 212).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author speaks of a new religiosity that developed during the Renaissance. He is referring to the fact that thoughts on God in his relation to the individual changed dramatically.   Prior to the Renaissance, there was a belief that the priest was the only person who truly had a special relationship with God, so therefore it was entirely necessary for an individual to seek forgiveness from God through the priest. God was the only gateway to paradise, and the priest was the only gateway to God. Once the Renaissance was in progress, with its newly found importance of the individual and the ability of the common person to read and interpret the Bible for himself, people began to feel that it was possible to have their own personal relationship with God with or without the involvement of the church, which is a view that is still extremely popular today. This view was put forth by Martin Luther, one of the important contributors to the Reformation of the church during the Renaissance (Gaardner 212-213).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Many of the new views on religion during the Renaissance were prompted by advancements in science. A new scientific method was developed during the Renaissance, and formed the basis for all of the technological and scientific advances that have been achieved from that point onward. The new method incorporated using your own senses and experiences to observe phenomena during experimentation. Two of the most important scientists of this time, in my opinion, were Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton (Gaardner 202).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Galiliei formulated the Law of Inertia, which states that a body in motion or at rest remains in that state until an external force causes it to change. Galilei set up a simple experiment to observe what would happen when two forces   acted on an object simultaneously.   Through his observations, he found that despite what was commonly thought, an object that had been propelled into the air would follow a parabola-shaped trajectory.   This would occur due to the forward force of the propulsion of the object, combined with the force of gravity pulling the object down towards the earth (Gaardner 205-208).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Newton used his own observations to formulate the Law of Universal Gravitation, which states that every object attracts every other object with a force that increases in proportion to the size of the objects, and decreases in proportion to the distance between the objects. He used his newly formulated law in conjunction with Galileis previously stated law and observations to explain exactly why the planets traveled in elliptical orbits around the sun. It is the result of two forces acting on an object simultaneously: linear movement from the force applied to the planets during the birth of the solar system, combined with the movement towards the sun due to its gravitational pull. The combination of these two forces, as Galilei previously stated, is what creates the elliptical movement. Newton was able to show that the same laws applied to every heavenly body in the universe, thereby proving that there was not a special set of laws that applied to the heavens, and a separate set of laws for the earth. This caused the people of the time to begin to question exactly what their place was in the universe(Gaardner 209-211).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To this day, we are still making discoveries that lead people to question what their place is in the universe, and if their belief in God is logical or not. Scientists have made and are constantly on the verge of making some huge, definitely stunning advancements, and it inevitably causes people to further question what their place is in respect to the world, the universe and in God. For example, the issues of stem cell research, cloning, and the manipulation of genes are all very controversial at this time, because people are forced to see that man has the ability to create life in a lab, and that he can go on to guide life in almost any direction he may choose, he can play God, as many people say. My own opinion on science is that it is something that must move forward. There is no reason to fear science.   When I analyze each of the topics mentioned above, I can not think of any logical reasons why we should not proceed experimenting with them. They are simply processes that occur naturally already, we are only directing them to proceed in a manner that will be as beneficial to us as possible. As far as what this means for religion, faith will always be what it has always been faith. True faith is unshakeable, as mentioned by Gaardner in respect to Isaac Newtons belief that his findings only supported proof of the existence of   of the great and almighty God (212). Who is to say that all of these magnificent discoveries and the intricacies on which they are based are not guided by the hand of God?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As to the question of our own age that we are living in, I think that in many aspects it is very similar to the Renaissance era. There is definitely a strong belief in the importance of the individual, so much to the point that I think you could say there is a strong trend towards selfishness and indifference. I think this has been reflected especially in the area of the family unit, with the high rates of divorce and single parent homes. People no longer base their life decisions on what will be best for the family unit, but what will make me happy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is also a similarity in that many people no longer feel the need to involve the church in their relationship with God. While most people still have a strong faith in God, or some form of Creator, church attendance has reached record lows. Some people believe that science has become the new religion, but I think that mankind will always feel the need to believe that he will somehow be allowed to continue on, as death seems much too simple of an ending to the elaborate design of a human being and the world around him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Despite our many similarities to the Renaissance, I think that our era can be defined as the Age of Technology. I believe this era began with the inventions of the computer and the internet. Like the printing press during the Renaissance, these two developments allow the rapid dissemination of information across vast distances. The discovery of these systems has revolutionized every area of science, allowing   information to be rapidly computed and shared.   I think that we are still in the very infantile stages of the Age of Technology, and we can only wonder what developments will arise by the time a new age begins. Works Cited Gaardner, Jostein.   Sophies World (188-215).

Human Resources Planning Exemple Business Essay

Human Resources Planning Exemple Business Essay Since individuals are requested to work together within organisations and corporations, the needs for organisations to create a human resources management department to manage their human capital became ineluctably necessary. From the past until nowadays, human resources management use its classical administrative function which is human resources planning to achieve its goal. Various authors and schools have different definitions of human resource planning. Vetter (1967) defined human resource planning as a process by which management determines how the organization should move from its current manpower position to its desired position. Through planning, managers strive to have the right number and the right kind of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing things which results in both the organization and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefits. (p.15). More recently, Shaun Tyson (2006) agreed that in practice, HR planning is concerned with the demand and supply of labour and problems arising from the process of reconciling these factors. Any system has to be based on analyses of demand and supply and the plans and decisions which follow these analyses (p.110). In fact, employees are companies essential asset, so the changes in the global economy, the changes in social, political, technological as well as environmental factors requ ired human resource planning to be dealt carefully in organisations or companies if they want to ensure their business competitive advantage as well as if they want to achieve their organisations goals. Human resource management thus plays an important role within each business to achieve its goals, straightforward, its clear that it is necessary for small or large companies to have a strong and clear understanding of what is human resource planning and how does it contribute in achieving an organisations goals? About IBM International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) also known as big blue is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation based in New York, USA. The company founded in 1911 manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, infrastructure services, hosting services and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM offers a broad range of middleware for collaboration, predictive analytics, software development and the worlds most advanced servers and supercomputers. Utilizing its business consulting, technology and RD expertise, IB helps clients around the world become smarter as the planet becomes more digitally interconnected. That includes working with organizations and governments to build systems that improve traffic congestion, food safety, the availability of clean water, and health and safety populations. IBM has pioneered the corporate operating model for 21st century changing from a classic multinational to a global i ntegrated company with a highly skilled global workforce managed by a common set of values. (LinkedIn 2011) IBM is the world largest information technology employer with more than 400000 employees including engineers and consultants serving about 170 countries in the world. Since 2003, IBM corporation main values are: dedication to every clients success, innovation that matters, for our company and for the world, trust and personal responsibility in all relationships In our work, we will underline how IBM Corporation define human resource planning and how does it helps the company to meet its strategic goals. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PLANNING As recruitment and selection planning of employees are highly correlated with each organisations human resource planning, it is relevant to know that human resource managers are those who organise and are responsible for the work of employees and thus set up the relationships between employees within their organisations key of their performance. Managers use human resource planning to fulfil their obligations within their organisation. In the next paragraph, we will underline the importance of human resource planning before getting in the recruitment and selection step, to better understand how IBM Corporation proceeds for its recruitment strategies. Human resource planning, essential function of human resource management is not always implemented by many organisations, because critics believe that is mostly a matter of common sense than a complex equation to deal with by organisations planners. It shows that, the main purpose of human resource planning is not totally understood. Its known that companies are using their material, financial and human resources to generate revenues or profits. We also know that investing in a business is always attached with a risk; therefore planning the use of resources is how managers target to reduce this risk, achieve their goals and make profit for the company survival. But all the companies will always plan for their financial and material resources either long or short term plans because of the uncertainty environment of each business. Why planning for the most essential resource (human resource) still a matter of discussion? IBM Corporation leader in innovation invest huge amount of money more than $6 billion a year in its RD unit to improve companys performance. The companys RD department is associated with some universities in USA and Europe. Therefore, IBM using the results of many studies and research improve its core management and corporates goals. Today with changing nature of public sector workforce, IBM emphasise its workforce planning to meet the companys human capital requirement. Workforce planning tells an organization what types of skills are needed to get the job done. In doing so, workforce planning should drive all human capital strategies. Workforce planning is about aligning an organizations human capital-its people-with its business plan to achieve its mission. It helps ensure that the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time. Workforce planning tells an organization what types of skills are needed to get the job done. In doing so, wor kforce planning should drive all human capital strategies. Workforce planning is about aligning an organizations human capital-its people-with its business plan to achieve its mission. It helps ensure that the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time. (Ann Cotten, 2007. P4) Therefore, IBM uses the seven-step workforce planning model as a framework. The seven-step workforce planning has been set-up mainly by public sector organisations particularly in USA. The Seven-Step workforce planning is to: 1- Define the organisations strategic direction 2- Scan the internal and external environments 3- Model the current workforce 4- Assess future workforce needs and project future workforce supply 5- Identify gaps and develop gap-closing strategies 6- Implement gap-closing strategies 7- Evaluate the effectiveness of gap-closing strategies and revise strategies as needed In fact human resource planning should be a process and also and outcome, because of the unpredictable changes in both external and internal environment. It is not have to be a fixed system, it has to remain dynamic. Each company should adapt the component of human resource planning model according to its one circumstance, there is not a model of human resource planning enable to fit all companies at the same times. From these definitions one might get the impression that workforce planning is a rigid system that must be implemented agency-wide in order to do it right and reap the benefits. While many organizations follow a systematic approach, there is no one size- fits-all workforce planning program. (Ann. Cotton, 2007, p13). A good human resource planning allows managers to measure recruitment and selection, employees retention, training and development and manage employees performance. Recruitment and selection planning Recruitment can be defined as a process of identifying and hiring the best qualified individual ( from within or outside of an organisation) for a given vacancy, in a most timely and cost effective manner. Experts believe that recruitment is a very sensitive and important part of human resource management function within an organisation because its business survival relies on its employees. Organizations recruit their triumphs and disasters, their creativity, sustainability, and growth. (Shaun Tyson, 2006) Recruitment main stages can be shaped as: Identify and define the requirements for organisation Main tools used here are Job descriptions and job specifications. Two important models are mostly used by companies or organisations. The seven point plan and the fivefold grading system. The seven-point plan (Rodger, 1973) Physical health Attainments: skills knowledge Intelligence: specifics abilities Special aptitudes Interests: personal interests Disposition: self-reliance, drive, initiative Circumstances: personal circumstances as commitment, mobility. The seven-point plan model underlines both emotional intelligence as well as Intellectual quotient (IQ). The Fivefold grading system (Munro Fraser, 1966) Can be described by: Impact on others: appearance Qualification: work experience Innate abilities: aptitude to learn Motivation Adjustment: relationships with others The Fivefold grading system underlines Intellectual quotient (IQ) Attract potential employees Select and employ the appropriate people from the job applicants These are the main stages involved in the recruitment and selection procedures which is a continuous process, as internal or external factors can affect the business at any time, managers should be able to take and appropriate decision to tackle issues or opportunities occurring like: staff resignation or retirement, changes in business itself (market penetration or new market entrance), changes in business location or promotion. Therefore, recruitment is a dynamic process. Main factors describing recruitment and selection procedures can be summarise as follow: Characteristic of the job, Characteristics of applicants Characteristics of recruiters Recruiting policies. Let us focus in recruiting policies that creates an environment in which each business will operate. Organisations policies lead the business direction and main vision. All corporations should comply with laws regulations and procedures. Legal rules and requirements can be different from one country to another, but the market globalisation tends to promotes similar rules for each corporation all over the world. The laws relating to discrimination in employment are generally accepted worldwide. Shaun Tyson, 2006 clarify the importance of laws in recruitment policies: The legal framework covers racial, gender, religious, age and disability discrimination, as well as rules regarding ex-offenders, and references among other areas. This affects choices of recruitment methods, advertisements and the processes used. IBM recruitment policies are well known, since its creation, the company underlines is willing to promote respect for individual. The managers give more importance to their peop le than to companys products. Tom Watson IBMs founder said in 1957 there are many things I would like IBM to be known for, but no matter how big we become, I want this company to be known as the company which has the greatest respect for the individual. The value place on IBM employees was codified in one of their three fundamental principles (mentioned in our introduction). In 1926, IBMs founder, Thomas J. Watson, told employees that: They say a man is known for the company he keeps. We say in our business that a company is known by he men it keeps. IBM corporate implemented also implemented programs policies and practices to respect its employees. For example its open door policy, the Speak! up program, comprehensive employees opinions surveys and so one. By doing that, IBM acquires and retains quality people need for its businesss success. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES In todays increasing competition in the market, companies are looking to increase their benefits, their productivity and also to boost their employees performance. Training and development programs are tools use by most of the companies to reach their target and enhance their corporates culture. Although some companies dont give such importance to training and development matter because for them it is better to invest to acquire material asset than to improve their workforce skill. IBM always focus on its employees improvement even its recruitment policy focus on qualified workforce, they still need to implement its training programs. IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, said there is no saturation point in education. The benefits of training programs can be resuming as: Increased productivity and performance improvement Reduced server loads and bandwidth costs Stricter adherence to corporate policies Improved customer satisfaction Increased employee morale and retention Increased revenue The reason why most of companies dont apply training and development program is that they assume that the cost of this function doesnt worth enough to be taken on board within their organisation. In the opposite way, Gartner, 2007 said Untrained or poorly trained users will cost significantly more to support than well-trained workers. Untrained traveling workers who spend a significant portion of their time away from the office, and who often have networking questions from multiple remote locations, are generally more expensive to support, regardless of the types of devices theyre using. But in fact, the last changes operate among workforce shows that training can affects employees retention in a company. American Society for Training Development demonstrates in 2003 that 41% of employees at companies with inadequate training programs plan to leave within a year versus 12% of employees at companies who provide excellent training and professional development programs. The main value of training and development planning can also be defines as follow: Revenues generation. The more a company invest in its training programs, the higher its revenues are. Productivity and performance improvement. Skills and knowledge are ineluctably the essential keys factors in business survival. Cost reduction. Companies can save huge amount of money in labour cost just by improving their employees skills. Collateral saving. Companies that employ training programs would have a benefits form their product, but they may also see a unintended savings. It is now sure that training and development programs and companies success is highly correlated. By providing more tools to its employees and using also training and development as a factor of decision-making can lead a company to achieve easily its corporates goals, retains its employees and maintains its competitive advantage among its competitors. STAFF MOTIVATION AND APPRAISAL PLAN The possibility for a business to growth depends on the quality human resources within the organisation. How a company can rewards its employees after their performance. First of all, we know that to reward employees most of the organisation use money as a value for their rewarding system. To set up a reward system, managers always evaluate their employees. Job as reward system should be clear and fair for each employee. Talking about job evaluation, Shaun Tyson, 2006 said Job evaluation is a term used in a general way for a number of techniques that are in different forms. These techniques entail analysing and assessing the content of jobs so that they may be classified in an order relating to one another and to the marketplace. To have a fairly base, job evaluation need to have common features as far as possible to avoid inequalities among rewarding systems, it is necessary to set up at least general framework that fits in these different evaluation techniques. Common features of evaluation techniques are the following: Job evaluation is concerned with differences in the work itself, not in differences that are found between people. Reference is made to the content of the job, i.e. what the work consists of, what is being done, what skills are deployed and the actions that are performed. This is normally discovered by job analysis. There are predetermined criteria, or factors, against which each job is measured. These may be descriptions of the whole job, or of its component parts. The practice of involving those who are to be subject to the job evaluation at an early stage helps to ensure both accuracy in job analysis and a commitment to the job evaluation scheme. The outcome of a job evaluation should be wage and salary scales covering the range of evaluated jobs. All systems need regular review and updating, and have to be flexible enough to be of use for different kinds of work, so that new jobs can be accommodated. In fact many purposes are use to estimate employees salaries. It also correlated with government regulation laws and rules. We are not going to dig deeper in that area. One of the most important that companies need to take on board is looking their employees as individuals. The social aspect of each individual is dominated by its own expectations and needs. Ignoring this aspect of human, could leads sometimes in a failure of rewarding employees within a company. Wage and promotion are not the only ways to reward employees, many organisations as IBM introduce in their corporate goals a strong culture of rewarding that make employees feel safe and secure and then improve their performance, their commitment and a strong willing to stay in the company as employees. IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson, Jr. 1970 said Money and title alone are not enough to satisfy the kinds of people that make IBM great. What counts most of all is knowledge that individual contributions are recognized and valued. We all want to receive that sort of recognition and we must all be quick to give it, too. I believe youll find, in most cases that you give thoughtful care to your people, they can take care of the problems. That is the perfect illustration of what sort of organisation is IBM. They put individuals first and then the success comes easily after making IBM the most successful IT Company in which every scientist or employee would like to work and perform well since the last decade. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In our work, weve tried to demonstrate the importance of recruitment and selection, training and development policies, motivation and appraisal of labour in the achievement of corporates goals. Human resource capital is obviously the main important asset of each organisation. Although experts believe that managing human resource is mostly a matter of common sense, the changing environment, the actual need of economic market trend, the increasing competition among businesses might lead each organisation to think efficiently to find how to use this asset to achieve its corporates goals and make profit from its business. Managing wisely its human capital is the key success of many corporations as IBM. In 1969, IBM chairman Thomas J. Watson, Jr. wrote to his management team: Our basic belief is respect for the individual, for his rights and dignity. It follows from this principle that IBM should: help each employee to develop his potential and make the best use of his abilities; pay and promote on merit; and maintain two-way communications between manager and employee, with an opportunity for a fair hearing and equitable settlement of disagreements. Human resource planning is therefore a powerful tool for each organisation to create a useful link between its labour and its corporates goals, without this link, a company can easily runs out of its business. The main recommendation to all the companies willing to improve their performance is to use IBM corporate as a model if the want to survive in the present market that is highly competitive.

P2P File-Sharing Essays -- Computers Software Technology Essays

P2P File-Sharing INTRODUCTION Technology is moving at an ever-increasing rate, which faces us with many new issues as we move into a digital age. Gone are the days where property and transactions were physically tangible. A medium of an electronic nature is now today’s preferred choice as opposed to traditional means. This new electronic medium is hardly tangible yet it is becoming more pervasive in our lives. So what exactly are some of these technologies and issues associated with them? This paper will look into both the domestic and the international issues associated with MP3 and Peer-to-Peer technologies over the Internet. So what started the big fuss associated with Peer-to-Peer technologies like Napster? We will begin by looking at the original motivation behind Internet file sharing software. Enter MP3. The MP3 Craze The term MP3 is now a household name. The technology is widely known and can be found in a multitude of software as well as in dedicated playback devices. However, MP3s were not widely known until 1998 when a free windows based player named Winamp was released 1. Lets take a brief look at how MP3s came to be. MP3 is shorthand for MPEG-Layer 3, which stands for the Moving Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer III 1. The MP3 compression algorithm was developed by the Fraunhofer Institut in Erlangen, Germany during the mid-1980s 1. For those who are not already familiar with the technology, MP3 encoding essentially compresses a large sound file into a much smaller file with little noticeable sound degradation. Standard compression reduces the size of a sound file by ten times, which results in files that are approximately 1 MB per minute 2. This proved to be a powerful tool, especially as the Internet... ...tory.cfm?id=70>. RIAA â€Å"FAQ On Napster and Digital Music.† RIAA.org. . Sax, Jodi, â€Å"Recording Artists Speak Out On Napster†, February 2001, . Schumacher-Rasmussen, Eric. â€Å"Napster Dividing Artists From Prince 2 Dave Matthews.† MTV.com News. 2 Mar. 2001 . Smith, Seagrumn. â€Å"From Napster to Kazaa: The Battle Over Peer-To-Peer File Sharing Goes International.† Duke Law. 28 Mar. 2003 . Spinello, Richard A. â€Å"Frameworks for Ethical Analysis.† Chapter 2 of Ethical Aspect of Information Technology (Prentice Hall) 1 Jan. 1995 Yang, Beverly., Garcia-Molina, Hector., â€Å"Comparing Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Systems.† Technical Report, Stanford University. Feb. 2001

Immigrant Workers in Phoenix :: Immigration Labor Immigrants Essays Papers

Immigrant Workers in Phoenix Before the sun even rises in Phoenix, out of the closing shadows of night, dark and quiet silhouettes begin to appear. They are the silhouettes of working men who rise before the sun rises, each with the hope of obtaining work and earning money to help support their families. These men are usually assumed to be immigrants without the proper paperwork to work in the United States. They are also better known as day laborers. These so-called â€Å"day laborers† congregate on street corners or in the parking lots of builders’ stores awaiting the arrival of employers who will hire them for a day’s work. Some cities have tried to ban this type of â€Å"recruiting† while others have accepted it as inevitable. In Phoenix alone there are an estimated 2,500 day laborers ready, willing and able to work each and every day that stand on street corners hoping and praying they will be picked up by someone to work. Some days their prayers are answered and on others they are not. Before September 11, 2001, you saw them everywhere – in hard hats on construction sites, working as landscapers, painters and just about anything else one can imagine. Today, these migrant workers are struggling under a sputtering economy and the harsh glare of the escalating U.S. homeland security system. To add even more problems to their already full plate, the immigration service in Phoenix is warning contractors against hiring undocumented day laborers. The warnings are taking a toll on many laborers in north Phoenix who had been getting constant work. â€Å"I’ve worked only two days since last week† said Ruben Fuentes, a native of Tijuana. At the break of dawn on a Tuesday morning, the 20-year-old Fuentes joined dozens of others at the corner of Greenway Road and 29th Street to wait for someone to pick them up. â€Å"It’s getting harder,† he added and from my viewpoint, it looked like more men were left standing than were picked up for work on the day I chose to visit. Unfortunately for everyone, contractors could face fines of up to $1,000 for each occurrence if they fail to fill out the proper immigration forms by the end of the workday said Victor Brower, deputy assistant district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Phoenix.

Film Analysis of King Kong Produced by Merian C. Cooper Essay examples

Film Analysis of King Kong Produced by Merian C. Cooper A classic adventure-fantasy film in the earlier talking films is King Kong (1933). King Kong was conceived by director/producer Merian C. Cooper. Cooper tells the story of an attractive blonde woman and a frightening gigantic ape-monster who are immersed in a Beauty and the Beast type tale. A major section of the film is the struggle on Skull Island between the filmmakers, the islanders, and the other resident of the island. The other resident being a mutant creature who must also fight civilization when it is brought to New York City for display. From the beginning of the movie, its screenplay by James Creelman and Ruth Rose foretells the coming terror. The film included many revolutionary technical innovations for its time, and some of the best stop-action animation ever sequences and special effects (by Willis O'Brien) ever captured. King Kong was a film with many wonderful sound and cinematic techniques. The filmed contained a dramatic musical score, which helped set the mood of the film. The sound effects were also unusual for films of its time. The director used different animal’s sounds to create Kong’s voice. The narrative of the story was one that was of interest of movie goes. In King Kong the story unfolds pretty directly in front of you so there is not a lot of confusion. To me the film is a montage not mise-en-scene. The story is told in a straightforward manner that doesn’t s...

Memo in Finance Essay

This memo is being prepared to analyze the acceptability of the new production facility for company at different hurdle rates and the implications of accepting the same on company earnings, cash flow and contribution to return on equity. This will strengthen the justification why this project was chosen as against other options. This project has positive net present value (NPV) at different rates of 10, 15% and 18%, which makes it acceptable. Positive NPV in finance theory means that at cost of capital, the present values of cash outflow and outflows will be beneficial to the company as it will increase the company cash position and earnings (Brigham and Houston, 2002). To illustrate if the NPV of $1,291,659. 16, if is assumed to be most accurate value based on cost of capital at 10%, then said amount is effectively an increase in cash under the balance sheet of the same amount and increase in income under the income statement. See Appendix A. Increasing cash position improves as well liquidity position of the company. Liquidity position is measured by quick ratio and current ratio. In both cases, increasing cash, which is part of quick assets or current assets, by certain amounts without corresponding increase in current liability will definitely increase the said liquidity ratios and could strengthen the company’s position against possible bankruptcy. It must be noted that computations in Appendix A treated as cash outflows the following: rental or lease expense of $1. 5 million a year, other expenses of $100,000 per year as cash outflows, project cost of $4 million and the corresponding taxes, while the cash inflows include the yearly revenues and the depreciation which was added back because it does not entail a cash outflow when deducted as part of operating expenses for tax purposes. In effect, the depreciation provided a tax shield for the project. In terms of its impact of return to equity (ROE), the same will also increase the said rate even assuming that the $4,000,000 initial cash outflow at year 0 was financed by equity. If is assumed that company has a present equity of $100 million and the project cost of $4,000,000 was financed through equity or additional investment from owners, its 2003 income statement at $ 29. 4 million, assuming the same level of income, will be attained when the production facility is implemented, would increase to $30. 69 million. If the same amount is divided by new equity of $104 million, this could increase the ROE to 29. 51% from 29. 4% before the project. It is therefore recommended that the project of new production facility should be accepted by the company because the project has positive NPV and its MIRR of 18% is greater than cost of capital of 10%. See Appendix A. Recommendation is further based on increase in the cash position of the company, increase net earnings and increased return on equity that could further attract investors by possibly increasing the stock price of the company. Appendix A- See Excel File References: Brigham and Houston (2002) Introduction to Financial Management, Thomson-South Western, USA. Case study- given with income statement

Philosophy of Nursing Essay

Nursing refers to a contact or a bond that exists between two or more persons in which one of the two persons provide professional care to the other in addition to providing advice with an aim of improving the health of the other individual an preventing illness. Philosophy of nursing may refer to beliefs that different individuals have towards nursing. Humans refer to the primates in the family of hominids. They have a brain which is highly expanded enabling them to solve problems through reasoning, control of feelings, use of language and introspection. Humans are always yearning to understand the world around them and influence the natural occurrences. Nursing involves the interaction between two human beings and therefore human must exist for the process of nursing to be successful. Health refers to a state of well being where there is no sickness and reflects the social, physical, spiritual and mental fitness of an individual. Good health may be brought about by a balanced diet, exercise and rest. It is through nursing that an individual acquires good health (Pharris, 2001, pp. 8-12). Nursing refers to a science in which the person involved aims at ensuring a good health for individuals, families and communities. In general, the science of nursing aims at upholding the quality of life. It involves caring for individuals in a conducive environment to promote good health and prevent illness. Environment is defined as the extensive information on issues, programs and policies affecting our surrounding. It refers to anything internal or external that may create some impact in the life of an individual including all the living and non living organisms that exist on the earth. It has to conducive to facilitate the process of nursing. Humans A good pain control after surgery when accompanied by appropriate community health services enables an individual to rebuild him or herself. It is however the responsibility of every person to ensure that the nurse or the doctor knows about him or herself before the pain control is administered on him or her. This the patient could do by enabling the doctor to know about his or her drug addiction either the past or present. This will enable the nurse to know the type and the amount of medication to offer. Surgery of the stomach is a very painful one and the drug history of a person may affect the person’s tolerance to the pain or response to the pain relievers. The pain control in patients also depends on the age of the patient as well the conditions of health of the individual before the surgery. Controlling pain after surgery is a very essential step in the life of a patient as it helps the individual to gain the best results on functionality. This is appropriate because the pain after surgery increases the functionality of the patient. Patients who before the surgery were on pain medication do require an administration of extended pain medication. Otherwise the patient may require shorter acting pain medications for the control of pain (Newman, 2003, pp. 110-115). Nursing The belief that good pain control and community health services help rebuild a person after surgery relates to nursing in the sense that nurses have been found to be mediums through which terminal care at home can be improved. Pain control is one of the components of quality terminal care in the community. Patients who have undergone surgery should be given enough advice by the nurses on where to get help if necessary. In addition to this they should be given appropriate analgesics to carry home which should be accompanied by sufficient instructions on their usage. Nevertheless, patients should be given both verbal and written information about pain so that and how pain can be reduced. The nursing staff should always be there for patients to advice them and to discuss with them their choice of a pain relieving techniques. The pain that is experienced by patients after surgery is usually very great that it should not be underestimated. This is because the pain does different implications on both the patients and the community health services. A proper pain control after surgery therefore requires the intervention of the nurse which will give way for community health services thus helping the patient to gain his or her health back. Nurses facilitate the process of pain control and ensure that it well managed to speed the process of recovering of a patient ( Margaret,1999, pp. 227-230). Health The health of a person enables that person to function mentally, spiritually, physically and socially in full ability. The belief that a good pain control and community health service helps an individual to rebuild after a surgery relates to health in the sense that an individual will only have a good health when he or she is not in pain. A person is considered to fully healthy if he or she is not feeling any pain. Surgery involves a lot of pain therefore after a surgery an individual requires pain relief which is achieved through proper pain control by the nurses to enable him or her to function properly both physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. When a person is in pain, he or she will not perform any physical activity in addition the person will not be able to socialize freely with other people. The person will also not think properly thus lacking both mental and spiritual thinking. This is because pain makes a person uncomfortable creating a feeling that something is wrong in the body. The pain in the body i. e. physical pain sends a signal to the brain through the spinal cords that something is wrong thus stopping the mind from working properly. It is therefore essential that after surgery a patient should receive a good pain control and community health service to enable him or her to rebuild his health. Effective pain management is therefore considered by nurses as part of recovery because it when it is well controlled it speeds up the process of healing and reduce complications that a person may experience as a result of surgery (Endo, 2004, pp. 240-245). Environment The surroundings in which individuals live do affect the activities performed in that particular environment. Nurses do require an enabling environment to enable them to perform their duties properly. After surgery it will for the well being of the patient to have a conducive environment in which physical, mental, spiritual and social healing is possible. The nature of the environment in which pain control is conducted is very essential and should be set to fit the requirements of different patients. Pain control will enable an individual to feel comfortable as he or she heals, get well faster and avoid some problems associated with surgery. The nurse theorist observed was Margaret Newman who also came up with a nursing theory of health as an expanding consciousness which requires every person to find the meaning of life and find connections with other people in the rest of the world. According to Margaret, health means increasing awareness. She put forward that the role of a nurse is to identify the lifestyle of an individual so that the nurse can work within that lifestyle to help the individual achieve the goals of his or her life. Newman’s theory includes the health of every individual irrespective of the condition of illness i. e. whether sick or well (Desai, 1996). Jean on the other hand developed a caring theory which involves the caring actions taken by nurses in their interaction with the patients. The caring theory involves the deep respect offered to patients by the nurses for the mysteries of life and the ability of the patients to change their lifestyles. Watson’s caring theory also requires a nurse to help the patients to acquire self control, knowledge and healing not regarding their health conditions. The difference that exists between my beliefs on Newman’s theory and Watson’s caring theory is that Newman’s theory was focused on helping every person whether in the absence or presence of sickness to understand his or her status. It focused on the adjustments that a nurse should put to ensure that a person meets his or her requirements. Watson on the other hand focused on caring for the patients, respecting them and helping them to understand themselves by acquiring self control, knowledge and healing. The similarity between the two theories is that both the two believe that it is the role of a nurse to ensure appropriate lifestyles for different persons whether sick or not. They both believe that a nurse should be able to identify or recognize and accurately detect the health status of a person and be able to help that person accordingly. They believe that a nurse must come together and engage in an interaction so that the nurse can understand the unique lifestyle of the person and provide care in a manner that fits that lifestyle. Finally both the beliefs involve human and nursing in the science of nursing in order to provide desired care to persons. The statement of my philosophy of nursing is the belief that Good pain control and community health services help rebuild a person after surgery. My philosophy of nursing views nursing as both an art and a science. It requires a nurse to understand the meaning of health in addition to understanding the perception of moral and ethical importance of care. The caring offered by the nurses involves the application of theoretical nursing knowledge, behavior and humanity.  My nursing philosophy includes wellness, family, collaboration and disability (Yamashita, 1997, pp. 34-39). Conclusion Surgery is a very painful exercise which usually requires an immediate pain control to stop the patient from suffering. Pain management especially after surgery is therefore very essential for the well being of the patient and nurses should ensure that it is provided to enable the patient to rebuild his or her health. This is because pain control facilitates the process of healing of an individual.

Two important concepts about debt

He believed that in order to improve the turret financial situation, it is important for people to stop getting increasing loans. However, he also agreed that there are debts that cannot be avoided, such as student loan correspond to the high tuition fee. Therefore, he concluded that borrowing loan has risk, and it is important for future youth to avoid debt as much as they can. According to Warren Buffet, the problem of increasing debt is getting worse and worse.Many people become rely only on borrowing more loans to pay back their debts; however, this technique would only be harmful to people's insane since their debt could never be completely paid. In the recent years, people get used to pay their spending with credit cards. By using credit cards, people are less likely to realize how much they are spending since they are not carrying the actual cash. Therefore, people do not think carefully when they are buying stuff.Without real cash, they could not recognize whether the product is actually worth for the price and whether the product is really necessary for buying. People would not identify the seriousness of their spending problem until the monthly bills come to their hands. Unfortunately, omen of them would not change their habits; instead, they might open a new credit card to recover the others' debts. Gradually, their debts are increasing, and they would not be able to pay them back to the banks.Thus, Warren Buffet suggested people to begin eliminate their bad habits of borrowing loans step by step. People can organize their daily expenses into a notebook or to their technical devices. They can mark down all their spending, so that they would be able to find out what are necessary and what are not. By doing so, they can only spend their money within their budgets, so that they can eave money rather than keeping borrowing loans. On the other hand, Warren Buffet admitted that some loans are not avoidable according to the situation.For instance, the colle ge tuition fee is getting higher and higher each year. The University of California has just agreed to increase 5% tuition fee to its students, which bring a lot of financial problems to many families. One of my friends was anger and lost after the US system announced the news, because her family is also paying tuition for her twin sister and her brother at the same time. In this situation, her family has o borrow more loans to pay for the tuition; otherwise, the three children will not be able to get education.However, Warren Buffet suggested that students should try to minimize the loans they borrow. For example, I think they should try to do work-study or do part-time jobs as long as they can help their parents from getting more debts without paying back much. Also, people should try their best to find the best banks to borrow loans, which would offer them the lowest interest rates and the most benefits. Overall, I was convinced that it is important for people to know how to enga ge their money and become awareness of the amount of money they are borrowing.

Analysis on the function of Total Domain Awareness Essay

Thesis Statement The raging mount of terrorism and other sort of violence has been considered as a major plague in the country (Scott-Donelan).   Consequently, the dilemma caused by the aforementioned perspectives has caught the attention of the government, mandating those who were perceivably obliged for the eradication of such predicament lead to an echelon of initiatives which apparently falls on the bounds of taxing and various technological innovations.   Hence, the most debated issue belying the arena of controversy in such regard is the commencement of â€Å"Total Domain Awareness†. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the light of thoroughly understanding the essence and the purpose of â€Å"Total Domain Awareness† shall be sought through the enlightenment of the factors which triggered the birth of the subject under study.   Moreover, the sagacity of what seemingly signifies the importance of TDA is traced in the history by which it presupposes as well as the key players implementing the perception of TDA. Furthermore, since it had been stressed that TDA is a manifestation of the immediate response of the government towards the plagues which is bugging the country, it is fair enough to dwell on the arena of the dynamics affecting on the whole picture of its purpose then later tackling the potency of the application through a critical analysis on institutions or organizations (Shahbazian, Rogova and Valin) which settle their activities with the help of TDA. Background of TDA   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For the benefit of the internalization of the term, it is best to dig deep in the definition of each word of the phrase; Total – domain — and awareness[1].   In the field of technology and incident monitoring, it is termed as the core treatment in obliterating and decreasing the prevalence of uncontrollable ‘criminals’ or law offenders through the attachment of a technological device in a certain â€Å"unit† for the purpose of speedy tracking (Ziman). Total Domain Awareness is a form of ‘government approach’ with the use of a device to serve as â€Å"spy† in the activities of those inhabiting the territory upon which the device has been attached.; thus, tracing all the possible locations (domain) of the person through the use of a ‘portal based environment’.   The cited pioneer key player of the said technological device is the popular Lockheed Martin Corporation[2], in collaboration with NAFTA. Issues giving birth to TDA   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As established in the agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the main purpose of the organization is to serve as the vanguard in lashing the private and public sectors of the state to collaborate together in uplifting the array of importance of business in the national and international trade arena, delight of transportation, assurance of security and other environmental concerns.   However, since that any state is inevitable to have dilemmas caused by a vortex of uncontrollable reasons hence the only means to expunge the said quandary of crisis is to impose and implement measures and innovations to lessen the possibility of its occurrence. Terrorism challenging the government Terrorism has been one of the most debated issues in contemporary times, spawning huge concerns both globally and locally. The weight of such concern is drawn from the fact that terrorism has brought fear to the lives of many, quite apart from the fact that it has destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Its long term effects can also be equally devastating, if not more, noting that the world market and individual economies of countries are, to a certain extent, affected by terrorist activities. Even the mere â€Å"presence† of terrorists is enough to spoil the budding hopes of nations seeking peace amidst the growing face of danger. However, the basis for the growing concern over the fear harbored from the dregs of what we call â€Å"terrorism† is yet to be resolved. The reason to this rests on the fact that there is no single definition of terrorism, one that is universal and transcends the differences in ethnicity, culture, religion and political background to name a few. For the most part, terrorism is held as a form of activity, usually through violent measures, in achieving a certain type of goal where the orientation of the â€Å"agents† of terrorism are inclined to sacrifice themselves for the realization of a given mission. Consequently, the objectives being pursued by terrorists can also be drawn out from a set of ideologies that border on several concerns, the widely-known types of which are either from an ethno-religious context or from a political environment. What sets terrorism apart from any other form of activity engaged upon by individuals or a group of individuals relatively operating from a wide scope to a specified area is the basic fact that terrorism is an organized activity. However, terrorism is not only an organized form of activity. It is also founded on principles that serve as the guiding tenet for these organized activities, the means of which settle from the most violent down to the crude installment of fear in the lives of civilians or certain groups of individuals. On the contrary horizon of countering terrorism is still vague as of the time being because US means of realizing the annihilation of terrorism is not transparent in its genuine cause. President Bush’s tactics are always under scrutiny because of its failure in providing hard facts or concrete ways of waging anti-terrorism to another counter (Scott-Donelan). For example the case of Iraq, in which he endorsed that this country obtains weapons of mass destruction, thus he wage war in Iraq. In the end, there’s no single evidence of such weapon. Countering terrorism is a must but sometimes the vagueness of how it would be done is also dangerous because a given country that is suspected of terrorism is vulnerable to jeopardizing consequences.   How technology shall serve of help in eradicating the crap of terrorism is still at stake. Violence caused by Mass Media   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The presence of mass media as a tool of communication has increased largely because of the technological innovations consistently being introduced not only in advancing the productivity rate of media organizations but also in expanding the capacity of the various media outlets to include a wider range of topics (Hudson). With this expansion, the subjects incorporated into the mass media has also been augmented (Graber) such that former topics that were once rarely untouched have now been constantly infused with unceasing publicity such as those that tackle Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The level of morality of individuals are conceived to be one by which their respective behavior are dependently being implied to.   With regard to behavioral psychology, it had been stressed that an individual’s personality is the manifestation of the influences which one had been able to acquire all throughout his childhood carried until adulthood (Wright). Americans’ somewhat insatiable appetite for violence had been depicted and described in the violence saturate of their culture.   Ã‚  In an article written by Lillian BeVier, she elaborated various examples on how media had taken a huge part on violence in today’s generation. Her findings led her to an echelon of realistic and obvious results such as: songs urging to rape women, killing police officers, committing suicide, and all other heinous crimes which are said to be the message conveyed by some songs (â€Å"The National Entertainment State†; Niemeyer). However, the issue of violence being a triggering factor for such violence were not thoroughly given substantial evidence with regards to the exposure on media, she had clearly emphasized that there is a need for the government, the Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, nor any state legislature to provide the discretionary and lawful measures as having to be given the power to legislate such constraints to avoid producers or purveyors commit such insatiable mistakes on the field of media communication. Analysis and Discussion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the given issues above, it is evident that the wrath of violence in the contemporary society is outrageously uncontrollable.   Given with such statement, it may be taken to assumption that the government is desperate in looking for ways to control the rising number of violence and crime counts in the country that they tend to jump in the valley of initiatives.   Trying to apply any sort of application which they ought to believe is feasible enough to help the law enforcers in incarcerating those who has affronted the law and thus needs jurisprudence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In essence, the organizations such as NASCO[3], NAFTA and Lockheed Martin had been cited as the catalysts of the so-called â€Å"Orwellian Nightmare† technology aimed for the purpose of security among the inhabitants of the country through the form of a device which possesses the ability to keep in track of the â€Å"location† of any form – it has the capability of gathering, correlating, and interpreting fragments of multi-source entities such as Radar, AIS, & GPS tracks, Open Source, Intelligence, Watch list & Law Enforcement Report, CCTV, Bioterrorism sensors.   Hence, gathering together all data into one collaborative portal-based environment in an automated scheme (Hansen and JonesReport).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In further deliberation of TDA, it is evident that its purpose is mainly for â€Å"tracking†.   A deeper forethought on TDA shall lead to the discussion of two assumptions: for terrorism reasons, and for the government to have a â€Å"sensor† on all the modes of transportation in the country (Corsi). Consequently, the efficiency of the new technology is still fresh in the ocean of controversy since that critics somehow perceive the idea of its implementation as rather a form of ‘fraud’ from the government, nevertheless, an income-generating machinery which is not considered as an â€Å"A† list in the needs and understanding of many. Incident Monitoring In collaboration with the issues raised above, a critical comprehension of the main purpose and essence of TDA in the society is explicitly rendered by the government as that which will â€Å"help† in monitoring incidents (Strandburg and Raicu).   Perhaps, the government is apparently stating the extrinsic evidence and apprehension of the definition of TDA.   Taking the brighter side of its establishment would lead to an illustration of necessity indeed (Hansen and JonesReport).   Yet, the question on its real intent is undeniably questionable in the internalization of those whom has gone way beyond the shallowness of ‘plainly’ understanding. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In reality, TDA lends a hand to the masses especially during emergent incidents, in view of the fact that it has the ability to ‘track’ the location, then those who are vested with the obligation to respond to the immediate call for help will not have a hard time in searching for the site where the incident took place.   In addition to that, cases such as kidnapping and car napping will not be a weight to law enforcers in getting to the culprits (Ziman).   With the aforementioned device, it will be easier to track the robbers and all the other sort of goons floating in the scenery. In the case of taxing, â€Å"run-away debtors† will be locked in the most abrupt time since that they shall be easily tracked in the hastiest method of confinement.   Like what is often seen on ‘detective’ inclined movies, the world will be a serene and ideal place to live in, at least for a certain shape (Paul).   Less criminals – everyone shall be spied, and so all must be careful in their actions – quite a paradise in assertion.   Yet, the outnumbering refutes to the â€Å"real† purpose of the government still remains laid on the table. Works Cited Corsi, Jerome R. â€Å"Bush Administration Quietly Plans Nafta Super Highway.† Human Events, 2006. Graber, Doris A. â€Å"Mass Media and American Politics.† Political Science Quarterly 95.4 (1980): 701. Hansen, Nathan M., and JonesReport. â€Å"Nasco, Lockheed Martin, & ‘Total Domain Awareness’: Lockheed Martin’s Plan to Tax and Track All Modes of Transportation in North America.† Jones Report, 2007. Hudson, Heather. â€Å"New Communications Technologies: Policy Issues for the Developing World.† International Political Science Review 7.3 (1986): 334. â€Å"The National Entertainment State.† National Review, 2006. 13-30. Vol. 283. Niemeyer, Gerhart. â€Å"Sex and Violence.† National Review 27.29 (1975): 834. Paul, Ron. â€Å"The Nafta Superhighway.† Texas Straight Talk, 2006. Scott-Donelan, David. Tactical Tracking Operations. Colorado: Paladin Press, 1998. Shahbazian, E., G. Rogova, and P. Valin. Data Fusion for Situation Monitoring, Incident Detection, Alert and Response Management. Washington: IOS Press, 2005. Strandburg, Katherine, and Daniela Stan Raicu. Privacy and Technologies of Identity: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation. 1 ed. New York: Springer, 2005. Wright, Peter. â€Å"Factors Affecting Cognitive Resistance to Advertising.† The Journal of Consumer Research 2.1 (1975): 6. Ziman, John. Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. [1] Definition: Total – A whole quantity; an entirety.   Domain (law) – The land of one with paramount title and absolute ownership.   Awareness – The state of being fully conscious of pertinent stimuli and really experiencing a task or situation. [2] Lockheed Martin is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company.   Aside from that, the company is also considered as the world’s largest defense contractor (by revenue). As of 2005, 95% of Lockheed Martin’s revenues came from the United States Department of Defense, other U.S. federal government agencies, and foreign military customers. See http://www.lockheedmartin.com for more information and data on the company’s goals and objectives. [3] The National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) is the nation’s principal contract security trade association.   NASCO is leading efforts to set beneficial fundamentals for the private protection industry and security officers by monitoring state and federal legislation and measures affecting the quality and efficiency of private security entities.   See http://www.nasco.org for more information.