LTC Sean MacFarland - Field Press Briefing on Operation Inherent Resolve (12-16-15) free essay sample

MP3 Con Argument essays

MP3 Con Argument essays Technology is changing the world. Some of the more significant technological advances have been made in the field of communications. Every few months a new way of sharing information is developed and disseminated. The newest information being shared is music and the technologies being utilized are MP3 files. The most recent issue that has become known is the legality of MP3 files that are copied from music albums without paying royalties to the artists. The truth is MP3 file trading break copyright laws, and because of this fact, major recording companies as well as individual artists are suing the two largest distributors of MP3 files, Napster and MP3.com. Before the advent MP3 files it would require 1.400 [megabytes] to represent just one second of stereo music in CD quality. According to Christopher Jones, editor of Webmonkey, MP3 is short for Moving Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer III. He also states that, a standard MP3 compression is at a 10:1 ratio, and yields a file that is about 4 MB for a three-minute track. In 1987, Prof. Dieter Seitzer of the University of Erlangen created the MP3 format to replace pre-existing MPEG audio coding. The reason MP3 files became so popular so fast is that when one creates an MP3 file, or ripped, from a compact disc, there is no loss in quality. Every copy made thereafter is identical to the last, so unlike old tapes the quality is the same from the first copy to the hundredth copy. The MP3 file format is legal, in every sense of the word. Copyright laws apply to MP3 files the same way they apply to compact discs, tapes, and other music mediums. The founders of the United States, in fact, recognized the value of creative discovery and saw fit to offer protection for such works to promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries. According to United St...

Environmentally Sustainable Business Assignment Essay

Environmentally Sustainable Business Assignment - Essay Example This has however been achieved after several years of denial and intransigency as affiliate either disputed environmental concerns or claimed that there was very little that could be done other than grounding the sector to a halt (Tol and Yohe, 2006) Zadek (2004) alleges that most business corporations pass or evolve through five stages as they edge closer to social responsibility: defensive, compliance, administrative, premeditated, and social responsibility. This can be equated to organisations realising the importance of environment sustenance and conservation. In the first stage, the company adopts a defensive or denial attitude even in the face of overwhelming criticism thus remarking, ‘Its not our job to fix that.’ In the second stage is that of compliance when the firm aims at stemming mounting criticism and litigation but just doing the basic minimum hence dubbed, ‘Well do just as much as we have to.’ The third stage ‘It’s the business, stupid’ the managerial stage, the corporation recognize the long-standing difficulty of not complying thus allocates the management of the firm the task of ensuring compliance. In the fourth stage, ‘it gives us a competitive edge’, the corporation discerns just how important and beneficial sustainability compliance is to the firm and now actively pursues the stratagem. This eventually leads to a decision that ‘we need to make sure everybody does it’ as the idea of collective responsibility takes root. This may be part of the corpor ate strategy of the firm as they realise the effect of other stakeholders have on their operations in terms of ecological degradation (Zadek, 2004). The UK Aviation industry has made tremendous progress as envisioned in Zadek (2004) framework whereby through the progress report released in 2009, the industry seems to have come to the conclusion that environment protection and

The Hear Fails without Warning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Hear Fails without Warning - Essay Example It is against this background that this paper provides a textual analysis of Hilary Mantels excerpt of The Heart Fails Without Warning. From the outlook, the author seeks to inform the reader about anorexia, an illness that one of the teenage girls suffer from and from the topic, which later has fatal implications on the wellbeing of the teenage girl. To ensure objectivity, the paper employs Nord’s text analysis model to underscore the text’s communicative function. In order to effectively explore this, it will examine both the extra textual as well as intra textual factors. The translation brief provides useful information about the author of the source text. In this respect, Hillary Mantel is an author of ‘The Hear fails Without Warning’, a story that is published in the Guardian Review Magazine of October, 2009. The aim of the author is to inform the audience about the environmental and social problems that this society is grappling with. Also worth ment ioning is the need by the author to highlight the health implications that the demeaning conditions have on the wellbeing of the inhabitants. From an individual point of view, the sender of the information is the editor of the Guardian Review magazine. This is suggestive in the topic of the magazine as well as in the information contained in the source takes. It can be presumed that the editor of the Guardian Review Magazine simply wants the important message to reach the target audience- parents and guardians. Notably, they are the most directly in contact with teenage girls and hence, knowledge about the challenges that teenagers face would probably be helpful. The relative information is directed at a diverse client base. To begin with, Mantel seeks to inform the local inhabitants about the deteriorating social conditions and what they can do to protect the vulnerable children from the resultant negative implications. Another group that the author wishes to reach to pertains to t he relevant policy and decision makers as well as law enforcement agencies. These are wide and varied including the government, the police and stakeholders in the health ministry. His main intention is to inform the abovementioned individuals about the situation on the ground. This is implied in the source text and specifically in the Journal type that the article is published in. In most cases, it can be agreed that the preceding audiences are the ones who mostly read the magazine. Undoubtedly, knowledge about this would enable them to take necessary action towards protecting the welfare of the affected individuals. Since it is published in The Guardian Review magazine, the author specifically wishes to reach out to all adults who are charged with the responsibility of taking care of the young children. Relative information would enable them understand the challenges that especially face the youth. The text was published in 2009 for the purpose of informing the audience about the c hallenges that this segment of the populations was grappling with at that particular period of time. However, the facts presented herein had lasting implications on both the intended target as well as the general audience. This is particularly so because the author addresses social and environmental concerns whose implications are pervasive. This is apparent when the author cites that the family shares a small house and a bedroom and school girls are raped

Science and Technology in Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Science and Technology in Education - Essay Example The journal article has introduced very important points which could provide readers more understanding of the teaching process. One of the key points was about recognizing that teaching is individual and how important is to reflect and maintain reflection as a tool for doing so as proposed by Flick. The teacher who recognizes individual differences among his pupils has an edge over those who do not recognize the same. Recognition of these variations helps the teacher maximize learning. Different students with different abilities and personality types learn more with varying techniques. Students low in authoritarianism, low in tendency to dichotomize, low in the need for structure, and high in the ability to tolerate frustrations have been found to learn more when the Socratic questions and answer method is used while children of different reasoning skills learn more with the discovery and expository methods. The setting in which teaching and learning takes place has different effects on students with different aptitudes, personalities, and motivations. ... I believe that whatever strategy I will use should be based on my own assessments of my pupils. A general rule is to recognize the worth and dignity of the learners at all grade levels. The strengths of the journal article are its reliability, significance, credibility of authors. The aim of the study is clearly stated and conveys what the researcher is setting out to achieve. The aim of the pilot study is to explore the value of microteaching and technology in relation to teaching students science subjects or concepts in relation to their learning needs. To describe, the aim is very purposive and is geared towards further understanding of the needs of students and how the current teaching strategies affect these people. Research literature found on the research is composed of discussions of facts and principles to which the present study is related. The materials that were used were usually printed and found in books, encyclopedias, professional journals, magazines, newspapers, and other publications. The literature review should reflect the current state of knowledge relevant to the study and identify any gaps or conflicts. It should include key or classic studies on the topic as well as up to date literature. There should be a balance of primary and secondary sources. The surveyed materials were as recent as possible. This is important because of the rapid social, economic, scientific, and technological changes. Findings several years ago may be of little value today because of the fast changing life style of the people. Materials reviewed were objective and unbiased. Some materials are extremely or subtly one-sided, either political, or religious,

Roles of Human Resource Management (HRM)

Roles of Human Resource Management (HRM) The role of the human resources (HR) function has increased considerably in recent years with a number of the HR-related activities being considered as strategic activities. These activities provide for the increased role of the HR function in the management of the business leading to the term strategic HRM (human resources management) which defines the difference in approach and importance of the HR function. The concept of strategic HRM refers to HR activities that facilitate strategic flexibility with the goal of reaching a dynamic fit and adequately answering the requests of the strategy of the organisation and the environment (De Pablos Lytras, 2008, p.50). This implies that the HR activities which could be considered as strategic HRM are the HR activities which directly impact the implementation of the strategy of the organisation including those which impact the strategic direction of the organisation. These activities are best seen through examples of HR activities in organi sations which can be referenced as strategic HRM. The examples presented in this essay include the implementation of relevant training programmes to bring significant enhancement in a firms operational performance, the development of knowledge management in the organisation, and the development of overall talent level in the organisation. Each of these examples is discussed further. The first example is the implementation of relevant training programmes to bring significant enhancement in a firms operational performance. The HR function has as part of its typical mandate the training of staff in an organisation. The development of staff and their continued growth in terms of professional and personal development is one of the main challenges of the HR function particularly in the recent period where increased competition in the market place has demanded greater skills and capabilities from personnel (Kaplan Norton, 2004). For training and development activities to evolve from typical HR functional activities to strategic HRM initiatives, the actions need to have an underlying importance in support of the organisations operational activities. The research of Pandey (2007) is important as it provides some examples in which the actions of the HR function in training and development of personnel were considered to be strategic HRM activities. In this research, the impact on the firm performance was noted with the enhancement of operational efficiencies of the organisations leading to competitive advantage versus other players in the market. The results of the research indicate that the Six Sigma intervention focusing on a case study organisation resulted in processes which are the industrial best practices that synchronise with the socio-cultural system of the organisation and make it the differentiator, which is complemented with its alignment with the organisational way of functioning including the strategic intent of the firm, technical expertise of the workforce and organisational culture which were all integrated in the Six Sigma approach and objective (Pandey, 2007, p.149). Clearly, in the case study of the research, t he training initiative of the case study organisation was considered to be a strategic HRM activity given the impact of the process on the overall approach in the operations of the business. The main limitation of the study was that the scope was limited to one single case study organisation. In addition, the impact was not quantified and the cases study organisation was not identified given confidentiality considerations and it was just referred to as a multinational corporation in the financial services sector. The research of Pandey (2007) did identify a number of other companies which pursued Six Sigma interventions which could be considered as strategic HRM initiatives given the scale of the impact of the actions. Linda (2004, cited in Pandey, 2007) noted that the HR function of Dow Chemical was able to generate US$3.2 million in positive financial impact for the organisation through the Six Sigma intervention initiative. In a separate example, Bhatnagar Sharma (2004, cited in Pandey, 2007) noted that Ford had generated more than US$1 billion in savings from 2000 as a result of the firms Six Sigma intervention implemented by the HR function. In both these cases, the HR function pursued arguably strategic HR initiatives as the actions taken in relation to the training and education of the work force led to improved operational capabilities which enhanced the competitive position of the firms, and also generated significant financial benefits impacting the bottom line of the firms positiv ely. In the hospitality industry, an example of a firm which incorporates strategic HRM in its activities is the Hilton Group which links strategic HRM to its improved business performance and the delivery of the Hilton promise to its clients (Maxwell Lyle, 2002). The second example is in the development of knowledge management in the organisation. This is particularly helpful for organisations where knowledge is critical and is the main competence that differentiates an organisation from other players in the market. An example of a sector in which this is the case is the professional services sector. The research of Teo et al (2008) is important to consider as it noted the HR actions that impact the strategic position of the professional services firms. These were the HR initiatives which impact the skills, knowledge and capabilities of the staff in the organisation with a particular focus on the management of knowledge workers as this directly leads to the increased competitiveness of the professional services firms. It is the development of the human capital and its establishment as the key differentiator for the firms and its competitive advantage that distinguishes this particular action to be considered as strategic HRM. Youndt Snell (2 004) is also an important journal to consider as this shows the increased importance of human capital in the competitive advantage of organisations versus other tangible capital and assets that used to drive the competitiveness of organisations. The impact of human capital and its link to the firms performance has been noted in other research works as well (Teece, 2003; Hill et al, 2003). The limitation in the use of the research of Teo et al (2008) as a case study research for this essay is that it does not provide the specific names of the professional services firms included in the research. The third example is the development of overall talent level in the organisation. The research of Sharma Bhatnagar (2009) showed how the development of a talent management strategy is one of the key strategic HRM actions that have a significant impact on the performance of a firm. The talent management strategy can impact not only the talent level of the individual employees in the organisation but also the leadership in different levels of the organisation. The management of talent and the pipeline is a strategic HRM activity as it impacts the leadership pipeline of the organisation (Cogner Fulmer, 2005). As with the previous two examples, this example of an HR activity leads to improved performance in the organisation. Talent management thus is a driver of the enhanced capability in the organisation and its improved operational and financial performance (Chugh Bhatnagar, 2006). The research works indicated for this example of the development of talent management in an organisation as a strategic HRM action show that this is considered to be a key activity that many organisations pursue. However, the research works have not named the specific organisations utilised in the research works and the case studies consistent with typical confidential studies. Nevertheless, it is clear that talent management is considered to be an important action for organisations and is one activity that is included in the category of strategic HRM initiatives. This is driven by the impact that the initiative has on the performance of the organisation as well as the resulting competitive position of the organisations which are implementing talent management strategies to develop the skills and capabilities of the personnel in the organisation. The talent management includes actions that develop the personnel in the organisation and also attracts and recruits other staff to the org anisation in order to raise the overall talent level that exists in the organisation. The examples are only some of the HR activities that could be considered as strategic HRM. The examples presented are not meant to be exhaustive as there are certainly a number of other actions that can define strategic HRM actions. The examples do show that there are a number of principles that underpin the activities initiated by the HR function in order for these activities to be considered as strategic HRM. The HR activities that are present in an organisation which can be termed strategic HRM activities are those which impact the competitive advantage of the organisation with the HR function driving the development of the initiative and managing the actions related to the initiative. These are also the activities which are part of the typical HRM function but which now involve a strategic aspect in terms of the actions taken particularly as these relate to and support the strategic actions of the organisation. Finally, these are also the activities which generate significant ben efit to the organisation in terms of financial impact or development of skills and capabilities or personal which lead to enhanced competitiveness of the organisation. The examples presented provide an understanding of which HR activities can be part of strategic HRM and which of these activities can be meaningful enough to be considered as part of the concept of strategic HRM. Overall, the main guidance for the actions to be considered as strategic HRM is that the actions of the HR are linked to strategic decision making which impact the firms performance.

Friendship in the Epic of Gilgamesh Essay -- Character Analysis, Enkid

In the epic of Gilgamesh the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is very complex and necessary. Their friendship brings animal, human, and god together. Gilgamesh is changed by his friendship with Enkidu. He becomes a better person and a better ruler because of Enkidu. Enkidu’s life is enriched because of his friendship with Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created to balance out Gilgamesh, and he accomplishes this goal. The two men are very close, and love each other deeply. Both Gilgamesh and Enkidu benefit from their friendship. Some of Gilgamesh’s qualities are that he had a â€Å"beauty†¦ surpassing all others† and was â€Å"two thirds†¦ god and one third man† (13). Before Enkidu, Gilgamesh acted horribly. He was a terrible ruler and a terrible man. Gilgamesh was not all good, for example, â€Å"his lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (13). He was a terrible ruler. Gilgamesh was arrogant, but very powerful in his country. His people had no choice but to listen to him. They were forced to go along with his unlawfulness and stubbornness. Enkidu was created to be Gilgamesh’s equal and his soul mate. ‘â€Å"You made him†¦ now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart’† (14). So the goddess of creation, Aruru â€Å"dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness† and created Enkidu (14). Before Gilgamesh had met Enkidu he loved him; ‘â€Å"†¦ I bent down, deeply drawn towards†¦ [Enkidu]†¦ I loved it like a woman and wore it at my side†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (16). Enkidu had â€Å"virtue in him† (14). He was also â€Å"innocent of mankind† (14). After Enkidu was civilized the wild animals would not be near him. He felt ... ...sh will miss the friendship he had with Enkidu. This is another reason he mourns Enkidu’s death. Both Enkidu and Gilgamesh benefited from their friendship. They each got a friend, and they each gained wisdom. Enkidu gained wisdom in knowing the finer things in life. Gilgamesh gained wisdom in knowing that he would be punished when he died; he wants a second chance at life. Gilgamesh shows Enkidu the finer things, and Enkidu shows Gilgamesh that he will be punished in his death. These are the reasons that their friendship was a good thing. This topic in Gilgamesh is one of the most controversial ones, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu both gained a friend and wisdom that they did not have before. Without this friendship neither would be the changed people they are at the end of their lives. Gilgamesh and Enkidu needed each other, even if they did not know it. Friendship in the Epic of Gilgamesh Essay -- Character Analysis, Enkid In the epic of Gilgamesh the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is very complex and necessary. Their friendship brings animal, human, and god together. Gilgamesh is changed by his friendship with Enkidu. He becomes a better person and a better ruler because of Enkidu. Enkidu’s life is enriched because of his friendship with Gilgamesh. Enkidu was created to balance out Gilgamesh, and he accomplishes this goal. The two men are very close, and love each other deeply. Both Gilgamesh and Enkidu benefit from their friendship. Some of Gilgamesh’s qualities are that he had a â€Å"beauty†¦ surpassing all others† and was â€Å"two thirds†¦ god and one third man† (13). Before Enkidu, Gilgamesh acted horribly. He was a terrible ruler and a terrible man. Gilgamesh was not all good, for example, â€Å"his lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (13). He was a terrible ruler. Gilgamesh was arrogant, but very powerful in his country. His people had no choice but to listen to him. They were forced to go along with his unlawfulness and stubbornness. Enkidu was created to be Gilgamesh’s equal and his soul mate. ‘â€Å"You made him†¦ now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart’† (14). So the goddess of creation, Aruru â€Å"dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness† and created Enkidu (14). Before Gilgamesh had met Enkidu he loved him; ‘â€Å"†¦ I bent down, deeply drawn towards†¦ [Enkidu]†¦ I loved it like a woman and wore it at my side†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (16). Enkidu had â€Å"virtue in him† (14). He was also â€Å"innocent of mankind† (14). After Enkidu was civilized the wild animals would not be near him. He felt ... ...sh will miss the friendship he had with Enkidu. This is another reason he mourns Enkidu’s death. Both Enkidu and Gilgamesh benefited from their friendship. They each got a friend, and they each gained wisdom. Enkidu gained wisdom in knowing the finer things in life. Gilgamesh gained wisdom in knowing that he would be punished when he died; he wants a second chance at life. Gilgamesh shows Enkidu the finer things, and Enkidu shows Gilgamesh that he will be punished in his death. These are the reasons that their friendship was a good thing. This topic in Gilgamesh is one of the most controversial ones, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu both gained a friend and wisdom that they did not have before. Without this friendship neither would be the changed people they are at the end of their lives. Gilgamesh and Enkidu needed each other, even if they did not know it.