Examples of sudden illness Essay

If they are out in the sun for a long period of time they may get sunburn or even sunstroke. When they are eating they may chock on the food. If the pavement is uneven they could even fall or they may go missing Procedures to follow if accident/illness occurs If an accident or illness occurs you will need to assess the situation before you do anything once you have done this you may need to phone an ambulance, once you have phoned the ambulance you will need to inform the care home so they can then contact the family member. Once you have returned you will need to fill out an accident report. Principles to be followed for safe moving and handling Before you attempt to move anyone you need to assess the situation and more anything out of the way that may cause harm to yourself or the service user when lifting you need to keep your back straight and bend your knees you need to keep it close to you. Important to follow the care plan and communication It is important to follow a persons are plan because you need to know their need and their risk assessment. It is also important to communicate so they do not get worried and so other carers know what you are doing. Staff responsibility for medication The staff that is responsible for the medication are the ctm on duty if you go out a ctm will need to go to give the medication. All medication must be signed for and you must chek how it needs to be stored and how many are to be given and what time. Agreed ways of: Obtaining: to obtain medication you have to sign for it Storing: to store medication it must be locked away Administering: a ctm that is on duty must go with you to administer the mediation Recording: all medication that is giving to a service user must be recorded in the medication book Specialist training a)Carrying out emergency first aid: you may not know the correct way to do something and could cause more harm. b)Assisting with moving and handling : if you do not have the training you do not know the correct way to transfer someone or how to help them stand further more you could injure yourself or the service user c)Handling mediation: you can not handle medication if you have not had training.

Critically evaluate McGregor’s Theroy X and Theory Y Essay

Critically evaluate McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. How far is it applicable to management and employee motivation in contemporary Chinese organizations? In the modern corporation environment, employees’ motivation plays a pivotal role, thus they should be recognised as a significant part of corporations’ financial assets. There are several distinct viewpoints of approaches to managerial strategies about motivating employees, one of which is McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. It proposes that providing an autonomous environment satisfying employees’ higher needs is more preferable than simply controlling them by rewards and punishment. This essay will firstly evaluate McGregor’s theory. Although influential value of this theory in organization history might be approved, there are two primary issues, invalidity and superficial recognition, which criticisms revolve around. Subsequently, this essay will discuss the extent of this theory’s application in Chinese organizations. Although McGregor’s theory may be employed in few corporations, this theory is generally not applicable in most contemporary Chinese organizations. Many theorists support that McGregor’s theory considers the field of management from a new angle, indicating a strong influential value. In contrast to the principles of conventional management mentioned as Theory X, the advocated Theory Y illuminated a cluster of new or redefined concepts such as self-fulfilling prophecy and responsibility. According to Carson (2005), some of those concepts had been interpreted before; however, McGregor’s theory combined those concepts emerging from separate theories. Based on these compiled conceptions, this theory takes higher-order needs into consideration, which innovatively introduces a profound work value that management should not only involve controlling and monitoring. Moreover, the inclination to responsibility of employees contributes to participative atmospheres in working environment. Lerner (2011) claims that McGregor’s theory can prepare employees’ skills to tackle complicated tasks due to their sense of responsibility, in parallel with improving the potential of an individual. Therefore, this theory, revealing an initial pattern of management strategy, dramatically influences the applied field of organization development. In spite of the influence and originality of McGregor’s theory, there is a primary drawback of the validity, which is regarding the assumption of human nature in this theory. This theory is primarily based on an analysis of  human nature. McGregor (2000) has pointed out that theory X management assumes that people generally are not responsible for work in contrast to theory Y assuming that people are invariably self-controlled. However, the theory X assumption is exaggeratedly negative while the theory Y assumption is overly optimistic. According to Bobic and Davis (2003), there is no evidence that systematically certifies the existence of individuals’ extreme attitudes towards work. Similarly, Francesco and Gold (2005) argued that human nature is not viewed purely positive or negative in all the cultures, drawing on Hofstede’s theory. Furthermore, different employees may have somewhat different characteristics; however, McGregor blended those sophisticated human natures into two simplistic models to introduce a quite deficient theory. Therefore, the theory seems to be invalid due to this relatively unrealistic and inadequate analysis. In addition to the invalid assumption of McGregor’s theory, there is another drawback concerning superficial recognition of autonomous environment and authority which are primary principles of Theory Y and Theory X respectively. McGregor (2000) state that autonomous environment can be acquired by opportunities for self-actualization. Nonetheless, Head (2011) has argued that incentives involving self-actualization are barely effective. Likewise, Bobic and Davis (2003) state that self-actualization is not a pragmatic motivational factor due to the rare opportunity provided by corporations in reality. Although some approaches such as job enrichment can be implemented, managers may not be totally competent to direct this management, which reveals that McGregor’s theory may overestimate the effectiveness of autonomous environment. Conversely, the model of authority representing Theory X may be a more frequently adopted management tool, which is the contrary to what is portrayed in the theory. Head (2011) pointed out authority rather than bureaucracy may offer legitimate power and guarantee development of corporations towards certain direction. In fact, offering appropriate guidance to subordinates and essentially avoiding overly vigorous control stand a significant position in most companies. Consequently, McGregor’s proposal that autonomous environment should be concentrated on while authority is obsolete may require reconsideration because of the superficial recognition. Motivational strategies have been considered as an essential concentration for corporations. With respect to the application of  McGregor’s theory in China, minimal successful instances may be seen in some extremely large conglomerates. Those conglomerates such as Shanghai’s corporations hire numerous workers, contributing to competition and pressure; therefore, employees in these organizations may emphasize higher-order needs because of this particular work circumstance, in accordance with the assumption of McGregor’s theory. Chan and Wyatt (2007) demonstrate that employees in Shanghai’s corporations can be significantly motivated by the satisfaction of self-esteem that is also emphasized in McGregor’s theory. Hence, it seems that this theory can reflect its feasibility in few large Chinese organizations. However, generally, McGregor’s theory reflects low practicability in most contemporary Chinese corporations. According to Alas (2005), most Chinese respondents are more likely to be encouraged by lower needs satisfaction such as incomes, whereas the dominant principle of McGregor’s theory is strategies satisfying higher needs. Therefore, Chinese employees’ concentration on lower needs makes it difficult for them to be motivated by McGregor’s theory. Moreover, Dessler (2006) argued that employee empowerment, one of the principles of McGregor’s theory, is excluded from Chinese corporations. Furthermore, McGregor’s theory is incompatible with the comparatively ingrained Confucian value system in Chinese culture. According to Geren (2011), an abandoned principle in the theory is obedience for authority which is the essence of Confucian value system. Chinese employees largely cultivated in the atmosphere of Confucian value may be uncomfortable with the management of McGregor’s theory. Emphasis on lower needs and the cultural of Confucian value system are both opposite to McGregor’s theory. Therefore, this theory is not applicable in most contemporary Chinese organizations. As a whole, McGregor’s theory may animate original spirit of motivation management; nevertheless, its invalidity is directly resulted from inadequate and unrealistic assumption of human nature. Additionally, excessively focusing on autonomous environment and ignoring efficiency of authority may indicate the superficial recognition in this theory. These two drawbacks can account for ineffective arrangement. As motivation management develops globally, in China, in spite of efficient application in few conglomerates, McGregor’s theory is not compatible with most Chinese organizations because general Chinese condition is the obstacle to successfully adopting this theory. There is no universal theory; hence, in order to improve the effectiveness of management, organizations should utilize distinct management principles flexibly in specific working circumstance. Word account: 1079 Reference List Alas, R. (2008) Attitudes and values in Chinese manufacturing companies: a comparison with Japanese, South Korean and Hong Kong companies. Chinese Management Studies. Vol. 2(1), pp.32-51 (PDF available) Bobic, M.P. & Davis, W.E. (2003) A Kind Word for Theory X: Or Why So Many Newfangled Management Techniques Quickly Fail. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Vol. 13(3), pp.239-264 (PDF available) Carson, C.M. (2005) A historical view of Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y. Management Decision. Vol. 43(3), pp.450-460 (PDF available) Chan, K.W. & Wyatt, T.A. (2007) Quality of Work Life: A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China. Asia Pacific Business Review. Vol. 13(4), pp.501-517 (PDF available) Dessler, G. (2006) Expanding into China? What foreign employers should know about human resource management in China today. SAM Advanced Management Journal. Vol.71(4), pp.11-24 (PDF available) Francesco, A.M. & Gold, B.A. (2005) International Organizational Behavior. 2nd ed. NJ, USA: Pearson Education (PDF available of relevant chapter) Geren, B. (2011) Motivation: Chinese theoretical Perspectives. Journal of Behavioural Studies in Business. Vol.3, pp.1-10 (PDF available) Head, T.C. (2011) Douglas McGregor’s legacy: lessons learned, lessons lost. Journal of Management History. Vol. 17(2), pp.202-216 (PDF available) Lerner, A. (2011) McGregor’s legacy: thoughts on what he left, what transpired, and what remains to pursue. Journal of Management History. Vol. 17(2), pp.217 – 237 (PDF available) McGregor, D. (2000) The Human Side of Enterprise. Reflections: The Society for Organizational Learning Journal. Vol. 2(1), pp.6-15. (PDF available)

Management report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Management report - Essay Example Macdonald’s corporation is recognised as one of the most popular fast food organization, operating successfully in more than 111countires and 24000 restaurants in the entire globe. It offers varied types of dishes with ingredients such as chicken, fish, eggs, sausage, French fries, salads and many others1. Due to which, it is highly preferred by the individual of all castes, culture, race and creed thereby making it leading brand in the segment of fast foods. As a result it comprises of almost 50 percent of the market share in this segment among other competitors. Keeping this fact in mind, numerous individual owners are trying to open the franchise of McDonald’s that proved effective for the organization in enhancing its number of outlets and stores. Due to which, its ranking and revenue has increased to $ 350, 000. In order to retain the sustainable competitive position of the organization or brand within the minds of the customers, the employees or owners of Macdonald’s desired to offer high-quality of food products at a lowest possible time. This is because; the aim of the brand of Macdonald’s is to offer fast, friendly and perfect services to its target customers in the entire globe. This might help the organization in enhancement of the brand image and reliability of the brand thereby amplifying the rate of satisfaction of the customers as well. Not only this, such a strategy is used by the organization in order to increase its range of customers and reduce its business threats to a significant extent2. However, in order to fulfil such a dream, all the franchise owners in the entire globe desired to offer more concentration over three basic factors namely speed, affordability and standardization. Among them, speed is recognised as the vital factor of the operational strategy of Macdonald’s in order to offer the ordered dish to the customer in lowest possible time. However, in order to do so, the management desires to offer

Fictitious company, Mullin plc., is examining their dividend policy Essay

Fictitious company, Mullin plc., is examining their dividend policy. For the past five years (2008-2012) it has paid no dividend - Essay Example Dividend policy mainly concerns itself with the payment of cash dividends, at the present time, or in a near future (Barnett, 2012). It is important to denote that there are other types of dividends, such as stock dividends, and stock repurchases dividends. Stock dividends involves issuing out dividends in the form of the company’s stock, while stock repurchases dividend involves the buying of the company’s shares from willing investors by the company. This paper mainly concerns itself with cash dividend. The cash dividend policy refers to the actual amount of money that a company pays to investors. According to this policy, a company is supposed to state how much money it pays as dividends to investors, and the frequency of paying this amount of money (Garcia and Moore, 2012). The decision to pay a certain amount of dividends, and the frequency in which to pay this amount of dividends is based on the profitability of the company, and the excess cash it accumulates at t he end of each trading period. When there is a surplus in cash, the company can either decide to pay dividends, or it can decide to expand its operations. Developing a dividend policy is a very challenging initiative for the directors of a company. This is because investors of the company have differing views on the current cash dividends, and also on the future expectations of the capital gain (Ross and Westerfield, 2013). Another confusion that emerges in developing a dividend policy is the effect of the policy on the share prices of the company. It is important to denote that a favorable dividend policy will always lead to an increase in the share prices of a company. On the other hand, a dividend policy that is not favorable will on most occasion lead to the reduction of the share prices of the business entity. This is an aspect that managers of a business organization will always thrive to avoid. This paper identifies, and analyzes the various dividend policies that Mullin plc has, and their advantages or disadvantages. It examines if the policy under consideration will be beneficial to the company. This paper identifies four different types of dividend policies, namely (Shukla, 2012); i. Stable dividend policy ii. Irregular dividend policy iii. No immediate policy on dividend. iv. Regular dividend policy This paper has a conclusion, which provides a clear recommendation on the appropriate policy that the company should enact, and the justifications on why that policy is the best. Regular Dividend Policy: Regular dividend policy involves a situation where investors of a company are able to receive dividends at their usual rates, and on a constant period of time. The main investors in a company that provides such kind of a dividend are usually retired individuals, or weaker members of the society. This includes people with low wages or no income sources at all. The company can maintain this type of a dividend policy only if its revenue from its business op eration is stable and regular. This type of dividend policy manages to create a sense of confidence amongst the shareholders of a company (Stout, 2012). This is because they are guaranteed of a certain percentage of dividends at the end of the business financial years. It is also a sign that the operations of the business organization are stable and thus the company is making profits. This policy also

Accounts Manipulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Accounts Manipulation - Essay Example It is a rosier picture that what it actually is. Window-dressing is accomplished in general ways - by not making adequate provisions though prudence would require them for expenses and potential losses, by taking into account income even before its actual accrual, by playing around with inter-corporate adjustments etc."Security analysts earn their money basically in part, by advising investors of both private and institutional organizations on how to invest their funds. They may judge some companies to have good future prospects which are not fully reflected in the company's share price; therefore, their recommendation will be to buy the company's shares. Alternatively, they may judge other companies to have poor future prospects which are not reflected in their share prices; therefore, their recommendation will be to sell the company's shares. While security analysts carry out their own independent research into companies they can come to different conclusions about a company's futu re prospects. However, in most cases there tends to be a reasonable degree of consensus in these forecasts (simon, 1998)"."The primary purpose of financial statements is to show the underlying economic performance of a company. The balance sheet provides a snapshot of the assets, liabilities and capital of the business; and the income statement, or profit-and-loss account, shows the difference between total revenues and total expenses. The auditors analyze and assure that these present a fair view, acknowledging the subjective nature of some of the measures behind the accounts (Economist.com, 2002)". Financial statements are prepared for the purpose of presenting a periodical review or report on progress by management and deal with the status of investment in the new business and the results achieved during the period under review. They reflect a combination of recorded facts, accounting conventions and personal judgements, and the judgements and conventions applied affect them materially. The soundness of the judgement necessarily depends on the competence and integrity of those who make them and on their adherence to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Conventions. Since each use of accounts may have a different focus in viewing the financial statement, it is necessary that the accounting statements are not biased in favour of anyone interested group. It is therefore, necessary for an accountant to ensure that the accounts represent a "true and fair" picture of the affairs of business. It may be often difficult to draw a clear line between true and untrue, and fair and unfair accounts; yet if the accountant prepares the financial statements free from any bias in favour of any user group and remains faithful to his self - conscience, chances are that the accounts thus prepared will be true and fair. As accou7ntants are human and prone to errors there would be the probability that the accounts presented are indeed less than true and fair. A reader of accounts must therefore, develop sufficient capability to see through such accounts or read between the lines to offset the biased presentation of accounts. The case of WorldCom The concept of evolution of WorldCom as a company happened in the year 1983 in Mississippi. The person behind this evolution is Bill Fields. He named the company as Long Distance Discount Services (LDDS). After some years the company was renamed as WorldCom. Since then the company grew step by step and transformed itself as a giant in the telecommunication world. The company is famous for its acquisitions of a number of small companies. The company landed in stage where no further large scale acquisitions were allowed by the

The Morality of Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Morality of Law - Essay Example erstood that possessing and consuming drugs is an offence if caught and being a police officer, it becomes a responsibility of promote law and regulations. In this case professional discretion should be applied as possessing and consuming drugs is an offence affecting the society in a wrong and bad manner and up to some extent questioning conscience of an individual responsible to the society. Being a responsible citizen and friend, it becomes important to stop illegal activities along with making people understand on its consequences. Moral realism does not allow to being a spectator for activities affecting individuals and later, the society. In that position, it is important to communicate with the actual friend along with asking him to pull a break on these activities. It would have been followed by a warning as illegal and immoral activities need to be stopped. Anyone offering a gift with a good intention is usually well accepted in the society irrespective of personal and professional spheres but offering something not in front of others raises questions over the intention and behavior of the giver raising moral issue. In this case, it cannot be considered as a mere gift. In this case professional discretion is required as the officers are not supposed to accept gifts and kinds from the society. It becomes important to appreciate the kindness along with stating the inappropriate manner of giving the gift. The police officers are civil servants responsible for promoting law and order rather than manipulating it for personal benefits and interests. If the gift would have been offered in front of everyone with a personal touch, it would have been considered as a gift but behind the back of others, it can be considered as a bribe, an intention to highlight one’s personal kindness. Being a homosexual is not a crime and immoral behaviour. The moral issue is not with police department but with the officer Davis, whose behavior and conscience is not allowing

Electronic recycling in the us, why is it important to our future Research Paper

Electronic recycling in the us, why is it important to our future - Research Paper Example Data by the Consumer Electronics Association indicate that each American household own about 24 electronic products. As such, there is large volume of electronic waste, which poses serious dangers to the environment. It is for this reason that there have been increased efforts to recycle electronic products in the US. Environmental experts argue that continuing increase in the recycling rates in the US will help the country to pull out of the electronic garbage heap and minimize global warming emissions (Natural Resources Defense Council para 2). This paper will discuss electronic recycling in the US, as well as why it is important to the country’s future. The industry of electronic recycling has evolved to become an increasingly critical part of the environmental sustainability management program (Lee para 3). Individuals, corporations, and government agencies have enhanced their focus in addressing environmental and sustainability management issues. Electronic recycling has consequently, become a critical part of this trend. Recycling is a major step in a full loop of practices that will reduce the quantity of waste that goes to landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Natural Resources Defense Council para 3). Electronic recycling involves more than bundling up electronic materials. Manufacturers are required to use recycled materials in making their products. Similarly, consumers should purchase products made from post-consumer recycled materials. The more the demand for products made with recycled materials rather than virgin materials is increased, the more successful recycling will be at curbing global warming and saving natural resources. Electronic recycling not only extends the valuable products’ lives, but also prevents valuable materials from becoming wastes (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency para 2). The society now has many recycling options. Many manufacturers of electronic goods such as TV, computer and cell phones and ret ailers of these products sponsor recycling events and offer some form of take back program. It should be noted that nearly half of states in America presently have laws on recycling and disposal of electronics and a number of other states are considering passage of similar laws (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency para 2). Discarded electronics including broken cell phones, old computers, and obsolete TV sets form the fastest- growing element of the US waste stream. It is estimated that Americans threw away about 2 million tons of electronic trash in the year 2005 and recycled about 38,000 tons only (Natural Resources Defense Council para 8). This points out to the danger that US is faced with going to the future. The problem is further compounded by the fact that there is no national e-waste law. However, some individual states have put in place laws that require recycling of electronics waste, and for designing of more recyclable and less toxic gadgets. Electronic recycling has s ignificant benefits to the US society and enhancing of this program will present the country with more benefits. It helps to extend the lives of electronic products and therefore keeping them out of the waste stream for much longer time. In addition, it allows lower-income families, non-profit organizations, and schools to obtain equipment that they may not have been able to afford (U.S. Environment

Outlining Policy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Outlining Policy - Research Paper Example It is therefore imperative that every educational institution establishes labor policies that would avoid discrimination in processes such as hiring, instruction, dismissal, and tenure thereby helping the institution to avoid discriminatory lawsuits. To establish all-round policies that allow the management and administration to address stakeholder needs and ensure that favoritism and unfairness do not reign in a public school, there are certain guidelines that should be observed (Ewing et al., 2005). This paper explores the labor policy guidelines that should define an organization’s hiring, dismissal, tenure, and instructional policies. Hiring Policy Labor laws require that the hiring policies in a public school should not make a job seeker hold the opinion that he/she is being treated unfavorable compared to the others. There are several reasons for which job seekers may feel they are getting unfair or unfavorable treatment. These reasons include age, religion, gender, disa bility, race, skin color, and nationality. It is therefore imperative upon every public school to ensure that such favoritism do not occur in their hiring practices, policies, and procedures (Befort & Budd, 2009). Just like any kind of discrimination is not required in any facet of employment, so it applies to hiring processes. In fact, once discrimination is allowed to permeate the hiring stage, chances are high it would be widespread in the later processes such as dismissal, transfer, and promotion. Discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, and mental or physical disability should thus be eliminated in public schools to avoid lawsuits. The reason being, failure to establish and implement these nondiscriminatory hiring practices would contravene certain labor regulations and laws that provide for fairness and nondiscrimination in hiring processes. For instance, there are laws that forbid age discrimination in offering employment except in certain special case s (Keshawn & Arn, 2005). It is therefore important that public school administrators get conversant with the laws governing the process of hiring in the relevant areas or job description. It is also illegal in many countries to discriminate based on one’s religion while hiring workers unless radicalism and excessive negative attitudes and consequences are apparent. Nonetheless, it is necessary that the concerned institutions follow the due process and the law when hiring, one’s religion and other social alienation notwithstanding. When hiring and considering peoples’ skills, positions to be filled, the responsibilities to be given, and the qualifications required for a job, it is also discriminatory to eliminate job seekers on the basis of their gender. Otherwise, lawsuits and compensations are likely to follow. Once an individual has been hired, the tenure of office, the terms, and conditions of their service are the other tricky aspects of employment that orga nizations must handle fairly and without favor. Tenure Policy There is a unanimous call in the education labor movement for the overhaul of the contemporary concept of tenure in many sectors of the economy. In fact, some stakeholders

Change and Innovation Essay Example for Free

Change and Innovation Essay The Governor of a certain Province has been plagued by problems on low-productivity turnout and project implementation troubles that delay project completion and reduce effective delivery of services to its constituents. This has also been voiced by the previous administration, so to correct this possible relapse a thorough revamp of the department has to be implemented. Top priority of his agenda was to hire an Architect who will lead the department concerned and enforce the required change to provide the dynamics of a vibrant administration that puts premium on the welfare of its constituents. The Scenario  Checking on the management system that has been in effect, the Architect found different flaws; the staff has been underachieving because the work assigned to each of them did not correspond with their degree of expertise; the planning division was in disarray because nobody could stand-up to make vital decisions; the system lacked incentives, that’s why most personnel go to work late and leave early. Besides taking long time breaks; various paper works do not follow a regular pattern. Thus, orders suffer delay and even payrolls are not processed on time (American Society of Associates Executive 2003). Various suppliers secure materials ordered at a central warehouse and department inspectors check the deliveries made. Said process takes too long that payments were seldom prompt. Project engineers were required to withdraw and deliver to the site the necessary materials when implementing projects; a system that entails double handling of materials and added fuel cost. Personnel in the field failed to follow proper time management because implementing engineers seldom reported to the site. The equipment pool lacked proper assessment while many endured long use but did not undergo timely maintenance. Equipment cannot be dispatched on time so that project engineers had to wait, even during critical junctions of the construction process. No schedules were ever followed over the use of equipment while only those favored have the liberty of priority accommodation. And lastly, the engineer’s capabilities were in question for many appear to lack construction experience that made the reliability of finished projects doubtful. The Revamp Upon assumption of office, the Architect made a thorough evaluation of each employee’s capabilities and then proper segregation of divisions was put in effect. The administration handled time management; to see to it that personnel report on time; that break time rules are implemented; that tardiness and absenteeism are dealt with corresponding penalties and that proper decorum is observed at all times (Time Management 2007). A working set-up was also devised to speed-up processing of documents to avoid unnecessary delays in the discharge of work orders, payment vouchers, travel orders, equipment requests and the approval of payroll requests. A division head is made answerable directly to the Architect for this matter. The planning division was also initiated with personnel divided into functional units. The design sector aims to conceive the projects requested by the Governor. Once designs are approved, the drafting section takes over in coordination with the structural section, sanitary section, electrical section and mechanical section, if required. And when plans are completed, some are tasked to work on the specifications, program of work, PERT CPM, a bar chart and bidding documents while others prepare the plans for printing. All of these are reviewed and approved by the architect prior to submission to the governor and implementation. Likewise the equipment section also had its share in the revamp. The designated head has to account for all equipment in its arsenal. Segregate those in good and running condition, equipment that needs minor repairs, equipment that has to be totally overhauled and equipment that has to be discarded. The section also prepares a list of equipment that has to be purchased and submitted as essential, and sees to it that all project engineers have access to equipment when required. A proper equipment release and return scheme should be devised to make erring personnel accountable for their action. The division that needed priority reorganization was the project implementation division. The architect ordered that project engineers undergo construction reorientation training before they can be dispatched to construction sites. This is the most important aspect of the revamp because failure of the project engineers will affect the safety of individuals that will benefit and use the finished project. This also is an assurance that the Province adheres to the safety rules and regulation required by the â€Å"National Building Code† (Wikipedia Contributors 2007c). Besides those in Government cannot afford to waste public funds by doing sub-standard projects. An additional section was organized to monitor all projects in the field daily with reports of the previous day handed in the morning prior to their sorties during the day. This way, the Architect is always abridged of proper project evaluation as well as construction accomplishments while related problems are resolved immediately. This also serves to entice field personnel to report on time and render the 8 hours work required daily and project engineers to be around to lend their technical know-how in the implementation of the project. Another aspect that the Architect revised is the delivery of materials. Since materials are requested per project subject for implementation, winning materials dealers are now required to deliver direct to the site, to save on double handling expenses. Materials after due inspection are turned over to the project engineer concerned, who will be accountable should anything happen to the materials out of his negligence. The Architect relied heavily on the management system of delegation of authority, to give all those involved personnel professional advancement (Delegation of Authority 2006). If a person delivers on the target expected, naturally incentives are provided to keep the momentum always in high gear. Underachievers are likewise given time to recoup and reconsider the causes of his debacle and when really inefficient are given the release order. We have to weed out the bad apples from the good, so only the reliable ones should remain. Risks  In any new endeavor there will always be adverse effects, whether pros and cons, depending upon the degree any change would affect individuals. In our case, the long exposure to a system that has been redundant will be a defining factor as to who perceives it to be good and those who are not receptive to a renewed environment. For those assigned to man the administrative division, change implied the systematic division of labor as each one functions relative to others. If one falls short, the whole system becomes ineffective, just like the domino principle in economics (Leeson, P. T. t al 2001). Everybody is required to do his share to keep the workplace humming. The planning division was not affected, since their tasks were clearly defined so that overlapping of functions can be minimized. Respect and trust to the division head is the contributing factor, as everybody relies on his experience and perceived intelligence to answer relevant queries. Of paramount importance is the implementing arm of the division, the project engineers. On their shoulders rests the completion of projects, so re-trainings are vital to the success of the projects (Wikipedia Contributors 2007b). Even if we have monitoring teams to check on their accomplishment, it is their intelligence and experience that will eventually dictate the tempo of their work. All other personnel needed the time to adjust and such will be achieved through mastery and familiarity of the new system. Evaluation of risks All the smart boys will never enter government service, so it is generally perceived that those in government are above average political appointees. And owing to their clout with the powers that be, they are the last segment that would be receptive to change. What makes it even harder is the Civil Service eligibility that protects their tenure even if they become a total recluse in their duties as public servant (Reinventing the State Civil Service 1995). Thus, this realignment is only made in part to appease the timid employees, while putting a lot of pressure to groups that found the revamp more in line with their educational attainment and experience. Those initiating change are always walking in a tightrope for there are eyes and ears that validate your every move, failure to comply will normally get the ire of well placed politicians. In the aftermath of these changes, many employees will need resettlement and the encompassing revamp should put them in positions that they can still function accordingly without having to compromise. It is a fact that change will be a hard pill to swallow for those comfortable with the previous system but it is a necessary evil in order to succeed and attain development goals. Change versus benefits The change instituted may create temporary, minor discomforts to rank and file personnel, but surely the rewards will be for the benefit of the greater majority. Just imagine when projects implemented are not only deemed safe and secure for those countless beneficiaries; but also when construction time is considerably reduced at the least cost to the government. We don’t need change simply to take over from the old guards. We need it to create a more cohesive workforce that can address to the needs of a more restive and demanding society. Government cannot be complacent amid calls for rapid development in the industry, labor and even the protection of the environment. Moreover, only governments can concretize those changes in place. Rating  The revamp that has been implemented should produce a positive rating especially if implemented with private entities. But for a governmental institution, rating should be around 4. These changes should reduce red tape in the bureaucracy; should provide the impetus for employees to perform well. These changes would have a positive effect on the employee’s self-worth; a beacon for those that desire professional advancement and most of all, constituents will benefit from all of these changes. Comment on rating The bureaucratic structure of the government is never 100% receptive to changes. Even if such changes would encompass welfare to a greater majority. Many will always suspect the intentions behind these changes, how honorable it may be. Such will be counter-productive as you dilly-dally to harm your work ethics and your productivity suffers. For these changes to be effective require a thorough reorganization, meaning personnel from rank and file up to the executives are all hired simultaneously. This way, the chief can mould his team to respond swiftly and accurately. Where everybody functions as they should and without due consideration from previous employment. But since this is not possible, we have to make do with what we have and hope that everybody will have a change of heart and do what is necessary. Raising potential The foremost solution is improve conditions at workplace, try to do some assessment and formulate ideas to probably change the decor, the air-conditioning might be too restrictive or your rapport with your employees might be too militaristic that hinders proper communication and limits production output. All factors will have to be considered to make it conducive to workers. Secondly, it is important that as manager, you are readily aware of your employee’s potential. Allow them to attend seminars and training to improve their capabilities and you should be lavish in your praise for a good work done (Practice Management 2006). And always strive to fight for their cause, ask for incentives that would be due to employees that made a dent to improve performance (Management Incentives Program). Communication Being true to your word with a posture of honesty while strict but also compassionate are the traits of a model manager. With these gestures you are communicating with your subordinates a sense of overbearing confidence that should mitigate respect and admiration. You don’t need to raise you voice to relay what you want. A fair handling of the situation can earn for you the trust that each employee needs from you. A good manager is seldom intellectually bright, proof of the matter are generally geeks never become good managers. It is always your emotional front that makes you a good communicator. Although the most reasonable form of communication ever devised is the weekly reporting system – reports are usually handed to the Head of office before the weekly forum starts, this have defined countless establishments and an effective tool even in government (Wikipedia Contributors 2007a).

A&P 1 chapter 8 study guide Essay Example for Free

AP 1 chapter 8 study guide Essay 1)What is a joint? Functional junctions between bones 2)How are joints classified? Structurally: fibrous, cartilaginous, synovial Functionally: immovable, slightly moveable, freely moveable 3)Describe the 3 types of fibrous joints. †¢Syndemosis: sheet or bundle of dense connective tissue †¢Sutures: only between flat bones of skull †¢Gomphosis: binds teeth to bony sockets 4)What is the function of the fontanels? Allows the skull to slightly change which allows the infant to pass through the birth canal more easily. 5)Describe two types of cartilaginous joints. †¢Synchondrosis: bands of hyaline unite the bones †¢Symphysis: bones are covered by a thin layer of hyaline cartilage, and the cartilage is attached to a springy fibrocartilage. 6)What is the function of an intervertebral disc? They absorb shocks and help equalize pressure between the vertebrae when the body moves 7)Describe the structure of a synovial joint. Two bones are held together by a joint capsule composed of two layers. Ligaments help reinforce the capsule. The cavity between the bones are filled with a viscous fluid called synovial fluid. 8)What is the function of the synovial joint? Allow free movements 9)Name six types of synovial joints and describe the structure of each. †¢Ball + Socket: globular shaped head articulates with a cup shaped cavity †¢Condylar: Ovoid condyle of one bone fits into the elliptical cavity of another †¢Plane/Gliding: nearly flat or slightly curved †¢Hinge: convex surface of one bone fits into concave surface of another †¢Pivot: the cylindrical surface of one bone fits rotates in a ring formed of a bone and a ligament. †¢Saddle: articulating surfaces have both convex and concave surfaces. 10)Define the following movements and give an example. Flexion-bending parts, angle decreases, parts come closer Extension-moving parts, angle increses, parts move farther away Hyperextension-extension beyond anatomical position  Dorsiflexion-movement at the ankle that brings the foot closer to the shin Plantar flexion-moves the foot farther from the shin  Abduction-moving part away from the midline, raising the arm Adduction-moving part toward the midline Rotation-moving part around on an axis Circumduction-moving a part so the end follows a circular path Supination-rotation of forearm so the palm is upward Pronation-rotation of forearm so the palm is downward  Eversion-turning the foot so plantar surface is facing laterally Inversion-turning the foot so the plantar surface is facing medially Protraction-moving a part forward  Retraction-moving a part backward Elevation-raising a part Depression-lowering a part 11)Describe how a movement occurs at a joint when a muscle contracts. The fibers pull the moveable end (insertion) towards its fixed end (origin) 12)What part helps to keep together the articulating surfaces of the shoulder joint? †¢Coracohumeral ligament †¢Glenohumeral ligament †¢Transverse humeral ligament 13)What factors allow an especially wide range of motion in the shoulder? †¢The looseness of its attachments †¢Large articular surface of the humerus compared to the shallow depth of the glenoid cavity 14)What structures form the hinge joint of the elbow? Trochlea of the humerus and the trochlear notch of the ulna 15)Which parts of the elbow permit pronation and supination of the hand? The head of the radius 16)Which structures help keep the articulating surfaces of the hip together? †¢Iliofemoral ligament †¢Pubofemoral ligament †¢Ischiofemoral ligament 17)What types of movements does the structure of the hip permit? †¢Flexion †¢Extension †¢Adduction †¢Abduction †¢Rotation †¢Cicumduction 18)What types of joints are in the knee? †¢Modified hinge joint †¢Plane joint 19)Which parts help hold together the articulating surfaces of the knee? †¢Patellar ligament †¢Oblique popliteal ligament †¢Arcuate popliteal ligament †¢Tibial collateral ligament †¢Fibular collateral ligament 20) Describe the following joint disorders. Sprain -over streching or tearing the connective tissues Bursitis-overuse of a joint or stress on a bursa Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)- immune system attacks body healthy tissues. Synovial membrane becomes inflamed and thickens. Then articular cartilage is damaged, fibrous tissue infiltrates and interferes with joint movement. Osteoarthritis-articular cartilage softens and disintegrates gradually Lyme Arthritis-casues intermittent arthritis of several joints 20)Which type of joint is the first to show signs of aging? Fibrous 21)Describe the loss of function in synovial joints as a progressive progress (while aging). †¢Begin in 30s but progresses slowly †¢Fewer capillaries serving synovial membrane; slows circulation of synovial fluid; resulting in a possibility of stiffening †¢More collagen cross-links shorten and stiffen ligaments; affecting range of motion

Reviewing The Problems Of Music Piracy Media Essay

Reviewing The Problems Of Music Piracy Media Essay Music internet piracy is causing serious problems within the global society, especially the music industry. Music internet piracy itself has resulted in big music companies such as Sony, in losing millions of dollars every year and is progressively growing. There have been many institutions and strategies that have been adopted by the music industry to combat music piracy which have addressed music piracy but have not had the ability to stop it. In this essay, I will be investigating The effect of Peer-to-Peer internet piracy on the music industry. I will be doing so by breaking up my essay into different sections. These include an introductory section on music publishing and copyright infringements: this will give some background information as to the whole concept of music rights. Then I would be investigating The Global Music Industry and to follow this, a section on why music piracy has been so successful. Straight after this I will look at the industrys response to combat music piracy and finally a section on the future of the music industry This topic is worthy of study because it outlines the impact of music piracy on the music industry. This should make you think twice before downloading a song or album because you will witness the effect it is having on the artists, producers, singers, and companies if you consistently download music. If music piracy continues, it will have an effect on people entering the music industry because they are being denied of the money they deserve. Music Publishment and Copyright Infringement Music piracy is defined as the illegal duplication and distribution of sound recordings.  [1]  Each time an album or single is purchased a faction of that sale goes to the artist or band that made the song. This money is called a royalty payment. This is where musicians earn most of their income. If people continually download music or tracks from the Internet without paying for them, the musicians receive no royalties.  [2]  This is a serious problem because if singers are not payed, this will threaten the future of music copyright as they might leave the industry due to the decreased return. Music copyright is the legal right to publish and sell copies of an artists, singers, or writers work.  [3]  In the music industry, the copyright to a song is usually shared by the singer and their recording company under the condition that the recording company pays the singer for a share in their copyright, which gives the company the right to prevent any other organisation from selling the songs. The consequence of another company being found selling copies of the song is that the singer or their recording company has the right to sue and press charges against that company for breaking copyright laws.  [4]  The artists have this right to make sure that only their companies can sell their songs, which would result in only that company receiving the money. But when the music is downloaded from the Internet, the companies do not get money out of it as it is a free transition to the downloader. The Global Music Industry The global music industry was quite successful during the 1990s. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic industry (IFPI), album sales grew from US$24.1 billion to US$38.6 billion during the decade.  [5]  Those days are well over now and the industry is struggling and sales have been falling quite rapidly. The Institute for Policy Innovation said music piracy is costing the U.S. economy $12.5 billion every year. 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.  [6]  So not only is music piracy threatening the future of music copyright, it is also threatening the global society in terms of jobs, taxes and salaries. This problem has arisen from the online music file sharing programs that are now available to use through the internet. The most commonly used file sharing is Peer to Peer (P2P) networking, which was used by Napster. Napster was created in June 1999 and made the work of many artists available for free. Napsters popularity was immediate and according to Mediametrix, a company that provides internet rankings and measurement, Napster was the fastest software adoption in history  [7]  and 2.8 billion music files were downloaded each month.  [8]  Napster is a different way to distribute MP3 files. Instead of storing the songs on a central computer, the songs live on users machines. When you want to download a song using Napster, you are downloading it from another persons machine, and that person could be your next-door neighbour or someone halfway around the world.  [9]  Napster also used a centralized directory that facilitated efficient searches for songs, albums and artist s,  [10]  which made it very user-friendly that helped it become more popular and widely used around the world. Given the impact on the music industry, the Recording Music of America (RIAA) soon filed a case against Napster in the U.S. District Court of San Francisco for à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"engaging in or enabling, facilitating or assisting others in the copying, downloading, uploading, transmission, or distribution of copyrighted musical work or sound recordings protected by copyright or state law without the express permission of the rights owners.à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ Ã‚  [11]  Napster was then shut down February 2001. This did not see the end of file sharing on the internet though; many other peer-to-peer alternatives to exchange music over the internet remained available such as Freenet, Gnutella, Gnarly, Wired Planet  [12]  and KaZaA. For instance, KaZaA, is currently holding the new record of most downloaded software with more than 230 million users worldwide.  [13]  In all the countries listed by the Yahoo Buzz Index, which is an index that measures internet searc h sing the Yahoo search engine, KaZaA was the number one and most popular search term on the internet in many weeks during 2003.  [14]     [15]   The graph above demonstrates the increasing sales of music from 1991 to 1998, but due to the introduction of Napster in 1999, music sales have decreased rapidly from 2000 onwards and are still decreasing. The graph also indicates that it is projected that in 2012, there would be an increase in the amount of digital format spending on music and less CD sales compared to the sales in 2006. File sharing has been growing ever since it started. In June 2001, IFPI estimated there were 3 million simultaneous global users and 500 million files available for copying at any stage in time. In 2002, the IFPI estimate went up to 5 million simultaneous users and 900 million files.  [16]  Clearly we can see now that file sharing is increasing rapidly every year and is getting more popular with more users and files being put up to download. In 2002, NetPD, a company that provides protection services to copyright owners whose material is being pirated through the internet, reported that 3.6 billion files were downloaded monthly, of which around 60% and 70% were music files.  [17]  The most popular albums are suffering the most. The most popular albums are available for downloading almost immediately after release and in some cases before release. Popular artist Eminems album was available for download even before it was released.  [18]  So it is fair to say that copyright protection technology has been ineffective in preventing music from being downloaded and threatens the future of music copyright. Not only are the producers and artists losing money, the top five recording distributors are also feeling the effect of music piracy. The five recording distributors or record labels combine to distribute over 80% of all sales in the United States in both 2002 and 2003.  [19]  These Big Five companies are , Universal Music Group (IMG), Warner/Elektra/Atlantic (WEA), Sony, Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), and Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). These companies have tremendous market power in the signing of artists, the release of new albums and the distribution of the albums. If music piracy continues, it will threaten the rights of these big companies sales and music copyright  [20]  and impact on their commitment to sign and develop new artists.   [21]   Table above presents aggregate market share data for total album sales in 2002 and 2003, the two years in the data sample.  [22]   Reasons That Contribute to Music Piracys Succession File sharing and music piracy over the internet has been successful due to many aspects that are changing within the society. Back in the 90s there was no technology around to assist in file sharing. That is why the music sales were so successful in those days. But now society has super fast broadband speeds and new computer technology that assist to make file sharing and music piracy possible and simple to do. In this section of the essay I will be underlining all the aspects that have been introduced in the society that have made it easier for music pirates (pirates being a person who downloads music or uploads music on the Internet), to make file sharing and music piracy so successful. The first reason for music piracys success is the development of broadband and cable internet which has facilitated music swapping. A soundtrack that takes more than 12 minutes to download with a dial-up connection can be downloaded to your computer in as fast as 20 seconds with a high speed connection.  [23]  Napster enjoyed the super fast speed of the internet in Universities and used it effectively until they were banned because file swapping was consuming much of the bandwidth available. In the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, file sharing had amounted to 75% of the total bandwidth.  [24]  Now that the internet speeds are faster and more efficient, downloading music is much easier and makes life much easier for the pirate. If this continues and technology keeps on improving, then this will surely threaten the future of music copyright because as mentioned before it is quicker to download and easier. Another change in technology that has the ability to threaten the future of music copyright is that it is getting easier to use such digital formats. The development of digital compression formats has had a major influence on the illegal distribution of music. Online delivery is possible in Motion Picture Expert Group-1 Audio layer 3 format (MP3).  [25]  MP3 is a digital compression method that reduces a piece of recorded music to one-tenth of its original size.  [26]  This is the format used in the online sharing of pirate copies. MP3 is the most popular and productive format of data compression. MP3 compresses the data without significantly compromising sound quality which is what the pirates want. Also, the ease of trading songs using MP3 format will discourage consumers from buying legal copies of albums or songs,  [27]  which potentially does have the ability to threaten music copyright as it has become very easy to download and store music with minimal hassle, due t o the MP3 format. MP3 files are more productive to use than CDs. A 5 minute soundtrack that would take more than 50 megabytes in CD compression format would only take a file of 5 megabytes to store without noticeably affecting the sound quality. This 5 megabyte compressed file takes 12 minutes to download with a dial-up internet connection (56Kbps modem downstream), 1 minute and 20 seconds with a regular DSL or cable connection (512Kbps downstream) and 20 seconds with a fast DSL connection (2000Kbps downstream).  [28]  So now that faster internet assists with faster downloads, many people buy fast speed broadband to download compressed MP3 files efficiently and effectively. The development a myriad of portable MP3 players ranging from top of the range IPods to inexpensive pocket sized MP3 players has also had an impact and will further threaten the future of music copyright. People can upload (rip) CDs to their PCs hard drives and listen to music on their computer. The computer then has the ability to compress the files to a suitable MP3 format to reduce the storage memory on the hard drive and to facilitate the sharing of the files over the internet, and convert the files back to a CD format and burn CDs that can be played by any MP3 player. So the portability of the music is now more convenient, as now the music can be carried in a MP3 player device. MP3 players and IPods are the most popular sources of listening to music, so now if everybodys downloading music files off the internet, they will find it more convenient to listen to music from a little device such as an MP3 player. So if there is a growing number of MP3 users, there would also be a grow ing number of music downloaders, which has the impact to threaten the future of licensed and copyrighted music. The Industrys Response in Combating Music Piracy The music industry has adopted many strategies, punishments and policies to combat and prevent music piracy from continuing. In this section of the essay I will analyse the responses that the industry have implemented to combat music piracy. The first response that the music industry implemented was that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) individually sued participants in file sharing network. On June, 25, 2003, the RIAA announced publicly that it would be monitoring file sharing networks and taking legal action against users of these networks. This announcement had the effect of reducing file sharing activity across the board because many consumers became concerned about the risk of being sued for thousands of dollars. The RIAA focused their attention on the major offenders who were averaging more than 1, 000 copyrighted music files each.  [29]  Doing this reveals that as a result of the lawsuit strategy, album sales increased by 2.9% over the 23 weeks in the data sample after the strategy was announced. During this period, actual record sales in the U.S. were an average of 11,470,652 albums per week, based on national level data reported by Billboard magazine (2003) each week, and thus would have been 11,147,378 per week in the absence of the reduction in file sharing caused by the lawsuit strategy.  [30]  As you can see this lawsuit strategy was effective in combating music piracy. It increased the music sales and helped overcome the issue of music piracy. RIAA continued with this for 23 weeks and stopped it. Because RIAA had focused only on the major offenders, this gave the chance for many casual users who initially abandoned file sharing for fear of being sued to return to the music piracy networks. Another successful strategy that was implemented by the music industry that has eased music piracy was that it put up legal digital music online. Many companies and organisation are now allowing music to be downloaded with a cost attached to it. The most popular and prominent organisation is ITunes. ITunes charges their customers $0.99 per track downloaded. As of April 7, 2009, and onwards, ITunes is charging $1.29 per track to the most popular songs and $0.69 per track to the least popular songs.  [31]   The ITunes store has sold 8 billion tracks since its launch in mid-2003. It has been confirmed that recent months have seen music sales climb very high to four billion projected track sales each year.  [32]  Between January 6, 2009 and July 21, 2009 the service sold 2 billion songs.  [33]  This compared to the sales between April 28 2003 and January 10, 2007 to sell the first two billion songs. ITunes has also been running extensive programmes of live events in London, hosting great and packed crowds and some of the worlds popular and successful artists.  [34]  So we can tell by this information that ITunes is a successful implementation by the industry and is continuing to grow rapidly. It is getting so popular that ITunes is now extending its stores to new European markets during this year.   [35]   This graph shows a rapid increase of music sales of ITunes from 2002 to 2009. Another strategy that the industry has been implemented is that the major labels such as, Pressplay, owned by Sony and Universal; AOL MusicNet, owned by the other 3 big labels (EMI, AOL Time Warner and BMG) and by RealNetworks, are set to begin offering consumers digital-music subscription packages.  [36]  Most services offer unlimited downloads, for a fixed charge from US$10 to US$20 per month and the possibility to do permanent burnable downloads for around US$1.  [37]  These digital- music subscription packs contain their own library of music and customers are admitted to download the licensed music that is on display and available for downloading. This proved to be a successful strategy as well. It gave consumers maximum downloads for a fixed price, the consumers were happy to use it because they were secured when downloading songs as they were legal to download. The music industry decided to seize CDs from CD companies in Italy, Greece and Spain due to the fact that these companies are producing more CDs to store downloaded music and distribute them illegally. Total seizures of CD-R discs in 2001 were three times higher than in 2000, at 9.6 million.  [38]  Seizures of blank discs destined for illegal CD-R labs totalled 19 million, compared to less than one million a year earlier indicating massive levels of anticipated production. There were also major actions against the mass-producing CD plants. Around 42 CD manufacturing lines, up from 20 the previous year, were put out of action by IFPI assisted police initiatives, mainly in Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. These manufacturers have a potential annual production capacity of some 200 million CDs, roughly equivalent to the legitimate market in the UK. A further 22 manufacturers were taken out of action in the first four months of 2002.  [39]   In some places, like the United Kingdom, the Three strikes policy has been introduced to try and combat music piracy and illegal file swapping across the internet. The three strikes policy disconnect the Internet for users who have offended the copyright violation which have been promoted by the RIAA.  [40]   Hull, in the UK, has put the three strikes policy into practice to deal with the internet users caught downloading copyrighted material. Karoo, the citys only internet service provider (ISP), serving approximately 90,000 internet users has been cutting connections immediately if a user is caught downloading copyright material without warning the offender. This harsh practice of cutting the internet connection without notifying the customer, has brought controversy from customers and several digital rights group. Under the new law, Karoo will send three written warnings notices to the customer before cancelling their (ISP) connection, after the (ISP) accepted it was exceeding the expectations of copyright owners. The (ISP)s policy remains contentious as well as substantially harsher than that of other UK (ISP)s, which have apparently been unenthusiastic to deal with illegal file sharing across their networks, and only lately agreed to send warnings notices to persistent offenders.   [41]   The Future of the Music Industry The future of the music industry looks grim for the years ahead. In this section of the essay I will be investigating the future of the music industry and music copyright. File sharing has made a dramatic change in the distribution process since it started causing changes in the music industry. In 1999, 51% of albums were sold in retail stores and 34% in other stores.  [42]  In 2002 and 2003 the share of sales in music stores had a dramatic drop to approximately 35%, whereas the other stores had increased to 50% of music sales. Also, by 2003, 5% of all music acquisition occurred through the internet and music piracy, and it is continually growing. The reason is that the industry is shifting from retail stores to sales through large electronics chains such as Best Buy and Circuit City, as well as mass merchants such as Wal-Mart.  [43]  Therefore, music piracy is effecting not only music sales music copyright, it is also effecting the business industry. Now that most of the music is electronic and can be downloaded at home using the internet, music retailers such as Sanity have suffered due to internet file sharing and music piracy, which does ha ve an effect on the future of the music retail industry as more music is being downloaded than sold traditionally in retail stores. Also, buying a record may be replaced with downloading a record,  [44]  which can affect the future of music industry as downloading a record eliminates the need for labels to manufacture, warehouse, and ship tangible products.  [45]  If consumers continually downloading music and ignore buying them, the industry will affect what music the public listens to and how they listen to it.  [46]  Because of this, many digital labels would be introduced. In the new web-based music industry, artists could make their own labels and record companies individually on the internet, using their own computer. This can affect the current major record labels as many indie  [47]  labels could easily produce their own record labels at home, which will increase the popularity of them, resulting in some of them being as successful as past indies such as Yahoo and Microsoft, which will give way to a more dynamic free market.  [48]   CONCLUSION In this essay I investigated The effect of Peer-to-Peer internet piracy on the music industry. I believe I have demonstrated that music piracy does have the ability to threaten the future of music copyright. I have also analysed the implementations the music industry have implied to combat this problem within the society and evaluate how successful they were to prevent music piracy from continuing. In conclusion, music piracy is infringing copyright laws and costing the music industry millions of dollars each year. With the introduction of Napster in 1999, music sales decreased extraordinarily. In 2001, Napster was put out of business but this did not see the end of music piracy. KaZaA, a Napster successor than came in business and is now holding the record for most downloaded files. As you can see, music piracy is very hard to stop because if you shut down one distributor, many other distributors and organisations come into the illegal world of music piracy. Music piracy is getting easier due to the technologies available for the pirate to work with. Now there is super fast broadband internet speed, data compression, MP3 and portable players for the pirate to use to successfully download music efficiently and effectively. Digital music is now one of the most popular formats of music. The music industry has been working hard to combat music piracy and file swapping online. Although they did not completely stop music piracy altogether, they had certainly eased it and decreased the number of music downloads online. The most successful strategy that was introduced by the industry was to put legal music online. The music was digital, but it had a price fixed to each track. Many companies, namely ITunes, put their songs online legally and this decreased the level of music piracy over the Internet. ITunes is continually growing and is selling more and more tracks each year. A new focus that could be emerged from my study in this essay is What should the global society and music industry do in order to stop music piracy at once and for all?

The Doubles Motif in Flannery O’Connors The Violent Bear It Away :: Violent Bear It Away Essays

The Doubles Motif in Flannery O’Connor's The Violent Bear It Away   Ã‚   In The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor makes use of the doubles motif.   The doubles motif occurs when one character looks at another character and sees or senses yet another character’s presence.   In this novel, Francis and Rayber not only serve as doubles for each other but also as a double for Mason.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Francis makes Mason Tarwater’s presence felt by the way he talks and the fact that he, like Mason, never removes his cap.   After Francis is with Rayber a few days, Rayber feels Mason’s presence.   â€Å"Rayber had never, even when Old Tarwater had lived under his roof, been so conscious of the old man’s presence†Ã‚   (189).   Mason used baptism to gain control of Francis and to have him carry out his mission after his death.   â€Å"Using baptism to extend his boundaries of self like a wall around Young Tarwater,   Mason simultaneously performs an act of regeneration and murder to be repeated later when Francis baptizes/murders Bishop.   Francis then becomes Mason’s immortal self. Francis provides Mason with a sense of existing, but he can only tolerate the boy as a double, not as an independent human being† (Paulson 102).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mason clings to the idea of being a prophet and Francis â€Å"clings to the idea of being born in a wreck, with no father, an orphan, because this makes him unique, gaining epic proportions in order to transcend the anonymous crowd† (Paulson 106).   Francis denies the father the way that Mason and Rayber deny the mother.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rayber tries, as Mason does, to implant his ideas within Francis.   â€Å"Both Rayber and Mason direct the explosive force of their actions toward Francis, being lost themselves.   Their struggle to survive decimates their nephew† (Paulson 106).   Rayber condemned the violent act that Mason committed, taking Francis and Rayber both away from reality, but   Rayber committed the violent act of trying to drown his own son.   Rayber and Mason both use Francis and Bishop as a way to keep the loneliness away.   â€Å"O’Connor, though, draws a parallel between them by making both men evangelical zealots† (Paulson 102).   Rayber is skeptical of religion and Mason has a religious fervor.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Rayber and Mason both try to teach Francis but they do not want to teach him the same things.   â€Å"It soon becomes clear that not only Rayber’s efforts at ‘reconstruction’ but also Mason’s muddied baptismal waters threaten the freedom of Francis, who weakly perceives the devil prophet within them both†Ã‚   (Paulman 103).

Free College Essays - Influence of War in Knowles Separate Peace :: Separate Peace Essays

Influence of War as Shown in A Separate Peace Historical events can play an important role in a person’s life. In A Separate Peace, the whole atmosphere at the Devon School changed as World War II progressed. The boys either eagerly awaited draft, enlisted in the area of war they wanted, or did not want to go at all. The students at the school created new activities for enjoyment since the customary past times could not be played due to a lack of materials. When a friend â€Å"returns† from the war, the boys at Devon got a real sense of what the war was like. The boys learned that going to war was not all fun and games like they had anticipated. The influence World War II had on the characters in A Separate Peace and life at the Devon School, was clearly depicted through their actions and activities. The beginning of the novel allows the reader to get a feel of what the Devon School was like during that time period. Students of â€Å"war age† were constantly leaving Devon to go to the war, either by choice or by draft. Whether kids wanted to go or not, the anticipation was always present. As winter approached the Devon school, so was the encroaching shadow of the war. The boys were called out to help shovel free a troop train trapped by snow-blocked tracks. The experience "brings the war home" for all of them, and they realized they would have to face a crucial decision very soon. Maturity leaps upon them, whether they're ready for it or not, at the tender age of seventeen. The excitement of the war had gotten to everybody at the school, including the staff, and made it a chaotic place. The boys were able to get away with disobeying the rules. Many students cut class, and left school grounds often and were not penalized. When Leper â€Å"returned† from the war the boys realized that participating in the war wasn’t all fun and games, and that a lot of bad things happened. When Leper told Gene how he had been discharged on charges of insanity, Gene blew up at Leper. Gene had thought the war was a good place, and the notion of a Section Eight Discharge was not what he wanted to hear. It completely ruined Gene’s thoughts and his hopes.

Geosciene Online Quiz Question and Answers

The Geosci Motherload Unit 1 – Science! |1. |The US government, and most other governments of the world, provide support for scientists but not for astrologers, palm readers, or telephone | | |â€Å"psychics†. Why do governments support scientists? | | |A. | | |Scientists are amazingly sexy, and government functionaries simply cannot control themselves in the presence of such overwhelming sexiness and | | |throw money at the scientists (sometimes tucking tens and twenties into the pockets of the scientists’ lab coats). | | | | |B. | | |Scientists use a careful method, and governments are always committed to supporting the use of careful methods. | | | | | |C. | | |Scientists help humans do useful things, which makes the humans healthier, wealthier, etc. , and governments often like to support health and | | |wealth. | | | | |D. | | |Scientists all drink Diet Pepsi because they think it makes them look sexy, and governments are all controlled by the powerful Pe psi | | |Corporation and so the governments support the Diet-Pepsi-drinking scientists. | | | | | |E. | | |Scientists learn the Truth, and governments are always deeply committed to learning the truth. | | | The government is often interested in seeing people live longer, or improving the economy, or having better and more-accurate explosive devices for the military, or in many other things that improve our lives, and science plus engineering and scientific medicine are better than any other human activity at delivering these. A cynic might say that politicians are often not all that interested in finding the Truth.And a realist would note that science is being improved all the time, and because you cannot improve on the Truth, science has not (yet? ) learned the Truth. There are many methods in the world, some of them are careful, and many of them are not funded by the government. Some of our spouses or significant others may think that some scientists are sexy, but many other se xy persons are not funded by the government. One of the professors has been known to drink a competitor of Pepsi on occasion, and some scientists refrain from soft drinks entirely. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |C | |Your Response: |C | |2. |What is an accurate description of the job of a scientist? | | |A. | |The scientist does only things that require high-tech equipment. | | | | | |B. | | |The scientist invents new ideas, and goes on to show that some of those ideas are false. | | | | | |C. | | |The scientist learns the Truth through careful application of the scientific method. | | | | | |D. | |The scientist does only things that show how sexy being a scientist really is, causing down-trodden non-scientists to lose control of | | |themselves with carnal lust for the scientist. | | | | | |E. | | |The scientist Invents new ideas, and then goes on to prove that some of those ideas are True. | | | | Much of the fun in science is coming up with great new ideas (h ypotheses, if you like fancy words).But for your new idea to â€Å"win†, you have to show that it does better than old ideas, so you have to prove those old ideas false (or incomplete, or not-quite-right, or whatever â€Å"nice† word you might prefer). The scientific method is a powerful way for humans to learn to do things, and learn what does and doesn’t work, but the results of science are always open to improvement, so are not claimed to be Truth, and probably are not Truth. Some scientists still use pencils and look at things, and there are probably a few non-sexy scientists around somewhere. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |3. |Newton’s ideas on physics â€Å"won†, and Aristotle’s ideas were kicked out of science and over into history. Why? | | |A. | | |Newton’s ideas appealed to dead white European males, whereas Aristotle’s didn’t because Aristotle wore a toga all the time. | | | | | |B. | |Newton’s ideas did a better job of predicting how nature would behave. | | | | | |C. | | |Newton’s ideas appealed to dead white European males, whereas Aristotle’s didn’t. | | | | | |D. | | |Newton’s ideas were more elegant, and so were intellectually favored. | | | | | |E. | | |Newton won the Nobel prize. | | | |Unlike painting or literature, scientific inquiry has a well-defined procedure for figuring out if Newton's ideas are better or if Aristotle had it right all along. In looking at a painting, we can ask different people what they think, or we can make up our own mind on whether we like it or not, and that is perfectly valid. In science, we have to ask: does the idea fit with the way the world works? Can I predict the speed of a falling object better using Newton's ideas or Aristotle's? As it turns out, Aristotle’s ideas didn’t predict things very well, and Newton’s did. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |4. |Scientists often speak of consensus—the scientific community agrees that a particular theory is better than the competitors.What is such | | |scientific consensus based on? | | |A. | | |The insistence of a single scientist that he or she is correct. | | | | | |B. | | |A number of different experiments by different people that all had outcomes that were predicted accurately by the favored theory and not by | | |the competitors. | | | | | |C. | | |Statements in the old textbooks that the scientists studied when they were in school. | | | | | |D. | |The decision of the Nobel prize committee to give the inventor of the idea a lot of money. | | | | | |E. | | |A single experiment had an outcome that was predicted accurately by the favored theory and not by the competitors. | | | | Agreement on scientific theories is a contentious, drawn-out, and sometimes acrimonious business. Scientists are no better (and no worse! ) than everyb ody else: we think we are right and those who disagree with us are dunderheads!I put forward my idea, and the experiments that I did that show the idea is a good one†¦ then everybody else piles on and pooh-poohs my idea. BUT, they go out and do experiments that try and show my ideas are wrong†¦ and they can't do it! So eventually all those experiments accumulate, and finally people agree that my idea is a good one. (Sometimes accompanied by a sneer: â€Å"†¦ but of course I knew that all along. I just didn't bother to publicize it†¦ † I told you, scientists are no better and no worse than the rest of the world. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |5. |Your job depends on you finding the best available information on a particular technical topic. Where should you concentrate your search if | | |you want to do it right and keep your job? | | |A. | | |Watch cola commercials on football bowl games. | | | | |B. | | |Locate articles in weekly news magazines analyzing the views of public officials on the technical issue, as reported in the newspapers. | | | | | |C. | | |Get on the web and go looking for the pages posted by â€Å"think-tanks† headquartered near Washington. | | | | | |D. | | |Scan databases of newspaper articles to find the views of public figures on the technical issue. | | | | |E. | | |Find and study refereed scientific articles in learned journals. | | | | No source of information is perfect, but the refereed articles in learned journals put immense effort into â€Å"getting it right†. The web has reliable information, of course, but probably most of the information on the web is not especially reliable. The web is very inexpensive, and lots of people put junk on it.Think tanks also often are pushing an agenda, and try to â€Å"spin† information their way. Most newspapers are around for the long haul, and try to make the news fairly accurate, although some news papers do have agendas, and the editorial pages are not especially accurate. But, if the report is on the views of a public figure, the newspaper may accurately report what the public figure said, but what the public figure said may be less than completely accurate. Some magazines are quite good and careful, but many are pushing a belief or just overhyping things to tease you into buying the magazine.And while you are welcome to believe that drinking a particular cola makes you sexy†¦ don’t count on it. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |E | |Your Response: |E | |6. |Before they can be published, scientific papers must be peer-reviewed. This means that: | | |A. | | |Some other scientific experts read the papers and guarantee that they are True. | | | | |B. | | |Some other scientific experts read the papers and provide quality control by eliminating many mistakes. | | | | | |C. | | |Government bureaucrats read the papers, to be sure that the papers do not i nsult the political positions of the current officeholders. | | | | | |D. | |Everyone in the world is given the opportunity to comment on the papers through a specially maintained blog. | | | | | |E. | | |An editor reads the papers, to make sure that all the semicolons are in the correct places. | | | | Reviewers work hard to identify errors of any sort, almost always identify many, and then the reviewers and editors insist that those errors be fixed before publication.Review is done voluntarily by scientists; this is part of the cost of being a member of this great human undertaking. Science doesn’t claim Truth; although science strives to be as accurate as humanly possible, that is often well short of Truth. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |7. |What is more accurate about the Earth? | | |A. | |The Earth is formed of flat, vertical layers; one runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, and then others are layered on to the sides o f | | |that. | | | | | |B. | | |The Earth is formed of flat, horizontal layers, a little cap at the South Pole, then a layer above that, and a layer above that, all the way | | |up to a little cap at the North Pole. | | | | | |C. | |The Earth is formed of concentric layers (something like an onion–a central ball with a shell around it, and a shell around that†¦), but with | | |a giant hole on one side where the moon-making collision blasted pieces off. | | | | | |D. | | |The Earth is homogeneous; when it melted, it got all mixed up. | | | | | |E. | |The Earth is formed of concentric layers (something like an onion–a central ball with a shell around it, and a shell around that†¦); when the | | |planet melted, it separated into layers. | | | | The planet is onion-like, with an inner core, then an outer core, a mantle (which has several sub-layers), and a crust. The moon-making collision did happen, but the planet got hot enough to separate again. The plane t separated after melting largely or completely, with the densest stuff falling to the center and the lowest-density stuff floating to the top. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |E | | | | |8. |Geologists get to play with chemistry, physics, biology†¦ and history! And what a history you will meet as you work your way through the | | |course.Starting at the beginning, the textbook provides the scientifically accepted start of the story†¦ and promises that you’ll get to | | |explore some of the evidence for that scientific view, later in the semester. Meanwhile, which is more nearly correct of the scientifically | | |accepted view? | | |A. | | |The Earth is eternal, having been here forever and promising to be here forever. | | | | | |B. | |The Earth formed from the falling together of older materials, about 4. 6 billion years ago. | | | | | |C. | | |The Earth formed in the Big Bang, about 6000 years ago. | | | | | |D. | | |The Earth was assembled by g igantic space beavers, which gnawed down the primordial tree of life and piled its branches together to form the | | |planet. | | | | | |E. | |The Earth formed when the Big Bang caused older materials to fall together, about 14 billion years ago. | | | | The Big Bang is estimated as having occurred about 14 billion years ago. Stars that eventually formed in the wake of the Big Bang led to production of elements such as iron and silicon that are common in the Earth—we are formed from second-generation stardust, which â€Å"got it together† to make the planet about 4. 6 billion years ago. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |9. |National Parks are: | | |A. | | |Regions containing key biological resources that have been set aside for the enjoyment of future generations. | | | | |B. | | |Regions containing key geological resources that have been set aside for the enjoyment of the present generation. | | | | | |C. | | |Regions contai ning key cultural resources that have been set aside for the enjoyment of the present generation and future generations. | | | | | |D. | |Regions containing key biological, geological or cultural resources that have been set aside for the enjoyment of the present generation and | | |future generations. | | | | | |E. | | |Regions containing key roller coasters that have been set aside for the enjoyment of you and your immediate friends. | | | | Old Faithful, the giant sequoias, and Mesa Verde’s cliff dwellings are waiting for you, and your grandchildren. [pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |D | |Your Response: |D | |10. You find two neutral atoms. Each has 8 protons in its nucleus, but one has 7 neutrons, and the other has 8 neutrons. It is correct | | |to state that: | | |A. | | |The two atoms are from two different elements. | | | | | |B. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different ions of that element. | | | | |C. | | |The two ato ms are from the same cola, but presented in different packaging. | | | | | |D. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different isotopes of that element. | | | | |E. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different isopleths of that element. | | | | The element is determined by the number of protons, so if each atom has the same number of protons, the atoms are the same element. Changing the number of neutrons primarily affects the weight, giving a different isotope of the same element. Changing the number of neutrons too much can introduce radioactivity, so the isotope won’t hang around forever. ) Ions are made by gaining or losing electrons. Isopleths are lines on a map connecting places with the same concentration of something that someone has measured, not exactly relevant here. And cola requires making atoms into molecules, and then mixing molecules of several sorts (water, sweetener, coloring agent, flavoring agent, perhaps caffeine) to mak e cola. [pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |D | |Your Response: |D | |11. You get some stuff, and start taking it apart. But, you are restricted to the use of â€Å"ordinary† means (fire, sunlight, your digestive| | |system) and you cannot use atom smashers or atom bombs. What is the smallest piece that you are likely to be able to produce: | | |A. | | |A quark | | | | | |B. | | |A nucleus | | | | |C. | | |A proton. | | | | | |D. | | |An atom | | | | | |E. | |A neutron. | | | | We can break matter down into atoms (Greek for â€Å"not cuttable† because the Greeks didn’t have atom smashers or other exotic tools that would allow cutting atoms into smaller pieces). All of the wrong answers here are smaller pieces of atoms, but cannot normally be isolated by â€Å"ordinary† tools. [pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |D | |Your Response: |D | |12. Ignoring good manners, you start rooting around in the nucleus of a p oor, unsuspecting atom, to see what is in there. What are you | | |most likely to find? | | |A. | | |Only neutrons. | | | | | |B. | | |Neutrons, usually with some electrons hanging around among the neutrons. | | | | | |C. | | |Protons, usually with some electrons hanging around among the protons. | | | | |D. | | |Protons, usually with some neutrons hanging around among the protons. | | | | | |E. | | |Only protons. | | | | The simplest nucleus is the single proton in â€Å"ordinary† hydrogen.All other nuclei include protons and neutrons. Electrons make the cloud around the nucleus. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |D | |1. |What is an accurate description of the job of a scientist? | | |A. | | |The scientist invents new ideas, and goes on to show that some of those ideas are false. | | | | |B. | | |The scientist learns the Truth through careful application of the scientific method. | | | | | |C. | | |The scientist Invents new ideas, and then goes on to prove th at some of those ideas are True. | | | | | |D. | |The scientist does only things that show how sexy being a scientist really is, causing down-trodden non-scientists to lose control of | | |themselves with carnal lust for the scientist. | | | | | |E. | | |The scientist does only things that require high-tech equipment. | | | | Much of the fun in science is coming up with great new ideas (hypotheses, if you like fancy words).But for your new idea to â€Å"win†, you have to show that it does better than old ideas, so you have to prove those old ideas false (or incomplete, or not-quite-right, or whatever â€Å"nice† word you might prefer). The scientific method is a powerful way for humans to learn to do things, and learn what does and doesn’t work, but the results of science are always open to improvement, so are not claimed to be Truth, and probably are not Truth. Some scientists still use pencils and look at things, and there are probably a few non-sexy scient ists around somewhere. [pic]|Points Earned: |0/1 | |Your Response: |B | |1. |Most Americans support science because: | | |A. | | |The scientific method allows scientists to learn the Truth. | | | | | |B. | | |All scientists are sexy. | | | | | |C. | |All Americans are bored silly by science. | | | | | |D. | | |All Americans are fascinated by science. | | | | | |E. | | |Science has helped make our lives easier, safer, etc. | | | | Without science and technology, the great majority of us would be dead, so we tend to be supporters of science.Although we know that science works, we’re never sure that it is completely right. Students so often discover things that professors missed, or that professors got wrong, that scientists would be silly to claim Truth. Comparing the TV ratings of the latest hit to the ratings of the latest science program on public broadcasting shows that many Americans are not fascinated by science, but the science-show ratings are above zero, so some people are fascinated by science. And hope as we might, it is unfortunately clear that not every scientist is sexy (just most of them are†¦). [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |E | | | | |2. |What is an accurate description of the job of a scientist? | | |A. | |The scientist invents new ideas, and goes on to show that some of those ideas are false. | | | | | |B. | | |The scientist learns the Truth through careful application of the scientific method. | | | | | |C. | | |The scientist does only things that show how sexy being a scientist really is, causing down-trodden non-scientists to lose control of | | |themselves with carnal lust for the scientist. | | | | |D. | | |The scientist does only things that require high-tech equipment. | | | | | |E. | | |The scientist Invents new ideas, and then goes on to prove that some of those ideas are True. | | | | Much of the fun in science is coming up with great new ideas (hypotheses, if you like fancy words).But for your new idea to â€Å"win†, you have to show that it does better than old ideas, so you have to prove those old ideas false (or incomplete, or not-quite-right, or whatever â€Å"nice† word you might prefer). The scientific method is a powerful way for humans to learn to do things, and learn what does and doesn’t work, but the results of science are always open to improvement, so are not claimed to be Truth, and probably are not Truth. Some scientists still use pencils and look at things, and there are probably a few non-sexy scientists around somewhere. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |A | |Your Response: |A | |3. |The final arbitrator between two alternate theories (for example Aristotle’s and Newton’s ideas) is: | | |A. | | |A public opinion poll conducted by Gallup, ABC News, and Fox News. | | | | |B. | | |Nature, and experiments conducted to test each idea. | | | | | |C. | | |A committee of â€Å"wise men† who gather twice a year to arbitrate such disputes. | | | | | |D. | | |The Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm, Sweden. | | | |Unlike painting or literature, scientific inquiry has a well-defined procedure for figuring out if Newton's ideas are better or if Aristotle had it right all along. In looking at a painting, we can ask different people what they think, or we can make up our own mind on whether we like it or not, and that is perfectly valid. In science, we have to ask: does the idea fit with the way the world works? Can I predict the speed of a falling object better using Newton's ideas or Aristotle's? As it turns out, Aristotle’s ideas didn’t predict things very well, and Newton’s did. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |4. |When scientists agree that a particular scientific theory is a good one, and the scientists use that theory to help make new things, cure | | |diseases, etc. that â€Å"agreement† came about because: | | | A. | | |A single experiment had an outcome that was well-predicted by that theory. | | | | | |B. | | |A single, well-respected scientist put forward the idea. | | | | | |C. | | |That's what it says in all the books. | | | | | |D. | | |The Nobel prize committee gave the inventor of the idea a lot of money. | | | | | |E. | |A number of different experiments by different people all had outcomes that were well-predicted by the theory. | | | | Agreement on scientific theories is a contentious, drawn-out, and sometimes acrimonious business. Scientists are no better (and no worse! ) than everybody else: we think we are right and those who disagree with us are dunderheads! I put forward my idea, and the experiments that I did that show the idea is a good one†¦ then everybody else piles on and pooh-poohs my idea. BUT, they go out and do experiments that try and show my ideas are wrong†¦ nd they can't do it! So eventually all those experiments accumulate, and finally people agre e that my idea is a good one. (Sometimes accompanied by a sneer: â€Å"†¦ but of course I knew that all along. I just didn't bother to publicize it†¦ † I told you, scientists are no better and no worse than the rest of the world. ) |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |E | |Your Response: |E | |5. Which is more likely to contain reliable information? | | |A. | | |A web page posted by an independent â€Å"think-tank†. | | | | | |B. | | |A magazine article summarizing recent newspaper and television reports. | | | | | |C. | | |A refereed article in a learned journal. | | | | | |D. | | |The views of public figures reported in a newspaper article. | | | | |E. | | |A cola commercial. | | | | No source of information is perfect, but the refereed articles in learned journals put immense effort into â€Å"getting it right†. The web has reliable information, of course, but probably most of the information on the web is not especially reliable. The web is very inexpensive, and lots of people put junk on it.Think tanks also often are pushing an agenda, and try to â€Å"spin† information their way. Most newspapers are around for the long haul, and try to make the news fairly accurate, although some newspapers do have agendas, and the editorial pages are not especially accurate. But, if the report is on the views of a public figure, the newspaper may accurately report what the public figure said, but what the public figure said may be less than completely accurate. Some magazines are quite good and careful, but many are pushing a belief or just overhyping things to tease you into buying the magazine.And while you are welcome to believe that drinking a particular cola makes you sexy†¦ don’t count on it. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |C | |Your Response: |C | |6. |What is accurate about peer review of scientific papers? | | |A. | | |It insures that they are True. | | | | |B. | | |It almost alway s leads to the recommendation that the papers be published without changes. | | | | | |C. | | |It is why we call scientific papers â€Å"primary sources†. | | | | | |D. | | |It provides quality control by eliminating many mistakes. | | | | | |E. | |It is primarily done by government bureaucrats hired for that purpose. | | | | Reviewers work hard to identify errors of any sort, almost always identify many, and then the reviewers and editors insist that those errors be fixed before publication. Review is done voluntarily by scientists; this is part of the cost of being a member of this great human undertaking.Science doesn’t claim Truth; although science strives to be as accurate as humanly possible, that is often well short of Truth. Asking grandpa what school was like in his childhood gives you a primary source (grandpa), even if he insists that he walked 20 miles through neck-deep snow, uphill both ways. Some primary sources have selective memories. |[pic]|Points Ea rned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |D | |Your Response: |D | |7. The Earth is layered. Most geologists believe that this layering originated primarily because: | | |A. | | |The denser material fell together from space first, and then the less-dense material fell in later. | | | | | |B. | | |The Earth partially or completely melted soon after it formed, and the denser materials fell to the center. | | | | | |C. | |Graham Spanier decreed that it be, so it was. | | | | | |D. | | |The Earth has been separating bit-by-bit for billions of years as the cold oceanic slabs sink all the way to the center and pile up. | | | | | |E. | | |The Moon flew out of the Earth after a great collision with a Mars-sized body, causing the Earth to spin faster and separate. | | | Melting allows things to sort out more easily. Think of the rocks and snow and ice and salt and squirrel parts that stick on the bottom of your car when you drive in a snowstorm, and how they sort themselves out when they melt in t he garage or in the spring. Much evidence points to early separation of the Earth into layers, before the collision with a Mars-sized body that blasted out the material that made the moon, although a little bit of separating may still be going on.The type of material falling together to make the planet may have changed as the planet formed, but this doesn’t seem to have been too important in controlling things. And mighty as Graham Spanier is, this was a bit before his time. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |8. |The Earth has a fascinating history, which this class has just begun to explore.Which is more nearly correct, according to the scientific | | |interpretation presented in the text? | | |A. | | |The Earth has been here forever. | | | | | |B. | | |The Earth formed in the great Pepsi flood, when Graham Spanier’s private reservoirs burst open and flooded Pennsylvania. | | | | | |C. | | |The Earth formed in the Big Bang, abo ut 4. 6 billion years ago. | | | | |D. | | |The Earth formed about 4. 6 billion years ago, well after the Big Bang, as materials made in stars fell together to form the planet. | | | | | |E. | | |The Earth formed in the Big Bang, about 6000 years ago. | | | | The Big Bang is estimated as having occurred about 14 billion years ago.Stars that eventually formed in the wake of the Big Bang led to production of elements such as iron and silicon that are common in the Earth—we are formed from second-generation stardust, which â€Å"got it together† to make the planet about 4. 6 billion years ago. |[pic] |Points Earned: |0/1 | |Correct Answer: |D | |Your Response: |C | |9. National Parks are: | | |A. | | |An invention of the Romans, to overcome the â€Å"tragedy of the commons† that caused them to invade the food-service buildings of the neighboring | | |Greeks. | | | | | |B. | | |An invention of the United States that has spread around much of the world, as a wa y of protecting some of the finest parts of the world. | | | | | |C. | |A U. S. government program to provide roller-coaster rides for disadvantaged grandparents. | | | | | |D. | | |An invention of the United States, which has been routinely ignored by the rest of the world because they really don’t like us. | | | | | |E. | | |An invention of Greenlandic people, who set aside the northeastern part of the island as the world’s first national park. | | | Yellowstone was the first National Park, but now you can find National Parks scattered across the planet, preserving key areas for the enjoyment of this generation and for future generations. |[pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |10. |You find two neutral atoms. Each has 8 protons in its nucleus, but one has 7 neutrons, and the other has 8 neutrons. It is correct | | |to state that: | | |A. | | |The two atoms are from the same cola, but presented in different packaging. | | | | |B. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different isopleths of that element. | | | | | |C. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different ions of that element. | | | | |D. | | |The two atoms are from two different elements. | | | | | |E. | | |The two atoms are from the same element, but are different isotopes of that element. | | | | The element is determined by the number of protons, so if each atom has the same number of protons, the atoms are the same element.Changing the number of neutrons primarily affects the weight, giving a different isotope of the same element. (Changing the number of neutrons too much can introduce radioactivity, so the isotope won’t hang around forever. ) Ions are made by gaining or losing electrons. Isopleths are lines on a map connecting places with the same concentration of something that someone has measured, not exactly relevant here. And cola requires making atoms into molecules, and then mixing mo lecules of several sorts (water, sweetener, coloring agent, flavoring agent, perhaps caffeine) to make cola. [pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |E | |Your Response: |E | |11. |You get some stuff, and start taking it apart.But, you are restricted to the use of â€Å"ordinary† means (fire, sunlight, your digestive| | |system) and you cannot use atom smashers or atom bombs. What is the smallest piece that you are likely to be able to produce: | | |A. | | |A neutron. | | | | | |B. | | |An atom | | | | | |C. | | |A proton. | | | | |D. | | |A nucleus | | | | | |E. | | |A quark | | | | We can break matter down into atoms (Greek for â€Å"not cuttable† because the Greeks didn’t have atom smashers or other exotic tools that would allow cutting atoms into smaller pieces).All of the wrong answers here are smaller pieces of atoms, but cannot normally be isolated by â€Å"ordinary† tools. |[pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |12. |Chemical reactions involve: | | |A. | | |The sharing or trading of partons. | | | | | |B. | |The sharing or trading of quarks. | | | | | |C. | | |The sharing or trading of protons. | | | | | |D. | | |The sharing or trading of neutrons. | | | | | |E. | | |The sharing or trading of electrons. | | | |The clouds of electrons around the nuclei of atoms serve as the Velcro of the universe. Atoms gain or lose electrons and then stick together by static electricity, or else share electrons and stick together inside the shared cloud. The nuclei with their protons and neutrons (which are themselves composed of quarks, which also were called partons at one time) are the things held together by the electronic Velcro of chemistry. |[pic|Points Earned: |1/1 | |] | | | |Correct Answer: |E | |Your Response: |E | |1. Ignoring good manners, you start rooting around in the nucleus of a poor, unsuspecting atom, to see what is in there. What are you most likely | | |to fi nd? | | |A. | | |Neutrons, usually with some electrons hanging around among the neutrons. | | | | | |B. | | |Only neutrons. | | | | | |C. | | |Protons, usually with some neutrons hanging around among the protons. | | | | | |D. | |Protons, usually with some electrons hanging around among the protons. | | | | | |E. | | |Only protons. | | | | The simplest nucleus is the single proton in â€Å"ordinary† hydrogen. All other nuclei include protons and neutrons. Electrons make the cloud around the nucleus. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Your Response: |C | |2. Opinion polls show most residents of the US do not believe they understand science very well, but they do favor more government support of | | |science. Why do most US residents favor government support of science? | | |A. | | |Scientists are so breath-takingly sexy that most people are drawn through sheer carnal lust to support the scientific enterprise. | | | | | |B. | | |Science is so boring that almost everyone uses public-broadcasting science programming as a sleep aid, and government funding is needed to | | |insure a steady supply of boredom. | | | | |C. | | |Science has helped make our lives healthier, wealthier, easier, safer, etc. , and people hope that more funding of more science will provide | | |even more health, wealth, ease, safety, etc. | | | | | |D. | | |Science is simply so fascinating that almost everyone can’t wait to see what will be discovered next. | | | | | |E. | |Scientists apply their scientific method, which allows them to learn the Truth. | | | | Without science and technology, the great majority of us would be dead, so we tend to be supporters of science. Although we know that science works, we’re never sure that it is completely right. Students so often discover things that professors missed, or that professors got wrong, that scientists would be silly to claim Truth.Comparing the TV ratings of the latest hit to the ratings of the latest science prog ram on public broadcasting shows that many Americans are not fascinated by science, but the science-show ratings are above zero, so some people are fascinated by science. And hope as we might, it is unfortunately clear that not every scientist is sexy (just most of them are†¦). |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Your Response: |C | |3. In chemistry, the type of an atom (what element it is) is determined by: | | |A. | | |The number of electrons it exchanges with its neighbors. | | | | | |B. | | |The number of protons it has in a cloud around the nucleus. | | | | | |C. | | |The number of neutrons it has in a cloud around the nucleus. | | | | | |D. | |The number of neutrons it contains in its nucleus. | | | | | |E. | | |The number of protons it contains in its nucleus. | | | | Physicists change the name when the number of charged, massive protons in the nucleus changes. Adding one proton makes a HUGE difference to how an atom behaves, and so deserves a new name. The neutrons hang a round in the nucleus to keep the protons from kicking each other out. Exchanging electrons is important, but doesn’t change the element type. [pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Your Response: |E | |4. |What is an accurate description of the job of a scientist? | | |A. | | |The scientist Invents new ideas, and then goes on to prove that some of those ideas are True. | | | | | |B. | | |The scientist does only things that show how sexy being a scientist really is, causing down-trodden non-scientists to lose control of | | |themselves with carnal lust for the scientist. | | | | |C. | | |The scientist learns the Truth through careful application of the scientific method. | | | | | |D. | | |The scientist does only things that require high-tech equipment. | | | | | |E. | | |The scientist invents new ideas, and goes on to show that some of those ideas are false. | | | Much of the fun in science is coming up with great new ideas (hypotheses, if you like fancy words). But for your new i dea to â€Å"win†, you have to show that it does better than old ideas, so you have to prove those old ideas false (or incomplete, or not-quite-right, or whatever â€Å"nice† word you might prefer). The scientific method is a powerful way for humans to learn to do things, and learn what does and doesn’t work, but the results of science are always open to improvement, so are not claimed to be Truth, and probably are not Truth.Some scientists still use pencils and look at things, and there are probably a few non-sexy scientists around somewhere. |[pic]|Points Earned: |0/1 | |Your Response: |A | |5. |What is more accurate about the Earth? | | |A. | | |The Earth is formed of concentric layers (something like an onion–a central ball with a shell around it, and a shell around that†¦); when the | | |planet melted, it separated into layers. | | | | |B. | | |The Earth is formed of flat, vertical layers; one runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, and th en others are layered on to the sides of | | |that. | | | | | |C. | | |The Earth is formed of flat, horizontal layers, a little cap at the South Pole, then a layer above that, and a layer above that, all the way | | |up to a little cap at the North Pole. | | | | | |D. | |The Earth is formed of concentric layers (something like an onion–a central ball with a shell around it, and a shell around that†¦), but with | | |a giant hole on one side where the moon-making collision blasted pieces off. | | | | | |E. | | |The Earth is homogeneous; when it melted, it got all mixed up. | | | | The planet is onion-like, with an inner core, then an outer core, a mantle (which has several sub-layers), and a crust.The moon-making collision did happen, but the planet got hot enough to separate again. The planet separated after melting largely or completely, with the densest stuff falling to the center and the lowest-density stuff floating to the top. |[pic|Points Earned: |0/1 | |] | | | |Your Response: |E | |1. |The US government, and most other governments of the world, provide support for scientists but not for astrologers, palm readers, or telephone | | |â€Å"psychics†. Why do governments support scientists? | | |A. | |Scientists all drink Diet Pepsi because they think it makes them look sexy, and governments are all controlled by the powerful Pepsi | | |Corporation and so the governments support the Diet-Pepsi-drinking scientists. | | | | | |B. | | |Scientists help humans do useful things, which makes the humans healthier, wealthier, etc. , and governments often like to support health and | | |wealth. | | | | |C. | | |Scientists are amazingly sexy, and government functionaries simply cannot control themselves in the presence of such overwhelming sexiness and | | |throw money at the scientists (sometimes tucking tens and twenties into the pockets of the scientists’ lab coats). | | | | | |D. | | |Scientists use a careful method, and governments are always committed to supporting the use of careful methods. | | | | |E. | | |Scientists learn the Truth, and governments are always deeply committed to learning the truth. | | | | The government is often interested in seeing people live longer, or improving the economy, or having better and more-accurate explosive devices for the military, or in many other things that improve our lives, and science plus engineering and scientific medicine are better than any other human activity at delivering these.A cynic might say that politicians are often not all that interested in finding the Truth. And a realist would note that science is being improved all the time, and because you cannot improve on the Truth, science has not (yet? ) learned the Truth. There are many methods in the world, some of them are careful, and many of them are not funded by the government. Some of our spouses or significant others may think that some scientists are sexy, but many other sexy persons are not funde d by the government.One of the professors has been known to drink a competitor of Pepsi on occasion, and some scientists refrain from soft drinks entirely. |[pic]|Points Earned: |1/1 | |Correct Answer: |B | |Your Response: |B | |2. You hang around with the professor, who is a scientist when he’s not teaching. You observe that the professor learns a lot about how certain | | |parts of the world behave, and the professor then uses that information to successfully predict the outcome of an experiment. What does this | | |demonstrate? | | |A. | | |The professor’s knowledge is True; the professor couldn’t have made the successful prediction without knowing exactly what is going on. | | | | | |B. | |The professor was lucky; no professor could ever know what is going on, so a professor who successfully predicted something must be really | | |lucky. | | | | | |C. | | |The professor’s knowledge is close to being True; no professor really knows what is going on , but some professors are sort of close to knowing| | |what is going on. | | | | | |D. |