Thumbs Down for Mars Essay Example For Students

Thumbs Down for Mars Essay 1English II11 February 2004There is no rationality backing the exploration and sought out manned missions to Mars with the economical and technological issues the United States faces at the present time. It is completely unrealistic for the U.S. to spend $700 billion of tax payers dollars to launch robots and humans 35 million miles away just to find out if the dead planet could have once conceived life forms billions of years ago. With all that is going on in the nation such as international and homeland warfare, healthcare concerns, education costs, and the federal deficit, just to mention a few, missions to Mars should be buried deep inside the pocket. President George W. Bush and NASA proposed a budget of $700 billion over 10 years to generate, explore and research plans for gathering information that will do us no good other than to have scientific knowledge and feel awestruck.Exploring a planet which has no evidence of adequate life form, no water, no air, extreme radiation and temperatures averaging minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit, is cause for concern and attempts to do so should fall no short of abandonment. It is far too dangerous and seems to be nothing short of unattainable for any success ( Space flights par 4-7 ). We will write a custom essay on Thumbs Down for Mars specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now 2Setting aside the basis of launching humans for a moment, what is the point of doing the job with space robotics?In the past 45 years, 22 out of 33 missions have crashed, broken, or failed before the research could be completed. For example, two space crafts, Mars Polar Lander and Mars Climate Orbiter, worth over $320 million, were destroyed because of human error. Two separate groups of scientist and engineers simply forgot to convert feet into meters, causing the first spacecraft to burn up in the Red Planets atmosphere. Secondly, NASA accidentally turning off the braking system two miles too soon which caused the orbiter to crash at 50 miles per hour ( Space flights par 3 ). With complications arising from lift off through touchdown, there is no point to even consider sending humans to Mars? First, no human life is worth the sacrifice. At this point in time, the technology does not exist for astronauts to maintain sufficient fuel, food, water and air in good supply. Even if human landings on Mars become a success, the planet bears no resources. Set aside the fact that Mars is generally minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, the atmosphere which guards the surface from solar winds and space debris barely exists.The vast amount of radiation that exists on the planet would destroy a human in less than one month if exposed without the proper and vastly expensive gear. The radiation would eat away at every cell because proteins and DNA cannot survive under such conditions and cancer would consume the entire body. 3Next to that, Mars is magnetically dead. So the chance of surviving on Mars and even sustaining any sort of life form seems impractical (Mission 36-46). Secondly, other than the obvious, launching robot spacecrafts must have even higher standards of management. Everything on the shuttles and so forth must have precise instructions and be preprogrammed. In concurrence with the 11 minute time delay, once orbiters come in near reach of Mars, radio signals pose close to no help. Since scientists cannot control the spacecrafts in real time, there is very little chance for recovery of any unexpected obstacles. No immediate time relay means no actual time sensor information. (Mission 36-46). In conclusion, rather than wasting billions of dollars sending failure into space, take a cut of the budget, spend the money on homeland necessities and use the balance for more greater development and advanced research. Send a larger number of less expensive robots into space and learn from the information gathered. Then, if something is derived worthwhile, additional robots can be designed with particulars to discover without risking the lives of humans.It is almost like a domino effect. Send and receive, fix and send again. Even though the thought of indulging in Mars is enticing, there is still no rationality that the journeys make sense.

Damn Mussolini; Now We cant Do Anything essays

Damn Mussolini; Now We cant Do Anything essays At this point in 1930 it would be difficult to switch from fascism. For the past decade fascist ideas have constantly been reiterated in almost every aspect of society and it has become a part of every Italians life. Democracy would have worked if we had kept it going in the right direction after 1919. Instead we never really established a strong democracy and it ended up leaving people something to be desired. Mussolini stepped up and provided exactly what Italians wanted, combining ideologies from a few different political parties. It wasnt hard for Mussolini. He started his political life as a socialist, eventually editor of the socialist magazine Avanti, but was expelled when he supported intervention in World War I. He then started a group called the Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat), which at first didnt gain much popularity. In 1919, a three-party government was formed, leaning toward a democratic side of government. Because there were three parties, it didnt work and wasnt able to govern Italy. The socialists started to talk of a need for revolution, which scared conservatives; numerous strikes in industry and agriculture scared the middle class. Mussolini took advantage of all this and started to preach against communism, against strikes, and for nationality. Mussolini now had a good middle-class following. By forming a militia called squadristi, he attracted many veterans of World War I and students attracted to the idea of unrestricted violence. Mussolini knew that fascism is best accepted when society is chaotic, and therefore created chaos in everyday life. He preached that fascism is a party of order, and drew mostly from the fears of socialism, communism, and disorder that the middle-class, upper class, and students had. Mussolini took office in the government in 1922 when the King made him prime minister. He still lacked fascist power in parliament, but he h...

David Fincher's film analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

David Fincher's film analysis - Essay Example He has many successful filmmaking ventures under his name, but the substance of this prose will analyze the intricate aspects of his blockbuster film â€Å"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button†. The main premise of â€Å"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button† revolves around a boy who was born with the appearance of a geriatric and then ages backwards until his death as an infant. Fincher’s writing team has used the short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but on a thematic level it does not have the element of humor as the short story, but is more dramatic in nature. The writers have incorporated several motifs in the film to highlight the philosophical depth of the story. The film starts off with the train station clock tower that runs backwards, which signified Benjamin’s life that had taken a reverse course. Initially, the clock maker had made it to commemorate his son’s death in the war. It emboldens the importance of going through all the stages that finally defines one’s journey. However the closing shot of the movie shows the clock tower being flooded by hurricane Katrina, which symbolizes that whether one goes forward or back in time, death is an absolute factor. The entire scene is a heartbreaking reminder of the mortality of human life that was captured in the backward ticking and the flooding of the train station clock. Similarly, the man who gets repeatedly hit by lightning is yet another motif in the movie. The recounts to Benjamin how he was struck by lightning almost seven times in his life and even though, it was a painful process but he still came to see it as a positive occurrence in his life. Not only the event is significant but the number of times the man claims to have been hit by lightning can be equated as a vague allusion to the Shakespearean ideology describing the course of human life – The seven stages of man. The lightning in this regard signifies an irrevocable change and aging is indeed an irreversible process of

Discuss how variation within the human genome might lead to cancer Essay

Discuss how variation within the human genome might lead to cancer - Essay Example These tumor cells are eventually able to invade neighboring tissue and spread further to other tissues via metastasis. Cancer begins after one cell undergoes one gene variation after another, until these collectively transform normal cells to uncontrollably dividing cancerous cells. Current research identifies the mutations that lead to cancer as occurring in two general genes; the proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, which normally accelerate and inhibit growth and division of cells respectively (Wong et al, 2011: p429). As a result, gene variations that over-activate proto-oncogenes and inhibit tumor suppressor genes drive the development of transformed cancer cells. These gene variants responsible for maintaining this transformed cancer phenotype are then selected for during tumorigenesis, causing cancer. Genetic instability has been identified as a fundamental hallmark of all cancerous cells. Genetic instability, in this case, is referent to increased frequency of genomic mutations. According to Almendro et al (2013: p283), this genetic instability can be seen at both the chromosomal level leading to deletions, translocations, amplifications, and aneuploidy of the entire chromosome, as well as at nucleotide level leading to point mutations. The two manifestations of genetic instability can result in an increase of mutation rates in cancerous cells through the alteration of protein function or expression. In the past five years, the most prevalent debate has been about whether changes to single nucleotides or abnormalities related to large macromolecular chromosomes tend to be more common in human cancer, as well as whether they are a causative factor in development of cancer (Almendro et al, 2013: p283). Alteration in chromosome number, also referred to as aneuploidy, is a critical characteristic of any cancers and is, in fact, one of the genetic alterations most observed in human cancers. Specific exchanges of chromosomes have been found to

Classroom observation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Classroom observation - Essay Example learning objective and target should be established in a way that includes a joint journey by the teacher and the classroom for the express purpose of gaining and assessing ‘understanding’ (Moss and Brookhart, 2012: 9). Thus at the start of the lesson, the teacher announces the day’s learning objective and target. This therefore places some responsibility on the classroom to achieve that target and with this understanding, the classroom is more likely to be involved in the lesson and therefore engaged (Moss and Brookhart, 2012). I observed that the learning objective and target was communicated in a way that was compatible with year three students. As Moss and Brookhart, (2012:9) suggest, the learning objective and target should be described in a ‘student-friendly’ way through the use of ‘words, pictures, actions, or some combination of the three’ and should include what the teacher ‘intends students to learn or accomplish in a given lesson’. This amounts to the ‘meaningful’ sharing of learning objectives and targets and therefore are ‘actual targets that students’ are able to ‘see and direct their efforts toward’ (Moss and Brookhart, 2012: 9). I observed that the Saint Vincent year three teacher used a combination of words, pictures and actions to describe the learning objective and target. This communication had the effect of gaining the classroom’s attention and provided a reference point for the children to traverse thr ough the day’s lesson. Essentially, the learning objective and target established for the students that the lesson for the day was meaningful. Moss and Brookhart (2012) explain how the meaningful communication of learning objectives and targets engage students. Students are engaged because there learning targets empower them. Empowerment and engagement occur because students are in a position where they are ‘better able to compare where they are with where they need to go’ (Moss and Brookhart, 2012:

Industrial Espionage Intelligence

Industrial Espionage Intelligence The information revolution and the advances in technology during the past decades has brought to fore many challenges and issues to both governments and businesses, the age-old crime of espionage or the practice of spying to gather secret information is one the most potential issues facing information-based societies such as the United States, today. Although, much has been documented as fact and fiction concerning the traditional foreign agents and spies, in todays world of multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations, and industrial espionage is a growing danger. Furthermore, this is aggravated by the fact that many large businesses are physically disseminated which has distributed management and administration, and more job specialization. High technology offers the ability to collect and use information for competitive edge over others in meeting business and government objectives, it also makes modern information and technology-based nations and businesses vulnerable as information can be stolen from electronic storage media and transmitted in seconds without even physically removing the data. The paper attempts to examine and understand the challenge of espionage to industries and businesses in America. However, in doing so, it shall also look at the historical development of espionage and examines how the advances in technology in the recent years have facilitated the act of espionage, and also the measures that may prove useful in controlling Industrial Espionage. As a prelude to the research, it may be worthwhile to understand how industrial espionage is defined, its nature and implications. Industrial Espionage Definition and Nature The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines industrial espionage as â€Å"an individual or private business entity sponsorship or coordination of intelligence activity conducted for the purpose of enhancing their advantage in the marketplace.† [Cited Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 48] While this definition may imply Industrial Espionage to be more or less the same as business or competitive intelligence, John F Quinn explains the essential difference between the two while business intelligence is generally under private sponsorship using an â€Å"open† methodology, espionage may be either government or privately sponsored and clandestine. [Cited Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 47] My definition of Industrial Espionage is it is the process of collecting information and data for the purpose of generating revenue. Generating revenue is very important aspect for these people. They are not thrill seeker, if the compensation does not justify the reward they will not bother attempting to collect the required information. Individuals who commit Industrial Espionage are not looking for information for information sake, but for information that will produce a big payday when acquired by a second party or when the information is viewed by unauthorized personnel the value of the information is no longer valuable. Money and power are motivators and the stakes in todays billion dollar business environment the rewards far exceeds risks. In the highly competitive and globalized business environment, proprietary intellectual property and economic information is considered the most valuable commodity by all nations, particularly the advanced ones. Businesses and/or governments involve in espionage activities for the purpose of unlawfully or clandestinely obtaining sensitive financial, trade or economic policy information, proprietary/sensitive economic information; or critical technologies including but not limited to data, plans, tools, mechanisms, compounds, designs, formulae, processes, procedures, programs, codes or commercial strategies, whether tangible or intangible, for competitive business advantage. The proprietary information so stolen may have been stored, compiled or memorialised physically, electronically, graphically, photographically or in writing and may be reasonably protected by the owner and not available to the general public. [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 48] Proprietary information may be stolen by employees accessing the business and company databases, hackers breaking into the company server, or sponsored teams of burglars. While companies may lose vital business information through employees leaving the job, espionage occurs when the employee willfully looks for the data, steals it, copies it and sells it for money, or for his own unit, when he intends to produce a similar item. Espionage by competitors involve spying the activities of other businesses and unlawfully gathering of secret information, so that they can steer their businesses by adopting appropriate strategies and stay at par with, if not ahead of, competition in the marketplace. Interested outsiders and competitors adopt many methods including bribery, detective spying through shady agencies, searching through garbage, also referred to as ‘dumpster diving, scams to trick workers through ‘social engineering, or even expose loopholes and weak points in the live s of workers and blackmail them for gathering information. The theft or unlawful receipt of intellectual property and economic information, particularly by competitors and foreign governments threatens the development and production of goods derived from such information and also results in loss of profits, market share and perhaps the business itself and may thereby result in the weakening of the economic power of ones country. [Boni and Kovacich, 2000] In the present information-driven business environment, businesses tend to address the threat seriously, and in their quest to gain power, maintain control, increase market share and beat competition, nations and businesses espouse espionage, treating it casually and engaging themselves in espionage, using information and technology as armaments of business and economic warfare. [Jones, Kovacich and Luzwick, 2002] The Process The process of Industrial Espionage can be divided into four categories: requirements, collection, analysis, and evaluation. First, the requirements have to be established. This is when the individual is targeted and approached to provide specific information concerning a specific job or task within a company or organization. Most often a third party will inquire to protect the inquiring person, organization, or corporation from liability. Most companies focus their espionage efforts only on certain task or functions. The second phase allows the collector to focus their efforts. Collection is the key component of Industrial Espionage. This is the key element for payment and has the most risk involved. These individuals must evaluate the risk of obtaining the needed information or data with the value of the fee that they will be paid and the risks of being caught. The individual collecting/obtaining the information may use any of the following to obtain the required information/data: physical attacks, electronic attacks, or even attacks against the employees to gain the necessary information. If the rewards are so great (finically), they will go to whatever lengths necessary to obtain the information, even murder if necessary. If the request is for a working copy of a companys product the Collector might simply have to go out and by one, then send away for the technical information any customer is entitled to. While this might see strange use of a Collector, remember some of the companies collecting information exist in embargoed nations such as Cuba or Iraq where state of the art US product are not readily available. If the request is for the complete production data for a complex computer chip the job might entail illegal, and therefore more risky, methods such as bribery or burglary. Analysis follows. Now that a Collector has accumulated a mass of data and information they must take time to see what they have. This entails everything from reading the contents of documents, both physical and electronic, processing raw data, and in some cases looking at the flow of employees and information to see what might be happening and where it is occurring. Once the data has been analyzed the Collector refers to the original Requirement to see if he has meet his goals. This is the Evaluation phase. If the clients Requirements have been met the information is package, transmitted, and the Collector paid. Extra information collected is evaluated for value to the current of future clients and recorded for future transactions. In those cases where the Requirements have not been met, the Collector uses the information to return to the Collection Phase, thus beginning the process anew. Espionage A Brief History The technological advances and the global Internet have drastically reformed the art of espionage. The practice of espionage has transformed revolutionarily over the years, as any aspect of life and civilization, from the old manual and human intensive profession to the sophisticated, hi-tech pursuit of stealing electronic information in networked societies. Toffler and Heidi provide a Three Wave Evolution model to explain the technological evolution, as well as the evolution of espionage. [Toffler, 1980; Toffler Heidi, 1994] Accordingly, during the First Wave period, extending from the beginning of human race to about mid 1700s and characterized by the agricultural revolution, information was passed by word of mouth or in written correspondence. The theft of information was minimal as most of the people could not read or write and espionage was manual, relying mostly on personal observation and one-to-one contact. The Second Wave or the ‘rise of the industrialized civilization, which followed and last until a few years after World War II, experienced exponential growth in communications and the sharing of information, made possible by such inventions as telegraph, telephone and computers. The later years of this period saw the development and use of cryptography as communication protection and anti-espionage tool, though essentially by governments. While businesses had also begun to use computers, most of the systems were stand-alone and hence the threat of espionage was limited. Espionage was thou ght of primarily as a government and/or military problem and anti-espionage measures during the period essentially consisted of some form of physical security of physical documents and equipment, such as combination of locks, guards, alarms and fences. Emphasis was also placed on personnel security hiring honest and ethical employees in computer field was deemed to limit espionage threats. As only few people operated computers, the threat to electronically stored information was limited. [Toffler, 1980; Toffler and Heidi, 1994] The Third Wave or the age of technology and information, sweeping the world today has seen more advances in communication and information sharing, and paradoxically more threats, than the First and Second Wave periods combined. While the Internet and the globally linked communication systems serve as a mainstream business medium, objectionable reports on how high-tech criminals in businesses and government intelligence agencies of all advanced nations are exploiting the possibilities of the cyber world to meet their various ends, continue to be appal the world conscience. Today, a large number of organizational actors and individual information-brokers sponsored by government and otherwise, are using the Internet to commit the old crime of espionage in a revolutionary new way what Boni and Kovacich terms the ‘netspionage or network enabled espionage. According to them, in the present information-driven globalized society, the distinction between espionage motivated wholly by m ilitary advantage and the quest for market domination is blurred of not completely eliminated. The researchers claim that the 21st century, envisaged as ‘the â€Å"Information Age† or the â€Å"Age of Technology† to be may instead come to be known as the â€Å"Age of Netspionage Agent and Techno-Spy.† [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 5] Before attempting to understand the occurrence of industrial espionage in America, it may be vital to understand the techniques used by the modern espionage Netspionage agents and techno-spies so that adequate and effective measures could be adopted to prevent the threat of espionage. Some of the common methods used by Netspionage agents include: Data Diddling changing data before or during entry into the computer Scavenging Obtaining information left around a computer system and in trash cans Data Leakage Removing information by smuggling it out as part of the printed document Piggybacking/ Impersonation Physical access to electronic data using anothers User ID and password to gain computer access and protected information. Simulation and Modelling Using the computer as a tool to plan and/or control a criminal act Wire Tapping Tapping into a computers communication links to be able to read the information being transmitted between systems and networks [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 58] Apart from the above, the use of software application programs, which are standardized over the years enable the use of a variety of hacker tools including Trojan Horse enabling covert placement of instructions in the program for unauthorized functions; Trap Doors for inserting debugging aids that provide breaks in the instructions for insertion of additional code and intermediate output capabilities; Logic Bombsor programs executed at a specific time period; and the common Computer Virus which are malicious codes that cause damage to the system information. [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 59] The Cyber Threat With the advent of the cyber age where information roams free along the electronic corridors of the Internet at the speed of light, another arena has been opened up to the Collector. The tools used are those developed by Hackers and Crackers over the years coupled with the good old social engineering of days past. The potential for gathering information is unlimited. The arena, of course, is the World Wide Web and the target sits on your disk as you view this HTML document. In 1997 it was estimated there were fewer than 1000 people that qualified as Professional Hackers. That is, people who are capable of creating tools or developing original methods for Hacking. [11] Therefore it is safe to assume there are very few Collectors who are true computer geniuses. Collectors are just individuals adept at turning existing tools toward collecting information. An excellent Hackers Toolkit (a software package which contains scripts, programs, or autonomous agents that exploit vulnerabilities [6]) can be downloaded from the internet with just a few hours of searching. Converting computer tools to information collection is relatively easy, because with computers everything is information and everything created for a computer collects and/or transmits information to one degree or another. Corporate web sites hold increasingly detailed information regarding a companys structure, products, employees, and the physical layout of its facilities. Some sites boast fly thr ough tours of their facilities, pictures and bios of their executive officers, telephone numbers, and of course email addresses of key employees. The sole purpose of these web sites is to transmit the information to anyone who asks. Web browsers collect this information and provide it to the requestor who can view and store the information, as they desire. This type of information is invaluable to individuals who choose to exploit it as a means to collect further information. With the wealth of information freely available in todays on-line environment Collectors can do much of their preliminary research without leaving the comfort of their own home or breaking a single law. Armed with the freely available information Collectors are now prepared use the net to gather even more information. With the bios and names of executives and key employees they can search the net for their favorite electronic haunts. Spoofing can then be used. Spoofing is defined as masquerade by assuming the appearance of a different entity in network communications. [6] Emails or ICQ addresses can be spoofed, sent with the Collector poising as an investor, potential customer, a reporter, or even a student researching the rising stars of the corporate world. After receiving replies, Email spoofing can be further used to appear as someone in authority within the corporation who can direct mailing of information, the establishment of computer access accounts, and even grant greater access for established accounts. All of these gives the collector access to just a little bit more of the corporation and its secrets, all with minimal exposure of the collector and sets the stage for furt her attacks. These can range from accessing an unsecured port for downloading files, to exploiting any one of a number of known security holes to gain root access to a system. A good example of the potential for Cyber Industrial Espionage comes from a New York Times report that claimed Reuters Analytics, Inc. hired a Collector to steal the underlying software and codes for their rivals, Bloomberg, L.P, data terminals. Though Reuters had a head start in the industry, Bloombergs product was considered superior. Yearly sales of these data terminals exceeds $6.5 Billion. [11] By mixing Mundane and Cyber techniques collectors can multiply the effects of their collection efforts. The routine of the office, gathered by watching, can enable the collector to plan physical break-ins of the building. While roaming the halls of the corporation they can steal trade secrets, clone drives of key employees, and even set in place login captures, all acts that could go totally undetected because it does no involve the removal of a single piece of property. Well planned daytime entries over lunch the lunch hour can allow the informed collector time clone disks, copy key files, or even send emails from key employees desks to set into motion chains of events to leak information or disrupt company performance. Collectors can make use of internal networks to transmit the documents outside the building to avoid security. Industrial Espionage in America The United States being the most dominant economic power in the world today is also a major target of espionage. In 1988, the FBI accused a former Amgen Inc. researcher of peddling secret documents concerning the wonder drug Epogen. In 1989, U.S. agents tracked down three moles working at an IBM affiliate in France after they supposedly botched a sale of confidential documents. [Cited Crock, 1997] The massive information technology infrastructure enables businesses and industries to tap proprietary and secret information of competitors to gain control of the global market place. Research suggests that the threat of espionage and the loss of proprietary/sensitive information have hit the manufacturing industries particularly hard. As the R D expenses for manufacturing companies are costly, some companies, foreign or domestic, are tempted to catch up even if through unlawful means. [Naef, 2003] Industrial espionage is rampant in the United States according to the FBI, of the 173 world nations, 57 were actively running operations targeting the U.S. companies; about 100 countries spent some portion of their funds targeting U.S. technologies. [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 50] A survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the American Society for Industrial Security revealed that Fortune 1000 companies lost more than $45 billion in 1999 due to theft of their proprietary information alone. The study finds that â€Å"although manufacturing reported only 96 incidents, the acknowledged losses of manufacturing companies accounted for the majority of losses reported in the survey, and averaged almost $50 million per incident.† [Cited Naef, 2003] While current and former employees, suppliers and customers are considered to be responsible for 70 to 80% of proprietary/sensitive information losses, an unidentified survey suggests that 21 percent of attempted or actual thefts of proprietary/sensitive information occurred in overseas locations. [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 50] It is significant to note that the U.S is not only a target of espionage, but also actively indulge in espionage activities themselves. The US government has admitted using commercial espionage phone calls were illegally tapped to determine that a French competitor of a US firm was bribing Brazilian officials to obtain an air traffic control radar contract; it was later revealed that the US firm was also bribing officials. It is generally believed that large intelligence agencies of developed nations are involved in the practice of espionage. A commission of the European Parliament suspects that ECHELON, a communications espionage system operated by the U.S. National Security Agency and agencies of the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is used for political espionage and occasionally to help American companies against European competitors. [Vest, 1998] Economic Espionage Act of 1996 Economic and industrial espionage present many challenges to many American companies as rampant information breaches are costing companies substantial sums of money. While corporations and businesses often do not report espionage incidents to law enforcement, the Federal government today recognizes industrial and economic espionage as a crime; the Congress has legislated the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 in an attempt to aid companies to protect themselves from espionage. Section 19831 punishes the theft, misappropriation, wrongful alteration and delivery of trade secrets when accused parties intended to, or knew that their misconduct would benefit a foreign government, instrumentality or agent. The Act allows for legal action regarding â€Å"financial, business, scientific, engineering, technical and economic information,† if a company can demonstrate it has attempted to keep this information classified and protected. The prescribed maximum punishment for an individual offen der is 15 years imprisonment, $ 500,000 fine or both; for an organization the fine is $10 million. [Kelley, 1997] It is understood that many companies dont take advantage of the Act; companies safely exploit the law in full knowledge when news of the breach is known publicly. However, as Naef observes, if the trade secret theft is not publicly known, a company may have to meticulously assess the advantages and disadvantages of suing another company and thereby going public as news of the theft may damage the companys reputation. [Naef, 2003] Yet, cases of industrial and economic espionage have been reported since the enactment of the Act, though scantily. In September 2003 one man was pled guilty of copying trade secrets as defined under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996; the case was the first of its kind in Northern California. The US Attorneys office later publicized that Say Lye Ow, a 31 year old originally from Malaysia, copied sensitive information on Intels first 64-bit processor when he left the company in 1998. [Naef, 2003] Industrial Espionage and Corporate Vulnerability It is often the failure of corporations to adequately protect their information resources that makes them vulnerable to espionage. The vulnerability and the nonchalant attitude of companies are by no means excusable, given the economic implications of the threat of espionage as well as the weakening of the economic power of the subject nation. It may be worthwhile, perhaps vital, to understand the reasons for the vulnerability of corporations in order to prevent espionage and the resulting economic losses to businesses. Businesses make themselves vulnerable to espionage for a variety of reasons, including: Proprietary/sensitive business information not identified Proprietary information not adequately protected Computer and telecommunication systems not adequately protected Lack of or inadequate policies and procedures Employees not aware of their responsibilities Management attitude of â€Å" We dont have proprietary or sensitive information† and/or â€Å"It cant happen to us† [Boni and Kovacich, 2000; p. 50] These factors along with such other threats as increasing miscreants trying to steal information for money and the vulnerabilities of systems on the Internet facilitating information theft on a global scale present pervasive threat to information worth protecting as well as challenge managers, security personnel and law enforcement officials responsible for safety and security of information. Employees, a Threat or Defence Whether called Social Engineering, as in most Hacker manuals, or HUMINT (Human Intelligence), as the Department of Defense refers to it, your employees are targets of Collectors. People are a two-edged weapon in securing your corporate secrets being both the best protection, and the biggest risk. Proper training, education, and motivation can give people the tools and desire to keep your corporate secrets safe. Conversely, appealing to the vanity, greed, or vengeful nature of disenchanted or bored people has always been a tool of the traditional spy. Now these appeals can be made with protection of the electronic web. After gathering sufficient information on employees the Collector can choose his target. If the individual bites, a face to face meeting can be scheduled, if not the only thing that can be turned over the security is an email address or ICQ number, all easily disposed of with no trace to the Collector. Another method used to attack through your employees is to take the information gathered by Mundane and Cyber means and impersonate another individual or spoof them electronically. Calls are placed over the phone, or messages sent via email pretending to be someone with the authority to make decisions. A good choice would be one of those executive officers with the picture and bio on the corporate web page. Regardless of the role many bored or uncaring individuals will give out information to include IP addresses, system setup, and even passwords and userids over to phone when intimidated. Recruiting Insiders is another common practice among Collectors. Many publications on computer security identify the most common source of intentional disruption as authorized individuals performing unauthorized activity. [13] Again, much of the information on the individuals that you would like to recruit can be found in publicly accessible databases and web sites. From this, some casual research can yield those candidates who are most susceptible to bribes or extortion. Often after proper research the Collector can make his presence know to the Insider and have them make the first overtures. This allows the Collector to have some modicum of confidence the individual will no go running straight to corporate security. Insiders are the most valuable assets a Collector can have. They have the time and freedom to search peoples desks, read private memos, copy documents, and abuse coworker friendships. [3] The threat does not end when the Insider leaves the corporation either. In 1992 se veral General Motors employees were accused of taking over 10,000 documents and disks containing GM trade secrets when they defected to Volkswagen. GM sued and in 1997 received a payment of $100 million from Volkswagen. [11] Inserting Agents is one of the least risky forms of Industrial Espionage. The Collector handpicks the individual who they intend to insert. They provide the training, background story, and decide at which level to attempt to insert the individual. Once hired, even in a position of limited access, the individual becomes a trusted Insider for the Collector, able to provide increasing levels of access and perform some of the Mundane and Cyber attacks from within the corporation with minimum threat of being caught. Preventing Industrial Espionage While legal measures and legislations that send strong messages against espionage can be effective in preventing its occurrence, the role and responsibility of corporations is crucial. Even as companies take a non-serious approach to espionage, there is little debate that companies should guard themselves effectively against the ‘info-thieves, both insiders and those unleashed by outsiders, who try to get secrets by all possible means. Measures that may help companies to prevent espionage include: Conducting a survey of risk assessment, and identifying potential risk areas, Developing a security policy without much of safety risks. Frequently evaluating the security policy and procedures and modify if necessary Classifying and marking sensitive and valuable information Isolating information that should never fall into the hands of a competitor Detecting the vulnerable areas that could be exploited by a competitor Controlled storage of sensitive information Controlled destruction of materials Executing Nondisclosure Agreements for employees, vendors and contractors Securing computer systems and networks by installing appropriate information system security products Monitoring email and Internet use [Winkler, 1997; Boni and Kovacich, 2000] While the above methods may be useful in protecting against espionage, central to controlling the industrial espionage is security awareness and training of employees as one of the major points of vulnerability is spying activities by people belonging to the same organization. â€Å"Security awareness and training programs can serve to inform employees about their organizations information security policy, to sensitize them to risks and potential losses, and to train them in the use of security practices and technologies† [Denning, 1998, p.382]. By investing in security procedures and training, corporations may train employees in the areas of personnel, cyberspace and physical security; they can also be made aware of their responsibilities regarding information security of the organization. Conclusion The increasing value of trade secret information in the global and domestic marketplace and the possibilities of the information technology revolution have resulted in a significant rise in espionage activities in the recent years, particularly against the U.S. being the most dominant economic power in the world. While legislations may be useful in preventing the crime of industrial and economic espionage, the onus is largely on corporations to implement adequate security policies and measures to protect themselves from business losses as well as prevent the weakening of the economic power of their country. References 1. Boni W. Kovacich G.L. (2000) Netspionage: The Global Threat to Information MA: Butterworth- Heinemann 2. Crock, S. (1997) â€Å"Business Spies: The New Enemy Within?† Book Review: War By Other Means† Economic Espionage in America By John J. Fialka Business Week Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/1997/06/b351325.htm Accessed 02/26/06 3. Denning, D. E. (1998) Information Warfare and Security MA: Addison-Wesley 4. Jones A. Kovacich G.L. Luzvick P.G. (2002) Global Information Warfare: How Businesses, Governments and Others Achieve Objectives and At

Religious and Artistic Sites of Venice Essay -- Place Geography Italy

Religious and Artistic Sites of Venice The masterpieces of four visual artists, Bellini (1430-1516), Titian (1485-1576), Tintoretto (1518-1594), and Tiepolo (1696-1770), dominate the religious and artistic sites found in the island city of Venice. The city is divided into six districts. Each contains historical sites, however, the most notable are located in the districts of San Marco, San Polo, and Dorsoduro that border the Grand Canal. The artistic and religious sites of Venice are appreciated as part of the island?s historical past, as well as infused in its everyday present. One symbol of the importance of art in Venetian life is the lion of Venice. The lion honors the patron saint of Venice, St. Mark. It can be seen in many different poses including a peaceful, playful stance, an impassive guard, a majestic, stately lion, or even a forceful, warlike lion. The lion, like art and religion, reflects the spirit of Venice. San Marco District Saint Mark?s Basilica Since 830 AD, the basilica has housed the bones of St. Mark which were taken from Alexandria, Egypt and given at the Port of Olivolo to the D oge Giustiniano Particiaco. Mosaics in the basilica depict this event as bones being hidden under barrels of pork to keep Muslims away. Mark was patron saint of Alexandria and then became patron saint of Venice. The emblem of the patron saint is the winged lion with a sword and a book with the words Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus, Peace to You, Oh Mark, My Evangelist. The church was built with eastern inspiration with its oriental domes and lustrous mosaics. This is an example of the connection between Venice and Byzantium, which protected Venice from Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. The church contains four thousand sq... ...artistic sites of Venice leave a lasting impression for all who visit. Works Cited Crivellari, Domenico, and Maria Da Villa Urbani, eds. Basilica di San Marco. Procuratoria di San Marco Venezia. 2003. Girard-Sharp, Lisa, et al. Venice. New York: APA Publications, 1999. Openshaw, Gene, and Rick Steves, eds. Venice 2004. California: Avalon Travel, 2003. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2003. Pioch, Nicolas. ?Titian.? WebMuseum, Paris. 2002. Pioch, Nicolas. ?Bellini.? WebMuseum, Paris. 2002. Rossi, Gerald. ?Il Tintoretto.? Catholic Encyclopedia. 2003. Steves, Rick. Italy 2002. California: Avalon Travel, 2002. Religious and Artistic Sites of Venice Essay -- Place Geography Italy Religious and Artistic Sites of Venice The masterpieces of four visual artists, Bellini (1430-1516), Titian (1485-1576), Tintoretto (1518-1594), and Tiepolo (1696-1770), dominate the religious and artistic sites found in the island city of Venice. The city is divided into six districts. Each contains historical sites, however, the most notable are located in the districts of San Marco, San Polo, and Dorsoduro that border the Grand Canal. The artistic and religious sites of Venice are appreciated as part of the island?s historical past, as well as infused in its everyday present. One symbol of the importance of art in Venetian life is the lion of Venice. The lion honors the patron saint of Venice, St. Mark. It can be seen in many different poses including a peaceful, playful stance, an impassive guard, a majestic, stately lion, or even a forceful, warlike lion. The lion, like art and religion, reflects the spirit of Venice. San Marco District Saint Mark?s Basilica Since 830 AD, the basilica has housed the bones of St. Mark which were taken from Alexandria, Egypt and given at the Port of Olivolo to the D oge Giustiniano Particiaco. Mosaics in the basilica depict this event as bones being hidden under barrels of pork to keep Muslims away. Mark was patron saint of Alexandria and then became patron saint of Venice. The emblem of the patron saint is the winged lion with a sword and a book with the words Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus, Peace to You, Oh Mark, My Evangelist. The church was built with eastern inspiration with its oriental domes and lustrous mosaics. This is an example of the connection between Venice and Byzantium, which protected Venice from Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. The church contains four thousand sq... ...artistic sites of Venice leave a lasting impression for all who visit. Works Cited Crivellari, Domenico, and Maria Da Villa Urbani, eds. Basilica di San Marco. Procuratoria di San Marco Venezia. 2003. Girard-Sharp, Lisa, et al. Venice. New York: APA Publications, 1999. Openshaw, Gene, and Rick Steves, eds. Venice 2004. California: Avalon Travel, 2003. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 2003. Pioch, Nicolas. ?Titian.? WebMuseum, Paris. 2002. Pioch, Nicolas. ?Bellini.? WebMuseum, Paris. 2002. Rossi, Gerald. ?Il Tintoretto.? Catholic Encyclopedia. 2003. Steves, Rick. Italy 2002. California: Avalon Travel, 2002.

Negative Sites on Abortion, Helping Make a Dignified Choice

Every year in the United States, 25% of pregnancies are ended in abortion. This number may seem quite high, but it is actually on the decline and is much lower than several other countries. These numbers are extremely high for one main reason. That reason is a lack of education. When young women become pregnant they feel the only alternative to having the baby is abortion. This is wrong and that is why we must educate the public to bring the abortion numbers down. The abortion issue has two sides. Pro-lifers believe that a human life is created at conception. Pro-choicers believe life begins at birth. Both groups have the common goal of minimizing the number of abortions, but have different ways of accomplishing that. For example, pro-lifers believe abortion should be illegal, while pro-choicers believe that it is the woman†s body as well as her choice. The other main differences lie in the definitions of several key terms. For example take the word pregnancy. Pro-lifers believe pregnancy starts at conception, while pro-choices believe it starts at the time of birth. To bring down the abortion rate, we need to focus on the factors causing the problems (Baird). I believe the main factor is a lack of education. If we started to educate children earlier about pregnancy, we would see a drop in the number of pregnancies and abortions. While this technique may be long and expensive, it is the best remedy for the long run. There are several ways we can implement this technique. We could develop a program similar to D. A. R. E. , in which it is demanded for students to take classes. D. A. R. E. , which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, has been especially successful. The purpose of the program is to inform children that popularity can be found in positive and nonviolent behavior. The program also helps children feel a sense of belonging that stresses their values. D. A. R. E teaches children valuable lessons concerning drugs and alcohol abuse. The program helps the children to lead better, fuller, and more satisfying lives. Research done by the D. A. R. E. program showed that for every $1 spent on drug abuse prevention, communities can save $4 to $5 in costs for drug abuse treatment and counseling. It was also found that in the past two years, drug abuse has either stayed the same or declined. The program has seen this type of success since it started in 1983 (D. A. R. E. ). I believe a class like this concerning abortion and pregnancy would have similar success. The class would inform the children on the purposes of sex and pregnancy. It would teach them the importance of sex and why you should wait for the right person. This would directly tie into abortion portion of the class. The class would tell why abortion is wrong and what alternatives there are to abortion. They would learn how contraceptive methods such as condoms are used to prevent pregnancy, while abortifacient techniques are used to end a pregnancy that has already begun (Prolife. rg). Some other common forms of birth control the students would learn about are diaphragms, cervical caps, contraceptive pills, and emergency contraception pills or â€Å"the morning after pill. † There are some other alternatives to education. One of them is making abortion illegal, but at this stage it is impossible. As the public continues to become more educated, the abortion rate will go down as will the opinion of abortion. At this stage there may be a possibility of making abortion illegal. But until we get to this stage, making abortion illegal is not an option. There is hope though, because the public's opinion of abortion has been changing. A CNN Poll in 1998 showed that only 31% of men and 32% of women were advocates of abortion. A similar poll was taken in 1980, which showed that 52% of the population believed in some form of abortion. Other than education, making it illegal would be the main goal. Obviously abortions would still happen, but now the number of pregnancies each year would dip under five percent. I also believe that more pregnancy clinics are needed. Pregnancy clinics help to spread the word to the public concerning pregnancy. I believe simple things like free condoms are a start to remedy the problem (Religioustolerance. org). As mentioned earlier, education is the best way of dealing with the abortion rate. Education at a younger age helps to control pregnancy and it informs involved parties of the alternatives they have. Not only would the abortion rate and pregnancy rate drop, but so would the number of sexually transmitted diseases. Although every woman has the right to abortion, I believe that many women would change their decision if they knew of the alternatives.

Advertisement and Vice Product

When is the last time you go to order a burger in fast food shop? And recently have you ever went to a convenient store and purchased a pack of cigarette? Nowadays advertisement of fast food, tobacco and alcohol product are catchy in magazines, newspapers, TV commercials or bus stop stations and it seems these products have become part of our daily lives. Fast food, tobacco and alcohol products are advertised as our â€Å"trusted friends† and fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies are targeting not only adults but also teenagers and children to be their potential customers. What are the possible adverse effects brought by these â€Å"vice† or unhealthy products to us and our young generations? It is a known fact that consuming too much fast food, tobacco and alcohol can link to certain health problems such as obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, elevated cholesterol intake and related cancers. In fact, it is estimated in 2010 there are 222,520 new cases of lung cancers and the number of deaths from lung cancer is 157,300. Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30%of cancer death and 87% of lung cancer. Excess consumption of alcohol drinking is the key factor for developing certain cancer and this may increase the risk in having lung cancer. Nevertheless, the issue of consuming too much fast food have drawn the attention of the public too as it contributes the tripled rate of overweight among adolescents and the doubled rate among small children since the 1980s. Despite of such threat to the health of the public by excess consumption of such fast food, tobacco and alcohol products, why is the public still spare their money on purchasing such health-risking product? Rpgger Parloff, â€Å" Is Fast the nest tobacco? For Big Food, the supersizing of America is becoming a big headache, Fortune Magazine, 8/3/2000, page 1 paragraph 1 and 3 ) Perhaps the answer to such question is how much faith we have in these products. It seems we always believe that companies like McDonald, Burger, Heineken or Marlboro are trust-worthy and everything they tell us in their advertisement is true and they claim they are doing their best to serve their customers. But the fact is we are already scammed by these advertisements which are aggressively prompted by companies intentionally abetting us to have confidence in their products. What are the advertisement strategies used by these companies? Fast food companies attract children to purchase fast food by launching advertisement with imaginary characters such as Ronald Donald, including toys in their fast food meal and creating kid clubs or building more playgrounds in their chains. The fast food companies know that children are too young to judge what is right and what is wrong and they are not able to comprehend the purpose of the commercials and believe that everything claimed by the commercials are all true. The Fast food companies are using all their effort to make children develop brand loyalty and recognition to their business so as to encourage children to be their potential customers. Fast food Companies also attract young people to buy fast food by offering soft drinks and snacks in schools or building more chains in school areas in order to encourage students to buys fast food for regular meals. Unfortunately, tobacco and alcohol companies are using even more aggressive strategies to attract future customers. These companies include elements like sexual content to make teenager have ideas that smoking or drinking can make them more mature and there is nothing wrong with enjoying a materialistic life. It is shocking that in most of the tobacco and alcohol commercials there are sexy models in clubs or parties, making exotic posture to make the readers arouse all kinds of fantasy. For example, I remember there is one alcohol advertisement by Bacardi which there is a young woman with underwear in panther’s pattern is striping her clothes off while she is holding a glass of wine. What would young people think about this advertisement? To most of the teenagers there are plenty of things that they are restricted to know about when they are very young. Many young people are very eager or curious to explore new stuff like sex or even smoking and drinking. Tobacco and alcohol companies are now even focusing 18-to-25 year old markets by promoting events at bars and sponsoring rock and blues concerts. Every year alcohol companies spend $5. 7billions on commercials concentrated in sports programs to make their products part of the fun in the matches. Such advertisement strategies by fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies may seem not a big deal to us, however it would be not wise for us to ignore the potential impacts by such products as they are already influencing our life little by little. Too much fast food not only has brought harm to young people’s health but also distorted their universal values by misleading them that everything are granted when their parents promise to buy them fast food after they constantly nag or beg their parents. For cigarette and alcohols, even though these products are for adults only, we should not underestimate the potential harm to teenagers. More and more teenagers may become pro-longed smokers and drinkers and eventually some of them may end up giving up their future by abandoning their study or jobs. In worst case scenario there may result in family dispute and violence. It would be very sad that teenagers choose to have a materialistic life in which he or she immerses themselves in joy-seeking activities like drinking, smoking or even taking drugs only without searching for the real meaning of life. Is there anything we or our government can do to stop fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies from manipulating our lives and protect teenagers from become overweigh victims of obesity or bad habits of smoking and drinking? Our government has the obligation to advocate and carry out certain measures to restrict fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies to promote their unhealthy products to the public. First of all, our government should implement laws that ban direct advertisement of fast food, tobacco and alcohol advertisement to people less than 18 years old through magazine, newspaper, TV programs or commercials and internet. Most children enjoy watching TV everyday and they receive tremendous amount of information from TV channels. Some of these information are educative while some of them are rubbish only. However children are not mature to distinguish what is purpose of such commercials. For example, when children see a commercial promoting McDonald’s burger with Ronald Donald dancing around, he or she may not know that McDonald wants them to ask their parents to pay them 5 dollars for a meal. Instead they may think eating McDonald meal is enjoyable and Ronald Donald is their trusted friend. Indeed big companies don’t really care what kind of consequences will happen on our ulnerable children after they spend so much money on making advertisements and deliver them to the public without taking any responsibility; they only care about how well the advertisements work and promote their products. Hence It is very urgent that our government should advocate and implement certain law to stop such immoral way of advertising by restricting broadcasting of fast food, tobacco and alcohol commercials until it is 10:00 pm when all children are in bed or requiring fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies to make advertisements without mentioning sensitive terms such as â€Å"cigarette†,†beer†,†smoking† or†drinking†. As cigarette and alcohol are proven to be harmful to our health, commercials related to such products should even be banned from magazines or newspaper. If companies violate such laws they have to pay a large amount of fines and people in these companies who are responsible for posing such advertisement may need to go behind bars. However, somebody may argue that such policy is just a seemingly feasible method to stop big companies aggressively advertisement; there are always loop hole for fast food, tobacco and alcohol companies to advertise their products. But does it mean we should not do anything? According to Eric Schlosser’s book â€Å"Fast Food Nation†, â€Å"The academy did not recommend a ban on such advertising because it seemed impractical and would infringe upon advertiser’s freedom of speech. Today the health risks faced by the nation’s children far outweigh the needs of its mass marketers. † Long time ago people didn’t expect much from banning of cigarette advertisement from radio and television, but now everybody knows that smoking is fatal to their health. Hopefully by doing that the fast food companies will consider change their recipe into a healthier one and ultimately help children get rid of their unbalanced eating habits. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Harper Perennial, USA, 2005, page 262) Secondly, adding more tax to fast food may be a feasible idea to encourage people to eat less fast food. Also more tax can be added to toys which are included in children meal in fast food shop. Often children are attracted to fast food simply just for the toys but at the end parents are the ones who pay for the meal. If the parents think the fast food is not worthy, they will start buying less fast food. People have the choice to ake decision for themselves and they can judge whether to buy an expensive fast food meal or not when healthy and cheaper food becomes an alternative to them. It would be a wise idea to prohibit fast food companies from offering soft drinks or fried food in schools or opening chains in area where schools are nearby in order help children resist the temptation of tasty burgers and French fries. According to administrators in San Francisco and Seattle, â€Å"it’s our responsibility to make it clear that schools are here to serve children, not commercial interest. And indeed recently, according to a research published in Journal of Law and Economics in November 2008, elimination of tax deductibility of food advertisement cost equals to increas ing the food advertisement cost by 54%. (Science Daily, â€Å"Ban on fast food TV advertisement would reverse childhood obesity trends, study shows, 1/27/11, < http://www. sciencedaily. com/releases/2008/11/081119120149. htm > ) Lastly, our government can consider making it mandatory to require cigarette manufacturer put on warnings on cigarette packing to make sure that all smokers know the consequence of pro-longed smoking to their body. Of course it wouldn’t be effective enough to have words of warning printed on the packing, so in order to make the warning more deterrent, certain kind of photos should be printed on the packing as well. What kind of photos would be suitable? In Hong Kong photos of black lungs or skeleton with a burning cigarette in its mouth are printed on the packing of cigarette to remind smokers that smoking is a self-destructive behavior rather than a relief. According to Lori Ferrsina, advocate for the American Cancer Society of Massachusetts, â€Å"Reducing public smoking is a golden nugget in its impact on youth. You are changing the world you raise kid in, not just telling them it’s bad for them. † We shouldn’t exploit other’s freedom of smoking, but at least we should facilitate an environment in which we can help people stay away from trying their first puff of cigarette. ( Marianne Lavelle, â€Å"An Anti-smoking Ad vs. New Cigarette Marketing Ploy†, page 2, paragraph 10 ) In fact our government can resort to a more simple solution – education, to convince our future generations that taking care of their health is their own business. Education is another effective way to teach our young generations to make choices on what they eat. Education on how to maintain a balanced daily live and conveying the idea of understanding good health and nutrition should be included in lessons in school in order to let students know how much nutrition they can obtain from their daily meal and what would happen if they eat more than they need. Also children should acknowledge that excess smoking or drinking can result in higher risk of having heart diseases or cancers. Perhaps young people are not willing to pay attention to the importance of having balanced diets or staying away from smoking and drinking but at least they should be warned and have a brief idea of what would happen when they are addicted to fast food, cigarette or alcohol too much. It is our responsibility to help children realize they can make a choice on their diet before they are too late to make such choices. However, even our government is willing to do their best to protect us by implementing laws and policies, it is still our own business to take care of our health. What can we do to make sure we and our children can have balanced diets or stay away from bad habits of smoking or drinking? Firstly, it would be a good idea for parents to supervise their children when they are watching TV or browsing the internet. Some parents are not aware of what kind of TV programs or internet website their children are watching. This is definitely not good to children because they need adults to tell them what kind of messages they get from the media Is correct. If parents are willing to spare a little every day to accompany their children to watch TV or browse the internet, they can possibly prevent their children from accepting wrong information from the media by telling them the truth about excess consumption of fast food, cigarette and alcohol. In fact, simply telling children that they are too young to have too much fast food or smoke and drink, without explaining why adults shouldn’t do the same, is not convincing enough to persuade children that having too much fast food or smoking and drinking are unhealthy. So parents need to be role model to their children by having more balanced and health diets like sandwiches or fruits and quitting smoking or drinking. If parents can make lunch box for children to eat in school every day, children can obtain sufficient amount of nutrition and prevent them from being overweighed. To conclude, although it is our own choice to have or not to have fast food, cigarette or alcohol, that doesn’t make a reason for big companies to promote their products aggressively without considering their social responsibility. Now it is not the time to judge who is right or wrong, instead we should figure out what we can do for our future generations. Works Cited: Rpgger Parloff, â€Å" Is Fast the nest tobacco? For Big Food, the supersizing of America is becoming a big headache, Fortune Magazine, 8/3/2000, page 1 paragraph 1 and 3 Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Harper Perennial, USA, 2005, page 262) Science Daily, â€Å"Ban on fast food TV advertisement would reverse childhood obesity trends, study shows, 1/27/11, < http://www. sciencedaily. com/releases/2008/11/081119120149. htm > Marianne Lavelle, â€Å"An Anti-smoking Ad vs. New Cigarette Marketing Ploy†, page 2, paragraph 10

King Lear Character is Destiny essays

King Lear Character is Destiny essays Character is destiny is a dominant theme that often appears in Shakespearean tragedy. In the play, King Lear this concept is portrayed through the characters of King Lear, Gloucester, and Edmund. The characteristics and the roles that each of the characters have within the society of the play determine the treatment that they receive from other characters as well as their destiny. In the play, Lear demonstrates various characteristics that can be classified as his tragic flaws. In the opening scene, Lears irrational basis for distributing the kingdom between his daughters reveals that he is accustomed to hypocrisy, that he is quick tempered, that he is impatient, and that he is unaware of human limitation. By asking his daughters to publicly display their love towards him, he reveals that he is accustomed to flattery. This also demonstrates that he is proud of his ability to exercise his will quickly and effectively. A.C Bradely comments on this tragic flaw by stating that A long life of absolute power, in which he as been flattered to the top of his bent, has produced in him that blindness to human limitation and that presumptuous self will . In the opening act, King Lear also demonstrates his quick tempered nature through the disowning of Cordelia and the banishment of Kent. When Lear does not hear what he expected from Cordelia, he disowns her as his daug hter without any rational thoughts. This demonstrates that he is accustomed to exercising his will. It also demonstrates that he believes that through his position as a monarch, he can even command human emotions such as love. In addition, when Lear hears what he expects from Goneril and Regan, he rewards them with a large portion of his kingdom. This reveals his gullible, generous, and unsuspicious nature. Overall, Lears characteristics are revealed in the first Act of the play. He is accustomed to exercising his will freely, he is gullible, ...

Newspaper and Internet Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Newspaper and Internet - Case Study Example The first newspaper was published in Beijing in 748 (newspaper–industry.org, n.d.). The paper reported further that the first daily newspaper circulated in 1702 in London and was called The Daily Courant. It was further revealed that in 1754, the first commercial newspaper The Daily Advertiser was published in London. In the U.S. earlyamerica.com, (n.d.) revealed that their first daily newspaper Boston News-Letter came out of circulation in April 1704. Since its inception, the newspaper is strictly for news and it was only in 1856 that commercial advertisements were discovered as a profitable endeavor by newspaper New York Ledger (Bellis, 2008). The invention of the radio in 1920 and television in 1939 did not affect the popularity of the newspaper as the source of news and an effective ads placement alternative. Williamson (n.d. 23rd par.) revealed that â€Å"Most all the major stores are getting back to the basics and finding the print advertising to be the best return on i nvestment†. In 1973, the internet was discovered by Vinton Cerf (ideafinder.com, 2007). It is a known fact that the internet is also a provider of news and ideas much like the newspaper. Critics conclude that the internet will cause the slow death of the newspaper and the people economically dependent on it. The conclusion is based on the fact that the internet provides what the newspaper can for free. Based from this, one need not spend a dime to buy a newspaper just for the news and ads because there is the internet, providing them what they need free of charge. This paper 2 aims to document and analyze the strength and weakness of the newspaper compared to internet and come up with strategies in order to survive in the context of customer service operation and excellence. Business Management experts agree that the obvious first step in order to come up with strategies for survival of a business enterprise is determine the developed perception of the customers about the business. The general truth suggests that this is of prime importance for the reason that perceptions should be well addressed in the formulation of strategies and action plans. Burns (2000), a university professor and a web site owner said that in case of a daily traveler, newspaper is still the choice over the internet for the simple reason that he has to download and print the crossword puzzle in order to work at it while on a public transport going to office. He continued by saying "Well, now you have to print it out, or download it onto a laptop for the trip. You're back to hauling things around again." (24th par.). A blogger by the pen name Lockergnome (2005) reported that what he usually read from the newspapers today are the news he read from the internet site yesterday. The blogger continued by saying that if all readers will finally realize this, surely they will not buy newspaper anymore, waste their time reading because what they are reading is already history. In the end, the perception being shown here is with newspaper, the happenings are not in real time unlike with internet. Another blogger by the name of Farsha (2007) feels that internet is not effective as newspaper in areas where access to the World Wide Web is limited. Farsha further said that if continues presence in the mind of the customer is needed

Explain the VaR framework and its utility in Risk Management Essay

Explain the VaR framework and its utility in Risk Management - Essay Example VaR can be said to be an easy method of measuring the market risk. As of date, VaR technology has spread its wings well beyond financial derivatives and is completely transforming the style the financial institutions’ approach to their financial risk. Initially, VaR is employed to measure the market risk, but now it is being employed to administer and control risk actively. The VaR methodology is now assisting the industry to reckon both operational and credit risk, resulting in the sangraal of companywide management of risk1. (Jorion 2009: x). VaR employs a method of valuation of risk that uses standard statistical methods employed regularly in other technical sectors. In simple terms, VaR can be explained as the most speculative loss over an objective horizon that will not be surpassed with a given level of confidence. Footed upon the company’s scientific founding stones, VaR offers users with a detailed synopsis of market risk. (Jorion 2009: x). . 2 Backgrounds For t hose companies and financial institutions that are vulnerable to risks, management of risk is a vital function. There has been a real reform in the risk-management process, especially in the last decade and VaR is regarded as one of the solutions that received wide publicity in business circles. As per Holton (2003), the main fundamentals of the VaR can be traced back to as early 1922 when the New York Stock Exchange prescribed capital norms for its members. Until 1952, research in VaR was not in progress. Two independent researchers namely Roy and Markowitz almost concurrently advanced but with different version of measuring the risks and the same were published in 1952. As per Holton (2003), the two authors mentioned above were engaged on establishing a way of choosing portfolios that would be facilitating to obtain the benefit for certain level of risk. Holton was of the view that it took nearly four decades until VaR measurement started to be broadly employed by companies and fi nancial instructions. As per Fernandez (2003), the worst financial crisis that occurred in 1987 and the crisis that forced to find a solution by the Basel Committee that all banks should keep adequate cash reserves so that it can cover probable losses in their trading assortment over a 10 –day marked and 99% of their time. With the help of VaR, the quantum of cash to be maintained will be decided. Due to poor risk management process and poor supervision, a huge volume of money can be lost, which was well evidence from the past financial crisis. Thus, VaR has widely been acknowledged as a breakthrough process due to historical errors that crept into the risk -management process. (Holton 2002). As of today, the usage of VaR is being widely employed in financial institutions but there is only limited usage of VaR in non-financial firms. This can be explained that why companies do not employ VaR as they do not normally predict their profits and losses on daily footings that are n ot impacted by volatility in prices in the short-run. However, Mauro (1999) stresses that VaR can be employed even by non-financial firms (companies) that are not impacted by volatility in prices, especially in a short-time horizon. Thus, the chief advantage of VaR is that it is a yardstick that can be employed to almost every