Clement Clarke Moore, Author of The Night Before Christmas

Clement Clarke Moore, Author of The Night Before Christmas Clement Clarke Moore was a scholar of ancient languages who is remembered today because of a poem he wrote to amuse his children. His memorable work, widely known as â€Å"The Night Before Christmas† appeared anonymously in newspapers beginning in the early 1820s, titled A Visit From St. Nicholas. Decades would pass before Moore claimed  he had written it. And over the past 150 years there have been hotly disputed claims that Moore did not really write the famous poem. If you accept that Moore was the author, then, along with Washington Irving, he helped to create the character of Santa Claus. In Moore’s poem some of the traits associated with Santa today, such as his use of eight reindeer to pull his sleigh, were established for the very first time. As the poem gained popularity over several decades in the mid-1800s, Moores depiction of Santa Claus became central to how others portrayed the character. The poem has been published countless times and the reciting of it remains a cherished Christmas tradition. Perhaps no one would be more surprised by its enduring popularity than its author, who was, during his lifetime, highly regarded as a very serious professor of difficult subjects. The Writing of A Visit From St. Nicholas According to an account Moore gave to the New York Historical Society when he was in his eighties and presented them with a hand-written manuscript of the poem, he had first written it simply to entertain his children (he was the father of six in 1822). The character of St. Nicholas was, Moore, said, inspired by an overweight New Yorker of Dutch descent who lived in his neighborhood. (Moores family estate became Manhattans present day Chelsea neighborhood.) Moore apparently had no intention of ever publishing the poem. It first appeared in print on December 23, 1823, in the Troy Sentinel, a newspaper in upstate New York. According to published accounts from the late 19th century, a daughter of a minister from Troy had stayed with Moores family a year earlier and heard a recitation of the poem. She was impressed, transcribed it, and passed it along to a friend who edited the newspaper in Troy. The poem began to appear in other newspapers every December, always appearing anonymously. About 20 years after its first publication, in 1844, Moore included it in a book of his own poems. And by that time some newspapers had credited Moore as the author. Moore presented several handwritten copies of the poem to friends and organizations, including the  copy given to the New York Historical Society. The Dispute About Authorship A claim that the poem had been written by Henry Livingston dates to the 1850s, when descendants of Livingston (who had died in 1828) asserted that Moore was wrongfully taking credit for what had become a very popular poem. The Livingston family had no documentary evidence, such as a manuscript or a newspaper clipping, to support the claim. They simply claimed their father had recited to the poem to them as early as 1808. The assertion that Moore hadn’t written the poem was generally not taken seriously. However, Don Foster, a scholar and professor at Vassar College who employs â€Å"linguistic forensics,† had claimed in 2000 that â€Å"A Night Before Christmas† was probably not written by Moore. His conclusion was widely publicized, yet it was also widely disputed. There may never be a definitive answer as to who wrote the poem. But the controversy has captured the public imagination to the extent that in 2013 a mock trial, dubbed The Trial Before Christmas, was held at the  Rensselaer County Courthouse in Troy, New York. Lawyers and scholars presented evidence arguing that either Livingston or Moore had written the poem. The evidence presented by both sides in the argument ranged from the unlikelihood that someone with Moores stern personality would have written the poem to specific notes on language and the meter of the poem (which only matches one other poem written by Moore). The Life and Career of Clement Clarke Moore Again, a reason for speculation about the authorship of the famous poem is simply because Moore was regarded as a very serious scholar. And a cheerful holiday poem about a â€Å"jolly old elf† is like nothing else he had ever written. Moore was born in New York City on July 15, 1779. His father was a scholar and a prominent citizen of New York who served as the rector of Trinity Church and the president of Columbia College. The elder Moore administered the last rites to Alexander Hamilton after he was wounded in his famous duel with Aaron Burr. Young Moore received a very good education as a boy, entered Columbia College at the age of 16, and received a degree in classical literature in 1801. He could speak Italian, French, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. He was also a competent architect and a talented musician who enjoyed playing the organ and the violin. Deciding to follow an academic career, rather than becoming a clergyman like his father, Moore taught for decades at the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in New York City. He published a number of articles in various newspapers and magazines. He was known to oppose the policies of Thomas Jefferson, and occasionally published articles on political subjects. Moore would also publish poetry on occasion, though none of his published work was anything like â€Å"A Visit From St. Nicholas.† Scholars could argue that the difference in the writing style could mean he didn’t write the poem. Yet it’s also likely that something written simply for the enjoyment of his children would be quite different than a poem published for a general audience. Moore died in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 10, 1863. The New York Times briefly mentioned his death on July 14, 1863 without referring to the famous poem. In the following decades, however, the poem kept being reprinted, and it by the late 19th century newspapers regularly ran stories about him and the poem. According to an article, published in the Washington Evening Star on December 18, 1897, an 1859 edition of the poem published as a small book with drawings by a prominent illustrator, Felix O.C. Darley had made A Visit From St. Nicholas extremely popular just before the Civil War. Of course, since them the poem has been reprinted countless times, and recitations of it are a standard component of Christmas pageants and family gatherings.

HTML Cheat Sheet For Content Marketers - CoSchedule

HTML Cheat Sheet For Content Marketers In todays economy, youve probably heard something about the importance of developing coding skills. However, not all bloggers or content marketers are familiar with HTML. Even among those of us who know a little bit of code, theres always more we can learn. In your job, you probably dont need to know how to build an entire site from the ground up with nothing more than a text editor and your wits. However, if any part of your job involves working in WordPress or another content management system, knowing a little bit of code can be immensely helpful. Here are a few reasons why: Understanding HTML can help you learn  how your blog or website is structured. Knowing even a little bit of code can help you become more self-sufficient (and it may help you save time asking for help). You'll be able to fix stubborn WordPress formatting issues  more easily and with less yelling at your computer. In this post, we'll cover the most essential basics for  blogging-focused readers. If you've never worked with HTML before,  this will be a perfectly paced primer to get you started. Learn #HTML basics to improve your #blog formatting skills. #bloggingIf you have a bit of experience with web coding, you'll still likely pick up a new tip or two (plus, be sure to download the free HTML cheat sheet to use for future reference). If you're a marketer or blogger working with WordPress, and you're intimidated by the mass of "who-knows-what" you see when you click into the Text editor in your CMS, this post is for you. While you can accomplish most of the tasks outlined in this post using the standard WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) WordPress editing controls, knowing how to do things the old-fashioned way is still beneficial (especially when things go wrong and those editing controls seem powerless to help). The standard WordPress kitchen sink offers a lot of power. It isn't always perfect, however, and sometimes it's faster to edit your content's formatting manually.  That's where some basic HTML knowledge comes in handy. What Is HTML? HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.  It forms the structure of a  website and  has been the backbone of the Internet since the dawn of time (or at least the dawn of the modern  Internet). HTML is used in conjunction with  CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is used to control the appearance of a website.  For the purposes of this post, we'll focus just on HTML, and only on a small handful of tags  any beginner can put to use. This video provides  a simple overview of how HTML documents are created (watch this before you proceed): It's okay if that seemed like a lot to wrap your head around. We'll walk through much of the information here in a bit. Pro Tip: You can view a website's source code in most browsers. This can be useful for seeing how websites are built by observing the code itself. Here's how to do this using several popular web browsers: Google Chrome: Right-click and select View Page Source. Firefox: Right-click and select View Page Source Safari: Open Preferences, select Advanced, and click "Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar" at the bottom. Then, go to the Develop menu and select Show Page Source. Internet Explorer: Right-click and select View Source, or press the F12 key on your keyboard. Microsoft Edge: Right-click and select View Source, or press the F12 key on your keyboard. Here is an example of Google's home page with the Show Page Source option selected in Safari on Mac OS X. Why Do Bloggers And Content Marketers Need To Know HTML? If you've ever tried to edit content in WordPress, then you know the formatting functions fail to work the way  you want them to sometimes.  That's because WYSIWYG editors  don't always work as well as intended.  For example, a bulleted list may appear with extra spaces. Your text might not copy and paste correctly. You might want to change the color of your blog theme, but you might not know how. Content marketers should know basic #HTML. Get started here:These are just a few issues you're likely to run into. However, if you know a little HTML, they're issues you can fix. You'll become a more capable marketer  and a more valuable employee. What Are Some Things I Can Do With HTML? In general, you'll gain more control over your content's structure and appearance. Here are some specific tasks bloggers and marketers can tackle with HTML: Create and edit text links. Control paragraph structure. Fix broken lists. Build tables. Remove unwanted spacing. These are just a handful  of helpful things you're about to learn how to do. If you've never touched the Text view section of your WordPress posts, you'll probably feel a bit more confident in your skills too. Words Of Encouragement: Learning HTML isn't as difficult as it may sound. As a blogger or marketer, you don't necessarily need to know how to build an entire website from scratch. By the time you reach the end of this post, you'll likely learn as much as you'll need to know. Why Do I Need An HTML Cheat Sheet? If you haven't yet, we highly recommend downloading the HTML cheat sheet that accompanies this post. It's useful for you to have on hand so that all the common HTML tags are readily accessible. Learning #HTML? Use this #cheatsheet!How To Write HTML  With Text Files And A Browser Ready to write and edit some HTML yourself?  You could get started now using the Text editor in any WordPress post.  However, you can also  use  Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), or Sublime Text (Mac, Windows, Linux) and your web browser of choice. Pro Tip: If you've never heard of Sublime Text, it's an extremely useful plain text editor that offers more features than Notepad or TextEdit. It's especially handy for writing HTML because it automatically color-codes different portions of your coding, making things a bit easier to read. If you'd like to try it out, download it here. Follow these steps to create a simple HTML file: 1) Create a blank file .txt file. Write your HTML. Then, save your document as an HTML file. Here is an example of a quick HTML file we created: 2)  Click File in your top navigation bar. Then, scroll down to Open File: 3) Select your HTML file and click Open. It'll look something like this: Pro Tip: Remember your .txt document needs to be saved as a .html file. Basic HTML Tutorials For Beginners Now that you have some understanding of what HTML is and how it works (and you've downloaded the HTML cheat sheet, right?), let's  get started on some basic HTML tutorials. How To Format Text Using HTML Let's start with some basic text formatting. How To Create Headings HTML uses six different levels of section headings. They are structured like this: Here's what they look like on the blog: A few things to note about header tags: It's generally considered best practices to include only one  H1 tag (this is important for SEO). Generally, WordPress themes use H1 tags for  blog post headlines. Keep this in mind when formatting headings. You'll likely use multiple H2, H3, etc. tags per post. It's okay if you use heading tags "out of order" (ex: your H2 is lower on the page than an H3). Here's a useful explanation about heading tags from Matt Cutts: How To Make Text Bold If you'd like to make text bold, use this tag: Strong: strongInsert Text/strong In the past, you may have seen bolded text created using the bInsert Bolded Text/b tag. While the b/b tag still works, it's considered outdated. For this post, we'll stick with best practices and recommend the strong/strong tag instead. How To Make Text Italicized Similar to making text bold, there are two different tags you can use to create italics. The emphasis tag is the best one to use: Emphasis: emInsert Text/em You may have seen italicized text using the iInsert Text/i tag, but once again, this tag is considered outdated. How To Create A Paragraph To create a text paragraph, use pInsert Text/p. Here's an example: How To Create A Line  Break If you'd like to force a space between two lines of content, consider using a page break. Simply add the br tag between lines of content, like this: We don't actually think we're geniuses, and I'm certainly no Shakespeare. We just wanted to make sure you were still paying attention. How To Create A Block Quote If you have a quote that's a few lines long (or more),  it should be formatted in a block quote. You could do this in WordPress by clicking here: Or, you can wrap your text using this tag: blockquoteInsert Text/blockquote. Here's how block quotes appear on our blog: How To Create And Edit Links Using HTML You're probably thinking, "WordPress makes it easy to create links, doesn't it?" However, there is still value in knowing how to manually create links. Plus, there are some things WordPress can't do when it comes to links, that need to be performed manually. Let's go over how links are built in HTML, how to link between different sections of an individual post (this is a handy way to build a table of contents), and how to add no-follow attributes (which are potentially powerful for SEO). How To Manually Build An A Href To create a text link, you'll need to use the "href" tag. It looks like this: Place your desired URL (this will be the page you link to) and anchor text (the linked text a reader will click) where noted. Pro Tip:  Internal links (links that direct to other pages or posts on your site) and external links (links that direct to other sites) are created the same way. Here's an example: Here's what the end result looks like: How To Manually Edit Link Anchor Text Let's say we want to change the anchor text in the example link shown above. In this case, simply open the Text view option in WordPress. Then, delete the existing anchor text, and rewrite it: That's all it takes. Pro Tip:  You've now heard us mention anchor text a few times. If you're unfamiliar with what this is referring to, it's simply the clickable text used to create a link. How To Add A No-Follow Attribute To A Link If you know a little bit about search engine optimization, then you likely understand follow versus no-follow links. In short, search engines use links to determine  the importance of web pages. When a site links to another site, they see this as a vote or an endorsement saying, "This content is useful, and related to the web page linking to it." However, there may be times you don't  a link to pass authority to another website. Here are a few examples: You're linking to a page that isn't reputable (but may be related to your blog post). You're writing a sponsored post (buying or selling links is SPAM, and search engines may consider sponsored content links to be paid for). You're writing a guest blog post  or hosting a guest post on your own blog. It's important that links in author bio boxes in guest posts be labelled no-follow, because these were once commonly abused for SEO benefits. The more high-quality website links that you have, the more likely you are to rank in search engines. However, because of this, there are people out there who try to spam search engines with manipulative linking practices (including buying links and writing junk blog posts just to get backlinks without regard for content quality). For more information straight from Google on why you should use no-follow links for guest blog posts specifically, watch this video from Matt Cutts, former head of Google's web spam team: To add a no-follow attribute to a text link, add  the code rel="nofollow" to your href HTML: It's as simple as that. How To Deep Link To A Specific Blog Post Section Now you know how to add a link to another web page or website. However, how do you link to another section within a single blog post? Follow these steps: Switch to the Text view tab in WordPress, and add this tag:  a name="NAME"/a. Delete the NAME placeholder text and write your desired anchor text. Add  a href="#NAME"/a to the location you would like linked. Here is what this code looks like in WordPress (we've used Lorem Ipsum filler text, just for demonstration purposes): Here's what the end result looks like: Now, we can navigate from the top of the page to the next section in one click. However, there is one problem: we can't get as easily. Fortunately, there is an easy solution. We'll add a "Back to Top" link underneath the "Here's Something About Lorem Ipsum" section. We will also add a destination anchor at the top of the page with no anchor text (this way, the link will direct to the top of the page, but no unwanted text will appear to readers). Here's how the link appears: Since we did not specify anchor text for this link destination, nothing appears to the reader. However, clicking "" still directs to the top of the blog post. How To Build Lists In HTML There are two different types of lists you can create using HTML. These are bulleted (or unordered) and numbered (or ordered) lists. Here's how to create each one (knowing how to build these manually can help you edit them more easily by hand in case WordPress messes up their formatting). How To Create A Bulleted List It's easy to create a bulleted list (or an "unordered list") using the appropriate button in your WordPress tool bar: You can also build one manually: Here's what this code looks like in a web browser: Why Are You Telling Me This? Have you ever tried creating a bulleted list, only for WordPress to somehow mess up your formatting? Sometimes, minor formatting issues are easy to fix using the WYSIWYG editing bar. However, sometimes it feels a little bit more like this: In cases where WordPress won't cooperate, it's probably faster to edit your list HTML  manually. How To Create A Numbered List To create a numbered list (or an "ordered list"), follow the same directions as shown above, but change the ul and /ul tags to ol and /ol. Here's what this list looks like: How To Build A Table Of Contents In HTML The deep linking technique described above can be used to build a table of contents. Let's walk through how to do this, using another recent post on our blog as an example: Create a list in the section where you would normally add your text. Make each list item a link. Add links between each section in your post back to its respective table of contents position. When complete, your code should look something like this: This looks something like this on our blog: IMPORTANT NOTE: In the screenshot at the beginning of this section, you may have noticed code that reads div class="callout". This is a piece of CSS that creates a red background box (like the one in this tip, and in the table of contents we just created). If you're creating your own table of contents, you can ignore this line of code and the TOC will still work (it just won't have a background color). Then, the end of this section features a link back to the table of contents. This process is repeated throughout the post to build a working table of contents. To see how this table of contents works in action, visit  our post on time management strategies and try clicking around. How To Build  Tables In HTML Tables are useful for many different purposes, such as building simple image galleries or creating comparison charts. While WordPress doesn't provide a built-in means of quickly creating tables, they're easy to build on your own. This image illustrates how tables are constructed using HTML: Here is what the end result looks like: If you'd like to adjust the alignment or  appearance of your table, it's best to use CSS. Since we're sticking to HTML in  this post, we'll have to cover this topic at another time. Pro Tip: While WordPress doesn't have built-in table functionality, you can  use a plugin to create tables too. This may be faster and more convenient than building them yourself. Although it's still important to understand how they're constructed. How To Add Images In HTML You now know how to format text and build tables in HTML. If you want to add an image, use the HTML image and the Alt Tag attributes: img src="Insert Image URL" alt="Insert Alt Text" Let's try adding an image to our table. Follow these steps: 1.) Add an image to WordPress and find the image file URL: 2.) Paste the image HTML tag into your table in WordPress. Then, paste your URL and write your alt tag in the appropriate spots until you have something that looks like the following: 3.) Here's what the end result looks like: Armed with this knowledge, we think you can probably create something more interesting than a repeating logo. This is just a quick test to walk you through the process. How To Clean Up Common Copy And Paste Issues In WordPress Have you ever tried pasting text from a Word document into WordPress, only to have your formatting get screwed up?  That's because copying and pasting from Word (or another similar word processor) will usually include a lot of hidden formatting. There are three ways to get around copy and paste issues in WordPress: Paste your content into a plain text document in TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows) before pasting it into WordPress. This will strip out hidden formatting that would otherwise get turned into stubborn HTML. Paste your text straight from Word into WordPress and clean up the formatting manually. Write your posts directly in WordPress. We recommend doing this the easy way (option 1 or option 3), but we'll show you how to do it the hard way too (option 2), in order to best explain what happens when you paste text from Word into WordPress. Ever wonder why copying and pasting from Word never looks right in #WordPress? Read this.Understanding  Non-Breaking Spaces Copying and pasting text from WordPress into the Visual editor in WordPress will add non-breaking spaces to your text. This is probably one of the most common sources of headaches for bloggers when pasting text from Word. Let's dig into what these are and what to do about them. How To Remove Non-Breaking Spaces In HTML Here is some sample text we'll try pasting directly into the Visual view in WordPress: Now, we'll copy and paste this directly into the Visual view in WordPress: Hmm. That doesn't look quite right. Odds are, you've encountered an issue like this at some point. Let's switch to Text view to see what's going on here: See the weird nbsp; tag? This is called a non-breaking space. It forces a space to appear and prevents the formation of another line of text in its place. The issue with copying and pasting from Word is that the text carries non-breaking spaces along with it.  This causes an additional space to appear. Sometimes you can delete these spaces in the Visual editor, but when that fails,  you can delete them manually in the Text editor. Now if you notice weird and seemingly unmovable spaces in your WordPress text, you'll know what to do. TIP: If you don't want to write posts directly in WordPress and prefer writing posts in Evernote or Google Docs, makes it easy to convert Evernote and Google Docs files into WordPress posts. You'll still need to format your headings and formatting, but it's an easy way to save time writing in your preferred word processing tool. Additional HTML Learning Resources You've read through this post. You've downloaded your HTML cheat sheet. You've started experimenting with troubleshooting common WordPress formatting issues. If you're interested in taking your HTML knowledge to the next level here are some recommend resources to continue your learning: Websites: W3 Schools: This is considered by many to be the ultimate resource for learning HTML (and CSS and Javascript) on the web. Mozilla Developer Network: This resource from Mozilla (the folks that make Firefox) is another alternative to W3 Schools that provides in-depth HTML tutorials. Codecademy: This website features tons of useful coding lessons and resources. Lynda: While not free, Lynda features plenty of training courses on HTML (as well as other coding and computing topics). Books: HTML CSS: How To Build Websites: There are a lot of books on HTML out there. However, we recommend this one the most. It's clearly written, accessible to beginners, and well suited to writers and editors who just want a good grasp of how HTML and CSS work. Head First HTML 5 Programming: The Head First series is another great option for learning coding languages in an accessible and straightforward manner. Videos: 30 Days To Learn HTML CSS: If you prefer  learning from videos, this is a great place to start. Remember, everyone learns differently, and some people learn more easily from different types of content.  While this post may provide you with a good starting point, you might find a book or video series more helpful for your purposes. Now Put Your New HTML Skills To Use! There's a lot to learn when it comes to HTML. However, we hope this HTML cheat sheet and step-by-step guide has provided you with just enough tips to make your  blogging life a little bit easier. You now know how to do basic blog formatting with HTML. You know you can create and edit text links, control paragraph structure, fix broken links, build tables, and remove unwanted spacing. Knowing these HTML tips are going to help you tons and you'll be super thankful for the cheat sheet.

The Structured Interview Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Structured Interview Method - Essay Example The interviewee was a Speech Pathologist at an Elementary School in Northwest suburbs of Chicago.  Ã‚  Ã‚  She indicated that she has been teaching at this school for six years and she has seven years experience as a teacher. She currently teaches 45 students of which are 30 males while 15 are females. The interviewee has also worked for a rehab company in skilled nursing facilities. In this interview, I sought to gain insight about the approach she uses when he teaches a class of learners with special needs. She indicated that parent(s), resource teacher, OT, PT, principal, nurse, school psychologist or general education teacher attend IEP meetings if applicable. The meetings usually vary from 30 minutes to 60 minutes depending on the needs of the student. The interviewee also stated that consultative minutes are completed weekly. However meetings to discuss students on the caseload or those who may need services due to concerns are held twice a month. The teacher indicated that m eetings with the teacher to discuss goals, vocabulary needing to be addressed with the speech therapy setting as well as any other concerns that the teacher may have are usually done at least once a week. The site also uses student study team meetings and it also implements RTI process. The success of this initiative is attributed to the use of cooperative/collaborative teams as well as co-teaching One great lesson I learnt from this interview is that continued teacher education is essential with regards to dealing with special needs learners. The needs of these learners constantly change depending on the environment in which they are living in hence the teachers need to improve their knowledge constantly in order to be in a position to meet the changing needs of the learners. Teachers can gain more knowledge through group discussions since these allow them to interact freely. Teamwork as well as inclusion of all teachers concerned in teaching special education classes are basic ten ets of success with regards to the achievement of the desired goals in improving the quality of education for learners with special needs. The interviewee indicated that SPED students are graded using the same method as regular education students. The goals are goals being addressed through their IEP are noted on progress updates completed at each report card. She also stated that flexible grouping and volunteer parent intervention are essential in order to establish the need of the students with special needs. The other strategy used in teaching students with special needs is to move them down to a grade lower level reading group if it is seen as appropriate to his or her level. However, the only shortcoming I have realised of all the strategies used is that they grade the students with special needs in the same way they grade general students. These two groups are quite different hence they may not use the same strategy to grade them. In conclusion, I can safely say that this inte rview achieved its objectives. As the interviewee aptly stated, there is no right way for everything. This is mainly because of the fact that we live in different areas and these are characterised by different things. For instance, the people in each area have their own way of doing things.

Dynamics of machine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dynamics of machine - Essay Example can easily be determined especially if the equations are of the mechanical system or machine units, which usually consists of larger components of machines such as motors, transmission mechanisms, and control devices or in most cases a working machine. The concept of dynamic of machine consists of a number of equations that are equal to the number of degree of mechanical system’s freedom. For the equation to work or to enhance the ease of the mechanism operation, all forces or masses in a plane mechanism with a single degree of freedom are to be reduced to a single link which is normally called reference point or reduction link (89). And the subjective link that is to be applied to the reduction link is known as reduced moment of inertia. When the moment of reduction is equal to the aggregate of all moments and the forces applied to the links of the mechanism, the subjective moment of inertia is considered to be the reduced moment of inertia. The chain of the equation of dynamic of machines includes the determination of the kinetic energy, and when the kinetic energy of the reduction link is equal to the sum of the kinetic energy of all of the mechanism, the reduced force can be analogously (100). Through rational selection and placement of counterweights, that reduces the dynamic pressure in kinematic pair of mechanisms the concept of machines and mechanism can be easily balanced. Practically the machines are always balanced by reducing the vibrations and balancing the rotation of masses, while in modern high speed machines the inertia forces attain high values (100). The relation of the dynamic studies in machines is highly linked to the calculation of the strength and stiffness of the machine components that highly relates to the dimension and the designs of the parts. The studies are also performed through three dimensions mechanisms and with many degrees of freedom. Therefore it is important to notice that the operations performed by systems of high

Henry V Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Henry V Shakespeare Essay In Henry V Shakespeare has used language to communicate the setting and the mood. I will also be contrasting between the scenes and characters. I will be doing this by looking at Act 3, Act 4 and using Act 2 Scene 1 and Act 1 Scene 2 to compare scenes and characters. Shakespeare used language in Henry V to communicate the setting. In Act 3, the chorus tells the reader that the English army are sailing to France. The main role of the chorus was to explain things to the audience that could not be acted out on stage, to tell the audience that time has passed and to summarise parts of the play. The chorus also tells the reader or audience that once they reach France they begin to besiege the town of Harfleur. The reason why the chorus tells the reader or audience this is because this scene cannot be acted out on stage but Shakespeare uses language to get the audience to picture the ships crossing and the siege. In Shakespearian time it was necessary to have a chorus in this play because the chorus gets the audience to picture the ships crossing and the siege by telling the audience to use their imaginations. This is due to the fact that this scene cannot be acted out on stage and limited resources because in Shakespearian times there werent any effects they just had a stage and a few props. Thus with imagind wing our swift scene flies, this sentence is telling the reader to use his or her imagination to imagine the setting and locality of this act. The chorus appeals to two senses. These two senses help the reader to build a picture in our imaginations of what it was like to be at the siege. The two senses are the sense of sight and the sense of hearing. An example of the sense of sight is, hempen tackle ship-boys climbing, this creates an image in our heads of boys climbing. An example of the sense of hearing is, hear the shrill whistle, this creates a sound in our heads of a sharp, high-pitched whistle. Shakespeare cleverly uses both senses in the same phrase. This is a more effective way of using language to communicate the setting because it creates a picture in our heads as well as creates sounds to the picture, To sounds confusd, this tells the reader that there are confusing sounds and where there are confusing sounds there are people which gives the emphasis that there are a lot of things going on and that there is a lot of mayhem. This gives the reader the picture in our heads that there are people running around. Another example is, Behold the threaden sails Borne with the invisible and creeping wind; in this phrase you can hear the creeping wind against the sails and you can visualize the sails moving. The effect of these senses is to help our imaginations paint a picture and it also helps the reader to understand what it was like to be in certain peoples shoes at the time of the crossing and the siege. If the reader were a hempen tackle ship-boy then he or she would be climbing, and if the reader was on the ship he or she will be hearing confused sounds. Now I am going to explain how language in Henry V is used to communicate the mood. In Act 4 the chorus describes to the reader the scene of the English camp the night before the battle of Agincourt. Shakespeare uses language to get the audience to feel the mood of the battlefield. Sound, words that emphasise ugliness, supernatural images and words that tell the reader that time is passing slowly are all ways to get the audience to feel the mood of the battlefield. Creeping murmur, hum of either army stilly sounds and secret whispers, tells the reader about the sound of the camp and makes the reader feel slightly threatened and uneasy because it gives the feeling of impending danger. Cripple tardy-gaited, foul and ugly witch and horrid ghosts, are words that emphasise ugliness. Those words make the reader not want to go there and they tell him or her that the place is disgusting, revolting and that it is an unpleasant place to be. Ghosts and witches are supernatural images. These images may make the reader feel scared and make him or her feel the same as the people in the camp. There are words and phrases that tell the reader time is passing slowly. These words and phrases are, creeping, cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, third hour of drowsy morning name, and piercing. The effect that these words have on this scene is that it seems that this scene is time dragging. The reason why I say this is because the armies want the battle to be over but they also dont want the battle to come. It is a bit like exams, because everyone doesnt want the exam to come but when the exam comes they want to finish the exam and get it over and done with. Words which tells the reader about the sounds about the camp, words which emphasise ugliness, supernatural images and words they tell the reader time is passing slowly creates a weird and spooky mood in this scene. It is important that this kind of mood is created so that the reader can feel what it is like to be in the camp.

architecture :: essays research papers

1. Introduction. Northlands rapidly increasing growth in population over the last few years has put huge pressure on the building industry. Many of the building companies and businesses simply cannot find enough staff in order to meet the demand from the ever increasing client base the region is seeing. Due to this, the demand for civil engineers in Northland is very high thus there are a large number of small privately owned companies set up in the area. Richardson Stevens Consultants Ltd. is a privately owned company which is run by three directors. They specialise in structural engineering and their main cliental are a number of home building franchises. They employ structural engineers who have studied civil engineering at university and also draftsmen. Working as an engineer for such a company gives the employee a whole understanding of how the company is run and managed, how problems are dealt with and the rewards of finishing major assignments on time and to a professional standard. 2. Company Structure / Products and Services Richardson Stevens Consultants Ltd. (RSC) was founded in 1997, originally they had one director and employed three structural engineers and a draftsman. It now employs nine engineers, three draftsmen, two secretaries and is run by three directors. The company is based in Whangarei and their work comes from throughout the Northland region. 2.1 Products and Services The majority of the work that RSC perform is structural engineering, however they also do a small amount of geotechnical engineering. As there is no specialist geotech engineer in the office, they have to hand on a lot of their work to offices such as Tonkin Taylor who do have geotechnical engineers. The company does a lot of domestic work for home building franchises such as GJ Gardener homes and Golden homes. Typically this would involve a site investigation first to determine the ground conditions and then make calculations based on these conditions as to what foundations are required. The housing companies all have plans pre-drawn and they sell these to the client. However the clients always want to change something around a bit, so before the housing company can go ahead and build, they come to RSC who do structural calculations in order to determine if the change is ok. RSC also do a lot of work with subdivisions. These involve the civil engineers in the office rather than the structural engineers. Before building consent can be granted to a sub-divider, RSC has to design the roading, sewer, storm-water and the surface drainage.

Corporate Culture and the Effective Execution of Strategy Essay

What is corporate culture? Corporate culture refers to the character of a company’s internal work climate – as shaped by a system of shared values, beliefs, ethical standards, and traditions that define behavioral norms, ingrained attitudes, accepted work practices, and styles of operating. Every company has its own unique culture. The character of a company’s culture or work climate is a product of the core values and business principles that executives espouse, the standards of what is ethically acceptable and what is not, the work practices and behaviors that define â€Å"how we do thing around here,† its approach to people management and the â€Å"chemistry† and the â€Å"personality† that permeates its work environment. The chief things to look for include the following: 1. The values, business principles, and ethical standards that management preaches and practices. 2. The company’s approach to people management and the official policies, procedures and operating practices that paint the white lines for the behaviour of company personnel 3. The atmosphere and spirit that pervades the work climate. 4. The way managers and employees interact and relate to each other 5. The strength of peer pressure to do things in particular ways and conform to expended norms. 6. The actions and behaviours that are explicitly encouraged and rewarded by management in the form of compensation and promotion. 7. The company’s revered traditions and oft-repeated stories about â€Å"heroic act† and â€Å"how we do things around here†. 8. The manner in which the company deals with external stakeholders Discuss the ways in which corporate culture can either help or hinder effective execution of strategy. Strong culture can help a powerful effect on the strategy execution process. This effect may be positive or negative since a company’s present culture and work climate may or not be compatible with what in needed for effective implementation and execution of the chosen strategy. A culture that is grounded in actions, behaviours, and work practices that are conducive to good strategy implementation assists the strategy execution effort in three ways: 1. A culture that is well matched to the requirements of the strategy execution effort focuses the attention of employees on what is most important to this effort. Moreover, it directs their behaviour and serves as a guide to their decision making. In this manner, it can align the efforts and decisions of employees throughout the firm and minimize the need for direct supervision. 2. Culture-induced peer pressure further induces company personnel to do things in a manner that aids the cause of good strategy execution. The stronger the culture, the more effective peer pressure is in shaping and supporting the strategy execution effort. Research has shown that strong group norms can shape employee behaviour even more powerfully than can financial incentives. 3. A company culture that is consistent with the requirements for good strategy execution can energize employees, deepen their commitment to execute the strategy clearly, and enhance worker productivity in the process. When a company’s culture is grounded in many of the needed strategy –executing work for, and the merits of what the company is trying to accomplish. As a consequence, greater numbers of company personnel exhibit passion in their work and exert their best efforts to execute the strategy and achieve performance targets. In sharp contrast, when a culture is in conflict with what is required to execute the company’s strategy well, a strong culture becomes a hindrance to the success of the implementation effort. Some of the very behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully run contrary the attitudes, behaviors and operating practices in the culture. Such a real dilemma for company personnel. Culture-bred resistance to the actions and behaviors needed for good strategy execution, particularly if strong and widespread, make a difficult problem that must be cleared for a strategy’s execution to get very far.

Management Challenges in the 21st Century Essay

Introduction The traditional management education and training relies heavily on left-brain thinking, deductive reasoning and analytical thinking. The managers of the future require a different set of skills based on the functioning of the right-brain like holistic or systems thinking, intuitive problem-solving and value-driven decision-making. While state parastatals could benefit from a number of these corporate lessons, readers should be clear about the many ways in which government agencies differ from corporate entities. In the corporate world, a single metric – profits – surpasses all others in importance. By contrast, a government organization must achieve success across a wide spectrum of activities. There is no equivalent to the simplifying discipline of a corporate balance sheet. Corporations must adapt or risk bankruptcy, and publicly held companies are accountable to shareholders who scrutinize their performance and profitability each quarter. These factors present strong incentives for corporations to invest in and drive change. The government organisations, in contrast, adapts only because of the will of its leaders and staff. If it dawdles, it does not come under threat of bankruptcy or risk the ire of shareholders. However, the consequences of strategic failure at the parastatals can be far greater than that of a corporation. The Evolutionary Context The best minds in management were thoughtful and precise in identifying the management challenges of the 21st century. However there is nothing entirely new in the list of challenges. Most of them are part of the new and emerging paradigm in management, discussed and debated in the growing management literature on this subject. However what is lacking in the discussion is a clear and precise understanding of the change or evolutionary transition which humanity as a whole is going through. In other words, first we have to understand and identify clearly the evolutionary challenges facing future humanity as a whole and based on this understanding, we have to figure out what will be its implications for business and management. As the intuitive and evolutionary thinkers like Sri Aurobindo and Teil-hard-de-Chardin have pointed out, the main evolutionary challenge facing humanity is the growth of consciousness from the rational, divisive and analytical consciousness of the mind towards th e unitive, holistic and intuitive consciousness of the Sprit. The ultimate goal of this evolution is towards the creation or establishment of a Global Consciousness, wherein humanity discovers its inner spiritual unity. Sri Aurobindo called this higher consciousness as the â€Å"Gnostic† or â€Å"supramental† consciousness and Teil-hard-de-Chardin named it as the â€Å"Omega Point† beyond the rational mind. This is the deeper and inner significance of the present trends towards globalisation, which is moving towards, not exactly a global society or a global government, but a global consciousness. The path to this global consciousness is through a system of values, education and culture which leads to a moral, psychological and spiritual development of the individual and collectivity. When this global consciousness expresses itself in the outer life it will lead to a global civilization, governed and united by the principle of a free, rich, harmonious and mutually complementing diversity. This is the inner imperative of the future evolution of mankind. In the external world, the main thrust of the evolutionary drive of Nature seems to be towards greater distributive justice which means greater diffusion of knowledge, power, wealth and culture into the masses, especially those who are suppressed or exploited in the previous cycles of evolution. This evolutionary thrust is expressing itself in the emerging society through the following movements: 1. Increasing empowerment and participation of woman, with more and more woman entering into the professional world and raising to leadership position. 2. Greater empowerment and participation of those workers in the lower levels of the corporate hierarchy. 3. Thrust towards inclusive growth, economic upliftment of the poorer section of the society, people participation in development, and a greater focus on minorities. The Integral View These are the inner and outer evolutionary imperatives of the future. Those individuals or groups organisations, communities or nations who are able to successfully achieve or implement this evolutionary transition will gain evolutionary advantage over others and will be the leaders of the future. What are the implications of this future evolutionary imperative for business and management? First, in the domain of vision, mission and values organizations have to discover a higher purpose which can inspire and trigger this higher evolution within the organisation. Second, in the domain of Human Resources Development, there must be a greater attention to the development of the moral, aesthetic, intuitive and spiritual faculties and potentialities of employees which will lead to their higher evolution. Third, in the domain of Organisational Development, creating a corporate environment and culture which felicitates this higher evolution among employees and also helps them to express this inner and higher growth in the outer life. In this task, building consciously an organizational community governed by the values of French revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity, will be a great help. This means reinventing the values of democracy at the organizational level. In this task, the corporate world can perhaps do a better job than the political world because of two reasons: first, in our modern age the world of business is much more dynamic, efficient and innovative, with a much greater capacity for organisation and execution than the world of politics; second it is easier to implement or organise the triple values in the smaller space of an organization than on the larger scale in a nation. However, the key to a practical synthesis of the triple value lies in the third, Fraternity or more specifically an inner fraternity in the mind, heart and soul of people or in other words, unity of consciousness. Fourth, in the domain of corporate social responsibility, there must be a greater integration of the corporation with the community, which means a more creative deployment of the expertise and resources of the corporation for the development of the surrounding community as a whole. Fifth, in the domain of sustainability a more integral attunement of the corporate life with the laws and way of Nature in the physical as well as psychological and spiritual dimensions Challenges of Management in the 21st Century Corporate executives emphasize the need for a clear, shared vision; a strong organizational culture; ways of doing business that leverage the size and reach of the company; and an institutionalized process that ensures the alignment of the corporation’s vision and its widely dispersed activities. Hierarchical, highly centralized, command-and control models no longer work for most global organizations. Such models reduce speed and agility, hinder innovation and prevent valuable collaboration. Yet, many companies take advantage of their large size, scope and reach. i) Enterprise Mobility Since the inception of Apple’s App Store in 2008, the concept of enterprise mobility has evolved from a nice-to-have novelty into an essential part of doing business. Increasingly, organizations in a broad cross section of markets – financial services, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, consumer products, education, automotive, and manufacturing among them – are seeing the value of mobilizing enterprise information and making it available to customers, employees, and partners. These organizations are making smart phones and tablet devices an important part of their sales, marketing, operations, and human resource strategies by developing customer – facing mobile applications that drive revenue growth, build customer loyalty, and strengthen brand awareness. They’re also creating internally focused applications that aim to improve employee and partner efficiency, communication, and productivity. These initiatives have taken many different forms and met with varying degrees of success, but they illustrate that organizations are taking enterprise mobility seriously. With application downloads expected to top 44 billion by 20161, they’re wise to do so. Enterprises are also leveraging mobility to improve internal operations, strengthen partner ties, and boost employee productivity. Driven by explosive growth in smart phone and tablet sales, enterprise mobility has become an essential part of business. Organizations across industries are developing internal- and external-facing mobile applications that drive revenue, build brand loyalty, strengthen communication with partners, and enhance employee productivity. Companies that have aggressively embraced enterprise mobility are seeing an impressive return on their investment. The rapid and ongoing rollout of new smart phone and tablet devices is driving new customers into the market, but also forces developers to build mobil e applications for multiple platforms and device types. Keeping pace in this market requires an agile, flexible, and iterative approach to application development. In-house development is a complex, expensive, and time consuming process that requires coding in multiple languages, extensive testing on different platforms, and dedicated resources for ongoing updates and maintenance. Mobile web isn’t a viable option for addressing these challenges: security is weak, user interface suboptimal, and functionality limited. ii) Individual and Leadership Challenges Globalisation, the war for talent, digital communications, societal changes, the changing shape of organisations, and the aspirations of the next generation are all challenging 21st Century leaders in new ways. The quest for more sustainable and ethical organisations prompted by the business scandals of the nineties and the growing realisation that we cannot continue to raid our world’s natural resources without considering its future sustainability are also putting extraordinary pressures on today’s leaders to perform against a range of criteria which go far beyond those of successful business performance. Measuring leadership success must increasingly now include questions of the longer term common good: socially, ethically and globally, at the same time as responding to the pace of change in a world where today’s ideas might already be doomed to obsolescence. It is no longer enough to stimulate followers through heroic gestures and charisma alone. 21st Century visionary leaders focus on growing deep organisational engagement amongst their followers, and on generating a shared and common understanding of a dynamic and evolving vision for the future. Visioning today is no longer the static or solitary activity it once was. No longer is it the sole prerogative of the top team. Looking beyond the organisation’s immediate environment into the world to help people to imagine the future, and then converting this image into an exciting destination means developing a climate in which ideas are shared and co-created. It means using all available antennae and tapping into all available networks to continually create new knowledge inside the organisation. This knowledge includes understanding trends and shifts in society, technology, markets and people, looking for tipping points and spotting them early, assessing the speed and destination of these changes, and then of course interpreting these to determine how they will affect the organisation and its purpose over time. Visioning alone though, is not enough. Authenticity is another concept long debated by philosophers and psychologists amongst others, but one that is relatively new to the mainstream study of leadership, although interest in it is growing fast. To be truly authentic, however, also requires a deep understanding how our identity has been shaped by the societal norms around us, a rejection of the pressures to behave as others want us to, and a refusal to display feelings we do not really feel. Fortunately our appetite for filling our workplaces with cultish rituals to be followed blindly and evangelistically is now virtually. Achieving authenticity in a world where our identities are created for us by a mass market media and the immediacy of the internet is not easy. It requires courage, self knowledge, compassion and strong personal conviction. Those who work towards this goal, however, confirm that they find themselves happier in their working relationships, more successful as leaders, and more able to engage and inspire their followers. For the 21st Century leader this is felt to be one of the most challenging but also one of the most important qualities a leader can aspire to. Perhaps one of the most marked shifts in thinking about leadership for the 21st Century is the renewed emphasis we are now placing on mentoring and team development, as well as on growing the next generation of leaders. Many 21st Century leaders aim to try to spend more time with their teams to understand their aspirations and to identify the areas in which they need intervention, mentoring and direction. Others see their leadership roles as being about unlocking the potential of their followers, and helping them deliver without micromanaging. iii) Change Management Organizational change normally involves some threat, real or perceived, of personal loss for those involved. This threat may vary from job security to simply the disruption of an established routine. Furthermore, there may be tradeoffs between the long and short run. As an individual, I may clearly perceive that a particular proposed change is, in the long run, in my own best interests, and I may be very interested in seeing it happen, yet I may have short-run concerns that lead me to oppose particular aspects of the change or even the entire change project. The rate of change is escalating in virtually all organizations. The pressure is intense on anybody connected with the business world to focus time and attention on understanding the forces driving the changing environment and develop or implement the information systems needed to support the altered environment. One of the most difficult problems organizations face is dealing with change. In today’s rapidly changing, high ly competitive environment, the ability to change rapidly, efficiently, and almost continually will distinguish the winners from the losers. Many organizations will disappear because they find themselves unable to adapt. Furthermore, many of the pressures for change in organizations are independent of technologic change. This means that informaticians working for change are doing so in organizations which are already highly stressed by other pressures. Major organizational changes typically involve many different types and levels of personal loss for the people in the organization. For example, change always requires the effort to learn the new, which is a loss in terms of time and energy that could have been used elsewhere. Although some may welcome the learning opportunity, many of us don’t want to invest that time and energy unless we are dissatisfied with the current arrangements or see powerful advantages to the proposed change. Upgrading to new software is a common example, in which the future benefits may not be seen as sufficient to outweigh the short-term investment required to learn the new programs. Second, people want to feel good about themselves. Ideally, people are able to take pride in their work, feel responsible for a job well done, feel they are part of a high-quality enterprise, and feel that their time has some significance. In many work situations, the work itself and the organizational culture make it difficult for people to feel good about themselves. In these poorer situations, people usually invent strategies to help them feel better about themselves, and these strategies involve getting some sense of control, belongingness, and significance out of their work. Sometimes this involves opposition to management, on the assumption that management is always up to no good. More commonly, the worker-management relationships are not completely alienated. Still, the workers’ strategies for achieving â€Å"good† feelings are unknown to or quite misunderstood by management. Therefore, change initiatives, unknowingly and unintentionally, threaten to cause the workers serious personal loss. Not surprisingly, the workers resist and do all they can to sabotage such change initiatives. Third, change initiatives often require large losses for middle managers. Generally, people perceive that information systems increase the ability of top executives to know more about what is going on and to exert more direct control. This means a serious loss of personal and organizational significance for the middle manager. Sometimes middle managers fight this loss. Any significant organizational change involves changing habits, which is, changing the way we actually do our work. This usually involves changes in the way we interact, both with people and our tools. New systems require us to learn a new set of behaviours. Resistance to change is an ongoing problem. At both the individual and the organizational levels, resistance to change impairs concerted efforts to improve performance. Many corporate change efforts have been initiated at tremendous cost only to be halted by resistance among the organization’s employees. Organizations as a whole also manifest behaviour similar to that of individuals when faced with the need to change. The relationship between individual and organizational resistance to change is important. An organization is a complex system of relationships between people, leaders, technologies, and work processes. From this interaction emerge organizational behaviour, culture, and performance. These emergent properties and behaviours are tightly linked in two directions to the lower-level interactions. Organizational resistance to change is an emergent property, and individual resistance to change can give rise to organizational resistance. A self-reinforcing loop of increasing resistance can develop as individuals create a environment in which resistance to change is the norm. That environment in turn encourages increased resistance to change among individual employees. The self-reinforcing nature of this loop can be tremendously powerful, defeating repeated attempts to break out of it. iv) Manpower Management Parallel with the changes in the global arena, the qualifications of the workforce has been changed. The changes of the workforce required a shift from traditional personnel management to human resource management. With the evolution of HRM, this field has gained a more strategic perspective in practice. Human resources have started to be seen as an inimitable and most valuable factor for organizations to gain competitive advantage. With this perspective, HRM departments has gained more importance and become strategic players in the organization. Today, the new HRM requires being strategic partner in the organization by aligning all the HR functions with the mission, vision and strategies of the organization. Considering this, it is possible to say that high quality workforce can create this advantage. The change that has most impacted organizations in the past decade has been the increasing realization that human resources of an organization are the primary source of competitive advantage. It is now accepted that high qualified employees in the organization and the way how they are managed is very important to gain competitive advantage. HRM must change as the business environment and the world in which it operates changes. Parallel to these changes in technology, globalization and dynamics of labour market, the way to manage human resources has changed. HRM managers have moved from handling simple personnel issues to making a strategic contribution to the future directions and development of the organization. With the evolution of HRM function from traditional to strategic, its roles and importance has gained more attention. The HR function and its process now have become more strategic and HR managers have been a part of the top management team. This strategic approach to HRM has led this function to be involved in strategic planning and decision making processes by coordinating all human functions for employees. Aligning the strategies of the organization with the HR functions has become the essential part of gaining competitive advantage. The role of the HR for the 21st century is named as strategically reactive in business strategy implementation through supporting the long term strategies with the necessary employee qualifications and developing the cultural and technical capabilities required for the strategies of the organization. The need for managing the employees strategically in the 21st century also requires the management and the organization structure to be more flexible. The work system has started to change with autonomous work groups with high qualified workforces, outsourcing some of the operational HR functions, downsizing, delayering, employee participation to the decision systems, high wages for the high qualified human resources, virtual and network organizations. 21st century HR requires factors like; increased centrality of people to organizational success, focus on whole systems and integrated solutions, strategic alignment and impact, capacity for change. These factors are described below briefly: * Increased Centrality of People to Organizational Success: Undoubtedly the most powerful force affecting the evolution of HRM is the increased centrality of people to organizational success. The emergence of resource based views of organizations has placed increasing importance on intellectual and social capital. * Focus on Whole Systems and Integrated Solutions: It is clear that HRM has become increasingly systematic during their evolutions. With the strategic proactive role of HRM, the challenge for HRM is to continue to develop innovative systems by focusing on the integrated functions and systems of organization. * Strategic Alignment and Impact: 21st century HR has become more integrated by its measurement efforts and it is expected that the importance of these efforts will increase in the coming years. This is all being driven by increased pressure to work on issues that are most important to the business and to provide organizational leaders with understandable information that helps them to make better and more strategic decisions about the workforce. Ultimately, it is essential to work together to enhance HR’s capacity to contribute to organizational and financial performance. * Capacity for Change: Today’s organizations must thrive in complex and unpredictable environments and must be extremely agile. This demands the development and implementation of structures and processes that facilitate incremental change. The new human resources management for the 21st century should play a strategic role by contributing the strategy formulation process and being a strategic partner during the implementation of these strategies. The HR practices should be designed consistent with the strategies of the organization taking into consideration the essential HR needs. In parallel with these, organizations can be able to be more flexible, flat and agile in rder to struggle with the changes in the competitive environment by gaining competitive advantage with their HR assets. HR professionals need to lead flatter organizations by encouraging individuals to exercise more initiative, autonomy and accountability by providing tools and techniques that improve their effectiveness and by enabling the acquisition of critical competencies through continuous learning opportunities (Schoonover, 2010).

Change of Heart essays

Change of Heart essays It all started with Really World, a television show on MTV. This show taped seven strangers living together. This show was reality programs at it finest, so I thought. Real World first aired in the early 90s. Now in 2001 there seems to be an overflow of these types of really shows. Michael Smith my cousin had a change to a particate on one the new hottest reality shows Change of Heart. Whats is the point of change of heart? Well, couples that have been dating for less than one year can test their relationship, by dating other people. Before the show is air you and your partner go on dates with other people. Then all four of people meet back at the show to tell what happen on their dates. After the couples faces off they decide where to stay together or to have a change of heart. Although Change of Heart is a reality show, you cant just show up at the studio. Couple must first apply, by fill out a very long questionnaire. The questionnaire ask every question under the sun, although most are gear toward your relationships and likes and dislikes in a mate. After filling out the long questionnaire you can email it, or mail it back to the producers, along with a headshot. This process makes me think that this show isnt a real as they want us to thing it is. That the easy part said Michael Smith, we talked about his experience on the show. The hardest are part was yet to come. The producers get your pictures and questionnaire and if the like you, they call you and your partner in for a personal interview. At the interview they go over your questionnaire and they try to find out what you are looking you in mate. They also get the dirt on you partner, this information will be used during the shows taping. After you talk to them, you go home and wait for a phone call from them. In the mean while, the producers try to find you a perfect date. Not only do ...

Profile of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala

Profile of Serial Killer Rodney Alcala Rodney Alcala is a convicted rapist, torturer, and serial killer who evaded justice for 40 years. Dubbed the Dating Game Killer Alcala was once a contestant on the show, The Dating Game, where he won a date with another contestant. However, the date never happened because the woman found him to be too creepy. Alcalas Childhood Years Rodney Alcala was born on August 23, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. His father left, leaving Anna Maria to raise Alcala and his sisters alone. At around the age of 12, Anna Maria moved the family to Los Angeles. At the age of 17, Alcala joined the Army and remained there until 1964 when he received a medical discharge after being diagnosed with a severe anti-social personality. Alcala, now out of the Army, enrolled in UCLA School of Fine Arts where is earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1968. This is the same year that he kidnapped, raped, beat, and tried to kill his first known victim. Tali Shapiro Tali Shapiro was an 8-year-old on her way to school when she was lured into Alcalas car, an act that did not go unnoticed by a nearby motorist who followed the two and contacted police. Alcala took Tali into his apartment where he raped, beat, and attempted to strangle her with a 10-pound metal bar. When police arrived, they kicked in the door and found Tali laying on the kitchen floor in a large puddle of blood and not breathing. Because of the brutality of the beating, they thought she was dead and begin to search for Alcala in the apartment. A police officer, returning to the kitchen, saw Tali struggling to breathe. All attention went to trying to keep her alive, and at some point, Alcala managed to slip out the back door. When searching Alcalas apartment, the police found several pictures, many of young girls. They also found out his name and that he had attended UCLA. But it took several months before they would find Alcala. On the Run but Not Hiding Alcala, now using the name John Berger, fled to New York and enrolled in NYU film school. From 1968 to 1971, even though he was listed on the FBIs most wanted list, he lived undetected and in full view. Playing the role of a groovy film student, amateur photographer, single hot shot, Alcala moved around New Yorks single clubs. During the summer months, he worked at an all girls summer drama camp in New Hampshire. In 1971, two girls attending the camp recognized Alcala on a wanted poster at the post office. The police were notified, and Alcala was arrested. Indeterminate Sentencing In August 1971, Alcala was returned to Los Angeles, but the prosecutors case had a major flaw - Tali Shapiros family had returned to Mexico soon after Tali recovered from the attack. Without their main witness, the decision was made to offer Alcala a plea deal. Alcala, charged with rape, kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder, accepted a deal to plead guilty to child molestation. The other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to one year to life and was paroled after 34 months under the indeterminate sentencing program. The program allowed a parole board, not a judge, to decide on when offenders could be released based on if they appeared rehabilitated. With Alcalas ability to charm, he was back out on the streets in less than three years. Within eight weeks he returned to prison for violating his parole for providing marijuana to a 13-year-old girl. She told police that Alcala kidnapped her, but he was not charged. Alcala spent another two years behind bars and was released in 1977, again under the indeterminate sentencing program. He returned to Los Angeles and got a job as a typesetter for the Los Angeles Times. More Victims It did not take long for Alcala to get back into his murderous rampage. The Murder of Jill Barcomb, Los Angeles County In November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 18-year-old Jill Barcomb, a New York native who had recently moved to California. Alcala used a large rock to smash in her face and strangle her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck.Alcala then left her body in a mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood, where she was discovered Nov. 10, 1977, posed on her knees with her face in the dirt.Murder of Georgia Wixted, Los Angeles County In December 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized, and murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted. Alcala used a hammer to sexually abuse Georgia, then used the claw end of the hammer to beat and smash in her head. He strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body posed in her Malibu apartment. Her body was discovered Dec. 16, 1977.Murder of Charlotte Lamb, Los Angeles County In June 1979, Alcala raped, beat, and murdered 33-year-old legal secretary Charlotte Lamb. Alcal a strangled Charlotte to death using a shoelace from her shoe and left her body posed in a laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex where it was discovered on June 24, 1979. Murder of Jill Parenteau, Los Angeles County In June 1979, Alcala raped and murdered 21-year-old Jill Parenteau in her Burbank apartment. He strangled Jill to death using a cord or nylon. Alcalas blood was collected from the scene after he cut himself crawling through a window. Based on a semi-rare blood match, Alcala was linked to the murder. He was charged with murdering Parenteau, but the case was later dismissed.Murder of Robin Samsoe, Orange County On June 20, 1979, Alcala approached 12-year-old Robin Samsoe and her friend Bridget Wilvert at Huntington Beach and asked them to pose for pictures. After posing for a series of photographs, a neighbor intervened and asked if everything was alright and Samsoe took off. Later Robin got on a bike and headed to an afternoon dance class. Alcala kidnapped and murdered Samsoe and dumped her body near the Sierra Madre in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Her body was scavenged by animals, and her skeletal remains were discovered on July 2, 1979. Her front teeth had been knocked out by Alcala. Arrested After the Samsoe murder, Alcala rented a storage locker in Seattle, where police found hundreds of photos of young women and girls and a bag of personal items that they suspected belonged to Alcalas victims. A pair of earrings found in the bag were identified by Samsoes mother as being a pair she owned. Alcala was also identified by several people as the photographer from the beach on the day Samsoe was kidnapped. Following an investigation, Alcala was charged, tried, and convicted for Samsoes murder in 1980. He was sentenced to receive the death penalty. The conviction was later overturned by the California Supreme Court. Alcala was again tried and convicted of the murder of Samsoe in 1986 and was again sentenced to the death penalty. The second conviction was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Three Times a Charm While awaiting his third trial for the murder of Samsoe, DNA collected from the murder scenes of Barcomb, Wixted, and Lamb was linked to Alcala. He was charged with the four Los Angeles murders, including Parenteau. At the third trial, Alcala represented himself as his defense attorney and argued that he was at Knotts Berry Farm on the afternoon that Samsoe was murdered. Alcala did not contest the charges that he committed the murders of the four Los Angeles victims but rather focused on the Samsoe charges. At one point he took the stand and questioned himself in third-person, changing his tone depending on if he was acting as his lawyer or as himself. On Feb. 25, 2010, the jury found Alcala guilty of all five counts of capital murder, one count of kidnapping and four counts of rape. During the penalty phase, Alcala attempted to sway the jury away from the death penalty by playing the song Alices Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie, which includes the lyrics, I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL. His strategy did not work, and the jury quickly recommended the death penalty to which the judge agreed. More Victims? Immediately after Alcalas conviction, the Huntington Police released 120 of Alcalas photos to the public. Suspecting that Alcala had more victims, the police asked for the publics help in identifying the women and children in the photos. Since then several of the unknown faces have been identified. New York Murders Two murder cases in New York have also been linked through DNA to Alcala. TWA flight attendant Cornelia Michael Crilley, was murdered in 1971 while Alcala was enrolled at NYU. Ciros Nightclub heiress Ellen Jane Hover was murdered in 1977 during the time that Alcala had received permission from his parole officer to go to New York to visit family. Currently, Alcala is on death row at San Quentin State Prison. Sources Orange County District Attorney48 Hours Mystery: Rodney Alcalas Killing Game

Guidelines for Risk Assessment Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Guidelines for Risk Assessment - Research Paper Example The result will be the ability to proceed into a business that can expand and overcome dangers of the business without accruing loss in the company. Since Cisco is a security based company for technology, most of the tangible risks are based on the ability to match security threats that occur through technological components. Security vulnerabilities that come from those that are attacking online portals are some of the strongest risks that are incorporated into the company. IT organizations and technological components are both at a risk because of specific technology architectures as well as the main way in which the hardware and software performs. This ranges by the method of attack that occurs on the system, usually which includes new and improved methods that can overcome older attacks while causing damage to the company’s technological components. This is furthered by day zero threats, which include changes in technology that enhance the attacks on technology without responses that can be completed by corporations (Bharania, 2010). The security vulnerabilities through technological attacks are not the only tangible problem within the corporation. There are also other problems that lie within the internal environment of the company, specifically through employee mistakes and unknown factors. Working in the IT industry is also dependent on innovations and new components that can be added into systems for implementation. AS this is done, it increases the amount of risk in the market. Even though there are end to end strategies, meaning that employees have to move through several levels before completing a product, there are still problems that may reach end users. The security, development and innovations that are completed will then have fewer demands and will cause the company to move into a lower rating with offering new securities. Since Cisco is known as a service provider