The Convicts, by Iain Lawrence, is a story of a young boy...

The Convicts, by Iain Lawrence, is a story of a young boy who faces great odds to complete his quest to help his father. This novel takes many twists and turns through the landscape of London, more specifically in nineteenth century London. However, London is not described in the picturesque view many people have come to know London as. Lawrence shows the uglier more rugged lifestyle of many poor people in London during this time period. Within a society like this in London, swindling, gangs, and prison become common subjects among the lower classes, especially in this novel. Although life was hard for many, the characters in this novel find adventure along the way while aboard ships and through underground sewers. The main character, Tom†¦show more content†¦A man by the name of Alex Goodfellow has swindled Tom’s father of his money after apparently selling him an outstanding vessel along with its own crew. Instead, Mr.Goodfellow gave tom’s father the exact opposite, a rundown ship which was bound to cause problems. Eventually, the ship Tom’s father once thought was his big break, had sunk while Mr. Goodfellow reaped the insurance reward. To make matters even worse, Tom’s father was put in debtor’s prison. Tom struggled with the thought of his father going to prison for something which wasn’t actually his fault, so Tom decided to take action. He made a plan to run away and get revenge on his father’s swindler. Along the way he met an interesting character who was blind. Knowing that the man possessed a rare jewel, Tom took it in the hopes it would bring provide him money for his family the much needed money. Further into his journey, To m comes across a gravedigger named Worms. Worms teaches Tom how to dig up the bodies of the dead and introduces him to other robbers. Interestingly enough, these robbers are kids just like Tom, who rob from people living amougst them in the sewers. Tom befriends Darkey and Benjamin Penny, who teach Tom their robbing ways. Then, things take a turn for the worst. The police find Tom robbing another man and arrest him. However, in one of the biggest plot twists, Tom is found not found guilty for robbing, but for murder. Of course Tom did notShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesby Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds

Gender, Gender And Gender - 932 Words

This week’s materials have many commonalities found throughout the text, which challenges the representation of gender identity in last week’s materials. One of the similarities found throughout this week’s materials is that gender is complex. Professor Davis’s lecture â€Å"Sex Gender – It’s Complicated† defines â€Å"Binary gender: man or women, female or male, and masculine and feminine. Two distinct categories† (slide 5). The Western society mostly see gender as binary, black and white. However, Baird writes in â€Å"Transgender: ‘as the stars in the sky’† that â€Å"most of us are culturally heavily conditioned to categorize sex and gender in this binary, dimorphic way. But actually, life and nature are a lot more complex than that† (pg 113). Professor Davis exemplifies binary gender in the Western culture using public restroom as an example. She explains that an â€Å"individual must identify t hemselves with a stick figure either with a dress or pants as female or male.† However, Baird statistically illustrates the biological complexity of gender. For example, Baird states â€Å"Intersexual, popularly referred to as ‘hermaphrodites,’ are usually born with genitals somewhere between male and female – rarely with two complete sets as in myth. The number of such birth is more common than most people realize, with the highest estimates in the US at four percent of births. That’s some ten million children, annually† (pg 117). Professor Davis concludes the example of public restroom as a clear cutShow MoreRelatedGender : Gender And Gender1767 Words   |  8 PagesGender’s role in Authority In what ways is the male gender superior to the female gender in relation to â€Å"The Homeric Hymn to Demeter†? It tells the story of Persephone, goddess of spring, taken against her will by Hades. Her grieving mother, Demeter, goes through great lengths to be reunited with her beloved daughter. The hymn portrays a great divide in authority between both genders. The male gods use their authority without consequence. They assert their power on others without taking into accountRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Stereotypes1582 Words   |  7 PagesThere are multiple examples and instances where the object of a joke has something to do with gender and gender stereotypes. These types of jokes seem to take center stage at any comedy performance or routine, and the audience loves it. Gender in association with humor brings up a great deal of questions. Do males and females see humor differently? Are there any similarities in the way the sexes view humor? And is there any truth to the thought that humans enjoy crass humor more than other typesRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Equality1391 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay will look at Gender discrimination in an Australian prospective with some overseas perspectives overlapping this essay will look at gender deference’s in pay in Australia and discuss the ideas and arguments surrounding gender equality in the work place. Gender equity in work place is still a heavily understudied in Australia and as is more or less worldwide. In Australia a country of so called â€Å"equality† which is still, even in the 21st century is an ambiguous and questionable ideal asRead MoreGender Inequality : Gender And Gender1575 Words   |  7 Pagesthere’s something â€Å"natural† about gender distinction because biology makes one sex different from the other. What they don’t know is gender is the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male. Ge nder is not a trait we are born with, rather it is a â€Å"brand† to which we are labeled with. It refers to the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics that are being associated with being a female or male. Gender involves hierarchy, ranking menRead MoreGender Socialization : Gender And Gender1040 Words   |  5 Pagesillis Women Studies 9 online Oct 8, 2015 Gender Socialization Gender, according to Lorber, is the product of a range of social forces that influence our gender construction through a system of reward and punishment. throughout my life, I have been taught to be a women by family and through society, all that at some point supported the goals I had for myself or created obstacles by challenging my own ideas of what meant to be a strong women. Gender socialization is the process by which individualsRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Roles1476 Words   |  6 Pagesmen were the predominant head of the household and women were expected to cook, watch their kids, and clean? This is an excellent example of gender roles, and how they control some aspects of life. Gender roles according to multiple sources are, the way people behave, what they do and say, to express being a female or male. (â€Å"Gender Identity†, Blackstone, Gender Spectrum). They are forced upon an individual from the day that person is born even in the most trivial of terms of putting boys in blueRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Identity931 Words   |  4 Pagesor female gender. This self-identity problem can usually be accompanied by numerous forms of treatment to change ones’ physical appearance, and make it more consistent with their identified gender identity. In many cases, the individual can identify with the gender of the opposite sex to the point one believ es that he or she is a member of that gender group trapped in the wrong body. This is also called Gender Dysphoria or formerly known as Gender Identity Disorder. The person with gender dysphoriaRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Bias1429 Words   |  6 Pages Language and gender has become an increasingly popular topic of study over recent decades, most likely due to the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and 70s. This can also be seen in the fact that goals of linguistic studies shifted at this point, to not just look at grammatical differences between males and females but to examine sexism and gender bias in language. The wording of such studies becomes increasingly important in the modern era, as gender is now recognised as a socially constructedRead MoreGender Presentation : Gender And Gender2100 Words   |  9 PagesGender is a very complex topic in our society. While one may have the sexual organs of a male, a female, or both, one s gender is defined by complex rules that the culture defines through social norms and expectations. One must consider how gender may or may not impact how one is perceived in their presentation to the outside world because these evaluations define how gender presentation is identified within a leaders hip and workplace context. It is from this framework that one might influence othersRead MoreGender, Gender And Gender Discrimination1303 Words   |  6 Pagesprecipitating gender inequity (MacWilliams, Schmidt, Bleich, 2013; U.S. Census Bureau, 2013). Unfortunately male nurses have become victims of discriminatory stereotypes which deter the recruitment of males into the profession (Meyers, 2003; O’Lynn, 2004; Rajacich, Kane, Williston, Cameron, 2013). Barriers of equality are impeded by the historical origin of modern nursing and to achieve integration in a feminine dominated field remodeling nursing to include equality for both genders. Selecting this

Dylan Thomas The Life And Work Essay Example For Students

Dylan Thomas The Life And Work Essay Dylan ThomasThe Life and WorkOne: I am a Welshman;two: I am a drunkard;three: I am a lover of the human race,especially of women. A quote by one of the best-known British poets of the mid-20th century, he is remembered for his highly original, obscure poems, his amusing prose tales and plays, and his turbulent, well-publicized personal life. His name, Dylan Thomas. Dylan Marlais Thomas was born on October 27, 1914 in Swansea, Glamorganshire (Wales). He was educated at Swansea Grammar School and spent most of his childhood writing poetry and bunking school. His father was the senior English Literature Master at Dylan’s school, but not even his father could prevent him from skipping school and writing poetry. It has been said that Dylan had an extremely wild imagination and that it was â€Å"Freed† by him playing in a near by park as a young boy. His ambition from those early imaginative years was to be a great poet like Keates and the other great poets before him. Although his poetry was described as obscure even from the early days of his life, he had a very specific style of writing poetry. He wrote about his surroundings in the beautiful welsh countryside and little town that he grew up in. Before the publishing of Thomas first book in 1934, he worked as a reporter between 1931-1932, for The South Wales Daily Post, in Swansea. T hen he worked as a free-lance writer from 1933 at this time he also took part in the local theatre and expressed his acting skills. One of his first plays was a part in the Merchant Of Venice and it was said whilst he was involved in the theatre he spent most of his free time in the nearby pub-this was supposadely the beginning of his life long drinking problem. Thomas first book, 18 Poems was published as the result of a prize. Thomas was only 19 when this volume of poetry was released. He wrote nearly 30 poems in late 1933 and early 1934, of which 13 were published in this volume. Between May and October 1934, he completed another five for inclusion in the book. The Thomas poems first appeared in the Sunday Referee in 1933 in a feature column called the Poets Corner, edited by Victor Neuburg and Runia Sheila MacLeod. Neuburg began to award prizes to poets whose work was judged to be the finest printed in the column over a period of six months. The prize was that the Sunday Referee would publish the winning poets work in book form. Dylan Thomas became the second recipient of the prize, which he won for the second of seven poems he published in Poets Corner, the poem, The Force that through the Grass Fuse Drives the Flower. The editors had some difficulty getting Thomas manuscript accepted by a publisher, until David Archer of the Parton Boo kshop agree d to have the book printed. Five hundred copies were printed, but only 250 were bound and issued in December 1934. The remaining half, constituting the second issue, were bound and put on sale on February 21, 1936. It was praised by few because it was so obscure. In 1934 he went to live in London for a while and loved living the bohemian life style but he always came back to the welsh countryside where he would be inspired to write great poetry. His favourite place as a child and an adult to return to was his Aunts farm in the west of the welsh countryside called â€Å"Fern Hill†. This was to be the inspiration for one of his greatest poems of his career. Fern Hill is a wonderfully crafted description of how Thomas’ childhood imagination runBibliographywww.dylanthomas.comPoetry Essays

Reinforcement and Punishment in Our Daily Life free essay sample

Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behaviour analysis for the delivery of a stimulus, (immediately or shortly) after a response, that results in an increase in the future rate or probability of that response. The response strength is assessed by measuring frequency, duration, latency, accuracy, and/or persistence of the response after reinforcement stops. Experimental behaviour analysts measured the rate of behaviours as a primary demonstration of learning and performance with non-humans.For example, rate is measured as the number of times a pigeon pecks a key in a 10 minute session. Reinforcement is the stimulus, event, or situation whose presentation is dependent upon a response. B. F. Skinner, the researcher who articulated the major theoretical constructs of reinforcement and behaviourism, defined reinforcement according to the change in response strength rather than to more subjective criteria, such as what is pleasurable or valuable to someone. Accordingly, activities, foods or items considered pleasant or enjoyable may not necessarily be reinforcing (because they produce no increase in the response preceding them). We will write a custom essay sample on Reinforcement and Punishment in Our Daily Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Stimuli, settings, and activities only fit the definition of reinforcement if the behaviour that immediately precedes the potential reinforcement increases in similar situations in the future. For example child who receives a cookie when he or she asks for one. If the frequency of cookie-requesting behaviour increases, the cookie can be seen as reinforcing cookie-requesting behaviour. If however, cookie-requesting behaviour does not increase, the cookie cannot be considered reinforcing.Reinforcement theory is one of the motivation theories; it states that reinforced behaviour will be repeated, and behaviour that is not reinforced is less likely to be repeated. The sole criterion that determines if an item, activity, or food is reinforcing is the change in probability of behaviour after administration of that potential reinforcement. Other theories may focus on additional factors such as whether the person expected the strategy to work at some point, but in the behavioural theory, reinforcement is descriptive of an increased probability of a response. Primary reinforcementA primary reinforcement, sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcement, is a stimulus that does not require pairing to function as reinforcement and most likely has obta ined this function through the evolution and its role in species survival. Examples of primary reinforcement include sleep, food, air, water, and sex. Other primary reinforcement, such as certain drugs, may mimic the effects of other primary reinforcement. While this primary reinforcement is fairly stable through life and across individuals, the reinforcing value of different primary reinforcement varies due to multiple factors (e. . , genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another abhors it. Or one person may eat lots of food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcement for both individuals, the value of food as reinforcement differs between them. Secondary reinforcement A secondary reinforcement, sometimes called a conditioned reinforcement, is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as reinforcement after pairing with a stimulus that functions as reinforcement.This stimulus may be a primary reinforcement or another conditioned reinforcement (such as money). An example of a secondary reinforcement would be the sound from a clicker, as used in clicker training. The sound of the clicker has been associated with praise or treats, and subsequently, the sound of the clicker may function as reinforcement. As with primary reinforces, an organism can experience satiation and deprivation with secondary reinforces. 3. 1 Increase of desire Positive reinforcement A positive reinforcement may be used as part of a behaviour intervention plan (BIP). Unlike negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement are strategies used to help increase targeted behaviours in students who are experiencing academic or behavioural problems at home and school. How is Positive Reinforcement Used? Positive reinforcement helps students learn behaviours necessary to be successful academically and socially. For example, a students behaviour goal may be to increase the amount of time he stays on-task in class. Positive reinforcement would be used as a reward for improving over a period of time.Positive reinforcement includes any actions, consequences, or rewards that are provided to a student and cause an increase in desired behaviour. They may include rewards and privileges that students like and enjoy. For example, a student may earn physical rewards such as school supplies, healthy snacks, or choice of free-time activities. When choosing a positive reinforcement, it is important for the IEP team to know the child well. If possible, it can be helpful to allow the child to help choose the type of positive reinforcement he would like to earn.Examples: Positive reinforcement increase a students targeted behaviours. Positive reinforcement is similar to rewards, but they are also intended to increase behaviours over time. They are not just a one-time reward for good behaviour. 3. 2 Drawbacks of Positive Reinforcement Positive reinforcement may seem to be an ideal technique to increase certain positive behaviours. Managers may be able to motivated employees using positive reinforcement techniques. However, there can be some drawbacks. First, the use of positive reinforcement techniques may result in people becoming more extrinsically motivated.Extrinsic motivation may undermine creativity. In Amabiles (1985) experiment, people were asked to write two poems. Before writing the second poem, some people were given a questionnaire in which they were asked to rank the importance of some reasons for writing. In one condition, these reflected extrinsic motivation. In another condition, they reflected intrinsic motivation. In the control condition, people did not receive a questionnaire with reasons for writing. The poems in the extrinsic-orientation condition were judged to be less creative, on the average, than the poems in the control condition.Second, the ideal employee may be one who is intrinsically motivated and does not require constant supervision. Intrinsically motivated employees may be less likely to be late. They also may be more likely to excel at their jobs. Thus, positive reinforcement techniques may not lead to ideal employees in a company. 3. 3 Effect of Positive reinforcement for children Positive Reinforcement Can Improve Your Childs Behaviour: Using positive reinforcement is an easy way to nix behaviour problems. You can use positive reinforcement can help you encourage your child to do everyday tasks you need her to perform.Turning off an annoying song when a child asks their parent is an example of negative reinforcement (if this results in an increase in asking behaviour of the child in the future). Another example is if a mouse presses a button to avoid shock. Do not confuse this concept with punishment. There are two variations of negative reinforcement: oAvoidance conditioning occurs when behaviour prevents an aversive stimulus from starting or being applied. oEscape conditioning occurs when behaviour removes an aversive stimulus that has already started. A lot of students are confused about negative reinforcement.Whats the difference between that and punishment? Perhaps some examples of negative reinforcement would be helpful (remember, its reinforcement so the behavior increases, and because its negative, the reinforcement is removed after the response). Negative Reinforcement strengthens behaviour because a negative condition is stopped or avoided as a consequence of the behaviour. Punishment, on the other hand, weakens behaviour because a negative condition is introduced or experienced as a consequence of the behaviour. Here are two examples of Negative Reinforcement: 1.A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rats behaviour of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping of the shock. 2. Driving in heavy traffic is a negative condition for most of us. You leave home earlier than usual one morning, and dont run into heavy traffic. You leave home earlier again the next morning and again you avoid heavy traffic.

Exploding Mentos Drink

Exploding Mentos Drink A friend sent me a link to a Wired how-to project called The Manhattan Project in which you freeze a Mentos candy into an ice cube and place it in a carbonated drink. When the ice cube melts, the wax surrounding the candy will be exposed and the drink should erupt. Does it work? Lets find out. Exploding Mentos Drink Ingredients The drink in the original recipe called for whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters (basically a Manhattan plus diet cola), but you can make a rum and coke or whatever you like or just try the non-alcoholic version using two ingredients: diet colaa Mentosâ„ ¢ candy Make the Exploding Drink Ill tell you right up front: a drink with soda and Mentos wont explode unless it is in an enclosed container. Exploding drinks make messes, plus they tend to spray out shards of glass, so its a good thing this drink isnt so violent. Erupting is more what youre looking for here. If you want to cause an unexpected eruption, freeze a single Mentos candy into the well of an ice cube tray. Youll get the best results if you wait until the ice is almost frozen and then add a Mentos candy to each cube so that its near the surface of the ice. You dont want to soak the candy in cold water or its coating will dissolve. If that happens, all youll get when you mix it with diet cola is candy-flavored cola. The premise is that the Mentos will become exposed as the ice cube melts. When the wax coating of the candy reacts with the diet soda, the drink will fizz and bubble like the classic Mentos and diet soda fountain. If youre doing the project on-purpose or else dont mind getting caught dropping a Mentos into someones carbonated drink, you can simply plop the candy in the soda no ice cube needed. How the Mentos in Ice Cubes Trick Works Among other things, the gum arabic that coats a Mentos candy lowers the surface tension of the soda, allowing carbon dioxide bubbles to rise and expand more easily. The candy coating traps the gas, forming bubbles and foam. When I tried this project, I didnt get a spectacular eruption, but you can expect somewhat better results if you use a narrow glass for your drink. Except that the Mentos flavors the drink, I dont think someone with a Mentos-laced ice cube would notice much happening or suffer from an out-of-control foaming drink. The project is still pretty fun.

Writing success - Freewrite Store

Writing success - Freewrite Store Welcome to the Astrohaus blog! We're here to talk about writing success. A quick confession: we have no idea what that means. How can you  know when your words, your book, your career is  successful? Is it the number of Twitter followers you collect? A collection of positive reviews that show up  when your name is Googled? Or is there even such a thing as a universal  indicator  of writing success? How do you achieve it? In this space, we're exploring the  struggles and victories that come with being a wordsmith. We're sharing tips, thoughts, and tools here on this blog, and we've tapped some of our favorite writers to lend us their wisdom, too. If you're interested in contributing or have a suggestion for the types of posts you'd like to see on the blog, send us a note at hello@astrohaus.com.   Happy writing,StephCommunity Director, Astrohaus

Biomedical Issues in Autism Speech or Presentation

Biomedical Issues in Autism - Speech or Presentation Example Of special interest is the toxicological perspective which is, to some extent, also related to environmental factors. One important aspect is the role of environmental toxicities that can initiate or aggravate autistic symptoms in predisposed individuals. Etiologically speaking, certain metabolic abnormalities have been blamed to play a central role towards development of autism. This is manifested by the increased incidence of inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal system noted in autistic children. Such metabolic differences have been investigated in various studies, and it has been suggested that it is highly likely that other metabolic inefficiencies of this type render autistic individuals unable to cope with toxicities prevailing in the immediate environment of such individuals. These disorders of metabolism, therefore, contribute towards the development of autism in individuals by limiting their ability to overcome the metabolic challenges posed by the environmental to xicities. A major toxicity that has been studied in this regard is the presence of excess amounts of mercury in the environment of those who develop this condition. Review of Current Literature Although mercury is considered to be present in trace amounts in our environment, there are points in the mercury cycle where its interaction with life forms becomes significant enough to be considered as a contributor of disease. Once it is converted into methylmercury, it becomes volatile and soluble enough to get bio-accumulated in food chains (Utah.Gov). Mercury has been identified to be a neuro-toxin, and causes defects in memory, cognitive thinking, language, visual ability, and motor skills. These manifestations are more marked in developing brains. Common sources of exposure to mercury include food (fish etc.), dental amalgam, batteries, coal, and medical products including vaccines. There have been heated debates about the link between mercury and autism, and it appears that the vast majority of studies which deny such linkage are carried out under the influence of those who have a vested interest in promoting the concept of mercury being safe for human consumption. The reason for this claim is the fact that sufficient evidence exists to support a link between the two (DeSoto and Robert 165). Studies conducted to evaluate the level of mercury in hair and nail samples of autistic individuals have also pointed out that mercury can possibly act as a causative or contributive factor. The level of mercury in these tissues is considerably higher in autistic individuals as compared to their healthy counterparts (Priya and Arumugam 148). The notion that altered metabolic processes contribute towards the pathogenesis of autism due to mercury poisoning has been supported by research work. Of considerable importance is the observation that adverse reactions and abnormal development in autistic individuals correlate closely to their exposure to vaccines containing mercury as their constituent element. Higher levels of mercury in autistic individuals may be attributed to a different or defective pattern of metabolism in these individuals (Majewska et al. 196). Studies designed to seek a relationship between elevated levels of mercury in blood and the presence of autism have found a positive

Review performance about "Next to the Normal" Essay

Review performance about "Next to the Normal" - Essay Example Next to Normal takes one through an exhilarating journey of laughter and sorrow as one relates with the challenges of the actors (Brantley, 2009). Diana Goodman is a loving wife and mother who want the best out of her largely dysfunctional family. Their struggles typify the normal suburban neighborhood in an emotional manner, and the actors punctuate this with periodic musical breaks. In addition, Goodman has bipolar disorder, a form of mental illness, which affects the normal functioning of her already disunited family. The plot also explores Natalie’s drug abuse and her isolation from the family. The music and stage decoration is perfect. Through a lively pop/rock score, this intensely moving piece of theatre offers a breathtaking opportunity for the actors to investigate dramatic material and highlight their vocal talents. The timing of the lighting effects is in lieu with the message in the storyline and depicts the right emotion. As the musical starts, the lights go off and reveal Diana Goodman sitting alone, pondering about her future. Similarly, as the musical ends, Natalie, the daughter, walks in and turns on the light when he finds his father seated in darkness. She turns on all the lights in the house and reveals Diana who is visibly hurt, but happy to be alive. Apart from the lighting, the scenic and sound design augments the direction and mood of the musical performed on a three-story set that doubles as a doctor’s office, residence, and school. The actors and actresses do an excellent job in their performance. This is fortified by the numerous applauds and awards the musical has won as it endears itself to the public. Drama Desk Awards awarded Alice Ripley for Outstanding Actress in the musical. Of the eleven nominations in the 2009 Tony Awards, the musical won three, including Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Alice Ripley. Similarly, Aaron Tveit won Most Promising

United States Economic and Foreign Policies Towards Latin America Essay Example for Free

United States Economic and Foreign Policies Towards Latin America Essay United States and Latin America need each other by the virtue of sharing common boundary hence the importance of the economic policies which favor these countries for mutual benefit. Latin America is one of the United State export market, for example in 1992 export exceeded $ 100 billion to this region . According to Fryer 1993, Latin American economic association with United States resulted to negative effect. Latin America eternal debts in 1992 was approximately $330 billion United States lending institution getting the largest amount of monthly servicing of this debt about 2 percent . This resulted to Latin American contributing to deficit in the United State budget hence the importance of better economic and foreign policy for mutual benefit . Latin America due to it geographical position to United States is inextricably dependent on the United States economy and on the other hand United States economy benefit a lot from trade. After accusation of neglect of Latin America, United States authorities have changed tune time of cold war perception that Latin America was a threat to an important economic partner . United States and Latin America have been having historical imbalances economically and in foreign policies. Overtime, policies to change this trend have been put in place due to realization that these countries are important to United States equally like northern partners (Vasquez). This means, policies favoring healthy relationship designed by United States would help in ensuring these countries enjoy mutual benefit. To Latin American, Economic and foreign policies are important since they are dependent of the United States economy. If the economic well being of United States is affected for example by recession this duplicates to their economies. Relationship of most government from south and United States economic policies has been unhealthy characterized by opposition to various policies. In the history, Latin countries foreign policies have been designed in opposition to the United States policies . This is due to United States authorities trying to interfere and meddling with the internal affair of these countries. A good example to this is the influence which Russia was able to influence most of the Latin Government to adopt communism policies against United States capitalism policies. According to Rabe 1988, Latin Americans in history have bitter to various United States policies mostly economic and foreign. A good example to this argument is the episode which transpired to Vice President Nixon being stoned in May 1958 in his tour to South America in attempt to smug confidence on foreign and economic policies . This was under leadership of Eisenhower and his foreign and economic policies of anti-communism. In 50s and 60s, Southern economy was growing in a sluggish manner since price of produce from these countries continued to decay yet United State imported 70 percent of their produce . United States showed no interest in stabilizing prices making Latin American countries to suffer economically. This made the socialism ideology to take centre stage in the policies of most of Latin American country protesting against U. S economic and foreign policies. This resulted to counter policies by United States against the communism and economic sanction which harmed economic status of southern countries. This trend continued to the cold war period until fall of Soviet Union and it communism policies. Current foreign and economic policies toward Latin America have been designed to amend bitter past relationship and forge for healthy foreign and economic policies for mutual benefit. There has been a major progress since the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989, hence falls of Soviet union resulting to change of various administrative policies in South America. From 1990, Latin America has experienced major changes which include giving way to democratic governance, adoption of free market economy model, regulating on protectionism policies, giving way to privatization and adjusting on their trade regime. This gave way to future relationship of United States which was initially forged by former President George Bush, under Enterprise for the Americas Initiative umbrella. This was marking end to U. S. cold war policies which were obstacle to social, political and economic progress in Latin America countries . United States foreign policies employed to third world countries since cold war period are confrontation or engagement. Allies of U. S. have been subjected to engagement policy which meant that, they would get economic and military support. On the other hand, they were expected to adopt an environment favorable to United States policies . On the Latin America, United State has been persuading Latin American countries toward the policy of engagement without a major success hence subjecting these countries to U. S foreign policy of confrontation. Policy of confrontation was employed to countries against U. S policies of capitalism and interests. United States use it economic, military as well as political mighty to convert countries to support their interests during cold war period. This policy was employed to Latin America although in most instances it failed . Turn around of the U. S relationship with Latin America has resulted to Latin countries embracing American economic policies. For example Mexico has been in fore front of Latin America region in ditching inefficient protectionism polices, adopting privatization, debt reduction and foreign investment all which are under United States economic policies for south. United States economic policies have shown major effect in Mexico with North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) helping this country to economic reformation. Mexico approval by NAFT is a major test for post cold war relationship among Latin American countries and success of failure having a direct impact to rest of the Southerners . United States economic policies on free trade advised to be employed in Latin America and in operation in Mexico does not automatic translates to a well-distributed economic growth overnight. Also, it does not convert ailing economies as it is purported to be. Latin American economy is comprised of very little wealthy class of people consisting of ruling elite. Their middle categories of people consist of very few individuals with the majority of the population living in poverty like any other third world countries . United States trying to duplicating its economic policies to Latin America may be misplaced due to the fact that if wealth distribution structure is different from that of third world countries. This gets us to quagmire of whether the economic policies advanced by Unites States to Latin America can reduce current economic injustice . Some scholars have for argued that the policy of laissez faire capitalism results to wide gap between poor and rich in the community, questioning rationality of employing it in Latin America . There is a contradiction of capitalism and socialist theory not able to give the right answer to the eradication of poverty in the third world countries economies. Communism tried to employed idea of supporting every one towards equality by ignored the human fundamental drive i. e. incentive system which have been key to economic growth under capitalism economic policies . On the other hand, capitalism policies and liberalization of the economy which a key economic policies advanced by U. S. to Latin America may fail. For example opening up market by Australian Authority resulted to loss of employment and fall of production sector resulting to increased imports against export. This gets to the question whether this may duplicate to the economies of Latin America countries since case of western capitalism contains it own contradiction. Various studies indicate that unregulated markets lead to economic exploitation and injustice which may be experience in Latin American after adopting U. S. economic policies. If the economic policies advanced by United States to Latin America fail, bitter rivalry which has been in existence before the cold war might escalate again and blame game of United States sabotaging Latin America economy may be renewed . To ensure United States economic and foreign policies succeed on Latin America, policies geared toward bridging the economic diversity within this region are important. This is because some countries have adopted the United States economic policies while others are about or implementing them. For example Mexico and Chile economic policy implementation has lead to economic growth . On the other hand countries like Argentina are not yet stable economically stable. Argentina recorded economic deterioration in 2000 and 2001. For Latin America to benefit from United States economic and foreign policies there should be a defined categorization according to economic differences since needs may be different . Economic policies to nurture growth of private sector and improve productivity are of great importance. These policies lead to enhanced economic growth, a right answer to poverty eradication in Southern hemisphere. United state economic and foreign policies should put emphasis on productivity through partnering with institution like Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other financial partners . This will be inconsistent with President Bush policies i. e. investing in people, ruling justly and opening doors for economic freedom. Meaning that a major emphasis on development of human capital through improving education system and employment of new technologies for high productivity. Ruling justly help attaining of increased productivity as corruption and protection of contracts may attract private investment which is key to increased productivity. Therefore, United States economic policies should focus on the area of productivity and apply it categorically according to economic needs of different Latin American countries. Bibliography: Feldstein, Martin S. (1988): The United States in the World Economy: National Bureau of Economic Research. ISBN 0226240789, 9780226240787; University of Chicago Press. Fryer Wesley A. (1993): Defining and Refocusing US Policy Toward Latin America. Retrieved on 17th November 2008 from; http://www. wesfryer. com/uslapolicy. html. Garcia, Enrique 2005: Magazine article; The Quest for Development in Latin America Rabe Stephen G. (1988): Eisenhower and Latin America: The Foreign Policy of Anticommunism. ISBN 0807842044, 9780807842041; UNC Press Krueger, Anne O. 1993: Economic Policies at Cross-purposes: The United States and Developing Countries. ISBN 0815750536, 978081575053 6Brookings Institution Press Mishkin Frederic S. and Savastano Miguel A. 2002: Monetary Policy Strategies for Emerging Market Countries: Lessons from Latin America Journal article; Comparative Economic Studies Paulo Sotero (2005): Democracy in Latin America: Alive but Not Well Magazine article; Foreign Policy Taylor John B. 2002: United States Economic Policy Toward Latin America and the Role of the International Financial Institutions. Retrieve on 17th November 2008 from; http://www. stanford. edu/~johntayl/taylorspeeches/United%20States%20Ec

Nuclear Energy :: essays research papers

Nuclear Energy Radioactive wastes, must for the protection of mankind be stored or disposed in such a manner that isolation from the biosphere is assured until they have decayed to innocuous levels. If this is not done, the world could face severe physical problems to living species living on this planet. Some atoms can disintegrate spontaneously. As they do, they emit ionizing radiation. Atoms having this property are called radioactive. By far the greatest number of uses for radioactivity in Canada relate not to the fission, but to the decay of radioactive materials - radioisotopes. These are unstable atoms that emit energy for a period of time that varies with the isotope. During this active period, while the atoms are 'decaying' to a stable state their energies can be used according to the kind of energy they emit. Since the mid 1900's radioactive wastes have been stored in different manners, but since several years new ways of disposing and storing these wastes have been develop ed so they may no longer be harmful. A very advantageous way of storing radioactive wastes is by a process called 'vitrification'. Vitrification is a semi-continuous process that enables the following operations to be carried out with the same equipment: evaporation of the waste solution mixed with the borosilicate: any of several salts derived from both boric acid and silicic acid and found in certain minerals such as tourmaline. additives necesary for the production of borosilicate glass, calcination and elaboration of the glass. These operations are carried out in a metallic pot that is heated in an induction furnace. The vitrification of one load of wastes comprises of the following stages. The first step is 'Feeding'. In this step the vitrification receives a constant flow of mixture of wastes and of additives until it is 80% full of calcine. The feeding rate and heating power are adjusted so that an aqueous phase of several litres is permanently maintained at the surface of th e pot. The second step is the 'Calcination and glass evaporation'. In this step when the pot is practically full of calcine, the temperature is progressively increased up to 1100 to 1500 C and then is maintained for several hours so to allow the glass to elaborate. The third step is 'Glass casting'. The glass is cast in a special container. The heating of the output of the vitrification pot causes the glass plug to melt, thus allowing the glass to flow into containers which are then transferred into the storage.

American Aid Policy

The United States is the leading developed nation in foreign aid that considers both the interest of its own citizens and industries and those of beneficiary countries. Billions of people all over the world have benefited and appreciated the role of United States in both foreign and food aid. This research paper looks deeply into the overall effectiveness of US foreign aid policy, the need to effect any changes in policy framework or continue to handle affairs in their current form and finally examine the need to increase or decrease the amount in foreign aid.Aid and Millennium Development Goals The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in third world countries and specifically the African continent cannot be realized when foreign aid to these nations is not fully availed. Human development has been ignored by international donor community notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, instead putting more focus on biased economic parameters. Poverty levels in these nations thus cannot be eradicated. Africa alone needs a total of 72 billion dollars in foreign aid per year to achieve its Millennium Development Goals by 2015.This is meager fraction in comparison to the $ 362 billion in subsidiaries developed countries paid to its home based agricultural sectors in 2006. Commitment by developed countries to increase amounts in foreign aid to 0. 7% of their national income has not been realized (Marr, Gunatilaka & Killick, 1998). United States has faired poorly in its rating with only 0. 16% and appears at the bottom of the list. Eradicating poverty and improving human life demand increase in foreign aid to developing nations and failure to honor these commitments means that the present status in terms of poverty levels will remain for a long time.Effectiveness of Foreign Aid The close relationship that exists between foreign aid effectiveness and conditions attached to it has always been a thorny issue. Important development agendas such as the balancing of existing relationship between recipient and donor, considering first support to priorities sectors by the government, deter cases of aid programmes duplications and providing means for undertaking transparency assessment on aid performance are factors that must be put into consideration to ensure aid effectiveness.Furthermore, donor support harmonization in aid programmes that undertake development projects in more than one country demands mutual accountability. Direct budget subsidy contributed by donor countries which still stands at 5% of aid given to developing nations should be viewed by the recipient countries as domestic; hence, implemented vividly on development agendas rather than being accountable to the donors.Though this may be the best way of implementing aid as it create an opportunity for strong economic principles and political willingness to avoid bureaucracy, donors do not yet willing to adopt this model because of their institutionalized channel o f aid flow which do onto conform with the developing countries political structures. In essence, increased direct budget support by donors and good government structure of the recipient countries will increase aid effectiveness (Guillaumont & Chauvet, 2001)Need For Change in Aid Policy Critics have always advocated for foreign aid policy reforms. While United States foreign programme has noted high levels of success, it cannot be without a list of problems. The original aim of American aid policy was to generate and improve its economic sub-sectors such as the shipping industry, dump surpluses and promote trade. A clear example is the food aid policy in which food aid is no longer about providing a meal for the hungry but takes care of a multitude of objectives.A half of every dollar spent on food aid goes into the related costs such as processing and shipping. This reveals that policy changes must be put in place to make food aid perform to its fullest. This is because the current food aid policy strives to accomplish very many objectives, most of which are obsolete. It takes a very long time to transport food from a farmer to its final destination and at times this period takes up to five months. Such delay in delivery leads to added costs such as insurance and crew wages.Furthermore delay is the delivery in food aid cost lives in disaster situations. Money should be used to purchase food closer to their destination and reduce costs of transportation. A drastic shift must be made towards of food aid procuring, with purchase in the beneficiary nation and in the United States. Purchasing goods in countries closer to the beneficiary nations would strengthen agricultural market in these nations (Hansen & Tarp, 2000). The main objective here is local procurement of goods, not aid with conditions.America must move away from tied aid to make its foreign aid policy effective. The global economic crisis has led to questions about the general effectiveness of foreign aid. Questions as to how aid can be sustained continuously in times of economic recessions must be answered to achieve high performance. At the moment, American legislation demands that 50% of aid commodities must be processed and packed at home before shipment. Furthermore, 75% of food aid is managed by the USAID and 50% is under the management of US department of agriculture (Guillaumont & Chauvet, 2001).These commodities must be shipped in vessels flying US flags. Such conditions must be constantly reviewed to do away with long procedures of aid handling and delivery. While there are efforts to reform the aid policy, it is expected to take time before full effectiveness is achieved. The 1961 Foreign Assistance Act and the Farm Bill under President George Bush are some efforts to restructure United States foreign aid policy. An examination into different types of foreign aid reveals a complex scenario on how effective its overall objectives are.The reconstruction of countries reel ing from effects of war such as Iraq and Afghanistan are always controversial in nature. Given the overlap in time due to security related issues, it is almost impossible to accurately determine how much and to what level of effectiveness these aid constitute (Dalgaard & Hansen, 2007). Another area that requires total change is the technical cooperation. This is poorly defined due to its ambiguity and thus hard to measure. They are always under criticism due to the huge amounts involved but often not properly accounted for.Technical cooperation always means transfer of skills and knowledge from the donor country to the beneficiary country but always become controversial when they involve military aid assistance such as generous packages to Israel and Egypt. The so-called aid for national interest always attracts huge aid packages than moral areas such as poverty and disease alleviation. Pakistan is a major recipient of United States aid due to its influence and geographical location with Afghanistan and receives this foreign aid to maintain stability and peace in the region. America must do away with some aid conditionality.The imbalance in aid contracts creates conditions which translate into donor demands for change in social, political and economic affairs (Burns, 1984). One of the most absurd conditions from the western donors is the system of state control over all sectors of the economy. The demand for democratic states and good governance, free and fair elections, constitute to some of these conditions. Considering achievement of these conditions a yardstick to receiving foreign aid undermines its role and objects and thus makes it a political tool to control affairs of other countries.Reforms must be made on how aid is channeled to the beneficiary countries. Multilateral aid is always channeled through World Bank and other regional development banks while bilateral aid is paid direct to the beneficiary countries (Miyashita, 2003). Multilateral aid has so far recorded greater success than bilateral aid since it is not selective and undertakes its programmes on neutral basis. These aids are in the form of grants that ensure maximum utilization for the set objectives. Reforming policies in these sectors to ensure maximum transparency and reduce levels of political interference would definitely improve its performance.Conclusion Bilateral aid must not be used to hood-wink political leaders. It is obvious that some developing countries whose economic performances are poor depend mainly on foreign aid to support their programmes. Application of selective strategies and tough conditions driven by greed to control the smaller nations will eventually render the foreign aid ineffective. The way to go in improving the performance is forging a close alliance with the beneficiaries and improving levels of transparency (Toye, Harrigan & Mosley, 1995).The handling of foreign food must take into consideration the overall improvement of agricultu re and provision of close markets for agricultural markets to regions close to the beneficiary country. Foreign aid must therefore seek to improve the level of human development. References: Burns, W. J. , (1984), Economic Aid and American Policy towards Egypt. Sunny Press Dalgaard, C. J. & Hansen, H. , (2007), On Aid, Growth and Good Policies, The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), 17-41. Guillaumont, P. & Chauvet, L., (2001), Aid and Performance: A Reassessment, The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 37(6), pages 66-92 Hansen, H. & Tarp, F. , (2000), Aid effectiveness disputed, Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. , vol. 12(3), pages 375-398. Marr, A. , Gunatilaka, R. & Killick, T. , (1998), Aid and the Political Economy of policy change, Routledge. Miyashita, A. (2003), Limits to Power: Asymmetric dependence and Japanese foreign aid policy, Lexington Books. Toye, J. F. Y, Harrigan, J. J. & Mosley, P. (1995), Aid and power; The World Bank and Policy–Based Lending, Routledge.

Social Media Strategy – Retail Boutique

The Plaid Door – Social Media strategy Goals  : – Awareness – Generate new leads, which will in turn result in paying customers. So your social media strategy will be centered around targeting new prospects and drive them to your website and to the Plaid Door boutique. This would include some very targeted campaigns. – Customer service / Interaction. You want to use Social Media to be able to communicate with your customers much better and to be able to dynamically interact with them on a daily basis in order to really build those relationships.Your strategy here then would be much more about manning your page, instant responses to questions & queries. Target audience  : * Mostly women * Aged between 20 and 55 Social-Media sites  : Facebook / Twitter  / Pinterest Social Media Site #1: Facebook Facebook was created in 2003, and since then it has grown into the largest site for peer-to-peer connection and communication. A Facebook page allows organi zations to garner fans and post updates. It also allows for solid feedback, as fans can â€Å"like† certain posts or they can comment on them in opposition.Organizations can even arrange to have to have their name as part of the Facebook page URL for easy access and recognition. Many nonprofit groups have seen success through hosting contests and posting special information on their pages. Recommendations  : 1. Add Like Box on your website. Like Box is a social plug-in which you add on your website so your visitors are able to like your page directly from your website. They just need to be logged in. Your visitors most likely will like your fan page since they also can stay updated liking your fan page.This is great way to promote your Facebook fan page. 2. Post/tweet about your new Facebook page. You should inform your readers or twitter followers about your new Facebook page. Make post or update about it and tell them why they should join. 3. Reward your fans or make a co ntest. You can reward your fans if they help you promote Facebook fan page. Also you can make a contest and reward those who referred your page to most people. As a reward you can offer some coupons or rebates on  «Ã‚  private shopping night  Ã‚ » You can run â€Å"fans only† contests, so more people tend to join and like your page. . Use Facebook ads. You can spend some money to advertise your page using Facebook advertising marketing tool. Create multiple adverts to help build an audience for your Page. Use the targeting options to show your adverts to only the people you want reach. See which versions of your adverts work best 5. Influence the friends of your fans. Encourage check-ins, participation in events or create an offer to encourage more activity on your Page. When people interact with the content on your Page, their friends are eligible to see the activity.When people do things such as like, comment or check-in to your Page, you can promote those activities to their friends. 6. Connect Twitter and Facebook. You can connect those two social medias using Involver. com so whatever you post on Twitter should be  posted on Facebook page and vice versa. 7. Hold a weekly event. Pick one day or one hour every week and pick one activity to do repeatedly every week, for example a tutorial on how to refashion clothes. Start promoting your event every week to your friends / fans, build up to it on the wall, create a facebook event about it and invite all your friends.Just start slowly and gradually more and more people will hear about it and begin to attend your weekly event. 8. Hold a caption contest. For example on refashioned clothes. 9. Use Facebook’s Questions feature to poll your fans for their opinions. 10. Always respond to likes / comments / shares etc. Your appreciation will encourage engagement. 11. Post photos. Images are one of the biggest activities online. For example you can post photos of some new arrivals clothes, of the P laid Door boutique, people working at the Plaid Door†¦ 12. Ask your likers to â€Å"Suggest to Friends† on a monthly basis.Post a Status Update and send an Update to fans asking them to suggest your page to their Facebook friends. Let them know that they can easily suggest your page by clicking the ‘Suggest to Friends' link just under your Page's image in the left column. Inspiring your Likers to help build your community is one of the easiest ways to quickly grow your supporter base. 13. Get your organization's staff and volunteers involved. Ask those people closest to your nonprofit to support your Facebook page by posting comments and liking your posts. Encourage them to include the Plaid Door social information on their email signature. 4. Post about branded clothes you have. Make it special; encourage people to come check this out so they can get a good deal. 15. Set up a Google Alert for your organization’s name to keep track of what people are saying. Social Media Site #2: Twitter Over the past few years, the popularity of Twitter has exploded. Twitter is essentially a forum to share messages, but these messages have a 140-character limit. Although this might restrict some of the creative opportunities for businesses, there are still ways to push out meaningful information. Recommendations  : 1. Use Hashtags Strategically.Twitter does a great job of grouping topics together through the use of â€Å"hashtags. † A hashtag is symbolized by the â€Å"#† character and it can be put before any word. This hyperlinks the word, and it is then clumped together with similar tweets. Now, there is some science to this. Twitter has a feature on the left-hand side on the screen that lists â€Å"trending topics† for the given geographical region. This is essentially a list of topics that people have hashtagged and are interested in at that time. If an organization can somehow find a way to tie in one of these trending t opics to its tweet, it has a better chance of being seen.This is difficult because the trending topics won't always be totally relevant, but having a creative mind that can make the two messages connect will do wonders for an organization's exposure. 2. Distribute Coupons and Discounts. Twitter is a great platform for distributing special offers and hosting contests. For example, you could tweet about a 30 percent off coupon, but make it applicable only to those who can show that they received the tweet on their computer or phone. Another example: you could host a contest, such as offering a prize to the person who re-tweets the organization the most or recruits the most followers.This allows companies to form more personal relationships with their target demographics. Social Media Site #3: Pinterest Pinterest, which launched in 2010, has grown to more than 10 million users. Every day, people use the website to â€Å"pin† images and videos to their personal pin boards so the y can save and share the things they love. The site gets social when people follow each other and repin or comment on each other’s pins. Pinterest's users tend to be women, and the majority of them are 25 to 54 years old, according to recently released demographic data.Although there are some exceptions, most content on Pinterest falls into stereotypically female niches, including home decor, recipes, crafts and apparel. This corresponds to your target audience. Recommendations  : 1. Add a â€Å"Pin It† Button to Your Organization's Website. By adding a â€Å"Pin It† button to your organization's website, visitors then have the option to pin any of the images from your site on one of their boards. 2. Get the Community Involved. Pinterest is a good way to facilitate community involvement.This ensures that people are actually interacting with their community, and it allows the organization to get to know its customers and donors on a more intimate level. 3. Enc ourage Employees To Pin. Pinterest is far from static. Users are pinning every minute and it can quickly become a challenge for an organization to stay on top of its ball game. In order to make sure that your organization is in front of the competition, you can encourage all workers to open a Pinterest account and create boards. They can then pin images that are relevant to the organization's values and overarching goals.A somewhat lesser known fact is that Pinterest users can actually upload and pin videos as well as still photographs. 4. Create group pinboards and crowdsource?. Create group pinboards and invite other users to pin content to those boards. For example, ask customers to pin pictures of themselves using your products. You also could hold a contest to crowdsource pins. Ask customers to review your business or product on your website and pin a quote from their review to a special contest pinboard. You benefit from more reviews and a pinboard that’s filled with te stimonials. 5. Don’t use pinterest for direct marketing?.Pinterest states that the site should not be used for direct marketing, advertising or sales. Excessive and overt self-promotion is clearly unacceptable, so make sure you’re pinning diverse content, not just pictures of your products. You need to get creative and use Pinterest for indirect marketing. For example, fill pin boards with seasonal items, color coordinated images, gift ideas and so on. 6. Don’t pin anything and everything?. Stay focused, but don’t be afraid to pin interesting content that your target audience would enjoy and that’s at least loosely connected to your business.Such content can help give your brand more personality. For example: You can create boards about hairstyle or home decor or craft, these subject are relevant to your target audience. 7. Give your followers a look at your non-profit from behind the scenes. Pin images that show staff and volunteers working with y our organization, as well as those who benefit from that work. It’s a good idea to show supporters the human faces behind your logo. 8. â€Å"Photo of the Day†. You can create a board where you will pin everyday of photo of an new item in the Plaid Door Boutique. . Create a board with tutorials on how to refashion clothes. 10. Repin/Highlight Other Non-Profits. Like all forms of social media, Pinterest isn’t a place to over-promote. Avoid this is by mixing original pinning with repins of images from other non-profits within your sphere of influence. Users receive an email notification when their images are repinned and they are credited on your repin, which can increase their following. The non-profit you repin may return the favor, allowing Pinterest to become a channel for valuable, non-disruptive cross-promotion.

Essay Sample on Gas Prices for America

Essay Sample on Gas Prices for America Today, gas prices as a national average have risen to 2.1 dollars per gallon. This is the highest gas price increase since 1990, during operation desert storm. What is the cause of this drastic increase in gas prices? Limited supply of crude oil from the Middle East some say. Others think the cause is high trade tariffs on incoming foreign oil. But what is the solution to this problem? Is it drilling in our national wildlife reserves in Alaska? Dropping the trade tariffs and promoting free trade around the world? Perhaps we should look for alternative energy sources; maybe even a combination of all three. But whatever the solution, it needs to be done quickly. America’s gas prices are becoming so outrageous that it is becoming more and more likely that our economy will fall into a depression, and our world, so dependent upon gas for transportation, is in danger of losing the luxuries that we take for granted. Something needs to be done now. America’s main problem is the complete consumption of all the world’s recourses. A recent statistic shows that America consumes over Ã'Ëœ of all the world’s recourses and yet only makes up 1/16 of the population. One solution to this problem is for America to restrict the amount of gas that it uses. However, this would be quite difficult task because of our democratic society. Limits on amount of gas that is expended would be seen as a violation of our constitutional rights. The only thing we can do is cajole the country into understanding the issue and suggest that other means of transportation such as carpools and buses are easy to adapt to, and extremely economical. This of course has already been done with the use of carpool lanes and increases in city buses, with little effect. With so much gas being exhausted in our economy the more oil needs to be drilled or bought. President George W. Bush has recently signed an executive order to begin drilling in nation forests up in Alaska. He proclaims that there are safe and effective ways to remove the oil and cause little or no damage to the surrounding wildlife. Skeptics of his plan suggest that there is only a small amount of oil in the Alaskan forests and would therefore do our country no good. In any case the effects of this new oil excavation plan will not be in the upcoming future and thus is not an immediate answer to our current gas crisis. But there are other places in which to obtain oil, and that is from the oil rich Middle East. We do not presently have a good relationship with many of the Middle Eastern countries and this means that they are selling us the oil we need at a higher price. One solution to the gas crisis is to reconcile our differences with the Middle Eastern countries. But the animosity between us and the Middle East have been long occurring and a reconciliation attempt would result in a long and grueling negotiation with a lot of compromises from the U.S. thus making this a long and costly solution. As stated before, America is the largest consumer of gasoline and other fossil fuels in the entire world. If there was a way to rely on other means of energy such as solar, fusion engines etc. our economy could flourish. The idea of a solar or battery powered car is not a new concept but perhaps an overlooked one. Today one could purchase such an automobile and then never need to buy gas and no longer need to worry about the cost. Such technology, however, is not only risky and hard to maintain, but it is also very costly. Electric cars are known to cost a minimum of 30,000 dollars and though money is saved over time, it is still unappealing to the frugal American public. Experimental solar and fusion engines are yet to become available to the public making this an impractical solution. The final argument to assuage the rising gas prices is to drop our trade tariffs on incoming foreign oil. This solution gives us a quick and effective resolve to our countries problem. Our current system, which was designed to support America and American run industries, puts a certain cost percentage on all incoming non-domestic fossil fuels and thus increases prices higher than they should. If we were to impose no tariffs on the incoming oil then that extra percentage of cost would disappear. Not only is this an effective solution to the problem, it is a fast acting one. The effects of this resolution would be quickly discovered in a matter of months, and though it is only a small amount of decrease, it allows a small relief to the public and gives more time to create a more long lasting and efficient cure for our nations growing problem. You can order a custom essay, term paper, research paper, thesis or dissertation on Gas Prices topics from our professional custom essay writing service which provides high-quality custom written papers at an affordable cost.

Scary Clown Costume Ideas for This Halloween

Scary Clown Costume Ideas for This Halloween In case you haven’t heard, scary clowns are all the rage this fall. The trend has sparked terror all across the country and internationally as people don scary clown costumes at night and head out to terrorize their neighborhood. With a costume this hot, nobody wants to be left out. So if you’re planning to be your own breed of scary clown this Halloween, or even tonight, here are some tips on how to do it right. There are lots of scary clown styles to choose from, from Stephen King’s It to Clownhouse to Carnival of Souls to Zombieland. Here are some top scary looks and how to get them: Stephen King’s IT The hair He doesn’t have the classic Ronald McDonald Hair, instead he has frizzy red hair and a majorly receding hairline. So, you’ll need to cover up your own hairline with a swim-cap or other cap before you don the wig. The face Use white face-paint and lots of it. If you put a thin layer on, your skin tone will still shine through so make sure you pile on the white face-paint to get his look right. The nose He doesn’t have one of those perfectly red noses, instead it’s textured and bulbous. You can get the same effect by covering a traditional red nose with a sponge material and painting it red. The eyes Red contacts can help you imitate his menacing gaze. The teeth This clown’s got killer teeth. And they’re yellow to boot. Look for a set of scary sharp teeth to complete your look and dirty them up with brown and yellow food coloring before going out. Clownhouse There’s more than one scary clown in this film but the lead clown’s look is the best. The hair Again, he has a receding hairline, but with shorter hair than the It clown. You’ll need to don that swim-cap again to cover up your hairline before putting on the wig. The face Use a base of white face-paint first. This clown has triangles above his eyes and he frames the eyes with a black line that goes from the temples and across the forehead which can be drawn in with black eyeliner or face-paint. The nose A traditional clown’s nose made out of rubber, not plastic, will work here. The lips His lips are filled in with a deep red color that goes outside the border of his lips, making for a creepy looking red mouth. Carnival of Souls The hair This guy doesn’t have the traditional red hair. Instead, you can find a dark green wig for the hair. Top it off with his signature purple top-hat. The face Begin with a base of white face-paint. Then draw in exaggerated arched eyebrows with black eyeliner or face-paint. For his creepy eye look, use red face-paint all around the eyes. His mouth has a downturned smile, so use red face-paint or lipstick to fill in and around the lips. Zombieland The hair This clown is also a zombie and has two green tufts of hair growing out of either side and is bald in the middle. The face You’ll have a lot of fun with this one. His zombie look has rotten flesh around the chin and deep unhealed scars across his temples and cheeks. Use a base of grey-ish white face-paint for his undead look. Black face-paint around the eyes will create a sunken eyeball look. Add a turned up red clown’s smile around the mouth with lipstick or face-paint. His bulbous red nose is shiny plastic. The accessory You simply can’t ignore this guy’s bowtie. The enormous blue and white polka-dot tie would make this scary clown outfit complete. Choose your favorite scary clown look to scare your neighbors tonight or to have the most popular Halloween costume of the season. If you dont like clowns, you should check out other Halloween costume ideas to create the scariest costume for the party! Also, you can be even scarier after applying Halloween makeup! image credit: flickr.com

Knowledge management assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Knowledge management - Assignment Example The evaluation is the basis upon which the status of the system finds establishment. The policy will then be drafted on the basis of the findings. The strengths and weaknesses of the policy will then be tested for effectiveness in management of the university’s information and knowledge resources. The Information Technology department is an indispensable department in any organization. It manages the technological resources for the university. Management of the information system focuses on the technology used to gather information and data which is essential to run the university. The information should be safe and retrievable. Data collection methods collect the relevant information. A survey is one of the methods used to assess satisfaction the users of the information system get from its utilization. An online survey (Shapiro, 2004) can be used to collect the feedback on IT functionalities. It will gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the system. It will also be used to measure trends and attitudes toward new information technology. The IT survey design examines the use of information technology such as computers and programs. The survey should be close ended. It collects quantitative data. The information collected will help the university decide what information technology is available to support, plan, implement and evaluate new programs. It will enumerate and describe the programs available for the different groups of staff and students of the university. It will gather data on suggestions as to which programs and equipment could ameliorate the efficiency of the information management system. A survey is affordable and efficient. However, it lacks the flexibility required to capture certain qualitative information. It finds its application in lieu with interviews. Interviews can obtain in depth information on topics. Interviews capture qualitative information. They gather this

British Press in 1840-1860s Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

British Press in 1840-1860s - Essay Example However, these attempts failed, and when the editor of a radical paper was sued in 1819, "The paper's circulation rose by over 50 per cent" (Curren, 1991, 12). Even the Stamp duty on paper, which was increased massively between 1789 and 1815 (Curren, page 13), was not enough to control the radical papers, and in 1836 the Government reduced the duty by three quarters: the intention was to "Put down the unstamped papers" (Curren, page 14). In fact, by the middle of the 1840's the intent had changed to influencing the workers "To secure the loyalty of the working classes to the social order" (Curren, page 27). The beginnings of the popular press, were therefore in the intention of the government to suppress and smother the radical working-class papers which had appeared in the later Georgian era. Influenced by the rise of newspapers backed by men with money, the campaigners in the 1830's demanded the development of a free market: "Free tradewould 'give to men of capital and respectability the power of gaining access by newspapersto the minds of the working classes'" (Curren, 1991, 29). Other developments also influenced the growth of the press in this twenty-year period. The first was the blossoming of working class literacy, from about two-thirds of men and half of women in 1841 to four fifths of men and three quarters of women in 1871: In addition, the twent... In addition, the twenty years between 1840 and 1860 saw a growth in the industrialization of the press, which meant that each paper could now achieve higher sales, with numbers of papers rising from " 200 in 1846 to 750 in 1865" (Newsome, 1998, page 144). There were nearly four times as many papers available in 1860 than were there in 1840; but these were not the same papers which had been produced in the 1790's. The huge machines which now printed newspaper runs, and the repeal of taxes served to increase the running costs of the papers: by 1855, the prime minister was told "That a capital of about 20,000 was needed to start a London daily paper" (Curren, 1991, page 36). What this meant is that by the 1850's, most of the newspapers being produced where owned and established by the wealthy: land magnates, factory owners, and the upper-middle and upper classes. Other papers, such as the Morning Post, began as Whig supporters, and were turned into Tory publications by new owners (Cambr idge, chapter 9). In addition, the price of a newspaper had risen from about 1d before the Stamp Duty repeals to 3 or 4d afterwards. These were the first effects upon the social fabric of the working class; between 1830 and 1840, the popular press became more and more focused on capitalism, and its readership centered upon the middle classes, and the lower classes fell back into pamphlets, or 'penny dreadfuls' as they were known in the Victorian era. Much of the concern came from clergymen, journalists and magistrates Who seem to have assumed that the penny dreadful readership was Almost entirely young, working class and male (Chris Willis, 2000) The

Strategic marketing and its operations in UK hotels and restaurants Dissertation

Strategic marketing and its operations in UK hotels and restaurants - Dissertation Example According to the research findings in any business or organization related to hospitality industry, the basic intent or desire of the management officials is to achieve desired goals and objectives. These goals and objectives can only be achieved when a company considers the needs and demands of the consumers, internal and external environments, and business opportunities while designing the business strategies. The hospitality industry includes all such businesses that provide accommodation services, tourism services, and food service to the people. Among all types of business strategies, marketing strategies hold key importance in the progress and development of the hospitality industry of a country. In order to attract and retain the customers through customer centric marketing strategies, a business faces many challenges. For this purpose, the business officials need to implement appropriate strategic marketing plans not only to overcome the marketing challenges but also to provi de tourism and food services to the customers in an appropriate manner. Strategic marketing improves productivity of a company. Productivity of a company depends on some critical factors, such as, customer satisfaction and employee retention. If we talk about hospitality industry, if the customers will be satisfied from the food and beverages provided by any specific restaurant, they will work as a source to attract more people towards the restaurant, which will ultimately increase the levels of productivity and profitability of the restaurant. ... pitality companies use to create effective plans that not only satisfy the customers’ needs and demands but also help the companies increase productivity and profitability. Almost all companies find strategic marketing planning a necessity (Samli 1998, p. 2). Strategic marketing improves productivity of a company. Productivity of a company depends on some critical factors, such as, customer satisfaction and employee retention. If we talk about hospitality industry, if the customers will be satisfied from the food and beverages provided by any specific restaurant, they will work as a source to attract more people towards the restaurant, which will ultimately increase the levels of productivity and profitability of the restaurant. It is a well-known fact that when a company makes a customer, it makes one customer, but when a company loses a customer, it loses a hundred customers. In case of hospitality and tourism industries, quality of foods and services is the main factor whic h attracts customers and improves customer satisfaction level for a company. So, a company should create and implement a marketing plan, which should not only reach target customer but also should increase customer satisfaction for the company. 3. Impact of Strategic Marketing in UK Hotels and Restaurants While talking about strategic marketing, we should also discuss the basic purpose of strategic marketing for the UK’s hotels and restaurants. So talking about the main purpose of strategic marketing, we can say that it helps hotels and restaurants improve their performance by attracting more customers and retaining old ones. In UK, hotel managers make use of effective marketing methods not only to reach new customers but also to make them realize their value and importance for the business.

Importance of ISO 9000

Importance of ISO 9000 Importance of ISO 9000. INTRODUCTION In this term paper we discussed about ISO 9000 and its importance. `ISO 9000 is usually used to refer to a set of intimately related standards. One standard is a roadmap for the others. These standards cover quality design, quality management, and quality assurance for different kinds of companies depending on the extent to which they design as well as manufacture products. ISO 9000 is important in the first instance because it gives organizations some guidance on how to manage for quality. Secondly, mechanisms exist by which an organization can be certified for conforming to ISO 9000 specifications. With this certification in hand, an organization can better sell its product or service to its customer. It can say that the product or service is the result of a process that continually tested for quality. The government of the European Union has mandated that some products will not be imported into Europe unless the exporting organization can demonstrate compliance to ISO 9000. What Is ISO 9000? ISO 9000 began in 1979 when the British Standards Institute Technical Committee 176 began the creation of a standard for generic quality principles for manufacturing. This led to the ISO 9000 standard that was finally issued in 1987. ISO 9000 is the most widely known, most widely adopted, and best selling standard of any that ISO has published. The language and apparent assumptions of ISO 9000 are targeted to the manufacturer. Nevertheless, ISO 9000 is being applied to quality systems of many organizations, whether they be manufacturing or not (Voehl et al, 1994). One theme of this column is that further ISO standards ought to be developed to support quality management. The term `ISO 9000 is usually used to refer to a set of intimately related standards. One standard is a roadmap for the others. These standards cover quality design, quality management, and quality assurance for different kinds of companies depending on the extent to which they design as well as manufacture products. Another one of the standards covers risks, costs and benefits, management responsibility, quality system principles, and other building blocks that help users customize quality standards to conform to real-life situations. In the rest of this column the term ISO 9000 will be used to refer to this set of quality-related standards. One way to model the coverage of ISO 9000 is to think of the organizations operating process, its quality records, and its quality control. The operating process creates the final product or service (see Figure 1). The quality records are maintained relative to this process, and the control system corrects for divergences from quality. Quality control is supported by a procedure manual that provides guidance for the implementation of the quality system on a day-to-day basis. The control system must include a means for identifying, collecting, indexing, storing, retrieving, and maintaining quality records. The quality system must help people work to quality. This requires both that the documentation is relevant to the standard and that the behavior of people is relevant to the standard (Huyink and Westover, 1994). The rectangle in the middle shows the basic process of the company. The quality records that are indicated in the right must reflect each step of the basic process. The quality control is indicated on the left and applies to the quality records relative to the ongoing company process. What are the ISO 9000 Principles? 1. A Customer Focus As stated before, the customer is the primary focus of a business. By understanding and responding to the needs of customers, an organization can correctly targeting key demographics and therefore increase revenue by delivering the products and services that the customer is looking for. With knowledge of customer needs, resources can be allocated appropriately and efficiently. Most importantly, a businesss dedication will be recognized by the customer, creating customer loyalty. And customer loyalty is return business. 2. Good Leadership A team of good leaders will establish unity and direction quickly in a business environment. Their goal is to motivate everyone working on the project, and successful leaders will minimize miscommunication within and between departments. Their role is intimately intertwined with the next ISO 9000 principle. 3. Involvement of people The inclusion of everyone on a business team is critical to its success. Involvement of substance will lead to a personal investment in a project and in turn create motivated, committed workers. These people will tend towards innovation and creativity, and utilize their full abilities to complete a project. If people have a vested interest in performance, they will be eager to participate in the continual improvement that ISO 900 facilitates. 4. Process approach to quality management The best results are achieved when activities and resources are managed together. This process approach to quality management can lower costs through the effective use of resources, personnel, and time. If a process is controlled as a whole, management can focus on goals that are important to the big picture, and prioritize objectives to maximize effectiveness. 5. Management system approach Combining management groups may seem like a dangerous clash of titans, but if done correctly can result in an efficient and effective management system. If leaders are dedicated to the goals of an organization, they will aid each other to achieve improved productivity. Some results include integration and alignment of key processes. Additionally, interested parties will recognize the consistency, effectiveness, and efficiency that come with a management system. Both suppliers and customers will gain confidence in a businesss abilities. 6. Continual Improvement The importance of this principle is paramount, and should a permanent objective of every organization. Through increased performance, a company can increase profits and gain an advantage over competitors. If a whole business is dedicated to continual improvement, improvement activities will be aligned, leading to faster and more efficient development.Ready for improvement and change, businesses will have the flexibility to react quickly to new opportunities. 7. Factual approach to decision making Effective decisions are based on the analysis and interpretation of information and data. By making informed decisions, an organization will be more likely to make the right decision. As companies make this a habit, they will be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions. This will put confidence in current and future decisions. 8. Supplier relationships It is important to establish a mutually beneficial supplier relationship; such a relationship creates value for both parties. A supplier that recognizes a mutually beneficial relationship will be quick to react when a business needs to respond to customer needs or market changes. Through close contact and interaction with a supplier, both organizations will be able to optimize resources and costs. Why is ISO 9000 Important? ISO 9000 is important in the first instance because it gives organizations some guidance on how to manage for quality. Secondly, mechanisms exist by which an organization can be certified for conforming to ISO 9000 specifications. With this certification in hand, an organization can better sell its product or service to its customer. It can say that the product or service is the result of a process that continually tested for quality. The government of the European Union has mandated that some products will not be imported into Europe unless the exporting organization can demonstrate compliance to ISO 9000. Organizations, such as the military, which have traditionally implemented costly reviews of quality in their suppliers can instead require that their suppliers demonstrate conformance to ISO 9000. The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) does not itself test for conformance to ISO 9000. Conformance to ISO 9000 may, in general, be checked by * the organization which claims to follow the standard and wants certification (1st party certification), * the organization which is buying product or service from the company that claims ISO 9000 compliance (2nd party certification), or * an organization which specializes in such certification and is neither the 1st or 2nd party (3rd party certification). Rules exist for how such certification should be done, and organizations exist which certify other organizations as performing reliable ISO 9000 certifications. In the United Kingdom and Australia 3rd party audits of ISO 9000 compliance involves a system audit every three years and five mini-audits within each three year span. To receive certification a company must show that its documentation follows the quality standard and that its people follow the documentation. How does ISO 9000 work? ISO 9000 is set up as a collection of guidelines that help a company establish, maintain, and improve a quality management system. It is important to stress that ISO 9000 is not a rigid set of requirements, and that organizations have flexibility in how they implement their quality management system. This freedom allows the ISO 9000 standard to be used in a wide range of organizations, and in businesses large and small. One important aspect of ISO 9000 is its process-oriented approach. Instead of looking at a companys departments and individual processes, ISO 9000 requires that a company look at the big picture. How do processes interact? Can they be integrated with one another? What are the important aspects of products and services? Once this process-oriented approach is implemented, various audits can be done as a check of the effectiveness of your quality management system. There are three main types of audits 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party audits. An internal audit is a 1st party audit. ISO 9000 encourages (and requires) this type of audit so that an organization can get feedback quickly from those who know the company best. However, this audit process cannot be viewed as impartial. Therefore, 2nd party audits allow for a consumer to evaluate the performance on an organization. As an alternative to a 2nd party audit, many companies choose to become certified with ISO 9000 through a 3rd party audit. In this case, an independent certification body comes into an organization and evaluates it in terms of the ISO 9000 guidelines. If an organization meets the requirements of the standard, it becomes certified in ISO 9000 and carries a seal of quality recognized throughout the world. Developing Standards:-A standard is a specification that is recognized within an organization. A product or process can be measured against a specification to establish whether it meets the standard. The organization could be a group of 10 people, a small company of 100 people, an industry of 1 million, a country of millions, or a world of billions. The most important standards for any organization are those which it develops to coordinate itself.ISO 9000 provides a meta-standard. Each organization that wants to be recognized for the quality of its processes and products creates and maintains that standard internally. The way in which the international meta-standard was developed is similar in principle to the way that instances of it are developed within an organization. Universities typically work to the quality of standards created by groups of professors and certified by groups of professors. Universities have not been striving to be explicitly ISO 9000 compliant. However, their intent is at times comparable to that of organizations that demonstrate ISO 9000 compliance. How does the university develop internal standards? The university may create a task force with extensive representation of influential people. This task force proposes standards. After the task force completes its work, the normal apparatus of the university is invoked to ratify or amend the recommendations of the task force. Subsequent implementation of the ratified recommendations requires the support of existing and perhaps new groups within the organization. The development of the quality standard within the university parallels the development of ISO 9000 itself. A group of business and government people in England were concerned about quality management. They organized a group within the British Standards Institute (BSI) to develop a specification. Other groups within BSI then discussed and ultimately ratified the proposed specification. The BSI result already reflected the direction for a large country. The successful effort to persuade the world through ISO of the importance of this standard represented another level of the same kind of process that had already occurred through BSI. The implementation of the standard has been supported by numerous other organizations, such as the earlier described American Society for Quality Control. The trend in higher education can be used to illustrate ramifications of ISO 9000. New private organizations are entering into the higher education marketplace. These private organizations feel that they can compete where state-funded universities have typically held control because these new private organizations exploit to the maximum the information superhighway and quality management. One barrier to the success of these new universities is the traditional certification processes that are biased in favor of the existing universities. A university degree is certified by associations of professors from like-universities. If a new, private company wants to offer a radically new kind of curriculum, then will it get certification from its traditional competitors? Might these new universities instead seek ISO 9000 certification? In the health care industry standards have become increasingly important. The explosive growth of health care costs is being contained by setting standards for quality care that are monitored across extensive information networks. One part of this approach has been to define categories of illness and to fix reimbursements for managing patients in certain illness categories. The Committee for European Normalization has a very active health care information technology standardization groups within it. They are developing many standards for health care information including some which provide models for the quality management of the entire health care industry information infrastructure. Environmental protection has been a major political theme of the current quarter-century. The Rio Conference on the Environment held in 1992 helped stimulate the development of new standards that extend ISO 9000 into a particular concern for the environment. These new developments are leading towards the ISO 14000 standards which are expected to be issued in 1996 and which will prescribe requirements for environmental quality management. The ISO 14000 standards will include specifications for the implementation of environmental quality management systems, environmental audits, and environmental performance evaluations. ISO 14000 principles will be in many ways similar to ISO 9000 principles but with a different application. While ISO 9000 itself is being updated, new standards are also appearing that are closely related to ISO 9000. This column has argued that such standards are important and that we should lend support to the further development of such standards in important application areas. Importance of ISO 9000 There has been so much written about the benefits of having ISO-9000 registration, there isnt enough space on this website to repeat it all. We will attempt to list some of the basic benefits here. 1. ISO-9000 forces an organization to focus on how they do business. Each procedure and work instruction must be documented and thus, becomes the springboard for Continuous Improvement. 2. Documented processes are the basis for repetition and help eliminate variation within the process. As variation is eliminated, efficiency improves. As efficiency improves, the cost of quality is reduced. 3. With the development of solid Corrective and Preventative measures, permanent, company-wide solutions to quality problems are found. 4. Employee morale is increased as they are asked to take control of their processes and document their work processes. 5. Customer satisfaction, and more importantly customer loyalty, grows. As a company transforms from a reactive organization to a pro-active, preventative organization, it becomes a company people want to do business with. 6. Reduced problems resulting from increased employee participation, involvement, awareness and systematic employee training. 7. Better products and services result from Continuous Improvement processes. 8. Fosters the understanding that quality, in and of itself, is not limited to a quality department but is everyones responsibility. 9. Improved profit levels result as productivity improves and rework costs are reduced. 10. Improved communications both internally and externally which improves quality, efficiency, on time delivery and customer/supplier relations. Gauging the importance of ISO 9000 The International Standards Organizations (ISO) quality management standard, ISO 9000, is rapidly becoming the standard of choice for businesses throughout the world, and worldwide registration totals almost 100,000 companies. In the US, NASA and the Dept of Defense, as well as the three major automakers, have adopted it and in the UK, registration of companies using the standard has been quickly increasing. Meanwhile, US computer industry leaders are trying to implement a system of self-certification, arguing that many business benefits are to be obtained from so doing. Why is root cause analysis and systemic corrective action so important in management system standards, such as ISO 9001? When problem solving, it is important to find the cause of problem in order to develop a solution. Sometimes, the most obvious cause is not the right one. This is why ISO 9000 stresses the importance of finding the root cause(s) of a problem. There may be multiple, subtle reasons why a process isnt working correctly, and finding the actual causes will lead a company one step closer to a solution and implementation of corrective actions. The goal of finding root causes is to improve the way problems are managed. Becoming adept in recognizing the root causes of a problem will lead to a reduced impact, a containment of error, and the prevention of recurrence. Identifying and correcting root causes will also lead to the reduction of unnecessary efforts which in turn will lower the cost of maintaining quality. As more and more corrective actions are taken, processes will become more stable, and continual improvement will face less interruptions. How does ISO 9000 interact with other standards? ISO 9000 is the standard for a quality management system that closely resembles many other management systems. These other systems, based on health, safety, the environment, and business continuity, can be integrated into an overarching business management system. Benefits of this system include aligned interests, reduced costs, and improved efficiency. With one of these systems in place, it is easier to implement any of the others; many documents required for a different standard are already prepared, and personnel are already accustomed to the audit process. Using multiple standards will not only increase the efficiency of an organization, but increase the integrity of its operations. What does ISO 9000 mean to me and my company? ISO 9000 is a standard created to make the attainment of quality, consistent products easier by providing specific steps for development of an organizations quality management system. This quality management system is meant to monitor the progress of a product or service as it goes through each stage of production, from development to testing to assembly to customer feedback. One cornerstone of ISO 9000 is continual improvement. No company should ever be satisfied with the conditions of a process at the given moment; they should always be looking for ways to make these processes more efficient and effective. ISO 9000 was written with the business worlds insatiable desire for excellence in mind. This is why continual improvement is a requirement of the standard to inspire progress and the pursuit of perfection. ISO 9000 is an internationally recognized standard, and that may seem daunting for some smaller businesses. How are they going to implement the same standard adopted by multi-national corporations? Quite easily, actually. ISO 9000 is a flexible standard that lays down requirements for an organization to follow, but allows the organization to fulfill these requirements any way they choose. This increases ISO 9000s scope of effectiveness, allowing a wide range of companies to create quality management systems that match their needs. ISO 9000 is seen in every sector of the business world, and its success is a testament to its worth. With a focus on customer satisfaction, products and services improve and flourish under ISO 9000s quality management system. With a combination of continual improvement and corrective actions tenets of ISO 9000 a business will create processes that run smoothly and efficiently. CONCLUSION Finally the conclusion is that, ISO 9000 are not confined to the business sector alone, but benefit society as a whole, including customers, governments, trade officials, developing countries, consumers, and the environment. Standardization allows businesses the opportunity to compete in markets around the world. This enables more competition, which results in more choices for customers. Standards also help developing countries compete in international markets without investing scarce resources on research and development. Consumers benefit from products or services consistently manufactured to agreed-upon levels of safety and quality.