Administrative theory and practice management

As Dougherty (2008) reports, whites will make up less than half of the U.S. population by 2042, sooner than expected. Therefore, organizations will have to adjust to the new situation. Market globalization reinforces the importance of intercultural communication, since majority of big corporations employ people from a variety of backgrounds.For this reason, management of diversity is one of the most important human resources tasks. Visionary and effective diversity management reduces the probability of conflict in organizations and increases the organization’s efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction.‘Managing diversity’ is a concept that refers to ‘a planned, systematic and comprehensive managerial process for developing an organizational environment in which all employees, with their similarities and differences, can contribute to the strategic and competitive advantage of the organization, and where no-one is excluded on the basis of factors un related to production’ (Performance Associates, 2004, ‘Managing Diversity: A Definition’, para. 1).Development of healthy, tolerant and productive organizational culture is only possible under the conditions of visionary intercultural management: ‘When there is weak leadership and management of diversity within an organization, a variety of problems and issues can arise’ (Sonnenschein, 1999, p.25).As a leader of my company, I have to pay greater attention to values shared by people from different backgrounds. Not only does everyday life differ across the globe, but also leadership style and workplace ethics vary from country to country. I should acknowledge the impact of diverse workforce on market and realize the fact that successful companies should go to great length to avoid multicultural business clashes.In the contemporary workplace, failure of an organization can be in many cases attribute to ineffective management of diversity. A successful m anager is characterized by tolerance and cultural sensitivity.As concerns practical measures aimed at utilizing the potential of a diverse workforce, there is a number of ways to manage diversity in the workplace. First of all, the process starts with recruitment. Underutilized minorities, women, and disabled citizens often possess unique skills crucial to a company’s success.It is important to make the job look attractive to the abovementioned groups and encourage them to come to an interview. It is also necessary to ensure that interviewees are not stereotyped on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, skin color, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Finally, it is a must to make all the appropriate arrangement for disabled employees starting with the day of interview.However, managing diversity is different from affirmative action. Many companies construe the concept of managing diversity as color blind (and sex, disability etc. blind) judgment of applicants based on their q ualifications. It means that being different would not harm someone’s chances of recruitment but will give him or her no unfair advantage over the rest of the applicants.Secondly, developing intercultural skills among managers and employees is of paramount importance. In a multinational environment, employees are likely to have different experiences and sums of knowledge. Problems might include misunderstanding of basic terms of cooperation and prejudices against other team members. To avoid them, management should establish a clear framework for cooperation and enforce ethical standards.Intercultural awareness and competence among managers and employees can be achieved through specific training programs. Managers can understand the culture of their employees better by gaining insights into its origins, including history, religion, and politics.Knowledge of the issues of race, ethnicity, and religion are invaluable for effective leaders. The most effective way to comprehend a different culture is to compare and contrast it with one’s own your cultural identity. People with a deep understanding of their cultural self are likely to possess strong intercultural skills.Teambuilding and enhanced communication are the first steps towards the effective use of cultural diversity for competitive advantage. Teambuilding activities can improve socialization and counter negative perceptions employees might have about their colleagues, especially those from a different background.Finally, there should be certain institutional adjustments made for effective management of diversity. Many companies have set up special position of Equity Officer responsible for monitoring workplace situation; employees can also report cases of discrimination to this person. If discrimination cannot be stopped by conventional dispute resolution methods, Equity Officer is mandated to take appropriate legal action.It is of paramount importance to communicate to employees that any vi olation of equity or workplace ethics will be immediately and severely punished.If a company succeeds in building an inclusive work environment, it will be able to attract and retain a talented workforce, reflecting the growing diversity of worldwide business community, and encourage creative thinking and cooperation. In such an environment, mutual respect is the key principle, and every employee's contribution is valued.Diversity management can be an effective way to tackle many problems facing many contemporary organizations, including high stress levels among employees, low job satisfaction, absenteeism, and high turnover.People centered organizations strive in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding. Given the fact that the half of American population will be nonwhite in several decades, my company should adopt a corporate culture where no superiority or domination of a certain ethnic group is tolerated.The change process might be complicated, since all employees are C aucasian and have tenure with the company. The inclusion of employees from other ethnic groups should be gradual; this process should be constantly overseen by the manager.New hires might feel uncomfortable in the all-white environment, therefore they should be given support and assistance from the management at the initial stage of their employment. Yet it is also of paramount importance not to make other employees perceive this support and assistant as discriminatory against them.While the transition might be complicated, I can build on such assets of my company as strong corporate culture and effective communication between the management and employees.Therefore, diversity should be regarded as a strategic resource for successful organizations. Managing diversity is one of the most crucial human resources tasks in the contemporary workplace, given the changing demographical landscape of America and worldwide globalization.ReferencesDougherty, C. (2008). â€Å"Nonwhites to be Maj ority in US by 2042.† The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 30, 2008, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121867492705539109.htmlPerformance Associates. (2004). ‘Managing Diversity.’ Retrieved May 3, 2008, from http://www.performanceassociates.co.nz/diversity.htmlSonnenschein, W. (1999). The Diversity Toolkit: How You Can Build and Benefit from a Diverse Workforce. New York: McGraw-Hill.  

Community Living Covenant Essay

Upon beginning a new chapter in my life and entering my first year of college, I have a strong desire to attend a school in which my Christian values will be respected, and also where I can learn and grow in my faith. Because my life already parallels the expectations set forth in the covenant, I do not feel living up to these standards will be difficult. In fact, I embrace the idea that I will be surrounded by others who hold the same morals and values that I do. In that sense, it will make the transition into college life a much easier one. I look forward to learning academically, as well as spiritually through the chapel services and Bible studies. Attending religious classes and mission trips is also an exciting prospect for me. Perhaps the only challenge that I can anticipate at this time is that of leaving the covenant upon graduation and entering into a secular world that does not always support my Christian way of life. However, I feel that the knowledge I gain from attending Point Loma will equip me with the skills necessary to contribute to society as well as maintain my relationship with Christ.

Carbon-13 Non Magnetic Resonance (NMR) of Steroids

Carbon-13 Non Magnetic Resonance (NMR) of Steroids Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (CMR) spectra show a marked sensitivity to such important features of chemical structure as carbon hybridization, the electronegativity of heteroatoms, branching and steric crowding. Potentially, CMR is an extremely rich source of structural data in organic chemistry, capable of rivaling or even surpassing proton magnetic resonance. In the research proposed here, we intend to develop this potential in the field of steroid chemistry. The factors which determine the CMR spectra of steroids are only modestly well understood. We have begun, and propose here to continue, a systematic study of families of closely-related steroids (keto- and hydroxy-androstanes and cholestanes) with the conviction that only through such a systematic study can the basic factors governing the CMR spectra of steroids be brought to light. We intend to quantify those factors as predictive rules which relate spectra to structures and to develop computerized methods for using t hose rules to extract structural information from the CMR spectra of unknown steroids. We also propose to develop several chemical methods (derivatization procedures) for augmenting the information-content of such spectra. Within the last twenty years, the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance†2 (NMR) has evolved from little more than a laboratory curiosity to one of the most powerful analytical tools in chemistry. The experiment itself consists of observing, in an applied magnetic field, the resonance frequencies (in the radio-frequency range) of magnetic nuclei in a liquid chemical sample. The analysis of NMR spectra yields chemical shifts and coupling constants which reflect, respectively, the chemical environments of and the bonding or spatial relationships between atoms whose nuclei are magnetic. Because protons are magnetic, interacting particularly strongly with electromagnetic fields, and because they are present in virtually all organic compounds, proton NMR (PMR) has found broad usefulness in organic chemistry. The literature on PMR spectroscopy is huge, and frequently it is found that PMR spectra yield chemical information which would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain by an y other method. The determination of structure and conformation, 394 the analysis of mixtures, 435 the study of rate processes6 and the elucidation of reaction mechanisms 7 have all been aided substantially by PMR techniques. Other nuclei frequently observed via NMR are F-19, P-31 and C-13. The first two are not common inorganic compounds and are thus used for more specialized studies. Carbon, by definition, occurs in all organic molecules, but only about 1isotope C-13. This, together with the fact that C-13 nuclei are almost two orders of magnitude less sensitive than protons to the NMP experiment, has hampered the widespread use of C-13 NMR (CMR) as an analytical tool for organic chemists. However, recent instrumental 8 advances such as pulsed Fourier transform techniques and 9-l 1 noise-modulated proton decoupling have made it possible to obtain natural-abundance CMR spectra of even large molecules (e.g., steroids) or low-concentration (ca. 0.05 M) samples within a reasonably short time (0.5 10 hr.). The research to date 12 indicates that C-13 chemical shifts (which constitute the primary data usually collected in the CMR experiment) cover a broad range (ca. 200 p.p.m.) relative to H-l shifts (ca. 10 – P.P.m.1, and are highly sensitive to hybridization, the electronegativity of substituents, branching, and steric crowding. Thus CMR spectroscopy is pote ntially a rich and highly useful source of structural data. As further advances in instrumental design take place, CMR spectroscopy will become an increasingly available and informative tool in organic chemistry. OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE The research proposed herein is directed toward understanding the factors which determine C-13 chemical shifts in steroids and toward developing computer-based methods whereby a chemist can obtain structural information from spectra of unknown steroids. This class of compounds was chosen for two reasons. First, the steroid skeleton is more or less rigid, providing a relatively controlled framework within which to study the effects of steric hindrance and other geometrical factors upon C-13 shifts. Second, a great fraction of steroid and natural products chemistry involves the identification or verification of steroid structures, and thus we expect our results to be of significant practical utility. At the current level of understanding of C-13 chemical shifts, it is not now possible to predict the CMR spectrum of a given steroid with much certainty, although by referring to simple model systems, one can often rationalize the signs and general magnitudes of the spectral changes which take place when the nature and position of substituents are altered. It is now a challenging problem simply to assign the spectrum of a known steroid, that is to identify which observed peaks belong to which carbons. The first definitive study of the CMR of steroids was presented only four years ago by Roberts et al. 13 – In that report, the assigned spectra of nearly thirty assorted steroids are presented, with the assignment task accomplished ’I using specific single- frequency and off-resonance proton decoupling, hydroxyl acetylation effects on chemical shifts, deuteration, and substituent influences in analogous -6- compounds.† Since then, several other authors 14 have reported research on the CMR of steroids, but only recently has the systematic study 15,16 of families of closely related steroids begun. We have reported 16 the assigned spectra of fourteen keto-substituted androstanes and cholestanes, where the keto group occupies every possible position around the skeleton. We are currently collecting data on a similar series of hydroxy-substituted steroids, and work is also in 17 progress on the series of steroids containing one endocyclic double-bond. The initial stage or our proposed research is to complete the hydroxyl series and to obtain the CMR spectra of several bifunctional (e.g., dihydroxy and keto-hydroxy) steroids. With such a collection of systematic data available, we will be able to study the influence upon C-13 shifts of these three types of functionality, alone and in combination, which are by far the most common types occur-ing in natural steroids. From these data, we expect to be able to extract rules which will allow the accurate prediction of CNR spectra of steroids containing these groups. Zffrcher’*-20 has derived an extremely useful set of rules relating skeletal substitutions in steroids to changes in the PMR shifts of protons in angular methyl groups. The C-13 rules we seek will relate not only to angular methyl groups but to all carbons in the skeleton, and will thus provide a great deal more information than the Zircher rules. These CNK rules will also form the base for our proposed work in the computerized interpretation of CNR data (vide infra). – As the second portion of our work, we propose a study of reversible derivatization procedures which will aid in the assignment of the spectra of known steroids, and in the analysis of the spectra of unknown -7- steroids. Roberts and co-workers 13 have found that acetylation of a hydroxyl group in a steroid produces characteristic changes, due primarily to steric effects, in the shifts of carbons close to that group. They have used this effect in assigning such shifts. We propose to study the effects of other hydroxyl-group derivatives, specifically, the 2,4,6- trimethylbenzene (benzoates themselves, in our hands, have not shown any advantages over acetates), trifluoroacetate and the trimethylsilyl ether. These derivatives have different steric and electronic properties than do acetates, and should thus produce different patterns of spectral change, providing a convenient means of augmenting the information-content of ordinary CMR spectra. We also propose to observe the C-13 shift changes which take place upon cyclic ketalization of carbonyl groups, and we expect that such changes will be useful in determining the local environment of keto groups on steroids. It has been found 21,22 that the presence of a paramagnetic complexing agent (e.g., a †lanthanide shift† reagent) causes large changes in C-13 chemical shifts of alcohols and ketones. These changes can be related to the geometry of the complex, which reflects the geometry of the Alcohol or ketone itself. We intend to explore the use of such shift-reagents in assisting the interpretation of steroidal CHR spectra. Of particular interest will be the difference between JA- and p-hydroxy steroids: It is expected that the grossly different steric environments of axial vs. equatorial hydroxyl groups will have a pronounced effect upon the geometry of the complex, and thus, very different lanthanide shift patterns should result. If so, the effect should provide a convenient means for distinguishing the stereochemistry of sterols. -8- A third facet of the proposed research involves the development of computerized techniques for automatically extracting structural information from CMR spectra. This represents a logical growth of our Heuristic DENDRAL project, 23-28 an eight-year joint effort between our laboratories and the Departments of Genetics and Computer Science. The purpose of the project is to develop applications of heuristic programming (†artificial intelligence†) to problems in chemical inference, with the bulk of the effort directed toward the computerized interpretation of mas s-spectroscopic (MS) data. In the early DENDRAL research, 24,25 only saturated, acyclic, monofunctional compounds were treated, but we have recently reported the successful identification of the structures cf estrogenic steroids 25 (and mixtures thereof 27 ) via the computerized interpretation of MS data. As the complexity of compound classes has increased, we have felt a growing need for sources of structural data other than MS. CMR data show a sensitivity to stereochemistry and substituent placement which complements, rather than duplicates, MS-derived information, and thus CMR is the ideal candidate. We have demonstrated 28 the feasibility of using CMR data in automated structure analysis. Using a detailed and accurate set of predictive rules 29 for saturated, acyclic amines, we have constructed a computer program which can †reason out† the structure of such an amine, starting from its empirical formula and CMR spectrum. A similar effort is proposed for the steroids (at least, those containing endocyclic double bonds, carbonyl groups and hydroxyl substituents) in which structural information would be inferred from CMR data using accurate predictive rules. This information could then be integrated with the results obtained from derivatization or special CMR techniques, 9- and (if necessary) from MS analysis to yield possible structures. Not only would such a system have substantial utility, but it would represent an important advance in the †state of the art† in both CMR spectroscopy and chemical information-processing. A. CMR Spectra of Steroids We plan to complete the series of sterols by synthesizing [emailprotected], [emailprotected], 74-, 9+, lbc-, 14ti-, 16x- and 176- androstanols or cholestanols, whose CMR spectra (pulsed Fourier-transform spectra, obtained at 25 Mhz. using noise modulated proton decoupling) will be recorded and assigned. We have worked out likely synthetic pathways for the preparation of these using commonly accepted procedures and starting from compounds available in our laboratories. In order to test the extent of additivity relationships and of various interactions of substituents, we shall similarly synthesize and record the spectra of two or three dozen dihydroxy and keto-hydroxy androstanes and cholestanes. The candidates chosen will depend upon the results of the analysis of the monofunctional steroids. Using statistical procedures similar to those of Dalling and Grant, 30 and of Lindeman and Adams, 31 we shall attempt to correlate s/structural variables with chemical shifts, the goal being the derivation of an accurate set of substituent parameters for steroids. In assessing the effects of steric crowding and skeletal distortion, we plan to utilize a computerized, classical-mechanical model of the molecular structure, such as the Westheimer-type models recently reviewed by Schleyer. B. Derivatization We propose to analyze the changes in C-13 shifts which take place when the hydroxyl group in several of the above androstanols and cholestanols is derivatized to the 2,4,6-trimethylbenzene, trifluoroacetate and trimethylsilyl ether. We propose similarly to investigate the effects of ketalizing (with ethylene glycol) several androstenone and cholestanones. We propose to analyze the effects of lanthanide shift reagents (in varying concentrations) upon the CMR spectra of several of the hydroxy- and keto-steroids, with particular emphasis upon pairs of sterols which differ only in the orientation of the hydroxyl group. These investigations will be directed toward the development of a repertoire of non-destructive, chemical methods for increasing the ’information available from CMR spectra. C. Computerized Interpretation of CMR data There are three phases to our proposed research in this area, all of which will make use of the heuristic programming techniques developed in our DENDRAL project. First, we intend to develop a program to assist in the assignment of spectra obtained in; arts A and B, using currently available techniques (i.e., using rules for acyclic systems together with analogies from appropriate model systems). The purpose here is twofold: On one hand, such a program will hasten a time-consuming procedure (in our work, the assignment of spectra requires about as much time as the preparation of samples and the recording of spectra, combined), while on the other hand, it will provide a context within which to develop techniques applicable to the more difficult problem of structure identification. Specifically, we will need methods for express; ing CMR rules as efficient computer code, and for deciding whether a good, unambiguous fit occurs between predicted and observed data. Secondly, we intend to u tilize the rules derived in part A, together with derivatization information from B, to write what is called a †planning† program in the DENDRAL terminology. Such a program is designed to examine the spectrum of an unknown and, referring to a set of heuristics, to attempt to verify the presence or absence of specific structural features in the unknown. Whereas the predictive rules allow one to predict a spectrum from a given structure, the heuristics represent transformations of the rules which allow one to infer structural information from a given spectrum. The primary challenge in constructing the planning program will be the design of heuristics which are as informative as possible, yet which run efficiently. This program will be a useful analytic tool in itself and will be used in the third phase of our proposed research. This third phase will involve merging the planning program with the existing DENDRAL system, which analyzes MS data for steroids. Modifications will be made to the structure generation program, which can construct all possible sets of acyclic substituents from a given set of atoms and attach those substituents in all possible ways to a given cyclic skeleton. The structure generator now makes use of IISplanner information, constructing only those steroids which are consistent with it. We shall modify the algorithm to make use of the output from both the MS and the CMR planners, and shall extend the algorithm to consider questions of stereochemistry, which are currently ignored. We believe that the augmented DENDRAL s ystem will have the capacity to identify, unambiguously, the structures of a wide variety of steroids using information from just these two spectroscopic sources. The programs will be written in the LISP language, and will thus be compatible with the rest of the DENDRAL system. Computer time on the PDP-10 will be provided through the NIH-funded SUMEX facility at Stanford, and we request no support in this proposal for computer facilities. Programs developed in our proposed research will be available to the scientific community over the ARPA computer network.

Exam Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Exam - Assignment Example With time, this aggregate demand affects the allocation of resources and the productive capacity of an economy through its influence on the returns to factors of production, the development of human capital, the allocation of capital spending, and investment in technological innovations. Tax rates, through their effects on the net returns to labor, saving, and investment, also influences both the magnitude and the allocation of productive capacity. Macroeconomics has long featured two general views of the economy and the ability of fiscal policy to stabilize or even affect economic activity. The equilibrium view sees the economy quickly returning to full capacity whenever disturbances displace it from full employment. Accordingly, changes in fiscal policy, or even in monetary policy for that matter, have little potential for stabilizing the economy. Instead, inevitable delays in recognizing economic disturbances, in enacting a fiscal response, and in the economy’s reacting to the change in policy can aggravate, rather than diminish, business-cycle fluctuations. An alternative view sees critical market failures causing the economy to adjust with more difficulty to these disturbances (Ellis p 163). If, for example, consumers were to reduce their current spending in order to consume more in the future, producers, who would not know the consumers’ future plans for want of the appropriate futures markets for goods and services, would see only an indefinite drop in demand, and this might encourage them, in turn, to reduce their hiring and capital spending. In this world, changes in fiscal and monetary policy have greater potential for stabilizing aggregate demand and economic activity. How the economy reacts to fiscal policy depends on whether it is at full employment or operating below its full capacity. Wages and prices will start going up at great rates if monetary policy creates demand enough to enhance capital and labor markets beyond its long-run goals. A monetary policy that constantly attempts to its halve its short-term rates at an all time low will at the end achieve higher inflation will have no fixed increases in the growth of output or reduction in unemployment. In the long run, monetary policy cannot set employment and output. As there is a trade-off seen between lower unemployment and higher inflation in the short run, this trade-off will not be in the long run. This policy will also affect inflation directly through the people’s expected future inflation. If for example the fed eases the monetary policy and consumers and businesspeople figure it out, that will lead to higher inflation in the future and they will ask for an increment in their wages and prices. That will heighten inflation without great changes in output and employment. National saving provides the resources for a nation to invest domestically and abroad. Domestic investment in new factories and equipment can boost productivity of the nationâ €™s workforce. Increased worker productivity, in turn, leads to higher real wages and greater economic growth over the long term. U.S. investment abroad does not add to the domestic capital stock used by U.S. workers to produce goods and services. U.S. investment abroad does increase the nation’s wealth and will generate income adding to U.S. GNP. When national saving is lower than domestic investment, a nation can borrow from foreign savers to make up

Hazardous waste Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hazardous waste - Assignment Example The United States Environmental Protection Agency is the governmental organization acting with a purpose to ensure: that all Americans are protected from significant risks to their health and environment where they work, live, or learn and that the federal laws protecting the environment and human health are effectively and fairly enforced (EPA, n.d.). The purpose of this research is to provide an overview of US-EPA’s definition of the hazardous waste, the types of hazardous wastes and solid waste. As well the paper is aiming to analyze critically whether there are any discrepancies in the regulations and what effects on human health and environment have hazardous wastes. US Environmental Protection Agency defines hazardous waste as a waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment (EPA, n.d., n.p.). To this category of wastes can be included sludges, liquids, gases, and solids. There are two ways of identifying solid wastes as hazardous based on the EPA’s regulations. The first way is to check whether it is included on a EPA’s list of wastes, and the second way is to identify whether the waste exhibits certain hazardous characteristics (EPA, n.d.). EPA has formed a list of hazardous wastes which is comprised of four different classifications: the F-list, K-list, P-list, and U-list. The F-list of hazardous waste includes the wastes identified as â€Å"non-specific source wastes† – wastes from common industrial and manufacturing activities. These hazardous wastes can be produced in different sectors of industry or manufacturing processes and that is why their sources are not specified under the F-list category (EPA 2008, 5). On the contrary to the F-list, the K-list of hazardous waste include particular solid wastes coming from specific industries (EPA 2008). The P-list as well as the U-list includes the wastes from commercial chemical products. Commercial chemical products have the generic

Apple Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Apple Company - Essay Example It took Apple only five years from 2003 to 2008 to have the market value of its shares increased by as many as 25 times, as the value of Apple’s share in 2003 was $7.5 which increased to $180 in the year 2008. â€Å"At July 2008 prices, before the US Financial Crisis, Apple stock market capitalization was $160 billion. In January 2010 Apple shares topped the $210 mark† (Vertygo Team, 2011). The case study of Apple Company provides an excellent practical example of how the theoretical marketing principles can be brought to life by incorporating them into the business strategies, and their benefits can thus be obtained. This paper discusses the potential ways of integration of the marketing theory with practice, and explores the comprehensive marketing strategy adopted by the Apple Company that has led it to the profound success. The secret of Apple’s success lies beyond the design standards of its products as well as the core philosophy of Apple which suggests tha t â€Å"the user doesn’t always know what they want† (Tiojanco, 2012). ... potential hurdles in the way of integrating marketing theory with practice, and recognition of the measures that can be taken to overcome those obstacles. Subjectivity in the knowledge of marketing theory is introduced by the conflicting and complimenting marketing theories of different scholars and educationalists. There is not a single established way of marketing that has gained mutual consensus of all scholars and authors. In fact, different good practices have been explained in different books and literatures depending upon the context, circumstances, organizational objectives, and internal and external environmental and cultural factors that vary from one case study to another. However, there is a need to generalize certain marketing practices and principles that have been approved by a vast majority of scholars. Such marketing principles include but are not limited to improving the brand image by fulfilling corporate social responsibility, incorporating innovation and diversit y in the product design so that the product addresses the needs of a vast majority and diverse population of consumers, and selecting the right medium and the right time to advertise the products. Application of the marketing theory in practice requires understanding of difference between the role of advertisement and promotion. â€Å"[A]dvertising-like messages are used for longerterm strategic efforts to build brand awareness and attitude while promotion-like messages are designed for shorter-term tactical needs to stimulate an immediate sales response† (Percy, 2008, p. 28). Some of the hurdles in the integration of marketing theory with practice include lack of consistency between the organizational structure and the scope of work and organizational objectives, lack of involvement of

E-mail spams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

E-mail spams - Essay Example nsensus on a policy framework to tackle spam issues† (OECD., 2006, p.2) The task force on Spam was approved by the OECD and resulted in the OECD Anti-Spam Toolkit. The OECD’s drive against spam resulted in the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs implementing the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 (the Act), which came into effect on the 5th September 2007. The focus of this analysis is to review how far the Act has gone to implement the recommendations in Element 1 of the OECD Anti-Spam toolkit. Element 1 of the OECD toolkit on spam addressed regulatory approaches to tackle spam. Element 1 extrapolates that â€Å"the development of anti-spam legislation which tackles spam and related problems is fundamental† (OECD, 2006, p8). Moreover, Element 1 observed: â€Å"as the legal, political and cultural environments of different countries vary, there is not a global uniform approach to spam or a common definition of spam accepted at the international level. For this reason the Toolkit, rather than advocate a single approach, aims to underline decision points that need to be discussed while elaborating anti-spam legislation and examine the related policy questions† (OECD, 2006, p. 24). In order to achieve these goals, Element 1 of the toolkit proscribed that legislation should conform to four general principles, namely policy direction, regulatory simplicity, enforcement effectiveness and international linkages (OECD, 2006, p. 25). 2) Require commercial electronic messages to include accurate information about the person who authorised the sending of the message and a functional unsubscribe facility to enable the recipient to instruct the sender that no further messages are sent to the recipient; The Act further aims to encourage consistent direct marketing practices by requiring electronic messages to include an unsubscribe facility and ensure that electronic messages are only sent to customers who have consented to receiving it (New Zealand

Marketing Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Marketing Plan - Essay Example Taj Mahal restaurant is a place which specializes in original, spicy Indian food made by proficient Indian chefs. The interior of the restaurant and it's atmosphere are discussed in the essay. Firstly, this essay focuses on it's audience. Their main customers would be the large number of New Yorkers who have heard about the Indian food and are looking for a quality place to eat, those couples and families who are bored from the routine food outlets and want something special. Secondly, their strategy will be to use direct advertising with comparatively low cost advertising means. The common advertising means that newspapers, magazines, pamphlets etc. will be utilized. The initial budget issue was explored too. The initial capital required for the business is $1,000,000 which includes the lease of building, the cost of furniture, interior decoration etc, budget statistics in a table was provided in the essay. In the final analysis, the researcher concludes that the restaurant business is very profitable investment when carefully planned. Examples show that such restaurants have a good rate of success which comes up with innovative ideas to meet an existing market need. Indian culture and food had recently gained popularity among western consumers. In scenario this essay explored, Taj Mahal Restaurant have a professionally conceived business plan to attract customers through a unique entertainment package along with quality food. Hence, it is hoped by the researcher that the idea will gain popularity beyond expectations.

I will upload the essay topic for you Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

I will upload the topic for you - Essay Example More details are provided below: Section 4-1of the Income Tax legislation states that income tax is paid by each individual and company, and by some other entities. Income tax is paid for each year ending on 30 June, and it is called the financial year. (b) An accounting period that is not the same as the financial year, any such accounting period or, for a company, each previous accounting period is an income year. The Commissioner allow an adoption of an accounting period ending on a day other than 30 June as provided in Sction 18 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. 1 Energy Matters reported that as of May 2010, there is no specific legislation dealing with incomes generated from feed-in tariff.2 However, the common law may be used. The assessable income tax as provided for by law states that: This is applied to all entities, whether from business, property, hobby, profit-making scheme, or as shareholder for a corporation. Even compensation for loss of salary, pain and suffering are considered incomes. Assessable income includes ordinary incomes derived from all sources including outside of Australian jurisdiction as long as one is an Australian resident. For non-Australian residents, assessable incomes include only those gained from all Australian sources for the covered financial year. There are also incomes that are called statutory incomes and considered assessable incomes. For ACT Solar Systems Ltd., a flat rate of 30% will be filed for payment as income tax. All statutory incomes derived from Australian sources are assessable incomes.3 Australian residence is an important distinction because only Australian residents are provided tax-free threshold from $6,000 up to $11,000 income rebate while non-residents have a flat rate for gross income of 29%. There is also no medical levy for non-residents. ACT Solar Systems Ltd. being a company

Research Project Climate Change Essay Example for Free

Research Project Climate Change Essay INTRODUCTION Climate change is the variation of the weather in global scale which include changes in temperature, precipitation, nebulosity and other phenomena. These variations last for an extended period of time (decades to millions of years) and they can be caused by external forces (variations on the solar activity, orbital variations, impact of meteorites), internal forces (volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, El Nino), or by results of the human activity (global warming). Global Warming There are many questions about global warming, from its causes to its effects, and many people even question whether or not it even exists. Global warming is described as the increase of the average temperature of the Earth caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities, such as deforestation, use of fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion and cement production. According to the global warming theory, the intensification of industrial activities during the twentieth century (based on the fossil fuel combustion such as petrol and coal) increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. The increase of the global temperature and the new composition of the atmosphere lead to several alterations which affect the elevation of the sea level, heat waves, droughts and heavy rainfall, ocean acidification and species extinctions, to name a few. Greenhouse effect and the emission of CO2 Greenhouse gases keep the Earth warm through a process called the greenhouse effect. If it were not for the greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere, the Earth would be a very cold place. Greenhouse gases are any of the atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation produced by solar warming. They include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and water vapor. Greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, but the elevated levels are directly blamed to human activities, specially the production in excess of carbon dioxide when any material containing carbon is burned, such as oil, coal, natural gas, or wood. However it is controversial whether the human activities are to blame for the global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide represents a very small percentage of the gases in the atmosphere (only 0.032%) and it is immediately absorbed by the vegetation, in all kind of environments, without any possibility of accumulation anywhere. The population that consumes CO2 (plants) is much bigger than the population that is emitting this gas (men and machines). Besides, the energy used in the process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere is endless: the solar energy. Mainly, the determining factors of the climate change are basically the energy of the sun or insulation and the speed of the rotation and translation of the Earth. Is Global Warming Real? Although the whole world is aware of the global warming issue and is afraid of what its impacts could do in the coming future, there are those who still believe global warming is a fiction and does not exist. The global warming debate in many parts of the earth is ranging more than before. One of the world’s best known climate change sceptic John Coleman, who co-founded the Weather Channel, has claimed that the theory of man-made climate change is no longer scientifically credible and rising global temperatures points to a natural phenomenon within a developing eco-system. According to Coleman, global warming has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid, and efforts to prove the theory that carbon dioxide is a significant greenhouse gas and pollutant causing significant warming or weather effects have failed. â€Å"The impact of humans on climate is not  catastrophic†, he says, â€Å"our planet is not in peril. It is all a scam, the result of bad science.† (John Coleman, 2014) On the other hand, former Vice President Al Gore, who had an award-winning documentary film in 2006 called An Inconvenient Truth which discusses the present and future effects of global warming, continues his fight against global warming and says that â€Å"we simply cannot continue to use the atmosphere as an open sewer for dirty and dangerous global warming pollution that endangers our health and makes storms, floods, mudslides and droughts much more dangerous and threatening.† (Al Gore, 2014). He supports the adoption of renewable energy such as solar and wind power and enforces bold new standards for fuel economy. CONCLUSION Whether global warming is a consequence of human activities or other phenomena (or both), it is real and climate change is happening. We should all do our part to help alter the future path of human-induced warming by adopting a more responsible lifestyle to reduce the amount of CO2 emission by reducing waste, recycling, switching to green power (wind and solar), planting trees, carpooling and so on. Also, less energy use means less dependence on the fossil fuels that create greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. REFERENCES Climate Change. – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change (Online; accessed 14-November-2014). Global Warming. – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming (Online; accessed 14-November-2014). Global Warming. – NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved from http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/faq/global-warming.php (Online; accessed 14-November-2014). Coleman, J. (2014) Global Warming Greatest Scam in History! – Global Warming And The Climate. Retrieved from http://www.global-warming-and-the-climate.com/ arguments-against-global-warming.htm Gore, A. (June 18, 2014) The Turning Point: New Hope for the Climate. Rolling Stone. Retrieved from http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ the-turning-point-new-hope-for-the- climate-20140618 Statement by Former Vice President Gore on Australias climate policy. July 17, 2014. Retrieved from blog.algore.com (Online; accessed 19-November-2014).

The Issue of Informatized Conflict

The Issue of Informatized Conflict Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, Philip M. Sagan It took the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 to awaken many to the threat of the Nazis. In 1957, it took Sputnik to awaken the US to the Soviet threat in space. It took 9/11 to awaken many to the threat of violent Islamist extremism. And it took the Underwear Bomber of Christmas Day 2009 to awaken the White House to the inadequacy of the way the US used its Terrorism Watchlist. What will it take to awaken us to the threat of what the Chinese insightfully call Informatized Conflict[1]? Will we embolden our adversaries through an ineffectual response as the world did when facing the emerging Nazi threat? Or will we respond as decisively and with as much foresight as we did to Sputnik? What will it take to align the United States Government (USG, used here as synonymous with whole of Government as an enterprise construct) and its allies to take effective countermeasures to prevail in Informatized Conflict? In this article, we outline a non-partisan, USG-led strategy for security in the face of that challenge. Information Technology, the quaint and already outdated concept of IT, fails to capture the digital dimension of our world in the Information Age. The concept harkens back to the now-distant days when IT was a sequestered, relatively unimportant, compartment of our world. CIOs reported to CFOs because CEOs pigeonholed computers as simple aids to accounting. In reality, though, as anyone with a smart phone knows, the digital dimension is now integral to every aspect of business and societal interaction on a global scale. Each day we wake up in a world of active Informatized Conflict. Unseen battles are being waged all around us. After the Chinese penetrated our military weapons supply chain, after the North Koreans exposed our corporate vulnerabilities, and after the Russians influenced our national media in the 2016 Presidential Election, how is it that we havent responded strategically to this clear and present danger? What catastrophe would we have to experience to take the steps necessary for our own defense? Sadly, the USG and our entire National Security Enterprise (which includes all stakeholders, public and private) are failing to directly confront the digital threat because it is not constituted to see this issue. Our institutions look at the world as it was, not as it is, and not as it is inevitably becoming in the rapidly emerging world of the Internet of Things (IoT), where machine learning will play an essential role in organizing the growing sea of information in which we live. Every tool we use in national security (from weapons to intelligence to diplomacy), in commerce, and in governance now rests on a rapidly evolving digital foundation. Today we must run to keep up, and tomorrow we will be required to run even faster. This challenge to run is, unfortunately, in an area where we have seldom managed to crawl and our nations leaders have not fully recognized that reality at the highest levels. Senior executives are only beginning to realize that our digital challenges have become mission-critical, that they defy our routine acquisition processes, and that they are too consequential to be left to technologists and acquisition specialists, alone. The pressing need for consideration of Informatized Conflict by non-technologists prompted us to translate what have been internal Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC), IT-based debates into unclassified laymens terms for consideration by informed influencers. This article was written to (1) identify key, progress-limiting issues on which the Executive Branch and Congress need to act, (2) offer a unifying and non-partisan strategy to protect Security and Freedom. In Part II of this series uses two specific examples to illustrate the execution of this proposed strategy. Responding to Global Disruption: How do We Need to Change the Way We Fulfill our National Security Mission? The digital dimension is enhancing and disrupting the fabric of life in every society where modern technology is present. Walter Russell Meads Blue Social Model[2] describes the slow-motion collapse of that part of the 20th Centurys legacy is now accelerating in ways that will likely usher in an historic realignment. This realignment will, of necessity, change the frameworks within which America provides for its security, including how it acquires the goods and services it uses in that effort. 2017s national and international news is unfolding so feverishly that the non-partisan Joint action recommended in this article is in constant jeopardy of becoming overcome by events. As Mead points out, Donald Trumps election can best be understood as part of the Blue Social Models collapse. TAI readers will not be shocked to hear that Government, Industry, and Labor leaders have all, in their rush to preserve the old order, ignored the digital dimensions National Security imperatives. Despite all the Governments talk about the Internet Cybersecurity and all its investment in IT Cyber, our National Security Enterprise has yet to reorient its priorities or its budget to prepare for Informatized Conflict. Right now, our Government has a unique opportunity to reorient the structure, flow, and management of the information for the National Security Enterprise in ways that both ensure the security of our future and reduce the cost of our defense.[3] We have not yet recognized that-even though our challenges have their roots in the technology arena-business-as-usual technological solutions alone will not address these challenges. USG decision makers and influencers, from the Executive Branch to Congress to our citizenry as a whole, will have to consider and adopt a Joint strategy in order to realize the benefits of this digital reorientation. Of course, this will take us outside our national comfort zone, but, given the Informatized Conflict threat, the alternative of continuing with business-as-usual is unthinkable. Wise observers have pointed out that overreaction to catastrophic attack is likely to jeopardize our democracy. So, prevention of such attacks should be a rallying point for citizens of every political persuasion. And we should protect our capacity for non-partisan and bipartisan cooperation on confronting our vulnerabilities as one of our strongest National Security assets. Only the Trump Administrations actions to preserve and rebuild trust across the National Security Enterprise can make that cooperation possible. Vision for a New National Security Jointness: Figure 1: The Joint National Security Enterprise: Combining Capabilities of the DoD, IC, and International Partners Source: USD(I) In the US, we entrust our frontline National Defense leadership to the DoD and the IC, two interconnected but separate chains of command. These entities are chartered to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities.   Only the Commander-in-Chief (POTUS) controls both. In 2009, Lt Gen James Clapper, as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence [USD(I)] combined his focus on Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) with all projections of national power that are informed by ISR in a vision for Jointness. This vision (see Figure 1.) has yet to be implemented, but it provides the basis necessary for C4ISR Fusion (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance). This vision summarizes what the DoD and the IC agree on in theory. They agree on Jointness and Fusion in the fields of intelligence, military operations, cybersecurity, and counterterrorism.[4] Jointness has a proud and successful history as a strategy for the US Armed Forces. But here we use the term Joint to refer not only to the combined Armed Services but to the unified actions of all the DoD, IC, and other stakeholders-and ever-shifting alliances-whose efforts combine in pursuit of National Security with all the instruments of national power. Fusion here combines data, data science, and data services to achieve security objectives first outlined by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. We depend on this Fusion at every stage of conflict. For example, modern ISR depends on Upstream Data Fusion (UDF), not always having to wait for cumbersome sequences to produce a fully-vetted finished document. Similarly, active conflict with near-peer adversaries demands kinetic responses only possible via Fusion-based, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interoperability. A concerted national application of Jointness and Fusion can break the deadlock that is keeping us from doing what we know we need to do at the enterprise-level to defend ourselves in a world of Informatized Conflict. That Jointness can only be achieved by bringing together the appropriate teams, at the appropriate levels, to ensure a clear commanders intent is realized. Our Three Indispensable Mission-Critical Teams   Ã‚   Figure 2: The National Security Enterprises Three Mission-Critical Teams Source: DMI Three Mission-Critical Teams combine to form the National Security Enterprise and fulfill its mission. The Government teams (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) perform functions analogous to their three familiar private sector equivalents (i.e., the CEO, COO, and CIO organizations). The obvious differences between the Governments organization and the private sector (for example, the shared powers of Congress and POTUS) are useful in understanding why common-sense solutions and efficiencies adopted almost universally in the private sector have been rejected within the Government. C4ISR Fusion connects the three Mission-Critical Teams for Informatized Conflict. Acquisition to Support USG Innovation? Eisenhowers farewell address cautioned us to be wary as well as transparent in how we contract with the military-industrial base to improve capabilities. Despite yeoman efforts by the Executive Branch and Congress, Americas system for acquisition has not matched Eisenhowers challenge nor has it kept up with technologys structural transformation. Platforms, sensors, and systems are undergoing widely reported changes, but the USG meet the current acquisition challenge only by understanding the molecular structure of the information or digital substrate underlying them all. Without the discipline imposed by what the private sector calls a business case, the USG has become famous for failed large-scale technology initiatives.[5] Fortunately, though, new, private-sector innovations are creating opportunities to change how the Government conducts its National Security business. Industry observers are all aware that software development has undergone an historic transformation from grand, multi-year Waterfalls to modest, short-term Agile sprints. DevOps is now coming into use to describe software DEVelopment and information technology OPerationS as a way of accelerating the building, testing, and releasing software. Famously taking advantage of microservices and as-a-service infrastructure, private sector leaders (such as Netflix and Uber) are currently showing how new software can be delivered hourly. In contrast, fielding software enhancements in National Security now typically takes years. The USG is adopting Agile development-but within enterprise strictures that are preventing the implementation of many of its most potent benefits. Responding to these global, private sector-led changes, Congress has mandated acquisition change in the National Defense Authorization Acts of 2016 and 2017. [6]   Although such reform has been a perennial subject of conversation, Secretary of Defense Mattis has an opportunity to work with a receptive Administration and Congressional leaders like the Chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), to fundamentally reorient acquisition. In the past, the USG focused primarily on procuring existing products, services, and capabilities to meet known requirements. Now, the USG needs to build the inherently Governmental internal competency to lead a new way of doing business: continuous engineering to take advantage of evolving technology in a data-centric context and to confront evolving threats. In confronting the current strategic and acquisition challenge, the Trump Administration will need to avoid the pitfalls of commercial conflicts of interest, bureaucratic overreach, and unnecessary partisanship. In a dynamic commercial environment involving many vendors offering to sell partial solutions to the USG, the Administration will need to improve its acquisition and orchestration functions. What does an informed USG senior executive need to know about the infinite array of National Security technological and programmatic detail in order to affect such a consequential change? At one level, it is quite simple: Private Sector best practices can guide, regulate, and execute the many functions that are not unique to the USG. Key mission areas, in contrast, demand unique and USG-specific intervention. US law often refers to this as inherently Governmental and specifies how it needs to be handled. Private Sector best practices, here, are inadequate to meet USG needs. This simple distinction can be usefully applied to our current Informatized Conflict challenge. Commanders Intent/ Congressional Intent/ National Strategy:  We Already Know What Works The Trump Administration should begin immediately to remedy the gridlock inherent in so much of the USGs preparation for Informatized Conflict. The Executive Office of the President (EOP) could mobilize the leaders of Governments three Mission-Critical Teams (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) across the entire National Security Enterprise. Together, the three Mission-Critical Teams could champion Tightly Aligned core capabilities to enable enterprise functionality and innovation at the Loosely Coupled edge. Figure 3: Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled as an alternative to todays dysfunction and as a Winning Joint Strategy in Informatized Conflict While the Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled approach originated as an engineering concept, it has been successfully applied in concert by the three private sector equivalents of the Mission-Critical Teams to guide similar foundational, Internet-dependent initiatives. Major retailers and service delivery firms (famously, Wal-Mart in the 1990s and Netflix in the 2000s, for example) rebuilt their supply chains using this approach. The Google Android used on smartphones, tablets, and other devices-the operating system (OS) with the worlds largest installed base-is an open source example of this strategy in action. The Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy applied to the USGs digital assets can be what Ernest May and Philip Zelikow called a Capital P Policy[7], a redirection around which the country unites over a long timespan and across political divides. This and subsequent Administrations will need a rigorous Mission/Business Case to sustain alignment among these three Mission-Critical Teams. Fortunately, the mission benefits are so powerful and the cost savings so dramatic that the Mission/Business Case could be strong enough to overcome the entrenched interests who will, of course, fight it with all the tools at their disposal. The essence of the Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy is to agree on those few principles, policies, and standards necessary for the enterprise to function as a unified whole. Then operational units and individual programs can be freed to innovate at the edge in whatever ways best serve their individual missions. Who Needs to Do What? What we are proposing is an approach inspired by extraordinary systems thinkers from each of the three Mission-Critical Teams. Here we give examples with an emphasis on those representing the Governance Budget and Mission Execution teams. The only technologist listed here is Dr. Cerf: Andy Marshall (retired leader of the Defense Departments Office of Net Assessment) Gen Mike Hayden (retired after leading NSA and CIA) Philip Zelikow (former executive director of both the Markle Foundation task force on National Security in the Information Age and then the 9/11 Commission; later Counselor of the Department of State under Secretary Condoleezza Rice) The late Ernie May (senior advisor to the 9/11 Commission) Michà ¨le Flournoy (former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and now head of the Center for a New American Security) Gen Paul Selva (the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Vint Cerf (the co-inventor of TCP/IP, the messaging protocol that underlies the entire Internet) They and we have found that few Government executives have the cross-functional experience to fully appreciate their counterparts frames of reference. But the kind of changes that the USG needs now can only be made by aligning the strategies of all of the three Mission-Critical Teams. Figure 4: Aligning the Three Mission-Critical Teams Source: DMI The three Mission-Critical Teams bring very different foci, levers, and artifacts to the fight. These, in turn, depend on distinctive disciplines, equities, goals, methodologies, timetables, and metrics. In order for the teams to align, each need to accommodate the others demands and battle rhythms. A Call to Action President Dwight Eisenhower personally led the response to Sputnik. Among a series of coordinated initiatives, he formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) which changed the Governments approach to procurement of high risk, high payoff advanced technology, ensured US leadership in the Space Race, and funded what eventually became the Internet. Eisenhower demonstrated the power of senior executive decisions in combining the three Mission-Critical Teams under the coordination of the EOP. This article has proposed how the three Mission-Critical Teams Necessary for Security (Governance Budget, Mission Execution, and Technology) can mobilize around a Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy. We have specified roles and responsibilities in language understandable to each of those teams. We have proposed a framework that enables serious, public consideration of issues that have been ignored, enables senior executives to take decisive Joint action, and enables them to authorize unclassified metrics for assessing progress in classified realms.[8] Do we have to wait until adversaries inflict catastrophic damage before we take the steps that we already know we need? Will we allow ourselves to be incapacitated by internal divisions?   In advance of the unthinkable, can we do what it takes to provide for the common defense in this Age of Informatized Conflict? Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, and Philip M. Sagan are Senior Advisors to the Intelligence Community and the Defense Department on Enterprise Engineering issues. They are CEO, COO, and CTO of Digital Mobilizations, Inc. (DMI). This is Part II of an Occasional Special Series DRAFT IN PROCESS: Not Releasable in Any Form This requires Prepublication Review before official submission The Figures are in this draft for content only. They are being recreated in forms suitable for publication. This is a continuation of theWhat Will It Take? Part I of an Occasional TAI Special Series. Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled Strategy in Action: Two Illustrative Examples Charles H. Rybeck, Lanny R. Cornwell, Philip M. Sagan The Tightly Aligned/ Loosely Coupled strategy calls for budgetary, operational, and technology changes, but in this article, we only introduce the strategy in broad outline using two representative examples of where the USG has already successfully begun. These two examples underscore the role of the combined three Mission-Critical Teams within the Government in initiatives that require broad popular support. Below we explore two examples in order to illustrate the challenge facing the USG, to show how pockets of excellence within the USG have already pointed the way forward, to demonstrate how the challenge of the digital dimension demands different USG responses, and to underscore what, concretely, will need to be done by the USG. Many achievements are classified, legitimately and necessarily protected from public discussion. But any digital strategy for National Security can and must be agreed upon at the unclassified level, sustaining widespread public support on the basis of sound arguments that include a full defense of our privacy and civil liberties. For that reason, we consider two pathfinding efforts, acknowledging their strengths and sketching what needs to be done next. Our System Can Work: Weve Shown We Can Crawl We assess the US response to the challenge of the digital dimension as requiring a progression from Crawl to Walk to Run. US visions for future defense such as the Third Offset, Integrated Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data-to-Decisions (D2D), and Fusion Warfare all depend on this digital foundation. For the last decade, for example, the DoD has been guided by the Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) construct in planning to confront near-peer adversaries. A2/AD will also need to adjust its view of platforms, sensors, and weapons to accommodate the kinetic and non-kinetic implications of this new digital foundation. Fortunately, much groundwork for this mobilization is already being laid at the Federal level. We can already point to many successes at the Crawl stage. Two examples can illuminate how consequential these decisions can be, how the role of the USG will need to be tailored to the problems, and how much further we have to go in order to Walk and Run. Example #1 Modernizing Infrastructure: In 2012, the IC recognized how it was consuming and delivering IT hardware, software, and services in ways that were unnecessarily inferior to the private sector. They awoke to the fact that the Governments acquisition approach was handcuffing every aspect of National Security. The Congress, the IC, and the Administration supported the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in taking the lead in this initiative. They all deserve credit for the joint effort. The CIA reoriented its office of the CIO. It created a Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) contract to end CIA reliance on internal, outmoded expenditures and shift to purchasing infrastructure services as a utility. And it put the CIO under a new Directorate of Digital Innovation (DDI) to better link it with Mission functions. The contract enables a new, market-based model for acquiring enterprise-level software. C2S-based applications are licensed with fees to software vendors paid on the basis of the utilization of their products. This marketplace allows competing products to be evaluated and adopted by users in their day-to-day decisions as to how best meet the requirements of a specific problem. In the rapidly evolving data craft of the Internet, this method is far more adaptive and effective than a pre-determined, one size fits all solution imposed by a centralized bureaucracy. In technical terms, the IC is shifting much of its infrastructure costs from CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) to OPEX (Operational Expenditure), eliminating recurring CAPEX, paying only for services as needed, and arranging to stay current with hardware and software innovation in ways that were impossible in the old business model. The success of the CIAs C2S initiative results from the Agencys recognition that the effective use of commercial market investments, technologies, and business processes can result in highly effective application of all too precious tax-payer capital, avoiding ineffective, costly duplication. The result of the Agencys strategy has been improved mission effectiveness while freeing scarce technology development funds to meet those needs that are truly unique to the Agencys mission. Example #2 Modernizing Knowledge Management (KM): In marked contrast to Infrastructure, the management of information within Federal systems was recognized by the IC as an inherently Governmental function, a core competence that should not be outsourced. Accepting that responsibility, the National Security Agency (NSA) took the lead in the Smart Data Initiative to identify what standardized labeling of packets of information are necessary in a modern digital environment. The first results, an Enterprise Data Header (EDH), was a signal achievement, admittedly and intentionally minimalist, but sufficient to enable the IC Cloud in its Crawl phase. In both these examples, Infrastructure and KM, success was achieved only because the organizations involved, specifically the Congress, the Administration, ODNI, CIA, and NSA all aligned their three Mission-Critical Teams in the service of a new strategic direction. But Can We Walk Run?    In order to achieve mission benefits well need to stop mistaking Easy for Hard and Complex for Simple. We have selected these two specific Crawl success stories because they also illustrate the executive decisions that need to be made today if we are going to Walk and Run tomorrow. In the case of infrastructure-which can best be thought of as plumbing-something relatively straightforward is being made unnecessarily complex within the DoD acquisition and planning apparatus. In the case of KM, many USG Departments Agencies-including the IC DoD-are mistaking KM as a simple issue. The USG is failing to come to grips with something inherently difficult by, in some cases, inaccurately imagining it is easy: if we just build the plumbing, everything else will take care of itself. It is only by effectively structuring and managing information (KM) that the USG will induce the digital dimension to yield its mission benefits. In both cases (Infrastructure and KM) necessary but insufficient actions have been taken. Creating Cloud repositories for data and minimal metadata standards are achievements, but, in themselves, they cannot produce the Mission Benefits that are needed and that have been promised. Sadly, many executives have bought into an automagic fallacy that these Crawl phase activities would automagically produce Walk and Run results. Figure 5: What is a Responsible Executive to Do? Source: DMI Lower level Government employees are left holding the bag. They are forced to describe classic Quick Wins and low-hanging fruit because it is only their boss bosses who are empowered to make the tough choices and substantial investments that will be required to produce the promised Mission Benefits. In the Agile development environment, where development of software continues apace as long as lower level Government product owners approve incremental progress, mission-critical decisions and investments are often postponed indefinitely. The impediments to the High Road are so formidable that thousands of National Security employees and contractors have adopted the Low Road. The distinction depicted in Figure 5. has actually been rejected by USG employees because it disparages the Low Road. That is the strategy weve adopted, and we need to promote it. Example #1 Enterprise Infrastructure: Private Sector Best Practices Leading the Way for Government Action Due to the disconnect between the DoD and the IC, Infrastructure Modernization is currently being held back at the National Security Enterprise level. Private sector solutions will need to drive this partnership. The DoD and its Armed Services are resisting the massive budgetary/acquisition changes needed to implement the CIA-led strategy. Only the Commanders Intent will be strong enough to clear this impediment. POTUS does not need to wait for a catastrophe to prompt this solution. Example #2 Enterprise Knowledge Management (KM): Government Active Management of a Modularized, Multi-Vendor Competitive Environment for Innovation At the same time that a sound foundation for KM was being laid through the establishment of IC data standards in the EDH, two basic strategies for the acquisition of knowledge exploitation technology were utilized. Weve termed the first approach The Hedgehog and the second The Fox in honor of Berlins 1953 essay on Tolstoy and the philosophy of history, which begins quoting the ancient Greek poet, Archilochus, who wrote The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The Hedgehog. The hedgehog strategy entailed the acquisition of an all-inclusive solution from a single vendor, what we can think of as a highly-advanced knowledge appliance[9], a comprehensive solution that combined hardware, software, and a particular way of thinking about knowledge, problems, questions, and answers. This approach outsourced all to a single supplier. It fit the existing procurement system well because it focused on a single, big procurement decision. The Fox. The fox strategy entailed the acquisition of a collection of modularized[10], best of breed, highly-advanced devices, each of which solved parts of problems and in combination formed a system capable of solving a particular problem. Hardware, software, and way of thinking about knowledge, problems, questions, and answers could be quickly re-configured as better technologies came along or needs changed a critical capability given the ferment of Internet technologies and applications. This approach limited the amount of hardwa

Wheres the Honor in Honors Kids?(cheating habits of students) :: social issues

Where's the Honor in Honor's Kids?(cheating habits of students) Contrary to popular belief, honors students cheat just as much or more than students in regular classes do. Honors students are assumed to be hardworking, responsible, and honest. Yet these â€Å"above average† students are frequently taking part in the same dishonest conduct of the ordinary students, performing the task better and getting away with it more than the regular students. Explaining why honors students are better at cheating is difficult because every cheating student follows the same unwritten process to guide him to victory. The process is simple. First a cheater decides how he is going to cheat. He has many options including inscribing answers on various body parts (hand, thigh, etc.), creating pocket-sized notes, asking an earlier class for the answers, and plagiarizing. He can also place his hand upon his face (next to his eyes) angled away from the teacher while turning his head slightly in the opposite direction of the teacher and look at his neighbor’s paper. The following tactics are risky and are reserved for the more adventurous kids. They are snatching the teacher’s answer key, asking for assistance with a question while peeking at the answer key (at a teacher’s desk), hacking into a teacher’s computer for grade adjustments, and opening a textbook on the ground while taking a test. One of the most creative strat egies I’ve heard of is peeling the wrapping from a clear water bottle off to write the answers on the blank side; then taping the wrapping back onto the bottle exposing the answers when one looks through the clear bottle. Of course some regular students have been known to try these conniving techniques, they have been mastered by the honors students. The second step in the cheating process is when a student realistically imagines himself using the technique he chose in the first step. This is a planning stage that requires a student to pretend and prepare his developing plan of cheating. The better the student can imagine himself cheating, the more likely he is to succeed. After all, practice makes perfect. For example, if a student wanted to write answers on the inside of his band-aid, he needs to picture himself taking the test and slyly pulling off the band-aid when the teacher’s back is turned to reveal the answers. There is no wrong way to accomplish this step, but many prefer to ask themselves questions to prepare themselves.

Banquo as the Victim of Shakespeares Macbeth :: Macbeth essays

Banquo as the Victim of Macbeth      Ã‚   The reader finds in Shakespeare's Macbeth that the cunning and machinations of evilly inclined people do not pay off. On the other hand, the progeny of the honest will rule the kingdom. This paper is the story of Banquo the innocent.    Blanche Coles states in Shakespeare's Four Giants that Banquo is "a man to be feared" by Macbeth:    Besides Lady Macbeth, the one who knows how much Macbeth is acting is Banquo. In the scene where Banquo is starting for his afternoon ride, the conversation between the new King and his "chief guest" is artificial on both sides. In pretending that he is about to seek advice from Banquo, Macbeth [. . .] is relying on the security of his office to prevent a contradiction from Banquo. A few lines farther on he says that his fears in Banquo sink deep. In the long soliloquy, beginning "To be thus is nothing," he reflects that Banquo would dare a great deal, and yet his daring is accompanied by a certain wisdom that would guide him to act safely. So he is a man to be feared. (56-57)    In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains how the Bard upgraded the Holinshed version of Banquo:    His [King James] family, the Stuarts, claimed descent from Banquo, and it is perhaps on this account that Shakespeare departs from Holinshed, in whose narrative Banquo is Macbeth's accomplice in the assassination of Duncan, to insist on his "royalty of nature" and the "dauntless temper of his mind" (3.1.50). Many critics see a notable compliment to James in the dumb show of kings descending from Banquo ("What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom?" (186)    Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth:    Banquo, the loyal soldier, praying for restraint against evil thoughts which enter his mind as they had entered Macbeth's, but which work no evil there, is set over against Macbeth, as virtue is set over against disloyalty.   (792)    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye explains the rationale behind Banquo's ghost in this play:    Except for the episode of Hercules leaving Antony, where mysterious music is heard again, there is nothing really supernatural in Shakespeare's tragedies that is not connected with the murder of the order-figures. Banquo as the Victim of Shakespeare's Macbeth :: Macbeth essays Banquo as the Victim of Macbeth      Ã‚   The reader finds in Shakespeare's Macbeth that the cunning and machinations of evilly inclined people do not pay off. On the other hand, the progeny of the honest will rule the kingdom. This paper is the story of Banquo the innocent.    Blanche Coles states in Shakespeare's Four Giants that Banquo is "a man to be feared" by Macbeth:    Besides Lady Macbeth, the one who knows how much Macbeth is acting is Banquo. In the scene where Banquo is starting for his afternoon ride, the conversation between the new King and his "chief guest" is artificial on both sides. In pretending that he is about to seek advice from Banquo, Macbeth [. . .] is relying on the security of his office to prevent a contradiction from Banquo. A few lines farther on he says that his fears in Banquo sink deep. In the long soliloquy, beginning "To be thus is nothing," he reflects that Banquo would dare a great deal, and yet his daring is accompanied by a certain wisdom that would guide him to act safely. So he is a man to be feared. (56-57)    In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains how the Bard upgraded the Holinshed version of Banquo:    His [King James] family, the Stuarts, claimed descent from Banquo, and it is perhaps on this account that Shakespeare departs from Holinshed, in whose narrative Banquo is Macbeth's accomplice in the assassination of Duncan, to insist on his "royalty of nature" and the "dauntless temper of his mind" (3.1.50). Many critics see a notable compliment to James in the dumb show of kings descending from Banquo ("What, will the line stretch out to th' crack of doom?" (186)    Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth:    Banquo, the loyal soldier, praying for restraint against evil thoughts which enter his mind as they had entered Macbeth's, but which work no evil there, is set over against Macbeth, as virtue is set over against disloyalty.   (792)    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye explains the rationale behind Banquo's ghost in this play:    Except for the episode of Hercules leaving Antony, where mysterious music is heard again, there is nothing really supernatural in Shakespeare's tragedies that is not connected with the murder of the order-figures.

Free Essays on Terrorism: Bomb The Bastards Back to the Stone Age :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

Bomb The Bastards Back to the Stone Age The terrorists groups Hamas and al-Qaida have their foundations in Islam. Both of these organizations have interpreted the teachings of Islam in a violent manner. Al-Qaida calls for the founding of a "pan-Islamic Caliphate" to overthrow and expel Westerners". Hamas views any attempts at peace as turning over control to "non-believers", and they refuse to take part in any efforts for peace. Bill Clinton's previous inaction on embassy bombings and terrorists' threats has never prevented further violent action by either one of these groups. The United States must realize the enemy this country is now facing. The philosophy in the Middle East is one of retaliation and the appearance of strength. The members of both al-Qaida and Hamas are willing to die for their cause. Suicidal attacks are common, and they will not back down or look weak. America's course of action has always been to attempt diplomacy and peace talks. Any loss of American lives proves to be unacceptable to this country. Pulling out of a country where fellow countrymen are put at risk seems completely logical to Americans, but this action appears weak and cowardly to these terrorist organizations. The worst possible course of action that the United States could take would be to pull out of the Middle East. Because of the militant philosophy of both of these religious groups, inaction will not bring peace. Although pulling out would make sense from the American point of view, it would be seen as weakness from the point of view of al-Qaida and Hamas. These groups would take this failure to retaliate as a victory and simply continue their attacks more aggressively. A strong showing is the only language these terrorists will understand.

Research paper budgeting Essay

The research project is the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the readings as well as think critically about budgeting and budgeting processes. This is a five to seven page paper (double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman). You will need a thesis statement, background and supporting information, and a conclusion. The paper is an analysis on your topic choice and may include a mix of theory and practice from one or more government examples. The paper requires at least five sources with citations (APA format) – at least three of which must be â€Å"high-quality academic† sources. (To find appropriate resources, use http://library.nau.edu/research.html – JSTOR and SAGE Journals Online are good options. Your textbooks are also acceptable.) You will be graded on both the quality of the ideas and the quality of your work product. Topics Choices †¢Public budgeting and ethics †¢Innovative and/or new revenue sources for government †¢History and trends of budget expenditures †¢International budgeting models †¢Public engagement in budgeting (outreach to the public, providing information, etc.) †¢Innovation in budgeting models and approaches †¢Public budgeting and the impact on the economy †¢The differences between public budgeting and corporate budgeting practices †¢Evolution of public budgeting in the Internet era †¢The politics and impact of a major budget change (e.g., Social Security, World War II) †¢Public policy implications of public budget constraints †¢Pros/cons of alternative budgeting processes †¢Alternative topic choices must be submitted for approval Presentation You will make a five minute presentation to the class on your research project on the final day of class. You will also be expected to answer a few questions. This presentation must include a one-page outline or summary handout of your comments. Grades will be based on the quality of ideas, handout material and presentation. To receive full credit, presentations must highlight key information about the project, including a broad overview of the topic, important details and significant findings; handout material must be well-crafted with minimal errors; and presentations must be the required length (give or take 30 seconds) and professional with complete thoughts.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and The First World War Essay

The British postcard illustrates Kaiser Wilhelm II in a bath, where he is about to grab a bar of soap labelled â€Å"Europe†, with a caption quoting â€Å"He won’t be happy till he gets it.† This suggests he is willing to use force to capture Europe. Wilhelm is wearing a military helmet and has a greedy expression on his face, which gives us the impression he is willing to fight for what he wants. Sources B and C both differ, but both of them agree that Wilhelm’s attitude towards the war was very violent. In source B, Wilhelm’s speech seems to be taken over by his emotions: anger, aggression, passion and lots of determination. He refers to certain phrases such as â€Å"take no prisoners†, â€Å"must be destroyed† and â€Å"ruthless violence.† Words such as these show us that he wants trouble. However in source C, there is more talk of peace. It seems to be a more subdued and more thoughtful speech. â€Å"I was always a supporter of peace.† But then he goes on to say how peace â€Å"has its limits.† And he can â€Å"no longer just look on, but must draw the sword!† This giving the final conclusion that Kaisers attitude towards the war has not changed since 1900 although he has become more diplomatic. This postcard may be biased, as the British whom were about to go to war with him produced it. Britain wanted to portray him in as much negative light as possible, therefore this postcard might not be truthful. But using my own knowledge, I know that Kaiser Wilhelm II was an aggressive man who came from an aggressive country and to control Europe was his sole ambition. Also, Britain was aware of Wilhelm’s objectives and to some extent holds him responsible for the Moroccan Crises. They therefore have a good reason to portray him in this way. â€Å"The Kaiser was a warmonger and caused the Great War.† The evidence given in the sources supports this statement and also disagrees with it. Source A clearly supports this view. The cartoon shows Wilhelm greedily snatching Europe, along with the war helmet, which indicates war. Source B backs this statement too. There is no sign of peaceful man in his speech. In this he says he wants Germans to acquire a similar reputation as Attila’s Huns did in the fifth century. Attila was the King of the German tribe the Huns who ravaged Eastern Europe. But there is talk of peace in his later speech (1913), although this hopeful thought is dampened by the indications of war â€Å"Must draw the sword.† However, using my own knowledge I know that the Great War was not only the fault of Wilhelm’s, there was many other reasons. In my opinion, rivalries were the main factor, which brought about the First World War. Without rivalries, no one would have a cause to start a war. There were many rivalries; Britain and Germany; France and Germany; Austria-Hungary and Russia and Serbia and Austria. These rivalries helped to cause war between the powers of Europe because they all wanted to fight for one reason or another. Another factor was alliances. With alliances, everyone was dragged into war, whether they liked it or not. In this case, it couldn’t be avoided. And lastly, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the catalyst. This gave Austria a perfect opportunity to declare war on Serbia. With this, Austria and Serbia were at war along with their allies. It caused great destruction as most countries were involved. This is proof that the Kaiser did not cause the Great War, as you need two countries to have a war. Cause the war he did not, but a warmonger he may be.

Everybody Needs Somebody Essay

Many people vacillate to commit themselves to marriage because of the responsibilities involved, but what does the word â€Å"marriage†, that so many desist from means. It’s the state of being united; body, soul and mind to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife consensual and contractual relationship recognized by both the Lord and the law. Moreover, pledging your allegiance, promising to be there† for better or for worse, in sickness and in health†¦..till death do us path†. A lot of individuals make the decision never to marry; there may be certain circumstances why they may feel that way. For example they may have had awful relationships in their past and of the opinion that their significant other will never be found or plainly the bulk just don’t want that type of commitment. Marriage has its advantages by the bountiful, so if you are in love and sure that you want to subsist the rest of your life with him/her, then unquestionably go ahead and walk down the aisle. I confidently disagree that being single is far more advantageous than being married. Marriage offers companionship. In a healthy marriage, you are never alone. Your spouse will always be there to lend a sympathetic ear. Sometimes, of course, your spouse might not be â€Å"actually† listening to you but it is better to talk to someone than being alone. Additionally, it’s satisfying to have someone you trust completely and love unconditionally to have stimulating conversation with. For instance to discuss ideas, major financial matters and practice your humor and simply want o be consoled at the end of the day. In the period 2008, research done in the USA showed that expressing your feeling, merely talking to your spouse and letting them know how you feel, reduces your chance of divorce, dishonesty and senseless arguments. As well, companionship offers support and can be particularly important at times of misfortune. Thus, the companionship that marriage offer beats being single any day. Marriage opens the gates to a rich social life. Basically by having a partner with you, you can have a social life that is not so readily or easily available for a single person. You can visit romantic places together or holiday together. You can spend meaningful quality time with each other also relaxing without any interruptions for a single person; it may be difficult because usually social life is geared around â€Å"couples†. Hence a single person can often be left out or sometimes just not invited. Although it may be true at times, that having children might seem to encumber your social life but really it brings a pulsating change in your social life also much of that life involves being with your children. Marriage puts a stamp of tolerability in society. Research reveals that married men/women have longer lifespan compared to single individuals. This can result in three points 1. Marriage stabilizers men and women this is so because, the need for multiple partners aren’t considered necessary when you are married besides you can be confident that your trustworthy spouse isn’t going to be adulterous 2. In the case of reducing stress, take for example raising a child, although many single parents do raise children successfully. It seems the stress is less when the tasks are shared with a partner.3. The point of being pleased. Many men/women get satisfied sexually by being married. This is so because by being intimate with someone you pledged your life to and love, you are contented both physically and mentally. Consequently, by having sexual relations when single your mate is random. This type of intimacy is fabricated and has no symbolic meaning. At such times having a marriage has its rewards over being single. As stated above marriage has its advantages, the ones mentioned are just a few to start with. Each marriage is of course different, but the connection that is shared among two married persons who have unexplained love, intimacy and forever commitment is extremely sacred. Being married, said by many people is about accepting a person for who they are, faults include. To be so dedicated and honorable that together you can overcome any type of ordeal life throws also learning to grow from those hardships. It’s about making sacrifices and putting your complete trust in your spouse. Knowing, they would refrain from temptation and be honest when it is needed. There are so many types of definitions that could be used to describe what marriage is nevertheless the one that really carries the most sentimental value is the one shared among married couples. It is forlorn that single people choose to remain unmarried, they may not the joy marriage brings to a person, but marriage is a privilege so why not make use of it.

Literature Cape Essay

Many critics attempt to show how the disguise relate to the different parts, and/or different characters of the play. This story explores a cariety of themes and issues, however disguise, deceit, celebration and festivity are the major, more prominent ones. Although the play is a â€Å"silly play† said by Samuel Pepys, who saw the play on three occasions, many critics feel the play’s use of language used to deceive and the failure of characters to communicate properly and effectively and truthfully, made it confusing. The Twelfth Night (January 6th) is actually the Epiphany. During the Epiphany noble households sponsored numerous performances of plays, masques, banquets and kinds of activities. This story opens up to a man, Curio dressing for the plans of that night. While dressing, he confesses how he feels towards a woman named Olivia. Olivia, a well-to-do woman, wants little Analysis of Major Characters Viola Like most of Shakespeare’s heroines, Viola is a tremendously likable figure. She has no serious faults, and we can easily discount the peculiarity of her decision to dress as a man, since it sets the entire plot in motion. She is the character whose love seems the purest. The other characters’ passions are fickle: Orsino jumps from Olivia to Viola, Olivia jumps from Viola to Sebastian, and Sir Toby and Maria’s marriage seems more a matter of whim than an expression of deep and abiding passion. Only Viola seems to be truly, passionately in love as opposed to being self-indulgently lovesick. As she says to Orsino, describing herself and her love for him: She pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? (II. iv. 111–114) The audience, like Orsino, can only answer with an emphatic yes. Viola’s chief problem throughout the play is one of identity. Because of her disguise, she must be both herself and Cesario. This mounting identity crisis culminates in the final scene, when Viola finds herself surrounded by people who each have a different idea of who she is and are unaware of who she actually is. Were Twelfth Night not a comedy, this pressure might cause Viola to break down. Sebastian’s appearance at this point, however, effectively saves Viola by allowing her to be herself again. Sebastian, who independent of his sister is not much of a character, takes over the aspects f Viola’s disguise that she no longer wishes to maintain. Thus liberated by her brother, Viola is free to shed the roles that she has accumulated throughout the play, and she can return to being Viola, the woman who has loved and won Orsino. Orsino and Olivia Orsino and Olivia are worth discussing together, because they have similar personalities. Both claim to be buffeted by s trong emotions, but both ultimately seem to be self-indulgent individuals who enjoy melodrama and self-involvement more than anything. When we first meet them, Orsino is pining away for love of Olivia, while Olivia pines away for her dead brother. They show no interest in relating to the outside world, preferring to lock themselves up with their sorrows and mope around their homes. Viola’s arrival begins to break both characters out of their self-involved shells, but neither undergoes a clear-cut change. Orsino relates to Viola in a way that he never has to Olivia, diminishing his self-involvement and making him more likable. Yet he persists in his belief that he is in love with Olivia until the final scene, in spite of the fact that he never once speaks to her during the course of the play. Olivia, meanwhile, sets aside her grief when Viola (disguised as Cesario) comes to see her. But Olivia takes up her own fantasy of lovesickness, in which she pines away—with a self-indulgence that mirrors Orsino’s—for a man who is really a woman. Ultimately, Orsino and Olivia seem to be out of touch with real emotion, as demonstrated by the ease with which they shift their affections in the final scene—Orsino from Olivia to Viola, and Olivia from Cesario to Sebastian. The similarity between Orsino and Olivia does not diminish with the end of the play, since the audience realizes that by marrying Viola and Sebastian, respectively, Orsino and Olivia are essentially marrying female and male versions of the same person. Malvolio Malvolio initially seems to be a minor character, and his humiliation seems little more than an amusing subplot to the Viola-Olivia-Orsino- love triangle. But he becomes more interesting as the play progresses, and most critics have judged him one of the most complex and fascinating characters in Twelfth Night. When we first meet Malvolio, he seems to be a simple type—a puritan, a stiff and proper servant who likes nothing better than to spoil other people’s fun. It is this dour, fun-despising side that earns him the enmity of the zany, drunken Sir Toby and the clever Maria, who together engineer his downfall. But they do so by playing on a side of Malvolio that might have otherwise remained hidden—his self-regard and his remarkable ambitions, which extend to marrying Olivia and becoming, as he puts it, â€Å"Count Malvolio† (II. v. 30). When he finds the forged letter from Olivia (actually penned by Maria) that seems to offer hope to his ambitions, Malvolio undergoes his first transformation—from a stiff and wooden embodiment of priggish propriety into an personification of the power of self–delusion. He is ridiculous in these scenes, as he capers around in the yellow stockings and crossed garters that he thinks will please Olivia, but he also becomes pitiable. He may deserve his come-uppance, but there is an uncomfortable universality to his experience. Malvolio’s misfortune is a cautionary tale of ambition overcoming good sense, and the audience winces at the way he adapts every event—including Olivia’s confused assumption that he must be mad—to fit his rosy picture of his glorious future as a nobleman. Earlier, he embodies stiff joylessness; now he is joyful, but in pursuit of a dream that everyone, except him, knows is false. Our pity for Malvolio only increases when the vindictive Maria and Toby confine him to a dark room in Act IV. As he desperately protests that he is not mad, Malvolio begins to seem more of a victim than a victimizer. It is as if the unfortunate steward, as the embodiment of order and sobriety, must be sacrificed so that the rest of the characters can indulge in the hearty spirit that suffuses Twelfth Night. As he is sacrificed, Malvolio begins to earn our respect. It is too much to call him a tragic figure, however—after all, he is only being asked to endure a single night in darkness, hardly a fate comparable to the sufferings of King Lear or Hamlet. But there is a kind of nobility, however limited, in the way that the deluded steward stubbornly clings to his sanity, even in the face of Feste’s insistence that he is mad. Malvolio remains true to himself, despite everything: he knows that he is sane, and he will not allow anything to destroy this knowledge. Malvolio (and the audience) must be content with this self-knowledge, because the play allows Malvolio no real recompense for his sufferings. At the close of the play, he is brought out of the darkness into a celebration in which he has no part, and where no one seems willing to offer him a real apology. â€Å"I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you,† he snarls, stalking out of the festivities (V. i. 365). His exit strikes a jarring note in an otherwise joyful comedy. Malvolio has no real place in the anarchic world of Twelfth Night, except to suggest that, even in the best of worlds, someone must suffer while everyone else is happy. I n the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of marriage. Meanwhile, off the coast, a storm has caused a terrible shipwreck. A young, aristocratic-born woman named Viola is swept onto the Illyrian shore. Finding herself alone in a strange land, she assumes that her twin brother, Sebastian, has been drowned in the wreck, and tries to figure out what sort of work she can do. A friendly sea captain tells her about Orsino’s courtship of Olivia, and Viola says that she wishes she could go to work in Olivia’s home. But since Lady Olivia refuses to talk with any strangers, Viola decides that she cannot look for work with her. Instead, she decides to disguise herself as a man, taking on the name of Cesario, and goes to work in the household of Duke Orsino. Viola (disguised as Cesario) quickly becomes a favorite of Orsino, who makes Cesario his page. Viola finds herself falling in love with Orsino—a difficult love to pursue, as Orsino believes her to be a man. But when Orsino sends Cesario to deliver Orsino’s love messages to the disdainful Olivia, Olivia herself falls for the beautiful young Cesario, believing her to be a man. The love triangle is complete: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Cesario—and everyone is miserable. Meanwhile, we meet the other members of Olivia’s household: her rowdy drunkard of an uncle, Sir Toby; his foolish friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who is trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia; Olivia’s witty and pretty waiting-gentlewoman, Maria; Feste, the clever clown of the house; and Malvolio, the dour, prudish steward of Olivia’s household. When Sir Toby and the others take offense at Malvolio’s constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved (whose name is signified by the letters M. O. A. I. ), telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and becoming noble himself, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that Olivia comes to think that he is mad. Meanwhile, Sebastian, who is still alive after all but believes his sister Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria along with his friend and protector, Antonio. Antonio has cared for Sebastian since the shipwreck and is passionately (and perhaps sexually) attached to the young man—so much so that he follows him to Orsino’s domain, in spite of the fact that he and Orsino are old enemies. Sir Andrew, observing Olivia’s attraction to Cesario (still Viola in disguise), challenges Cesario to a duel. Sir Toby, who sees the prospective duel as entertaining fun, eggs Sir Andrew on. However, when Sebastian—who looks just like the disguised Viola—appears on the scene, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby end up coming to blows with Sebastian, thinking that he is Cesario. Olivia enters amid the confusion. Encountering Sebastian and thinking that he is Cesario, she asks him to marry her. He is baffled, since he has never seen her before. He sees, however, that she is wealthy and beautiful, and he is therefore more than willing to go along with her. Meanwhile, Antonio has been arrested by Orsino’s officers and now begs Cesario for help, mistaking him for Sebastian. Viola denies knowing Antonio, and Antonio is dragged off, crying out that Sebastian has betrayed him. Suddenly, Viola has newfound hope that her brother may be alive. Malvolio’s supposed madness has allowed the gleeful Maria, Toby, and the rest to lock Malvolio into a small, dark room for his treatment, and they torment him at will. Feste dresses up as â€Å"Sir Topas,† a priest, and pretends to examine Malvolio, declaring him definitely insane in spite of his protests. However, Sir Toby begins to think better of the joke, and they allow Malvolio to send a letter to Olivia, in which he asks to be released. Eventually, Viola (still disguised as Cesario) and Orsino make their way to Olivia’s house, where Olivia welcomes Cesario as her new husband, thinking him to be Sebastian, whom she has just married. Orsino is furious, but then Sebastian himself appears on the scene, and all is revealed. The siblings are joyfully reunited, and Orsino realizes that he loves Viola, now that he knows she is a woman, and asks her to marry him. We discover that Sir Toby and Maria have also been married privately. Finally, someone remembers Malvolio and lets him out of the dark room. The trick is revealed in full, and the embittered Malvolio storms off, leaving the happy couples to their celebration. Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary  work. Love as a Cause of Suffering Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, and romantic love is the play’s main focus. Despite the fact that the play offers a happy ending, in which the various lovers find one another and achieve wedded bliss, Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or, rather, from the pangs of unrequited love. At one point, Orsino depicts love dolefully as an â€Å"appetite† that he wants to satisfy and cannot (I. i. 1–3); at another point, he calls his desires â€Å"fell and cruel hounds† (I. i. 21). Olivia more bluntly  describes love as a â€Å"plague† from which she suffers terribly  (I. v. 265). These metaphors contain an element of violence, further painting the love-struck as victims of some random force in the universe. Even the less melodramatic Viola sighs unhappily that â€Å"My state is desperate for my master’s love† (II. ii. 35). This desperation has the potential to result in violence—as in Act V, scene i, when Orsino threatens to kill Cesario because he thinks that -Cesario has forsaken him to become Olivia’s lover. Love is also exclusionary: some people achieve romantic happiness, while others do not. At the end of the play, as the happy lovers rejoice, both Malvolio and Antonio are prevented from having the objects of their desire. Malvolio, who has pursued Olivia, must ultimately face the realization that he is a fool, socially unworthy of his noble mistress. Antonio is in a more difficult situation, as social norms do not allow for the gratification of his apparently sexual attraction to Sebastian. Love, thus, cannot conquer all obstacles, and those whose desires go unfulfilled remain no less in love but feel the sting of its absence all the more severely. The Uncertainty of Gender Gender is one of the most obvious and much-discussed topics in the play. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s so-called transvestite comedies, in which a female character—in this case, Viola—disguises herself as a man. This situation creates a sexual mess: Viola falls in love with Orsino but cannot tell him, because he thinks she is a man, while Olivia, the object of Orsino’s affection, falls for Viola in her guise as Cesario. There is a clear homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, even if she thinks he is a man, and Orsino often remarks on Cesario’s beauty, suggesting that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. This latent homoeroticism finds an explicit echo in the minor character of Antonio, who is clearly in love with his male friend, Sebastian. But Antonio’s desires cannot be satisfied, while Orsino and Olivia both find tidy heterosexual gratification once the sexual ambiguities and deceptions are straightened out. Yet, even at the play’s close, Shakespeare leaves things somewhat murky, especially in the Orsino-Viola relationship. Orsino’s declaration of love to Viola suggests that he enjoys prolonging the pretense of Viola’s masculinity. Even after he knows that Viola is a woman, Orsino says to her, â€Å"Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times / Thou never should’st love woman like to me† (V. i. 260–261). Similarly, in his last lines, Orsino declares, â€Å"Cesario, come— / For so you shall be while you are a man; / But when in other habits you are seen, / Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen† (V. i. 372–375). Even once everything is revealed, Orsino continues to address Viola by her male name. We can thus only wonder whether Orsino is truly in love with Viola, or if he is more enamoured of her male persona. The Folly of Ambition The problem of social ambition works itself out largely through the character of Malvolio, the steward, who seems to be a competent servant, if prudish and dour, but proves to be, in fact, a supreme egotist, with tremendous ambitions to rise out of his social class. Maria plays on these ambitions when she forges a letter from Olivia that makes Malvolio believe that Olivia is in love with him and wishes to marry him. Sir Toby and the others find this fantasy hysterically funny, of course—not only because of Malvolio’s unattractive personality but also because Malvolio is not of noble blood. In the class system of Shakespeare’s time, a noblewoman would generally not sully her reputation by marrying a man of lower social status. Yet the atmosphere of the play may render Malvolio’s aspirations less unreasonable than they initially seem. The feast of Twelfth Night, from which the play takes its name, was a time when social hierarchies were turned upside down. That same spirit is alive in Illyria: indeed, Malvolio’s antagonist, Maria, is able to increase her social standing by marrying Sir Toby. But it seems that Maria’s success may be due to her willingness to accept and promote the anarchy that Sir Toby and the others embrace. This Twelfth Night spirit, then, seems to pass by Malvolio, who doesn’t wholeheartedly embrace the upending of order and decorum but rather wants to blur class lines for himself alone. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Letters, Messages, and Tokens Twelfth Night features a great variety of messages sent from one character to another—sometimes as letters and other times in the form of tokens. Such messages are used both for purposes of communication and miscommunication—sometimes deliberate and sometimes accidental. Maria’s letter to Malvolio, which purports to be from Olivia, is a deliberate (and successful) attempt to trick the steward. Sir Andrew’s letter demanding a duel with Cesario, meanwhile, is meant seriously, but because it is so appallingly stupid, Sir Toby does not deliver it, rendering it extraneous. Malvolio’s missive, sent by way of Feste from the dark room in which he is imprisoned, ultimately works to undo the confusion caused by Maria’s forged letter and to free Malvolio from his imprisonment. But letters are not the only kind of messages that characters employ to communicate with one another. Individuals can be employed in the place of written communication—Orsino repeatedly sends Cesario, for instance, to deliver messages to Olivia. Objects can function as messages between people as well: Olivia sends Malvolio after Cesario with a ring, to tell the page that she loves him, and follows the ring up with further gifts, which symbolize her romantic attachment. Messages can convey important information, but they also create the potential for miscommunication and confusion—especially with characters like Maria and Sir Toby manipulating the information. Madness No one is truly insane in Twelfth Night, yet a number of characters are accused of being mad, and a current of insanity or zaniness runs through the action of the play. After Sir Toby and Maria dupe Malvolio into believing that Olivia loves him, Malvolio behaves so bizarrely that he is assumed to be mad and is locked away in a dark room. Malvolio himself knows that he is sane, and he accuses everyone around him of being mad. Meanwhile, when Antonio encounters Viola (disguised as Cesario), he mistakes her for Sebastian, and his angry insistence that she recognize him leads people to assume that he is mad. All of these incidents feed into the general atmosphere of the play, in which normal life is thrown topsy-turvy, and everyone must confront a reality that is somehow fractured. Disguises Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who puts on male attire and makes everyone else believe that she is a man. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates endless sexual confusion with the Olivia-Viola–Orsino love triangle. Other characters in disguise include Malvolio, who puts on crossed garters and yellow stockings in the hope of winning Olivia, and Feste, who dresses up as a priest—Sir Topas—when he speaks to Malvolio after the steward has been locked in a dark room. Feste puts on the disguise even though Malvolio will not be able to see him, since the room is so dark, suggesting that the importance of clothing is not just in the eye of the beholder. For Feste, the disguise completes his assumption of a new identity—in order to be Sir Topas, he must look like Sir Topas. Viola puts on new clothes and changes her gender, while Feste and Malvolio put on new garments either to impersonate a nobleman (Feste) or in the hopes of becoming a nobleman (Malvolio). Through these disguises, the play raises questions about what makes us who we are, compelling the audience to wonder if things like gender and class are set in stone, or if they can be altered with a change of clothing. Mistaken Identity The instances of mistaken identity are related to the prevalence of disguises in the play, as Viola’s male clothing leads to her being mistaken for her brother, Sebastian, and vice versa. Sebastian is mistaken for Viola (or rather, Cesario) by Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, and then by Olivia, who promptly marries him. Meanwhile, Antonio mistakes Viola for Sebastian, and thinks that his friend has betrayed him when Viola claims to not know him. These cases of mistaken identity, common in Shakespeare’s comedies, create the tangled situation that can be resolved only when Viola and Sebastian appear together, helping everyone to understand what has happened. Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Olivia’s Gifts When Olivia wants to let Cesario know that she loves him, she sends him a ring by way of Malvolio. Later, when she mistakes Sebastian for Cesario, she gives him a precious pearl. In each case, the jewel serves as a token of her love—a physical symbol of her romantic attachment to a man who is really a woman. The gifts are more than symbols, though. â€Å"Youth is bought more oft than begged or borrowed,† Olivia says at one point, suggesting that the jewels are intended almost as bribes—that she means to buy Cesario’s love if she cannot win it (III. iv. 3). The Darkness of Malvolio’s Prison When Sir Toby and Maria pretend that Malvolio is mad, they confine him in a pitch-black chamber. Darkness becomes a symbol of his supposed insanity, as they tell him that the room is filled with light and his inability to see is a sign of his madness. Malvolio reverses the symbolism. â€Å"I say this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say there was never man thus abused† (IV. ii. 40–42). In other words, the darkness—meaning madness—is not in the room with him, but outside, with Sir Toby and Feste and Maria, who have unjustly imprisoned him. Changes of Clothing Clothes are powerful in Twelfth Night. They can symbolize changes in gender—Viola puts on male clothes to be taken for a male— as well as class distinctions. When Malvolio fantasizes about becoming a nobleman, he imagines the new clothes that he will have. When Feste impersonates Sir Topas, he puts on a nobleman’s garb, even though Malvolio, whom he is fooling, cannot see him, suggesting that clothes have a power that transcends their physical function. Twelfth Night – Analysis of Fools A fool can be defined in many meanings according to the Oxford English Dictionary On Historical Principles. The word could mean â€Å"a silly person†, or â€Å"one who professionally counterfeits folly for the entertainment of others, a jester, clown† or â€Å"one who has little or no reason or intellect† or â€Å"one who is made to appear to be a fool† (word originated from North Frisian). In english literature, the two main ways which the fool could enter imaginative literature is that â€Å"He could provide a topic, a theme for mediation, or he could turn into a stock character on the stage, a stylized comic figure†. In William Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that â€Å"evade reality or rather realize a dream†, while â€Å"our sympathies go out to those†. â€Å"It is natural that the fool should be a prominent & attractive figure and make an important contribution to the action† in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In Twelfth Night, the clown and the fools are the ones who combine humor ;amp; wit to make the comedy work. Clowns, jesters, and Buffoons are usually regarded as fools. Their differences could be of how they dress, act or portrayed in society. A clown for example, â€Å"was understood to be a country bumpkin or ‘cloun'†. In Elizabethan usage, the word ‘clown’ is ambiguous â€Å"meaning both countryman and principal comedian†. Another meaning given to it in the 1600 is â€Å"a fool or jester†. As for a buffoon, it is defined as â€Å"a man whose profession is to make low jests and antics postures; a clown, jester, fool†. The buffoon is a fool because â€Å"although he exploits his own weaknesses instead of being exploited by others†¦. he resembles other comic fools†. This is similar to the definition of a ‘Jester’ who is also known as a â€Å"buffoon, or a merry andrew. One maintained in a prince’s court or nobleman’s household†. As you can see, the buffoon, jester and the clown are all depicted as fools and are related ;amp; tied to each other in some sort of way. They relatively have the same objectives in their roles but in appearance wise (clothes, physical features) they may be different. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste’s role in this Illyrian comedy is significant because â€Å"Illyria is a country permeated with the spirit of the Feast of Fools, where identities are confused, ‘uncivil rule’ applauded†¦ and no harm is done†. In Illyria therefore the fool is not so much a critic of his environment as a ringleader, a merry-companion, a Lord of Misrule. Being equally welcome above and below stairs.. † makes Feste significant as a character. In Twelfth Night, Feste plays the role of a humble clown employed by Olivia’s father playing the licensed fool of their household. We learn this in Olivia’s statement stating that Feste is â€Å"an allowed fool†(I. v. 93) meaning he is licensed, privileged critic to speak the truth of the people around him. We also learn in a statement by Curio to the Duke that Feste is employed by Olivia’s father. Feste the jester†¦ a fool that the Lady Olivia’s father took much pleasure in†(II. iv. 11). Feste is more of the comic truth of the comedy. Although he does not make any profound remarks, he seems to be the wisest person within all the characters in the comedy. Viola remarks this by saying â€Å"This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool†(III. i. 61). Since Feste is a licensed fool, his main role in Twelfth Night is to speak the truth. This is where the humor lies, his truthfulness. In one example he proves Olivia to be a true fool by asking her what she was mourning about. The point