Richord Cory Essays - Richard Cory, Cory, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain

Richord Cory The lifestyle of fame and fortune is not always what it seems to be. It may seem that the big houses, the fancy cars, or even the men or women that seem unattainable lead to happiness. That is not always true though. In 1994, Kurt Cobain the lead singer of a popular band called Nirvana committed suicide. Kurt was on the top of the world and nothing was going to bring him down. He had money, fame, and even a loving family, but he still found a reason to kill himself. In Edwin Arlington Robinsons poem Richard Cory the some exact thing happened. All the towns people liked Richard Cory, he was well educated, a perfect gentleman when he talked to people, and he was extremely rich. Just because a person has better things than we do does not mean that they are always happier. Money and possessions does not give people happiness in their life, but it does give them misery and sadness. Richard Cory was well liked by the towns people not only because he was rich and smart, but also he was a gentleman from sole to crown, clean favored, and imperially slim (1. 3-4). Whenever Richard Cory went somewhere the people around him felt his presence. He was always nicely English Essays

The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essays

The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essays The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essay The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations Essay The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations JOHN H HANNAH III UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX The Effect of Outsourcing on Public Sector Organizations This paper will examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment. As the move to outsourcing is part of a wider phenonom for flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organizations. This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization. Many counties within the US, have chosen to outsource the investment and operation of non-competitive public services, such as water and waste management, public transports, mail services, information and communication technology services, facilities management and road infrastructures. Outsourcing today has become an essential revenue and growth strategy for almost every existing corporation. It creates flexibility in the company, ensuring the maximum utilization of available resources within the company. It also offers corporations cost advantages and help free up their management resources. Orange county government-anywhere USA, requested the services of a Home Land Security Specialist to assist in the collaborative, assessment, development and strategic enhancement of it municipality’s Information Technology (IT) and Critical Facilities’ (CF) upgrades and security. Upon the completion of plan, expectations and deliverables, a series of introductions with Directors, Managers and Supervisors, it was apparent the federal dollars associated with the project was indeed the motive for the invitation. In my initial general assessment and development of a strategy, the organization handbook was the first critical reading which uncovered a mission statement, values, ethical guidelines and the organizational cultural premise. â€Å"The Mayor’s outline the vision, values and mission as simple – to serve. You have an important job to do as we work to meet the needs of our citizens. We ensure that roads are built and maintained; we protect environmental resources; we respond to crisis and emergency situations; we staff facilities that care for people; and we ensure that the quality of life of our citizens is protected our challenge is to build on the strengths of our diverse community so that everyone can enjoy the very best Orange County has to offer. We are committed to maintaining an organization where citizens are engaged in civic affairs, take ownership in their government and have input in the decision making process†. The following core values serve as our foundation: 1. FAIRNESS, 2. WORK ETHIC 3. INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER 4. EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION: 5. PROFESSIONALISM AND ACCOUNTABILITY (Orange County Government, 2012) . The role of the Security Specialist in this public sector organization is to examine the particular issues associated with the impact of outsourcing on public sector organization’s performance and employee commitment and develop a strategy to move this organization toward outsourcing initially in the areas of IT and CF. Provide an assessment and evaluation of the organizational readiness for change in the area of outsourcing. This paper begins by examining the problems associated with an outsourcing strategy in public sector organization in the form of an assessment. As public sector moves to outsourcing as part of a wider strategy to increase flexibility in the organizational, structure, development and change paradigms of public sector organization. Outsourcing helps organizations to be focused. Since the most valuable resource within management is time, once a process is successfully outsourced, the management gets more and effective time to explore new revenue streams, time to accelerate other projects and time to focus on customers. Traditionally executives spend 80 percent of their time managing details, and only 20 percent on planning and customer relations, in other words, a successful outsourcing process can help reverse this ratio. Outsourcing can also help companies to have access to new technologies that might not be used in their company. This is mainly because the outsourcers use the latest state-of-the art technologies to serve their private sector clients. And this might also increase the change paradigm shift and rapid migration of these companies to new technology. Outsourcing also helps multi functional areas and department of a public sector providing the benefit of 24-hour operational cycles and providing necessary services to their customer. The ever- growing pressure for increased productivity and profitability of city, county and state governments thus, the pressures to reduce costs and improve productivity are the main factors that influenced the beginning of offshore outsourcing. For example, the main advantages to move production to private contracting of products and services to reduce in-house human resources management cost. Hence, today outsourcing has become an attractive and powerful strategy for companies to reduce cost and improve performance. These models provide theoretical guidelines upon which valid and reliable organizational assessments should be based. All of these models provide value to management and human resource organizational leaders performing organizational assessments based on a internal aspects or a system theory evaluation approach (Erwin Garman, 2010). The McKinsey 7S Framework model is used as a tool to assess and monitor changes in the internal situation of an organization closed system assessment. The model is based on the theory that, for an organization to perform well, these seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforcing. So, the model can be used to help identify what needs to be realigned to improve performance, or to maintain alignment (and performance) during other types of change. The basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful evaluation and assessment tool. The Seven Interdependent Elements of the 7s model are Hard elements (strategy, structure and systems) and the Soft Elements (shared values, skills, style and staff) (Waterman, Peters, Phillips, 1980) Burke Litwin Model (The Casual Model of Organizational Performance Change) – The Burke Litwin Model, suggests linkages that hypothesize how performance is affected by internal and external factors. It provides a framework to assess organizational and environmental dimensions that are keys to successful change and it demonstrates how these dimensions should be linked causally to achieve a change in performance. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages â€Å"First order and Second order† changes. If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke Litwin, 1992). The Marvin Weisbord-Six-Box Model (Weisbord’s Model) is designed to assess the functioning of organizations based mainly on the techniques and assumptions of the field of organizational development. The model represents a particular way of looking at organizational structure and design. It gives attention to issues such as planning, incentives and rewards, the role of support functions such as personnel, internal competitions among organizational units, standards for remuneration, partnerships, hierarchies and the delegation of authority, organizational control, accountability and performance assessment. The model also follows the basic systems approach to organizational functioning including the well-known inputs and outputs categories. The six-box model is comprised of the following components (boxes): (1). Purposes, (2). Structure, (3) relationships; (4). Rewards, (5). Leadership, (6). Coordinating technologies. The only disadvantage to this model is it s design to only address internal environments (Weisbord, 1978). An open system organizational development theory and (Burke Litwin) model will be utilized to conduct a diagnosis analysis planned change assessment to the organization. These changes are usually designed to address an organization problem or to help an organization prepare for future. It is the one method of quickly bringing change, which focus on human and social aspects of the organization as a way to improve organization’s ability to adapt and solve problems. The best theory is developed from practice; the best practice should be grounded in theory (Seeger, 2006; Brown, 2011). The Burke Litwin Model hypothesizes’ how performance is affected by internal and external factors. Public sector management occurs within a complex, dynamic system involving stakeholders, coupled with informational and resource material flows and behaviour that is characterized by interactions related to internal and external environments. According to Burke-Litwin’s model, an organization may conduct a change intervention in stages as they relate to a specific focus in two stages â€Å"First order and Second order† changes. If an OD intervention is directed toward structure, systems, and management practice result, it can be considered a first order change, if interventions are directed toward mission, strategy, leadership, and organizational culture then result in second order change (Burke Litwin, 1992). The theory of Organizational readiness for change is considered a multi-level, multi-faceted construct. From and organization-level construct, readiness for change refers to organizational members shared resolve to implement a change (change commitment) and shared belief in their collective capability to do so (change efficacy). Organizational readiness for change varies as a function of how much organizational member’s value the change and how favorably they appraise three key determinants of implementation capability: task demands, resource availability, and situational factors. When organizational readiness for change is high, organizational members are more likely to initiate change, exert greater effort, exhibit greater persistence, and display more cooperative behavior (Weiner, 2009). References Bateman, T. S. , Snell, S. A. (2007). Management: Leading collaboratiing in a competitive world (7th ed. . New York, NY: McGraw Hill Irwin. Boland, T. , Fowler, A. (2000). A systems perspective of performance management in public sector management. The International Journal of Public Sector organizations, 13(5), 417-446. doi:10. 1108/09513550010350832 Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed. ). Boston, MA: Prentice Hall. Burke, W. W. , Litwin, G. H. (1992). Causal model of organization performance and change’. Journal Management, 18(3), 523-545. doi:10. 1177/014920639201800306 Erwin, D. G. , Garman, A. N. (2010). Resistance to organizational change: Linking research and practice,. Leadership Organization Development Journal, 31(1), 39-56. doi:10. 1108/01437731011010371 Harrison, M. I. , Shirom, A. (1999). Organizational diagnosis and assessment: Bridging theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Kotter, J. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 59-67. Retrieved from http://89. 248. 0. 102/upload/Topplederprogrammet/Kotter. pdf Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in Social Science. London, England: Harper Row. Orange County Government. 2012, April). Employee Handbook. Fl. Retrieved from ocfl. net/Portals/0/resourcelibrary/employment-employehandbook. pdf Waterman, R. , Peters, T. J. , Phillips, J. R. (1980). Structure is not organization. Mckinsey Quarterly, 2-20. Retrieved from tompeters. com/docs/Structure_Is_Not_Organization. pdf Weisbord, M. (1978). Organizational Diagnosis: A Workbook of Theory and Practice. Addison-wesley. Wiener, B. J. (2009 ). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4, 67. doi:10. 1186/1748-5908-4-67

Bsa 375 Week 2 Dq Essay Example for Free (#375)

Bsa 375 Week 2 Dq Essay Week 2 DQ DQ1 1.How were the problems with the system missed? Problems were missed by failing to complete the SDLC. The application was developed based on information gathered from agents, but doesn’t seem that it was modified during the system implementation phase. 2.How might these problems have been foreseen and possibly avoided? The problem could have been foreseen and possibly avoided by creating use cases. Use cases will help develop detailed requirements along with expectations, and error handling. 3.In perfect hindsight, the widespread availability of such systems on the internet today, what should the company have done? The company should have taken some time to redesign or retool the application at the first sign of user displeasure. DQ2 1.What is the purpose of developing use cases during systems analysis? How do use cases relate to the requirements stated in the requirements definition? The purpose of developing use cases during system analysis is to help develop the practical requirements, and help understand exceptions, special cases and error handling requirements. Use cases will provide a comprehensive understanding of user interfaces. DQ3 1.A system development project may be approached in one of two ways: as a single, monolithic project in which all requirements are considered at once or as a series of smaller projects focusing on smaller sets of requirements. Which approach seems to be more successful? Why do you suppose that this is true? Be specific. You can answer from your experience or the reading in chapter 3 of this week’s materials. Bsa 375 Week 2 Dq. (2016, Mar 25). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Correlation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Correlation - Assignment Example Correlation helps so much and the complex correlational designs that are there recently are of so much help since they allow very little causal inferences (Riccardo, 2005). Some of the variables such as those which are related to malnutrition and other cases like age and birth order since they correlational in nature. They require correlational evidence in order to be proven scientifically. Correlation is also very important in statistics since it helps us so much to make predictions since when one is able to understand the score of something one is able to predict more accurately the next score having basis on correlation. Under controlled experimental conditions the evidence that has been gotten from studies that have used correlation one can be able to test the evidence. Correlation is a very good method and by the use of its designs appropriately causal inferences are limited. It is cheaper when using some of the correlation. Most of the methods used in correlation are not expensive. It is very fast and cheap and also easy to apply. It helps the researchers to collect data in a very short time. Correlation is very effective (Thomas,

Effective Approach to Deal with Unwanted Employee Behavior Term Paper

Effective Approach to Deal with Unwanted Employee Behavior - Term Paper Example According to Javitch (1), the first step involves an intervention; whereby, there is a need to take action in response to the negative behavior portrayed by the employees. In fact, if the problem is not addressed in a timely manner there are high chances of escalation. On the other hand, as a manager, it is wise to understand that an employee may have no idea that their behaviors are causing problems such as a negative reaction from others. In this case, these employees consider the negative reaction to being a form of frustration in their working place. In addition, there is a need to speak up in case there is a problem, and the manager has the responsibility of taking the necessary action to solve the problem. This involves taking responsibility for changing predicament by addressing an issue in the situation when there is no feedback projection. Moreover, this step requires the gathering of information from the employees for the discerning extent of the issue through a personal ev aluation of employee reaction towards different conditions. The next step involves a personal research on the problem, whereby a manager should gather relevant information through an interview in the conference rooms or offices. When information is gathered through a research, a manager can be able to address the issue effectively. At this stage, the manager seeks to understand whether the employees are fully aware of the problems, and through this way, a manager can determine whether the employees are aware of their unwanted behaviors. Moreover, in case the employee is not aware of their unacceptable behaviors, the manager gets the chance to describe the problem caused by the employee behavior to them. However, this step may involve disagreements, interruptions as the employees try to deny the issue; thus, the manager should use good examples to describe the unwanted behavior.

Employee Recruitment and Retention on the Plumbing and Heating Industry Essay Example for Free

Employee Recruitment and Retention on the Plumbing and Heating Industry Essay The way in which companies recruit and retain their employees is considered as a competitive weapon. Not until recently that firms are becoming serious on the act of recruitment as the Bureau of Labor statistics estimates that jobs will grow faster at a rate that is not proportional with the labor force, hence forcing the aforementioned to appeal to various groups such as omen and minorities. As such not only recruitment is very vital but also retaining employees (Denton, 1992, p. 14). According to Frank Doyle, the senior vice president of corporate relations at General Electric: For U.   S. corporations, tomorrow’s competitive battle will be won or lost on the strength of their ability to build and retain a skilled work force (Richman 1990, 76 as cited from Denton, 1992, p. 14). General Electric believes that labor shortage does not significantly matter if companies know which people to hire and to retain. For instance, companies such as Merck Co. often times target certain universities or campuses that give a more detailed specialization on certain knowledge and skills that are very vital to their business. The Plumbing and Heating Industry  The plumbing and heating industry has been experiencing shortages as well on their workforce due to the difficulty of finding skilled plumbers and retaining them. It needs several numbers of years training on order to become a qualified plumber and heater and such also requires a deep dedication for a lifelong learning process. Certain skills are also necessary to be a good plumber such as need a head for heights, the ability to work in cramped conditions and the stamina to complete physically hard work day after day (The Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, 2007). In addition with this, plumbers also need the intelligence to solve complex equations. More importantly, they must have the expertise and flexibility to install various systems and the capability to comprehend the logic of various systems. They should also have the ability and initiative to solve a problem and a passion to know and apply various technologies on their work. Plumbers and heaters must also have a creative mind and a sound judgment, and finally they should be professional and honest (The Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, 2007). Employee Recruitment Interviews In order to find the right people, the process of interviewing and getting to know them not only through their answers but also through their eye contacts, body languages and the likes (Dibble, 1999). For instance, some companies like Merck often conduct a 30-minute interview in order to assess the qualifications of prospective employees. Hewlett-Packard did it further by implementing a technique called behavioral interviewing that is developed by organizational psychologist Paul Green that would assess the future behavior of a prospective employee based on his or her past behaviors. In using this technique, interviewers can design employee questions that would allow them to elicit behaviors that are closely related to the job that they are looking for (Denton, 1999, p. 16). The process of behavioral interview often times identifies 21 skills that are very vital for certain jobs such as coping, decisiveness, assertiveness, tolerance of ambiguity, written communication skills, creativity, commitment, team building, versatility, and leadership (Denton, 1999, p. 17). For the aforementioned skills there are still eight job behaviors that are needed to be known such as how prospective employees deal with â€Å"varied duties, deal with diverse groups, respond to others needs, be socially flexible, roll with the punches, understand individual differences, make others comfortable, exhibit wide range of social behaviors ( More 1988, as cited from Denton, 1992, p. 17). Decentralized Hiring Traditional recruitment approaches that focuses on interviewing prospective employees by a single person is no longer deemed as vital nowadays. For instance, the Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC) one of Americas most successful small companies still has their hiring process as a group activity. SRC adopts a non-traditional method of recruitment by having all of their applicants have five or six interviews with various individuals that he or she might be working with (Denton, 1992, p. 18). Recruitment through Reputation The reputation of the company is also one of the leading factors in which highly knowledgeable and skilled employees will desire to work for the aforementioned. For instance SRC received more than 2,500 applications for a small company that only employs 300 people. It could also be noted that the company only pays $6 or $7 per hour, yet applicants are still flocking to them. One significant reason for this is its reputation for being one of the best places to work. One of the ways of doing such is the capacity of a company to manage the diversity of their workforce (Denton, 1992, p. 19). The shortages in terms of prospective employees is a growing concern among companies that is why there is a need to focus more on recruiting minorities and women. However, in order for a company to have a wide application pool, such must first establish to have a good reputation of being able to effectively manage organizational diversity (Denton, 1992, p. 20). Aggressive Recruitment for Entry-Level Workers One of the best ways to tap to a good employee resource is through recruiting entry-level workers through implementing various programs such as â€Å"Adopt-a-School† or â€Å"Join-A-School†. These programs allow companies and organizations to establish partnerships between business and schools which may involve elementary school, vocational school or even a university (Denton, 1992, p. 5). The main value of such programs is the establishment of closer relationships between schools and in a macro perspective, creating better understanding businesses and industry. More importantly, partnerships such as like these, would allow companies to easily recruit personnels that can improve the companys image that could help the prospective applicants to view your companys business as a career, hence a better chance of creating a wide labor pool (Denton, 1992, p. 26). Employee Retention If finding good people is hard, so as looking for ways to make them stay. One of the companies that have displayed such an admirable trait is Federal Express, wherein they have emphasized the importance of retention, recruitment and employee relations (Dibble, 1999). If a particular company is very careful in terms of recruiting, there is also a relatively better match of keeping them. One best way of doing such is the company centralizing all of its recruitment centers (Denton, p. 47). After which, they provide immense value on putting their people first on their list. Good employee relations for Federal Express involve deeds that impress employees and improve relations (Denton, p. 48). According to Fred Smith, CEO of Federal Express, I think a lot of companies talk about how their employees are their most important asset, but where you can really tell whether it is very important or not is how much their senior management spends on the issues ( Trunick 1989, 19 as cited from Denton, 1992, p. 48). Through implementing the philosophy of people, service, Profits the company makes their people feel that they are indeed needed in the organization. They let them answer several basic questions such as What is expected of me, and what do you want me to do? (p. 48). These questions are answered by having all of their employees attend extensive orientation programs wherein the Federal Express values are discussed Incentives Career advancement is not the only incentive that will make people stay within the organization. For instance the use of awards program that is designed to reinforce a particular desired behavior such as superior quality of work and customer centricity played a lot in terms of motivating employees to stay (p. 49). One very good example of this is Federal Express Bravo Zulu Voucher Program: wherein employees who displayed admirable work performance such as going beyond what is expected of them are able to receive cash or non cash rewards. Also, their Suggestion Awards Program allow employees to participate in the management process by sharing their ideas that will enable the company to improve its operations. Any idea implemented that will lower costs, increase productivity, revenues or promote safer working conditions will receive recognition and $100 to $25,000 worth of cash (p. 49). Communications Open Communication among employees is also vital to solve a problem. The internal employee response program allows employees to find answers to situations that they perceived as something that is disagreeable, controversial or is contrary to existing policies. If employees express negative concerns about their work or with the management, the latter is expected to respond within 14 days. These concerns are assured to be forwarded to the CEO (p. 50). Appeals Board The Appeals Board is a venue wherein decisions among complaints could be given and also disciplines could be implemented. However, it is very important that when keeping such a type of venue for resolution of organizational conflicts, the organization must have the capability to streamline its process to make the time alloted for every case reasonable enough (Denton, 1999, p. 52). Survey, Feedback, Action (SFA) An annual survey of employee attitudes is also important for the company to measure its employee opinions and to make changes that could hopefully change not so favorable employee attitudes to the company (Dibble, 1999). This assures that the management will see clearly what its team feels about the organization. In addition such allows a fair gauge of attitude and anonymity among employees (Denton, 1999, p. 52). Education and Trainings Continued learning is a venue wherein employees themselves would feel that they are indeed valued by the company. As such it us also very relevant as well that the organization will invest on trainings or even scholarships to employees who wanted to continue their education (Logue, Yates and Greider, 2001, p. 46-47). Conclusion The Plumbing and Heating Industry has been experiencing a significant decline in terms of its workforce. Hence in order to solve this problem the industry must be able to adopt effective recruitment and employee retention practices that were formulated in theory and practice of various management scholars and organizations. For the purpose of this research, in order to have an effective recruitment process, the research has emphasized the importance of: Interviews, Decentralized Hiring, Recruitment through Reputation, and Aggressive Recruitment for Entry-Level Workers. On the other hand, in order to retain employees, companies must be able to focus on: Incentives, Communications, Appeals Board, Survey, Feedback, Action (SFA), and Education and Training.

Cleopatra Essay examples -- essays research papers

Cleopatra Vll was born in 69 BC, in Alexandria, Egypt. Despite what people say today, that she was glamorous and beautiful, she was far from it. She is shown on ancient coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Although she was not beautiful she was clearly a very seductive woman, and she used this to further Egypt politically. She had a beautiful musical voice. It is also said that she was highly intelligent. She spoke nine different languages, and she was the first Ptolemy pharaoh who could actually spoke Egyptian.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She ascended the Egyptian throne after her father, Ptolemy Xll Auletes died in 51 BC. Cleopatra which was seventeen at the time and her brother Ptolemy Xlll, which was twelve, were married because of the terms of her fathers will. They then ruled Egypt together. In the third year of their reign Ptolemy’s advisers told him that he should rule Egypt by himself. So, because of this he drove Cleopatra into exile. Cleopatra then escaped to Syria. She then returned with an army. Ptolemy sent an army to meet with her. At this point, Julius Caesar of Rome arrived in pursuit of an enemy, who was seeking help from Ptolemy. Cleopatra had to roll herself up in a rug so that she wouldn’t get killed while entering Egypt. If she hadn’t hidden herself she would have been killed. When she unrolled herself in front of Caesar he fell in love with her right away.Caesar had to choose which of the Egyptian rulers to help keep the throne. Of course he chose Cleopatr a. He then became Cleopatra’s lover. In 47 BC Ptolemy Xlll drowned in the Nile while trying to escape, and Caesar then restored Cleopatra to her throne.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After her older brother Ptolemy Xlll was died, Cleopatra was then forced by custom to marry her youngest brother Ptolemy XlV, which was about eleven at the time. After Cleopatra and Ptolemy XlV were settled on their joint government basis, she and Caesar went on a two-month cruise on the Nile. It is said that it was then she became pregnant, and she later gave birth to a son. His name was officially Ptolemy XV Caesar, but he was popularly called Caesarion, which means â€Å"Little Caesar†. People say that Caesar was not really the father of Caesarion. Although the child strongly resembled Caesar, and so Caesar acknowledged him as his son. After the cruise Caesar then went back to Rome ... ... Cleopatra to arrange Antony's funeral. After the funeral she took to her bed, sick with grief. She wanted to kill herself, but Octavian kept her under close guard. One day he visited her and she flung herself at his feet, nearly naked, and told him she wanted to live. With Octavian's permission she visited Antony's tomb. Then she returned to her mausoleum, took a bath, and ordered a feast. While the meal was being prepared a man arrived at her monument with a basket of figs. The guards checked the basket and found nothing suspicious, so they allowed the man to give the basket of figs to Cleopatra. After she had eaten, Cleopatra wrote a letter, sealed it, and sent it to Octavian. He opened it and found Cleopatra's plea that he would allow her to be buried in Antony's tomb. Alarmed, Octavian sent messengers to alert her guards that Cleopatra planned to commit suicide. But it was too late. They found the 39-year old queen dead on her golden bed, with her maid Iras dying at her feet. Two pricks were found on Cleopatra's arm, and it was believed that she had allowed herself to be bitten by an asp that was smuggled in with the figs. As she had wished, she was buried beside Antony.

Fast Food Contain Harmful Food Additives Essay

In America, fast food chains are a significant symbol of the American traditional food trends which expand widely and grow fast all over the world. Thus, a large number of Americans eat fast food as their daily diet. However, these tasty fast foods are highly processed foods which are filled with plenty of chemicals, additives and preservatives. By adding these additives and artificial flavorings into fast foods, so the food is attractive and also tasty. Fast food companies, like McDonald, attract customers’ attention by using various advertisements to make their products look good and also selling these delicious foods at low prices. Many people do not realize the negative side of those unhealthy and processed fast food meals that contain lots of unsafe additives, which can lead to bad health effects and shorter life. For instance, all the burgers and beverages that people consume in the fast food restaurant are risky to people’s health because of food additives. According to Fast Food Nation, â€Å"Without this flavor industry, today’s fast food industry could not exist† (Schlosser 120). It is significant that artificial flavor is one essential element which use in the fast food industry and helps to operate fast food business successfully and permanently. After World War II, a vast flavor industry invented processed food that was popular and widely used by American. The flavor additives create more demand since it benefits both consumer and businessman in some ways. For example, most food additives are cheap and functional so that companies are willing to buy and add it into food to reduce the cost of product and gain more business benefit. Because of the low cost, the company is able to lower the price of fast food in order to appeal more customers to buy. As a result, many customers choose to consume more fast food in order to save money; Fast food companies added various chemical flavors and manufactured coloring additives into diverse foods and beverages. Chicken McNugget is one of the popular foods serviced in the McDonald meal. The fair outward appearance, crispy skin and tender meat of Chicken McNuggets are a big part of what makes people feel more enjoyable to eat it. The chicken nugget is not simply a piece of fried chicken but more than that. So what is really in the chicken nuggets in McDonald? To answer this question, we might look at the great amount of ingredients of chicken nuggets. It is surprising to see that there are not only chicken but numerous other components which are almost unfamiliar with us, such as sodium aluminum phosphate, TBHQ and bleaching wheat flour. Basically, this small piece of Chicken McNugget only has 50% of what is called the real chicken, and chemical and additives make up the other half. Many additional additives are used in Chicken McNuggets’ ingredient now, and I would show only a few of the most common ones here. First of all, sodium aluminum phosphate and sodium acid pyrophosphate are the primary components of a baking power as chemical leavening agents. They are food additives that are mostly and widely used in food industry for many baked products. It accelerates food to yeast faster in order to save time, as well as affects the final texture, flavor and moisture of food. (Longe P43) Sodium aluminum phosphate is released slowly during the fermentation period, which â€Å"enhancing the properties of the formula ingredients†. (Leavening Agents) â€Å"Sodium acid pyrophosphate is also a slower reacting acid and is used in refrigerated biscuit dough recipe. † (Longe P45) As a result, the product will have a crispy taste and fine texture. Likewise, McDonald Company adds these chemical materials into Chicken McNugget to make it taste better. However, both of these agents are harmful to people’s health. For instance, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate is a toxic drug that could cause people’s mental problem, such as memory loss, and confusion. A direct possible consequence of eating these additive-containing foods frequently may lead to Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis. Second, â€Å"the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is TBHQ, which is an anti-oxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget for keeping its shelf time longer. (Pollan P113) Moreover, TBHQ helps the food to â€Å"maintain its freshness, minimize nutritional losses in edible oils, and preserve the present color of iron and metal complexes†. (Shree Additives) Obviously, the effective functions of TBHQ makes fast food industry often use this artificial additive in thousand food products. Chicken McNuggets are just one of the fast foods that contain TBHQ. The result from consuming processing foods with TBHQ can lightly cause â€Å"nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse. (Pollan P114) It can even lead to death if you ingest too much fast food with TBHQ. Last but not least, McNuggets also contain bleaching wheat flour which is one of the ingredients often used in McNugget and other productions. As we know, flour is used to improve the gluten baking quality. The food industry adds flour bleaching agent in order to make the product appear whiter and fresher. Also, the function of this agent is to maintain the foods’ stability, food color and improve the structure forming capacity, allowing the product produce higher proportions of gluten and sugar. Flour Bleaching Agent) During the bleaching processing, most nutrients are destroyed and removed from the grain, and then produce amounts of alloxan. â€Å"The fact of alloxan is a product of the decomposition of uric acid which is used to produce diabetes in healthy experimental animals, so as to help researchers to study diabetes treatments in the lab. † (The Little-Known Secrets about Bleaching Flour†¦ ) It turns out that the nutritional value of food has been lost and we are actually eating the sugar what cause us fat and led to diabetes. According to recent research, alloxan is also a poison which may lead to the country’s diabetes epidemic and other chronic diseases in America. Even though this bleaching agent has a great impact on food industry, we still cannot neglect the negative effect of this additive. Base on the ingredients in McNugget I mentioned above, it would be easy to think that McNugget as final product has been processed through many chemical mechanics and scientific methods which change the actual â€Å"meaning† of the chicken nugget. In other words, it is hard to tell how much actual chicken goes into a real nugget. We have such tasty chicken nuggets available for us anytime because of these food additives. These nasty ingredients and harmful chemicals make people fat and cause serious illness or even death. Imagine how much chemicals and additives are contained in a little piece of Chicken McNugget that could easily endanger people’s health. So I wonder if other fast foods may contain the same dangerous or more harmful additives in its ingredient which lead to more health problems. In conclusion, fast food chains play a vital role in the U. S’s health problems, people should to be up in arms with our government in order to fight against these hazardous chemicals to be used in fast food restaurants. Fast foods are rich in food additives that can badly affect people’s health as it cause cancer, nervous system damage, birth defects, and much more. From my point view, I think that we should avoid the fast food, and especially the overconsumption of fast food, in order to pursue a healthy life style.

Impact of Television on Presidential Elections

Impact of Television on Presidential Elections The Impact of Television on Presidential Elections: The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between the mass media, specifically television, and presidential elections. This paper will focus on the function of television in presidential elections through three main areas: exit polls, presidential debates, and spots. The focus is on television for three reasons. First, television reaches more voters than any other medium. Second, television attracts the greatest part of presidential campaign budgets.Third, television provides the candidates a good opportunity to contact the people directly. A second main theme of this paper is the role of television in presidential elections in terms of representative democracy in the United States. Researchers tend to hold one of three views about television's influence on voters. Some believe that television affects voters in the short run, for example in an election campaign. Another group of researchers believes that television has a great influence on voters over time and that television's impact on voters is a continuous process from one campaign to the next.Others stand between the two views or combine both. In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument for the media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and who loses the election. Caprini conducted a study about the impact of the early prediction of a winner in the 1980 presidential race by the television networks. He observed that, shortly after 8 p. m. Eastern standard time, NBC announced that, according to its analysis of exit poll data, Ronald Reagan was to be the next president of the United States (Caprini, 1984, p. 866).That early call was controversial because the polls in many states were still open at the time and, in some of the western states, would remain open for several hours. Caprini ended his study with the following conclusion:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Voting for the Republican candidate was completely unaffected by the early call, with precall and postcall districts varying from their normal patterns in exactly the same amount and direction. The Democratic vote, however, declined 3. 1 percent more in the postcall districts than in the precall districts (p. 874). This result suggests that the NBC prediction did have an impact on the election.Additionally, this result supports the impact of the media on political behavior. Some experts argue that rates of voting in the western states are not affected by early projections. Strom and Epstein argue that the decline in western states' turnouts is not a result of the early projections by the networks but is the result of a complicated combination of factors, none of which is related to information received on election day (Epstein and Strom, 1981, pp. 479-489). This argument denies the influence of polls on the voting turnout in the first place, and it denies the impact of media on political behav ior.Other researchers look at the issue of exit polls from a legal perspective. Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, supports the constitutional rights of the media and says their exercising of their rights should not be restricted, even if that influences the voters:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once it becomes a legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful, or that exit polls are sometimes misused, should unite and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights even if we happen to disagree with the way that they are using them (Abrams, 1985, p. 8). These different viewpoints represent two sides, the public and the media. Few researchers believe that exit polls have no effect on voting behavior. The majority of researchers believe that exit polls and early projections of the presidential elections do influence voters, but they disagree to what extent. The most persuasive reason to include televised debates in presiden tial campaigns is that voters want them.Voters find something in televised debates that confirms their previously held support for a candidate or helps them to decide whom to support. So television debates are now part of the political landscape. However, one expert has written that, even after the Bush-Dukakis debate, thus making four campaigns in a row to include debates, he would not predict continuation: â€Å"there are too many points at which disagreement might scuttle the whole plan† (Mickelson, 1989, p. 164).Stephen Hess in his book, The Presidential Campaign, observes that:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While some contend that televised debates of 1960 and 1976 elected John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, those elections were so close that any single factor – including debates – could have been said to have made the difference (Hess, 1988, p. 76). Debates give people an opportunity to learn about those who will be president. This is probably the most positive thing to come out of the televised debates. People build their images about the candidates through their stands on the issues. For the 1960 ebates, Katz and Feldman reviewed studies:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As far as issues are concerned, the debates seem to have (a) made some issues more salient rather than others (the issues made salient, of course, may or may not have been the most important ones); (b) caused some people to learn where the candidates stand (including the stand of the opposition candidate); (c) effected very few changes of opinions on issues; and (d) focused more on presentation and personality than on issues (Katz and Feldman, 1962, pp. 173-223). This conclusion shows the importance of â€Å"psychological factors† in voting.As technology develops, researchers try to determine its impact on voting behavior. Technicians use advanced techniques during the presidential debates to get the viewers' attention. The most impressive effect of the presidential debates is its im pact on voters compared to that of other televised political communication in presidential campaigns. In a 1983 study of 2,530 voting-age Americans, ABC News and the John F. Kennedy School of Government noted that voters and non-voters agree that debates are more helpful in deciding whom to vote for than either television news reports or the candidate's own television ads (Kraus, 1988, p. 28). So it is obvious that such debates will have some impact on the outcome of the elections. Presidential debates are controlled by the candidates in several ways: the decision about whether to participate, the approval of areas of discussion, and the refusal to debate without panelists (p. 142). The 1988 debates were actually just joint appearances by Bush and Dukakis answering reporters' questions in two-minute and one-minute segments (Mickelson, 1989, p. 164). The year 1952 witnessed the emergence of the televised spot commercial in politics.The spot is a very short ad designed to convey a spe cific point or image without going into depth on issues or providing much detail. Since that time, spot commercials have been a main part of presidential campaigns. Joe McGinniss, an expert on campaigns, noticed the importance of the political ads:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is not surprising then, that politicians and advertising men should have discovered one another. And, once they recognized that the citizen did not so much vote for a candidate as make a psychological purchase of him, not surprising that they began to work together (McGinniss, 1969, p. 27).The goals of spots are converting the voters and keeping the committed in line. Also, spots can encourage the voters to go out and vote on the basis of their commitments (Diamond and Bates, 1984, p. 352). These goals are related to the short-term influences of television on voting behavior because spots appear in the last weeks of the campaign. They could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential election. The goals ar e also related to the long-term influences of television on voting behavior because young voters today have been raised with television and they perceive the political process through the media.The evidence supports the idea that spots, more than anything else, could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential elections. Sidney Kraus makes this point in the book, Televised Presidential Debates:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It came as a surprise to almost everyone in the broadcasting industry to find a major study of the 1972 presidential race (conducted by two political scientists) concluding that voters learned more about Richard Nixon and George McGovern from political spots than they did from the combined nightly newscasts of the networks† (Kraus, 1988, p. 17).Kathleen Jamieson agrees: . . . political advertising is now the major means by which candidates for presidency communicate their messages to voters . . . Unsurprisingly, the spot add is the most used and the most vi ewed of the available forms of advertising (Jamieson, 1984, p. 446). On the other hand, others argue that spots are not providing the voters good information about the candidates. Theodore Lowi supports that position:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the brief commercials are built on impressions rather than logic, â€Å"instant replay† benefits the sender, not the receiver (Lowi, 1985, p. 4). Others describe these spots as selling candidates like any other product. These experts ask whether presidential campaigns should be run on marketing principles or political tactics, whether the best candidate or the most telegenic performer wins, whether money can buy enough media to buy elections (Lowi, 1985, p. 65). The emergence of spots has been particularly upsetting to those who believe that political campaigns should inform the voters, not manipulate the opinions of the voters.The growing role of television in the presidential elections and its effects on the public gives rise to an i mportant question: Is this phenomenon healthy for democracy in the United States? Television became an important factor in the election process for several reasons: the decline of political parties, which had been the most important factor; (Wattenberg, 1986, p. 108) developing technology, which provided new opportunities for political television, like spots and debates; and, as a consequence of the decline of political parties, decreasing voter turnout in presidential elections since 1960.For example, only 53. 3 percent of the eligible citizens voted in 1984, the lowest since 1948. This is the same period during which the amount of money spent on televised political advertising tripled (in constant dollars) (Diamond, 1984, p. 352). Experts disagree about how television should function in a democratic society. Proponents see television as part of political socialization, and they believe that voters have profited from the presidential debates and political ads. Proponents do, howeve r, suggest particular improvements in presidential debates.Kraus suggests the following:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Campaign Act of 1971 provides a tax check off to help finance campaigns in presidential general elections, and since the public want presidential debates those who receive funds should debate. Candidates may refuse to debate, but they would not receive public funds (Kraus, 1988, p. 154). Others defend television from a legal perspective. Floyd Abrams defends exit polls as follows:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once it becomes legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful . . . should write and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights (Abrams, 1985, p. 8). Opponents look at television as a harmful factor in the democratic process of electing a president. According to one expert, â€Å"The promise [of] television . . . has collapsed in an era dominated by packaged campaigns and avoidance of issues (Mickelson, 19 89, p. 167). Others see the media as the main cause of the decline of political parties, which were supposed to be intermediary between the government and the people in a representative democracy, and they believe the decline of the parties will increase the gap between the government and the people. Also, they see the media as a part of the political elite in the United States.Edward Greenberg noticed this point:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Most importantly, the mass media are themselves parts of gigantic corporate empires and, while a few among them may experience an occasional episode of â€Å"muckraking† these media are firmly, in the long run, entrenched in the camp of the powerful (Greenberg, 1986, p. 22). Regulations are necessary to control some of the bad effects of the media, particularly television. Exit polls could be regulated so that East Coast poll results are not announced until the last poll on the West Coast closes. Participation in presidential debates should be r equired of candidates who want to receive campaign funds.Spots should have more regulations than the previous two areas because the candidates use spots to attack each other. For example, in the 1988 elections, George Bush had one spot in which he rode a yacht through Boston Harbor to show that Michael Dukakis is not an environmentalist and which appeared many times during the last days of the campaign (Mickelson, 1989, p. 162). The public got the impression that Dukakis is not concerned about the environment. Spots should be based on facts. This paper demonstrates that the mass media, particularly television, have a great effect on presidential elections.Analyzing exit polls, presidential debates, and spots shows that television does affect the voters and the voting turnout in the United States. Scholars agree on the effects of television on presidential races; however, they disagree on the extent to which television has affected voting behavior and the voters. Television emphasize d the decline of political parties in the last four decades. Although some experts believe television in presidential elections is healthy, others believe it is harmful to democracy, increasing the gap between the government and the people.The negative effects of political television on democracy can be eliminated through regulations. Such regulations could permit political television without its dangers. References Abrams, Floyd. (1985, Spring). Press practices, polling restrictions, public opinion and first amendment guarantees. Public Opinion Quarterly 49 (1): pp. 15-18. Caprini, Michael X. Delli. (1984, August). Scooping the voters? The consequences of the networks' early call of the 1980 Presidential race. Journal of Politics 46: pp. 866-85. Diamond, Edwin, and Stephen Bates. (1984). The Spot. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Epstein, Laurily R. , and Gerald Strorn. October 1981). Election night projections and west coast turn out. American Politics Quarterly 9 (4): pp. 479-91. Greenb erg, S. Edward. (1986). The American political system: A radical approach. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Hess, Stephen. (1988). The Presidential campaign. Washington D. C. : The Brookings Institute. Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. (1984). Packaging the Presidency: A history and criticism of Presidential campaign advertising. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Katz, Elihu, and Jacob J. Feldman. (1962). The debates in the light of research: A survey of surveys. In The Great Debates, ed. Sidney Kraus.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 173-223. Kraus, Sidney. (1988). Televised Presidential debates, and public policy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lowi, Theodore J. (1985). The personal President: Power invested promise unfulfilled. Ithaca, New York: Cornell   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  University Press. Mcginniss, Joe. (1969). The selling of the President 1968. New York: Trident Press. Mickelson, Sig. (1989). From whistle stop to sound bite: Four decades of politics and television. New York: Praeger. Wattenberg, Martin P. (1986). The decline of American political parties 1952-1984. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Impact of Television on Presidential Elections Impact of Television on Presidential Elections The Impact of Television on Presidential Elections: The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between the mass media, specifically television, and presidential elections. This paper will focus on the function of television in presidential elections through three main areas: exit polls, presidential debates, and spots. The focus is on television for three reasons. First, television reaches more voters than any other medium. Second, television attracts the greatest part of presidential campaign budgets.Third, television provides the candidates a good opportunity to contact the people directly. A second main theme of this paper is the role of television in presidential elections in terms of representative democracy in the United States. Researchers tend to hold one of three views about television's influence on voters. Some believe that television affects voters in the short run, for example in an election campaign. Another group of researchers believes that television has a great influence on voters over time and that television's impact on voters is a continuous process from one campaign to the next.Others stand between the two views or combine both. In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument for the media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and who loses the election. Caprini conducted a study about the impact of the early prediction of a winner in the 1980 presidential race by the television networks. He observed that, shortly after 8 p. m. Eastern standard time, NBC announced that, according to its analysis of exit poll data, Ronald Reagan was to be the next president of the United States (Caprini, 1984, p. 866).That early call was controversial because the polls in many states were still open at the time and, in some of the western states, would remain open for several hours. Caprini ended his study with the following conclusion:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Voting for the Republican candidate was completely unaffected by the early call, with precall and postcall districts varying from their normal patterns in exactly the same amount and direction. The Democratic vote, however, declined 3. 1 percent more in the postcall districts than in the precall districts (p. 874). This result suggests that the NBC prediction did have an impact on the election.Additionally, this result supports the impact of the media on political behavior. Some experts argue that rates of voting in the western states are not affected by early projections. Strom and Epstein argue that the decline in western states' turnouts is not a result of the early projections by the networks but is the result of a complicated combination of factors, none of which is related to information received on election day (Epstein and Strom, 1981, pp. 479-489). This argument denies the influence of polls on the voting turnout in the first place, and it denies the impact of media on political behav ior.Other researchers look at the issue of exit polls from a legal perspective. Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, supports the constitutional rights of the media and says their exercising of their rights should not be restricted, even if that influences the voters:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once it becomes a legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful, or that exit polls are sometimes misused, should unite and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights even if we happen to disagree with the way that they are using them (Abrams, 1985, p. 8). These different viewpoints represent two sides, the public and the media. Few researchers believe that exit polls have no effect on voting behavior. The majority of researchers believe that exit polls and early projections of the presidential elections do influence voters, but they disagree to what extent. The most persuasive reason to include televised debates in presiden tial campaigns is that voters want them.Voters find something in televised debates that confirms their previously held support for a candidate or helps them to decide whom to support. So television debates are now part of the political landscape. However, one expert has written that, even after the Bush-Dukakis debate, thus making four campaigns in a row to include debates, he would not predict continuation: â€Å"there are too many points at which disagreement might scuttle the whole plan† (Mickelson, 1989, p. 164).Stephen Hess in his book, The Presidential Campaign, observes that:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While some contend that televised debates of 1960 and 1976 elected John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, those elections were so close that any single factor – including debates – could have been said to have made the difference (Hess, 1988, p. 76). Debates give people an opportunity to learn about those who will be president. This is probably the most positive thing to come out of the televised debates. People build their images about the candidates through their stands on the issues. For the 1960 ebates, Katz and Feldman reviewed studies:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As far as issues are concerned, the debates seem to have (a) made some issues more salient rather than others (the issues made salient, of course, may or may not have been the most important ones); (b) caused some people to learn where the candidates stand (including the stand of the opposition candidate); (c) effected very few changes of opinions on issues; and (d) focused more on presentation and personality than on issues (Katz and Feldman, 1962, pp. 173-223). This conclusion shows the importance of â€Å"psychological factors† in voting.As technology develops, researchers try to determine its impact on voting behavior. Technicians use advanced techniques during the presidential debates to get the viewers' attention. The most impressive effect of the presidential debates is its im pact on voters compared to that of other televised political communication in presidential campaigns. In a 1983 study of 2,530 voting-age Americans, ABC News and the John F. Kennedy School of Government noted that voters and non-voters agree that debates are more helpful in deciding whom to vote for than either television news reports or the candidate's own television ads (Kraus, 1988, p. 28). So it is obvious that such debates will have some impact on the outcome of the elections. Presidential debates are controlled by the candidates in several ways: the decision about whether to participate, the approval of areas of discussion, and the refusal to debate without panelists (p. 142). The 1988 debates were actually just joint appearances by Bush and Dukakis answering reporters' questions in two-minute and one-minute segments (Mickelson, 1989, p. 164). The year 1952 witnessed the emergence of the televised spot commercial in politics.The spot is a very short ad designed to convey a spe cific point or image without going into depth on issues or providing much detail. Since that time, spot commercials have been a main part of presidential campaigns. Joe McGinniss, an expert on campaigns, noticed the importance of the political ads:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is not surprising then, that politicians and advertising men should have discovered one another. And, once they recognized that the citizen did not so much vote for a candidate as make a psychological purchase of him, not surprising that they began to work together (McGinniss, 1969, p. 27).The goals of spots are converting the voters and keeping the committed in line. Also, spots can encourage the voters to go out and vote on the basis of their commitments (Diamond and Bates, 1984, p. 352). These goals are related to the short-term influences of television on voting behavior because spots appear in the last weeks of the campaign. They could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential election. The goals ar e also related to the long-term influences of television on voting behavior because young voters today have been raised with television and they perceive the political process through the media.The evidence supports the idea that spots, more than anything else, could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential elections. Sidney Kraus makes this point in the book, Televised Presidential Debates:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It came as a surprise to almost everyone in the broadcasting industry to find a major study of the 1972 presidential race (conducted by two political scientists) concluding that voters learned more about Richard Nixon and George McGovern from political spots than they did from the combined nightly newscasts of the networks† (Kraus, 1988, p. 17).Kathleen Jamieson agrees: . . . political advertising is now the major means by which candidates for presidency communicate their messages to voters . . . Unsurprisingly, the spot add is the most used and the most vi ewed of the available forms of advertising (Jamieson, 1984, p. 446). On the other hand, others argue that spots are not providing the voters good information about the candidates. Theodore Lowi supports that position:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the brief commercials are built on impressions rather than logic, â€Å"instant replay† benefits the sender, not the receiver (Lowi, 1985, p. 4). Others describe these spots as selling candidates like any other product. These experts ask whether presidential campaigns should be run on marketing principles or political tactics, whether the best candidate or the most telegenic performer wins, whether money can buy enough media to buy elections (Lowi, 1985, p. 65). The emergence of spots has been particularly upsetting to those who believe that political campaigns should inform the voters, not manipulate the opinions of the voters.The growing role of television in the presidential elections and its effects on the public gives rise to an i mportant question: Is this phenomenon healthy for democracy in the United States? Television became an important factor in the election process for several reasons: the decline of political parties, which had been the most important factor; (Wattenberg, 1986, p. 108) developing technology, which provided new opportunities for political television, like spots and debates; and, as a consequence of the decline of political parties, decreasing voter turnout in presidential elections since 1960.For example, only 53. 3 percent of the eligible citizens voted in 1984, the lowest since 1948. This is the same period during which the amount of money spent on televised political advertising tripled (in constant dollars) (Diamond, 1984, p. 352). Experts disagree about how television should function in a democratic society. Proponents see television as part of political socialization, and they believe that voters have profited from the presidential debates and political ads. Proponents do, howeve r, suggest particular improvements in presidential debates.Kraus suggests the following:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Campaign Act of 1971 provides a tax check off to help finance campaigns in presidential general elections, and since the public want presidential debates those who receive funds should debate. Candidates may refuse to debate, but they would not receive public funds (Kraus, 1988, p. 154). Others defend television from a legal perspective. Floyd Abrams defends exit polls as follows:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once it becomes legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful . . . should write and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights (Abrams, 1985, p. 8). Opponents look at television as a harmful factor in the democratic process of electing a president. According to one expert, â€Å"The promise [of] television . . . has collapsed in an era dominated by packaged campaigns and avoidance of issues (Mickelson, 19 89, p. 167). Others see the media as the main cause of the decline of political parties, which were supposed to be intermediary between the government and the people in a representative democracy, and they believe the decline of the parties will increase the gap between the government and the people. Also, they see the media as a part of the political elite in the United States.Edward Greenberg noticed this point:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Most importantly, the mass media are themselves parts of gigantic corporate empires and, while a few among them may experience an occasional episode of â€Å"muckraking† these media are firmly, in the long run, entrenched in the camp of the powerful (Greenberg, 1986, p. 22). Regulations are necessary to control some of the bad effects of the media, particularly television. Exit polls could be regulated so that East Coast poll results are not announced until the last poll on the West Coast closes. Participation in presidential debates should be r equired of candidates who want to receive campaign funds.Spots should have more regulations than the previous two areas because the candidates use spots to attack each other. For example, in the 1988 elections, George Bush had one spot in which he rode a yacht through Boston Harbor to show that Michael Dukakis is not an environmentalist and which appeared many times during the last days of the campaign (Mickelson, 1989, p. 162). The public got the impression that Dukakis is not concerned about the environment. Spots should be based on facts. This paper demonstrates that the mass media, particularly television, have a great effect on presidential elections.Analyzing exit polls, presidential debates, and spots shows that television does affect the voters and the voting turnout in the United States. Scholars agree on the effects of television on presidential races; however, they disagree on the extent to which television has affected voting behavior and the voters. Television emphasize d the decline of political parties in the last four decades. Although some experts believe television in presidential elections is healthy, others believe it is harmful to democracy, increasing the gap between the government and the people.The negative effects of political television on democracy can be eliminated through regulations. Such regulations could permit political television without its dangers. References Abrams, Floyd. (1985, Spring). Press practices, polling restrictions, public opinion and first amendment guarantees. Public Opinion Quarterly 49 (1): pp. 15-18. Caprini, Michael X. Delli. (1984, August). Scooping the voters? The consequences of the networks' early call of the 1980 Presidential race. Journal of Politics 46: pp. 866-85. Diamond, Edwin, and Stephen Bates. (1984). The Spot. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Epstein, Laurily R. , and Gerald Strorn. October 1981). Election night projections and west coast turn out. American Politics Quarterly 9 (4): pp. 479-91. Greenb erg, S. Edward. (1986). The American political system: A radical approach. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Hess, Stephen. (1988). The Presidential campaign. Washington D. C. : The Brookings Institute. Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. (1984). Packaging the Presidency: A history and criticism of Presidential campaign advertising. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Katz, Elihu, and Jacob J. Feldman. (1962). The debates in the light of research: A survey of surveys. In The Great Debates, ed. Sidney Kraus.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 173-223. Kraus, Sidney. (1988). Televised Presidential debates, and public policy. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lowi, Theodore J. (1985). The personal President: Power invested promise unfulfilled. Ithaca, New York: Cornell   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  University Press. Mcginniss, Joe. (1969). The selling of the President 1968. New York: Trident Press. Mickelson, Sig. (1989). From whistle stop to sound bite: Four decades of politics and television. New York: Praeger. Wattenberg, Martin P. (1986). The decline of American political parties 1952-1984. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

How to Write a Good Application Letter

How to Write a Good Application Letter Application letters are used for colleges, schools, advanced programs, jobs, and more, and writing a good application letter begins with understanding the audience that will receive and read the letter. Start by reading information about the organization you are sending your application letter to – such as by reading the website, checking news reports, and talking to other people from the organization. After reviewing the information available, consider how you represent the best ideals of the organization, how events in your past have prepared you for being a part of the group. The best application letter represents not only your interest in the program or organization, but also how you will be a benefit to the program. After you have developed a list of the benefits of the organization and a list aligning your personal experience or education to the list, you will need to consider the needs of your audience. Someone will read your application letter and determine if it qualifies you as a candidate. Will your audience want to know more about how your past represents the needs of the program, or how your future will benefit from the program? Do you represent an elite group that defines the organizational goals – such as high performing students seeking admission into gifted programs? Finally, a good application letter is equally about your needs and those of the organization – you would not address the letter to be a form of brag or a letter that defines the organization and nothing about yourself. Reading your application letter aloud will enable you to evaluate how it sounds, remove grammar errors, and reading it to other people will assist you in finding out how it makes you appear i n the eyes of others.

Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 10

Art - Essay Example Just like the expression that ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’, the appreciation for aesthetic value in art, lies in a more profound understanding of the beholder. The significance of studying art as a discipline is taken in the context that with greater knowledge of art, one gets the chance to be enriched, not only in theoretical knowledge of different works of art from various time frames; but more so, develop a more keen and analytical perspective in appreciating the intended meaning that the artists have relayed through their personal creation. Thus, more than just seeing or visualizing art works, the study of art has provided the improvement of skills in interpretation, in possessing a critical eye, as well as in understanding how art evolved through time using different media, elements, resources, and the application of creative skills and styles, as evident from one period to the other. In a particular work of art, for instance, one previously responds through interpreting the creation in its purely visual representation. This means that one gets to comment on the aesthetic quality: the vividness of the colors, the shading, and the images that are seen. Upon delving into a more in-depth understanding of art through the course, one recognized more elements of art could actually be evaluated as forming an integral part of the art work. For instance, one could analyze the juxtaposition of images and how it contributed to the overall unity and message of the work of art. In addition, one could discern, despite the abstract expression of an artist, the real meaning that was intended for the viewers through the use of colors, forms, and creative style. As such, when figuring out an art work that one plans to hang on the wall, the qualities that would be included in the selection process would not merely depend on the way the art work looks (visual qualities); but on the overall ability of the

International Civil Aviation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

International Civil Aviation - Assignment Example (Civil Aviation Training Centre, 2003) The review report is intended to build a future in which aviation exists in harmony with the natural and human environment. To make this possible the detrimental factors and strategic measures affecting the aviation industry are thoroughly analyzed for getting a better insight into the knowledge and understanding of existing and future environmental impacts, as well as the opportunities for mitigating or avoiding them.(Transportation Research Circular, 2006) Such analysis serves as an important tool in anticipating facilities and services which are required to meet the future demands of air travel and in ascertaining where and when airspace or airport congestion is likely to occur. These reviews also have a significant role in strategic planning towards the cost-effective implementation of communications, navigation and surveillance or air traffic management systems.(Trends in air transport, 2004) This review report summarizes progress that the international civil aviation industry is making towards the future. Thus the study involves There are many environmental elements, bot... Environmental factors affecting the aviation industry There are many environmental elements, both short term and long term in nature affecting the International Civil Aviation. In today's world, where aviation traffic has grown to an indispensable mode of transport, the environment has become too much stressed from a variety of sources. Population explosion has yet made the whole system more complex and difficult to manage efficiently and equitably. This paper which reviews the said sector from a strategic angle compiles from the result of researches and statistics conducted on ways to assess and provide solutions to these conditions. Use of tools like SWOT analysis, which brings to light the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of aviation industry, could be very useful in bringing out the detrimental environmental factors. The research agenda categorized the factors as in the figure (Refer Appendix - 1). (Transportation Research Circular, 2006) The main environmental constituents identified affecting the sector mainly from the Media (aircraft) and its Process (operations) are: Noise: Aircraft noise is one of the most constraining factors affecting the sector. However, there were significant developments in providing quieter aircrafts and organizations like National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Community are continuously going ahead with such projects limiting noise pollution to the maximum. (Transportation Research Circular, 2006) Air quality: This deal with all the environmental impacts including emissions from aircrafts like greenhouse gas emissions, ozone acidification, depletion, and impact on local air quality. Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen oxide, etc., particulates and aerosols, sulfur compounds, and water emissions