Managing the workforce and organisational change assignment Essay

Managing the workforce and organisational change assignment - Essay Example Since most organizational changes are aimed at improving the overall improvement in the products and services offered by an organisation, it therefore means that most employment or hiring carried out during organizational change is normally for skilled and appropriately qualified individuals. The question that should be asked is "Is it advantageous to seek qualifications that are well beyond the immediate requirements of the jobs, so that the organisation will not have to spend much on staff development future" As earlier said, overall organisational change as used here is more than the smaller change that occurs in an organisation. In most cases, it affects all aspects of the organisation. Some of these changes include change in mission and vision of the organisation, restructuring operations - like laying off some workers and employing some, adopting of new technologies, mergers, franchising, "rightsizing", complete new programs, re-engineering, etc. Organisational change can also be said to mean organisatonal transformation as it has to do with the transformation of the organisation. Organisational change does not just happen for the sake of change, in most cases; it is done as a result of some factors like funding, government rules, market-related issues etc. For instance, there might be the need for a particular kind of product in the market. An organisation, on sensing the potentials that the market has to offer, may then decide to re-enact their mission and tilt towards the direction of tapping into the potentials the market has to offer. This can be done by way of producing or importing the much sought after goods. MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE: When changes are to be done There are some difficulties that may be encountered. For instance people may be afraid of the unknown, some may be cynical; and also there may some organisational conflicts when change is about to occur. Certain strategies may be against the long termed known norms of those involved in an organisation. These things have to be taken into consideration and ways of handling them should be thought of. Edgar F. Huse and Thomas G. Gummings in their book Organization Development and Change talked of three steps of Lewin's Change Model. These are: 1. Unfreezing: This first step involves the factors that maintains he organization's present state. This can be achieved by introducing information that contradicts the ones presently

Structural Equation Modelling and Logistic regression Assignment

Structural Equation Modelling and Logistic regression - Assignment Example While card payments were the main cashless mode of payment up to the beginning of the last decade, mobile money payments have also emerged as a likeable payment method, mainly in fairly underdeveloped regions (Dahlberg, Mallat & Oorni, 2008). Other non-card payment methods include virtual money carriers, including Google Wallet, Skrill, and PayPal (Ayodele, Ayo & Adeyibi, 2013). Among the factors that appear pertinent towards adoption of any of these payment methods are ease of use, importance/ usefulness, risk/ security levels, and accessibility (Ayodele, Ayo & Adeyibi, 2013; Abubakar & Ahmad, 2013). According to Abubakar and Ahmad (2013), higher levels of awareness towards cashless payments correspond to higher uptake levels. Ease of use is an important factor for adoption of cashless payments. Users (and potential users) with better knowledge of the cashless payment modes available in a particular region catalyse uptake levels. To them, usage of the methods is relatively easy (Ayodele, Ayo & Adeyibi, 2013). Similarly, knowledge of usefulness/ importance of such payment modes underscores their higher acceptability among persons with such knowledge (Ayodele, Ayo & Adeyibi, 2013). The sample comprised 320 respondents who were served with questionnaires to indicate their level of agreement with assertions made regarding ease of use of cashless payments system, trust in the cashless payments system, and usefulness of the same. The three variables used several questions for each, which were then aggregated to find each individual’s average rating of each variable. That is, the variable usefulness was obtained by averaging the ratings given per individual across the four questions underlying the variable; the four responses denoting ease of use were averaged to obtain the variable; and the ratings to the five questions underlying

Performance Analysis of Algorithms on Shared Memory

Performance Analysis of Algorithms on Shared Memory Performance analysis of algorithms on shared memory, message passing and hybrid models for stand-alone and clustered SMPs INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Parallel computing is a form of computation that allows many instructions to be run simultaneously, in parallel in a program. This can be achieved by splitting up a program into independent parts so that each processor can execute its part of the program simultaneously with the other processors. This can be achieved on a single computer with multiple processors or with number of individual computers connected by a network or a combination of the two. Parallel computing has grown outside of the high-performance computing community due to the introduction of multi-core3 and multi-processor computers at a reasonable price for the average consumer. Recent desktop and high performance processors provide multiple hardware threads technically realized by hardware multithreading and multiple processor cores on a single chip. Programmers will be faced with hundreds of hardware threads per processor chip as exploitable instruction level parallelism in applications is limited and the processor clock frequency cannot be increased any further due to power consumption and heat problems exploiting thread level parallelism becomes unavoidable if further improvement in processsor performance is required and there is no doubt that our requirements and expectations of machine performance will increase further. This means that parallel programming will actually concern a majority of application and system programmers in the foreseeable future even in the desktop and embedded domain. A model of parallel computation consists of a parallel programming model and a corresponding cost model . A parallel programming model describes an abstract parallel machine by its basic operations such as arithmetic operations spawning of tasks reading from and writing to shared memory or sending and receiving messages. Their effects on the state of the computation the constraints of when and where these can be applied and how they can be composed in particular a parallel programming model also contains at least for shared memory programming models a memory model that describes how and when memory accesses can become visible to the different parts of a parallel computer. The memory model sometimes is given implicitly a parallel cost model that associates a cost which usually describes parallel execution time and resource occupation with each basic operation and describes how to predict the accumulated cost of composed operations up to entire parallel programs A parallel programming model is often associated with one or several parallel programming languages or libraries that realize the model Parallel algorithms that are usually formulated in terms of a particular parallel programming model. OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing), Message passing Interface (MPI) and Hybrid OpenMP/MPI is a parallel programming model where communication between processes is done by interchanging messages. OpenMP is an API that supports multi-platform shared memory multi-processing programming in C,C++ and Fortran on most processor architectures and operating systems, including Solaris Linux,, AIX, HP-UX, Mac OS X and Windows platforms. MPI is a model for a distributed memory system where communication cannot be achieved by sharing of variables. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the de-facto standard for programming distributed memory systems as it provides a simple communication API and eases the task of developing portable parallel applications. Hybrid OpenMP+MPI facilitates cooperative shared memory programming across clustered SMP nodes. MPI provides communication among various SMP nodes whereas OpenMP manages the workload on each SMP node. MPI and OpenMP are used in tandem to manage the overall concurrency of the application. MOTIVATION As individual processors are not capable of solving the most significant computational problems because of their inherent complexity, the idea of putting multiple processors to work on a single program came into existence thus motivating the idea of parallel computing. Parallel computing is the use of a parallel computer to reduce the time needed to solve a single computational problem. it is a multiple-processor computer system supporting parallel programming. Two categories of parallel computers are multi-computers and centralized multiprocessors. Multi-computer is a parallel computer constructed out of multiple computers and an interconnection network where the processors on different computers interact by passing messages to each other. Centralized multi-processor( also called as symmetrical multiprocessor or SMP) is one where all the CPUs share access to a single global memory. EXISTING SYSTEM AND ITS LIMITATIONS Applications were designed to run on a single systems. But individual systems are not capable of solving the significant problems efficiently because of their inherent complexity. The limitation is that it cannot harness the capacity of a multi-core processor. Hence multi-threading the applications must be done. PROPOSED SYSTEM Parallel programming combines the distributed memory parallelization on the node interconnect with shared memory parallelization inside each node. The challenges and the potentials of the dominant programming models on hierarchically structured hardware is described : Pure MPI (message passing interface), pure OpenMP (with distributed shared memory extensions) and hybrid MPI+OpenMP in several flavors. We identify few cases where the hybrid programming model can indeed be the superior solution because of memory consumption or improved load balance and reduced communication needs. Hybrid programming introduces OpenMP into MPI applications makes more efficient use of the shared memory on SMP nodes, thus mitigating the need for explicit intra-node communication. Introducing MPI and OpenMP during the design/coding of a new application can help maximize efficiency, scaling and performance. At the recent time, the hybrid model has begun to attract more attention, for at least two reasons. The first is that it is relatively easy to pick a language/library instantiation of the hybrid model: OpenMP plus MPI. While there may be other approaches, they remain research and development projects, whereas OpenMP compilers and MPI libraries are now solid commercial products, with implementations from multiple vendors. The second reason is that scalable parallel computers now appear to encourage this model. The fastest machines now virtually all consist of multi-core nodes connected by a high speed network. The idea of using OpenMP threads to exploit the multiple cores per node (with one multithreaded process per node) while using MPI to communicate among the nodes appears obvious. Yet one can also use an â€Å"MPI everywhere† approach on these architectures, and the data on which approach is better is confusing and inconclusive. PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVES Multithreading of applications on a clustered system using hybrid methodology. The objective is to increase the performance of application on clusters using Hybrid methodology. APPLICATIONS Network intrusion detection, cryptography, multiparty computations are some of the core users of parallel computing techniques. Embedded systems increasingly rely on distributed control algorithms. A modern automobile consists of tens of processors communicating to perform complex tasks for optimizing handling and performance. conventional structured peer-peer networks impose overlay networks and utilize algorithms directly from parallel computing.

Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care and Domestic Responsibility by Andrea D

Traditionally, mothers have been assigned to stay in the house to take care of children and perform daily household activities. However in recent years, men are becoming more involved in the house. Men are sharing more of the same responsibilities with women in terms of housekeeping and childrearing. Several fathers are choosing to stay in the house to take care of their children rather than working outside; either because of employment interruption or their wives are earning a higher salary than them. In a modern study, an increased number of working mothers as well as an increase in stay- at- home fathers were observed in Canada (Sutherland 2008). This is where the need to analyze if fathers are competent of rendering nurture and care as well as mothers arises. In her book entitled Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care, and Domestic Responsibility, Doucet seeks the life of fathering by means of illustrating if fathers are essentially performing a mother’s role or mothering when caring for their children (Doucet 2006). Andrea Doucet, currently on sabbatical, is a Professor of Sociology at Carleton University located in Ottawa, Canada. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from York University and completed her Masters in International Development at Carleton University. Doucet furthered her studies at Cambridge University where she attained her PhD (Carleton University 2011). Besides book chapters, most of her works for the past sixteen years have been scholarly articles which made sense of and clarified, theoretical and experiential understanding of subjects related with care and work, gender issues and lives within the society. A significant number of her works discuss several issues such as responsibility, auto... ...selves as fathers (Doucet 2006: 217). By the use of several theoretical perceptions, the book provides a breakdown on the division of household responsibilities and manliness (Doucet 2006). Furthermore, it also renders literature on parenting as a result of analyzing the role of the fathers by the maternal points of view. Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care and Domestic Responsibility explores the concerns of men who choose to stay as full time fathers in order to meet the needs of their children rather than to work outside their home (Doucet 2006). The book is tremendously impactful in terms of being able to make readers realize the difference between the roles of the mother, as well as the responsibilities of the fathers while the common objective of providing adequate care and love for their children is shared between both sexes. Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care and Domestic Responsibility by Andrea D Traditionally, mothers have been assigned to stay in the house to take care of children and perform daily household activities. However in recent years, men are becoming more involved in the house. Men are sharing more of the same responsibilities with women in terms of housekeeping and childrearing. Several fathers are choosing to stay in the house to take care of their children rather than working outside; either because of employment interruption or their wives are earning a higher salary than them. In a modern study, an increased number of working mothers as well as an increase in stay- at- home fathers were observed in Canada (Sutherland 2008). This is where the need to analyze if fathers are competent of rendering nurture and care as well as mothers arises. In her book entitled Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care, and Domestic Responsibility, Doucet seeks the life of fathering by means of illustrating if fathers are essentially performing a mother’s role or mothering when caring for their children (Doucet 2006). Andrea Doucet, currently on sabbatical, is a Professor of Sociology at Carleton University located in Ottawa, Canada. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from York University and completed her Masters in International Development at Carleton University. Doucet furthered her studies at Cambridge University where she attained her PhD (Carleton University 2011). Besides book chapters, most of her works for the past sixteen years have been scholarly articles which made sense of and clarified, theoretical and experiential understanding of subjects related with care and work, gender issues and lives within the society. A significant number of her works discuss several issues such as responsibility, auto... ...selves as fathers (Doucet 2006: 217). By the use of several theoretical perceptions, the book provides a breakdown on the division of household responsibilities and manliness (Doucet 2006). Furthermore, it also renders literature on parenting as a result of analyzing the role of the fathers by the maternal points of view. Do Men Mother?: Fathering, Care and Domestic Responsibility explores the concerns of men who choose to stay as full time fathers in order to meet the needs of their children rather than to work outside their home (Doucet 2006). The book is tremendously impactful in terms of being able to make readers realize the difference between the roles of the mother, as well as the responsibilities of the fathers while the common objective of providing adequate care and love for their children is shared between both sexes.

A Thai Learner in the Learning Context Essay

1. Introduction The Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), offered by the University of Cambridge (ESOL Examinations), is run in over 120 centers around the world and it is considered by many authorities as the most important form of training in the TELF (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) industry. Between 30th of August and 24th of September 2004 I attended the Cambridge CELTA course at English and Computer College (ECC) from Bangkok. Cambridge ESOL is a not-for-profit department of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group, Europe’s largest assessment agency. Cambridge Assessment was established in 1858 as the University of Cambridge local Examinations Syndicate (UCLESS). Cambridge ESOL provides exams and tests covering a large range of subjects and levels with more than 8 million assessments taken every year in over 150 countries. English and Computer College was established in 1990 and is the largest private language school from Thailand, with more than 50 branches spread all over the country. It runs a wide variety of courses from general conversation and grammar to specialized test preparation. It also provides pre-service and in-service teacher training programs for native and non-native speakers of English. During the CELTA course that I attended, the trainers exposed the students (most of them teachers of English themselves) to the principles of effective teaching while the students acquired a range of practical skills for teaching English to adult learners. The course included theory sessions, teaching practice with real students, observation of experienced teachers and completion of a range of practically focused written assignments. The present paper was built upon one of these assignments. It is a case study of a Thai young woman who was a student in my CELTA teaching practice lessons. The paper focuses on the learner in the learning context and identifies specific problems and recommends ways of dealing with the language problems that the interviewed student encountered . The paper ends with the rationale  for the recommended activities and an overall conclusion. 2. Profile of the learner The student I chose to observe and interview was Miss P.R. Her nickname is Nun, and she comes from Thailand. She was 24 years old at the time of the interview in 2004 and graduated from Busayarat Commercial School from Bangkok, with a degree in Computers in 1998. She had been studying English ever since primary school, when she was taught the basics of the English language. In high school, her English teachers focused mainly on vocabulary work, and during her university studies she had a few classes of English every week. She had been studying English by herself and had taken different language courses intensively since 2003. She joined the CELTA English classes at English Computer College in Bangkok on the 30th of August 2004. She attended all the classes, joining her 15 classmates five times a week. Miss P.R. had an outgoing personality. She was always willing to take part in the activities that the teachers prepared for the CELTA English lesson at ECC. The materials used by the teachers during the lessons varied, ranging from visual aids to worksheets, tape recorders, books, and game boards. Each lesson she took part in different writing, reading, listening, or speaking activities, but she also played fun games. When asked, she said that she believed the focus of the English lessons was mainly on speaking skills. She considered the lessons at ECC relaxed, and the students had and wanted to have a lot of fun. She felt that the foreign teachers were friendly and that they all had interesting personalities, which were reflected in their teaching styles. She noticed that the teachers have different accents too. She confessed that some of the teachers talked too fast, and sometimes she had to translate or explain the activities to her classmates. In her opinion, a good teacher should be kind and listen to all the students in the class. She would like teachers to pay more attention to the weak students and have in mind the fact that Thai students are shy and do not like to express their personal feelings. She thought it was a good idea for the teachers to  ³force them [the students] to speak ´ if they [the students] were reluctant to speak up in English. One of the main reasons why she was so outspoken was the fact that she had the chance to speak English outside the classroom with other foreigners too. Her educational background and her motivation were also important factors that built up her confidence. 3. Specific problems Her nationality was also important in her English learning context due to the fact that Thais have a specific mind set regarding languages. During my observations and interview I had noticed that she made frequent mistakes in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

Understanding ALS – Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Medical history has been filled with an array of diseases and illnesses, ranging from the common cold to deadly killers. Some are easily treatable and others can be terminal, but some of the worst are those that still remain without a cure; one such disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a degenerative disease affecting the human nervous system. It is a deadly disease that cripples and kills its victims due to a breakdown in the body†s motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the brainstem and spinal cord that control muscle contractions. In ALS, these neurons deteriorate to a point that all movement, including breathing, halts. Muscle weakness first develops in the muscles of body parts distant from the brain, such as the hands, and subsequently spreads through other muscle groups closer to the brain. Such early symptoms as this, however, can hardly be noticed. Early symptoms of ALS are very slight and often overlooked. They begin as simple things, such as tripping or dropping things. Twitching or cramping of muscles and abnormal fatigue of the arms and legs may soon follow, causing difficulty in daily activities, such as walking or dressing. In more advanced stages, however, shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing and swallowing ensue, until the body is completely taken over by the disease. Intellect, eye motion, bladder function, and sensation are the only abilities spared. Where and how this deadly disease originated is unknown, but it was first identified in 1869, by the noted French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. ALS is not contagious, but research is still vague on the cause of the disease. Today, there are three recognized forms of ALS: genetic, sporadic, and Guamanian. The genetic form of ALS appears to be inherited or passed down within a family, and about ten percent of ALS patients have a family history of the disease. An abnormal gene has been located in about half these families, but the cause of the remaining half is still unknown. The next, most common form, is sporadic ALS. These patients have no family history of disease, and the cause of their coming down with ALS is a mystery. Finally, is Guamanian ALS, called this because a high percentage of cases occur in the Pacific Islands near Guam. One major reason ALS is such a frightening disease is because no cure has been established. Although no effective treatment has been developed, a number of drug trials have been conducted, and there are some devices designed to help ALS patients maintain independence as well as safety as the disease progresses. These devices include ankle or foot braces, cervical collars, and reclining chairs. Since there is no cure, however, the primary treatment is for management of symptoms. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is also a difficult disease to diagnose, primarily because no one test can definitely establish if the disease is present. A diagnosis includes most, if not all, of the following procedures: electrodiagnostic tests, blood and urinary study, thyroid and parathyroid hormone levels, spinal tap and imaging, and muscular or nerve biopsy. Most who develop ALS are between the ages of forty and seventy years of age, although cases have been reported of victims in their twenties and thirties. It was once thought to be a rare disease, but studies have shown that about 5,000 people in the United States are newly-diagnosed with ALS each year–about 13 new cases a day! It isn estimated that about 100,000 people who are apparently well in the country today will die with ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is also popularly known as Lou Gehrig disease. Lou Gehrig was a famous baseball player in the 1930†³s for the New York Yankees. Once known as baseball†s â€Å"Ironman†, Lou Gehrig was truly a sports legend. His promising career came to a screeching halt, however, when he was diagnosed with ALS. The disease not only took away his career in baseball, but his life; Lou Gehrig died at the young age of thirty-eight. In conclusion, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a deadly and frightening disease; its victims cannot be saved. Someday, hopefully, a cure will be developed, and the suffering this disease is causing will be stopped.

Comparison Scientific Management and Ordinary Type of Management

Comparison Scientific Management and Ordinary Type of Management The author makes a comparison between scientific management and ordinary type of management. For workmen to work effectively and deliver, they must have initiative. Initiative in this context is the hard work, good will and ingenuity that employees portray as they perform their duties. The writer introduces the first type of management which is based on incentives.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Comparison: Scientific Management and Ordinary Type of Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to this approach, the employer must give the workmen an incentive on top of their average remuneration in order to obtain their initiative. The incentive can be given in various ways such as promises of rapid promotion, higher wages, shorter working hours and better working conditions. This form of incentive should be accompanied by a genuine interest of the employer in the welfare of the workmen. This managemen t approach stresses the fact that employers can only obtain the initiative of their workmen after a certain inducement or incentive has been offered. On the contrary, initiative in scientific management is obtained in a different way and does not rely on incentives or inducements. This approach focuses on improving the workmen and the managers taking up new duties and responsibilities that do not exist in ordinary management approach. For instance, the managers assume the burden of gathering traditional knowledge previously possessed by the workmen and then transforming it into rules, laws and formulae which are used by the workmen to perform their duties. This process is basically a science that is developed to guide scientific management approach. Under scientific management, managers believe that all the work should not be left to the workmen. This explains the reason why they assume new tasks that are new and difficult to perform. The first duty managers under scientific managem ent perform is developing a scientific concept for every task the workmen do, while the second one is that they scientifically train, teach and develop the workmen.Advertising Looking for book review on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This increases effectiveness of the workmen contrary to what happens in ordinary management approach where individual workers train themselves. The third burden that managers under scientific management carry is the duty of cooperating with the workmen in order to ensure that they follow the scientific principles developed as they perform their duties. The fourth duty of the managers under scientific management is to divide work equally between the workmen and themselves. This is based on the premise that there are tasks that the managers can perform better than the workmen. Leaving the tasks to the workmen only leads to poor performance. Ordinary management approac h focuses on obtaining the initiative of the workmen. On the other hand, scientific management shows the importance of combining the initiative of the workmen with new types of work done by the management. This makes scientific management more efficient than the old plan. Scientific management approach makes use of planners who eventually realize that subdividing work leads to better and economical performance. The roles performed by workmen should be preceded by preparatory tasks that are performed by other people like managers. Scientific management approach holds the view that every form of labor has a science behind it. An individual who is best suited to perform a certain class of work is carefully selected after the science of doing the work has been developed, and then trained to work according to the science. This leads to results that are evidently better than those which could be achieved in ordinary management which is based on initiative and incentive.

The Busiest Subway and Metro Systems in the World

The Busiest Subway and Metro Systems in the World Subways, also known as metros or the Underground, are an easy and economical form of rapid transit in approximately 160 world cities. After paying their fares and consulting their subway maps, residents and visitors to the city can quickly travel to their home, hotel, work, or school. Travelers can get to government administration buildings, businesses, financial institutions, medical facilities, or religious worship centers. People can also travel to the airport, restaurants, sporting events, shopping venues, museums, and parks. Local governments closely monitor the subway systems to ensure their safety, security, and cleanliness. Some subways are extremely busy and crowded, especially during commuting hours. Here is a list of the fifteen busiest subway systems in the world and some of the destinations that the passengers might be traveling to. It is ranked in order of total annual passenger rides. The Worlds Busiest Subway Systems 1. Tokyo, Japan Metro – 3.16 billion annual passenger rides Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is the world’s most populated metropolitan area and home to the world’s busiest metro system, with approximately 8.7 million daily riders. This metro opened in 1927. Passengers may travel to the many financial institutions or Shinto temples of Tokyo. 2.Moscow, Russia Metro – 2.4 billion annual passenger rides Moscow is the capital of Russia, and about 6.6 million people daily ride beneath Moscow. Passengers may be trying to reach Red Square, the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral, or the Bolshoi Ballet. Moscow metro stations are very beautifully decorated, representing Russian architecture and art. 3. Seoul, South Korea Metro – 2.04 billion annual passenger rides The metro system in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, opened in 1974, and 5.6 million daily riders can visit financial institutions and the many palaces of Seoul. 4. Shanghai, China Metro – 2 billion annual passenger rides Shanghai, the largest city in China, has a subway system with 7 million daily riders. The metro in this port city opened in 1995. 5. Beijing, China Metro – 1.84 billion annual passenger rides Beijing, the capital of China, opened its subway system in 1971. About 6.4 million people daily ride this metro system, which was expanded for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Residents and visitors can travel to the Beijing Zoo, Tiananmen Square, or the Forbidden City. 6. New York City Subway, USA – 1.6 billion annual passenger rides The subway system in New York City is the busiest in the Americas. Opened in 1904, there are now 468 stations, the most of any system in the world. About five million people daily travel to Wall Street, the United Nations headquarters, Times Square, Central Park, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, or theater shows on Broadway. The MTA New York City Subway map is incredibly detailed and complex. 7. Paris, France Metro – 1.5 billion annual passenger rides The word â€Å"metro† comes from the French word â€Å"metropolitan.† Opened in 1900, about 4.5 million people daily travel beneath Paris to reach the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, or the Arc de Triomphe. 8. Mexico City, Mexico Metro – 1.4 billion annual passenger rides About five million people daily ride the Mexico City metro, which opened in 1969 and displays Mayan, Aztec, and Olmec archaeological artifacts in some of its stations. 9. Hong Kong, China Metro – 1.32 billion annual passenger rides Hong Kong, an important global financial center, opened a subway system in 1979. About 3.7 million people ride daily. 10. Guangzhou, China Metro – 1.18 billion Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and has a metro system which opened in 1997. This important trade and commercial center is an important port in Southern China. 11. London, England Underground – 1.065 billion annual passenger rides London, United Kingdom opened the world’s first metro system in 1863. Known as the â€Å"Underground,† or â€Å"The Tube,† about three million people daily are told to â€Å"mind the gap.† Some stations were used as shelters during the air raids of World War II. Popular sights in London along the Underground include the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Globe Theater, Big Ben, and Trafalgar Square. Other Busy Subway Systems The metro in Delhi, India is the busiest metro in India. The busiest metro in Canada is in Toronto. The second busiest metro in the United States is in Washington, DC, America’s capital. Subways: Convenient, Efficient, Beneficial A busy subway system is very beneficial to the residents and visitors in many world cities. They can quickly and easily navigate their city for business, pleasure, or practical reasons. The government uses the revenues raised by fares to further improve the city’s infrastructure, safety, and administration. Additional cities around the world are constructing subway systems, and the ranking of the world’s busiest subways will likely change over time.

Begash (Kazakhstan)

Begash (Kazakhstan) Begash is a Eurasian pastoralist campsite, located in Semirchye in the piedmont zone of the Dzhungar Mountains of southeastern Kazakhstan, which was occupied episodically between ~2500 BC to AD 1900. The site is located at about 950 meters (3110 feet) above sea level, in a flat ravine terrace enclosed by canyon walls and along a spring-fed stream. Archaeological evidence at the site contains information about some of the earliest pastoralist Steppe Society communities; the important archaeobotanical evidence suggests Begash may have been on the route which moved domestic plants from the point of domestication into the broader world. Timeline and Chronology Archaeological investigations have identified six major phases of occupations. Phase 6 (cal AD 1680-1900), HistoricPhase 5 (cal AD 1260-1410), MedievalPhase 4 (cal AD 70-550), Late Iron AgePhase 3 (970 cal BC-30 cal AD), Early Iron AgePhase 2 (1625-1000 cal BC), Middle-Late Bronze AgePhase 1 (2450-1700 cal BC), Early-Middle Bronze Age A stone foundation for a single house is the earliest structure, built at Begash during Phase Ia. A cist burial, characteristic of other late Bronze Age and Iron Age kurgan burials, contained a cremation: near it was a ritual fire pit. Artifacts associated with Phase 1 include pottery with textile impressions; stone tools including grinders and micro-blades. Phase 2 saw an increase in the number of houses, as well and hearths and pit features; this last was evidence of roughly 600 years of periodic occupation, rather than a permanent settlement. Phase 3 represents the early Iron Age, and contains the pit burial of a young adult woman. Beginning about 390 cal BC, the first substantial residence at the site was built, consisting of two quadrilateral houses with central stone-lined fire-pits and hard-packed floors. The houses were multi-roomed, with stone lined postholes for central roof support. Trash pits and fire-pits are found between the houses. During Phase 4, occupation at Begash is again intermittent, a number of hearths and trash pits have been identified, but not much else. The final phases of occupation, 5 and 6, have substantial large rectangular foundations and corrals still detectable on the modern surface. Plants from Begash Within soils samples taken from the Phase 1a burial cist and associated funerary fire pit were discovered seeds of domesticated wheat, broomcorn millet and barley. This evidence is interpreted by the excavators, an assertion supported by many other scholars, as indication of a distinct route of transmission of wheat and millet from the central Asian mountains and into the steppes by the late 3rd millennium BC (Frachetti et al. 2010). The wheat consisted of 13 whole seeds of domesticated compact free-threshing wheat, either Triticum aestivum or T. turgidum. Frachetti et al. report that the wheat compares favorably to that from the Indus Valley region in Mehrgarh and other Harappan sites, ca. 2500-2000 cal BC and from Sarazm in western Tajikistan, ca. 2600-2000 BC. A total of 61 carbonized broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) seeds were recovered from various Phase 1a contexts, one of which was direct-dated to 2460-2190 cal BC. One barley grain and 26 cerealia (grains unidentified to species), were also recovered from the same contexts. Other seeds found within the soil samples are wild Chenopodium album, Hyoscyamus spp. (also known as nightshade), Galium spp. (bedstraw) and Stipa spp. (feathergrass or spear grass). See Frachetti et al. 2010 and Spengler et al. 2014 for additional details. Domesticated wheat, broomcorn millet and barley found in this context is surprising, given that the people who occupied Begash were clearly nomadic pastoralists, not farmers. The seeds were found in a ritual context, and Frachetti and colleagues suggest that the botanical evidence represents both a ritual exploitation of exotic foods, and an early trajectory for the diffusion of domestic crops from their points of origin into the broader world. Animal Bones The faunal evidence (nearly 22,000 bones and bone fragments) at Begash contradicts the traditional notion that the emergence of Eurasian pastoralism was sparked by horse riding. Sheep/goat are the most prevalent species within the assemblages, as much as 75% of identified minimum number of individuals (MNI) in the earliest phases to just under 50% in Phase 6. Although distinguishing sheep from goats is notoriously difficult, sheep are much more frequently identified in the Begash assemblage than goats. Cattle are the next most frequently found, making up between 18-32% of the faunal assemblages throughout the occupations; with horse remains not present at all until ca 1950 BC, and then in slowly increasing percentages to around 12% by the medieval period. Other domestic animals include dog and Bactrian camel, and wild species are dominated by red deer (Cervus elaphus) and, in the later period, goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa). Key species at the earliest Middle and Bronze age levels at Begash indicates that sheep/goats and cattle were the predominant species. Unlike other steppe communities, it seems apparent that the earliest phases at Begash were not based on horse riding, but rather began with Eurasian pastoralists. See Frachetti and Benecke for details. Outram et al. (2012), however, have argued that the results from Begash should not be considered necessarily typical of all steppe societies. Their 2012 article compared proportions of cattle, sheep and horses from six other Bronze Age sites in Kazakhstan, to show that dependence on horses seems to varied widely from site to site. Textiles and Pottery Textile-impressed pottery from Begash dated to the Early/Middle and Late Bronze ages reported in 2012 (Doumani and Frachetti) provide evidence for a wide variety of woven textiles in the southeastern steppe zone, beginning in the early Bronze Age. Such a wide variety of woven patterns, including a weft-faced cloth, implies interaction between pastoral and hunter-gatherer societies from the northern steppe with pastoralists to the southeast. Such interaction is likely, say Doumani and Frachetti, to be associated with trade networks postulated to have been established no later than the 3rd millinennium BC. These trade networks are believed to have spread animal and plant domestication out of the along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor. Archaeology Begash was excavated during the first decade of the 21st century, by the joint Kazakh-American Dzhungar Mountains Archaeology Project (DMAP) under the direction of Alexei N. Maryashev and Michael Frachetti. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to the Steppe Societies, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Sources for this article are listed on page two. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to the Steppe Societies, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Betts A, Jia PW, and Dodson J. 2013 The origins of wheat in China and potential pathways for its introduction: A review. Quaternary International in press. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2013.07.044 d’Alpoim Guedes J, Lu H, Li Y, Spengler R, Wu X, and Aldenderfer M. 2013. Moving agriculture onto the Tibetan plateau: the archaeobotanical evidence. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences:1-15. doi: 10.1007/s12520-013-0153-4 Doumani PN, and Frachetti MD. 2012. Bronze Age textile evidence in ceramic impressions: weaving and pottery technology among mobile pastoralists of central Eurasia. Antiquity 86(332):368-382. Frachetti MD, and Benecke N. 2009. From sheep to (some) horses: 4500 years of herd structure at the pastoralist settlement of Begash (south-eastern Kazakhstan). Antiquity 83(322):1023-1027. Frachetti MD, and Maryashev AN. 2007. Long-Term Occupation and Seasonal Settlement of Eastern Eurasian Pastoralists at Begash, Kazakhstan. Journal of Field Archaeology 32(3):221-242. doi: 10.1179/009346907791071520 Frachetti MD, Spengler RN, Fritz GJ, and Maryashev AN. 2010. Earliest direct evidence for broomcorn millet and wheat in the central Eurasian steppe region. Antiquity 84(326):993–1010. Outram AK, Kasparov A, Stear NA, Varfolomeev V, Usmanova E, and Evershed RP. 2012. Patterns of pastoralism in later Bronze Age Kazakhstan: new evidence from faunal and lipid residue analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(7):2424-2435. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.02.009 Spengler III RN. 2013. Botanical Resource Use in the Bronze and Iron Age of the Central Eurasian Mountain/Steppe Interface: Decision Making in Multiresource Pastoral Economies. St. Louis, Missouri: Washington University in St. Louis. Spengler III RN, Cerasetti B, Tengberg M, Cattani M, and Rouse L. 2014. Agriculturalists and pastoralists: Bronze Age economy of the Murghab alluvial fan, southern Central Asia. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany in press. doi: 10.1007/s00334-014-0448-0 Spengler III RN, Frachetti M, Doumani P, Rouse L, Cerasetti B, Bullion E, and Maryashev A. 2014. Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281(1783). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.3382

Problems of Creation EU Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Problems of Creation EU - Essay Example One can compare this problem with the case study of American. The USA is probably the country with highest levels of debts. However, it can never default on its sovereign debt obligations because it can print its own money to settle all the outstanding debts. However, Greece does not have this luxury. This has created a problem not just for Greece but also its creditors. Whenever there is a credit meltdown or a debtor defaults on his obligations, it starts a domino effect. It results in the collapse of the entire system or good part of it. This is what is happening to Euro. Since Greece has defaulted, there are chances that many other countries are going to collapse or fall down. Â  Many people say that Euro is built to the last. It can still exist despite the Greece example. This can be partly true. Although it looks difficult the probability of Euro recovering is not zero. Still, we can believe that the system might be able to sustain itself. The only way that Euro can sustain itself is that it starts focusing more on inter-lending and if it develops a system that focuses on a circular debt between the countries using the Euro. Since Euro is limited in supply, and no one country can print Euro, therefore in case credit event occurs in Euro-based lending, the ECB might be able to recover that or write off that loan in order to protect the system, or with the consensus of all EU countries, the amount of loan defaulted can be pumped into the country which has suffered a credit event. This would make sure that the EU crisis would not start a domino effect in the global financial markets and would not pose any global threat to the system. Â   Â  

Industry Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Industry Analysis - Research Paper Example This would also help in understanding the position of Macy’s Inc in the industry and the threat it possess on grounds of the five forces in the Porter’s Five forces analysis model. Finally the study would be concluding with an insight into the sum-up of the entire study followed by recommendations for further improvement. Company Analysis Macy’s Inc. is one of the American multinational holding companies which is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company is the owner of all the departmental stores of Rich’s and Macy’s Bloomingdale’s that specializes in sale of footwear, clothing, furniture, bedding, accessories, beauty products, jewelry and house ware. The organization operates almost 850 stores in the entire United States. It is renowned for possessing the most prominent flagship stores in the country specifically Macy’s in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The organization is the biggest fashion good retaining company in the world and 36th biggest retailer from overall perspectives on the basis of the sales revenue amount of $ 25 billion in the Company’s annual report of 2010. ... nancial analysis is defined as the procedure for evaluating relationship in between different components within the financial statement fir having a clear understanding of the position and performance of an organization. The financial analysis of Macy’s Inc would help the management in taking a concrete decision and avoid the chances of flaws. For avoiding any faulty decision, it is very important to analyze and interpret the results in a systematic manner. A comparative analysis of the performance of the organization with its competitors would also be performed in order to understand its position within the industry (Sinha, 2009). The competitors of the company include Dillard’s Inc and SAKS Inc (Hoovers, 2013). The next portion of the project would be displaying the income statement of Macy’s Inc. Year 2009-01 2010-01 2011-01 2012-01 2013-01 Revenue 24892 23489 25003 26405 27686 Cost of revenue 15009 13973 14824 15738 16538 Gross profit 9883 9516 10179 10667 11 148 Operating expenses                Sales, General and administrative 8481 8062 8260 8281 8482 Other operating expenses 5780 391 25 -25 5 Total operating expenses 14261 8453 8285 8256 8487 Operating income -4378 1063 1894 2411 2661 Interest Expense 588 562 579 447 437 Other income (expense) 28 6 5 4 -122 Income before income taxes -4938 507 1320 1968 2102 Provision for income taxes -135 157 473 712 767 Net income from continuing operations -4803 350 847 1256 1335 Net income -4803 350 847 1256 1335 (Source: Morning Star, 2013a) In the year 2009, the company was incurring losses. The aforementioned table shows that the company has started making profit from the next year i.e. 2010. The company has made impressive performance in terms of generating net earnings. The net earnings figure has increased yearly

Stocks & Perspective of Corporate Finance Assignment

Stocks & Perspective of Corporate Finance - Assignment Example They have a 30.29% institutional ownership. In Target Corporation, institutional investors have a 28% institutional ownership. b.) In Wal-mart, institutional investors increase the share capital by 30.29%. Such a shareholding is has a material effect on the company’s retained earnings. In Target Corporation, institutional ownership has a significant portion of share capital. Institutional investors have diversified the range of investments, therefore increasing cash from investing activities. In Wal-mart, there are 15 members in the board of directors. Seven (7) of them are employees. The longest serving board of director is Douglas N. Daft while the shortest serving board of director is H. Lee Scott, Jr. In Target Corporation, there are 12 members in the board of directors. Ten (10) of them are employees. The longest serving director is James A. Johnson while the shortest serving director is Mary E.

Phase 4 Discussion Board 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Phase 4 Discussion Board 2 - Assignment Example This can only be achieved through motivated employees. Therefore, using my leadership, I feel it’s my responsibility to ensure that I befriend each and every employee, and strain to make the employees working environment as comfortable as possible to ensure efficiency. Given that Cokingtin is a small organization with less than 50 employees, then reaching each employee won’t be a difficult task for me. Note that befriending employees would not loosen my management roles of supervising and punishing non-performers. All this will be deemed at ensuring customer satisfaction, hence increase the number of customers, which will boost returns giving room for the firm’s growth, development and expansion. As mentioned earlier, I am experienced in offering health care services to patients through my vast knowledge in physiology and anatomy, than incorporated a lot of practical work. However, I realized that I perform better while in a team rather than as an independent nurse practitioner. For this reason, I advanced my leadership and management skills. I consider my capability to function in a team, analyzing other people’s opinions and letting them criticize mine a vital strength towards success in my job. Secondly, I have trained in various managerial aspects such as project management, organizational behavior principles, quality management. Most importantly, in the health sector, i adequate knowledge on economics of health care, global health systems, fiscal management in health care in addition to basic health care knowledge. Therefore, although this position is my first of its kind, my background knowledge especially in management and my ambitions towards the firm’s success make me fit to the position. Noteworthy, I have been sharing opinions with my colleagues when I was a medical assistant, always being a ringleader and creating discussion topics during tea breaks. As a matter of fact, these discussions made my colleagues open up and share

Environmental Issues in South East Asia Research Paper - 1

Environmental Issues in South East Asia - Research Paper Example It ha been pointed out that the Southeast Asian countries are among the less developed countries in Asia that are currently in the process of industrialization. They include Cambodia, Brunet Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar. These countries are not as industries as Asian countries like Japan and China. The countries can take pride in the low political temperatures that have been seen in most of them over the recent past. The neighboring countries that constitute the Middle East countries like Iraq, Iran, or Syria have witnessed political revolutions that have a significant impact on the economic development of the nation. Industrialization in the Southeast Asian countries began in the second half of the twentieth century. Various industries are available in the Southeast Asia countries. The cotton textile industry had been developed in the region way back before the 1950s. Agricultural industries are common in the countries like Myanmar and Cambodia whereas countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines have manufacturing industries. Different environmental problems are experienced in different parts of the world. The key environmental issues in different countries in the Southeast Asia include seasonal smoke and haze, soil erosion/degradation, water pollution, air pollution, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, poor access to clean water, pollution from solid waste, hazardous materials, and hazardous wastes.

The Katrina response and relief efforts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Katrina response and relief efforts - Essay Example There are several cases illustrating failure to respond effectively to mitigate the damages to life and limb of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was poverty stricken and at least 120,000 people where without mobility. The mandatory evacuation issued on August 28 by the local officials also made no provisions for helping in evacuating the homeless, sick, carless, elderly, infirm and low-income residents. New Orleans disaster plan called for the mayor to make use of the city school buses to evacuate residents unable to leave on their own but the city never deployed the buses and was subsequently destroyed in the flooding. Amtrak also ran a special schedule to move equipment out of the city but the government declined to take the offer of this agency to take several hundred passengers instead of the scheduled equipment. Evacuees were sent to Louisiana Superdome but the large multitude of refugees was more than overwhelming to volunteers. There were not enough provisions for food, clothing and medicine. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency did indeed provide supplies, the unexpected number of evacuees rapidly depleted the provisions. (Nates & Moyer, 2005) There was visibly an ineffective mechanism in coordinating and managing the evacuation process as the governing agencies failed to respond and implement the provisions in the disaster plan that was available to them. 2)Discuss the reasons why the examples you cited above were or were not successful. Comment specifically on whether you believe that the organizational structure at the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, and the Federal government was adequate, including communications, command, and control. (Please refer to the Organization Structure for... Hurricane Camille which battered Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama already demonstrated the vulnerability as did the documentary made by the National Geographic in October 2004 and Scientific American in 2001. What is profound is that when we review other articles, we find one common thread and that is the fact that the disaster was expected though many people did not give enough attention to what mechanisms should be installedHurricane Katrina revealed several interesting individual and community behavior during and after the occurrence of disasters. While many articles were concerned on race and looting issues, it was found that social networks play an important role during the fight to survive the disaster. According to a combined study from the University of Alabama and University of California, it was found that decision-making processes are greatly influenced by social networking. In a survey of 116 evacuees, it was found that it was the social networks that greatly influenced the respondent’s evacuation and planning activities. The role of the media was found to be less important as what many people perceive. Interviewed evacuees state that they became more aware of the severity of the situation as word spread through their social circles. Friends, classmates, neighbors and other acquaintances who gave them information enabled them to prepare more than what they would have from the information they get from radio and television.

Environmental Issues in South East Asia Research Paper - 1

Environmental Issues in South East Asia - Research Paper Example It ha been pointed out that the Southeast Asian countries are among the less developed countries in Asia that are currently in the process of industrialization. They include Cambodia, Brunet Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar. These countries are not as industries as Asian countries like Japan and China. The countries can take pride in the low political temperatures that have been seen in most of them over the recent past. The neighboring countries that constitute the Middle East countries like Iraq, Iran, or Syria have witnessed political revolutions that have a significant impact on the economic development of the nation. Industrialization in the Southeast Asian countries began in the second half of the twentieth century. Various industries are available in the Southeast Asia countries. The cotton textile industry had been developed in the region way back before the 1950s. Agricultural industries are common in the countries like Myanmar and Cambodia whereas countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines have manufacturing industries. Different environmental problems are experienced in different parts of the world. The key environmental issues in different countries in the Southeast Asia include seasonal smoke and haze, soil erosion/degradation, water pollution, air pollution, loss of biodiversity, deforestation, poor access to clean water, pollution from solid waste, hazardous materials, and hazardous wastes.

Moral Panic Definition Essay Example for Free

Moral Panic Definition Essay Deborah Cameron is a linguist whose focus research is on what people’s attitudes are towards language. She writes a long definition on moral panic in Verbal Hygiene explaining how the media and general public exaggerate concerns beyond reason. Cameron reports that Jock Young describes moral panic as the public’s reaction that is â€Å"completely disproportionate to the actual problem.† Cameron explains that the causes of moral panic are analyzed in a simplistic manner, but the concern to the problem escalates to intolerable levels. She uses the term â€Å"folk devil† as an example of how they are identified in gang related violence and is a scape goat to the exaggerated issues reported by the media. Cameron also states from what scholars have suggested â€Å"that moral panic†¦is a product of modern mass media†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , if there is media attention the event will turn into an issue. However, if the media does not give attention, then the event will go unnoticed. In â€Å"American Werewolf in Kabul†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Sean Brayton, a Ph.D student researching the specifics of critical race theory and media studies, analyzes the concept of moral panic as being an important cause of the potential threat of national security to the United States of America. He illustrates the three main elements of moral panic: folk devils, ambiguous terms, and moral entrepreneurs using the reality of John Walker Lindh’s journey through multiple identities. Comparing Cameron’s definition of moral panic to Brayton’s discussion of moral panic, which originated from Cohen’s developed description of the context in 1972, there is agreement that media overemphasize concerns beyond practicality. Both Cameron and Brayton use the term â€Å"folk devils† to represent a subgroup of individuals that is a leading cause of moral panic, yet with different purposes. Cameron suggests that the term â€Å"folk devil† is usually branded to social minorities that bear the burden enmity and blame by the socially ideal majority, whereas Brayton expands Cohen’s understanding of the term as a threat to the moral constitution of society on the whole. Although their research areas are not of a similar context, they both relate their writing to a â€Å"cultural history† in an era of media induced politics. As the previous paragraphs mentioned, the term â€Å"moral panic† is applied in both Cameron and Brayton’s writing, which Cameron realizes the crucial influence to expanded reports, while Brayton blames that those reports magnify the guilty to the individuals who commit. According to Brayton, three essential elements can be found in the concept moral panic: folk devils, moral entrepreneur, and ambiguous terms. Those elements are perfectly applied to a real life example during WWII, most of the innocent Japanese-Americans (devil folks) were forced to move into the internment camp by the U.S.A. Government (moral entrepreneur) after American military base in Pearl Harbour was destroyed by Japanese army. The U.S.A. Government treated the Japanese-Americans unfairly, as national enemies, traitors, or spies for the ir homeland (defined terms). Cameron is a linguist and uses moral panic theory to explain why negative attitudes arose toward youth literacy in 1980 1990’s England. Brayton looks at moral panic theory from the perspective of cultural politics and how moral panic was used post 9/11 to preserve American ideals and create separation from conflicting cultural values. In both cases, Cameron and Brayton use moral panic theory to understand a culture’s reaction to some social problem exaggerated by the media. Moral panic theory provides researchers with a method of analyzing a situation resulting from a moral panic. Moral panic is, as Cameron describes, a problem â€Å"†¦discussed in an obsessive, moralistic and alarmist manner†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The theory may also be a useful model for researchers dealing with the study of human behavior or culture, such as cultural history, social theory, criminology, and anthropology. In particular, it could be useful in studying the effects of media on culture.

Building Positive Relationships with Children

Building Positive Relationships with Children Jodi Allan Unit 3: Building Positive Relationships Task 1) All children deserve the best start in life, to be provided with endless support which will enable them to fulfill their potential and make the most of their individual talents and abilities as they continue to grow. Between birth to five years, children develop very quickly and their experiences through this time will have a major impact on their future. Enabling a happy, safe and secure childhood along with good parenting and high quality learning, all children will have the start they need for a successful future. The Childcare Act 2006 was introduced as a key piece of legislation and is the first ever Act to be exclusively for early years and childcare (which spans from birth to the 31st August that falls after the child’s 5th birthday). This means that all pre-school childcare providers, including reception classes in primary schools, are all governed by this Act. The legal requirements for any of those operating within the child care setting are in the Ofsted publication , ‘Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage’ which sets out the learning and development requirements, welfare requirements, all legal requirements as well as the legal adult to children ratios. The law requires specific duties to be carried out by various authorities, including: Providing an information service for parents; Providing training and advice for providers of child care; Providing working parents with child care as required; Achieving a reduction in equalities in children ages 0-5 through close work with Job Centre Plus, associated partners and the NHS; Providing positive outcomes for any child at risk of poverty; Bridging the inequalities that may exist between children, with particular reference to deprivation. Learning and Development Requirements must be provided by the child care provider and all staff operating under any child care provision and any diversity of children within that provision. All resources are available to providers to ensure everyone required to is able to meet the outcomes, no exceptions. â€Å"The Childcare Act 2006 provides for the Early Years Foundation Stage learning and development requirements to include these 3 elements: The early learning goals-the required knowledge, skills and understanding which young children should have acquired by the end of the academic year in which they reach the age of 5; The educational programmes- the matters, skills and processes which are required to be taught to young children within the provision; The assessment arrangements for assessing young children to ascertain their achievements†. The six areas covered under the learning goals are: Personal, Social and Emotional Development- A group activity such as Show and Tell encourages a child to speak in front of their peers and for other children to learn to respect and listen to each other. Understanding the World- If the provision has a large diversity of children, encouraging them to bring in something from their home that they are able to share with their peers, such as clothing or food, can help children explore and learn different aspects of their community. Physical Development- A fun outside game, such as an obstacle course for the children to participate in would be a perfect opportunity for them to develop movement and co-ordination, or simple dancing games such as ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’. Mathematics- Practicing counting, shapes and measures together as a group whenever possible is always a perfect opportunity, eg: How many apple slices can count on your plate? How many letters are in your name? Ensuring there are plenty of images around them for them to look and question over. Literacy- the provision has to ensure there are plenty of books and other reading materials around for children to explore whenever they want to. Group reading time is always positive and helping each child to recognise and write their own names. Expressive Arts and Design- plenty of opportunities for children to explore and express themselves, such as role play, creative media, dance, music, arts and crafts. Providing the right materials so they are available to children all the time is the best way to ensure they can express themselves this way whenever they want to. Task 2) Teaching children from an early age to respect and value individuality enables them to learn that these values are very important within their society and for their future as these values will enable them to be decent young adults. Children learn these values from early on by observing everyday situations and mimicking the adults they interact with. The child care setting should be a positive, safe place for children to learn this respect for one another and should be filled with positive images, toys and electronic equipment that promote individuality and diversity as well as a positive perception of the world around them. The child care setting can easily focus entirely on each individual child by devising a plan which helps promote each child’s individuality and includes the parents or carers to participate in this plan too. This also helps other children to watch and listen to their peers and learn to understand, respect and value each others individuality. This can be a à ¢â‚¬Ëœshow and tell’ chart or ‘achievement days’, where once a month, a child gets given a day where they can bring in anything from outside the child care setting that they have done to show and talk about to their child minder and peers, then after they are finished they are awarded a sticker to put onto the chart next to their name. Name of Child Date Activity Stickers Max 28/09/2014 Brought in yummy cakes that he helped make with his Polish Grandma Evie 30/09/2014 Brought in a beautiful painting she did over the weekend and told us about all of the colours that she used George 1/10/2014 Went on holiday to Spain and brought in photos for us to see! Task 3) Children need consistency and the earlier they are given this the better, as it will benefit their ability to learn about respect and also to distinguish from right and wrong, otherwise they could become very confused in situations when beginning to learn about the outside world. Consistent routines at home and their child care setting helps children to keep calm and feel safe, but . Children need to learn that all actions will have a consequence, whether it is good or bad. This helps the children with establishing good and bad behaviour skills and embedding this in their every day life will promote their knowledge as they grow older. Initially to promote positive behaviour in the child care setting, the aim is to help them to want to be consistent in their own positive behaviour themselves by rewarding such behaviour, slowly making the rewards smaller and then taking them away, this will begin to let them realize that behaving well creates a happier environment for them and their pe ers. This is always a simple and effective way to teach them to not want to behave in a negative manner. Sticker charts, books or handing stickers out are always a popular treat for rewarding children, as well as asking them what activity they would like to do next, or which book they would like to read with the class? High appraisal from staff and peers gives children a positive feeling about themselves and their positive attitude. Negative behaviour must also have consequences, such as time out, but it is also important to sit the child down and discuss the situation to ensure the child isn’t left feeling confused or alone. Talking in a calming tone and keeping eye contact whilst letting the child know how they have made others feel when they have behaved in a negative manner will not only help them want to make positive choices but they will begin to understand empathy as well. Task 4) Conflicts between children and adults are common, particularly within a child care setting. There are various triggers that can create conflict which are listed below, such as the child having unmet needs resulting in them craving extra attention from their parent or teacher which can easily build into a heated conflict. Children find it very hard to be selfless at such a young age and often only see their point of view and find it difficult to understand someone elses views in a conflict situation. Due to their lack of social skills, children can easily escalate a small argument, such as over a toy, into a harsher argument as they don’t have the necessary communication skills to solve a conflict in a positive manner. Some children having a lack of suitable role models can easily give children a biased view in ways in which conflict can be handled and this can be very difficult to mend. Another trigger that can affect conflict is that when children are tired or hungry it can h ave a very suppressing effect on their mood and they may engage in conflicting behaviour. Often at home or any child care setting, a parent or teacher intervenes and solves an argument. Sometimes it’s simple when the conflict is between children and their peers but sometimes a child can create conflict with an adult and dealing with this in a positive way can be very distressing for both the child and the adult, making any reasoning very difficult. Many behavioural Theorists have contrasting views when it comes to whether conflict has a positive or negative effect on a childs development. Some feel that conflict helps to shape a child’s social skills for when they become adults and that learning to solve conflicts in a positive way equips them with the skills to continue this skill in their adult lives. Behavioural Theorist B.F Skinners believes in the system of positive and negative reinforcements. His theory is that reinforcers are used to strengthen both positive an d negative behaviour and that humans of all ages respond to verbal operants such as taking advice, listening to the warnings of others and obeying given rules and laws. His theory suggests that without personally experiencing any negative consequences from disobeying, the child simply knowing what could happen when they decide to pursue negative behaviour will be enough for them to want to make positive choices instead. From this they can begin to learn from each incident for any future conflicts and they will want to repeat positive behaviour willingly. Ways of dealing with conflict in a positive manner could start with sitting down with the child and asking them questions about the conflict in question can make them feel like they do have a say in the situation, especially as some children find authority difficult. Letting a child know there is a positive solution to the conflict can calm them down and get them to sit down and think about the situation properly. Ask them what it i s they are feeling, â€Å"are you angry? But also feeling hurt because you have had to wait for me to come and play?† Tell them how the other person could also be feeling, â€Å"I’m sad that you shouted at me, because I didn’t mean to ignore you, but I was very busy with the rest of the children too.† Ask them what they would now like to do, which would be the best way for everybody, a way for both of you to fix the situation in a positive way for a positive outcome. This strategy can let children feel safe and confident, but they may also see that conflict can most definitely be solved in a positive way.

Importance of Speech in Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Nights Dre

Importance of Speech in Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Richard III Speech is often the strongest indicator of personality and motivation in Shakespearean histories and comedies. Each turn of phrase is a small insight into the essence of the character. Stringing together each line from the mouth of the character allows the audience to discover each nuance created by Shakespeare. By connecting the actions to a manner of speech, which mirrors those actions, Shakespeare is able to create more believable and dynamic characters. Examining Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Richard III, certain archetypes emerge, each with a specific way of speaking. Villains with their quick and underhanded remarks contrast with the silence of the submissive women who are, in turn, foils to the strong willed and outspoken women. By developing stock characters, Shakespeare is able to use stereotypes as a starting point for all of his characters. Matching the speech with the actions of the stereotypes further cements the prototype and gives the audience a clear understanding of the character without detailed background information. Through speech and the development of archetypes, Shakespeare is able to create a more complete picture of his characters. The most developed and fascinating characters in Shakespearean histories and comedies are usually the villains, while they often lack an apparent motivation (beyond their immediate needs for either amusement or power). These characters reveal little to those around them and only uncover their schemes when alone or accompanied by their henchmen. Speech, for these villains, is usually very short with choppy phrases interjected into t... ...d. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rutter, Carol. Clamorous Voices. Shakespeare's Women Today. New York: Routledge, 1989. Schanzer, Ernest.   "_A Midsummer-Night's Dream."   26-31 in Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays.   Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream, ed. Brian Gibbons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Vaughn, Jack A. Shakespeare's Comedies.   New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1980 Watts, Cedric. Much Ado About Nothing. London: Penguin, 1986. Wells, Stanley & Gary Taylor, General Eds.   _William Shakespeare: The _Complete Works.   New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Young, David P.   Something of Great Constancy: The Art of A Midsummer Night's Dream.   New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.

Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman as Epic Tragedy Essay -- Death Sal

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman as Epic Tragedy   Ã‚  Ã‚   Aristotle's Poetics defines the making of a dramatic or epic tragedy and presents the general principles of the construction of this genre. Surprisingly, over the centuries authors have remained remarkably close to Aristotle's guidelines. Arthur Miller's twentieth century tragedy Death of a Salesman is an example of this adherence to Aristotle's prescription for tragedy. It is significant to test Aristotle's definition and requirements of tragedy by comparison and contrast, against a contemporary tragedy and to make observations with regard to what influence society and culture may have on the genre. This discussion however, will be confined to the realm of plot and the more notable aspects of the construction of the incidents in tragedy because of the complexity of this element. Aristotle's attention throughout much of Poetics is directed towards the requirements and expectations of plot.   Plot, 'the soul of tragedy', Aristotle says, must be an imitation of a noble and complete action. In Death of a Salesman, Miller does provide a complete action, that is it has what Aristotle identifies as a beginning, a middle, and an end. These divisible sections must, and do in the case of Death of a Salesman, meet the criterion of their respective placement. Whether Miller provides a nobel action, however, is an issue of culture. Willy Loman ultimately takes his own life so that his son Biff may benefit from the insurance money that he will receive. The question then, is according to our culture is his suicide noble? Since Willy's suicide is perpetrated for Biff's benefit, one could view this act as sacrifice. Sacrifice is in our culture, a pious and admirable quality, one of... ...ath of a Salesman' Twentieth Century Literature.   January, 1972. 19-24.   Rpt. in World Literary Criticism.   Ed. Frank Magill.   'Arthur Miller' Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.   2366-2368. Hayman, Ronald.   Arthur Miller.   New York: Frederick Ungar, 1972. Hoeveler, D. J.   'Ben's Influence.'   Arthur Miller?s Death of a Salesman: Modern Critical Interpretations.   Ed. Harold Blum.   Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988. 72-81. Magill, Frank.   'Death of a Salesman.'   Master Plots.   Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1976.   1365-1368. Miller, Arthur.   Death of a Salesman.   New York: Penguin, 1949. ---.   Conversations With Arthur Miller.   Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1987. Parker, Brian.   'Point of View in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.'   Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical Essays.   Ed. Robert Corrigan.   Englewood Cliffs:   Prentice Hall, 1969.   98-107.

Sex and Gender in Sally Potter’s Orlando

Critically assess Judith Butler’s notion that gender is not a primary category, but an attribute, a set of secondary narrative effects. Your answer should make reference to Sally Potter’s film Orlando. Though Judith Butler asserts that gender is not of any importance, her writings on this notion, understandably, must put a lot of emphasis on the subject of sex. How else could she prove her theory, if not through a discussion of the unimportance of gender? In any case, her hypothesis is one that practically defines Sally Potter’s Orlando. Based on the novelette of the same name by Virginia Woolf, the film depicts an androgynous young man’s curiously long and forever-youthful life, and his slow transformation from man to woman. It is surely a tale that represents Butler’s concern of the eventual unimportance of gender throughout history. Orlando opens with the assertion by the narrator (voiced by the eponymous character) that â€Å"there can be no doubt about his sex, despite the feminine appearance that every young man of the time aspires to. The young nobleman Orlando acts as messenger for Queen Elizabeth, who, captivated by the young man’s beauty, offers him a castle, land and an inheritance for him and his heirs. These possessions will only be his on the condition that he does not â€Å"fade†, â€Å"wither† or â€Å"grow old†. We see the young Orlando fall deeply in love with a young woman, Princess Sasha, whom he loses to another man. Heartbroken, he decides to travel the world throughout the early stages of his long life. Orlando, having experienced war, violence and other such male endeavours, becomes disenchanted with the way men think and behave. He returns home to his estate as a woman. Here, she is told that as the estate belongs to Lord Orlando, or to his heirs, she must leave, as neither title applies to her. Rejected by society, Orlando finds acceptance and solace in the arms of the handsome Captain Shelmardine, the first man with whom she is sexually intimate. It is Shelmardine who makes Orlando realise what identity she truly wants – that of a mother. After all, she â€Å"came into this world searching for companionship. † Centuries later, we see Orlando, still a woman â€Å"for there can be no doubt about her sex†¦ even] with the slightly androgynous appearance that many females of the time aspire to†. She is visiting her old home with a happy young girl – her daughter. Orlando has finally found an identity she is comfortable with. In further commentary on the nature of gender as a secondary narrative, Butler once claimed that â€Å"gender is in no way a stable identity†. This, for all intents and purposes, could be the tagline for Orlando. The titular character is an androgynous being, with no strong convictions about which sex they would rather be. On her transformation into a woman, Orlando commented mildly; â€Å"Same person. No difference at all. Just a different sex†. Butler also commented that sex is an identity obtained, not through physical attributes, but through a performance. A perception of gender is imitated, â€Å"instituted through bodily styles†. However, the critic does not mention appearance; she is merely referring to the understanding of each gender being conveyed through certain physical gestures, movements or actions. Therefore, one’s gender is only as real as our performance of it. The same is true of Orlando, behaves in a comically awkward manner while getting used to her first dress. Being unfamiliar with the heavy frame and netting of her skirt, she walks down her hallway, bumping into furniture and awkwardly swinging her dress to the left to side-step a maid who passes by. In her first social situation, she stomps self-consciously into the drawing room, and then plonks herself down on a couch, rather ungracefully. She hasn’t taken on the grace of a woman, so she still seems to be a man, masquerading as a woman. Butler goes on to describe the gender performance as â€Å"one with clearly punitive consequences†. In short, failing at sufficiently portraying your gender through â€Å"bodily styles† will result in punishment, which is often in the form of alienation. The Lady Orlando confuses her society with her transformation. In a way, her failure to be Lord Orlando, a man, sees her cast out of her rightful home, and, in turn, alienated by society. In Orlando’s climatic scene, the Lady Orlando and her lover, Shelmardine, discuss the common perception regarding gender. â€Å"If I were a man,† Muses the newly-female Orlando, â€Å"might choose not to risk my life for an uncertain cause. I might think that freedom won by death is not worth having. † Shelmardine argues that, in the eyes of society, this would be to â€Å"choose not to be a real man at all†. He, in turn, mocks the stereotype observations regarding women; â€Å"Say if I were a woman; I might choose not to sacrifice my life caring for my children. Or my children’s children. Or to drown anonymously in the milk of female kindness. But instead choose to go abroad. Would I then be –†, (here Orlando interrupts him), â€Å"A real woman? † Yet it is this conversation, the embodiment of Butler’s theories on gender performance, which bring Orlando to the ealisation that she longs for a child. Not to earn back her home through her heir, and not to better portray the behaviour of a woman, but simply to have the companionship and love she always longed for. Orlando’s eponymous character is a human, if fictional, personification of Judith Butler’s many the ses regarding gender. Orlando’s gender does not change her character in any way, she is the â€Å"same person. No difference at all. † She does not understand that, to be accepted, she must perform the role of ‘woman’ to avoid confusing her peers. This is something she simply can’t do; she is who she is. Yet she is punished for her failure to be a man, or to behave like a woman. In the end, she ceases to care or worry about her gender identity. She is a mother, happy with the companion she always craved. Her identity is simply: Orlando. Bibliography * Butler, J. (1988) Performative Acts and Gender Constitutions. In Rivkin, J & Ryan, M ‘Literary Theory: An Anthology, Second Edition’ (pp. 900 – 911). United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. * Butler, J. (2004) Undoing Gender. United States: Routledge. * Potter, S. (Director). 1992. Orlando. [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom.

Global warming †a serious warning Essay

I have a dream, that in a near future, the people of this world will come together as one. We could all come together as one and leave all our differences of color, religion, and political views behind us, to stand together to face what Bill McKibben calls the greatest challenge and threat mankind has ever faced: global warming. In 2007 Bill McKibben, an author, educator, and environmentalist, wrote the article, â€Å"Global Warning: Get Up! Stand Up!† to persuade people that we, the people on earth, have caused, and are still causing, the climate changes that have been taking place over the past decades. More than that, however, McKibben explains that something still needs to be done about it. McKibben uses extreme, yet reasonable, examples and methods to convey this message effectively. Global warming is the result of the greenhouse effect, which has increased since the human race started to burn fossil fuels in order to extract energy. When fossil fuels are being burnt, greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, set free into the atmosphere. The accumulative pollution causes the atmosphere to reflect heat radiation back towards the earth, instead of letting the gasses disappear into space, because the ozone layer gets thicker. However, without the greenhouse effect, our planet â€Å"would be 33 degrees Celsius coolerâ€Å" (â€Å"McKibben† 4). Since the carbon dioxide has already increased by one third in the atmosphere since the nineteenth century, the effect will be stronger and therefore more heat will be kept inside the atmosphere than before. This phenomenon, called global warming, leads to a hotter climate; as a matter of fact, the earth is today hotter than it has been in over 2000 years (â€Å"McKibben† 5-9). Warming – that word almost sounds inviting, like we all might live in a world twenty years from, that could be a tropical paradise where the extent of our problems would be pondering what Spf sunscreen to use. That is not the case, though. Thousands and thousands of climate scientists agree that  global warming is not only the most threatening environmental problem, but one of the greatest challenges facing all of humanity throughout humanity’s entire history (McKibben 595). To maintain the average temperature we need here on earth, the glaciers and the North Pole ice are a big factor because when the exact amount of ice melts, it evens out the ocean’s temperature and therefore stabilizes all the different ecosystems. All ecosystems are dependent on whether the temperature is just where it should be or not. In addition, some experts and people argue that it is not us, the people who have caused the climate changes; they claim global warming is a natural occurring phenomenon which has nothing to do with the actions of humans. They say there is not enough of proof to say that the human race is 100% responsible for the changes now taking place. They claim that events like these have been taking place regularly throughout the long history of earth, and there is nothing we can do about this (â€Å"The Galileo† 591-593). â€Å"A 54-year-old oceanographer [†¦] discovered that temperatures a thousand years ago, during the so-called medieval climate optimum, were two degrees Celsius warmer than today’s [average] and that the average temperature over the last three millennia was slightly warmer than today’s† (â€Å"The Galileo† 591-592). As a pretty active environmental activist from Brazil, a country advocating a change of living to reduce global warming, I can relate to many of McKibben’s attacks and aspects expressed in his article. According to McKibben, the most urgent thing right now is to recognize that there is a mix of solutions that can be implemented worldwide and instead of focusing on arguing about what is needed to be done, we need to take action. In other words, the most important thing is not what we do about it, but that we do something about it. All the people in the world have to start living under the â€Å"same roof†; we need to do what it is good for the world. To me, stopping global warming is so much more than just â€Å"saving electricity† or â€Å"walking instead use a car’’. Stopping global warming is about taking responsibility, not just for ourselves and our own actions, but for our friends and family, as well as our nation and the world that we live in — Earth. Stopping global warming is about the most honorable thing a man can  do — saving lives. Works Cited â€Å"About Bill McKibben.†Bill McKibben. N.p., 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. â€Å"The Galileo of Global Warming.† Perspectives on Contemporary Issues. Ed. Katherine McKibben, Bill. â€Å"Global Warning: Get Up! Stand Up!† Perspectives on Contemporary

Religious and Thnic Groups Paper Essay

I picked Buddhism as my religious group. I am a Christian so this is interesting to me because if would have stayed in Thailand, Buddhism would be the religion that I would have learned and believed in. Buddhism is a very unique religion and it differs from all other religion out there. They do not believe in a God. Tak stated, â€Å"We don’t believe in a god because we believe in man. We believe that each human being is precious and important, that all have the potential to develop into a Buddha – a perfected human being. We believe that human beings can outgrow ignorance and irrationality and see things as they really are. We believe that hatred, anger, spite and jealousy can be replaced by love, patience, generosity and kindness. We believe that all this is within the grasp of each person if they make the effort, guided and supported by fellow Buddhists and inspired by the example of the Buddha. As the Buddha says: No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path, But Buddhas clearly show the way† (2011) The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism teach that life is a suffering, there is a cause of this suffering, it is possible to put an end to this suffering and the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to end this suffering. Refuge in Three Jewels is the three components of Buddhism which protect a person from the unstable world as he progresses on the path to become a Buddhist. The Five Precepts lay down the moral conduct to make human world a better place to live. These precepts prevent Buddhists from indulging in deeds that restrict spiritual growth and cause harm to others. The Three Marks of Conditioned Existence explain that everything in this world is impermanent, without substance and full of suffering. They do not have a ten commandments, no judgment day, no creation myth, no prayers for help or intervention, and let’s people find their own path though life. There are no rewards or punishments on judgment day like others. Buddhism is strictly not a religion in the context of being a faith and worship owing allegiance to a supernatural being. Buddhism has been looked upon as opposite teaching from other and this makes Buddhism have a negative experience even though they feel that it is okay and that hateful things can not cut through their skin. This is what my brother had to say about his experience with others in different religion, a member on Yahoo commented â€Å"I have experienced hate form other who don’t believe in what I believe in. And for the simple fact that I don’t worship their god. People have been afraid and confused and it’s sad that people are this way. Well people telling me that I’m going to burn in hell is just one example. Mostly I get people coming up to talk to me and I get the whole, â€Å"so are you a good Christian girl thing,† which makes me want to puke, and I say no I’m Pagan. And most people don’t even know what that means, but typically they stop talking and walk away. †( Philosoraptor, 2012) Buddhism has contributed little at a time and over time. Today we use meditation as a relaxation and even as a type of medicine. It is like yoga, has the same affect on the mind, body, and soul. The growth with Buddhism is even reaching different races, like for example Whites. Amanda Rivera said, â€Å"I think the appeal comes from the fact that the Lotus Sutra emphasizes the absolute equality of all people to be able to attain buddhahood, to attain their enlightenment. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions. When we talk about prejudice and discrimination a fine example would be two years ago in Kansas. The Lao-Buddhist Association [Wat Lao Buddhasampham] is trying to move its Olathe temple to a location along 119th Street in Olathe. But the Johnson County Board of Commissioners has so far denied the group a conditional use permit. Neighbors say that the area the Buddhists have chosen is zoned residential, but Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime Buddhist Center says that discrimination is the real reason behind the opposition. â€Å"This is clearly just ugliness of ethnic and religious prejudice,† said Stanford. [†¦] Standord notes that Christian churches are common in residential areas, and that comments made by residents during a January zoning board meeting indicate fear and ignorance. At the meeting, people raised concerns about traffic, water pollution and â€Å"animal sacrifices,† along with noise from gongs, which Stanford says are no louder than church bells. Another example On Sept. 13, 2011 the U. S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city of Walnut in Southern California because the city did not allow Chung Tai Buddhist Group, originally from Taiwan, to build a worship and meditation center. The Department of Justice accused the city government of violating federal law, which states that religious groups have the same rights to use land as other building applicants, and of discriminating against the Buddhist group. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions in which then problems and issues occur instead of accepting that people are different and unique. I have been neutral with Buddhism but my brother believes in it. I do not judge him and I try to think critically if I speak but after doing the research I have a new understanding of my ethic religion of my biological parents. The main important thing I have learned is not asking which religion is better but what is different from what I believe in and what they believe in because that is when you can see how others think and view beliefs. Taking a look at ethnic group of Pacific Islander are different from others in the aspect that the Pacific Islanders live a very social lifestyle, in which family members, both immediate and extended, work together in a solidified community. Pacific Islanders often have difficulty balancing their traditional â€Å"laid-back† attitudes with the high pressure competitive demands of American pedagogy and marketplace economy. Pacific Islanders’ cultures follow customs and traditions based on ancient principles that promote living an honorable and noble lifestyle. Embedded deeply into the Polynesian culture are music, dance, and food. Traditional storytelling, music, and dance are ancient ways of passing down history from one generation to another. Thus teachers with students who are Pacific Islanders may want to use both written and oral instruction, particularly in areas of literacy. Pacific Islanders are in fact highly developed peoples. Our ancestors survived for centuries in remote and isolated communities having devised their own means of dealing with the elements and of maintaining social order. In the process of what is known as ‘development’, however, Islanders wrestle daily with individual demands in a market-driven world, while our consciousness continues to be haunted by a pervasive sense of our collective identity (Wickham). The main thing with interaction with other groups is that Pacific Islander are more laid back and they tend to not be up to par with the other social groups. This makes them to be â€Å"dumb† and â€Å"no gas in the think tank. † Pacific Islander has been a huge contribution to American culture in fields as varied as the arts, health care, business and military service, Asian Pacific Americans are central to our quality of life. Month of May has been declared Asian Pacific American Heritage Month which celebrates all of those that have entered into the United States and help to develop where we are today as one. Prejudice and discrimination is part of history with Pacific Islander in the past. Taiwanese-American Wen Ho Lee, for example, was targeted by the U. S. government and suspected of espionage because of his ethnicity, according to many in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. In May, U. S. Rep. David Wu, an Oregon Democrat, was detained entering the Department of Energy building in Washington, D. C. , and repeatedly asked if he was an American citizen. July, 2009 in Seattle, a group of Asian-American youths, stopped by police for jaywalking, claimed they were harassed by an officer who repeatedly asked if they spoke English and allegedly remarked, â€Å"I’ve been to your country before, when I was in the Army. † These types of prejudice and discrimination are all appearance wise and nothing more. The pure ignorance is the source for all these actions. The research was harder to do on Pacific Islander due to the fact of less records and information like other groups. The more I read the same information was being presented. I started to research other groups and I was able to find so much more information. So yes it did help me to understand them better but not to the point of really understanding them because of lack of information and data on them. Prejudice and discrimination on the two groups were similar because both of them were looked upon as physical appearance and judge by looks instead of getting to know the two and understand the two. They both been looked at as different and odd. In the beginning of the two in America they both been push around and forced into doing things that were not right at all. Harassment and anger seems to fill hate towards the two. They are different in ways of the one is being discriminated because of a practice and the other is a human being. There is not much to be different other than that. Discrimination and prejudice looks the same, acts the same, and smells the same. Not much difference because it is all out of uneducated assumptions, anger, hatred, and intolerance. References Philosoraptor, M. (2012). Yahoo! Answers. Retrieved from http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20120229093706AAHWC2Q Swee, T. (2013). Buddhism-Major Differences. Retrieved from http://www. buddhanet. net/e-learning/snapshot01. htm Tak, Y. (2011). Comparing Buddhism With Other Religions. Retrieved from http://wfcs. buddhistdoor. com/OldWeb/passissue/9612/sources/comp. htm Rivera, A. (2011). Why Is American Buddhism So White. Retrieved from http://www. thebuddhadharma. com/web-archive/2011/11/9/forum-why-is-american-buddhism-so-white. html Wickham, A. WACC. Retrieved from http://www. waccglobal. org/en/19973-indigenous-communications/929-Hidden-perspectives-on-Communication–Culture-in-the-Pacific-Islands-. html.