Future Career Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Future Career - Essay Example I have always had a way with children. Their curiosity and complete lack of inhibition has fascinated me and I have enjoyed hours of fun and frolic with kids. I am a good listener and am patient and tactful. I enjoy an excellent rapport with kids due to my sense of humor and storytelling skills. I can be perceptive, and time spent with children never tires me - in fact I find it a refreshing change from work or study. I believe this attachment to children has been a major factor in my chosen career options of either Early Childhood Teacher or Children’s psychologist. Early childhood teaching is a specialized field; hence I shall have to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. I shall also have to look up the requirements of the state where I shall want to work to attain further teaching credentials. This will enable me to get a job as an early childhood educator. I may have to begin as an assistant in order to gain some experience before I can be hired as a teacher. I shall also have to learn special skills to be able to descend to the level of my young charges and view life from their perspective in order to hold their interest and make learning a rewarding and enriching experience for them. Besides, I shall need to improve my arts and crafts skills so as to increase their creativity and learn to think on my feet in order to be able to handle sticky situations. The first years of a child’s life are crucial because here the foundations of their social skills, sense of self, moral values as well as perception of the ir surroundings and cognitive skills are laid. This is also the time when the human brain grows at its fastest pace. Therefore these first few years are critical to nurture healthy development of a child’s physical and mental abilities. At this point in their lives, when they will probably be interacting with people outside their immediate family for the first time; I shall have to adapt to the emotional needs

Laundered Clothes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Laundered Clothes - Essay Example Sometimes I feel that, even doing this is quite a chore! Well can you imagine how it must have been a hundred-and-fifty years' back, when there were no washing machines, no detergent powder (only cakes of soap) and no electric irons Well, let's cut back to 1858 Monday used to be weekly washing day. The washing process being a long one, it was necessary to allot a full day to it. Most homes tried to keep enough linen to keep them going through the week. (Old and Interesting) The coloured and the whites are separated the previous night, and the whites are soaked in water to loosen the dirt. On washing day, the clothes-both coloured and whites-are sorted out again. Those which are really dirty, oily or sweat-stained, including those whites which have been soaked the previous night, are soaked again in a large tub of a solution of soda bicarbonate (washing soda) and water. (WiseGEEK). Hot water was used if the clothes/ household linen were really dirty. Soda bi-carb was available in a powder form (it is a white powder) from the local grocery store. Alternately, some housewives boiled the clothes in a large metal pot, in water containing soda-bicarb. The pot was stirred with a long stick, and a large fork used to be used to handle the boiled clothes. Next, the clothes were individually washed with cakes of lye soap, by being beaten onto a serrated washboard, by hand, or sometimes a flat wooden bat was used to beat the clothes. (Old and Interesting) Homes which didn't have a washboard, just used a flat, wooden board or a hard, flat stone. Collars, cuffs and hems (dresses were long then) needed special attention to get dirt out; likewise delicate clothes with lace had to be handled gently. After this, the clothes were rinsed out in clean water. Several rinses had to be done in tubs of water kept alongside in a row, till the water ran clean from the clothes. Then the whites had to be 'whitened'. For this, washing blue (made of indigo) (Old and Interesting) was used. Washing blue was bought from the corner store, in little blue chunks. A chunk was tied in a linen cloth and dipped into a clean bucket of water. The water turned blue from this. To this was added starch and mixed well. Whites dipped into this came out starched and sparkling. As more and more clothes were dipped into the starch-blue solution, the solution itself had to be strengthened by adding more starch and blue. Care had to be taken to mix the starch well into the water so that the solution was not lumpy. Starch was not always available in the market, a hundred years back. It could be prepared at home by cooking corn flour in water, which yielded a sticky, viscous liquid, which was added to the water to p repare the starch water. The coloured clothes received the same starching as the whites did, except that the starch solution did not contain the blue. Personal linen (underwear) did not need starching, of course. After the starching, the clothes were wrung out (if too heavily wrung, they would lose all starch) and hung out on clothes-lines to dry. Wooden clothes-pegs were used to ensure that the clothes did not fly off the lines. While hanging them out, care had to be taken to see that they were sufficiently 'spread out', for one layer of wet starched cloth could get stuck to another. White clothes could be hung out in the sun, but not the coloureds, at least not in strong sunshine. Warm weather helped in drying out the clothes

Game Mechanics in Racing Game: Research

Game Mechanics in Racing Game: Research Introduction The very first racing game built by KONAMI was Road Fighter (Konami, 1984). The goal of the game was to reach the finish line without running out of fuel. The interesting part was each time the player gets close to finish line without getting crashed; a superman flies by and the player gets extra 1000 points. If you havent noticed before, the superman has K marked on his dress, which probably stands for Konami. But, if you see from a developers point of view, the superman bonus is the result of reward and feedback game mechanics. This point bonus encourages players to play better. It makes the game more interesting and players concentrate more in order to get the bonus Superman points. Game mechanics is a huge subject. It has been used in many fields today, other than video games. Game mechanics have been used for growing the players interest and involvement in gameplay, but as the area of game mechanics became largely successful, it started being used in other fields for other purposes. With the research on game mechanics, I try to study and understand the vast game mechanics subject and its application in various fields. I have also tried to form up a definition and apply it to study gameplay in various games. At last, a thorough study of game mechanics in racing games is attempted, and I introduce a new mechanics for racing games. Research Context The example above explains the game mechanics at quite brief extent. Here, I present some definitions by various researchers as well as own thoughts, experience and some examples. Game Mechanics Definitions Different researchers provide different game mechanics definitions, most likely related to their research. Here are some of the definitions given by some authors. Miguel Sicart defines game mechanics as: Methods invoked by agents for interacting with the game world. (Sicart, 2008) Here, Sicart offered a formal definition for game mechanics as he exercises this definition with a comparative analysis of Shadow of Colossus (Team Ico, 2005), Rez (United Game Artist, 2002) and Every Extend Extra (Q Entertainment, 2006) to research game context and user experience. One of the game mechanics definitions that Sicart has mentioned in his research is by Lundgren and BjÃÆ' ¶rk (2003) as: any part of the rule system of a game that covers one, and only one, possible kind of interaction that takes place during the game, be it general or specific. The definition given by Lundgren and BjÃÆ' ¶rk covers traditional board games and puzzle games, rather than video games. However, they mention that most of the mechanics identified in their research can easily be brewed into video games played on PCs and consoles. It would have been easy to describe these game mechanics without starting from traditional games, but, starting from traditional games also opens up a way that allows easy comparison between computer-based games and non-computerized games. Mike stout (2010) explains how to come up with a better game mechanics when the gameplay is repetitive and boring. Stout describes game mechanics as A major chunk of gameplay. He gives an example of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo, 1991) and the game mechanics used in the game like: sword combat, block pushing, boomerang throwing, swimming, button based puzzles, Hazard-avoidance, etc. (Stout, 2010) Amy Jo Kim explains game mechanics applied in functional softwares and social media as The system and features that makes games fun, compelling and addictive. Kim also explains how game mechanics is brewed into social media like eBay, Facebook, YouTube etc, (Kim, 2009). Game mechanics is a subject that is used in many fields other than video games like, social media, social games and entertainment, consumer products and services etc. Game Mechanics in Social Media Social media sites like facebook.com, eBay.com, youtube.com etc. Implements game mechanics at a very large scale. Amy Jo Kim (2009) explains how collection, points, exchange, feedback and customization mechanics is implemented in social media. For example, ebay.com gives rating and feedback score to the sellers based on the feedback received from customers or buyers. The feedback is accessible through sellers profile page where any user can check the ratings and score. This mechanics improves the seller services. Tesco PLC has implemented point mechanics to attract more customers. The customer gets certain points for purchases made at Tesco shops through Tesco Clubcard. Later, they can redeem points for other offers of items. Tesco makes various offers available through Clubcard points which drive customers to purchase more products. (Tesco, 2010) Jesse Schell (2010) presented multiple examples of game mechanics used in non-game media in his presentation Design outside the Box at DICE Summit 2010. Schell mentions new Ford Fusion hybrid car that comes with an EcoGuide facility, which is basically an implementation of feedback mechanics. Its a virtual plant in techno meter; the plant sprouts more leaves as your miles-per gallon go up, indicating how green your motoring is. (Goodwin, 2009) Here, feedback mechanics is used in such a way that might affect the way people drive their car and possibly encourage them to drive in an eco-friendly way. MouseHunt (HitGrab, 2008) and other facebook games are mainly based on points, feedback, collection, and customization mechanics and MouseHunt can be the best example of it. The player is required to build a mouse trap to catch mice and when a mouse is caught, the player is awarded with points and gold. The game keeps a track of points and gold on leaderboard. The mice caught by the player are added in his collection. Game Mechanics in Mainstream Games Quake (id Software, 1996) popularized rocket jumping mechanics. Rocket jumping is the technique of firing a rocket launcher or similar explosive pointing at the ground or at wall and jumping at the same time. The explosion propels and accelerates the players jump to large distance. Rocket jumping mechanics was introduced in Marathon (Bungie, 1994) and Rise of the Triad (Apogee, 1994), adapted in Team Fortress 2 (Valve, 2007) Unreal Tournament (Epic Games, 1999) and others. (Wikipedia, 2010) Another popular game mechanics is slow motion. The gameplay of Max Payne (Rockstar, 2001) involves bullet time-based action sequences. Bullet time slows the passage of time down to a certain level and enables the player to perform special moves. Time based mechanics is also one of the main features in later versions of Prince of Persia series (Ubisoft, 2003). This mechanics makes the prince able to slow down or rewind the time and perform special combat moves. Portal (Valve, 2007) is a single player Puzzle-Platformer game that consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the players character and simple objects using the portal gun, a unit that can create inter-spatial portal between flat planes. The game received praise for its unique gameplay and darkly humorous story. Portal seems a perfect combination of Challenge and Skills, though its gameplay consist teleportation based puzzles only. The gameplay contains no combat sequence or rocket jumping or slow motion. Kill.switch (Namco, 2003) introduced cover and shoot mechanics which was adapted into Gears of War (Epic Games, 2006). As described by Miguel Sicart (2008) Gears of War introduced an effective combat tactic where the player takes cover behind a block or a pillar and patiently shoots enemies. This third-person combat design also influenced Grand Theft Auto IV (RockStar North, 2008) and became highly popular. But Grand Theft Auto series is more popular for its variety of gameplay which consist of action, adventure, driving, racing, and stealth elements. The GTA series is also a good example of open world type of video game level design concept where a player can roam the virtual world at any point in the game. It also contains sandbox style nonlinear gameplay where the player can complete challenges in any sequence. The Game sold 2.5 million units in the America on the first day. (Mazel, 2008) The roots of open-world game concept go back to space simulator Elite (Acornsoft, 1984). However, we get to see open-world gameplay implementations in Midtown Madness (Microsoft, 1999), Need for Speed Underground 2 (EA Games, 2005) and Burnout Paradise (EA, 2008) as well. Game Mechanics in Racing Games The main gameplay in racing game is driving the car. However, many racing games offer various gameplay that are unique to the game itself. Need for speed: Underground (EA Games, 2003) has a unique win condition. The player has to finish the race at first place only in order to win the race, even if there are more than two players playing. This finish-first only mechanics deliberately increased the challenge level in the game. Underground emphasis heavily on import racing scene and featured vehicles associated with it. Cars can be customized to increase performance and visuals. Underground also featured EA Trax (EA Games) which is a collection of soundtracks. Overall, Need for Speed Underground contains multiple game mechanics that appealed many racing game lovers. According to VGChartz.com, the game sold 6.49 million units of PS2 version of the game till date. (VGChartz, 2010) Trials HD (RedLynx, 2009) is a combination of puzzle and stunt bike driving. It doesnt have any competitive race, as in the player has to get through a number of obstacles with as few crashes as possible. The challenge in the game is to balance and control the speed so that the player can pass through obstacles successfully. The game uses 3D graphics but the player can only more forward and backwards. However, the player can lean front or back to perform special moves or stunts. With such limited movement, the controls are also made simple. Trials HD also has a leaderboard feature, and when connected to Xbox Live, the player can compare his progress with his friends. Split Second (Disney, 2010) introduced destructive environment, which, when triggered by player it creates obstacles for other players. As a player performs stunts like drafting, drifting or precision driving, the powerplay meter builds up which allows the player to trigger special events like creating obstacles, enabling shortcuts or altering the race track entirely. High speed racing, imported cars, customization, stunts, crashes and motion blur can be noted as features of a racing game required to make it best selling. Burnout (Acclaim Entertainment, 2002) is noted as the initial in a series of high-speed racing games which also includes high risk gameplay mechanics. Burnout paradise (EA, 2008), the recent release in burnout series, features an open world environment called Paradise City, with day-night cycle. Game Mechanics include stunts, car crashes, and motorcycles. A very player favourite and famous gameplay is Crash Mode in which players can cause car crashes. However, in burnout paradise, the Crash Mode is called Showtime and records are kept for players biggest crash. The game contains best time for every street in the game which encourages the player to keep on driving to get the best time. Recently released blur (Activision, 2010) incorporates real world cars with arcade style handling and vehicular combat. It introduces a completely new type of gameplay to the current racing genre. However, it is brewed with the power ups mechanics that has been used in many games. It also uses the ranking and perk system. The race starts without a count-down timer which is currently popular; we can see such game mechanics in Split second and need for speed series. Results and Contribution The Definition I would like to give a brief explanation rather than a definition. It is possible that this has been mentioned some or other way in many articles. Game mechanics is a set of rules that builds a specific gameplay which makes the game more challenging, interesting and player-involving. Game mechanics can also introduce new ideas or variety within a game, which ultimately makes a game fun. Game mechanics can be used to build up such a gameplay that motivates or manipulates human behaviour. The definition explained here has been used to study and understand the game mechanics and gameplay in a variety of games mentioned in the research. Game Mechanics In Racing Genre When it comes to racing games, speed is everything. The faster the gameplay is, the more the excitement, interest and challenge will be. In a racing game, the player is not given a high performance car at the beginning of the game, but as he levels up in the game, faster cars or performance upgrades that can boost up the speed are unlocked. This mechanism creates a need of high performance car, and as the player progresses further, the game feels more rewarding. Free roam mode or open world environment plays a crucial part in racing games. Player gets a chance to explore the environment and start the race whenever he wants to, which gives a realistic feeling to the game. Players usually get attracted towards imported cars. Car customization has become an important feature of racing games. Models of original cars are highly praised by players and. They have a tendency to customize their cars and show off as well. Leaderboards allow players to compare their best times, high score and achievements, which also keeps a player engaged in game. Challenge is not the only element a player is looking for in racing games. A number of games provides stunts and car crash based gameplay. Trials HD (RedLynx, 2009) and Burnout series (Criterion Games) are good examples of it. Player can drive through a signboard or perform a stunt in burnout paradise to gain extra boost, where Trials HD is all about passing through obstacles by performing stunt moves. Such game mechanics inserts the element of fun in games. A few arcade style racing games have been avoiding the use of start up countdown. The round starts with ongoing race and the player gains control of the car after a cut scene. This type of mechanics is seen in triple-A titles like Blur and Split second. However, Simulation style racing games, where the realism is more persistent, follows the traditional countdown start-up of a race. Need for speed underground featured finish-first only mechanics. In order to win the round, the player has to finish at first place and first place only. This increases the challenge at a high degree, but it also seemed to be improving the player skills. Other notable game mechanics or gameplay features includes motion blur, car pursuit, allowing player to create tracks etc. Music and soundtracks also play an important part in making the game more interesting. Who wouldnt listen to hip hop or rock music while driving ones favourite car at top speed? It is believed that EA Trax has played an important part in the success of Need for Speed series. Gameplay is designed by brewing multiple game mechanics together. There is no specific recipe to make a best-selling racing game, but a game with various gameplay is more likely get popular. Developing a new Game Mechanic for Racing Games Whether a player is performing stunts, chasing a car, trying to make a huge crash score, or just playing a normal race, the core element is speed. Wouldnt it be great if a car never lose speed unless it is commanded to? Here, I have attempted to come up with such a game mechanic. During a race, if a player hits an obstacle, the car will lose health points but not the speed; the car will continue running throughout the track without losing its speed. However, massive loss in health points will ultimately result the player lose the round. The game presented here demonstrates the game mechanics with some other features as well. The demo consists of a single straight track. Instead of solid obstacles, the player will face white ghosts on track. On colliding with a ghost, the car will go through it but will lose health points. The race does not start with a countdown; instead it begins with the player car running at minimum speed; which increases the challenge from the beginning. On the other hand, if the player runs out of health, or fails to finish the race at first place, he loses the round. But, if the player finishes at first place without losing any health points, he wins a perfect finish. The demo also features some power ups. If the player picks up a health pack, the car health is restored. Slow motion slows down the game, allowing player to easily move through ghosts. Once activated, the game runs in slow motion for 10 seconds. Another power up is a shield which protects player from getting hurt by ghosts or opponent cars. The shield, once activated, stays active for 5 seconds. Shield provides a great advantage. When activated, the car will run 2 points slower than the real speed. Opponents do not collide or influence the players game; however, if collided with opponent cars, the player car will lose health. Evaluation Game Mechanics The following racing mechanics have been implemented into the demo, speed mechanics, power ups, random obstacle mechanics, competition mechanics, countdown less start up and finish first only. The gameplay was changed regularly as the demo was forming up in order to get the optimum effect of the mechanics. Multiple values were changed to improve the difficulty and challenge. However, it was also ensured that the difficulty is not far above the ground. Besides game mechanics, the gameplay can be improved with better feedback, graphical and visual effects, music and sound, more rewards or other bells and whistles. The Gameplay A game demo or a beta version of a game is made for testing purposes. The developers would test the graphics, frame rate or overall performance. Here, the game demo was made for an identical aim. The game demo was given to a group of game enthusiasts. Afterwards the reaction of the players towards the game mechanics was observed. The demo has a look and feel of classic road fighter (Konami, 1984) and the players did miss the superman bonus point. Random obstacles increased the challenge; it made the demo interesting as well. The demo has proved to be an ideal combination of challenge and skill. The players had to concentrate more in order to achieve the perfect finish; several players attempted more tactical approach to win the race. When asked about each feature of the game separately, the replies were encouraging and prove the success of the demo. User Comments Here are some comments given by players who tried the game demo. The game is quiet good; the ghosts were terrible as they ate up all my health in the first round. I rate it 4 out of 5. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Pratik Solanki The concept was different from other games, though the difficulty level was maintained throughout the demo. It seemed easy to win the game, but it was tough to achieve the perfect finish. 3.5 out of 5 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Kushal Joshi The game gets addictive as soon as you start playing   Dirk Fortmeier The Research Game development is not quite possible without understanding game mechanics. Gameplay is an important factor that attracts a player. The research on game mechanics helped to understand why a particular gameplay is more interesting and player involving.

Summary of A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer :: essays research papers

A Child Called 'It' 'You are a nobody! An It!?(Pelzer 140). These were the raw, disheartened remarks that came from the disgusting coldhearted mother's mouth. These painful hurting remarks at her son was how the book got its title and that's what interested me in reading this book. A Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer, is a life-changing story about, a young boy who is starved, beat, and tortured by his mother and her cruel games, yet he manages to turn his life around when he grows up. This young boy uses his faith, self-discipline, and will power to overrule his mother's destruction and life damaging obstacles. David was a young boy who got beaten everyday. He was very skinny, bony, and was beaten everyday. David wore threadbare clothing, he looked as if he hadn't changed or washed his clothes in months. This was the truth, his mother starved him and abused him. She never washed his clothes to embarrass him. This worked at first when people started making fun of him, but David got used to it. Bullies started beating the scrawny boy up everyday, it became a routine, but he was so frail and weak from being starved he couldn?t fight back. David looked muddled, he had a very terrible physical journey that made him mentally stronger. Loving God and hating his own mother kept David strong. David loved God, he prayed every night to God. He hated his mother so much he wanted to outthink her tricks, he did. He used different tactics like over exaggerating his pain when he got beat, putting a wet cloth over his mouth when his mother put cleaning products in a room with him. David kept counting time in his head in order to make the time pass faster.

Three Essays

Equal pay and rights for women Women constitute about 50% of global population. Without equal pay and rights for women, they lag behind and that means entire human kind is losing about 50% growth potential. Bring child mortality rate to near zero Mortality rate for under 5-year old children in some under developed countries could run as high as 162 per 1000 according to World Bank data. This rate is quite alarming and shocking in twenty first century. UN should work with NAGS, WHO, UNESCO, respective governments to bring down this rate.UN should take strict measures against countries that discourages proper immunization such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Sadly, all here of these countries recently reported outbreak of polio. Ensure proper access to and preservation of Every living human being needs to drink safe pure drinking water and pure drinking water. There is no doubt among experts that water would become priciest mineral 20 to 30 years down the road. According to LINE reports, 783 million people don't have access to safe drinking water. Also, there are reports that indicate drinking water storage is shrinking due to climate change.UN should work with all member states, Nags to educate the importance of pure drinking water to general public and take proper measures to ensure everyone's access to pure drinking water. Stop wars and genocide One of the founding charters of GIN is to stop wars. Unfortunately, UN has very limited success here. Recent annexation of Crimea to Russia is a stellar example of how UN failed to do its job in this regard. Genocides in CAR and Syria also remind us how complicated today's political world is, and limited authority GIN has over its member states.UN should be working harder to stop wars and genocides. Ensure democratic free and fair elections in all There are plenty of examples when many member states dictators win over 99% of votes in national elections. Those elections are never held in free and fair manner and w ithout any international election monitoring. These dictators repress against its own citizens, violate basic human rights, and engage wars with neighbors. UN should be strengthening its election monitoring capabilities and sections against states that don't hold free and fair elections.Conclusion: As a global citizen, I think each of the six demands have profound impact on today's world, and world population. UN has some level of successes in many sectors, however, there is more needs to be done for this planet earth and its residents. C. Describe a time when you took a great risk. What was the outcome? Time to take a great risk: I strongly believe life is all about taking calculated risks, insightful planning, smart execution and reaping benefits at the end. Many of my family members have settled in various western countries in pursuit of higher post graduate studies.There is no way I could wait that long to go overseas for higher studies. Since I was 4 or 5 year old, I used to li sten to BBC Bengali service which intrigued me about other cultures, different life styles, languages, and politics. It wasn't matter of if but when. When I was in 9th grade, I decided it was the time to this take this risk and start proper planning. Knew it would be a big sacrifice -living without parents, siblings, relatives, living in an unknown territory and not to mention forking over large sum of tuition fees.Per plan, I applied and got admitted into Notre Dame College (for 10 through 1 2 grade studies), attended few courses at a private university modeled after US colleges etc. It was August 1 998 when I finally got university acceptance letter and visa to go abroad. Sweet outcome: Outcome has been great In a nutshell, to get here had to work hard. I knew how to adapt to a country and culture as I was born and bought up in a Hindu family but Muslim majority county Bangladesh.I have consistently taken double fulfillment course load to lower tuition fee/course, have taken inter nships, on/off campus jobs to earn extra $ to provide for schooling and living expenses. Now I have over ten years of professional experience now in US and have been dealing with world renowned clients like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple, British telecoms, Swiss railways in my daily routine, and working and selling solutions access the globe. Most of the mimes, can do all these things from my home office. Sometimes, I feel like I have gained more than I bargained for!And theses when I tend to raise the bar and work smarter to reach new goals. Conclusion: In summary, when risky decisions are taken, we would need to make sure we have proper plans [plan A, plan B, even plan C] in place, we need to be flexible and pour our heart and soul to be successful. Have already made my mind to take next risk- to set up boutique IT consulting firms' across the globe in socially and financially challenged parts of the world. I strongly believe entrepreneurial spirit of II global program, vent ure lube and classmates would be extremely helpful in achieving my next big goal!F. You have just participated in an important meeting with your superior. How will you ensure that every part of the instructions you received will properly reach all subordinates, suppliers and clients, located in different parts of the world? During my meeting with my supervisor Mr. â€Å"X†, he informed me that our product license reinitialize rate year over year has gone down by 10% during last fiscal year. He instructed me following: ; Work with account managers to identify clients where license renewal could be at risk

Information Assurance Essay

Information Assurance (IA) can be referred to as the process that involves in the management of perils that are closely related to the usage, processing, storage and electronic transfers of information. This field has been birthed by information security, a field in computer security. Information Assurance is aimed at availability, authentication, non-repudiation, integrity and confidentiality of information and information systems thus serving as a defense and protection turf for electronic information. The process of Information Assurance commences with the act of specifying and classifying the assets of the information to be protected. This process of information specification and classification is done objectively taking into contemplation the nature, source and the purpose of the information in focus. This is followed by risk assessment that is done by Information Assurance practitioner who has to put into consideration the likelihood and the impact of the undesired actions that may negatively affect the disclosure of the information in storage to unauthorized individuals. It is at this stage that the both qualitative and the quantitative value of the risk in relation to the current situation and predictable hazard is determined. Moreover, the IA practitioner develops a risk management plan that puts forward the countermeasures that can probably mitigate, accept, eliminate or transfer the risks. The plans also puts into consideration the detection, prevention and response towards the emergent or prospective perils (Qian, Tipper, Krishnamurthy, 2008). During the plan development, various frame works can be employed such as ISO 17799, PCIDSS, ISO/IEC 27002 or CobiT. Procedures and policies such as frequent data and information backups and configuration hardening, installation of anti-virus programs and firewalls are among the countermeasures that can be used. Other activities included as countermeasures are trainings and the restructuring of the computer network systems which put in place computer emergence response team (CERT) or computer security incident response team (CSIRT). These countermeasures aim at managing, extenuating or totally eliminating the forthcoming risks in the most cost-effective manner. Later, implementation, testing and evaluation of the plan are undertaken through various designed methodologies such as formal audits. An overhaul, known as the service integrity service is put in place to protect the resources of the system from accidental unwarranted change, destruction or loss (Rogers, 2004). The system’s authenticator, also referred to as the system administrator, bears the entire authorization mandate and it is only through his certification and accreditation that a third party or any other person can access the information in store. In addition, liaison of the authenticator with the user representative and the program manager grants equal access rights to the protected information. The above three officials also have to decide agreeably on the most appropriate approaches to be instituted in an attempt to meet all the information security prerequisites. Once they have identified these methodologies, they also highlight on the security remedies that are satisfying. The authenticator’s leadership, these information system officials are bestowed with the obligation to oversee the activities of the information system security. So as to be able to access the information in the system, the authenticator has to issue a declaration indicating that approval has been granted to the any alleged declaration holder to operate the automated information system (AIS). Included in this declaration are the sets of standardized rules and regulations that must be adhered to the latter by all users having the right of access to the stored information. These prescriptions are aimed at safeguarding the information in store and the Automated Information System at large. Besides this declaration, data security can be ensured by the use of logins, passwords and digital certificates which are specifically issued to those users who are sanctioned (May, et al, 2004). The former is not so much campaigned for but instead, the latter and the use of biometric techniques such as voice and fingerprints as regarded as more secluded methods. Computer information attackers have devised ways to overwrite and also override these login passwords and as a result, this safety methodology is rarely relied upon. Once authentication has been granted, encryption of the sensitive data is done to avert it from eavesdropping and other related computer information crimes. During the process of authentication personal information is gathered and entered into the automated system which aids in the person’s identification. As a result, the party is issued with a credential. This credential validates the user identity claim when he/she is accessing the controlled and protected assets or information. In pursuit to ensure more safety over the stored information, multi-factor authentication has been employed. The multi-factor authentication process is subject to various environments and other technological rudiments and varies depending on these two aspects (Department of the Army, 2007). These techniques may include network architecture controls, remote network access, network sniffers and securing network ports. Failure to conform to or adopt any of the above mentioned authentication methodologies will expose the stored data to computer information systems defaulters who can craftily bypass weak technical controls. Consequently, they distort the information. This distortion may vary from mere acts such as modifying the main memory’s information after having read it to causing notable and probably irreversible behavior of the schedulers which are finally associated with the crashing of the entire information systems with large volumes data loss. In addition the can disable the firewall module packet filtering by transforming the image such that the agent’s in-memory store code starts working inappropriately (Larry, 2009). This may render the agent disabled from accessing the system. Once automated information attacker gains this unauthorized opportunity to access to the clients’ information he has the freedom to perform dynamic data modifications. Besides, he can access the system management memory (SMM) handler. The end result of this will be a system management random access memory (SMRAM) cache-based attack. Computer information criminals also alter the information system’s operating codes. Moreover, they can access client’s personal and confidential details such personal identification numbers and probably financial institution’s information thus ending up in a big loss in their finances. National and scientific databases have been prepared and managed by the governments of various states. Moreover, academic organizations and research institutions are also reliable. However, these stakeholders have to take keen attention during the auditing of the information, especially those received from partnerships with other organizations to avoid errors that may be disastrous in the future. In information assurance, the information flowing in the associated institutions should be confidential as earlier said and also the information’s integrity should be well safeguarded. In ensuring that the information meets these prerequisites, the British standards well implemented. Information assurance standards are also published a template in the IA website. Moreover, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) site contains these standards which are also coordinated with the MCNOSC. Therefore in conclusion, information assurance can be basically taken to mean the information operations (IO) aimed at information and information systems (IS) protection. This is achieved through the information assurance standards that see the achievement of information availability, its integrity, confidentiality, authentication and non-repudiation. The realization of these standards ensure the refurbishment of IS through the amalgamation of restoration, detection, fortification and reaction competences

Lenin essays

Lenin essays How far was Stalinism the outcome of Leninist political practice? The political system which existed in the Soviet Union under Stalin was a system of terror. The purges of the 1930s sent millions of Russians to their deaths or to the Gulags, the population was scared of the secret police, the NKVD, the forced collectivization of agriculture had wiped out a part of Russian society, the Kulaks. The show trials of the thirties had firmly established Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. What requires investigation is how far was this regime of terror a new entity in the Soviet Union or how far it was a continuation the state set up by Lenin after the Russian revolution in 1917. The regime set up by Lenin did have a secret police, the Cheka and it was authoritarian, especially in the the years after the revolution and the civil war. There was forced grain requisitioning during the period of War Communism and political enemies were exiled. That is by no means in question. The difference is that during the Leninist years there was not the wholesale slaughter of millions of Soviet citizens as there was under Stalin in the 1930s. It can be argued therefore, that Stalinism was partly the outcome of Leninist political practice because there were many similarities between the two regimes. However, the Stalinist system was by no means the inevitable outcome of Leninist political practice when one considers the differences between the two regimes and Stalin's personality compared to that of Lenin. One must also remember that Stalin's path to power was not a simple accession to power when Lenin died and there were other candidates for leader. Stalin had to out manoeu vre figures such as Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev to get power. Therefore Stalin was not, by any means, ultimately destined to become the leader of the Soviet Union. This may go some way to explaining why he felt the need to be so repressive to any potential political enemies. ...

The 7 Deadly Workplace Mistakes

The 7 Deadly Workplace Mistakes Workplace mistakes: they happen. More importantly, they happen to everyone, from the CEO down to the most junior employee. It’s just a fact of professional life. However, some workplace mistakes are worse than others. Here are seven of them that are likely within your control, and that you should avoid at all costs. 1. LyingWhether it’s a little white lie about whether or not you responded to an email or a big honking falsehood you tell to cover up a mistake, just don’t do it. Your honesty is a huge part of your workplace reputation. If you’re caught in that lie (or worse, more than one), you’ve given your bosses and colleagues a reason not to believe anything you say.2. Throwing others under the busThe workplace can be a very competitive atmosphere, especially depending on your industry. When things go wrong, it can be tempting to shift the blame to one of your coworkers, so that they get the consequences from a mistake. But really, it’s jus t poor form, and trust me- you’re not pulling it off as subtly as you might think. It might get you out of the hot seat for now, but your boss (and possibly your colleagues) will know that you’re not someone who will take deserved blame along with credit.Just about every professional evaluation survey I’ve ever seen has a question about whether the employee owns up to mistakes and handles them productively. Like dishonesty, deflective blame is something that can really damage your reputation. So when things go wrong, own up to your piece in it, and figure out how you can either help fix it, or prevent it in the future.3. Tooting your own hornThink of it as sportsmanship in the workplace. Nobody likes a bad winner, who rubs their success in everyone’s faces- especially if it comes at the expense of other team members. Feel free to do a mini-victory dance in the privacy of your own desk, but don’t send out a company-wide email announcing your good fo rtune.4. Taking credit for things you didn’t doIf you weren’t the one who stayed up all night on this project, don’t be the one who steps up to accept the laurels when credit and applause come from above. If the idea you floated in the meeting wasn’t exactly your own creation, make sure the person who did come up with it gets the credit. Don’t be like one of those comedians who get busted stealing others’ jokes†¦it’ll just undermine your support when you do have an awesome idea. No one wants to be known as the Milli Vanilli of their office.5. Throwing a tantrumIf things aren’t going your way, don’t let it cause a scene at work. Sometimes you’ll feel like screaming. Sometimes you’ll feel like having it out with a colleague who’s treating you like crap. Always, always find a way to cool off before you handle an emotionally charged situation. You can’t take back things said in anger, and you really don’t want to get a reputation around your office as someone with an unstable temper.6. Talking about how much you hate your job/company/bossOccasionally muttering, â€Å"I hate this place† under your breath at your monitor = fine. Announcing it in a meeting or in front of colleagues = not okay. Letting everyone know how unhappy you are is only going to provoke one response: â€Å"Then why are you still here?† It will also tell your boss and your company that you don’t care anymore, which can work against you when it comes to raises, promotions, etc. If you’re truly unhappy at your job, there are ways to manage that stress- not least of which is looking for a new job. You can do that without announcing your discontent, and avoid any awkwardness that might result.7. Talking about colleagues behind their backsTalking smack about someone is just never gonna end well. I promise this is just as true in the adult workplace as it ever was in high school. Best case, you may be spreading information that might not be true, or might be damaging to someone else or the company. Worst case, it gets back to the subject of the gossip, and you’ve damaged your reputation and at least one working relationship.

Definition and Examples of Sentence Case

Definition and Examples of Sentence Case Sentence case is the conventional way of using capital letters in a sentence or capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns. In most newspapers in the U.S. and in virtually all publications in the U.K., sentence case, also known as down style and reference style, is the standard form for headlines. Examples and Observations The 100-year-old scientist who pushed the FDA to ban artificial trans fat.Barack Obama flies to thank troops who killed Bin Laden.FBI investigating Cardinals alleged hacking of Astros computer system.AP Style: HeadlinesOnly the first word and proper nouns are capitalized...APA Style: Sentence Style in Reference ListsIn titles of books and articles in reference lists, capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or em dash, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the second word of a hyphenated compound.Librarians and bibliographers work with minimal capitals [i.e., sentence case], . . . yet [other options] are well established in literary tradition. For many people theres virtue in using [sentence case] in lists and bibliographies, but using one of the other options for titles quoted in the course of a written discussion.In major companies, the problem of consistency may be largely unreconcilable. The public relations department has to use a down style because it is writi ng for newspapers, but department heads insist on capitalizing the names of titles and departments... Sources The Washington Post, June 16, 2015The Guardian  [U.K.], May 7, 2011Democrat and Chronicle  [Rochester, N.Y.], June 16, 2015The Associated Press Stylebook: 2013, edited by Darrell Christian, Sally Jacobsen, and David Minthorn. The Associated Press, 2013(Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th ed. American Psychological Association, 2010Pam Peters,  The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge University Press, 2004Donald Bush and Charles P. Campbell,  How to Edit Technical Documents. Oryx Press, 1995

Relationships Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Relationships - Essay Example He taught me how to write before I went to school; every day; he would come home and sit with me on a small chair and table next to his huge study desk. At first, I would play around in the room running around and sometimes upsetting him with my toy cars. Most times, he would smile understandingly and after he was done working, I would help him tidy up the room. However, he gradually started insisting I sit still and he would then teach me how to print out letters, words and eventually sentences. At first, I did not like the restrictions involved while he was teaching me, but I gradually got used to them. In addition, when my father wants you to do something, it is easier to do it than resist him since he will inevitably wear you out. This was the first lesson I learned about him that informed most of my interactions and sometimes-even fights with him. I began school at a slightly older age than most of my colleagues, but when the teachers realized I had been homeschooled, they put m e in an accelerated program and I soon caught up with my peers. However, my father’s involvement in my life went beyond academics since he was an ardent sports fan and particularly loved football. Every Sunday, he would take me with him to the local stadium and we would watch the game and cheer his favorite team, which soon become our favorite. Sometimes when he came from work early, we would kick around a ball at the yard outside our house and then I would either join him in his study or watch TV in the den as he worked. One thing that he and I both loved apart from football was reading. He was a voracious reader and his study was filled with hundreds of books from all over the world; I had taken to perusing through some of those as I grew older and when he noticed my interest he bought me several children’s versions which I enjoyed immensely. By the time, I was 13, I had started reading most of the original works in his collection

Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion Research Paper

Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion - Research Paper Example After the accident, the above-ground storage policy was questioned and utility companies began to store natural gas below the ground to improve their safety rather than in tanks. The disaster was a valuable lesson that underlined the importance of ensuring optimum pressure in gas storage tanks and ensuring that leaks can be detected. This report recommends using tanks that store gas within them at a lower pressure and this would be invaluable even for transporting gas through pipelines to its various locations, because maintaining the pressure at a reasonable low would help to avoid the accidents that could result from leaks and over -pressurized pipelines. On the 20th of October 1944, a natural gas storage tank above the ground which was full of liquefied natural gas exploded (www.ohiohistorycentral.org). Although investigators into the disaster were unable to discover the causes for the explosion, it is widely believed that a leak developed in the seam of the side of the tank that dipped down into the city sewers. Vapour began to escape from this seam, mixing with air and sewer gas, which in turn produced explosions (www.waymarking.com). Since the tank was located near a lake, winds blowing from the lake pushed the gas towards the town where it slipped into the sewer lines through the catch basins that were located in the street gutters. The gas travelled rapidly through the underground pipes linking the sewer lines causing explosions that were so violent that they lifted manhole covers and sent them flying away. This was not however, the end of the disaster. The fire department was called out and tackled the explosions and fires, but even as they were working and the explosions were believed to have been contained, another above ground tank exploded, causing more fires, so that entire homes suddenly caught fire and burnt out with the

Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments Assignment

Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments - Assignment Example They are funded by big companies and sometimes by research agencies. These experiments have however, more often than not, been counter-productive as they fail to understand the basic fact that humans and animals have very different bodies. Drugs may thus not be safe for humans while they are safe for animals and vice-versa. This leads to disastrous consequences where both animal and human lives are lost due to the side-effects on the bodies of both. The basic purpose of the experiments remains unfulfilled and many lives are lost in the process. The issue has also been dealt from the angle of the ethical treatment of animals, in the article. It argues against the use of animals in scientific and medical experiments. Instead, it proposes the use of other techniques that would be able to predict the effects of drugs on human beings. The loss of animal and human lives can thus be minimized, leading to a more harmonious existence for the whole of mankind. This would lead man to treat anim als as friends and not as objects for scientific research (Killing Animals and Humans). Animals are Friends, not Scientific Experiments â€Å"Killing Animals and Humans†, an article that appears on the website of the organization Animal Aid talks about how the entire process of killing animals for the benefit of human beings is a futile exercise. ... The reason that is provided for the insensitive slaughter of these animals is the development of drugs that may be used for the treatment of diseases in human beings. The article hints that the humanitarian side of the debate is often overshadowed by the financial aspect of it. The reason for this may be that these experiments are often funded by big firms and research institutions that have their own lobbies. The article reveals in great detail, the different methods that are used to torture animals and the inhumanity of such an approach. The article also exposes the flaws in the legislative structures of nations across the world where atrocities against animals are often not taken very seriously. The essay also busts the myth about the utility of these experiments to the human race. It cites examples of lives that have been lost as a result of these experiments. As opposed to the common perception that these experiments lead to the loss of only animal lives, it also leads to the lo ss of human lives. These experiments often overlook the fact that animals and humans may not react in the same manner to the same drugs. The different effects that these drugs produce have led to many mistakes in the field of medicine, something that is the public is often not aware of. The essay talks of how medicines that have worked on animals that are as close to the human race as chimpanzees has failed completely on humans. An administration of these drugs to humans without proper research into the human anatomy would always lead to disaster, according to the article. As a result of these mindless experiments, thus, no purpose is fulfilled except the deaths of many humans and animals. The article, as a means of a solution, proposes a paradigm shift in the way experiments

Just Between You, Me, and My 622 BFFs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Just Between You, Me, and My 622 BFFs - Essay Example The social media impacts a lot of the children’s development. The author of the essay illustrates this very vividly. At the beginning of her article, Orenstein addresses the case of a fourteen-year-old teen by the name Erin. The teen confesses that she began engaging herself in online activities since she was in third grade. This brings out the fact of how early the children get exposed to the internet and the social media. The early exposure to the Internet makes them adopt new behaviors and lifestyles that may be unhealthy. For instance, Orenstein comments on how Erin and three of her friends shunned a healthy meal prepared by her mother, for a bucket of shamrock-shaped, green frosted sugar cookies bought at the grocery store. By so doing, the author tries to bring to the audience the effect of continued exposure to the internet on the children. What their mother thinks is important for them may not match their knowledge gained from the internet. It is unfortunate that they may prefer taking what the internet advertises. In this case, the sugar cookies sounded so popular to them since they were bought during the celebrations of Saint Patrick’s Day. This can be attributed to the fact that the four teens had been online from as early as age seven or eight. The author uses the three teens to illustrate how the children in the present era are so much attached to the mobile devices, ensuring they have internet everywhere and at all times. She notes that Erin and her three friends each owned an iPod touch, used computers daily.

Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Essay

Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Years - Essay Example Psychological theories play a very important role in the social work practice on alcohol abuse among the young people. According to the Social Learning theory by Albert Bandura, people are not born with specific types of behavior (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). This is to mean that people learn behaviors from different contexts such as the environment in which the individuals live in. The theorist continues to indicate that the response patterns that individuals acquire are either acquire through direct experience or through observation of concepts they see in their environment (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). On the grounds of this theory, it is validated to indicate that the environment is the major source of learning and the main source of observable behavior. In the context of the young adults aged 16-19 years, the theory explains that they learn new behaviors through modeling. Additionally, Bandura argues that the social behaviors are learned through watching as well as performing the actions learned. For instance, a young teenager who sees his/her peers using alcohol as a form of recreation, they are likely to learn this behavior and even adopt the same as part of their lifestyle (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). Despite numerous criticisms that the social learning theory simply takes the individuals as mere unreceptive recipients of the stimuli in the environment as Bingham & Conner argue (2010; pp.10), this theory is relevant in the study of alcohol misuse, as the misuse of alcohol can be termed as a social practice as the misusers of the alcohol simply learn the habit as a result of mere interactions with the various actors in the environment. The biopsychosocial model of addiction explains that alcohol misuse has a link with the psychological and social factors  (Miller, 2011; pp.12). Biologically, individuals may have the genetic inheritance of alcohol syndrome while psychosocially, the environment may influence an individual to alcohol misuse.  

Independent study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8000 words

Independent study - Essay Example In today’s intensely competitive business environment, the competitive advantage lies in how successful an organisation is in linking its strategic intent and direction to its overall operations. In order to steer an organisation in its intended direction and be successful in achieving its overall objectives, correct evaluation of organisational performance is critical. Evaluating organisational performance not only provides an assessment of the current situation but also provides information for corrective action if the performance is deviating from desired levels. However the effectiveness of performance evaluation depends on whether the right things have been evaluated. If a company has focused on evaluating the wrong aspects or neglected evaluating key aspects, which has significant implications on its performance, then results from the evaluation process will not be complete. The intention of this independent study is to gain valuable first hand insight in to how theoreti cal knowledge on management practices can be applied in practical settings. Balanced Score Card concept being a fairly recent management concept holds vocational value for the future career purposes, as it is set within the background of strategic management.

Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Essay

Social Work Practice- Alcohol Misuse in Young People of Ages of 16-19 Years - Essay Example Psychological theories play a very important role in the social work practice on alcohol abuse among the young people. According to the Social Learning theory by Albert Bandura, people are not born with specific types of behavior (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). This is to mean that people learn behaviors from different contexts such as the environment in which the individuals live in. The theorist continues to indicate that the response patterns that individuals acquire are either acquire through direct experience or through observation of concepts they see in their environment (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). On the grounds of this theory, it is validated to indicate that the environment is the major source of learning and the main source of observable behavior. In the context of the young adults aged 16-19 years, the theory explains that they learn new behaviors through modeling. Additionally, Bandura argues that the social behaviors are learned through watching as well as performing the actions learned. For instance, a young teenager who sees his/her peers using alcohol as a form of recreation, they are likely to learn this behavior and even adopt the same as part of their lifestyle (Monti, 2002; pp. 3-6). Despite numerous criticisms that the social learning theory simply takes the individuals as mere unreceptive recipients of the stimuli in the environment as Bingham & Conner argue (2010; pp.10), this theory is relevant in the study of alcohol misuse, as the misuse of alcohol can be termed as a social practice as the misusers of the alcohol simply learn the habit as a result of mere interactions with the various actors in the environment. The biopsychosocial model of addiction explains that alcohol misuse has a link with the psychological and social factors  (Miller, 2011; pp.12). Biologically, individuals may have the genetic inheritance of alcohol syndrome while psychosocially, the environment may influence an individual to alcohol misuse.  

Hong Kong affect its future economy Essay Example for Free

Hong Kong affect its future economy Essay This research project seeks to bring out the effects of the Hong Kong population structure on the future economy of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a booming economy being one of the major financial districts of the South Asian region and its changing population structure has a lot to do with its workforce and in turn affects its working culture and present and future economic structure as well. Research Question: The research question for this project seek to study how or to what extent the population structure a regards to age and gender or social characteristics of the population tend to affect the present and future economy of Hong Kong. So there are two parts to this research project – the first part analyzes the population structure of Hong Kong with regards to the age and gender or social status and the second part brings out the economic structure of Hong Kong from its past to present changes and the future of Hong Kong economy in a more globalized world and the impact of global markets on the financial centre of Asia. The focused research question in this case brings out several dimension of the study as through the analysis of the qualitative and quantitative dimensions, the subjective and objective aspects of the study. The impact of the changes in population structure on the economy could be understood on the basis of changing population numbers and percentages quantitatively and the socioeconomic changes as understood qualitatively. The research question essentially focuses on the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of the research as it seeks to bring out the impact of population change in economic structure of Hong Kong in a descriptive manner and in accordance with socioeconomic changes, as in influence of wage, gender, age gaps and changes etc an also the direct statistical values and correlations between population and economic structures in terms of numbers and statistical values. The research question on the extent to which population structure affects the Hong Kong economy thus brings out this ‘extent’ in terms of numbers or real values as also in terms of description of changes in Hong Kong as what happens qualitatively when the population structure changes and what is the impact on the economy from a descriptive point of view. Like for example this can be related to lack of high living standards, poor health conditions of the elderly. These would be qualitative dimensions of the research and the values or percentages of changing population and simultaneously changing economy would be the quantitative aspects of research. These two methods are discussed further in the methodology section as given below. Background/Literature Review: A brief literature review is provided here and brings out the main points of research articles as published in journals and obtained from ingentaconnect or sciencedirect or JSTOR. The literature review is on the Hong Kong population and economic structure and articles published and written on these issues showing the impact of an ageing population on Hong Kong’s economy and job prospects and on the industries in Hong Kong as influenced by a global economy and ageing population. In this literature review section a study by Leigh (2006), a research article by Chui published 2003 and another by Fan and Lui (2003) have been selected. Leigh’s study shows the direct impact of ageing on Hong Kong’s economy, fiscal changes and living standards. Chui shows how the ageing population face problems of survival and housing in a fast paced Hong Kong economy and Fan and Lui talk of gender and wage gap in Hong Kong’s population that could redefine economic changes and structure. The studies chosen here highlight the qualitative aspects of the impact of ageing and gender changes in population or demography on the economic structure of Hong Kong. The participation of women has also increased significantly necessitating needs of study of the impact of gender on Hong Kong’s economy and how women’s participation in the workplace can change things for the economy. In a research article on the population structure of Hong Kong, Leigh (2006) has suggested that Hong Kong SAR’s population has been aging rapidly and aging could adversely affect the growth and living standards of people in Hong Kong. There has to be some change in economic and administrative policies in keeping with the aging or changing population according to the article. There is a high labor and productivity growth with increased migration of younger skilled workers from Chinese mainland in Hong Kong mainly due to Hong Kong’s booming economy and although this attenuates the economic impact of aging, there is no full offset of the impact of aging population on the economic structure of Hong Kong. According to Leigh, aging puts considerable pressure on public finances particularly as with aging there is also rising health costs that directly affect government spending. There are relatively fewer options that government has and opportunities to implement polices on this are also limited that could lessen the impact of aging on the governance and structure as demographic effects would start setting in by 2015 when the ratio of working population would peak. The Hong Kong SAR authorities have been focused on administrative and governance policies that would limit or reduce the fiscal impact of aging and they have also provided continued expenditure restraint on reform of health care financing with private health insurance systems, along with tax reforms and non age sensitive areas (Leigh, 2006). Considering the gradual ageing problem of Hong Kong, Chui (2001) suggest that Hong Kong as one of the Four Dragons of Asia is faced with the gradual ageing problem that seems to have affected the urban fabric of the city as also the general population. However one of the regions in which Hong Kong seems to be booming along with the economy is property development as Hong Kong is mainly based on a property led economy and the government as well as private and public property developers have been launching redevelopment projects for setting up new structures in Hong Kong. However as Chui points out the special needs problems of elderly people have not been attended to and most of Hong Kong’s elderly people are poor physically, financially and socially. However with urban renewal and changes, the elderly people are at disadvantage and face threats to their survival as they are not in a position to cope with the restructuring changes in Hong Kong’s fast paced urban development projects. There has also been a gradual weakening of the respect to Chinese traditional values and culture as for the respect given to the elderly and this along with nuclearization of families have added to the problems of the elderly. Chui writes that government housing policies in Hong Kong should emphasize on community care and ageing in place and help in solving housing problems and needs of the elderly. The study shows the plight of older people in Hong Kong, a booming economy in the South Asian region and a contrasting fate of the elderly people. The gender gap in wages has been analyzed by some researchers and the trend shows a narrowing gender gap in wages. According to Fan and Lui (2003), the narrowing gender gap may be related to women’s advantages compared with earlier times especially women’s changing positions at the workplace. Gender gap is found as smaller in occupations and industries that are less dependent on physical labour as men are more suitable for physically rigorous work. This shows that when an economy transforms from a manufacturing or production oriented approach to a more service oriented one, women’s productivity would be recognized an with increased women’s participation in service based economies, the gender gap on the basis of wage or participation at the workplace also decreases. A 1% random subsample was used in this study for two population censuses and the results of the experiment also support empirical results. Methodology The methodology to be used for this study will be both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The qualitative and quantitative data would be primarily available from the internet and research journal databases and journal articles will be selected along with studies by the Hong Kong government as based on the economic indicators, as well as statistical and other government reports on the population and GDP, GNP and labor or prices. Of course in this section we highlight the importance of theory and practice and differentiate between the theories and the practical implications of research and the use of methodology to explain these two features. The theories that will be dealt with will be economic theories and changes in the global economy along with changes in the Hong Kong economic structure. The practical implications here would be changes in the population structure statistically obtained and otherwise and population changes as indicated in journal articles that deal with ageing and its associated problems in Hong Kong. The theories and practice of the economic and population changes in Hong Kong will be obtained from journal articles selected from journal databases and these articles are obtained by using search terms such as ‘Hong Kong economy’, ‘Hong Kong population, ‘Ageing population, ‘South Asian Economy’, ‘Economic structure of Hong Kong, Population of Hong Kong, ‘Elderly in Hong Kong, ‘Employment in Hong Kong and Economy’ etc. As indicated in the later part of the study, the government’s reports on the economic changes and population changes have been given here and the results can be used to show the trends and the analysis can be done quantitatively and qualitatively to show the changes in population in terms of age, gender and wages or social status. In fact wage structure shows changes in economic conditions of the major part of population and results could be drawn to show how economy and wages would be related in turn to gender and age and the overall impact this has on the Hong Kong’s population structure could be drawn in the analysis and interpretation section of the results. The different possible methodological frameworks would be the qualitative methodology and the quantitative methodology. Qualitative methodology is about understanding the more qualitative or subjective aspects of the population and delineating the attributes or the characteristics of job changes, economic structure and population structure in Hong Kong. Quantitative methodology is about showing statistical tables and values and suggests the population and economic structural changes in terms of values or numbers as given in statistical tables. The impact of old age or ageing population on the economy as discussed qualitatively by researchers would form part of the study using journal articles and descriptions of the situation as given by researchers in articles and published papers as would be the quantitative aspects that are given in published reports and statistical tables giving values or numbers that define the changes in Hong Kong’s social, demographic and economic structure quantitatively in terms of values, statistics and numbers. A snapshot of the qualitative and quantitative primary data as would be used in the research study is given below and from some of the research papers as used in the literature review and the reports published by the Hong Kong government, the primary data in terms of tables or published research reports will be chosen and analyzed for the purposes of this study. The published articles or papers in journals as selected from ingenta, sciencedirect, JSTOR or other such databases thus provide the basis for qualitative primary data and the published research reports as available from Hong Kong government sites showing statistical analysis of population and economic structure form the more quantiatve aspects of this study and a balance of quantitative and qualitative methods will be considered for analysis of this research study. Social science research is largely based on ontological and epistemological propositions that help to understand consumer behavior and in this case population structure and government approach to population and how it affects Hong Kong economy in general. From the ontological point of view any phenomena could be analyzed objectively using economic data and in this case the economic structure of Hong Kong could be comparatively objectively analyzed considering other developed or developing economies and the effects of population on economy. The epistemological approach to methodology emphasizes on people’s perspectives and the subjective or qualitative aspects of research as already indicated. Positivistic and Interpretive theories in social science research focus on scientific data (as in positivism) in which experimental findings are of prime importance and interpretive analysis in which drawing out qualitative aspects and viewpoints of the researcher would be more important. The epistemological, interpretive positions are closer to qualitative methodology and the positivistic, ontological philosophies are akin to quantitative methodology as used in any research project. The Table below provides the population structure of Hong Kong by age and sex and as seen from the initial study of 2007 population growth and structure, 3. 9% of the population is above 60 years of age, 3. 4% of the population is above 65 or 70 years of age, 2. 7% of the population reaches above 75 year limit and 1. 7% of the population crosses the 80 year old mark. 1. 4% of the population is above 85 years. This suggests that a significant portion of the population is an aged population in Hong Kong and this is a change from 2006 in which the 60 year old population was at 3. 7% and above 75 year olds was at 2. 6% and above 85 year olds was at 1. 3%. The charts show that thee has been a slight yet significant increase in aging population of Hong Kong and considerable decrease in the young population as seen from the population data of 2006-2007. If data is attained over a period of last 10 years this aging population trend will however become more prominent and this will be elaborated in the methodology and data collection section of the research. This research table thus forms part of the resources that we use as data for our study on the effects of population on economic structure.

Examining The Dangers Of Social Networking Media Essay

Examining The Dangers Of Social Networking Media Essay Social networking websites are web based services where one can create a public profile within almost virtual community. One can have a list of other users (friends) with whom they share a connection with, as well as view information on friends of friends. The main purpose of social networking sites is to build relations between friends who share similar interests. Most of these sites provide instant messaging and email services but are on a high level so that there is an element of complexity eg special software application tools are available in facebook which increase the users presence on that website. . Social networking recently has become a major part of the internet. In fac,t social networking sites are everywhere, nearly every person who has access to the computer and internet indulges with social network related sites on daily basis. Commom sites such as facebook, MySpace, hi5, Bebo and YouTube have millions of visitors daily. Facebook alone, has over 500 million users which make it the most popular social network website on Earth. According to Facebook , 50 % of their users are active users who log on facebook daily and People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. The rapid increase in popularity of social network such as facebook has encouraged organisations to allow access to these sites within their networks. However many people now question social networks, the popularity of these sites has raised both security and privacy issues of its users. Millions of teenagers and adults exchange and share their personal interests and personal information such as photo s, videos etc, therefore one can learn almost anything about someone or stranger (If the profile page is open to anyone) who they maynot have met before, from their birthday to who their friends are and other personal information such as relationship status. There are many problems and dangers in using social networks however in contrasts there are considerable benefits of using social networks. Social networking is undisputedly one of the easiest way to keep in touch with family and friends as well as a channel in meeting new people with similar interests. One can make connect with people not presently in conact, for example staff in an organisation, students or alumni. Thus, social networking has made it very easy to make new friends or even meet old friends, which is a major benefit of social networking. Now, within the business world, social networking sites can also provide easy opportunity for anyone to advertise. This could either mean advertise an upcoming event or any other form of business advertising. The most important benefit of social networking sites like facebook or MySpace is that it gives an individualan opportunity to create an image of themselves through their profile, in a way he or she wants to be represented. It also gives them the chance to express themselves. There is a strong sense of being able to express ones own creativity. For this reason people find the sites almost personally fulfilling to be part of. Social networking sites have considerable benefits in allowing users to keep in touch with one other. Before social networking, people were only able to stay in touch with friends, families via phone, emails letters or online messengers, but it was very awkward and difficult to maintain contact due lack of communication tools. But sites like facebook have made staying in touch with people much easier where user can also emails as well as do live chat. Use of mobile phones and home computers with cheap internet has opened the doors for users all over the world, thus social networking has rose more than ten fold in the last decade. There is more pressure on people to use the sites because it has becaome almost part of modern living. The benefits somewhat seem to outweight any disadvantage even though the general public may not know at length where significant dangers lie in not setting appropriate User boundries for the applications or not using the applications with care and security. Social networking allow individuals to express themselves. The most popular way for an individual to express them self is by creating a profile which gives basic details about their personality such as personal interests, hobbies and education etc. One can add there details of hobbies and interests which might envoke other users to remain contact with similar interests and create social network between them. Social network sites, such as MySpace allows user to be creative by letting them design their own profile with different colour schemes and background pictures as well as using their own html codes for different layouts. Users such as music artist or writers can also show their creative side by writing blogs to let people know what is going on in their life. Creative artists such musicians, actors etc often use social networking to expand their fan base by using their profile in effect to advertise themselves. They can also get rapid feedbacks on any expressedtype of new ideas fr om their fans However despite all the positives of social networking the negatives overshadow the positives. Social networking has completely changed the nature of privacy by allowing individuals to obtain information of one individual without much effort. Social networking sites do not educate their users of apparent or hidden dangers in publishing their personal information on the World Wide Web. Even if a user is cautious about protecting their privacy it is very difficult for them to absolutely control who can view what on their profile pages. Most of the social networking sites have privacy tools which are not flexible enough to protect users data. This is because they have limited options of just to make the profile private (only friends can view it ) or public ( every one can view)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Social networking has also provided a new way for phishing and scamming to fraudsters. Scams can be posted as comments on an individuals profile or sent as private messages. This could encourage users to click on links that might link to fake version of that social networking site asking to enter logging detail or any other personal detail. This site might have no functionality apart from redirecting the user back to the original social networking site after the user has entered his/her login detail. That way, the scammer can use the login detail to have full access to the victims profile, which then can be used to scam more users and sell their personal detaisl on black market. According to Symantec monthly report [10] on spam phishing, 92 % of phishing scams were carried out through social networking sites. This shows that social networking is a leading area for scammers to either steal personal details or send spams. Figures from fishtank.com [11] show that FaceBook is the 7th mo st targeted website of phishing scams in 2009, this figure might have increased in 2010. According to the article in the guardian paper, lately many phishing attacks have been carried out through Facebook , fraudsters have sent spam messages to users which link to the fbstarter.com or fbaction.net. These sites were phishing scams which looked as if they are Geneon sites, but were used to steel login details of facebook users. However facebook has announced that they have blocked the fbaction.net links from facebook website and messages that links to fbaction.net. Social networking is very common in teenagers or underage users. Most of these teenagers dont take into account or acknowledge the dangers of social networking sites. To them, all the social sites seem innocent. Most of these kids use these sites only to stay in touch with friend. Social networks are a hub for paedophiles and perverts. This is because majority of the children post too much personal imformation. Not just their name, but they post their photos, addresses and the school that they attend. Social networking sites provide neccessary information that these criminal predators need in order to target vulnerable kids. Majority of the parents are also not aware of common dangers in misuse of the sites. Also they may be unaware that their child has access to them or worse still is addicted to them. There are reports, worldwide, of grave concequences of children being involved in such incidents where sites have provides a main medium of communication with the children putting the mselves in dangerous situations. Facts show that out 10 teenagers, at least one has posted a nude/semi nude photos of them self on their profile [15]. An adult can become aware enough and handle all ofl the dangers of posting personal information on a social networking site but it might not be obvious to children, since they simply are not mature nor have developed enough,in mind, to comprehend the complexity of social networking. However, this danger could be prevented if children not only educated about what they should post on the profile and how they should post restricted material but also protected. Carers or parents should know what children are exposed to and what activities they conduct. The use of privacy settings on sites such as facebook can also help to prevent these dangers. One interesting aspect is when an employee can overlook his /her posting on any social networking site and talk about themselves for example to a potential employer. Thay may present a picture of themselves completely differnt to that of the one on thir social site. How are they to know that these details have not been viewed by that person. One example is that they may tell a lie about their whereabouts to someone only to discover that they have found the truth about them on a social site eg on holiday or out shopping instead of sick, at home and off work . It is clear that there is evidence suggesting that social networking is very dangerous indeed, but it is very difficult to ignore social;l trends locally and on a global scale. Can we live without a system that has breeded into our society so rapidly and deeply that it has an impoact on our day to day habits, even sleep is effected. Some people are suffering from an insomnia syndrome due to addictions on ef facebook poker and Farmville and the worrying issue is that the users are now the very young ones, small children. One great disadvantage is the impact on verbal and communication skills for children. The findings are is that children are missing out on being verbally competent, thay are learming to speak properly later in life due to chatting on the internet, thay are more shy or reserved. This danger is one of the impact on society and the future generation. Insead of talking and reasoning verbally, they are typing into the keyboard. Perhaps talking on the phone is better for humans because true emotion can be expressed and maybe we use a different parts of our minds. How much control do you think we will have over this. Social networking is here to saty because Such a big user level No one person has control over it Too many uses Will always be delveoping Too much meny to be made in it May be part of our future jobs May need it for Dangers have to be managed Are there but its have they are controlled/stopped/ Have to have a deeper understanding of what danger is, its impact on us today and toimarrow.. learn from mistakes and continuously work together to protect people and educate them Face [10]http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/other_resources/b- state_of_spam_and_phishing_report_02-2010.en-us.pdf [11] http://www.phishtank.com/stats/2009/03/ [12] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/facebook-phishing-scam http://www.yourteenager.co.uk/facebook-your-teen.html http://life.familyeducation.com/teen/internet-safety/57657.html?page=2 [15]http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-08-10/news/17175229_1_social-networking-sites-social-networking-teens

Time :: essays research papers

Time is perhaps man's worst enemy, beside himself. For countless eons, man has tried to fight the affects of time. For time brings change. They are inevitably linked in the same cosmic chain. No matter what you do, no matter the steps you take, time will always bring change. Time can bring on many types of changes. It can bring on physical change, such as a mountain being destroyed over time by erosion. Or, it can bring on emotional and physiological change, such as an army prisoner of war in a POW camp. But bear in mind, a person's physical surroundings can also serve to speed/slow/reduce/and even counteract the change. Change is not always for the worst. Some changes can be for the better. In THE SCARLET LETTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne, shows that as time goes by, Reverend Dimmesdale changes from a strong, hearty man to a weak and sickly one, but also given enough time (and some encouragement), he re-grows to once again be a strong man, perhaps more so than he was before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As we first meet Author Dimmesdale, he was a '…young clergy man... His eloquence and religious fervor has already given the earnest of high eminence in he profession.'; (p. 62. 3rd paragraph)* The people loved and respected him. He was thought to be '…a godly pastor,';(p. 48) of Hester. But the people do not know his secret. They do not know the dark sin that he holds in the deep recesses of his heart. This causes him much pain. 'It is inconceivable, the agony whit which this public veneration tortured him! It was his genuine impulse to adore the truth, and to reckon all things shadow-like, and utterly devoid or weight or value, that had not its divine essence as the life within their life. Then, what was he? -a substance?- or the dimmest of all shadows?'; (page 131-123)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mr. Dimmesdale does all that he can in a vain attempt to rid himself of the guilt he hides inside. He whips himself, he fasts, and he even goes to the scaffold in an endeavor to alleviate his guilt. But all attempts fail and leads to more guilt and hence more chastising.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He is not cured from his guilt until he and Hester agree to leave the colony and return to England. 'The excitement of Mr. Dimmesdale's feelings, as he returned for his interview with Hester, lent him unaccustomed physical energy, and hurried him town ward at a rapid pace.

Impact of Technology on Family Life Essay example -- Sociology Essays

Impact of Technology on Family Life I think that technology has had both positively and negatively impacted the family life in our society. But I think the positive effects out way the negative ones. In this term paper I will focus on how cell phones, internet, and home security systems. These are only a few of the technology that has affected family life. I will first talk about the positive effects then I will explain the negative effects. Communication has had a big impact on family life in our society. Cell phones have become very popular in the past few years. One big cell phone that has been very popular with younger generations is the Nextel cell phones. One reason for this is because the Nextel phone has two way radios built into them. This makes it very easy for someone to talk to another person, you don’t have to dial up their number you just find their name and then push the button and then talk to them. Everyone in my family owns a Nextel phone. My parents got my brother’s and me phones so that they could get a hold of us easier when we went away. When I was in high school they were nice because I could call my parents and tell them where I was going and let them know when I was going to be home. Since cell phones are made smaller these days they are easier to carry around and much more convenient then trying to find a pay phone and then worrying if you have money for the pay phone. The internet has a positive impact much like cell phones. By this I am mainly talking about email and instant messenger. Email has had a huge impact on family life because it allows families to write each other that might not be able to talk to each other very often. Most email are free this is ... ...lso many other sites on the internet that are dangerous such as online gambling sites that say you can win lots of money. With these types of sites and many other sites that want you to give up personal information such as credit cards numbers, pin numbers, or social security number you have to be very careful and make sure that the site is a creditable site. There really isn’t too many things that I can say are negative about having a home security system because it will keep your family safe. The only ones that I can think of would be maybe the headache of insulting it. Another one is that it now a days people have to get home security systems. These are just a few ways technology has affected the family life in our society, but there are many more then the one that I have told you about in this paper. And there are many more to come in the future. Impact of Technology on Family Life Essay example -- Sociology Essays Impact of Technology on Family Life I think that technology has had both positively and negatively impacted the family life in our society. But I think the positive effects out way the negative ones. In this term paper I will focus on how cell phones, internet, and home security systems. These are only a few of the technology that has affected family life. I will first talk about the positive effects then I will explain the negative effects. Communication has had a big impact on family life in our society. Cell phones have become very popular in the past few years. One big cell phone that has been very popular with younger generations is the Nextel cell phones. One reason for this is because the Nextel phone has two way radios built into them. This makes it very easy for someone to talk to another person, you don’t have to dial up their number you just find their name and then push the button and then talk to them. Everyone in my family owns a Nextel phone. My parents got my brother’s and me phones so that they could get a hold of us easier when we went away. When I was in high school they were nice because I could call my parents and tell them where I was going and let them know when I was going to be home. Since cell phones are made smaller these days they are easier to carry around and much more convenient then trying to find a pay phone and then worrying if you have money for the pay phone. The internet has a positive impact much like cell phones. By this I am mainly talking about email and instant messenger. Email has had a huge impact on family life because it allows families to write each other that might not be able to talk to each other very often. Most email are free this is ... ...lso many other sites on the internet that are dangerous such as online gambling sites that say you can win lots of money. With these types of sites and many other sites that want you to give up personal information such as credit cards numbers, pin numbers, or social security number you have to be very careful and make sure that the site is a creditable site. There really isn’t too many things that I can say are negative about having a home security system because it will keep your family safe. The only ones that I can think of would be maybe the headache of insulting it. Another one is that it now a days people have to get home security systems. These are just a few ways technology has affected the family life in our society, but there are many more then the one that I have told you about in this paper. And there are many more to come in the future.

Describe the Laptop Essay

In our culture we use the Laptop to do our works. Like the homework, projects and designing. A laptop is a personal computer that can be easily carried and used in a variety of locations. Many laptops are designed to have all of the functionality of a desktop computer, which means they can generally run the same software and open the same types of files. However, some laptops, such as netbooks, sacrifice some functionality in order to be even more portable. laptop computer, sometimes called a notebook computer by manufacturers, is a battery- or AC-powered personal computer generally smaller than a briefcase that can easily be transported and conveniently used in temporary spaces such as on airplanes, in libraries, temporary offices, and at meetings. A laptop typically weighs less than 5 pounds and is 3 inches or less in thickness. Among the best-known makers of laptop computers are IBM, Apple, Compaq, Dell, and Toshiba. Laptop computers generally cost more than desktop computers with the same capabilities because they are more difficult to design and manufacture. A laptop can effectively be turned into a desktop computer with a docking station, a hardware frame that supplies connections for peripheral input/output devices such as a printer or larger monitor. The less capable port replicator allows you to connect a laptop to a number of peripherals through a single plug. Laptops usually come with displays that use thin-screen technology. The thin film transistor or active matrix screen is brighter and views better at different angles than the STN or dual-scan screen. Laptops use several different approaches for integrating a mouse into the keyboard, including the touch pad, the trackball, and the pointing stick. A serial port also allows a regular mouse to be attached. The PC Card is insertable hardware for adding a modem or network interface card to a laptop. CD-ROM and digital versatile disc drives may be built-in or attachable. Portable and compact personal computer with the same capabilities as a desktop computer. Laptop computers have an L-shape design and the screen can be lowered and closed to allow for easy transportation of the machine. The primary feature that attracts users to laptops over desktops is their portability. Laptop computers provide users the ability to run the machine using an internal battery or an outside power adaptor. Laptops have dramatically decreased in size since their introduction in 1979. Laptops are usually more expensive  than standard desktops and do not have the same life-span as fixed personal computers. The Laptop in my culture has an important place, now you can see every student and every employer have their own Laptop and they are using it for the work perpose. In the past, my culture don’t really depends on the computer, but now a days the culture have change and there is a lot of developing in the way of teaching and working for the country and now we use the electronic devices a lot , and we find it also every where we go because the culture have been change and it become one of the life style in our daily life. Today, most laptop computers are becoming thinner and light er to help complete with other devices such as tablets. For the PC these computers may be also referred to as Ultrabooks.