Internship course (report) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Internship course (report) - Essay Example I learnt about the Murabaha where the bank sells an asset at a pre agreed cost and profit after purchasing an item either will full payment or on a deferred basis. The bank benefits from the profit earned and the seller of the property also benefits since the selling takes place in a shorter time. Another product of the bank is the good Murabaha and the vehicle Murabaha whereby the bank takes responsibility of selling goods or a vehicle at an agreed cost with the seller who is a client of the bank. Immediately after the sale takes place, the bank deducts their agreed profit% and gives the rest amount to the seller(Hammonds, 2007). I learnt about the letter of credit (L/C) which is a method of payment whereby the two parties have ample protection. The bank writes to an exporter on behalf of an importer who is their client and it verifies and guarantees payment. The bank also offers financial protection to its customers through construction surety bonds such as bid bonds and performance bonds. Through these finical protections, the client of the bank is able to evaluate a construction company. Surety and bid bonds have a slight difference but in both, the construction company agrees to pay the bank a certain amount which the client is given in case the contractor fails to complete the project. The bank also offers payment guarantee as a service to their customers and return they charge a pre-agreed % on the recovered debt. The client of the bank, who in such a case is the person demanding payment, approaches the bank and provides details of the debt agreement with the debtor and leaves the task of demanding the payment to the bank. The bank also offers a service called Mudaraba which is basically an agreement between the bank and their client. In this service, the bank provides finance for a certain project which is proposed by the client who in turn provides the technical knowhow of carrying out the venture. The venture must be

Ignominy in the Puritan Community Essay Example for Free

Ignominy in the Puritan Community Essay The title of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter refers to the literal symbol of ignominy that Hester Prynne’s community forces her to wear as a reminder of her sin. Though the word â€Å"ignominy† is used in sympathetic passages that describe Hester Prynne’s disgrace as an adulteress and out-of-wedlock mother, its use at the same time reveals an extremely critical description of Hester’s community; Hawthorne finds that what is truly disgraceful is the way the community relishes and exploits the opportunity to punish one of its members. Through powerful diction and imagery describing Hester’s sin and through saintly representations of Hester’s beauty and wholeness, Hawthorne reveals his sympathy toward Hester. The narrator commiserates with Hester when the reader first encounters her walking to her daily public shaming upon the marketplace’s scaffold. He writes, â€Å"her beauty shone out and made a halo of misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped† (50). The word â€Å"halo† suggests an angelic, even saintly quality, compared to the sin for which she is being publicly disgraced as punishment, making her circumstance more complex than simply one of punished sin. That she is â€Å"enveloped† by disgrace implies that her shame derives more from her surroundings than from her sin; Hawthorne’s use of â€Å"misfortune† also demonstrates the narrator’s sympathy toward Hester, again suggesting that her disgrace comes as much from the community’s display of her sin as from the sin itself. Hawthorne portrays Hester sympathetically yet again in her encounter with Chillingworth in the prison. The disguised physician declares Hester to be â€Å"a statue of ignominy, before the people† (68). Ironically, Chillingworth, in the role of a healer, here admonishes rather than helps Hes ter. His words, intended to threaten and punish Hester, in fact, spark sympathy for her in the reader. Similarly, later in the novel, while Hester and Dimmesdale talk in the forest, briefly away from the opprobrium of the Puritan community, Hawthorne describes how â€Å"Hester Prynne must take up again the burden of her ignominy† (170), on her return â€Å"to the settlement.† The use of the words â€Å"must† and â€Å"again† reveal Hester’s continual forced obligation to wear and be a symbol of shame in her community, and show again the narrator’s sympathy toward her. The fact that she is â€Å"burden[ed]† by disgrace illustrates the extreme weight of her painful, shunned experience, thus establishing the cause for the narrator’s sympathy for Hester. As Hawthorne shows empathy regarding Hester as she leaves the prison, he also condemns the harsh experience inflicted on her by the community, â€Å"The very law that condemned her†¦had held her up, through the terrible ordeal of her ignominy† (71). The words â€Å"terrible ordeal† not only reinforce the narrator’s sympathy toward the protagonist, but also suggest that the narrator is judging the community, not Hester. By revealing the community’s enjoyment and cruelty in punishing Hester, Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan’s ideas of justice and mercy through both assertive diction and direct communication with the reader. When â€Å"A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys† stare â€Å"at the ignominious letter on her breast† (52), the reader sees the â€Å"eager† pleasure and excitement witnesses experience from Hester’s circumstance. Here Hester’s disgrace has become both an entertainment and an educational device. The narrator continues with, â€Å"she perchance underwent an agony†¦as if her heart had been flung into the street for them all to spurn and trample upon† (52). With this description, Hester’s humanity is maintained, even when the comm unity, â€Å"all† of it, objectifies her as a teaching tool. The image of her heart â€Å"flung†, â€Å"spurn[ed] and trample[d] upon† demonstrates both the narrator’s sympathy toward Hester and animosity toward Puritan society, regardless of the age of the member. Shortly after his description of the schoolboy’s callous treatment of Hester, the narrator continues with a harsh account of the scaffold and pillory once employed upon it, â€Å"that instrument of discipline† that represented â€Å"the very ideal of ignominy† (52). The pillory reflects the nature of the community’s sense of justice, and the narrator finds it extremely harsh. The word â€Å"ideal,† often associated with perfection, suggests that the pillory signifies the ultimate desired effect of â€Å"ignominy:† public shame from which the sinner cannot turn away. Next, it would seem that Hawthorne speaks out directly and emotionally to the reader, declaring, â€Å"There can be no outrage, methinks, against our common nature, whatever be the delinquencies of the individual, no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame† (52). Hawthorn’s use of word â€Å"methinks† suggests his forceful personal address on this issue of cruelty; he weighs in powerfully against the malice of the Pilgrim community that punishes Hester, even if it has not subjected her to the pillory. The word â€Å"no† implies Hawthorne’s view that this punishment is an absolute violation of human decency on the part of any community that turns a criminal into a victim by inflicting the use of a pillory. The letter â€Å"A† Hester must wear shows that the Puritans have depersonalized Hester as part of her punishment for committing adultery. The Puritan community is again portrayed as disgraceful when â€Å"John Wilson, the eldest clergyman of Boston† (60), steps forward above the scaffold where Hester continues to stand. He â€Å"had carefully prepared himself for the occasion† (63). Clearly, the words â€Å"carefully prepared† show Wilson relishing the public opportunity to punish Hester. He delivers to the community â€Å"a discourse on sin, in all its branches, but with continual reference to the ignominious letter† (63). His repeated reference to the scarlet letter underscores his depersonalization of Hester in her disgrace, without any consideration of her human suffering. The word â€Å"ignominious† reflects as much about the opportunistic clergyman and the punishing Pilgrim audience as it does about Hester’s sin. The narrator continues, â€Å"So forcefully did [Wilson] dwell upon this symbol, for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the people’s heads, that it assumed new terrors in their imagination† (63). The length of this sermon, and the nature of Wilson’s â€Å"rolling† delivery show the clergyman’s intention to hammer his message into the crowd and fire up its punishing judgment. Hawthorne continues to criticize the community as he places Hester historically at the site where she was first disgraced. The narrator notes, â€Å"If the minister’s voice had not kept her there, there would nevertheless have been an inevitable magnetism in that spot, whence she dated the first hour of her life of ignominy† (211). Implied is the idea that the power of public shaming by the community causes her to remain. Specifically, by noting that the scaffold is where â€Å"the first hour of her life of ignominy† began the author criticizes the community by revealing that Hester did not experience â€Å"ignominy† until being publicly disgraced on the scaffold, even though her sin had been committed many months prior. With his use of the word â€Å"ignominy,† Hawthorne repeats throughout The Scarlet Letter the cruelty, judgmental attitude, and narrow-mindedness of Puritan society. He portrays Hester’s community as condemning sinners mercilessly, refusing to accept ideas that are foreign to their ways of living or thinking. In this way, the townspeople depersonalize Hester, suggesting that she and her disgrace are one. Hester is seen as her sin, not as a complex human being with complicated, still unknown, circumstances.

Compact Flourescent Lamp and the Environment Essay -- Environmental CF

Compact Flourescent Lamp and the Environment Abstract Technological advances have come a long way since the incandescent light bulb. Today, the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is the most energy efficient light bulb on the market. In the beginning, consumers had resistance toward the CFL. With governmental support in establishing energy-efficient lighting programs, the CFL have been able to stay in the market and improve throughout the years. Introduction With the advances in technology today, we are able to produce a variety of energy-efficient products, one of which is the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). Having come a long way from the energy-absorbing incandescents, CFL is clearly the choice for the future. CFLs potentially could save nonrenewable energy resources and electricity expenses because they are so efficient. When we switch over to the CFL, we no longer have to constantly replace burnt out incandescents because a CFL will last â€Å"10 times [longer than] the average life of the longest-lived incandescents† (Petrowski, 1995). In addition, for only 13 to 15 watts of electricity, the CFL delivers the equivalent light of a 60 or 75 watt incandescent bulb, representing an energy savings of about 80% (Luoma, 1991). Therefore, we no longer have to drill more oil or mine more coal because if these energy efficient lights were installed in all U.S. homes over the next 20 years, â€Å"the savings in energy would equ al the estimated energy content of Alaska’s entire North Slope oil fields† (Miller, 1997). Energy efficient lights could also save U.S. businesses $15-20 billion per year in electricity bills (Miller, 1997). It is evident that the potential benefit for the environment is enormous. Nonetheless... ...rams: Experience and lessons from eight countries. Energy Policy 26:1071-1081. Miller, G. T. Jr. 1997. Environmental Science. 6th ed. New York: Wadsworth. Petrowski, E. M. 1995. A Buyer’s Guide to Light bulbs: New choices can help you create just the right lighting effects in every room- and cut your electricity bill, too. Home Mechanix 46-50. Product announcement. 1999. Long-Life, Energy-Saving Compact: Aero-tech Light Bulb flourescent lamp. Energy User News 24:34-35. Roodman, D.M. 1993. The obsolescent incandescent: replacing the ordinary light bulb with the compact fluorescent camp, CFL. World Watch 6:5-7. Rigdon, J. E. and M. K. Wadman. 1992. New Long-Life Bulbs May Lose Brilliance In a Crowded Market. Wall Street B5. Wald, M. L. 1990. With Bulbs, Light and Price Are the Key Considerations. New York Times 16N.

The Green Party Of Canada :: essays research papers fc

The Green Party of Canada   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Canada had nine registered political parties in the 1993 federal election. Each one of these parties was trying to place their candidates into Parliament as members. In this particular election there were the usual dominating parties that ran, the Liberals and Conservatives. Also vying for seats were seven minority parties which included the Green Party, the Christian Heritage Party, the National Party of Canada, the Abolitionist Party, the Commonwealth, The Canada Party, the Liberaltarian Party, the Marxist-Leninist Party, and the Natural Law Party. Each of these minority parties had then and still do have their own values, goals, and political expectations. Most minority parties try to guide themselves along on the basis of these beliefs, especially around election time when they work hardest to raise issues of policy alternatives trying to make a mark on the political scene in Canada despite their limited support and resources.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Green Party of Canada is one particular minority party that presented themselves to the political scene in Canada about 15 years ago, in the early 1980's (Darfler). The small group of individuals belonging to the Green Party is an interesting bunch. They're all ages and come from a wide variety of views and opinions. Even together as a party they vary in their individual values and beliefs compared to other political parties in Canada. The party faithful is unlike most other parties in many ways, the most noticeable difference is having tried to invert a system which is bottom-up, meaning that all the real power and responsibility are held at the level of the local chapters. This is unique to the Green Party because most political organizations operate on a top-down basis, with a middle group within the party hierarchy that is in charge of their own membership, income, policies and incentives (Darfler). They together as a united party hold their own political sights for the future. The Green Party members for the most part believe that it is time to take a more sensible approach to running the affairs of the people and to do that we must base our political and economic beliefs on fact. In Canada, the Green Party values such things as ecological wisdom, social justice, grass roots democracy, non- violence, decentralization, feminism, and future focus/sustainability (htp.//www.green.ca). If you agree that the government should focus its attention toward these values, then you yourself are probably Green. All of these values are joined by a common value system which is determined by a set of underlying theories about the nature of reality and the people placed in it. The Green Parties political thought will probably never become entirely known as

Man wildlife conflict Essay

MAN WILDLIFE CONFLICT Introduction: Human–wildlife conflict refers to the interaction between wild animals and people and the resultant negative impact on people or their resources, or wild animals or their habitat. It occurs when growing human populations overlap with established wildlife territory, creating reduction of resources or life to some people and/or wild animals. Conflict between people and animals is one of the main threats to the continued survival of many species in different parts of the world, and is also a significant threat to local human populations. If solutions to conflicts are not adequate, local support for conservation also declines. Human-wildlife conflict is a serious obstacle to wildlife conservation worldwide and is becoming more prevalent as human populations increase, development expands, the global climate changes and other human and environmental factors put people and wildlife in greater direct competition for a shrinking resource base. Improving our responses to human-wildlife conflict requires greater consultation not only among wildlife professionals and between their organizations, but also with economic and social development organizations, land use planners, agribusiness, and other key decision makers. Successful responses to conservation conflicts frequently require individual professionals to reach outside their own disciplines for needed tools, skills and perspectives. Interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as collaboration between sectors, is critical to improving the understanding of underlying causes needed to shift the emphasis from reactive mitigation of conflict to proactive prevention strategies. The Human-Wildlife Conflict Collaboration (HWCC) is pioneering efforts to facilitate collaborative learning among diverse partners so that we may improve our collective ability to address the root causes of conservation conflicts. HWCC is unique in that it provides a neutral global forum upon which to convene the individuals, institutions and sectors working on, or affected by, conflict in conservation. Through this forum and our collaborative work, we will help wildlife professionals and key decision makers shift our efforts from a reactive mitigation of human-wildlife conflict to a proactive, prevention of all conservation conflicts. Definition The Creating Co-existence workshop at the 5th Annual World Parks Congress defined human-wildlife conflict as :â€Å"Human-wildlife conflict occurs when the needs and behavior of wildlife impact negatively on the goals of humans or when the goals of humans negatively impact the needs of wildlife.† Nature of human-wildlife conflicts As human population extends to wild animal habitats, natural wildlife territory is displaced. The population density of wildlife and humans overlaps increasing their interaction thus resulting in increased physical conflict. Byproducts of human existence offer un-natural opportunity for wildlife in the form of food and shelter, resulting in increased interference and potentially destructive threat for both man and animals. Various forms of human–wildlife conflict occur with various negative results. Some of these are: Animal deaths Crop damage Damage to property Destruction of habitat Injuries to people Injuries to wildlife Livestock depredation Loss of human life, such as by Tiger attack Information on man-wildlife conflicts in Kerala during the period 1983-93 were collected from the office records of the Divisional Forest Offices and by Visiting areas from where man-wildlife conflicts were reported. Cattle lifting was mainly due to Panther (Panthera pardus) Tiger (Panthera tigris) and Wild Dog (Cuon alpinus). Eighty nine cattle lifting cases were reported during the period. Thirty one human deaths and 64 injury cases were also reported, mostly due to Elephants. Out of the total compensation claimed for cattle lifting only 20% was disbursed and only 14% were disbursed for human casualties. Electric fences using energizers may solve the problem temporarily. Resettling of villagers from inside the forest areas is also advisable. The southern state of Karnataka has got some of the most pristine forests in Western Ghats spanning the districts of North Kanara, Dharwad,  Belgaum, Shimoga, Udupi, Mangalore, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Madikeri, Mysore and Chamrajnagar. The forests in these districts are quite rich in wild life as can be expected, the most notable wildlife in these forests being Elephants, Tigers, Leopards among other animals. In the drier tracts of these and other districts where the topography is mostly plains with scattered rocky outcrops of hills the wildlife consists of Bear, Black bucks and Leopards. The difference is only in the extent of damages and the number of lives lost. The problem of Man – Elephant conflict is more severe in the districts of Hassan and Madikeri where large herds of elephants can be seen roaming and marauding the farms especially in or near the forest areas damaging the valuable agricultural crops. At times there have been loss of human lives which only accentuates the problem taking this conflict to an entirely new level. Naturally people can tolerate the loss of agricultural crops but not the loss of their family members. But then who is responsible for all this? It is we who have intruded into their territory, converting the forests into agricultural farms, growing crops and inviting the elephants to our doorsteps to come and have their stomach fill. Its we who have fragmented their habitat by making roads, dams and canals. We have honeycombed their habitat by our so called developmental activities eating into their homelands and this appetite of ours for their areas is only increasing day by day with the bulging human population. The elephants in these areas seem to have a very peculiar habit. First they have their stomach fill. After that they roam around in search of arrack which is usually being distilled in local bhatties. The arrack or the distil waste gives them a nice kick and these drunken elephants are responsible for the loss of human lives. The tools employed by the forest department like bursting of crackers, gunshots or fire torches are too primitive to stop or scare away the marauding pack of drunken elephants. The Man-Leopard conflict is more visible in the transition zone between dry plain lands and the green hilly areas. In the Chikmagalur district it is more a problem in the dry taluqa of Kadur particularly bordering villages of Kadur and Chikmagalur taluqa where the dry tract ends. Kadur is the place  which earned a bad name for it about 10 years back. It was here where large number of panthers had to be shot and killed by employing and bringing so called sharp shooters from all over the state in search of an illusive so called man-eater panther. The end result of all this hunting spree was that every day and night several panthers were shot and brought to the post mortem table, post mortem was carried out and the killed panther was declared innocent as no human remains could be detected inside till finally some human hair remnants were detected in one and then only this shooting spree came to a halt. It is debatable whether it was really required to kill such a large number of panthers which is an endangered species but perhaps the department had no means to identify the errant panther and hence large number of panthers had to be killed in search of that illusive wayward one. Moreover at times one is driven by the urge to be seen as trying his best. Probably this urge opened the floodgates and gradually people took the law into their own hands thinking that why to wait for the forest department when they can themselves teach panthers a lesson. Same happened some time back. A family of a mother panther and its two grown up cubs was seen in the vicinity of a village. They hunted a calf and ate it partially before they were chased away by the villagers. Once they left, the carcass of the calf was nicely poisoned. When the mother and the cub returned unsuspectingly next day, they consumed the remains and in the process died themselves. Leopards by nature tend to stray into the habitations in search of their kill. Their natural prey is becoming rare in the forests and the omnipresent cattle and dogs in the vicinity of the villages on the periphery of forest brings them in close conflict of the human beings. In some other areas also few panthers have had to lose their lives being caught in the snares. These snares are fixed in the barbed wire fence of coffee estates, not necessarily by the estate owners but at times by their labour in order to catch wild boars or smaller animals. However it is the panthers and Sambars who have had to pay the price with their lives for their adventure in to the estates. The Man- Tiger conflicts are by and large restricted to the high forests and the coffee estates in the vicinity of forests in Chikmagalur district. These conflicts also arise due to depredation by tigers on the cattle or getting entangled in the snares fixed in the fencings of the estates. Few tigers  have been killed due to such snares. In Chikmagalur, Hassan, Kodagu and other Western Ghat districts Coffee plantations are an integral part of the topography. The conditions available in the coffee estates make them very close to look like forest. Presence of cattle in such areas makes them ideal hunting grounds for the tigers and leopards bringing them in direct conflict with the villagers. Moreover there are large number of authorized and unauthorized muzzle loading guns available making it very difficult for the wild life to survive. Primary reason for all these conflicts is fragmentation of the wild habitat. Whereas few patches have been brought under the Conservation network by declaring them as National Parks or Sanctuaries, about 85-90% of the forest areas are still outside this network. While there can be no doubt that establishing this network has contributed significantly to wildlife conservation. But real problem is that even these networks are also fragmented. Whereas total concentration in these parks and sanctuaries is on wildlife protection making the conditions ideal for wildlife, but what about the wildlife staying in forest areas outside these networks. Wildlife knows no boundaries. Creation of ideal conditions in sanctuaries has helped wildlife to multiply rapidly but where is the additional habitat required to take care of the additional population of animals, which tries to flow over to the adjoining areas only to get killed. This is particularly so with regard to the wild animals having territorial tendencies. There is need to have a continuous conservation network with sufficient area and resources to take care of the progeny. Right now almost no effort is being made to take up wild life related management works outside the parks and sanctuaries. The lands outside the parks and sanctuaries (even inside also) are constantly under threat of encroachment. Honeycombing of the forestlands has already reached extreme. The tools employed by the government in reducing the Man and Wildlife Conflicts are highly insufficient and hence not producing desired results. If we think that paying a few hundred or thousands Rupees to a person as compensation for crop damages by elephants or for a cattle killed by a  leopard or tiger would save our wildlife from getting poisoned or shot, then it is nothing but our shortsightedness. Even this so-called wildlife compensation is paid to him after making innumerable trips to the concerned office. The farmer has to forego his earnings for each day he has to visit the office, he has to pay from his pocket for the bus charge and has to undergo physical strain †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. And what he gets is just few hundred rupees. Such hardships discourage him and in the process he gets encouraged to take the law into his own hands and to settle scores with his tormentor- the wildlife. There are only losers on both the sides. The Forest officials are also at times not acting in tandem. There is no coordination among the adjoining units. Particularly in case of elephant herds movements between the adjoining units it can be seen. Everybody wants to drive away the herds to another adjoining unit without giving any thought. It only complicates the problems. Need of the hour is to have a stock of the real problem. And then only solutions can be found. We tend to take each problem in a routine manner. There is a tendency to leave the things to lower subordinates. The powers that be have to take everybody into confidence, discuss the issue threadbare and then have to take a conscious decision. A conscious policy decision need not be essentially sweet and liked by all but it may herald a new era where people and wildlife both can coexist beneficially. How would you react to an elephant in your backyard or a bear in your garden? As human populations expand and natural habitats shrink, people and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over living space and food. From baboons in Namibia attacking young cattle, to greater one-horned rhinos in Nepal destroying crops, to orangutans in oil palm plantations, to European bears and wolves killing livestock – the problem is universal, affects rich and poor, and is bad news for all concerned. The impacts are often huge. People lose their crops, livestock, property, and sometimes their lives. The animals, many of which are already threatened or endangered, are often killed in retaliation or to ‘prevent’ future conflicts. What are the reason for conflict between man and animals? The main reason is that man, unlike other animals change the environment around him instead of adjusting himself according to the environment. By doing this he disturbes other animals, with knowing and without knowing .Thus he creates a conflict. Human beings think that they have a right to control everything (a scientifically given or a god given right) That is because the power of thought he posseses. And because he is the most intelligent being on earth. But unlike human beings animals do not posses a power of thought, thus they with out thinking or knowing block the path of humans. Even a cat stealing a fish from a kitchen is a conflict, yet the cat only hope to fulfill its need of food not to steal it away. Another reason is increasing of development of physical things made by human beings. The human population is high because he knoes the way to heal, thus the need of land is high both for cultivation and living.Many animals have lost their home lands so they go serching for lands in human habitat areas. In many countries it is a big issue because animals such as Elephants do not only barge into villages but destroy crops and even lives on their way. The final big issue is environment pollution and global warming. And this causes some animals especially those who cannot maintain body temperature according to need (such as fish) have become extinct and are becoming extinct.This may look as a mear happening of the pollution and global warming. How come an animal in Africa who’ve become extinct effect someone in America or Asia? Yet it does effect because as you know Planet earth is a system. Solutions Potential solutions to these conflicts include electric fencing, land use planning, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), compensation, payment for environmental services, ecotourism, wildlife friendly products, or other field solutions.[3] In efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflict, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has partnered with a number of organizations to provide solutions around the globe. Their solutions are tailored to the community and species involved. For example, in Mozambique, communities started to grow more chili pepper plants after making the discovery that elephants dislike and avoid plants containing capsaicin. This creative and effective method prevents elephants from trampling community farmers’ fields as well as protects the species.

Why a list of bullets is not a report (and military writing could make you enemies)

Why a list of bullets is not a report (and military writing could make you enemies) Why a list of bullets is not a report (and military writing could make you enemies) A few years ago, I was working with a consultant. We used to meet every week, over breakfast. And, as my daughter was going through a phase of waking up every night, I was invariably tired. I remember one session, during which I had been particularly sluggish. Even a second double espresso could not push many coherent thoughts around my sleep-deprived brain. So I asked him to write me a short report, in the hope that I could consider his advice properly once my mental fog had cleared. ‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I’ll send it over later today.’ The document duly arrived in my inbox just after lunchtime, but I decided to save it till the morning, once I’d caught up on my sleep. The next day, refreshed, I opened the document with keen anticipation. It took up about two pages and covered everything we’d agreed. Yet I found the document pretty well impenetrable and I gave up after a couple of attempts at reading it. Shorter ≠  better It wasn’t that its sentences were too long or too dense. Most sentences ran to fewer than 20 words and each was reasonably digestible. Its language, too, was for the most part commendably clear. (I forgave the odd lapse into consultant speak, as I knew his advice and thinking were consistently sound.) No. The reason I struggled was that, while he’d certainly created a document, he hadn’t actually written me a report at all. He’d simply produced a list of bullets –  a very long list of bullets. There’s a common assumption that the best type of report is one that delivers the most facts in the fewest words. The internet is full of articles advising just that approach and such articles are extremely popular. Most of us are both busy and overloaded with information. So this is understandable. We’re often so distracted and desperate for relief from the information deluge that we’re primed to fall gratefully on any piece of advice that promotes the brief-equals-good approach and share it widely. In such a crowded world, efficiency is what we need – whether we’re talking about our schedules or our communications. And what could be more efficient than a list of bullets? Giving the brain room to work The trouble is that this vastly oversimplifies how our brains work. It’s based only on the way most of us think  they do. And while we may want  reports like that, it’s not what we actually need. (In fact, I suspect that such reports are often the ones that don’t get read.) It’s not just in reading and writing documents or email that we fall into this trap. The same is true of how we plan our lives. A productive day is not necessarily one that crams in the most activities in ever-decreasing time-slots – not least because each one will provide more information and you may need to update the best course of action as you go. In other words, you need to allow the brain to do its work. (Despite this, countless time-management gurus make a good living encouraging us to stuff more and more into schedules that are already overloaded.) Similarly, a bald summary consisting of a series of short points, stuffed together and devoid of context, will rarely work in the way we think it will or want it to. In simple terms, such documents are not ‘brain friendly’, even though it seems that they should be. Military backing The short=good advice was taken to a whole new level in a post on the Harvard Business Review  blog a year ago, entitled ‘How to write email with military precision’. The post went viral (I suspect for the reasons I’ve already stated). Some of its advice made sense, such as including keywords like ‘ACTION’ in the subject line to show something needs to be done. ‘INFO’ was another suggested heading, which also seemed logical, even if I can see emails with that title heading straight for the bin. (Tech-savvy staff might even set up an automated rule ensuring such messages bypass their inboxes altogether.) Next up on the list of recommended headings was ‘DECISION’. That was sort of OK, though I was starting to feel uneasy at that point. They were beginning to sound a bit too much like barked orders. (Suggesting I type them in caps didn’t help.) Then it all got a bit surreal. It’s not just that it recommended ‘COORD’ for something that needs co-ordination with a colleague. It’s the way it reduced what could be quite nuanced (ie human) exchanges to the barest of bones. Indeed, the article  took this idea so far that any email that followed the author’s advice would almost certainly backfire (no pun intended) in the modern workplace. Here’s an example from the post: You are not a robot (and neither is your reader) Most cognitive psychologists no longer think the brain is just like a computer, ever ready and waiting to be programmed with instructions. How we think and make decisions is way more complex and subtle than that. Yet that seems to be precisely the brain model that the author of this article was using. The structure appears to me to be based largely on how we wish people processed information. This almost brutally brief message may  be suited to the command-and-control environment of the battlefield. But this sort of military writing has absolutely no place in the modern work environment. It will make more enemies than friends and create more problems than it solves. Can you imagine how you’d feel if you got one of those things? Rolling out that style across an organisation could cause enough damage to relationships to send productivity through the floor. In doing so, it would have precisely the opposite effect to the one intended. The dangers of bullets And – despite leaving the battlefield behind – that brings me back to bullets (sorry). They have their place, but that place is within  a document or message. With very few exceptions (a shopping list springs to mind), they should not be the document itself. Bullets simply do not engage people and get them to focus. They’re like somebody else’s revision notes. They trigger recall of much more detail in the person who wrote them but are largely meaningless to everybody else. Besides, the short=good school of business writing assumes we’re all too busy to focus on anything outside of what’s on our to-do lists already and that we always concentrate on our priorities. If this were really true, distractions like news websites would be out of business, as would Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. For that matter, so would eBay or even the doughnut shop down the road that you pop out to when you’re avoiding writing your monthly management report. There are so many of these distractions that it’s amazing that we ever get anything done. Logic would seem to suggest that we should only be able to concentrate for a few seconds on any one thing. From flow to focus And yet, somehow, we do manage to focus, at least for some of the time. Sometimes, that focus is the result of a conscious effort to shut out the noise and knuckle down to work. But, more often, our focus is a passive process, driven not by ourselves but by whatever it is we happen to be focusing on. Some writing draws our attention and holds it for minutes or even hours, no matter how long our to-do lists. Such writing almost seems to compress time, and it does so in spite of  how busy we are. If you’ve ever read a web page or email that you didn’t intend to – anything that wasn’t the reason you opened your laptop – then you’ll know what I mean. Such things engage you right from the start and they keep you engaged. Reading them is effortless. Ideas seem to magically glide from the screen to your brain by the shortest possible route. Somehow, they draw you in then just seem to flow. Flow is the right word in this case. It’s a psychological state  in which concentration is total, to the exclusion of everything else. And it’s a state that, despite how busy we are, we find ourselves in surprisingly often (when our heads are in our phones, for example). Exactly how you induce this state in those who read what you write is a big subject and one for another post. Suffice to say for now that it involves writing captivating introductions and using a structure that anticipates how the reader is likely to think. Often, it involves storytelling, which has been shown to be one of the most effective communication techniques, as it reproduces the writer’s thought patterns in those who read or listen to the story. (Even academic papers that follow a narrative structure get cited in journals more often than those that don’t, as this study  of more than 700 papers shows.) Crucially, it involves putting the reader right at the heart  of the document or message. What it’s not is a state that’s likely to be achieved by writing like the military. At least, not like the military portrayed in the HBR article. (My experience of the defence sector suggests that portrayal is not necessarily typical anyway.) And it’s not a state that you will ever achieve by page after page of bullets. If you want to keep up to date with Robs research into the science of communication, keep an eye on his blog at robashton.com. Image credit: Amy Walters / Shutterstock

Teen Smoking Essays (1383 words) - Smoking, Human Behavior, Tobacco

Teen Smoking Essays (1383 words) - Smoking, Human Behavior, Tobacco Teen Smoking Problems With Teen Smoking in America Teen smoking is a serious problem in the United States because the tobacco industry targets teenagers with their persuasive advertising. We see often in public places, teenagers who are standing around, smoking cigarettes. Recently, there has been legislation that has been turned down by Republicans in Congress, which was supposed to send a strong message to the tobacco industry. While this legislation was turned down, President Bill Clinton has vowed to continue his efforts to lower the rates of teen smoking. Yes, this problem steadily increases and the age groups become younger, but the problem will get worse if Congress does not try to target the tobacco industry. Many teen smokers take up smoking as a daily habit. The number of teen smokers has increased to 73 percent between 1988 and 1996. This percentage was proposed on October 8, 1998. More than 1.2 million Americans under the age of eighteen started smoking daily in 1996, up from an estimated 708,000 in 1988. The rate teens become teen smokers has also increased up to fifty percent. In 1996, 77 out of every 1, 000 nonsmoking teens picked up the habit. In 1988, the rate was 51 per 1,000. The study was based on surveys of 78,330 Americans between the ages of 12 and 66 conducted by the CDC between 1994 and 1997. They asked if they ever had a daily smoking habit and if so, when they started. They were also asked when they smoked their first cigarette. There have been recent studies that prove that increasing the prices of tobacco will reduce the number of teen smokers. The tobacco companies know that increasing the price of tobacco will decrease teen smoking. Tobacco companies deny that they are increasing the prices of tobacco, but they still continue to recruit new smokers who are young. An estimated 420,000 teenagers were prevented from becoming smokers due to price increases in tobacco. The tobacco industry, on the other hand, is conducting a multi-million dollar campaign disinforming the public that they are not increasing prices to reduce teen smoking. There have been numerous economic researches in peer-reviewed journals about price increases in tobacco. Research proves in these documented journals that increase in the price of cigarettes will reduce teen smoking by seven percent. The tobacco industry is almost fully reliant on teenagers. According to a web site sponsored by the American Lung Association of Gulf Coast Florida, those who die from smoking each year, plus those who quit the daily habit, are replaced by one million teenagers who begin smoking annually (American Lung Association). The tobacco industry has its own words to say about price increase on cigarettes. The industry claims that price increases are disastrous and ineffective for the tobacco industry and other industries. The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sponsored a Tobacco Bill to ban all advertisements of cigarettes and an effort to help stop teen smoking. The Republicans in Congress turned it down. It was turned down because it was too expensive. The cost of this bill would have cost an estimated $52 billion dollars a year to send out strong messages to these tobacco companies. I think that it should have been used because there are so many other things that our nation's budget spends on each year that does not seem as important. Teen smoking is a real serious issue because later on these teenagers will have some serious health problems. I see my friends smoking and I tell them that it will cause some serious health problems for them in the future. After the defeat of the tobacco bill in the senate, President Clinton scolded Senate Republicans for Walking away from its obligation to our children (qtd. in Kaleidoscope Interactive). He also called for the Department o f Health and Human Services to conduct an annual national survey of the cigarette brands most frequently used by teenagers. Im instructing the Department of Health and Human services to produce the first-ever annual survey on the brands of cigarettes teenagers smoke, and which companies are most responsible for the problem(qtd. in Kaleidoscope Interactive). Parents should know of this problem and they should also have the

Creating the Holidays the Way You Want Them

Creating the Holidays the Way You Want Them The Holiday Haze This Thanksgiving, I spent my holiday in Dallas with my brother-in-law’s family. They have been very warm and welcoming to me, which I truly appreciate. And there are challenges spending a holiday with a family that’s not mine. Being the personal growth enthusiast and spiritually oriented person that I am, I tend to want to reflect over Thanksgiving dinner on my own gratitude, and to hear from everyone at the table what they are thankful for. At my brother-in-law’s parents’ table, I don’t feel empowered to create that experience. In fact, I’ve been warned that requesting such a ritual would not go over well with this family. In the holiday haze, it’s easy to get lost in what other people want. And it’s not very satisfying or nourishing. After the experience I had at Thanksgiving, I became more aware of social dynamics and what kinds of interactions and communications at a gathering feel nourishing to me. Getting Satisfied Last week, I attended the birthday party of my long-time friend Bruce. After some time had passed with small groups in isolated conversations about topics like the movie A Star is Born, the birthday boy announced that he wanted everyone to come together. We gladly obliged and many of us, with the group intact, shared meaningful stories about Bruce and appreciated him for his strengths. I noticed myself feeling much more present and enjoying being part of the circle much more than when the group was fragmented. I ended up staying at the event for hours. I organized two events myself this season, one on the first night of Hanukkah and one on the last night. At both, the conversation remained a group conversation, and I had no doubt but that I belonged, that everyone there belonged, and that the sense of cohesion was a draw for all of us to want to be together and see each other again. Bucking the System So often, I doubt myself and my intuition, think maybe the other person or people won’t want what I want, don’t even ask for the thing that feels right to me. Or I think I have to follow the original plan, even if I change my mind and don’t like it anymore. I’m watching myself carefully this season, listening to my gut and asserting my desires more. Today, that was as simple as suggesting that I meet a friend at a cafà © instead of at her house (the original plan) because, well, just because it’s what I wanted. What does it look like for you to create your holiday experience the way you want it? With whom and where do you want to spend your time? What conversations do you want to have? What would make you feel truly satisfied? I invite you not to compromise, even if you think other people won’t like your ideas. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Survey analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Survey analysis - Research Paper Example In this survey The AC Nielsen Online Consumer Company aimed to determine the confidence levels in consumers and conducted a worldwide survey in 42 markets. The results from the survey indicated that in markets with a sample size of 500, the error margin was plus or minus 4.4% and in markets with a sample size of 1000 consumers, an error margin of plus or minus 3.1% was likely to occur. In this confidence survey, over 23,500 people were interviewed in 42 markets word wide in : Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, and the United States. The market sample in each market was approximately 500 but in China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States it was 1000. About 57% of the respondents admitted to cut down on out of home entertainment and 53% claimed to spend less on buying new clothes to sustain their budgets. About 48% said that they would delay upgrading their technology in order to stay within their budgets. In the five regions surveyed worldwide, the priorities given by the consumers varied among the consumers. Out of home entertainment was the first thing that 61% of consumers in Latin America would cut down on, 58% in Asia pacific and 54% in Europe. In North America, 70% of Canadians and 66% of Americans would be the takeout meals as compared to out of home entertainment. In addition, saving on gas and electricity was a priority among the North Americans. A survey on the political situation in the United States of America regarding the popularity of American presidents namely The presidential job approval was conducted and

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land - Essay Example Attractive to current readers insofar as it resists coherence, the poem has lately been interpreted as a critique of literary and sexual proprieties. It lacks "respect for tradition, " is fascinated with "mutation, degradation, and fragmentation, " split between a longing for "'improper' sexual desires" and a wish to be "rid" of them. (Charles W. Pollard, 2003, pp 90-110). In a curious twist of literary history, recent critics of The Waste Land have returned to the questions that concerned its initial readers, before its elevation to the status of a classic. Troubled by its disorderliness and its debasement of literary value, Eliot inserts beautiful quotations into ugly contexts, and that his poem is a considerable affront against aesthetic sensibilities. Trying to recapture this sense of The Waste Land's offensiveness, critics at the end of the century stress its chaotic structure, its multiple voices, and its internal conflicts, which render it an unfinalized, open text. In so doing, however, they continue to beat a dead horse.

Sports Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sports Communications - Essay Example As jet air travel globalized sport, the distinction between the best amateur and the professional players became impossible to maintain; even the Olympic movement abandoned founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin's original devotion to amateurism. Still debatable is whether the quantitative change in the number of viewers of television has completely changed the quality of the sporting experience. Do children, for instance, deliberately emulate the petulant and violent player behavior they often see on television, ignoring the coaches who try to instill principles of fair play Do most coaches, at all levels, put winning before the health and welfare of their players Have international players become simply pawns in the hands of the media industry Or has television simply opened up electronic seats for fans and made it impossible for sportswriters and commentators to glorify people and events those fans can now see for themselves Has media money justified itself by providing training and competing opportunities for those who had previously been excluded from sports they could not afford to learn What is certain is that some sports have always been "more equal than others"; fans choose to what they will give their allegiance. The media can create or increase temporary interest in specific events, but unless what the media discuss or show is rooted in more than the event itself, interest evaporates. Swimming While a complex, rapidly developing sport may be expected to generate many internal problems, synchro's main controversy, "sport or theater," is generated externally, by media that are unwilling to consider as "sport" anything not meeting the "swifter, higher, stronger" standard. But even Sports Illustrated, despite normally less than flattering reviews, admitted in its report on the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, "Synchronized swimmers may look like cupcakes, but they're tough cookies, half the routine is performed upside down in a pool" (Dawn Bean 128). Its water-show beginnings still haunt it. The idea that water ballet is show, while synchronized swimming is sport, has been hard to sell to swimming officials, the public, and the media. Its acceptance into the Olympic Games came only after Lord Killanin, then chair of the International Olympic Committee, saw it for himself at the third World Aquatic Championships. "I am very impressed. I saw synchronized swimming for the first time to day. It is a very elegant sport" (Dawn Bean 197). Synchro enjoys more popularity and acceptance as a sport in parts of the world outside the United States. In every Olympic competition, 1984 through 1996, it has been one of the first sports to sell out all audience tickets. Another issue is male participation. Interestingly, at the turn of the century competitions in the equivalent of figures were for males. Then the beautiful spectaculars of aquacades and films accented the female attraction. Early U.S. competitions included male championships, but they were never popular. Neither U.S. nor international rules prohibit male participation except for the Olympic Games and the World Aquatic Championships. Presently, male participation is greater in Europe than in the United States and Canada. Indeed, in 1991, the

Unit 6 Seminar Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 6 Seminar Public Health - Essay Example In addition, barrier protections have been a routine part of all health care institutions in reducing the spread of disease. Riegelman (2010) define immunization as the introduction of antibodies/vaccine to strengthen the immune system and to prevent or control diseases (102). Immunizations are essential to the protection of the public because it prevent infection from bacterial and viral diseases, provide either short/long-term immunity, may effectively control outbreak, and can control 70-90% of substantial population with infections from contagious viruses. On the other hand, a number of disadvantages were also noted, among of which are: some diseases such as HIV/AIDS may not have effective vaccines, immunizations are rarely 100% effective particularly among the young and the old and can produce side effects such as allergic reactions, live vaccines may cause injury to fetus or diseases to those with reduced immunity, and immunizations through inactivated vaccine may not produce long-term immunity and thus requires follow-up vaccines/boosters. Barrier protections also include isolation and quarantine. Isolation refers to the separation of the individuals with diseases from healthy population in order to prevent exposure (Riegelman, 2010, 102). Isolation and quarantine have the advantage of controlling the spread of a number of infections and serve as the basic strategies for controlling communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. However, isolation and quarantine may possibly break confidentiality of contacts’ information due to identification of individuals with diseases and follow-up of contacts. It may also lead to public recognition and social stigma placed upon affected individuals. Barrier protections such as immunizations, isolation, and quarantine encompass treatment of those with disease and their contacts and are all essential comprehensive

Social Structure Simularities between Humans and Baboons Essay

Social Structure Simularities between Humans and Baboons - Essay Example Most of the sources in this paper are derived from the works of Robert Sapolsky, a professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Dorothy L. Cheney, a professor of Biology and Robert M. Sayfarth, a professor of Psychology. The work of Sapolsky focuses on issues on stress while the work of Cheney and Sayfarth focuses on the evolution of social mind of baboons. Baboons maintain a large group for their survival and reproduction. Each group consists of up to 100 individuals. This is considerably larger than most chimpanzee communities. (Cheney and Seyfarth) In this culture baboons need to work together as one collective unit to create more of their species and to keep their community running. Each member has a obligation to the community, whether that be bearing children, taking care of children, providing food for the clan, or offering protection for the clan. The philosophy behind any community is that not one individual is capable of complete self-sufficiency; support is needed for survival. And within each community is a web of social hierarchy established by power, size, built, aggressiveness and alliances. (Anitei) This dominancy rank affects their stress physiology, feeding behavior, and growth. (Baboon Social Life) And this hierarchy affects male and female differently. For females, the effects of rank a... (Baboon Social Life) For males, there are some periods where high-ranking males enjoy a very great advantage in obtaining a mate. However there are other periods where lower-ranking males obtain more mating opportunities by forming coalitions with other males that succeed in dislodging high-ranking males from their mates. (Baboon Social Life) Baboons are similar to humans in their survival and reproduction rates, granted humans may vary from continent to continent but in general humans co-exist in large communities, cities, residential areas, college campuses, etc. Humans as a species depend on each other for survival whether it is a emotional, physical, or mental support system or in a series of import and export systems to gather goods. Like baboons, our communities are devised up of social hierarchy, for example in India there is a still a caste system and in America, social hierarchy is established based on the economic vale of each family or individual. Furthermore on a global level we as countries are divided by power (nuclear, military, navy, etc) and we have our alliances such as in the united Nations. The dominancy ranks of the local, national, and global level all affect the stress, feeding behavior, and growth of an individual, a family, or a country. For example if a nation does not have the proper economic me ans to support its people then the people will have varied feeding abilities, their stress will increase, and if starvation ensues than the growth of the community will decrease. The difference between ranking among males and females in the human world and in the baboon world, is that in the human world there are rules that govern how an individuals in

Unit 6 Seminar Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 6 Seminar Public Health - Essay Example In addition, barrier protections have been a routine part of all health care institutions in reducing the spread of disease. Riegelman (2010) define immunization as the introduction of antibodies/vaccine to strengthen the immune system and to prevent or control diseases (102). Immunizations are essential to the protection of the public because it prevent infection from bacterial and viral diseases, provide either short/long-term immunity, may effectively control outbreak, and can control 70-90% of substantial population with infections from contagious viruses. On the other hand, a number of disadvantages were also noted, among of which are: some diseases such as HIV/AIDS may not have effective vaccines, immunizations are rarely 100% effective particularly among the young and the old and can produce side effects such as allergic reactions, live vaccines may cause injury to fetus or diseases to those with reduced immunity, and immunizations through inactivated vaccine may not produce long-term immunity and thus requires follow-up vaccines/boosters. Barrier protections also include isolation and quarantine. Isolation refers to the separation of the individuals with diseases from healthy population in order to prevent exposure (Riegelman, 2010, 102). Isolation and quarantine have the advantage of controlling the spread of a number of infections and serve as the basic strategies for controlling communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. However, isolation and quarantine may possibly break confidentiality of contacts’ information due to identification of individuals with diseases and follow-up of contacts. It may also lead to public recognition and social stigma placed upon affected individuals. Barrier protections such as immunizations, isolation, and quarantine encompass treatment of those with disease and their contacts and are all essential comprehensive

AMEX vs NASDAQ - Similarities and Differences Assignment

AMEX vs NASDAQ - Similarities and Differences - Assignment Example To start off both Amex and NASDAQ are companies that are based on the stock market. Both handle major clients and conduct transactions with many different exchanges. Both also deal with the buying and selling of stocks. As regards to the popularity, each is widely known and capitalizes on their investors.While similarities exist, both corporations do have obvious differences. The major point of difference is that Amex uses floor exchange methodology; a specialist system with a centralized limit order book while NASDAQ employs an electronic listing of competing dealer quotes. This difference leads on to other differences such as transaction processing time (slower in the case of Amex) and efficiency.As mentioned earlier the AMEX is an order-driven continuous auction market, the foundation stone of which are the market makers or â€Å"specialists†. The work of the specialists is to facilitate continuous trading by posting quotes for their own account or by offering the best quot es on their limit order book, which represent a centralized depository for limit orders to buy or sell stocks at specified rates or better. Limit orders provide immediate liquidity and their importance on the AMEX can be judged by the fact that nearly 88% of the volume on AMEX arises from trades in which the specialists do not participate for their own account. But specialists in the AMEX are not allowed to trade ahead of limit orders at the same prices so their quotes usually reflect the limit order book. The result is temporarily stale limit prices (in the initial stages) after public announcements. This slow updating of limit orders can delay revisions in the best bid and ask quotes.

Effect of Electronic Media in Public Essay Example for Free

Effect of Electronic Media in Public Essay People’s life is becoming more convenient and colorful compared with the past years because of the growing popularity of electronic media, which are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user (audience) to access the content. The user of electronic media, such as the internet, 3G mobile phone were increasing rapidly in China within the past years. In the year of 1987, Chinese people sent their first email to Germany in an institute located in Beijing. In 2000, the number of internet users was 225, 000, 00 and this figure reached to 513,000,000 by the end of December, 2011. Besides, Chinese mobile phone users have exceeded one billion by the end of 2011. Why these electronic media increase so fast? Because it is the age of information and technology today. Xiaoping Deng (1988) pointed out that Science and technology constitute the primary productive force. Electronic media devices have found their way into all parts of modern life. For example, a person who has something urgent to inform to his family, of course he would choose to use e-mail instead of writing letter, for its more convenient and fast and can be read at any time or anywhere by the receiver. The other electronic media, like telephone, telegraph, which are all quicker and safer than the traditional way to communicate. Besides, books and newspapers cost people a lot (money, time, etc.) since these traditional media published frequently and updated slower than the electronic media, such as the internet. The electronic media affect people’s life greatly because of their convenience and safety. It also provides people with a public platform to express the true thoughts from their inner world. However, we should know that there are always two sides to everything, and it is without exception for electronic media. Excessive using of electronic media may lead people to indulge in the virtual world. For instance, children are addicted to net games so the phenomenon of absenteeism in school appeared which is a rare  phenomenon in the past years. Moreover, since the early 1960s, research evidence has been showing that violence in television, movies, video games, cell phones, and on the Internet increases the risk of violent behavior. In conclusion, People should know how to use these advanced and modern media in a reasonable way, for these new electronic media could result in a serious of problem during their lifetime if they are used improperly by the people. References 1.The 29th China Internet Development Statistics Report(2012).{online].Available from: http://www.cnnic.cn/research/bgxz/tjbg/201201/t20120116_23668.html 2.Wikipedia.{online].Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_media 3.L. Rowell Huesmann. (2007). The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research.

Attitudes Towards Tourism And Hospitality Career Psychology Essay

Attitudes Towards Tourism And Hospitality Career Psychology Essay To explain human behavior is a very difficult and complex task. But approaching it from different levels such as the persons attitude and perception factors and so on, sheds light to this complexity. Concepts referring to behavioral dispositions, such as social attitude, and personality trait, have played an important role in these attempts to predict and explain human behavior (Ajzen, 1998; Campbell, 1963; Sherman Fazio, 1983). This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB model) to test the influences governing undergraduates intention towards pursuing a career in the tourism industry. This study will thus explore the variables that influence a students intention to pursue a career in the hospitality industry and the factors that are implicated in or modify a students career commitment over time. The sample includes first year to forth year undergraduates studying Tourism management courses offered by The University of Mauritius. 2.1 Perceptions and attitudes towards pursuing a Tourism and Hospitality Career 2.1.0 Tourism management as a course Author (s) s Study S Variables used les used Davidson and Tideswell (1998) Considering level of student interest in the hospitality programme (Australia) Industry factors: Career prospects, Interests, See degree as a rite of passage to job and career, Entrance criteria used by institutions as a mechanism to attract students Barron and Maxwell (1993) New entrants illusory image of the industry- glamorous and unrealistic perceptions Jarvis (1994) Limited resources applied early in the education process Barron (1997) Offer for the course Good reputation of university OMahony, McWilliam and Whitelaw (2001) Reputation and availability of a particular course Hospitality course as second or third preference Accepted based on entry requirement rather than career interest Hing and Lomo (1997) Students enroll with a vague idea of their goal, their future aspirations and career opportunities (minimal commitment) Place coveted at the university, irrespective of discipline If scores were too low. Theres a chance to pursue interest and career in private hospitality colleges Purcell (1993) Career choice in high school were influenced by parents or guardians, peers or friends Cothram and Combrink, 1999; Sciarini and Wood, 1997 Parents and families were the most influential in determining students attitudes and career choice Young (1994) Parents as primary providers of encouragement Machatton (1997) Negative perceptions of parents- hospitality jobs confined to hamburger- flipping and bed making OMahony, McWilliam and Whitelaw (2001) Not rated as an important influence: Parents Teachers School counselors Peers Rated the highest: Mass media Helmes and Adcock (1992) Lack of information Lack of career knowledge Lead to creation of misconception and unwarranted negative attitudes and often associated with lack of opportunities Barron and Maxwell (1993) Information about the industry Career based on choice rather than by chance Fraser, 2000 Varying interest to work in different sectors of the hospitality industry views changed through various exposures: study programme exposure to industry 2.1.1 Tourism as a career choice Author (s) Study Variables used Ross (1991; 1993) positive attitudes towards potential careers high level of interest in management positions industry regarded as holding considerable promise for future employment and career prospects Gets (1994) unattractive option for high school students: downturn in regional economies potential for attracting youth through: internships or co-operative education between schools and industry Airey and Frontisis (1997) career support improvement in basic hospitality education Greek students positive attitudes but: Unrealistic views about careers in the industry Limited experience as hospitality consumers Employment structure in Greece Charles (1992a) Positive attitudes towards: Career in tourism industry- seen as exciting, stimulating and developing creativity Negative attitude because of potential disruptive effect on: Personal Family And social life Interest seen to be decreasing: After internship experience Barron and Maxwell (1993) Difference between perception and experience of the industry: New students hold positive views Post internship students hold negative views Expectations: Good career opportunities Good training Treatment of staff by employers Job does not demand a capacity effort Perception: Industry not lucrative Poor treatment of manual staff Warsyzak (1997) Assessment of industry becomes less positive after post work experiences Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) Positive attitudes changed to negative attitudes after practical work experience: Job stress Lack of family life owing to nature of the work Long working hours Exhausting and seasonal (unstable) jobs Low social status of a hospitality job Unfavorable evaluations were due to: Insufficient information about careers Limited information on working conditions West anf Jamieson (1990) Reduction in commitment after various exposures to the industry Purcell and Quinn (1996) Supervised work experience a key contributor to reduced commitment Fraser (2000) Perceptions, aspirations, expectations and career commitment steadily declined over time. Levels of commitment not based on: Sex Qualifications Levels of industry knowledge Nor prior experience But based on: Employment practices Pavesic and Byrmer (1990) Hospitality Graduates switch to another industry less than one year after graduating. Reasons: Poor pay for the hours of work Little recognition for efforts made Lack of opportunity for progress Long hours Stress at work Not receiving acknowledgement of qualifications gained. Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) Negative attitudes formed after internship: Stressful jobs Lack of family life owing to the nature of tourism jobs Unsatisfactory and unfair promotions Low pay Insufficient benefits Unqualified managers Poor attitudes and behavior of managers towards employees Unqualified coworkers Poor attitudes and behavior of coworkers Poor physical working conditions for employees 2.2 The Theory of Planned Behavior Ajzen developed the Theory of Planned Behavior in 1991 as an extension of Ajzen and Fishbeins 1975 Theory of Reasoned Action. The TPB has four components: attitudes (i.e. the individuals positive or negative feelings about performing a behavior), subjective norm (i.e. the individuals perception of whether people important to the individual think the behavior should be performed), perceived behavioral control (i.e. The individuals perception on the self skills and ability of performing a behavior) and behavioral intention (i.e. an individuals readiness to perform a given behavior) Ajzen stated that for nonhabituaI behaviors that are easily executed by almost everyone without special circumstances, the theory of reasoned action was adequate. When behaviors are more difficult to execute, and when a person needs to take control over needed resources in order to act, the theory of planned behavior is a better predictor of behavior than the theory of reasoned action. In the theory of planned behavior, control is taken into account as a variable labeled perceived behavioral control, which is defined as a persons perception of how easy or difficult it would be to perform the action. The theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been since its development some 20 years proved to be a powerful approach to explain human behavior. Â   The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) predicts that planned behaviors are determined by behavioral intentions which are largely influenced by an individuals attitude toward a behavior, the subjective norms encasing the execution of the behavior, and the individuals perception of their control over the behavior (Ajzen, 1975). In simpler terms, behavioural decisions are the result of a reasoned process in which the behavior is influenced by attitudes, norms and perceived behavioral control. 2.3 The Theory of Planned Behavior: Model Ajzens revised model (1991) is expressed in the diagram (figure 2) below: Figure 2: Ajzens Theory of Planned Behavior The theory of planned behavior postulates three conceptually determinants of intention. 2.4 Determinants of Behavioral Intention Attitude towards behavior Attitudes represent an individuals likes, dislikes, beliefs and opinions regarding a particular behavior. It represents a summary of evaluation of psychological object captures in attribute dimensions of good- bad, harmful- beneficial, pleasant- unpleasant, and likable- dislikable (Ajzen; 2001) Rosenberg and Hovland (1996) viewed attitude as a multi-component construct and made the following statement all responses to a stimulus object are mediated by the persons attitude towards the object. Ayres (2008) claims that traditionally there has been a career-for-life philosophy adopted by workers, whereby workers will spend their entire working life working in one industry, and, in many cases, one organization. This philosophy has in recent times, coinciding with Generation Y entering the workforce, been replaced by a more uncertain career structure, with employees frequently changing employers within their industry and many also pursuing work in different industries (Inkson, Anhur, and Pringle, 1999). Morton (2002) stated that Generation Y employees show a tendency towards valuing equality in the workplace and they seek positions that offer reasonable wages and good opportunities for training. Morton (2002) also claimed that they respect managers who empower workers and who are open and honest with employees. Martin (2005), who calls this generation Yers, describes eight main characteristics shown by Generation Y towards their careers. These eight characteristics include the Generation Y employee being self-reliant and independent, technosavvy, entrepreneurial, seeking flexibility, having an urgent sense of immediacy, wanting increasing responsibility, having a get off my back attitude and adopting a free agency attitude. Oliver (2006) claims that recent interest in the Generation Y worker has intensified in recent years, and while generalizations are plentiful, he claims that the Generation Y worker is uninterested in a job for life, instead seeking flexibility and work-life balance. Oliver (2006) states that, overall, Generation Y workers are seen to have much higher expectations of a job than previous generations, including high expectations of pay, conditions, promotion and advancement. A study conducted by Kusluvan and Kusluvan (2000) found that some of the factors that seemed to account for the negative attitudes towards careers in tourism, formed after students had undertaken a practical work assignment, are stressful jobs, lack of family life owing to the nature of the work, long working hours, exhausting and seasonal (unstable) jobs, low social status of tourism jobs, unsatisfactory and unfair promotions, low pay and insufficient benefits, unqualified managers, poor attitudes and behavior of managers towards employees, unqualified coworkers and poor attitudes and behavior of coworkers and poor physical working conditions for employees. Subjective Norms Subjective Norms is the degree to which someone wants to conform to others behavior or expectations. Usually, others are individuals (family and friends) whose preferences on a subject matter are important to him or her. This concept was introduced into theory of planned behavior to accommodate the non volitional elements inherent, at least potentially, in all behaviors (Ajzen, 2002). Although schools, peers and the students community all have an impact on the young adults self- identity and career choice, the parents expectations and perceptions of vocational fit for their children have been found to be the key roles in shaping their career choices (Ferry, 2006). In one study (Creamer and Laughlin, 2005), this influence has been so strong as to override the influence of teachers, faculty, and career field in question but were not as well- known and or trusted as to students parents for this type of decision. In an era where 49% of UK workers report that balancing work and family responsibilities is an issue of significant concern to them (IP Morgan Fleming, 2003), the influence of family and personal life and career decisions is receiving increasing amounts of media attention. Todays business school graduates are looking for a work style to go with their lifestyle, claims the HR consultancy Hay Group (The Economist, 2006). Generation X and Generation Y workers who are younger than 40, are more likely than boomers to say they put family before jobs, says an article in USA Today (Elias, 2004). Todays younger employees are working to live rather than living to work, states a newspaper manager in the journalism newsletter Fusion (Williamson, 2006). Perceived Behavioral Control Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) refers to a persons perception of the ease or difficulty of performing a particular behavior. According to Ajzen (2002), PBC is used to deal with situations where people do not have complete volitional control (i.e. external influences) over the particular behavior in question. An employees perception to any industry will, no doubt, be determined by their commitment, perceptions, attitudes towards working in the industry as well as the types of jobs available in the industry. It is argued that this is particularly pertinent to tourism and hospitality as it has been reported that potential recruits have a negative image of working in the industry (Aksu and Koksal, 2005; Brien, 2004; Getz, 1994, Kuslavan and Kuslavan, 2000). Several researchers have also studied the perceptions of undergraduate tourism and hospitality management students. Barron and Maxwell (1993) examined the perceptions of new and continuing students at Scottish higher education institutions. They found that in general the new students had positive images of the industry, whereas the students with supervised work experience were much less positive in their views. Baron and Maxwell (19930 found significant differences between the new students perceptions of the industry compared with the students who had undertaken their industry placement. The marked differences in the perceptions of new students compared with those post placement students and graduates lie in the difference between perception and experience in the industry. West and Jameson (1990) agree and claim that the more exposure hospitality students have to the industry, the less commitment they show. 2.5 Behavioral Intention Intention is an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions; in the words of Ajzen, an indication of how hard people are willing to try, of how much effort they are willing to exert in order to perform the behavior. Therefore, the stronger the intention to engage in a behavior, the more likely should be its performance. (p. 181) TPB states that people act in accordance with their intentions and perceptions of control over their behavior, while intentions are influenced by attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms and perceptions of behavioral control (Ajzen, 1985). Behavior Hsing (2002) defined behavior as the performance of an action at a certain time, in a certain context and with a certain purpose. Generally, the more favorable the attitude and subjective norm with respect to a behavior and the greater the perceived behavioral control; the stronger an individuals intention should be to perform the behavior under consideration (Ajzen, 1991). However based on varying behaviors and situation, the relative importance of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control is expected to be different. 2.6 Indicators of Behavioral Intention For the TPB to predict behaviour successfully or for maximum prediction, intention must be measured as closely as possible in time to the observation of the behaviour. The longer the interval between measurement of intention and behaviour, the greater the likelihood that an unforeseen event will occur that will lead to changes in intention and be less predictive of actual behaviour. Nevertheless, this study is not working on actual behaviour, but rather on attitudes and beliefs about the behaviour of choosing a particular career. 2.6.0 Indicators of Attitude towards behavior Thus, to measure student attitudes toward behaviour, which in this context meant choosing the programme and direction, or intention to seek a career in hospitality, questions were constructed in such a way so as to shed light on the attitude and beliefs of the undergraduates: I expect this course will only qualify me to do a specialised job in the hospitality industry I am still keen to work in the industry as when I first chose this training programme I am very satisfied with my choice of a career in hospitality I am committed to a career in hospitality 2.6.1 Indicators of Subjective Norms A second major predictor of intention in this study is the influence of important people in an individual students life as encouragement and support to perform the behaviour intention. Subjective Norm refers to a favourable or unfavourable student perception of social pressure and the relative importance of different sources of social influence on their intention (decision) to choose a programme and hospitality career. Such social influence might come from immediate family members, peers and friends, teachers and other individual and groups. As stated by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) an individual will perform or operationalise their behaviours that they perceive as favoured by other people who are important to them. In the present study, there were items used to obtain a direct measure of students perception of significant others and the degree to which they influenced the decision to take a tourism management course. Questions which relate to parents, friends, brothers and sisters and school teachers were constructed to indicate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with such statements. Such questions were: My parents encouraged me to study hospitality My school teachers and counsellors encouraged me to study hospitality My brothers / sisters encouraged me to study hospitality However, according to Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) any relationship between the respondents and the referent (s) will be more or less stable over time. To assess the actual career influencer parallel to those of the students intention, an open ended question was asked: Who was the most influential individual who influenced your choice of a hospitality career? 2.7 Empirical Evidence 2.8 Conclusion

Homosexual Indifference :: Free Essays Online

Homosexual Indifference The times seem to be changing in acceptance of homosexual relationships for the better, but many laws as well as society still prohibit gay marriage and adoption. There are two sources which I will use to show different view points on gay marriage and adoption. The first is an article written by Andrew Sullivan, titled â€Å"Let Gays Marry.† This is written as an informal piece to argue that gay people should be allowed to marry one another. The next is also on gay marriage, but in this article, â€Å"Leave Marriage Alone,† author William Bennett writes that it is wrong for gays to marry. These two authors show separate feelings on the issue of gay marriage, while attempting to persuade the readers to agree with them. Each of these articles have valuable arguments, but will they be enough to change people’s views, to benefit their beliefs? Beginning with the topic on gay marriage and the controversial battle between authors, Andrew Sullivan and William Bennett, Sullivan is the gay supporter. In Sullivan’s piece, â€Å"Let Gays Marry,† he opens with a statement by the Supreme Court, â€Å"A state cannot deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws.† He feels that this simple sentence has so much meaning, saying that whatever type of person, male or female, black or white, everyone deserves the same legal protection and equal rights. Therefore, gay marriage should not be excluded from the legal system. He tells that some churches practice different beliefs and may oppose gay marriage but religion has nothing to do with the state appeals. Sullivan explains how the definition of marriage has changed in the past and that it can be done again. Sullivan ends his piece by saying that changing the law would not affect straight couples, so why are they against gay marriage? He believes t he change would allow gay couples to experience what straight couples already have. On the other hand, William Bennett, author of â€Å"Leave Marriage Alone,† feels that the right for gays to marry should not come into effect. He begins by asking if gay marriage will benefit the institution. He fears that if this law was passed the true meaning of marriage would be altered and destroyed.

Osmosis :: Papers

Osmosis Introduction Osmosis is the passage of water from a region of high water concentration through a semi-permeable membrane to a region of low water concentration. The aim of the investigation is to find the variables that affect the rate of osmosis and how they affect the rate of reaction. The variables that affect the rate of reaction of osmosis are, Â · The surface area of the object, Â · The concentration of the solution, Â · Temperature of the experiment Surface area If the surface area of the object is larger then more molecules can pass through the semi-permeable membrane. This will ultimately increase the rate of reaction. [IMAGE] [IMAGE] [IMAGE][IMAGE] Small surface area Large surface area Concentration If the concentration of the solution is high then it will contain more molecules and so the rate of reaction will be shorter. [IMAGE] [IMAGE] Low concentration High concentration Temperature of the experiment Generally the higher the temperature, the less time it takes for a reaction. But with living cells there is a point at which the cell will be denatured therefore the rate of reaction will be altered, as the cells are no longer functioning. Hypothesis ========== Osmosis is defined as the movement of water or any other solution's molecules from a region of highly concentrated solution to a region of less concentrated solution. This movement must take place across a partially permeable membrane such as a cell wall, which lets smaller molecules such as water through but does not allow bigger molecules to pass through. The molecules will continue to diffuse until the area in which the molecules are found reaches a state of equilibrium, meaning that the molecules are randomly distributed throughout an object, with no area having a higher or lower concentration than any other. To make this investigation fair, the conditions will be as follows: Changed variable Constants

The Soundtrack of Your Life

Music is a key factor in my life, now and has been for as long as I remember. Music is one thing that can control my mood and emotions unlike any other. The sounds and melodies of the composition have the potential to sway my moods from a dark gloomy state all the way to a joyous and soothing harmonic atmosphere. Music allows me to control how and what I want to be, or represent. Music is almost like picking out a favorite outfit. When one picks out an outfit to wear they most likely pick an outfit that expresses them and how they are feeling at that direct moment. They have the ability to change shoes, accessories, or their hairstyle to make it appealing to their particular desires, just as one has the will to change a song on their ipod, or flip the channel on a local radio station. Recently, my life has been undergoing many changes. I am now starting to apply myself in a way that allows me to develop my potential and show forth the results as an outcome of the pursuance of fulfilling my aspirations. More than ever now I am starting to realize that â€Å"you get out of life what you put in†. Life is dependent only on â€Å"what you bring to the table†. If one tends to put in minimal effort then one should not expect to experience a great aftermath. I have chosen three songs that apply to my life right now in the stance that I am currently in. Its ironic that all of these songs are from different genres, songwriters, and generations but, they somehow tie into my life perfectly. The main theme of the â€Å"soundtrack of my life† is â€Å"overcoming obstacles and changing that are essential to the growth and the perseverance of an individual†. Natasha Bedingfield’s song â€Å"Unwritten† has made quite an impact on me. When I first heard the song all I could really say is â€Å"wow†. This song made me feel empowered in a sense and I felt inspired to go out, make a difference and do something great. She explains how the world is offered to you and that it’s up to you to decide not only your fate but your destiny and how your life will end up. She states â€Å"I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined, I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned†. By reading these lyrics and interpreting them more as a poem I realized the true and pure essence of this lyrical stanza. I believe the message of this is to convey that although we’re taught certain things as simple as proper etiquette and how to act, that doesn’t define us. It’s almost as if the writer is referring to herself as anonymous, as if she doesn’t really know herself but, in the process is trying to reveal and create herself transforming from a nonentity into a being with an individual personality, demeanor, and identity whether she knows where she’ll end up or not. This line can apply hugely to my life. I am 17 now and as a child we were all conditioned and taught to behave in a certain manner. Now that I am older I feel as if I can speak for myself and in a sense â€Å"reincarnate or change† myself into what I want to be instead of what my parents have taught me. I think that being a child one doesn’t always really know who they are other than what they are told that they are. I still don’t know exactly who and what I am but, being in this position I feel as if I can create a new identity with myself without having to know exactly where and how I will end up. This songs main message was not only that â€Å"you are who you say you are to be† but also that â€Å"perseverance is a choice that we all have to take advantage of to prosper on our own terms. Miley Cyrus’ song â€Å"The Climb† is a basic analogy of my life as a whole. She states that through life anything worth having is going to take some struggle and hard work if its something that one truly wants to be successful at or accomplish. Though, her lines in her song are very simple they are simple enough in nature to strike with a hard meaning. Miley states â€Å"the struggles I'm facing, the chance I'm taking, sometimes might knock me down, but no, I'm not breaking. † These effortless lines may seem juvenile but are very mature and take a leading stance in my life. I am transitioning from the mind of a child into an adult. I might not necessarily make the right decisions all the times or the best moves but, I never give up on my ending goal, which is to be just a more wholesome and better person. I realize that â€Å"there's always gonna be another mountain, I'm always gonna wanna make it move, always gonna be an uphill battle, sometimes I'm gonna have to lose, ain't about how fast I get there, ain't about what's waiting on the other side, it's the climb. Miley Cyrus has never stated my life in general in a better way. This song can be considered the epitome of how I live and the thesis for this paper alone. Finally, I would like to introduce the classic song off of the movie â€Å"Space Jam† that has respectively impacted my life. This song simply is real and to me defies the essential steps in creating growth in myself. This song teaches that one must be able to see and visualize themselves in an instance in order to â€Å"touch the sky† or in other words overcome an obstacle that would once never be thought of or made possible. This song is none other than the 1996 billboard topping hit of â€Å"I Believe I can Fly† by R. Kelly. Kelly sings confidently â€Å"see I was on the verge of breaking down, sometimes silence can seem so loud, there are miracles in life I must achieve, but first I know it starts inside of me, oh, if I can see it, then I can be it. † Through my conquest of life I have had times where faith has been broken and when all seems to fail my life has just spiraled out of control. This song is like a â€Å"pick me up, and booster† to reassure that in the end all will be well if you just let go and believe wholeheartedly that things will work out for you. This also means that staying positive is key to a change that you are wanting to see in yourself but, essentially you have to be proactive and press on to change and develop yourself into the idol that you have created in you mind for yourself. In the end the soundtracks of my life are austerely defined as â€Å"overcoming obstacles and changing essentially to the growth and the perseverance of an individual†. If anything I think that I am drawn to these songs because of the messages that they bring. It’s not the catchy beats, the talented artist, the flashy music videos, or the encoded messages that draw my attention forth but rather what the song has to offer to me in such a plain way. In considering things as far as the music that I listen to I am very eclectic. If the track can provide me with insight, motivation, or reality of life then I most likely will be listening to it. It’s not so much of what we are listening to but, more so why we are listening and engaging in an artistic piece of music.

The Evolution of Chil Custody Arrangements

The Evolution of Child Custody Arrangements Heather Gibson Southern New Hampshire University When a family splits, separates, divorces or a child is born out of wed lock for whatever reason one of the most difficult decisions to make are custody arrangements. Over the years the government has shifted its views from the child’s mother being the best fir for primary custody to â€Å"the best interest† of the child. What’s in the best interest of the child consists of both tangible and non-tangible things.The necessities include the ability to provide food, shelter and a a safe environment are important but also the stability of the parent psychologically and their mental health also begins to become part of the importance to the child. The person who has legal custody over a child is the person who makes import decisions in the child’s life. The determination of who should have custody in a child custody battle has become highly problematic over the years. M aternal preference was given as the best fit for the child. The mother was deemed more nurturing and caring as a parent.The United States held this idea for many years. In the world around them women were fighting for equal rights and in turn making men equal in the work force as well as a parent. The increase of divorces in the mid 1900’s and women going in the workforce led to the courts deciding what was in the best interest of the child rather than who was more motherly and nurturing. Another change that came about was the idea of joint custody, rather than sole custody. Today child custody can be as simple as two parents making the decision to share custody or on the opposite end the legal batter of who’s the better parent.Forensic psychologists help in informing the judge of who (unbiased) is the better parent or if joint custody would work out for the best interest of the child. They go through different competency evaluations, may visit the home or investigate further to determine custody. Although it seems women are still chosen as the better parent trend have shifted and men have a better chance at sole custody. Another evolution that has evolved is the familiarization of gay rights as parents. It is still unclear as it is emerging but it is food for thought.