To what extent do you agree with free market economies being more Essay

To what extent do you agree with free market economies being more effective than a mixed economy - Essay Example The following are some of the mixed economies where with illustrations indicating statistics of government spending in relation to GDP: Sweden 57%, France 52.8%, Iceland 57%, USA 38 %, China 20%, UK 47.3, and Hongkong 18.6%. There are other countries as well. Such economies are government managed while the rest are individual or private firms managed. As the economies grow, the government usually takes higher portion of the total spending. In developed countries, e.g. Western Europe opts to offer state welfare support. The government greatly regulates business environment and environment. Benefits of Mixed Market Economies Most businesses and industries are usually governed privately. Normally, private firms are more effective than government ones since they are usually innovative in nature and provide cheaper services and products. In a mixed economy, the government does not have the total control over the market i.e. such as in market regulation et cetera. It has been argued (Urai 2010) mixed economy may in given cases allow government to regulate the market during instances of market failure. This may include: Regulation of monopoly where they abuse their status e.g. controlling hiked prices, prevent mergers, subsidizing goods and services commonly under consumed in free market. This may include healthcare, national defense, public goods. Regulation and taxation of goods with negative implications e.g. Government can implement policies to provide macroeconomic stability e.g applying monetary policy measures during of inflation. Economic reports have shown that mixed economies are likely to create equality at a greater level while reducing extreme poverty. It may simultaneously enable people to enjoy financial rewards from their entrepreneurship and hard work (Beckwith 2011). Disadvantages of Mixed Market Economies It may be difficult to determine to what extent the government will intervene. Mixed economies usually face criticism from socialists and economis ts owing to the fact it allows excessive market forces amounting to inefficient and inequitable distribution of resources. It is criticised by free marketing since it allows too much government intervention. According to libertarians, governments are generally poor managers of economy normally influenced by short term and political factors. According to Chow 2012, the reality is, success of mixed market economies depends on how they are managed. Economists argue that every market needs some extent of government intervention. In the book, ‘Wealth of Nations’, Adam Smith argues that in wealthy countries, government should come in between to control the monopoly power. Free Markets There are various benefits that are usually associated with free markets. This has created a school of thought that basically supports the corpus of free markets economies. One of the benefits that are associated with free markets is the fact that they are competitive in nature. Their industries are commonly perfectly competitive, allocative and efficient at production. Free economies efficiently allocate their resources. Additionally, there is also variety of choices associated with free markets. Firms produce what consumers are willing and ready to buy. As it is a free market, there is no restriction as to what a firm can produce. Therefore there is usually a possibility of having a large choice compared to the mixed market. The interest of the planner is to ensure

How can the behavioural, physical and symbolic manifestations of the Essay - 1

How can the behavioural, physical and symbolic manifestations of the cultural web inform the strategic development of organizations - Essay Example Similarly in the same way one thinks Scotland when they hear bagpipes or see a kilt some organizations have specific cultures which are inherently tied to their business practice in the economic and literal sense. Various international companies have distinguished themselves by their organizational culture and in cases when this is well managed; it has proven to be as invaluable as any well though business strategy. A firm like Google is recognized for its easy going operations culture in which the employees have are allowed a free reign to exploit their creativity without the convectional strictness in many similar firms. Others like apple Inc. have also established themselves as creativity hubs with creativity and self-expression being given the forefront, this for this such companies have been ranked among the best places to work and their overall performance proves that their easy going corporate culture can indeed be very profitable. This paper seeks to examine how the behaviora l, physical and symbolic manifestations of the cultural web inform the strategic development of organizations by using Google as an example in the context of which various elements of organizational culture and their perceived impacts will be discoursed on different theoretical grounds. Admittedly, this topic is hardly new and in the past few decades, much as been written about the underlying connection between organization strategy and organization culture, managers have all along being urged to link the gap so as to manage their organizations’ cultural context (Johnson 1992, p.28). Nevertheless, a lot of these discourses have been fundamentally theoretical and while there are elements of reality in them, they are very general and rarely provide practical directions especially in view given the diversity of organization and their

Linguistics and Interjections Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Interjections Essay In Western philosophy and linguistic theory, interjections—that is, words like oof, ouch, and bleah—have traditionally been understood to indicate emotional states. This article offers an account of interjections in Q’eqchi’ Maya that illuminates their social and discursive functions. In particular, it discusses the grammatical form of interjections, both in Q’eqchi’ and across languages, and characterizes the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections in Q’eqchi’ in terms of a semiotic framework that may be generalized for other languages. With these grammatical forms, indexical objects, and pragmatic functions in hand, it details the various social and discursive ends that interjections serve in one Q’eqchi’ community, thereby shedding light on local values, norms, ontological classes, and social relations. In short, this article argues against interpretations of interjections that focus on internal emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. p a u l k o c k e l m a n is McKennan Post-Doctoral Fellow in Linguistic Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H. 03755, U.S.A. [[emailprotected]]). Born in 1970, he was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., 1992) and the University of Chicago (M.S., 1994; Ph.D., 2002). His publications include â€Å"The Collection of Copal among the Q’eqchi’-Maya† (Research in Economic Anthropology 20:163–94), â€Å"Factive and Counterfactive Clitics in Q’eqchi’-Maya: Stance, Status, and Subjectivity,† in Papers from the Thirty-eighth Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (Chicago: Linguistics Society, in press), and â€Å"The Interclausal Relations Hierarchy in Q’eqchi’ Maya† (International Journal of American Linguistics 69:25–48). The present paper was submitted 1 vi 01 and accepted 27 xii 02. 1. A longer version of this article was presented at the workshop â€Å"Semiotics: Culture in Context† at the University of Chicago in January 2001. Chris Ball, Anya Bernstein, John Lucy, and Michael Silverstein all provided very helpful commentary. This article also greatly beneï ¬ ted from suggestions made by Benjamin S. Orlove and several anonymous referees. Western philosophy and linguistic theory have traditionally considered interjections at the periphery of language and primordially related to emotion. For example, the Latin grammarian Priscian deï ¬ ned interjections as â€Å"a part of speech signifying an emotion by means of an unformed word† (Padley 1976:266). Muller (1862)  ¨ thought that interjections were at the limit of what might be called language. Sapir (1921:6–7) said that they were â€Å"the nearest of all language sounds to instinctive utterance.† Bloomï ¬ eld (1984[1933]:177) said that they â€Å"occur under a violent stimulus,† and Jakobson (1960: 354) considered them exemplars of the â€Å"purely emotive stratum of language.† While interjections are no longer considered peripheral to linguistics and are now carefully deï ¬ ned with respect to their grammatical form, their meanings remain vague and elusive. In particular, although interjections are no longer characterized pure ly in terms of emotion, they are still characterized in terms of â€Å"mental states.† For example, Wierzbicka (1992:164) characterizes interjections as â€Å"[referring] to the speaker’s current mental state or mental act.† Ameka (1992a:107) says that â€Å"from a pragmatic point of view, interjections may be deï ¬ ned as a subset of items that encode speaker attitudes and communicative intentions and are contextbound,† and Montes (1999:1289) notes that many interjections â€Å"[focus] on the internal reaction of affectedness of the speaker with respect to the referent.† Philosophers have offered similar interpretations. For example, Herder thought that interjections were the human equivalent of animal sounds, being both a â€Å"language of feeling† and a â€Å"law of nature† (1966:88), and Rousseau, pursuing the origins of language, theorized that protolanguage was â€Å"entirely interjectional† (1990:71). Indeed, such philosophers have posited a historical transition from interjections to language in which the latter allows us not only to index pain and express passion but also to denote values and exercise reason (D’Atri 1995).2 Thus interjections have been understood as a semiotic artifact of our natural origins and the most transparent index of our emotions. Such an understanding of interjections is deeply rooted in Western thought. Aristotle (1984), for example, posited a contrastive relationship between voice, proper only to humans as instantiated in language, and sound, shared by humans and animals as instantiated in cries. This contrastive relation was then compared with other analogous contrastive relations, in particular, value and pleasure/pain, polis and household, and bios (the good life, or political life proper to humans) and zoe (pure life, shared by all living things). Such a contrast is so pervasive that modern philosophers such as Agamben (1995) have devoted much of their scholarly work to the thinking out of this tradition and others built on it such as id versus ego in the Freudian paradigm. In short, the folk distinction made between interjections and language 2. D’Atri (1995:124) argues that, for Rousseau, â€Å"interjections . . . are sounds and not voices: they are passive registerings and as such do not presuppose the intervention of will, which is what characterizes human acts of speech.† Proper maps onto a larger set of distinctions in Western thought: emotion and cognition, animality and humanity, nature and culture, female and male, passion and reason, bare life and the good life, pain and value, private and public, and so on (see, e.g., Lutz 1988, Strathern 1988). In this article I avoid such abstracting and dichotomizing traps by going straight to the heart of interjections: their everyday usage in actual discourse when seen in the context of local culture and grounded in a semiotic framework. I begin by characterizing the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I carried out my research and go on to relate interjections to other linguistic forms, showing how they are both similar to and distinct from other classes of words in natural languages. Next I provide and exemplify a semiotic framework, generalizable across languages, in terms of which the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections can best be characterized. Then I detail the local usage of the 12 most commonly used interjections in Q’eqchi’ and show the way in which they are tied into all things cultural: values, norms, ontological classes, social relations, and so on. I conclude by discussing the relative frequency with which the various forms and functions of interjections are used. In short, I argue against interpretations of interjections that focus on emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. Linguistic and Ethnographic Context While I am attempting to provide as wide a theoretical account of interjections as I can, thereby providing a metalanguage for speaking about similar sign phenomena in other languages, I am also trying to capture the grammatical niceties of Q’eqchi’ Maya and the discursive and social particularities of one Q’eqchi’-speaking village in particular. Before I begin my analysis, then, I want to sketch the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I worked. Q’eqchi’ is a language in the Kichean branch of the Mayan family, spoken by some 360,000 speakers in Guatemala (in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Izabel, and Peten) and Belize (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). 3 Lin ´ guistically, Q’eqchi’ is relatively well described: scholars such as Berinstein (1985), Sedat (1955), Stewart (1980), Stoll (1896), and Chen Cao et al. (1997) have discussed its syntax, morphology, phonology, and lexicon, and I have detailed various morphosyntactic forms (encoding grammatical categories such as mood, status, evidentiality, taxis, and inalienable possession) as they intersect with sociocultural values and contextual features and as they illuminate local modes of personhood (Kockelman 3. Typologically, Q’eqchi’ is a morphologically ergative, head-marking language. In Q’eqchi’, vowel length (signaled by doubling letters) is phonemic; /k/ and /q/ are velar and uvular plosives, respectively, and /x/ and /j/ are palato-alveolar and velar fricatives, respectively. All other phonemes have their standard IPA values. 2002, 2003a, b). This article is therefore part of a larger project in which I examine how intentional and evaluative stances are encoded in natural languages and the relations that such stances bear to local modes of subjectivity. Alta Verapaz, the original center of the Q’eqchi’-speaking people who still make up the majority of its population, has had a unusual history even by Guatemalan standards. In 1537, after the Spanish crown had failed to conquer the indigenous peoples living there, the Dominican Friar Bartolome de Las Casas was permitted to  ´ pacify the area through religious methods. Having succeeded, he changed the name of the area from Tezulutlan (Land of War) to Verapaz (True Peace), and the Dominicans were granted full control over the area—the state banning secular immigration, removing all military colonies, and nullifying previous land grants. In this way, for almost 300 years the area remained an isolated enclave, relatively protected by the paternalism of the church in comparison with other parts of Guatemala (King 1974, Sapper 1985). This ended abruptly in the late 1800s, however, with the advent of coffee growing, liberal reforms, and the inï ¬â€šux of Europeans (Cambranes 1985, Wagner 1996). Divested of their land and forced to work on coffee plantations, the Q’eqchi’ began migrating north into the unpopulated lowland forests of the Peten  ´ and Belize (Adams 1965, Carter 1969, Howard 1975, Kockelman 1999, Pedroni 1991, Saa Vidal 1979, Schwartz 1990, Wilk 1991). In the past 40 years this migration has been fueled by a civil war that has ravaged the Guatemalan countryside, with the Q’eqchi’ ï ¬â€šeeing not just scarce resources and labor quotas but also their own nation’s soldiers—often forcibly conscripted speakers of other Mayan languages (Carmack 1988, IWGIA 1978, Wilson 1995). As a consequence, the past century has seen the Q’eqchi’ population spread from Alta Verapaz to the Peten and ï ¬ nally to Belize, Mexico, and even the  ´ United States. Indeed, although only the fourth largest of some 24 Mayan languages, Q’eqchi’ is thought to have the largest percentage of monolinguals, and the ethnic group is Guatemala’s fastest-growing and most geographically extensive (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). The two key ethnographies of Q’eqchi’-speakers have been written by Wilk (1991) and Wilson (1995), the former treating household ecology in Belize and the latter upheavals in village life and identity at the height of the civil war in highland Guatemala during the 1980s. In addition to these monographs, there are also a number of dissertations and articles on the history (King 1974, Sapper 1985, Wagner 1996), ecology (Carter 1969, Secaira 1992, Wilson 1972), and migration (Adams 1965, Howard 1975, Pedroni 1991) of Q’eqchi’-speaking people. The data for this article are based on almost two years of ethnographic and linguistic ï ¬ eldwork among speakers of Q’eqchi’, most of it in Ch’inahab, a village of some 80 families (around 650 people) in the municipality of San Juan Chamelco, in the department of Alta Verapaz. At an altitude of approximately 2,400 m, Ch’inahab is one of the highest villages in this area, with an annual precipitation of more than 2,000 mm. It is also one of the most remote, access to the closest road requiring a three-hour hike down a steep and muddy single-track trail. Its relatively high altitude and remote location provide the perfect setting for cloud forest, and such a cloud forest provides the perfect setting for the resplendent quetzal, being home to what is thought to be the highest density of such birds in the world. Because of the existence of the quetzal and the cloud forest in which it makes its home, Ch’inahab has been the site of a successful eco-tourism project the conditions and consequences of which are detailed in my dissertation (Kockelman 2002). While the majority of villagers in Ch’inahab are monolingual speakers of Q’eqchi’, some men who have served time in the army or worked as itinerant traders speak some Spanish. All the villagers are Catholic. Ch’inahab is divided by a mountain peak with dwellings on both of its sides and in the surrounding valleys. It takes about 45 minutes to hike across the village. At one end there is a biological station kept by the eco-tourism project and used sporadically by European ecologists, and at the other there is a Catholic church and a cemetery. In the center there is a small store, a school for primary and secondary grades, and a soccer ï ¬ eld. The surrounding landscape is cloud forest giving way to scattered house sites, agricultural parcels, pasture, and ï ¬ elds now fallow. All villagers engage in corn-based, or milpa, agriculture, but very few have enough land to fulï ¬ ll all of their subsistence needs.4 For this reason, many women in the village are dedicated to chicken husbandry, most men in the village engage in seasonal labor on plantations (up to ï ¬ ve months a year in some cases), and many families engage in itinerant trade (women weaving baskets and textiles for the men to sell) and eco-tourism (the women hosting tourists and the men guiding them). Dwelling sites often contain a scattering of houses in which reside an older couple and their married sons, all of whom share a water source and a pasture. The individual families themselves often have two houses, a relatively traditional thatched-roof house in which the family cooks and sleeps and a relatively new house with a tin roof in which they host festivals and in which older children and ecotourists may sleep. Because of eco-tourism and the inï ¬â€šux of money and strangers that it brings, there has been an increase in the construction of such tin-roofed houses, and, as will be seen, many of my examples of interjections come from such construction contexts. My data on the use of interjections among villagers in Ch’inahab comes from 14 months of ï ¬ eldwork carried out between 1998 and 2001. The data collection con4. Before 1968, what is now Ch’inahab was owned by the owner of a plantation. Q’eqchi’-speakers who lived in the village of Popobaj (located to the south of and lower than Ch’inahab) were permitted to make their milpa in this area in exchange for two weeks of labor per month on the ï ¬ nca (Secaira 1992:20). Only in 1968, when a group of villagers got together to form a land acquisition committee, were some 15 caballerÄ ±as (678 ha) of land purchased from the owner  ´ for 4,200 quetzals (US$4,200). This land, while legally owned by the entire community, was divided among the original 33 villagers as a function of their original contributions.

Issues Of Deviance And Social Control Sociology Essay

Issues Of Deviance And Social Control Sociology Essay Deviance is a term used by society to define behaviors that differ from the everyday social norm, this means that majority of people in a society must agree or conform to a certain action or behavior. In 1906, William Sumner came up with the concept to categorize norm into three different groups: folkways, mores, and laws. He defines folkway as the simple day-to-day norm which was based on customs, traditions and mannerisms. If one were not to follow the way of folkway norm it would probably cause others to believe that they are strange or abnormal but would not cause fury. Typical folkway norms include style of dressing, character, physical distance or closeness with others, and eating patterns. Moving on, mores are norms which reflect wide-ranging social ethics. Interracial marriage, having an illegitimate child, and abusing drugs and alcohol would violate the mores laws and would cause a havoc and produce more serious social denunciation. Being in an interracial marriage may make one seem racially impure, bearing an illegitimate child can threaten social definition of a marriage, and abusing or being addicted to drugs and alcohol shows victory of hedonism over prudence. Those who dont comply with mores norm may seem sinful, and set themselves up as a potential threat to society. Furthermore, the laws norm is the strongest custom out of the other two norms. This is because it is backed up by codified social approval. Those who infringe this norm are punished in ways ranging from a fine to imprisonment. Although one may break laws and regulations, it wouldnt necessarily label the offender as deviant. With this said, deviance and crime can respectively fall into one category. Consider this, if certain individual decides to burglarize or vandalize someones property, or even causing harm to another being, it considered both deviant and a crime. Also, there are many other deviant acts that are not considered criminal, such as being over or underweight, being physi cally or mentally handicapped, being in an interracial marriage, and having an illegitimate child. To restate a prior point, these can be considered deviant because although it is not considered a crime, it violates the norm accepted by society. With that said, we can consider crime and deviance as overlapping categorizes with its own individual magnitudes. Attitude, behavior, and condition are the ABCs of deviance. People may be labeled deviant based on their attitudes or belief system which includes religion, political views and beliefs in the supernatural. Having a mental sickness can also fall into the deviant category. The B in the deviant ABCs stands for behavior which people are the most familiar with. Deviant behavior can happen intentionally or unintentionally, for example, one might unintentionally violate a dress-code, or a couple may intentionally engage in bizarre sexual activities, or one may commit murder. Lastly, the C stands for condition. Those who are considered d eviant because of their condition probably acquired it from birth such as being born un-wealthy, being a person of color in a mainly Caucasian dominated community, being born physically handicapped, or being height deviant. In this case, the individual has done nothing wrong or taken any negative actions to be labeled deviant; this also makes it almost impossible to change their deviant status. Although some actions that an individual chooses to take will be universally labeled as deviant behavior, others are judged strictly based on social customs. Heckerts idea of positive deviance would primarily refer to engaging in less selfish actions and more devotion toward the society. Heckert has defined many different ways in which positive deviance is evitable such as altruism, pacifism, cooperation, temperance and many more. Altruism is one of the most cherished form of positive deviance because it brings out the loyalty. All the martyrs fall under this category as they sacrificed themselves for their nation and they can never be forgotten. Those who spread the sign of peace throughout the societies also fall under positive deviance such as Gandhi. Positive deviance is clearly evident in every community where certain individuals or groups are more successful than other when everyone has received same resources but the approaches were different. Positive deviance is how successfully a person, a group or a community move forward to a better future and creates an example for other. Societies require positive deviance so they could move on with the rest of the world. Example of positive deviance could be to move forward and stop child labor in developing countries and putting them in a school for education. Labeling theory which is also known as social reaction theory suggests that deviance is not an inherit to act instead its the people who obtain labels from how other view their tendency or behavior. Its the society that makes the criminals by keep being either unfair or by false accusations. Suppose a person does commit a crime under very difficult circumstances and later on gets the label of a criminal will have negative effect on his personality and this person will be always considered as a criminal. If the society has choose to consider a person dangerous for reasons such as past criminal record or the color of his/her skin than perhaps it wont be any harder next time for this person to commit crime. Our societies also look for auxiliary traits within a position or career. For example, a doctor is consider as an white male, upper middle class and more. On other hand, black people were more attached to criminal activities and those who turned out to be doctors were hard to believe by the society because they were never seen in that form. Basically , an individuals past action create or shape his/her future and this lacks the fairness in sense this person could have adopted better human traits. Students who study deviance should not make an assumption if the person is actually a criminal or broken rule because the process of labeling may not be infallible. According to the conflict perspective, deviance is a social creation and the power structure in any society defines what to be consider normal and what is not. So basically there is no such thing as human nature, hence deviance is the creation of the social structure rather than something build into our nature. On the other hand, functional deviance approach believes that its the majority members of the society who defines what is normal and what is not. Both approaches look at the society as a whole rather than on individual level. Conflict theory mainly defines societies made up of powerful or powerless. Powerful has no right to be in power but manipulates other convince public about their legitimacy. This can be related to Durkheims state of anomie. Anomie is the result of collective conscious being collapsed. In this situation, people tend to look away from fundamental social expectations and solely focus on their self-interest. The long term collapse of order and harmony in both approaches are harmful to the society. In conclusion, Human norms refer to the set behavioral standards on which human are supposed to act. Deviance is a study that helps understand the reason behind violation of human norms. There is not one particular answer that is enough to justify human norms violation, hence many sociological scholars have presented different set of theories that can help us understand deviance with broad perspectives. Some of the scholars that have played tremendous part in understanding deviance are Erikson, Hackerts and lastly the father of Sociology Emile Durkheim. Deviance will be present no matter how perfect the society is, as Durkheim explained about the society of saints which is perfect but the identification of deviance level would be so high that even smallest error can be regarded as a strong disapproval from the society.

Comparing the Ideology of Lenin and Stalin Essay examples -- Lenin vs

Compare and contrast the ideologies and the political and economic practice of Lenin and Stalin. Every state is based upon and driven by some ideology. Imperial Russia was based upon autocratic absolutism for over 400 years. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, a new era dawned upon Russia. For the next 36 years she would be in the hands of two men that would attempt to apply a new, vastly different creed in ruling and transforming this country. Vladimir Ilich Lenin, as the leader of the Bolshevik party, ruled Russia from October 1917 till his death in January 1924. He was succeeded by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who also ruled until his death in March 1953. Both men claimed to ascribe to the broad ideology of Socialism and Marxism; both were to develop their own versions -- later to be called Leninism and Stalinism; both were to attempt to practically apply their respective ideologies whilst attempting to deal with a plethora of prevailing conditions such as internal resistance and civil war, economic collapse and foreign invasion. This paper will examine the sim ilarities and differences between both the ideologies, and the actual economic and political practice, of Lenin and Stalin's beliefs. A significant historiographical issue to be aware of in the comparison of Lenin and Stalin is that between the two, Lenin was by far the greater political theorist and ideologue and yet had much less effective time, 6 years, to put his ideas into practice . Stalin on the other hand, was much more a man of action who produced comparatively far less written material, but who exercised his power for almost 30 years. Also Lenin had the unique opportunity to oversee the installation of a new order from scratch whereas Stalin... ...actice were the 5 year plans, collectivization and industrialization. In November 1929, Stalin published an article called The Great Turn. His main argument was that for the USSR to move into the modern age she had to industrialize and the agrarian problem had to be solved once and for all. His solution was to collectivize all agriculture and to destroy the "kulaks" as a class. Over the next six years the Russian and Soviet peoples endured a holocaust comparable to that suffered by the Jews in World War 2, one that would cost over 5 million lives. The language Stalin used was as evil as any denunciation of the Jews by Hitler: "To take the offensive against the kulaks means to deal the kulak class such a blow that it will no longer rise to its feet†¦Of course the kulak can't be admitted to a collective farm. He can't because he's an accursed enemy†¦"

What It Is To Be Human :: essays research papers

What It Is To Be Human The body is socially constructed; and in this paper we explore the various and ever-changing constructions of the body, and thus of the embodied self......The one word, body, may therefore signify very different realities and perceptions of reality.....(Synnot 1992, 43) It has been said that in order to understand life and society, we as people must first understand ourselves. Who are we as a people? Who are we as individuals? Who are we as humans? These questions all present themselves when discussing a topic such as this. I believe that it is indeed important to ask questions such as these, and also as important to answer them. All of this assuming of course, that there is one specific answer. My problem begins here, in that I do not believe that there is one defined answer to these questions. As you will see, many "great philosophic minds" have different views and beliefs relating to these questions, and it is my job to sort through these different beliefs and discover...... What it is to be human It seems that for ages the human body has been studied and inspected. However, literal "inspection" only takes us so far. As humans, we all know that there are parts of our "being" that are intangible. Take thoughts, dreams, and things of the like. We know they exist, yet they are unable to be inspected scientifically (to any valuable degree at least). The distinction between beliefs begins here. How one views this intangible side of life with respect to the tangible, is the factor that defines one's beliefs. There are several ways in which one may view the body. A dualist is one who views the body and mind, or tangible and intangible, as two separate intities existing together to form one being. The principle of "Cogito, ergo sum," or in english, "I think, therefore I am." The "I" meaning the mind, and "I am" meaning the body. (Synnott 1992, 92) The tangible side of the person being bound of course, by the laws of biomechanics and gravity, and the intangible being bound by nothing but the laws of reasoning. ".....the body, from its nature, is always divisible and the mind is completely indivisible." (Descartes 1995, 70) Like anything, dualism comes with its pro's and con's. Many people choose to believe in the idea of dualism because of its truths. Obviously, we can all see that indeed, the body is real and tangible, and that the mind on the other hand is the intangible, although it too is real. Likewise, as evidence of dualism we have undoubtedly felt the physical as well as the non-physical.

Projects Closure

Closing a Project Projects are by definition, temporary endeavour with commencement and ending periods. Wysocki (2012) identified project closure as the fifth process group in PMLC where the final product derived from the project is presented to the client according to specifications. The question of â€Å"how well did you do? † will be answered when client approves of the output, asset/output gets installed, audit tests post-implementation status and a final report submitted.The client’s acceptance of a project deliverable is a very important milestone as it sets in motion a key activity called â€Å"closure† which effectively brings to an end the project life cycle. (Wysocki, 2012) also identified closing a process that involves the following milestones: i. Getting client acceptance ii. Ensuring that all deliverables are installed iii. Ensuring that documentation is in place iv. Getting client sign-off on the final report v. Conducting post-implementation audit vi. Celebrating the successClient Acceptance – As a key trigger for project closure and a major milestone to every PM, client acceptance signifies that project output meets specifications and thus, brings to an end the â€Å"temporary endeavour† called project. At this stage, the project deliverables are reviewed and a verdict is passed by the client. This can be via a formal acceptance test procedure (ATP) between the client and the project team where the project team demonstrate key features of the project to confirm clients expectations while the client keeps a checklist to ensure compliance with scope equirements. In NLNG project closure procedure requires a thorough user acceptance test (UAT) with the project sponsors and end/super-users meeting the project handling firm before a project is declared closed. Client acceptance can also be informal for small projects that require just datelines or a few deliverables in place. A brief hand-over ceremony or a communic ation to the client by the PM is good enough. Most community development projects in NLNG do not require a formal UAT.Installation of Project Deliverables – After UAT project outputs/deliverable are installed and a â€Å"go-live† is declared. Installation of project outputs according to Wysocki (2012, 314 – 315) can take any of the four approaches viz; phased, cut-over, parallel or by business-unit. Phased installation as the name implies, takes bit-by-bit installation of project deliverables in a specific order. Company-wide re-organisation projects are likely examples here.Cut-out installation replaces an old system with a new one after the new system is tested in a test environment. Most upgrade project are installed using this approach. Parallel installation requires the new deliverables installed while the old is still running. This is referred to as â€Å"parallel run† in IT projects as it permits a comparative study of the two systems. By-business unit installation is where project deliverables are spread around business units that may necessarily be in one location.Project documentation – Young (2010) noted that project documentation involves Project Closure Report, Post Implementation Review Report and data archiving that will be used to measure project’s success in term of outcomes as defined at the early planning stage. Project documentation serves to keep track of the project schedules, records of estimates of key project inputs, UAT activities and how the changes were managed, challenges and key learning points during project implementation and go-live. It also involves development of manuals for user training and other resources as may be required by the post go-live project owners.Ultimately, both client and PMs have a role in what becomes of project documentation. While the PM ensures that those documents serve to provide avenue for assessing project outcomes, client’s understanding of the docume nt is particularly important during and post go-live project phases. Final Report sign-off: – A clear understanding of project documentation following a UAT will bring about another milestone in project close called â€Å"sign-off† where the client formally accept deliverables as installed alongside all the relevant documentations.By this, the client fully takes responsibility of the project and since this is a post go-live situation, the client accepts and sign-off the Project Closure Report which formalizes the closure of the project. The report is however, usually prepared by the Project Manager and presented to the client or project sponsor for sign-off. Post-Implementation Audit – This comes moments after go-live to identify if project goals have been achieved since the new/changes project comes on board.It asses key project goals set at the beginning, durations and resources, value proposition achieved, key learning points and what works (or not worked) si nce go-live. It is an audit because it is undertaken with a view to ensure compliance with set objectives. A post-implementation audit report is delivered as documentary of the project history highlighting key project goals and success factors, project methodologies, risk management strategies, client satisfaction assessment reports, etc.The audit report can serve to re-assure project owners of the benefits of the newly implemented project or it highlights major challenges/exposures of the new system. While the former validates initial project objectives, the later opens up avenues for quick intervention to mitigate losses and value erosion as a result of the new project. Celebrating Success – Part of project close is a ceremonial arrangement to recognise that the project has actually ended. Most go-live activities require elaborate celebrations with souvenirs and adverts to herald the arrival of a new project.In NLNG, projects go-live are celebrated with gift/souvenirs, bonu ses and other incentives to project team members and other relevant parties. Community development projects have cultural dances and other local events to go with. Business Risks Associated with Skipping Project Close-out – Project close out is an essential part of PMLC as it answers the â€Å"how well did you do† question and thus skipping it poses significant exposure to not only the project, but broad business or welfare objectives of client.Non-closure also impacts on the PMs resources and corporate reputation. Key risks associated with non-closure of projects include; ? Increasing tendency for non-implementation of the entire project or failed/part implementation that wont be noticed until a later period ? Absence of client acceptance test may hamper a proper UAT which normally provides the avenue for addressing project gaps ? Improper documentation will eventually affect optimal utilization of project deliverables.Also, absence of user manuals could trigger misus e of project outputs and bring about recurring cost of maintenance ? Absence of project installation and hand-over exposes the project falling into the wrong hands as no proper change management has been put in place. ? Lack of client sign-off exposes both parties to breach of contract and litigations while project teams and sponsors may develop animosity due to accusations, counter-accusations and blame game as project risks manifest. Lack of post-implementation audit may deny the client the benefit of assessing project objectives/targets against actual results post go-live. This entails that all the risks inherent in this new project are assimilated and may not be easily addressed. References 1. Young, M. L. (2010) PM Hut: A Complete Guide to Closing Projects. Available at: http://www. pmhut. com/a-complete-guide-to-closing-projects (Accessed: 20th April, 2013) 2. Wysocki, R. K. (2012) Effective project management traditional, agile, extreme, 4th Edition. Wiley, Indianapolis.

my SWOT Essay

Brochure More information from http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/641109/ London Biscuits BHD Description: Quantitative analyses of financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Sources of Capital), extensive ratio tables (Accounting, Asset Utilization, Employee Efficiency, Fixed Charges Coverage, Leverage Analysis, Liquidity Analysis, Per-share Data and Profitability Analysis) and proprietary Wright Quality Rating analyses tables. The Wright Quality Rating, a measure of corporate risk, examines the liquidity of the stock, financial strength, profitability and corporate growth characteristics of London Biscuits BHD. There is a textual review of the financial results of London Biscuits BHD versus Cocoaland Holdings Bhd, Apollo Food Holdings Berhad and Teck Guan Perdana Berhad. The comparative analysis of these companies compares Sales (sales, sales growth and sales per employee), Company Valuations (Price/Earnings, Price/Book, Price/Sales and 52-Week Price Change) and Financial Position (Long-term Debt/Equity). Also included for London Biscuits BHD are the Company Description, Recent Stock Performance, Profitability Analysis, Dividend Analysis, and Key Data Items (Ticker, Major Industry, Sub-Industry, Fiscal Year End Month, Employees, Share Type, Market Capitalization, Total Shares Outstanding and Number of Closely Held Shares.) Additional research for London Biscuits BHDincludes tables with up to 10-years of history of computed ratios, sales, earnings, and security prices. Contents: This product typically includes the following sections: Company Fundamentals – Company Profile – Comparative Business Analysis – Summary Analysis per Share – Sales Analysis – Price Analysis – Earnings and Dividends Analysis Financial Statement Analyses – Balance Sheet – Common Size – Balance Sheet – Year-Year Percent Change – Balance Sheet – Five-Year Averages- Income Statement – Common Size – Income Statement – Year-Year Percent Change – Income Statement – Five-Year Averages- Sources of Capital Financial Ratio Analyses – Accounting Ratios— Asset Utilization— Employee Efficiency– Fixed Charges Coverage – Leverage Analysis – Liquidity Analysis— Per-Share Data – Profitability Analysis Wright Quality Rating Analyses – Investment Acceptance – Financial Strength – Profitability and Stability – Corporate Growth Notes: – Report is included when there are five or more years of data history. — Report is included when employee counts are available. —These reports are not produced for Financial Companies. Ordering: Order Online – http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/641109/ Order by Fax – using the form below Order by Post – print the order form below and send to Research and Markets, Guinness Centre, Taylors Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland. Page 1 of 2 Fax Order Form To place an order via fax simply print this form, fill in the information below and fax the completed form to 646-607-1907 (from USA) or +353-1-481-1716 (from Rest of World). If you have any questions please visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/contact/ Order Information Please verify that the product information is correct. Product Name: London Biscuits BHD Web Address: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/641109/ Office Code: OC8DIPRONORURY Product Format Please select the product format and quantity you require: Quantity Electronic (PDF) Single User: â‚ ¬75 Contact Information Please enter all the information below in BLOCK CAPITALS Title: First Name: Mr Mrs Dr Miss Last Name: Email Address: * Job Title: Organisation: Address: City: Postal / Zip Code: Country: Phone Number: Fax Number: * Please refrain from using free email accounts when ordering (e.g. Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL) Ms Prof Page 2 of 2 Payment Information Please indicate the payment method you would like to use by selecting the appropriate box. Pay by credit card: American Express Diners Club Master Card Visa Cardholder’s Name Cardholder’s Signature Expiry Date Card Number CVV Number Issue Date (for Diners Club only) Pay by check: Please post the check, accompanied by this form, to: Research and Markets, Guinness Center, Taylors Lane, Dublin 8, Ireland. Pay by wire transfer: Please transfer funds to: Account number 833 130 83 Sort code 98-53-30 Swift code ULSBIE2D IBAN number IE78ULSB98533083313083 Bank Address Ulster Bank, 27-35 Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. If you have a Marketing Code please enter it below: Marketing Code: Please note that by ordering from Research and Markets you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions at http://www.researchandmarkets.com/info/terms.asp Please fax this form to: (646) 607-1907 or (646) 964-6609 – From USA +353-1-481-1716 or +353-1-653-1571 – From Rest of World

The Impeachment of President Bill Clinton

The Impeachment of President Bill Clinton Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of The United States of America. He was known for his 1993 Economic Plan, which cut taxes on 15 million low-income families and made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, while raising taxes on just 1. 2 percent of the wealthiest taxpayers. On the contrary, he also was known for his scandal with Monica Lewinsky. One may ask themselves, was the impeachment of President Bill Clinton completely necessary from the cause of action of the Lewinsky Scandal? Having an affair with a 22 year old un-paid intern is unprofessional and crude.Not only was this immoral, but also when in trial for the scandal, President Clinton denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. He was now committing acts of perjury. Clinton also influenced witnesses of his trail to vogue for him in front of the court of law. Though Lewinsky could have been lying about being touched by President Clinton, there is a lot of hard evi dence supporting otherwise. The acts that President Bill Clinton bestowed upon Monica Lewinsky were immoral. Monica Lewinsky was hired to work was an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term.During this time she had allegory formed a relationship with him, which was later proved true after a 21-day senate trail. In 1991 Paula Corbin Jones, a former Arkansas state worker claimed President Clinton had confronted her sexually when he was serving as governor of Arkansas. She later filed a sexual harassment lawsuit on the president; which was followed by a federal court hearing. In President Clinton’s testimony, he denied having any type of affair with Lewinsky. Lewinsky also denied to having such a relationship. President Clinton and Lewinsky both claimed to be strictly co-workers and nothing more.Kenneth Starr came forward with compelling information regarding the Lewinsky Scandal. Starr had telephone conversations recorded by Linda Tripp, in which Lewinsky describe d her association with the president. Hillary Clinton claimed that a â€Å"vast right-wing conspiracy† was trying to put an end to her husband, while Republicans and conservatives described him as immoral and a liar. As a President of The United States of America one is expected to be professional and honest. The actions that President Clinton commits not appropriate, though, people are simply human, when in position of power here is a time when situations like this are completely and utterly unacceptable.Impeachment was in order to prevent President Clinton from continuing on his presidency after being guilty of adultery and perjury. President Clinton was under oath when he denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999. Clinton denied telling his aides actual lies about the nature of his relationship with Lewinsky, even though secretaries reported that he told them that he did not have sex in any form specifically incl uding oral sex with Lewinsky. Article I states that Clinton lied to the grand jury about ‘his corrupt efforts to influence the testimony of witnesses’† (An Analysis 1) Clinton's secretaries, who had no reason to lie about it, reported that he denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky. He lied and hoped that these men would repeat these lies, as well as their attacks on the honor of OIC. Clinton had committed two acts of perjury. The first was Perjury #1A: Undefined Sex. Paula Jones' lawyers asked whether Clinton had had a â€Å"sexual affair† with Lewinsky. He answered no.His lawyers argue that Clinton believes â€Å"sexual affair† means â€Å"sexual intercourse. † However, to its true definition it is. So, Clinton’s testimony was a lie. The second act was Perjury #1B: Defined Sex. Paula Jones' lawyers handed Clinton a now famous definition of â€Å"sexual relations† â€Å"contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inne r thigh, or buttocks of a person with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person† and asked whether he'd had these sorts of relations with Lewinsky. Clinton answered no. Kenneth Starr asked Clinton the same question before a grand jury, and again Clinton answered no.Clinton's lawyers point out that â€Å"this narrow definition did not include certain physical acts. † This, of course, is an indirect way of saying that it doesn't include oral sex. What about Lewinsky's claim that Clinton touched her breasts? Clinton's lawyers admit that if Lewinsky is correct then Clinton perjured himself. The day after Clinton's deposition in the Jones Case, he discussed his relationship with Lewinsky to his personal secretary, Betty Currie. According to Currie's testimony, Clinton said, among other things, â€Å"We ere never really alone,† â€Å"You could see and hear everything,† â€Å"Monica came on to me and I never touched her, right? † and â₠¬Å"She wanted to have sex with me and I can't do that. † These statements could easily be seen as an attempt to make sure any future testimony by Currie squared with Clinton's. In Clinton’s testimony in the Jones case, Clinton made several references to Currie as Lewinsky’s close friend, almost alluring the lawyers for Jones to depose her. This suggests that in his conversation with Currie the next day he was focused on preparing her to testify falsely, should she be added to the deposition list in the Jones case.It is also possible that Clinton had a second conversation along the lines of his first after he learned that the OIC was investigating his possible perjury in his Jones deposition. Betty Currie visited Lewinsky's home and collected gifts given to her by the President, which she then stored under her bed in her own home. It seems likely that Currie would not have taken this action without Clinton asking her to do so. If he did, it would be an attempt to avoid having the gifts obtained by the OIC through an order it could be seen as an attempt to hide evidence.

Human Resources Performance Essay

1. What factors should Perkins and Balkin consider when setting the wage for the purchasing agent position? What resources are available for them to consult when establishing this wage? †¨ Katie Perkins opened her own sports store. The company grew quickly and she hired 16 employees to manage different areas of the store. After a while Perkins decide to open a new position for a purchasing agent. When setting the wage for the purchasing agent position Perkins and Balkin must consider their internal and external factors. Internal factors include compensation strategy of the organization, worth of the job, employee’s relative worth and employer’s ability to pay. A company’s compensation strategy is how they plan to compensate their employees in general terms. The worth of a job is just what it says, what that position is worth to the company in the revenue or cost savings it generates. External factors include conditions of the labor market, area pay rates, co st of living, collective bargaining and legal requirements. The labor market reflects how much supply and demand there is within the industry for a particular position. 2. Suggest advantages and disadvantages of a pay-for-performance policy for Perfor- mance Sports. †¨ The advantages of a pay for performance policy is typically that productivity is increased while overall employee compensation costs are decreased because it doesn’t pay poor performers well. The disadvantages are measuring employee performance isn’t always easy. There will always occur some discrepancies in the performance level measured by the employer and actual performance level obtained by the employee which leads to dissatisfaction and decrease in motivation of the employee. 3. Suggest a new payment plan for the customer service representatives.

Verbal discussion Essays

Verbal discussion Essays Verbal discussion Essay Verbal discussion Essay Telephone calls are used for verbal discussion within businesses. They can be used when contacting both people outside of the premises and even people within the same premises. An employee within a business may use a telephone call to contact a customer in order to gain their immediate response. Video conferencing is a meeting which takes place in two different locations but the conversation takes place through a computer screen. Both sides of the conversation can see as well as hear each other. A business may use video conferencing if they have another branch of the business in another country as people at the business abroad would be able to be involved in a meeting taking place. Telephone calls are suitable for gaining an immediate response as it is always possible to know whether the message was received or not. If another communication method was used to deliver the same message such as SMS messaging or email you would never be sure that the message has been received until a reply has been received. However with a telephone call as you speak to the person themselves you have the assurance that the message has been received. This communication method is suitable as a business cannot afford nor have the time to always travel for meetings. A video conference allows the meeting to take place over a computer screen or allows other people elsewhere to have an insight into a meeting taking place. It is suitable for businesses which have several branches as they would no longer have to travel to each other for meetings. Computers and the internet help many businesses as they provide the communication method of email and instant messaging. The internet also gives a business access to the worldwide web which may be useful to a business when advertising their company (communicating with customers) as well as being able to research whatever information may be needed for their job. This communication has helped boost sales in businesses and strengthened the relationships with existing and potential customers. Touch screen allow people to touch certain areas of a screen to interact with the machine or make the machine do something. Touch screens are a replacement for a keyboard or a mouse. Businesses that sell products to customers use tills that have touch screens. Touch Screens are a suitable method of communication for businesses that use tills with a touch screen as they make it much easier and quicker to make transactions with a touch screen. They are easy to use as they simply require a touch of the screen rather than pressing any controls or typing. They are also suitable as they do not require as much space as there is no keyboard or mouse needed on the desk as they touch screen controls all of this. DVD shows all the content that was shown on VHS tape but on a disk. The sound quality and picture is however much better. A business can use DVDs when training their staff as training guidance may be put onto DVD where staff can watch these DVDs as many times as needed. DVDs are suitable in businesses for training staff as the quality of the DVD itself would be to a high standard. DVDs would also be suitable as they not require much storage space as they are slim disks. DVDs can also be used by businesses to store and read information if they have a DVD drive within their computer software. They are suitable for storing information as they have a high capacity of storage for data so large amounts of information can be stored on a DVD disk. Mobile phones enable verbal communication and SMS messaging from whether the person chooses to take their mobile phone with them. Mobile phones can be used within a business in communicating with staff when they are not currently at work. Staff can also use mobile phones to contact their place of work if they are running late to work. Mobile Phones are a suitable method of communication as they can be taken with people wherever they go. This means that they are always able to gain contact with whoever they need and can also be reached wherever they are. It is suitable for staff to use mobile phones when they are running late to work as they can phone into their place of work to let them know. As they will have their mobile phone with them this will be possible Portable Communication Devices (mobile phones and PDAs) have WAP which enables people to surf the internet, view their emails and use the internet in the ways it is used at an actual computer. WAP can be used by businesses as staff can email and will receive their emails even when they are not at a computer screen. Similarly to the suitability for mobile phones WAP is suitable as it has good portability and can be used in many locations. However mobile phones would not be able to gain access to the internet without WAP. WAP is suitable for use within businesses as it enables employees to access their emails wherever they are so that they do not have to wait until they are next at work or somewhere with internet access.

Free Essays on Maidens Tears

Maidens Tears Long ago in the land of Skyloo a mother was giving birth to a baby girl. She named her â€Å"Maiden.† Maiden was a beautiful young baby soft brown hair and dark brown eyes. The mother and father were weary of keeping the child, frighten that she might grow to have more beauty than of the Goddess Lydian. Everyone in the village knew that if you have a child that grows to be prettier than that of Lydian the Goddess would punish your child. Days, Months, and years pasted. In those years Maiden became more beautiful than that of Lydian. Mortified Maidens parents made her wear a cloth over her face and forbidden her from taking it off. Maiden did not know of the Goddess of Lydian nor did she know the reasons for her parents’ strange ways. So she did what she was told, until she met Dorian. Dorian was Lydian’s evil twin brother; he was a very sly young man, who had heard of this beautiful lady by the name of Maiden. One day Dorian decided to go down to the village Skyloo to see Maiden. At the first sight of Dorian Maiden fell in love, hoping to marry him. Being he was a stranger to the town the only polite thing to do was to take him in. So for five years Dorian stayed with Maiden and her family. In those five years Maiden and Dorian became very attached. Then one day Dorian asked Maidens hand in marriage, Maiden accepted. The day of the wedding was set and they were to be married. For 5 years Dorian had been acting to be in love with Maiden, for his plan was to see how beautiful she really was and for his sister to get horribly jealous. Finally his plan was about to take action after so long. On the day of the wedding it was pouring outside making the wedding not as wonderful as Maiden had planned. Everyone in the village was there, even some of the Gods and Goddess came in disguise, to support Dorian. Dorian was in such a mess, being too tense wanting to take the cloth off of her face at the end of ... Free Essays on Maidens Tears Free Essays on Maidens Tears Maidens Tears Long ago in the land of Skyloo a mother was giving birth to a baby girl. She named her â€Å"Maiden.† Maiden was a beautiful young baby soft brown hair and dark brown eyes. The mother and father were weary of keeping the child, frighten that she might grow to have more beauty than of the Goddess Lydian. Everyone in the village knew that if you have a child that grows to be prettier than that of Lydian the Goddess would punish your child. Days, Months, and years pasted. In those years Maiden became more beautiful than that of Lydian. Mortified Maidens parents made her wear a cloth over her face and forbidden her from taking it off. Maiden did not know of the Goddess of Lydian nor did she know the reasons for her parents’ strange ways. So she did what she was told, until she met Dorian. Dorian was Lydian’s evil twin brother; he was a very sly young man, who had heard of this beautiful lady by the name of Maiden. One day Dorian decided to go down to the village Skyloo to see Maiden. At the first sight of Dorian Maiden fell in love, hoping to marry him. Being he was a stranger to the town the only polite thing to do was to take him in. So for five years Dorian stayed with Maiden and her family. In those five years Maiden and Dorian became very attached. Then one day Dorian asked Maidens hand in marriage, Maiden accepted. The day of the wedding was set and they were to be married. For 5 years Dorian had been acting to be in love with Maiden, for his plan was to see how beautiful she really was and for his sister to get horribly jealous. Finally his plan was about to take action after so long. On the day of the wedding it was pouring outside making the wedding not as wonderful as Maiden had planned. Everyone in the village was there, even some of the Gods and Goddess came in disguise, to support Dorian. Dorian was in such a mess, being too tense wanting to take the cloth off of her face at the end of ...

Aliso Creek

Aliso Creek Aliso Creek Since the first orange groves were established on Aliso Creek it has been chronically polluted with dangerous contaminants. The Creek runs westbound from the Santa Ana Mountains in South Orange County to the Pacific Ocean where it empties its contents at Aliso Creek State Beach in Laguna Beach. The pollution has escalated with the rapid urban development along the creek and its many tributaries.These pollutants have caused much harm to beachgoers, marine and aquatic life, and to the tourism industry of the communities that stretch the coastline. In the summers of 1999 and 2000, a half mile of Hunnington Beach, which lies North of Laguna Beach, was closed due to dangerously high bacteria counts in the water. The beach closure crippled the tourism of the fabled ?Surf City?. Similar problems are destined for Laguna Beach and the other communities near these river mouths. Beach closures are a common occurance in Laguna Beach and Dana Point to the South.English: Aerial shot of the mouth of Aliso Creek

Group Essays Develop 21st Century Skills

Group Essays Develop 21st Century Skills Teachers in any discipline should consider assigning a collaborative writing assignment, such as a group essay or paper. Here are three practical reasons to plan to use a collaborative writing assignment with students in grades 7-12.   Reason #1:  In preparing students to be college and career ready, it is important to provide exposure to a collaborative process.  The skill of collaboration and communication is one of the 21st Century Skills embedded in academic content standards.   Real world writing is often completed in the form of group writing- an undergraduate college group project, a report for a business, or a newsletter for a non-profit institution. Collaborative writing can result in more ideas or solutions for completing a task. Reason # 2: Collaborative writing results in fewer products for a teacher to assess. If there are 30 students in a class, and the teacher organizes collaborative writing groups of three students each, the end product will be 10 papers or projects to grade as opposed to 30 papers or projects to grade.   Reason #3: Research supports collaborative writing.  According to Vygostsky’s theory of ZPD (zone of proximal development),  when students work with others, there is an opportunity for all learners to work at a level slightly above their usual capacity, as co-operating with others who know a little more can boost achievement. The Collaborative Writing Process The most obvious difference between an individual writing assignment and a collaborative or group writing assignment is in the assigning of responsibilities:  who will write what? According to  P21s  Framework for 21st Century Learning, students engaging in collaborative writing are also  practicing  the  21st Century skills of  communicating clearly  if they are given the opportunity to: Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contextsListen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentionsUse communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade)Utilize multiple  media and technologies, and know how to judge their effectiveness a priori as well as assess their impactCommunicate effectively in diverse environments (including multi-lingual) The following outline will help teachers and then students address the logistics of running a collaborative assignment in which all members of the group have defined  responsibilities.  This outline can be adapted to be used in groups of various sizes (two to five writers) or to any content area. The Writing Process Any collaborative writing process must be taught to students and practiced several times a year with the goal for students to manage the group writing process themselves.   As in any writing assignment, individual or group, a teacher must clearly articulate the  purpose of the assignment  (to inform, to explain, to persuade...)  The purpose of writing will also mean identifying the target audience. Providing students a rubric for collaborative writing in advance will better help them understand the expectations for the task. Once purpose and audience have been established, then designing and implementing a collaborative writing paper or essay is not very different than following the five steps of the  writing process: PrewritingDraftingRevisionEditingPublishing Pre-writing process Students in the group review the  assignment and the requirements for the final product or paper;Students in the group  brainstorm and share ideas;Students in the group  formulate a draft or working thesis:This is a first attempt at developing a position or assertion;Because the  early stages of the writing process are where the groups writers are guided by questions they have (inquiry based learning), the working thesis is not the final thesis statement. Planning and Logistics Students in the group  decide together who will write which parts of the paper.  This will require that students collaborate, rather than merely cooperate. Here is the difference:When collaborating, students work together on a single shared goal;When cooperating, students perform together while working on selfish yet common goals.Students in the group  document the collaboration plan based on  the assignment requirements  (Ex: book review, pro/con persuasive paper) and agree upon the plan;Students in the group  determine a timeline that outlines deadlines for both individual and group responsibilities;Students in the group  determine when work can be done synchronously (in class/in person) or asynchronously (online). With the use of online writing platforms such as Google Docs, these group  determinations will help the group share updates and information more effectively. Management of Research Students in the group  draft how the assignment will be managed  (Ex: sections, chapters, paragraphs, appendices);Students in the group  determine how and where they will find trustworthy and timely source materials (books, articles, newspaper articles, videos, podcasts, websites, interviews or self-created surveys for research on topic);Students in the group  determine who will read and process the information;Pro/con evidence should be balanced;Evidence must be cited;Citations must be cataloged;Students in the group  analyze the evidence as to how well it supports position;Students in the group  determine the best way to include additional evidence (EX: pictures, graphs, tables, and charts.) Drafting and Writing Individual students keep in mind how the material and individual writing will fit into the paper or product.Students writing together synchronously  (in class/in person) or  asynchronously  (online):Writing as a group is  time-consuming; these opportunities should be left to making sure the document is organized to give the reader the impression of one cohesive voice.Student in the group should make sure that the paper or products content is clear and the writing communicates a single (or in the case of pro/con, a whole) message to the target audience before discussing stylistic changes. Revising, Editing, and Proofreading Students in the group review drafted parts of the document before merging into a single document;Students in the group  look for a logical flow of ideas. (Note:  Teaching students to use  transitions is critical to smoothing over individual drafts);Students in the group  revise content and structure of the paper;Students in the group  proofread paper and check for typos, spelling errors, punctuation problems, formatting issues, and grammatical mistakes. (Note: Reading the paper aloud  is an excellent strategy for editing). Additional Research on Collaborative Writing Regardless as to the size of the group or the content area classroom, students will manage their writing by following an organizational pattern. This finding is based on the  results of a  study  (1990) conducted by Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford that resulted in a book  Singular Texts /Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing,  According to their work, there are  seven noted organizational patterns for collaborative writing.  These seven patterns are: the team plans and outlines the task, then each writer prepares his/her part and the group compiles the individual parts, and revises the whole document as needed;the team plans and outlines the writing task, then one member prepares a draft, the team edits and revises the draft;one member of the team plans and writes a draft, the group revises the draft;one person plans and writes the draft, then one or more members revises the draft without consulting the original authors;the group plans and writes the draft, one or more members revise the draft without consulting the original authors;one person assigns the tasks, each member completes the individual task, one person compiles and revises the document;one dictates, another transcribes and edits. Tackling the Downsides to Collaborative Writing In order to  maximize the effectiveness of a collaborative writing assignment, all students in each group must be active participants. Therefore: Instructors need to monitor the progress of each group, provide feedback and assist when necessary.   Initially, this form of monitoring may be more time-consuming than traditional teaching formats, but a teacher can meet with groups more effectively over time than individual students. While the front-loading the collaborative writing assignment takes time, the number of final products is substantially reduced so the grading time is also reduced.A collaborative writing project must be designed in a way so that the final assessment is considered valid, fair and accurate. The final assessment must consider the knowledge and performance of all group members.   Grading complexities can make group assignments difficult for instructors. (See group grading article)Students may sometimes struggle with making decisions in a group setting.There can be  additional stress on students  because of multiple opinions and writing styles. These must be incorporated into one final product that pleases everyone.   Conclusion Preparing students for real-world collaborative experiences is an important goal, and the collaborative writing process can better help teachers meet that goal. The research supports a collaborative approach. Even though the collaborative writing approach may require more time in the set-up and monitoring, the fewer number of papers for teachers to grade is an extra bonus.

Battle of Aspern-Essling - Napoleonic Wars Battle of Aspern-Essling

Battle of Aspern-Essling - Napoleonic Wars Battle of Aspern-Essling Conflict Dates: The Battle of Aspern-Essling was fought May 21-22, 1809, and was part of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Armies Commanders: French Napoleon Bonaparte27,000 increasing to 66,000 men Austria Archduke Charles95,800 men Battle of Aspern-Essling Overview: Occupying Vienna on May 10, 1809, Napoleon paused only briefly as he wished to destroy the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles. As the retreating Austrians had destroyed the bridges over the Danube, Napoleon moved downstream and began erecting a pontoon bridge across to the island of Lobau. Shifting his troops to Lobau on May 20, his engineers completed work on a bridge to the far side of the river that night. Immediately pushing units under Marshals Andrà © Massà ©na and Jean Lannes across the river, the French quickly occupied the villages of Aspern and Essling. Watching the Napoleons movements, Archduke Charles did not oppose the crossing. It was his goal to allow a sizable part of the French army to cross, then attack it before the rest could come to its aid. While Massà ©nas troops took positions in Aspern, Lannes moved a division into Essling. The two positions were connected by a line of French troops stretched across a plain known as the Marchfeld. As French strength increased, the bridge became increasingly unsafe due to rising flood waters. In an effort to cut off the French, the Austrians floated timbers which severed the bridge. His army assembled, Charles moved to attack on May 21. Focusing his efforts on the two villages, he sent General Johann von Hiller to attack Aspern while Prince Rosenberg assaulted Essling. Striking hard, Hiller captured Aspern but was soon thrown back by a determined counterattack by Massà ©nas men. Surging forward again, the Austrians were able to secure half of the village before a bitter stalemate ensued. At the other end of the line, Rosenbergs assault was delayed when his flank was attacked by French cuirassiers. Driving off the French horsemen, his troops encountered stiff resistance from Lannes men. In an effort to relieve pressure on his flanks, Napoleon sent forward his center, consisting solely cavalry, against the Austrian artillery. Repulsed in their first charge, they rallied and succeeded in driving off the enemy guns before being checked by Austrian cavalry. Exhausted, they retired to their original position. At nightfall, both armies camped in their lines while French engineers worked feverishly to repair the bridge. Completed after dark, Napoleon immediately began shifting the troops from Lobau. For Charles, the opportunity to win a decisive victory had passed. Shortly after dawn on May 22, Massà ©na launched a large-scale attack and cleared Aspern of the Austrians. While the French were attacking in the west, Rosenberg assaulted Essling in the east. Fighting desperately, Lannes, reinforced by General Louis St. Hilaires division, was able to hold and force Rosenberg out of the village. Seeking to retake Aspern, Charles sent Hiller and Count Heinrich von Bellegarde forward. Attacking Massà ©nas tired men, they were able to capture the village. With possession of the villages changing hands, Napoleon again sought a decision in the center. Attacking across the Marchfeld, he broke through the Austrian line at the junction of Rosenberg and Franz Xavier Prince zu Hohenzollern-Hechingens men. Recognizing that the battle was in the balance, Charles personally led forward the Austrian reserve with a flag in hand. Slamming into Lannes men on the left of the French advance, Charles halted Napoleons attack. With the assault failing, Napoleon learned that Aspern had been lost and that the bridge had again been cut. Realizing the danger of the situation, Napoleon began retreating into a defensive position. Taking heavy casualties, Essling was soon lost. Repairing the bridge, Napoleon withdrew his army back to Lobau ending the battle. Battle of Aspern-Essling - Aftermath: The fighting at Aspern-Essling cost the French around 23,000 casualties (7,000 killed, 16,000 wounded) while the Austrians suffered around 23,300 (6,200 killed/missing, 16,300 wounded, and 800 captured). Consolidating his position on Lobau, Napoleon awaited reinforcements. Having won his nations first major victory over the French in a decade, Charles failed to follow up on his success. Conversely, for Napoleon, Aspern-Essling marked his first major defeat in the field. Having allowed his army to recover, Napoleon again crossed the river in July and scored a decisive victory over Charles at Wagram. Selected Sources Historynet: Battle of Aspern-EsslingNapoleon Guide: Battle of Aspern-EsslingBattle of Aspern-Essling

SAT Logistics - PrepScholar 2016 Students Encyclopedia

SAT Logistics - PrepScholar 2016 Students' Encyclopedia SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In the U.S., the SAT is offered seven times throughout the year, in January, March (or April), May, June, October, November, and December. Internationally, the SAT is typicallyoffered six times, including all the aforementioned dates with the exception of March. The redesigned SAT, commonly referred to as the new SAT, will be first administered in March of 2016. Students testing internationally will first encounter the new SAT in May of 2016. Note: this article is a series in the PrepScholar2016 Students' Encyclopedia, a free students' and parents' SAT / ACT guide that provides encyclopedic knowledge. Read all the articles here! Most SAT administrations begin at 8:30 AM on Saturdays. Students whose religious beliefs prevent them from testing on Saturday may request an alternative date at the time of registration, though their requests are subject to denial. Students with documented disabilities may request accommodations, the most common of which is extra time. Typicallythe full test is strictly timed at3 hours and 45 minutes, while the actual testing time is approximately 4.5 hours to include the proctor's instructions and three 5 minute breaks. Students may not revisit any sections once time has been called, nor may they discuss test material during break time. Proctors are expectedto report anysuspicious behavior, such as flipping through sections in the test booklet or using prohibited materials, and they have the authority to dismiss students from the testing room. College Board also has the right to withhold, audit, or cancel individual test scores, often as a result of a warning from a proctor or unexplained score fluctuations among sections. Students may speak to their test proctors or contact College Board directlywith concerns about their testing centers, including issueswith timing, noise, instructions, or possible cheating. The June 6, 2015 administration of the SAT, for instance, had timing issues due to a misprint in the testbooklets. To resolve this issue, College Board decided to leave the affected sections unscored, saying they were still "able to provide students with valid and reliable scores." Apart from strict regulations in timing, the SAT also has clearly stated rules about acceptable materials within the testing room. Students may only use Number 2 pencils to write on the answer sheet and essay section. Most graphingcalculators and all scientific and four-function calculators are allowed during the math sections. Snacks and drinksmay be consumed during breaks outside of the testing room. All other materials, especially technology with communication capabilities, like cell phones and recording devices, are strictly prohibited. The SAT costs $54.50, with an additional regional fee of $30 to $40 for students testing outside of the U.S. Fee waivers are available for eligible students and include registration for up to two SATs, two SAT Subject Test dates (on which students can take as many as three Subject Tests, with some exceptions), and an additional four score reports to colleges. The typical requirement for fee waiver eligibility is a student's inclusion on his/her school's federal Free or Reduced Lunch program. Students register for the SAT through their College Board account. It is also possible, and required for students under the age of 13, to register by mail. When creating aCollege Board account, students will be prompted to inputautobiographical information, their high school code (U.S.-based homeschoolers use code 970000), and a clear, recent photograph to be used for identification purposes on test day. During registration, students can choose their test date and testing center, usually their local high school. If their preferred testing center is full, students can selectanother nearby center or choose to be placed on a standby list.The deadline to register is typicallyabout one month before the test date. Additional fees apply for late registration, changes to test date or location, and standby testing. During registration or for up to 9 days after, students may choose as many asfour colleges to bescore report recipients free of charge. Any additional score reports cost $11.25 each. Scores are usually available about three weeks after testing. Official SAT score reports must be sent to colleges, even if students also self-report their scores on the Common Application or college-specific application forms. As of 2009, College Board offers SAT Score Choice, giving students choice over which SAT score reports are sent to colleges. Students who wish to view their SAT scores before sending them to colleges may choose to forego the four free score reports at the time of registration. Some colleges prohibit the use of Score Choice, requiring students to send all available SAT scores from all dates they took the test. Schools that expect students to send the results from their entire testing history include Duke University, Rice University, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and all schools in the University of California system. The majority of colleges allow the use of Score Choice and may consider a student's highest section scores across all dates or highest sitting on one test date. More than half of all test-takerschoose to take the SAT more than once. Studies have shown that students are statistically likely to improve their scores upon retesting. Preparation has also been shown to significantly improve SAT scores. Most students take the SAT in their junior and senior year of high school. Others take the test earlier to ensure a greater number of available test dates for retesting. Important considerations in choosing test dates include college application deadlines, colleges' policies towards SAT scores and Score Choice, preparation time, and skill readiness. Read more from the SAT Encyclopedia! Further Reading How to Register for the SAT, Step by Step How Many Times Should You Take the SAT? Choose Your SAT Test Dates: When's a Good Time for You?

Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response - Essay Example In the analysis provided below, it is posited that perceived beauty or physical attractiveness is influenced by the individual’s culture, which means that self-images formed from these perceptions of beauty are also culture-based. â€Å"The ugly truth about beauty† by Dave Barry is an example of the cultural differences between men and women when talking about beauty or physical attractiveness. Evident in Barry’s discussion is the greater attention to detail that women give in assessing their beauty as compared to men, who seem to have a rather shallow or simple criteria in assessing their physical attractiveness to the opposite sex. Inherent in Barry’s analysis of the female perception of beauty is the influence of popular culture in the formation of females’ standard of beauty or attractiveness. Referring to this as the â€Å"Barbie† culture, the author implied how Barbie, as an icon of beauty in the early childhood among females, has provided the â€Å"ideal† yet unrealistic standards of beauty. A woman’s inability to meet these ‘Barbie standards’ would then feel inadequate and incomplete, as explicated in women’s attitude (generally) to being dissatisfied about a man’s assessment of her beauty—whether this assessment is a positive one or not. â€Å"The Scar† by Cynthia Audet, meanwhile, provides a thought-provoking and implicit interpretation of beauty, as perceived by a ‘scarred’ woman. The author had not only expressed pride in having the scar in her left cheek, but she also felt uniqueness in her personality in that her scar made her feel proud â€Å"as a reaction to the assumption that I should feel embarrassed.† Her scar functioned not as a source of embarrassment, but instead as a source of pride and courage to assert her individuality. The scar became Audet’s reason to become different from the people in her society—simply because she is different because of her scar. Like Barry’s analysis of beauty

Information Security White Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Information Security White Paper - Essay Example Information security systems also assists in data recovery in cases where businesses accidentally losses vital data. Information security system would always eliminate damage or distress that result from data loss. Besides, proper storage of company data would instill customers’ interest in the respective business entity as the later maintains higher levels confidentiality of customers’ information. Such businesses win the attention of customers and attract larger profit margins. Information security software’s would also restrict movement of company’s confidential information to the public. Such information if relayed to the public may damage the company’s reputation. The most common information vulnerabilities include software bugs the affect software systems in different computers. Broken processes, hardware flaws, human error, and business change also constitute some of the most common vulnerabilities that associate with computer networks. Computer usage and relay of information also contributes to a vast number of threats that may completely damage computer software’s or lead to loss of data. The threats posed by the computer information network include terrorists, competitors, hackers, or criminals. Other most eminent threats include dishonest employees, angry employees, and nature. Confidentiality relates to the condition of limiting informational access or resources to certain authorized individuals. Those who reveals non-public information normally compromises the confidentiality of such systems. Confidentiality therefore refers to protection of information from unauthorized persons. Often refers to ensuring that only authorized personnel gain access to certain information. The power of information relies on the possibilities of the information being in the right hand. Constant backup helps in ensuring data availability. Non-repudiation relates to the implications of an individual’s

History 1112 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

History 1112 - Essay Example On the contrary, Russia advocated for communism, and thus wanted its allies and other of its friendly countries to adapt this (49). Consequently, Joseph Stalin, the then Russian president issued a very hostile speech in February 1946, postulating that capitalism and communism were not compatible, and that communism was more superior and public friendly. This was followed by a requirement by the then USA president Truman, that Russia leaves Iran, on March of the same year (65). The subsequent periods were marked by an arms race between the two countries, each launching major nuclear bomb tests by Russia in 1949 and USA in 1953 (38). The hostility continued for the better of the 1960-1970s, with each country seeking to contain the spread of the other countries ideology and dominance. This period was marked by among others the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Afghan war of 1979 to 1989 (51). While the Soviet Union blocked the access to West Berlin, the USA and its allies sought to supply it through air. This greatly increased the tension. Several agreements were entered to throughout the period to stop any breakout of a physical war, since it would have seen nuclear weapons used, which would have caused untold damage

Moral Development and Domestic Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Moral Development and Domestic Violence - Essay Example Thus, the violence is done not only to one's physical body, but it affects one's emotional state. Here a few elements of domestic violence will be addressed. First, it will be examined what exactly is moral development, domestic violence, and types of abuse. Secondly, the personalities of the victim and the abuser will be analyzed, including the consequences of domestic violence. Third, and finally, studies, testimonies, developmental attributes, and domestic violence prevention will be discussed. There will also be a section devoted to concluding thoughts and other commentary. Moral development involves the evolution of a person's conscience over time. With regards to the person being abused, her moral values definitely can shape the relationship. For example, if a victim continues to exhibit lax moral behavior around the abuser, this can subsequently erode her case against her abuser if her case is taken to court. The plaintiff (the victim) will most likely be attacked by the abuser's lawyer in court, who will make accusations about the victim's moral laxity. The moral development of the victim over time will surely bear itself out, and once certain actions have been taken, the victim cannot reclaim these actions. Rather, the actions of the victim may come back to haunt her. Therefore, it is important for victims of domestic violence to try to live lives that are above reproach. This is a very important principle because, in court, the abuser's lawyer will no doubt try to discredit the victim. Thusly, it is a premier advantage to the victim to have compl ete and total control of her life, therefore not giving the abuser any leverage. If the victim is morally lax, it makes it easier for the abuser's defense team to destroy the victim again once more-only this time in a courtroom. Obviously, reliving moments of abuse once all the dirty laundry of a bad relationship is being aired is not a pleasant experience, but the victim must sometimes have instances like these in which she must confront her abuser in a blameless fashion. This is the point at which the woman finally has power and can rely on herself to be the stalwart in an uncertain world. The moral development of the abuser must at this point be taken into question. Without a doubt, the morals of the abuser are definitely going to be in question. What constitutes the moral development of an abuser The abuser may be knowingly or unknowingly abusing another person, and that is not beyond his or her control. However, one must frankly ask oneself what the state of mind of an abuser i s in order to harm another human being. It is simply unconscionable what one person can do to another. The moral development of someone who is an abuser is obviously retarded in some sense. Someone who abuses another person does not have a good grasp on moral values which dictate that humans should be treated decently and with at least cordiality if not kindness. However, the abuser is really not a person who has the best morals in the first place to begin anyway. An abuser is someone who is conniving, devious, and exacting in their intent to harm another person-usually, but not always, a woman and sometimes a child. The abuser may be

Compare and contrast the views of Howard Zinn's presentation of the Essay

Compare and contrast the views of Howard Zinn's presentation of the Vietnam War to the American Promise text - Essay Example both Zinn and the American Promise text begin by describing the combatants, the American Promise text seems to tacitly cast their communist leanings as irrational and in-direct opposition to freedom. Conversely, Zinn elevates their position to equal footing with the United States. Zinn describes North Vietnam as, â€Å"a nationalist revolutionary movement in a tiny, peasant country† (Zinn). One can easily argue that Zinn is even romanticizing the North Vietnamese movement, casting them in the mythic role as David in a battle with the United States’ Goliath. Zinn’s historicism goes on to explore the perspective of the North Vietnamese in more sympathetic details than the American Promise text. Where the American Promise text identifies the promise Kennedy made in fighting against Communist aggression, Zinn’s history notes the Atlantic Charter which promised the people the right to choose their own government. It shows that despite such a document, pleas by the North Vietnamese to President Harry Truman went unrecognized. The American Promise also focuses predominantly on the Vietnam War once it was started, and not the factors that ultimately caused the United States’ participation. While of this is surely attributed to the fact that it focuses on American History, key facts are left out, which Zinn includes. One of the most notable of these is that after the French left Vietnam there was scheduled to be an election that would unify the country. It was the United States that stepped in and prevented these elections from occurring, and placed a Vietnamese man who had previously resided in New Jersey in office. Quoting the Pentagon papers, Zinn states, â€Å"South Viet Nam was essentially the creation of the United States" (Zinn). When considering the Gulf of Tonkin incident the two textbooks have slightly different perspectives. While the American Promise acknowledges that there might be more to the attacks than was initially reported by the United States

Is there a connection between mortality and religion Research Paper

Is there a connection between mortality and religion - Research Paper Example But does religiosity translate into biological mechanisms which affect the rates of survival?—this is the moot question that remains to be answered by the researchers. The popular belief is the healthy body goes with the healthy mind. Only a moral/religious/spiritual individual can have a healthy mind. Religious practices are meant to combat the negative thoughts. In spiritual texts of all religions, one comes across parables related to long-life and such people adopted healthy practices in their day to day living. Physical wellbeing and religious belief is like the scale of justice. Both arms of the scale are equally important to get at the equilibrium. In one’s life, they must run like a train that speeds on two parallel tracks. Ralph W. Hood, Jr., et.al (2009, p.181) writes, â€Å"Some impressive research has examined the relationship between mortality and religious involvement†¦..The results showed that frequent attendees lived longer than infrequent attendees. Apparently, the former were more likely to cease smoking, engage in exercise, remain married, and maintain their social connections.† To put it in the terms of a laym an, a well-disciplined individual will live longer than a man with negative tendencies and habits. Brian Thomas in article â€Å"New Study Makes Connection Between Religion and Lower Mortality,† concludes that women performing religious service with regularity lived 20 percent longer than those who did not, as per the recent study. Some of the specific revelations in support of connection between mortality and religion are: Exodus 20:12: â€Å"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.† To explain this further, one who adheres to this commandment lives the disciplined life. Principle of God-fearing is a positive approach to life-situations and such positivity contributes to peace which is conducive to long span of life. Proverbs