Robert Frost s Life Through Poetry - 1745 Words

March 23, 2016 Robert Frost Reflects Life Through Poetry It is easy to express your emotions, and feelings through poetry. Which is exactly what Robert Frost has done through his entire career. Each poem Robert Frost has written, has meaning behind it all. He has gone through an extreme amount of events, and tragedies in his life. Frost has been through an unimaginable amount of losses, deaths, and loneliness throughout his years. Throughout his life his poetry has had a huge impact on him, the situations and losses, and emotions he had encountered in his life were expressed and showed throughout his poetry. Robert had suffered from emotional and physical abuse throughout his childhood, which had caused him to live his life being apprehensive, and afraid. Even though these things had caused him to be emotionally unstable, and leave him fearful for his entire life; they had also allowed him to be one of the most incredible poets in history. Frost s father was an alcoholic who had anger issues as well, one time he had whipped young Roberts’s legs repeatedly with a dog chain (Postema, 160). Frost was born in San Francisco, where he had lived for 11 years, until his father had passed away due to Tuberculosis in 1885. After his father s passing, himself, his mother and his sister Jeanie had moved to Eastern Massachusetts. Isabelle Frost (Robert’s mother), had helped her family by getting a job to be a teacher, which allowed her to continue teaching and homeschooling her ownShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Robert Frost s La Noche Triste Essay1692 Words   |  7 PagesNovember 2014 Paper 5 Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest poets in American history. Frost used a traditional style and candidly opposed the free verse style. His poetry is deceptively simple, customarily employing colloquial expression that proceeds just as readily as speech and applying a conventional style similar to that of Carl Sandberg, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allen Poe (Roberts Zweig 2008). Frost s vivid depictionsRead MoreFire And Ice By Robert Frost1349 Words   |  6 PagesThe great debate of whether the world will end in a fiery ball of destruction or a frozen wasteland has baffled the minds of many people. A man named Robert Frost has written a poem called Fire and Ice that describes his thoughts on how he would prefer to leave this world. Upon reading this poem, the reader can derive two distinct meanings of fire and ice; one being of actual fire and ice destroying the world, and the other having symb ols for the fire and ice, such as fire being desire or passionRead MoreModern F. Robert Frost1547 Words   |  7 Pages9th, 2015 Robert Frost: Modern Multiplicity Robert Frost is a multiple poet. –Louis Untermeyer What is customary and, therefore, stereotypical of modern artistic thought is the belief that only one central meaning can be gathered from any one reading; that these singular interpretations support, give credence and justify hegemonic forces or grand narratives in society. Defining the term â€Å"modern† in his work The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Jean-Francois Lyotard â€Å"designate[s]† this nameRead MoreEssay about Nature in Robert Frosts Poems1649 Words   |  7 Pages Under the stars of the sky, fifteen-year old Robert Frost explored the heavens through a telescope. He was seeking affirmation of the proverbial question that has plagued mankind for centuries—the proof and existence of God. While surveying the cosmos, Frost‘s interest was stirred, so he visited a library and obtained books that had illustrated star charts. Within these pages, his knowledge of the stars was edified and a poet was born. Frost‘s first poems were ―astronomicalâ€â€" and invokedRead MoreRobert Frost: A Poet To Remember Essay1004 Words   |  5 PagesRobert Frost was one of Americas leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He has been an inspiration to many young writers and aspiring poets. Although he lived through a troubled and tragic life, Frost was able to express his unique view of nature and the world around him in the delicate art of poetry. His direct and easy-to-read poems made him one of the most recognized poets in the country. Robert Frost had the ability to make his poems accessible to anyone readingRead MoreEssay about Robert Lee Frost1452 Words   |  6 PagesRobert Lee Frost The mark of a great poet is his ability to engage the reader so that they analyse their own lives. Robert Lee Frost (1874 – 1963) – an influential American poet often associated with rural New England – is brilliant at this and uses poetry as a platform for the expression of his own general ideology. Frost’s belief that human society was often chaotic and stressful and that the meaning of life is elusive, has been promoted in his poetry. Frost looked to nature, whose undyingRead MoreThe Road Not Taken By Robert Frost1477 Words   |  6 Pages Robert Frost was a poet of the 19th and 20th century and his work had a great influence on the way poets of the future would write. Frost influenced poets through his work that contained simple ideas with deeper meanings. These ideas allowed for a different view on the world. â€Å"The Road Not Taken† was written by Robert Frost in 1916. It was a literary work that displays the way in which Frost saw the world around him. His writing style allowed him to express his feelings towards his environmentRead MoreRobert Frost : The Love Of Writing Essay1068 Words   |  5 Pages Robert Frost: For The Love of Writing There are and have been many great writers in the current day and throughout history. They all have different accomplishments, and most hold college diplomas. While Robert Frost didn’t receive a diploma from either of the colleges he attended, his success shows that it is not required. So what is it about him that many still consider him to be a great writer? What is it about his poems and writings? Are they only words, or do they hold something more†¦aRead MoreThe Career and Influences of Robert Frost1248 Words   |  5 PagesRobert Frost is one of America’s most celebrated poets. Born in 1874, he was raised in San Francisco until his father passed away. As Robert Frost grew up, many tragic things happened to him. There were many deaths in his family including some of his children. Even during these hard times, he continued to create poetry. Frost was heavily influenced by his surroundings. He loved spending time in the wilderness and observing nature. The tim e Robert Frost spent living New England, and his views on WorldRead MoreThe Road Not Taken By Robert Frost Essay1156 Words   |  5 PagesRobert Lee Frost was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. Robert Frost’s poem â€Å"The Road Not Taken is a narrative poem on making decisions. A narrative poem is one that tells a story. It follows a similar structure as that for a short story or novel. There is a beginning, middle and an end, as well as the usual literary devices

Managing Employee Motivation and Performance Free Essays

INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT MANAGING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE RESEARCH PAPER by Nedzad ISAKOVIC Project Supervisor M. A. Edin SMAJIC SARAJEVO April, 2012 Contents 1. We will write a custom essay sample on Managing Employee Motivation and Performance or any similar topic only for you Order Now Introduction2 1. 1. The Motivation Process2 1. 2. Wath Managers Do In Practice2 2. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting3 2. 1. Job Design3 2. 2. Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement3 2. 3. The Job Characteristics Model4 3. Conclusion5 4. References7 1. Introduction Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it is getting a glass of water to reduce thirst, reading a book to gain knowledge or performing some specific job assignment to get pay. Why is the motivation of employees so important at the workplace? It is important for managers because it determines individual performance of the workers along with ability of the workers and work environment. The most challenging factor for manager to control of these three is motivation. Individual behavior is a complex phenomenon, and the manager needs to enter the core of the problem if he is going to solve it. 1. 1. The Motivation Process The motivation process progresses through a series of discrete steps. Content, process, and reinforcement perspectives on motivation address different parts of this process (Griffin, 2008). Content perspective tries to find what factor or factors motivate people. The most popular content theories are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the ERG theory and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Process perspectives on motivation explore how the motivation process works and how it occurs. They try to find out why people certain behavior options to fulfill their needs and how workers evaluate their satisfactions after their decisions. Theories of process perspectives are expectancy theory, equity theory and the newer attribution theory. The reinforcement perspective tries to find out which factors force employees to continue being motivated. It tells us that employees will repeat the behavior for which they are rewarded, and they won’t repeat behavior for which they are punished. Reinforcement perspective uses positive reinforcement, avoidance, punishment and extinction as tools to keep employees motivated. These are just theories which help managers to determine what to do in practice. 1. 2. What Managers Do In Practice The most shared thought and strategy among managers in practice is that money motivates. Because of that managers use large variety of reward systems such as merit reward systems, incentive reward systems and team reward systems to improve motivation and performance of their employees. Their assumption is correct and employees do actually perform better when they know that they will receive more money for their improved performance. But another question arises: How long will the improved performance last if money is key motivator? The answer is that it won’t last long. The studies have shown that individuals have difficulty recalling the bonus they receive and it does not seem to have the same impact it did within the first few weeks or months of receiving it. That’s because money, in and of itself, will not continuously motivate individuals. Employees are motivated much more if money rewards are combined with recognition and with improved job design. Another problem that arises from using the money as a key factor of motivation is that it costs. The companies need to give large amounts of money to employees as bonuses and there were several cases where bonuses are actually larger than annual salaries of some employees. This becomes a real problem if company wants to decrease the amount of bonuses employees receive. Employees become more dissatisfied and unmotivated because they are used to have large bonuses, so their performance falls quite a lot. My opinion is that the best way to motivate employees to perform better is to design jobs by making them more appealing to people. 1. Motivating by Structuring Jobs to Make Them Interesting 2. 3. Job Design This approach of motivation is directed at improving the essential nature of the work performed by changing the design of the job. Job design is concerned with structuring jobs in order to improve organization efficiency and employee job satisfaction (Snell/Bohlander, 2007). Employees today engage in repetitive movements, which they find highly routine and monotonous. Not surprisingly, people became bored with such jobs and their performance falls with time. Fortunately, today’s organizational scientists have found several ways of designing jobs that aren’t just efficient, but are also pleasant and motivating. Job enlargement and job enrichment are two approaches that improve motivation by changing job design. 2. 4. Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment One of the first modern approaches to redesigning jobs suggested that boredom of employees by engaging in highly repetitive jobs could be minimized by having people perform an increased number of different tasks all at the same level. This approach is known as job enlargement (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). Because of this approach employees don’t need higher skills or have higher responsibility, but perform more different actions at the same level. Changing job in this way is an increase in the horizontal job loading. Several studies showed that job enlargement is very useful way to increase employee job satisfaction and employee boredom at the workplace. A more effective approach, job enrichment, gives employees not only more jobs to do, but more tasks to perform at a higher level of skill and responsibility (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). The main idea of job enrichment is making jobs more interesting to people so that they will be more highly motivated to perform them. Job enrichment gives employees the opportunity to take greater control over how to do their jobs. Because people performing enriched jobs work at higher levels than others, this approach increases a job’s vertical job loading. Even the job enrichment is successful it has some problems in implementation. First one is difficulty of implementation because it is expensive to redesign existing facilities. Second problem is lack of employee acceptance because not all employees are ready to accept the changes in their job accomplishment and higher obligations for the work they perform. 2. 5. The Job Characteristics Model In previous text I stated that employers should enrich the jobs, but I failed to specify precise what elements of a job need to be enriched for it to be effective. Job characteristics model answers this question. It assumes that jobs can be designed so as to help people get enjoyment out of their jobs and care about the work they do (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). It tells us how jobs can be redesigned to help employees feel that they are doing meaningful and valuable work. The model specifies that enriching certain elements of jobs influences employee’s psychological states in a manner that increases their work effectiveness. It identifies five core job dimensions that help create three critical psychological states, leading to several beneficial personal and work outcomes. The five critical job dimensions are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. Skill variety shows us how many different tasks the employee performs using several of his skills and talents. Task identity shows us how much is employee involved in one piece of work, from beginning to end. Task significance shows us how much impact employee’s work has on others. Autonomy shows us how much freedom employees have in planning and performing jobs as they wish. Feedback shows us how much the job allows employees to know is their performance efficient enough. The model tells that these various job dimensions have important effects on many critical psychological states. Combination of these job dimensions have effect on experienced meaningfulness of the job performed, which is then experienced as highly important, valuable and worthwhile. Job dimensions also determine how much employees are personally responsible and accountable for their work. When they are free to decide what to do and how to do it they feel more responsible for their work. Finally, these job dimensions impact employee’s knowledge of the results of their work. When a job is designed to provide employees with information about the effects of their actions, they better understand how effective they are – and such knowledge improves their effectiveness. These critical psychological states affect personal and work outcomes such as: feelings of motivation, the quality of work performed, satisfaction with work, absenteeism and turnover. The higher these psychological states are, the more positive the personal and work benefits and outcomes will be. The job characteristics model is highly applicable and it has high and positive results. The employees that respond best to this model are the ones which have high need for personal growth and development. The model has been focus of many empirical tests, most of which are supportive of many aspects of the model. One study conducted among a group of South African clerical workers found particularly strong support for the job characteristic model (Greenberg/Baron, 2008). . Conclusion In my opinion altering employee motivation by changing job design is much more productive and better than improving motivation by incentive reward systems. It is true that inducing motivation by changing job design has several problems, such as difficulty of implementation and lack of employee acceptance, but these problems are easier to overcome than problems that occur when companies use mon ey to motivate their employees. Incentive reward systems have problems beside the incredibly high costs to organization. These systems may lead to lower job satisfaction as the employees work until they reach their limit and then they become unhappy. They can also create competition within the organization and destroy cooperation among employees. Employees cannot be treated just as machines and the money they receive for their work just isn’t enough to satisfy them. They need recognition for their work and they need to see that the work they do is meaningful and worthwhile, and this is the thing that job design allows them to have. They feel respected and fulfilled and, at the end, motivated to perform the best they know. . References Ricky W. Griffin (2008). Management (9th Edition ed. ). Houghton Mifflin Company. Jerald Greenberg ; Robert A. Baron (2008). Behavior in Organizations (9th Edition ed. ). Pearson Prentice Hall. Luis R. Gomez-Mejia ; David B. Balkin ; Robert L. Cardy (2007). Managing Human Resources (5th Edition ed. ). Pearson Prentice Hall . Scott Snell ; George Bohlander (2007). H uman Resorce Management. Thomson. http://psychology. about. com/od/mindex/g/motivation-definition. htm , http://www. entrepreneur. com/article/202352 How to cite Managing Employee Motivation and Performance, Papers

Technology has made us dependent free essay sample

We live in an amazing world during a time of innovation and discovery. An era where we can instantly communicate with people across the 7 oceans, an era where our whole lives are uploaded into one place and an era where we are constantly connected to each other. But not only that we have created inventions and machines to make our lives easier, more efficient some dare say, from the mastery of flight to the creation of the remote control. Technology has innovated our lives and brought us up in a society that’s entirely dependent on automation and instant gratification. We have become subordinate to technology and have been conditioned to be reliant on our own creation. Technology has made our generation lazy and dependent. Technology has integrated itself into every second of our lives. We are products of technology. Our brains are have been rewired to adapt this new, automated age. We will write a custom essay sample on Technology has made us dependent or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But with that adaption grew one of the biggest dependencies ever to grow on to mankind. Just think about it, if the internet was knocked offline for an indefinite period, where would we be? Some speculate the world would be thrown back a couple ages. Now let’s just think of your common workplace, almost all companies have an advanced computerized system which organises tasks, helps the delivery of information and keep a record of the happenings in that workplace. If that system, the central hubs that controls the workings of the company, was say to be hit offline, most workplace become ineffectual and are not able to operate this applies from banks to legal firms. If there’s such a heavy reliance on technology that without it we are no longer able to work, then our dependency on it is beyond concern. Now, I believe majority of young adults own a smartphone of some kind, and many of us would feel lost without it. Smartphones connect us to this other world, a world of communication where we tap on a name and are instantly connected to them. A couple decades back smartphones didn’t exist, people actually remembered each other’s phone numbers but now it is taken for granted and what has it made us? Dependant. Now what happens when you’re lost and you want to figure out where you want to go? Nowadays many use their smartphone or GPS, they tap the screen, and it locates their position and then points them the right way. These are 2 very small examples but it shows how technology has slowly shaped us. The biggest dependency that we have on technology is for information. Thanks to Google and other search  engines that we now have instant access to this constantly expanding database that explores every known topic that you could think of. The internet is a gift given to us by others collectively around the world. Without the internet, looking at the top Google searches, many of us would be lost without it. Moving on, regarding the internet, we no longer have to memorise things from a cake recipes or what year World War 2 started, all this information is at our fingertips and our minds have become lazy adjusting to it. We no longer subconsciously feel that we need to memorise anything, the internet has the changed we think forever. In conclusion, think right now about your life without a car, a phone or a computer. These items have taken over this world. Technology has replaced almost everything. Itâ €™s in our homes, our schools and our communities. We spend time online, in front of the TV and even driving just around the corner. Technology has made us lazy and dependent. There’s no questioning that. It has changed the way the human race has evolved and been cultured. Our dependency on Technology is of extremities, and we have to remember, we are the future of this world, of this society, not our phones.

International Thanksgiving free essay sample

â€Å"I do not wish my house to be walled on all sides and my windows stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.† – Mahatma Gandhi Enchiladas, sushi, and mango chutney arent exactly typical Thanksgiving fare, but then again, my family has always been eccentric. Since I was young, my parents top priority has been to immerse me in different cultures. Since both are educators committed to the multicultural experience, they chose to familiarize me early on with Japanese tea ceremonies in Little Tokyo and Latino culture on Olvera Street, rather than shopping malls and theme parks. Consequently, I was not surprised that an international student would be staying with us. In spite of any awkwardness and communication challenges, my parents felt that it would be an enriching and enjoyable experience. Once the first student left, we opened our doors to others. We will write a custom essay sample on International Thanksgiving or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page From then on, our house became an international youth hostel of sorts, and my familys orderly life changed drastically. Japanese silk tapestries, Ethiopian tribal masks, and colorful Mexican embroidered rugs began popping up around the house. From time to time, dinner was unrecognizable and worse yet, seemingly inedible. One day, I came home from school and was overwhelmed by the smell of incense. I found my parents and Raj, our visitor from India, in the living room with their eyes closed sitting in a semicircle around several lit candles. I thought my parents had lost their minds until they explained that Raj was introducing them to Hindu prayer. It didnt take long to realize that the presence of international students in our house was having a profound effect on us. As I got older, I gradually developed a new appreciation of these experiences. I began to realize how insulated many Americans are, especially my generation. It wasnt obvious at first, since my friends thought they were culturally aware simply because they lived near a variety of ethnic groups in Los Angeles. I came to realize, however, that their acceptance of other cultures was superficial and uninvolved. They preferred to respectfully disengage from other cultures rather than venture beyond their comfort zone. In contrast, sharing a home with people from around the world taught me the necessity of  ­cultural interchange and the richness that comes from exposure to different ways of thinking. It became obvious to me how culturally insular young Americans are today. The United States is not a world unto itself; we are living in an era of globalization, and we must take action to promote cultural awareness. Accordingly, I have participated in international immersion programs in Israel and Argentina that have further deepened my fascination with other cultures. I wanted to reinforce my commitment to my own heritage while promoting mutual understanding between cultures. To decrease the isolation of my Jewish community, I became a co-chair of my temples teen social action committee. I organize yearly multicultural arts fairs to bring children and their families from different communities together to interact and have fun. Last year we invited members of a local Korean church to our temple for a Hanukah celebration. In exchange, they asked us to participate in Chusok, the Korean thanksgiving festival. Wherever my life leads me, I am certain that advocating for global and cultural exchange will remain an essential part of who I am. My family has continued our tradition of cultural exchange as well. A few years ago, we â€Å"internationalized† Thanksgiving by inviting former exchange students to a potluck dinner. Imagine our surprise when the smiling students arrived bearing a variety of dishes. All empty. My mother quickly realized her mistake in not explaining what a potluck was. After a short pause, she winked at us and ushered the students into the kitchen, saying, â€Å"Now we start cooking!† Each prepared a recipe from his or her culture using whatever ingredients we had. A few hours later, dinner was ready and â€Å"International Thanksgiving† was born.

Values Worth Fighting For essays

Values Worth Fighting For essays When a country goes to war they are fighting to defend what they believe in. Each battle and every victim helps decide how the opponent will have to compromise at the end of the war. But why must they compromise? And how significant is every dead soldier when youre fighting for principle? The values I think that are worth fighting for are freedom, love and pride. These beliefs are inspired by three documents that prove the devotion of Americans to our country- The Gettysburg Address, and war letters sent home from George Rarey and Sullivan Ballou. Freedom is something we have been defending throughout American History. As said by Abraham Lincoln "...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth" (Gettysburg Address, paragraph 1). Freedom as a response to democratic principle is a code thought to bring equality, which is essential to our success as a nation. Lincoln also proposed to dedicate a portion of their battle ground as a resting place for those who gave their lives so that the nation might live (Gettysburg Address, paragraph 4). He respected that those people were fighting for the continuing freedom of the people in our country. In the letter sent from George Rarey to his wife and newest child he was ecstatic and jubilant in knowing that he was now a father. Rarey had a family to dedicate himself to. "Im sort of delirious- today everything is special", he wrote (Rarey, Paragraph 5). And Rarey never made it back to know his son or experience the love of togetherness with your family. However, love is something he was trying to protect. His job was to help make a safer country for his son. And his family and generations from them have prospered from that. Love is something that keeps you motivated to continue fighting, a standard that is the foundation of families, and shared th ...

3 Reasons Quitting Might Be the Right Thing to Do

3 Reasons Quitting Might Be the Right Thing to Do The world is full of inspirational posters, coffee mugs, and bumper stickers telling us not to be quitters. But that kind of blanket dogma- black-and-white in a world of grey- can be hurtful on occasions when giving up might actually be the best idea. Here are three reasons why we think this advice doesn’t always have to be the final word. 1. It  can lead you to the path you really wantIt’s all well and good to say â€Å"winners never quit and quitters never win,† but what if you’ve devoted yourself to the wrong pursuit and quitting could lead you to a better one- where you could actually win and not just slog away forever because you’ve been told you’d be weak or lazy if you quit?If you’re on the wrong track, and you know it, sometimes quitting is the braver, nobler thing to do. And it just might be the only route to winning in the end. So have the courage to take stock of where you are and what you’re doing.2. Sometimes,   you’re just truly unhappyThere are a ton of cognitive biases that already predispose us against quitting. Like the sunk cost fallacy (â€Å"I’ve already spent so much on this hobby,† or â€Å"I’ve wasted so much of my life playing the tuba, so I can’t switch to building miniature boats†) or our bias towards the status quo (â€Å"I may have it rough now, but the unknown could be even worse†). Not to mention loss aversion and the need to hold on to whatever gains we’ve made at all costs. But none of these are good reasons to stick it out in bad relationships or careers. The last thing we need is some smarmy â€Å"Never give up† slogan making us feel even worse about our prospects.3. You  can set an example  and be an inspirationQuitting is considered weak, and quitters a failure. But we should buck this trend. Wouldn’t it be better to encourage people to be more mindful about what they do? And to check in from t ime to time to see whether they should still be doing it?Next time you notice someone spewing platitudes on Facebook about quitters or inspirational gifs about never giving up, take a moment to disagree. That advice can keep people from being their best selves, and can actually be harmful when wielded willy-nilly.

Florence County School district vs. Carter 1993 Research Paper

Florence County School district vs. Carter 1993 - Research Paper Example require better learning opportunities designed according to their needs, and they have the right to get this education from the public sector schools. These issues consequently made the Congress to pass an act in 1975 which is known as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This act assured that all the children, no matter what learning disability they have, are permitted to receive free and appropriate public education. Shannon Carter was a student in the 9th grade at Timmonsville High School in Florence County School, South Carolina. This was the time when her parents were told that their daughter would not be given education in a special education classroom, as she was suffering from dyslexia, rather she would be introduced in an Individualized Education Program (IEP) which would be in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Shannon was way behind her peers in education. When she entered high school, her reading ability was at the 5th grade level. The Individualized Education Program promised that by the end of the year she would be reading on level 5.8, as her current level was5.4, it meant that Shannon would make four months progress in reading after a complete year. This confirmed the fact that she would be left further behind her class mates. This was rather not acceptable to her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Carter. They wanted her child’s reading skills to be on the gr ade level by graduation. The Carters requested the school authorities to take more intensive and concentrated program for Shannon, but the school refused to do so. They requested the authorities a special education due process hearing. There, the parents of Shannon Carter demanded funding for Trident Academy, a school that specialized in imparting education to children with language learning disabilities. But the hearing officer did not accept the Carters request. He was sure that the IEP was the best option for the child and it was rightly designed to meet her

OPERATIONS OF APPLE FOLLOWING THE IDEA OF NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Essay

OPERATIONS OF APPLE FOLLOWING THE IDEA OF NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI - Essay Example Machiavelli, in â€Å"The Prince†, describes that a prince is not the same with the people whom he rules; rather, he poses a greater stature in the society. Expanding this vision propounded by Niccolo Machiavelli, the principles of ruling and managing a mass of individuals can also be deemed as applicable in modern organizational field of operations. In this regard, Machiavelli’s description of the qualities of a prince or a person or a corporation can be viewed as similar to that of modern day organizations, having its operations and influencing factors networked in the realms of politics, regulatory as well as economic and certainly in social paradigms as well. Moreover, as Machiavelli precisely mentions that gaining goodwill of the citizen is quite important with regard to rule properly with utmost effectiveness, his principles can be argued as justifiably applicable in 21st century organizational context where sustainability and moral principles are supposed to be o ne of the prime concerns. THESIS STATEMENT Critically analyzing the strategic operations of Apple Inc., this thesis will aim at discussing those bases or grounds where Apple’s operations follow the principles affirmed by Machiavelli and those opposing Machiavelli’s viewpoints. In addition, justifications will also be delivered on the inferences drawn so as to gain an in-sight to the concerned issue in this thesis. OPERATIONS OF APPLE FOLLOWING THE IDEA OF NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Today, Apple is renowned as one of the leading Information Technology (IT) companies of the world. With its worldwide operations, the company has emerged as one of the most successful and renowned brands. It is in this context that alignment of the operational approach of Apple with that of the ideas presented by Machiavelli in ‘The Prince’ is quite likely to reward a succinct understanding of the possible influences, which can be reasoned as the causes of Apple’s success to dat e. In precise, Machiavelli describes about various principles of ruling, keeping in concern the autocratic system of the then scenario, i.e. of the 15th century. The principles thereby depict about the methods to be followed with regard to govern and maintain power in a particular demographic region, which can also be characterized as organizational environment in today’s context. Notably, sustainability constitutes major significance in these principles, in the form of the morally sound attitude deciphered by the ruler through his works, human behavior influenced by their heredity and surrounding environment as well as demand for transparency in the entire working process by both the ruler and those who are ruled. In accordance with this principle, Apple’s operations all over the world, intended to capture maximum share of the technology industry, can be found as emphasized on ethically sound principles rendering high priority to its customers’ needs, in accord ance with its stakeholders’ and organizational needs (Reuters, â€Å"Apple Inc (AAPL.OQ)†). Heading towards being more argumentive, the principles in Machiavelli’s â€Å"The Prince† depict that hereditary princedom is much beneficial from new princedom as it assures greater loyalty from the followers. Contextually, Apple is one of those companies that intend to operate in the competitive market in which they are present as a strong brand, following its hereditary princedom. This may also be considered as a major reason as to why Apple has been quite reluctant in reaching to the various non-competitive markets in the global realm. As Machiavelli argues, trusting in hereditary princedom is one such aspect that enables a prince to maintain his power and attain highest possible

Ford and Toyota Analysis Essay Example for Free

Ford and Toyota Analysis Essay ord Motor Company was incorporated in Delaware in 1919. Ford acquired the business of a Michigan company, also known as Ford Motor Company which incorporated in 1909 to produce and sell automobiles designed and engineered by Henry Ford. They are one of the world’s largest producers of cars and trucks. Ford operates in two sectors, Automotive and Financial Services. In the Automotive sector reportable segments are Ford North America, Ford South America, Ford Europe, and Ford Asia Pacific Africa. In the Financial Services sector reportable segments are Ford Motor Credit Company and Other Financial Services. 1b. Factors affecting Ford’s profitability include: Wholesale unit volumes Margin of Profit on each vehicle sold – which in turn is affected by many factors, such as: Market factors – volume and mix of vehicles and options sold, and net pricing (reflecting, among other factors, incentive programs: Cost of components and raw materials necessary for production of vehicles Costs for customer warranty claims and additional service actions Costs for safety, emissions and fuel economy technology and equipment A high proportion of relatively fixed structural costs, so that small changes in wholesale unit volumes can significantly affect overall profitability General economic conditions and other uncontrollable external factors affect the automotive industry as a whole 1c. Toyota commenced operations in 1933 14 years after Ford. Toyota operates in the Automotive and Financial sectors as does Ford, with reportable segments in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia NEED MORE Toyota Motor Corporation is a limited liability, joint-stock company incorporated under the Commercial Code of Japan and continues to exist under the Corporation Act. Toyota commenced operations in 1933 as the automobile division of Toyota Industries Corporation (formerly, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.). Toyota became a separate company on August 28, 1937. In 1982, the Toyota Motor Company and Toyota Motor Sales merged into one company, the Toyota Motor Corporation of today. As of March 31, 2013, Toyota operated through 509 consolidated subsidiaries and 206 affiliated companies, of which 56 companies were accounted for through the equity method. Toyota primarily conducts business in the automotive industry. Toyota also conducts business in finance and other industries Toyota’s business segments are automotive operations, financial services operations and all other operations. The following table sets forth Toyota’s sales to external customers in each of its business segments for each of the past three fiscal years Toyota sells its vehicles in approximately 170 countries and regions. Toyota’s primary markets for its automobiles are Japan, North America, Europe and Asia. The following table sets forth Toyota’s sales to external customers in each of its geographical markets for each of the past three fiscal years. Automobile sales are affected by a number of factors including: †¢ social, political and economic conditions, †¢ introduction of new vehicles and technologies, and †¢ costs incurred by customers to purchase and operate automobiles 2a.2c A proxy is another person that you legally designate to vote your stock. If you designate someone as your proxy in a written document, that document also is called a proxy or a proxy card. A proxy statement is a document that SEC regulations require that we make available to you when we ask you to vote your stock at the annual meeting. NEED MORE 2b. dklsfjl; 3c. The Board has adopted the following standards in determining whether or not a director has a material relationship with the Company. Employee or former employee. No director who is an employee or former employee of the company can be independent until three years after termination of such employment Independent Auditor Affiliation. No director who is, or in the past three years has been, affiliated with or employed by the Company’s present or former independent auditor can be independent until three years after the end of the affiliation, employment, or auditing relationship. Interlocking Directorship. No director can be independent if he or she is, or in the past three years has been, part of an interlocking directorship in which an executive officer of the company serves on the compensation committee of another company that employs the director. Additional Compensation. No director can be independent if he or she is receiving, or in the last three years has received, more than $100,000 during any 12-month period in direct compensation from the Company, other than director and committee fees and pension or other forms of deferred compensation for prior service (provided compensation is not continent in any way on continued service). Immediate Family Members. Directors with immediate family members itn the foregoing categories are subject to the same three-year restriction. Other relationships. Commercial, charitable and educational relationships will not be considered to be material relationships that would impair a director’s independence. PAGE 25 Elaborate more 3d. In book 3e. Among the most important qualities directors should possess art the highest personal and professional ethical standards, integrity, and values. They should be committed to representing the long-term interests of all of the shareholders. Directors must also have practical wisdom and mature judgment. Directors must be objective and inquisitive. Directors must be willing to devote sufficient time to carrying out their responsibilities and duties effectively, and should be committed to serve on the Board for an extended period of time. 3f. Non-employee board members are provided with $200,000 of life insurance which ends when a director retires, company provided healthcare insurance at no cost, use of up to two company vehicles free of charge. NOT DONE 4a. Ford’s audit committee selects the independent registered public accounting firm to audit Ford’s books and records, and determines the compensation of the independent registered public accounting firm. Consults with the firm, reviews and approves the scope of their audit, and reviews their independence and performance. Reviews internal controls, accounting practices, and financial reporting, including the results of the annual audit and the review of the interim financial statements with management and the independent registered public accounting firm. CONTINUED PAGE 20 4b. The Board has designated Stephen G. Butler as the Audit Committee financial expert.

Living and Dying by the Sword (or) The Autonomy and Responsibility of P

Living and Dying by the Sword (or) The Autonomy and Responsibility of Paranoia Introduction The question is a common one. "Does an individual have the right to yell, ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater?" The implications are not as simple. If one answers, "no," then one is, in effect saying that the constitutional right to free speech is not entirely correct. If one answers, "yes," then one is saying that is perfectly O.K. to an individual to be delegated the power to create mass hysteria. However, there is another side to this question. If an individual is permitted to yell fire, as perhaps one would be in a Lockian state of nature, one is as likely to be trampled in the ensuing hysteria as everyone else is. This situation, while quaint and hypothetical, does have its counterparts in history. The question of how much power ought an individual be allowed has been one that has been addressed by governments throughout the ages. The result of this power being abused has also been addressed throughout history, but not by governments, by the fates of those individuals who have abused that power. One result of power being abused is the creation of a kind of hysteria in a society that revolves around that individual who has created it. That hysteria also has the potential to turn on its progenitor and crush him in the ensuing stampede. Historically, this is the case of Maximilien Robespierre and Joseph McCarthy. Both men, in their own rights, created a sort of social hysteria, a hysteria that for each resulted in a social stampede. These stampedes ended up crushing these men who created them in the chaos and confusion that ensued. The question of these two men faced ... ...s, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy 6. Buckley, et al., McCarthy and His Enemies 7. Eagan, Maximilien Robespierre: Nationalist Dictator 8. Buckley, et al., McCarthy and His Enemies 9. Feuerlicht, Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism, The Hate That Haunts America Bibliography - Belloc, Hilaire. Robespierre, A Study. G.P. Putnam and Sons. New York. 1927. - Buckley, William F. and Bozell, L. Brent. McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and its Meaning. Henry Regnery Company. Chicago. 1954. - Eagan, James Michael. Maximilien Robespierre, Nationalist Dictator. AMS Press. New York. 1983. - Feuerlicht, Roberta Strauss. McCarthy and McCarthism, The Hate that Haunts America. McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York. 1972. - Reeves, Thomas C. The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy. Stein and Day Publishers. New York. 1982.

Premarital Cohabitation Essay

Over the past 30 years countries have experienced a phenomenon that has raised many questions about the future of the institution of marriage. Western societies, such as the United States, Canada, and countries in Western Europe have witnessed a virtual explosion in the number of unmarried cohabitating couples. Quite a number of studies have been done to research what effect, if any, this trend has on the subsequent marriage, and how does this affect any children as a result of this union. According to some estimates, since the 1970s, the number of couples that live together has more than tripled. However, there are two sides to the story – one, proposes that premarital cohabitation is like a trial marriage and allows people to eventually marry the one they are more comfortable and compatible with. The other point of view is that premarital cohabitation leads to a higher divorce rate in the society and may also have other negative effects. However, research suggests that there is little merit to the claim that cohabitation effectively serves as a trial marriage. Furthermore, studies indicate that premarital cohabitation is actually detrimental because it leads to higher divorce rates and dissolution of marriage. Why Would People Prefer to Cohabit To understand the effects of cohabitation it is necessary to review why people cohabit in the first place. About 50% of cohabitating individuals express the belief that living together without is a way to determine compatibility before getting married. Based on the premise that premarital cohabitation allows couples to determine compatibility, this practice should result in more stable marriages. However, evidence suggests that the contrary is true. Cohabitation is linked to lower levels of marital satisfaction. Couples who previously lived together are reported to spend less time together in shared activities. They report higher levels of marital disagreement, less supportive behavior, less problem-solving, more marital problems, and greater perceived likelihood of marital dissolution (Amato 2003). Premarital Cohabitation Leads to Higher Divorce Rates Research has shown that cohabitation is extremely unstable. For example, Canada has experienced a ninefold increase in the numbers of cohabitating couples, as well as a fourfold increase in the number of divorces over the past 30 years. Recent studies have not only indicated that cohabitation is negatively linked to marital stability, but studies also indicate that living in common law is related to a decrease in quality of marriage (Hall 1995). In a survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies Family Formation Project showed that after 5 years of being married, 13 per cent of those who had cohabited before marriage would divorce, versus six per cent of non-cohabiters. Ten years later, the difference increased to 26 per cent for those who had cohabited and 14 per cent for those who had not. After 20 years, there was a further increase of 56 per cent of people who had cohabited versus 27 per cent of those who had not (Weston 2007). Many reasons are cited for the resulting instability and the higher divorce rate among former couples who formerly cohabitated. Cohabitators are thought to hold more unconventional values and attitudes than those who marry without cohabitating. Those who cohabitate are thought to have a weaker commitment to marriage in general, or they may have higher expectations about the quality of marriage than those who do not cohabitate. Cohabitators are also thought to have socioeconomic or personality characteristics that are linked to higher likelihood of union dissolution (Dourleijn 2006). Among these socioeconomic and personality factors which are thought to be linked to higher instances of marital dissolution are parental divorce, less education, lower income, premarital pregnancy and childbirth, being non-white, and having had a previous divorce (Cohan 2002). According to research conducted and published in the American Sociological Review, it was concluded that â€Å"Overall association exists between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital instability. The dissolution rates of women who cohabit premaritally with their future spouse are, on average, nearly 80 percent higher than the rates of those who do not. † (Bennett, Blanc, and Bloom 1988). Based on the US data, researchers have shown that ‘marriages that are preceded by living together have 50 per cent higher disruption rates than marriages without premarital cohabitation. In Sweden, researched showed that cohabiters were more likely to divorce even if the period of marriage is counted from the beginning of cohabitation. A subsequent study also found that premarital cohabitation, regardless of the nature or reason; it is associated with an increased risk of marital instability. Based on the work of Bennett, Blanc and Bloom (1987) whose findings correspond with previous findings, the following conclusions can be made: knowing that cohabiters and non-cohabiters differ in the sense of higher risk of divorce, the researchers set about to explore if there are other characteristics which were unique to these two groups, or a factor which can show that it is not premarital cohabitation alone which leads to higher divorce rate. While no one factor was found to support the argument that cohabitation caused the difference, researchers did not find a characteristic to dispute the argument. According to their data sample, women who cohabited were younger than those who did not. They are also more likely to have had a premarital conception, and were twice as likely to have had a premarital birth. For those who marry at a young age, or who have had a premarital birth have higher divorce rates. However, the first birth within a marriage has a stabilizing effect, and for these couples divorce rates are one quarter lower. These results are consistent with previous research. In 1985, it was found that for every year of age an adult attains before marrying, the risk of dissolution decreases by 16%. Education achieved for women is negatively related with the possibility of divorce. However, for this aspect other factors may also be involved. When social background was considered, similar findings were found. Social background is measured by using the occupation of the main breadwinner in the household. This factor indicates level of education achieved, parent’s marital status etc. It was found that women in households with a white collar worker as the breadwinner had higher divorce rates than other women. Another interesting finding concerns the duration of how long the couple have been together. The researchers assume that people who cohabit can be roughly divided into two groups: those who believe in the institution of marriage, and those who don’t. In such a case, the less committed group should be seen to have higher divorce rates. This should be observable if the relationship between cohabitation and dissolution should decrease with increase in duration. This is proved by the data researchers had collected. Their findings show that for up to two years of marriage the divorce rates of people who had cohabited before was almost three times. This reduced to twice for people who were married for two to eight years. After eight years, the differences in divorce rates of cohabiters and non-cohabiters are statistically insignificant. Thus one interpretation of this is the fact that people who cohabit have characteristics that make them more likely to have higher chances of a divorce. Another finding points to the fact that women who cohabit premaritally for more than three years have a 54 percent higher divorce rate than those who have cohabitated for shorter periods of time. This is because the former groups of people have such characteristics which make them less willing to commit. These include valuing one’s independence and being more self-reliant (Bennett 1987). Other Adverse Effects The increase in the rate of premarital cohabitation raises important concerns about the institution of marriage from a societal perspective. One concern is that individuals may find cohabitation to be an attractive arrangement and will be more likely to view marriage as undesirable. Another concern is that the high rate of dissolution among couples will reinforce the view that â€Å"intimate relationships are fragile and temporary,† thereby reducing the view within society that marriage is a rewarding lifetime commitment. In addition, research shows that cohabitation is linked to delayed marriage, an increase in nonmarital fertility, less commitment to marriage, and greater approval of divorce and nonmarital cohabitation. Furthermore, societies which have experienced a sharp increase in premarital cohabitation rates have also experienced an upward trend in divorce, premarital sex, and premarital pregnancy rates, while marriage and marital fertility rates have declined (Balakrishnan 1995). Conclusion: Although a number of individuals believe that cohabitation provides a means by which couples may determine their compatibility before getting married, there is a vast body of strong evidence that suggests otherwise. Married couples who previously lived together report high levels of marital disagreement, spend less time together, and are more likely believe that their marriage will end in dissolution. These couples tend to be less supportive of each other, and they institute fewer problem solving skills. Cohabitation has been linked to lower commitment levels among couples, diminished views on the marital relationship in general, and a higher divorce rate. These ill effects are directly linked to the cohabitation trend, which has exploded over the course of the past few decades. Researchers believe that cohabitation leads to unstable marriages because those who cohabitate tend to have weaker commitment to marriage in general, or they may have higher expectations for the quality of married life. Cohabitators are also more likely to hold unconventional views on marriage. It has also been observed that those who cohabitate tend to have other socioeconomic and individual characteristics that are linked to a higher rate of marriage dissolution. In addition to the higher divorce rate that seems to be directly related to the dramatic increase in cohabitation, other undesirable effects have also resulted. Societies that have experienced a surge in premarital or nonmarital cohabitation have also seen a sharp increase in premarital pregnancies, delayed marriage, and greater acceptance and approval of divorce and nonmarital cohabitation.

Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts of Land Use Change

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF LAND USE CHANGE: THE CASE OF CALAMBA CITY, LAGUNA A Research Proposal I. INTRODUCTION A. Significance of the Study Land and its uses are essential to all human communities. Every person is shaped in a range of ways by the landscape in which they live, and the products and resources produced on the land. Land and its uses are particularly important for rural communities, where many people are directly dependent on land for their livelihood, and the way land is used has a central role in defining the identity of an area and its community.Land as defined by FAO (1976) is â€Å"an area of earth’s surface, the characteristics which embrace all reasonably stable or predictably cyclic attributes of the biosphere vertically above and below this area, including those of the atmosphere, the soil, the underlying geology, the hydrology, the plant and animal population and the results of the past and present human activity, to the extent that th ese attributes influence on the present and future use of the land†.Land is an important element on earth that is involved in every human activity. This refers to land use. Land use defined in this way establishes a direct link between land cover and the actions of people in their environment (Di Gregorio & Jansen, 1998). In restrictive terms, it refers to those activities of man on, in, over and under the earth’s surface that tend to change the natural state of the land (Serote, 2004). Land use change is a general term for the human modification of Earth's terrestrial surface.Though humans have been modifying land to obtain food and other essentials for thousands of years, current rates, extents and intensities of land use change are far greater than ever in history, driving unprecedented changes in ecosystems and environmental processes at local, regional and global scales. These changes encompass the greatest environmental concerns of human populations today, includi ng  climate change,  biodiversity  loss and the pollution of water, soils and air (Williams et al. , 2008).Land use change can either be by natural cause or man induced. Land use changes made in land imply impact both on human and environment. In socioeconomic terms, land is one of three major factors of production in classical economics (along with labor and capital) and an essential input for housing and food production. Thus, land use is the backbone of agricultural economies and it provides substantial economic and social benefits. Land use conversion is necessary and essential for economic development and social progress.This land use conversion results to land use change. Environmentally speaking, land–use changes are arguably the most pervasive socioeconomic force driving changes and degradation of ecosystems. Deforestation, urban development, agriculture, and other human activities have substantially altered the Earth’s landscape. Such disturbance of the land affects important ecosystem processes and services, which can have wide–ranging and long–term consequences.There are already studies that have been conducted to determine the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of land use changes in their own respective localities or area of interest. It has been one of the major issues today. According to Sala et al. , (2000) land-use changes are so pervasive that, when aggregated globally, they significantly affect key aspects of Earth System functioning. They directly impact biotic diversity worldwide contribute to local and regional climate change (Chase et al. , 1999) as well as to global climate warming (Houghton et al. 1999); are the primary source of soil degradation (Tolba et al. , 1992); and, by altering ecosystem services, affect the ability of biological systems to support human needs (as cited by Lambin et al. , 2001). Calamba, as a fast growing city in Laguna had made different land use changes in its locality. Land use changes here occur due to different conversion of agricultural based lands into industrial and commercial uses. Different natural phenomenon like flooding contributed also it the changes in land in Calamba. With this development, there are many impacts that took place.In this study, it would primarily focus on the impacts of land-use change in ten different barangays of Calamba City, Laguna. Identifying the impacts of land-use change would help the local government unit to make necessary actions to either improve positive or prevent negative impacts in the said locality. Proper policy actions can be developed, too. The results of the study will provide information to researchers, planners and decision makers for better comprehensive land use planning. B. Review of Literature This section has literature related to the research study.Different books, journal articles reports were investigated to conceptualize and explore knowledge gap in the study of land use change at the lo cal context Land-use and land-cover change induced by both human activities and natural feedbacks have converted large proportion of the planet’s land surface (Shi, 2008). Land Use and Land Use Change Every parcel of land on the Earth’s surface is unique in the cover it possesses. Land use and land cover are distinct yet closely linked characteristics of the Earth’s surface. Land use is the manner in which human beings employ the land and its resources.Examples of land use include agriculture, urban development, grazing, logging, and mining. In contrast, land cover describes the physical state of the land surface. Land cover categories include cropland, forests, wetlands, pasture, roads, and urban areas. The term land cover originally referred to the kind and state of vegetation, such as forest or grass cover, but it has broadened in subsequent usage to include human structures such as buildings or pavement and other aspects of the natural environment, such as s oil type, biodiversity, and surface and groundwater (Meyer, 1995).Land use affects land cover and changes in land cover affect land use. A change in either, however, is not necessarily the product of the other. Changes in land cover by land use do not necessarily imply a degradation of the land. However, many shifting land use patterns, driven by a variety of social causes, result in land cover changes that affect biodiversity, water and radiation budgets, trace gas emissions and other processes that, cumulatively, affect global climate and biosphere (Riebsame, Meyer, & Turner, 1994).Land cover can be altered by forces other than anthropogenic. Natural events such as weather, flooding, fire, climate fluctuations, and ecosystem dynamics may also initiate modifications upon land cover. Globally, land cover today is altered principally by direct human use: by agriculture and livestock raising, forest harvesting and management, and urban and suburban construction and development. There are also incidental impacts on land cover from other human activities such as forests and lakes damaged by acid rain from fossil fuel combustion (Meyer, 1995).Changes in land cover driven by land use can be categorized into two types: modification and conversion. Modification is a change of condition within a cover type; for example, unmanaged forest modified to a forest managed by selective cutting. Significant modifications of land cover can occur within these patterns of land cover change. Conversion is a change from one cover type to another, such as deforestation to create cropland or pasture.Conversion land cover changes such as deforestation have been the focus of many global change research agendas (Riebsame, Meyer and Turner, 1994). Serote in 2004 stated that conversion of land on the other hand can be classified into irreversible and reversible conversion. It is reversible if the soil cover and landforms are not substantially changed and therefore present a variety of opti ons for future reuse (for example croplands can be converted to pastures and reverted to croplands again as the need arises).Irreversible conversion occurs when the original character of the land is changed to such a degree that the reversal to its former use or condition becomes very difficult if not impossible. Example of this is open pit mining and quarrying. The loss of rainforests throughout the tropical regions of the world as a result of deforestation for timber resources and conversion to agricultural lands has become a topic of global attention with the aid of widespread media coverage. Research specialists such as Skole and Tucker (1993), Skole et al. (1994), and Kummer and Turner (1994) perform extensive studies in an attempt to bring further attention to this situation by focusing on the social implications and the environmental degradation associated with tropical deforestation in the Amazon of South America and in Southeast Asia. Yet, with all the research, awareness, and attention of the world, this potentially devastating phenomenon continues. Modeling land use change In a research study made by Lim, Pijanowski and Engel in 2005, they employed a land use model called Land Transformation Model (LTM).The LTM model is designed to forecast land use change over large regions. It relies on GIS, artificial neural network routines (ANNs), remote sensing and customized geospatial tools. The driving variables include a variety of social, political and environmental factors, such as distance to transportation, proximity to amenities (such as rivers, lakes, and recreational site), density of surrounding agriculture, exclusive zones, and population growth. Information derived from an historical analysis of land use change is used to conduct forecast studies.The model is a desk top computer application, and it mainly follows four sequential steps: (1) processing/coding of data to create spatial layers of predictor variables; (2) applying spatial rules that r elate predictor variables to land use transitions for each location in an area; the resultant layers contain input variables values in grid format; (3) integrating all input grids using one of the three techniques, including multi-criteria evaluation, ANNs, and logistic regression; and (4) temporally scaling the amount of transitions in the study area in order to create a time series of possible future land uses.Detailed descriptions of the LTM can be found elsewhere (Pijanowski et al. , 2000) The LTM model has been applied and validated in a variety of locations around the world to help understand what factors are most important to land use changes and to simulate land use change in the past, present and future (Pijanowski et al. , 2000). It also offers the ability to link changes in land use to ecological process models, such as groundwater flow and solute transport (Boutt et al. , 2001) and forest cover change (Brown et al. , 2000). Urbanization and Land Use ChangeAt least two br oad urbanization pathways lead to different impacts on rural landscapes. In the developed world, large-scale urban agglomerations and extended peri-urban settlements fragment the landscapes of such large areas that various ecosystem processes are threatened. Ecosystem fragmentation, however, in peri-urban areas may be offset by urban-led demands for conservation and recreational land uses (Sack, 1992). Urbanization affects land change elsewhere through the transformation of urban-rural linkages. Urbanization in the less-developed world outbids all other uses for land adjacent to the city, including prime croplands.Cities attract a significant proportion of the rural population by way of permanent and circulatory migration, and the wages earned in the city are often remitted by migrants to rural homelands, in some cases transforming the use of croplands and creating ‘‘remittance landscapes’’. Perhaps most importantly, this urbanization changes ways of life u ltimately E. F. Lambin et al. , (2001) associated with demographic transitions, increasing expectations about consumption, and potentially a weakened understanding of production–consumption relationships noted for the well-developed world.Rapid land-use changes often coincide with the incorporation of a region into an expanding world economy (Lambin, et al. , 2001). Remote Sensing In the broadest sense, remote sensing is the measurement or acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by a recording device that is not in physical or intimate contact with the object. It is the utilization at a distance (as from aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, or ship) of any device for gathering information about the environment. The technique can make use of devices such as a camera, laser, radar, sonar, seismograph or a gravimeter.Modern remote sensing normally includes digital processes but can be done as well with non-digital methods. While all astronomy could be considered remot e sensing (in fact, extremely remote sensing) the term â€Å"remote sensing† is normally only applied to terrestrial observations. Examples of remote sensing are very numerous. For example: a. Topographic maps were often produced from stereographic pairs of aerial photographs. Trained personnel would then trace the shape of the land into maps. b.Earthquakes are located (after the fact) by comparing seismograms taken at different locations; the relative intensity and precise timing yield information about the location and nature. c. Digital elevation maps can be produced by interferometric synthetic aperture radar, a process in which an aircraft, spacecraft or satellite passes over the target area while emitting a series of radar pulses. Combining the data from these pulses yields a detailed map containing information about ground cover and possibly elevation or movement on a scale of centimeters.The data usually covers a many kilometers wide (Gupta & Parakash 1998). Profile o f the City Calamba City is a first class city in the province of Laguna, Philippines. Situated only 54 kilometers south of Manila, about an hour by chartered bus, Calamba City is a popular tourist destination with its hot spring resorts. It also an important modern industrial center in CALABARZON region as shown by the larger number of industrial parks and business estates that are located in the city. According to 2006 census, it has a population of 360,281 inhabitants. CLUP, 2010-2015) It is reported that this city is among the fastest growing urban centers in the Region. Calamba city is famous for its historical tribute as the hometown of our national hero. According to the NAMRIA in 1999, residential sector takes up 48% of the total land area, while 44% is allotted for Industrial use. The commercial sector only consumes 3% of the total land area – the other 5% consist of other land uses. C. Objectives of the Study The general objective of this study is to determine the so cio-economic and environmental impacts of land-use conversion at the local level.Specifically, this study endeavors; 1) To map out the current land use situation of Calamba City using GIS (to see the historical land use situation of the said locality); 2) To identify both the positive and negative impacts of land-use conversion in six barangays of Calamba City; 3) To identify causes of land-use conversions and land use change; 4) To assess the existing policy and mitigation strategies to the impacts of land use conversion; and 5) To propose recommendations on comprehensive land use planning of Calamba City.D. Date and Place of Study The survey and other data gathering method (Key informant interviews and focus group discussion) will be conducted from June, 2012 to August, 2012 in selected barangays in Calamba City. Analysis and interpretation of data will be done from September, 2012 to November 2012. The researcher aims to finish the study by January, 2013. II. MATERIALS AND METHOD OLOGY A. Materials Secondary Maps of 1:50,000 scale (Topographic, Land Use/Land Cover, Political boundary) †¢ Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of Calamba City †¢ Satellite Imagery (30 meters resolution Terralook ASTER image) †¢ Geographic Information System (GIS) Software (ArcInfo Desktop) †¢ Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver †¢ Semi-structured questionnaires B. Methodology Secondary data collection Secondary data will be gathered primarily from the City of Calamba, Laguna to serve as baseline information for the study area.These shall include the CLUP report of Calamba City, secondary baseline maps in digital and print format (Topographic, Land Use/Land Cover, Political boundary). Other pertinent information (demographic, economic) shall be likewise collected and consolidated from other government agencies (National Statistics Coordination Board, Department of Interior and Local Government etc. ). Primary data collection The freely downloadable 30 meters resolution satellite imagery will be requested from United State Geological Society (USGS) website (http://glovis. usgs. gov). This shall be utilized in the generation of p-to-date land use map of the study area. ArcInfo Desktop GIS software shall be utilized in the generation of the baseline maps, spatial analyses and land use classification. All GIS maps shall have Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) North Zone 51 format projection and WGS1984 datum. Unsupervised image classification. An unsupervised image classification will be done for aster satellite imagery. This image classification will serve as the basis for the supervised classification. These classifications will be validated thru ground truthing and high-resolution satellite imagery of google earth.Supervised classification. The training units or signatures of the different land uses will be prepared in ArcInfo Desktop by digitizing at least 100 polygons for each land uses. Supervised image classification will pro ceed using maximum likelihood method for the final landuse maps. Household survey, Key Informant Interview and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). Key Informant Interview (KII) will be conducted to selected LGU officials of the City of Calamba with emphasis on the issues and concerns related to land use, as well as the perceived socio-economic impacts of land use in their locality.Similarly, a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) will be done to gather relevant information base on the consensus of randomly selected barangay officials and residents of the City of Calamba. A random household survey will also be conducted using semi-structured questionnaire to gather basic household demographic information, as well as knowledge and perception on the socio-economic impacts of land use change. III. BUDGETARY REQUIREMENTS |Particulars |Estimated Cost |Remarks | |I.Data Gathering | |   | |A. Travel |Php 9,000. 00 |Includes ground truthing and validation | |B. Supplies and Materials |4,000. 00 |   | |C. Sundries | |   | |1.Contractual services (field guide, enumerators) |12,000. 00 |Hiring of field guides and enumerator | |2. Photocopying |1,000. 00 |   | |II. Writing of Thesis | |   | |A. Computerization/Typing |4,000. 00 |   | |III.Reproduction/Printing |6,000. 00 |   | |TOTAL |Php36,000. 00 |   | REFERENCES Food and Agiculture Organization. 1976. Land quality indicators: aspects of land use, land, soil and plant nutrients. Rome, Italy (Retrieved from http://www. fao. org/docrep/W4745E/w4745e0b. htm) Gupta, R. P. , & Prakash, A. 998, Reflection aureoles associated with thermal anomalies due to subsurface mine fires in the Jharia Coalfield, India. International Journal of Remote Sensing, pp. 2619-2622. Lambin, E. F. , Turner II, B. L. , Geist, H. J. , Agbola, S. B. , Angelsen, A. , Bruce, J. W. , et al. , 2001. The causes of land-use and land-cover change: moving beyond the myths. Global Environmental Change 11 (4), 261–269. Meyer, W. B. 1995. Past and Present Land-use and Land-cover in the U. S. A. (Retrieved from http://www. gsdi. rg/gsdiconf/gsdi10/papers/TS48. 1paper. pdf) Serote, E. M. 2004. Property, patrimony, and territory: Foundations of Land Use planning in the Philippines. School of Urban and Regional Planning, DIliman Quezon City. Shi, W. Z. 2008. Spatial Data Transformation in Urban Geographic Information Systems,  Technologies and Applications in Urban Geographical Information Systems. Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House, 1996, pp. 59-69. Skole,D. L. & Tucker, C. J. 1993. :Tropical deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the Amazon. Retrieved from http://www. ciesin. org/docs/002-115/002-115. html) Turner, B. L. & Meyer, W. B. 1991. Land use and land cover in global environmental change: Considerations for study. International Social Sciences Journal 130, 669–667 Williams, M. Richardson, D. , Reichstein, M. , Stoy, P. C. , Peylin, P. , et al. ,2008. Improving land surface models with Fluxnet data. Published in Biogeosciences. (Retrieved from http://www. geos. ed. ac. uk/homes/pstoy/WilliamsBG09. pdf) ———————– C. Detailed Schedule of Activities

Racism Colonialism and The Development of the Third World essays

Racism Colonialism and The Development of the Third World essays Charles Darwin was the first person to propose the theory of "natural selection" and "Survival of the fittest" by which he explained the inner workings of nature to either help sustain or eliminate a species. According to the theory it is the design of nature to sustain the healthy and the strong so that best of species survive to create a stronger progeny. The theory of evolution explains the alteration in characteristics of species over a period of time to survive the adverse conditions. Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest has been much espoused by political leaders and it has been used extensively to support and explain their colonial and imperialistic tendencies. Even some religious leaders used Darwin's theory to explain racial and religious superiority. The writings of Josiah Strong, the protestant reformer of the ninetieth century clearly echoes his belief of the superiority of the Anglo Saxon race. Strong's writing indicates an intense religious tone combined with racial prejudice. He explains that the Anglo Saxons, the predominant population in America, are the most evolved and fittest of all human kind. The frontier expansion and continuous subjugation of the native Indians are, as he explains them, events that were designed by Mother Nature. He even gives a religious tone to the imperialistic notions of the Anglo Saxons by explaining them as god's way of ensuring the ultimate evangelization of the world'. As he explains "the wheels of history are the chariot wheels of the almighty, there is with every revolution, an onward movement toward the goal of his eternal purposes". The highly mixed nature of the Anglo Saxon race is explained as the reason for the strong racial stock that it is. As he says, "the best nations are the most widely related". So Strong argues that America is well on its way to producing the best ever civilization in the world and tha...

Murder Mystery Comedy Plays

Murder Mystery Comedy Plays Audiences love a good gasp induced by a shocking murder mystery. They also cant get enough of laughter induced by wacky characters and slapstick hijinks. Combine both worlds and youve got a popular genre known as the murder mystery comedy. Of course, just because you have all of those ingredients doesnt mean the play will actually be suspenseful, mysterious, or even funny. When youve got a bunch of dead bodies on stage, the comedy is going to get quite dark, so it takes a special sort of playwright to properly entwine the macabre with the moronic. Here are a few murder mystery comedies that get it right! The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 Written by John Bishop, this farcical whodunnit does not take a Sherlock Holmes to reveal the villains. But it does create enough mayhem to leave you guessing about what will happen next. A snowstorm encroaches upon the estate of a wealthy philanthropist, a patron of the arts who has called together a famous songwriting team, an iconic director, a Broadway producer, and a pair of theater wannabes. They think that they are pitching the next musical extravaganza  when, in fact, they have been summoned in order to discover the Stagedoor Slasher, a madman (or madwoman) who killed three chorus girl dancers and just might kill again. Throw in some Nazi spies, cross-dressing psychopaths, and a bumbling police detective, and you have a murder-mystery-comedy with a vintage flair. The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 is available at Dramatists Play Service. (And for those of you actors who cannot sing and/or dance, dont worry. Theres hardly any music and no choreography except for some hysterical fight sequences). The Bold, the Young, and the Murdered There must be something intrinsically amusing about actors dealing with creepy killers because its a popular theme found in comedic murder mysteries, including this one by Don Zolodis. Heres the brief synopsis provided by the publishers at Playscripts: The long-running soap opera The Bold and the Young is in its last days: its hunky hero has self-esteem issues, its villainous old man is more interested in soup, and its heroines are slightly psychopathic. The executive producer gives the squabbling cast an ultimatum: Complete one episode overnight or the show dies. But when the director ends up murdered, and other cast members start dropping like flies, it seems like his threat might actually come true. Can these misfits discover the murderer before the show is literally killed off? The script lends itself nicely to high school drama students and professional actors alike. Theres something liberating about letting go and pouring on that soap opera cheesiness. Mandate for Murder Pat Cook is the master of melodramatic comedies  and has the ability to crank out silly characters so fast, his computer keyboard must be smoking when hes done. (Tim Kelley woulds be proud!) Most Cook comedies are as funny as the playwright is prolific. Mandate for Murder, brought to you by Eldridge Plays, is no exception. And its a blast for community theaters to perform, especially around election time. When a political aide is stabbed to death and the murder weapon is a knife pulled from a birthday cake, the crime-solving characters have a lot of questions to ask. However, they arent the only ones. The audience gets to interrogate the suspects too, not only that- by the end of the evening, they get to vote in the election! The Murder Room This comedic gem by Jack Sharkey brings back a ton of high school memories. We spent just as much time working on the set, with all of its trap doors and secret entrances, as we did working on the lines. Like other zany mysteries, this one features a wide variety of characters (nearly all of them should be played with English accents). With all of its mix-ups and botched assassinations, by the end of the play the audience isnt sure if anyone has actually been killed off. It also pays homage to Sleuth in that characters who supposedly left the storyline come back into the play wearing a clever disguise. The 39 Steps Imaginatively adapted from a Hitchcock classic, the comic masterpiece The 39 Steps transcends the genre. Audiences rave about the non-stop comedy, the amazingly creative blocking, and the four versatile actors who play over one hundred characters. Directed by Maria Aitken and adapted for the stage by Peter Barlow, this farcical tribute to Hitchcock thrillers has been delighting audiences since 2005.

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Conflict Management in the Restaurants - Essay Example Conflicts and disagreements that arise in the restaurant and hospitality industry can differ from those in the corporate sector, said a general manager of an establishment that generates tens of thousands of dollars in sales in week. In the restaurant industry, the hours an employee works are often long and varied and some workers may find themselves spending more time with their colleagues than with their own families, which can lead to conflicts, outbursts and clashes, said the assistant general manager of the same establishment. "Everyone is here more than their with their families," he said. "It's not like you're at a sit down job where you're in front of computer all day or at a press where you can't hear anybody. There's down time, and they are going to talk to each other." "Operators/ managers turn a blind eye to conflict at their own peril-customer loyalty is at stake, says Cathy Greenberg, managing partner of h2c consulting company, with offices in Tuscon and Philadelphia. "Customers will return to restaurants where they feel they're known, she explains. "Ongoing and unresolved staff conflict will lead to high turnover, which in turn will lead your customers feeling disconnected from your business." "Communicating with employees is essentialThe manager has to have an ongoing dialogue with all the staff. Managers need to diffuse and stay on top of situations. How you get there is that ongoing, daily dialogue." (http://pizzatoday.com/features_articles.shtmlarticle=NzE4MXN1cGvyNzE3OHN1Y3J1d....) While handling an issue as it arises is urgent, the manner in which conflicts are resolved have changed over the years. While an employee can be terminated on the spot depending on the severity of the incident, most companies and organizations now have steps that must be followed to resolve issues. "In the last ten years it's really been different," the general manager said. "Ten years ago you could tell them 'if you can't see it my way you can just leave.' Now you have to try and understand what they're thinking and where they're coming from." Procedures today now include verbal warnings, documentation/ write-ups, a three-day suspension and then, finally, termination. The gender of the management dealing with a conflict can also play a role in how the situation is handled. Men and women differ widely on their emotions, reactions to situations and stress levels. This all plays a part in how a situation can be resolved. "Being a female, I

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Birth Control Should Be Available in Schools

Birth Control Should Be Available in Schools In recent years the amount of pregnant teenagers in the United States has skyrocketed; free contraceptives should be available and provided for middle and high school students within schools around the country in order to help prevent the amount high school students that experience unintended pregnancies before graduating from their high school. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate (nine times higher) of any other country in the world. In New York, teen pregnancy costs taxpayers at least $421 million dollars per year. Most of the cost is caused because of the negative consequences for the children who are born to teen mothers or parents. The costs are made up of health care costs for Medicaid, child welfare, public assistance, foster care, lost tax revenue and incarceration. Teen moms are more likely to drop out of school and live in poverty; their children are more likely to be delivered at low birth weight, grow up poor, and live in single-parent households, experience abuse and neglect, and enter the child welfare system. Daughters of teen mothers are more likely to become teen parents themselves and sons of teen mothers are more likely to be incarcerated (Hoffman, By the Numbers: The Public Costs Of Teen Childbearing In New York). The consequences of teenage pregnancy are both far-reaching and cyclical. They are far-reaching in the sense that teenage parenthood circumscribes the lives of young people and has severe implications for the education, health, and well-being of both parents and offspring; and also in the sense that both parents and offspring may never recover sufficiently to become productive members of society. They are cyclical in the sense that the children of teenage parents frequently become teenage parents themselves and thus become subject to the same consequences that their parents faced (A young woman who has not developed a sense of autonomy will have difficulty establishing a relationship with her infant because of her impede ability to empathize with the child. An egocentric teenager cannot possibly tune into her infants needs or respond to its cues; she therefore lacks the ability to provide an appropriate nurturing environment (Compton and Hruska 14.) In Sullivan County, The percentage of births to teens (10-17 years old) from 2006-2008 was 2.3%, compared to the New York State rate of 2.2 (Family Planning Indicators, 2011.) Lewin (2010) states that the pregnancy rate among teenagers increased 3 percent from 2005 to 2006, after it had declined 14% between 1990 and 2006. There was a slight decline again in 2008 until the present. Social programs for the purpose of decreasing teen pregnancy have slowly started to disappear during the recession; President Obama is still providing some limited financial investment but for evidence based programs only. These programs are gradually become non existent, like BOCES Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, have been taken away and the service providers have gone out of business. Programs like Planned Parenthood, which provide free or low cost birth control and sex education for teenagers, have been the victim of repeated cuts caused by conservatives, religious groups and Republicans. For th e decades, our primary means of preventing teenage pregnancies was to demand that teenagers not have sex, a tactic akin to ordering a hungry tiger not to maul you, states Greg Fish (Fish, Schools Should Give Kids Free Contraceptives.) Miller (1973) stated that 50% of unwed women have had sexual intercourse by the age of 19. At that time, over 30 years ago, most of the respondents in his research revealed that their parents and doctors were not an good source of information about sex, and that they did not consistently use contraception. In 2002, the National Center for Health Statistics, Fertility, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health of U.S. Women conducted a survey of women from the ages of 15 to 54, which showed that the average age of teens starting to have intercourse, was 17.3 years, with men averaging at the slightly younger age of 17. Those who lived with both parents or who were involved in religion tended to be slightly older. Boys and girls were equally likely to have engaged in sex. Omran et al. (2006) studied the initiation of sexual behavior among 2,300 urban teens in Baltimore, and found that 42 percent had engaged in sexual intercourse by the age of 14, and that the average age for teens to hav e sexual intercourse was 14.8 years. In 2008, more than 10,000 girls participated in an anonymous survey on the Tyra Banks TV show (Coffey, Survey, Unprotected Sex Common Among Teens). The results showed that on average, girls had lost their virginity at 15 years of age. Fourteen percent of teens who were having sex said they were doing it at school, and 52 percent of survey respondents said that they did not use protection when having sex. Only 2% of girls were using long-acting reversible contraceptives (Vital Signs, 2011). More than 6 in 10 high school students will have sex before they graduate (Get the Facts, NY, 2011.) Why are sexually active teenagers failing to protect themselves from pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections? In Risky Business, a 2000 poll, 3 out of 10 teens admitted they had not used protection the last time they had sex, although 9 out of 10 said that they believed it was important to use protection every time. Half of them stated that they didnt because their partners didnt want to, and they felt pressured to have sex without it. Half also said that drugs or alcohol were the reasons they didnt use protection. Brown and Guthrie (2010) interviewed English women between the ages of 16 and 24 who had just had an abortion. They explained that all the women had been fully aware of the importance of contraception and knew where they could obtain it, but had forgotten to do so, gotten carried away in the moment, or gave into pressure from partners who did not want to use a condom. Some teenagers choose to get pregnant. There have been a number of recent films like Juno and reality shows, which both normalize and glamorize teen pregnancy and teen parents. For teens unsure about themselves and their relationships, the desire for some form of unconditional love leads many to think motherhood will satisfy that longing, and that it will bring the attention from others that the teen may want. For some, they are carrying on the tradition of multi-generational poverty; they may have themselves been the child of a teen. Childbearing may be a role that they feel they will bring attention, success and social status as a baby-mama, also giving themselves a adult role as a mother, helping them to escape the confusion of the teen years. Teen-age girls also feel that getting pregnant is a way to secure their relationship with their partner (Lowen, Teen Pregnancy Pact Teens Choose to Become Pregnant) However, A young woman who has not developed a sense of autonomy will have difficulty establishing a relationship with her infant because of her impeded ability to empathize with the child. An egocentric teenager cannot possibly tune into her infants needs or respond to its cues; she therefore lacks the ability to provide an appropriate nurturing environment (Compton and Hruska) In rural schools, teens face obstacles in obtaining contraception. Within smaller towns and counties, there are very few services for the prevention of Teen Pregnancy. Places which are in greater need receive the small amount of money for such programs. Which leaves the duty of teen pregnancy prevention is on the schools staff. Planned Parenthood clinics could be located very far away in these rural areas and their hours could be very inconvenient to students. Bringing up the problem of getting there, because of the lack of transportation. The local general stores do carry condoms, but students are unlikely to buy them there, due to their concerns about their privacy and confidentiality in a small town where all the store staff know most customers by name. Also in a poor rural community, the students have very few opportunities for employment so that they cant afford to buy their own birth control. Depending on when a student elects to take Health Class, they may have little or no ac curate information about sexual health issues or contraception until their senior year. According to the Guttmacher Report on School-Based Health Centers and the Birth Control Debate (2000), there were 1,135 school based health centers in the United States, located in 45 states; there are now 230 approved and operating School-based health centers in New York State, 64% of which are in urban areas (School-Based Health Centers Fact Sheet) Services are paid for by Medicaid, private insurance, Child Health Plus, and 23% of services are provided free for the uninsured. These clinics offer services on site, including reproductive health services, such as pregnancy testing, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and gynecological exams. However, 3 out of four were prohibited from dispensing contraceptives (besides condoms) per school district policy. They were at least able to provide birth control counseling and referrals to outside agencies. An AP Poll taken in 2007 indicated that 67% of Americans favored letting schools provide contraceptives (CBS News, Birth Control at School? Most Say Its OK). However, most also preferred that the contraceptives be given to children who had their parents permission. The poll was given after much attention in the media to the events at King Middle School, in Maine, where middle and high school students (aged 11 to 18) were allowed to have free access to birth control pill prescriptions through their onsite health center (Fox News, School Board Approves Birth Control Prescriptions at Maine Middle School.) Although there was a lot of disagreement to this proposal from opponents who felt that birth control was the students parents responsibility, that giving out birth control was giving permission to teens to have sex, and that it violated parental rights, more people felt that the policy was needed in order to protect those students who didnt have strong support from their parents. In conclusion, at many schools within the country nurse practitioners and doctors conduct health exams for students with parental permission. The existing program should be expanded to also provide reproductive care and education, and the school nurses could be aloud to promote and provide information about contraception and protection from sexually transmitted infections and non-prescription birth control methods. It is very important that schools and the communities develop new strategies which will prevent unintended teen pregnancy and promote health.