The citizens of a small rural community near Canad Essay Example For Students

The citizens of a small rural community near Canad Essay as Wonderland are marching up and down the road with signs and noble voices: Down with Grier!, Say no to Proposition 36!, Childrens Futures!, 36 makes us Sick! What are these people yelling about? Raising taxes? Higher Unemployment? No, these peoples pleas are about a simpler, yet harder to combat problem. Garbage. Ruth Grier wants to put a dump here, and the people wont stand for it. And with good cause! Living near a dump makes thing infinitely more difficult, or at least unpleasant. But what else can the government do? There arent any more acceptable ways to get rid of access garbage. Also, people are creating more garbage than at any point in all of history! This essay will prove that people are creating garbage faster than we can dispose of it. We will write a custom essay on The citizens of a small rural community near Canad specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Years ago garbage wasnt anyones concern. There was plenty of land to ship trash to, and if somehow you ran out of places to put it, you could burn it, or put it in the sewers, or put it in closed mines, or many other ways. No longer. The governments of the world are quickly running out of environmentally sound ways to dispose of trash, and no one is coming up with usable new ideas. In Canada it seems like it would be easy to dump garbage. Canada has low population density and lots of land ripe for dumping. But what town is going to stand for being next to a dump? No one wants to live near one, and with good cause. In a 1988-1992 study of one small town right next to a new dump, one a mile from the same dump, and one far away from any dump, research found a number of things. A)The population, while the same at the beginning of the survey, reduced to almost nothing in town #1, reduced very little in town #2, and increased in town #3. B)The drinking water was very un!healthy in town #1, just as bad in town #2, and normal in town #3. C)There was a huge infestation problem in town #1, but none in any other town. D)The land values in town #1 were so bad many people simply left without selling their homes, turning it into a virtual ghost town. Again there was no problem in the other towns. And finally E)Towns #1 and #2 tended to have more sick people than the control, #3 (Wenton 2-4).As one can see by this survey, living in a town near a dump is a major problem. But the more serious repercussions are part B and E. While people are very careful to try to contain dumps from the bottom so that toxins dont escape, the chemicals were proven to have gotten into the ground water, and then into peoples homes as far as a mile away. The government thought they had found the perfect plan for dumping in Kirkland Lake, but even that idea fell through. People just cant dump garbage anymore it seems. But what else to do with it? The governmen!t cant ship it to other countries, they all have the same problem no matter what the country. They cant burn it, it causes more pollution problems in the air than in dumps! If they put it in the sewage system it will contaminate, and if they put it underground, it has serious geological reverberations. As the famous comedian George Carlin said, You just cant throw way garbage in this town no more. Getting rid of garbage is even more complex and difficult when it is recognized that people are creating more garbage nowadays than ever before. In the past, people threw out very little. People would have a small pile of garbage that would fit in a paper bag for the entire family for a whole month (IWRP 1), unlike our piles of garbage weekly. People arent reusing our garbage enough, even with programs like recycling. Of Canadian garbage, 20.1% is yard wastes, and 8.9% is food wastes, both of which can be composted, reducing our garbage by almost 30%! Then theres the 8.4% of glass, 8.9% of metals and 7.3% of plastic, all of which is recyclable, for another 25%. And finally theres paper or paperboard, which takes up a phenomenal 35.6% of garbage, all recyclable. Thats a total of 90% of our garbage thats reusable, but is thrown out!!! Also, the remaining 10%, aside from the chemicals and the like, consists of wood, leather, rubber and textiles, which is often reus!able by other people (Glad). One mans garbage is another mans gold indeed. The benefits of this recycling would be huge. For each ton of newspaper recycles, 19 whole trees are saved (Robinson 20B)! Recycling an aluminum can will save enough energy to run a television for three hours (Pigg A3)! One ton of waste material recycled saves three cubic yards of landfill space (Pittaway C2). But people continue to throw out this material despite the benefits, and at a sky-high rate! Each person in Canada throws out an average of 1.7 kg of garbage per day. The annual garbage created by two average families, if squeezed into garbage cans, would be almost as high as the CN tower, 554 meters tall (Ministry of the Environment 2). Of course, a large part of the problem is that a lot of the products people bring into their home are, quite simply, garbage. Think about all those little Snickers bars O.D.S.S. sold. There was a large box, inside of which there were twenty medium b!oxes, each of which was filled with about twenty individually wrapped chocolates. Most of what people buy is packaged like this, for one reason, as quoted by the ex-buyer for Boots: Shelf Space. Thats the reason. If our product is bigger from more packaging then we no one else gets the space we take up. Plus theres the bonus that people see the product and assume theyre getting more for their buck by buying this bigger product (Wright). Consumers become so used to seeing items over-wrapped that they start to assume its necessary. Many other products have similar problems. It all boils down to that we are making and tossing far to much garbage. .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .postImageUrl , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:hover , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:visited , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:active { border:0!important; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:active , .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208 .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8409adb2a4140fff9a9f2967d061b208:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Peking Opera EssayGarbage. It seems its hard to get rid of it, and people are throwing it out like theres no tomorrow (which there might not be if we keep throwing this much out). So does this mean garbage is going to be the death of Earth? That its a problem that wont go away? That the next generation will all live in garbage filled towns, that they will have to wear gas masks and use water purifiers? Maybe not. What people need to do is keep coming up with ideas for garbage disposal until they find one that works. People also need to watch our garbage flow, but with some creativity they can reduce our garbage dramatically. But for now, people are creating garbage faster than we can dispose of it.

The Gaia Hypothesis A Living Planetary Organism essays

The Gaia Hypothesis A Living Planetary Organism essays The notion of a living Earth is hardly a "new" perspective; ancient human history and archeological evidence suggests that most primitive incorporated at least some general beliefs in a conscious "Mother Earth". paying homage to or praying to this entity is a theme central to many Both the ancient Greeks and early Christians believed in a conscious St. Thomas Aquinas, to a lesser degree (Sagan). In fact, the etiology of based on the word Ge (or Gaia), the name of the Earth goddess of the (OceansOn-line). Likewise, interpreting weather phenomena as a purported communication between man and his gods and the practice of sacrificial triggered by weather or seasonal changes is evident, in myriad variations, early theistic philosophical perspectives. Even the more modern or scientific notion that the Earth is, in many living organism rather than an inanimate biosphere merely supporting biological life is not entirely new. Renowned eighteenth century geologist considered the Earth to be a super organism of some sort almost two hundred before James Lovejoy and the biologist Lynn Margulis reintroduced the more scientific form in the 1960's and 70's. Writing shortly before James description of a living planet, Lewis Thomas, a physician and contemporary wrote The Lives of a Cell, a series of essays in which he expressed the "Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. The photographs the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dry as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming, membrane of blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part cosmos. If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of great drifts of white cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. If you had b...

How the human race has become dependent on technology and how this Research Paper

How the human race has become dependent on technology and how this negatively influences the human race individually and as a w - Research Paper Example The introduction of nuclear weapons, luxury items, television, computer and daily used appliances has become a target of these opponents. These opponents argue that technology is making things difficult for mankind and these problems would be felt in the latter years of life. On the other hand the proponents of technology argue that it is a blessing for the whole mankind as it is making things a lot easier for people. The question then remains â€Å"Is technology really affecting us adversely or not?† This essay would further address this question by revolving around the negative influence of technology on our daily lives. The introduction of internet and computers in our life has turned out to be joyful for many as individuals enjoy surfing and chatting on the internet. Internet not only helps one to surf and chat but also helps to find out useful information about different topics. But the opponents argue that internet has turned out to be a disaster for many. Experts on tec hnology believe that excess usage of computers and internet makes one impulsive and forgetful in his daily life. Excessive usage of internet has been termed to be fall under the category of addiction. Different types of self assessment tests have been designed to check if one falls under the category of internet addiction or not. ... In other words internet is causing people to be distracted from education and family both at the same time. Cell phones also fall in the category of the internet as they seem to be causing dependence amongst the people too (Parker 2010). The introduction of nuclear power and nuclear weapons has also turned different aspects of the world. Nuclear power has helped countries to increase their capacity to generate energy so that the scarce resources can be preserved. However on the other hand the negative aspects of nuclear power are not being considered over its advantages. One of the most potential disadvantages of nuclear power is that it creates waste which can be harmful to the environment. Although the nuclear plants have a refining plant through which they reduce their waste but this refinery is not successfully able to contain the radioactive material inside the waste. The chance of accidents in these nuclear plants is also high and certainly causes high risk to the life of a hum an being. Similarly these nuclear power plants are also capable of producing enough plutonium every year so that nuclear warheads can be built (Swain 2007). Nuclear warheads are of serious concern to the whole society as they may be harming the society as a whole. In the World War II it was seen that the atom bomb was able to destroy a large area of Japan which harmed the integrity of the human race. These nuclear weapons have been a cause of concern for the whole world as they may fall in the hands of the wrong people. Nowadays even some of the third world countries like India and Pakistan possess these nuclear warheads. A study showed that the nuclear warheads in Pakistan are susceptible to being stolen by the terrorists. This clearly shows that the invention of nuclear weapons in

Net-a-Porter Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Net-a-Porter - Case Study Example Since its launch in the year 2000, the company Net-A-Porter have been able to successfully establish itself as a premium luxury brand selling online designer fashion clothing for women. Net-A-Porter with its innovation strategy along with highly developed offering have been able to achieve huge success and had also won award for the best shop at â€Å"British Fashion Week† and the best e-retailer in â€Å"UK Fashion Export Awards.† The online fashion retailer sells more than 150 top luxury fashionable brands and offers express delivery throughout the globe and delivery the items on the same day in Manhattan and London (Net-A-Porter, â€Å"About Us†). The paper aims to discuss the case study on Net-A-Porter and answer to some of its question in relation to the brand and its strategy. Therefore below are the answers to the questions asked for in the case study â€Å"Net-a-Porter.† What are the considerations that need to underpin decisions on the pricing str ategy? Pricing is one of the 4ps that a marketer needs to take into consideration before deciding on the strategy. It is an important aspect of marketing and also for branding strategy as it tends to be one of the first indicators of brand positioning for the consumers and also regarded as the most flexible Ps. It has been seen that prestige and luxury brands adopts the premium pricing strategy in order to emphasise the strength of the brand, high quality associated with luxury goods which also helps them to differentiate from mass fashion brands. The target audience for the luxury brand are comparatively less price sensitive and actually expects that luxury products to be highly priced rather than to be priced economically. Pricing tends to form branding process as the consumer tends to judge the position of the respective brand and its value through the adopted pricing strategy. In addition, luxury brands are those brands whose ratio of functionality towards price is low and the r atio towards situational utility and intangibility with respect to price seems to be high. This indicates that price of premium products is relatively higher as compared to the price of products having similar kind of tangible features but with high intangible quality along with associated benefits of premium products teds to justify the high price (Okonkwo 140). In addition to the above consideration while deciding on the pricing strategy, Net-A-Porter is an online luxury brand and thus online pricing premium strategy is also a consideration for the brand. The premium pricing strategy involves setting a higher price as compared to similar products. The premium pricing strategy also referred to as skimming pricing strategy as it is an attempt to â€Å"skim the cream† from the market. Based on the above definition Net-A-Porter premium pricing strategy will help it to maximise profit in areas where the customers are willing to pay more for the desired product. In the process of adopting the premium pricing strategy, price quality signaling is also an important and essential factor. With the premium pricing strategy Net-A-Porter can use to improve its brand identity in the specific given market. The higher price the brand demands signifies highest quality product and thus it will be convenient for the brand to charge high price. The next consideration is the level of competition among the brands in the same product segment. Premium pricing is a short term strategy; the longer

The Global internet backbone industry analysis paper Essay

The Global internet backbone industry analysis paper - Essay Example This essay will examine the global internet backbone industry and how it is organized. Internet is an open worldwide network that helps to interconnect computer networks using a number of standardized protocols in order to allow the exchange of data among them. Internet backbone is used to designate the core physical infrastructure that carries Internet Protocol traffic. The leading players in global internet industry include some big companies, governments, network center internet exchange points and network access points. Internet is both a point-to-point and point-to- multipoint medium: it connects individuals but also speaks to and interacts with vast numbers of people simultaneously (Dwyer, 2010). Internet is provided at first hand by tier 1 which consists of very large network service providers that own their own fiber optic or satellite links across nations and around the world. Many of these tier one companies operate a number of internet service providers that sell services to final users, others focus mostly on the wholesale market, selling bandwidth to tier 2 and tier 3 providers (Castells, 2011). Tier 1 providers have access to the global Internet routing table but do not purchase transit from anyone. Tier 2 Internet service providers buy capacity from tier 1 providers for resale. Tier 2 have networks with a more limited geographical coverage. Most of Tier 2 have their own PoPs and backbone nodes. The customers of Tier 2 internet service providers tend to be final users and they include businesses and households. On the other hand Tier 3 operators that include small internet service providers provide services exclusively to end users and normally they cover a small geographical area. Tier 3 Internet service providers should connect to either Tier 2 or tier 1 provider in order to access the Internet through the latter’s backbones: they may also have to lease their PoP facilities. The industry

Benefits of Organizational Reflection

Benefits of Organizational Reflection A successful organization can be described as thinking and seeing organization. Such organizations are characterized by high levels of information flow and awareness among all its members. The availability of information improves the awareness and understanding of organizational weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities (Reynolds and Vince 2004). The organization members are also able to understand the history and strategic future plans for their organization as well as full awareness of the resources within the organization and the changing competitor environment. On the other hand, a thinking organization is an understanding organization that has a well stipulated vision, mission, objectives and the business environment that are well understood by all the stakeholders. Many organizational businesses collapse because they lack both foresight and hind sight necessary for understanding the current position of the organization. In ensuring an organization adopts the thinking and seeing style, reflection must become a part of the organizational practices and culture. Reflection must be integrated in all the organizational activities because generation of organizational knowledge can be done by any member of the organization irrespective of the level or the location in which s/he operates. Reflection is therefore a process that involves spending critical time away from the normal work routine in which individuals or groups think and interpret both personal or organization issues with the aim of getting previous experiences and lessons that may benefit a present situation (Boud, Cressey and Docherty 2006). At the corporate level, organizations set retreat days for its staff as well as reflection sessions so that staff can reflect on what their have achieved, the way they have performed, their compliance with the organization strategies, the challenges and threats they have faced as well as the experiences weaknesses and registered strengths. Reflection allows organization present ideas and previous experiences into usable knowledge and actions. Reflection can be necessitated by personal experiences as well as organizational performance especially if the organization isnt meeting its set goals and objectives. Reflection process is very dependent on knowledge management because it deals with intangible assets that need to be created and shared both inside and outside the organization to create a database of important information and knowledge that can be utilized later to handle challenges in the organization. Reflection starts with raw experiences which are analyzed to information then associated with relevant skills and values to become knowledge which is main focus of many organizations. Just like knowledge management, reflection involves capture and identification of ideas, information or knowledge then distributing it to appropriate individual within the organization leading to its application in a particular situation in the organization. The sole purpose of reflection is to create important knowledge that any organization will need in its present or future performance. Reflection is also part of organizational learning that is a knowledge management facet intended to equip staff wit h important knowledge and skills that will improve the operations and performance of the organization. Greenwood (2000), notes that the success and growth of organizations is highly depended on learning and knowledge generation (p. 126). Learning in an organizational setting is not only limited to individual knowledge acquisition but also involves the combined learning abilities of all staff in that organization. Notably, individual learning is a subset and component of organization and without it, organizational learning wont exist. Organizational learning is a result of challenges that face employees in their working activities thus initiation of learning and advancement in knowledge to solve such challenges. Though, challenges do not guarantee learning to occur, they combine with experiences to provide data and information which form the basis for learning. Generation of actions and problem solving are the key components of reflection at the workplace. Organizational reflection has presented required environment for self directed learning, action learning, problem and challenge based learning and to a greater extend the organizational learning (Reynolds and Vince 2004). Managers have noticed the necessity of reflection in their organization and they acknowledge that failure to reflect in the organization is equal to inviting the collapse of the operation of the organization. However, organizations have failed in implementing reflection strategies such that execution processes that go beyond individual mandate and involve groups of members or the whole organization are not usually implemented thus compromising the use of organizational experience and limit implementation of expected actions. The application of reflection in organizational operations has received considerable attention in the last few decades. Organizations have created independent departments with adequate resources to enable reflection process to occur and to work on the results of the reflection processes. The increased attention to reflection has been triggered by recognition of learning and generation of knowledge as components of organizational productivity and performance. Though learning and generation of knowledge may not be the only factors that can contribute to organizational change and performance, they play an all-round function in ensuring that all other resources in the organization are well coordinated to realize organizational goals. Reflection is therefore an important human process that involves reviewing and understanding past experiences then drawing lessons from them. Reflection is less known in work places and managers have little knowledge concerning its role and importance in the organization of activities and improving performance (Boud, Cressey and Docherty 2006). There have been fewer opportunities for the practice of reflection at work particularly because many organizations have not yet established the role that can be played by real and guided reflection. However, the 21st century has witnessed increasing concern and appreciation of the role that organizational reflection can play in fostering work results as well as improving employee learning. The recognition of reflection as an integral part of organizational management has triggered different kind of organizational learning and education that are in line with the traditional processes of organizational learning. Boud, Cressey and Docherty (2006) point out that productive organizational reflection is an adoption of the general individual reflection that is focused much on the use of past experience to generate important solution to present and future problems as well as promoting organizational training and learning (p. 12). Productive organizational reflection has several important elements that combine to provide a structured system to guide generation and analysis of actions from experiences. Organizational intent and collective orientation element tries to create a distinction and a point of convergence between individual and organizational reflection. While previous reflections have focused on individual experience and generation of knowledge, productive organizational reflection is focused on collaborative review of experiences that lead to taking appropriate actions with and for other participants with an aim of benefiting the organization as well as the whole group involved in the ref lective activity. Such reflection is done in a situation of the organization and must be incorporated and address the target of the organization. Collective reflection may be done at different levels of the organization depending on the organization management structure. Reflection may take place at the top management, middle management level, and low level or at the small working groups and this may happen internal or external to the organization. However, collective reflection always starts at individual level after which separate reflections are combined and actions drawn from them. This element of organizational reflection ensures the interests of the individual members, the workgroup and the organization are taken into consideration. The other element of organizational reflection is its importance in integrating knowledge, learning and work. Productive organizational reflection can occur in any location, but its always confined to the working activities and any reflections outside it wont be considered a practice of organizational reflection. Reflection is therefore triggered by work activities though there might be selected cases where importance and valuable reflection occur outside the context of working environment. Organizational reflection operates in the space that is created between the connections of work activities, the process of learning and generating knowledge. It therefore provides the link between knowledge acquisition and its production. Therefore, a productive organizational reflection will always seek to strike a balance between learning from past experiences to generate appropriate knowledge that will help in improving the work activities. The relationship between the individual and organizational development is another controversial element of productive organizational reflection. Reflection in organization fosters both organizational and individual development. Organizational reflection has a developmental value to the organization and the staff because it has become part of the main organizational practices that are relied upon in designing solutions to present and future organizational problems while placing the staff at better positions to deal with organizational and individual challenges that may pose a thereat in future. Thus distinguishing individual from organizational reflection may be a challenge in cases where staff does not get special time to reflect on the organizational operations. Furthermore, organizational reflection is open, dynamic but unpredictable process because it can happen at anytime when organizations do not have procedures to guide the process of reflection. Just like other form of reflect ion, results of organizational reflection cannot be wholly predicated. In many instances, it doesnt yield the expected results but unintended consequences which may be used to address another organizational issue. This type of reflection is very dynamic in that a present successful refection may create an organizational barrier in future. Therefore, organizations rely on past experience to modify the future thinking and behavior of the organization through the ability to reflect on its previous operations by identifying past performances and activities (Kazi 2005). Organizational reflection is manifested though inquiry and evaluation that involves establishing problems, determining their meaning and developing appropriate solutions. According to (Kazi 2005) organization reflection is a wide process that involves conversion of explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge that produces interpretive knowledge necessary for enhancement of individual knowledge through revisiting common issues and problems (p. 121). Reflective practice isnt an individual process but an organizational procedure that requires individual members of an organization to learn and modify their actions that are vital for organizational progress and performance. Reflection in organization is very important because of its contribution to individual learning which translates to organizational learning. Combination and sharing of individual learning is crucial to realization of organizational learning because individual learning may not present enough experience needed to tackle identified challenges facing an organization. However, some organization do not have appropriate standards that can facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences especially when mechanisms for such sharing dont exist or the regulation of the organizations do not allow sharing or possibly if the staff do not know how to share such knowledge and experiences. Organizational management and particularly, the reflective manager must device and develop appropriate methods that can facilitate acquisition and sharing of organizational knowledge and experiences. The reflective manager in an organization is responsible for all processes and procedures involved in integrating and transfer of new knowledge, experiences, behavior and skills within and outside the organization. As such, the manager must prove to the employees that reflection is an important activity that is all round and should involve every member of the organization. The manager must ensure that employees learn from previous mistakes, that they know what they think and feel as well as device procedures that will ensure that the employees understand and manage the barriers and challenges that face the organization and then develop strategies for future use through applying learned knowledge and skills. Reflective manager therefore provides appropriate environment for employees to focus on their past experiences as well as current activities that may help in generating required knowledge for use in the current organizational situation. As such, a reflective manager in an organiza tion plays an important role in ensuring generation of knowledge and ideas from past experiences, repackaging of such experiences and ideas for the future use by the organization. Though many organizations have realized the value of reflection in their operations and the many stimuli that encourage reflection, there are equal detractors that hinder reflective practice. The most common challenge that faces organization in trying to use reflection in the management of their operation is the little time allocated for reflection and analysis. The lack of importance that may accrue from informed reflection is the main reason why many managers dont allocate sufficient time for employees to reflect on their experiences and establishes their failures. Organizations allocate very little or no time for their employees to reflect on their accomplishments and performance through individual thinking or group thinking. Many organizations spend most of the time making decisions, building strategies, training and orientations. Such activities must be accompanied by required information and knowledge so that expected results may be achieved. Reflection will therefore help in p rior understanding of a particular task before such task is accomplished so that preparations can be made for anticipated challenges and problems. Organizational reflection as opposed to individual reflection is a very expensive process not only on time allocation but also physical resources. For reflections to be productive, reflecting members must be in an appropriate environment that is free from the normal activities. Creating such an environment is quite expensive and organizations dont usually agree to organize staff retreats to quiet and conducive places that can ensure good results from reflection process. However, managers who have realized the real importance of reflection in their business operations create time and allocate adequate resources for the process of reflection as well as following out the results of such reflection sessions Another significant challenge that face application of reflection in an organization include poor communication systems that an organization uses especially if an organizations uses top-down communication system. The relationship among the individuals with the organizations, the relationships among different workgroups as well as the relationship between the organization and others hinders the creation of openness that is needed in the reflection process. The power of fear for uncertainty may also derail the process of reflection. Additionally, the style of management that an organization uses may affect reflection especially if the organization uses authoritarian style of management where control, leadership and power is centralized to a single individual or group in the organization. Conclusion Reflection is a complex and new organizational process that involves contemplation of tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and experiences to create new information, knowledge and ideas that can be used to address a challenge within the organization. Through the reflection of the experiences and knowledge, learning capabilities of the staff are enhanced thus dealing with challenges and threats becomes easy for the organization because it has well informed and knowledgeable staff. Therefore, reflection improves the organizational visualization of unexpected realities and results and how to react to them. Organizational reflection is currently gaining attention in many organizations as opposed to ancient times when it was considered to be of no value to the operations and performance of the organizations. Though there are more challenges facing application and implementation of reflection strategies in organizations, positive progress in available which is indicated by the value that or ganizations attach to information and knowledge in accomplishing business activities and solving organizational challenges and problems.

Utopian Society :: essays research papers

Virtually every culture has strived to achieve a Utopian society. A Utopian society is basically a society, which has surpassed aggression, war, hate, and crime while establishing â€Å"peaceful† and orderly communities. A Utopian society could not exist with the individuality that nature has bestowed on the human race. So long as humans remain unique in their state of mind, utopia is a mere fantasy. To work around this problem a society must adapt itself to achieve a utopian-like state. This can be achieved by one of two ways. One way could be known as a â€Å"hostile transfer.† This way is shown in the novel â€Å"farenheight 451† by ray Bradbury. Bradbury shows how the society creates a career of burning books (specifically historical books). The semi communistic semi utopian government then fills in their own twisted version of the past to maintain a stable state of control by keeping their citizens oblivious to their true rights and privileges. This achieves a semi utopian society in the scene that any resistance, crime, aggression is either insignificant to the â€Å"big picture† or easily overcome. Utopia is dismissed in this case because of the extreme force used to maintain.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second way to achiever a semi utopia could be called a â€Å"Manipulative utopia†. A strong example would be the utopia created for the novel â€Å"1984† by George Orwell. Within this utopia the society is manipulated by the leading organizations/ government to take pleasure in what would be most profitable to the organizer of the event/product, or be intimidated yet assured with protection by the government. This type of utopia-communistic government dismisses the true utopia factor when the ability to show signs of individuality is disabled through manipulation. The two utopia-like societies have their similarities as well. They both operate independent of other state/country/ or province; both seem to strongly oppose the democratic systems. Both central governments are very cryptic when the issue of past societies is brought up. The commanding organizations also controlled one other aspect of civilization... the media. Newspapers revolving around a â€Å"one sided† political, or military event. The media seems to be very controlled by the governments or leading parties in both cases.

Project Scope Statement

Scope Statement Section headings listed in gray font appear in both the Project Charter and the Scope Statement. Project Title: Web Site Enhancement Project Project Manager: Xin Tao Project Description (see Project Charter) Business Objectives †¢ A new company web site is proposed to best support the company’s mission to provide a complete recreational experience to the guests, including elegant meals, relaxing living quarters, and extensive recreational options such as golf, tennis, spas, gyms, night clubs, and excursions to local towns and areas of interest. Increase market share by 50% within two years of launch by providing on-line queries and reservations of rooms, on-line booking of guest services. †¢ Increase revenue by 25% within three quarters post-launch by tapping into a larger customer base accessible through internet sales. †¢ Avoid risk that some of the hotels will have to be closed within two to three years as pressured by other larger hotel chain s. †¢ Increase customer satisfaction by 25% among the existing customer base by becoming more technology-oriented, as measured via customer satisfaction surveys taken over the two-year period following the new web site launch.Project Objectives †¢ Allow technology team gain more experience in more sophisticated web technology, which is expected to reduce web site maintenance cost by 20%. †¢ Use effective project management techniques consistent with the company standards. †¢ Integrate the new company web site well with existed systems: the Reservation system and the Guest-Services System. Project Scope Description Q The new web site has a user friendly graphical interface, which shall allow user to do queries, reservations, browsing and booking easily.The new web site is enhanced to interact with existed systems: a Reservation System and a Guest-Services System. It has the capabilities to read data from and save data to those systems. The new web site shall displ ay results according to users’ requests. Requirements †¢ The new web site shall be accessed by popular web browsers, including Microsoft IE, Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape. †¢ The new web site shall run on a Linux based server. †¢ The web server software, which the new web site uses, shall be Apache. The new web site shall be a secure Internet site. †¢ All major credit cards will be accepted by the new web site. †¢ VeriSign will be the credit card processing vendor. Project Boundaries Out-of-Scope features discussed but not implemented at this time:†¢ Users can have additional payment methods besides credit cards, for example, Paypal and Google Checkout. †¢ Users can get invoice in a PDF format. †¢ Users have the capability to cancel a transaction even after it is done. †¢ Users have the capability to remove particular service even after it is booked. Users can ask for refund if booked price is higher than the current price. Project Deliverables (see Project Charter) Project Acceptance Criteria †¢ Delivery of the web site by the end of August, 2006 †¢ The new web site shall provide on-line queries and reservations of rooms, on-line booking of guest services †¢ The new web site shall operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. †¢ Expenditures on the project not exceeding $900,000 †¢ Reduce web site maintenance cost by 20%.†¢ Increase revenue by 25% within three quarters post-launch Increase customer satisfaction by 25% among the existing customer Project Constraints (see Project Charter) Project Assumptions (see Project Charter) Project Roles and Responsibilities (see Project Charter) Initial Defined Risks †¢ Because the management team is still somehow hesitant to embark on the project, the project could be canceled. †¢ Because funds for this project are coming from marketing budget of the marketing team, funds may be reduced if marketing team cannot control its budget wisely . Because the project requires more technical resources to be hired, which are scarce due to the red hot technology market, the new web site may not be launched on time. †¢ Because the project has a cost constraint of $900,000, an inferior web site may be developed, resulting in a poor quality that fails to realize its sales targets. †¢ Because the project has a time constraint of 10 months, the web site may not be tested thoroughly, leading to an unstable web site. †¢ Because the project requires the deployment of new hardware, shipment delay of the new hardware would lead to the project behind schedule.Schedule Milestones (see Project Charter) Cost Estimate (see Project Charter) Project Parameter Ranking |Parameter |Ranking (1,2,3,4) |Comments | |Time |1 |The sponsors hope that the new web site can be up and running, accepting | | | |online reservations and queries within 10 months before the start of the | | | |new peak season.Missing the target launching time mean s that the | | | |strategic objectives can not be meet to increase revenue by booking to | | | |capacity at peak times and by expanding peak seasons by marketing year | | | |round points of interest. | |Cost |2 |The budget for the project is fixed at $900,000. |Scope |4 |The sponsors are willing to sacrifice some of the web site’s features in | | | |order to reach the quality, cost, and time goals. | |Quality |3 |Since the company web site would bring significant revenue opportunity | | | |for the company, a stable site is much needed.A buggy web site leads to | | | |low customer satisfaction, which would adversely impact company’s | | | |revenue. | Approval Requirements Tom Ender and Susan Ryan, Co-presidents Mike Muller, Head of the Marketing Team Helen Hui, Head of the Travel & Tourism Susan Gill, Head of the Technology Team ———————– Query Reserve Browse Book Reservation System Interact New web site Users Inter act Display Results Guest-Services System Project Scope Statement Scope Statement Section headings listed in gray font appear in both the Project Charter and the Scope Statement. Project Title: Web Site Enhancement Project Project Manager: Xin Tao Project Description (see Project Charter) Business Objectives †¢ A new company web site is proposed to best support the company’s mission to provide a complete recreational experience to the guests, including elegant meals, relaxing living quarters, and extensive recreational options such as golf, tennis, spas, gyms, night clubs, and excursions to local towns and areas of interest. Increase market share by 50% within two years of launch by providing on-line queries and reservations of rooms, on-line booking of guest services. †¢ Increase revenue by 25% within three quarters post-launch by tapping into a larger customer base accessible through internet sales. †¢ Avoid risk that some of the hotels will have to be closed within two to three years as pressured by other larger hotel chain s. †¢ Increase customer satisfaction by 25% among the existing customer base by becoming more technology-oriented, as measured via customer satisfaction surveys taken over the two-year period following the new web site launch.Project Objectives †¢ Allow technology team gain more experience in more sophisticated web technology, which is expected to reduce web site maintenance cost by 20%. †¢ Use effective project management techniques consistent with the company standards. †¢ Integrate the new company web site well with existed systems: the Reservation system and the Guest-Services System. Project Scope Description Q The new web site has a user friendly graphical interface, which shall allow user to do queries, reservations, browsing and booking easily.The new web site is enhanced to interact with existed systems: a Reservation System and a Guest-Services System. It has the capabilities to read data from and save data to those systems. The new web site shall displ ay results according to users’ requests. Requirements †¢ The new web site shall be accessed by popular web browsers, including Microsoft IE, Firefox, Mozilla and Netscape. †¢ The new web site shall run on a Linux based server. †¢ The web server software, which the new web site uses, shall be Apache. The new web site shall be a secure Internet site. †¢ All major credit cards will be accepted by the new web site. †¢ VeriSign will be the credit card processing vendor. Project Boundaries Out-of-Scope features discussed but not implemented at this time:†¢ Users can have additional payment methods besides credit cards, for example, Paypal and Google Checkout. †¢ Users can get invoice in a PDF format. †¢ Users have the capability to cancel a transaction even after it is done. †¢ Users have the capability to remove particular service even after it is booked. Users can ask for refund if booked price is higher than the current price. Project Deliverables (see Project Charter) Project Acceptance Criteria †¢ Delivery of the web site by the end of August, 2006 †¢ The new web site shall provide on-line queries and reservations of rooms, on-line booking of guest services †¢ The new web site shall operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. †¢ Expenditures on the project not exceeding $900,000 †¢ Reduce web site maintenance cost by 20%.†¢ Increase revenue by 25% within three quarters post-launch Increase customer satisfaction by 25% among the existing customer Project Constraints (see Project Charter) Project Assumptions (see Project Charter) Project Roles and Responsibilities (see Project Charter) Initial Defined Risks †¢ Because the management team is still somehow hesitant to embark on the project, the project could be canceled. †¢ Because funds for this project are coming from marketing budget of the marketing team, funds may be reduced if marketing team cannot control its budget wisely . Because the project requires more technical resources to be hired, which are scarce due to the red hot technology market, the new web site may not be launched on time. †¢ Because the project has a cost constraint of $900,000, an inferior web site may be developed, resulting in a poor quality that fails to realize its sales targets. †¢ Because the project has a time constraint of 10 months, the web site may not be tested thoroughly, leading to an unstable web site. †¢ Because the project requires the deployment of new hardware, shipment delay of the new hardware would lead to the project behind schedule.Schedule Milestones (see Project Charter) Cost Estimate (see Project Charter) Project Parameter Ranking |Parameter |Ranking (1,2,3,4) |Comments | |Time |1 |The sponsors hope that the new web site can be up and running, accepting | | | |online reservations and queries within 10 months before the start of the | | | |new peak season.Missing the target launching time mean s that the | | | |strategic objectives can not be meet to increase revenue by booking to | | | |capacity at peak times and by expanding peak seasons by marketing year | | | |round points of interest. | |Cost |2 |The budget for the project is fixed at $900,000. |Scope |4 |The sponsors are willing to sacrifice some of the web site’s features in | | | |order to reach the quality, cost, and time goals. | |Quality |3 |Since the company web site would bring significant revenue opportunity | | | |for the company, a stable site is much needed.A buggy web site leads to | | | |low customer satisfaction, which would adversely impact company’s | | | |revenue. | Approval Requirements Tom Ender and Susan Ryan, Co-presidents Mike Muller, Head of the Marketing Team Helen Hui, Head of the Travel & Tourism Susan Gill, Head of the Technology Team ———————– Query Reserve Browse Book Reservation System Interact New web site Users Inter act Display Results Guest-Services System

To Live Essays - To Live, The Doctor, Magic Boy Kitchener

To Live Essays - To Live, The Doctor, Magic Boy Kitchener To Live All the time people face problems during there life. Most of the time the problems that people come across are very minimal and can be dealt with very easily and quickly. People do not appreciate what they have. When your parent packs your lunch and you are disappointed with what you receive, think about the people in other countries where they would eat anything that is edible. Constantly people all over the world die of famine but we are trapped in a fantasy world where none of this happens. Think twice when you throw away your food. One country where peoples problems are a lot more serious is in China. Until the Civil War the Chinese were very rich. They lived in mansions and had servants. They were so rich that when they wanted to go somewhere they could hope on a persons back and they would carry them there. The main character in the movie, Fugui Xu, a young Chinese man gambled very frequently. He gambled a lot and had no luck winning. He lost so much gambling he was forced to h and over his mansion. He was then force to live like a common folk. They were very used to living the high life and because of that it was very difficult for them to survive living as a common folk. They had to get new jobs that were a lot less paying. Fuguis new job was to play shadow puppets and his wifes job was providing water for the community. Fortunately Fuguis family did perfectly fine with the money they earned. I will show you how Fugui and his family went from having a privileged past to having to affiliate with the communists to stay alive. Later on Fugui was forced to join the Nationalist army and once again he was forced to leave everything behind. He had to live through the frigid Chinese winter. Much of the army froze to death but fortunately Fugui and his friends survived by recovering the frozen peoples coats. He was one of the lucky ones. He fought in many harsh conditions such as the Civil War. He was still able to stay alive by scavenging off the dead peoples body to get adequate clothing, which was a very smart thing to do. He had to be very creative to not be drafted into the communist army. Most likely who would have been sent into prison, but to get out of that situation he entertained the communist army by performing shadow puppets. When he returned he was reunited with his family which he did not see for much time. The Great Leap Forward was also occurring at the same time. Fuguis family was barely holding on with their very low paying job, which was delivering water to the community. It was very hard for his family to survive without him and his money but they did it. Fugui daughter learned to help and contribute to the family by delivering water. When Fugui returned he learned that his daughter had an accident and became mute and partially deaf. Living in a community was hard for them because they had to deal with there surrounding neighbors. One day Youqing, Fuguis son, defended his sister by defending her from bullies shooting rocks at her. The whole family learned to trust and respect eachother. Part of the Great Leap was making steal and because of this everybody needed to hand over anything that was made of metal. Fuguis family needed to give away there pots and pans which now made it even harder to give the water to the community. Another tough time for Fuguis family was the Cultural Revolution. The community, in which Fugui and his family lived in, smelted steel around the clock. They needed to work extra hard because the district chief was coming in. The community wanted to make a good impression on the district chief so they made the kids word at school. Everybody was very tired from working long hours including Youqing. This small child slept behind a wall in deep sleep not aware of what was going around him. The district chief finally came in. He was also very

Free Essays on Desertification

Desertification has its greatest impact in Africa. Two thirds of the continent is desert or drylands. There are extensive agricultural drylands, almost three quarters of which are already degraded to some degree. The region is afflicted by frequent and severe droughts. Many African countries are landlocked, have widespread poverty, need external assistance, and depend heavily on natural resources for subsistence. They have difficult socio-economic conditions, insufficient institutional and legal frameworks, incomplete infrastructure, and weak scientific, technical, and educational capacities. These difficult circumstances explain why African countries have put so much effort into convincing the international community of the need for a "Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa". Africa's desertification is strongly linked to poverty, migration, and food security. In many African countries, combating desertification and promoting development are virtually one and the same due to the social and economic importance of natural resources and agriculture. When people live in poverty, they have little choice but to over-exploit the land. When the land eventually becomes uneconomic to farm, these people are often forced into internal and cross-border migrations, which in turn can further strain the environment and cause social and political tensions and conflicts. (The link with migration was important to the international community's recognition of desertification as a truly global problem, like climate change or biodiversity loss.) Food security can ultimately be put at risk when people already living on the edge face severe droughts and other calamities. Desertification is defined as soil degradation in arid regions, often to such an extent that it is impossible to make the soil productive again. It is the result of complex interactions between unp... Free Essays on Desertification Free Essays on Desertification Desertification has its greatest impact in Africa. Two thirds of the continent is desert or drylands. There are extensive agricultural drylands, almost three quarters of which are already degraded to some degree. The region is afflicted by frequent and severe droughts. Many African countries are landlocked, have widespread poverty, need external assistance, and depend heavily on natural resources for subsistence. They have difficult socio-economic conditions, insufficient institutional and legal frameworks, incomplete infrastructure, and weak scientific, technical, and educational capacities. These difficult circumstances explain why African countries have put so much effort into convincing the international community of the need for a "Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa". Africa's desertification is strongly linked to poverty, migration, and food security. In many African countries, combating desertification and promoting development are virtually one and the same due to the social and economic importance of natural resources and agriculture. When people live in poverty, they have little choice but to over-exploit the land. When the land eventually becomes uneconomic to farm, these people are often forced into internal and cross-border migrations, which in turn can further strain the environment and cause social and political tensions and conflicts. (The link with migration was important to the international community's recognition of desertification as a truly global problem, like climate change or biodiversity loss.) Food security can ultimately be put at risk when people already living on the edge face severe droughts and other calamities. Desertification is defined as soil degradation in arid regions, often to such an extent that it is impossible to make the soil productive again. It is the result of complex interactions between unp...

Islamis Compare and contrast paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Islamis Compare and contrast paper - Essay Example The usak type of carpet was found to have historical sources in Bukhara area in west Turkistan. Another area of origin was in Kuhnel found in the same region. It is believed that carpet weaving began in the 3rd and 6th century BC. The carpets had elaborate designs and there was great attention to detail as seen from the intricate design found on the carpets. The weaving technique employed is known as the "Turkish knot" where the knotting technique was used instead of the traditional woven fabric. The main materials used to weave the carpets are cotton and wool. (McCarthy 146) The weaving techniques were greatly admired and were exported to various countries such as Egypt and Spain. The carpets were also featured in the paintings of artists in Europe where they had been exported. These carpets had detailed kufik designs and also animal designs such as the dragon in battle with the phoenix, which is one of the bold and popular designs found on the carpets. These designs were used to frame the carpet. They also had intertwining flowers designs and featured in the 15th and 16th century. The carpet designs consisted of a rumi-palmatte background with pattern of diamonds and octagons giving a dramatic and beautiful finish to the carpet. Contours, which were submerged, and alternating in diagonal, were also incorporated. The carpets also had diamonds, octagons and crucci incorp... (Brown 456) The usak type of carpets also had stars and medallions as part of their elaborate decorations. The medallion usaks were decorated using designs from books and book covers. The star usak had eight pointed stars in the design with medallion shaped like diamonds alternating in the design. The carpets had different colors incorporated into their designs; the dominant shape was a rectangular shape. A description of a typical design of a usak carpet has a field which is dark blue and has red octagonal or lozenge shaped medallions surrounded by a strip of yellow and blue; the entire pattern is enclosed by large squares. At the corner of the there are quarter lozenges which interact at the corners and are red. The wide border with kufic designs has symmetrically arranged squares and is light blue in color on a dark blue background with a meandering shape. The narrow borders have floral motifs which are purple with a crimson background and include schematic yellow leaves on each side arranged in rows pointing in an alternating pattern upwards and downwards. The field is bordered by a pattern of broken's' which is yellow on a light brown background. The colors used on the carpets were made from vegetable dyes. The colors were significant as they were used top describe various aspects of the Islam religion. The colors were seven in total with the number seven considered sacred in Islam. Each color had a specific meaning yellow is associated with the faith of man, dark blue with beneficience,green with tranquility, light blue with trust, red with gnosis and blue with ecstatic bewilderment. The hereke carpet had a design described as naturalistic designs came about in the 16th and 17th century when the

Arts and Urban Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Arts and Urban Life - Essay Example Punch's versifier detailed 'The muck and mud that still our movements clog', while Conrad made the same point more sonorously in describing 'the enormity of cold, black, wet, muddy, inhospitable accumulation of bricks, slates, and stones, things in themselves unlovely and unfriendly to man." (Freeman, 89). The city of London is perhaps one of the oldest yet also one of the most powerful cities in the world. This account speaks about the atmosphere, weather, but not the people. All urban histories states about the city in terms of physical structures and ultrastructural layouts. When the reality is that the people of the city and their lives day in and day out constitute the core of urban life, which embodies their struggle, aspirations, and moments of heightened awareness, then art in the urban life in any form will also express those. In the detective fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle or Richard Harding Davis, fog underlay or encouraged the city's criminal associations, with Sherlock Holmes speculating as to how the 'thief or murderer could roam London' 'as the tiger does the jungle', since figures are but 'dimly seen, then blend once more into the cloud bank' (Doyle, CA, 913). The question arises, what is a city, is it the demonstrable difficulties of urban life, its malign incompatibility with human wishes, or entirely something else arising out of it. In some cases, the metropolis itself has been assigned a character in itself, which responds enthusiastically to the process of transformation in the city space and the ways it is perceived by the individual. Radical artists such as Whistler and Monet were exploring similar possibilities during the 1870s. Such figures moved away from the particularization of realist art and conventional topographic painting, concerning themselves with atmospheric evocation. James's immersion, in all senses, in London's fog was therefore something he shared with its most famous visual chroniclers, impressionist painters, even though he initially had little obvious sympathy for their art (James, 219). Accounts of London by Dickens, and, even more so, by Gissing, repeatedly emphasized the city's aromas and the tidal roar of its 'flaring and clamorous' streets where 'the odors of burning naphtha and fried fish were pungent on the wind'. To judge from The Princess Casamassima, the Thames is equally noisy and smelly, with Hyacinth (Gissing, 111), Robinson observing the 'grinding, puffing, smoking, splashing activity of the turbid flood', but in his own trip down river, James concentrates on the tonal limitation s of the scene, its blacks and sables, silvers and grays (Jackson, 277). Baldwin's "Another Country" is a novel, but more of an essay on love. Love on the backdrop of a city, where life at least takes the form of impressionist art. Love is a theme that the author had explored both on homosexual and heterosexual perspectives. On closer examination, there is another theme in this novel, racialism. While love is a necessity and is utterly constructive, hate is terribly destructive, and this theme is core concept