Thursday, October 31, 2019

Building and constructions Communication systems Essay

Building and constructions Communication systems - Essay Example In the building, over 550 fibre optic data cables are running from the MDF which provides the ability to virtually access any room in the building. The fibre optic cable used in the building is half lucent laser-speed multimode fibre and half lucent single-mode fibre. In the building more than 45,000 meters of fibre optic cable used. This cabling enables each computer to have a 10,000 megabit per second (10Gigabit) connection speed. In the building, there are approximately 450 telephone lines that end into the MDF telephone cubes, with about 60 kilometres of lucent Giga-speed cables.Telstra, the main telephone service provider in Australia also handles the telephone services for the interpro building and the VOIP is not implemented yet. The computer network in the interpro building is based on 540 desktop computers. The network also gives wireless access to interpro network via three wireless routers distributed in each floor of the building. These wireless routers give access to more than 800 wireless devices such as PDAs, laptops or cell phones. Computers are originally in the network but they can also be unplugged if necessary. Wireless routers have an adapter which allows a cable from the LAN to be plugged in. There are also several output ports for cables which can be connected to the rest of the LAN. Each of these wireless routers support 255 wireless devices and has a unique security setting to prevent the damage to the whole building network if a hacker entered the LAN through a wireless router. All access points are equipped with firewall software that controls the flow of data. There is also a monitoring system that shows the status of the network for each floor. The interpro company's building has three floors and each floor uses a separate LAN for security issues. These LANS are connected to each other and they form a small WAN. The whole network is based on cable LAN and wireless LAN. The building has three servers which all the data for each floor is passed by. There are 400 hub-switch provided links in the LANs and as stated before, there are three wireless routers which provide the wireless access for wireless devices both to the building network and the Internet. At the first floor, there is a main server room which has a cavity for cable runs. Each floor at the company has a star topology and all the devices are connected to the main server. Each server on each floor has a bus topology to access two other servers at other floors and the main DSL cable which enters to the building connects to the bus network after the data enters through a firewall. References Interpro, company overview, viewed on November 22, 2007.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

History of Measurment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History of Measurment - Essay Example The Egyptians were not able to monopolize the measuring system. The Babylonians also devised measures stemming from a cubit, though 6 mm longer than that of the Egyptians. This cubit was then divided into 30 kus, roughly equal to a digit. The earliest known decimal system is the Harappan system; from 2500 B.C. to 1700 B.C. Evidence suggests that they had two different series of weights. One system was based on a measurement of the Indus inch (1.32 modern inches). Since their system was based on base-10, ten Indus inches equaled 13.2 inches, the measure of a foot. The other scale was discovered in the form of a bronze rod with markings of 0.367 in. 100 units of that would be 36.7 inches, approximately the length of a stride. Measurements of the Harappan ruins show that they used these measurements extremely accurately. European systems of measurement were based on the Roman system. The Romans, in turn, borrowed their measurements from the Greeks, who had based it on the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Their base unit was the breadth of a finger. Unlike the other cultures, they only had three widely used units of measurement: the finger, the foot and the Greek cubit. The Greeks also standardized weight by stabilizing the size of containers to weigh goods and by creating a standard set of measures. The Romans changed the Greek system slightly, by creating the pace, equal to five feet. Thousand paces was a Roman mile, extraordinarily close to the modern British mile. It was in 1672, that Sir Isaac Newton actually made a vital discovery about the "Newton Rings" which actually used light to measure distances. Neither he nor the world at large understood the great implications of it, and today "interferometry" as it is called helps measure precise distances to within millionths of an inch or a millimeter. The French, on the other hand, used a bewildering array of measures. Standardization was a big problem since no one could come to an agreement. As late as 1788 Arthur Young wrote in "Travels during the years 1787, 1788, 1789" published in 1793, "In France the infinite perplexity of the measures exceeds all comprehension. They differ not only in every province, but also in every district and almost every town". The English though tried to standardize as early as in the 13th century, by England issuing a royal ordinance "Assize of Weights and Measures" to bring some unity. Wren had proposed a new system based on the yard defined as the length of a pendulum beating at the rate of one second in the Tower of London. Britain and Scotland uniting ensured a better prevalence for the system but it was hard when each province wanted its own system followed. In 1824, the English Parliament legalized the yard that was first proposed in 1760. In 1870 the French in Paris convened an International Conference with the aim of improving international scientific cooperation by having the metric system as the worldwide standard. This resulted in seventeen nations signing up and later a few more nations joining in and kind of standardized the metric system. US though were influenced by the colonists who brought with various measurements from their places of origin and for a long time it was an array of measurements. In 1821 John Quincy Adam for the first person to propose to the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

The Rise in Penal Populism | Dissertation

The Rise in Penal Populism | Dissertation Abstract Since the mid-1970s onward, the vast majority of Western countries have experienced a significant plus continual rise in their incarceration rates, leading to the problem of overcrowded prisons. We examine the extent to which the ‘incarceration boom’ of many modern societies can be attributed to the phenomenon of penal populism. Specifically, we argue that some short-lived actual crime waves during the late 1970s and 1980s may have initially generated a small amount of rational penal populist sentiment among the public, it is the strong divisions within the increasingly heterogeneous public (both politically and ethnically), the central government, and the popular media industry of many democratic developed nations which have ultimately sustained the growth of both penal populism and prison population numbers. Furthermore, we focus on the types of crime that are most commonly targeted by strong penal populist sentiments in the public and criminal justice system, and suggest that all such categories of crime can be fundamentally linked to the cultural ‘purification’ of children which has taken place in virtually all Western societies during the latter half of the twentieth century. Finally, we consider the limitations of penal populism, referring to those few post-industrial states where such populist punitiveness has been largely resisted, and postulate what the end-stage consequences of a penal populist movement spanning over the past three decades are likely to be. 1. Introduction The term ‘penal populism’ denotes a punitive phenomenon that has become characteristic of many modern industrial societies, especially within Western liberal democracies since the late twentieth century onward, whereby anti-crime political pressure groups, talk-back radio hosts, victim’s rights activists or lobbyists, and others who claim to represent the ‘ordinary public’ have increasingly demanded of their governments that harsher policies and punishments be enforced by the relevant organs of the criminal justice system (e.g. law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, legislators, etc.) in order to combat the perceived rise in serious crime rates (Pratt, 2006). One direct consequence of the increasingly severe ‘tough on crime’ measures – such as ‘Life means Life’, ‘Three Strikes’, and ‘Zero Tolerance’ policies – exercised in many economically advanced countries from the mid-1970s onward has been an unprecedented rapid rise in the incarceration rates of these respective nations, leading to the problem of overcrowded prisons. The United States epitomises the tempo of the modern change in national imprisonment rates, and currently has the worst problem of prison overcrowding on a global scale. Indeed, ‘American incarceration numbers [have] increased fivefold between 1973 and 1997’(Caplow and Simon, 1999, p63). More recently, ‘in 2004 the United States surpassed Russia in incarceration rates to become the world leader. With 2.2 million individuals inside (assuming a U.S. population of 290 million in 2004, that is an incarceration rate of approximately 759 adults in prison per 100,000 residents of the United States) and upwards of 7 million individuals either on parole, probation or awaiting trial, 1 in every 33 people in the U.S. is currently under state control and the number is growing’(State-Wide Harm Reduction Coalition, 2005). Clearly, an interpretation of the widespread incarceration rise must be able to accurately explain its rapidity, extent, and endurance on a global scale. There are two principal explanations for why such a large number of developed countries have experienced an ‘incarceration boom’ over the past three decades. Both theoretical models assert that it is changes in penal policies plus sentencing practices, rather than simply significant increases in crime rates alone, which are the primary factor responsible for driving prison population growth, but there is considerable disparity between the two theories about the causes of penal policy changes. One ‘crime wave’ hypothesis posits that actual rising crime rates in many Western countries, including the vast expansion of drug crime during the late twentieth century, have resulted in a greater rational public demand for the criminal justice system to take more severe punitive measures against convicted dangerous criminals (i.e. those offenders who pose the highest threat to public safety and social order; the criminal offenders most commonly targeted by penal populism in modern societies shall be considered in detail below), such as a more frequent use of incarceration with longer custodial sentences. In contrast, the second ‘political opportunism’ hypothesis suggests that many majority government parties have intentionally overstated the size and severity of the national crime problem in order to heighten public fears or instil ‘moral panic’ over perceived (as opposed to actual) rising crime rates, which are merely a political artefact, and subsequently utilise harsher crime control policies to win electoral favour (Caplow and Simon, 1999). Importantly, irrespective of which mechanism has in actual fact been operating across numerous advanced industrial states, and has led to the observed excessive growth in prison population sizes, both explanatory models can clearly be regarded as strongly related to the presence of penal populism. The critical difference between the two theories is whether the main original source of those penal populist sentiments can be accurately considered to be the public or the state, or both. According to the first model, which may be described as the public-induced penal populism hypothesis, it has been the persistent public demand for the government to impose harsher punitive measures on convicted criminals which has primarily caused the fast-paced escalation of incarceration numbers in many modern nations. In other words, the criminal justice systems in these countries have largely been exercising a regime of penal excess because constant pressure from a large sector of the public (in response to an actual rise in crime rates) has compelled them to do so. In comparison, the second model, which we may refer to as the state-induced penal populism hypothesis, postulates that within many Western countries the government parties in power have often created and sustained an artificial appearance of rising crime rates in order to instil widespread public anxiety. Subsequently, the majority government (and individual politicians) can be observed by the public to be apparently controlling the perceived illusory crime problem, such as through adopting and enforcing ‘tough on crime’ measures, and thereby attain public popularity to secure their party’s (or their own) success in the next general election. The second model further suggests that the government is not the only state institution in developed nations which benefits from overstating the scale of the dangerous crime threat, but that there are also large rewards for popular media outlets or news companies willing to do so. It is argued by many criminologists that within almost all democratic Western countries, the central government and the popular media, which are both fragmented into multiple competing party’s or companies, are highly dependent on addressing and reporting criminal activity that specifically victimises ‘ordinary people’ in order to retain electoral votes and public ratings, respectively. Hence, the state-induced penal populism hypothesis proposes that politicians and media outlets lead rather than merely follow or passively represent the public opinion: the public only supports or appears to ‘demand’ the government’s harsher punitive policy strategies because the same national government and popular media industry (as two powerful state institutions) have manufactured a compelling false image of prevalent serious crime which has instilled strong penal populist sentiments in a large proportion of that public. The central aim of the following examination is to determine which of these two distinctive theoretical positions is most likely to be correct. It is of course possible that the public-induced penal populism mechanism primarily operates in one developed nation, while in another Western country it may be the state-driven penal populism process that is predominant. However, to the extent that the relatively recent phenomenon of globalisation has resulted in many common economic, social, political, and cultural practices being widely adopted by a number of modern industrial states, one may plausibly expect a similar (if not identical) mechanism of generating penal populism to be present in the developed nations affected by prison population growth, especially with regard to the United States and Western Europe. At the outset, we may hypothesise that although some short-lived real increases in Western crime rates during the late 1970s and 1980s may have initially triggered some rational penal populist sentiments among the public of these modern societies, it has been the combined interaction of both political opportunism and media opportunism which has acted as a powerful vehicle in numerous modern societies for distorting the public’s common view of the national crime problem, and ultimately for sustaining the growth of both penal populism plus prison populations, regardless of how those crime rates may have subsequently changed (and in most developed countries they have steadily declined). One fundamental feature of the modern incarceration surge over the past three decades that is observed in virtually all countries affected by rapid prison growth is the significant proportion of these prison populations that has become comprised of racial minorities, including both of resident ethnic groups and of non-citizen illegal immigrants. As one study (O’Donnell, 2004, p262) remarks, ‘one factor that accounts for rising prison populations across Europe is the incarceration of ‘foreigners’. It is likely that prison accommodation in the Republic of Ireland will be used to hold growing numbers of failed asylum seekers, at least pending deportation. It is also inevitable that the composition of the prison population will change as members of minority groups begin to appear before the courts on criminal charges’. In terms of the racial minorities imprisonment trend in the United States, Caplow and Simon (1999, p66) assert that ‘it is undeniable that the incarcerated population is disproportionately composed of minorities (especially African Americans and Hispanics), and that the disproportion has increased during the period of rising imprisonmentThe period of rapid growth in incarceration rates has seen a significant increase in the proportion of minorities in the inmate population, especially among drug offenders, the fastest growing segment of that [prison] population’. As is the case with most Western European countries, the United States prison sector has also experienced a mass round up of illegal immigrants or non-citizens during the last three decades, who in 2003 made up 40% of federal prisoners (State-Wide Harm Reduction Coalition, 2005). Ultimately, therefore, it is apparent that the incarceration boom in many developed countries has primarily affected various racial minority populations present within these nations. It is the cumulative incarceration of racial minorities that is significantly responsible for the prison overcrowding problem commonly observed. Thus, one crucial question that we must address in the following study is what has caused (and continues to cause) the increased imprisonment of racial minority populations, relative to the incarceration rate of the racial majority host population (typically white), within the modern industrial societies affected by prison overcrowding? Specifically, we shall seek to determine whether pervasive ‘penal racism’, indicated by a greater tendency in developed nations for both the law enforcement system to arrest and subsequently for the criminal justice system to imprison ethnic or non-white defendants compared with white ones who have committed the same offence, is sufficient to explain the large racial differentials observed in incarceration rates, or not. The methodology of the following study consists entirely of literature-based research and analysis. 2. The Origins of Penal Populism: Real Crime Waves versus Political and Media Opportunism It is widely acknowledged that the prevalent public sentiment in many developed countries to ‘get tough’ with criminals has played a central role in catalysing the incarceration surge which has occurred in these nations since the mid-1970s onward, an influential social movement that is referred to as penal populism. Furthermore, whether one regards the source of that penal populism as stemming from a rational public response to actual rising crime rates or, conversely, as triggered by public exposure to political and media manipulation, the measured strength of the public’s demand on their respective democratic governments to impose harsher punitive measures on convicted criminals has remained consistently high over the thirty year period of vast growth in incarceration numbers. For example, with regard to the United States, one study notes that the time series of public responses to the survey question of whether courts are too lenient has remained highly stable since 1972 (Caplow and Simon, 1999). The significant temporal correlation in many modern industrial states between the onset of strong public desire since around the mid-1970s for more stringent crime policies and the period of rapid prison population growth is a clear indication of the vital part that penal populist sentiments have played in causing prison overcrowding. One may plausibly argue that the strong growth of penal populist sentiments in most advanced industrial societies over the past three decades has been initially generated by temporary real increases in crime (including the rapid expansion of a drug-crime economy during the 1980s) and sustained by an increased reliance of governments on implementing harsher crime control measures (rather than more effective social welfare policies) to gain public support plus secure electoral favour. Accordingly, we intend to demonstrate that penal populism in developed nations is a product of both short-lived actual crime waves and manipulative political opportunism. Indeed, one would theoretically expect the two factors operating in conjunction to result in a significantly larger escalation in incarceration rates (as is in fact observed) than would occur if only one of these forces was present in isolation. As one study has observed, ‘tough on crime’ policies produce prison population increases only to the degree that offenders are available to be imprisoned (Zimring and Hawkins, 1991). Conversely, an increase in crime rates would also not produce a corresponding increase in imprisonment rates unless some suitably punitive crime control measures were in place. During the last thirty years there has also certainly occurred in many Western countries a greater dependence of competing popular media companies, both television and the press, on selectively reporting dangerous (i.e. worse than normal) crime on an almost daily basis, simply in order to maintain or increase viewer and reader ratings. By portraying the national crime problem as more severe and more prevalent than in reality, individual popular media outlets (e.g. tabloid newspapers) in developed nations have become more appealing to public viewers than their quality media counterparts (e.g. broadsheet newspapers) who often object to distorting or manipulating the reporting of crime news. Since the late twentieth century onward, crime news has become a fundamental component of the public’s staple diet. As Pratt (2007, p68) suggests, ‘the reporting of crime is inherently able to shock [and] entertain, sustaining public appeal and interest, selling newspapers and increasing television audiences. Furthermore, the way in which crime is used to achieve these ends is by selective rather than comprehensive reportingHowever, it is not only that crime reporting has quantitatively increased; there have also been qualitative changes in its reporting: it is prone to focus more extensively on violent and sexual crime than in the pastThese qualitative and quantitative changes in crime reporting can be attributed to the growing diversity of news sources and media outletsAs a consequence, both television and the press have to be much more competitive than used to be the case. Their programmes have to be packaged in such a way that they become more attractive to viewers than those of their rivals and competitors’. Evidently, given that it is typically the most popular newspapers (such as the tabloid press in Britain) which feature the greatest number and severity of crime stories, it means that the most common representations of crime, portrayed in ‘the form of randomised, unpredictable and violent attacks inevitably committed by strangers on ‘ordinary people’, reach the greatest audience’(Pratt, 2007, p70). Thus, it is clear that within modern society the potential benefits to popular media outlets from inaccurately amplifying the danger plus scale of national crime in the public’s perception are equally as large as the rewards for politicians willing to do so. With regard to addressing the (largely fabricated) immediacy of the criminal activity problem, therefore, media opportunism and political opportunism are proximately linked in virtually all post-industrial countries where penal populist currents are strongly established. As well as magnifying the size of the dangerous crime problem, the popular media in many Western countries further continually seeks to undermine the current sentencing practices of the criminal justice system, regardless of how harsh they have become over the past three decades. In the same way that the crime stories reported by the popular media are scarcely representative of the actual nature of everyday crime within developed nations, the court stories followed are rarely illustrative of everyday sentencing practices. According to Pratt (2007), that media misrepresentation then reinforces the common public opinion that courts are too lenient, even though they have become significantly more punitive, in addition to fuelling the widely held public sentiment that the crime rate is constantly escalating when recent statistics indicate that crime is in fact steadily declining in most modern societies. Thus, in its reporting style, crime analysis by the Western popular media has become ‘personalised’ rather than ‘statisticalised’, since: 1) it prioritises the experiences of ordinary people (especially crime victims) over expert opinions 2) News reports are more prone to focus on the occasional failings of criminal justice officials as opposed to their many successes. Indeed, in the vast majority of modern societies, the ‘citation of criminal statistics has become a code for softness on crime and callousness towards its victims’(Pratt, 2007, p88), which simply provides the popular media with further scope to legitimately overstate the scale and severity of everyday crime in developed states. For these reasons, the media outlets in many Western countries have played a significant role in facilitating the continual growth of penal populist sentiments among the public. 3. The Transient Growth of a Drug-Crime Economy in Developed Countries It is highly pertinent that the vast expansion in drug crime within many Western nations during the late 1970s and 1980s coincided precisely with the onset of rapidly escalating incarceration rates in these same countries. As is asserted, ‘the growth in nondrug crime has simply not been sufficient to sustain the rapid growth of imprisonment. By the 1970s there was already an active culture of drug use and networks of drug importation/sales in the United States, but their economic importance increased in the 1980s due to new products and distribution strategies, especially for ‘crack’ cocaine. That transformation in the marketing of illegal drugs coincided with political decisions to intensify the punishments for drug crimes. The result was an enlargement of the population available for criminal justice processing’(Caplow and Simon, 1999, p71). It is crucial to acknowledge, therefore, that in any modern industrial society there is not a rudimentary causal link between a greater public desire for severity in criminal sanctions and a sustained growth in incarceration numbers; other conditions must be present. Specifically, ‘a key condition is a large pool of offenders available to be imprisoned’(Caplow and Simon, 1999, p93). Although there had also been documented transient increases in the number of offenders committing nondrug crimes such as violent crime, property crime (larceny), and sex crime in modern societies during the 1980s, these numbers tended to fluctuate in cycles over time, and could not account for the continual rise in incarceration rates observed. In contrast, the number of drug crime offences had remained consistently high throughout the 1980s in virtually all developed countries that have experienced an incarceration boom. However, in most Western nations the total drug crime rate then started to steadily decline during the 1990s largely due to the much harsher punishments being imposed on drug crime offenders (both petty and serious) by the criminal justice systems in these states. One valid explanation for the persistently high rate of drug crime during the 1980s is the ‘economic base’ principle. Specifically, while the average monetary yield of larceny, violence and sex offences is very low, drug crime represents one of the only categories of felony where the potential financial returns are extremely high, and that provides a strong economic incentive for individuals living in poverty. Hence, drug smuggling and trafficking are the only illegal activities capable of providing a solid economic base for a large criminal population in modern society. The initial cost of goods is low and law enforcement efforts sustain high retail prices, thereby ensuring large profit margins (Reuter and Kleiman, 1986). Since the 1980s, drug crime has certainly been targeted by penal populist sentiments in many Western countries affected by a public expectation for greater punitiveness, largely irrespective of how the drug crime rate has subsequently changed in these developed nations, but it is evidently not the only category of felony that has become a common target of penal populism. Sex offences (especially against children), violent or abusive crimes (once again, even more so when the victims are children), and youth crime are three other important types of crime that in late modern capitalist states have characteristically become subjected to a public desire for penal excess. We shall examine in detail at a later stage below what these specific four categories of crime have in common and why they are such typical targets of penal populist sentiments in developed liberal societies. 4. The Increased Dependence of Governments on Crime Control as a Source of Popular Credibility The rapid proliferation of drug crime in many Western countries during the late 1970s and 1980s was accompanied by a great loss of public confidence in the social welfare programs implemented in these same nations. As Pratt (2007, p95) asserts, ‘the visible presence of drug addicts in these countries had become a symbol of misplaced welfarism and tolerance, now believed to be corroding their economic and social fabrics’. Furthermore, the short-lived growth of general crime waves in many modern societies during the late twentieth century led to a significant decline of public assurance in the competence of their respective governments to control the state. As one study remarks, ‘the international crime waves of the 1960s and 1970s helped diminish the prestige of national governments all over the industrial world, by calling into question their capacity to maintain social order. The increase of crime rates at a time of increasing government efforts to help the poor undermined many of the traditional arguments for welfare, and helped confirm the view of many conservatives that efforts to help the poor only made circumstances worse by eliminating incentives for self improvement’(Caplow and Simon, 1999, p88). It is difficult to determine whether the crime wave was caused by expansions in welfare programs or merely coincided with them. The main point is that in addition to the direct relationship between high rates of crime and demands for punitive governmental responses, the crime wave may have indirectly diminished the prestige of and public demand for welfare-oriented government (Caplow and Simon, 1999). Thus, it is argued that during the 1980s many Western governments shifted the priority of their domestic agendas away from welfare policies toward crime control policies. Initially, it was most often right wing conservative politicians that promoted ‘tough on crime’ punitive measures, making crime a political issue and gaining public support. However, Lappi-Seppà ¤là ¤ (2002, p92) suggests that mainstream opposition (i.e. left wing) parties are then forced into advocating punitive policies as well, because although these left wing parties want to ‘distance themselves from the populist programmes of the right wing movements, there is one area where they do not like to disagree – the requirement of being ‘tough on crime’. No party seems to be willing to accuse another of exaggeration when it comes to measures against criminality. Being ‘soft on crime’ is an accusation that no [governmental party] wants to accept. And it is that fear of being softer than one’s political opponents which tends to drive politicians, in the end, to the extremes of penal excess’. It is plausible to argue, therefore, that constant competition between opposing governmental factions for public favour in liberal democracies has created an ‘punitive arms race’ of political opportunism, whereby each party is compelled to promote plus (when in power) implement increasingly more radical punitive policies – irrespective of the actual level of crime that the country is experiencing – in order to avoid appearing weak on crime and consequently losing valuable electoral votes to their political opponents who are prepared to be more severe on criminals. Clearly, such an opportunistic punitive arms race occurring within the governments of developed nations would lead to an exponential increase in the prison population numbers of these countries, and ultimately to prison overcrowding. That political mechanism may at least partly explain why so many Western countries which have experienced a large decrease in crime rates since the mid-1990s and into the early twenty-first century have still reported a rising prison population. For example, Pratt (2006, p1) observes that since 1999 Labour led coalition governments in New Zealand have strongly adhered to Britain’s New Labour ‘approach to crime and punishment, even using the famous phrase ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ in its election manifestoes of 2002 and 2005. As a consequence, while [New Zealand’s] recorded crime rate has dropped by 25% in the last ten years, its imprisonment rate has increased to 189 per 100,000, one of the highest of Western countries’. Yet it is not only the divisions (i.e. in terms of competing parties) within Western democratic governments that have catalysed the increased political focus on crime control, but also the growing number of divisions among the public itself. Indeed, modern society in many developed nations (such as the United Kingdom and the United States) has become increasingly heterogeneous since the late twentieth century, and consequently the number of bases of division within these societies has expanded. For example, the members of a diverse post-industrial society are not only partitioned along the traditional parameter of social class, but are also strongly divided by a number of dichotomous value-based issues that are characteristic of ‘post-materialist’ politics such as abortion, gay rights, animal rights (e.g. fox hunting), mass immigration, school prayer, and capital punishment where it still exists (Caplow and Simon, 1999). These value- or identity-based issues are intensely contested over in modern societies by well-organised pressure groups on either side of the bipolar political spectrum. These issues are bipolar or dichotomous in the sense that they are non-negotiable with no ‘middle ground’; one either supports abortion rights or one opposes them. Hence, public division on these post-materialist issues is inevitable. One important consequence of the heterogeneous publics of Western countries becoming divided by such a multitude of value conflicts during the 1970s onward is that government parties had difficulty finding any issues to build successful election campaigns on that would appeal to a vast majority of the public. Harsher crime control appeared to be a clear choice as a singular issue that large sections of the modern public are united in consensus on. As is stated, ‘Unlike most values issues on the left or right, crime control seems to cut across the political spectrumPoliticians seeking to build viable majorities inevitably turn to the few issues that can bring people together in the new political landscapeThat is why election campaigns continue to focus on crime and punishment issues even when opposing candidates agree in their support of punitive anticrime measures. Faced with voters who split on so many issues and who are profoundly sceptical about the ability of government to improve their lives through welfare-oriented interventions, the mode of governing that commands the broadest support – punitiveness toward criminal offenders – is understandably [valued by governments]’(Caplow and Simon, 1999, p83). Ultimately, therefore, while short-lived actual increases in crime rates during the late 1970s and 1980s may have initially triggered the rise in imprisonment rates in a number of developed countries, political opportunism (in the sense of governments capitalising on populist punitiveness) has arguably sustained the incarceration boom in virtually all Western nations affected by prison overcrowding, regardless of how those crime rates may have subsequently changed. 5. The Target Crimes of Penal Populism There is a high degree of uniformity across all Western nations that have experienced an incarceration surge over the past three decades in the types of crime that are most commonly subjected to strong public demand for harsh punitive sanctions. Generally, the four most frequent felony targets of penal populism are: Drug crime; Sex offences, especially when the victims are children; Child abuse (physical, sexual, or psychological), and; Youth crime. Correspondingly, these have also been some of the fastest growing segments of prison and boot camp populations in many developed countries during recent years. One fundamental property that the above four categories of crime have in common is that children are extremely vulnerable to the effects of all of them. We may validly question why children have come to occupy such a central place in the penal populist sentiments of modern industrial societies. Pratt (2007, p96) remarks that ‘crime control policy driven by penal populism targets ‘others’, not ordinary, ‘normal’ peopleGiven the nature of populism, we should expect that crime control policy will gravitate towards easy and familiar targets, for whom there is likely to be the least public sympathy, the most social distance and the fewest authoritative voices (if any) to speak on their behalf: tho

Friday, October 25, 2019

Compare 4 poems (1 Duffy/ 1 Armitage/ 2 Pre 1914) which you have found :: English Literature

Compare 4 poems (1 Duffy/ 1 Armitage/ 2 Pre 1914) which you have found interesting because of the way they are structured and the language used. In this essay, I am going to compare four poems, which are " Stealing" by Carol Ann Duffy, "Hitcher" by Simon Armitage, "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning and "The Laboratory" by Robert Browning that I have found interesting as the way they are structured and the language used. The four poems all have similarities between themselves, as they are all involved with the theme of violent. Also, the poets have used many different language devices with a well-planned structure to make the poem more appealing to the reader. This is effective, because it makes the reader feels that it's different from the other poems. Firstly, in "Stealing" Duffy has started off the poem with a rhetorical question, "The most unusual thing I ever stole? A snowman." (Line 1) This may illustrates to us either that the persona is responding the question that some one has asked in a conversation or the persona wanted to tell us what is the unusual thing she/he has stole. This makes us feel interesting to the poem, because the languages Duffy has used, to make we as a reader to interpret whatever way we like. The structure in "Stealing" is irregular, because the previous stanza does not link towards the next stanza. This perhaps displays that Duffy is trying to shows the disturbed mind of the persona. "Mostly I'm so bored I could eat myself." (Line 21) From this sentence we can find out that the persona is an abnormal person, because a normal person would not eat him/herself even though if they were bored. The interesting bit of the structure is that it is unique. Since that some of the poems always have the same structure which seem to be normal and dull, therefore if the poem structured in a different way will make the reader feel it's an extraordinary poem. In contrast, in "Hitcher", "My Last Duchess" and "The Laboratory" although, the languages that the poets have used are not violent, but what the character does in the poem makes the poem seem to be violent. For example: - In "Hitcher", the murder killed a person in the poem, "once with the head, then six times with the krooklok in the face". (Line 13) From this line it proves that Armitage has hardly used any violent languages in the violent act scene. This makes the poem seems to be interesting because the poem has still contains the theme of violent, without using aggressive languages.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Jack Mapanje as an Imbongi.

HOW JACK MAPANJE FULFILLS THE ROLE OF AN â€Å"IMBONGI†- ON HIS ROYAL BLINDNESS PARAMOUNT CHIEF KWANGWALA. Africa is one of the world's continents, having a unique physical make up of its own which comprises of some of the distinct features in the likes of mountains, lakes, falls and plains just to mention a few. It is from this outset that one of the integral branches of literature particularly African literature sprouted.Practiced and expressed in the southern central nation of Malawi, African literature was used as a tool in a fight for change and was used to question the monstrous leadership of the Malawi nation which was being practiced by the then country's president late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda. Chirambo (2009: p1) highlights that the government of former president for life Dr. H. K. Banda and the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in Malawi was a dictatorship that relied on coercion as well as mobilization of grassroots popular support and consent to maintain itself in power for 30 years (1964–1994).It was this governance that gave birth to different self camouflaging writing styles, a point which Kerr (1987) agrees to by saying that writers formed a Malawian creative writing movement which used literary methods that frequently outwitted Banda and his ever vigilant formal and informal censors. Jack Mapanje, James Gibbs, Leroy Vail and Landeg White all give accounts of how writers managed to beat censorship. Using oral forms, new metaphors from Malawi's indigenous languages, suggestive words, puns, and certain popular phrases, they managed to camouflage some of the critical literature for circulation without reprisal.Depicting such a writing style some of the writers emerged as messengers. These messengers in African literature are termed as â€Å"Imbongis†. This essay intends to bring to the fore how Jack Mapanje fulfills the role of an imbongi through his writings basing its discussion on a three stanza poem â€Å"On His Royal Blindness Paramount Chief Kwangwala†. Mapanje is one of Malawi’s renowned poets who suffered the hand of Kamuzu's readership as he was detained without charge for almost four years between September 1987 and May 1991.At the time of his arrest, Mapanje was serving as Chair of the English Department at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi. To this day the government has not given the actual reasons for his detention (Chirambo: 2009, p4). Writing in the time s of â€Å"Kamuzuism† a term assigned to symbolize Kamuzu's oppressive acts, Mapanje secured the role of an imbongi as his writings circulated against Kamuzu's leadership with criticism, disagreement and at the same time praise. Whereby these are some of the roles of a praise poet (an Imbongi).Mafeje(1967: p193) defines an imbongi as someone who lived in close proximity to the Chief’s Great Place and who accompanied the Chief on important occasions . His performances would be directed at the Chief, decry ing what was unworthy, praising what was worthy and even forecasting what was going to happen. Clearly, the Imbongi's role was one that allowed for criticism . With reference to Mafeje's definition then taking a closer look at Mapanje's title â€Å" On His Royal Blindness Paramount Chief Kwangwala† it can easily be assumed that the poet was describing the leadership of a chief whom the poet himself served as an imbongi.The title on the other hand is brandished with sarcasm as the poet has used the term â€Å"blindness† which represents the lost in direction of the leadership in discussion. This leadership can be equated to that of Kamuzu this is so as Banda regarded Malawi as one big village in which he was the paramount Chief, father, guardian, and protector of all people and went so far as to call Malawi, â€Å"my tribe . . . the whole nation, the tribe of Malawi† (Chirambo: 2001, p 226). This prompts us to earmark Kamuzu as the chief who's leadership the poet is trying to describe with sarcasm.In the opening stanza the poet is praising the chief by describing how the chief (Kamuzu) finds loyalty in the carried-awayness of his people not under the fact that they really are carried away but the chief has instilled in them a sense that he is their hero. This is the Same spirit that those who lived in the Kamuzu era expressed and it was due to the fact that Kamuzu termed himself with all sorts of self praising names for example Banda was called â€Å"Wamuyaya†, meaning â€Å"the immortal†.The other reason for the undeserved praises was that Kamuzu ordered all women and girls to sing songs of praise where ever he was to visit and he named them â€Å"Mbumba za Kamuzu† meaning Kamuzu's children. As an Imbongi the poet in the first two lines of the poem praising his chief but at the same time in the preceding four lines of the stanza the poet is expressing his bad feeling over how the chief talks to his people as he address es.The poet has used the term â€Å"golden breath† which insinuates the importance of the chief's talks simultaneously criticizing him even more by calling the speeches breath wasting, this has been presented in irony in the line that says . â€Å"Those impromptu, long-winded tirades of your might† Thus Mapanje depicting the role of an imbongi. The second stanza is just a continuation ironic praise the poet is expressing towards the Chief to whom he is an imbongi. In the first lines of the stanza th poet is refuting the thinking that he is criticizing the chief's powers which is exactly what he did in the first stanza.He manages to do this by admitting that him too is supposed to praise the leader and this has been developed in the lines that say; â€Å"I know I too must sing to such royal happiness† â€Å"And I am not arguing†. To further show his devotion Mapanje describes the leader's might by talking about how those that questioned his power suffered, and this is praise in disguise making Mapanje to assume the role of an Imbongi. Mapanje brings up the issue of those that suffered Kamuzuism as they questioned the leader's powers, as a away of showing up his might and at the same time exposing the dark parts of the leader's era.This has been brought up in the lines that say; â€Å" How dare I when we have scribbled our praises all over our graves? † Which is a question that the poet has posed to mean how could he question the president's leadership yet he knows that others have died because of doing the same. A point which in similar vain Steve Chimombo raised in his piece â€Å"A Dead Song† in which he picked animals in the likes of lizards and rats and described by saying they kept seeking refuge from time to time. In Chimombo's context these homeless animals symbolized some of the politicians who went into exile and others who died mysteriously.Mapanje in the last lines of the second stanza is using the leader's i ll-treatments for praise and implicitly unveiling the president's monstrosity. Thereby fulfilling his role as an imbongi. In the third stanza Mapanje is proceeding with his criticism by highlighting that he can not go against the president's governance as he knows people have always done what ever they can to make the leader proud and he would not want to defy such a record. This is in the five lines that say; â€Å"Why should I quarrel when I too have known mask dancers Dancers making troubled journeys to the gold minesOn bare foot and bringing back fake European gadgets The broken pipes, torn coats, crumpled bowler hats, Dangling mirrors and rusty tin cans to make their dancing strange? † Mapanje closes the last line by questioning if others did not die trying to please the president. This is to prove how inhuman the president was. In complete closure Mapanje's last stanza is in total refutation of his underlying criticism in the first three stanzas. He addresses the chief as â€Å" His grace† in sarcasm and refers to himself as just a child who is bored by the chief's self-praising, long, meaningless and tedious speeches .Even though he throws such criticism is at the same time praising the chief in the lines that say â€Å"I am only a child surprised how you broadly disparage Me shocked only by the tedium of your continuous palaver. I adore your majesty†. The poet then goes on by reminding the leader that his leadership powers are time bound and will at some point in time come to an end, and this is in total rejection of the term that refers to the president as being immortal the poet has presented this as a simile.He is also making a wake up call to the nation by asking it as to when will it realize it is misled by old age that is being expressed by the president. This has been expressed by the poet in the lines that say; â€Å"But paramountcy is like a rain drop On a vast sea. Why should we wait for the children to Tell us about too thless gums or our showing flies. In conclusion Jack Mapanje as a poet he fulfills his role as an imbongi by using irony, sarcasm, similes, metaphors as poetic tools to camouflage his Kamuzuism challenging ideas which is one of the roles of a praise poet (Imbongi) .Despite highlighting the monstrosity of Kamuzu's leadership, Mapanje at the same time praises the president. Thereby fulfilling his role as an Imbongi. REFERENCES. Chirambo, R. (2001) â€Å"Protesting Politics of ‘Death and Darkness’ in Malawi. † :Journal of Folklore Research 38. 3. Chirambo, R. (2009) â€Å"Subverting Banda’s Dictatorship in Malawi: Orality as Counter-Discourse in Jack: PDF. Chimombo, S. (1987) â€Å"Napolo Poems†. Zomba: Manchichi Publishers. Kerr, D. (1987) â€Å"Theater in Malawi', The Drama Review 31†, Summer. Mafeje, A. (1967) â€Å"The Role of the Bard in a Contemporary African Community† :Journal of African Languages.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Succubus Blues CHAPTER 4

â€Å"Kill me, Doug. Just kill me now. Put me out of my misery.† My immortality notwithstanding, the sentiment was sincere. â€Å"Christ, Kincaid, what did you say to him?† murmured Doug. We stood off to the side of Seth Mortensen's audience, along with many others. All the seats had filled up, putting space and visibility at a premium. I was lucky to be with the staff in our reserved section, giving us a perfect view of Seth as he read from The Glasgow Pact. Not that I wanted to be in his line of sight. In fact, I really would have preferred that I never come face to face with him again. â€Å"Well,† I told Doug, keeping an eye on Paige so as not to draw attention to our whispering, â€Å"I ripped on his fans and on how long it takes for his books to come out.† Doug stared at me, his expectations exceeded. â€Å"Then I said – not knowing who he was – that I'd be Seth Mortensen's love slave in exchange for advanced copies of his books.† I didn't elaborate on my impromptu flirting. To think, I'd imagined I was boosting a shy guy's ego! Good Lord. Seth Mortensen could probably bed a different groupie every night if he wanted. Not that he seemed like the type. He'd demonstrated much of the same initial nervousness in front of the crowd as he had with me. He grew more comfortable once he started reading, however, warming to the material and letting his voice rise and fall with intensity and wry humor. â€Å"What kind of a fan are you?† Doug asked. â€Å"Didn't you know what he looked like?† â€Å"There are never pictures of him in his books! Besides, I thought he'd be older.† I guessed now that Seth was in his mid-thirties, a bit older than I looked in this body, but younger than the forty-something writer I'd always imagined. â€Å"Well, look on the bright side, Kincaid. You succeeded in your goal: you got him to notice you.† I stifled a groan, letting my head flop pathetically onto Doug's shoulder. Paige turned her head and gave us a withering glance. As usual, our manager looked stunning, wearing a red suit that set off her chocolate brown skin. The faintest swellings of pregnancy showed under the jacket, and I couldn't help but feel a tug of jealous longing. When she had first announced her unplanned pregnancy, she had laughed it off, saying: â€Å"Well, you know how these things can just happen.† But I had never known how it could â€Å"just happen.† I'd tried desperately to get pregnant as a mortal, to no avail, instead becoming an object of pity and carefully hidden – albeit not well enough – jokes. Becoming a succubus had killed whatever lingering chance I might have had at motherhood, though I hadn't realized that at the time. I had sacrificed my body's ability to create in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. One type of immortality traded for another. Long centuries give you a lot of time to accept what you can and can't have, but being reminded of it stings nonetheless. Giving Paige a smile that promised good behavior, I turned my attention back to Seth. He was just finishing up the reading and moving on to questions. As expected, the first ones asked were, â€Å"Where do you get your ideas from?† and â€Å"Are Cady and O'Neill ever going to get together?† He glanced briefly in my direction before answering, and I cringed, recalling my remarks about him impaling himself when those questions were asked. Turning back to his fans, he addressed the first question seriously and dodged the second one. Everything else he answered succinctly, often in a dry and subtly humorous way. He never spoke any more than he had to, always providing just enough to fulfill the questioner's requirements. The crowd clearly unnerved him, which I found a bit disappointing. Considering how punchy and clever his books were, I guess I'd expected him to speak in the same way he wrote. I wanted a confident outpouring of words and wit, a charisma to rival my own. He'd had a few good lines earlier while we spoke, I supposed, but he'd taken time to warm up to them and to me. Of course, it was unfair to make comparisons between us. He had no uncanny knack for dazzling others, nor centuries of practice behind him. Still. I had never imagined a slightly scattered introvert capable of creating my favorite books. Unjust of me, but there it was. â€Å"Everything going okay?† a voice behind us asked. I looked over and saw Warren, the store's owner and my occasional fuck-buddy. â€Å"Perfectly,† Paige told him in her crisp, efficient way. â€Å"We'll start the signing in another fifteen minutes or so.† â€Å"Good.† His eyes flicked casually over the rest of us staff and then shot back to me. He said nothing, but as he scoured me with that gaze, I could almost feel his hands undressing me. He'd come to expect sex on a regular basis, and usually I didn't fight it since he provided a quick and reliable – albeit small – fix of energy and life. His low moral character erased any guilt I might have for doing so. After the questions ended, we faced crowd control issues as everyone queued up to get their books signed. I offered to help, but Doug told me they had things under control. So, instead, I stayed out of the way, trying to avoid eye contact with Seth. â€Å"Meet me in my office when this is all over,† Warren murmured, coming up to stand close beside me. He wore a tailored, charcoal gray suit tonight, looking every inch the sophisticated literary tycoon. In spite of my distasteful opinion of a man who cheated on his wife of thirty years with a much younger employee, I still had to acknowledge a certain amount of physical charm and allure to him. After everything that had happened today, though, I was not in the mood to be sprawled across his desk when the store closed. â€Å"I can't,† I answered back softly, still watching the signing. â€Å"I'm busy afterwards.† â€Å"No you aren't. It's not a dancing night.† â€Å"No,† I agreed. â€Å"But I'm doing something else.† â€Å"Like what?† â€Å"I have a date.† The lie came easily to my lips. â€Å"You do not.† â€Å"I do.† â€Å"You never date, so don't try that line now. The only appointment you have is with me, back in my office, preferably on your knees.† He took a step closer, speaking into my ear so that I could feel the warmth of his breath on my skin. â€Å"Jesus, Georgina. You're so fucking hot tonight, I could take you right now. Do you have any idea what you're doing to me in that outfit?† â€Å"‘Doing to you?' I'm not ‘doing' anything. It's attitudes like that that result in women being veiled around the world, you know. It's blaming the victim.† He chuckled. â€Å"You crack me up, you know that? Do you have any panties on under that?† â€Å"Kincaid? Can you come help us over here?† I turned and saw Doug frowning at us. It would figure. He wanted my help, now that he saw Warren hitting on me. Who said there was no chivalry left in this world? Doug was one of the few who knew what passed between Warren and me, and he didn't approve. Yet, I wanted the escape, belated or no, and thus temporarily evaded Warren's lust as I walked over to assist with the book sale. It took almost two hours to shuffle customers through the signing line, and by then, the store was fifteen minutes from closing. Seth Mortensen looked a little tired but seemed to be in good spirits. My stomach flip-flopped inside me when Paige beckoned those of us not involved with closing to come over and talk to him. She introduced us matter-of-factly. â€Å"Warren Lloyd, store owner. Doug Sato, assistant manager. Bruce Newton, cafe manager. Andy Kraus, sales. And you already know Georgina Kincaid, our other assistant manager.† Seth nodded politely, shaking everyone's hand. When he reached me, I averted my eyes, waiting for him to just move on. When he did not, I mentally cringed, bracing myself for some comment about our previous encounters. Instead, all he said was, â€Å"G.K.† I blinked. â€Å"Huh?† â€Å"G.K.,† he repeated, as though those letters made perfect sense. When my idiotic expression persisted, he gave a swift head jerk toward one of the promotional flyers for tonight's event. It read: If you haven't heard of Seth Mortensen, then you obviously haven't been living on this planet for the last eight years. He's only the hottest thing to hit the mystery/contemporary fiction market, making the competition look like scribbles in a child's picture book. With several bestselling titles to his name, the illustrious Mr. Mortensen writes both self-standing novels and continual installments in the stunningly popular Cady & O'Neill series. The Glasgow Pact continues the adventures of these intrepid investigators as they travel abroad this time, continuing to unravel archaeological mysteries and engage in the persistent witty, sexual banter we've come to love them for. Guys, if you can't find your girlfriends tonight, they're here with The Glasgow Pact, wishing you were as suave as O'Neill. – G.K. â€Å"You're G.K. You wrote the bio.† He looked to me for confirmation, but I couldn't speak, wouldn't utter the clever acknowledgment about to spring from my lips. I was too afraid. After my earlier mishaps, I feared saying the wrong thing. Finally, confused by my silence, he asked haltingly, â€Å"Are you a writer? It's really good.† â€Å"No.† â€Å"Ah.† A few moments passed in cool silence. â€Å"Well. I guess some people write the stories, and others live them.† That sounded like a dig of sorts, but I bit my lip on any response, still playing my new ice-bitch role, wanting to defuse the earlier flirtation. Paige, not understanding the tension between Seth and me, still felt it and tried to allay it. â€Å"Georgina's one of your biggest fans. She was absolutely ecstatic when she found out you were coming here.† â€Å"Yeah,† added Doug wickedly. â€Å"She's practically a slave to your books. Ask her how many times she's read The Glasgow Pact.† I shot him a murderous look, but Seth's attention focused back on me, genuinely curious. He's trying to bring back our earlier rapport, I realized sadly. I couldn't let that happen now. â€Å"How many?† I swallowed, not wanting to answer, but the weight of all those eyes grew too heavy. â€Å"None. I haven't finished it yet.† Practiced poise allowed me to utter those words calmly and confidently, hiding my discomfort. Seth looked puzzled. So did everyone else; they all stared at me, rightfully perplexed. Only Doug knew the joke. â€Å"None?† asked Warren with a frown. â€Å"Hasn't it been out for over a month now?† Doug, the bastard, grinned. â€Å"Tell them the rest. Tell them how much you read a day.† I wished then that the floor would open up and swallow me whole, so I could escape this nightmare. As if coming off as an arrogant strumpet in front of Seth Mortensen wasn't bad enough, Doug was now shaming me into confessing my ridiculous habit. â€Å"Five,† I finally said. â€Å"I only read five pages a day.† â€Å"Why?† asked Paige. She had apparently never heard this story. I could feel my cheeks turning red. Paige and Warren stared at me like I was from another planet while Seth simply continued to remain silent and look thoughtfully distracted. I took a deep breath and spoke in a rush: â€Å"Because†¦ because it's so good, and because there's only one chance to read a book for the first time, and I want it to last. That experience. I'd finish it in a day otherwise, and that'd be like†¦ like eating a carton of ice cream in one sitting. Too much richness over too quickly. This way, I can draw it out. Make the book last longer. Savor it. I have to since they don't come out that often.† I promptly shut up, realizing I had just insulted Seth's writing prowess†¦ again. He made no response to my comment, and I couldn't decipher the expression on his face. Considering, maybe. Once again, I silently begged the floor to consume me and save me from this humiliation. It obstinately refused. Doug smiled reassuringly at me. He found my habit cute. Paige, who apparently did not, looked as though she shared my wish that I be somewhere else. She cleared her throat politely and started a completely new line of conversation. After that, I scarcely paid attention to what anybody said. All I knew was that Seth Mortensen probably thought I was an erratic nutcase, and I couldn't wait for this night to end. â€Å"†¦ Kincaid would do it.† The sound of my name brought me back around several minutes later. â€Å"What?† I turned to Doug, the speaker. â€Å"Wouldn't you?† he repeated. â€Å"Wouldn't I what?† â€Å"Show Seth around the city tomorrow.† Doug spoke patiently, as if to a child. â€Å"Get him acquainted with the area.† â€Å"My brother's too busy,† explained Seth. What did his brother have to do with anything? And why did he need to get acquainted with the area? I faltered, unwilling to admit I'd spaced out just now while wallowing in self-pity. â€Å"If you don't want to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  began Seth hesitantly. â€Å"Of course she does.† Doug nudged me. â€Å"Come on. Climb out of your hole.† We exchanged smartass looks, worthy of Jerome and Carter. â€Å"Yeah, fine. Whatever.† We arranged the logistics of me meeting Seth, and I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. I no longer wanted to stand out. In fact, I would have preferred if he could have just blotted me from his mind forever. Hanging out as we toured Seattle tomorrow didn't seem like the best way to make that happen. If anything, it would probably only result in more foolish behavior on my part. Conversation finally faded. As we were about to disperse, I suddenly realized something. â€Å"Oh. Hey. Mr. Mortensen. Seth.† He turned toward me. â€Å"Yeah?† I frantically tried to say something that would undo the tangled mess of mixed signals and embarrassment he and I had stumbled into. Unfortunately, the only things that came to mind were: Where do you get your ideas from? and Are Cady and O'Neill ever going to get together? Dismissing such idiocy, I simply shoved my book over to him. â€Å"Can you sign this?† He took it. â€Å"Uh, sure.† A pause. â€Å"I'll bring it back tomorrow. â€Å" Deprive me of my book for the night? Hadn't I suffered enough? â€Å"Can't you just sign it now?† He shrugged haplessly, as though the matter were out of his control. â€Å"I can't think of anything to write.† â€Å"Just sign your name.† â€Å"I'll bring it back tomorrow,† he repeated, walking away with my copy of The Glasgow Pact like I hadn't even said anything. Appalled, I seriously considered running over and beating him up for it, but Warren suddenly tugged on my arm. â€Å"Georgina,† he said pleasantly as I stared desperately at my retreating book, â€Å"we still need to discuss that matter in my office.† No. No way. I definitely wasn't putting out after this debacle of an evening. Turning slowly toward him, I shook my head. â€Å"I told you, I can't.† â€Å"Yeah, I know already. Your fictitious date.† â€Å"It's not fictitious. It's – â€Å" My eyes desperately scanned for escape as I spoke. While no magical portals appeared in the cookbook section, I suddenly locked gazes with a guy browsing our foreign language books. He smiled curiously at my attention, and in a flash, I made a ballsy choice. † – with him. It's with him.† I waved my hand at the strange guy and beckoned him over. He looked understandably surprised, setting his book down and walking toward us. When he arrived, I slung my arm around him familiarly, giving him a look that had been known to bring kings to their knees. â€Å"Are you ready to go?† Mild astonishment flashed in his eyes – which were beautiful, by the way. An intense green-blue. To my relief, he played along and returned my serve masterfully. â€Å"You bet.† His own arm snaked around me, his hand resting on my hip with surprising presumption. â€Å"I would have been here sooner, but I got held up in traffic.† Cute. I glanced at Warren. â€Å"Rain check for our talk?† Warren looked from me to the guy and then back to me. â€Å"Sure. Yes. Of course.† Warren had proprietary feelings toward me, but they weren't strong enough for him to challenge a younger competitor. A few of my coworkers also watched with interest. Like Warren, none of them had ever really seen me date anyone. Seth Mortensen busied himself packing up a briefcase, never meeting my eyes again, for all the world oblivious to my existence. He didn't even respond when I said goodbye. Probably just as well. My â€Å"date† and I left the store, stepping out into the cool night. The precipitation had stopped, but clouds and city lights blotted out the stars. Studying him, I kind of wished maybe we were going out after all. He was tall – really tall. Probably at least ten inches taller than my diminutive five-four. His hair was black and wavy, brushed away from a deeply tanned face that nearly made those sea-colored eyes glow. He wore a long, black wool coat and a scarf with a black, burgundy, and green plaid pattern. â€Å"Thanks,† I said as we paused to stand on the street corner. â€Å"You saved me from an†¦ unpleasant situation.† â€Å"My pleasure.† He held out his hand to me. â€Å"I'm Roman.† â€Å"Nice name.† â€Å"I guess. It reminds me of a romance novel.† â€Å"Oh?† â€Å"Yeah. No one's really named that in real life. But in romance novels, there are a million of them. ‘Roman the Fifth Duke of Wellington.' ‘Roman the Terrible yet Dashing and Eerily Attractive Pirate of the High Seas.' â€Å" â€Å"Hey, I think I read that last one. I'm Georgina.† â€Å"So I see.† He nodded toward the staff ID badge I wore around my neck. Probably an excuse to check out my cleavage. â€Å"Is that outfit the standard uniform for assistant managers?† â€Å"This outfit's becoming a real pain in the ass actually,† I noted, thinking of the various reactions it had elicited. â€Å"You can wear my coat. Where do you want to go tonight?† â€Å"Where do I – ? We aren't going out. I told you: you just saved me from a minor entanglement, that's all.† â€Å"Hey, that's still got to be worth something,† he countered. â€Å"A handkerchief? A kiss on the cheek? Your phone number?† â€Å"No!† â€Å"Oh, come on. Did you see how good I was? I didn't miss a beat when you roped me in with that come-hither look of yours.† I couldn't deny that. â€Å"All right. It's 555-1200.† â€Å"That's the store number.† â€Å"How did you know that?† He pointed to the Emerald City sign behind me. It contained all of the store's contact information. â€Å"Because I'm literate. â€Å" â€Å"Wow. That puts you, like, ten steps above most of the guys that hit on me.† He turned hopeful. â€Å"So does that mean we can go out sometime?† â€Å"Nope. I appreciate your help tonight, but I don't date.† â€Å"Don't think of it as a date then. Think of it as†¦ a meeting of minds.† The way he looked at me suggested he wanted to meet more than just my mind. I shivered involuntarily, but I wasn't cold. In fact, I was starting to feel unnervingly warm. He unbuttoned his coat. â€Å"Here. You're freezing. Wear this while I take you home. My car's around the corner.† â€Å"I live within walking distance.† His coat was still warm from his body and smelled nice. A combination of cK One and, well, man. Yum. â€Å"Then let me walk you home.† His persistence was charming, which was all the more reason I had to end things now. This was exactly the kind of quality guy I needed to avoid. â€Å"Come on,† Roman begged when I didn't answer. â€Å"This isn't much to ask for. I'm not a stalker or anything. All I want is one walk home. Then you never have to see me again.† â€Å"Look, you barely even know me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I paused, reconsidering what he'd said. â€Å"Okay.† â€Å"Okay what?† â€Å"Okay, you can walk me home.† â€Å"Really?† He brightened. â€Å"Yup.† Three minutes later, when we arrived at my apartment building, he threw up his hands in dismay. â€Å"That wasn't fair at all. You're practically next door.† † ‘One walk home.' That was all you asked for.† Roman shook his head. â€Å"Not fair. Not fair at all. But† – he looked up hopefully at my building – â€Å"at least I know where you live now.† â€Å"Hey! You said you weren't a stalker.† He grinned, gorgeous white teeth flashing against his tanned skin. â€Å"It's never too late to start.† Leaning down, he kissed my hand and gave me a wink. â€Å"Until we meet again, fair Georgina.† He turned and walked off into the Queen Anne night. I watched him go, still feeling his lips on my skin. What an unexpected – and perplexing – twist to the evening. When he was no longer in sight, I turned around and went into my building. I was halfway up the stairs when I realized I was still wearing his coat. How was I going to get it back to him? He did that on purpose, I realized. He let me keep it. I suddenly knew then that I would be seeing wily Duke Roman again. Probably sooner, rather than later. Chuckling, I continued on to my apartment, halting after just a few more steps. â€Å"Not again,† I muttered in exasperation. Familiar sensations swirled behind my apartment door. Like a glittering tempest. Like the humming of bees in the air. There was a group of immortals inside my home. What the fuck? Did I need to start charging admission to my apartment? Why did everyone suddenly think they could just go right inside when I wasn't there? It occurred to me then, ever so briefly, that I had not sensed Jerome and Carter's presence earlier. They had caught me completely unaware. That was weird, but I had been too distracted by their news to pay much attention to anything else. Similarly, my current anger did not allow me to further ponder that odd piece of trivia now. I was too annoyed. Slinging my purse over one shoulder, I stormed into my home.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Example

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Example Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay I believe Apple Inc. [ largely referred as Apple in this papers ] has met the ethical and societal duty towards general populace. employees. clients and shareholders/investors. Apple places itself to be really environment witting and continuously working to cut down the pes print of the company and its merchandises on the planet ( Apple Inc. ) . Apple has a recycling plan for its used merchandises ; it sends gift cards to clients in return for the used merchandises. if the merchandises do non hold any pecuniary value they recycle them responsibly. Apple reports the environmental foot-print of each of its merchandise on their web site to demo how much energy efficient they are and how Apple is taking more biodegradable elements in its merchandises. packaging and installations. Apple has multiple offices and datacenters in United States and as of March 2013 70 five per centum of them are to the full powered through renewable energy beginnings ( Kastrenakes. 2013 ) . Apple is continuously seeking to better the state of affairs and taking to trust wholly on renewable energy beginnings in future. To better ethical consciousness within its employees. Apple has a concern codification of behavior published and easy available via intranet web site within the company and to its investors via stockholder web site ( Business codification. 2012 ) which explains in item on assorted subjects including its well known close manner of let go ofing its merchandises. Apple besides has a Business behavior helpline available for its employees to decide ethical quandary. study struggles of involvement and seek way in doing ethical determination. Recently Tim Cook. Apple CEO has reminded all employees to reexamine Apple’s concern behavior policy via corporate electronic mail ( Marie. 2013 ) which shows the importance Apple gives to Ethical motives within the company. Apple treats its employees really good ; wages reasonably good wages to employees and rates to contractors. Apple’s has a really good benefit plan for its employees. even the parttime employees are entitled to benefit s at apple ( Fiegerman. 2012 ) . it provides shuttle service to many locations from many topographic points in Bay country to campus. Apple merchandises are really safe compared to many other rival merchandises. Apple pays attending to inside informations. e. g. : To avoid tripping over a bear downing overseas telegram. Mac book courser has a magnet alternatively of a difficult stick in stopper as we observe in many Windows PCs. All of its merchandises are good thought and supply batch of convenience and see client wellness and safety. as we see in the instance of latest ear phones from Apple. they have the talkers traveling crabwise alternatively of straight in to ears as most of the conventional ear stoppers do. this restricts music straight hitting the ear membranophone and long term exposure may hold inauspicious impact on the ears. Apple merchandises are good sealed and inactive resistant. the stuffs used in production are non inexpensive and low quality parts. which improves the lastingness of its merchandises. Apple provides batch of fluctuations in merchandises to take. to a client which attracts clients at all degrees. There are about 10s to twelve spirits of latest iPhone based on colour. size of memory and external stuff. Apple has a really good refund policy. points can be returned online or returned in shop. there is about 14-30 yearss to return points. Apple provides full refund alternatively of bear downing for re-stocking fee. If there is a portion malfunction. apple merchandise can be exchanged for a new one within one twelvemonth of purchase for nominal or zero monetary value. Apple considers customer’s ailments and response quickly by multiple agencies and purposes to please the clients ( Denning. 2011 ) . Apple listens to clients at the shops. online and besides via telephone and improvises on its services. client support and besides their merchandises. It is really obvious that Apple takes good attention of its stockholders ; we can clearly detect that from Apple’s grosss and net incomes from past several quarters. Apple’s portion has gone up five times within past five old ages. Apple provides all of its quarterly. one-year studies along with fiscal statements and exhibits with SEC and complies with SEC policies. Question 2: Publications of moralss and societal duty misdemeanors of its providers. chiefly at Hon Hoi Precision. besides known as FoxConn had impact on Apple’s repute and chiefly no impact on gross revenues and portion value. In 2011 there were 14 self-destructions at FoxConn and subsequently on there were many public violences. suicide protests by workers against the really long working hours. deficiency of insurance. workplace safety. atrocious installation care. incidents of utilizing Child labour. deficiency of injured workers compensation. ground forces cantonment manner direction and others ( McGrath. 2012 ) . Apple has handled things really carefully and assigned right people and started redress methods. published supplier codification of behavior. increased audits in its provider houses. provided preparation. to better state of affairs and repute ; Tim Cook. the Chief executive officer of Apple talked about Foxconn and how his company is seeking to better the on the job conditio ns for employees and workers in its suppliers’ mills and how earnestly Apple is taking the allegations ( Knibbs ) . Apple’s repute had an impact during the clip of events. created a bombilation in media universe ; Apple got a bad name within its investors and interest holders. Subsequently on. Apple was able to pull off out of the state of affairs really good. Overall there is no impact to gross revenues or gross or Apple’s portion value. Apple portions might hold taken a little hit for few yearss when there were publications by media. but overall portion value was turning in 2010 and 2011 when all of studies were being published. Apple is still considered the most admired company in the whole universe as per Fortunes World’s most Admired companies for 2008-2013 ; six old ages in row ( Shaughnessy. 2013 ) . Apple merchandises are really good received in the market ; there are no antipathies or hatred towards Apple’s merchandises based on the allegations. We normally see the bead in gross revenues when there are negative allegations on companies. we have seen this in ins tance of Paula Deen based on her racial remarks and besides with Duck Dynasty and its merchandises when Phil Robertson has made anti-gay remarks and cause large dent in their repute. we have non seen this with Apple. When iPhone 5s was released in September of 2013. shops reported people standing in long lines at Apple and its spouse shops to acquire the first piece. Today there are hardcore fans to Apple merchandises than for any other company. Apple merchandises are turning popularity even in China where the allegations of atrocious working conditions have been reported. Based on my personal observation. Apple shops are among the most crowded shops at local promenades. Even with heavy competition for Samsung. LG. Nokia ( now Microsoft ) and Motorola. Apple iPhones are still most normally used smart phones in United States. Apple’s App shop has more than a Billion applications available to stop users. By detecting the Apple’s growing form. it is safe to state that the impact of provider misdemeanors is minor. Question 3: To better the on the job conditions and abide to Fair Law Association ( FLA ) policies Apple has come up with and published supplier codification of conduct ( Apple provider. 2012 ) for all its providers to adhere who provide parts to its merchandises. To guarantee that its providers adhere to pay and benefits criterions traveling frontward. Apple has to purely implement the supplier codification of conduct and besides increase the supervising and auditing of the provider mills. HR and pay axial rotation systems up to allowed by the local and international Torahs. Many of the regulations and ordinances which are illegal in US are acceptable in other states. As Apple’s providers are chiefly in other states than US. Apple can put up rigorous regulations and guidelines more near to US Torahs in add-on to local authorities policies and Fair Law Association ( FLA ) Torahs. as most of its merchandises are used by consumers in US. Apple can besides open up complaint/suggestion boxes ( online. in mill and via phone ) from workers in provider mills to understand and closely supervise the on the job conditions and acquire feedback on rewards and benefits. Apple can curtail the figure of hours a worker can work in its provider mills. Apple can make guidelines in its codification to hold onsite aid to speak with workers and understand their jobs and work with supplier mills to work out them. Apple can steer its providers to setup onsite and near to campus medical installations for workers working in its provider mills. Apple can work with local media and authorities to make studies from general populace about their provider patterns at mill installations. Apple should bespeak the moralss codification of behavior as one of the primary pre-requisite from their providers as portion of the initial RFP – Request for proposal. Apple should acquire feedback suppliers’ employees to understand how good the codification is followed by its upper direction in the company and should implement provider to better it before reclamation of contracts. Apple should halt purchasing parts from providers with corrupt repute. or providers with weak or no ethical codification of behavior. Apple should compare the on the job conditions and rewards of workers in its provider mills to competitor mills in the country and base on balls ordinances to better the rewards to run into market criterions. Question 4: Apple clients would be willing to pay more for its merchandises to provider better rewards and benefits to suppliers’ workers. Apple can do this happen by demoing the grounds behind addition in monetary values. and how extra money will be utilized for worker compensation and benefits. Apple should advertise in Television. publish articles on its web site and supply information to Media on how the extra money will be utilized. This is much similar to Ms. Lee Rhodes and her Glassybaby in the instance survey. Glassybaby gives 10 % of its grosss for malignant neoplastic disease intervention. Another suggestion that I can do is that. some per centum of addition in wages for workers should besides come from Apple’s net incomes to demo consumers that Apple is non merely bear downing more for merchandises but besides taking a cut in their net incomes to supply better working conditions for workers. Apple and its chief laminitis Steve Jobs do non hold really good name as Philant hropist. there is no public record that Steve Jobs has donated any money ( Sorkin. 2011 ) . After Tim Cook took over Apple’s CEO place. he has made some contributions but compared with other companies with high grosss and net incomes ; the contributions made by Apple are really negligible compared to its grosss and net incomes ( Emerson. 2012 ) . Apple can better its image and repute in the universe by giving some per centum of net incomes to suppliers’ workers through multiple plans and inducements. Today Apple’s merchandises are most popular in the market ; iPhone is the best selling smart phone out at that place in market. Apple and its merchandises have immense fan base and many of the rival smart phones from Samsung or Microsoft are non comparable to iPhone. With such a popularity. increasing a minor per centum E. g. : 3-5 % of monetary value will non hold any impact on merchandise gross revenues. Most of the Apple merchandises are sold with web connexion besides known as information program. the minimal information program is really expensive and costs up to $ 40 per month for many bearers. Some of Apple’s iPhone clients take informations program because they are intrigued with iPhone and Apple merchandises. When clients are willing to pay extra money for seldom used informations program as they stay home largely where there is Wi-Fi connexion as an option to data program. Customers should be willing to pass a spot more money to better working conditions and wages for suppliers’ workers. Question 5: Apple has first-class market scheme for its merchandises ; Everyone remembers those PC and Mac comparing commercials. which used to portray Apple’ Mac computing machines as cool and voguish for Generations X and Y and for everyone at place where as Microsoft Personal computer was shown as concern computing machine with bugs. In world. Microsoft runing system is more flexible and clients can custom-make and do alterations and create applications comparatively easy. where as you need to travel to App Store for installing/upgrading any iOS applications. Microsoft or Samsung devices allow users to copy MP3 files. and play them without any intermediary package such as iTunes. a compulsory application for Apple to copy vocals in to iOS applications. Even with less flexibleness Apple’s merchandises are extremely sold in market today due to its design and public presentation of its merchandises and chiefly it’s Marketing scheme. Apple does non truly advertise new versions of iPhone releases. instead it keeps it secret. there are no beta releases. and there are no images or commercials in the market before a new version iPhone is released. It creates bombilation in the market which generates enigma about its merchandise. In add-on to its ain selling. Apple’s iPhones are besides advertized by other companies such as web suppliers such as AT A ; T. Verizon and other companies which make protective instances and other accoutrements for iPhones. Apple maintains such secrecy before let go ofing its iPhone merchandises ; it has worked greatly for them. Another manner Apple merchandises are advertized is by word of oral cavity. Today many of smart phones in the market from Samsung. LG and Microsoft have similar maps as iPhone. but in my position the secrecy/mystery and word of oral cavity advertising for iPhone has helped to keep its leading in the market. To better competitory advantage over planetary market topographic point. Apple should sell its merchandises more in other states ; spread out its base out of US. The use of smart phones is at brink of acquiring impregnation in United States. consumers in US are tied to informations and voice programs from web suppliers in US. Until latest coevalss of iPhones. iphones were sold at a ulterior release day of the months in Europe. India and China than in United States. There is a batch of fan base for Apple in China and India. Apple should en hard currency that by doing merchandises low-cost in those states. Customers in US do non replace their phones until their contract ends with he web supplier. which is normally two old ages from the contract start day of the month. Most of the states outside of US are non bound to network/data programs for the phones as they use GSM engineering ; this provides flexibleness to consumers to purchase more than one phone in two old ages. Smart phones are acquiring more popular in India and china where the population is really high. Population of India and China combined is more than six times the population of United States ( CIA World Factbook ) ; if Apple can capture a little per centum of the market in those states it will hold more client base than it does in whole US which bring higher grosss. Apple should get down custom-making their merchandises and do them consumer friendly in other states. such as make bill of fare in native linguistic communications. make local usage applications etc. As word of oral cavity advertisement has proven working for Apple. they should get down giving some samples of their merchandises to famous persons in India where the common public tendency is to follow the famous persons and mime their merchandise use. It has worked for other companies and merchandises ; it should besides work for Apple. Apple should get down believing about doing their merchandises more flexible and easy to custom-make. Apple is really popular among trade name. but more savvy users with computing machine background started to tilt more towards Google Android based phones from Samsung and LG as they have more flexibleness and customization options. With computing machine accomplishments and techniques being really common to childs in Generation Y and Z. Apple should believe about concentrating on them and their gustatory sensations and Apple merchandises more flexible. Apple should introduce more. there have been some betterments and alterations to its merchandises in past 3 old ages but at that place has non been a WOW merchandise release. They should come in new markets. start coming up with new merchandises such as long anticipated Apple Television or they should acquire in to wearable appliances such as carpus tickers. spectacless. gesture controlled devices. devices with flexible screens and devices which look cool but monitor human body’s current wellness such as temperature. sugar degrees. blood force per unit area etc. Last but non least. Apple should better its altruist image ; they should get down donating more to needy and charitable foundations. That normally helps in both ways ; it improves the repute and besides works as advertizement. Mentions Apple Inc. ( n. d. ) . Apple and the environment. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. apple. com/environment/ Apple provider codification of behavior. ( 2012. JANUARY ) . Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. apple. com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_Code_of_Conduct. pdf Business codification. ( 2012. DECEMBER ) . Business conduct the manner we do concern worldwide. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //files. stockholder. com/downloads/AAPL/2916593555x0x443008/5f38b1e6-2f9c-4518-b691-13a29ac90501/business_conduct_policy. pdf CIA World Factbook. ( n. d. ) . Country comparing: : Population. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. Central Intelligence Agency. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank. hypertext markup language Denning. S. ( 2011. AUGUST 26 ) . Another myth bites the dust: How apple listens to its clients. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. forbes. com/sites/stevedenn ing/2011/08/26/another-myth-bites-the-dust-how-apple-listens-to-its-customers/ Emerson. R. ( 2012. FEBRUARY 3 ) . Apple’s contributions to charity surpassed $ 50 million: Report. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. huffingtonpost. com/2012/02/03/apple-charity-donation_n_1253185. html Fiegerman. S. ( 2012. JUNE 18 ) . Why working at apple is a dream occupation. BusinessInsider. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. businessinsider. com/heres-what-employees-really-love-about-working-for-apple-2012-6? op=1 Kastrenakes. J. ( 2013. MARCH 21 ) . Renewable energy now powers 75 per centum of apple’s installations. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. theverge. com/2013/3/21/4132402/apple-now-using-75-percent-renewabl e-energy-across-operations Knibbs. K. ( n. d. ) . Apple chief executive officer negotiations foxconn. attempts to repair repute. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. mobiledia. com/news/128273. hypertext mark up language Marie. ( 2013. NOVEMBER 21 ) . Tim cook reminds apple employees to reexamine apple’s concern behavior policy. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //mobileorchard. com/tim-cook-reminds-apple-employees-to-review-apples-business-conduct-policy/ McGrath. B. ( 2012. FEBRUARY 7 ) . Apple’s sweatshop supply concatenation. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. west southwest. org/en/articles/2012/02/appl-f07. hypertext markup language Sorkin. A. ( 2011. AUGUST 29 ) . The enigma of steve jobs’s public giving. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //dealbook. nytimes. com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/ ? _php=true A ; _type=blogs A ; _r=0 Shaughnessy. H. ( 2013. FEBRUARY 28 ) . Apple remains world’s most admired company. followed by Google and virago. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. forbes. com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/02/28/apple-remains-worlds-most-admired-followed-by-google-and- amazon/

Monday, October 21, 2019

LSD essays

LSD essays L.S.D is known to the scientific world as D-lysergic-acid-diethylmide. Some common names for LSD, are as follows: Acid, 'Cid, bart Simpsons, Barrels, Tabs, Blotters, Heavenly blue, "L", Liquid, Micro-Dots, Mind Detergant, Orange Cubes, Orange Micro, Owsley, Hits, Paper Acid, Sacrement, Sandoz, Sugar, Sunshine, Ticket, Twenty-Five, Wedding Bells, Windowpanes, etc. There are a number of methods to produce LSD variants at home, as well as pure LSD. The normal stoner that would be make LSD variants won't have the Knowledge to make LSD but with the help of alcohol, a type of ether (which can be procured from school labs), and morning glory seeds they can produce a slightly different drug. While it is still mainly LSD, you also have the variables of alcoholic consumption. And these variants work on contact. Unlike LSD which takes a few minutes to run through your blood, the liquid variants seep right through the tissue membranes and directly into the blood. Why is LSD used? Many cu ltures use it as a release of the mind for meditive reasons only, such as some Indian Nations, and also some Oriental Religious sects. Also the CIA has had in the past a keen interest in LSD, for specifically two reasons. To wear down enemy spies so that they will give information, and also to calm their own agents so they will not show agitation, or anxiety while "on the job". The rest of the people use it for fun, or either scientific testing. LSD effects more then one of the human body systems. Somatic effects are, hyperthermia, hyperglycemia, vomiting, and hypotension. Psycological effects are, hallucinations, depersonalization, reliving of repressed memories, mood swings, euphoria, megalomania, and a schizophrenic-like state. Cognitive effects are, disturbed thought process, difficulty expressing thoughts, impairment of reasoning, and impairment of memory. Perceptual effects are, increased stimulus from environment, changes in shapes/color ...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

An Analysis of Recruitment and Selection in IBM

An Analysis of Recruitment and Selection in IBM Chapter 1. Introduction Today the success of every organization or business company lies just not in the mission or the goals set by the management, but a lot depends even on the employees of the organization. Employees are an integral part of any organization and they are the biggest assets that any company can have. The entire image of the organization depends on the performance of the employees, their code of conduct, and how they take their job responsibility. Every company looks out for employees who have the required capability and the qualifications that just not suits the job requirements but also can add to the value of organization. Recruitment and selection of the employees thus becomes an integral part of human resources. In simple terms getting the right person or a deserving candidate is much easier when compares to getting the right candidate for the right position. Through recruitment and selection, an employer will be able to find and select the appropriate and the most deserving candidate for the job vacancy. Recruitment and selection process has been considered as the most important part of hiring a new employee and also for the organization. 1.1 About the company In this research we will be focusing on IBM (Internal Business Machines) located in India to analyze the recruitment and selection. Now lets see some information pertaining to Internal Business Machines (IBM). Even though IBM was present in India earlier to 1970s, they re-entered the business sector in the year 1992. IBM has it headquarter based on Bangalore and operates in 14 other cities throughout India. IBM is considered as the leaders in terms of industry based on Information technology. IBM has been offering various customer solutions which includes both hardware and software. IBM India is considered one of the important market for IBM and they ensure that there has been enough investments in this industry. 1.2 Aim of the research Through this research we are trying to focus on the recruitment and the selection process, taking example organization as IBM. Now in order to ensure that the research is progressing towards achieving this aim, we will need to set an aim for our research. Hence the aim of the research is as follows: â€Å"To investigate, describe and produce a research report which shows how the recruitment and selection process of International Business Machines (IBM) is different from other companies recruitment and selection process.† Before we can into the details of the recruitment and selection at IBM, we will highlight the main reasons why employees get attracted and enthusiastic about working at IBM: Employees who are working and also would be joining would always prefer to be known as the innovators. IBM is known as the best company and employees can always expect to have a very bright future ahead while working at IBM. IBM has been known for providing competitive environment for their employees which can help them develop on l ong term professional basis. Every employee gets to learn new skills and facts at IBM daily. IBM encourages their employees to deploy their unique learning style at work.