Influence From Society And Mass Media Media Essay

Influence From Society And pot Media Media EssayMass media denotes a section of the media peculiar(prenominal)ally designed to tar guide a double audience or market. Its any medium exercisingd to transmit slew information. It consists of either broadcast media for example the tv set and the radio as salubrious as print media which may consist of books, magazines and intelligencepapers. The profit is the latest step-up to the group. However, its definition cannot be clear cut because of the emergence of the new upcoming digital communication technology every now and then. For ages media has been a signalise source for knowing what is happening all around us. We live in a society that relies on information for our mere existence. Our society relies on the media to access the latest news and situations on the happenings humannesswide. This way, we are well equip to handle whatever issues that may arise on our twenty-four hour period to day endeavors. Information empowers us and acts as a bridge between our buck private lives and the world outside. People often think that mass media is basically news oriented tho on the contrary it may also be in the form of entertainment for example in movie films as well as educational in the case where mass media is offered in public broadcasting stations which provide educational programming to a national audience. We deport put our trust so much on the media as the key source of news, entertainment and education that we race to forgive the immense effect it has on our kids, teenagers and society as a consentaneous yet the media plays one of the greatest roles in organization our children (Gorman McLean 78).Violence has so removed been the greatest result of mass media. The television has so far been proved to be the most influential and available means of accessing information. tv can be a powerful entertainment and education hammer for children given the right programming however it can also project very negative effects. We are constantly exposed to scenes dominated by images exuding craze, internal unfairness and much more. Its a known fact that children nowadays spend ass much time with television, internet and former(a) media daily as they do in the classroom. Media is a major socialisation force and we cant look at childhood in this current century without looking at the media. we are constantly be bombarded by advertisements ,opinion, images and stories which appear to be forcing us to conform to a specific image of how we are supposed to be and behave and as we guide our kids knowingly or unknowingly are also teaching and tend to copy what they nail. Children absorb what surrounds them making them easy targets for manipulation and victimization of the media therefrom by the time they reach adulthood they are already chthonian its influence. The media promotes violence and immorality when they award them by massive coverage of violence and immorality stricken a reas. The media doesnt force these traits on the children but instead it adapts the standard of whatIs considered principle and tolerable in our society. in the media violence is considered normal as can be proved by the discipline of run cartoons, sports and sitcoms raising the question whether violence and immorality are the norm to our spring chicken who look up to the media for a sense of direction in shaping their lives. the medias portrayal of violence has led to the obsession of producing violent films, video games and cartoons that has deceive our kids into believing that violence is a key part of society and when the kids get into fights at school they see nothing wrong with their actions, so as a result violence is a key factor in the youth culture today and has resulted in an increase in criminal activities since the youth are blinded by the imagery they are conceive resulting in them mimicking what they see displayed and emphasized by the media.A culture of imm orality has also cropped up. This has eroded the virtues we were brought up living in accordance with. A business of immorality has evolved and positive into one of the biggest entertainment success the sedulousness is yet to witness. Here, the internet plays the greater role since it is the ultimate form of dependable information access among it the most pervert content. Sex has dominated the internet and sometimes children often without their parents or guardians knowledge gain access to much(prenominal) information hence arousing their curiosity. As far as televisions go, most countries have bans that strangle television channels in what they present to their audience hence forcing them to scan their architectural plans for explicit content or clearly stating the age limit before turn on the from television without finding a programme with sexual under(a)tones, moreover, magazines are filled with photos, stories and features that promote immorality in the use who find noth ing wrong in wanting to imitate what their favourite(a) celebrities are doing. In their bid to role play and fit into the set standard most youngsters end up indulging in sexual activities before they are mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions (Bachus Glover 234).Foul mutual language and poor attitude have not been spared either and has developed at an alarming rate. Children from as young as when they learn to verbalise are exposed to vulgar language mostly from what they hear in the media. The use of vulgar language is on the rise in entertainment, television programmes and social conversations. This language is mostly hostile, disrespectful not to forget uneasy yet the young people see nothing wrong in using this foul language since the media makes it look okay and normal. Children have also developed poor attitude from watching movies and they tend to copy what they see the movie stars they adore do. This results in them offending others unknowingly s ince they are under the notion that that language is proper otherwise it wouldnt have been expose for them to see.The media provides contrasting options and our greatest challenge is to choose wisely what to listen to and watch surprisingly, opposite from its negative side mass media offers much that is productive and capable to us. The hardest thing is deciding and choosing what is good and what is not. Our moral values should not be jeopardized because we have acquired new technology. We cannot shield our children and loved ones from all the explicit content they are likely to encounter in their daily routines on the media, but we can at least try talking to them and showing them the dissimilarity between the right and the wrong. its our responsibility to prepare our children psychologically for the digital world we have created and teach them useful skills to enable them make wise decisions when they are online and finally stop blaming the media for the mistakes our children m ake.

Under Pricing of Initial Public Offerings

Under Pricing of sign Public OfferingsInvestopedia.com defines initial open offering as the first-year barter of be work by a private telephoner to the public. initial public offerings ar frequently identification numberd by smaller, younger companies seeking the groovy to expand, but nookie as well be done by large privately owned companies feeling to become publicly traded.In an initial public offering, the issuer obtains the assistance of an beneathwriting level, which helps it determine what type of certificate to issue (common or preferred), the best offering worth and the time to move it to mart.1 initial public offering INITIATION AND THE PHASES OF initial offering TRANSFORMATIONAny initial public offering goes through and through the pursual stages of transformationThe pre- initial public offering transformation phase layab kayoed be considered to be a restructuring phase where a familiarity starts the groundwork toward becoming a publicly-traded compan y. Further more than than, companies should re-examine their organizational processes and policies and make necessary channelises to enhance the companys integrated political science and transp bency. Most importantly, the company needs to develop an effective growth and line of reasoning strategy that can persuade potence investors the company is profitable and can become even more profitable. On average, this phase usually takes around two years to complete.The IPO transaction phase usually takes range right before the shares are sold and involves achieving goals that would enhance the optimal initial valuation of the sign of the zodiac. The key issue with this step is to maximize investor confidence and credibility to ensure that the issue volition be successful. The intent of these actions is to prove to authorisation investors that the company is bequeathing to spend a elflike extra in order to have the IPO handled promptly and correctly.The post-IPO transaction ph ase involves the exploit of the promises and business strategies the company committed to in the preceding stages. The companies should not attain to meet expectations, but rather, beat their expectations2The food merchandiseing process of going public is marked by what is called road show.road shows involving Issuers and key managers of the company to capability investors via presentations in major cities and case to face with the target investors (Ritter, 1998).These presentations focus on business operations, products and services, and management.The visit aims to quantify the expected choose for the shares of the company and serves as a key input in the final determination of the initial forwardness of the sharesAt the end of the road shows, and just prior to the certain first day of profession (usually days before opening day), directors and on a lower floorwriters will determine the initial offering charge.This is quite important because once the charge is dete rmined in that respect is no scope of increasing it even if on that quest is senior high school pray for it. This is how stocks become under priced. By the shutting of the first trading day a huge difference can be seen amid the actual price and listed price. The concept of under-pricing is dealt with more detail in the following section.THE CONCEPT OF UNDERPRICINGUnder-pricing is the difference between the initial offered price of the stock and the price at the closing of the first day of trading (Ibbotson, 1975, Ibbotson, Sindelar and Ritter, 1988 Ritter, 1998). This undervaluation is not different for companies to commit.To illustrate, guess the initial price of a firm issuing 1 million share is $100/share. This would result in a seat of government of $100 million for the company when all the shares are sold. Now suppose towards the closing of the day, the share is traded at $150. This would mean that the share was underpriced by 50%. This results in an uncommitted prof it of $50 million for the initial investors. This phenomenon is seen universally across developed and developing countries. This trend of under-pricing can be seen as going against the concept of market efficiency and may cause scathe to firms trying to collect capital for expansion. In this regard much question has been done and much literature has likewise been written.The theory of efficient markets suggests that the price of newly issued shares will quickly adapt to all relevant available learning in the market (Fama, 1970) hypothecate. tho the constant undervaluation has raised questions intimately what happens when companies go public.The decision to go public is one of the largest in corporate finance.Even developed economies like the US, a number of large companies are not public. This shows that going public is not mandatory for a company but it is a choice. However in that location is a clear dissimilarity between companies choosing to use the stock market and the companies that do not.A company basically goes public to either diversify their portfolios or to raise capital to invest in future projects. Some other reasons why a company might opt for going public include overcoming debt, change of controls and to enhance opportunity.WHY ARE IPOs UNDERPRICED A LITERATURE REVIEW on that point are direct and indirect which are borne by the company when an IPO is issued. The indirect cost is the cost associated with information provision to the stock market and the direct costs are the numerous costs which are associated with fees and charges much(prenominal) as the underwriting fees, legal fees and auditing fees etc. However the more or little important among these and probably which affects the stock price once it is issued is the dilution associated once the shares start to change transfer in the public. Often IPOs are found to be underpriced payable to this dilution costs. further the IPOs are ofttimes subject to the practice of book m ental synthesis. Book build refers to the process of generating, capturing, and recording investor demand for shares during an IPO (or other securities during their issuance process) in order to support efficient price discovery.3In the event of an issue going public, the issuer always fixes a price bent and allows the investor to quote a price within this price band. The upper limit of this price band is the maximum possible price to be paid for the IPO and then on that point is a chance that the issue becomes underpriced in case there is tautologicalive demand for the stock. In this the valuation of the stock often reaches an imagine before the stock transacts in the market. As such there is a chance that the stocks get oversubscribed. A peculiar trend can be seen in case of IPOs. The dedicates are quite high in the initial period. But over a short period of time this return is normalized or completely minimized and the stock starts to trade at a tax close to its actual is sue price. Therefore it may be wrong to assume that the stock is actually underpriced at the time of issue. some(prenominal) factors can affect its high return which can include a bullish market also.Rock (1986) and Baron (1982) explained this under-pricing through their models. Baron fictitious that investment bankers /underwriters possess more information on the demand of the gage than the issuer. The issuer has to compensate the underwriter for this superior information set. Rock assumed that there are two groups of investors in the IPO market which are reason as the informed investor and the unknowing investors. Systematic under-pricing is needed so that the uninformed buyers can earn a normal expected returnThe price formation process for IPOs may be susceptible to the existence of authoritative conditional price trends in the short-run aftermarket for several reasonsFirst the market takes time to adjust to the amount of analysis done on the denote issues and this time c an extend over several months. There is a great deal of skepticism around the IPOs because of the scarcity of public information available at the time of initial offering. Thus their true cheer seems highly uncertain to the public. The initial return of the stock is actually the first reaction of the people and goes on to show how the people assess the stock against the initial offering.Second, the first market price may fail to reflect fully all available information because of the potentially fragmented market for IPOs. The issue size of IPOs is typically small and the underwriters, often facing excess demand, ration new issues to their regular invitees, who constitute a small subset of potential investors. Initial trading in the aftermarket serves to disseminate information intimately the value of IPOs to other investors. While initial upward price movement of underpriced IPOs spreads well-fixed information, the available supply of shares is restricted because underwriters ty pically discourage initial subscribers from change their allotments in the aftermarket. Investors who were unable to obtain their full subscriptions at the offering may seek to buy shares in the aftermarket, resulting in a sequence of effortless positive returns. In the case of an overpriced issue, the first market price fails to reflect the available information because of price stabilization by the underwriting syndicate.The under-pricing can be explained with the help of many hypotheses. These are discussed belowThe Risk-Averse- insurer hypothesis In order to mitigate the risks and costs of underwriting the underwriters usually knowingly undervalue the stocks. However the investment bankers readily do their homework and they have a clear idea of the actual value of the stock. Therefore this hypothesis only seems pregnant when there is a scope of book building and not when there is a case of fixed price offerings. Since both book building issues and seasoned equity offerings w ere historically underpriced, one cannot say that the main author of under-pricing were the investment bankers desire to averse risk.The Monopsony-Power Hypothesis (Ritter, 1984) The investment banker enjoys monopsony power era analyzing common stocks of small firms. They then ration these to the most influential customers who have maintained good relations in the past. Further reasoning by different analyst suggested that this under pricing can also be targeted at earning excess income in the form of commission and fees. (Ritter, 1984) suggested that the gross under pricing might be result of the monopsony power of the investment bankers in underwriting common stocks of small speculative firms. According to Ritter, the investment bankers intentionally under price the securities and ration them to their large customers who regularly buy a form of investment services from them.The Speculative-Bubble hypothesis This hypothesis says that one of the reasons for stock price to boom is due to those investors who could not grab a share during the IPO (because of oversubscribing) and those who speculate that the prices of these stocks will rise in the future. This was typical during the IT boom period.The point to wonder is what determines the true value of the stock. The true valuation and the quality of the IPO can be analyse by the followingRetained fair-mindednessSince firms can determine how much equity they will give out at the time of initial public offering. Since this figure can be obtained in advance therefore it serves as the most relevant and the most researched. Since the pre-IPO ownership of firm is determined and very unlikely to change, this becomes an extremely rough signal to imitate. It must be noted that any change in such information prior to the IPO can dampen the devotion of the investors and might have significant impact on the value of the stock.Underwriter prestigeThe market value can be significantly changed due to the prestige attach ed with the underwriter. Those investment bankers who have a good temperament in the market will signal less uncertainty about the performance and offer value of the IPO. The valuations done by these investment bankers will be considered with less guessingBut even in the face of a prestigious investment banker doing the valuation, there is significant chance of under-pricing. These underwriters campaign with two key constituents in the IPO process. The underwriters representing the firm forms the first and the leaf node base for whom the securities are marketed. The first constituent is the firm whose securities the underwriters represent. The second is the client base to whom the underwriters market the IPO securities.Auditor ReputationThe price of the IPO can also be influenced by the auditor reputation. The auditors who are deemed as high quality will be judged with very less speculation and the investors will fairly accept the value of IPO set forth. If the auditor fails to reveal potential negative firm information, then the reputation of these high quality auditors may suffer. In some cases shareholders can also single file a lawsuit.Number of Risk FactorsThe prospectus revealed by the issuer also dilate the risk factors pertaining to the company. The purpose for this is to let the investors assess the fair value of the IPO and the possible opportunity that might exist in investing in this IPO. Firms with more risk factors can be associated with higher uncertainty. Firms with greater total of risk factors are associated with higher uncertainty.Firm SizeLarger firm size often has greater resources and more opportunity to survive in extreme situations. Thus the firm size also motivates the price of the IPO. some(prenominal) studies found that there is a negative correlation between underpricing and firm size. This is consistent with the relation between large firm size and more stability. Thus potential investors trust the IPO price to be close to its fair value when large firms are at stake. Moreover the large firms also are associated with more prestigious underwriters.Firm AgeThe more the age of the firm will act as a security system from the risk and this is used in valuing the price of the IPO. This is because the younger firms have less number of published financial data and hence the valuations done for these firms are often subject to uncertainty. Moreover these firms are also not analyzed by financial analyst. Firm age and performance are often related.Offer PriceOne of the responsibilities of the lead investment bank is to assess the pre market demand for its clients prospective IPO in an effort to set a reasonable price. Thus this initial price might also instigate some amount of under-pricing. Also it has to be known that a very modest price will signal less demand and less value or maybe both. The initial price of an IPO offering may also have value as an index finger of underpricing. In the early stages of a n IPO, the lead investment bank is responsible for assessing the premarket demand for its clients prospective IPO in an effort to set the offer price. Presumably, a very modest offer price will signal little demand, little value, or both

Illegal Immigration And Border Security

ineligible in-migration And casting Security insane asylum department of native land earnest is one of the responses of 9/11 attacks on link upd States of America. It is a cabinet department of federal government of regular army. It was organise on November 25, 2002. DHS was mainly abidanceed to fight terrorist act. DHS imbibed Immigration and Neutralization serve in March 2003. afterwards assuming its duties, DHS divided the enforcement and services functions in to two different new agencies. Those two new agencies ar named as in-migrations and customs enforcement and citizenship and in-migration services. Investigation division and intelligence gathering unit of measurement of Immigration and Neutralization services and custom services were merged to form Homeland security investigations. All these atomic number 18 designed to hold the homeland United States of America save and secure. It was formed to assure the people of USA to secure them from any kind of terro rist related activities and in addition from scourges similar vile immigration. The five core missions of homeland security be as follows. (Smith, 2006) block terrorism and enhancing security.Secure and manage our restricts.Enforce and administer our immigration laws. precaution and secure cyberspace.Ensure resilience to disasters.(http//www.dhs.gov/our-mission)Department of homeland security strives to hold dear the nation from terrorism by increasing the security, by securing run intos to pr dismantlet mislabeled immigration which is one of the ways for terrorists to assume in to the ara. republic border security is maintained by DHS. This includes protecting USA air, land and ocean point of entries. Border security force securely regulates lawful handle and travel. It in like manner fights against il levelheaded terrorist transactions. The department also revised laws related to immigration to prioritize the identification and removal of criminal aliens who go fo rth be the effectiveness threats for public safety. DHS also secures cyberspace of civician government computer systems. It also responds in the event of natural disasters coordination with federal and state partners. (Alden, 2012)Illegal ImmigrationAs we know US is found by Great Britain. all in all over centuries USA has developed its culture. But still it has an essence of British culture. Unite States is cognize as nation of immigrants. Immigrants contributed a lot to nations development. Our nation bank legion(predicate) immigrants to for its development and designing its infrastructure. If we trace the ancestors of many American citizens, they will lead to origin outside the untaught. America importantly has a compound culture. In 19th century immigrant labor made a of import contribution towards transcontinental rail road construction. In 20th century, immigrants deal Enrico Fermi and Werner Von Braun made a notable contribution for field security. More noticeabl y on that point were substantial contributions for broadcast and entrainment industry from immigrants. nigh of the known ex wide-cuts are Penelope Cruz from Spain. Jim Carry, Pamela Anderson and Michael J Fox are from Canada. The ancestors of noteworthy pop singer Michael Jackson who is also known as superpower of Pop is originally from Africa. A well-known actor and also designer governor of California is originally from Gratz, Austria. This recognizable list of immigrants proves that USA receives coarse society of those who want to in migrate into unsophisticated and make their identity. But, unluckily on that point are many situations where illegal immigrations are reported which has give way prime feather matter threat in the present day. (Smith, 2006)Illegal immigration has become one of the major threats for the nation. It has become a priority national security issue that has to be dealt with immediately and forcibly. It can no weeklong be viewed as heartbeata ry issue besides terrorism and drugs. Illegal immigration is related to both of them. It is of the reasons where terrorism and drug dealing issues are developing its roots in the country. Solving this issue can snip the illegal weapon and drug transactions to maximum extent. If this is left unresolved, there is a chance for our enemies to take advantages of the situation which will be threat for public safety. This task of illegal immigration leaves three symptoms. It poses a fountainhead on inability to defend the border and enforce the immigration laws strictly. On top of all the policies and laws exists in the federal and state levels, illegal immigrations makes the citizenship meaningless, legal immigrant status pointless and illegal immigrant status penalty-less. This adds to reasons for which drugs and terrorists increasing in the country. Secondly, due to engineering in the present situation, illegal immigrants have ties with their origin which doesnt make immigrants to invest proportionate effort to personally identify the new culture. This decreases factors like patriotism, loyalty and citizenship. Thirdly, at tightlipped point illegal immigrants was the bring in of the reintroductions of the diseases that are eradicated decades ago. This poses a serious threat for the public safety. at that place are situations where few activists for illegal immigrants forced bilingual information and also subsidies on the education which was an extra lodge on taxpayer. This makes the citizenship really meaningless. On top of all this, there are prisons filling with illegal immigrants of some petty crimes to drug dealing and even to murder cases. These situations leave a big burden on tax payer. This also will be the threat for public safety. Illegal Immigration in future turns in to national crisis even if it except circumscribed to our nations infrastructure. According to the latest news, the effect of illegal immigrations change magnitude to a signi ficant level. Large illegal immigration groups may designer a significant threat to nations security. There is a chance for terrorists to enter and also influence the other illegal immigrants towards their activities. There is also a chance of recruiting them in to terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda and other probable terrorist groups whose primary motive is to harm USA. The same illegal group under potential leadership may drive significant loss for the nation. (Rosenblum, 2012) (Smith, 2006)There are many events where there is a human flood of immigration in to the country. Most of the immigrants came from northern and western parts of Europe before the civil war. From 1890 and 1920 more immigrants sailed from southern and eastern European countries like Greece, Poland and Italy. In 1910, there was a large group migrated in to the country which contributes to a significant number of about 13.5 million who are settled in USA. The estimated universe of discourse of both legal and illegal immigrations till date is about 35 million.Bracero political program is one of the events where there is significant amount of immigration. Bracero program was designed by United States after 2nd world war to catch up with the shortage of agriculture labor. The program was started in 1942 and ended in 1964. The program legally employed 4.5 million Mexican citizens to work mainly in Texas and California. This was a temporary arrangement which stated that they should return back to their country after 1964. Bracero program had a statutory position of a bilaterally treaty that offered measure of regulation and control. This was used as a loophole by many immigrants to enter with the intention of settling here. The estimated immigrants through bracero program are about 1.1 million. This equals to adding a city which is a size of Dallas every year. This leads to cause problems for legal residents. This also leads some terrorists to migrate in to the country easily. There a re many reports stating there are many criminal activities near USA border such as MS-13. Terrorists using flaws in immigration laws enter in to the country and leads to some severe problems. Not entirely terrorists, there are many others like drug cartels that enter in to the country exploiting flaws in the immigration laws. Drug dealing is mainly controlled by illegal immigrants. Besides all this, corrupt Mexican law enforcement officials protagonist in illegal immigration through southern border. (Alden, 2012) (http//www.dtic.mil/ndia/2008homest/needs.pdf) (Rosenblum, 2012)Exploiting immigration laws also served as an opportunity for the Lee Boyd Malvo who is alleged for random sniper attacks in Richmond, VA and working capital D.C. It was reported that he was illegitimately immigrated following his mother who is also migrated illegally and remained in the country. Along the southern border there was increase in lawlessness which pushed civilian border patrol and law enforcem ent personnel in to risk. This lawlessness by illegal immigrants helped them to generate income through drugs and support a drug cartel that indeed supports terrorist organizations. This also served them to intrude in to the country and develop their network all over the country. This also explained how 9/11 hijackers exploited immigration laws and entered in to the country.Economic impact is one of the primary reasons for illegal immigration. Irish potato blight of 1845-1849 is one of the economic disasters. At that time many refugees left Ireland for USA. The main reason for Mexicans to enter the country is mostly economic. As we know Mexico is a developing country. There are two significant sources income for the Mexico. One is direct sales of oil and second is income from the people who resides in USA and sends coin to their relatives. Although there are some entrepreneurs and skilled workers there is more un use of goods and services which leads them for migrating it to USA wh ere the can find ample of employment opportunities. The only reason for them to migrate is money. The can earn money which has higher value than their national currency and as mentioned plenty of employment oppurnities. Prior to 9/11 attacks either governments was strict about immigration laws. The illegal worker was named as undocumented worker. later 9/11 attacks, laws were made rigid to prevent illegal immigration which may cause threat to public safety.Border securityIt is the core element of Department of Homeland Security to prevent illegal immigration with U.S. border patrol (USBP) within the Bureau of customs and border protection (CBF). Border security acquired additional attention since 9/11 attacks. Since 1990 migration was controlled at the border by the strategy called prevention through intimidation. It is the idea that the concentration of personnel, surveillance technology and infrastructure on thickly trafficked region of the border prevents unauthorized doorway . Since 2005, CBF essay to reduce illegal entry by fantastic heavy penalties and implementing policies known as enforcement with consequences. Immigration and reform act was implemented in 1986. After many events, IRCA authorized 50% increase in the size of USBP. 10 additional laws was added which are related to immigration. This was the reaction for 9/11 attacks. Country faces a deadly situation where border security has become primary entity. The significant decrease of illegal immigrants was lowered only after 2007. This is only because of increase enforcement. Illegal immigration has become a major problem when bracero program was implemented. From the laws of enforcement was made rigid. Despite of rigid laws there was a significant increase in illegal immigration till 2007. It was only controlled from 2007. (Rosenblum, 2012)Border control strategySeventy later its formation, border patrol designed its first formal national border control strategy in 1994 which is called as Na tional strategic plan. This plan was updated as a reaction of 9/11 attacks. The new plan was published in 2012. The quick plans were based on the operational strategy of prevention through deterrence as mentioned earlier. Its main goal is to reduce illegal immigration to a significant level. CBF has also strived to decrease illegal entry by imposing high penalties and also by enforcement with consequences strategy. (Rosenblum, 2012)National strategic planIn is the outcome of increased unauthorized immigration along southwest border of USA. It was developed in 1994. Drug smuggling was the serious problem along the southwest border. INS then changed it approach of arresting the illegal immigrants to prevent their entry. NSP designed multi-phase strategy where phase I involves hold the line program in El Paso, TX, and operational gatekeeper in San Diego, CA. Phase II includes increase of Operation Rio Grande in Texas. Phase III and phase IV includes remain southwest border. This was a successful strategy where arrests of illegal entry were increased and reduced number of immigrants.National border patrol strategyAfter 9/11 attacks, USBP has formulated new NBPS. It was designed to emphasis on terrorism. Its main motto was to prevent terrorism. The five main objectives of NBPS are as follows. (Rosenblum, 2012)By increasing the number of apprehension of terrorists and prevent their illegal entry and also prevent weapon smuggling.Decreasing illegal entry by improving enforcement laws.Detecting, apprehending and deterring smugglers of drugs and human.Leveraging Smart border technology.Reducing crime in border communities.ConclusionIllegal immigration is one of the biggest threats to nation. It is one of the reasons for terrorism and drugs in the country. It decreases the value of legal citizen. It acts as root cause for many criminal activities, drugs, terrorism etc. This has to be prevented. Border security is attempt to fight against illegal immigration.

Strategic Change Management At Marks And Spencer Business Essay

Strategic win over wariness At mark And Spencer Business EssayMarks and Spencer is one of the star diets and no food items retailer almost alone over the world and its rush is to provide excellent quality to their customers. It has extensive heritage of excellent proceeds and crossingion and successful stories of business. These days they contract faced some grand extend of competition from their competitors such as competitive price dodging and use of excellent market tools and crude fashion at poor cost prices. In this repute we give controvert the privation of diverseness that Marks and Spencer would required in brass section.Background of ChangeThese days companies be focus to increase their product bank bill and market their assist by using of effective merchandise tools for example 4ps for example Tesco is the one of the biggest retailer in the UK and acceptedly having much than 2500 line of products in their store and they ar increasing their pro ducts day by day because they want to retain their aged(prenominal) customers as well as they want to trimct crude customers, for this design they prolong impregnable RD Team that helps them to know that what would be the competitive product and they non notwithstanding took initiative but to a fault start their specialised group researched to improve their existing product. Mean opus the firm ferment is monitored by upper management aim and they use compensate place, right mathematical operation and right product for the right people and increase their sales level with the slogan of Every little help. This is very effective scheme to try out the whole act by saying that that they are only helping their customers.The bring of in a higher place example is the main key process of their RD group is that they review their whole process again and again to snitch their ending and products better and fulfil flips on need basis.Before establishing the demand o f throw in Marks and Spencer I volition discuss and nonplus for inter channelises which are theseKotters Model for ChangeKotters Model for ChangeChange is a process that command to be placed compulsory in apiece and every organization these days after current period, these transmuted could be in management level or labour level, but the principal(prenominal) issue that this modification should be implemented successfully to gain the same level or more then the old level of satisfaction or profit.In Harvard Business School Korter introduced the eight step of model of throw that help organization to implement the desired shift successfully and conservatively and also on urgent basis. (Mind Tools, 2011)He mentioned that changes that organization adopt in the presence of their competitors are most quick so thats why employees should let the change to help the org. to lead in market with quick closing. stair no. 1Need of UrgencyAs we have discussed above that phoner ne cessarily a quick change to lead in the market with competitive skills and products and with competitive decisions. Now we will see its enormousness with an example of Marks and Spencer, suppose its competitor ASDA introduces a discount of 10% bread and cover to frustrateher, now the very next morning it is the contest function for Marks and Spencer to retain their customers onwards opening hour they have to c tout ensemble the meeting on urgent basis and plan the change in their strategy because of the competitors actions, they introduce loyalty scheme that who buys bread and butter will thrum double club card point that will help to retain the customers and their profit will remain same, but afterwards they need to pull out it sure that this one decision is implement in all their branches in UK to treasure the confidence of the customers. This is call urgency need of change. To implement these skills and situation MS would need toAnalyse their employees potential of attai nment and their knowledge skills that how active they are towards whatsoever changeAllow the agency and time to employees to find out the need of business by doing tog up summary and made them aware that how quick they should be in marchesinal figureination of changeWhen management take the decision from employees than employees would know and will assess the upcoming change and will be ready to adopt it. footmark no 2Strong CoalitionImplementation of change without watertight cajoleionship means having a profit without investments in retail industry. We can buoy measure the importance of change without leader in our daily lives. jibe to Korter team proceeding of organization towards change leads to success. For that purpose Marks and Spencer must follow these pointsTake a feed back from employees about the pass around of the leaderDo external examine to know the enamour of leader on their employeesHire new strong leader to implement the changes on urgent basis ill -use 3Change in Goals and perpetrationEvery organization do practice and do internal audit to make sure that their employees are working with the knowledge of their path that leads to viridity mission and objectives. According to Korter in case of change in organization goals and mission they must remember these new approaches to their employees. (Value Based, 2010) They can do in the following formatUse of a couple of(prenominal) words and post it inner the organization on small distancesDo the seminars with the general public and with employees to show your progress and the care companys for customers and their employeesUse of these words in common speeches in mid term reports, etc. standard no. 4 fix discussion and communication of imagination and missionAs we have discussed before that the need of the management is to do practice of remembering of common vision and mission among their employees to let them know their duties and any new changes.Step no. 5Remove ObstaclesAs w e have discussed the korters need of urgency at start they also focused that if they free-base any obstacle in reviewing process it must be removed urgently.Step no 6 trivial Term WinsManagement while remembering the vision among employees should calculate every little effort of employees to made them perfect and efficient in their stimulate tasks. This would help the other employees to be motivated. (The leader ship hub, 2011)Step no 7Build the Change ContinuouslyThis step defines that company need to be productive and should not stop after certain level of change but regularly should analyse the market situation.Step no 8 sex act with companys cultureCompany such as Marks and Spencer should always relate the change ideas and strategized with the company surround and with its current cultures.Change in Marks and SpencerIn recent research it is found that MS having low level of sales due to their extra expenses on non related items like according to MS they spent 2m pounds in co mpact with Oxfam to collect the old unused c tradehs and for stopping dry land filling. This strategy also market on their websites and on different nonrecreational place these activities got bay window of amount and did give back no social occasion in term of fiscal to lay on the line toters. Before implementing these kinds of strategies it is necessary to measure the benefit of key sake toters. (Marks and Spencer, 2010)Initially they attract 1200 of people on their web site in one moth by saying that they will award a ticker of amount who would give the most productive idea to protect the environment but this activity to invite them didnt give them as such because they were more focused towards other activities than introducing new styles and products.Need of Change in item AreasAs we have discussed the background that why they need change that is bend one of all the over spent on the advertising and second thing is that the focus of the management towards companies goa l and mission and third is increasing the product line.These factors are not only focused on companys strategies but if we discuss the same factors with the companys objective we must ensure the quality of whole process to let every employees know the importance and values of companys mission.With the relation of all above discussion now I will discuss the consider main root of change that what are the places requisite change?Factors of need of changeBelow are the main root that causes the disturbance and these factors need to force changed in Marks and SpencerUnclear goals of MS among the employeesExtra spend and attention of extra curricular activitiesLow number of product line outgrowth new style fashionRegular reviewing and monitoring process (Internal Audit)These are the few points that must be implementing in Marks and Spencer to give its old mission statement.Change in Management ActivitiesAs we have discussed that the main problem in marks and Spencer is that their visi on towards their business activities is not clear they are focus to treat other activities as their own business activities such as they joined their hand with Oxfam a pilot ladder organization and have started campaign to collect the unusable cloths to stop land filling and reselling them with the help of Oxfam. Actually they have distracted from their actual work its not due to some employees activity but this action is world decided and taken by upper level of management.Now the change is needed in that area to recover the absence and demage to business dirt value to complete their uncompleted unretentive term goals to achieve long term goals on decided time until 2020.Application of Kotters Modelhither kotters first step of model of change applies that they needs to create the situation of quick change by considering the current situation of their business as compare to the other competitors they must be able to act as quick as they want to gain the profit from the market bu sinesses. For this they need a strong leadership that would motivate and attract the employees towards the need of urgency because some times employees didnt focus that what they are doing and they didnt adopt the change so it is the responsibility of leader to insist them that change is the compulsory thing that needs to be implement. (mind tools, 2010)Change in Product LineThe change is needed in product line where there are very few fashion products they are presenting as compare to their competitors. BY doing SWOT analysis they would come to know the need of new and innovative product that will help them to retain the old customers and by introducing new styles in non food industry they will attract other new customers as well. (Marks and Spencer)Change in Spending on Extra curricular ActivitiesThey need to change their perception towards the mind capturing of customers until now they understand that the best way to attract the customers is socialise them on their web site and a sk them to give new ideas to win the prizes but these ideas were not so popular and still the reason of spending extra money and time on it.Application of Short term WinsAfter ensuring the strong leader management need to do a quick review of their proviso and find out any barrier that stops their progress towards their goals. After ensuring all tools and techniques than they need to make sure that they are appreciating their employees to get out of them some thing extra to promote their vision and to get the suggestions and new ideas from them.Change in mould ProductsAs we have discussed that they are currently in need to attract the customers by introducing new styles and fashion in garments industry to attract more customers from all around the UK so in that case they would able to become the market leader in short term in the UKs market.Relation with Marks and Spencers CultureAfter ensuring that they have removed the barriers and have created short term wins now they need to c hange the inner environment of MS time by time to get the modern techniques and styles in to their organization. That sustained change would remind the employees to give their on suggestions on their short term wins and with that opinions business would be able to act more quickly towards the change. cardinal Stake holder at Marks and SpencerNow we will discuss the importance of mail service holders in any organizations and their need in the companies change strategies and their importance in over all business mean.Stake holder means a group of person and companies having direct or in direct relation with the company strategies and they are affected with company decision internally or externally.Suppliers as a key stake holder at MSSupplier at Marks and Spencer are twain food and non food products so while making strategic planning it is crucial to take care of their amuse in that policies. Suppliers interest could be increase in number of their order so they would get paid mor e and taking new orders would increase their productivity and profit. With the consent in change in business strategies of suppliers they would able to provide new products and new ideas on time to the customers on the shop and also on online stores and they would get on time door to door delivery.They also a peachy impact on environmental by using green factories and superman while delivering the food and fashion products to the customers at their doors.Board of Directors at Marks and SpencerBoard of Directors are those person who have superior power inwardly the organization and are holding large number of shares and any nay policies effect their interest more badly or positively. So it is vey in-chief(postnominal) to design the change policy in the way in which contour can easily identify their short term and long term profit of the organization.Customers of Marks and SpencerTheir are two types of customers who shop from Marks and Spencer that is in shop customers and other type is Online customers in recent annual report according to MS they showed the sales figure in which the total 15% of sale from UK was online based that was the huge amount sold from online resources. Now while doing change in organization it is very important to consider the interest of both type of customers to get the highest level of satisfied customers with increasing number of sales.GovernmentIn some projects govt. is included in the business planning as a stake holder such a kindness program that runs nation wide have a great influence of govt. department in it so doing change in policies would effect them badly. So management needs to care their interest as well to protect their long term benefit.Implementation Process of Model of Change in Marks and SpencerBow we will discuss the need of change and how they implement it in the organization with consent of all other key stake holders. To understand this process easily I have divided these steps in main five steps such as financial and function level and their sub heads with Kotters models, etc. The implementation is described in table belowModel of Change in Marks and Spencer takes expositionStarting/Function levelNeed To made quick decision on Urgent basisStrong leadership that leads to strong team workProcess LevelClear vision on all companys objectiveOn regular basis communication with companys employeesStructure LevelImprove structure level by removing any obstacleIncrease the confidence by awarding them on short term effectMarketing LevelRegular working towards change with the help of marketing toolsInnovation/Maturity LevelDaily revision of old achievements and new targetsProgress with practice under supervisionDiscussion of above delay of application and implementationIn Marks and Spencer company have lot of branches inside the UK to make sure that they all act on policies of change at functional level and process level it is necessary to get their strong leadership on them to bring the n ew and desired change it is due to the research of Kotters model of change according to him the need of change only could be generated if the team would have strong coalition and strong leadership. Thats why doing SWOT analysis at this level is also important to get rid of barriers at urgency level, other wise whole process would lead to the company towards unsuccessful change and the interest of stake holders would be damaged.Yours Truly,Adnan Jamil

Explain How Rational Organisational Design Business Essay

Explain How Rational Organisational Design Business EssayRational fundamental lawal throws, suggested by Max Weber, rely on logic, couch and assurance, paying particular attending to the division of labour, promotion by merit and hierarchal mastery with the imprint that this provides perfection in fundamental laws (French et al, 2009). Organisations implement this formulate with the optimism of growthd might however, bewilder dismissed brotherly organisation and the impacts this can hand. In this essay, rationalisation impart be discussed, focusing on the effects it has on an organisation and its employees conclude with the argument of whether a rational organisational design is desirable for Junction Hotel.scientific precaution, established by Frederick Taylor, aims to simplify work by following arrange principles. These principles r turn upinize work organising it into repetitive tasks in order to achieve maximum efficiency, bighearted motorcoachs business and a span of control, (Morgan, 2006).TAYLORISMRational organisational designs develop depending on the coat of the business they ar utilize with in. The aboveboard design is often use upd within organisations with few staff, such as small retail stores. This sheath of design often has one member of staff, usually the manager, in control of the majority of other employees the hierarchy design resembling a pyramid, showing the manager has a large span of control. This span of control shifts all responsibility for the organisation of work from the worker to the manager according to Morgan (2006), meaning employees unaccompanied have to implement the work which is assigned to them by the manager.BUREAUCARCYAs a business grows a more complex rational organisational design has to be enforced to ensure that efficiency is still maximised. The more intricate design is known as bureaucratism. The bureaucracy design uses the same principle of the simple design, although has a larger come in of managerial staff and specific running(a) departments, developing the chain of command. Bureaucracy design uses more rules and regulations than the simple design, collectable to the increased number of employees which have authority oer other employees. This is so that there is a clear direction of discipline, resulting in all employees cognize who is in charge. This direction is the scalar chain showing the line of authority ascribable to the unity of command. Also it makes clear what each worker has to achieve, receivable to it being established by the specific departments. This as well means that planning for this specific job can be holy by workers, fashioning them more cost-effective. This is of importance to rational organisations for instance, the McDonaldization theory established by Ritzer (2008) states that efficient workers can perform their tasks more rapidly and easily. This is also achieved in bureaucracies by working like clockwork having staff perform a predetermined square off of activities, rest at appointed hours, and then resume their tasks until work is over, as described by Morgan (2006). This is a typical example of how bureaucracies are designed to function.Businesses which have these design characteristics are described by Morgan (2006) as organisations that are designed and operated as if they were machines.It is argued that rational organisational designs help to cut costs and increase control for a business, overall maximising efficiency and having a validating impact on the business evidenced by various real-life organisations.A typical example of a business today which has used a rational organisational design to achieve this is McDonalds. Ritzer (2008) helps to highlight the effectiveness of the organisational design McDonalds has employ by quoting Ray Krocs thoughts on the arrangement I was fascinated by the simplicity and effectiveness of the system Each step in producing the restrain menu was stripped down t o its essence and accomplished with a stripped-down effort This statement from Kroc identifies that McDonalds streamlined surgical processes and organisation has maximised efficiency. By producing moderate number of menu choices the business is able to assign pose tasks to specified departments, to be completed at a set time routinizing work. This increases control as the higher authority staff can over-see that the departments are completing their set tasks to ensure the food is made quickly and efficiently in order for customers to receive fast food from McDonalds. Also, by offering a limited menu, McDonalds cuts costs and as suggested by Ritzer (2008) the limited number of menu items also allows for highly efficient ordering of food and supplies the business does not use cash buying items which will be wasted due to resolve in demand from customers and there is no extension of the streamlined process meaning the employment of further staff or purchase of equipment or supplie s.Hotels such as the Travelodge have used rationalisation, in terms of appraise engineering. Davis (2007) states that businesses, such as the Travelodge, participate in an exercise called value management to optimise their process, trim costs and enhance quality. Value engineering is a result of this activity where businesses cut costs by taking out the frills which not all customers want. For instance Davis (2007) focuses on how Travelodges dont have shampoo in the bathroom. By following this constituent of rationalisation, the organisation cuts costs, however does not necessarily reduce value for the customer as the business, like Travelodge, will have already weighed up cost versus benefit.The above examples show how rational organisational design is present in businesses today. However, it was first derived in the 1700s by Frederick the Great. Morgan (2006) talks to the highest degree how Frederick developed rational organisation to increase control amongst his military. Fred erick reduced soldiers to automatons by introducing ranks and uniformsregulations, increased specialization of taskscommand language and systematic training By introducing these to the army, the men were taught to fear their officers increasing the control that the higher ranks of the hierarchy had over the lower ranks. This turned the unruly mob into machines as they now completed commands set by Frederick. This is an example of how rationalisation has increased control, even in the earliest organisations.Despite rational organisational designs evidentially showing positives for businesses, there are overly negative impacts on both the organisation and workers.If a business implements a rational organisation design then limitations do arise. These are intercommunicate by Morgan (2006) there is great difficulty in adapting to changing circumstances, Ritzer (2008) states that although efficiency is generally a good thing it does cause dehumanization of workers as businesses drive f or increased efficiency. This is evidenced an Anonymous BBC article (2010) stating that Bureaucracy hampers social workers, with a fifth of 4,141 social workers agreeing that they had sufficient time to work effectively with the young people on their case load and 50% of those who disagreed state that their workload was simply too large. This is related to the bureaucracy that the organisation has. ply find it harderto spend time face-to-face with children and families due to the organisational design. This makes the workers feel unhuman because they have too much paperwork, and not enough time to concentre on the cases they should be dealing with. This is also supported by Morgan (2006) who states that mechanistic approachescan have dehumanizing effects upon employees, especially those at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy and also that assembly-line work is simplyalienating. Mechanistic work, which stems from rational organisation also makes staff adopt mindless, unquestioning attitudes, which consequently results in well-nigh workers refusing job change, or a new responsibility because they have already a clear idea what is to be done by them due to the management and delegation rationalisation. Looking at this impact in the recollective term, it is likely that an organisation will find it difficult to change the bureaucracy it has already developed, causing changes in aims for the business also hard to achieve. This is another(prenominal) limitation of rational designs, which is suggested by Morgan (2006) when declaring those working in the organization wreak precedence over the goals the organization was designed to achieve.The theories and studies behind social organisation also show some negative impacts that rationalisation has.POSTIVE AND NEGATIVES ON argument/EMPLOYEES ARGUMENT USING SOCIAL DESIGNSIS IT DESIRABLE FOR JUNCTION HOTEL HOW? WHY? ENFORCING IT?

Devils Trill :: essays research papers

Devils TrillBefore the Spring Festival of 1973 the vote counters mother brought him his violin it was a fine German model. The fibber trustworthy the violin from his great uncle who bought it from a poor Russian musician for fifty dollar bill silver dollars. His uncle was on his deathbed when he gave the violin to the teller, and gave it to him because n angiotensin-converting enzyme of his sons our grandsons prevailed the violin. The narrator aspired to be a musician for much of his young life he attended a music school, only if later abandoned the dream. The narrator is now in a camp for political prisoners, recently one of the prisoners was executed, and many prisoners were scared they were going to be killed. The narrator was made a prisoner of a checkmate prisoner named Old Cop, and the narrator could not stand him. Even though he did not like him, the narrator tried to be on good terms with the Old Cop, but he just ignored him. On the eve of the Spring fete the narrato r was playing his violin on his bed and a fellow prisoner was trying to hide cakes his wife had brought him. After a eon a crowd of inmates were ga in that locationd abound his bunk get wording to him play the violin. The Old Cop was annoyed when The bigger Boss of the barracks came over to listen to the narrator play so he told the narrator to go remote. As he as going outside to the courtyard he started to resound past spring festivals before he was a prisoner, and how he learn to play the violin. He then entered the bathroom and saw a partner off of his friends and started play the violin for them. They were very pleased. Later that night he went to the Big Bosss barracks, and they talked about the Big Bosss coming(prenominal) release, and how he was arrested. When the narrator returned to his barracks, he witnessed the Old Cop trying to slip the one of the inmates cakes and started to fight with him. He eventually won the fight and was rewarded by one of the officers. H e was to be one of the waiters at the festival, a job that the Old Cop would have had. The narrator was mad to receive the job because he would be able to hear rumors from the outside world. When they got to the festival they were to help the butcher slay another pig because there were more people coming than expected.

Overcoming Physical Challenges :: Personal Narrative Essays

Overcoming Physical Challenges Im 17-years-old and I feel kindred Im righteous about twice my age. I get hold of had a strange childhood and have g whizz through a lot. The reason is due to several checkup conditions I have. I prefer calling them physical challenges rather than handicaps or anything like that. I would have to say this all started when I was 11-years-old. My legs just started giving me trouble. I was having a lot of trouble doing my dancing and billy classes because my knees kept feeling like they were lead offping out. I ignored it for a while, provided eventually it came to be too much so I had to go actualise a doctor. After my exam, my doctor diagnosed me with sublexing patellas, which means my kneecaps pop out of place. This was just the beginning of my trouble. About a year later, my muscles started to wither in my legs and I lost all muscle tone. I was devastated emotionally and physically. I could no longer walk, so I was put in a wheelchair. Wit h this I lost not only my physical mobility but also my dreams of being a professional dancer. My mum stood strong and took me to see the best doctors she could find and this led me to the Shriners Hospital in Montreal, Canada. Here is where I received my first ray of hope. By the m I go away I was walking with a walker and then just a cane. They were like miracle workers. I slowly gained back my muscle tone, but it was a long process and sometimes I just felt like giving up. I had many supporters who helped me and gave me the strength and courage I needed. I thought this would be an end to my medical problems, but then one summer I stopped breathing for no understandable reason. My mom revived me and then I was taken to the doctors to find out I had acquired costochronditis, which is the inflammation of the muscles near your sternum. My breathing troubles continued and they also decided to get a line some medications on me, but none worked, so we let things go. accordingly j ust when I thought my life was floating back to conventionalism for the average 13-year-old, I again encountered a new medical diagnosis. This time I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which affects all the muscles and bones in my body and explains some of my front trouble.

call centers :: essays research papers

Call Centers -- RPs Emerging Sunshine IndustryThe prefigure gist advantage has been dubbed the countrys latest sunshine industry, expected to move over around 24,000 jobs in the next two years. When a door closes, a window opens. compensate as the Philippines feels the fallout from the global IT crunch, it has benefited from the prevailing cost-cutting trend in an unthought way -- an unprecedented boom in the call subject matter business. Indeed, the call center service has been dubbed the countrys latest sunshine industry, with the sector expected to generate around 24,000 jobs in the next two years, according to Toby Monsod, causality assistant secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). "Its a rattling promising industry. Everybodys growing and hiring," Benedict Hernandez, Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) chair, state in a recent interview. From 2000 to 2001, the segment reportedly grew by more than 200 percent, and local call ce nter revenues are projected to augment from $173 million in 2002 to $864 million in 2004. Optimism runs high as an world-wide research group forecasts the growth of ICT-enabled services to a $200-billion industry by the year 2010, with the call center segments share at $42 billion. Reports prescribe that in the coupled States alone, there are 1.5 million call center seats that could be outsourced, and so far the Philippines has less than 10,000 seats filled, indicating the national industrys huge potential. What are call centers?A call center is a central customer service operation where agents (often called customer care specialists or customer service representatives) handle telephone calls on behalf of a client. Clients accommodate mail-order catalog houses, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, banks, financial service and insurance groups, transportation and freight handling firms, hotels and IT companies. The size of an operation is expound in terms of t he number of "seats." A seat consists of a charge with two or three people alternating in several(prenominal) shifts to provide 24-hour call center service. The industrys main target markets include the united States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Many factors contribute to the local industrys sizzling development pace. angiotensin converting enzyme is the rising cost of doing business in industrialized countries like the United States, forcing foreign companies to downsize and outsource peripheral e-services to developing countries like the Philippines to cut overheads. CCAP chairperson Jose Ferreros also cites the better power and telecommunications infrastructure, competitive labor cost in terms of quality and value for money, and strong government support for ICT-related industries.

My Twelve Hours of Independence :: Personal Narrative

My Twelve Hours of IndependenceAs the expansive expedition sight inscribed with Arrow Stage Lines on both sides,pulled up to the station, I felt my heart leap with excitement. This wasreally happening to me. each(prenominal) this time of planning and anticipating, and nowmy dream was coming true I could hardly wait to be on my own and to be outdoor(a)from my family for a whole week Looking around, I could see unless five another(prenominal)people that I knew. Four of these people were my family members and theother was a friend of mine who was going with me. The driver of the huge bus climbed mass from his perch behind the wheeland introduced himself as Juan Alvarez. I lade my luggage into thecompartment below the bus, told my family goodbye, and walked up the steps ofthe bus. I soon met the ternary other people who were riding with John and meand then settled into my piece of tail for the long bus ride to Liberty, Missouriwhere we would be attending the tilled land Youth Leadership Conference.The five of us were basically on our own. It was merely us and the busdriver, who couldnt speak very much English. We had a cluster of stops alongthe way to break down up other students attending the conference so we plugged in amovie and sour on the zone mode that would get us through the twelve-hourdrive. subsequently only one minor delay of our bus breaking down just outside ofDenver, we had successfully picked up all of the attendees from Colorado.There were somewhat twenty-five of us altogether. We changed drivers in Denver,then drove on towards Hays, Kansas, where we would pick up some morestudents. By this time, it was about 630 in the morning, and the bus wasnearing the small town of Ellis, which is about twenty legal proceeding outside ofHays. The movie Pure Country was playing, but I had locomote asleep longbefore it had started. It was just finishing when it happened. One keen Iwas comfortably curled up, lying across two loafering area an d the next I was bouncedinto the aisle of the bus. Thankfully, John was sitting in the seat directly across from mine, so hehelped me up out of the aisle and had me sit down next to him. I watched inhorror as the bus sped through the grassy median and then bounced back on tothe Interstate. The entire bus was in a state of confusion, as just abouteverybody had been asleep when the bus went off the road.

Ignorance Kills :: essays research papers

Any place I go, I cut I will never find two skateboardsthat ar the same. Each and every component of theskateboard makes a difference in the boards movement.Every deck, truck, and wheel is interchangeable so on that point isalmost an endless amount of combinations. A number ofthings can go ill-use when riding a person will never knowwhen one of the components will malfunction. I was ridingalong one daylight, and resembling a cat pouncing on a mouse, it hitsme and I suddenly wee that I am going to feel some pain.One of my wheels came off, I jerked, flew through the air,then landed on the street, all be manage the only day I tookthe time to suss out my wheels was the day I received theboard.I can remember the first time I learned how to check andfix a skateboard. I learned from one of my good virtuosonamed James. He came to my house and we skatedaround for a little while. One of my wheels do a funnynoise, and James said, "I think there is something wrongwith your skatebo ard." We went into the garage and satnext to the washer and dryer. He then rig the skateboarddownside up, and started to examine the skateboard. Hefirst looked at the deck to collect if there was somethingwrong that could be making the noise. James analyse the bagful tape, looked at the tail and the nose, then the wooditself to see if it had been cracked or split.He then began talking to me about the trucks and theirpurpose I studied and observed the hunks of alloy. Jamesthen began to study the bearings and noticed that thebearings were extremely dirty. This was the cause of thenoise. He told me that the bearings had to be clean. Toomuch friction was causing the noise. So James reached inhis bag of tools, and got his mini monkey wrench andstarted to distinguish off the nut that was holding the wheel to thetruck. He was very precise, equivalent a surgeon in heart surgery.With great ease he slipped off the wheel from the kingpinand placed it gentle on the floor. at once aga in Jamesreached in his bag, grabbed a rag, and a special metallubricate called Speedy Grease.Pop went the bearing as it came out of the wheel, I pickedit up from the floor, pondered, and said, " hmmmm, to thinkthat this little piece of machinery can actually stamp the waythe board operates, that this little piece is so important

Character Analysis of Hedda from Henrik Ibesens Hedda Gabler Essay

Char deporter Analysis of Hedda from Henrik Ibesens Hedda G fittingr Henrik Ibsens play Hedda G suitabler portrays the invigoration of a young newlywed woman named Hedda and her attemps to overpower the people around her. Ibsen succsessfully depicts the precise masculine traits that Hedda displays throughout the play with not wanting to conform to the maidenlike ways or the accepted stereotypes of her gender in her society. Heddas marriage to her husband, Mr. Tesman, still increases her desire for power because it is a constant re-minder that she now belongs to Mr. Tesman which Hedda resents. Hedda considers her supportspanto be boring and finds solace in playing with her fathers side arms, which is considered not a thingfor a young lady to do and a truly inappropriate form of entertainment for a woman. Hedda is aperson that displays char turningeristics of maleness and jealousy, and is shown to be genuinely unconcerned or so the fellings of others she may incounter. The play begins with Miss. Tesman, Mr. Tesmans Aunt, address her nephew after hissix month wedding-tour. They speak briefly near his journey, and Miss. Tesman comments some(prenominal) times about his new beautiful wife and how lucky he is to have been the one that was choosen out of all her other suitors to carry take out the lovely Hedda Gabler. Soon after Hedda enters the room, she has already insulted Tesmans Aunt by implying that her cowling is the servants Hedda-Look there She has left her old thug lying on the chair Tesman-But Hedda, thats aunt Julias bonnet Miss Tesman-Yes, indeed its mine. And, whats much its not old, Madam Hedda (Act I). Hedda again shows her disconcern when her husband tries to show her the slippers that his aunt has make for him as a gift Hedda- Thanks, I really dont care about it Tesman- Only think-as ill as she was, Aunt Rina embroidered these for me. Oh you cant think of how many associations rive to them Hedda - Scarcely for me(Act I). Hedda pretends to befriend Mrs. Thea Elvsted ( a schoolmate from her youth) in order to snare her confidence about her situation with an old friend of Mr.Tesman and an old irrupt of hers, Eilert Lovborg, who was a drunk back in the day, but has cleaned up his act and has recent... ... manuscript and burns it, thus destroying Lovborg and Theas work and altamitly their relationship. Lovborg arrives at the Tesman house where Thea has stayed the night. He lies and tells her that he has torn the manuscript into pieces because he has torn his own carriage into pieces, after hearing this Thea, in a state of dispare, leaves the house. Once simply with Hedda, Lovborg confesses that he has lost the Manuscript, but could not bring himself to tell Thea because her smooth soul was in that book. As he begins to leave, Hedda gives him one of her side arms as a momento and tells him to do it beautifully, as though she knew he felt he had zipp o to live for. Brack arrived later that day with the news that Lovborg was dead, and that he still had the pistol on him when he was found, and that he knew it was one of Heddas pistols. He tells her that she would be able to avoid scandal notwithstanding if he did not tell the police force he knew who the gun belonged to, but that meant being in his power, at his beck and call, his slave, and that is something Hedda in force(p) could not live with, so she excuses herself, goes inthe next room and shoots herself dead. grammatical case Analysis of Hedda from Henrik Ibesens Hedda Gabler EssayCharacter Analysis of Hedda from Henrik Ibesens Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsens play Hedda Gabler portrays the life of a young newlywed woman named Hedda and her attemps to overpower the people around her. Ibsen succsessfully depicts the precise masculine traits that Hedda displays throughout the play with not wanting to conform to the effeminate ways or the accepted stereotype s of her gender in her society. Heddas marriage to her husband, Mr. Tesman, only increases her desire for power because it is a constant re-minder that she now belongs to Mr. Tesman which Hedda resents. Hedda considers her lifeto be boring and finds solace in playing with her fathers pistols, which is considered not a thingfor a young lady to do and a very inappropriate form of entertainment for a woman. Hedda is aperson that displays characteristics of masculinity and jealousy, and is shown to be very unconcerned about the fellings of others she may incounter. The play begins with Miss. Tesman, Mr. Tesmans Aunt, greeting her nephew after hissix month wedding-tour. They speak briefly about his journey, and Miss. Tesman comments some(prenominal) times about his new beautiful wife and how lucky he is to have been the one that was choosen out of all her other suitors to carry stumble the lovely Hedda Gabler. Soon after Hedda enters the room, she has already insulted Tesmans Aunt by implying that her bonnet is the servants Hedda-Look there She has left her old bonnet lying on the chair Tesman-But Hedda, thats aunt Julias bonnet Miss Tesman-Yes, indeed its mine. And, whats much its not old, Madam Hedda (Act I). Hedda again shows her disconcern when her husband tries to show her the slippers that his aunt has do for him as a gift Hedda- Thanks, I really dont care about it Tesman- Only think-as ill as she was, Aunt Rina embroidered these for me. Oh you cant think of how many associations cleave to them Hedda - Scarcely for me(Act I). Hedda pretends to befriend Mrs. Thea Elvsted ( a schoolmate from her youth) in order to request her confidence about her situation with an old friend of Mr.Tesman and an old char of hers, Eilert Lovborg, who was a drunk back in the day, but has cleaned up his act and has recent... ... manuscript and burns it, thus destroying Lovborg and Theas work and altamitly their rel ationship. Lovborg arrives at the Tesman house where Thea has stayed the night. He lies and tells her that he has torn the manuscript into pieces because he has torn his own life into pieces, after hearing this Thea, in a state of dispare, leaves the house. Once only when with Hedda, Lovborg confesses that he has lost the Manuscript, but could not bring himself to tell Thea because her uncontaminated soul was in that book. As he begins to leave, Hedda gives him one of her pistols as a momento and tells him to do it beautifully, as though she knew he felt he had zero point to live for. Brack arrived later that day with the news that Lovborg was dead, and that he still had the pistol on him when he was found, and that he knew it was one of Heddas pistols. He tells her that she would be able to avoid scandal only if he did not tell thepolice he knew who the gun belonged to, but that meant being in his power, at his beck and call, his slave, and that is something Hedda on the button could not live with, so she excuses herself, goes inthe next room and shoots herself dead.

Impact of technology :: essays research papers

Impact of Technology & Ethical Decision MakingThe conclusion making process will always present honest challenges to managers. Is this the justly thing to do? This question is the center of the ethical dilemma for every one who is a finality maker in corporations through proscribed the world. A collection of many factors will be taken in affection in answering to this question. Is it right for the company? Is it right for me? in that location atomic number 18 many ways to barbeling the ethical subject, and different ethical values may and can come from different approaches like in the way a closing can be evaluated is dependent on the values and interests of the person or group of people evaluating that decision. For example well-nigh stakeholders in some companies will not care that much if the decision was made based on ethical values counting it generated the results they expected. This is where the peril lies, because the decision maker will also have this mind whe n deciding about the subject, depending on how much he or she may all over look some ethical issues in lieu that a dangerous outcome or good earnings can come through.The territory rules about which a decision maker will care are highly dependent on the moral approach. The decision maker may use a self interest or material approach and decision that will be directed towards his or her own get ahead these decisions can sometimes cause good results for the company even if the decision maker has only the self- interest in mind. It is not rare that a manager will make decisions using this approach. A different approach may be used and decision happens based on the substantial number of people benefited by it. Usually this utilitarian approach takes into consideration the consequences of a decision as a method for evaluating it is morality.

Information Systems Essay example -- Business, Technology

IntroductionThe expend of teaching technology or Information System has defined the way duty is conducted globally everyplace the past several decades. The internet has led to high rate of globalization this is of special significance to the various industries (Reponen 2003). Goods and services can now be offered or sold in a large scale and in various part of the globe. The consequence of this is the growth in guest foundation garment for many business entities, especially the supermarkets (Reponen 2003). Due to large markets, various business entities have found it more convenient to adopt the use of selective information system and Information technology to both manage the large customer data and also reach them in the global market (Burgess, 2002). This physical composition centers on the use of Information Technology/Information System in Tesco Supermarket. It begins by giving a brief overview of the supermarket and examines the benefits and challenges faced by the supe rmarket as it utilizes Information System (Burgess, 2002). Description of Tesco SupermarketTesco Supermarket was founded by Jack Cohen he started by selling groceries in the market of End of East London from1919. The give away of Tesco first appeared in 1924 after Jack Cohen bought a large book of account of tea shipment from T.E Stockwell (Blythe 2008). He came up with the name Tesco by woof the first two letters from T.E Stockwell (TE) S from Stockwell he then have these letters with the first two letter of his surname (Co) to form Tesco. The fist Tesco Store was opened 1929. This was followed of opening of the first self-service store in 1948 in St Albans. Subsequently, in 1956, the first Tesco Supermarket was opened. Tesco Supermarket has since established numerous subsidiaries all over ... ...formation technology has helped Tesco Supermarket to link up with its subsidiaries spread over a unsubtle geographical area (Nag & Sengupta 2007). The supermarket has also managed to engage in electronic information interchange with its business partners and clients. The Information System has enabled the supermarket to reduce cost of its operations, join on its efficiency and win the trust and loyalty of its customers. Nonetheless, Tesco Supermarket has experienced some challenges with the use of Information Technology. These challenges have been occasioned by, amongst other factors, system failure, the need to train its manpower every time a new technology is introduced. In some cases, these challenges led to reduced profit margin and increased overhead costs. Moreover, during such challenges, the supermarket experiences slowed rate of work (Singh, et al 2005).

Essay --

There has been much discussion well-nigh the social welfare of animals ever since zoos were created. There are many people who support the particular that animals should be kept in zoos. It benefits the animals greatly, because in zoos, the animals throw off every choose catered for. However, in some zoos, animals are ill-treated by their zoo keepers. Sometimes, they steady deprive a subjective habitat that zoos attempt but divulge to re-create after the false. Consequently, they develop physiological problems. Some zoos are no better than prison cells that cage up animals, causing these creatures to become greatly distressed. Because it is against Mother Nature, animals should not continue to be kept in zoos. For decades, animals need been kept in zoos and have received poor conditioned aegis and treatment. Since the 1970s, situation has gotten worse and the voice of animal activists spread. What I know about zoos is that they arent really for the animals, but mo re for business, so we should ban keeping of animals in zoos. Animals should not be kept in zoos because it is against nature. First, zoos are artificial environments for raging animals. These creatures are unable to live freely and healthily according to their natural instincts after being locked up in cages. Big cats can no longer roam around the savannah and hunt for animals. Primates support-time in rainforests are not able to climb trees and gather growth high up in the forest canopy. In this lonely and solitude environment, animals can easily slip into depression, and consequently, early death. Thus, there is a shorter life expectancy in animals that live in zoos. Another problem is that they have a limited choice when it comes to habitat and the choosing of mates It has b... ...s not agreeable for animals to be kept in zoos. Think about it this way. For human, its just kindred being in prison even though we didnt do anything wrong. Students, they go t o school and stay there for 7 hours. They hate it even though they can do something productive like studying Animals, they are detain all day and they dont even have free time. In conclusion, wild animals should not be kept in zoos as these creatures have their declare rights. They were captured by man, and most of them compelled to live in terrible conditions, killing them physically and mentally. Neither should they be held captive by us human, whether it benefits them or not. Animals were neer meant to exist for our amusement. They are a part of nature. Therefore, it is extremely important that the capacity spreads, that animals have rights, just like humans, and we have to respect that.

Ban On Spam? :: essays research papers

Ban on e-mail?Since the primordial days of the meshwork with its slow connections, to nowadayss high tech version that plays a major dish up in everyday business, most advancements puddle been positive ones. Unfortunately one advancement that has not is Junk E-mail. These junk e-mails, (also known as netmail) can be described as recitationless messages are plaguing our Internet Service Providers (ISP) mail systems. The result of this is slower connections, a loss of cartridge clip and of money. Therefore, in this work we will explore effects of Spam, (negative and positive) and will nevertheless decide if it is possible to make this practice an illegal one, even with the protective cover of our Constitutional First Amendment rightsThe question of whether or not junk emails could in reality be made illegal does not have a victimize or easy answer. Yes it is true that these mails slow down many ISP servers by the massive amount of traffic they create, but do they really induce that much of a problem? Years before many of the menstruum telemarketing uprightnesss were passed, companies could call whenever they felt that people were home, and attempted to pass on a good (and many times bad) deal to the consumer. This resulted in calls ranging from the early morning, to dinnertime, and lasting until the late hours of the evening. presently clearly this was a problem that mandatory to be alleviated. In contrast to the ring of each telephone end-to-end a persons home, an E-mail box simply shows that a mail has been sent. In this case of E-mails, users can simply click on their delete button and the mail would be no more, thats it. This gives companies who use Spam as a commercial tool a valid point. In addition, they also have a friend called the First Amendment on their side. The 1st amendment is thus far most likely the reason that Spam has not been made illegal, or controlled by the Federal government. Clearly stating that, relation shall make no lawprohibiting the freedom of speech, or of the press law makers are desperately attempting to find a loophole to gaining legal action against Spam. patronage the opposition of some free-speech advocates, the legislation is creeping closer to the House floor.Now for such legislation to be put into law, a bill would have to be proposed in the House of Representatives. A committee would devise a Bill and once debaters of both sides finished their arguments, a vote would subscribe place.

Creation In Schools Essay -- essays research papers

Creation in SchoolThe delve of Creation versus growth. This has been a very heated ponder since Darwin published Origins of Species in 1859. The reason for this debate comes from the contradicting ideas that this book has with the conjecture of Creation set forth in the Bible. ascribable to the fact that is extremely hard to prove what created the earth, commonwealth aim wrestled in the midst of these ideas for the last one hundred and forty years. When ontogenesis was first introduced it was wide rejected because it went against what commonwealth were brought up to believe. Evolution has so far stood the campaign of time and has become more widely accepted, to the point to which it is taught in our schools. Where Evolution has found its way into the school curriculum, the system of Creation has not. Some people feel that it Creation should set up equal time to Evolution in schools. In this paper I will use what I ache learned from Professor Swensons Christian Theolog y course and my privateized feelings to try and express why on that point is no reason for the theory of Creation to be taught in school.Creation is ground on Christianity and you essentialiness understand Christianity earlier you can knead claims. Christianity is a very hale force that works in many peoples travels. It gives us morals to defy by, inner strength, a reason to live, and much more. It is ground on God cr have the world in seven days. Most everyone has a piety and can try to imagine what would it be like to live in a world without faith? The way in which religion bodily bodily structures a society helps it to be more successful as a whole. Stanley Tambiah would agree with this, because its similarities to the Trobriands, a tribe that he studied the rituals of and found that the rituals they performed had pragmatic purpose along with the mystical meaning. The Trobriands had certain rituals they must perform when have yams and they could only eat them a t certain times. If the Trobriands did not have the structure to there society all their yams would be eaten to quickly and the tribe would starve. As for our culture, do we need this structure? Americans are in no anesthetise of running out of yams. Maybe this is why we see a extraction in religion in the United States and early(a) developed countries. The pragmatical purpose for Christianity is no longer needed and the religion is losing speed. Although we do not need thes... ...gious parents are trying to use in order to absorb their religion taught in school. As for me, I would not mind former(a) religions being taught to my kid, I would want my children to know all the information beforehand they go off believing just anything that I taught them. He could grow the choice for himself. Although I can see where these things would help, I believe there would be too many complications in trying to teach it. On top that I also feel that it should be left at that without an ar gument. If a parent were to push any further, I would have to caput their responsibility. Schools do not have to teach you child everything they know. Schools teach so much already, do you want your kid to only learn throw from school. As a parent I would hope that I could at least teach my child religion along with many separate things. We have become so dependant on school, it seems somewhat ridiculous. cover song when my Grandfather was at school it was completely different. To bring this to a coda I would like to say that although I am a apparitional person and would like to see what my faith calls on taught in school, unless I believe the controversies it raises lays this idea to rest. Creation In Schools Essay -- essays inquiry papers Creation in SchoolThe debate of Creation versus Evolution. This has been a very heated debate since Darwin published Origins of Species in 1859. The reason for this debate comes from the contradicting ideas that this book has with the theory of Creation set forth in the Bible. repayable to the fact that is extremely hard to prove what created the earth, people have wrestled amongst these ideas for the last one hundred and forty years. When Evolution was first introduced it was widely rejected because it went against what people were brought up to believe. Evolution has so far stood the mental testing of time and has become more widely accepted, to the point to which it is taught in our schools. Where Evolution has found its way into the school curriculum, the theory of Creation has not. Some people feel that it Creation should get equal time to Evolution in schools. In this paper I will use what I have learned from Professor Swensons Christian Theology course and my personal feelings to try and express why there is no reason for the theory of Creation to be taught in school.Creation is based on Christianity and you must understand Christianity before you can make claims. Christianity is a very f ast(a) force that works in many peoples lives. It gives us morals to live by, inner strength, a reason to live, and much more. It is based on God creating the world in seven days. Most everyone has a religion and can try to imagine what would it be like to live in a world without religion? The way in which religion structures a society helps it to be more successful as a whole. Stanley Tambiah would agree with this, because its similarities to the Trobriands, a tribe that he studied the rituals of and found that the rituals they performed had applicative purpose along with the mystical meaning. The Trobriands had certain rituals they must perform when eating yams and they could only eat them at certain times. If the Trobriands did not have the structure to there society all their yams would be eaten to quickly and the tribe would starve. As for our culture, do we need this structure? Americans are in no impress of running out of yams. Maybe this is why we see a even off in religi on in the United States and different developed countries. The functional purpose for Christianity is no longer needed and the religion is losing speed. Although we do not need thes... ...gious parents are trying to use in order to get their religion taught in school. As for me, I would not mind other religions being taught to my kid, I would want my children to know all the information before they go off believing just anything that I taught them. He could make the choice for himself. Although I can see where these things would help, I believe there would be too many complications in trying to teach it. On top that I also feel that it should be left at that without an argument. If a parent were to push any further, I would have to head their responsibility. Schools do not have to teach you child everything they know. Schools teach so much already, do you want your kid to only learn hug from school. As a parent I would hope that I could at least teach my child religion along wi th many other things. We have become so dependant on school, it seems somewhat ridiculous. bandaging when my Grandfather was at school it was completely different. To bring this to a closely I would like to say that although I am a religious person and would like to see what my faith calls on taught in school, entirely I believe the controversies it raises lays this idea to rest.

Who really wrote shakespeares work Essay -- essays research papers

Who really wrote Shakespeares works? peerless of the most long-familiar writers in history is also one of the most controversial writers. William Shakespeare has been ascribe to thirty-eight plays, but did he actually write all of them. The literary argument whether he wrote all of his plays has been debated for generations. One of the main reasons was if his education level was graduate(prenominal) enough to be a world-famous writer. But if Shakespeare didnt write his works, then who did?One of the most controversial and accused writers was Sir Francis Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon was a peachy scientist and a great writer. He was a well-educated man and his educated level was higher(prenominal) and more advanced than William Shakespeare. He had enough education to write master pieces of Shakespeares caliber. I think the reason he didnt write Shakespeare work was that his literature and writing style was more sophisticated. The way Shakespeare wrote was a type that couldnt be lear ned in school it was just talent thats wherefore it didnt matter how high your level of education was.Edward de Vere was another writer though to imbibe written the work of Shakespeare. Since the 1930s de Vere has been strongly advanced as the accepted author of Shakespeares plays. De Vere represents the social-elitist stratum of the theorists, who believe that a commoner could never have accomplish such genius. De Vere was a nobleman of Queen Elizabeth Is court.Charlton Ogburn an author survey that parallels of the Earls life with material...

Thomas Pynchons Mason & Dixon and Gravitys Rainbow :: Mason Dixon

doubting Thomas Pynchons mason & Dixon and Gravitys Rainbow .....Snow-B onlys call for flown their Arcs... These words amaze the wondrous passage that introduces us to the world of Thomas Pynchons latest masterpiece, mason & Dixon. In an obvious parody of A holler comes across the sky, the open up of Gravitys Rainbow, Pynchon sets the mood and pace for the rest of the novel. In seam to the mindless pleasures, black desperation, and ubiquitous death that dominate virtually both page of his significative earlier work, this novel begins with a joyful increase fight betwixt children on the streets of eighteenth- speed of light Philadelphia. Indeed, the rest of the novel generally maintains this devilish and happy tone. opposed the sexually disturbed and socially displaced isolates that make up Pynchons cast of preliminary heroes (or more aptly anti-heroes), the hold up focuses on the descent of two convention men, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, who form an incredible bond of friendship. Needless to say, this has soften critics to wonder scarce what has happened to Pynchon in the last twenty years. Has marriage slow the author? Is this a kinder, gentler Pynchon for the nineties? To some extent, the fact that critics are quiet down scrambling to explain the extremum differences between his previous work and Mason & Dixon whitethorn explain the telling paucity of literary criticism available on the new disc to date......I would like to take a small front step towards a better understanding of Mason & Dixon by considering Pynchons institution of chronicle, a nucleotide which is crucial to both it and Gravitys Rainbow. In spite of all the differences, Mason & Dixon ashes a scathing indictment of conventional history as authoritative to Pynchon as any of his other works. Furthermore, beyond position the mood and providing self-parody, the first step is the first of many passages which both link the book to Gravitys Rainbow, and sugges t that under the happy surface of the novel lie omens of a bleak future. In this context, Mason & Dixon can be read as a conjecture on the era in which the technology, philosophy, politics, and economics that kick up the twentieth century were just being conceived. For Pynchon, modern history has a destructive flight like that of a rocket, a path that begins roughly the time Mason and Dixon are working on their line, and ends in the bloodcurdling world of Gravitys Rainbow......Despite the fact that most of Pynchons views remain a matter of continual debate in literary circles, scholars of Gravitys Rainbow seem to agree that Pynchon views history with a harshly sceptical postmodern eye.Thomas Pynchons Mason & Dixon and Gravitys Rainbow Mason DixonThomas Pynchons Mason & Dixon and Gravitys Rainbow .....Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs... These words begin the wondrous passage that introduces us to the world of Thomas Pynchons latest masterpiece, Mason & Dixon. In an obvious parody of A screaming comes across the sky, the opening of Gravitys Rainbow, Pynchon sets the mood and pace for the rest of the novel. In contrast to the mindless pleasures, hopeless desperation, and ubiquitous death that dominate virtually every page of his apocalyptic earlier work, this novel begins with a joyful snowball fight between children on the streets of eighteenth-century Philadelphia. Indeed, the rest of the novel generally maintains this playful and happy tone. Unlike the sexually disturbed and socially displaced isolates that make up Pynchons cast of prior heroes (or more aptly anti-heroes), the book focuses on the relationship of two normal men, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, who form an incredible bond of friendship. Needless to say, this has lead critics to wonder precisely what has happened to Pynchon in the last twenty years. Has marriage softened the author? Is this a kinder, gentler Pynchon for the nineties? To some extent, the fact that critics are still scr ambling to explain the extreme differences between his previous work and Mason & Dixon may explain the relative paucity of literary criticism available on the new book to date......I would like to take a small first step towards a better understanding of Mason & Dixon by considering Pynchons conception of history, a theme which is crucial to both it and Gravitys Rainbow. In spite of all the differences, Mason & Dixon remains a scathing indictment of conventional history as true to Pynchon as any of his other works. Furthermore, beyond setting the mood and providing self-parody, the opening is the first of many passages which both link the book to Gravitys Rainbow, and suggest that beneath the happy surface of the novel lie omens of a bleak future. In this context, Mason & Dixon can be read as a meditation on the era in which the technology, philosophy, politics, and economics that plague the twentieth century were just being conceived. For Pynchon, modern history has a destructive t rajectory like that of a rocket, a path that begins around the time Mason and Dixon are working on their line, and ends in the nightmarish world of Gravitys Rainbow......Despite the fact that most of Pynchons views remain a matter of constant debate in literary circles, scholars of Gravitys Rainbow seem to agree that Pynchon views history with a harshly skeptical postmodern eye.