History Summative: The Baby Boom

The Baby Boom was one of the most important events in Canadian history and continues to impact how we live our lives today. After World War 2 ended, between the years of 1945 and 1965, there was a huge increase in population known as the Baby Boom. The Baby Boom occurred because soldiers came home from war with a victory and were finally ready to start a family with their wives or girlfriends in a time when there was a good economy. In 1959, 20 percent of all women who were in their twenties had babies and the average family had three to four children (1). Around 1961, births per 1000 women aged 15-49 hit almost 4,000 (5).In total, more than 8. 2 babies had been born during the baby boom in Canada (2). These statistics give you an indication about how densely and quickly the population increased and how this bulge in the population could not be ignored through the years. Many events in history have helped shape Canada into the country it is today, but nothing has made such an impact on how we have lived, live now, and will continue to live as much as the baby boom has. The Baby Boom created an overwhelming demand for homes because of expanding families needing more room for their newborn children, this demand led to something called â€Å"Suburbia†.More than 1. 1 million housing units were built in the 1950’s (3) to adjust to all of the new families who needed homes – this began the first decade of â€Å"urban sprawl†. There would also be a big huge demand for nurses, school teachers, doctors and such to take care of the huge amount of new kids born as a result of the Baby Boom. Canada’s economy had gone from making Bren Machine Guns just a few years earlier for the war to making baby carriages, baby clothes, new cars, and bunk beds for all the new children that had just recently entered into the world.A few years later, during the 1950’s, when the â€Å"baby boomers† started to become teenagers, society had to a djust accordingly as well. Many communities began to build new arenas, recreational facilities, organizations, and â€Å"teenager hangouts† in order to make up for the huge amount of adolescents roaming their society. In the same time period the baby boomers also began to greatly influence music culture and such. Teenagers tended to listen to the big rock and roll stars at the time, including Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Ottawa’s very own Paul Anka (4).Marketers began to realize that the more they used these songs, the more money they would make. That being said, the baby boomers virtually catered to not only the music industry, but things such as film and books as well. The baby boomers were controlling the way the 50’s and 60’s would later be viewed and talked about in the future. The Baby Boomers are affecting today’s communities. The average baby boomer would be around 65 years old this year. Today, they don’t necessarily rule the medi a world, but they do have a huge impact on job openings for young people.The baby boomers are occupying all of the big jobs of today, making it harder for younger people to find jobs that pay well to support their families. Luckily for teenagers of today, soon the baby boomers will be retiring all at once, leaving a huge amount of job openings in their path. Once the baby boomers retire and become seniors, the taxes may be forced to increase in order to cater to the needs of the huge amount of elderly and their requirements, such as government pensions, and Medicare.There might also be smaller changes that the average person wouldn’t notice, such as the demand for soccer fields and hockey arenas may decrease and golf courses could become more popular. If the Baby Boom from 1945- 1965 didn’t happen, the world today, leading up to today, and even the future, would be very different from the way we live now. When the baby boomers were originally born, they required a huge amount of new housing and supplies, as well as causing a vast increase in population in a very short period of time.When the baby boomers grew up to be teenagers, they virtually controlled the media scene and also required a lot of new buildings and things to be built. Even now, when they are almost seniors in our society, they control a lot of things, one of the bigger things being employment. The Baby Boom happened around 55 years ago, and it still is showing impact on Canada’s development today. There are many other events in Canada’s history that contributed to Canada’s development but nothing continues to have as much of a significant impact as the Baby Boom does.

How Students Can Improve Their Self-Discipline and Time Management Skills

IntroductionTime management, although its term may be a misnomer, is about managing your time with a focus on achievement: of doing and completing those things which you want to do and which need doing. (Adair, J., Thomas, N. 2004, p.4). A good time management strategy can be accompanied by a range of techniques in managing time when accomplishing a certain task or goals within a due date. There are many types of students around the world ranging from preschooler to full time studies to working adults, including myself, studying part time courses. Students tend to procrastinate and get distracted from focusing their work. Therefore, it is important for students to manage their time well and train their self-discipline since young to stay focus in their studies. In this essay, we will be focusing and applying suggestions outlined by Adair, John (1987) and Masterton, Alisa (1997) to discuss more on how students can improve their self-discipline and time management skills. John Adair â €“ Time ManagementOther than being organized or efficient, John Adair believes that time management should be goal-driven and results-oriented. There are ten principles of time management as outlined by John Adair as follows; Develop a sense of personal timeIt is important for us as a student to understand and analyses how to spend and improve the time available to us as the first step to change. Students can keep a record of their time spent such as daily time log and then review it after a few days. By doing this, it will help the students to understand how they have responded to various tasks at different times of the day and may adjust or improve accordingly to their needs. In fact, students will get a much better feeling such as the feeling of satisfaction for the way they spend their time.As mentioned in Adair, J., Thomas, N. (2004, p.9), students are to ensure the followings in order for them to improve the use of time:Your time is spent according to a clear idea of your priorities and main responsibilities.You isolate the unimportant and ruthlessly prune out unnecessary or unproductive activities.You combine any ‘free’ time (i.e. free from meetings or other people’s demands) to create meaningful and usable time of your own.Tasks are simplified where others would not be  adversely affected.You are not doing tasks which could be performed by others.An example of time log:Source: Adair, J., Thomas, N. (2004, p.8) Identifying long-term goalsIt may be worth for students to ponder and identifying their long-term goals as it provides them with a sense of purpose and direction to achieve. Any potential conflicts can also be recognized during this process. For instance: †¢What do we want to be in 3 or 5 years’ time?What strengths and weaknesses do we have?How can we improve?Walt Goodridge provides 5-steps approach which can be put into use for students to set up their goals:Step 1: Find your ‘Why’It is crucial to understand the reason when doing certain things.Step 2: Write your goals downThis motivates students to work for their goals.Step 3: Quantify your goalsStudents should avoid doubts or creating fuzzy goals. They should bespecific when setting out goals.Step 4: Break them downIt will be much easier and manageable for students, especially those who love to procrastinate, to accomplish their goals by breaking down them into smaller parts.Step 5: Develop a strategyStudents should prioritize their task by working out a plan to accomplish their desire goals.Make middle-term plansMiddle-term plans can be seen as operational plan which may help students to achieve their long term-goals by setting out: who? What? When? Where? How? And Why? Adair, J. has set out an acronym to set targets which are known as S.M.A.R.T.Specific – the target must be clear and unambiguousMeasurable – a concrete criteria is needed for measuring the progress in achieving the target Attainable  œ it emphasizes the importance of targets that are realistic and attainable Relevant – the target must be in alignment with other targets whether it is worthwhile or right time etc. Time bound – the target to be set within a time frame, for instance, a target date, to help students to focus their efforts in completing their task before the due date. Planning the dayAdair, J (2004) also emphasizes that the golden rule is to shape the plan an outline for each day by listing the various components. This can help students to categorize and prioritize in relation to the urgency and importance task accordingly. Students need to understand and distinguish ‘important’ and ‘urgent’ term accordingly. Important activities have a result which leads to the achievement of students goals while urgent activities require immediate attention which often associated with the achievement of someone else’s goals. Student may use below Time Management Matrix which is a useful tool to set their priorities.Time Management MatrixSource: Adair, J., Thomas, N. (2004, p.14) Students may face difficulties in juggling with so many responsibilities. Therefore, students should also include in their systems for identifying what must be done today, should be done today and what might be done today (Adair, J., Thomas, N. 2004, p.15) Make best use of your timeThere are certain times where students are more productive than other times. Therefore, it is a must to know which of the quality times students are mentally alert and consistent in performing their task. Breaks in between will also help students to work in concentrated burst. However, students should not take this opportunity to procrastinate in between. Organize office workStudents will need a convenient place to study that is free from distractions in order to be able to focus better. It is also prudent for students to avoid on spending so much time reading which can be easily forgotten.There fore, it is encouraged for students to follow the following steps:Step 1: Shape your environmentAs mentioned earlier, it is important to have a convenient environment to study. There are many things which can distract students from doing their work diligently. Therefore, students have to find ways to overcome these challenges and manage their self-discipline.Step 2: Establishing a daily routineIt would be much easier once the students have created a routine to manage their plans. This may thus help to avoid procrastination and improve self-discipline. Manage meetings effectivelyIt is encouraged for students to prepare well in advance before attending to any workshops or classes to enable them to have a clearer idea on the concepts that are relevant to that particular workshop and thus being able to contribute to the discussion. Delegate effectivelyIn students’ context, it may be a principle which is indirectly in relation to getting others to take some of their workload to en able them to have more time to study. For instance, a working student may request the boss to delegate some of the work responsibilities to someone else so that he/she can leave work at reasonable time to study at home. This may increase the opportunity for students to have more free time to study. Make use of committed timeStudents can make use of their available time more effectively to increase their achievement level. This can be done by doing productive activities to schedule alongside which have to be committed to other activities in their daily routines or during waiting time and travel time. For instance, student may use the opportunity of the long lunch break by reading through some of the lectures or articles. Manage your healthIt is vital for students to look after their energy and stamina levels as time management is about ensuring that they maximize their available time wisely. This is to ensure that students do not suffer any time deprivation through illness of mind or body. In other words, it is important for students to have a well-balanced life.Bad management in both time and stress can push either of them out of control. Students are therefore encouraged to keep themselves healthy and stress-free during their break times by doing certain activities which will helps to clear their mind.Alisa Masterton – Time ManagementOther than Adair’s (1987) list of ten principles for better time management, Alisa Masterton (1997) also outlines a similar list which may assist students as follows: PlanningPlanning helps student to have an overview of the needs to be done with given due date in order for them to accomplish or achieve certain task.PriortisingStudents tend to start prioritizing on tasks that appear urgent however are actually which are not the most important ones. Therefore, it is prudent for them to do things that are of equally important. No time wastingStudents should avoid doing things that are not important to prevent themselv es from wasting any unnecessary time.Learning to say no  Students must avoid from doing task or taking on tasks which does not fit them in. For instance, when they became too pre-occupied and stressed with their own workload, they may not be able to do things effectively.Controlling paperworkIt is important to be organized to avoid missing datelines, losing important things which may lead to waste of time in searching for missing items.The diary as a toolHaving a diary may help students to keep track of what needs to be done with the given due date in relation to the plan and priorities which has been set out.ConclusionFrom time to time, students may face problems in doing their task efficiently and effectively. The main challenges are procrastination and distraction or even having trapped of perfectionism which may hinder the chances to success and thus results in failure. Students who practice good time management skills is often that they are more productive, having more energy to achieve  their task or goals, feeling less stress, having the ability in getting more things done. Both Adair’s (1987) and Masterton’s (1997) time management techniques are helpful for students to manage their time well. Students can balance their time management strategy that works best to be more effectively, productive and thus improve their self-discipline.

Strategic Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Strategic Management - Research Paper Example Chinese market offers one of the most lucrative investment avenues owing to the rapid economic progress that it made during the recent past. Etisalat- a UAE based telecom company is planning to make an entry into the Chinese market. Being one of the emerging firms in the world offering telecommunication services, the entry of Etisalat into the Chinese market will mark a new beginning in the history of the firm. However, Chinese market poses different types of risks and offer new and unique opportunities therefore it is necessary that Etisalat must do its homework and assess the situation with the help of different strategic frameworks and models in order to gain significant insight into the Chinese market. Etisalat (firm) started its operations in 1976 and primarily served UAE market by providing telecommunication solutions. Over the period of time, however, it became one of the leading telecom services providers in the Middle East Region and expanded its operations in more than 18 countries of Asia, Africa as well as Middle Eastern countries. Serving a total customer base of 94 million, Etisalat is considered as the 13th largest mobile services provider in the world. Such high level of penetration into the market therefore indicates that the firm has the capability and will to expand into new markets to create further value for its shareholders. The majority shareholder is UAE government. (Huawei) Started as a joint venture between the local partners from UAE and Britain’s International Aeradio Limited, Etisalat is now largely owned by the UAE government with 60% shareholding whereas remaining 40% is publically held. It is also because of this reason that Etisalat held the official patronage of being the only firm in UAE allowed to telecommunication services within the country and outside the country. The official support of the firm therefore further increased its

Service Operations Management - Talent Drycleaners Case Study Essay

Service Operations Management - Talent Drycleaners Case Study - Essay Example The company has an adequate capacity utilization amount, a standard turnaround time, and a profitable return inherent in its added collection store located in Oshodi. Additionally, the paper will conduct an analysis that seeks to illustrate why Talent Dry-cleaner’s current operational state is limited as far as potential growth while also setting up the stage for making recommendations. The recommendations will be aimed at suggesting that the company hires extra staff, and extend the time of work with the objective of realizing an increased number of average drop-offs handled every day. SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT- TALENT DRYCLEANERS CASE STUDY Introduction Eze owns a dry-cleaning business, Talent drycleaners and Stain Clinic, which has been operational for two years after he branched off from his former employer to start his own business. The major reason for starting a new business laid, in the opportunity, to open a dry-cleaning operation in a heavily populated area, Anth ony Village, which had no dry-cleaning facility. Talent Dry-cleaners relied heavily on client referrals during and after its inception, as well as an awareness campaign complete with customized caps and t-shirts. When funding hampered any further campaigns, he turned to handbill distribution, although this approach was not satisfactory in pulling in large volumes of customers. Recently, he became aware that quite a number of his clients were moving to the outskirts of Lagos, especially the Lekki-Epe axis. Additionally, Eze also began to feel the effect of proliferating dry-cleaning outfits stationed in Anthony Village. This forced him to slash billing charges thrice within one month. Within this competitor base, the key competitive variables included a variety of service, high response levels, delivery time, quality of service, and price. Some outfits had also adopted business differentiation by instituting cloth delivery and amendment in an effort to improve responsiveness. At the moment, Eze has to develop new strategies that will enhance profitability via moving to new markets, improve throughput and turnaround time, as well as efficient capacity utilization. Problem Statement Talent Dry-cleaners finds itself in a position where it has the best service quality available, but potential growth is hampered by severe limitations, especially the lack of funding. Analysis One of the reasons why Talent Dry-cleaners is facing limitations in its growth has to do with capacity utilization. Capacity can be defined as the ceiling or upper limit on the load, which can be controlled by an operating unit that is the upper limit on the output rate (Schneider, 2010). The basic questions that Eze should ask when considering this angle include the kind of capacity needed, the amount of capacity needed, and when the capacity is needed. While there are several definitions for capacity, none of them is applicable universally. Design capacity is defined as service capacity or max imum output rate that a facility operation or process is designed for. Effective capacity is the design capacity fewer allowances such as maintenance and personal time while actual output is the actual output rate achieved, which cannot be more than effective capacity (Schneider, 2010).

Feasibility business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Feasibility business - Assignment Example Presently this soft drinks corner is furnishing a mixture of wonderful local wines, coffees, and several soft drinks along with some foodstuff as well. The future plan is to offer unparalleled Swiss based beverages which include imported cheeses, chocolates, pastries, local and imported coffees, and some related fast food or snack items as well. The major aim is to offer the customers with highest quality services and products to keep them staying again and again. We believe that by getting crucial financial support through the sale within first two years, our cafà © will be able to capture 10-20% of the cafà © industry at Ashland Oregon. The project has estimated that it will enjoy a 37.3% profit for its investment by the end of April, 2014. Cafà © house is a business combination of beverages and foodstuff that is readily available and dished up promptly at sites. This is multi-billion dollar business which in turn keeps on progressing extremely fast around numerous international locations. A cafà © house or franchise is somewhat different from fast-food points as it is recognized from nominal service and by refreshment items simultaneously which may be presented immediately soon after placing the order. The drinking stuff in conjunction with related eatables are usually prepared in volume upfront plus preserved hot for its reuse. Numbers of cafà © houses or beverage outlets are sections of some reputable restaurants or franchises, while standard drinking and eating products are supplied to each venue through main sites. As compared to some other food businesses, the budget fundamentals to set up a cafà © house are comparatively compact in USA especially at locations consisting of low and medium earning community. M ostly eateries wherever people sit a while and enjoy by drinking some coffees, wines or eating some readily made foodstuff are also measured as

Apple's Make-vs.-Buy Decision Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Apple's Make-vs.-Buy Decision - Research Paper Example 1. Explaining Approaches to Recruiting That Might Be Best Suited for Apple’s Talent Acquisition Based on the information given, it is tenable that Apple uses outsourcing as a way of recruiting employees for top engineering or technology positions. Furthermore, it is best if Apple ensures that the vendor (the company providing outsourcing services) is a private employment agency, given the competitive edge which characterizes privatization. With competitiveness comes increased efficiency. The importance of outsourcing is that it will guard the secrecy that characterizes Apple products (Williams and Curtis, 2012). Gallo (2012) proposes that another option that Apple may consider is the extension of the recruitment practices of Apple to colleges and universities. This approach can complement Apple’s outsourcing since it is cheaper and will therefore go a long way in assuaging high expenses that may emanate from outsourcing. Likewise, Apple is bound to rake in the freshest of ideas and manpower that completing college and university students may bring with themselves into an organization. Again, Apple should consider fielding direct applicants. This option may involve, identifying vacant portfolios and then advertising them in the dailies. Referrals and internal promotions can also help this course. This approach is vindicated by the fact that Apple appeals to all consumers and is therefore likely to attract as many applicants as possible. This option will also help Apple abate the level of expenditure it would incur by outsourcing its recruitment activities. 2. Describing Recruiter Traits and Behaviors That Would Lead To the Most Successful Recruiting Campaign for Apple Apple’s recruiter traits can greatly help further its successful recruitment campaigns. Apple’s recruiters are welcoming, warm, have a personal touch and are trendy and innovative. The same are also tech-savvy and specialists who are deeply acquainted with Apple’s products, mission and organizational culture. In order that Apple attracts the best skills and talent, it has to have tech-savvy and specialists who are well informed about Apple’s products and technology so that applicants who meet the threshold that Apple requires can be separated from those who do not qualify. Without the input of these specialists, it will be impossible to identify practical skills that Apple needs (Merrill, 2008). Conversely, the welcoming and warm nature of the recruiters is to help Apple maintain the human aspect of Apple’s activities and corporate image. If the recruiters are welcoming and kind, both successful and unsuccessful applicants are left feeling that Apple is committed to fair and democratic human resource practices and (it) has an environment that helps foster optimal productivity. To attract the best talent in IT technology, Apple must present itself as the organization that such talent is looking for, as the best organization to w ork with. This in turn is impossible if the recruiter lacks personal touch (Pfeffer, 1992). 3. Suggesting Three Ways That Apple Can Effectively Plan for HR Resources Some of the ways Apple can use to effectively plan HR resources include: Hiring the services of another company to manage Apple’s HR resources (also known as outsourcing). This will be the most expensive approach. Training existing employees on new skills. This approach will be relatively cheaper. Downsizing. This is the

Libya and Qatar's role in the Libyan Revolution Essay - 1

Libya and Qatar's role in the Libyan Revolution - Essay Example In the eastern city of Benghazi, there are headquarters of the opposition forces whose fighters have stronghold in the Jebel Nafusa.These rebels took over the village of Gualish that stood at a distance of about 90 km from Tripoli.This takeover was followed by a deadly battle between hundreds of fighters. The forces of Col. Muammar Gaddafi have conventionally displayed strong determination to overpower the rebels. The government troops are equipped with a broad range of weapons which keep the rebels from advancing permanently. In Gualish, battles could be seen smouldering in the houses located on the battlefield that were abandoned by the local people. Looters entered the buildings and the rebel fighters siphoned petrol from the petrol filling stations. The rebels replaced the green flag of Gaddafi’s Libya with their own red, black, and green flag in several places which imitated their attempt to free Libya. Prior to the entrance of rebels in the area, Nato had bombed some of the heaviest weapons possessed by Col Gaddafi. A rebel fighter said, â€Å"The Gaddafi forces booby-trapped some of the houses with trip wires and explosives †¦ We had to be very careful as we went through the town† (Doyle). Gualish is only at a distance of about 45 km from Gharian, that is the strategic garrison town controlled by Gaddafi’s soldiers. Rebels could not immediately reach Tripoli, but Gharian has remained a target for the uprising. The main north-south road that connects Tripoli to the Sahara desert is dominated by Gharian. According to the rebels, Col Gaddafi kept arms depots in the desert and also recruited fighters from other countries in the same desert. A young Libyan woman who was the member of the youth protest movement said, Now people are dying we’ve got nothing else to live for. What needs to happen is for the killing to stop. But that won’t happen until he [Gaddafi] is out. We just want to be able to live like human beings. N othing will happen until protests really kick off in Tripoli, the capital. It’s like a pressure cooker. People are boiling up inside. I’m not even afraid any more. Once I wouldn’t have spoken at all by phone. Now I don’t care. Now enough is enough. †¦ I’ve seen violent movies and video games that are nothing compared to this. I can hear gunshots, helicopters circling overhead, then I hear the voices screaming. I can hear the screeching of four-by-fours in the street. No one has that type of car except his [Gaddafi's] people. My brother went to get bread, he’s not back; we don’t know if he’ll get back. The family is up all night every night, keeping watch, no one can sleep. (Worthington). But such views of the public seemed to both Col Muammar Gaddafi seemed little. â€Å"I am a glory that will not be abandoned by Libya, the Arabs, the United States, and Latin America... revolution, revolution, let the attack begin,† Gaddafi cited in Ashour). Such a behavior is typical of the Dean of Arab leaders who has ruled Libya as a self-declared King for over 42 years. Gaddafi has made a large number of show-stopping appearances at various gatherings within the Arabian Peninsula and abroad (Asser). It is not only his outlandish clothing that makes him stand out, but is also his unconventional attitude and blunt speeches. Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia resulted into immense bloodshed and became the cause of demise of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, but Colonel Gaddafi would not relinquish authority without an intensely deadly encounter. One of his sons, Khamis led the uprising’s brutal suppression in Benghazi. Khamis is â€Å"the Russian-trained commander of an elite special forces unit† (Worthington). Gaddafi has also had full support of his other sons. However, the tactics used by Gaddafi have boxed him in. It will be difficult for him to face internal exile like Hosni Mubarak or else, seek refuge abroad like Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali,

Media and Culture in the Arab Society Assignment

Media and Culture in the Arab Society - Assignment Example In addition, the paper is going to discuss the mutual influence of culture and media as it manifests itself in the Arab society. Culture comprises of the philosophies, behaviors, objects, and other features conjoint to the adherents of a particular group. Hence, through culture, people and the groups outline themselves, abide by the people’s common values, and back the society. As such, culture comprises numerous communal aspects such as; language, tools, customs, morals and ethics, standards, rules, machinery, products, governments, and institutions. Further, most culture defines the institutions as the family, education, religion, work, and healthcare ( Andersen and Taylor 69). In this sense, the influence of culture on media in the Arab culture is mainly guided by the above-named aspects. For instance, morals and ethics are highly regarded in all Arab cultures. This has been attributed to its deep devotion to religion and equally through its high value for its institutions. Unlike in the American cultures where morals and the institutions are very diluted and less valued, hence being vulnerable to the media influences. Moreover, the governance of Arab cultures is very strict on the forms of technologies, products and organizations that serve its people. For instance, prostitution, pornography among others is viewed to be rime that can even attract death penalties. The presence of such hefty penalties, therefore, defines what can be broadcasted on media. Consequently, media houses have been forced to constrain themselves to what is ‘acceptable’. ( Andersen and Taylor 69) The other aspect that is valued with high regards in the Arab world is religious beliefs. Religion has been attributed to be the driving force of morals and ethics. With such deep religious beliefs and culture is bound to be in control of negative influences. Hence, Arab cultures have been able to define the media rather than the media being able to influence them. It is factual that most  cultures in the Arabs are Muslims and it is well known that value their religion.  

Appraisal of Laura Poppo and Todd Zenger Article

Appraisal of Laura Poppo and Todd Zenger - Article Example The paper introduces one means by which other factors to a company’s transaction cost economics (TCE) in addition to the widely recognized and tested boundary choice theory might be measured in the information services field. After explaining the concepts involved with efficiency models based on boundary choice, the authors reveal the weaknesses introduced in the results of these models as a result of an inability to test for performance-level data. By testing the influence of exchange attributes on the performance levels of markets and firms independently, the authors are able to incorporate production and governance efficiency within their models. The literature review, presented in conjunction with the development of the various hypotheses to be tested, is well-rounded, examining various aspects of the theories that have presented, including their strengths and weaknesses. This provides a very informative background introduction to the subject as well as establishes how the various hypotheses were developed. The sample selected for the study is similarly based upon the work of previous scholars, concentrating on the same group of professionals as being the most involved with the factors under consideration. However, this study differed from others in that it attempted to include a much broader selection of informants than previous studies.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Essay Example for Free

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Essay Artificial intelligence (AI) results to simulation of intellectual practice such as comprehension, rationalization and learning symbolic information in context. In AI, the automation or programming of all aspects of human cognition is considered from its foundations in cognitive science through approaches to symbolic and sub-symbolic AI, natural language processing, computer vision, and evolutionary or adaptive systems. (Neumann n. d.) AI considered being an extremely intricate domain of problems which during preliminary stages in the problem-solving phase of this nature, the problem itself may be viewed poorly. A precise picture of the problem can only be seen upon interactive and incremental refinement of course, after you have taken the initial attempt to solve the mystery. AI always comes hand in hand with machine logistics. How else could mind act appropriately but with the body. In this case, a machine takes the part of the body. In a bit, this literature will be tackling about AI implemented through Neural Network. The author deems it necessary though to tackle Machine learning and thus the succeeding paragraphs. Machine Learning is primarily concerned with designing and developing algorithms and procedures that allow machines to learn – either inductive or deductive, which, in general, is its two types. At this point, we will be referring to machines as computers since in the world nowadays, the latter are the most widely used for control. Hence, we now hone our definition of Machine Learning as the study of methods for programming computers to learn. Computers are applied to a wide range of tasks, and for most of these it is relatively easy for programmers to design and implement the necessary software. (Dietterich n. d. ) Machine learning techniques are grouped into different categories basing on the expected outcome. Common types include Supervised, Unsupervised, Semi-supervised or Reinforcement learning. There is also the Transduction method and the ‘Learning to learn’ scheme. A section of theoretical computer science, Computational Learning Theory is the investigation on the computation of algorithms of Machine Learning including its efficiency. Researches on Machine Learning focuses mainly on the automatic extraction of information data, through computational and statistical methods. It is very much correlated not only to theoretical computer science as well as data mining and statistics. Supervised learning is the simplest learning task. It is an algorithm to which it is ruled by a function that automatically plots inputs to expected outputs. The task of supervised learning is to construct a classifier given a set of classified training examples (Dietterich n. d.). The main challenge for supervised learning is that of generalization that a machine is expected in approximating the conduct that a function will exhibit which maps out a connection towards a number of classes through comparison of IO samples of the said function. When many plot-vector pairs are interrelated, a decision tree is derived which aids into viewing how the machine behaves with the function it currently holds. One advantage of decision trees is that, if they are not too large, they can be interpreted by humans. This can be useful both for gaining insight into the data and also for validating the reasonableness of the learned tree (Dietterich n. d. ). In unsupervised learning, manual matching of inputs is not utilized. Though, it is most often distinguished as supervised learning and it is one with an unknown output. This makes it very hard to decide what counts as success and suggests that the central problem is to find a suitable objective function that can replace the goal of agreeing with the teacher (Hinton Sejnowski 1999). Simple classic examples of unsupervised learning include clustering and dimensionality reduction. (Ghahramani 2004) Semi-supervised learning entails learning situations where is an ample number of labelled data as compared to the unlabelled data. These are very natural situations, especially in domains where collecting data can be cheap (i. e. the internet) but labelling can be very expensive/time consuming. Many of the approaches to this problem attempt to infer a manifold, graph structure, or tree-structure from the unlabelled data and use spread in this structure to determine how labels will generalize to new unlabelled points. (Ghahramani 2004) Transduction is comparable to supervised learning in predicting new results with training inputs and outputs, as well as, test inputs – accessible during teaching, as basis, instead of behaving in accordance to some function. All these various types of Machine-Learning techniques can be used to fully implement Artificial Intelligence for a robust Cross-Language translation. One thing though, this literature is yet to discuss the planned process of machine learning this research shall employ, and that is by Neural Networks.

Business Process Reengineering in Service Sector

Business Process Reengineering in Service Sector Over the years, there has been a realization that for all businesses, manufacturing or service, change is key to success. Increasing costs, challenging timelines, cutthroat competition, and technological innovations are some of the major factors propelling change. Since most of the services are people / process oriented, the change is not easy to carry. Add to it, the fast vanishing geographical boundaries make the tasks even more difficult for the organizations. Whether the company operates in manufacturing sector or in services; organizations have been forced to rethink their strategies. Many a time, service sector has been ahead of manufacturing in the Business Process Reengineering queue. Improved Product / Service quality, reduced cycle time, reduced cost to the customer are direct outcomes of BPR. BPR is essentially different from other changes in an organization that it defies the Old wine in a new bottle principle. Business Process Reengineering is by definition, the means by which an organization can achieve radical change in performance as measured by cost, cycle time, service, and quality, by the application of a variety of tools and techniques that focus on the business as a set of related customer-oriented core business processes rather than a set of organizational functions. The shift is imminent. Competition is now global as against Local or regional in the past. Markets are focused in comparison to Mass. Operations are flexible in contrast to controlled. The focus is on Best service than performance. BPR is the answer as it talks of radical change vis-a-vis Traditional approach which limits itself to incremental changes. Business Process Reengineering involves tinkering with the organizations DNA and producing an evolved species. The mistake companies tend to make is pick the wrong process to be reengineered, or make only superficial changes. According to James A. Champy one of the founders of the management theory behind Business Process Reengineering, and proponent of a process oriented view of business management, BPR is not just about reducing cost but also improving quality, speed to market and changing the customer experience. Why BPR? The changing economic environment has led to an increasing interest in improving organizational processes to enhance business performance. BPR has been instrumental in success of various organizations. Sidikat, Ayanda (2008) in paper titiled, Impact Assessment of Business Process Reengineering on Organisational Performance concluded that business process reengineering has become useful weapon for any corporate organization that is seeking for improvement in their current organizational performance and intends achieve cost leadership strategy in its operating industry and environment. Different objectives of BPR include: Reduced transaction process time Improved customer service Increased volume of business Reduced operating cost Higher profitability Improved Employee loyalty Key enablers of BPR BPR involves a rationale change at every level of organization starting with top management. The most important thing to keep in mind while implementing any such exercise is to work across processes and not functions. Equally important is to have a strong internal team that is working on the implementation. Key enablers of BPR can be listed as follows: People Management Leadership Organizational Culture Functional Expertise Instantaneous reaction Performance Indictors Quality, Lead Time, Cost, Service Service Sector in India The service sector has experienced rapid growth over the years as many nations including India shifted from a manufacturing-based economy to a service economy. A major spur in this shift happened as a result of computerization and advancements in telecommunication. Along with this shift, the consumers expectations have grown manifold. It is extremely difficult to meet desired service levels in todays age without a shift from age old systems to high-tech advanced systems. Before discussing about BPR in service sector, a brief list of different Service sectors is as follows. Trade Hotels and Restaurants Railways Other Transport Storage Communication (Post, Telecom) Banking Insurance Dwellings, Real Estate Business Services Public Administration; Defense Personal Services Community Services Other Services BPR Service Sector Though Business Process Reengineering has been instrumental in changing the fate of many manufacturing industries, it has played an equally pivotal role in service sector. Additional Ps People Process that differentiate Services from Products along with PhysicaI Evidence are the most important drivers leading to this overhaul. Suzanne Wintrob (1995) in research paper titled It wont work if users kept in dark discussed the incomparable role of people in Business Process Reengineering. According to Sunil Chandiramani, National Director Advisory services, Ernst Young, The external team (consultants) can facilitate the process, but it has to be led by the internal team. In recent past, many service sector companies have successfully seen the transition from being overloaded with papers to technology driven time-saving systems. In India, with government giving a go-ahead to private players in 90s, public sector companies felt the heat and started losing market share to private counterparts. The private companies implemented modern centralized core processing systems. Banking is one of many Indian industries where this transition holds true. Indian Post and Indian Railways are other two takers of this dynamism. Banking Finance Public Sector Banks in India are the building blocks of Indian economy. Ironically, they had been deprived of all modernized systems till late 90s. They offered the most basic services such as manual deposits and withdrawals as compared to a bouquet of services such as facility of ATM, 24-hour banking, E-banking, M-banking provided today. State Bank of India is one such example which had undertaken a massive computerization effort to automate all its branches, implementing a highly customized version of Bankmaster core banking system. However, because of Banks historic use of manual systems void of centralization and problems in communication systems, it had to resort to decentralized system to start with. The need for reengineering arose because SBI along with other public sector counterparts started losing existing customers and were handicapped to tap the ever growing potential of middle class. In 2000, SBI engaged KPMG for this overhaul and in 2002, KPMG recommended an IT driven systems to counter the private players led competition. To start with 3300 branches were selected for implementation which was later expanded to 14600 of SBI affiliate branches considering unparalleled success. SBI planned to provide a single window system, better customer service, wanted to reach out to urban as well as rural population and control the customer switching along with many other objectives that it sought. The biggest problem that drove this restructuring for this Public sector giant was that since branches were not connected, the customer was a Branch customer rather than a Bank customer. Moreover Information Technology till now, was aimed only at Internal efficiency. Hence, it was planned to share operations for back-office functions and rework the workflows and processes. Indian Postal System BPR has aimed at radical improvements by means of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business processes that exist within and across department. The key for BPR is to look at business processes from a clean slate perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve the way business is conducted. Department of Posts occasionally conducts workshops related to BPR involving the people such as Nodal Officers who are part of BPR strategy and implementation. India Post has been making several upgradations to existing systems and has started offering bouquet of services such as Money Transfers, One-stop bill payment (Telephone, electricity), Driving license renewals etc. Speed Post, started by Department of Posts in August 1986 for providing time-bound and express delivery of letters documents and parcels across the nation and abroad, is the market leader in the domestic express industry. Through ePOST service launched in 2004, customers can send their messages to any address in India with a combination of electronic transmission and physical delivery through a network of more than 1,55,000 Post Offices. ePOST sends messages as a soft copy through internet and delivered to the addressee in the form of hard copy at nominal charge of Rs 10 per A4 sheet. ePayment is a comprehensive bill payment service offered by India Post to help meet the needs of the business customers.  This allows collection of bills (telephone bills, electricity bills, university fee, school fee, insurance premia etc) on behalf of any organization. The collection is consolidated electronically using web based software and payment is made centrally through cheque from a specified post office. The payment information can be assessed online by the user. Instant Money Order (iMO), the instant on-line money transfer service, provides speed, mobility, safety and reliability for money transfer. IMO is an instant web based money transfer service through Post Offices (iMO Centre) in India between two resident individuals in Indian territory. Though the number of services offered is many, still huge gaps exist in quality as compared to international standards. To enable Department of Posts to achieve the business objectives of becoming the IT enabled complete service provider, Project Management Unit have been entrusted with the task of creating state of the art electronic network covering all its offices and all products and services including third party services and enable electronic transmission of information for conducting monitoring operations, consolidating transactions data and generating an effective MIS. Business Process Reengineering groups were formed and their reports are being evaluated by concerned Divisions of Directorate, which would form the base to make the comprehensive IT strategy and roadmap for Department of Posts. Indian Railways Its been long since computerized passenger reservation system was started by Indian Railways. Today the reservation related workload has increased manifold but railways have been able to manage the work without much increase in manpower. Different systems incorporated by railways includes- Software Aided Train Scheduling Network Governance Main objectives of train scheduling are that it should be convenient to the passenger and feasible to run on the system. Introducing new train services and augmenting older ones is an art and a select group of planners are highly skilled in this task. Indian Railways have now started using information technology to aid the planning process. Web Enabled Claims System The worlds biggest employer, the Indian Railways, which earlier used to prepare various claim (Court/Accident) documents manually, has shifted to web claims format which maintains up to date database of all such cases. Thereby, eliminating complex file maintenance providing for queries that gives the precise status of registered cases in Chief Claims Office. Punctuality Module This module was implemented in February, 2004. This module captures the delays involved in train running at interchange points and detention causes for the delays at the divisional level. Based on this input, reports are generated for traffic managers. CONCERT Country-wide Network for Computerized Enhanced Reservation and Ticketing developed by CRIS, is a total networking solution to Indian Railways Passenger Reservation System. Seat Availability/PNR/Journey Planner/Fare/Time Table enquiries and e-Reservation of tickets are available on the internet. Along with above initiatives, ATM integration with reservation/enquiry system is being planned as well. A number of Banks in India shall be issuing Reserved and Unreserved Tickets through their ATMs under an arrangement with Zonal Railways. It is not only the old stalwarts who have reengineered. Even the private sector and novice companies in upcoming sectors have seen this change. For Spencers, RPG Groups retail chain, massive ramp-up in operations necessitated a series of restructurings. The chain planned to increase from an area of 2.5 lakh square feet to 15 lakh square ft i.e. from 52 to 400 stores. This meant that the older systems were no longer adequate. Hence, instead of doing an incremental improvement on the existing processes, the company introduced an automatic replenishment system. This has resulted in decreased stockouts and increasing efficiency. It may be concluded that BPR initiatives have less to do with controlling costs and more about managing business, which underlines the importance of this concept.

Star Traveling To The Millennium :: essays research papers fc

Now as we are rapidly approaching the Millenium many people are getting the blues. This seems absurd because this offers all of us a perfect chance to start again. NASA is embracing this chance to grow and expand their departments. The phrase, â€Å"Space, the final frontier,† expresses the world’s obsession with space travel, that started centuries before it even became popular 30 years ago in Gene Roddenberry’s TV series â€Å"Star Trek.† Science fiction has entertained our culture for years. Movies such as Star Wars and Planet of the Apes have helped fuel our desire to get off the planet earth, find new life forms, and conquer the stars. Science-fiction dreams of worlds beyond our solar system have taken on a more realistic aspect since astronomers discovered that the universe contains planets in surprisingly large numbers. Studying those distant planets might show how special Earth really is and tell us more about our place in the universe (NASA homep age). Finding a planet that can support human life would revolutionize our society into the Jetson’s. These ideas are soon to become our realities. NASA is currently experimenting with many methods to try to explore the outer edges of the galaxy. In order to understand NASA’s excitement about star traveling, we will first fly through current projects concerning space travel, second explore three possible technologies being experimented with for the year 2000, finally take a trip into our future and experience how star traveling will change our lives as we approach the end of the second millenium.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NASA’s goal of faster, better, cheaper has been the motivation for them to develop new mission concepts, and to validate never-before-used technologies in space. The new technologies, if proven to work, will revolutionize space exploration in the next century. According to NASA’s New Millennium Program home page, last updated on September 16,1999, NASA’s current project of Deep Space 1 demonstrates some of their most exotic technologies. One of the most impressive is the testing of an ion engine that is supposed to be 10 times more efficient than liquid or solid rocket engines. Deep Space 1 was launched on October 24, 1998. It is the first mission under NASA’s New Millennium Program, which features flight testing of new technology, rather than science as its main focus (Rayman 4). These new technologies will make spacecraft of the future smaller, more economical, reliable, and closer to the goal of efficient space travel.

Correlations between Biology and Male Homosexuality Essay -- Science S

Correlations Between Biology and Male Homosexuality Homosexuality, one of the many different sexual behaviors exhibited by humankind, has been rejected, persecuted, and denied. Are the studies that attempt to find causation moral? Is this search for the "why" of homosexuality a continuation of the heterosexist assumption that heterosexuality is normal and homosexuality abnormal? Are assumptions being made that homosexuality is a disease and should therefore be treated medically? Is the research currently being done heterosexist? Studies that are being performed currently and those done in the recent past have shown that there are strong connections between male homosexuality and biology. By presenting the scientifically significant studies that I have come across, I intend to reduce the ignorance surrounding homosexuality and the behaviors often found with it, and to show some of the correlations between biology and male homosexuality. Throughout my research of homosexuality, I wavered back and forth, debating the morality of this search for a cause. It seemed that finding a cause for homosexuality was somewhat akin to finding the cause for a disease. Unhappy with the association of homosexuality with abnormality, I wondered why scientists were allowed to place homosexuals at such a level. On one hand, with biology backing up gay men and women, the fight for equality and basic human rights could be won more quickly. Although science and society have progressed significantly since the days of Nazi Germany, when homosexuality was thought to come about through "seduction and mind-traps," critics of the current scientific curiosity with homosexuality consider every study and experiment an effort to strengthen the argument tha... ...ce of linkage to micro satellite markers on the X-Chromosome in a Canadian study," poster presentation at the International Academy of Sex Research, Provincetown, MA, 1995 Slimp, J. C., B.L. Hart, and R.W. Goy, "Heterosexual, autosexual and social behavior among adult male rhesus monkeys with medial preoptic-anterior hypothalamic lesions," Brain Research 142:105-122 (1978). Soulairac, A. and M. L. Soulairac, "Effets de là ©sions hypothalamiques sur le comportement sexuel et le tractus gà ©nital du rat male," Annales d'Endocrinologie (Paris) 17:731-745 (1956). Stein, Edward. The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Whitman, F.L., M. Diamond, and J. Marin, "Homosexual orientation in twins: A report on 61 pairs and three triplet sets," Archives of Sexual Behavior 22:187-206 (1993).

Three Cups of Tea Essays -- Literary Analysis, Greg Mortenson, Oliver

Three Cups of Tea is a book written by Greg Mortenson and Oliver Relin. It centers on Mortenson’s journey to build schools in Pakistan. When Mortenson ended up in Korphe after an attempt on the climb of K2, Mortenson was in the care of Haji Ali. Mortenson promised to build a school in Korphe after learning that Korphe did not have a school. Since then, Haji Ali became a large influence in Mortenson’s life and his mission in the Korphe school. Haji Ali, the chief of Korphe, first met Mortenson when he landed in Korphe after he failed climbing K2. He took care of Mortenson letting him rest and giving him tea. When Haji ali told Mortenson that Korphe had no school and that the Pakistani government didn’t prove a teacher, Mortenson promised to build a school for all the things Haji Ali did for him back in Korphe (Relin and Mortenson 31-33). He showed Mortenson the way of life in Pakistan, and the things need to be done in order to build the school. While Mortenson was away, Haji Ali discussed the school in Korphe. He told Mortenson that they have to build a bridge (Relin and Mortenson 97). Mortenson was angry, not angry with the villagers in Korphe, but angry with himself for not planning better. How else would they carry the supplies needed for the school? With Haji Ali’s advice of building a bridge, Mortenson stayed in Korphe until he understood everything that needs to be done in order to build the school. H aji Ali was the one that proposed every healthy man in the village to lend a hand in carrying the cable and stones to Korphe to starting building the bridge (Relin and 114). Sooner or later with everybody’s help, the bridge has been built with the final plank put in place by Haji Ali (Relin and Mortenson 123). After the b... ...bided the education of girls and the construction of the school. Mortenson learned to respect the ways of the Balti people when Haji Ali told him about the lesson of the three cups of tea. He now knows to trust the local villagers when it comes to finding another location for a new school by going to places where he already had contacts with. Mortenson learned from Haji Ali not to go anywhere in Pakistan without the hospitality of a village chief. Finally, Haji Ali’s last words taught Mortenson to listen to the children, as in to think of them when continuing to build more schools. With all the lessons Haji Ali taught Mortenson, Mortenson is now more effective with dealings with locals in the region resulting in being more effective as the director of CAI. Everyone needs someone like Haji Ali in their life to potentially succeed in whatever the mission life brings.

Survival of the Fittest

Survival of the Fittest His sweaty palms clutch a few coins. The bus line moves forward. Ticket paid for, a quick glance to the back of the bus. They wait, feeding off his panic and distress as he walks to his seat. Fiona Dove investigates teen bullying. Survival of the fittest has been a notion well accepted by society when applied to animals. The strong and the weak battle it out to determine who will be supreme. Does this theory apply to bully behaviour? If three-quarters of Australian households have at least one person affected by bullying are our children fighting a battle, which will determine how they conduct their lives? The Education of Queensland Child Protection Act defines bullying as â€Å"The abuse of power with the intention of causing distress to other person(s)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bullying is a poisonous weed within society. Research shows that children who bully at a young age have a higher risk of committing felonies as an adult and becoming a criminal. Indeed victims of bullying have experienced psychological damage so severe it lead to suicide. Chanelle Rae was fourth student from Western Height College in Geelong, Victoria to commit suicide in a five-month period. Chanelle was a zealous supporter of the Geelong cats. Her idol Corey Enright a cats team member was pallbearer at her funeral. However on the 17th of July in 2009 Chanelle committed suicide after a brutal cyber bullying attack. [pic] It's natural, so what’s wrong with this Picture? With technology constantly advancing this generation has much more choice in torturous devices than 20 years ago. Mobile phones, Internet physical violence and smear campaigns are all weapons in a bully’s arsenal. With all this at a bully’s disposal victims are in a constant state of trepidation unsure as to which direction the blow will come from. Television programmes preach that only those who fit the stereotype of a â€Å"Nerd† are bullied in society; the reality is that a bully can target anyone. Insecurities, fear and jealousy are the underlying emotions that bullies deal with by intimidating and antagonizing others. As a consequence of young people being herded together for extended periods of time, the instinct to overpower and â€Å"bully† others is natural. As caregivers we should be asking ourselves whether bubble wrapping and shrouding children from the public domain mean that they have insufficiently developed social skills? Are we, ironically, making children revert back to the battle for supremacy? With one in five students having been harassed at school and at least one in three children bullied almost daily, only a fool would say that bullying in schools is a minor problem. â€Å"Bullying will always be a part of school culture,† agrees Alison Heder a school bus driver. To change the bullying culture children need to be told from a very young age that telling a trusted adult, whether it may be a school counsellor or a parent in OK and not â€Å"tattle-telling†. Rather than being sheltering children should be out learning how to behave. Instead of being thrown straight into the sharks at the age of six when school starts, the transition from home to school would be less of an ordeal for children if the basic foundations of good communication were already in place. Queensland Government Department of Education and Training, Code of School Behaviour requires that schools provide a safe and supportive learning environment. When asked about her thoughts on this in regards to the current bullying issues Alison exclaimed â€Å"It’s not the schools fault! Parents need to teach their children acceptable behaviour through example† Studies have shown that with effective communication between the school and home in most cases is able to stop the bully and help the students move forward. On the other hand when the student is too afraid to reach out for help the result can be fatal. On the 15th of February 2010 a young boy encountered a terrible fate. Elliot Fletcher, at just 12 years old was stabbed in the chest. This story was met with shock Australia wide as the reality of bullying in schools was realised. The well-established Catholic school, St. Patrick’s College, recorded 380 absences out of 1100 after the news of Elliot’s passing had spread. The reputation of all Private schools was further tarnished as several more violent attacks were reported. Parents are now questioning how the government is handling the bullying epidemic. Alison Heder concurred that the government’s current handle on the bullying situation is as ineffectual as it is inadequate. Whilst bullying may never be truly eliminated from society the aim of new bullying campaigns is to inform the victims of bullies of the various resources each school has to help them stop the bullying and move on from the traumatic experiences. Hotheaded, savage and ungovernable; dread, panic, terror; from covert and subtle to openly ridiculing. Natural or not, bullying is not something to be pushed away to the sides where it festers and thrives. The culture of society must first change if we are to eradicate this practice. Bibliography Personal Interview †¢ Heder, Alison. 1961. Working. Local School Bus Driver, interviewed 19th February 2010. Newspaper Articles †¢ Tomazin, Farrah. â€Å"3/4 of Australian Households have at least one Person who has been Bullied†, The Age, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Vogler, Sarah. â€Å"Boy, 12, dies after being stabbed at St. Patrick’s College Shorncliffe†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Scott, Edwina. â€Å"Hundreds Gather for Suicide Teen’s Funeral†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"School Bullying Shame: Three Children a Class Bullied Daily†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"Pupils Struggle with Heartbreak after Boy Stabbed to Death in Brisbane School†, The Herald Sun, 20th March 2010. Websites †¢ Anon. 2000. Code of School Behaviour. http://education. ld. gov. au/studentservices/behaviour/bm-codebehav. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Anon. 2007. Child Protection Act 1999. http://www. childsaftey. qld. gov. au/legislation/child-protection/child-protection-act-1999. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Field, Evelyn. 2003. Bully Blocking. www. bullying. com. au/school-bullying/. (Accessed 21st March 2010) ———————– â€Å"Children are terrified to go to the school guidance counsellor because they are afraid that the bully will find out they’ve been tattle-telling,† tells Alison Heder Survival of the Fittest Survival of the Fittest His sweaty palms clutch a few coins. The bus line moves forward. Ticket paid for, a quick glance to the back of the bus. They wait, feeding off his panic and distress as he walks to his seat. Fiona Dove investigates teen bullying. Survival of the fittest has been a notion well accepted by society when applied to animals. The strong and the weak battle it out to determine who will be supreme. Does this theory apply to bully behaviour? If three-quarters of Australian households have at least one person affected by bullying are our children fighting a battle, which will determine how they conduct their lives? The Education of Queensland Child Protection Act defines bullying as â€Å"The abuse of power with the intention of causing distress to other person(s)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bullying is a poisonous weed within society. Research shows that children who bully at a young age have a higher risk of committing felonies as an adult and becoming a criminal. Indeed victims of bullying have experienced psychological damage so severe it lead to suicide. Chanelle Rae was fourth student from Western Height College in Geelong, Victoria to commit suicide in a five-month period. Chanelle was a zealous supporter of the Geelong cats. Her idol Corey Enright a cats team member was pallbearer at her funeral. However on the 17th of July in 2009 Chanelle committed suicide after a brutal cyber bullying attack. [pic] It's natural, so what’s wrong with this Picture? With technology constantly advancing this generation has much more choice in torturous devices than 20 years ago. Mobile phones, Internet physical violence and smear campaigns are all weapons in a bully’s arsenal. With all this at a bully’s disposal victims are in a constant state of trepidation unsure as to which direction the blow will come from. Television programmes preach that only those who fit the stereotype of a â€Å"Nerd† are bullied in society; the reality is that a bully can target anyone. Insecurities, fear and jealousy are the underlying emotions that bullies deal with by intimidating and antagonizing others. As a consequence of young people being herded together for extended periods of time, the instinct to overpower and â€Å"bully† others is natural. As caregivers we should be asking ourselves whether bubble wrapping and shrouding children from the public domain mean that they have insufficiently developed social skills? Are we, ironically, making children revert back to the battle for supremacy? With one in five students having been harassed at school and at least one in three children bullied almost daily, only a fool would say that bullying in schools is a minor problem. â€Å"Bullying will always be a part of school culture,† agrees Alison Heder a school bus driver. To change the bullying culture children need to be told from a very young age that telling a trusted adult, whether it may be a school counsellor or a parent in OK and not â€Å"tattle-telling†. Rather than being sheltering children should be out learning how to behave. Instead of being thrown straight into the sharks at the age of six when school starts, the transition from home to school would be less of an ordeal for children if the basic foundations of good communication were already in place. Queensland Government Department of Education and Training, Code of School Behaviour requires that schools provide a safe and supportive learning environment. When asked about her thoughts on this in regards to the current bullying issues Alison exclaimed â€Å"It’s not the schools fault! Parents need to teach their children acceptable behaviour through example† Studies have shown that with effective communication between the school and home in most cases is able to stop the bully and help the students move forward. On the other hand when the student is too afraid to reach out for help the result can be fatal. On the 15th of February 2010 a young boy encountered a terrible fate. Elliot Fletcher, at just 12 years old was stabbed in the chest. This story was met with shock Australia wide as the reality of bullying in schools was realised. The well-established Catholic school, St. Patrick’s College, recorded 380 absences out of 1100 after the news of Elliot’s passing had spread. The reputation of all Private schools was further tarnished as several more violent attacks were reported. Parents are now questioning how the government is handling the bullying epidemic. Alison Heder concurred that the government’s current handle on the bullying situation is as ineffectual as it is inadequate. Whilst bullying may never be truly eliminated from society the aim of new bullying campaigns is to inform the victims of bullies of the various resources each school has to help them stop the bullying and move on from the traumatic experiences. Hotheaded, savage and ungovernable; dread, panic, terror; from covert and subtle to openly ridiculing. Natural or not, bullying is not something to be pushed away to the sides where it festers and thrives. The culture of society must first change if we are to eradicate this practice. Bibliography Personal Interview †¢ Heder, Alison. 1961. Working. Local School Bus Driver, interviewed 19th February 2010. Newspaper Articles †¢ Tomazin, Farrah. â€Å"3/4 of Australian Households have at least one Person who has been Bullied†, The Age, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Vogler, Sarah. â€Å"Boy, 12, dies after being stabbed at St. Patrick’s College Shorncliffe†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Scott, Edwina. â€Å"Hundreds Gather for Suicide Teen’s Funeral†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"School Bullying Shame: Three Children a Class Bullied Daily†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"Pupils Struggle with Heartbreak after Boy Stabbed to Death in Brisbane School†, The Herald Sun, 20th March 2010. Websites †¢ Anon. 2000. Code of School Behaviour. http://education. ld. gov. au/studentservices/behaviour/bm-codebehav. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Anon. 2007. Child Protection Act 1999. http://www. childsaftey. qld. gov. au/legislation/child-protection/child-protection-act-1999. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Field, Evelyn. 2003. Bully Blocking. www. bullying. com. au/school-bullying/. (Accessed 21st March 2010) ———————– â€Å"Children are terrified to go to the school guidance counsellor because they are afraid that the bully will find out they’ve been tattle-telling,† tells Alison Heder

Segregation Gender in School will not benefit anyone

We all wonder if segregating boys and girls are the right thing to do. Studies show that boys learn at a slower rate than girls and that it would be fair if the boys learn separately and learn at a slower pace. I disagree; I don't believe that boys and girls should like segregate for various reasons. Some of the most important reason that can cause harm when segregating boys and girls is either negatively influencing children, learning experiences, or gender stereotypes (â€Å"Segregate Boys & Girls at School? â€Å"). A University Studies found that girls improve boy's grades at school. By not having a segregation it allow boys and girls to have a more effective learning experience and won't cause stereotypes among each other. Studies show that even if boys learn slower than girls, they start to learn equally once they reach university level. We also have to think about, is it fair for the girls if the boys are going to be taught easier because they are one year behind than girls. Is it true that boys will improve on their academic if there was a segregation, no, why? Because boys who have more classes with female peers show higher enrolment rates in both Advance math and science classes and benefits grades for both genders. By having girls in the same classes as boys, they will help them with their assignment and project because girls tend to not be lazy than boys and tend to finish on time unlike boys. Boys tend to not care about school as much as girls and tend to have lower grades. If boys are separate from girls, most likely their grade would fall, because there would no motivation for the boys. Also, if there is a segregation that occurs, there would be a lot of competition between the boys and girls which can lead to great success but also not so great. What I mean it's not so great; well think about it, if there is a competition between boys and girls academic, would boys actually work hard and win, most likely no because like I said most boys don't care about school, they slack on homework and such so why work hard now to win. I think it's best for boys and girls to be in the same classes working together, and help each other out so one another don't slack and be lazy. Boys and girls would learn more effectively because there will be chances for them to hear the opinions of their class mate, which can help them learn from others, other than the teacher. It would be fair if boys and girls are taught equal and with the same technique because when it comes to marking test and assignment, everyone is learning the same thing and the same way so no cheating will occur. When boys and girls work in groups, they can help each other and have their own opinions about the topic, this way it helps the student learn from one another and be able to work well later on in life. When they start working, it would be easy for girls because they know how boys think and can reflect on their opinions and understand them well. Communication is a big factor in our society, and mostly when learnt at a younger age in school so that boys and girls aren't socially awkward when they are older and if not it can cause a lot of difficulty to speak to other people. Boys and girls have to face the different gender in their life for example, dating and marriage, well of course they face the other gender at home and after school, but because we spend so much time at school; 6 hours, 5 times a week, it's easier and faster for them to face it during this period of time. They will learn to have a better communication skill at work place and other places involving a lot of talking with opposite sex. To improve on their communication skill, they are put in groups with equal part boys and girls and once they are put in those groups for assignment and such, they will have to learn to communicate with each other to get a decent mark in that class. Also presentation, they will have to learn to present both sides opinions to their classmates. It's also fair for the boys and girls because it allows them to communicate and understand each other better than having to only listen to only one gender opinion. Communication Therefore, I do not agree with segregating boys and girls because of those reasons I stated above. Like I said it would be more effective for both genders if they work together and hear one another opinion and not just the same sex opinion. By having girls in the same classes as boys will motivate them to work hard and to impress them, because what can I say, smart boys are attractive and when boys know that they tend to work harder. Also better communication skills with both genders because they're at school 5 times a week and 6 hours a day, so it's best for them to learn communication during those periods of time. Basically what I'm trying to say is that, it's not a great idea to segregate boys and girls, it's the nature of learning and growing up.

Qualities of a good leader Essay

Whenever and wherever human beings are gathered together in large numbers, they need leadership. Even children need their school prefects and schools captains ! Armies need Generals. Civilians need governments, captains of industry and intellectual leaders of thought as well. Men whether of the East or the West, require to be led and each group ‘throws up’ its own leaders in each succeeding generation. Whether in the school-room, or on the battlefield or in governmental deliberations, people who are natural leaders and who are chosen to lead, always have the same qualities of character and of outlook. In the first place, it is the personal qualities that count for most, in other words, the personality. A leader, in any location, must be someone who can be looked up to and respected. His personal judgment must be trusted and he must be able to evoke love and warmth from those he leads. So the, the first quality of a leader is that he must have the ability to win over men’s hearts. Secondly, he must have intellectual control over his followers and a mind that is capable of assimilating what is true and what is right and then of exerting this over others. It is useless, no matter what personal qualities or what intellectual prowess a man may have, if he lacks the initiative and the will to lead and to rally men around him. He must also, in his search for truth, have great powers of concentration. Again, a leader must possess this mysterious thing we call â€Å"character† or strength of will, clarity of mind, tenacity and determination. In other words â€Å"character† is knowing what you want to do and being ruthlessly determined to do it. Men and women will not follow a gloomy person! Therefore a kind sense of humor and a sense of optimism are two other essential qualities of a good leader. He must also, not only be a good judge of thins and of events, but of people too, so that he can select good subordinates. He must also show and practice such virtues as self-control, temperance and moderation, so that not only his body, but also his mind are always at their best, healthy  and sharpened like finely tempered steel. There is, too the good leader and the bad leader, of which Hitler, is a striking example of bad leader because it is possible to have all the qualities of leadership without the most important one of all. This is a moral sense of right and wrong and the right kind of â€Å"love† which is emphasized in many of the world’s great religions. This is true not only of international figures like Adolf Hitler, but also in smaller figures. The â€Å"gangs† of youths, typical of both East and West, whose members are led to violence and lawlessness are invariably led and inspired by leaders without a moral sense of right and wrong. The final test of a good leader is, of course, the question: â€Å"Do men follow him?† The answer will be â€Å"Yes† if, combined with strength of character, the ability to evoke love, a clear brain and a fair minded outlook, he also has a knowledge and respect for truth, honesty and fair play. Such a man surely possesses the spark of leadership and men will look up to him and follow him.

Interpretative Essay-Use of Writing Templates

In the preface of â€Å"They Say/ I Say': The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, the authors furnish certain types of writing templates geared toward cuing students to think cognitively as well as critically; ultimately producing a writing style that is unique and creative to the individual. Graff and Bernstein maintain that the templates they offer â€Å"help students make a host of sophisticated moves† in their rating â€Å"that they might not otherwise make†.In addition, not only can the templates spark subconscious thoughts and ideas in students, but they can help the more experienced scholars as well. Whereas others regard their own beliefs to be self- justifiable and need no elaboration, the authors offer that by supplying the student with specific templates for â€Å"entertaining a counterargument† can help stifle these pretentious beliefs. Thus, it could be said about their shared opinions that templates o more than systematize ideas and concepts, bu t bring forth said ideas into being.After rereading the introduction a few times, I agree. Those unfamiliar to entertaining such train of thought may be intrigued to know that by utilizing these templates, we can effectively portray our deepest intelligence by counterintuitive means. For example, looking at something from someone else's perspective (perhaps even an opposing party) can bring new ideas to the surface that would otherwise main unknown.Some might contest that the opposing perspective is irrelevant because the thoughts stem from their mind's eye which, in retrospect, might impact the overall argument or statement that they wanted to convey. Although I understand the objections from skeptics, I still maintain that having an open mind when it comes to writing is crucial in the evolution of our thought process as students and professionals.I can say that there might be limitations on how many ways we can approach an argument or topic before it becomes deceased. Although the se writing templates may seem like they only apply to a minute vernacular, it does in fact apply to a wide array of professional and personal social environments.

On the book Full steam ahead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

On the book Full steam ahead - Essay Example ished, the manager doesn’t pause thinking ‘what to do next?’, instead he has very clear instruction or vision that helps him to make his next move. It is especially important for leaders as leaders (managers) are in the driving seat. They need to steer the machine to destination while keeping it on a safe track. If managers or employees don’t know what is the goal then leadership becomes useless. Content refers to the common-sense angle. It contains some true statements, most probably based on relevant facts. Logically, it can be true or false. Content also refers to consideration of anything (vision) at its face value. Process is the impact of the content. Process gives context to the content and drives it. Anyone can come up with a vision or a dream but to be able to have a compelling vision but one needs to have the purpose behind that vision. This is the real fuel of vision. Purpose can be anything. Your purpose can be to become the investment firm that makes more money than any other investment company or your purpose can be to have offices located at places even where giant corporates don’t have a facility. Picturing the future has both psychological and physical effects. Once this purpose is gets fused with the future-picture (the dream) possibilities become endless. And to make sure that all goes on well and the company/management doesn’t engage into something which is looked down upon by law or society, the firm needs to place core values. This is how your arsenal gets equipped with a functioning VISION. NASA did not place a man on the moon after the famous Apollo mission because its vision lacked purpose and value. A vision is created not by asking the top management of the company to simply plan out something and then announce, â€Å"Here is the vision†. A vision is created through dialogue where all important people have their say in it. The process can be related to brain-storming. Stoner, Ken Blanchard and Jesse. "The Vision Thing:

The Second World War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Second World War - Essay Example    Beyond its national borders, however, democracy was on the decline with countries such as Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany either threatening or actually dominating neighboring countries2. France and Britain, on the other hand, were doing what they could to avert the occurrence of another major war in Europe. During this time, the US had a policy that forbade it from interfering with other countries that engaged in conflicts as outlined it its Neutrality Acts. This policy with time became bothersome as it clashed with the public opposition to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany in 1939. The United States under President Roosevelt lifted its non-interference foreign policy and pledged massive support to the Allied forces but itself opting not to engage directly in the war. However, with Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbor in 1941, the country saw it necessary to take arms and engage fully in the war3. The US contributed a lot of resources during the war, some of which included ammunition, technology, food, money, petroleum, military personnel and technological innovations. As a result of this, the war, there was a massive rise in the country’s Gross Domestic Product, monumental export of supplies, and an end to unemployment. Most of those who were previously unemployed, retired or engaged in low productivity occupations at this time moved into active labor, the working hours also being significantly improved4. The amount of work to be accomplished as much and many people gave their best for the sake of patriotism. The Second World War saw the US for the first time ever use its nuclear weapons against a country - Japan. Following the war, the country lost over 400,000 military personnel and spent a lot in terms of resources.  Ã‚  

Do Americans Prefer a Divided Government Thesis - 1

Do Americans Prefer a Divided Government - Thesis Example The matter significantly reverberates as a political theme especially when national election comes. A substantial number of electorates perceived that the present government will not reflect a divided government because President Barrack Obama inspires a one-party rule. For them, this is harmful to democratic system. Everyone was in a political hodge-podge whether or not divided government creates a necessary condition for check and balance in governance? Under one dominant party, can President and his bureaucrats sustain transparent and accountable government effectively to sustain stability? Will the Supreme Court, filled with legal luminaries, be able to check a ruling party well? Or is it necessary to maintain divided government to encourage people to be able to objectively look at issues, governance and political decision-making? The question can go on endlessly as substantial number of Americans perceived that this present administration is enjoying a free rein with his busines s in foreign policy and relations at his volition although some Republican claimed that they maintain significant influence to prevent some of the president’s foreign policy initiatives. This is a qualitative study that aims to explore how many would prefer divided government from 50 select respondents that are randomly chosen by this researcher and to know reasons or causes about their preferred/inclination with divided government. Respondents’ opinion will be gathered through an online survey questionnaire which will be consolidated using monkeysurvey, an online method of generating responses which will be saved in a data base and will be used as bases for analysis in this study. Modern sociologists have varying perceptions about Americans inclination to favor or to disagree on divided government. Republicans for instance use a divided government as a mechanism and as a power to wield opposition against the

Report to Caifu Investments Ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Report to Caifu Investments Ltd - Essay Example It is noteworthy that both the company are strong competitors in the apparel industry of the United Kingdom. Since both the companies operate in the global retail industry, it is natural to assume that external environmental factors will affect both the companies in similar manner. These factors are: Advanced technology: Rapid technological development has profound transformation effect on the retail industry at global level. The exuberant adoption of mobile digital technologies such as tablets and smartphones in retailing has influenced consumer behaviour as well. Technological development has become a source of competitive advantage and differentiation. Advancement can be observed in terms of increasing implementation of QR (Quick Response) code, self checkout systems, digital advertising displays, smart kiosk and electronic price tags (Krafft and Mantrala, 2010). Product Life Cycle: The retail industry of the UK has reached the mature phase of its life cycle; as a result, high street shopping is declining at a rapid rate. Since 2000, approximately 25000 stores have been closed and around 183 retail brands disappeared from the market in 2011. E-commerce, high product diversification and recession are being considered as some of the contributing factors (Marketline, 2013). Competition: the competition in the industry is relatively high and considering the extensive diversity maintained by most contemporary retailers, the degree of rivalry has increased tremendously. Consumers have variety of choices but with limited purchasing power, retailers are losing significant share of the deserving profit (Marketline, 2013; 2014). Consumer behaviour: Thomas (2013) suggested that consumer buying behaviour in UK as well as in the world was largely affected by the recession. Consumers have changed their purchasing behaviour significantly. For majority

Group characteristics and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Group characteristics and development - Essay Example Along with it, in the content of selected information some relevant information like the problem related discussion, facts and figures of already occurred problems, reasons for the occurrence of the problem, relevant solutions information to solve the problem were searched. Also, some information was searched on how to force young under aged drivers from not being able to get license so that they can be protected from danger. Some other sources were like the police record related to number of cases that occurred because of alcohol related drunken driving. The sources would be able to tell us the number of such cases occurred because of reasons like under age driving, youths’ returning from after party in a drunken state. Such information is crucial in forming a constructive discussion on the selected topic. The group discussion topic about what can be done to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related automobile accidents is a very relevant topic in the present context. The summa ry form discussion on the topic at the time of group discussion will help the entire group to understand the relevance of the topic. Also, it will create awareness among the listeners about the preventive measures which can be taken to reduce the occurrence of such incidence. Group discussion has its effectiveness in certain areas like a proper collection of information helps to identify and also locate information which relates to the topic. Also, it presents suggestions on the process of reducing the collected information to relevant one for the topic. It also helps in establishing certain questions for testing the acceptability of collected information before placing it in front of the group. All of these aids are of substantial value, mainly in the areas of decision making and problem solving. Effective solutions to problems and also sound assessment require good quality information and also the capability of applying it in a presentable

Mandatory Mediation in Common and Civil Law Countries Essay

Mandatory Mediation in Common and Civil Law Countries - Essay Example Common law system countries use mandatory mediation more prevalently than civil law countries who proceed with considerable caution. The process of litigation is a complex process, which is usually avoided by many people. The civil justice system in the UK is already exhausted of cases, which have not been resolved because of various legal justifications. This negatively impacts on the involved parties because of the increase in the cost of the various court cases as time elapses. Mediation can reform the civil justice system of the UK because it ensures there is efficiency in the dispensation of justice. Consequently, savings are made and time management is upheld.In this respect, the aggrieved parties are satisfied with the mediation dispute resolutions. The mutual satisfaction of the concerned parties is never achieved in a trial setting. The introduction of mandatory mediation in civil cases aims at reducing the backlog of unresolved cases in courts of law. Mandatory mediation is a demonized element in many legal jurisdictions, although it does not affect the delivery of justice to the parties in the civil cases. Darbas (2010) asserts that the cost of mandatory intervention justifies the use of this method in the resolution of many cases. It is a better method compared to the trial because in the trial of a case, the judges can give a subjective ruling, which must be accepted. In mandatory mediation cases are resolved in an amicable manner without favor.

Blogs for innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Blogs for innovation - Essay Example During their arrival, Orchha was gradually emerging as a tourist attraction. Due to poverty and lack of knowledge in the region, it prevented the growth of tourism (Sisodia, 2013). As a result, Asha came up with a Village Home Stay program intended for Orchha village. The aim of the program was to exploit tourism opportunities in the region in order to enhance local economic development, education, cultural exchanges between locals and visitors as well as environmental protection. It had also to offer the people of Orchha with superior work opportunities, which would positively influence the individual life of the residents. In 2007, Asha founded Friends of Orchha with the aid of a few friends from Europe to enhance tourism that is socially responsible and one that would offer an opportunity for cultural exchanges and a source of income for the needy families (Sisodia, 2013). Friends of Orchha provided help to the poor families to build and renovate their courtyards that would be hired to visitors. The families were engaged to participate voluntarily in the construction of three homestays. At that particular moment, the families were unable to carry on their main activity, which was farming that was brought to a halt by drought from 2003 to 2007 (Sisodia, 2013). Therefore, they had no capital to invest, and the organization had to set up a revolving fund, which helped to build the first three home stays. Participating families provided labor in building the sanitary block and rooms. In 2009, the first room was rented out and since then the home stay has hosted more than 500 visitors from different countries. The exploiting of the tourism opportunities improved the economic conditions of the residents as well as their live style (Sisodia, 2013). With this regard, I agree with the case as it attempts to point out issues in operating gainful employment amongst a large rural population in India. It addresses that the inability to dialogue in spoken

Oceans support Essay Example for Free

Oceans support Essay What would happen to the earth’s terrestrial and aquatic species (a) if most of the world’s oceans disappeared and (b) if most of the world’s land disappeared? a) More than two- thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with oceans. These oceans support up to nine tents of the habitable environmement without which most the living organisms will perish. Several life forms are supported by the oceans. The coral reefs, salt marshes and sea grass beds are exampls of ocean environments which support a large number of species which live in symbiosis. It is vital to note that ocean water support land- dwelling organisms. The oceans influence the climate andd weather thus affecting life on land. The water from the ocean evaporates and rises. It then cools and forms rainfal which is important for the survival of land -dwelling organisms. The rainfall is also the basiss of rivers and lakes. It can therefore be concluded that if the oceans disapeared, most of the living organisms will dissapear. Perhaps a few organisns will remanin from the little water available but eventually it will dry up and no more life on earth. b) If most of the land disapeared, most land vegetation would dissapear. This means less food for land animals hence most land animals would die. Some aquatic animals depend on land for reproduction. Thus lack of land may cause extinction of such animals. This may cause imblance of life in the ocean causign the death of more life. It can be argued that most organisms would dissapear but some aquatic animals will survive. Why do deserts and arctic tundra support much smaller biomass of animals than do tropical forests? Why do most animals in tropical rain forest live in its trees? Arctic tundra occur at high latitudes. They receive little water as precipitation. Howewer, their soil remains wet since there is little evaporation due to low temperatures. Also the low temperatures lead to freezing of the soil thus prevenitng underground drainage. The low temperature affects the soil and climate in general and cannot favor the survival of many animals. This impplies low biomass. In the deserts there is a lot of heat and lack of water. Therefore desert animals must develop serveral adaptations in order to survive. Most are noctunal. Due to extra care the animals need to survive, they may not get favourable conditions for cohabiation hence low rate of reproduction. Most animal species cannot survive in the desert leading to low biomass. On the other hand toripical forests receive much rain and warmth throught the year and therefoe consist of tall trees. Due to availability of food and favourable climate many animals live in the forets. The animal reproduce faster than in the deserts. This results to a greater biomass. Many animals in the forest live in trees since they have to adopt themselves to the forests. The trees are tall and therefore the animals have to climb to find food and sunlight. The insects and birds mostly depend on nector which has to be found high up the trees. How would you reply to someone who argues that we should not worry about our effects on natural systems because natural succession will heal the wounds of human activities and restore the balance of nature? If nature is left alone it will always heal itself. Human activities deplete natural resources at a rate faster than it can sustain. Due human activities, there has been destruction of habitats. Forests have been destroyed which will take several years to recover. In the seas and oceans, there has been overexploitation of fish which bring about imbalance of aquatic ecosystems. Many fish species have become extinct which affects all organisms in the food chain. Human activities have also brought about global warming which has led to climate change. This change leads to extinction of plant and animal species. Man has also brought in some alien species of plants and animals which may affect those organisms in their natural habitat. How would you reply to someone who contends that efforts to preserve natural systems are not worthwhile because nature is largely unpredictable? One can argue that nature is unpredictable. However, most of the ways of nature are known. For instance it is known fish eat planktons. It is expected that if there is overfishing, there would be excess of phytoplankton. This will affect all other members in the food chains. Consequently marine life would be affected. Excess phytoplankton may decay and cause further damage. Some members in the food chain may become extinct. Also careless use of chemicals affects the sea life thus destabilizing the sea life. Inasmuch natural disasters and the course of nature may cause damage, deliberate harmful activities cause great damage quickly than would have been caused by natural disasters.