Fresh Food vs Canned Food Essay

As children we often have no say in what we choose to eat. We were always taught to eat the food that was given to us on our plates. It’s not until we reach adulthood that we make conscious decisions on what we choose to consume. As adults we seem to indulge in the foods that make us happy, as well as the foods that will take the least amount of time out of our day to day schedule. Eating is an activity that we as humans do at least two times a day. We live in a world where the variety of food is immense, and we are responsible for what we eat. We choose what we would like to eat and how it will affect our bodies. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the differences between eating fresh foods instead of canned foods. There are many different reasons to keep in mind when choosing canned or fresh foods, such as flavor, health benefits, accessibility and cost. The most notable difference between these two kinds of foods is their flavor. Fresh foods have great flavor and taste because they keep all their natural conditions. Nothing is added or taken away, just the simple taste that nature has provided. Canned foods however, lack a lot of its flavor characteristics due to the fact that there are chemical products added to the natural foods. It’s logical that fresh foods will have a greater taste and flavor when consumed, just because of the time in which they have been prepared. Comparing both types of foods we notice another difference, there is a health factor that affects both of them. Canned foods lose some of the original fresh food nutrients when stored, and also it has to be tinned with many conservatives and chemical factors that prolong the shelf life. In some instances, apparent freshness of the food could also become toxic if consumed too often. Yet another difference between these two types of foods is the cost and accessibility. Canned foods are much more expensive than fresh foods. One could easily say that buying a pound of fresh carrots would cost the average shopper twice the amount of money, than buying two cans of carrots for under a dollar. The benefit of buying tinned foods is there accessibility, for example, it is easier to go down to your local supermarket and pick up a few canned green beans, instead of finding a market that specializes in fresh foods. As time goes on, we as adults are always in a rush to get somewhere or to finish something. It’s no surprise that the most important factor to an everyday adult is that canned foods require less work to prepare than fresh foods, just open and serve. As we can see it comes down to a personal choice, based on the time each person has, the money and the importance he/she gives to his/her nutrition and health. Therefore it is important that you consider your possibilities and choose the best type of foods for your convenience and lifestyle.

Facebook Sextortion Essay

Sextortion is the latest cybercrime used against children—it a form of sexual exploration one uses guilt, power, or knowledge of certain secrets, to force another person into having sex or performing sexual favors. â€Å"Christopher Patrick Gunn was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury in Montgomery with two counts of production of child pornography, three counts of interstate extortion, and three counts of using a facility of interstate commerce in furtherance of unlawful activity† (Shyyock, 2012). If convicted he could spend up to 100 years in the federal prison and $500,000 in fines with a lifetime supervised release. Christopher Patrick Gunn was using facebook (social networking site) to extort young girls. He would create phony profiles on facebook then he would send out facebook request to the young girls. Profiles that he used consisted of â€Å"The Justin Bieber Ruse† (when using Justin’s profile Gunn would promise the girls concert tickets), â€Å"The New Kid Ruse,† â€Å"Daniel Rodgers,† Dalton Walthers. â€Å"Tyler Mielke† and â€Å"Jason Lempke. † Once the young girls would accept his friend request they were able to use an internet-base interactive video chat service—like Skype. He would gain their trust so then he would proceed to ask personal questions (bra size, sexual status, etc) once he gathered enough information Gunn would request topless photos. If the girls refused he threatened to divulge the intimate conversations to the principle or place it on Facebook for the public to hear. In order for the prosecution to successfully prosecute Christopher Patrick Gunn the investigation that began in April 2011 after complaints were made from female students at Prattville Junior High School that they were receiving inappropriate picture solicitation request from a Facebook profile, police, crime scene investigators and criminalist have to provide strong evidence about the committed crime. As a result of the complaint filed pertaining to child victimization police rendered immediate action. Since the alleged crime was committed with computers and the Internet the detectives were able to use a computer command—traceroute that is provided with most operating systems. Traceroute is a utility that can detail the IP path (Internet Protocol–an address that is unique to a computer) packets that travel between two systems. It can also provide network affiliations, and their geographic locations. After executing this command the detectives were able to get an account and address leading to Gunn’s Montgomery home. The next step was to obtain a warrant to go to the home to retrieve any evidence pertaining to the crime. So the planning of the crime scene investigation was initiated after the warrant had been granted. Once at the crime scene the detectives knew that physical evidence must be obtained using the proper procedures and the correct techniques because how the crime scene is investigated can make or break the case. The crime scene was immediately secured—â€Å" controlling the movement of those at the crime scene also involves ensuring that no one touches, moves, or affects any potential evidence before the scene is thoroughly documented and processed. (Buckles, 2007) A report was started containing date, time of arrival, visibility, lighting and the weather. The computers were seized –documenting the computer activity, components, and other devices. Detectives determined the status of the computers by looking for signs indicating if they were on, off or in sleep status. With the status being determined it allowed for the contents of the screens to be annotated in the report along with photographs of the monitor screens. In the event that the computers were off, the report would state the status, photographs would be taking, sketches of all wires, cables, and other peripheral devices connected to the computer would be drawn. Labels would be placed on all power supplies, wires, cables, and other peripheral devices that indicate where they were occupied on the computer photographs would be taken once more. Most computers if the power is disconnected it will preserve vital information like who was last logged on, what time, last program used and last known computer commands used. The packaging of the computers would consist of taking the power supplies from the wall outlet and computers disconnecting all wires, cables, and peripheral devices securing them. Tape would be placed on the power buttons– the CD or DVD drives would be retracted this information would be annotated in the report if they are empty, were not checked, or contained disk. Then tape would be placed on the trays ensuring they remain closed. Included in the report would be the make, model, serial numbers, and any user-applied markings or identifiers. Preparations to package the computers would be in accordance with the agency procedures to prevent damage or alterations during transportation and storage a detailed log of the contents would accompany the package. However, if the detectives came upon a crime scene that revealed the suspected crime or parts of it (i. e. chat room activity, instant messaging windows, child pornography) on the computer screen the detectives would have halted the data evidence capture. A telephone call would have been made to request assistance from more experienced personnel in retrieving volatile data capture and preservation. The computer would have been left connected to the power supply due to the evidentiary value is in plain view. The detectives would have kept the scene secured awaiting expertise. But the search for other evidence would continue. Things such a passwords, software manuals, text or graphic materials printed from the computer would aid in the investigation and should be documented and retrieved with less handling in accordance with departmental guidelines. In addition to the computers a cell phone was recovered as digital evidence it too would have been documented, photographed, and received by experts to preserve its integrity. The power supply along with adapters were labeled, logged and would have been collected in accordance with procedural guidelines pending forensic examination. â€Å"One of the final steps in the crime scene investigation process, prior to releasing and exiting the crime scene, is to conduct a debriefing. † (Buckles, 2007) During this debrief it would give all parties involved a chance to verify completion and revisit if what was planned actually took place. It is also a time to gather all pertinent reports and other documentation gathered during the investigation—so that the lead investigator could compile all documents into a central case file. Lastly, to safeguard that all evidence that was collected a â€Å"final survey and post-investigative walk-through of the crime scene is needed before releasing and exiting the scene. † (Buckles, 2007) Once the scene has been exited the evidence would be taken and released to the computer forensic team so that they may obtain possession of the computer, all networking mappings from the system, and external physical storage devices. They will use tools and software suites to electronically identify what data could be recovered — bit – stream copies, log files, photos, cookie information, URL redirection, and E-mail headers. The forensic analyzer would generate a report including: name of investigator, list of router evidence, document of the evidence and other supporting items, tools used, list of devices and setups used in the examination, brief description of the examination steps, details on the findings—information about the files, internet-related evidences, data and image analysis and conclusion of the investigation. Hence the evidence that was collected by the Montgomery Police Department along with other investigators from the surrounding states corroborated and determined that Gunn had also committed crimes against young girls in their jurisdictions. The FBI was able to develop evidence that showed that Gunn was the person behind all the criminal conduct. In fact, the FBI has reason to believe that Gunn may have targeted hundreds of other girls in various states across the country, with some as young as 9 and 10 years old† (Weissman, 2012). In conclusion the electronic evidence that needed to be collected were the computers, cell phones, images and videos of child pornography, along with any other pertinent evidence like passwords, software manuals, text or graphic materials printed from the computer that could be used to solidify a conviction. Legal requirements for crime scene documents to be admissible as potential evidence in court must be obtained in a manner, which ensures true accuracy and validity. The constitutional rights of the perpetrator also present challenges. The prosecutors have to ensure that the experts who have examined the data do not breach client-attorney privileges and other privacy issues related to the digital evidence. The chain of custody is very important in ensuring a successful prosecution. Even though the evidence is strong other challenges need to be overcome like the presentation of the evidence discovered. Prosecutors do not typically know how to present electronic evidence to a jury. They need to understand the basics of electronic evidence so that they will not confuse the jury with computer jargon, or bore them with the expert’s testimony because it is delivered in an advanced technical manner. The prosecutors need to give the jury a basic foundation so that later they will understand the more technical issues. The prosecution should use a combination of oral testimony and demonstrative vidence so that the jury and the judge will understand later in the trial when expert witnesses are testifying. The prosecution has an obligation to present his/her case; the demonstrative evidence should be used to subconsciously condition the jury to believe your expert is knowledgeable and credible. The understanding will enable the jury to believe/not to believe the expert’s ultimate conclusions. If the prosecutor and the computer evidence collected were gathered in accordance with the departmental guidelines the prosecution will be successful.

Very Funny

1. A federal law that conflicts with the U. S. Constitution will be deemed unconstitutional. 2. The U. S. Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. 3. Each state has its own constitution. 4. Equity is a branch of unwritten law that seeks to award damages in most cases. 5. A plaintiff is a person against whom a lawsuit is brought. 6. A decision on a given issue by a court is not binding on an inferior court. 7. Stare decisis is a doctrine obligating judges to follow precedents established within their jurisdictions. . A court may depart from a precedent if the precedent is no longer valid in view of changed technology. 9. Common law is no longer a source of legal authority. ____ 10. A substantive law creates or defines legal rights and obligations. Multiple Choice ____ 11. The River City Council, the Santa Clara County Board, the Texas state legislature, and the U. S. Congress enact laws. These laws constitute a. administrative law. b. case law. c. stare decisis. d. statut ory law. ____ 12. The U. S. Congress enacts a new federal statute that sets different standards for the liability of businesses selling defective products.This statute applies a. only to matters not covered by state law. b. only to those states that adopt the statute. c. to all of the states. d. to none of the states. ____ 13. If a provision in the Florida state constitution conflicts with a provision in the U. S. Constitution a. neither provision applies. b. the provisions are balanced to reach a compromise. c. the state constitution takes precedence. d. the U. S. Constitution takes precedence. ____ 14. As a judge, Nora decides cases that involve principles of administrative law, case law, civil law, and statutory law. Common law is a. administrative law. . case law. c. civil law. d. statutory law. 1 ____ 15. The United States has a common law system. The common law began a. as a body of general rules applied in the courts throughout England. b. as a group of legal principles enact ed by continental European nations. c. as part of the Roman civil law. d. in the Islamic courts of Muslim countries. ____ 16. Gary is a state court judge. In his court, as in most state courts, he may grant a. equitable and legal remedies. b. equitable remedies only. c. legal remedies only. d. neither equitable nor legal remedies. ____ 17. Jill is an appellate court judge.In this capacity, Jill establishes a rule of law. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, the principle must be adhered to by a. all courts. b. courts of lower rank only. c. that court and courts of lower rank. d. that court only. ____ 18. In Alpha v. Beta, the court decides that a precedent is incorrect or inapplicable. With this in mind, the court a. may rule contrary to the precedent. b. must apply the precedent. c. must refuse to decide the particular case. d. must â€Å"stand on the decided case. † ____ 19. Areas of the law not governed by statutory or administrative law are a. governed by the common law. b. not governed by any law. . open to each individual's own interpretation. d. subject to local ordinances. ____ 20. Standard Business Company appeals a decision against it, in favor of Top Flight Corporation, from a lower court to a higher court. Standard is a. the appellant. b. the appellee. c. the defendant. d. the plaintiff. ____ 21. The Montana Supreme Court decides the case of National Co. v. Overseas Corp. Of nine justices, eight believe the judgment should be in National's favor. Justice Pine disagrees and writes a separate opinion. This opinion is a. a concurring opinion. b. a dissenting opinion. c. a minority opinion. d. a unanimous opinion. 2

History of Architecture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History of Architecture - Essay Example (Wagner 21). Wagner’s architectural style embraced and clearly manifested a distinct change in traditional and the emergence of purpose built buildings. The church at Vienna’s Steinhoff sanitarium, the Postal savings Bank and several entrances for Vienna’s city railway are some of Wagner’s most memorable buildings. (100) . The belief of art having purpose was expressed when he stated, â€Å" The practical element in man, which is particularly pronounced, is evidently here to stay and every architect is going to have to come to grips with the postulate, a thing that is unpractical cannot be beautiful† (100). In the exploration of the idea of modernity in architecture, he used the designs of his own buildings, where he used new technology, materials and simpler ornamentation. The Postal Savings Bank is seen as an important early work of modern architecture. This represented Wagner’s move from Neoclassicism. The building was constructed using reinforced concrete. Square marble plates cover the faà §ade attached to the man brick structure with mortar and ornamented with iron bolts with aluminum caps. The picture below shows the exterior of the main faà §ade of the Postal Savings Bank. The ideas of Jugendstil were represented in Wagner’s work in the 1980’s. Other architects seemed to set him apart because of his perspective on industrialization that meant the use of machine aesthetic, glorification of technological advancements and the incorporation of new materials such as iron in his architectural work. This incorporation of an open metallic crown with floral decoration that topped the main building in his 1897 project for an Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna was noticeably a modern element.

Benefits and pitfalls of globalization for business Essay

Benefits and pitfalls of globalization for business - Essay Example Anthony Mcgrew defined globalization as a â€Å"process of deterritorialization – as social, political and economic activities are increasingly stretched across the globe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (n.d., â€Å"Ch.1: Globalization and global politics†). This comprehensive view gives a glimpse of the trend towards borderless economic societies of the future from the current nation-states based on political considerations. Given the vast differences among the different countries and their peoples in respect of socio-political and economic conditions, this trend gives rise to both promises and pitfalls for the global businesses. Globalization benefits can be expected from cross-fertilization of ideas, access to best available talent/resources, creativity and technological growth arising out of global competition, creation of networks of alliances, etc. while pitfalls include uncertainty of political conditions and economic policies, impact on local industry and employment, fear of dominance etc. (Ali, 2006, pp.78-81, 141-143). Cross-fertilization of ideas occurs when firms come across different ways of solving a problem or completing tasks, which are more cost effective or in identifying newer opportunities and demands. For example, housing shortage in poor countries can give rise to generation of fresh demand and exploitation of newer/locally available materials and methods of construction. Coming to talent, it is noted that many global firms employ foreign nationals at all levels of organizations recognizing merit. Again, global firms like Procter & Gamble compete at global level through heavy investment i n R&D and this in turn creates new technologies and products. Networking is another beneficial aspect of globalization by which global firms and local suppliers join hands to create value for customers. Global firms face uncertainty when political changes occur which may impact international agreements apart from operations. Stability of government policies on investments, employment, profit repatriation etc. is essential for a business to thrive. Competitive politics give rise to issues like job losses, exploitation, dominance, interference etc. Further, events in one country or a region will quickly impact business prospects of global firms in many other countries. For example, the recent downturn in the US economy is impacting firms across Europe and Asia. Given the above analysis, governments, businesses and organizations like WTO are working towards co-operation among nations by promoting democratic governments that respect international laws and strive for the economic prosper ity of their citizens. This means that global businesses take on the responsibility of actively promoting local industry, skills and employment to create a win-win situation. Q.2: Address to shareholders Dear Shareholders, In the competitive world of business, we have to constantly strategize our operations and our decision to invest in Franistan eight years ago was based on sound economic and business principles. That the decision was right is seen in the nearly 19% reduction in cost of manufacture of our products and the more than corresponding increase in the net profits over the last five years. As per our corporate policy, your

The Development of the New Media Economics under influence of global Research Proposal

The Development of the New Media Economics under influence of global economics crises - Research Proposal Example The economic indicators of media industry are crucial to study and understand. Answering this question will allow to establish relationship of performance of the industry according to the external environmental factor. Global economic crisis have impacted the economic activities of the developed, developing and underdeveloped economies. According to IMF definition of global recession, the growth rate of economy less than three percent results in global recession (Lall, 2008). Nevertheless the theoretical motivation comes from the book of Albarran (1996) that allowed basic understanding of media economics, where economic activities of different media markets have been covered. This initiated interest of researcher on different aspects of media economics. The global crisis brought different economic situation of a business cycle particularly to new media economics. New Media Economics is that field of economic studies that covers different aspects of production, distribution and consumption of media services by different consumer groups. This is an interdisciplinary study that borrows thoughts from different areas of studies like entertainment studies, management, economics, psychology and others. This study also covers the impact of technology on the different operations of media industries. There have been various studies done in order to understand different aspects of new media economics (Lall, 2008). â€Å"The world economy is likely to shrink for the first time in decades this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Dominique Strauss-Kahns prediction is gloomier than that the IMFs current official forecast of 0.5% growth. He added that trade was falling at an alarming rate and business and consumer confidence had collapsed. (BBC, March 2009)† In this scenario, there are too much of talk in our own surroundings and environment that attracts people to know more about the same. Media

Tesla roadster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Tesla roadster - Essay Example These resources are brought together under leadership. This activity all operates under the constraints of time. There are agreed upon rules for the orderly functioning of society. These rules are enforceable. An example is the inventory that is gasoline. There must be rules for safety. Different jurisdictions will have somewhat different guidelines. The end result will be the same. A thing is never responsible for an action or in action. This reality of action is at the heart of the benefits and responsibilities of ownership. This law aspect sets the parameters for all that will follow in the decision making process. This gives the choice of having a proprietorship or partnership. Or we may choose to have a corporation. The corporation may be public or it may be private. This legal arrangement sets the tone for the inflow of finance and economics. Finance is the glue that makes business possible. This area deals with the management of funds. Inventory results in the use of funds to acquire it. In finance there is the added requirement of insurance. This is a protection of funds in the event of loss. This area deals with the management of scarce resources. There are limited human resources. There is limited funds and space. The products for sale are limited. Of course there is a time limit. The business has to operate with a view to accounting periods. The inventory itself is a scarce resource. There are many approaches. One of them is to consider the flow of money as made up of four parts. There is the flow to land as rent, then the flow to labor as wages, next is the flow to capital as interest and finally the flow to entrepreneurship as profits. Another approach is to consider the business activities with five segments. There is finance, marketing, production, labor and research and development. This is a popular and in many cases very helpful when considering business activity.

Students Caught Cheating or Plagiarizing Should Be Dismissed From Essay - 7

Students Caught Cheating or Plagiarizing Should Be Dismissed From College - Essay Example The present research has identified that plagiarism is an academic offense, which occurs when students copy information from materials written by other people and fail to acknowledge by citing and referencing sources of the information. This may be for example lifting texts from the internet and handing it over for marking, or purchasing papers from writers, with the intent of earning higher marks or beating deadlines for handing in their assignments (Harris 2007). Lecturers, who do not take an effort to verify the integrity of the assignments, end up awarding the high marks and believing that their students are bright while in the real sense, the opposite is true. The real essence of writing exams is to establish the capacity of the students and to take stock of the progress made in the course of learning. As such, results based on plagiarized assignments can never offer the right quality of graduates and this may have a negative effect on the kind of workforce a country depends on economic growth. It is therefore imperative to punish students caught cheating or plagiarizing in order to deter others who may be tempted to do the same. Dismissing such students from college is a viable punishment, which should be adopted by all institutions. On the other hand, there are people who feel that dismissing students from college for cheating and plagiarism is an inhumane punishment, especially for first-time offenders. They argue that there are better ways of dealing with such cases, for example failing a student in the affected subject. It is important to understand that not all plagiarism cases are intentional. According to them, students may lack the skills to cite and reference borrowed ideas while conducting research and writing assignments. Such students should not be made to suffer the consequences but should instead be given another chance to do the papers again or revise the mistakes on the marked assignments for a limited number of times after which the decis ion to fail them is reached.  

Coursework 3 Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Coursework 3 Individual Report - Essay Example Pension crisis is a foreseen problem or difficulty in settling federal, corporate, and state pensions in the European nations and US. This might come about due a difference in the available resources to settle the pension and the pension obligations that arise. Studies show that the major factors contributing to this situation include lower birth rates, and most retirees living longer (The Economist, 2008). Reasons for this situation sometimes may vary depending on the nation. A good example is the current pension crisis in Pennsylvania. The country is facing this crisis due to its two-pension systems Public School Employees and State Government Workers both have over 40 billion dollars in debt (Priya, 2013). This crisis started surfacing back in 2001. A ten billion dollar hole was created in the pension systems when â€Å"Facing a flush stock market and a fully funded system, legislators raised benefits for state and school workers by 25 percent, hiked their own benefits by 50 percent, and created a cost-of-living increase for retired workers a year later† (Priya, 2013, para. 5). Therefore, from the above situations it is clear that the pension crisis situation is a predictable future situation. It is affected by the current financial actions carried out by the pension system and changes in demographics. There are a few key differences in taking up Money Purchase pension scheme or final Salary Pension scheme. These differences revolve around; who bears the risk, the calculation of pension to receive and performance of markets. In a Final Salary scheme, the benefits are promised, meaning individuals can compute the pension they are going to receive in advance basing on the salary at retirement and number of years as a member (WorkSmart, 2012). Money Purchase, on the other hand does not provide a means to calculate the final amount of pension an individual will receive. The size of benefits they

The Costs of Ecotourism in the Global Community Term Paper

The Costs of Ecotourism in the Global Community - Term Paper Example However, the costs of ecotourism have become a controversial issue among different sectors and institutions in global society. Even though ecotourism is seen to promote ecological awareness for travelers and serve as a significant revenue generator for rural societies, a lot of people question its real function in the community. Some groups like Tourism Concern in the UK argued that ecotourism harms the environment, together with the people in it. (Ecobits and Ecopieces 2002) Currently, the word ecotourism is used loosely in conversations. "Ecotourism" is often used to denote activities involving nature. "Ecotourism" can designate a wide array of activity like mountain climbing, water rafting, and other ecological explorations. However, it can be surprising to find out that various ecotourism institutions give definitions which are a way to far from the colloquial perception. Ecotourism means "ecological tourism," which possesses both "ecological" and "social" connotations. Ecotourism can denote both "concept/tourism movement" and as a "tourism sector (Ecotourism 2005)." The existence of ecotourism dates back in the late 1980s and United Nations declared the year 2002 as the International Year of Tourism. During that year, the UN has recognized the impact of ecotourism in the global community and aimed to promote "sustainable tourism (International Year of Ecotourism 2002)."The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of local people (What is Ecotourism 2004)." This also implies that people who implement and take part in this "responsible travel" should adhere to principles so as promote the objectives of ecotourism. With this consideration, companies and participants alike are required to "minimize" their impact on the ecological society visited. Ecotourism activities should also be designed to establish environmental and cultural awareness and respect, as well as provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts. Since ecotourism is geared to develop the "destination," it should be able to benefit the society financially for the conservation of the environment.  

Agenda Setting Essay Example for Free

Agenda Setting Essay Agenda Setting Patricia Wigington Grand Canyon University COM 126 Introduction The mass media today, no longer reports public opinion, it drives it. This paper discusses how mass media sets the agenda, and what impact this had on the issues that emerged during the 2008 presidential election. According to Donald Shaw and Maxwell Combs, agenda is a theory to describe now the news media can have a considerable impact on shaping the publics opinion of a social reality, on influencing what people believe are important issues. (ShawMcCombs, 1977) Agenda Setting Media consolidation is one thing that contributes to agenda-setting. As the number of newspapers dwindles and radio and TV stations are sold to one or two conglomerates, the news is in effect being censored because it reflect only the viewpoint of a single organization. If conflicting views are never even mentioned, the public is never aware that there is an entirely different side to the issue than the one being presented. It requires persistence to find out the facts of an issue, and people may not make the effort. Then too, the media itself has changed dramatically in recent years. Many people now get their news from digital media including the Internet, but the flood of electronic information may not make them more knowledgeable, just more informed about issues they may not consider important. Marshall McLuhan once famously argued that the medium is the message; David Considine twists it slightly, to the idea that the â€Å"medium is the massage,† and that we are all being worked over by the media, in particular younger people (Considine, 2009, p. 65). Today’s technology, people using several electronic devices simultaneously, practice widely known as multitasking (Considine, 2009). Time Magazine wondered, however, if people are â€Å"too wired for their own good,† and whether modern media were contributing to â€Å"students’ reduced attention spans, making it harder for educators to reach and teach them† (Considine, 2009, p. 65). There is a legitimate question as to whether this environment of electronic noise and constant communication makes them â€Å"active and informed citizens† or merely â€Å"spectators moving from one distraction to another† (Considine, 2009, p. 65). The answer seems clear when Considine reveals that despite the fact that in 2006, the number of young people ages 18-29 in the U. S. was 50 million, only seven million voted in the mid-term election (Considine, 2009). In other words, they have access to information but don’t transform that information into knowledge or political action. Younger people are a volatile population when it comes to voting. They become wildly enthusiastic for a particular candidate such as Ron Paul or Howard Dean, but fail to show up at the polls (Considine, 2009). Barack Obama was able to energize this group on his own behalf and that of other Democratic candidates: â€Å"Exit polling from the January 2008 Iowa caucus for the Democratic candidates showed a record turnout among eighteen-to twenty-nine year olds, who heavily supported the theme of change promoted by Senator Barack Obama† (Considine, 2009, p. 66). Now of course they seem to have disengaged again and organizations such as Democracy for America and Moveon. org are actively working to re-energize them and get them to the polls in November. Part of Barack Obama’s success in the 2008 election was due to his savvy use of electronic media (Considine, 2009). He was able to â€Å"use new technology to reach and energize voters; his campaign built a substantial database and achieved record-breaking fundraising† (Considine, 2009, p. 66). It also seems logical that part of his appeal is that he does know how to use Twitter and FaceBook, and that he tweets personal messages; his electronic presence immediately makes his opponent look old and out of touch. He further endeared himself to young voters and â€Å"reaffirmed his commitment to communication technology when he insisted on keeping his personal Blackberry† (Considine, 2009,p. 66) The tendency of the media to set agendas was clearly shown in the summer of 2009, when electronic forums such as YouTube and Twitter, along with traditional outlets such as newspaper columns, took up the health-care debate and buzzed about such ludicrous and inaccurate items as â€Å"’death panels,’ socialism, Hitler and fascism† (Jones McBeth, 2010, p. 29). These scare tactics, which are all completely false, were used to try and discredit both the reform effort and the President, and are a clear example of the way the media sets an agenda. Picking up on the hysteria of the far right, the media repeated the lies without doing any fact checking, leading commentators to wonder â€Å"how these ideas rationally relate to the debate over reform† (Jones McBeth, 2010, p. 329). The fact that these crazy notions were not only given credence but reported widely, and continue to appear in the media, show how powerful such things can be â€Å"in shaping public opinion and ultimately in shaping governmental action† (Jones McBeth, 2010, p. 329). The misleading claims about â€Å"death panels,† the idea of Obama being Hitler and leading the country into a Socialist government are all â€Å"elements of larger policy tall-tales that were intentionally used by opponents of health-care reform attempting to derail President Obama’s reform. Obama’s supporters countered these lies with stories of their own: personal accounts from Americans who, for various reasons, were priced out of the heath care system or even denied care (Jones McBeth, 2010). The use of narratives is a powerful tool in setting the political agenda in the United States. One study found that although TV and internet users had a common agenda (the use of electronic media), their â€Å"ranked agendas† differed greatly from the ranked agendas of the media themselves (Brubaker, 2008). That is, the TV watchers and internet users were not interested in the programming or information that was being presented to them: â€Å"The overall general media audience ranked 10 or the 11 public affairs issues significantly different than presented by the media† (Brubaker, 2008). TV watchers and internet users were interested in â€Å"important public affairs issues,† but the agenda they were following â€Å"significantly differed from the agenda that medium was showing them’ (Brubaker, 2008). This implies that the media â€Å"are not powerful in setting the agenda of important public affairs or political issues. People have particular issues they feel are important, regardless of what the media present† (Brubaker, 2008). This seems to be at odds with the idea that the media sets the agenda. and people simply put up with it. With regard to the 2008 Presidential election, the agenda presented by the media was that of the war in Iraq, but it was quickly displaced by concern about the economy; an agenda driven by consumers’ interests, not those of the media (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). But this source claims that the media set another agenda, a highly visible but totally unnecessary one, that of race. Barack Obama is black, and that became a major issue in the election: â€Å"The measurement of Obama’s potential success didn’t lie in whether or not voters were willing to vote for a black candidate, but whether or not voters, more specifically white voters, could view Obama, or blacks in general, as leaders (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). Had the media been more concerned about Obama’s positions and qualifications and less about the color of his skin, the entire election would have been conducted on a much higher level. This source also notes that the racial issues was studied in swing states like Ohio, where it was deemed to be extremely important (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). In one study, Ohio was measured for â€Å"favorability between candidates in the areas of republicans, democrats, independents, men, women, whites and blacks;† it was found that a vast majority of black voters, as many as 90%, favored Obama, no matter what their previous voting record or party affiliation was (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). The question raised by this result is whether our society â€Å"is the way it is because of the media, or is the media a direct reflection of the way society is †¦ In the case of Obama for President, the media clearly allowed race to chase to the top of the list of exaggerated issues that never should have been a part of the presidential election in the first place† (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). In response to the popularity of Obama, the Republicans tried to set the media agenda to focus on issues such as Iraq and health care, arguing that race should not be consuming the attention focused on it (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010). But Republicans also tried to set an agenda favorable to them by introducing Sarah Palin as their vice presidential candidate to appeal to women voters; setting the agenda worked in Ohio, where pollsters noted a shift among women of all races who were not previously affiliated with a particular party (Agenda setting and the Obama election, 2010).

Weimar Constitution Essay Example for Free

Weimar Constitution Essay To what extent was the effective government of Germany in the years 1919–33 handicapped by the nature of the Weimar Constitution? It is for certain that the Weimar Constitution had an impact in the effective government of Germany in the years of 1919-33. However, it can be argued from both sides whether this constitution had a negative or positive impact on the effective government. One could say that the constitution was a dominant factor in the ineffectiveness of the government, while on the other hand it could be argued that ineptness of the government is due to other external factors such as defeat and the depression A major flaw in the Weimar constitution was the proportional representation electoral system, which was an attempt to become more democratic. Democracy comes at the price of a strong government as it is usually difficult to form a stable government in a democracy. This can be manifested by the fact that in the mere period of 14 years, there were 21 different governments and 13 chancellors. This shows that the Weimar government lacked stability and strength which would make it almost impossible for the government to be effective and tackle the problems. How could the government solve the difficult troubles that Germany was facing, when they could not even manage to cooperate and unite? Since, proportional representation is one of the fairest electoral systems, it was impossible to form a strong single party government who had a good hold in the Reichstag and only weak coalitions which could not agree upon a decision was formed. Weak coalitions meant ineffective and incompetent governments. On the other hand, it could be said that the Weimar governments were not as unstable as it is claimed to be. The Weimar constitution has produced effective and stable governments such as the grand coalition which was seen as a strong government and it stood for the longest amount of time. Also, despite the numerous changes in government, the base parties of the coalition has remained the same as the Z, DVP and DVP provide the foundation of the coalition most of the time. This exhibits stability among the governments as the coalitions do not go thr ough drastic changes in the parties. Therefore, it could be claimed that the Weimar constitution did not handicap the government from being effective. Fair representation of the votes meant that extremist parties thrived under the PR electoral system. Votes translated into fair representation of seats in the Reichstag which enabled the extremist parties such as the Nazi’s to have the majority of the  seats from the July 1932 elections. This made it almost impossible for the government to be effective as they could not pass legislation through the Reichstag as they did not have the co-operation from the largest party. However, it could be argued that the rise of extremism was due to the Wall Street crash in 1929. There is a key correlation between the economic crisis and the successes of extremist parties. Indeed the Nazis only achieved 3% of the vote in 1928 yet in 1933 they received the majority of seats in the Reichstag from any lone party, over 200. If the depression had not occurred, then extremist parties would not have thrived electorally which in turn, would mean that the government would not have been handicapped in the Reichstag. Hence it could be argued that the ineffectiveness of the government towards the late 1920s was due to an external factor as up until the depression, extremist parties were not a problem to the government. The Weimar constitution did not handicap the governments in the sense that it granted Article 48 which the president could use to pass through any decrees in an ‘emergency’. The governments used this to their favour and passed through many legislation and decrees. Since the chancellor had the support of the President as he was appointed by the President, the governments used Article 48 to be effective. This can be seen when Bruning used it to pass his finance bill in 1930, without him using the Article 48, he would not have been able to pass his finance bill or be effective. Henceforth it could be argued that the Weimar Constitution actually gave the governments a chance to be effective in a difficult situation. On the other hand this constant use of the emergency presidential powers in 1930-33 led to the rise of Hitler as the chancellor which spelled doom for the Weimar government. This extensive use of the emergency presidential powers also displays the ineptness of the government as they could not do anything on their own and had to keep relying on Hindenburg. To avoid this constant use of the Article 48 and produce a truly strong government, Hitler was appointed as his party had a majority in the Reichstag and so the government would be able to pass legislation through their own strength. So, the Weimar constitution could even be credited with the fall of Weimar Republic along with the government as it was unable to produce a string of consistent strong and stable governments. In conclusion, I think that the Weimar constitution played a significant role in the handicapping of the governments as under the PR  electoral system, it was impossible to produce a stable single party governmen t. The electoral system only produced coalitions with uncooperative parties which made dysfunctional governments. This meant they had to rely upon Article 48 too much which led to the rise of Hitler and end of the Weimar era. On the other hand, it could be claimed that the coalitions were not as unstable as they were claimed to be with the base parties almost always being the same. Also, I believe that the depression was the most imperative factor in the ineffectiveness of the government as their support was sapped by the extremist parties which led to the rise of Hitler and also it created an impossible situation to get out of for the governments. Without the depression, it is most likely that Hitler would not have risen to power.

Emerging Trends In Recruitment Commerce Essay

Emerging Trends In Recruitment Commerce Essay Internet evolution is affecting our working and personal life in various aspects and no one can say the contrary. One of the areas that the internet has recently and strongly been involved in is Recruitment Selection, as a medium between job seekers and companies since global competition persists and industries becoming more skill intensive, the recruitment of talent workers becomes essential (Yoon, 2009 adapted from Tong and Sivanand, 2005), and attracting the right applicants at the right time is getting tougher than ever. The use of conventional recruitment methods no longer suffices and timely to attract sufficient pool of qualified applicants. Many organizations have turned to adopting sophisticated recruitment strategies or combining various recruitment methods to attract them such as the E-Recruitment. Since recruitment has become the most challenging human resources (HR) function across all industries today, the need of the hour is to shift from traditional reactive recruiting toward more proactive recruiting, by clearly understanding the various factors of the recruitment market (Parmesh, date). In early-1990s, with the advancement of internet technology, many have witnessed the transformation of the conventional recruitment methods to online recruitment. Some corporate companies even use their web sites to recruit people while others capitalized this change to become e-recruitment service providers. This latter third-party e-recruitment business thrived to become the second most popular online business besides booking airline tickets, in United States and Europe. This business trends was later caught up in South-east Asia and Asia Pacific (Yoon adapted from Labanyi, 2002; Galanaki, 2002; Fisher, 2001; Gomolski, 2000; Joyce, 2002; Dixon, 2000). (Adapted from Weiss and Barbeite (2001) focused on reactions to Internet-based job sites. They discovered that the Internet was evidently favoured as a source of finding jobs. An examination of the literature on the various aspect of e-recruitment will allow us some insight and better understanding. When doing literature research many studies focused mainly on the applicant side or only on corporate side; in this study we will investigate both aspect in order to have a broad understanding of e-recruitment development. Emerging trends in Recruitment Recruitment is now about customer relationship management. Applicants needs has changed and preferred an individual relationship with the employer. We talk about war for talent, and now the most advanced guerrilla fighters using the latest weapons. It is a zero sum game between your company and everyone else competing for similar talent. Up to 25% of existing e-Recruitment traders will be purchased or go out of business in the next 3 years (Gartner Q4 Report 2004 accessed on http://www.specht.com.au) Many companies are moving away of conventional recruitment methods. The new methods followed by companies are outsourcing, poaching/raiding and e-recruitment. Outsourcing Outsourcing is a process of transferring a business function to an external service provider. In recruitment out sourcing, a company completely transfers the selection process or part of it to a third party. The outsourcing enterprises assist the organisation by the preliminary screening of the applicants according to the requests of the organization and creating an appropriate pool of talent for the ultimate selection by the organization. Outsourcing firms extend their human resource group by employing people for them. These human resource pools will be made accessible to various companies as per their requirements. Poaching/Raiding Raiding or poaching is a method of recruitment in which competing firms attract employees from rival firms. In simple terms poaching may be described as buying talent rather than developing. Hefty pay packages, other terms and conditions may attract employees to join new Organizations. Poaching is a big challenge for human resource managers. Poaching weakens the Organizations competitive strength because of employees migration. E-Recruitment E-Recruitment is the latest trend in recruitment. It is also known as online recruitment. Internet is the back bone for E-Recruitment. Companies advertise job vacancies on different websites. Exclusive job websites like naukr.com, monster.com, etc help both job seekers and companies to contact each other. A 247 access to the database of the resumes to the employers is provided by these job sites which facilitate organizations to hire people more rapidly. Every Company website usually provides career hyper link. This link helps job seekers to upload resume in the website. Using the uploaded resumes Companies can build their own resume database, which can be used for existing and future requirements. Online recruitment helps the organizations to automate the process of recruitment, which allow saving on time and costs. Traditional way v/s E-way In recent years, the traditional approach to recruitment has been revolutionized by the concept of online recruitment. Although Internet recruiting will not replace traditional recruiting in the near future, it is quickly becoming an essential aid for todays recruiters. Online recruitment varies from conventional recruitment in many ways this has been stressed by some authors. In this area, some researchers have compared between internet recruitment tools and traditional recruitment tools. A survey which was carried out by Galanaki (2002) , found out that internet agencies provide the company with fewer but substantially better applicants than traditional recruitment agencies. On the same side, a research conducted by Verhoeven and Williams (2008) reports on a study into internet recruitment and selection in the United Kingdom and the survey showed dwindling recruitment spends focused on web-based recruitment at the expense of traditional methods. The author also reported that online methods proved far more popular, as majority firms use their own companys website was used as a recruitment tool for most jobs. Kapse et al (2012), a study conducted by Connerley, Carlson, Mecham (2003) on the evidence of differences in applicant pool quality addressed the research need by examining the attraction outcome of firms competing head-to-head for recruits for similar positions. Results of an analysis suggest that applicant quality can vary substantially within and across job families Chapman and Webster (2003) in their survey research on the use of technologies in recruiting, screening, and selection processes for job candidates conducted in USA found that most organizations implemented technology based recruitment and selection tools to improve efficiency, enable new assessment tools, reduce costs, standardize systems and expand the applicant pool. From the applicant opinion, (Maysara (2010) adapted from Rooy and Fairchild (2003) and Rozelle and Landis (2002)) contrasted between job searching by internet tools and traditional tools in terms of the number of jobs that were found and candidate perception of success in the job searching process. The jobs that were found by traditional recruitment tools were less in the number than the ones found by internet tools only. The results of this study encouraged the authors to argue that jobseekers that use this technological advance in their job search are in a good competitive position compared to their peers who do not use it. Diverging from the four previous studies results, Maysara (2010) adapted from Zusman and Landis (2002) found that job applicants reported high preference for the jobs posted in the traditional recruitment sources e.g. paper than the ones posted on the website. The result was not expected for the authors. In addition, and consistent with applicant attraction studies, they found that applicants prefer the high quality recruitment websites than the low quality websites. While comparing the traditional recruitment and the internet recruitment people sometimes finds that they are both almost alike in what they have to offer, however, as we can notice in Table 1, the process is different between the two. E-Recruitment Defining E-Recruitment E-recruitment is a means of using information technology (IT) to perform, speed up or improves this process. EHRM system and its subsystems, such as e-recruitment, produce a higher level of service delivery and a better strategic contribution. E-recruitment emerges as a handy and advantageous method over traditional methods of recruitment (Poorangi et al adapted from Tong and Sivanand, 2005), as it brings all benefits of an e-business into the human resource field and improves the efficiencies of the recruitment process. There are diverse meanings of electronic recruitment coined by well-known researchers. Commonly E-Recruitment is defined as: According to Wolfswinkel e-Recruiting is the online attraction and identification of potential employees using corporate or commercial recruiting websites, electronic advertisements on other websites, or an arbitrar combination of these channels including optional methods such as remote interviews and assessments, smart online search agents or interactive communication tools between recruiter and applicant. E-Recruitment also known as online recruitment, Internet recruiting or cyber-recruiting refers to the practice of advertising job vacancies online, also is the process of integration of the recruitment and internet technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness in hiring the new employers from all over the world (Galanki, 2002) E-recruitment Hiring Process The Hiring Process means carrying out a full series of functions in addition to simple recruitment. It means making a choice and deciding if the company feels that any of the candidates meet the requirements of the specific job and, if so, hiring that person. The next step is closing the deal and having the new employee join the company and fit in within the existing company culture. This means that once the companys hiring policies have been clearly defined, there is a process, which we call the Hiring Process that may be broken down into the theses stages as you can see in the following figure. Figure 1.3 illustrates the staffing processes involved in recruitment of staff and e-recruitment can be brought about in any or all of these main processes. Figure 1.2 E-Recruitment Hiring Process Source: Damhija 2012 Global E-recruitment market E-recruitment has been an issue of interest over the past ten years. Internet is considered as the latest tool in hiring. It is a real revolution spreading over the world of job hunting hiring. The term online recruitment, e-recruitment, cyber recruiting, or internet recruiting, imply the formal sourcing of job information online. The first references to e-recruitment appear in articles of the mid-1980s E-recruitment can be divided into two types of uses: corporate web site for recruitment and commercial jobs boards (such as monster.com) for posting job advertisements .Corporate websites are a companys own website with a link for job posting/career options where candidates can log into for current openings. If the company advertises its vacant positions on other website that specialize in recruitment such as naukri.com, timesjob.com, monster.com, etc., the companies would be adopting commercial job boards for recruitment. Development of E-Recruitment E-recruitment will expand but not replace the face to face selection stage smaller companies will be able to afford these technologies interactive, voice-based systems online portfolios including samples of your work testing tool. Methods of E-Recruitment Lievens Harris (2003) define E-recruitment as any method of persuading candidates to apply for a position that relies greatly on the Internet. We can say that Internet recruitment is not a method itself and therefore can be misunderstood sometimes since there are several of different approaches to Internet recruitment. Dhamija (2012) says that, in order to find active or passive candidates, e-recruitment has come up with valuable method for finding these potential candidates and moreover that there is high demand for e-recruitment tools and skilled workers as specified by The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in a report entitled Workplace Trends during 2007-2008. For the purpose of this study, the focus will be given on two common methods of online recruitment which are being used nowadays. Corporate Website As said by Pin et al (2001), although jobseekers or those who are looking to switch jobs may think that the most logical path is to simply log their resume on a job site, knowing it will be distributed to a large number of companies in various industries, this is not the only option. Tyagi. A (2012) describe the use of a corporate website of the organization for posting a job as a link for career options where the potential candidates can log in for the existing opportunities therefore on companys own website, HR department has a choice of posting the vacancies freely and indicate the career path expected after joining the organisation. But she also pointed out that the corporate website attracts only the interested candidates towards it and for attracting other candidates, other channels should be used. According to Lievens Harris (2003) (adapted from Maher Silverman, 2002), company web sites correspond to one of the primary Internet-based method to employing. Several of these web sites as well offer useful information about the organization, in addition of a system for applying for these jobs. In 2001 a research by iLogos demonstrates that of the Worldwide 500 companies, 88% had a company Internet recruitment site, revealing an important surge from 1998, when only 29% of these companies had such a web site. Approximately all North American Global 500 companies (93%) have a business Internet recruitment site. Most applicants would consider a medium to large size company without a recruitment web site to be somewhat odd; certainly, one report indicated that of 62,000 hires at nine large companies, 16% were initiated at the company Internet recruitment site. Commercial job portals or Job boards Many companies have experienced excellent results through Internet recruiting on their own Web site. However, other firms also utilize employment Web sites by simply typing in key job criteria, skills, and experience and indicating their geographic location. They next click Search for Candidates and in seconds have a ranked list of rà ©sumà ©s from candidates that match the firms requirements. Fees vary from one employment Web site to another, and the number of sites has expanded dramatically in recent years. (http://www.prenhall.com/managementzone/mondyhrm8/mondyhrm8.pdf accessed on 27 August 2012, Chapter 6 Internet recruiting). According to Pin et al (2001) online job boards are recruitment networks that provide a meeting point for jobseekers and enterprises; hence a job platform acts as a middlemen, enabling job offers to be filled by most suitable candidates by segmenting information and providing real-time updated job offers to candidates. These e-recruitment platforms are normally free for jobseekers and chargeable to companies seeking to recruit, sometimes an annual fee and sometimes a charge per listing. These boards are good for attracting active and passive job seekers, particularly for less recognised companies but they can also be used as a supplement to the corporate site. Commercial job boards most common form of online recruiting. Job boards work like classified ads in the newspaper. These are global and allow a larger reach into the candidate pool. The job boards greatest strength is the total numbers of candidates registering resumes; the estimation is that they contain five million unique resumes (Gutmacher, 2000). Additionally, they allow recruiters to administer 24 hours a day, check candidates from around the world, and are commonly quite low-cost (Boehle, 2000). A key advantage of the job board approach for a company is that lots of individuals send resumes and that most job boards provide a search system so that recruiters can hunt for applicants with the appropriate skills and experience. A second benefit is that an organization can give extensive information, as well as a link to the companys web site for supplementary information on both i.e. the career path as well as the organizations. The committed recruitment websites can take a struct ure of job listing websites, which can be look like printed classified advertisements, work wanted sites, which accentuate the prospective employees side and finally online recruiters who make use of other websites as a resource for finding clients and customers (Rudich, 2000; Taylor,2001). Lievens Harris (2003) Social Networking Figure 19 below shows the ages of social networkers for Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and LinkedIn. It is interesting to note that from about ages of 24 to over 60, LinkedIn has the highest percentage of users. However its peak is between the ages of 25 and 34, after which it drops off (WebMediaBrands Inc. 2010). Figure : Percentage of social Networking users across all ages (Web Media Brands Inc 2010) Although social networking sites have seen tremendous growth in the past few years, according to Michigan State Universitys Recruiting Trends 2010-2011, the use of social media for recruiting is still limited to only 28% of the 4,600 employers surveyed, predominantly among larger employers. Benefits and Costs of E-recruitment In most relevant literature there are some commonly identified benefits and downsides for the companies using online recruitment. The commonly cited advantages and drawbacks of online recruitment in the literature are as follows: Benefits of E-recruitment Reduced Costs According to Marr (2007) with the print advertising, the size of the advert and the publication itself impacts on the fee of the posting the advertisement whereas with internet advertising even with a small cost associated to it is relatively cheap compared to the potentially unlimited audience of this medium whereas Galanaki (2002) argue that the cost saving depends on the e-mailing approach adopted; Faster Processes As said by Galanaki (2002) adapted from Workforce 2000a, online recruitment shortened the recruiting cycle maximising HR time for strategic issues. Barber (2006) also emphasis on the fact that e-recruitment speed up the recruitment process, with instant posting of job online, processing the applications within minutes rather than weeks and response can be quick and direct. Wider range of applicants Barber (2006) stressed on the fact that this mean can be access 24 hours a day, 7 days per week; reaching a global applicant group in contrast to ad on national newspaper. Reputation and Brand With increased competitiveness in the market and the fear of remaining behind makes many human resource managers to hire through the net. Particularly associated with corporate website, internet recruitment is considered to attribute an image of innovation and flexibility and it also operate as a promoting tool. (Barber 2006; Galanaki 2002) Attract passive job seekers Internet recruitment can be used as an instrument to attract the most highly prized catch who are not necessarily looking for a job. Addressing specific labour market niches Internet is also perceived to be a technique to deal with particular labour market niches during the posting vacancies on websites for particular interest clusters, on electronic forums or discussions groups and this can boost the targeting potential of the medium ( Galanaki, 2002). But Marr (2007) argue that the drawback of this approach is that there is a possible issue for firms with regards to unfairness and equal opportunity employment. Costs of E-Recruitment Online recruitment offers tangible business benefits therefore as with all recruitment sources, there are not only exclusive benefits associated to the means but there are also a certain number of existing challenges faced by organisations, particularly in such a mechanised process,. An outline of the common disadvantages associated to e-recruitment will now be presented according to (Marr, 2007; Barber, 2006). High quantity of application When a high amount of applications is received, firms can be confronted to a number of real challenges. The negative outcomes of it can be the rising costs in administering recruitment and selection systems. An increase in the number of applications means that more time should be spent in screening the Cvs since filtering out unsuitable candidate is very resource intensive. Logistical problems With online recruitment the best-qualified candidates can live halfway around the world and in such a case, conducting screening interviews by telephone or email have to be considered which limits the expense of a personal meeting. If the process progress forward, it causes the problem of whether it has great significance of bringing the person in for an interview. The valuable time and possibly money will be wasted if it turns out the candidate wasnt serious about relocating. Technology issues When recruitment process requires filling out an application, to miss out qualified candidates who would rather send a resume can be possible. Some candidates may not feel confident enough with the security of applying online. Theres always the likelihood that the application system may function slowly or lose information during the submission process. Poor website In several circumstances, candidates who notice job posting will be relying on the website to get further information about the company and method of operation. If website is badly designed or outdated, the candidate may not even bother to reply. Theres also the risk that the site have inappropriate information concerning the candidates field. Too impersonal It can be perceived as quite impersonal since much of the online recruiting process might implicate emails and probably telephone interviews. When lacking multiple in-person interviews, it can be complicated to determine if candidates will align with the company culture. Candidates may also have a hard time estimating whether the company is the right place for them. Perception of Jobseeker The Internet and the Web have revolutionized the way people communicate. This revolution has not only had a radical change on ways of doing business, but also created new business models that did not exist in the past. The range of Internet applications grew fast due to emerging technologies and competitive business pressures. Since 1995, the Internet has witnessed a rapid development of innovative applications. Among these applications are online recruitment, which was adopted by many users worldwide due to the high potentials it brings to both job seekers and employers Azab (2005). Job seekers use third-party recruitment websites or electronic recruitment services to gather job information and post their resumes using Internet technology (Bartram, 2000; Scheyer McCarter, 1998). Third-party recruitment websites offering Internet-based recruitment services (hereafter job-search websites) provide media for connecting employers and job seekers. According to a study from the write pass journal (2011) which was carried out to discover the advantages of using online recruitment, and techniques in which it could be enhanced, at a leading UK technology firm; it seek to assess factors which influence jobseekers choice when submitting their application to a specific business by means of their corporate website. Moreover it argues that there are various factors affecting this choice such as: the accessibility of an open job opportunity, the corporate website lay out, web presence of the firm through adverts, blogs or web postings, relevant information available about organization and position on the companys website, the corporate branding of the organization, Previous knowledge of company and its operation, the availability of information on online job boards, participation in events such as career fairs, word of mouth from friends and employees, the easiness for application, online tests, feedback and recruitment process. In the Table below we can see what are the benefits and problems related to online recruitment from the perspective of Job seekers. Table 1: Common benefits and drawbacks of Internet recruitment for jobseekers Advantages Disadvantages Mauritius Case Study Mauritius has one of the highest standards of living in Africa. Strong emphasis is being placed on information and communication technology (ICT) as an important engine of economic growth in Mauritius. The National Broadband Policy 2012 2020 sets out a strategic vision for a broadband Intelligent Mauritius, branded as Towards i-Mauritius. Over one-fifth of Mauritians have are making use of broadband; the adoption is likely to maintain its growth, across diverse demographic clusters and age clusters. Internet access and usage Figures from the Statistics Mauritius further point out that in both 2010 and 2008 the use of computer and internet was highest among the young age groups and lowest among the higher age groups. Thus, in 2010, 85.2% of persons aged 12 to 19 were using a computer and 58.3% the internet, and 61.6% of persons aged 20 to 29 were using a computer and 50.7% the internet. Among those aged 50 to 59 years, 23.6% and 17.6% were using a computer and the internet respectively. According to AHRP magazine 2010 HR pros said that traditional networking and social networking are the most effective ways for professionals to find jobs, as indicated by a survey recently conducted by challenger, gray Christmas. Methods of recruitment in Mauritius In recent years, recruiting services have developed intensively in Mauritius. More and more mediators for employers and candidates are being formed. And currently, all recruitment agencies in Mauritius have online services which allow both employers and candidates to register themselves there. The addresses to be make use of for recruitment services are DCDM Recruitment rebranded as Talentaris which has its own online job portal named G3RS.com, Adecco which has merged with Service Bureau and Maujob recently and Appavoo Professional Recruitment, for the online service supported by an adviser as explained above, or myjob.mu, jobsite.mu which operates only online. They have the benefit of being efficient and specialized. However in Mauritius, the most commonly used means of communicating information are the newspapers. Thus most employers exploit the press to advertise vacancies. And the response rate for checking the press to find job is quite high because the Mauritian population is very attached to the national press. Yet LExpress can also be accessed online at the website of the company. Furthermore there are some radio stations that frequently run announcement for employment. Private radio stations such as Radio One and Radio Plus often announce any job offer in the midst of any emission. Private radio stations have high ratings and with this method, the results are very successful and fast. Emerging techniques of upcoming job offer Publications of job either in audio or on posters can be done through advertising agencies. The multinational Accenture is often called to encourage applications. When designed by advertising agencies, they have the benefit of the position value and attract the attention of the reader. Their effectiveness is proven through the actual response rate achieved by employers. Ads may also be webcast on the most visited websites, for example, the homepage of Orange Mauritius, Facebook, etc. Rates vary depending on site and some may even be free, like Facebook. There is a mailing service very fashionable offered by RKcom, but highly not recommended as their service is considered as SPAM and their mail outs usually targeted inappropriate recipients and the mailing service is not free. Other successful techniques To find a qualified staff, it is possible to go through the administration of tertiary institutions or training centers. The most famous being University of Mauritius, Charles Telfair Institute, the Centre for Graduate Studies, or Mauritius IVTB Employees Federation. The Ministry of Labour, through the database of Labour Office which register the unemployed people it help the later to find a suitable position. Employers often communicate their vacant jobs through the database facility offered by Labour Office. At the request of the employer, Labour Office can send the list of candidates seeking employment, by level of education. And in addition, word of mouth is a fairly common in Mauritius. The island is not so big and everyone knows each other. Communications are easily and quickly concluded (Senek 2012). Study One Within the study one, emphasis will be given on two components of the organisational perspective that is, firms that use their corporate website to attract applicants and an online job board which operates in Mauritius. This will give an insight of what are the advantages and disadvantages of shifting to online recruitment. What are the changes alongside with this move in their practices and strategies? Study Two Study two will examine the e-recruitment from the perspective of jobseekers in Mauritius. To investigate the various aspects that drive those to use online recruitment and analysing the benefits and problems related to their use of internet in their job search. Additionally this study will seek to test the following hypothesis: There is a relationship between privacy problems and intention to use online recruitment Research Type For the study one since only a little information is available on e-recruitment practices in Mauritian firms, thus qualitative data on e-recruitment development is more useful and important than quantitative data. Qualitative research will help to be explorative and classify, categorize or define the phenomena of E-recruitment in Mauritius in an organisational perspective. Consequently the most suitable methods that will be used will be interviews. For the study Two given that we have sufficient information and knowledge which is available on the use of e-recruitment for job search from the perspective of jobseekers and that we will seek to prove hypothesis and support, questionnaires will be suitable for collecting quantitative data that can be used in confirmatory studies using statistical analysis. Data type Primary Data For the purpose of this research, data has been collected from first-hand-experience which is known as primary data and this will include interview and survey questionnaire. Those primary data has not been published yet and is more reliable, authentic and objective. Since my primary data has not been changed or altered by human beings, therefore its validity is greater than secondary data. Using primary data in research from participants representatives of key players in e-recruitment, can improves the validity of research. First hand information obtained from a sample that is representative of the target population will yield data that will be valid for the entire targe

Virtual Banking :: essays research papers

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01.00............ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 02.00............ TRENDS IN RETAIL BANKING 03.00............ ABOUT THE INTERNET 04.00............ VIRTUAL BANKING AND APPLICATIONS 04.01............ SMART CARDS 05.00............ EXAMPLES 06.00............ SECURITY ON THE INTERNET 06.01............ CRYPTOGRAPHY 06.02............ FIREWALLS 06.03............ TRUSTED OPERATING SYSTEMS 07.00............. REGULATIONS AND PROBLEMS 08.00............ CONCLUSION . 09.00†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. REFERENCES 01.00 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Internet is emerging as an efficient delivery channel for financial services. With Internet banking, customers do not need to have special bank-issued software. Banks maintain their identity and can differentiate themselves by customizing the services And information they provide over the Internet. 02.00 TRENDS IN RETAIL BANKING What does better customer mean? Increasingly, customers are demanding more convenient ways to do their banking. An Ernst and Young study (Technology in Banking Report) concluded that "nothing changes in the banking world if customers cannot get financial services when and where they wish...this means anywhere, at any time." Statistics show that ATM's, telephone banking, and home banking account for over fifty percent of all banking transactions today, and total non-branch activity is growing at fifteen percent a year. In one survey (Web-Tech, Inc., May 17, 1995), eighty-two percent of 18- to 34-year olds polled preferred banks with 24-hour service. Customers are also demanding a more sophisticated mix of products tailored specifically to their financial needs, and non-bank competitors are better fulfilling these needs. Banks today hold only 20% of household financial assets, versus 34% twenty years ago; they have 30% of business deposits, versus 42% only seven years ago. Nonbank credit card providers have gained inroads against banks, holding a 25% market share versus 5% in 1986 (WebTech, Inc., May 17, 1995). Internet banking offers an attractive solution to this redesigned products and services. Customers have 24-hour graphical-interface access to their accounts and appreciate that their bank is doing something to make banking easier for them. 03.00 ABOUT THE INTERNET The Internet has exploded in the last two years thanks to the invention of the so-called "browser." A browser is a point-and-click software program that allows "surfers" to navigate around the Internet without knowing any UNIX commands. The first browser was developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, a government agency. With a browser and access to the Internet, you can order a pizza, listen to and purchase a CD, stroll through the Louvre, or view satellite photographs of Scotland. Although it may get congested from time to time, the Internet itself is extremely reliable. There is not actually any one network that is the Internet; it is made up of thousands of networks that connect to each other through common routes, and they all agree to carry each other's traffic. There is a lot of money flowing up from local

International Marketing Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

International Marketing Proctor & Gamble originated in 1837, when William Proctor and James Gamble formed a partnership in Cincinnati, Ohio. The partnership flourished making the company a gaining name as principled manufacturer of high quality consumer goods sold at competitive prices. By 1992 Proctor & Gamble was a multinational company with annual sales of almost $30 billion profits exceeding $1.8 billion, and a reputation for quality products, high integrity, strong marketing, and conservative management. When P&G grew they became more and more interested in foreign markets. In 1992 they had sold their products in more than 140 countries around the world. In 1991 P&G after being satisfied with their success with Charmin Bounty and Puffs they decided they wanted to expand their business to foreign lands. They decided that Canada was the best and most logical choice to make that first step because of its location and free trade between Canada and the U.S. In 1991 P&G found that Canadian Pacific Product Company, a large paper company was prepared to see Facelle Paper Products, it’s tissue division. Facelle was a medium sized manufacturer and marketer of tissue, towel and sanitary products. So for 185 million P&G bought the Facelle Co. Proctor & Gamble had to consider many things when entering the market in Canada. Tissue products were inexpensive, widely used and were frequently purchased (on average once every two weeks.) Brand swi...

An Analysis of Robert Frosts Mending Wall :: Mending Wall Essays

An Analysis of Robert Frost's Mending Wall Mending Wall, by Robert Frost portrays the routines of two neighbors who are constantly mending the fence, or wall, that separates their properties. If a stone is missing form the fence, you can bet that the two men are out there putting it back together piece by piece. Frost's description of every detail in this poem is quite interesting, very pleasant to read, and extremely imaginable. He leaves the reader to decide for himself what deductions he is to make from the reading. On one hand, Frost makes literal implications about what the two men are doing. For instance, they are physically putting the stones back, one by one. Their dedication, commitment, and constant drive shines through when reading how persistence these men seem about keeping the wall intact. Quite the contrary however, is the inferences that something even deeper is going on. There is a sharing experience taking place here. Indeed, by laboring so hard, each man is experiencing physical repercussions, but they are also using this time as a "meet and greet" period. We can gather from the beginning of the poem that the wall has many forces that keep's it in shambles. For instance, Frost writes; "...that sends the frozen ground swell under it and spills the upper boulders in the sun...", and "I have come after them(hunters) and made repair where they have left not one stone on a stone..." The man and his neighbor don't seem to have time for anything else, for it sounds as if they are constantly making repairs. Is there a reason for this? It is important to note that not only are these men completing a manly task, but they are also "building" some type of relationship. If this were not an issue, the neighbor would not repeat; "Good fences make good neighbors." As the man tells his story, we find that even though the two men may be conversing and interacting, there is some distance between them at all times. The man says; "...on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again." It seems to show that even though there is a need for friendship in each of us, it is equally as necessary for us to have our own space.

Insurance History Essay

Some 2,000 years ago in Roman times a form of life insurance was practiced by burial societies who paid out funeral costs of members funded by monthly contributions. It is thought that these were year to year arrangements but unfortunately there is not enough evidence remaining to be exact on how they operated. In Britain in the middle ages Trade Guilds provided funeral costs to members in much the same way. The earliest life insurance policy in England was recorded as being effected on the 15th June 1583. The policy was on the life of a William Gybbons (a salter in the City of London) and was taken out by a Richard Martin. The premium was set at  £8 per  £100 pounds of benefit insured. Even at that early date it is of interest that when the policy ended in a claim there was dispute between the insurer and the policy holder over whether the policy should pay up. Luckily for Richard Martin he won the case and the insurer lost. In those days life insurance policies where underwritt en by individuals as opposed to insurance companies. It was also common practice for people to take out life policies on the rich and famous in the hope that they might benefit if that person died. We would have regarded it as a form of gabling. The first actual life insurance company was the Annuity Association founded by the Rev Dr Assheton on the 4th October 1699. Unfortunately this company only survived for 46 years before going bankrupt. Many life insurers were set up as mutual companies where ownership of the company was among the members of the life fund. The policies did not have fixed sums insured as they do today, but instead the fund would pay out what it could afford based on the number of people in the fund that died that year. Now we can be thankful that life insurance has developed since those days. Most policies offer fixed sum insured which can be up to very large amounts. There are a numerous number of insurers all vying for your business. Not only are there pure protection policies but also those which are also linked to some form of investment factor. Life insurance law has grown up and now there are several layers of protection for the naà ¯ve consumer. Whilst all these changes have been good for the co nsumer it also means that the consumer needs to be more aware of what type of life policy they need and where best to purchase that cover. Choice is a wonderful commodity but you need to be able to make a wise selection. More recent changes have been in the growth of life insurers and life insurance  intermediaries who are using the internet as a place of business. Here costs can be controlled, wider markets searched at the click of a mouse and policies handled and concluded at a faster pace. Why not check out what term life cover you could get by visiting http://www.protected.co.uk/ This article was written on the 15th February 2007. This article does not represent ‘financial advice’ as each persons individual requirements will be unique to their needs. If there is something in the article which you which to rely on then please check those details with any person from whom you purchase a term life policy at the time of purchase.

The Main Arguments of Evolution Theory

International Management Prof. dr. Niels Noorderhaven Lecture 1 Agenda †¢ †¢ †¢ 1. 2. 3. Introduction and organizational matters Does â€Å"international† still matter? Conceptual foundations of international business strategy (1) †¢ †¢ Case: Honda in the USA Literature: Textbook chapter 1 (pp 13-33 + 59-62) Team Lectures Niels Noorderhaven Cases Fons Naus Ana Aranda Gutierrez Zhengyu Li Teaching strategy Complementarity of lectures – readings †¢ Individual case participation †¢ Each lecture, one or several cases from the book will be expanded to put the theory into practice †¢ Importance of research articles Grading †¢ 70% MC exam – See Study manual for correction formula †¢ Exam dates December 13, 2012 and April 12, 2013 †¢ 30% 2 Interactive lectures – individual participation †¢ Interactive lectures grades of 2010 and 2011 can be transferred Book †¢ http://www. cambridge. rg/features/manag ement/verbeke/ Does â€Å"international† still matter? 7 Transportation & communication costs fall 17 September 2012 8 Tariffs fall, anti-dumping measures rise anti- 17 September 2012 9 Globalization Theory: †¢ Linguistic, trade and cultural barriers become less important †¢ ‘Stateless’ MNCs †¢ Within MNCs worldwide diffusion of technologies, knowledge and information Convergence of world economies 17 September 2012 10 Why is nationality important to people? Individual identity and social identity †¢ Three processes of social identity formation: †¢ social categorization †¢ social comparison †¢ social identification †¢ (Self-)categorization: what is the salient category? 17 September 2012 11 Why is nationality important to people? †¢ Positive stereotyping of â€Å"in-group†, negative stereotyping of â€Å"out-group† †¢ Nationality differences are particularly salient when people have no common history †¢ Nationality then becomes a source for one’s own identity and for the ascribed identity of the other 7 September 2012 12 Does â€Å"international† still matter? Yes, because †¦. †¢ Cultural , institutional and language differences persist †¢ Leading to differences in (business) decision making †¢ Nationality forms an important basis for social categorization processes †¢ Leading to shortcuts like cultural attribution and stereotyping With the effect that doing business across borders is different than domestic business 13 Conceptual foundations of international business strategy 4 Definition of international business strategy International business strategy means effectively and efficiently matching a multinational enterprise’s (MNE’s) internal strengths (relative to competitors) with the opportunities and challenges found in geographically dispersed environments that cross international borders. Such matching is a precond ition to creating value and satisfying stakeholder goals, both domestically and internationally. 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS (1) Introduction and overview of the book’s framework †¢ Part one: Core concepts (1) Conceptual foundations of international business strategy (2) The critical role of firm-specific advantages (3) The nature of home country location advantages (4) The problem with host country location advantages (5) Combining firm-specific advantages and location advantages in an MNE network 16 TABLE OF CONTENTS (2) †¢ Part two: Functional issues (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) International innovation International sourcing and production International finance International marketing Managing managers in the multinational enterprise 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS (3) †¢ Part three: Dynamics of global strategy (11) Entry mode dynamics 1: foreign distributors (12) Entry mode dynamics 2: strategic alliance partners (13) Entry mode dynamics 3: mergers and acquisitions (14) The role of emerging economies (15a) International strategies of corporate social responsibility (15b) International strategies of environmental sustainability 18 The seven concepts of the unifying framework †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Internationally transferable (or non-location bound) firmspecific advantages (FSAs) Non-transferable (or location-bound) FSAs Location advantages Investment in – and value creation through – recombination Complementary resources of external actors Bounded rationality Bounded reliability The MNE’s unique resource base †¢ Physical resources (natural resources, buildings, plant equipment). †¢ Financial resources (equity and loan capital) †¢ Human resources (individuals and teams, entrepreneurial and operational skills). Upstream knowledge (sourcing knowledge, product and process-related technological knowledge). †¢ Downstream knowledge (marketing, sales, distribution and after sales service). †¢ Admin istrative knowledge (organizational structure, culture and systems). †¢ Reputational resources (brand names, reputation for honest business dealings). International transferability of FSAs? †¢ Paradox: If the FSA consists of easily codifiable knowledge (i. e. , if it can be articulated explicitly, as in a handbook or blueprint), then it can be cheaply transferred abroad, but it can also be easily imitated by other firms.Though expensive and time-consuming to transfer tacit knowledge across borders, the benefit to the MNE is that this knowledge is also difficult to imitate. It is often a key source of competitive advantage when doing business abroad. Some FSAs are not transferable abroad: location-bound locationFSAs (1) Four main types: †¢ Stand-alone resources linked to location advantages (privileged retail locations). †¢ Local marketing knowledge and reputational resources, such as brand names (may not be applicable to a host country context, or valued to the s ame extent). Local best practices (i. e. routines), such as incentive systems or buyer-supplier relations (may not work abroad). †¢ Domestic recombination capability (may not work in foreign markets – e. g. , because co-location of resources is needed). Some FSAs are not transferable abroad: location-bound locationFSAs (2) †¢ Even if transferability of the relevant resources were technically possible, this does not mean potential for profitable deployment, i. e. the resource bundles that may be transferable from a technical perspective (e. g. , the way n which a product is marketed at home), do not constitute an FSA abroad. Location advantages †¢ Entire set of strengths of a location, and accessible by firms in that location. †¢ Should always be assessed relative to the strengths of other locations. †¢ Instrumental to FSAs Motivations for foreign expansion †¢ Natural resource seeking – Verbeke: physical, financial or human resources †¢ Market seeking †¢ Strategic resource seeking – e. g. , knowledge, finance †¢ Efficiency seeking – E. g. , low labor cost Case: Honda in the USA Background Prior to 1970s exports of motorcycles and cars †¢ Drivers of foreign production: – Rising value of the yen against US$ – Fear of import restrictions – The Clean Air Act in the US – First oil crisis †¢ Motivation for expansion (natural resource, market, strategic resource, efficiency seeking? ) Honda’s approach †¢ After four-year decision process Honda of America Manufacturing established in Marysville, Ohio, in 1978 †¢ Top priority: attain Japanese-level quality and efficiency – – – – – Selection of employees Training program Fly in managers and workers from Japan Develop lean supplier network Upgrade supplier quality level 1980: start production of cars †¢ Present: 9 production plants in USA Honda’s FSAs †¢ Non-location bound FSAs: – – – – – – – Know-how four-strike engines with optimal power-to-weight ratio Management principles Quality systems Employee selection processes Training and knowledge transfer routines Manufacturing expertise Supplier management approach †¢ †¢ Location-bound FSAs in the host country: – High demand for specific products Resource recombination: – – – Use four-strike engines in many products (motorcycles, small cars, generators, †¦) Design and manufacturing skills + knowledge of consumer preferences in USA Melding existing and new resources through management exchange program Exploit new capabilities worldwide Complementary resources of external actors †¢ Opportunity to study American way of production at Ford †¢ Extensive use of American experts and consultants (especially for selecting location) †¢ Critical role of suppliers Bounded rationality issues lack of knowledge local conditions †¢ Suppliers’ lack of familiarity with Honda †¢ New employees lack of familiarity with â€Å"The Honda Way† Bounded reliability issues †¢ Moral hazard/adverse selection employees †¢ American managers have local priorities Deliberate strategy? Agenda for next lecture 1. 2. 3. 4. Four types of MNEs Recombination Bounded rationality & reliability Firm-specific advantages (FSAs) †¢ Cases: 3M & IKEA †¢ Literature: Textbook chapter 1 (pp 33-76) + chapter 2 NB: Class will be in SZ 31

Why I Enjoy School

Although many people, including myself, say that they hate school, it is one of the most meaningful places in my life. When I say school, I’m referring to Interlake High School (IHS). Yes of course school may be boring or hard but it has made me the person I am today. School is meaningful to me because of the friends and memories I have made, because it has made me the person I am today, and it is leading me to my future and who I will become. My absolute favorite part about school is the people. Through the 3 years that I have been at Interlake, I have made many friends. Some friends have come and gone, but nonetheless my friends are what make me look forward to coming to school every day. Before I came to Interlake, I was a student in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. I had gone to school with the same kids from kindergarten all the way up until 8th grade. Originally, Mt Si HS was supposed to be the high school that I was going to attend, but once I graduated from 8th grade my parents decided to transfer me to Interlake. I’m glad they did this because the friends I have made at Interlake are 100 times better than any of the friends I ever had growing up in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. I cherish all the friends that I have made at Interlake because without them, I could be a completely different person right now. All together, friends are the number one reason why school is so meaningful to me. Another reason why school is meaningful to me is because it has made me the person I am today. In addition to my friends influencing my path is who I am today, I have also changed due to other acquaintances I have made, and some of the teachers at Interlake. One thing I love about some of the teachers at Interlake is how chill they are. Usually some teachers would try to be an authoritative force that controls the classroom, but certain teachers at Interlake make me feel comfortable in the environment that I’m in and in return I am able to talk with them without being scared of what they may say. When talking to my teachers, some have told me when I’m getting out of line or if I’m changing in a negative way and it really helps me stay on track and not lose focus. What also helps me stay on track are some of the other people at Interlake. Certain individuals at Interlake are menaces to society, and are likely not going to have a very successful future. These individuals influence me on who I want to become because they provide a template on what I shouldn’t do. Even though many others including myself may dislike these individuals as people, I appreciate them for what they have taught me what not to do. Without Interlake HS and the people in it, I may be a completely different person. Lastly, Interlake high school is meaningful to me because it (in addition to college) is what is going to lead me into the rest of my life. In a nutshell, Interlake has given me an education. It didn’t just give me an average education, but a top tier education due to the fact that Interlake is one of the top schools in the state. Again, I was supposed to attend Mt Si high school, but instead I came to Interlake because the academics are at a much higher level than at Mt Si. This education I have acquired is what is going to lead me into the college I am going to. If I had gone to Mt Si, my grades could have been different which would have affected the college that I may get accepted to this upcoming winter and spring. Who is to say what would have happened, but I know in my heart that coming to Interlake has set me up for a better future than what I would have become if I had gone to Mt Si. Lastly, Interlake is meaningful to me because public school in America is free. I appreciate this because not all countries have such accessibility that America does in our schooling system. In conclusion, Interlake is meaningful to me because of the friends I have made, the things that have influenced me to become the person I am today, and because of how its going to influence my future. Without Interlake I could have had completely different friends, been a completely different person, and could have had a completely different future.