Should I Drop a College Class

It can be tempting to drop one class (or more) during your time in college. Your workload might be too high, you might have an awful professor, you might be struggling with health issues, or you might simply need a bit of a break. But while dropping a class can be easy logistically, it can also present a lot of challenges when it comes to staying on track during your time in school. So how can you know if you should drop a class—or not? 1. Do I Need This Class to Graduate in the Next Few Semesters? If you need the class to graduate this semester or next semester, dropping it will have some pretty serious consequences. Your ability to make up the units and/or content will interfere with your plans to graduate on a certain schedule. And while you can still drop the class, doing so now might present more challenges than benefits. Consider how extending your graduation timeline will affect other parts of your life. Will your applications to graduate school need to be delayed another year? Will you be entering the workforce at an inopportune time? Will you miss out on professional opportunities you already have lined up? 2. Do I Need This Class for a Class Next Semester? Many courses in college are sequenced. For example, you have to take Chemistry 101 before you can move on to Chemistry 102. If the class you want to drop is a sequenced course, think carefully about how dropping it might bump everything down in your schedule. Not only will you be starting your sequence later than you planned, youll be moving down everything else. For example, you wont be able to start O-Chem and/or P-Chem when you originally planned since you wont finish Chem 102 when you thought. If your course is a prerequisite for your major or for upper-division classes, make sure to consider the longer-term consequences of dropping the class now versus just plowing through it. 3. What Impact Will Dropping Have on My Financial Aid? Reducing your load from 16 units to 12 might not seem like that big of a deal, but it might have a pretty significant impact on your financial aid. Check with your financial aid office—and the specific requirements of any of your scholarships, grants, or loans—about what number of credits are required for you to keep your financial aid the way it is. While there is usually some flexibility about how many units you are required to take to keep your full-time status (and financial aid), there is definitely a number of units you dont want to dip below. Make sure you know that magic number before you drop a class. 4. What Will the Consequences Be on My Transcript? When you drop a class in college can be just as important as why. If you submit your drop form before the add/drop deadline, for example, the class may not even show up on your transcript. If you drop the class afterward, however, it might show a W for withdrawal or something else. And even if youre not considering graduate school and think youll never need to show anyone your transcript as long as you graduate, think again: some employers want a  transcript  as part  of your job application materials and others might require a certain GPA of applicants. Just know how any dropped class will be reflected on your transcript or other materials youll use after graduation. 5. Will I Need to Make the Credits/Requirement Up?   If the class you want to drop is part of your language requirement, for example, youll need to figure out when you can take another class to replace it. And while later might be an option, youll need to get specific. Can you take another or a similar course next semester? Can you take something over the summer? Will the course load then be overwhelming? How will you pay for the extra class? Finding a replacement class can be challenging, too. If, for example, you just plan to take a similar class at a community college near your house while youre home for the summer, youll need to make sure—in advance—that your credits transfer. The last thing you want to do is think youve made up the credits somewhere else only to find out that they wont transfer. 6. Can I Solve the Problem Another Way? Academics should always take the highest priority during your time in school. If youre dropping a class because youre too busy, for example, it might be wiser to cut out some of your co-curricular involvement instead of dropping a class. Similarly, if you find the material too challenging, consider hiring a tutor or going to your professor or TA for regular office hours. Doing so might end up being easier (and cheaper) than having to take the class again. No matter where you go to school, there are lots of resources to help if youre struggling academically. Dropping a class should be the last option—not the first!—if youre having problems in a course.

Descriptive Essay - Original Writing Essay - 1196 Words

Beginning a 12-minute journey, leaving my residence Piedmont North A; I headed to Starbucks. From the speed of the wind to the coolness of the air, I could tell that the season of Fall was finally beginning. The falling leaves of the trees were starting to leave a trail, and as I was beginning to approach the establishment, the aroma of coffee beans was lingering in the air. The store was surrounded by trees out in what I call the â€Å"courtyard.† The â€Å"courtyard† was the area outside of the Starbucks where the commuters could congregate. The reason I call it the â€Å"courtyard† is that it reminded me of the area outside of a prison. It was the area where the prisoners could go outdoors, hang out with their jail mates, smoke a cigarette or two, or just smell the fresh air. It was also the place where the prisoners were able to feel â€Å"normal† again. The term normal subsists because after being captivated for an extensive period, the prisoners feel like they have lost some of their human rights. They no longer felt like normal human beings, in which they could do things freely- they are now imprisoned. Unlike a prison courtyard, though, the Starbucks â€Å"courtyard† was shaped like a square, containing about six round small tables, and four trees were towering over the tables to help to maintain the shade. The re were friends, couples, and business partners all sitting out in the courtyard. It was the area where everyone could slow down, sit down, and feel at peace. The bright green treesShow MoreRelatedDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1110 Words   |  5 PagesI don’t know how I got to where I am, but I’m here now, and I have to win if I want to live. I am in a game, and in order to live, I have to escape. That’s the thing, though: I don’t know how to escape. I was running for my life around this old house that looked like it came straight out of a horror movie. I doubled over and held my head in pain as I saw the static, which meant it was coming. I was being chased by what looked like a person but in no way acted like one. Just as it was about to appearRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1102 Words   |  5 PagesIt is on days like this when we stop to think about our life. Small drops of rain begin to dapple the cobblestone pavement as people whip out their umbrellas for cover. I continue sauntering down the busy street, relishing the feeling of a light shower. Moving with the mass of pedestrians, I stop at a crosswalk where I wait for the stoplight to turn green. A flower shop employee across the street scurries to bring in the numerous bouquets and close the doors as rain starts rolling down the displayRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing914 Words   |  4 PagesDreamy I thought. Standing on the corner is a young guy with a smile. I see him here almost every day, so I linger for a while. He tells me his name, and I tell him mine. I m Ester, what s your name? I enquired. My names David .,He replied. We end up talking for a while and I asked him if he had ever left this city. He tells me of all these stories of the places where he s been, the distant lakes and mountains, and in valleys oh so green. I can see it in his eyes, he really has beenRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing974 Words   |  4 Pages I was used to moving round, having a mother who liked to travel more than making roots was something I had gotten used to. Still, I had never gotten used to the loneliness of an empty house when she was out exploring, or the feeling of leaving behind someone who could have meant something to me. Our most recent move was Oregon. It was pretty, and I didn’t mind it, but it was much different than Florida. Not only was it opposite sides of the country, it felt as if it were opposite worlds. InRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1012 Words   |  5 Pageshave plenty of time in the next month to think about my feeling in regards to Kendrick. I needed to finish up the article and get it off to my editor. I should be able to get it done by tonight and send an email in the morning. I was thinking of writing my next article about the sea life around the Scottish coast. Since our salmon dinner last evening I thought I would do a piece about the commercial salmon farming that began in Scotland in 1969. In 2002 over 145,000 metric tons of farmed AtlanticRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1561 Words   |  7 PagesThere’s something I need to say and what follows may not be something that you’d expect, it won’t be heartening or uplifting. If you remember today, I told you about going somewhere I wanted to go to†¦ I’m not sure if you believed and accepted what I now confess as untrue; it is partly. I needed to pull away emo tionally†¦ from you. You must have had fathomed that some degree of formality had seeped between us. Born of habit, formulaic greetings had become a routine. You presume that I’m a close friendRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1387 Words   |  6 PagesI was wearing a beautiful blue dress with sapphire gems all around the chest area as I entered the ball with Ciel and Sebastian. I took a good look around here, the hallway was lined with gold. There was a servant ready to escort us to the ball room. Hello, come this way. He said, walking forward. Wow, this place is so fancy! I exclaimed, looking around. It s fake gold. Ciel bluntly replied, bringing my hopes down. I sighed. Ciel sounded like he wasn t in a very good mood. Ciel, lightenRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1287 Words   |  6 Pages In the morning, Caireann woke me up. She stood above my bed, shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes, looking at her. Then I looked across the room to her empty bed. Andy s empty bed sat in the corner. I swallowed, climbing out of bed. Sleep well? Caireann asked me, starting out the door. Yeah, I said, going over to our small dresser. I had the bottom two drawers. Andy had the middle two, and Caireann had the top. I pulled open the drawers, pulling on a colorful tank top and a grayRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1345 Words   |  6 PagesLater that night, I was behind the wheel of my G-Wagon with Melissa in the passenger seat. She didn’t feel like driving since she was on the road all day and I understood so I didn’t mind when she asked me to. I had been tight-lipped. She kept eyeballing me as if she detected that something was bothering me but I just kept singing to my India Arie as if I was carefree. â€Å"So are you going to tell me what’s going on or no† Melissa said disrupting my own personal concert. I stopped singing and tookRead MoreDescriptive Essay - Original Writing1085 Words   |  5 PagesI WAS SITTING IN a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster. It was just after dark. A blustery March wind whipped the steam coming out of the manholes, and people hurried along the sidewalks with their collars turned up. I was stuck in traffic two blocks from the party where I was heading. Mom stood fifteen feet away. She had tied rags around her shoulders to keep out the spring chill and was picking through the trash

Cloning for Philosophical Transactions of Society -myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theCloning for Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society. Answer: Cloning can be defined as the process by which exact identical copies or organisms can be prepared. Clones are these organisms which have exactly same copies. They are done with the help of asexually reproducing bacteria who help in producing several copies of the same mother DNA (Brown, 2016). This can then be inserted in egg for normal development of organisms or other techniques can be also performed to produce individuals artificially. This is quite an interesting topic for me as humans have garnered the power of producing new lives without the help of the almighty by following exceptional innovative way inside the laboratory itself. For a large number of years from 1958 to 1996, transfer of the donor nuclei from cells present in the early embryos were carried out to develop new cells with the help of egg cells in the receiver. During this time, scientists discovered that cells can be at first modified and then they can undertake the nucleic transfer process to produce new organisms. However all these were done from embryonic stages until 277 experiments were carried out in 1996 and one of them produced Dolly which is a successful clone of an entire organism (Engler et al. 2014). The main exceptional feature that needs to be noted was that this experiment showed that differentiated adult cell can also be used to produce organisms successfully. Usually embryonic cells can activate any gene but differentiated adult cells cannot do so as their genetic information needed to be reset to embryonic stage. This reset process remain incomplete usually but in case of dolly, it somehow clocked and dolly was born. Cloning has a proper relationship with biochemistry. When a clone is produced by mitosis, genetic content of the newer cell is identical to the older cell as the cell remains derived from single ancestor cell. As the process is related with reproduction procedures of animals, it can be considered as biological process (Rodriguez Denhardt, 2014). As the scientists develop the ability to alter the different genetic makeup of organisms towards greater benefit of human in medicine and agriculture, therefore to is highly related with biology and also chemistry. Therefore in chemistry, it can be considered as a replica of all parts or certain parts of macromolecule like that of deoxyribonucleic acids. Hence, cloning can be applied in biology and in chemistry. The process of cloning is impacting in an individual scientist by making him come into a famous debate. It may affect an individual by making him suffer from an ethical dilemma which would be based on the acceptance or rejection of the concept. While some scientists believe it to be ethical as it opens many new fields of experiments and inventions (Tang et al., 2014). Many others believe that they are unethical and inhumane as it affects the dignity of real organisms in the world. Also bringing lives in the world for ultimate sacrifices are unethical as well. Therefore an individual may be entangled in the dilemma. To me, I feel it has a very positive impact as I can foresee myself as an exceptional scientist who is working on production of new organs form live animals. These organs would help citizens by successfully replacing their nonfunctional body organs and giving then new lives to live for. For its impact on society, it is seen that it would help in large scale production of f ood and medicines which will increase life expectancy and make lives comfortable. Moreover many rare species can be saved and their species number can be maintained. However, it also s negative impacts. It is a very expensive process and moreover it will create huge population in different nations which might become unmanageable. These will create impact on economy and pressure on natural resources (Valarik et al., 2014). There will also be lack of genetic diversity and may affect the religious and spiritual beliefs of people which might destroy their religious beliefs. The impact of new research on cloning has surpassed all expectations. Theoretically, cloning is being used to restore endangered species. Talks are in progress to use the cloning procedure and restore the population of giant pandas and woolly mammoths. Skin sample stashes of critically endangered animals such as the northern hairy-nosed wombat are being cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen, to aid scientists restore the number of the concerned species (Shapiro, 2017). Cloning techniques are being used by several researchers to produce embryonic stem cells. This procedure will avoid the need to collect new embryo. The technique is being applied to simultaneously clone thousands of genes and develop a massive protein library that will help in functional genomics. Natural cloning methods are being employed to design crops with high agricultural yield seeds that can be used for many years (Jones et al., 2014). This will improve small farm harvests and create new possibilities for farmers. Th e process has also been used to develop genetically modified citrus trees with enhanced resistance to greening, black spots and canker. The law of unintended consequences is often defined by actions of people or government that may have unintended or unanticipated effects. Since the scientific technique has not been perfected yet, several problems will likely occur (Boudon, 2016). Experimentation can lead to diseases and genetic abnormalities within the clone. Successful cloning shortens the life span of the organism of interest. The environmental resources are always under constant pressure due to population explosion. Cloning would lead to an enormous increase in the number of organisms that would lead to suffering resulting from more competition of natural resources. Moreover, cloning would result in loss of variation or diversity among organisms. If cloning is successful, the growth of all races will get stunted and evolution will halt (Ibtisham et al., 2016). Furthermore, defects may arise in cloned embryos post-birth due to biochemical changes that occurred during cloning process, or due to interruption in norm al functioning of genes. Cloning might one day be able to extend the life span of individuals or confer them immortality. Therapeutic cloning could be developed in future to create cure for complex degenerative diseases such as Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease. This would help in eradicating neurodevelopment disorders from the society. Future developments might also prove effective in quashing hunger by cloning meat on a cheap scale to meet our food needs. It might also be effective in resurrecting extinct species like dinosaurs back to life. That would lead to the establishment of a new biodiversity. Having several identical versions of ourselves would be a new experience. The existence of a replica would provide some relief to family members and dear ones on ones death (Mameli, 2007). We might be able to raise a self clone and harvest them as organ donors when we fall sick. Human cloning will also help our similar identities to accomplish different tasks at the same time. My study provided me the information with very little work, we humans will be able to create any organism we want, from sheep to frogs or probably ourselves. Cloning will reduce the time required for designing transgenic animal models and a large population of genetically identical organisms would be available for study. Stem cell cloning would help in developing therapeutic treatment for rare diseases. Although cloning of extinct species seems likely, preservation of endangered species genome and their subsequent replication would help to restore the genetic diversity. However, cloning of humans triggers a lot of controversy and has several ethical, legal and social issues related to it. I do not advocate human cloning due to the risks of embryo health, sex determination, human rights and lessening of human capabilities associated with it (National Bioethics Advisory Commission, 1997). References: Boudon, R. (2016).The unintended consequences of social action. Springer. Brown, T. A. (2016).Gene cloning and DNA analysis: an introduction. John Wiley Sons. Engler, C., Youles, M., Gruetzner, R., Ehnert, T. M., Werner, S., Jones, J. D., ... Marillonnet, S. (2014). A golden gate modular cloning toolbox for plants.ACS synthetic biology,3(11), 839-843. Ibtisham, F., Yanfeng, N., Wang, Z. (2016). Animal cloning drawbacks an-overview.J. Dairy Vet. Anim. Res,3(4), 3-7. Jones, J. D., Witek, K., Verweij, W., Jupe, F., Cooke, D., Dorling, S., ... Foster, S. (2014). Elevating crop disease resistance with cloned genes.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,369(1639), 20130087. Mameli, M. (2007). Reproductive cloning, genetic engineering and the autonomy of the child: the moral agent and the open future.Journal of Medical Ethics,33(2), 87-93. National Bioethics Advisory Commission. (1997). Cloning human beings. Rodriguez, R. L., Denhardt, D. T. (Eds.). (2014).Vectors: a survey of molecular cloning vectors and their uses. Butterworth-Heinemann. Shapiro, B. (2017). Pathways to de?extinction: how close can we get to resurrection of an extinct species?.Functional Ecology,31(5), 996-1002. Tang, K., Wei, F., Bo, H., Huang, H. B., Zhang, W. L., Gong, Z. J., ... Xiang, J. J. (2014). Cloning and functional characterization of a novel long non-coding RNA gene associated with hepatocellular carcinoma.Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics,41(2), 153-162. Valrik, M., Klocov, B., Abrouk, M., Frenkel, Z., Kumar, A., Kianian, S. F., ... Korol, A. (2014). New resources and approaches for gene cloning in cereals.Tagungsband der 64. Jahrestagung der Vereinigung der Pflanzenzchter und Saatgutkaufleute sterreichs 25.-26. November 2013, Raumberg-Gumpenstein, 21.

WordPress Customizer How to Use It (Guide for 2019)

For many years, the WordPress Customizer was rather  lackluster in terms of functionality. However,  the WordPress 4.5 update has transformed the feature into a powerful front end editor that can be used to quickly kickstart WordPress projects from scratch.With the WordPress Customizer, you can drastically change the appearance and functionality of your WordPress website from one, manageable interface. That includes making changes to page elements including  your site title, background image, and menus.In this post, well guide you through the basics of how to use the WordPress Customizer  by making use  of its most powerful features: How to use the WordPress customizerNow that you have accessed your WordPress Customizer page, lets take a look at how to use the WordPress Customizer to quickly launch or modify a website.Just one more thing before we get cracking  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ note that the Customizers functionality relies largely on how much effort the active themes developers have put into utilizing it. For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using our own  Neve theme, which makes excellent  use of the Customizer.Configure Site Identity and designFirst up, we have site identity, which gives you control over the name and tagline of your WordPress website. Navigate  to Site Identity to get started.You can fill out the two fields under Site Title and Tagline, and immediately see the results on the preview window on the right. Furthermore, you can upload a favicon or site icon from this interface. Once youre done, simply click Save Publish:Manage menusThe WordPress Customizer also enables you to configure your websites menus. To get started, click on Menus on the WordPress Customizer menu.To create your websites first menu, click Add a Menu, type in your menus name, and then click Create Menu:Now that you have created your menu, you can click on the name of it to adjust its settings:The WordPress Customizer will enable  you to do a number of thing s with your new menu. You can change the name, adjust the order of the menu options, add new options, configure its  location, and specify if you would like WordPress to automatically update it  when future top-level pages are created.Its an extremely comprehensive set of configurations, squeezed quite comfortably into a small and manageable interface – a perfect example of the WordPress Customizers usefulness.To find out how to populate your menu with pages and posts, we recommend this guide on working with custom menus in WordPress.Swap website colorsThe colors used by your WordPress theme can also be modified, which will greatly impact the design of your website without much effort at all. To do this, head over to Colors on the Customizer menu.Depending on how many colors your theme makes use of, you can freely change them all before previewing the results  via the window  on the right. The Neve theme, for example, enables  you to swap out colors for the links us ed across the website.Set single post settingsAs well as simplifying settings that are found elsewhere on your WordPress back end, the WordPress Customizer also has some features that you wont be able to modify anywhere else. Your websites single post settings are one example of this.By clicking Single Post Settings on the WordPress Customizer menu, youll see what we mean.The next interface enables  you to make some small yet important changes to the way your blog posts are displayed on your website.  You can configure your settings to hide the authors description, hide related posts, and hide post thumbnails within the page itself:Modify a background imageIf your theme makes use of a background image, the WordPress Customizer lets you make changes to that, too. Click on Background Image to get started.Once again, the WordPress Customizer shows its power by enabling you to swap out your background image and configure a range of display options from within the same, small interfa ce.Interestingly, you can also configure your background image to Scroll. This essentially gives your background image a parallax effect, a popular website design trend that gives your website some depth:Mobile and tablet previewsLast but certainly not least, lets take a look at the WordPress Customizers mobile and tablet preview options.By default, the Customizer will display your website preview in desktop mode. However, if you use the icons at the bottom of the WordPress Customizer, you can switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile view:For example, by clicking on the tablet icon, the preview window on the right will quickly transform, showing you how your website will look to visitors using tablet devices:ConclusionWordPress is renowned for being a relatively easy CMS to use, and the Customizer is now arguably its most approachable feature.As you can gather from the guide above, it empowers you to do a variety of website-transforming tasks within a very simple interface. So,  if you arent making use of the WordPress Customizer, you may be wasting quite some  time doing those same customizations elsewhere on the WordPress back end.The next time you kickstart a WordPress project, bear in mind that you can use the Customizer to:configure  your sites identity and appearance,manage site menus,swap website colors,specify single post options,modify a  background image,preview your website in desktop, mobile, and tablet mode.Will you be using Customizer to help quickly launch future WordPress projects? Let us know your plans in the comments section below! How to use the #WordPress #Customizer 🔠¨

Abuse in Childhood Common Among Alcohol Addicts

The article â€Å"Abuse in childhood common among alcohol addicts, study finds† by Shari Roan presented in Los Angeles Times in March 15, 2012 dwells upon the research results devoted to the number of alcohol addicted who were abused in childhood. The article states that about a quarter of men and 33% of women who suffered from alcohol addiction were abused while childhood. It is significant that 12% of men and 49% of women reported about the cases of sexual abuse.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Abuse in Childhood Common Among Alcohol Addicts specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Moreover, the article also refers to the cases when people suffer from different kinds of abuse in childhood which may result in developing depression and other psychiatric disorder. Suicide is one of the consequences of the childhood abuse. Therefore, the research results presented in the article prove that most of those who suffer f rom alcoholic dependence were abused in childhood. The violence, childhood physical abuse, and parental neglect concept presented on page 381 of the textbook is closely related to the article under consideration. Dwelling upon the impact of the violence and abuse during childhood, the connection with the further disabilities and disorders is obvious. Explaining this dependence, the scientists are sure that those children who were violated during the childhood get used to the stress for their bodies and mental systems. Moreover, the organism produces too much hormone cortisol which impacts adults mood and memory abnormality when children grow up. Additionally, those people who have been abused while the childhood are more subjected to constant depression. Having grown up the condition of the constant depression, this condition remains in the adulthood and people are to cope with it. Alcohol is considered as one of the ways for people to overcome their present condition. The ideas pre sented on the 173rd page of the textbook offer the idea that people drink to increase their sociability. Referencing to the problem of the childhood abuse, it may be confirmed that those children who are constantly abused at home do not have close relationships with their peers and when they grow up the problem remains. Such children are unable to communicate with others as all they were afraid of dealing with people while childhood. Therefore, the desire to communicate with others, to find friends and become sociable is the reason for alcohol addiction. However, this desire is provoked by the childhood violence and trauma. Dealing with the problem of alcohol addiction caused by the abuse in childhood, it is important to refer to a number of psychologists. First of all, one should use the services of the behavioral neuroscience psychologist to make sure that the hormone processes are corrected and a person is ready for psychological assistance of another specialist.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Developmental and social psychologists are important in this case in many reasons. The developmental psychologists are going to consider the development of people across the entire lifespan to make sure that the reasons and the consequences of the alcohol addiction are solved. Moreover, the possibility to follow the physical, emotional, and social development of the person during his/her life may help understand the reasons for alcoholism better. The social psychologists is useful for understand how the environment and people who were near a person impacted his/her present condition. This may help understand the reasons of alcohol addiction and the ways to solve the problem. This essay on Abuse in Childhood Common Among Alcohol Addicts was written and submitted by user Daniela Hernandez to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Growth of Government in the United States

The Growth of Government in the United States The U.S. government grew substantially beginning with President Franklin Roosevelts administration. In an attempt to end the unemployment and misery of the Great Depression, Roosevelts New Deal created many new federal programs and expanded many existing ones. The rise of the United States as the worlds major military power during and after World War II also fueled government growth. The growth of urban and suburban areas in the postwar period made expanded public services more feasible. Greater educational expectations led to significant government investment in schools and colleges. An enormous national push for scientific and technological advances spawned new agencies and substantial public investment in fields ranging from space exploration to health care in the 1960s. And the growing dependence of many Americans on medical and retirement programs that had not existed at the dawn of the 20th century swelled federal spending further. How Government Has Affected Employment While many Americans think that the federal government in Washington has ballooned out of hand, employment figures indicate that this has not been the case. There has been significant growth in government employment, but most of this has been at the state and local levels. From 1960 to 1990, the number of state and local government employees increased from 6.4 million to 15.2 million, while the number of civilian federal employees rose only slightly, from 2.4 million to 3 million. Cutbacks at the federal level saw the federal labor force drop to 2.7 million by 1998, but employment by state and local governments more than offset that decline, reaching almost 16 million in 1998. (The number of Americans in the military declined from almost 3.6 million in 1968, when the United States was embroiled in the war in Vietnam, to 1.4 million in 1998.) The Privatization of Services The rising costs of taxes to pay for expanded government services, as well as the general American distaste for big government and increasingly powerful public employee unions, led many policy-makers in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s to question whether government is the most efficient provider of needed services. A new word - privatization - was coined and quickly gained acceptance worldwide to describe the practice of turning certain government functions over to the private sector. In the United States, privatization has occurred primarily at the municipal and regional levels. Major U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Phoenix began to employ private companies or nonprofit organizations to perform a wide variety of activities previously performed by the municipalities themselves, ranging from streetlight repair to solid-waste disposal and from data processing to management of prisons. Some federal agencies, meanwhile, sought to operate more like private enterprises; the United States Postal Service, for instance, largely supports itself from its own revenues rather than relying on general tax dollars. Privatization of public services remains controversial, however. While advocates insist that it reduces costs and increases productivity, others argue the opposite, noting that private contractors need to make a profit and asserting that they are not necessarily being more productive. Public sector unions, not surprisingly, adamantly oppose most privatization proposals. They contend that private contractors in some cases have submitted very low bids in order to win contracts, but later raised prices substantially. Advocates counter that privatization can be effective if it introduces competition. Sometimes the spur of threatened privatization may even encourage local government workers to become more efficient. As debates over regulation, government spending, and welfare reform all demonstrate, the proper role of government in the nations economy remains a hot topic for debate more than 200 years after the United States became an independent nation. - This article is adapted from the book Outline of the U.S. Economy by Conte and Carr and has been adapted with permission from the U.S. Department of State.

The Collapse of the U.S.S.R Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Collapse of the U.S.S.R - Research Paper Example Communism as an alternative economic order was argued to have been â€Å"designed to avoid the wasteful and chaotic competition of capitalism and to move the country quickly ttoward industrial development.† (Strayer, 1998, page 6). It was the economy of Soviet Union that had given the material foundation for the country to become victorious in the Second World War. It also viewed as a model of rapid industrial growth for a number of Third World countries. Such was a planned economy which believed in the power of the state to plan and dictate what needs to be produced for users and consumers (Strayer, 1998). This paper will attempt to explain the collapse of USSR as a regime in the light of the experience of other empires, in relation to how ordinary mortals behave and the underlying concepts of communism and alternative economic order of capitalism Soviet was known to have its huge and growing military expertise during the Cold War. However such claims to superpower status were believed to be grounded on breakable and weakening economic foundation as seen in the 1970s and 1980s. This weak economic condition was said to have been caused by an "imperial overstretch". (Strayer, 1998, p.17). Instead of prioritizing its economic needs, USSR needed to join or maintain the race for nuclear and conventional weapons. This was also the reason why USSR made its expensive commitments in Eastern Europe and Third World. This heavy spending was believed to have undermined strongly its domestic consumer economy in the process. The Soviet leadership was aware of the problems of relationship between its international standing and declining economic base and the perception substantially caused the needed reform. Reform efforts in the late 1980s because of these perceived problems in the regime were actually made but they were not enough to prevent the collapse. The failure of communism as

Politics in Modern Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Politics in Modern Art - Essay Example The essay "Politics in Modern Art" investigates politics in modern art. The artistic movement against the polity during the 1960s and 1970s is particularly high in California. Here, there is a striking confluence of political agitation and passionately engaged art. The San Francisco Bay area took the lead role nationally with the foundation of the free speech movement.Then, the state gave birth to the Beat and hippie countercultures, which was responsible for many profound social change across the country. In writing about the contemporary art Peter Selz, Susan Landauer observed: While the civil rights and peace movements grew simultaneously in cities nationwide, California played a significant role in their development. In their wake came the Chicano labor movement in the San Joaquin Valley, the revolutionary Black Panther Party in Oakland, as well as some of the most radical manifestations of gay liberation, Red Power, and environmental activism. All of these activities was accompa nied by an outpouring of political art unmatched elsewhere in the United States. Recent commentary of the subject to date has been made by Richard Candida Smith’s Utopia and Dissent: Art, Poetry, and Politics in California. Candida explored and examined the ideological , socioeconomic and historic roots of both political ferment of the recent times and its artistic expression. He pointed out that many of the values of liberty and dissent taken up by the New Left were first articulated by the community of artists and poets.

Quality 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Quality 2 - Essay Example Earlier most goods and services were produces by the same person to meet quality. Production of a lot of brought many people to work at various production states to ensure quality products. In late 1800s businessmen like Fredrick Taylor and Henry Ford identified major limitation that affected mass production. Taylor instituted quality department that dealt with correcting errors and ensuring quality production whereas Ford traced on standardization quality to ensure all organization produced products fit for human consumption Arnaboldi, M., Azzone, G., Savoldelli, A. (2004). Execution of quality in organization was the duty of quality departments. This mainly did inspection to ensure products were defect free. In the second half of 20th centaury, quality was emerged as a profession and a managerial tool. Over the year's quality developed from simple control to engineering then to system engineering. Later in 1990s quality system emerged these are the quality management system and the total quality management Bryman, A., Stephens, M., Campo, C. (1996). Quality is a depiction of the culture, attitude and ethics of an organization that aims at providing quality services and goods to its customers to satisfy them. The cultural part calls for adoption of quality system aspect in all the operations of an organization, Bryman, A., Stephens, M., Campo, C. (1996). A quality management system (QMS) These are set of rules or policies necessary for planning production of services and products in the business. QMS incorporates various forms of internal processes within the business environment and offers a implementation approach.QMS enables the organization to identify measures, controls an improve the various processes with a business that contributes to prosperity of the organization. In short QMS assists organizations to identify defects and prevent them from happening (Hill Stephen, 1991) Quality management system helps the organization to; accomplish high reliability in the operations they are engaged in including providing quality products or services Decrease high costs of operations. increase competence and sufficient by humanizing the use of time and the available resources identifies and improves customer satisfaction Market the organization to the rest of the world. Discover other areas that they can engage in control growth more efficiently by making it easier to incorporate new employees frequently improve the products, processes and systems Total management quality (TQM) This is the process that ensures the totality of quality management in all departments within an organization. It entails planning, leading, managing and controlling. It called so because it ensures high output and meets the satisfaction of stakeholders including clients, suppliers and even employees, Bryman, A., Stephens, M., Campo, C. (1996). In general TQM aims at; Helping the management to make well informed decision that will help in the overall prosperity of the organization. Help the organization as a whole to meet the needs and desire of the customer by carrying out market research before it embarks on production. Ensuring that there is bottom top problem solving abilities. Participation of all the stakeholders of the organization in the operations to ensure everyone is at per with the organizations performance. Ensures on

Advantages And Disadvantages In Hospitality

Advantages And Disadvantages In Hospitality Hospitality management is both a field of work and a field of study. In the work sense, it refers to management of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, and other institutions in the hospitality . As a field of study, it refers to the study of the hospitality industry and its management needs. People who are interested in careers in hospitality management may opt to pursue it as a field of study so that they can start their careers on solid footing.The hospitality industry is vast and very diverse. Any time people travel, stay in a hotel, eat out, go to the movies, and engage in similar activities, they are patronizing establishments in the hospitality industry. The management of such establishments is very challenging, as managers need to be flexible enough to anticipate and meet a wide variety of needs. They must also handle tasks such as training employees, handling staff, setting standards, and so forth. Question 1 Define the term Hospitality Industry and give examples, advantages and disadvantages of their use in the hospitality industry. Answer Question 1 Hospitality industry is one of the largest industries in both global and national contexts. Hospitality industry is service industry that includes lodging, restaurants, theme park, cruise line, event plan and http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Button_hide.pngadditional fields within the tourism industry. The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the availability of leisure time and disposable income. A hospitality unit such as a restaurant, hotel, or even an amusement park consists of multiple groups such as facility maintenance, direct operations (servers, housekeepers, porters, kitchen workers, bartenders, etc.), management, marketing, and human resources. The hospitality industry covers a wide range of organizations offering food service and accommodation. The industry is divided into sectors according to the skill-sets required for the work involved. Sectors include accommodation, food and beverage, meeting and events, ga ming, entertainment and recreation, tourism services, and visitor information. Examples Accommodations Hotels Motels Restaurants Bars Cafes Nightclubs Public houses Restaurants Travel and Tourism Airline Cabin Staff Travel agents Top of Form Bottom of Form Advantages Advantage in the hospitality sector is that there are a lot of entry level positions available. These junior roles can provide candidates with the relevant experience that is vital to career progression within the industry. Some of these roles include jobs like restaurant assistants, Junior Chefs, Receptionists, Bar Staff and Hotel catering staff. These roles offer the potential to progress into management if you work hard and show that you have the necessary skills and experience to take on more responsibility. Moreover, if you do decide to try a new role there is great deals of transferable skills that can be used across several different job roles in the hospitality industry. Employees working in this industry will also have to be prepared to work fairly long hours in some roles in order to prove themselves. For example Chefs and restaurant managers have to work long and sometime unsociable hours. Another advantage to working in the hospitality sector is jobs are available all ove r the country and they are not area specific. Obviously there is a large amount of appealing jobs available in London but there are hotels, restaurants and pubs all over the country. Therefore unless you specifically want to work in the hospitality industry in London then you will not have to relocate to get the job you want. Advantages Hospitality : everywhere, every city in the world requires a tendency for this sector and some G.K. a nice presentable personality a good team work meet new and new people, even they have something in common they want a personal touch good prospect when in the higher position recruit new people and train them mix with similar people like event management etc, dont be driven away by the limelights and glamours change to others for better pays Disadvantages The time factor is perhaps the biggest drawback to creating a blog. Blogs are easy to start but difficult to maintain. Publishing a good blog takes a significant amount of time. Of course, writing takes the most time, but you must also allow time for interacting with your readers.Related to the time factor is the risk of publishing a blog that damages your brands reputation. Fortunately, you can hedge against this by creating publishing guidelines for yourself and whoever is involved with the blog. On the other hand, it can be very dangerous to open your door to strangers for obvious reasons. For those of you who are guileless in your ways, I shall enlighten you to the ways of those that could prove to be a major threat to you if you are a hospitable, good natured person. Such people cannot help but take advantage of those who are vulnerable to them. Answer Question 2 Find out the factors that affecting travel and tourism. Explain in detail. Answer Question 2 Tour operators can be defined as providers and organizers of package holidays. They normally operate by making contracts with transport companies, airlines and hoteliers. After getting the contracts, they advertise assembled holidays. Travel agents are concerned with booking and advising customers. Travel agencies also sell travel related services and products to customers. They do this on behalf of tour companies, hotels, and airlines. Travel agents also deal with local tourists. They carry out travel arrangements for travelers. There are different types of travel agencies; they include Independent agencies, Miniples and Multiples. Tour operators and travel agents have continued to be dominant in the tourism sector. There are potential threats to travel agents to and tour operators especially in the hospitality and tourism sector. A close analysis to the travel and tourism industry shows that one of the potential threats to tour operators and travel agents is change in laws and poli cies. There are laws and policies that travel agents have to adhere to in carrying out their tasks. Every nation has got rules, laws, regulations, policies that directly affect tour guides. There is normally potential threat to tour operators when embassies give advisory policies to citizens not to travel due to factors like terrorism and bombing. When an embassy changes or advises citizens not to travel to a country due to various reasons, this becomes a threat to them because citizens normally adhere to such advice. It results to decrease in tourists and therefore their business actually slows down. Travel guides and tour operators normally help tourists to locate good hotels and tourist sites in the country. There are always instances when travel guides help tourists in locating such services but in the long run the tourists do not receive quality services. Tourists always communicate one to another and therefore this becomes bad publicity. Conclusion Cultural heritage is the essence of tourism in many destination areas worldwide. Every year, millions of people travel to view the Acropolis of Athens, the Colosseum in Rome and many other historic sites of international renown. These sites are of general interest to visitors, even though the visitors probably have no significant ties to the heritage sites that they visit. Although world heritage attractions draw large numbers of international and domestic tourists, for most foreign tourists these sites consist only a small part of a more extensive travel package. These attractions can evoke feelings of admiration, but they probably do not evoke feelings of personal attachment. Visits to historic sites are mostly motivated by the belief that such places (and the objects at these places) are linked to the remote past. In addition, millions of other people engage in travel to experience heritage of a more personal nature; most of the world s historic sites are not internationally known and only relatively few ever attract international tourists, except perhaps in combination with other relevant attractions. For every world renowned cultural attraction, there are hundreds of other not famous sites that are appreciated at a more local basis.

“Eveline” by James Joyce Essay

â€Å"Eveline† is a short story by James Joyce.   Eveline is 19 and standing at a crossroads in her life.   She has a single choice to make as she stands and reflects at the ship dock.   The decision she must make is whether she should go with Frank, her secret soon-to-be husband or stay with her father in the only place she has ever known.   â€Å"Frank was very kind, manly, open, hearted,† (Joyce 45) and offers Eveline a â€Å"new home, in a distant unknown country† (Joyce 44) in Buenos Ayres.   Her father is aging, grumpy, and often threatens violence is she does not do what he says.   Eveline ponders what her duty really is.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are several good reasons for Eveline to leave with Frank and get married.   â€Å"Her brothers and sisters were all grown up†, (Joyce 42) and her mother was dead.   Her childhood friends, Tizzie Dun was dead and the Waters had moved back to England.   She is forced to spend her days working in a store making money she must turn over to her father.   She spends her evenings taking care of the house, her father, and two young children. This is not exactly the life she has read about in romance novels or daydreamed about in grade school.   It is hard work and with the knowledge that â€Å"Everything changes† (Joyce 43) she wants to â€Å"go away like the others, to leave her home.† (Joyce 43).   She knows   if she stays, she will stagnate.   She will still be breathing but she will be just as dead as her mother if she chooses to stay.   Frank offers her a life of new adventures and love.   When she is married she will have respect and Frank will not be violent with Eveline as her father was with her mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As Eveline â€Å"tried to weigh each side of the question† (Joyce 43) she begins to develop a list of reasons why she must stay.   This is the only home Eveline as has ever known.   It is full of   â€Å"familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years† (Joyce 43).   And wonders if she will ever see these things again. Here, with her father, she has food and shelter, and the comfort of the known.   She also fears that the people she knows in town will consider her â€Å"fool† (Joyce 43) when they realize she had run away with a fellow† (Joyce 43).   Her father is old and forgetful, and she worries if he can take care of himself.   The overwhelming reason why she feels it is her duty to stay because of â€Å"her promise to keep the home together as long as she could.† (Joyce 47) to her mother just before she died.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Eveline’s relationship with Frank is based solely on hope.   Frank is a sailor who is kind but tells her â€Å"tales of distant countries. He had started as a deck boy at a pound a month on a ship of the Allan Line going out to Canada†(Joyce 46).   And her father warns â€Å"†I know these sailor chaps†Ã¢â‚¬  (Joyce 46).    Is Frank being truthful or is he a typical sailor with a girl in every port.   She hopes that he is telling her the truth because she has no other evidence that he is.   Frank symbolizes escape.   When she reflects on her promise to her dying mother and her subsequent death she thinks to herself â€Å"Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her.†(Joyce 47).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The question remains for Eveline, will she go with Frank or stay at home.   Of course in the end she decides to stay.   She chooses the known over unknown excitement.   The comfort of stability and a familiar environment far outweighs her desire for a new life, in a new home with new people.   In the end she chooses â€Å"hard work — a hard life — but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life.† (Joyce 45).   â€Å"Eveline† is a story about choice and learning to live with the consequences of that choice. Works Cited Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: The Modern library, 1954. Questia. 6 Dec. 2005 .   

The Castle of Otranto †a Gothic Novel

The Castle of Otranto – A Gothic Novel Picture of the Title Page of the Second Edition A Dossier by Luisa Hiller, Johannes Klein, Benjamin Priebst, and Claudia Haack Table of Contents: 1. Introduction – The Gothic Novel 2. Horace Walpole 2. 1. The Life of Horace Walpole 2. 2. The Works of Horace Walpole 3. â€Å"The Castle of Otranto – A Gothic Novelâ€Å" 3. 1. Introduction 3. 2. Index of Characters 3. 3. Summary of the Plot 3. 4. The Characters' Appearance 3. 5. The Character Constellation 3. 6. Gothic Elements in The Castle of Otranto . Bibliography 1. Introduction – The Gothic Novel In the first half of the 18th century the word â€Å"Gothic† was mainly related to the Nordic invaders, the Goths, who were disliked because of their barbarous behaviour and their brutal invasion. Therefore â€Å"gothic† had a pejorative connotation, which, nevertheless, changed in the middle of the 18th century into a word being related to supernatural and fantastic events. The first gothic novel appeared in 1764, when Horace Walpole? s â€Å"The Castle of Otranto† was published. From this time on to approximately 1820 there was an explosion of gothic writings, which almost turned into addiction, especially for the female readership, who were craving for popular entertainment. This form of writing dominated British literature during this period and can be described as a hybrid between novel and romance, also encompassing drama and poetry. Though the gothic novel had many critics, it became unexpectedly successful due to the fact that it signified morality, beauty, a lack of reason and feudal beliefs which formed, at that time, a sharp contrast to the actual values of the Age of Enlightenment. Consequently, the gothic novel functioned as a mirror of 18th century conventions and values. The emergence of this new development in literature implied the assumption that there was a need for sacred and transcendent forces due to the denial of the existence of supernatural forces by the modern enlightened society. So the gothic novel provoked a rebellion against the predominant ideal of order and unity, which caused a lot of annoyance and was a socially subversive force for many critics. Finally, the author? intention was to evoke fear and terror, but also grandeur, and to make people be reverential. Writers of that period wanted, moreover, to wind up the reader? s feelings. This aim could be achieved by the usage of particular elements, which appeared in almost every gothic novel. Some of these elements are mentioned below. >setting The action usually takes place in some ruined castle or abbey in a remote and dark time, like the Middle Ages. Furthermore, the buildings are in many cases full of crypts, catacombs, dungeons, trap doors and secret underground passages. atmosphere The atmosphere of the whole story seems threatening and mysterious due to some inexplicable events as ancient prophecies and curses coming true, visions or other supernatural occurrences which sometimes can be elucidated. There are, furthermore, extreme landscapes as thick forests and rugged mountains often containing caves. Additionally a terrifying atmosphere is created by the apparent gloom, shadows, moonlight or a flickering candle. >emotions A gothic novel always contains powerful emotions like pride, anger, sadness, surprise, and especially, terror. Romantic elements like love and its often tragical implications (uncertainty of reciprocation, rival lovers, †¦ ) are also part of many gothic novels. Characteristics for the partly overwrought emotions are crying and melodramatic speeches, as well as panic and fainting. >distressed women Frequently women are oppressed and threatened, either by male relatives or other powerful men, for instance kings or lords which are mostly tyrannical. These women are often the main characters, demanded to do something unbearable as marrying someone they do not love. After the outstanding success of the gothic novel in the 1790? s, it began to fade in 1820. One reason for this was the frequent imitation, so that people became bored and the gothic novels stereotypes. Moreover, critics have been slow to accept the gothic novel as a valuable genre, for which reason it has almost vanished from European literature. The most important representatives: Horace Walpole>The Castle of Otranto (1764) Ann Radcliffe>The Italian; or the Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797) Mary Shelley>Frankenstein (1818) Charles Maturin>Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) 2. Horace Walpole 2. 1. The Life of Horace Walpole Horace Walpole was born on September 24 in London, the forth son of later Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Rumour has it that the eight-year-old boy met Alexander Pope during a summer holiday spent at Cambridge House, Twickenham, in 1725. Stages of his education include such famous names as Eton (1727-1734) and King? s College, Cambridge (1735-39). The following two years of his life were spent on the obligatory â€Å"Grand Tour†. Walpole was accompanied by his schoolfriend, the poet Thomas Gray, and the two of them toured France and Italy. When he returned to England in 1741, Walpole could immediately take up office, having been elected Member of Parliament for the family borough Callington in Cornwell while he was still abroad. For the following quarter of a century Walpole served as an MP in varying constituencies, before he finally retired in 1767. 1747 marked the beginning of a lifelong â€Å"obsession†. In this year, Walpole took up residence at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, and began transforming his domicile into â€Å"the most celebrated Gothic House in England†. In 1757, a private printing press was set up at Strawberry Hill and Walpole brought out some of his own works by means of it. After the death of his nephew in 1791, Horace Walpole succeeded him as fourth Earl of Orford. He died five years later, on March 2, 1797. 2. 2. The Works of Horace Walpole –1747First book, â€Å"Aedes Walpolianae†, a description of the paintings at Houghton (the family seat in Norfolk), published –1751Walpole starts writing his â€Å"Memoirs†, a process continuing until 1791 –1758â€Å"Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors†, 2 vols. 1762â€Å"Anecdotes of Painting in England†, 5 vols. (-1780) –1764December 24, â€Å"The Castle of Otranto† published –1768â€Å"The Mysterious Mother† (a tragedy) â€Å"Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third† Apart from the above-listed works, Walpole is known for his extensive correspondence. 4000 of his letters have been p reserved. 3. â€Å"The Castle of Otranto – A Gothic Novel† 3. 1. Introduction On December 24, 1764, the English readership was presented with â€Å"The Castle of Otrantoâ€Å", a novel which gave rise to a new literary genre: the Gothic Novel. Its author – Horace Walpole – obviously had not reckoned with the immediate success of his work. Why else would he have published the first edition of it anonymously? In fact, Walpole concealed his authorship by a rather complex story of the origin and discovery of â€Å"The Castle of Otrantoâ€Å". His anxiety about the reception of his novel was basically founded on the â€Å"novelty of the attemptâ€Å" (Otranto 7). Two aspects shall be mentioned to explain what he meant. Firstly, one of Wal-pole? s major intentions in writing the book was â€Å"[†¦ to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modernâ€Å" (Otranto 7), the former distinguished by imagination and improbability, the latter by a more realistic presentation of life (Walpole himself used the term â€Å"natureâ€Å" rather than â€Å"realisticâ€Å"). His object was to reconcile the two different approaches by showing people acting in a natural way while being exposed to the most u nnatural situations. The second motive that originally prevented Walpole from revealing his authorship were the super-natural elements contained in the story; ironically enough the very reason for its later fame. But by the time of its publication Walpole could not be sure that the mysterious events around â€Å"The Castle of Otrantoâ€Å" would meet with the approval of mid-18th century readers. After all, this was the Age of Enlightenment, the period of â€Å"cold reasonâ€Å" (Letter to Mme du Deffand, 13 March 1767, quoted from Otranto x) in which there was no place for ghosts, spectres, visions, prophecies and the like supernatural phenomena. With his fears not being confirmed and the positive reception of the novel, Walpole finally revealed his authorship with the appearance of the second edition in April 1765. The second edition brought another innovation: the subtitle â€Å"A Gothic Novelâ€Å" was added to the book, thereby providing the term for a whole literary branch which became very popular with readers in the following decades. Beside the above-mentioned supernatural elements which can be applied to any Gothic story there are several elements which are peculiar to â€Å"The Castle of Otrantoâ€Å". One of them can be perceived whenever servants and aristocratic characters meet. In writing these scenes Walpole was inspired by and imitated another prominent figure of English literary history, and he freely admits: â€Å"That great master of nature, Shakespeare, was the model I copiedâ€Å" (Otranto 8). And in another passage from the second edition Walpole describes the function of the domestics in the following way: â€Å"The simplicity of their behaviour, almost tending to excite smiles, [†¦ ] appeared to me not only not improper, but was marked designedly in that manner. My rule was nature. [†¦ In my humble opinion, the contrast between the sublime of the one [the noble characters] and the naivete of the other, sets the pathetic of the former in a stronger lightâ€Å" (Otranto 8). Finally, the last aspect to be mentioned is one that is not missing from any description of Walpole? s life and works. At the end of the preface to the first edition Walpole writes: I will detain the reader not longer than to make one short remark. Though the machin e- ry is invention, and the names of the actors imaginary, I cannot but believe that the groundwork of the story is founded on truth. The scene is undoubtedly laid in some real castle. The author seems frequently, without design, to describe particular parts. â€Å"The chamberâ€Å", says he, â€Å"on the right hand: the door on the left hand; the distance from the chapel to Conrad? s apartmentâ€Å": these and other passages are strong presumptions that the author had some certain building in his eye (Otranto 5-6). This extract could well be seen as a proof for Walpole? s sense of humour. In fact, the author – Walpole himself – did have a certain building in mind, namely his own domicile, Strawberry Hill. . 2. Index of Characters Manfred, Prince of Otranto†¢Hippolita, Princess of Otranto Conrad, their son and heir†¢Matilda, their daughter Isabella, engaged to Conrad, daughter of >†¢Frederic, Marquis of Vicenza Bianca, the princesses’ chambermaid †¢Jaquez and Diego, the prince’s servants Theodore (heir to Alfonso the Good,)son of>†¢Jerome (Count of Falconara, ) friar of the church of St. NicholasTwo knights, Frederic? s escort†¢A herald A giant knight, Ghost of Alfonso the Good†¢A phantom, ghost of a wise hermit Manfred? s servants, soldiers, people of the nearby village 3. 3. Summary of the Plot The story takes place in the old castle of Otranto, south Italy, in the Late Middle Ages. Because of an inscrutable prophecy, Manfred, Lord of Otranto, fears the downfall of his dynasty. After his only son Conrad’s sudden and mysterious death on his wedding day, Manfred intends to merry Conrad’s fiancee Isabella, which results in her flight from the castle. Theodore, a suspicious stranger, seems to be involved in her escape. Later, Frederic, Father of Isabella, who was reckoned to be lost in the last crusade, arrives to claim the authority over the Castle. He pretends to be the successor of Alfonso, the former legitimate Lord of Otranto, who died during the crusade. By offering his beautiful daughter Matilda to the challenger, Manfred tries to come to an arrangement with Frederic. Frederic should merry Matilda and Manfred should become husband to Isabella. Manfred’s wife Hippolita does not offer much resistance. However, because of increasing cryptic occurrences that remind Frederic of a prophecy he had been told, he rejects Manfred’s offer. Meanwhile, Manfred is becoming more and more jealous of Theodore, suspecting him to be Isabella? lover. His jealousy leads to the sad climax of the drama: Manfred, taking his daughter for Isabella, kills her accidentally when he discovers her secretly meeting Theodore. Manfred slays his only heir. Completing the prophecy, the giant ghost of Alfonso appears and Manfred resigns his dominion. Theodore? s identity as the true heir of Alfonso is revealed and he becomes the legitimate Lord of Otranto. 3. 4. The Characters? Appearance Throughout the Chapters (Only characters significant to the plot have been indexed. ) Man-fredHippo- litaCon- radMatil- aIsabel- laTheo- doreJeromeFrede-ricBian- caJaquez + DiegoGiantPhan- tom 1. XXXXXX—XX- 2. XX-X- XX-X— 3. X–XXXXX—- 4. XX-XXXXX—- 5. XX-XXXXXX-XX 3. 5. The Character Constellation 3. 6. Hippolita Frederic Jerome Manfred Isabella Theodore Matilda Bianca Manfred + Hippolitamarried; he wants to divorce her; she obeys him in everything (exception: authority of the church) Manfred + JeromeM. respects the friar, but suspects and scorns the man; J. exercises the authority of his position and his knowledge of the prophecy Manfred + TheodoreM. suspicion, anger, jealousy, aversion, but respect; T. > obedience, ‘superiority of manners' Manfred + Frederic business-like relationship, trying to come to an arrangement Manfred + IsabellaM. > she is the object of his desire I. > repulsiveness, fear Isabella + Fredericfather and daughter; I. > dutiful child; F. > considers ‘exchanging' her for Matilda Isabella + TheodoreT. > a friend in need, chivalrous helper I. > thankful for the assistance of the ‘peasant' T. , later falls in love with the ‘ true heir' T. Isabella + Matildamutual affection and confidence (like sisters); for some time rivals (> Theodore) Matilda + Theodoretragic lovestory Jerome + Theodorefather and son; J. > fatherly love and concern; T. > less emotional, retains some distance Jerome + Hippolitathe friar as confidant and advisor; H. > devoted and obedient Christian Matilda + Biancamistress and maid-servant 3. 6. Gothic Elements in â€Å"The Castle of Otrantoâ€Å" Not before the second edition did Horace Walpole admit that he himself wrote the book, which in its initial edition had the title: The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto (Otranto 1). But it was not before the work had been such a success that he admitted that â€Å"The Castle of Otranto† was in fact a work of fiction and not, as he had claimed in the preface of the first edition, which was published in 1764, â€Å"[†¦ ]found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England† (First Edition 3) and had only been translated. To further strengthen the point that the original story was based on reality, he adds that â€Å"Though the machinery is invention, and the names of the actors imaginary, I cannot but believe that the groundwork of the story is founded on truth† (First Preface 5) and proves his conviction by giving the reader examples of where he thinks that the original author must have unconsciously been referring to a specific place: â€Å" ‘The chamber,' says he, ‘on the right hand; the door on the left hand; the distance from the chapel to Conrad's apartment' [†¦ †(Second Preface 6). Through the preface to the first edition Horace Walpole sets the setting and describes the scene to have happened â€Å"[†¦ ] between 1095, the era of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last, or not long afterwards† (First Preface 3). Main themes of a gothic novel include ancient prophecies that are almost forgotten. In this case there are two which are both linke d to the true heir of Alfonso and thus the rightful lord of Otranto. The reader hears the first one already in the second paragraph where it says, â€Å"[t]hat the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it† (Otranto 15). The next one is more in the sense of a classical prophecy: â€Å"Where? er a casque that suits this sword is found, [w]ith perils is thy daughtercompass'd round: Alfonso? s blood alone can save the maid, [a]nd quiet a long-restless prince's shade† (Otranto79). It is in rhyme and not, as the first one, passed on oraly, but written on a giant sabre which was found far far away from the castle of Otranto. Another defining characteristic of a gothic novel are inexplicable sounds: â€Å"At that instant the portrait of his grandfather, which hung over the bench where they had been sitting, uttered a deep sigh, and heaved its breast† (Otranto 23). Furthermore, there are visions of things that can not possibly exist: â€Å"[I]t is a giant, I believe; he is all clad in armour, for I saw his foot and part of his leg, and they are as large as the helmet below in the court† (Otranto 33). And, most importantly, the one that sets the whole story in motion: â€Å"He beheld his child dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers† (Otranto 17). Further characteristics include women in distress. Since Hippolita, Manfred's lawfully wedded wife, can not concieve any more children, and Conrad has been squashed by the gigantic helmet, Manfred needs a male heir and thus decides to divorce Hippolita and to marry Isabella:â€Å"Isabella, since I cannot give you my son, I offer you myself (Otranto 23). In the end, every hint that has been given throughout the story is packed together in a great vision for all the protagonists to see: A clap of thunder at that instant shook the castle to its foundations; the earth rocked and the clank of more than mortal armours was heard behind. [†¦ ] The moment Theo- dore appeared, the walls of the castle behind Manfred were thrown down with a migh- ty force, and form of Alfonso, dilated to an immense magnitude, appeared in the centre of the ruins. Behold in Theodore, the true heir of Alfonso! â€Å" said the vision: and having pronounced those words, accompanied by a clap of thunder, it ascended solemnly to- wards heaven, where the clouds parting asunder, he form of saint Nicholas was seen; and receiving Alfonso? s shade, they were soon wrapt from mortal eyes in a blaze of glory. The beholders fell prostrate on their faces, acknowledging the divine will (Otran- to 108). 4. Bibliography Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. 1764. Oxford: O xford University Press, 1964.

Free Essays on Iq Testing

IQ Testing The task of trying to calculate a person’s intelligence has been a goal of psychologists since before the beginning of this century. The Binet-Simon scales were first proposed in 1905 in Paris, France and various sorts of tests have been evolving ever since. One of the important concerns that always arise regarding these tools is what are the tests really measuring? Are they measuring a person’s intelligence? Their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person’s IQ? In this paper I will try and answer some of these concerns. When probing the situations around which IQ tests are given and the content of the tests themselves, it becomes apparent that however useful the tests may be for standardizing a group’s intellectual ability, they are not always the best indicator of intelligence. To issue a truly standardized test, the testing environment should be the same for everyone involved. If anything has been learned from the psychology of perception, it is clear that a person’s environment has a great deal to do with their cognitive abilities. Is the light flickering? Is the temperature too hot or too cold? Is the chair uncomfortable? Or even worse, are the individuals ill that day? To test a person’s mind, it is essential to employ their body in the procedure. If everyone is placed in different conditions during the testing, how is the test expected to get standardized results. Therefore it’s because of this assumption that everyone will perform equally independent of his or her environment. Intelligence test scores are skewed and cannot be viewed as standardized, and definitely not as an example of a person’s intelligence. It is obvious that a person’s intelligence stems from a variety of traits. A few that are often tested are reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spatial relations. But this is not all that goes into it. What abo... Free Essays on Iq Testing Free Essays on Iq Testing IQ Testing The task of trying to calculate a person’s intelligence has been a goal of psychologists since before the beginning of this century. The Binet-Simon scales were first proposed in 1905 in Paris, France and various sorts of tests have been evolving ever since. One of the important concerns that always arise regarding these tools is what are the tests really measuring? Are they measuring a person’s intelligence? Their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person’s IQ? In this paper I will try and answer some of these concerns. When probing the situations around which IQ tests are given and the content of the tests themselves, it becomes apparent that however useful the tests may be for standardizing a group’s intellectual ability, they are not always the best indicator of intelligence. To issue a truly standardized test, the testing environment should be the same for everyone involved. If anything has been learned from the psychology of perception, it is clear that a person’s environment has a great deal to do with their cognitive abilities. Is the light flickering? Is the temperature too hot or too cold? Is the chair uncomfortable? Or even worse, are the individuals ill that day? To test a person’s mind, it is essential to employ their body in the procedure. If everyone is placed in different conditions during the testing, how is the test expected to get standardized results. Therefore it’s because of this assumption that everyone will perform equally independent of his or her environment. Intelligence test scores are skewed and cannot be viewed as standardized, and definitely not as an example of a person’s intelligence. It is obvious that a person’s intelligence stems from a variety of traits. A few that are often tested are reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spatial relations. But this is not all that goes into it. What abo...

Does the film, The battle of essays

Does the film, The battle of essays Casualty figures over 60,000 by the 19th December 1915. The Battle of the Somme continues until General Haig calls a halt to the attack and even then the British have only gained 8 km and lost over 400,000 men. In August 1916, the film, The battle of the Somme was released by the British government to provide a realistic source of information into what the war was really like for the General Public. Over the past decades historians have all disagreed into whether this file released by the Government really was a realistic source of the War. The way that the film portrays the Trench Conditions can be supported by some of the Sources. The sources suggest that the trench conditions were poor and men loathed them. The soldiers slept on a bed of mud and lived with rats. For example: Extracts from a diary written by a soldier when he was fighting explained that they were, Just rat holes, one hell of an accommodation. No trenches at all in places just isolated mounds. A letter from a soldier to his daughter compared the trenches as, Little rat holes. Some sources also imply that the Trenches stank and were unbearable to live in. This is shown in a poem by Sidney Chaplin. His opening paragraph alleged that, You stand in a trench of vile stinking mud, And the bitter cold wind freezes your blood, Then the guns open and the flames light the sky An, as you watch, rats go scuttling by. However other sources agree with the images and points put forward in the film. Some sources suggest that the trenches were comfortable and the men were happy to live there, there was a good level of hygiene and the soldiers were enjoying themselves. For example, a photograph taken by an official British photographer possibly after the war showed men thoroughly enjoying themselves, they all had large smiles on their faces and were all very clean. Overall I feel the evidence suggests that...

Management styles. The Jefferson Clinton Hotel Assignment

Management styles. The Jefferson Clinton Hotel - Assignment Example Management styles that have been used Democratic style This is one of the most suitable managerial styles used in any organization. Using this style, the manager does not make decisions on his own. Before any decisions are made, the manager must consult with the employees of the organization. This means that everyone is included in the decision making process. By including the employees in the decisions making process, they become motivated to work in the organization because they were involved which means they are working under the same rules that they helped to create. This management style is particularly ideal in very complex organizational settings like the Jefferson Clinton Hotel. The hotel has employed many workers and this style is the best style that can be used to manage all of them. Persuasive style This type of management style borrows a few skills from the autocratic management style. However, the persuasive manager remains in control over the decision making process. But this manager will spend time with his employees and try to convince them of the benefits of the decision that would be made. The employees do not have a say in the decision making process. However, the employees of the hotel feel like they are motivated because they now see the benefits of the decisions even if they were not involved in the decision making process. This management style is used in the event that decisions require to be made urgently and there is no time to go through the normal decision making process that is normally there within the hotel that involves the employees as well. 3. Consultative style This management style is more of a dictatorial management style, whereby the employees have no say in what happens. However, the decisions are made in the best interests of the employees. This mean s that the needs of the employees are brought forward first. Using this management style, communication between the employees and the management is mainly in a downwards direction. This means that the employees do not communicate with the employees. However, feedback is very much encouraged as it helps in boosting the morale of the employees. The manager therefore consults the employees when making a decision but the employees are not involved in the decision making process. The hotel has adopted these management styles due to the fact that there are some instances where decisions need to be made quickly and urgently. There is therefore no adequate time to go through the normal decision making process where the employees are involved in the process. The type of management style that an organization chooses to use is very important as it can help to develop the organization even further or pull it behind (Greenhaus, Callanan&Godshalk, 2009, p. 178). Leadership characteristics The man ager of an organization is also the leader of the employees in that organization. This therefore means that the leader should be able to lead the employees very well. The employees look up to the employees for guidance and

Business research method and skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business research method and skills - Essay Example In present scenario there are wide array of retailers who gives more importance to their retail store environment. This is because maintaining appropriate ambient conditions enable a firm to attract maximum customers and initiate high revenue margins. At times this form of approach is also regarded as a tool utilized for market differentiation. In this study different journal articles shall be included and reviewed like Journal of International Business and Management, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics and Association for Consumer Research. There has been various research studies conducted on effect of store atmospherics on consumer behaviour. However limited analysis is performed on mixture on retail store environmental conditions. This would be the key area of focus in this research study. It is a highly relevant study since retail industry is growing at a rapid pace and marketers invest lump sum amount on store environment conditions. The major aim of this research study is to – â€Å"analyze the impact of ambient conditions of a retail store on consumer purchasing decision†. Objectives of the study are- This study would be feasible since sales volume at retail stores is largely dependent on purchasing behaviour of customers. On the other hand, impact of ambient conditions can be effectively measured through customer satisfaction level and increase in revenue margins. Researcher Hosseini and Jayashree, (2014) have outlined in their study that the decoration and the ambience of the store is regarded as an important element in the overall outlook of the stores that is designed for enhancing the satisfaction of the customers. The atmospheric design of the environment of the retail store includes the lighting, music, communications that stimulates the emotional responses and the perception of the consumers that mainly affect the purchasing behaviour of the customers.

Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Economics - Assignment Example At the core of the concern for methodology in economics is a concern on how economics acquire knowledge on the world and what methodologies economics use to expand the frontiers of that knowledge. Also closely related to the concern is the discipline’s notion of what constitutes science and what knowledge can be considered as scientific or what knowledge can be considered as lacking a scientific basis or foundation. According to Hausman (1989, p. 115), the literature on economic methodology is mainly concerned with confirmation or disconfirmation of theory and has usually revolved on whether a particular economics is good science. Milton Friedman had viewed that good economic theories provide correct and useful predictions while Paul Samuelson had upheld that economic theories must involve operational concepts that are equivalent to their descriptions (Hausman, 1989, p.115). For Hausman, however, these views are mistaken because many of economic theorizing have been conceptual explorations and theories do not necessarily offer empirical hypotheses. According to Hauman, the four approaches that have dominated the discussion on economic methodology are deductivism, positivism or Popperianism, predictionism, and eclecticism. Hausman (1989) associates deductivism with Johan Stuart Mill, the discussion on positivism or Popperianism with Mark Blaug, predictionism with Milton Friedman, and eclecticism with Donald McCloskey. Deductivism asserts that because so many causal factors can influence economic phenomena, experimentation is generally not possible and induction cannot be directly employed (Hausman, 1989, p. 116, 3rd paragraph). The deductivist solution is to derive inductively the psychological or technical laws and then deduce the economic implications from the laws that were discovered inductively (Hausman, 1989, p. 116, 3rd paragraph). Empirical tests are needed to check whether the empirically derived conclusions are applicable, whether the

Terrorism and Intelligence Failures Essay Example for Free

Terrorism and Intelligence Failures Essay Terrorism by dictionary definition is described as the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. Terrorism comes from decades of histories of deep national pride, religious disputes and what is seen as an intrusion upon Islamic holy grounds. Terrorist groups try to gain influence and power in order to affect political change on either a local or an international level. They make this possible through the publicity and fear that is generated by their violent acts. Throughout history terrorist groups have caused much devastation and damage, leaving a huge impact on the world. Terrorism is one of the leading problems in today’s society. The terrorist attack against the United States, on September 11th, 2011, clearly demonstrated the power and strength that terrorist groups possess. The causes of these acts come from the instability, oppression, poverty and political alienation that the citizens of many Islamic-Arab nations face. As a result, the people of Afghanistan and many other Arab nations have generated a deep hatred for the United States going back over a hundred years. The American government and intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, now work harder than ever to prevent such horrifying acts of terrorism from re occurring, since they failed in the prevention of 9/11. â€Å"Terrorism is a complex problem: Its origins are diverse; and those who engage in it, even more so† (Reich, 1). The actions of terrorist groups, as well as terrorists as individuals, are complex. One must recognize that there is not only a single explanation for the act of terrorism. The subject is very intricate and involves a huge diversity of causes and reasons that aid in the explanation and understanding of terrorism. In the book, Origins of Terrorism, Walter Reich examines the psychologies, ideologies, theologies, and the states of mind of terrorists in an attempt to better understand the realms of terrorism. Reich does not only work with terrorism studies itself but instead works within the realms of political science, Islam, history and social psychology to gain a more well rounded understanding of terrorism. Through recognizing the knowledge of these realms, Reich and other scholar’s state this information can contribute to the understanding of the ways in which terrorists view the world and behave in it. Terrorism can be explained as an expression of political strategy. Meaning that terrorist behavior is a willing choice made by an organization for specific strategic reasons. These organizations are very radical political groups that determine that terrorism is the best course of action in accomplishing their political goals. â€Å"The practitioners of terrorism often claim that they had no choice but terrorism, and it is indeed true that terrorism often follows the failure of other methods† (Reich, 10). Failure to mobilize support from masses, lacking of utilization of military power, time constraints and unrealistic expectations cause radical political organizations to turn to terrorism. By choosing terrorism, group members and leaders, willingly accept the risks of challenging the government. The origin of terrorism is as old as humans’ willingness to affect politics through the use of violent acts. Terrorism dates back to first-century Palestine when a Jewish group fought and murdered the Romans and their collaborators who ruled over them. Terrorism went on to be classified as a modern phenomenon. In the twentieth century terrorism was associated with the Italian Red Brigades, the Irish Republican army, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Perv’s shining paths among many others. Terrorism moved away from being based on state action and moved further into a larger aspect of attack against existing political orders. The result of this was due to the growing amount of ethnic nationalism within countries. Groups with strong ethnic nationalism were forming throughout the entire world. Then in the late 1960’s international terrorism became a prominent issue. Terrorism progressed from random killings to massive plans of attacks. Hijacking and bombing had become the favored and popular methods of attack. Organized groups had specific political goals that they carried out through theatrical, symbolic acts of violence. As the twenty-first century came around terrorism started becoming very religiously motivated. Groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah come to mind as they justify their acts of violence on Islamic grounds. Terrorism was now not only being used for political reasons but for religious reasons as well. Religiously motivated terrorist groups are the most alarming terrorist threats in today’s world. The rise of Islamic radicalism and militancy began during the 1970’s in the Middle East region of the world. Islamist terrorism is based on the belief that U.S. foreign policy has killed, oppressed and harmed Muslims throughout the Middle East. This belief resulted in a tense relationship between the ‘West’ and the Arab and Muslim nations, creating a great amongst American society. Osama bin Laden was the founder of the most well known Islamic militant organizations called Al-Qaeda. His goal was to remove and end American military presence in the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula, end American support for Israel, return East Timor and Kashmir to Muslim rule and overthrow any Arab regimes that he considered corrupt and insufficiently religious. Al-Qaeda is the most innovative and dangerous terrorist group that has ever existed according the American government and all other countries that have been victims of terrorist acts. It has been known to engage in suicide attacks, kidnappings, hijackings and recruiting new members through the Internet. Al-Qaeda’s operating network consists of a multinational, stateless army, and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for Jihad. Jihad is an important religious duty of Muslims that involves the protection and keeping of the Islamic faith. In the book, The Age of Sacred Terror, authors Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon provides essential insight into the thinking of bin Laden and his followers. Benjamin and Simon talks about bin Laden’s first televised interview with Peter Arnett in March 1997. During his interview he complained and stated, â€Å"the truth is that the whole Muslim world is the victim of international terrorism, engineered by America at the United Nations . We are a nation whose sacred symbols have been looted and whose wealth and resources have been plundered.† Bin Laden continued to state, â€Å"If their people do not wish to be harmed inside their very own countries, they should seek to elect governments that are truly representative of them and that can protect their interests† (Benjamin, 147). Bin Laden gave the people of America a clear warning that he is planning an attack and a war against them. Osama bin Laden issued and signed his second fatwa on February 23, 1998, as the leader of Al-Qaeda. A fatwa is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue. Through the issue of bin Laden’s fatwa, he gave the USA an indictment on the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and the Middle East. He blames America for occupying lands of Islam and intervening in Middle Eastern affairs. Bin Laden’s goal was to get rid of any Americans getting in the way of his radical Sunni movement. By issuing his second fatwa, bin Laden declared was on the West and Israel. Al-Qaeda also released a video later that year declaring war on the United States and the West as well. After bin Laden had declared war, bombings were carried out on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. There was also an attempted bombing of Los Angeles International Airport and then the USS Cole bombing occurred in October 2000. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacked the United States once again. This attack not only crushed American ideologies, but also took away the feelings of security that had taken hundreds of years to build. To plan and successfully execute the September 11th attacks, Al-Qaeda terrorists worked for years within the United States using Islamic organizations to coordinate and build their networks. In the book, American Jihad, Steven Emerson tells the story of the terrorists who sought to destroy the United States from the inside. Emerson states, â€Å"Operating in our open society, with freedom of speech and assembly and with only casual oversight from the FB I, the CIA, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the worldwide network of militant Islamic organizations has finally been able to coordinate† (Emerson, 3). The idea that terrorists were working within the United States seemed unimaginable, but the attacks of 9/11 proved that it was possible. Bin Laden organized and set up a network of â€Å"cells† in Tucson, Arizona; Brooklyn, New York; Orlando, Florida; Dallas, Texas; Santa Clara, California; Columbia, Missouri; and Herndon, Virginia. He understood that if he recruited U.S. citizens it would help him in his terrorist efforts because they would be allowed to travel freely throughout the world. By having an American passport his followers would not be detected or questioned whether they were a part of or members of a terrorist group. Bin Laden â€Å"made efforts to recruit United States citizens†¦ in order to utilize the American citizens for travel throughout the Western world to deliver messages and engage in financial transactions for the benefit of Al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups and to help carry out operations† (Emerson, 153). Bin Laden was obviously successful in his attack on America, which demonstrated not only to Americans, but also to the rest of the world what great threat terrorism can be to humanity. The success of terrorism depends on the existence of a mass media, which will create and spread the feeling of fear throughout the world. As a result, the attacks of September 11, threw America into a full waged war against terrorism. Military efforts were sent to abroad to Afghanistan and the Bush administration increased domestic efforts in order to prevent future attacks. New ideas and reforms needed to be put in place. American citizens did not understand why the CIA, the biggest intelligence agency in the world, could not prevent such a large scaled terrorist attack from happening. â€Å"The CIA was designed to†¦ â€Å"Connect the dots.† Yet it failed to penetrate sufficiently with human intelligence agents or to fathom analytically with sufficient clarity the Al-Qaeda 9/11 conspiracy that lead to the slaughter of some 3000 individuals on U.S. soil† (Russell, 18). â€Å"The terrorists that intelligence must uncover and track are inert objects; they are living, conniving strategists. They, too, fail frequently and are sometimes caught before they can strike† (Hoge, 146). The intelligence system failed and in order to understand this failure one must understand that the strategic role of intelligence in decision making of foreign policy has been a neglected field of study. The outrage of the intelligence failure forced the Bush administration to fall to political pressure. The administration accepted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to the create DNI post. This post was to serve as the president’s chief intelligence advisor and oversee the entire intelligence community, including the CIA. The root cause of the failed penetration of Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 plot, by the CIA, has to do with their failure to marshal the resources that work against Al-Qaeda, which were corresponding with the threat. The CIA did provide the president with a strategic warning about the attacks but it would have been much better if they had access to the Al-Qaeda related information that the FBI had collected. The CIA has also failed to produce spies that are needed to reveal the plans and intentions of America’s enemies. The focus should be put on what can be done to improve intelligence rather than recap evidence of what the CIA did and did not do. Spending more money on intelligence agencies will not necessarily improve American security. Intelligence could be improved by the collection of more important information, the building up of human intelligence throughout the world and recruiting more and better spies. If the American government wants to protect its citizens, property, liberty and interests from attacks of terrorist groups then dramatic reforms need to happen. These reforms would hopefully give the president access to the enemy plans and tactics. â€Å"The systematic failures of American strategic intelligence and the CIA since its inception have been obscured by the political and emotional impulse to examine each and every incident of intelligence failure in isolation and not to put them together into a larger context with other intelligence failures that shared the same root causes† (Russell, 27). Nonetheless, America was in an overall agreement that changes in the American intelligence systems were necessary. The United States Department of Homeland security was created in November 2002 as a new cabinet level agency. This department was responsible for the reorganization of the U.S. federal government. Government bureaucracies dealing with military functions and security were also reorganized. In October 2001, the USA Patriot act was signed into effect reducing the restrictions on law enforcement agencies’ ability to search medical, financial, telephone, e-mail communications and other records. It also eased the restrictions on gathering foreign intelligence within the United States. The Patriot act also gave the Secretary of the Treasury more authority to closely regulate financial transactions, involving foreign persons. Immigration authorities and law enforcement could now detain and deport immigrants that were suspected of being affiliated with acts of terrorism more easily. Author Richard K. Betts suggested, â€Å"The National Security Agency (NSA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), and associated organizations can increase â€Å"technical† collection – satellite and aerial reconnaissance, signals intelligence, communications monitoring – by buying more platforms, devices, and personnel to exploit them† (Hoge, 148). A Terrorist Finance Tracking Program was actually created to in order to monitor the movements of terrorists’ financial resources. However, the New York Times newspaper leaked this information, which ended th e project. The National Security Agency instead set up an electronic surveillance program that studied telecommunication use by suspected and known terrorists. All the laws and reforms that removed restrictions on governmental authority are notionally good for the overall prevention and protection against terrorism. In certain perspectives the removal of governmental restrictions is advantageous to American security. However, political interest groups have stated that because these new laws remove restrictions on governmental authority, they violate the civil liberties of the American citizens. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the first legal challenge against the Patriot Act. It claimed that the Patriot act violates the rights of the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment and the right to due process. It is a violation because the Patriot act grants the government the right to search a person’s private property without having to inform them that they are being investigated. Former Pr esident Bush stated that the Patriot Act helped convict more than two hundred suspects of being involved with acts of terrorism. On the other hand, the figures of the Justice Department show that there have been complaints of abuse of the Act from about 7000 people. The real question one must ask oneself is if the governments’ unknown investigations are worth the price of freedom and protection from terrorism. â€Å"The deaths of 3,000 people on American soil at hands of a ruthless adversary along with the CIA’s profound misreading of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities are the latest and greatest and in a long string of U.S. intelligence failures† (Russell, 149). The United States government has heavily concentrated on improving intelligence through bureaucratic approaches. Fighting the war on terrorism became a huge challenge for the United States. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 caused enormous devastation and damage to all the citizens of America. September 11 will never be forgotten as it has left a huge impact on the world. Al-Qaeda is a very serious threat to the United States but there will most likely be many more in the next generations to come. â€Å"The United States needs to rectify the substantial shortcomings in human intelligence collection operations if it is to deal successfully with issues of war and peace in the future† (Russell, 168). The protection of America is in the hands of the government and the intelligence agencies. Terrorism will not end on its own, therefore Americans need to be prepared for what the future has to bring. Terrorism has been around for centuries and will probably always be around. The question is how to handle it and keep it in check. There will always be extremists working against the governments in the world.