Most Study Abroad Program Should Be Rename Party Abroad They Are Waste of Time Essay

Every year, a large number of students go overseas to study. The most popular destination for these students are Australia, Japan, United State, Egypt, and Iraq, but wherever they go, they have to learn to adapt with the culture and the lifestyle of the country they choose which are very different from their own. Many people believe â€Å" there is no better way to learn about other countries and cultures than by living on those countries†. To live in the overseas, the students must pay such kinds of fee as cost of living, cost of boarding, and also cost of schooling itself. Firstly, the cost of living, of course the charge in a strange country much more expensive than in their own country. Likely four times as many as the charge of living in the big city in Indonesia. Secondly, the coast of boarding, included the flat, the electricity, water, cleaning and security services, etc. those extremely expensive too. The last, the outlay of schooling, the price isn’t inferior expensive with the two things above. However, those kinds of expense are not worsen if the student win a scholarship. Scholarship students do not need to pay such kinds of financial, they get so many free costs, for instances: get accommodation and get travel expense, given adoptive parents. Thus, they haven’t to rent a room, acquire living allowance, obtain health insurance and the most important is they get free tuition, etc. In conclusion, study abroad expend so much money and misuse the time, nevertheless the scholarship students, they study overseas without charge or at no cost at all.

Charles Baudrelaire: the Swan

Main theme: Criticism of industrialization and the destruction of Paris Mode of Characterization: presented with melancholy Mood: somber, disheartened, nostalgic Tone: saddened, negative, slow, nostalgic Form: French lyric poem Alienation: The narrator, whom we assume is Baudelaire himself highlights how he was become and alien in his own city. The urban renewal and industrialization has replaced familiar sights and landmarks he had loved.The swan is a symbolically a projection f himself, like the swan he too had been taken from his native land and home. Baudelaire also plays on our understands that not only is he similar to the swan, but so too the orphans; separated from their parent's, and lost sailors and captives never to return to their true home. Allusion / Greek Mythology Baudelaire relies on the allusion to Greek mythology, with the outcome of projecting his despair at the destruction of his city.Much of the understanding of the text derives from the readers understanding of Greek mythology. The lyrical poem open with â€Å"Andromeda, I think of you! Thus Baudelaire is comparing his feelings of loss and devastation with Andromeda, who according to Greek mythology had her husband killed in the war between Troy and Greece. Not only did she had to deal with the loss of her husband in the war, but her beautiful city.Therefore Baudelaire impels via implication that he feel Just as devastated as she would, as bother their beloved cities are destroyed. Allusion / Reference to Ovid and Swan Song Baudelaire also utilizes a reference to Roman poet Ovid. Ovid wrote of the swan song which is a swan's finale gesture or effort before death. Baudelaire employs this motif o highlight his melancholy psyche that Paris is now dead, â€Å"And one old Memory like a crying horn†. Thus he reiterates his melancholy and negative feelings towards to modernization of Paris.Swan is also a symbol of purity and elegance, much like Baudelaire Paris, the swan's death and aban donment, is used to represent that Paris has been abandoned as the â€Å"silent air† indicates a lack of life. Criticism of Destruction / Development / Industrialization Imagery Bothersome, Baudelaire relies heavily on vivid imagery to demonstrate the extensive destruction particularly, the environmental destruction incurred by the arbitration. Endearing swan act as a criticism of the arbitration which would have displaced many animals and destroyed their homes.The survival of the animals seems grim as there was a â€Å"†¦ Waterless stream† which highlights the environmental damage the arbitration incurred. Baudelaire also criticisms the destruction of Paris and the urban development. He remarks â€Å"a town alas, Changes more quickly than man's heart may change† which suggests that modernity and arbitration is too fast paced for human development. Thus the reader is encouraged to mourn the loss of old Paris.

Managing of Energy Assets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Managing of Energy Assets - Essay Example Proposed technique and Justification for the Technique 12 6. Conclusion 13 7. References 14 Monitoring Transformer Performance 1. Introduction Before going to present the proposal for instruments and techniques that can be used to monitor the condition of a transformer, let us get a better understanding of what transformer actually is and why is it important to supply electricity through the network. A transformer is an electric device, which is designed to convert alternating voltage from one level to another usually from high voltage to low voltage. Transformers work on the principle of magnetic induction. Dickinson (2009) states, â€Å"Transformers under load generate heat due to winding (copper) and core losses occurring during operation†. Transformers are solid-state devices, as they have no moving parts in them. The step up or step down in the voltages is the main use of every transformer. 2. Oil Filled Transformers There are two main categories of transformers, which in clude dry type and liquid filled transformers. In this paper, we will prepare a proposal for oil-filled transformers at substations, which are one of the main types of liquid filled transformers. Oil filled transformers make use of cellulose paper and mineral based oil in their insulation systems. This combination of cellulose paper and oil is very good for the working of transformers because they provide remarkable dielectric and thermal properties at a low cost. About this combination, Dickinson (2009) states, â€Å"So popular and effective are these units, that all other transformer designs are judged in relation to them†. For outdoor usage, oil filled transformers are the best ones among all types of transformers because of their low purchase costs and thermal and dielectric properties. The inclusion of mineral oil in the oil-filled transformers although makes them flammable but the low cost associated with these transformers makes them a good choice for power distributio n companies. The low purchase cost of oil-filled transformers makes them an attractive choice for all types of power distribution companies. Dickinson (2009) asserts, â€Å"Oil-filled transformers, thanks to their lower purchase costs, find applications in literally every sort of power distribution†. The only weakness of mineral oil filled transformers is flammability, which is the reason why these transformers are allowed only in outdoor locations because outdoor locations are considered safe for the installation of oil-filled transformers because of availability of proper fire protection mechanisms. Experts suggest that the consumers should always buy oil-filled transformers from trusted manufacturers because they ensure lowest level of flammability in the oil-filled transformers. Flammability is such a weakness of oil-filled transformers that most of the power distribution companies seek good replacements of oil-filled dtransformers, which should be non-flammable. This is the reason why dry type transformers have been popular for decades because they are completely free from this weakness. Dry type transformers make use of high temperature insulation instead of mineral oil which them a risk free option for power distribution companies. â€Å"Dry type transformer construction uses high-temperature insulation that exceeds the ratings of cellulose or 'O' and 'K' class fluids† (Dickinson 2009). There is no risk of flammability in

How global warming is causing the spread of disease Essay

How global warming is causing the spread of disease - Essay Example Only very wealthy people could actually own and operate cars. However today almost everyone owns a car. This is because machines produce other machines and thus reduce the costing of building. Thus it can be said that humans live in a much mechanized world today. The machines however need energy to operate. The biggest source of energy for these machines comes from fossil fuels. This is because humans have still not invented a widely usable perfect substitute for non-renewable energy. The energy used has a very bad impact on the environment. The carbon is residue of most combustion process. This is because humans have still not formed a combustion system which could burn with 100 % efficiency. This level of efficiency means that all the fuel I converted to energy. However the current combustion systems give shockingly less amount of efficiency even lower than 50% in many cases. The carbon fuel that does not converted into energy because of this low efficiency level is emitted into th e atmosphere. Combined with other harmful products it becomes major contributor to ozone depletion and global warming. Thus not only is it hazardous to health is inhaled in large quantities but it almost causes irreparable damage to our environment. In definition global warming refers to the increase temperature near the Earth’s surface. According to scientists this process started in the mid-twentieth century and is still going on. The reports recently released by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control), in the last few years global temperatures have shown an increase of 0.74  Ã‚ ±Ã‚  0.18  Ã‚ °C (1.33  Ã‚ ±Ã‚  0.32  Ã‚ °F). Along with burning of fossil fuels as explained above, the deforestation of rain forests is also a major cause of this increase. According to some shocking reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control the temperatures are expected to rise another 1.1 to 6.4  Ã‚ °C (2.0 to 11.5  Ã‚ °F), in the next few decades.

Strategic managemet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Strategic managemet - Essay Example This is because those factors may help towards determining measures that can be taken to increase their business efficiency and productivity. Additionally, managers should understand factors within their business environment (internal factors) such as: their competitors, available finances, employees, suppliers and their consumers in order to act strategically towards ensuring their business objectives have been realized (Nieuwenhuizen, Rossouw and Badenhorst, pp-7-20). In above connection, both internal and external business environment tends to undergo via dynamism this may act as an impediment for managers to understand the entire business environment (Thompson, John L and Frank, p 83). Managers tend to over concentrating on day to day problems and overlook on other factors that affect their business, this may also act as an impediment for understanding the entire business environment (Stokes, David and Nicholas pp140-141). Additionally, inability of managers to learn fast and consistently monitor changes that are taking place may act as an impediment towards understanding the whole business environment (Stokes, David and Nicholas p140). Tyndall, Gene R, John Cameron, and R C. Taggart. Strategic Planning and Management Guidelines for Transportation Agencies. Washington, D.C: Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, 1990.

Professionalism and Ethics in Surveying Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Professionalism and Ethics in Surveying - Essay Example The ethical conduct for a professional surveyor thus dictates that licensees shall engage in the practice of conducting land survey in an ethical manner while at the same time being familiar with the appropriate and recognized codes of the land surveying ethics. Considering the ethics, liability and legal manners for a professional surveyor, a surveyor should justify his actions at all times, be able to demonstrate personal commitment in abiding by the ethical standards in maintaining integrity of professionalism. As part of the liability, it is necessary for the surveyor to uncover sufficient facts in regards to the property being attracted through acting as a fact finder. The quality of these outcomes forms the mark of a professional. As a minimum requirement, the surveyor engaging in looking, finding or using property corner monuments assumes the responsibility of obtaining the copies of all necessary adjoiner conveyances called for in the legal description furnished, obtain all m aps called for, and obtain the pertinent recorder adjoined surveys. The surveyor will also obtain the available public agency maps and when dealing with GLO states, obtain government township plats and field notes. All of these are essential for enhancing the ethics, liability and legal aspects when dealing with corner monuments (Eccles & Kingston University, 1995). Corner monuments are the parcels or lines of easements that are only possible to visualize on the ground through setting markers or with aid of survey monuments.

Answer 3 questions about language learning and teaching Essay

Answer 3 questions about language learning and teaching - Essay Example Indeed, Van Patten and Cadierno’s experimental study on students learning Spanish in 1993 supported the communicative approach to L2 instruction (Morett, people.ucsc.edu). Another successful method is direct instruction or integrating L2 learning with content learning, using L2 only. One example is the implementation of French immersion teaching in Canada from the 1960s. L2 learners not only mastered content but also acquired the language of instruction (Francis, 2008). Advocates of monolingualism claim that using L1 in the classroom conflicts with SLA theories, which argue for modified input and negotiation in L2 as a way of learning (Polio, 1994 in Miles, 2004). Nation (2003) states that, when teachers use L1, students tend to follow suit and the class becomes a grammar-translation class. Besides, mixing both languages might cause confusion in the students, giving rise to interference. As L1 and L2 structures are dissimilar, they need to be separated to avoid confusion. Henc e, students listening to the teacher’s explanation in the target language get good listening and speaking practice. As they keep on hearing and listening to the language, they become more comfortable and proficient in it. Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman (1999) in Bankier (eslarticle.com) contend that language errors made by learners are caused by interference from the L1. They use the example of a Japanese student saying "He was fallen by the rain" instead of "The rain fell on him". Here, a minimal knowledge of the L1 is useful to show the difference between both, but if we are teaching the active and passive forms, it is better done in English than in Japanese. Nevertheless, new research indicates that the use of L1 allows learners to work out L2 at lower levels. As they become more proficient in L2, they gradually use it more, relying less on L1 (Upton & Lee-Thompson, 2001). Mouhanna (2009) conducted a study on 124 students from three levels of English proficiency at a founda tions English programme in a UAE tertiary institution. He found that level 1 students required more L1 support (mean: 2.05) compared to Level 3 students (mean: 3.03). Similarly, Simsek’s data analysis (2010) of the achievement test of English Grammar on Turkish students found that L1-assisted learning was more effective at increasing the students’ achievement of English Grammar than monolingual grammar instruction. There was also a significant difference between the delayed post-test means of the experimental and control groups, showing that L1-assisted language learning was more lasting than monolingual grammar teaching. In an investigation on the use of L1 to generate ideas for writing among low proficiency Malaysian students, Stapa and Abdul Majid (2006) found that students using L1 generated 166 ideas, compared to 85 from students not using their L1. The first group also ‘produced better quality essays in terms of organization, vocabulary, language and mechan ics’. This is because generating ideas on a topic in a different language creates confusion and inhibits long-term memory processes. Thus, low proficiency learners should be allowed to use their L1 when communicating abstract ideas and accessing content, as it supports L2 acquisition (2006). In Holland, the mandatory Utrecht pilot was used as

Virgin Mary of Guadalupe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Virgin Mary of Guadalupe - Essay Example Mary was at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified, and from then on she has been known as the Mother of God and Mother of the Church. Mary lived for years after the crucifixion, and according to the traditions of the Church, told by the early Christians, she was instrumental in the formation of early Christianity, helping and even counseling the members. After her physical death (the Catholics believe that there is life after death), she is believed to have appeared in many instances. She is now ascribed to so many names, depending on the places where she appeared. Such places that are popular and favorite amongst the Catholic faithful are the Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima), Lourdes in France (Our Lady of Lourdes), then the recent Our Lady of Medjugourje. Our Lady of Guadalupe is also very popular in many countries. In the Philippines, the Patroness is the Virgin Mary and many replicas of Our Lady of Guadalupe are placed in churches for the faithful to venerate. She is also known as the Immaculate Conception, the image of this bears the words: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recoursed to thee." The feast of the Immaculate Conception is on December 8. ... We see in Mary the figure of the woman from the beginning whose offspring will strike at the ancient serpent's head (Gen. 3:15). (365 Days with the Lord) But the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is on December 12. In 1999, Pope John Paul II, in his homily from the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, during his third visit to the sanctuary, declared the date of December 12 as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent. The apparition of Virgin Mary of Guadalupe is one popular among the faithful throughout the world, and is attributed for cures and conversions, especially among the Indians of Mexico. Throughout the world, several replicas have been made of the original image of the Virgin Mary that showed in the tilma as the visionary Juan Diego presented this to the Spanish Bishop Fray Juan de Zumrraga. The origin of the name "Guadalupe" is controversial. According to a sixteenth-century report, the Virgin identified herself as Guadalupe when she appeared to Juan Diego's uncle, Juan Bernardino. It is also suggested that "Guadalupe" is a corruption of a Nahuatl name "Coathlaxopeuh", which is translated as "Who crushes the serpent". The serpent referred to is Quetzalcoatl, one of the chief Aztec gods, whom the Virgin Mary "crushed" by inspiring the conversion of indigenous people to Catholicism. (Wikemedia). In the Immaculate Conception image, the Virgin is seen crushing the head of the serpent (Satan) and this is reflective of the Old Testament, when God sent Adam out of paradise, and made a future reference of the Virgin crushing the head of the serpent. Mara Guadalupe, or just Lupe, is a common female and male name among Mexican people or those with Mexican heritage. (Wikemedia) An account of the apparition states that on

Alexander Calder Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Alexander Calder - Essay Example Calder' firt exhibition of painting took place in 1926 at the Artit' Gallery, New York. Later that year, he went to Pari and attended the Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire. In Pari, he met tanley William Hayter, exhibited at the 1926 alon de Indpendant, and in 1927 began giving performance of hi miniature circu. The firt how of hi wire animal and caricature portrait wa held at the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in 1928. That ame year, he met Joan Mir, who became hi lifelong friend. ubequently, Calder divided hi time between France and the United tate. In 1929, the Galerie Billiet gave him hi firt olo how in Pari. He met Frederick Kieler, Fernand Lger, and Theo van Doeburg and viited Piet Mondrian' tudio in 1930. Calder began to experiment with abtract culpture at thi time and in 1931 and 1932 introduced moving part into hi work. Thee moving culpture were called "mobile"; the tationary contruction were to be named "tabile." He exhibited with the Abtraction-Cration group in Pari in 1933. In 1943 , the Mueum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a olo exhibition. (Haye, 99-101) During the 1950, Calder traveled widely and executed Tower (wall mobile) and Gong (ound mobile). He won the Grand Prize for culpture at the 1952 Venice Biennale. Late in the decade, the artit worked extenively with gouache; from thi period, he executed numerou major public commiion. In 1964-65, the olomon R. Guggenheim Mueum, New York, preented a Calder retropective. He began the Totem in 1966 and the Animobile in 1971; both are variation on the tanding mobile. A Calder exhibition wa held at the Whitney Mueum of American Art, New York, in 1976. Calder died November 11, 1976, in New York. Early Work & Non-artitic Career Born into a family of artit in Lawnton, Pennylvania, to culptor Alexander tirling Calder and portrait painter Nanette Lederer Calder, both Calder and hi older iter, Margaret Calder Haye, were encouraged to be creative from childhood. (Calder, 13) Calder' firt ignificant recognition a an artit came when he exhibited hi now- famou miniature circu with it animated wire performer at Pari' alon de Humorite in 1927. The idea for the toy figure can be traced back to ketche he made in 1925 while reporting on the circu for the Police Gazette. Made from wire, rubber, cork, button, bottle cap, wood, and other mall "found" object, Calder' circu include lion, acrobat, trapeze artit, elephant, a ringmater, and numerou other figure. Unlike many art work of the period, the unuual creation drew crowd from outide the artitic community a well a within, and the thirty-year-old artit found himelf uddenly widely known. (Prather, 22-32) Facination with the Circu Calder tudied at the Art tudent' League from 1923 to 1926 and worked a a freelance illutrator and toy deigner. Hi facination with the circu began in 1925 when he pent two week ketching at Ringling Brother and Barnum and Bailey Circu on aignment for the National Police Gazette. In 1926 he began creating the firt few figure of wire and wood which were later to grow into the Cirque Calder (Eagle, 7) Calder' firt wire culpture, Joephine Baker (1926), a witty linear repreentation of the famou American-born chanteue, wa exhibited to the Pari art community during the ame period that hi circu wa drawing attention. He decided to return to New York City late in 1927, where he gave a one-man how that included Joephine Baker, a well a everal of hi other wire portrait. Thoe portrait would grow

Total Quality Management Essay Example for Free

Total Quality Management Essay INTRODUCTION The level of risk and uncertainties in operation of contemporary business requires that managers of businesses come up with unique decision-making that will bring about strategies, which their rivals would find difficult to imitate. This will position them in a vintage point of curving a niche over their competitors. Information technology is a useful tool that enhances the modeling process for business organization; which ensure effective decision making process. Business intelligence tool in recent times have greatly assisted business organizations in fashioning out effective strategies that would position their organizations i9n meeting their objectives and goals by adequately utilizing its resources to cope with the environment they operate in. an organization need to carry out a vibrant, pragmatic and effective strategy for it to adequately compete in an industry with high dynamic level of ways of conducting business, and high level of uncertainties and risks. Thus, to have that strategy that would give the organization a niche over its rivals, business intelligence tools are used by reorganization in supporting their strategic planning and strategic management. According to Vriens (2004), Due to the increasing complexity and dynamics of the environment the need to produce relevant ‘actionable’ intelligence is increasing as well. Because, of, for instance, increased global competition, (speed and impact of) political changes, and rapid technological developments. With the rapid changes and stiff competition the selection of the right business intelligent tool would go along way in bringing about effective strategic management which result in total quality management. CONCEPTUALIZATION OF TERMS Quality: According to Dale (2003: 4), the term  Ã‚  Ã‚   quality has no universally accepted definition. But it is usually associated with distinguishing one organization product, service, event, person, result, action or communication from another. â€Å"Internationally definition of quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements.† â€Å"It is also defined as that which gives complete consumers satisfaction.†Ã‚   (Bert Dearborn Ltd, cited in Dale 2003) USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS BASIS FOR TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM) WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION TQM entails the delivery of quality in every process of organizational operations. Through information technology tools, which comprises of business intelligence tools, adequate planning is ensured, which result in quality delivery. Business Intelligence tools, such as data mining, data warehousing, OLAP etc, support an organization in its strategic management plans. This, they do by providing the organization with the necessary data in which its strategic plans are based upon. Effective strategic management, which entails immediate strategic planning and long-term forecast plans, has to depend on the availability of vital information for it to adequately meet the organization’s objectives and goals. This information needed to support the strategic management of an organization is derived from the database provided by different business intelligence tools. Database derived from business intelligence tools, such as Data Mining (DM), forms the bases on which strategic management information are derived for planning for an organization. According to Thearling (1995), Database marketing supports a variety of business processes. It involves transforming a database into business decisions. For building a new catalog for a retailing business, the historical database of customers would be utilized; this will include information on their location, zip code, sex, age etc. database marketing software would use this information to build a model of customer behavior that would generate a mailing list of customers most likely to respond to a new catalog. The catalog built, would enable the marketing organization to strategize in line with the information derived from the data mining process. This goes to show that data mining business intelligence tool is a supporting tool for strategic planning and not a solution-proffering tool for business problem (ibid). The importance of generating vital information for effective decision making through the aid of business intelligence tool, is further buttressed by Vriens (2004), To (re-) formulate their strategy; organizations need to collect and process information about their environment- about, for instance, competitors, customers, suppliers, governments, technological trends or ecological developments. FOUR STAGES OF TQM THAT IS OPERATED THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN AN ORGANIZATION The aim of TQM in an organization is to bring about perfection in the processes of an organization. This perfection leads to qualitative service delivery, which results in the satisfaction of clients needs. There are four stages in the implementation of Total quality Management (TQM) for an organization. Information technology plays significant roles in the effective and efficient accomplishment of these four TQM stages. The four identified stages to a successful implementation of TQM in an organisation include: The diagnostic phase: under this phase the organisations seek to find out those ways and pattern it would operate in order to bring about the delivery of quality service to its customers. In TQM diagnostic stage, it is mostly focus in analytical thinking. Its strength is in developing simple problem-solving algorithms that can be easily disseminated for mass use. Its Diagnostic methods are based on linear- cause-and-effect relationships. This makes TQM most effective in dealing with physical properties and the types of problems that can be isolated. The Diagnostic phase involves the setting out of questions that is vital in brining about a positive turn around in the quality state of products or services to the consumer. Diagnostic methods of TQM are based on linear- cause-and-effect relationships. This makes TQM most effective in dealing with physical properties and the types of problems that can be isolated. The diagnostic phase in TQM has to with raising questions about those functional part of the organisation activity, that is not well carried out. Thus, solutions on how these observed problem are prescribed the planning stage of TQM has to do with the drawing out of ways in which the diagnosed problem and intended functions for improvement, how they would be carried out.Diagnostic methods of TQM are based on linear- cause-and-effect relationships. This makes TQM most effective in dealing with physical properties and the types of problems that can be isolated. In this stage of TQM implementation those fundamental question can be diagnosed through business intelligent information tools, such as data mining, data warehousing. These business intelligient tools provide the data on which diagnoses could be applied on for effective planning. â€Å"Careful planning and goal setting during the diagnostic stage can overcome many of the problems of evaluation and institutionalization, especially where TQM is in place. Diagnostic information can be obtained from observations, questionnaires, interviews, and records. This stands as a major source of deriving a useful tool in analyzing and seeing those sphere of the organizational activities where quality performance can be improved upon. Thus, vital questions are raised in this effect†. (Jamshid 2005). Under this phase, decisions are made on those alternative that best suit the situation at hand. Also, decision on who should operate the different functions in the organization is decided upon and which material option is preferred to the other and that should be adopted. The importance of the diagnostic stage of TQM is that it is used in identifying problems and solving problems. Thus, it is very vital in the process of an organisation’s TQM implementation. The next stage is the Planning stage in the TQM implementation. Planning consists of strategic planning and developing more short-term detailed plans. Thus, in the TQM planning stage, this involves a strategic plan on which course to take in implementing the company’s TQM, to make it a successful venture. Furthermore, according to Thomas (1995), TQM must be built into other systems, particularly those involving planning and rewards. Leaders should expect a long-term process, including a transition period. They will need to be persistent, using constant reinforcement, for example, through continuous training. Cohen and Brand suggest that TQM should eventually be made an invisible part of the organization, permeating all areas and the responsibility of everyone. In the view of Nurre (2005), in the planning stage, managers make decisions concerning which alternatives should be selected. Financial information is often a vital component of this decision-making. Once the alternatives have been selected, detailed planning is possible. These detailed plans are usually stated in the form of budgets. The control function of management is aided by performance reports that compare actual performance to the budget. This feedback mechanism directs attention to activities where managerial attention is needed. That data presented by information technology tools gives the decision maker the choice to make the right by choosing the most feasible and productive alternative. The strategy preparation stage has to do with the identification and solving of quality issues by involving all management and supervision in a proper scheme of training and communication. Here, the organisation is oriented along the organisation’s move to bring about top quality in all its services, targets are set and these information are further relayed to subordinates to keep them abreast with the organisation strategy. The role of information technology comes to play in the area of information dissemination to top-level managers who are to partake in the implementation of the organization strategy on TQM. In addition, suggestions from the senior workers are welcome in drawing the strategy on which the organisation seeks to operate. This is also derived by the proper utilization of information technology tools. TQM strategy preparation requires systematic changes in management practice, including the redesign of work, the redefinition of managerial roles, the redesign of organizational structures, the learning of new skills by employees at all levels, and the reorientation of organizational goals. These make all the organizational functions to be directed at bringing out the best quality as outcome in every stage of the organizational activities.   â€Å"The strategy is based as the systems concepts and structured around the business processes of an organization. Such an approach makes the entire system documentation user-friendly and therefore easily implementable and upgradeable, in response to changing needs.† (Nandi, 2005). TQM’s strategy preparation stage, thus requires systematic changes in management practice, including the redesign of work, the redefinition of managerial roles, the redesign of organizational structures, the learning of new skills by employees at all levels, and the reorientation of organizational goals. It becomes very important in the TQM implementation because it gets the organization ready for the proper implementation of the TQM. Thus, this leads to the organization success. The implementation stage is the carrying out of service or giving customer the quality product to meet their needs as they envisage it. Under this stage, everybody including the supplier and consumer are linked in the quality chain of the TQM of the organisation. Current approaches to total quality implementation initially, when managers do TQ they tend to utilize exemplars specific to, and introduce bundles of activities primarily from, one mindset Many managers measure the success of their TQ implementation programmes in terms of increases in systems predictability, reductions in waste or system leakage, and improvements in system outputs per unit of input (Ibid). In this stage, there is the need to rely always on a control measure as a way of checking and preventing the TQM strategy from derailing and missing its target. Thus, statistical data need to be taken to see the satisfaction of clients from time to time. This information is derived from business intelligent tools. CONCLUSION The contribution of information technology to an organization strategic process is of great importance when such organization which to embrace total quality management. Through basic business intelligence tools like Data mining, Data warehousing, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Queries etc. the vital information needed for effective strategic planning is derived from databases. Also, these tools give the organization the medium of transmitting its information across the organization. Data mining brings about those hidden information unknown to an organization to utilize this for its advantage, while Data warehouse through its software collate those redundant data in the organization’s database and formulate a database useful for its planning process. The utilization of business intelligence tools requires that it is structured to suit the organization’s problem. Hence, it requires that a great understanding of an organization is known to the experts and practitioners of these business intelligence tools for it to be effective in aiding the organization in strategic drives in meeting its objectives and long term goals. BIBLIOGRAPHY Chopoorian, John A. et al (2001), Mind Your Business by Mining Your Data in SAM Advanced Management Journal Vol. 66, No. 2 Dale, B. (Ed.) (2003), Managing Quality 4th edition. Blackwell. Oxford. Drucker, Peter (1969), The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society, New York: Harper and Row. Flynn, B.B. Flynne, E. J. (1996), â€Å"Achieving Simultaneous Cost and Differentiation Competitive Advantage through Continuous Improvement: World Class manufacturing as a Competitive Strategy† in Journal of Managerial Issues. Vol. 8, No. 3 Jamshid Gharajedagi, (2005) â€Å" Making TQM work for America: The interactive design approach† http://www.interactdesign.com/tqm.html (3/ 09/ 2005) Jayamalini, G. (1999) â€Å"An Overview of TQM in Libraries† Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute January 6-8. Morris, Foster (1994), â€Å"Regenerating Your TQM Effort: What to Do When It Runs out of Steam† in   The TQM Magazine, Vol. 06 Issue 4 Nandi,S.N. (2005) â€Å"TQM, benchmarking and Sips Division† http://www.npcindia.org/tqm.htm (4/09/2005) Nurre, Rosemary (2005), â€Å"Introduction to management accounting† http://smccd.net/accounts/nurre/online/chtr1.html   (4/11/05) Peter, J. Dowling, et al (2005), Strategic Management: Competition and Globalization (2nd Pacific Rim Edition) Porter, E. Michael (1985), Competitive Advantage: creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York Ringland, Gill (1998), Scenario Planning: Managing For the Future. London: John Wiley Sons Limited Ross, J.E. (1999), Total Quality Management: Text, cases and readings. Florida: St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton. Sims, Ronald R. (2002), Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management. Westport, CT: Quorum Books Thearling, Kurt (1995), From Data Mining to Database Marketing DIG White Paper. October http://www.thearling.com/text/wp9502/wp9502.htm (29/09/06) Thomas, Packard, D.S.W (1995), â€Å"TQM And Organizational Change And Development† in Total Quality Management in the Social Services: Theory and Practice. Burton Gummer and Philip McCallion, Eds., Albany, NY: Rockefeller College Press. Vriens, Dirk (2004), The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Competitive Intelligence University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands www.bi-kring.nl/bi-kring/community/partners/contentlev/abk/01chap.pdf (29/09

History of Geodesy

History of Geodesy Assignment 1 History of Geodesy Complete the following timeline by providing one important figure in the history of geodesy for each designated time period. Please include their name, nationality, and scientific contribution/importance. [18 points] 600 BC 200 AD Name : Eratosthenes Nationality: Greek (Born in town of Cyrne which is now the town in Libya) Contribution: founder of Geodesy; measured size of the Earth; obliquity of spin axis; map of the world; one interconnected ocean 100 1500 AD Name : Giordano Bruno Nationality: Italian Contribution: proposed that the stars were just distant suns surrounded by their own exoplanets and raised the possibility that these planets could even foster life of their own , the universe is in fact infinite and could have no celestial body at its center, burned at the stake in Rome on February 19, 1600 for belief in heliocentric theory and other ideas 1600 AD Name : Tycho Brahe Nationality: Danish Contribution: improved observational methods; used triangulation in 1589 to determine distance to island. 1700 AD Name : Newton Nationality: British Contribution: theory of gravitation; predicted Earth should be oblate 1800 AD Name : Foucault Nationality: French Contribution: gyroscope; pendulum; demonstrated Earth spins on axis. 1900 AD Name : Einstein Nationality: German Contribution: General Theory of Relativity; concept of gravity as the geometry of space-time Provide a brief description of each of the following international geodetic organizations. At a minimum, include their website and why they are important. [8 points] International Federation of Surveyors(FIG) This international organization was established in 1878 with the aim to ensure that surveying disciplines and all those associated with surveying meet the needs of the markets and communities. This organization represents the interest of worldwide surveyors which provides an international forum for discussion and professional development. Currently, it represents more than 120 countries The vision of FIG is A modern and sustainable surveying profession in support of society, environment and economy by providing innovative, reliable and best practice solutions to our rapidly changing and complex world, acting with integrity and confidence about the usefulness of surveying, and translating these words into action. Website: www.fig.net International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics(IUGG) This international organization is dedicated to the promotion and coordination of scientific studies of earth which includes physical, chemical and mathematics study and its environment in space which includes shape, dynamics, gravity, and magnetic fields, tectonic and earthquakes etc. It was established in 1919 and is one of the 32 scientific union within International Council for Science. Website: http://www.iugg.org International Association of Geodesy(IAG) This promotes scientific cooperation and research in geodesy on a global scale. It is one of the active member of IUGG which is one of the 32 scientific union within international council for science. The mission of the Association is the advancement of geodesy. Website: http://www.iag-aig.org International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems andReference Systems Service(IERS) This international organization was established in 1987 by the international Astronomical union and the international union of Geodesy and geophysics. It was renamed to International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in 2003.The objectives of the IERS are to serve astronomical, geodetic, and geophysical communities by providing standards, constants and models, geophysical data to interpret time /space variation, earth orientation parameters required to study earth orientation variation, and international Celestial Reference System and international Terrestrial reference system. Website: https://www.iers.org Read an article from a geodesy journal that you find interesting and provide a one to two paragraph summary of the article including a proper reference and citations. Upload a PDF of the original article to the assignment #1 drop box. [24 points] The recent discoveries of many other earth like exoplanets have raised a question about Earth being only living planet in the universe. Are there any other planets which are suitable for life to start? The requirement of life on any planet is water. Living organism cannot exist without water. Pressure and temperature on the planet should be in a specific range to get the liquid water. Pressure must be significantly higher and the temperature should be between freezing and boiling point. This condition is much more impossible in other existing planets or yet to be discovered. Various classes of habitable planets are classified where class I habitats represents Earth like planet where stellar and geophysical conditions allow water and sunlight to be available. Class II habitats do not have ability to sustain liquid water on their surface due to geophysical conditions, e.g. Mars and Venus. Class III habitats are planet where water exists below the surface which Interact directly with si licate-rich core. The interaction of silicate and hydrothermal activities are assumed to be very important for the origin of life in such planets, e.g. Europa and one of Jupiters satellites. And class IV habitats are very rich in water with oceans lying above a solid ice layer. The oceans are thought to be enclosed between ice layers where the possibility of life is very thin. The other condition to be a habitable planet is being at the right distance from a star and having the right atmosphere. It must have an atmosphere which keeps the pressure and temperature in the right range. However, the experience of mankind is not yet sufficient to estimate the nature and habitual conditions of many others planets. The Earth, in the other hand has a combination of favorable conditions among other planets for the life. It will be possible in the future to learn more about the exoplanets atmosphere because of the projects like earth-based telescopic observations, the James Webb Space telescop e. However, discovering and characterizing the atmosphere of habitable planets will remain challenging. (Forget, 2013) Reference Forget, F. (2013, July). On the probability of habitable planets. International Journal of Astrobiology, 12(3), 177-185. doi:https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550413000128

Biography of Alice Walker Essay -- color purple, racism, sexism

Alice Walker was â€Å"born in Eatonton, Georgia, on February 9, 1944, she was the youngest of the eight children†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Source 8) Alice and her Father, Willie Grant, â€Å"†¦ at first [had a] strong and valuable [relationship]†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Source 10), then when she joined the Civil Rights and feminist movements their relationship became tense. â€Å"Walker attended segregated schools†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Source 7) when she was younger and â€Å"†¦she recalled that she had terrific teachers who encouraged her to believe that the world she was reaching for actually existed.†(Source 7). One of Walker’s most memorable events in her childhood was when â€Å"†¦a BB gun accident which left her at age eight blind in one eye.† After high School Walker went to Speleman college on a full scholarship in 1961 and later transferred to Sarah Lawerence College near new York. â€Å"In 1965, Walker met and later married Melvyn Roseman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer.†(Source 11) They got married on March 17, 1967 in New York City. â€Å"Later that year the couple relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, becoming "the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi."(Source 11) Together Alice and Melvyn had their first child, â€Å"†¦Rebecca, in 1969, whom she described in 2008 as, "a living, breathing, mixed-race embodiment of the new America that they were trying to forge.†(Source 11). Walker completed her first novel a few days before she went into labor with her first child Rebecca. During the time she was writing and taking care of her newborn she was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan and became more isolated especially because she was a black writer. (Source 3, p.34) â€Å"Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, was published in 1970. In 1976, Walker's second novel, Meridian, was published. The ... ...that pulls the reader in to feel what Celie doesn't express. If you haven't lived it or heard people describe that type of life, you can't imagine it. You can only take Walker's words and feel them instead.† (Source 12) In my opinion, the color purple was an acceptable book because it had some good values of life, and good stories, but for the most part, it was disturbing and graphic. The good value of life that I liked in this book where keeping your loved ones as close as possible, no matter what happens. The bond between Celie and Nettie was unbreakable, and they kept it that way even when they did not see each other for decades. The good stories consisted of Nettie and her life as a missionary in Africa, when Celie was reunited with her long lost children, and when Harpo’s wife beats him up. Warren, Nagueyalti. Alice Walker. Ipswich, MA: Salem, 2013. Print.

Essay on The Importance of Nestor in Homers Iliad -- Iliad essays

The Importance of Nestor in Homer's Iliad      Ã‚  Ã‚   The role of the character Nestor in Homer's Iliad is one often overlooked. Nestor is not only an Achaian counselor, respected and listened to due to his age, but he also â€Å"serves as a link between the peace of home the Achaians are leaving and the barbarism of war to which they are succumbing†(Richardson 24). Nestor incites action, instills values and motivates the characters to keep a balance between this peace and barbarism.    Nestor first appears in book one during an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon over Briseis, a war prize belonging to Achilles. As tensions rise and swords are about to be drawn, Nestor calms the situation by demanding the two men's attention, then asking for the respect he has earned with his age, for he has "known far greater men who did not disdain him." He then advises Agamemnon to renounce the girl, for she belongs to Achilles. As for Achilles, Nestor advises, "do not defy your King and Captain." In this way Nestor is bringing about an order which is about to be lost. The many years of fighting have worn patience down and the men have become caustic. It is here that we begin to see the barbarism that becomes prevalent later in the epic. Nestor is here attempting to reinstate the values of respect for authority and another's property.    Book two begins with Agamemnon's dream of a definite and imminent Trojan defeat. He and his war council plan an assault on the city of Troy, and to test the loyalty of his army, Agamemnon announces they will be returning home, giving up. When the army hears that, after nine years of war in the service of Agamemnon, they will see their homeland once again, chaos prevails and, in a mad dash, they bre... ...barism, peace and war, home and adventure, and connects the present with the past and reveals the continuity of life. â€Å"No other character has Nestor's ability to bring order from disorder†(Goodrich 117 ).    Works Cited and Consulted: Bespaloff, Rachel. On the Iliad. Trans. Mary McCarthy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1947. Clarke, Howard. Homer's Readers: A Historical Introduction to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981. Goodrich, Norma. Myths of the hero. New York: Orion Press, 1962. Homer: Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990. Richardson, Nicholas. The Iliad : A Commentary. Vol. VI: books 21-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993. Willcock, Malcolm M. A Companion to the Iliad: Based on the Translation by Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976

Conflict Theory

The several social theories that emphasize social conflict have roots in the ideas of Karl Marx (1818-1883), the great German theorist and political activist. The Marxist, conflict approach emphasizes a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical method of analysis, a critical stance toward existing social arrangements, and a political program of revolution or, at least, reform. Marx summarized the key elements of this materialist view of history as follows: In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness (Marx 1971:20). Marx divided history into several stages, conforming to broad patterns in the economic structure of society. The most important stages for Marx's argument were feudalism, capitalism, and socialism. The bulk of Marx's writing is concerned with applying the materialist model of society to capitalism, the stage of economic and social development that Marx saw as dominant in 19th century Europe. For Marx, the central institution of capitalist society is private property, the system by which capital (that is, money, machines, tools, factories, and other material objects used in production) is controlled by a small minority of the population. This arrangement leads to two opposed classes, the owners of capital (called the bourgeoisie) and the workers (called the proletariat), whose only property is their own labor time, which they have to sell to the capitalists. Economic exploitation leads directly to political oppression, as owners make use of their economic power to gain control of the state and turn it into a servant of bourgeois economic interests. Police power, for instance, is used to enforce property rights and guarantee unfair contracts between capitalist and worker. Oppression also takes more subtle forms: religion serves capitalist interests by pacifying the population; intellectuals, paid directly or indirectly by capitalists, spend their careers justifying and rationalizing the existing social and economic arrangements. In sum, the economic structure of society molds the superstructure, including ideas (e. g. , morality, ideologies, art, and literature) and the social institutions that support the class structure of society (e. g. , the state, the educational system, the family, and religious institutions). Because the dominant or ruling class (the bourgeoisie) controls the social relations of production, the dominant ideology in capitalist society is that of the ruling class. Ideology and social institutions, in turn, serve to reproduce and perpetuate the economic class structure. Thus, Marx viewed the exploitative economic arrangements of capitalism as the real foundation upon which the superstructure of social, political, and intellectual consciousness is built. (Figure 1 depicts this model of historical materialism. Marx's view of history might seem completely cynical or pessimistic, were it not for the possibilities of change revealed by his method of dialectical analysis. (The Marxist dialectical method, based on Hegel's earlier idealistic dialectic, focuses attention on how an existing social arrangement, or thesis, generates its social opposite, or antithesis, and on how a qualitatively different social form, or synthesis, emerges from the resulting struggle. ) Marx was an optim ist. He believed that any stage of history based on exploitative economic arrangements generated within itself the seeds of its own destruction. For instance, feudalism, in which land owners exploited the peasantry, gave rise to a class of town-dwelling merchants, whose dedication to making profits eventually led to the bourgeois revolution and the modern capitalist era. Similarly, the class relations of capitalism will lead inevitably to the next stage, socialism. The class relations of capitalism embody a contradiction: capitalists need workers, and vice versa, but the economic interests of the two groups are fundamentally at odds. Such contradictions mean inherent conflict and instability, the class struggle. Adding to the instability of the capitalist system are the inescapable needs for ever-wider markets and ever-greater investments in capital to maintain the profits of capitalists. Marx expected that the resulting economic cycles of expansion and contraction, together with tensions that will build as the working class gains greater understanding of its exploited position (and thus attains class consciousness), will eventually culminate in a socialist revolution. Despite this sense of the unalterable logic of history, Marxists see the need for social criticism and for political activity to speed the arrival of socialism, which, not being based on private property, is not expected to involve as many contradictions and conflicts as capitalism. Marxists believe that social theory and political practice are dialectically intertwined, with theory enhanced by political involvement and with political practice necessarily guided by theory. Intellectuals ought, therefore, to engage in praxis, to combine political criticism and political activity. Theory itself is seen as necessarily critical and value-laden, since the prevailing social relations are based upon alienating and dehumanizing exploitation of the labor of the working classes. Marx's ideas have been applied and reinterpreted by scholars for over a hundred years, starting with Marx's close friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1825-95), who supported Marx and his family for many years from the profits of the textile factories founded by Engels' father, while Marx shut himself away in the library of the British Museum. Later, Vladimir I. Lenin (1870-1924), leader of the Russian revolution, made several influential contributions to Marxist theory. In recent years Marxist theory has taken a great variety of forms, notably the world-systems theory proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein (1974, 1980) and the comparative theory of revolutions put forward by Theda Skocpol (1980). Marxist ideas have also served as a starting point for many of the modern feminist theorists. Despite these applications, Marxism of any variety is still a minority position among American sociologists. Functionalism is the oldest, and still the dominant, theoretical perspective in sociology and many other social sciences. This perspective is built upon twin emphases: application of the scientific method to the objective social world and use of an analogy between the individual organism and society. The emphasis on scientific method leads to the assertion that one can study the social world in the same ways as one studies the physical world. Thus, Functionalists see the social world as â€Å"objectively real,† as observable with such techniques as social surveys and interviews. Furthermore, their positivistic view of social science assumes that study of the social world can be value-free, in that the investigator's values will not necessarily interfere with the disinterested search for social laws governing the behavior of social systems. Many of these ideas go back to Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), the great French sociologist whose writings form the basis for functionalist theory (see Durkheim 1915, 1964); Durkheim was himself one of the first sociologists to make use of scientific and statistical techniques in sociological research (1951). The second emphasis, on the organic unity of society, leads functionalists to speculate about needs which must be met for a social system to exist, as well as the ways in which social institutions satisfy those needs. A functionalist might argue, for instance, that every society will have a religion, because religious institutions have certain functions which contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole, just as the organs of the body have functions which are necessary for the body's survival. Functionalist theories have very often been criticized as teleological, that is, reversing the usual order of cause and effect by explaining things in terms of what happens afterward, not what went before. A strict functionalist might explain certain religious practices, for instance, as being functional by contributing to a society's survival; however, such religious traditions will usually have been firmly established long before the question is finally settled of whether the society as a whole will actually survive. Bowing to this kind of criticism of the basic logic of functionalist theory, most current sociologists have stopped using any explicitly functionalistic explanations of social phenomena, and the extreme version of functionalism expounded by Talcott Parsons has gone out of fashion. Nevertheless, many sociologists continue to expect that by careful, objective scrutiny of social phenomena they will eventually be able to discover the general laws of social behavior, and this hope still serves as the motivation for a great deal of sociological thinking and research. RATIONAL CHOICE AND EXCHANGE THEORY {text:bookmark-start} {text:bookmark-end} SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM Symbolic interactionism, or interactionism for short, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. This perspective has a long intellectual history, beginning with the German sociologist and economist, Max Weber (1864-1920) and the American philosopher, George H. Mead (1863-1931), both of whom emphasized the subjective meaning of human behavior, the social process, and pragmatism. Although there are a number of versions of interactionist thought, some deriving from phenomenological writings by philosophers, the following description offers a simplified amalgamation of these ideas, concentrating on points of convergence. Herbert Blumer, who studied with Mead at the University of Chicago, is responsible for coining the term, â€Å"symbolic interactionism,† as well as for formulating the most prominent version of the theory (Blumer 1969). Interactionists focus on the subjective aspects of social life, rather than on objective, macro-structural aspects of social systems. One reason for this focus is that interactionists base their theoretical perspective on their image of humans, rather than on their image of society (as the functionalists do). For interactionists, humans are pragmatic actors who continually must adjust their behavior to the actions of other actors. We can adjust to these actions only because we are able to interpret them, i. e. , to denote them symbolically and treat the actions and those who perform them as symbolic objects. This process of adjustment is aided by our ability to imaginatively rehearse alternative lines of action before we act. The process is further aided by our ability to think about and to react to our own actions and even our selves as symbolic objects. Thus, the interactionist theorist sees humans as active, creative participants who construct their social world, not as passive, conforming objects of socialization. For the interactionist, society consists of organized and patterned interactions among individuals. Thus, research by interactionists focuses on easily observable face-to-face interactions rather than on macro-level structural relationships involving social institutions. Furthermore, this focus on interaction and on the meaning of events to the participants in those events (the definition of the situation) shifts the attention of interactionists away from stable norms and values toward more changeable, continually readjusting social processes. Whereas for functionalists socialization creates stability in the social system, for interactionists negotiation among members of society creates temporary, socially constructed relations which remain in constant flux, despite relative stability in the basic framework governing those relations. These emphases on symbols, negotiated reality, and the social construction of society lead to an interest in the roles people play. Erving Goffman (1958), a prominent social theorist in this tradition, discusses roles dramaturgically, using an analogy to the theater, with human social behavior seen as more or less well scripted and with humans as role-taking actors. Role-taking is a key mechanism of interaction, for it permits us to take the other's perspective, to see what our actions might mean to the other actors with whom we interact. At other times, interactionists emphasize the improvisational quality of roles, with human social behavior seen as poorly scripted and with humans as role-making improvisers. Role-making, too, is a key mechanism of interaction, for all situations and roles are inherently ambiguous, thus requiring us to create those situations and roles to some extent before we can act. Interactionists tend to study social interaction through participant observation, rather than surveys and interviews. They argue that close contact and immersion in the everyday lives of the participants is necessary for understanding the meaning of actions, the definition of the situation itself, and the process by which actors construct the situation through their interaction. Given this close contact, interactionists could hardly remain free of value commitments, and, in fact, interactionists make explicit use of their values in choosing what to study but strive to be objective in the conduct of their research. Symbolic interactionists are often criticized by other sociologists for being overly impressionistic in their research methods and somewhat unsystematic in their theories. These objections, combined with the fairly narrow focus of interactionist research on small-group interactions and other social psychological issues, have relegated the interactionist camp to a minority position among sociologists, although a fairly substantial minority. Bureaucratic Form According to Max Weber — His Six Major Principles Before covering Weber's Six Major Principles, I want to describe the various multiple meanings of the word â€Å"bureaucracy. A group of workers (for example, civil service employees of the U. S. government), is referred to as â€Å"the bureaucracy. † An example: â€Å"The threat of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings cuts has the bureaucracy in Washington deeply concerned. † Bureaucracy is the name of an organizational form used by sociologists and organizational design pr ofessionals. Bureaucracy has an informal usage, as in â€Å"there's too much bureaucracy where I work. † This informal usage describes a set of characteristics or attributes such as â€Å"red tape† or â€Å"inflexibility† that frustrate people who deal with or who work for organizations they perceive as â€Å"bureaucratic. Weber noted six major principles. 1. A formal hierarchical structure Each level controls the level below and is controlled by the level above. A formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and centralized decision making. 2. Management by rules Controlling by rules allows decisions made at high levels to be executed consistently by all lower levels. 3. Organization by functional specialty Work is to be done by specialists, and people are organized into units based on the type of work they do or skills they have. 4. An â€Å"up-focused† or â€Å"in-focused† mission If the mission is described as â€Å"up-focused,† then the organization's purpose is to serve the stockholders, the board, or whatever agency empowered it. If the mission is to serve the organization itself, and those within it, e. g. , to produce high profits, to gain market share, or to produce a cash stream, then the mission is described as â€Å"in-focused. † 5. Purposely impersonal The idea is to treat all employees equally and customers equally, and not be influenced by individual differences. . Employment based on technical qualifications (There may also be protection from arbitrary dismissal. ) The bureaucratic form, according to Parkinson, has another attribute. 7. Predisposition to grow in staff â€Å"above the line. † Weber failed to notice this, but C. Northcote Parkinson found it so common that he made it the basis of his humorous â€Å"Parkinson's law. † Parkinson demonstrated th at the management and professional staff tends to grow at predictable rates, almost without regard to what the line organization is doing. The bureaucratic form is so common that most people accept it as the normal way of organizing almost any endeavor. People in bureaucratic organizations generally blame the ugly side effects of bureaucracy on management, or the founders, or the owners, without awareness that the real cause is the organizing form. Iron cage is a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber. Iron cage refers to the increasing rationalization of human life, which traps individuals in an â€Å"iron cage† of rule-based, rational control. He also called such over-bureaucratized social order â€Å"the polar night of icy darkness†. The original German term is stahlhartes Gehause; this was translated into ‘iron cage', an expression made familiar to English language speakers by Talcott Parsons in his 1958 translation of Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Recently some sociologists have questioned this translation, arguing that the correct term should be ‘shell as hard as steel' and that the difference from the original translation is significant. A more literal translation from German would be â€Å"steel-hard housing. Weber wrote: â€Å"In Baxter’s view the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the ‘saint like a light cloak, which can be thrown aside at any moment. ‘ But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage. † Weber became concerned with social actions and the subjective meaning that humans attach to their action s and interaction within specific social contexts. He also believed in idealism, which is the belief that we only know things because of the meanings that we apply to them. This led to his interest in power and authority in terms of bureaucracy and rationalization

Impact of Technology on Our Society Essay

When we speak of the impact of technology on society, we always talk about the positive effects of technology and about how technology has made life easy. We talk about the Internet as an information resource and a communication platform and conveniently ignore the fact that an overexposure to it leads to Internet addiction. We often discuss how technology has made life easy but easily forget that it has made us overly dependent on it. Have you thought of the impact of technology from this point of view? I am sure, most of you haven’t. Let us look at this aspect of technology here. Think of the days when there were no computers and no modern means of transport. Human life was highly restricted due to the unavailability of technological applications. Daily life involved a lot of physical activity. Life of the common man was not as luxurious as that of modern times, but he was more active. Exercise was integrated into routine physical activities. It was contrary to the sedentary lifestyle of today, which leaves no time for exercise and fills days with inactivity and laze. Today we don’t want to, and thanks to technology, don’t even need to, walk, move around or exert physically to get things done. We have the world is at our fingertips. We think of technology as a boon to society. I am afraid; it’s not completely a boon. The Internet has bred many unethical practices like hacking, spamming and phishing. Internet crime is on the rise. The Internet, being an open platform lacks regulation. There is no regulation on the content displayed on websites. Internet gambling has become an addiction for many. Overexposure to the Internet has taken its toll. In this virtual world, you can be who you are not, you can be virtually living even after you die. Isn’t this weird? Children are spending all their time playing online and less or almost no time playing on the ground. Youngsters are spending most of their time social networking, missing on the joys of real social life. Think of the days when there were no online messengers, no emails and no cell phones. Indeed cellular technology made it possible for us to communicate over wireless media. Web communication facilities have worked wonders in speeding long-distance communication. On the other hand, they have deprived mankind of the warmth of personal contact. Emails replaced handwritten letters and communication lost its personal touch. With the means of communication so easily accessible, that magic in waiting to reach someone and the excitement that followed have vanished. Moreover, we have become excessively dependent on technology. Is so much of dependency good? Is it right to rely on machines to such an extent? Is it right to depend on computers rather than relying on human intellect? Computer technology and robotics are trying to substitute for human intellect. With the fast advancing technology, we have started harnessing artificial intelligence in many fields. Where is the digital divide going to take us? How is our ‘tomorrow’ going to be? ‘Machines replacing human beings’ does not portray a rosy picture, does it? It can lead to serious issues like unemployment and crime. An excessive use of machines in every field can result in an under-utilization of human brains. Over time, we may even lose our intellectual abilities. You know of the declining mathematical abilities in children due to use of calculators since school, don’t you? The impact of technology on society is deep. It is both positive and negative. Technology has largely influenced every aspect of living. It has made life easy, but so easy that it may lose its charm one day. One can cherish an accomplishment only if it comes after effort. But everything has become so easily available due to technology that it has lost its value. There is a certain kind of enjoyment in achieving things after striving for them. But with everything a few clicks away, there is no striving, there’s only striking. With the developments in technology, we may be able to enjoy all the pricey luxuries in life but at the cost of losing its priceless joys.

Random Walks for P2P Resource Discovery in Grids

Random Walks for P2P Resource Discovery in Grids Abstraction: Peer-to-peer ( P2P ) resource locale methods in grid agreements have been soon investigated to achieve scalability, dependability, efficiency, fault-tolerance, protection, and hardiness. Query declaration for detecting resources and advise informations on their ain resource rank in these agreements can be inattentive as the reverse of allowing one equal to achieve a unconditioned think of Earth informations described on all equals of a P2P unstructured web. In this paper, the agreement is embodied as a set of nodes related to organize a P2P web whereas every individual node holds a piece of informations that is needed to be communicated to all the participants. Furthermore, we accept that the informations can vibrantly alter and that every individual equal sporadically needs to admission the benefits of the informations of all auxiliary equals. A fresh manner established on a changeless flow of use packages exchanged amid the nodes using the random amble rule and rateless cryptograph y is proposed. An advanced rateless decrypting mechanism that is able to get by aboard asynchronous informations updates is to boot proposed. The presentation of the counseled agreement is assessed both analytically and by experimentation by simulation. The analytical wake show that the counseled scheme warrants speedy diffusion of the informations and graduated tables good to colossal webs. Simulations display that the method is competent to boot in attending of web and information kineticss.debutPEER-TO-PEER ( P2P ) resource locale methods in grid agreements have been investigated to achieve scalability, dependability, efficiency, fault-tolerance, protection, and robustness.To this conclude, structured, unstructured, and intercrossed P2P agreements have been believed and the comparative virtues and drawbacks have been highlighted [ 1 ] , [ 2 ] . Countless propositions working unstructured P2P agreements apportion a public feature: Grid nodes inside one official country sporadicall y query for detecting resources and advise informations on their ain resource rank across one or excess interface equals. The interface equals ( normally those alongside the biggest capacity ) frolic two chief functions: they are related to auxiliary interface peersforming a P2P unstructured web that is utilised to onward ( and reply to ) questions on the behalf of nodes in its official sphere. They amass and uphold informations of all nodes in the innate functionary domain.Query declaration in these agreements can be inattentive as the reverse of allowing one equal to achieve a unconditioned think of Earth informations described on all equals of a P2P unstructured web. In peculiar, we accept that every individual equal holds a piece of informations ( the sum resource ranks of all nodes in its official sphere ) and that each equal needs to admission the benefits of the informations of all auxiliary equals sporadically at rate _ queries=sec. The purposes to be attained are treble: ea rly, one wants to assure that every individual node is likely to accumulate the finished Earth informations in a timely manner. Furthermore, the contact operating expense have to be retained every bit manipulated as likely to besiege cloging the web. Finally, the processing use of every individual node have to be utilised parsimoniously.Related work:The reverse of informations meeting in distributed agreements has been confronted aboard infinite disparate instruments and approaches.A early category of methods are those established on probabilistic gossipmongering [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] . Probabilistic gossipmongering has been utilized both to calculate a intent of the Earth informations, e.g. , norms, and to truly range innate informations across a web as in our scenes even though such methods rely on a set of premises that are tough to assure in exercising [ 5 ] . Noteworthy enterprises to beat a small of these restrictions in the span of epidemic airing are [ 6 ] , [ 7 ] that effect in clo se to optimal latency-bandwidth trade-of. In peculiar, [ 6 ] utilizations flow use on the maximal rate at that a member can show updates missing crafting a backlog and devises content rapprochement mechanisms to cut memo redundancy. In [ 7 ] , [ 8 ] , [ 9 ] , [ 10 ] exploitation/ execution of topological belongingss of the web are counseled to heighten the presentation of the informations airing procedure. Algebraic Gossip, counseled in, is the early algorithm turn toing informations meeting alongside web cryptography. In this paper a chitchat algorithm established on NC is gave, and it is proved that the spreading period of this algorithm is O?K? , whereK & A ; lt ; Nis the figure of nodes possessing a small information to distribute. This algorithm is highly comparable to classical North carolina: at every individual transmittal chance, every individual node sends to one more node a additive combination, computed in Galois Earth GF?q? alongside q _ K, of the beforehand consented packages. However, NC exhibits a elevated computational elaborateness [ 12 ] , due to the monetary value of the cryptography and decryption processs gave in high-order GF. Furthermore, every individual package demands cushioning of auxiliary Klog2?q? & A ; gt ; Klog2?K? spots. Such embroidering bends to be impossible for colossal webs ; as an illustration, if K ? 1 ; 000 every individual package needs excess than 104 embroidering spots. Finally, the writers advocate that the memo size m ought to scale alongside the size of the web, as it is needed that m _ log?q? . A disparate manner is to hive away and craft packages using rateless codifications. In [ 13 ] distributed fountain codifications are counseled for networked storage. To craft a new encoded package, every individual storage node asks informations to a indiscriminately selected node of the web. The receiving system replies to the company despatching its informations, that will be utilized by the company to encode a new package. A comparable algorithm is counseled in [ 14 ] , whereas the coded package formation mechanism is reversed ; in this instance, the nodes that shops the informations despatch random Walkers embracing the information. The storage nodes store this information and trade encoded packages XORing a small of the informations they by now received. At the conclude of the process, every individual storage node shops an encoded package, and it is likely to repossess the early informations questioning each K ? _ indiscriminately selected storage nodes. Development codifications, counseled in [ 15 ] , utilize a comparable method but advocate a peculiar grade allotment for the rateless codifications to maximise the informations continuity in attending of a lone i nformation aggregator node. In all the beforehand gave documents, the construct of the codifications is node-centric, i.e. , the nodes cope alongside the informations meeting and the encoding operations this duty is allocated to the packages. The mark of this work is to utilize peculiar random Walkers, shouted as rateless packages, for distributed storage of informations in WSN. Every individual node creates a precise figure of ratelesspackets, that are chiefly empty packages that excursion across the web as random Walkers. The purpose in [ 16 ] is to utilize packages encoded in a distributed manner that will be stored at random locations in the web to maximise informations continuity in the WSN. Every individual rateless package is associated alongside a grade selected prosecuting the mean Luby Change ( LT ) grade allotment, and T, the blending period of the graph, is conjectural to be known. Every individual rateless package performs a random amble across the web and a fresh information is joined simply after every individual T hops ; after a new information is added the package grade is decreased by one. After the grade becomes zero, the rateless package performs t auxiliary hops to hit the node that will hive away it. Though, the focal point of the paper is to lift informations continuity ; the period needed for the allotment of the rateless packages is non studied.PROPOSED WorkIn this paper we ideal the interface equals of a Grid agreement and the connexions amid them as a graph G?V ; E? , whereas V and E are the set of interface equals and boundary lines associating them, severally. Every individual node of the web is exceptionally recognized by an identifier ID. The ID can be allocated by a fixed rendezvous node, e.g. , a tracker, or can be embodied by the IP, haven reference of the node. Every individual node vj 2 V owns an m-bits informations ten tjvj, whereas tj is a time-stamp or an whole number that is incremented every individual period the informations in vj alterations. To clarify the notation in the remainder of the paper we accept that vj coincides alongside the ID of node ; tj is usually denoted to as the creative activity figure. In our scenes a node can advise its informations asynchronously alongside regard to the remainder of the web, lifting the creative activity associated alongside the information. The purpose of nodes is to discourse aboard one one more the corresponding informations, so as to grok a coincident screening of all the informations amassed by all the nodes in the web. This have to be completed indefinitely often at an arbitrary rate _ by every individual node. This observation Torahs out each centralised declaration whereas all nodes study to a public monitoring node, that in spiral have to propagate the amassed informations to all the participants. This manner is clearly impossible because it imposes a immense figure of traffic to and from the monitoring node, non to note the topics connected to the ballot and exposure of a centralised sink Therefore, in this paper we advocate a to the full distributed declaration established on random walks. Every individual node is allowed to onset a manipulated figure tungsten of packages that are the random Walkers propagating the information in the web. The parametric quantity w clearly permits one to manipulation the figure of traffic inoculated in the web. On every individual response by a node, the package is forwarded to a random familiarity hence groking a easy signifier of probabilistic gossipmongering. It is good recognized that web coding declarations, e.g. , hold oning additive combinations of the amassed information, increases the presentation in words of throughput, hardiness and continuity. On the auxiliary manus, coding ways display two chief defects. The early and most erudite topic is embodied by the added computational complexness. A likely declaration that has by now been counseled in the plants is to clarify the early random web coding manner, that needs one to fa ll in the information blocks in elevated order Galois Field, alongside agreements established on easy binary combinations, e.g. , XOR. Our work headers alongside the elaborateness capable using a easy category of rateless codifications, recognized as Luby Change codes [ 19 ] . The subsequent most relevant defect of NC is embodied the unlikeliness for a node to advise asynchronously the informations it merges missing calamitously impacting on the decryption accomplishment of all the auxiliary nodes. Indeed, the nodes retain roll uping additive combinations of a set of terra incognitas till they prosperously invert the corresponding agreement of equations. Clearly, the agreement of additive equations is meaningful if one keeps fall ining the similar information. On the contrary, in this paper we advocate a fresh decryption manner for LT codifications that is resilient to asynchronous accommodations of the information. In decision, we allow every individual node propagate a fixed figur e of packages hold oning coded informations of the nodes that the packages have hit giving a random amble aboard G?V ; E? . All the nodes use the consented packages to decide a agreement of additive equations allowing them to repossess the informations associated alongside all the informations collected by the web in a timely, finished and robust way.In the prosecuting the characteristics of the counseled random amble coding scheme and the design of the fresh LT decryption algorithm are presented. This estimate might be computed by the nodes spoting the IDs of the nodes encompassed in the beforehand consented equations. To get by alongside the construct of the equation harmonizing to the RSD, every individual package carries in the heading part the indicating of the grade dF that have to be attained by the equation below formation in the package ( that in our scenes is the early equation composed in the package organic structure signifier left to compensate ) . After a node vj at creative activity tj receives a package, it checks if the grade of the early equation stored in the package has grasped the demanded grade. If dF & A ; gt ; d1, and therefore the mark grade has non been grasped yet, the node performs three operations: it XORs its informations to the word c1, i.e. , c1 ? c1 _ Next the degree d1 of the equation is incremented and the corresponding Earth in the package updated. Finally, the node vj and the information timestamp tj are appended to the equation. On the auxiliary manus, if dF ? d1, the early equation has by now attained the demanded grade, therefore a new equation is crafted and stored as the new early equation, as the auxiliary equations are advanced, for example, eqi becomes eqi?1 for I ? 1. . . k. To craft a new equation eq1 a node draws a random grade from RSD and shops it in the dF Earth of the package heading. Following d1 ? 1 is set, its vj, its existent timestamp tj and informations c1 ? x tj vj are composed in the proper Fieldss. Every individual package crafted or notified by a node is following forwarded to one more node, indiscriminately selected amid the innate neighbours. The figure of hops globally seized by a package is non manipulated in our system. The merely restriction is embodied by the maximal package size DIM, that is normally imposed by the maximal transportation component allowed by the implicit in contact cognition at the physical bed. After a package ways the maximal dimension DIM, the eldest equation grasped by it is deleted as it is highly likely to keep aged or by now recognized information. 3.1Random Walk LT Coding In instance of a vivacious web, whereas nodes can randomly nexus and go the graph G?V ; E? and/or in attending of undependable links that coil into package lickings, a mechanism to admit the attending of a given package in the web have to be devised. As an illustration, an acknowledgement timer ( a Time-to-Live field ) and the reference of the conceiver can be added to the message. As usual, The acknowledgement timer Earth is initialized to a steady worth on the package construct, following every individual node decreases it on every individual hop. After the acknowledgement timer reaches 0 the consenting node acknowledges the conceiver that its random Walker is yet alive. The accepting node to boot resets the acknowledgement timer to the early value. The conceiver of the package uses a timer to detect package losingss ; after a timer expires beforehand the response of the corresponding recognition memo the node is allowed to renew the package. 3.2 ASYNCHRONOUS LT Decoding: The information scope by the random Walkers can be recouped by each node in the web every bit rapidly as the figure of equations needed to show an LT decryption algorithm has been collected. As our purpose is to retrace the information every bit fleetly as likely, all the equations grasped by every individual package, embracing the 1s that are yet in advancement, are buffered by every individual node. If we accept that the figure of nodes jV J in the web is equal to N, the decipherer undertaking can be formulated as the declaration of the agreement of additive equations Gx ? c whereas G is an N _ N binary1 matrix whose lines embody the N likely independent equations amassed by the node, x and degree Celsiuss are N _ 1 column vectors stand foring the N unfamiliar pieces of informations and the corresponding buffered additive combinations grasped by the packages warheads. Both x and hundred encompass m-bit elements. The node can reimburse all the informations x using a progressive sign ifier of Gaussian Elimination to decide the system. Clearly, this will necessitate all the nodes in the web to retain their informations sweetheart to besiege unhinging the declaration of the system.Consequences and executionIn this helping we furnish anscutiny of the period needed to run all the innate informations to all the members in the web, that in the pursuing is described as recovery clip. In peculiar, we are interested in patterning the recovery period as a intent of the size of the innate informations m, the figure of random Walkers generated each node tungsten and figure of nodes in the web N, given the restraint on the maximal size of the random amble packages DIM. Furthermore, the counseled analytical ideal licenses to difference the coded manner versus an correspondent agreement missing cryptography, i.e. , after the information is gossiped explicitly. In fact, the counseled manner degenerates into an uncoded agreement if one Decision:In this paper we have shown that the present progresss in rateless cryptography and decryption can be lucratively exploited to carry through a robust and timely P2P resource venue method in Grid systems. The chief freshness of the counseled manner lies in the usage of web coding rules in a scenario whereas innate informations can be notified asynchronously. Furthermore, as challenged to a small signifiers of distributed storage counseled in the plants, our proposition realizes a changeless notify of the Earth informations across the finished distributed agreement, as maintaining the figure of traffic below control. From the algorithmic point of think, the chief part is embodied by the design of a fresh decipherer for rateless codifications that is robust to asynchronous updates of the information. One more interesting effect that we attained is the advancement of a easy analytical ideal for the appraisal of the period needed to run the information as a intent of the web and information sizes, given a restraint on the MTU allowed by the gettable transmittal protocol. Such a ideal can be exploited for the appraisal of the presentation and for the choice of a small critical parametric quantities of the system. The analytical wake show that the counseled coded manner reduces the period needed to discourse all the informations aboard respect to an correspondent system missing coding. Furthermore we clarify that such addition additions alongside the size of the informations to be scope, or analogously after the MTU shall be highly limited. One more paramount effect is that the encoded agreement graduated tables larger than the uncoded 1 after the figure of nodes in the distributed agreement additions. RoentgenEFERENCES [ 1 ] P. Trunfio, D. Talia, H. Papadakis, P. Fragopoulou, M. Mordacchini, M. Pennanen, K. Popov, V. Vlassov, and S. Haridi, â€Å"Peer-to-Peer Resource Discovery in Grids: Models and Systems, † Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 864-878, 2007. [ 2 ] V. Vijayakumar, R.S. WahidaBanu, and J.H. Abawajy, â€Å"An Efficient Approach Based on Trust and Reputation for Secured Selection of Grid Resources, † Int’l J. Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 1-17, 2012. [ 3 ] A. Kermarrec, L. Massouli_e, and A. Ganesh, â€Å"Probabilistic Reliable Dissemination in Large-scale Systems, † IEEE Trans. Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 248-258, Mar. 2003. [ 4 ] M. Jelasity, A. Montresor, and O. Babaoglu, â€Å"Gossip-Based Aggregation in Large Dynamic Networks, † ACM Trans. Computer Systems, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 219-252, Aug. 2005. [ 5 ] L. Alvisi, et al. , â€Å"How Robust are Gossip-Based Communication Protocols? †Operating Systems Rev. , vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 14-18, Oct. 2007. [ 6 ] R. new wave Renesse, D. Dumitriu, V. Gough, and C. Thomas, â€Å"Efficient Reconciliation and Flow Control for Anti-Entropy Protocols, † Proc. Second Workshop Large-Scale Distributed Systems and Middleware ( LADIS ’08 ) , 2008. [ 7 ] N. Carvalho, J. Pereira, R. Oliveira, and L. Rodrigues, â€Å"Emergent Structure in Unstructured Epidemic Multicast, † Proc. 37th Ann. IEEE/IFIP Int’l Conf. Reliable Systems and Networks ( DSN ’07 ) , pp. 481-490, 2007. [ 8 ] J. Leitao, J. Pereira, and L. Rodrigues, â€Å"Hyparview: A Membership Protocol for Reliable Gossip-Based Broadcast, † Proc. 37th Ann. IEEE/IFIP Int’l Conf. Reliable Systems and Networks ( DSN ’07 ) , pp. 419-429, 2007.

A day in the life of a bike warehouse worker Essay

It was six o’clock and for the first time in about two years I woke up before my alarm went off. My curtains were not pulled right together so a stream of light was shining on my face. I sat up in bed and looked on my calendar to see what day it was; it was Monday, the first day of my work experience. I got myself out of bed and headed for the shower. The house was so still, every little sound I made seemed to be ten times loader than what it actually was. Like every other morning I had a wash and got changed then crept down stairs to the kitchen. I took a quick glance at the big clock on the wall but the batteries which were destined to run out had finally run flat. I had to find my phone, which I’m constantly forgetting where I put, to know the time. I had put it by the cookery books so that I would see it and not panic like every other morning. It was six forty-five which left me fifteen minutes to grab some breakfast before leaving to do my normal everyday paper round. I took a look in the cupboard to find there was nothing worth having, probably a shopping day knowing my luck. I skipped breakfast and jumped on my bike and headed for the local paper shop. I knew that I had to be at the bike shop for my work experience at about nine o’clock so I figured that I had to hurry up on doing my paper round. When I got the the shop, the shop owner, Paul, was waiting at the door with some bad news. The shop has two paper rounds one which I do and another which my friend David did. He gave me the good news that David had quit with no warning. Usually I would be excited about this because if I did both the paper rounds I would be paid double but the only downfall was I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to do both the paper rounds. Anyway I put all the papers in the bag and did the most strenuous exercise I had done in a long time. It paid off though as that morning I witnessed the most beautiful sun rise. I finally got home, tired out and surprisingly quite cold. Looking at the clock on my mobile phone I had realised that I had been out delivering papers for one and a half hours, allowing me just thirty minutes to get ready and get the the other side of town. I quickly got changed into some suitable clothes and then made my way towards the town. On the way to the town I kept asking myself questions, what will I have to do? Will I be able to do the things which tom did last week? I wonder what the staff will be like? I managed to get myself really nervous about the whole idea of working with people I don’t know and if I was really up for the job. I arrived at the shop ten minutes early so that I could introduce myself and get to know the staff a little bit. The main person in charge, Luke, set me off to do my first task which he said was the most important task off all. I was expecting to hear something to do with the bikes but instead he said â€Å"I don’t suppose you can run up to Aldays and grab use a pint of semi skimmed milk†. It was when he told me to get the milk when I realised they were going to take advantage of me and make me do all the things which they didn’t want to. Anyway, I was there to experience work and if that’s what higher ranked staff do, and then that’s what I was there to experience. When I came back to the shop with the milk Luke told me to follow him to the kitchen. The kitchen was a small, dirty and smelly room which was mainly used to store bike parts. The only thing that made it a kitchen was the fact that it had a small, filthy sink, a kettle and a bag of tea bags which my best mate Tom had brought in the previous week. In the kitchen were a number of large boxes which contained bikes. Luke pulled one into the middle of the room and asked me to build it in the kitchen whilst he went back to the till to repair some other bikes. This was the part I was dreading most of all, I had never built a bike from flat pack before and there I was expected to know how it all goes together. I opened the box and took a peep inside. The only way of describing what the bike looked like then was simply a box of bits. I took out everything and placed them in an orderly fashion across the floor. I was expecting to find a small booklet or leaflet with instructions on how to build the bike but there wasn’t any. I didn’t want the staff to know that I came to the bike shop not knowing how to build a bike so I decided to have a go at making it how I thought it went. The first main problem I came across was the packaging. Everything was really well packaged and taped up and all I had to remove it with was a small pair of very blunt scissors. I took a look at the parts in front of me and got cracking with making the bike. Most of the building was pure common sense but there were a few occasions where I had to take apart previous parts so that I could correct myself in places. Once I had finished making the bike I had to adjust the brakes and make sure that everything was in good order. There were lots of bare cable ends which I had to cover but unfortunately I caught the end of my finger on one of the thin cable ends leaving me in agony. I stood up, took a step back and looked at what I had done. I had made my first ever bike from scratch and I must admit, I thought I had done a very good job of it. I went out to find one of the staff members so that they could see if I had done everything ok. A young worker there called Steve came into the kitchen to check over the bike. I was biting my nails and gritting my teeth, hoping that I had done the job correctly. He was being very precise looking at every adjustment and checking that every screw was tight. He stopped what he was doing, leant the bike against the wall and said â€Å"Well done, you can carry on with the rest of the bikes in the store room†. I was so over the moon. I had taught myself a new skill which in the future could help me out. Now that my confidence was a lot better, I found I could make the bikes a lot quicker. I made a further three bikes each a bit different before Luke came into the room and told me that I deserved a lunch break. I took advantage of my break by jogging home and getting myself some lunch. When I came back to the shop I wanted to get straight back into it but there were other jobs that needed to be done. During my break a small lorry fully of ready and unready made bikes had arrived at the shop. With help from John, another employee of the shop, I removed all the bikes and boxes from the lorry to one of two cellars. Once the bikes were all down in the cellar I had the job of sorting them all out into different groups. I didn’t really enjoy this much as the cellar was a dark, gloomy room with a not to pleasant smell in the air. I was happy to get out of there once I had finished sorting the bikes out. There was enough time to make a couple more bikes so I was sent back to the kitchen with my tools to make some more bikes from the store room. The radio wasn’t too good as the aerial had broken off, so I found myself a tape which I could work to. The time really flew as my mind was in working mode. At three o’clock Luke came back into the kitchen and checked all the bikes I had done. He was very impressed with what I had done and told me that I could go home. The room looked like a bomb had been set off in it so I cleared away all the tools I was using, put all the bikes I had built into stock and washed up the cups. I was now ready to go home. On the way out Luke said thank you for the work and said that he would discount me if I needed to buy any thing for my bike. I said good bye and went home. On the way home I thought about how my day had been. I realised that although I didn’t originally want to work at the bike shop, it wasn’t as bad as what I was expecting. In life you’re not always going to get the jobs you want so I decided that for the rest of the week I was going to make the most of the experience.