Career and Philanthropic Work of Magic Johnson

Earvin â€Å"Magic† Johnson is not only amongst the all-time greatest basketball players, but he is also a well-respected philanthropist. This essay discusses his early career, major career achievements, being diagnosed with AIDS, and philanthropic work. Magic Johnson’s glorious basketball career began as a student at the Michigan State University. He led the team to a National Championship title in 1979. Johnson’s skill qualified him to play at the National Basketball Association (NBA). While playing with the Lakers, the team won five NBA championships and participated in nine NBA finals. He was honored by being named the NBA Most Valuable Player three times. Johnson also played on the U. S. A. Olympic team that won the gold medal in the year 1992. In 2002, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was particularly known for his excellent passing skills. Johnson’s match winning performance in the 1980 NBA finals is an integral part of basketball history. He received several honors including being selected as a member of the All-Time team for NBA’s 50th anniversary in 1997 (NBA Encyclopedia). On October 25, 1991, his doctors told Johnson that he had the HIV virus. Says Johnson, â€Å"That was the hardest day of my life. After I got myself off the ground, I decided to have a positive attitude (NBA Legend).† Two weeks later, on November 7, 1991, Johnson announced to the world at a press conference organized by the Lakers about his affliction. At the conference, he said that he would not give up to the disease easily and would battle it. He announced that he would become a spokesman about HIV. As the doctors had advised him not to play basketball any longer, Johnson announced his retirement from basketball. Johnson decided that he would use his fame and his status as an icon for millions of people to educate the youth about HIV. One month after his diagnosis, he started the Magic Johnson Foundation. According to a research conducted by Pollock (426), the revelation of Magic Johnson had changed the attitude of people about AIDS and influenced them to alter their behavior in order to avoid the virus. The foundation has raised millions of dollars to build four modern clinics for people afflicted with AIDS. Free HIV/AIDS testing has been provided to approximately 38,000 people across America through the â€Å"I Stand with Magic† program. The foundation has helped nearly 280,000 people understand the risk factors of contacting HIV. The foundation also provides educational and medical help to children and young adults. The foundation has opened 20 Community Empowerment Centers in underserved communities (Magic Johnson Foundations). When Hurricane Katrina occurred, the foundation partnered with various grocery and drugstores, provided prescriptions and groceries to victims. The renowned basketball player also stated that he would find ways to generate jobs to those who have been displaced by Katrina (Tucker 1). Magic Johnson received the USA Today’s National Hero Award for his contribution to the society through the Magic Johnson Foundation. Magic Johnson is also an active businessman. He runs a company called Magic Johnson Enterprises (MJE). MJE has several businesses in its portfolio, which include Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund, SodexhoMagic, Aetna, and BestBuy, 30 Burger King restaurants, Magic Johnson Theaters, and a dozen sports centers. The company aims to provide products and services to ethnically diverse communities and minorities (Earvin â€Å"Magic† Johnson Biography). Even after 17 years of being diagnosed with HIV, he has not developed AIDS. Magic Johnson can be called a self-made success story and a great sportsman and social worker who has selflessly used his iconic status to help countless people lead a better life. Work Cited About the Foundation. Magic Johnson Foundation. 10 May 2008 http://mje001.pieheadproductions.com/index.php?/foundation/aboutthefoundation/accomplishments/. Earvin â€Å"Magic† Johnson Biography. Magic Johnson Foundation. 12 May 2008 http://mje001.pieheadproductions.com/index.php?/enterprises/ourteam/leadership/earvin/ NBA Encyclopedia. NBA Media Ventures. 9 May 2008 http://www.nba.com/history/players/johnsonm_bio.html. NBA legend â€Å"Magic† Johnson delights CU crowd. (February 1998). Cornell Chronicle. 12 May 2008 http://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/98/2.19.98/Magic.html Pollock III, Philip H. â€Å"Issues, values, and critical moments: Did `Magic' Johnson transform public opinion on AIDS?† American Journal of Political Science 38 (1994): 426. Tucker, Laura. â€Å"Business Hero: Magic Johnson.† 5 May 2008 ;http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=Magic_05;.

Philippine Prehistory: Lessons from the Historical Past Essay

Throughout the weeks of this course, I’ve learned a lot more about the Philippines as a place, as well as the people themselves and about the things they do. Before, I just went with the stereotypes that everyone says about Filipino’s, they’re all short, they’re poor, etc. In some cases, that remains true, but not for all of them out there. They also seem to be more advanced in technology than I thought they were. There is a lot more to the people, the country, the culture and their rich history. Some things I didn’t know about the Philippines were that they had established their own writing system before they had any contact or knowledge about other people or languages in the world. Baybayin or Alibata consisted of 14 consonants and 3 vowels, while using dots on the tops and bottoms of characters to distinguish consonants with certain vowels and a cross beneath character which takes out the vowel, leaving just the consonant. They also had technology of tools, using them to engrave the Baybayin writing into bamboo poles and creating the Angono Petroglyphs and the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI). The LCI was found and nobody knew what it was, nor did anyone want it. But it held important information about how society was back then. The inscription was about the forgiveness of a debt. It was linked to several cities that still exist now. The Angono Petroglyphs exist in a cave in the province of Rizal. They contain images on rock walls of animals and humans that date back to 3000 B. C. Now days, due to erosion of the walls and defacing of the walls, some images have become indistinguishable. Another thing about the Philippines that I didn’t know about was the Tabon man. The Tabon man is reported the oldest known set of bones found in the Tabon Caves said to date back 30,000 years making it the oldest remains found in the Philippines. Some also believe it to be a woman. Some geologic things I didn’t know about were that the Philippines have three sections; Palawan, Mindanao, and Visayas. Within these areas, there are over 100 different languages spoken, although the national language is Filipino. In Mindanao, it is the place where the Islam religion is most prominent. It was introduced 100 years before Christianity. The Philippines consist of 7,100 Islands, but some of them only being above sea level in low tide, and under sea levels in high tide. There are only around 500 islands that are larger than 1 square mile and only 800 of the 7,100 are inhabited. The Philippines, as a whole, is about 194 times larger than Hawaii. There are two pronounced seasons, wet and dry, where June – November is wet and December – March is dry. Manila is the Capital of the Philippines and the Philippines has the 2nd largest mall in the world, the Mall of Asia. The Philippines is different than how I had looked at it before, and now I know more about their culture and how they live. This history is important because it shows where these people have been and where they are going. Although there might be some bad things throughout history here and there, it’s what brought the country to where it is now. This Country has more to offer than what I previously had thought and in my eyes, it seems like a pretty nice place to visit or live in.

“Piano” by D.H Lawrence Poem Analysis Essay

Which aspects of relationships are presented in the three poems we studied? References to â€Å"Piano† by D.H Lawrence, â€Å"Do not go gentle into that good night† by Dylan Thomas and â€Å"Hal-past two by U.A Fanthorpe In the three poems we have studied: Sonnet 116 â€Å" Let me not to the marriage† by William Shakespeare ; â€Å"My last Duchess† by Robert Browning; â€Å"If† by Rudyard Kipling, different aspects of relationships and love are explored in different forms: power, pride, eternity, love as a guiding force and paternal care. These poets use language, images, and structure to make their messages about love more clear and evident. The first poem I am going to analyze is â€Å"My Last Duchess†. It portrays the tragic epilogue of a loveless marriage between the strict, severe Duke of Ferrara, who chose â€Å"never to stoop†; and the sweet, outgoing, naive Duchess privileged by the noble honor of being given her husband’s â€Å"nine-hundred-years-old† name. The poem investigates issues that can be involved in relationships where power and ego takes over. The Duke wields an exaggerated oppressive power, which contracts with the friendly attitud e of the Duchess towards inferior classes’ people. This became the central cause problem in the relationship: he disapproved of the Duchess â€Å"smiles† and blushes which â€Å"went everywhere†. He expected her to behave with the same tremendous dignity as himself. The Duke wants to see his wife behaving in a way befitting her noble place in society. Perhaps even an obscure and sinister jealousy triggered by the Duchess’ constant kindness, which he did not expect from a character, who should have been entirely of his possession: â€Å"since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I†. The quotation illustrates how after her death he kept her smile and blush exclusively for himself- perhaps this was what he wanted while she was alive. The fact that she talked with men and â€Å"thanked† them the same way she treated the Duke himself obsessed him. His supremacy was totally put at same level of a peasant’s: â€Å"somehow-I know not how- as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody’s gift†. In fact, the duke is a person who loves control, and who is perfectly conscious about the fact of his superior so cial class. He wants everything to be under his possession- this can be seen by the fact that he likes and admires a bronze sculpture of Neptune taming a sea-horse. He enjoys anything involving control and power. A point that can also be  connected to the teacher of â€Å"Half-past two† by U.A Fanthorpe trying to tower over the student. The structure of the poem is composed by a strict and elegant iambic pentameter, which help the reader realize about the terrific sense of control the Duke possesses. It is fixed in well-ordered system of riming couplets, yet the poem is full of enjambments which help the poem flow like a conversation. In fact, Robert Browning set the poem out as a dramatic monologue- it was intended to be performed to an imagined listener. This creates a very fluent tone, capable to indicate immediately any change of the speaker’s state of mind. For example, his growing irritation, even rage, with his former wife becomes clear with the caesura to slow down the tone, when in the 43rd verse he states† And I choose Never to stoop. Oh sir†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The pause takes the poem into and angry edge. In fact when the Duke â€Å"gave commands†, the threat was very potent. The diction instantly points the change of tone: a recurrent assonance of the letter â€Å"s† comes out as an angry, sinister hiss and provides a sibilant sound. This transition with angry diction yet factual words also gives an image of the Duke as if he possessed no guilt and transmitting and unemotional shock. Browning also uses a As a result of this, as predicted, loveless marriages with no connection of † true minds† like in the Sonnet 116 of William Shakespeare would have never become the typical love story with a happy ending. The Duke juxtaposed a vivid hint about her death with negotiation about marrying his next â€Å"object†. Therefore it all ended when† [he] gave commands†; and â€Å"all smiles stopped together†. The second poem I am going to analyze is â€Å"If† by Rudyard Kipling. It illustrates a solution to life’s problems into one unique inspirational piece. This poem is a beautiful, personal goal for thoughtful readers who wish to be better people. It is an attempt to give a lesson in how to live: from the point of view of a father guiding his beloved son to become a â€Å"Man†. Naturally, we can also look at it coming from the point of view of any older man to a younger man- an emotional or spiritual father-son relationship. We can also deduce that the author wrote this poem directly to his children. Kipling was born in Bombay, India, in 1856. Although more than a hundred years passed since those wise phrases in â€Å"If† were penned, they can be applied even now and from a greater audience than the one  originally intended. People, that nowadays, is less and less aware of their responsibilities and taken over by a society of greed and indifference. People that if could strive to do even half of the things mentioned in the poem, would be far better people. â€Å"If† is a didactic poem, a work meant to give instruction. It has a rigid and controlled structure. It is written in iambic pentameter: an elegant construction of 11-syllable lines, with an extra, unstressed syllable. All of this tied up in four stanzas of eight rhyming lines, according to the pattern abab, cdcd; each referring to several specific traits to possess in different circumstances. This makes it easy to read and facilities memorization. The first section is about self-integrity and developing the proper attitudes about things. Kipling tries to teach us not to look down on ourselves, just because the others do: â€Å"if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you†. One will always find people who think differently from him, underestimate him or misjudge him. If millions of men are convinced about a foolish idea, it does not cease to be stupid. Th erefore the quotation conveys one to have faith and confidence in himself and do what he think is right and just. Imagine having the serenity of being subject to criticism and stay calm and relaxed until the very end: â€Å"†¦being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or being hated, don’t give way to hating†. Imagine one having to face all the injustice that trying to overwhelm him, to lose control. Kipling, with this statement reminds not to let others provoke us in doing something we know is wrong. Do not be easily influenced. Understand our value, but do not turn into arrogant. Pause and notice what Kipling does grammatically here: from the start. He composes the poem from a single repetition of â€Å"if†. The natural pattern for English is to state a condition thus, â€Å"if A, then B†. But Kipling is stating, â€Å"if A, if B, if C†. He’s piling on the conditions while delaying the consequence in a single long sentence. He builds up tension deliberately. That may also be the reason he calls the poem â€Å"If†. The second section is about overcoming the obstacles one encounters during his way. It is about following his dreams, fight for them, and strive to reach his goal. Whether he like it or not we are the cause of himself; he needs to move on, thi ngs are not going to get done by themselves- â€Å"if you can dream- and not make dreams your master†. The quotation also implies that we have to seize our opportunities when we have the chance, do not let it escape. Distinguish and understand  the right balance between being a thinker and a â€Å"Man†. Here the author has a really vivid imagination. He utilizes personification to promote caution against â€Å"impostors† such as â€Å"Triumph and Disaster†- capitalizing both words. He associates them to people who engage in deception under an assumed identity, charlatans. Unconsciously, both of them convince one to stop trying far more often than he usually expect. Frequently defeats can discourage his hopes and victories make him conceited and he permits them to influence him. Kipling reminds us that the world is not all a bed of roses. It is in fact, a miserable and despicable place and states that† if you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted†¦ or watch the things you gave your life to, broken..†. If one consent the world to influence him, it will get him on his knees and leave him with nothing forever. It can hit harder than anyone els e. Hence, it is not a matter of how hard a person hits, but is a matter of how he can withstand adversities, resist and to have the strength to rise again after being beaten into the ground. It shows a hard work ethic. Consequently Kipling introduces us to the section, that could be retained the most valuable. He starts off by writing an extended metaphor, similar in characteristics, but different in meaning to the last quotation:† If you can make one heap of all your winnings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Substantially the counsel it brings is that life is to be enjoyed, whether money is to be spent. Take risks; make mistakes and break rules, the world is there to be experienced. Stay hungry; stay foolish as a remembrance of Steve Jobs’ wise words. Afterwards, the main advice that is conveyed by the sequent verse:† if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone† is to never give up and strive to overcome your limits. Kipling could have just written â€Å"your body†, everybody know that it has a heart, nerves and muscles. However, by listing each one, he gives us a clear image of its member as if they were all united as a team with a common objective. However the real message that the author wants us to conceive is to be determined. Something that when our physical strengths abandon us, give us the force to â€Å"Hold on†. It can be the â€Å"Will† to reach a goal; or the Desire to win; or even the contempt of losing. Something that prevents us from stopping, ignoring the consequences. By capitalizing the word will, he conveys the reader that about its strength and power . Finally each verse of the last stanza contributes to consolidate the long-awaited conclusion. It  starts by speaking about being able to work with anyone: from â€Å"Kings† to â€Å"Crowds† and not changing who one is and what he stands for. Being able to keep some distances and qualities tha t he only possesses; without being influenced by his surroundings. And â€Å"if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you† underlines the lesson that often the people, who one loves most, are the one who can hurt him more deeply. Major qualities as independence and self-supporting are advocated by the statement:† if all men count with you, but none too much†. Kipling creates a blueprint for personal integrity. It is about what a teenager might call â€Å"maturity†- acting like a grown-up and seeing the real value of things; without being dependent to anyone. Conclusively the author uses the metaphor:†if you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth distance run† to instruct the reader to fulfill every moment of his life in as enthusiastic and energetic way as possible. He suggests making every seconds of one’s life memorable; having no regrets. This aspect can also be referred to â€Å"do not go gentle into that good night† of Dylan Thomas, where men strive to fulfill their remaining time with their very best. And finally, he comes to the long-awaited consequence and reveals that if all the aspects had been covered, â€Å"Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And-which is more- you’ll be a Man, my son!† â€Å"If† is also a poem of imagination. Kipling tries to find the perfection in the human being, where nothing can harm it. A stage where the one truly gains everything; and Kipling wishes that for his son. In sonnet 116, William Shakespeare explores the true nature of love, trying to work out both what real love is and is not. He says that this feeling is eternal, not affected by time, alterations and life’ troubles that couples need to combat. Sonnet 116 is presented with the ordinary fourteen lines made up of three quatrains and concluding with a challenging couplet. It is written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. William Shakespeare frames its discussions of the passion of love within a restrained and disciplined rhetorical structure. The tone of the poem is also very fluent and smooth, filled with various enjambments. Moreover the simplicity of the language and poetic devices act as if wanting to draw the reader deeper into the theme. In the opening lines the speaker defines what the ideal love would be, by referring it as a â€Å"marriage of true minds†. It  is a relationship based on trust and understanding, which has come to a stage w here minds are entirely tied together. The writer describes it as being perfect and constant, even if it encounters changes in the loved one. He denies that love is true, when it â€Å"alters when alteration finds† or â€Å"bends with the remover to remove†. In choosing to describe love as this kind of force Shakespeare is able to convince the reader that love is indeed strong enough to fight the departure of a lover or a simple alteration. Yet, in the second quatrain he positively defines what real love is, whether the first one was based on what it was not.. The metaphor: â€Å"it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken†, represents it as an unshakeable guiding light to its â€Å"wandering barks†. The tempests portray the life’s troubles and people will experience, much the â€Å"winter† of â€Å"Piano† by D.H Lawrance. Shakespeare compares it to a seamark that navigators use to conduct their course- The North Star- whose altitude, or â€Å"height† has been measured although its value in indefinite. It is presented as an inestimable entity, whose force is tremendous and capable to give a channel to the lost ones. In the third quatrain William Shakespeare again describes what love is not: it is not subject to time although â€Å"rosy lips ad cheeks† have to face the â€Å"bending sickle† of time- which is also utilized as a synecdoche referring to death. Furthermore time is personified by referring it as â€Å"him† and compare also to Death. In fact the author wants to demonstrate that true love remains constant and does not alter â€Å"with brief hours and weeks† and survives â€Å"even to the edge of doom†- the Doomsday. To conclude the poem, with absolute conviction William Shakespeare challenges the readers to disprove his interpretation of love. He insists that this is the ideal of â€Å"true† love- and if love was mortal, changing and, temporary then â€Å"no man ever loved† or he would deny what he has written and the existence of it. By employing this paradox he strengthens the theme cleverly. What really gives Sonnet 116 its stimulating power is not its complexity; instead, it is his linguistic and emotional confidence.

CASE STUDY Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Case Study Example By exhaustive rendering of customers’ conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms, Target has revolutionized what it knows about its customers, therefore, how precisely it can sell. (Duhigg, 2012). Thus, it is clear that by collecting purchasing data, Target studies consumers’ purchasing behavior and thereby is coming up with effective marketing strategies to entice customers optimally. One of the key insights that emerged was consumers would be ready to experience bad things, if they knew they can buy a product that can solve or lessen that bad experience. This insight could be understood as a result of the ethnographic research done by the market research company Housecalls for the over-the-counter antacid Maalox. When makers of Maalox wanted to know how people with chronic heartburn became loyal to its product, the Housecall after doing an in-depth study came to the conclusion that its target customers â€Å"love their food more than they hate their heartburn.† (Osborne, 2002). The other key insight that emerged was the target customers of companies, which offer retirement plans, could focus on how those plans could positively impact their lifestyle, more than the money they may get in their post-retirement phase. Using this insight that came out of an ethnographic research, the company Wells Fargo designed its retirement planning site to include the vari ous life stages used in the â€Å"ethnographic research to convey the message we meet you where you are† and provide relevant guidance instead of â€Å"producing numbers-dense material filled with endless financial projections.† (Cayla, Beers & Arnould,

Human Factors in Cockpit Design Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Factors in Cockpit Design - Term Paper Example They get involved in behavioral/cognitive task-analysis, time analysis for assessment of various task demands, computer modeling for reach analysis and assessing the complexities of the task involved. It stems from the color selection to environmental considerations for the error free operations by pilot. It is essential that critical information is presented in the pilots field of view so that his potential energies are focused on the critical task. Information presented should be easy to interpret and presented in the way to avoid cluttering. The Head-Down-Display (HDD) and the Head-Up-Display (HUD) are the systems, which are capable of satisfying these needs. Advanced technological research tools like simulators are capable of giving a great insight in studying man-machine interaction to make travel safe and less burdensome for pilots. The journey is endless and it will continue to pose new challenges depending upon the complexities that will come on the way. Cockpit designing wil l also be impacted from the other technologies too and may culminate into totally a different shape and style not imagined by anybody so far. The purpose of any designers task while addressing Human Factor issue is to see the aspects of safety, ease of operation, and which is easy to learn. Good design promotes efficiency and consistency in task performance. That is the underlying principle on which cockpit designing is done. Cockpit is a compartment from where pilot controls the aircraft whether it is in air or on ground. The term is used to denote a place where pilot along with copilots are stationed with myriad of controls to navigate the aircraft. The cockpit contains various flight instruments and the controls to facilitate pilot navigation. The term is also sometimes used for the driver’s place in racing cars. Cockpit has a window which can be opened while the airplane is on the ground. Glass windows

Corporate Restructuring Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Restructuring - Case Study Example Organizations need to be more efficient and effective to ward off the challenges of deregulation and hence increased competition. As a result of increased market pressures, it is unavoidable that organizations analyze and redesign all aspects of their business to remain competitive. Companies around the world are awaking to new realities of an intensively competitive domain and have been undertaking extensive restructuring both at the operational and at the strategic levels. Organizations around the world need to make more decisive choices and take the challenges to leap frog to the next phase of growth. Business portfolios need to be restructured and realigned to assimilate the effects of globalization and deregulation. Companies all over the world are exploring various restructuring methodologies such as Cost cuttings, better customer relationship management, Resource Planning, mergers, takeovers and buy-outs to pursue focused growth. Citicorp: Citicorp was the descendant of City Bank of New York which was founded On June 16, 1812, with $2 million of capital, later, in 1968 renamed as First National City Bank. Large corporate banking was the core business of Citicorp and was one of the largest banks in the United States at the time of its merger with Travelers Group. Traveler Traveler Group: Insurance titan Travelers was founded in 1864 in Hartford, Connecticut. In the 1990s, Travelers went through a sequence of mergers and acquisitions, First with Primerica in 1993 and then Aetna's property and casualty business in 1996. Traveler was the first company in America to insure against accidents and to introduce automobile insurance policy. Making of the Giant - Acquisition In October 1996, Citigroup, Inc. was formed after a $70 billion Merger between Citicorp and the Travelers Group. The Travelers Insurance acquisition added property and casualty, and life and annuities underwriting capabilities to the group. It also brought along the Travelers red umbrella logo, which they applied to all the businesses within the group. One notable exception is Citibank, whose logo is Citibank with a red arc over the't'. The Citicorp-Travelers merger has represented a new era of inorganic growth. Motives behind Merger The merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group took place in 1998 against the prevailing US laws such as Glass-Steagall Act which prohibited the merger of a bank with an insurance underwriter. In year 1999, before the trial period provided by Glass-Steagall Act could end, new law, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which invalidated previous law was framed, this validated the merger. The main official motive behind this merger was expanding their product mix, customer base and ", achieve cost savings and synergies" and "to leave a bigger footprint". Restructuring after Merger Weill, then CEO of Traveler Group, proposed a structure of co-CEO's, in order to convince Citicorp to merge, consisting himself and John Reed, CEO of Citicorp. This strategy was believed unworkable by many business research analysts. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was brought in as a moderator between Reed and Weill . But, conflicts within the company eventually forced Reed to come out of the conglomerate. Later three co-CEO's were inducted

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 10

Business Ethics - Essay Example principles and values that determine decision making and right or wrong of contextual issues related to business or profession in accordance with ethical problems such as issues relating to human rights, privacy, discrimination, sexual and other types of harassment, performance evaluation, hiring, firing, safety, security, etc. Immanuel Kant’s principles to explain theory of ethics of duties strongly advise three aspects of ethics: consistency, which everyone else also should follow and can achieve; human dignity, which every individual deserves under every situation; and universality, for all actions and human beings should be acceptable by all (Crane, A & Matten, D; 2007). Ethical problems of sexual and physical abuse have been troubling our communities for many centuries. Even today evidences of child abuse and sexual violence against women are prevalent among all groups and levels of people. A recent lawsuit was filed against a popular African-American preacher for molesting a 15-year old girl and sending lewd text messages to another girl. Many such charges were levied against him in the past too (Allen, B; 2009, 21 May). This depicts the disadvantaged status of the female gender even now. This kind of horrifying violence, systematic discrimination and human right abuses leave damaging effects on the society such as physical trauma, emotional trauma, low self-esteem, and psychological disturbances. Professionally, such behavior causes undesirable violation of code of conduct. Unsafe working conditions pose high risk for health problems and hazardous events. One such violation was reported by an army employee at Lockheed Martin plant who suffered injuries as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals. His appeal for justice at the California Supreme Court did not help as four out of seven justices were stake holders in this oil company (Editorial board; 16 Jan 2008). These health problems could lead to changes in human genetic systems that may

Reading engagement article review Research Paper

Reading engagement article review - Research Paper Example The first article is titled Seven Rules of Engagement: What’s Most Important to Know about Motivation to Read by Linda B. Gambrell. In the article’s introduction, Gambrell argues against the relevance of instruction whose purpose is to provide students with decoding strategies and comprehension skills. She gives substance to her argument by citing a study carried out by the OECD in 2010 under the Program for International Student Assessment, which established that students with a high interest in reading recorded much better performance than children with little interest in reading (Gambrell, 2011). Gambrell simply corroborates what many teachers have already observed in their classrooms, that below grade level and struggling readers usually have little interest in reading activities due to lack of reading motivation. Gambrell, a professor of education at Clemson University in South Carolina, bases her article on research-based sources. She combines credible findings fr om studies carried out by institutions and organizations such as the International Reading Association, to research conducted by individual scholars, including those she carried out in collaboration with other researchers. For example, Essential Reading in Motivation, by Gambrell, Marinak, and Malloy provided the author with deep insights regarding the value of motivation in reading and literacy proficiency. The author goes a step further than most other authors have done when writing about the subject of reading motivation. She not only outlines evidence backing the importance of stimulating student motivation for reading in the classroom, but also provides simple strategies which teachers can use to help boost their students’ reading motivation. As a teacher with classroom experience, I recognize that there are numerous challenges marring the process of stimulating intrinsic motivation among disengaged readers. Teachers mostly learn methods of stimulating reading motivation through interaction with more experienced colleagues. However, they bear knowledge regarding only a handful of methods, of which they are not fully conversant (Guthrie, Wigfield & Von Secker, 2000). Therefore, Gambrell has lessened the burden teachers bear in this respect by outlining seven clearly explained evidence-based rules of boosting student reading engagement. Moreover, Gambrell, provides useful classroom tips of maximizing each of the seven rules of engagement (Gambrell, 2011). The second article that I selected which has high relevance to my case study topic is titled Putting the Fun Back into Fluency Instruction by Mary Ann Cahill and Ann E. Gregory. This article focuses on the value and strategies of using fun activities to enable lower grade students master fluency while reading. The article is not research-based, but derives content from observation of another teacher’s fluency teaching methods during a classroom session. However, the authors cite extensively f rom previous research in order to corroborate the methods applied by Mrs. Victoria in her class (Cahill & Gregory, 2011). I chose this article after noting that Mrs. Victoria’s method of stimulating reading fluency has a high potential for success for a number of reasons. Firstly, she takes time at the beginning of the process to ensure that her students gain a solid understanding of the true meaning of fluency. Mrs. Victoria recognized that merely

The Conduct of Health Insurance Policy Fraud in the Rainmaker Assignment

The Conduct of Health Insurance Policy Fraud in the Rainmaker - Assignment Example Great Benefit insurance company has wilfully committed fraud when it continued to accept premiums and new policyholders when it knows for a fact that it is in a precarious financial condition to settle obligations due to its huge debt. I would like to give Great Benefit insurance company the benefit of the doubt that when it incorporated the company, it did not intend to wrong its policyholders but meant to fulfill its obligation. In the novel or movie, the insurance company may have been caused to commit fraud to preserve itself as a business entity because it is already hemorrhaging financially due to heavy debts. They may have employed the initial policy of denying all claims regardless of its legitimacy as a coping mechanism of their dire financial status. So the first measure that I will institute is for the insurance company to avoid the circumstance that will cause them to commit fraud in the future. I will fix their financial position by devising a policy that will make the company liquid at all times to settle all the claims of its policyholders in the future. Just like in the banks, I will require the insurance to have a liquidity that is commensurate to a certain number of policyholders that should a significant number of them will file a legitimate claim against their policies, the insurance company will be in a financial position to fulfill its obligation. Equally important is the institution of a policy of limiting the acceptance of new policyholders in accordance with its financial capacity and liquidity. For the time being, I will recommend that Great Benefits insurance company not to accept new policyholder until it has restructured its financial position.

Differences and Similarities turning into One person despite of being Two Essay Example for Free

Differences and Similarities turning into One person despite of being Two Essay Question: Phillotson says that Sue and Jude `seem to be one person split in two.What does he mean by this? Phillotson’s statement that Sue and Jude seems to be one person split in two was because of the cousins’ life. Their huge similarity with each other especially when it comes to their goals was more like of just one person’s goal. Their single identity and the same belief drove them into being with each other thus they are more associated with their characters and identity. From the first part of the story, we must understand and realize at the same time that Jude was a little kid and his cousin Sue was of the same age also or younger of a few years. His dream of going into college however was his ultimate goal in life which was suddenly trapped when Arabella, his girlfriend said that she was pregnant. Believing that he must do the right thing despite of Arabella being a not ideal wife, he married her. Afterwards, he asked her regarding the pregnancy and she said that she mistakenly figured out her situation which made Jude more miserable. Losing his chance of going into the university, he even thought of killing himself and upon waking up one morning, he found out a note from his wife who was out of his sight saying that she will go to Australia with her parents. Jude became happy and when to the place he wanted to go and there he tried to find a job and upon finding a job, he tried to find Sue. When he saw her, he decided and told to himself that he must not fall in love with her because they were cousins but as time goes by, he learned to thus when she decided to leave, he asked her why and arranged her to be a student teacher assisting Phillotson. Later on in the story, Sue and Phillotson got married and Jude was saddened by this fact but maybe they are somehow destined to be with each other. The husband of Sue allowed her to leave thus she moved in Jude’s house and the two lived together as their divorce were all good with their respective partners. Jude later on found out from Arabella that they have a son thus she gave it to him and along with Sue and Jude’s two children, they lived together but it was getting hard for them to sustain their life and without an apartment of their own, Jude decided to find lodging house. They soon found one but Jude must leave separately with his family. One night Sue together with Arabella and Jude’s son went out to find an apartment and was saddened by the fact that there was none and the boy was pissed off when he found out that Sue is pregnant again. The morning came and Sue went to Jude and on when they went back home, they found the children hanging in the closet. Although they tried to revive them, it was impossible. In the end, the two decided to go back to their respective partners and thinking that they were cursed, they separated ways. Jude died in the end. In the circumstances which happened in the account of the lives of both Sue and Jude, we have to understand that they were really the same except that Sue was a girl and Jude was a boy. Despite of their differences, what happened in their life brings them so much closer to each other despite of the fact that they once lived together. The tragedy they experienced only shows that they were indeed person of neither bad nor good fate thus we have to take it into account that probably the circumstances and the instances they both have in common were just coincidences but it is also in high regard that these circumstances happened when they were still together. As a child, these cousins were both fond of studying and as they grow up, both tried their best to enter in a university. Both of them were not happy with their marriage thus they somehow committed adultery but they did not stop simply from being the same in those terms. A month after the divorce of Arabella and Jude was granted, Phillotson and Sue’s divorce followed. At the end of the story, both were taken back by their divorced half thus they were reunited and got married again. Upon knowing the summary, one can determine that even in the start, the two have qualities which are highly similar with one another. Although their attitude was not compared nor contrasted, their goals and their life experiences seem to be the same. Their fate which brought them together perhaps was a big reason why Phillotson was able to say those words. It is undeniable that they were of the same fate that even in the end of the story, both of them suffered the same way thus they thought they were being punished because of their relationship. Their life experiences which brought them together was the same thing which make people understand that they were indeed a single person split into one by circumstances and experiences. Works Cited Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure. 1895

Genetic Algorithm Research Proposal

Genetic Algorithm Research Proposal System Optimization The main concern is to find the optimum value for each design parameter for each prediction period for a total simulation time of 12 hours. The simulation is performed on the selected system based on the optimization timeframe with an acceptable accuracy and the optimization process is applied for a prediction period of one. The value of a single design parameter and internal loads are fixed during a prediction period and may vary from one prediction period to another. Genetic Algorithm Modeling the liquid desiccant system with the CC/DV system is complex task with multi-variables involved, several equations are coupled and indirect relations between different parameters are present. Since several non-linear equations are solved, it is advised to use a revolutionary derivative free optimization tool that follows the direct search technique. The simplest optimization tool that could be used for the proposed case is the genetic algorithm optimization tool because it is derivative free, based on numerical analysis, and is somehow efficient if compared with other derivative based optimization schemes. Moreover, it fetches the global minimum of a specific function. Our choice of using a derivative free algorithm to solve the optimization problem is implemented by the evolutionary genetic algorithm. Genetic algorithms are adaptive methods which may be used to solve search and optimization problems, and are based on the genetic process of biological organisms. Genetic algorithms are growing more and more popular and extending from simple design optimization to online process control. The power of the genetic algorithm arises from its robustness, being acceptably good in finding the near optimum solution and being relatively quick [1]. An efficient optimization technique uses two techniques to find the optimal solution, exploration and exploitation, and this is what genetic algorithm does. The Genetic Algorithm terminology The algorithm starts by seeding a set of trial combinations of the variables to be optimized and calculating the numerical value of the objective function for each combination selected. This set is called the â€Å"Initial Population†. The set of numerical values calculated for the objective function from the first trial, is then evaluated according the â€Å"Fitness Criteria†. The fitness criteria can be defined as the condition for the objective function numerical value to be better convenient than its pears. Based on their fitness, some combinations in the previously seeded set are chosen to be â€Å"Parents†. Parents then undergo either â€Å"Crossover† or â€Å"Mutation† procedure to produce â€Å"Children†. Most fitted parents simply jump to the next generated population without any change; such parents are referred as â€Å"Elite†. The current population is replaced by children from the next population. Elite children are the individuals in the current generation with the best fitness values. These individuals automatically survive to the next generation. Crossover children are created by combining the vectors of a pair of parents. Mutation children are created by introducing random changes, or mutations, to a single parent. The algorithm stops when the â€Å"Tolerance† in the objective function values between two generations is less than a certain set error value, or when the maximum number of â€Å"Generations† is exceeded, or by any other defined â€Å"Stopping Criteria†. For the optimized control strategy used for the chilled ceiling, displacement ventilation system the variables of the chilled ceiling and displacement ventilation are varied; this variation leads to a minimal optimal cost that results in the minimum cost that could be attained in the system. Referring to the system figure and considering the optimal control strategy, the variables that may be used for cost optimization are: The desiccant temperature at the inlet of membrane(). The supply air temperature(). The supply air mass flow rate(). Equation Chapter 6 Section 3Each variable in the optimization routine has a lower and an upper bound. These bounds define the interval where the genetic algorithm searches for the optimal cost and are based on physical considerations. The bounds for the different variables according to ASHRAE’s recommendations are: The supply air temperature is considered to vary between 17 and 23  °C. The supply air mass flow rate is considered to vary between 0.08 and 0.26 kg/s. Optimization Constraints There are several non-linear constraints that are applicable to the system. These constraints are related to thermal comfort issues, condensation inside the room and physical constraints. The constraints may be redefined in the following list The Percent People Dissatisfied inside the occupied zone is less than 10%. This condition is required for the human thermal comfort. The closer the PPD is to zero, it is assumed that the occupants inside the room would be more comfortable noting that the smallest percent people dissatisfaction is 5%. The temperature gradient shall not be greater than 2.5 K/m or 2.5  °C/m. This condition is required so that there would not be any large gradients in the human body. Large gradients cause thermal discomfort for living beings. The stratification height inside the room is greater than 1 m. This condition is required so that the stratified air does not mix with the breathing zone. The relative humidity inside the occupied zone is greater than 56% and less than 76%. The fitness function: To be able to enhance the speed of the genetic algorithm, the electrical cost function and constraints are combined in a single cost function by using penalty functions, thus the fitness cost function may be written as: The coefficients , , , , and in the above function are the weight factors for their related penalty costs. The weight factors values are set according to the system parameter. For the current system,‘s are set to unity. electrical cost The objective function that is to be optimized is the total operational cost of the system; this cost may be divided into: The cost of running the chiller.     Ã‚   The cost of running the pump. The cost of running the fan. Note that in this work the cost is given in units of KW. Chiller Cost The chiller is the main energy consuming component in our system .The chiller cost is expressed in terms of the part load ratio. The part load ratio is defined as the ratio of the current load on the chiller divided by the design load that the chiller could handle. Mathematically, the part load ratio is found from the equation The coefficient of performance of the chiller is correlated to the load equation by using the following correlation: The cost of the chiller is calculated by using the following equation Fan cost The fan cost is directly related to the air mass flow rate by using the following equation: Pump cost The pump cost is related to the pump head, liquid desiccant mass flow rate, and the efficiency of the pump. The power of the pump is evaluated by multiplying the pressure difference by the volumetric flow rate and dividing the result by the pump efficiency; mathematically the pump cost equation may be written as Note that the pump cost is not included in the cost function, since the desiccant mass flow rate is costant. Therefore the total energy consumed can be expressed by the following equation: The Constraints Cost Functions The cost function for the constraints may be written such that they could be incorporated into the online cost function in a simple manner. These constraints are related to their respective threshold values such that when the constraints are violated, the fitness function would have a very large value. For the predicted person dissatisfied, the cost function The relative humidity cost function may be bounded from the upper side by using the relation The stratification height cost is bounded to be larger than 1m, thus the stratification height cost is The temperature gradient is to bounded to be less than 2.5 K/m, thus the temperature gradient cost function may be written as The exponential term helps to penalize the cost function when-ever the thermal comfort level of occupants in the room TH decreases below the minimum set value THmin. This will increase the value of the cost function dramatically and the set of variables at hand is rejected. The integration of the constraint terms within the objective function expression and the use of the exponential form to control the constraints’ cost were implemented by Keblawi et al. [13] and Hammoud et al. [4].

Social Media Approach As A Marketing Tool Media Essay

Social Media Approach As A Marketing Tool Media Essay Social media isnt a new Internet Hip that just popped up, but it has been around for years in the shape of forums and newsgroups. So what has changed? The introduction of various new tools and the tremendous increase of the internet user base in the last decade along with easier internet access gave the big push. To best define social media, we need to break it down. Social is relating to human society; the interaction of the individual and the group. Media is a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary). So, social media is a media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one-to-many aka traditional media) into social media dialogues (many-to-many). Primarily, social media depends on interactions between people -as discussions and integration of words -using tech nology as a conduit. Social media has been touted as presenting a fresh direction for marketing by allowing companies to talk with consumers, as opposed to talking at them (Wikipedia). It lives on the contributions and feedback of everyone. It eliminates the gap between the writers and the readers and forms a conversation-like content. As mentioned earlier, social media comes in the forms of various online tools or services. These can be categorized into numerous groups each with its own characteristics and usages. To elaborate, blogs, for example, aka web logs are an online journal for the writers to share their experiences, opinions, and thoughts while providing the readers the option add their feedback and comments to the topic. Social networks are online service websites consists of personal or commercial profiles of their users, their social relationships, and offer a variety of other activities (Wikipedia). Micro-blogging is a networking service that allows mobile users of cell phones and other Internet connected devices to stay attentive of activities within a group by receiving frequently published updates, typically of 140 characters or less. Text messages are uploaded to a micro-blogging server, and then distributed to group members (R. Kayne). Social bookmarking is a service that provides its users with the ability to store, organize, share, search, and rate bookmarks for web pages. There is also a specialized form of social bookmarking sites known as social news where users vote on articles and news. These are some of the social media variations available and are the most influential ones for businesses, There are others but are not mentioned as they are either hold no significant use toward the purpose of this document or reside outside its scope. 2. The gain of adopting Social Media Marketing Social media provides companies with the capability to closely reach a large number of consumers providing similar experience to direct marketing with much lower costs. It gives you the opportunity to take advantage of the power of word of mouth (WOM) or in this case electronic one. According to a study done by Steffes and Burgee from Towson University, the information the students gained from eWOM is more in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uential in their decision than speaking with friends in person (2008). Also, according to Alexa, A web traffic monitoring company, out of the top 10 most visited websites in the world, four are social ones and the rest are general search engines. Looking at Malaysias top 10, the number increases to five with the first spot occupied by Facebook -a social networking website (Alexa.com). Social networks like Facebook has over 350 million active users of which 70% are international ones with an average time spend of 55 minutes per day (facebook.com); MySpace -another socia l network -has over 100 million active users (myspace.com); Technorati has more than 133 million indexed blogs (January 2009) and 77% of active internet users are reading blogs (Adam Singer, 2009). Being able to influence even a small portion of a consumer base of this magnitude will produce noticeable results despite the difficulty of relating social activities to a percentage of revenue. Bear in mind that Social Media Marketing (SMM) is not to be used to sell, at least not directly. However, SMM is used to generate awareness and exposure to the business, reduce overall marketing expenses, increase traffic or subscribers to own website, create new business partnership, rise up in search ranking, improved PR, and an ending with more loyal customers (Michael Stelzner, 2009). If approached with intent to sell, internet users are now are savvy, they will be able to smell you coming and will shun you immediately. 3. The Way to Successful Social Media Utilization The use of social media as a marketing tool -if done right can yield into huge benefits. To fully utilize the social media, the organization should include it in their marketing planning as it needs a careful preparation to know the medium best suited for the companys activities. Unfortunately, lots of people look at social media as a free marketing tool, leading into little planning which in return yields no benefits and in some cases even negative ones. While it might not take much -if any- financial wise, social media marketing do consume a lot of time. On the other hand, the financial requirement makes it the best choice for start up companies and individuals. The first step in the plan is to see if social media is suitable for you as it is not for everybody. Businesses with products targeted at elderly or retired people, wont generate much benefits from using it. Also, companies with tight government regulation supervision shouldnt pick social media as a marketing tool. After e nsuring that you belong with the majority, whose social media engagement suits their activities, you have to decide on your objectives; the desired results from engaging into social media. This in return will help in choosing the best suited tools (Anita Campbell, 2009). This paper will cover in some details a part of these tools and their uses later. Within the social sphere, organizations cant push their messages or products to the consumer; rather they have to lure the consumer toward them. To be able to achieve that, the message should attain certain attributes to be considered attractive enough to lure them. First of all, the message should sound familiar to the target audience. People like to communicate with each other. Try reaching them, listening to their ideas and thoughts, and then formulate your message. Adding a budget to the mix in the form of incentives can encourage much better feedback as well as help spread the word associated with the incentives. The third element that can be thrown to the mix is fame. Providing the audience with a chance of fame, be it as small as it gets, it can really stimulate the audiences interest. The forth element is the fun, entertaining one, which is shared with most of the online activities. Adding the fun entertaining factor can excite the audience to spread the word. Lastly, the mes sage should contain the mobility factor; the ability to move from one person to the next (Richard Clark, 2009). Having at least one the first four elements along with the last one will encourage a beneficial response from the community. An organization should continue to listen to the community as long as it is in business. Since anyone can say anything, a company should always keep an eye on the sphere. Listen to what the communities say about it. This help in controlling bad press and empowering good ones. Of course, monitoring the blogosphere may seem impossible, fortunately, there are some tools that keeps the company notified whenever a new entry with its name appear in the wild. 4. The Way to a Catastrophic Social Media Utilization As beneficial as SMM can be, a misuse or unplanned approach can result in a total waste of resources. Lacking a staff member who can handle a frequent delivery of quality content can degrade the social effort. Also, the absence of a strong message that can create a community around it will result in a partial loss for the impact on people. Social media is global, so, cautious should be practiced at all times to avoid any offending messages. Not only that, a corporation should realize that social media is an open platform and there is no such thing as off-the-record and for that not only should they monitor their own channels but also their employees. There have been many incidents where companies had to fire their employees for inappropriate messages posted in their own personal spaces. One famous incident when Delta Airlines had to fire Ellen Simonetti a flight attendant over inappropriate pictures posted in her blog in the companys uniform (Ellen Simonetti, 2005). To avoid such inc idents, the organization should provide clear guidelines to what is appropriate and what is not when it comes to their social messages. 5. Blogs We have mentioned earlier different social media tools that can be utilized to the benefit of the organization. Now, we will discuss these in further details while providing real examples for the usages of these tools by other organizations or individuals. Starting with blogs, which as mentioned earlier is a website with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material usually maintained by one person with few exceptions where they are maintained by a group of people depending on the function or goal of the blog. Blogs also give the readers the ability to leave their comments in an interactive format. This feedback mechanism of the blogs is one of the main reasons why blogs are one of the most important social mediums. From an SMM point of view, the feedback is the opinion of their consumers, their needs, or their dissatisfactions which make them a gold mine of information for the company. A lot of companies had already adopted blogs and integrated them to the ir daily operations starting with CEOs like Jonathan Schwartz (President CEO, Sun Microsystems) and George F. Colony (Chairman CEO, Forrester Research) and a long list others. So what does these CEO talk about? Most would think that talking about their companys milestones, new products or services, or future plan would be the obvious choice. But going back to the reason should most companies based their activities on social media is to raise awareness. Not many people will want to read about the companys achievements or its products, thats the purpose of the main website of the company. These CEOs blogs actually contains interesting and useful materials. If we take a quick look at George Colonys blog, we will find his personal thoughts, expectations, review, etc. but all with a unified theme, the CEO perspective. One of his entries were regarding the imminent dominance of Apples iPhone among CEOs over the Blackberry ones and listing iPhone features that the blackberry lacks. Norma lly, you wouldnt expect to see a mobile review in a research company CEO blog though he still managed to keep it relevant to the overall blog theme, but that what makes it interesting. Thats what makes people coming back to you. Because each blog will compete with millions of other blogs and to stand tall among the crowd, you have to distinguish yours. If you are a small business owner, your blog could be relevant to your industry. But regardless of the blogs theme, without valuable content, the blog will be a definite waste of time. Passing the CEO blogs and going further into the companies hierarchy, we can also find many of the management team, adding their own touch to the blogosphere like Tom Berquist (CFO, Ingres) and Michael Tiemann (CTO, Red Hat). Going further all the way to developers, analysts, etc., you will find plenty of other blog writers. Some companies have also what can be called an official blog. These official blogs are similar to an announcement board, where org anizations announce new products, technologies, or ideas of future plans, though in most of these cases, these companies already have interested loyal audience who are eager to listen to them. A good example is Nokia Conversations. This blog might seem to be a portal to announce new mobile phones, software, or services. But it is more than that, as the name suggests, Nokia tries to engage their readers as much as possible. They hold social activities sometimes, for example, a photo context for one of their camera phones. This blogs provides lot of valuable knowledge to Nokia. Based on the feedback from this website, Nokia fix problems, annoyances, or add missing features to their products from the comments and suggestions of their audience. This creates loyalty to their brand. It is a win-win situation for both; the customers get the product and the company gets the sales. Of course, when it comes to small businesses and entrepreneurs, the case is usually different as their first an d main objective is to raise awareness as oppose, for example, to Nokia Conversations where the main goal is the good publicity, the customers feedback and the loyalty. For those individuals, creating a blog, or creating a page in a social network -as discussed later -is not enough. For people to come to you, you have to get to them first; participation on other blogs -in the same industry -will inform the audience of your existence, your personality, and you interests. You cant tell people to come to you, but you can go to them, raise their interest and let them follow you back. One of the best utilizations for the power of blogs is demonstrated by Adobe Inc. They have create a comprehensive network that allows for personal interaction between people with common interests-those interests, of course, are related to Adobe and their broad range of software products. The result is an officially sponsored message board and blog site dedicated to informing the public about Adobe, answering questions about products and product applications, and whats more is allowing public input on the developmental process of future Adobe software titles. They have compiled all of these features together in a feed aggregator called MXNA (Adobe XML News Aggregator). According to Adobe, this tool is designed to monitor over 2400 Adobe related blogs and news sources all in one place. As a result, users can search through all of these sources for articles, tutorials, code samples, downloads, sample applications, information or help they need and if they have a question that doesnt ha ve an answer, they can post it to get their answers from Adobes staff. Thus creating communities that are completely and wholly devoted to being the definitive destination of any and all who seek answers about all things Adobe (Greg Brian Martin, 2007). From Adobes perspective, they have given customers the satisfaction that the company is committed to helping them get the most out of their purchase and making sure that the customer is satisfied with the product. Second, the originated communities also exist so that those users who have discovered solutions to problems they feel are common or troublesome (or both) may share these ideas with fellow participants of the communities (Greg Brian Martin, 2007). By giving the public the opportunity to not only ask when they need help but also, to answer and help other members of the community, Adobe has exponentially cut down on their customer support costs. Usually the return on investment in social media cannot be quantified, but in Adob es case we can somewhat relate to the result of their investments. Their costs of service and support went down by $6 million in the same period between 2006 and 2002 when the communities where introduced. 6. Social Networks The second tool of interest in this paper and one of the fastest growing is the online social networks. These networks function like an online community for internet users. It is different from site to another, but usually members share a similar interest e.g. Flixster -for Movies enthusiasts -or similar hobbies like Spoccer -for Soccer players. Yet, there is the general type where most of the crowd resides. Ahead of the crowd is Facebook follow by MySpace in terms of the number of active members. It differs from one site to another, but once you sign up to one of the services, all of them will suggest that you create your profile. Though the available fields to fill differs depending on the interest, they all ask for the same basic information whether you are an individual or an organization. Honesty is an important factor when filling the profile, as getting caught lying in a social network is more devastating than off one. After preparing your profile, you should try to look for p eople with the same interest to start connecting. Depending on the type of industry, you might want to look into different sites. The most common website among professional is LinkedIn, though, when you are targeting the general public Facebook is the best choice as it has the largest base of members. But if you are working in music industry, for example, MySpace is usually a better choice. Though, Willa Plank would argue that for small businesses, it is better to start in smaller more related communities as it is easy to disappear among huge crowds (2009). Social Media Marketing has been adopted by many of the large corporations like Dell, Hershey, and Kraft but one of the most outstanding is a community for moms called Vocalpoint by Proctor Gamble. The program recruited thousands of women who were picked because of their large social network. They were recruited to talk about PG products to their friends (Robert Berkman, 2008). But SMM is not exclusive to businesses, but it can also help hobbyists and individuals. For example, if you are in a garage band, as mention earlier, MySpace is known for its music services and it would be the best place for the band to start promoting itself. One of the best examples is OmniSoul (aka. The Crash Motive), a Newark, Delaware band. The five member of the group met at University of Delaware and they first hit when they won Battle of the Band competition there. Then the band began touring around their local area growing their fan base and the local radio started playing their songs. Eventually, the y developed their own website and their MySpace pages. Their individual pages were like any normal page with basic information. The band page, on the other hand, includes a profile picture of the entire band, an audio player with four of the bands original full-length songs in rotation, a list of upcoming tour dates, a list of friends, and a comment area where friends can leave messages to the band (Greg Martin, 2007). Derek Fuhrmann, the lead singer of the group had the following to say about MySpace, MySpace is an amazing tool for bands today to not only promote their music, but more importantly to keep in touch with their fan base. Making fans an intricate part of a bands world through daily interaction is really a brilliant concept. (Greg Martin, 2007). The band is hoping to get the nationwide exposure they need from the MySpace page. They hope that the social networking feature of MySpace will help their exposure, by adding as many friends as possible. The more friends the band has, the more people will come into contact with them. The exposure is not for the band name only, but also for their music. We mentioned earlier they had four full-length tracks in their space, any of their friends, can take these songs and post them on their personal Space, where it will be played whenever someone visited their website. On top of gaining the exposure, they also hope to strengthen its relationship with preexisting fans. They kept feeding them information of the bands day to day activities, news postings, the occasional MySpace promotional contest, and by posting on friends comment spaces, the band seems to be committed to reinforcing the ties it has already created. Their efforts paid off and on December 27th, 2009 they performed their last show on their first nationwide tour at Deer Park in Newark, DE. The success stories resulted from social networks are beyond numbering, however, for the sake of diversification, two more quick examples will be mentioned. Social networks were there to help corporation and small businesses, but they also exist to help individuals, too. Kristen Luke is a principal at Wealth Management Marketing, a small financial marketing advisory firm in San Diego. Her story with social networks started out with LinkedIn. There, she was found by Dow Jones News Wire reporter. The reporter formed some interest in Kristen, so she called her and quoted her in a couple of stories in Wall Street Journal. This turned into increased traffic on her website (Stephen Arnold, 2009). The second story is a bit different than the norm as Bradi Nathan and Terry Starr started by conducting a survey on Facebook before launching their business. The survey was targeted at working moms and moms who wanted to go back to the workforce. The idea behind the survey was to find out what mom s would want from a mom social network. The results of the survey are the bases of their blossomed business (David Spark, 2009). 7. Micro-Blogging Micro-blogging is one of the most recent tools to appear; yet, it is growing at an alarming rate. As mentioned earlier, it is a service that allowed its users to publish short messages of around 140 characters or less. Its limitation of 140 characters is overwhelmed by its tight integration with mobile phones. Most micro-blogging services provide the ability to add a new entries using SMS and also receiving others entries by SMS in addition to the regular browser from any pc or even cell phones. This ease of access is what helped burst its success. Though, the 140 doesnt seems like much to say, yet, the last couple of years have shown, as will be shown later, its devastating power. Throughout this paper, Twitter -the most successful micro-blogging service -will be used interchangeably with micro-blogging. Micro-blogging shares the some common grounds with the other social media; if you want to be followed, you have to be interesting to people. Whole Foods Market realized that fact and since their first day on twitter, they abide by that rule. Within a week of highlighting some fun things that were going on at specific stores, people started noticing them on twitter. From there the market kept getting more publicity and within a year, they had over a million followers (Cody Nolden, 2009). While Whole Foods twitters were related to their stores, the CEO of Zappos.com took a slightly different approach. He personally drives the corporate account and always has something interesting to say most of which are not related to work. But most of them had one thing in common, humor. Now, Zappos has over 1.6 million followers (Cody Nolden, 2009). Dell has a more direct approach toward its twitter. It uses the medium to send exclusive offers to their followers. By June 2009, they made over $3,000, 000 in twitter related sales (Antone Gonsalves, 2009) Interest will get you followers, but to keep them, the personal element should be added to the mix. JetBlue Airlines and Southwest Airlines have two things in common; operating in the same industry and they both twitter. Both companies offer similar messages in their twitters; however, JetBlue has 600,000 followers more than Southwest. By taking a closer look at both channels, you will notice that over half of JetBlues messages are in fact replies to other people where in Southwests the percentage goes way down. People tend to feel wormer toward a personal response (Cody Nolden, 2009). The best methodology to approach the micro-blogging differs by the industry, the goals, and the targeted audiences and limited by creativity. A group of tourist information enthusiasts at Coos Bay, Oregon, led by Katherine Hoppe, looked at twitter differently. Instead of taking a direct approach, they looked at twitter as an opportunity platform. The group kept looking around twitter hunting their towns name; looking for an opportunity to promote it. One day, Lee Hopkins along with his friend were planning a road trip from Seattle to San Francisco. They twittered their friends to suggest a place to stay, and one of them suggested Coos Bay. Katherine caught the message and contacted Lee and she was successful in persuading them to stop by the city. They stayed for a couple of days, enjoyed it, blogged their trip, and added what became a popular series of videos for the trip. Unfortunately, not all companies apprehend the concept of social media and micro-blogging. JCPenney has taken a strange twisted approach to reach people on twitter. They stalk anyone who mentions the word shopping in an entry. They ambush the writer with a message similar to check out JCPenney online at www.jcp.com à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ No wonder they dont have too many followers. Micro-blogging has been useful to many, useless to some, and it has been disaster to others. Twitter has a hidden ugly face too and it showed it to Horizon Realty Group a Chicago real estate company. The story began with one of the company tenants Amanda Bonnen. Amanda twittered to her 20 followers that the company didnt care about the mold in her apartment. Because of the comment, the company filed a law suit against her, asking for $50,000 in damages to their reputations. They argued that there was no mold in her apartment. The next day, the law suit became one of the hottest topics in the whole twitter network which mean, the comment of irritation to 20 twitterers became a hot topic to thousands and thousands of people. Social media users do not read all the facts carefully before flaming. Whether Horizon Realty was right or wrong, no one in the social network would see the $50,000 as reasonable, either. The ugly face of micro-blogging doesnt just scare, it usefulness goes beyond that sometimes for a whole city like the city of Phoenix, AZ. One night at the city, a group of friends found out that their car had been towed as a part of a towing scam thats been going on for over a year and a half. The group behind the scam didnt know that this group was one of the most active twitterers in Phoenix. As a result, within 24 hours, there has been an investigation, and the word has reached the mayor and city council. Within 48 hours, the local media got involved covering the story. Within 72 hours, the scam has been shutdown (Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, et al. 2009). So, what does the mean to businesses? Even though it makes twitter looks scary, it should only makes companies to jump in with both feet and eyes. Jumping in with both feet can help the company building a close relationship with the consumers. But thats not all; they should also keep an eye on what people say about them. Being there in the first place before disasters can help form a better response and ease spreading it around. 8. Social Bookmarking Social bookmarking started as a service to keep your bookmarks with you wherever you go. Then it was morphed into a full fledged social community to share sites of interest, articles, images, or videos. Other people can rate, tag, and comment on these bookmarks which might seem like a social filtration for these bookmarks. The usage for these services is a straight forward one and the easier it is you make it for visitors of your website to bookmark it, the faster it will spread giving the interest factor existence. NBC11 in California realized the benefit of social bookmarking so they started by adding the option to share their news on Digg with a click of a button. Soon after, they realized also that the news with pictures are the most submitted ones. Since the inclusion of Digg into NBC 11 website, the site traffic has spiked (Figure 1) (Adam Singer, 2008). Fig. 1 Traffic History for NBC11 before and after integrating Digg 9. Video Sharing As the name implies, the websites helps their member to upload and share videos with the community. So many people became famous overnight because of these websites. The top most viewed video on YouTube -the most popular video sharing website -for 2009 was for a 48 years old Scottish lady signing in British Got Talent TV show. Now that lady signed a contract with Sony Music and released her first album which is on number 1 spot in the top 200 Billboard list (Stan Schroeder, 2009). The business sector wasnt left behind; some companies were able to utilize the power of these websites too. One company to make a successful use of the video sharing is Blendtec. They introduced a serious of interesting, funny, and low cost advertisements which immediately gone viral over the network. Because of the series, the ads resulted in increasing the sales of the company five times (Samir Balwani, 2009). 10. Conclusion When traditional media giants like CNN or MSNBC jumps into the social media wagon, you realize that it is not something to be taken lightly. Social media is here to stay; it is not a passing event. For businesses, it is only a matter of what is the best way to take advantage of it and there is no special formula to answer that. It is not a one size fits all thing. But it is safe to say that the different tools of the social media can work well together and making use of more than one tool can produce better results. For example, simple things like linking your twitter or blog to your social network account, so that you can share your feed immediately in your social network. Another usage would be to twitter your blog entries. In the Coos Bay incident, mentioned earlier, the group created a Flickr -a social site for sharing images -album to hold images from around their town and encouraged the people in town to post their pictures. Social media marketing should be planned carefully, e ven though the financial costs might be nominal to none, but the time consumption factor isnt to be overlooked.

Terrorism: Guantanamo Bay Detention Center Essay -- Guantanamo Bay, Cu

Detainees held in Guantanamo Bay Detention Center located in Cuba are not only potential terrorists, but are also potential threats to our country, families, and loved ones. Detainees have been stricken of their rights to due process and a fair trial in compliance to George Bush enacting the USA PATRIOT Act, after the September 11th bombings. Guantanamo bay should not be shut down, because the detention center allows us to prevent future attacks to the country, question and gain high value intelligence from terror suspects, and also the island naval base houses some of the most lethal terror threats to the United States. Studies conducted by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation in â€Å"Leaving Guantanamo, Policies, Pressures, And Detainees Returning To The Fight† show that after September 2011, the U.S. government believes that at least 27 percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees were confirmed or suspected to or have been engaged in terrorist activities (Leaving Guantanamo). The detainees are very dangerous and with the increased hatred for the U.S. as a result of the detention of terror group members, the U.S. cannot afford to give up such high value intelligence. Edwin Meese from CNN.com in his article titled: â€Å"Guantanamo Bay prison is necessary†, puts the value of some detainees into perspective; detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was the architect of the September 11th bombings, is housed in solitary confinement and is under questioning (Meese 1). Not only are the detainees dangerous, but also they are insurgents with an increased awareness of our detention center, and terror group activities have risen in groups such as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Scholar Yin Tung Of Harvard Journ... ...ism Increases | Washington Free Beacon." Washington Free Beacon Number of Released Gitmo Detainees Returning to Terrorism Increases Comments. N.p., 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. III, Edwin Meese. "Guantanamo Bay Prison Is Necessary." CNN. Cable News Network, 11 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. Seligson, Susan. "BU Today." BU Today RSS. N.p., 28 May 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. Seyn, Johan. "Cambridge Journals Online - International & Comparative Law Quarterly - Abstract - Guantanamo Bay: The Legal Black Hole." Cambridge Journals Online - International & Comparative Law Quarterly - Abstract - Guantanamo Bay: The Legal Black Hole. N.p., 17 Jan. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2014 29 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 158 (2005-2006) Ending the War on Terrorism One Terrorist at a Time: A Noncriminal Detention Model for Holding and Releasing Guantanamo Bay Detainees; Yin, Tung

The Push Mower From Hell :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

The Push Mower From Hell "It's time to get up, son. You've got work to do today." My father's gravelly voice brought my reluctant subconscious out of the realm of its peaceful slumber. How dare he, I wondered to myself, interrupt my rest and force me awake on the most sacred of days: the Cartoon Sabbath. Still slightly disoriented, I went into the kitchen to feed myself a bowl of Cheerios and plant myself in front of a "Winnie the Pooh" rerun. I had scarcely finished my third bowl when my father returned, somewhat angered. "I believe that I told you that we were going to do some yardwork today. How about coming out and lending a hand?" I agreed meekly, owing to the fact that I had no desire to risk conflict with my father. After brushing my teeth and slapping on a tee shirt, shorts, and shoes, I trudged outside. The hot summer sun beat down heavily on the back of my neck. Because of a combination of heat and fatigue, I felt as if I were drunk. I staggered over to the riding lawnmower, relieved by the thought of being able to sit down while appeasing my parents at the same time. My brother, the impish little troll that he is, having the same idea, had already confiscated the mower for his own selfish gain. He had left for the lot next door, which was easy to cut compared to the banks that I was left with. I gave him an evil glance that shouted my disapproval of his actions and marched towards the much hated, seldom used push mower. The push mower was an angry, rust ridden, hostile beast of ill intent. I don't think anyone in my family ever expected to have to use the beast, so it became more like a family joke to see whom we could stick it to each time grass needed to be cut. It was temperamental and took at least five minutes of heavy pulling on the unforgiving cord to finally get it started. It had at one time been a self propelled mower, but the chain broke long ago, leaving a free spinning gear rotating dangerously near the operator's low appendages. The machine gave off a low threatening growl, reminding us to approach it with a certain amount of animosity, if not respect.