Critical Thinking Case - Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical Thinking Case - - Essay Example The company should ensure its financial reports abide by the GAAP. The Microsoft Corp may have violated the rules and regulations of the security and exchange commission. Microsoft documented reserves minus a properly substantiated or recorded basis. The SEC noticed that from the year 1995 to 1998, the company maintained secret liability, allowances, accruals, and reserves accounts that are termed as reserve accounts or reserves by the SEC. These undisclosed accounts stretched from $200 million to $900 million on quarter-end in the course of those 4years. At the operational level, regional controllers upheld reserve accounts in conformity with the accepted accounting principles and were correctly documented and reviewed systematically by the internal audit department of Microsoft Corp. However, at the high-ranking company level, the journal entries were carried out to several reserve accounts without applying accurately based statistics, analysis or formulas. Additionally, there was minimal or no recording to support the alterations to these reserv e accounts. The main justification was founded upon the decision of the probability of forthcoming events. Therefore, these reserves lacked the needed documentation as required by the national securities statute and did not have sufficient substantiation as speculated in GAAP (Sandretto, 57). Microsoft Corp was not doing the right thing as all the reserve accounts were not being maintained according to the GAAP, and they were not reviewed accordingly with the company’s internal audit department. Additionally, the documentation and changes depended on subjective judgments instead of factual analysis and statistics. Furthermore, the actions of only maintaining some reserve accounts and having others undisclosed are termed as fraud, and this affects the company’s profitability. Therefore, the company should make sure there are no undisclosed accounts and all

Future Competitive Threats of China and India for Industries Essay Example for Free

Future Competitive Threats of China and India for Industries Essay Discuss the future competitive threats of China and India for industries in developed countries. The emergence of China as the mass manufacturing pioneer in the world has lead to the concern that China will soon be competing with the industries in the developed nations. India, at the same time, is emerging as the centre of IT enabled services including software development, and poses significant threat to the developed countries in high-skill goods and services. Today, the main competitive threat that China and India pose to the developed nations is their cheap labour. They are able to produce basically anything at a much lower price compare to those in the western developed nations. Therefore, they signify threats to these countries. However, on the future prospects, China and India would acquire competitive threat that is different from what they were before. For instance, the education rate in China and India are both increasing, and they produce about half a million of scientists and engineers a year comparing to mere 60,000 in the US. Therefore, these skilled labours will take over the current low skilled labours in these two countries and further exploit the opportunities that they have, and compete better in the high skill sectors. In addition, many companies from the developed nations have shifted their RD centre to the China and India, therefore, China and India are able to learn and gain experience through these foreign RD centre and excel in innovations in the future. This makes the developed nations to lose their competitive advantage, and signifies competitive threat from China and India.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Essay -- Pregnancy Alcoholism Drinking Essays

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome It is a shame that in today’s "enlightened" society so many preventable diseases and disorders are still occurring. Fetal alcohol syndrome is one of these totally preventable disorders. It is one of the most frequent and important causes of mental and physical retardation in childhood today. Only in the past decade or so have scientists identified and named this disorder. However, effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy have been suspected for quite some time. In the Old Testament the wife of Menoh is warned not to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy (Judges 13, 2-25). Despite all the current information about the negative effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, many people are still unaware of the complications it can cause. In one study it was found that students were aware that alcohol is a teratogenic substance, but had little knowledge as to the nature and timing of the possible negative side effects that alcohol consumption at each stage might cause (Haemmerlie, 1992). Besides those who are unaware of the results of alcohol consumption during pregnancy, there are also those women who are aware of the consequences, but don’t care enough or have enough willpower to stop. These alcoholic mothers may know the consequences of drinking during pregnancy but are unable to stop themselves. The effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol may have a wide range of possible effects; from life--threatening anomalies to mild problems with attention and learning. There are many symptomology’s that are characteristic of FAS children. The diagnosis of FAS can only be made when the patient has at least one abnormality in each of three categories (Sokol & Clarren, 1989): pre- and p... ...sm, Vol. 16, No. 5, Oct. 1992, pp. 1001-1003. Nanson, J. L. "Autism is F.A.S. - A Report of Six Cases". Alcoholism, Vol. 16, No. 3, May/June 1992, pp. 558-565. Nanson, J. L., & Hiscock, M. "Attention Deficits in Children Exposed to Alcohol Prenatally". Alcoholism, Vol. 14, No. 5, Oct. 1990, pp. 656-661. Niemele, O., Helmesmaki, E., & Ylikorkala, O. "Hemoglobin--acetaldehyde Adducts are Elevated in Women Carrying Alcohol-damaged Fetuses". Alcoholism, Vol. 15, No. 6 ,Dec. 1991, pp. 1007-1010. Old Testament, Judges 13, 2-25. Pullerkat, R. K. "Hypothesis: Prenatal Ethanol-induced Birth Defects and Retanoic Acid". Alcoholism, Vol. 15, No. 3, June 1991, pp. 565-567. Sokol, R. J. & Clarren, S. K. "Guidelines for Use of Terminology Describing the Impact of Prenatal Alcohol on the Offspring". Alcoholism, Vol. 13, No. 4, July/August 1989, pp. 597-598.

Comparison and Contrast of Two Poems Essay

William Blake’s poems entitled â€Å"The Tyger† and â€Å"The Lamb† are depictions of human self. The narrators in these poems described their characterization through the illustration of the lamb and the tiger. There are similarities and differences between these two poems in terms of theme, tone, and literary images. By reading these poems, readers would recognize the braveness of the tiger and the calmness of the lamb. Through this, it can be said that these poems are representations of emotions and intentions of the author and narrators in the poems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the poem â€Å"The Tyger,† the narrator already established the burning fire of the tyger’s character in the first stanza. The first line of the poem characterized the persona into a mortal hero because of the use of words and exclamation marks. In the second stanza, ironies of different literary images started to emerge. Fire and sky, wings and hands are some of the ironies that exist throughout the poem. It shows that fire and sky are interrelated concepts with the use of hands and wings to reach its aspects and sense. In the third stanza, humanistic point of view developed. From natural abstract of nature, animal body parts began to unravel as a way of showing the tyger’s being. The second and third stanzas are related to one another because these means that nature and animals are connected and cannot live without each other. The fourth stanza discussed the different threats against the tiger. Chains and hammers are depicted to be the armor against the illogical braveness of the tiger. Its terror characterization showed that humans are aloof with it. They could not able to live with the tiger that is why they were chained and hammered. The fifth stanza symbolizes the resurrection of the tiger. Once he died from the hands of chains and hammers, the sky will comfort him and give him a new life again. It was seen that once an animal died, it will still conceive a new form of life as it emerge into the nature’s womb. At the end of the poem, the tyger will live through its burning fire. It will always live at the heart of the forest by way of perceiving the eye of â€Å"symmetry.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, Blake’s â€Å"The Lamb† is a representation of lamb’s beauty and keenness. She was depicted as a girl – a little girl who seeks love and comfort from within. This little lamb has simple joys in her heart. He wanted to have something to eat to be able to survive. She just wanted to have comfortable shelter to nurture her self from her surroundings and environment. She is happy and contented with what she has for she is young. The author used two stanzas to illustrate the persona of the poem. It means that simplicity of the character lies within her physical and emotional being.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first stanza, the narrator discussed how the little lamb portrayed her self in beauty and comfort. The narrator also showed how people used the lamb’s fur for their daily lives especially their clothing.   This is how the lamb works for that is why she has simple happiness because she knows that she would become a big help to everyone. In the second stanza, showed how the persona of the poem loved and admired the lamb. The narrator wanted to tell all the people to be mild and gentle towards the lamb because she is a fragile one. The persona relates herself like a lamb that is unique, keen, happy, and contented being despite of everything that she experienced in life. At the end of the poem, the persona said â€Å"God Bless† to the lamb. It means that she must take care of her self for everything she does throughout her lifetime and beyond.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Aside from the lamb and the tyger’s being animals, the similarity with them is their attachment to nature. Nature always becomes their comfort place to live and ponder. Another similarity is the way humans thought towards and against them. People look at them as an object of economic power and raw materials. They could not look at these animals as part of the ecosystem that helps us to become what we are right now in terms of ecological perspectives. In terms of theme, these two poems are similar. They are both illustration of animal oppression and discrimination. These poems are created to express how animals think of their selves and their use in the society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other way around, the poem â€Å"The Tyger† is more on loud images rather than the poem â€Å"The Lamb.† Even if they both express the essence and meaning of animal oppression, the poem â€Å"The Tyger† was illustrated in a direct and frank portrayal unlike the poem â€Å"The Lamb.† This poem showed indirect attack towards the issues that it wanted to discuss. â€Å"The Tyger† also used abundant literary images to show the roaring character of the tyger. In â€Å"The Lamb,† the author did not use many literary images because he illustrated the persona as a child who has limited knowledge and learning towards the real intuition of the lamb.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Based on the elaboration of the whole poems in this paper, it was seen that â€Å"The Tyger† and â€Å"The Lamb† have differences and similarities based on the literal and logical perspective. It was also seen that the author made different kind of attack from one point to the other. The target audience for the poem â€Å"The Tyger† is mainly for those who have enough vocabularies to understand the meanings of the words while the poem â€Å"The Lamb† is for children who have simple words to acquire. However, they can be seen as children and adult poems if they are entitled to unleash the essence and persona of the animals in the poems. Bibliography Blake, W. (2005). â€Å"The Lamb† 22 March 2008. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/181.html Blake, W. (1794).â€Å"The Tyger† 22 March 2008. http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/tyger.html

Epekto Ng

————————————————- History of Computer A computer is basically an electronic device which is used to input, output, process, and store data but there are some definitions which will include devices such as digital calculators and digital watches in the category of a computer. Software is also considered when looking at the history of computers, not only the physical hardware and the capabilities of the hardware available at the particular time. Operating systems with the features they carry and videogames with their utilization of the available technology are sometimes also used as markers in computer history.The earlier computers were much larger in comparison to the computers available today, sometimes filling entire rooms or sections of buildings. Some persons may be familiar with the term â€Å"mainframe† which is a large computer which can do many different tasks simultaneously. Modern mainframes and older mainframes were not much different in their function which is to provide a centralized point for all data to be processed and sometimes stored but older mainframes did not have the benefit of the newer technologies available today.As computers evolved and got smaller and smaller, the use of mainframes to handle workloads decreased as standalone computers became more popular. The difference with standalones versus those attached to the mainframe – which were called workstations, is the fact that standalones could run applications by themselves while workstations depended on the mainframe being online in order to function. Much older mainframes would run different programs based on a schedule and persons were assigned to feed or load the scheduled application at the appointed time.When the appointed program was scheduled to be run a person would have to load either punch cards or tape spools into the mainframe in order for it to run the specified application and the workstations would then load the application to the mainframe. In more recent times servers have generally replaced mainframes but in some companies there are still those who use modern mainframes as an alternative to having hundreds of servers in different locations. The size of the computer is the greatest measure of how far technology has come.We have moved from computers filling entire buildings to laptops that have as much functionality as a desktop and portable enough to tote around everyday. A quick timeline of how computers have evolved include the movement from punch card program input to magnetic tape program input, the moving of storage devices to magnetic drum media, moving from vacuum tube electronic components to transistor electronic components and ultimately the reduction in the size of transistors which is the primary reason for computers having reached where they are.An interesting concept to examine in computing would be Mooreâ₠¬â„¢s Law which outlines a trend in computing and the ‘block’, which will be the farthest point that computing will reach. As components keep getting smaller and smaller allowing for more features to be crammed into a single circuit, Moore’s Law dictates that once transistors reach atomic particle sizes the improvement of computers will have to stop.

Issues in Cognitive Development

Issues in Cognitive Development Steps in Language Development While debate is still ongoing about how children acquires language, with naturists arguing that individuals are born with biological inclination for language, and behaviorists projecting that children develop language by emulating the sounds heard within the immediate environment (Maitland 135), consensus seems to have been reached among the two groups on the major steps involved in the development of language in children. This section aims to elucidate the steps involved.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Issues in Cognitive Development specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There exists broad consensus that humans can communicate from birth, as can be demonstrated by the newborn’s cry alerts when faced with a distressing situation such as pain or wetness. However, it is only after the fourth month from birth that the infant is able to turn these cry alerts, coos, and gurgles into some f orm of bubbling, explained as the generation of phonemes which are not in any way related or limited to the child’s exposure to the immediate environment. After the lapse of ten months from birth, the baby is able to narrow down these phonemes to those of the language or languages spoken in the immediate environment (Maitland 134). At the turn of their first birthday, most toddlers progress from bubbling into the use of a holophrase, which can be explained as the usage of one word to communicate meaning. For instance, the baby may point indoors and say, â€Å"Go!† At the turn of their second birthday, most children are able to put together two-word sentences known as telegraphic speech. Available literature demonstrates that this speech is mostly typified by the use of a verb and noun, such as â€Å"go toilet† or â€Å"eat bread† (Maitland 134). Language development theorists are in agreement that it is between two and three years of age that the child is not only able to expand the vocabulary exponentially, but the sentences generated increase in length and intricacy. By their third birthday, the young children begin to follow the rules of grammar without necessarily sticking to any conventions of instruction. For instance, a 3-year-old child may say, â€Å"I goed to the shop.† Such sentence construction, although coming from a 3-year-old child, indicates the use of the general rule, also called overgeneralization or over-regularization, that we form the past tense by adding (-ed) to the word or phrase. The ‘overgeneralization’ or ‘over-regularization’ of language witnessed among the 3-year-olds demonstrates that children apply grammatical rules without necessarily making any appropriate exceptions (Maitland 134). However, as time goes and language development becomes further entrenched, young children achieve the capability to express more abstract notions, concepts and ideas that goes beyond the p hysical realm around them, not mentioning that they also attain the capability to express their own feelings.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Applying Piaget’s Vygotsky’s Theoretical Concepts to Classroom Experiences Both Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky can be termed as the leading lights in the psychology of cognitive development due their classical works, which have been well documented in literature. It is indeed true that their theoretical concepts can be, and continues to be, used in modern classroom settings. This section aims to discuss five concepts from the theories of both Piaget and Vygotsky, and illuminate how these concepts can be applied to classroom experiences. Jean Piaget was a prominent psychologist of the 20th century mainly interested in aspects of developmental psychology, particularly in respect to how individuals acquire, retain, and devel op knowledge (Wittrock 41). Today, his concepts and theories are used by teachers across the world to enhance students’ learning experiences. In his theory of cognitive development, Piaget came up with the concept of assimilation and accommodation to denote two corresponding processes of adaptation through which awareness of the external world is internalized in the individual. In assimilation, what an individual perceives in the external world is incorporated into the internal world without necessarily changing the structure of the internal world, while in accommodation; the internal world is obliged to accommodate itself to the evidence and facts with which it is confronted, thus triggering an adaptation (Wittrock 43). This concept can be applied in modern classroom experiences by encouraging teachers to take an active, mentoring role towards students so as to enable them share in their learning experiences instead of pushing information to passive and sometimes unintereste d students. By observing children to have a comprehensive understanding on their growth and developmental patterns, Piaget came up with the concept of maturation to imply the children’s mounting capability to understand their world and those around them (McInerney 587). This concept further implies that children cannot comprehend or perform certain activities or duties until they are psychologically mature enough to be able to engage in those activities. This assertion has been overwhelmingly used by contemporary educators to form the basis for scheduling the school curriculum with a view to making sure that only those activities or learning tasks that children within a specific age-group can understand are indeed included in the curriculum.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Issues in Cognitive Development specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In his theory of cognitive development, Lev Vygotsky came up with the con cept of the zone of proximal development, which was aimed at explaining the idea that development should be defined both by what a child can be able to achieve independently and what the child can be able to achieve when he or she receives assistance from either an adult or a more competent peer (Slavin 47). This concept, along with the two levels of development, is useful for teachers in modern classroom settings to the extent that they can use it to objectively evaluate where the child is at a given moment in terms of learning outcomes, as well as where the child ought to be. In the context of curriculum development, educators and teachers can employ Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development concept to design a developmentally suitable curriculum, where learning activities are designed on not only what the learners are capable of doing on their own volition, but also on what they are capable of learning with other peers who are more proficient (Slavin 47; McInerney 590). Vygo tsky’s concept of proximal development further suggests that educators in modern classroom settings must make sure to expose the children to instruction and activities that fall inside the zone of proximal development if effective learning is to take place (Woolfolk 156). For example, if a child is unable to recognize the sounds in a word or phrase even after been exposed to repeated prompts, the child may not be able to take advantage of the instruction in this type of skill. Additionally, extant literature demonstrates that instructors can employ this concept to, among other things, design instruction in such a way that it is capable of providing practice in the zone of proximal development for individual learners as well as for groups of learners (Woolfolk 159). For example, instructors can employ suggestions, clues and prompts that in the past assisted children during evaluation to form the basis for instructional activities. Vygotsky’s concept of cooperative learn ing can be used in the modern classroom setting to plan learning activities by bringing together children who are at different learning levels to assist each other to learn. What’s more, Vygotsky’s concept was later developed in 1976 by Wood, Bruner Ross to operationalize the concept of scaffolding. In its most basic form, the scaffolding concept represents the supportive interactions that take place between an adult and a child with the view to assist the child to accomplish an activity that is beyond his or her independent efforts (Slavin 88). In the modern classroom setting, the concept of scaffolding has been used by teachers to assist learners graduate from assisted to unassisted success at various learning tasks.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In a school biology class, for example, the instructor might utilize scaffolding by first providing learners with exhaustive guidelines that are needed to perform an experiment on osmosis, and afterwards provide them with concise outlines that they can use to structure further osmosis experiments. With time, the teacher might request the learners to perform the experiments exclusively on their own. Maitland, Laura Lincoln. 5 Steps to a 5AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2010. Print. McInerney, Dennis M. â€Å"Educational Psychology – Theory, Research, and Teaching: A 25 –Year Retrospective.† Educational Psychology 25.6 (2005): 585-599. Web. Slavin, Robert E. Educational Psychology: Theory Practice. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn Bacon, Inc., 2005. Print. Wittrock, Mike C. â€Å"Learning as a Generative Process.† Educational Psychologist 45.1 (2010): 40-45. Web. Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

Bertolt Brecht essays

Bertolt Brecht essays Bertolt Brecht was born on February 10, 1898 in Augsburg, Germany. His first poems, heavily influenced by Rimbaud and Verlaine, were published at age 16. He served as an orderly in the German army during the First World War, but by its end was deeply disenchanted, not only with the war, but also with society in general. His first play, Baal, was written in 1918 in response to Hanns Johst's tragedy, The Lonely Man. Drums in the Night followed this in 1920. During this period, he was writing a good deal of poetry and music as well. Poetry was easy for him, like breathing, and so drama was the more noble cause. Brecht was a regular in the cabaret acts of Trude Hesterberg and Karl Valentin in the early 1920s in Munich. In 1922 Drums in the Night had its Munich premier, and then played at the Deutsches Theatre in Berlin. He was awarded the Kleist Prize for this play, and at twenty-four years of age, achieved national recognition and critical acclaim as a playwright and poet. Brecht was far from his peak. In 1924, he moved to Berlin, where he continued to write, collaborating with the great German composer, Kurt Weill, on The Threepenny Opera, The Rise In 1933, he went into exile due to the rise of the Nazis. Brecht was number five on Hitler's blacklist, partly because of a song he had written, The Ballad of the Dead Soldier, which appears in Drums in the Night. He moved to Denmark, where he wrote, among other things, The Threepenny Novel, The Roundheads and the Peakheads, The Good Person of Sezuan, and two of his masterpieces, Galileo and Mother Courage and Her Children. In 1941, the Nazis invaded Denmark, and Brecht moved to Finland and then to America with his wife, the actress Helene Wiegel, where he worked b...

Female Spies in World War I and World War II

Female Spies in World War I and World War II While almost every nation yet prohibits women in combat, a long history of female involvement in warfare reaches all the way back to ancient times. Extensive documentation exists covering the role of women working undercover or otherwise involved in intelligence work in each of the two world wars. World War I Mata Hari If asked to name a female spy, most people would probably be able to cite Mata Hari of World War I fame. Real name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle McLeod, the woman the world would come to know as Mata Hari was born in the Netherlands. Her cover was that of an exotic dancer from India. While there is little doubt regarding the legitimacy of Mata Haris life as a stripper and sometimes-prostitute, some controversy surrounds whether she was ever actually a spy. Famous as she was if Mata Hari was a spy, she was fairly inept at it. She was caught following contact with an informant, tried and executed as a spy by France. It later came to light that her accuser was, himself, a German spy, effectively casting doubt on her true role in World War I espionage. Edith Cavell Another famous spy from World War I was also executed as a spy. Edith Cavell was born in England, growing up to become a nurse by profession. When World War I erupted, she was working in a nursing school in Belgium. Although she was not a spy as we generally view them, Edith worked undercover to help transport soldiers from France, England, and Belgium to escape from the Germans. She worked as matron of a hospital and, while doing so, helped at least 200 soldiers to escape. When the Germans realized Cavells role in what was happening, she was put on trial for harboring foreign soldiers rather than espionage, and convicted in two days. She was killed by a firing squad in October of 1915 and buried near the execution site despite appeals from the United States and Spain to return her body to her homeland. After the war, her body was transported back to England. Edith Cavell was finally buried in her native land, following a Westminster Abbey service presided by King George V of England. A statue in her honor was erected in St. Martins Park bearing the simple but apt epitaph, Humanity, Fortitude, Devotion, Sacrifice. The statue also carries the quote she gave to the priest who gave her communion the night before her death, Patriotism is not enough, I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone. Edith Cavell had, in her lifetime, cared for anyone in need regardless of which side of the war they fought out of religious conviction. She died as valiantly and honorably as she lived. World War II Two main oversight organizations were responsible for intelligence activities in World War II for the Allies. These were the British SOE, or Special Operations Executive, and the American OSS, or Office of Strategic Services. The SOE was active in virtually every occupied country in Europe along with native operatives in enemy countries, aiding resistance groups and monitoring enemy activity. The American counterpart, the OSS, overlapped some of the SOE operations and also had operatives in the Pacific theater. In addition to traditional spies, these organizations employed many ordinary men and women to covertly provide information on strategic locations and activities while leading apparently normal lives. The OSS eventually became what is now known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Americas official spy agency. Virginia Hall An American heroine,  Virginia Hall came from Baltimore, Maryland. From a privileged family, Hall attended fine schools and colleges and wanted a career as a diplomat. Her aspirations were thwarted in 1932 when she lost part of her leg in a hunting accident and had to use a wooden prosthesis. Having resigned from the State Department in 1939, Hall was in Paris at the start of World War II. She worked on an ambulance corps until the Henri Philippe Petain-led Vichy government took over, at which point she moved to England, volunteering for the newly-founded SOE. SOE training completed, she was returned to Vichy-controlled France where she supported the Resistance until complete Nazi takeover. She escaped on foot to Spain through the mountains, continuing her work for the SOE there until 1944, when she joined the OSS and asked to return to France. Returned to France, Hall continued to help the underground Resistance by, among other things, providing maps to Allied forces for drop zones, finding safe houses and providing intelligence activities. She assisted in training at least three battalions of French Resistance forces and continuously reported on enemy movements. The Germans recognized her activities and made her one of their Most Wanted Spies, calling her the woman with a limp and Artemis. Hall had many aliases including Agent Heckler, Marie Monin, Germaine, Diane, and Camille. She managed to teach herself to walk without a limp and employed many disguises, foiling Nazi attempts to capture her. Her success in evading capture was as remarkable as the prodigious work she accomplished. Still active as an operative in 1943, the British quietly awarded Hall the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). Later, in 1945, she was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Gen. William Donovan for her efforts in France and Spain. Hers was the only such award to any civilian woman in all of WWII. Hall continued to work for the OSS through its transition to the CIA until 1966. At that time she retired to a farm in Barnesville, MD until her death in 1982. Princess Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan A childrens book author may seem an unlikely candidate for international spy induction, but Princess Noor defied any such expectation. The great-niece of Christian Science founder  Mary Baker Eddy  and daughter of Indian royalty, she joined the SOE as Nora Baker in London and trained to operate a wireless radio transmitter. She was sent to occupied France under the code name Madeline, carrying her transmitter from safe house to safe house, maintaining communications for her Resistance unit,  with the Gestapo trailing her all the way. Khan was captured and executed as a spy in 1944. She was posthumously awarded the George Cross, the Croix de Guerre and the MBE for her valor. Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell was born in 1921 to a French mother and British father. Her husband Etienne Szabo was a French Foreign Legion officer killed in battle in North Africa. After her husbands death, Bushell was recruited by the SOE and sent to France as an operative on two occasions. On the second of these visits, she was caught giving cover to a Maquis leader. She killed several German soldiers before finally being captured. Despite torture, Bushell refused to give the Gestapo classified information, so was sent to  the concentration camp  Ravensbruck, where she was executed. She was posthumously honored for her work with both the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre in 1946. The Violette Szabo Museum in Wormelow, Herefordshire, England honors her memory as well. She left behind a daughter, Tania Szabo, who wrote her mothers biography,  Young, Brave Beautiful: Violette Szabo GC. Szabo and her highly decorated husband were the most decorated couple in World War II, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Barbara Lauwers Cpl. Barbara Lauwers, Womens Army Corps, received a Bronze Star for her OSS work, which included using German prisoners for counterintelligence work and cobbling fake passports and other papers for spies and others. Lauwers was instrumental in Operation Sauerkraut, an operation which mobilized German prisoners to spread black propaganda about  Adolf Hitler  behind enemy lines. She created the League of Lonely War Women, or VEK in German. This mythical organization was designed to demoralize German troops by spreading the belief that any soldier on leave could display a VEK symbol and get a girlfriend. One of her operations was so successful that 600 Czechoslovak troops defected behind Italian lines. Amy Elizabeth Thorpe Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, early code name Cynthia, later Betty Pack, worked for the OSS in Vichy, France. She was sometimes used as a swallow- a woman trained to seduce the enemy into sharing secret information- and she participated in break-ins. One daring raid involved taking secret naval codes from a safe within a locked and guarded room. Another involved infiltration of the Vichy French Embassy in Washington D.C., taking important codebooks. Maria Gulovich Maria Gulovich fled Czechoslovakia when it was invaded, emigrating to Hungary. Working with Czech army staff and British and American intelligence teams, she assisted downed pilots, refugees, and resistance members. Gulovich was taken by the KGB and maintained her OSS cover under fierce interrogation while assisting in the Slovak rebellion and rescue efforts for Allied pilots and crews. Julia McWilliams Child Julia Child  was up to much more than gourmet cooking. She wanted to join the WACs or the WAVES but was turned down for being too tall, at a height of 62. Following this rejection, she opted to work in research and development out of the OSS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Among the projects with which she was involved: a workable shark repellent used for downed flight crews later used for US space missions with water landings and supervising an OSS facility in China. Julia Child handled countless top-secret documents before gaining television fame as The French Chef. Marlene Dietrich German-born  Marlene Dietrich  became an American citizen in 1939. She volunteered for the OSS and served both by entertaining troops on the front lines and by broadcasting nostalgic songs to battle-weary German soldiers as propaganda. She received the Medal of Freedom for her work. Elizabeth P. McIntosh Elizabeth P. McIntosh was a war correspondent and independent journalist who joined the OSS shortly after  Pearl Harbor. She was instrumental in the interception and rewriting of postcards Japanese troops wrote home while stationed in India. She intercepted and detected orders of numerous sorts, chief among them a copy of the Imperial Order discussing terms of surrender which was then disseminated to Japanese troops. Genevieve Feinstein Not every woman in intelligence was a spy as we think of them. Women also played significant roles as cryptanalysts and code breakers for the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS). Genevieve Feinstein was one such woman, having been responsible for creating a machine used to decode Japanese messages. After WWII, she continued to work in intelligence. Mary Louise Prather Mary Louise Prather headed the SIS stenographic section. She was responsible for logging messages in code and preparing decoded messages for distribution. Prather was primarily credited with having uncovered a previously-unnoticed yet distinct correlation between two Japanese messages which led to the decryption of a pivotal new Japanese code system. Juliana Mickwitz Juliana Mickwitz escaped Poland during the Nazi invasion of 1939. She became a translator of Polish, German and Russian documents and worked with the Military Intelligence Directorate of the War Department. She went on to translate voice messages. Josephine Baker Josephine Baker  was a singer and dancer best known at the time as the Creole Goddess, the Black Pearl or the Black Venus for her beauty. But Baker was also a spy working undercover for the French Resistance, smuggling military secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music  into Portugal from France. Hedy Lamarr Actress Hedy Lamarr made a valuable contribution to the intelligence division by co-producing an anti-jamming device for torpedoes. She also devised a clever way of frequency hopping that prevented the interception of American military messages. Famous for the Road movies with Bob Hope, everyone knew she was an actress but few were aware she was an inventor of military importance. Nancy Grace Augusta Wake New Zealand-born Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC GM, was the most decorated servicewoman among Allied troops in WWII. Wake grew up in Australia, working early on as a nurse and later as a journalist. As a journalist, she watched the rise of Hitler, well aware of the dimension of the threat Germany posed. Living in France with her husband at the start of World War II, Wake became a courier for the French Resistance. Among the Gestapos Most Wanted Spies, she was in constant danger, having her phone tapped and her mail read. Nazi Germany eventually put a five million franc price on the head of the woman they called the White Mouse. When her network was uncovered, Wake fled. Forced to leave her husband behind, the Gestapo tortured him to death trying to obtain her location. She was briefly arrested but released and, after six attempts, fled to England where she joined the SOE. In 1944 Wake parachuted back into France to assist the Maquis, where she participated in training highly effective Resistance troops. She once bicycled 100 miles through German checkpoints to replace a lost code and was reputed to have killed a German soldier with her bare hands to save others. After the war she was awarded the Croix de Guerre three times, the George Medal, the Mà ©daille de la Rà ©sistance, and the American Medal of Freedom for her undercover achievements. Afterword These are only a few of the women who served as spies in the two great world wars. Many took their secrets to the grave and were known only to their contacts. They were military women, journalists, cooks, actresses, and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. Their stories demonstrate that they were ordinary women of extraordinary courage and inventiveness who helped to change the world with their work. Women have played this role in many wars over the ages, but we are fortunate to have records of quite a few of those women who worked undercover in World War I and World War II, and we are all honored by their accomplishments. Sources and Further Reading The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of Americas Greatest Female Spy  by Judith L. Pearson, The Lyons Press (2005).Sisterhood of Spies  by Elizabeth P. McIntosh, published by the Naval Institute Press.Young, Brave Beautiful: Violette Szabo GC  by Tania Szabo.

Here's a Wise investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Here's a Wise investment - Essay Example Many experts added that they would go out of their way to help such needy students, as they add to the campuses and are very rare. College days are exciting in August and September when students sign up for courses. The trouble comes in spring, at the end of 1st or 2nd year when their scholarships expire. Parents can’t afford to pay tuition bills. Some say that parents didn’t save enough, some say they chose expensive four-year schools when community colleges were just as good, while others say that they didn’t do enough of research. The real problem is people don’t know how to go about scholarships, loans, grants, etc. And that readily available money is left untouched. Mathews also states that several illegal immigrants work their way out through college. There are students who deny themselves little luxuries such as movies and restaurant meals so that they can save for their education. Unfortunately, research shows that they earn less and are more likel y to drop out. Today, getting into a college and earning a degree is a monetary issue. Several students with a will to study don’t have a way to pay for it. So to help them, we have to invest more money in those students. But, where will all those funds come from? How could we help the young people to complete college, the ones who are going to be paying for our Social Security and Medicare. Well, there are many possible ways in which we could help the young students to complete their education. The first and foremost is to educate them about the following means of availability of funds. Scholarships are the chief form of monetary aid available to students who

Competition law and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Research Paper

Competition law and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the Clayton Act is an amendment to the Sherman Act used for placing restrictions on business mergers. The bill also puts restrictions on the acquisition of other companies that could in turn lead to monopolies or unfair commercial practices. The agency in charge of seeking out free and fair competition is the federal trade commission (Alexander, 2009). The department of justice carries out all investigations on matters concerning the competition also, and the law gives it the authority to call and gather a grand jury to indict a suspect. There are civil and criminal charges in place for any part found guilty of acting against the antitrust laws in the state. Civil consequences of the statues include among others injunctions, divestiture or even cancelation of contracts. The laws have the responsibility of ensuring that there exists a level playing ground for all parties involved. It also serves the function of protection of smaller firms from large enterprises that intend to run them out of business. Lastly the laws protect the final consumer by considering market condition so that they do not suffer high prices for commodities in the market (Mazzolini, 1980). State-owned businesses or the government-owned corporations are legal organizations that carry out commercial activities on behalf of the government. State-owned enterprises are common to natural monopolies and infrastructure. They have the task of providing services and products that are otherwise said to be expensive, and the private sector cannot offer them to the public. They provide goods and services such as railways and telecommunications, mail services and weapons for defense, energy and electricity, politically sensitive businesses, broadcasting, education and healthcare (Drew, 2006). State-owned enterprises have the responsibility of promoting the interests of the public, unlike other organizations whose objects are profit maximization (Thomas, 2005). They

Learner Analysis and WBCT Selection Report Essay

Learner Analysis and WBCT Selection Report - Essay Example For the instructional problem, the factors are considered in learner and context analysis, and considers guidelines provided in the Reference Guide for Instructional Design and Development (IEEE, 2002). Entry behaviors are analyzed to determine whether learners have mastered entry behaviors prior to instruction. For the English as a Second Language (ESL) course, entry requirements include: age of between 13 to 25 years old, at least high school level and has attended English instruction as part of the formal education process. Information on cultural background and current occupation will also be checked. Analysis of prior knowledge, and educational and ability levels involves investigation of the range and nature of prior knowledge, education and abilities related to the training topic and learning in general. For the ESL course this involves a pre-test of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in English to help determine the range and nature of prior knowledge. It also involves a form of IQ test to determine learning abilities. Information on attendance in similar ESL courses will also be checked. Attitudes towards content and delivery system, and general learning preferences will also be analyzed. The ESL course is intended to be delivered as web/computer-based training. The content includes instruction and activities to develop literacy skills and help participants adjust to their new cultural environment, whether as high school or college students or young working individuals. Analysis of academic motivation defines what content is relevant to the learner. The ESL course aims to develop the ability to use English for daily needs, develop basic conversation skills and vocabulary, and use simple sentence patterns. Course activities for developing fluency and accuracy in oral communication, using English in socially appropriate ways and developing appreciation for information from media sources, increasing reading comprehension, developing vocabulary and research skills, and developing accuracy in written information through simple compositions and accomplishing forms are all aimed at making the participants feel confident and satisfied with the course, thereby making them attentive to learn. To check participants' attitudes towards the training organization, part of learner analysis will include questions about how they have come to learn about the training and the reason for wanting to participate in the training. Although there is a certain degree of heterogeneity to the target group for training due to the age range targeted, there is also homogeneity in that they are all deemed to be young adults, either of high school/college age or young workers/professionals. Web/Computer-Based Training Worksheet Visual Link Spanish (http://www.learnspanishtoday.com) DEMO COURSE: Sentence Building - Basic Needs Mindleaders (http://www.mindleaders.com ) DEMO COURSE: Excel 2007 What did you like about the courses I tried the demo course "Sentence Building - Basic Needs" from Visual Link Spanish and the demo course "Excel 2007" from Mindleaders. For a U.S. English-speaking beginner learning Spanish, the demo course from Visual Link was quite impressive. The animated lesson was visually entertaining and very easy to follow. Humorous moving graphics were used which helped me to be attentive to the entire demo which

Kingdom of Heaven Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kingdom of Heaven - Essay Example Several skirmish between Muslim and Christian forces occur, like when Guy and Raynald kill everyone on a Muslim caravan. Saladin, the Muslim leader, retaliates. Balian is captured, then freed by the servant he had turned loose. The Muslims and Christians reach a tentative truce. The Christians murder Saladins sister, causing Saladin to siege Jerusalem. Balian leads the defense, but has to surrender. Saladin allows them free passage back to their countries. When King Richard I ask Balian to crusade with him, Balian refuses. At the end, subtitles explain King Richard I failed, and fighting for Jerusalem continued over the centuries, even today. The film states â€Å"Peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive" (Kingdom of Heaven). There was not too much spiritual content in this movie. Balian wanted to go the crusade to gain redemption for him and his wife. This is a Christian trait. Repentance, penance, and forgiveness is a Christian concept. So his motives for going on the crusades were religious. Most of the Christians in the movie have no religion, or were hostile to religion. Good and bad Christians were portrayed in this movie. Good Christians like Balian left the Muslims in peace, but bad Christians wanted to kill all Muslims. A Christian crusader is someone who was planning to go there and come back. Crusaders were alright with individual Muslims, but a Muslim state would have been unacceptable. They would have wanted to conquer the Holy Land for Christians. There were no churches in this movie, save for in the knighting scene. That was odd, because in the Middle Ages religion and churches were very important to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. There was crosses, but no crucifixes. The closest religious symbols were during the knighting ceremony where Balians father gives his oath, and Balian is knighted. During his knighting ceremony Balians father gives him his oath. Behind him there is an

Definition paper. The word is Honor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Definition paper. The word is Honor - Essay Example variety of reasons like courage, good works, self-sacrifice and many others; though the word can also be attributed to things which are considered sacred and to gods. Respect is an equal of dignity, the value of a person to another. Being an abstract word, honor is quite difficult to explain although there are synonyms that one can use to let the word be expounded on. Probably the easiest way to understand the word honor is to point out to its value through the actions, words or other manifestations. It is like explaining the presence of air. One can not really hold air and show it to another person to let the other understand its meaning or see how it looks like. Proving there is air is done by pointing out to its effects, showing the tree move in response to the presence of air. The same method is utilized in this quest to define the word honor or honour. Honor held by a person can be seen through other people’s response to his presence. An honored man, when he speaks is taken not on a light mood but considered to speak like a god, having the authority over others, the confidence and attention of his listeners because of what is known about him. Integrity is most often the product of similar abstract things like goodness, love for others, kindness, endurance, care, hard work, determination, and other values or concepts of worthiness. Hard work may be rewarded with the honor of a position in an office. For instance, a clerk who works hard to gain the favor of his employers can be promoted to a higher level where he can enjoy more pay and more benefits as a consequence of his employers’ confidence in him because of his performance. There are also distinctions which are not brought by the hard work and confidence directly effected by the person. For instance, a prince can inherit the reputation bestowed upon his father, be coming the king next to his father after his death. Money which is one of the things that draw the respect of others can also be inherited

Kingdom of Heaven Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kingdom of Heaven - Essay Example Several skirmish between Muslim and Christian forces occur, like when Guy and Raynald kill everyone on a Muslim caravan. Saladin, the Muslim leader, retaliates. Balian is captured, then freed by the servant he had turned loose. The Muslims and Christians reach a tentative truce. The Christians murder Saladins sister, causing Saladin to siege Jerusalem. Balian leads the defense, but has to surrender. Saladin allows them free passage back to their countries. When King Richard I ask Balian to crusade with him, Balian refuses. At the end, subtitles explain King Richard I failed, and fighting for Jerusalem continued over the centuries, even today. The film states â€Å"Peace in the Kingdom of Heaven remains elusive" (Kingdom of Heaven). There was not too much spiritual content in this movie. Balian wanted to go the crusade to gain redemption for him and his wife. This is a Christian trait. Repentance, penance, and forgiveness is a Christian concept. So his motives for going on the crusades were religious. Most of the Christians in the movie have no religion, or were hostile to religion. Good and bad Christians were portrayed in this movie. Good Christians like Balian left the Muslims in peace, but bad Christians wanted to kill all Muslims. A Christian crusader is someone who was planning to go there and come back. Crusaders were alright with individual Muslims, but a Muslim state would have been unacceptable. They would have wanted to conquer the Holy Land for Christians. There were no churches in this movie, save for in the knighting scene. That was odd, because in the Middle Ages religion and churches were very important to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. There was crosses, but no crucifixes. The closest religious symbols were during the knighting ceremony where Balians father gives his oath, and Balian is knighted. During his knighting ceremony Balians father gives him his oath. Behind him there is an

Literature Review on Digital Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Literature Review on Digital Economy - Essay Example Experts report that during the time of introduction of this tool to the world, policymakers explored the possibility of IT making a large impact, but in vain. This failure of IT became reinforced again in the 1990s, when IT began to revolutionize the world economy but again plunged into disaster with the â€Å"dot-bomb† implosion, the 2001 recession, and the NASDAQ collapse. These disasters have led to experts and policymakers forfeit confidence in the concept of IT and digital revolution. Nicholas Carr (2003, pp. 10) evaluated this technological tool by claiming that the improvements that it had the potential to bring about had either already been introduced, or were in the process. This statement represented the prevailing view of IT at that time, as people had started considering it insignificant for individual firms as well as the overall economy. This conclusion was a premature and incorrect one; as the technology went on to completely revolutionize the economy much more than initial prediction. This literature review aims to analyze the reasons behind this faltering confidence during these times. As one can observe in the world today, digital development in the economy is at a level that far exceeds earlier forecasts. However, contrary to predictions, this revolution has not come about due to a rise in e-commerce and other internet-related phenomenon. Instead, the main factor behind this revolution was the way people have managed to adopt IT in almost every aspect of life, inside as well as outside work. This digitally enabled economy was then able to achieve immense growth and prosperity in every aspect: education, business, trade, as well as monetary policy. One large factor behind this accelerated growth was the investment that firms made in software, hardware, as well as services related to IT and communications. It boosted productivity up to five times more than other capital such as buildings and plants could. The large role of IT in this major economic development i s apparent in the fact that sixty-seven percent of total factor productivity growth during the period of 1995 and 2002 was due to IT implementation in the US (Jorgenson et al, 2005). It also boosted the labor productivity in developing nations, and it is considered the main driver behind innovation and productivity growth in the recent years. Despite the major contributions of IT to the economy, not much research has gone into exploring the depths of this contribution. Through this literature review, we attempt to carry out this exploration. More specifically, we will be looking into the contributions of IT in ‘improving the quality of goods and services. A common misconception is that the scope of digital economy is limited to e-commerce. Its actual scope includes all applications of technology in the economy, including that of hardware, applications, and telecommunications. Each of these tools of IT has important applications in areas such as intercompany transactions, data management, internal processes in organizations and vendor-customer relations. These benefits apply to firms regardless of whether they belong to the public sector or the private sector. The revolution to the economy that information technology has brought about is comparable to the revolution that hardened steel brought to the industries a century ago, when it taught them how to construct steel tools that helped boost productivity immensely. Furthermore, it is difficult to grasp the true pervasiveness of IT in the world. It not only exists in technological

HIV Pandemic Essay Example for Free

HIV Pandemic Essay We are entering the third decade of what may be the most devastating epidemic in human history: HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Pandemic is a large-scale epidemic affecting more than one country. AIDS was first clinically diagnosed in the early 1980s but retrospective diagnosis suggests it existed well before this date. AIDS is a syndrome, which develops from an impaired ability to fight diseases. It undermines the body’s defenses against viruses, infections and malignancies. Here, we describe the origins and evolution of these viruses, and the circumstances that led to the AIDS pandemic. Pandemic Assignment Since scientists identified the HIV as the cause of AIDS in 1983, it has spread insistently, causing one of the most harmful pandemics ever recorded in human history. However, concerted global efforts to fight the pandemic are making a significant difference. More than nine million people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries now have access to life-saving antiretroviral treatments. Overview Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) invades the body through the exchange of certain body fluids. The virus invades cells such as T helper cells and begins to replicate itself in the human body. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) of humans is caused by two lentiviruses, â€Å"HIV-1 and HIV-2; HIV-1 accounts for the majority of infections in the world, and has at least 10 genetic subtypes† (Lamptey, Wigley, Carr, Collymore, 2002). Both HIVs are the result of multiple cross-species transmissions of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) naturally infecting African primates. However, as according to Sharp Hahn (2011), one transmission event, involving SIVcpz from chimpanzees in southeastern Cameroon, gave rise to HIV-1 group M—the principal cause of the AIDS pandemic† and noted that by â€Å"tracing the genetic changes that occurred as SIVs crossed from monkeys to apes and from apes to humans†. AIDS Pandemic and the Efforts to Stop HIV/AIDS According to Merson â€Å"on June 5, 1981, few suspected a pandemic of AIDS when the Centers for Disease Control reported five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) in young homosexual men in Los Angeles† (2006). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) reported that all the men had other unusual infections as well, indicating that their immune systems were not working; two had already died by the time the report was published. In a timeline created by AIDS. com, â€Å"this edition of the MMWR marks the first official reporting of what will become known as the AIDS epidemic† (2014). Although â€Å"after pandemic HIV-1 first emerged in colonial west central Africa, it spread for some 50 to 70 years before it was recognized† (Sharp Hahn, 2011) because phylogenetic and statistical analyses have dated the last common ancestor of HIV-1 to around 1910 to 1930. For a while the American government completely ignored the emerging AIDS pandemic. The first attempt to treat HIV was in â€Å"September 1986, when early results from clinical trials involving AZT (zidovudine) – a drug that was first investigated as a cancer treatment – showed that it might slow the attack of HIV† (AVERT, 2013). Although AZT could slow progression to AIDS in HIV positive individuals with no symptoms, a year’s supply for each person would cost around seven-thousand dollars and many did not have adequate health insurance to cover the cost. In 1995, â€Å"FDA announced that the drug 3TC (lamivudine) had been approved for use in combination with AZT in treating AIDS and HIV† (AVERT, 2013) after a number of studies had shown that HIV could quickly become resistant to AZT and that the drug had no benefit for those in the early stages of the disease. On April 5th 1990 Ryan White, schoolboy who had become infected with HIV via a blood transfusion for his haemophilia, died. He was known for his fight to return to public school after he was banned due to fears of spreading of AIDS to other children. â€Å"Following Ryan’s death, the American government implemented a new programme named after him – the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act† (AVERT, 2013). Its aim was to improve the quality and availability of care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured individuals and families affected by HIV. In 2000, the government funded programs such as needle exchange services and abstinence-only education and in 2001 the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) set a goal to halve the number of people infected with HIV each year in the USA to 20,000 by the end of 2005 but by 2003 it was already clear that the CDC’s goal would be missed, the number of new infections had shown no sign of declining. In 2006, President Bush signed the reauthorisation of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, â€Å"since its creation in 1990 the program had provided federal funding for thousands of Americans living with HIV/AIDS unable to pay for their treatment themselves† (AVERT, 2013). In 2007, raltegravir – was approved by the FDA which according to AVERT â€Å"Raltegravir was the first of a new class called integrase inhibitors† and â€Å"the significant progress in treatment proved to be particularly important to thousands of HIV positive Americans whose treatment had been failing due to drug resistance (2013). It was believed to provide extended years of meaningful survival to patients. In July 2010, â€Å"the USAs first HIV/AIDS Strategy was released† (The White House Office of National AIDS Policy, 2010) and reducing new HIV infections was included as one of the Strategys three core aims. According to AVERT (2013), â€Å"in order to reduce new infections without an increase in funding, the Strategy recommended that HIV prevention efforts be intensified in the communities where HIV is the most heavily concentrated†. MedlinePlus concluded that â€Å"there is no cure or vaccine to prevent HIV/AIDS, but early detection through HIV testing and treatment can frequently turn this fatal disease into a manageable chronic disease† (2009). The HIV-1 pandemic is a complex mix of diverse epidemics within and between countries and regions of the world. â€Å"AIDS remains the fourth leading cause of death in low-income countries† (International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, 2014). While there will never be a solution to HIV and AIDS, a preventive vaccine would do a great deal to curb the pandemic. But unfortunately, the problem with developing a vaccine is that the HIV genome mutates very quickly. Stowell (2006) explains that all organisms vary a little throughout the centuries. The HIV genome mutates around 1000 times more quickly than the human genome around 1000 times more mutations accumulate in a single year, relative to the length of the genome. Antiretroviral treatment has transformed AIDS from an inevitably fatal condition to a chronic, manageable disease in some settings.  Johannesburg (2010) cited The Lancet medical journal, which published a study that predicts that by 2031 – about 50 years into the HIV epidemic – annual new HIV infections will be roughly halved to about 1. 2 million.

E Business Strategy: An Analysis

E Business Strategy: An Analysis Bank is an institution that deals with money as well as credit. It accepts deposits from the public, makes funds available to those who need then and helps in remittance of money form one place to another (Macesich, George, 2000, p-42). Modern banks today perform a wide range of functions that makes it difficult to give an apt and precise definition of it. One of the famous economists, Crowther had said, a bank collects money from those who have it to spare or who are saving it out of their incomes, and lends this money to those who require it. In short, the term bank in modern times refers to an institution that deals with money i.e. accepts deposits and advances loans; has the ability to create credit which basically implies expanding its liabilities as a multiple of its reserves; creates demand deposits and it is a commercial institution that aims at securing profits. Citibank is a subsidiary of Citigroup. Citibank was founded as City Bank of New York in the year 1918. According t o the latest statistics, it is now the third largest bank holding company in the United States by the total assets after Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. The bank has its retail banking operations spread over more than 100 countries and territories around the world (Harold, Cleveland Huertas, 1985). Apart from the standard banking transactions, Citibank offers credit cards, insurance and other investment products. Their online services have earned them appreciation from every nook and corner, making them the most successful in the field. The 15 million online users bear testimony to the stated fact. The key people involved in the management of the bank are: Vikram Pandit (CEO), John Gerspach (CFO), Douglas Peterson (COO) and Willliam R. Rhodes, the Chairman. Strategy literally means the way an action is planned to achieve the desired results. Every company has certain aims that it hopes to conquer. It has a vivid description of what it desires to achieve. The vision statement that company has is an idealized picture which inspires it, energizes its efforts towards directing its actions towards the expected goals (Hambrick and Chen, 2007, p 935-955). Strategic Decision Making, in context of a firm or an organization, is the framing of long term plan of action that aims at resulting in success and profits for the products and services marketed by the company, for instance (Triantaphyllou, 2000, p 320). Strategic decision making is important to outperform the various other competitors in the market. The process of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving organizational objectives and thereby accomplishing organizational purpose is known as Strategy formulation. In todays era of cut-throat competition in the business environme nt budget-oriented planning or forecast-based planning methods are insufficient for a large corporation to survive and prosper. The firm must engage in strategic planning that clearly defines objectives and assesses both the internal and external situation to formulate strategy, implement the strategy, evaluate the progress, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track (Kepner and Tregoe, 1965). A strategy thus formulated, should reflect on environmental analysis, basing on sustainable business. It should lead to the materializing of the vision of the organization, as to where the organization sees itself in the years to come and result in achievement of organizational objectives. It basically comprises of the following steps: Setting up mission and objectives: The mission statement describes the companys business vision, including the unchanging values and purpose of the firm and forward-looking visionary goals that would guide the pursuit of future opportunities and lead to its long term stance in the business world. Measures such as sales targets and earnings growth are the organizations financial objectives. Strategic objectives are related to the firms business position, and may include measures such as reputation in the market and market share. Environmental Scanning: The environmental scanning includes the internal analysis of the firm, external macro-environment and the analysis of the firms task environment. Various scientific analysis have been developed which assist in the process of environmental scanning. A deep rooted internal analysis of the firms strengths and weaknesses and external analysis of the threats and opportunities gives us a clear picture about the firms stance. And a profile of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is given by the SWOT analysis. It gives us proper information regarding the concerned firm which helps us in matching the firms resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates (Menon et al, 1999, p 18-40). Strengths are used in developing the rudiments for a competitive advantage. Strengths include exclusive access to high grade natural resources, patents, strong brand names, favorable access to distribution networks and good reputation among cus tomers. The weaknesses are high cost structure, lack of access to the best natural resources, lack of access to key distribution channels, a weak brand name and bad reputation among customers. Opportunities are chance occasions for growth and prosperity. They may include: removal of international trade barriers, loosening of rules and regulations, introduction of new technologies and an unfulfilled customer need (Hill and Westbrook, 1997, p 46-52). The changes in the external environment may pose serious threat to the organization. For instance, emergence of substitute products, new regulations, increased trade barriers and shifts in consumer tastes away from the firms products. The external macro environment can be tested on the PEST analysis scale. The acronym PEST (or sometimes rearranged as STEP) is used to describe a framework for the analysis of these macro environmental factors. It is the Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis. Political issues include Governm ents policies and legal issues like Tax policy, employment laws, trade restrictions and tariffs and political stability. Economic growth, Interest rates, Exchange rates and Inflation rates determine the Economic conditions of the market. Social factors include career attitudes, age distribution, population growth rate, health consciousness and emphasis on safety. The various factors like Automation, research and development activity, technological incentives and the rate of change of technology, influence the technological aspect of the functioning of the organization. A framework developed my Michael Porter known as Porters five forces can also be used in drawing industrial analysis. Strategy formulation: Keeping in mind the strengths and the weaknesses of the organization, it charts out its strategy that helps it in optimizing its resources and gaining maximum profits out of it. Business trends analysis, Market analysis, Competitive analysis, Market segmentation, Marketing-mix, SWOT analysis, Positioning analyzing perceptions and Sources of information are all studied closely and accurately and then strategies are formulated on the basis of the three generic strategies. The Cost Leadership strategy focuses on being the low cost producer in an industry for a given level of quality (Chaffee, 1985). The firm sells its products either below the average industry prices to gain market share or at the average industry prices to earn a profit higher than the market rivals. In the situation of a price war, the firm can maintain some profitability while letting the competition suffer losses. Even without a price war, as the industry matures and prices decline, the firms that can produce more cheaply will remain profitable for a longer period of time. The cost leadership strategy usually targets a broad market. The internal strengths that lead to success in cost leadership strategy are: High level of expertise in manufacturing process engineering, Skill in devising products for efficient manufacturing, having access to required amount of capital for investing in production assets and efficient distribution channels. The second generic strategy, i.e. The Differentiation Strategy triggers the development of a product or service that offers unique attributes that are valued by the customers and that customers consider it to be better than or distinct from the products of the competition. That means it gives ultimate utility and satisfaction to the consumer. Factors like access to leading scientific research, strong sales team that has the inherent ability to put forward the perceived strengths of the product in the market, highly skilled and creative product development department and corporate reputation for quality and innovation, result in the success of Differentiation Strategy (Mulcaster, 2009, p 65-70). The third generic strategy that is the Focus Strategy, finds its essence in a narrow segment within which it tries to achieve either a cost advantage or differentiation. The basic idea is that needs of the group are better serviced by focusing entirely on it. Strategy Implementation: The strategy thus finalized is then implemented using budgets, programs and procedures. The firms resources are organized and allocated and proper motivation is given to the work force to achieve its objectives and thus the strategy is implemented. The way in which the work force perceives the strategy is different. It is logical, that the people who formulated the strategy and the people who will implement it are very different from each other and thus there might be a conflict of opinions, if proper care is not taken to communicate efficiently. Misunderstanding may lead to chaos. Evaluation and Control: The implemented strategy has to be followed up and monitored in every step, and adjustments, if any required, will be made to adapt to the changed scenario of the market. Evaluation would primarily revolve around defining parameters to be measured, defining target values for those parameters, performing measurements, comparing measured results to the pre-defined standard and making necessary changes. E-BUSINESS: The application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business is known as Electronic business or e-business(Louis Gerstner,1996, p 172). Commerce deals with the exchange of products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the most essential activities of any business. The application of Information and Communications Technology to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses is what Electronic commerce is all about. Electronic business methods empower companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and adaptably, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers (Timmers, 2000, p-31). In practice, e-business is far more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce aims to gather revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and nurture relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency (Miller, Roger, 2002, p741). Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge systems. E-business involves business processes spreading the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, handling customer service, processing orders electronically, and cooperating with business partners and catering to their needs online, via internet. Special technical standards for e-business enable the exchange of data between various companies. Basically, electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information via computer networks, including the internet. EC can also be benefited from many perspective including business process, service, learning, community. EC is often confused with e-business. . E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the web, the Internet, intranet and extranet or a combination of these. E-BUSINESS STRATEGIES: With the arrival of the Internet facilities and plenty of web development technologies all over the world, e-business is the new talk of businesses in todays world. E-business, like any other emerging field, is changing fast and in the process is changing the way businesses formulate their strategies and conduct their business through realization of those strategies. : E-business scores over the traditional sphere of business by adding speed to the business activities and giving a totally new dimension and definition to businesses worldwide be it whether partnerships, joint ventures or large corporations. It makes transactions quicker in this world of fast pace (Andam, 2003) . The intranet, internet, cellular networks and various other forms of digital technology have resulted in formation of a niche value chain among clients, employees, suppliers, stakeholders and traders coordinated and interlinked in the world of web marketing. The equipments and pillars of e-business strategies include acceptance of payments over the Internet, online advertising, on-line trading and auction deals over the Internet. E-business strategies differ for small and medium-sized businesses. Apart from regular sources, e-business strategies can generate revenue made from paid marketing alliances, revenues derived from franchisees and subscriptions and revenue from maintenance of current channel integrity. E- Business technology provides organizations with a great opportunity to nurture relationships with external and internal parties across its value and supply chains, to realise its competitive advantages. In doing so, however, the solution is not in the application of technology alone, to develop an effective e-Business strategy and for a successful implementation to be realised, existing business interactions must be modeled and scrutinized to trace the interactions that will benefit from this paradigm. The business processes supporting these interactions must be reformulated and designed to effectively perform the procedures behind the interactions. These changes to the business will drive changes to the supporting technology and to the stakeholders that perform the business processes using the technology. The use of Internet has helped and garnered the worldwide development of business that reaches out to a wider consumer base and advertises their products more effectively and ef ficiently. E business has been added as the latest domain in business and has become a must-have in the highly competitive technology driven open market. E Business Strategy can be summed up as the overall strategies that govern E Businesses through calculated information dissemination or scattering. Information dissemination has been widely regarded as the strongest attribute of e-business, which uses information technology in a most effective and exhaustive manner. Not only has e-business has come to play a significant role in the scenario of world trade; there is no business without an accompanying e-business in todays world. E business gives a business the opportunity, the chance to open its base to the global market and become a part of the global business community. The most important feature of e-business is that the helps businesses move on to the international scene at maximum efficiency using minimum cost. E-business has achieved unparalleled levels of success as business models (Business Software Alliance. 2001). For instance: Materials Requirement Planning (MRP), EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). The essential features of e-business strategies are Supply Chain management and email marketing. A state-of-the-art E Business Strategy would generally include: Supply chain management: According to Harland, the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision product and service packages as required by the consumer is known as Supply chain management. The supply chain spreads all over from governing the storage and movement of raw materials to the inventory of the production process and the finished goods, from the origin point till the point where it is finally consumed (Mentzer et al., 2007, p 1-25). The effective management of supply chain can be taken care of with the help of e-business strategies, which will ensure better coordination and understanding between the wholesalers and the retailers of various products that are launched into the market. Better integration of the supply chain right from the source till the final delivery of the product can be effectively put to work using e-business strategy (Hines, 2004). This also leads us to the point of e- commerce where a parallel network of selling and buying can be seen using dissemination or scattering of information over the Internet. Everything ranging from automobiles to electronic gadgets can be bought over the Internet in a hassle free manner under the aegis of sound supply chain management. Customer service and customer relationship management: Effective e-business strategies would involve better customer service and customer relationship management ensuring the highest level of consumer satisfaction. E business is targeted at providing the services that are customer friendly, which would include the delivery of goods right at the doorstep of the consumer, right on time. Inventory and service management integration: E business strategies can also help in improved inventory and service management integration through formulating certain specific plans for accumulation of inventory and purchasing of machinery and equipment which will avoid unnecessary purchases that would ultimately lead to higher expenditures and entail different tax implications. Tactical operations alignment: Tactical operations implying towards short-term goals as opposed to strategic planning aimed at long term goals can be better coordinated by implementing the e-business strategies. Implementing Business Strategy: Implementing e-business strategy is a major task and to ensure its success, from the beginning itself, objectives need to be identified and measurable goals need to be chalked down. This will include finding out steps in a business process, minimizing errors by eliminating paper-based transactions, introducing new market opportunities or improving information access among managers, departments or strategic business units. The costs and impacts of the establishment are measured in terms of resources, time and money. The impact of business should be anticipated, well ahead of time. The introduction of e-business technology across multiple strategic business units will require a major commitment of IT department. Since e-Business applications are transparent to all major hardware platforms, operating systems and databases, thus, using an open architecture configuration eliminates this concern (Charlesworth, 2009, p 49) . If an effort to make clarifications regarding the value of the strategy to the stakeholders is made, then the process of implementation becomes smoother. For instance, e-Procurement applications add value at the purchasing department level by reducing errors and streamlining the processes involved. At the organizational level value is added by facilitated purchasing in groups which cuts costs and vendors receive added value because they have quick and prompt access to information so they can track invoices and payments. The execution of the business interaction model is expected to place us in a position to clearly identify and apply values that can be quantified to the four issues discussed above, the net resul t of which is the formulated e-Business strategy itself. E-business strategy in Citibank: Banks today are up-to-date with both the pros and cons of the internet. They are aware of the opportunities and threats that are associated with the Web. Not a single traditional bank is brave enough to face investment analysts without an Internet strategy. But even a very thoughtful approach to the Web may do no good to the company/ organization. The main purpose behind launching online banking services is to provide the customer an alternative way which is more responsive and less expensive i.e. is cost friendly. CitiDirect is the centre of the Citibank global e-Business strategy. The Business strategy of Citibank is to : CONNECT their customers to their web enabled services, TRANSFORM their capabilities into new Internet offerings and EXTEND our reach into new markets via integrated infrastructure solutions and partnerships with technology companies or e-Commerce market makers. They have innovative e-business solutions like: 1) CitiPhone 24 hours Phone Banking Service 2) ATMs- Automated Teller Machines 3) CitiAlert GSM notifications service 4) E-Card Internet Shopping Card 5) CitiDirect Corporate Internet Banking Service, and 6) Citibank Online Retail Internet Banking Service. Citibank is committed to an e-business strategy-Connect, Transform and Extend-was to web enable its core services, develop integrated solutions and reach new markets. (McCauley Khan, 2002, p.1). Their strategy is to position Citibank as the embedded Financial Services engine that powers the Internet economy. Citibank tries to differentiate itself from competitors by using its customer service efficiently. Several services are offered to their clients. Citibank offers telephone hotlines, customer relations managers to give individual care and attention to address the issues of their customers, and service experts. Citibank has been investing in technology for the front and back end of the banking systems, consistently for a long time now. Citibank was also committed to its customers. According to the case study, Citibanks vision was to become the worlds leading e-business enabler. Citibank had over 268,000 employees located in over 100 countries and their focus was to embed their ser vices into the everyday lives of the local population. Its a bank that has its roots spreading all over the country as deep as any local indigenous bank, offering diverse products, building a broad customer base, actively participating in the social community and recruiting staff and senior management from the local population and hence guaranteeing employment and stability to the economy. Apart from being committed to employees and customers all over the world, Citibank has strong brand recognition and continues to invest in technology. The leading Citigroup formed alliances with Oracle, Commerce One, Inc., SAP AG, Wisdom Technologies and Bolero.net to help metamorphosis of its company to an e-business model, to place itself strongly within the technology sector. In 2000, four companies got together with Citibank to form Financial Settlement Matrix.com It is a company that connected buyers and sellers in e-marketplaces with credit, payment processing and other services through multiple participating banks and financial service companies. Citibank is always open to adjustments to adapt to the ever-changing business environment and thus it obtains the place of one of the most successful banking chains in the world. Citibank, in its pursuit of transforming its traditional assets to digital assets has established departments necessary to manage the process. Citibank form ed the Internet Operation Group which shouldered the responsibility of distributing Internet activities among e-Citi and all other business units. Shortly after that, e-Consumer and e-Business segments were established with the aim of infusing internet to the entire customer and corporate banking activities and services. After a while, e-Capital Markets and e-Assets Management departments were also established. The e-Business unit has the task of developing the software needed to set clients up with electronic business accounts, utilizing both IT and business people. The e-workplace gave a tremendous boost to Citibank when it was in its pursuit of transitioning from the traditional way of doing business to the electronic way. Constant attention is given to development in order to make upgrades in the e-business model. The key to manage the flow of money, for its corporate consumers through the World Wide Web was delivering an integrated solution that would enable its corporate custo mers to conduct transaction on-line. Citigroup desired to be the middle intermediary between buyers and sellers for any sort of transaction. Their strength is the customer-centered approach including response time, technology and support which gains the confidence of the customers on the products of the bank. Citigroup is dedicated towards creating products that cater to different industries and business needs by taking appropriate steps, be it investing thousands of millions of dollars in the online technology or starting e-business groups. By the end of 2000, customers had begun demanding electronic invoicing, online payments guarantees and digital receipts stored online and automatic application of payments to account receivables. Citibanks strategic intent is to convert its traditional money management business into an e-business framework. Porter had accorded two main ways for a company to compete on the global front. One was cost advantage and the other was differentiation {Po rter, M.E (1980)}. And Citibanks strategy was not to compete on price and was bored rooted to the differentiation aspect. Since there are many other companies which market similar products and services, Citibank bases its differentiation on customer service. Traditionally, offering telephone hotlines, product consultants who provided service expertise, relationship managers who understood clients needs and expectations, and most important, continuous involvement in investing in technology to support both the front-end and the back-end electronic banking systems. In order for the transformation of traditional assets into digital assets, to be successful, the company must maintain or enhance its differentiation. Since the companys differentiation is based on customer service, that means that in the transformation from traditional to digital assets the company must continue to be highly responsive to the customers current and future needs and cater to the expectations of every single c lient without any fail or bias, and must do so to a higher level than the competition and set a higher standard than that set by the other competitors in the market. The alliance with the four companies Oracle, Commerce One, Inc., SAP AG, Wisdom Technologies and Bolero.net helped the Citigroup to transform and grow. In earlier occasions, the company had invested millions of dollars on its own in multiple areas of e-business, and had miserably failed. As technology is not Citibanks field of expertise, it found keeping in sync dealing with constantly changing technology to be an expensive battle, which it ultimately lost. However, by 2000 Citibank learnt form its failure. Taking lessons from its experience it changed its strategy to one of garnering alliances and using its partners strengths to create the technological infrastructure that the company needed to access markets and meet its customers changing demands. Working through alliances increased its effectiveness, reduced Citiban ks risks and costs, and allowed it to remain pliable in meeting changing technological and customer demands. Both in the short term and long term, the customers demands vary. According to McCauley and Kahn (2002), one of the most important hurdles for Citibank to overcome in canalizing customers from traditional to digital service was addressing their deep seated concerns about security. While to some extent this troubled Citibanks efforts in rolling out Web-based applications, it did actively implement multi-layered security architecture public and private access keys, single-use passwords and multiple authorization controls in order to meet customer needs (McCauley and Kahn 2002, p. 9). To add to it, with digital processing it aspired to transform repeatable processes that could be commoditized into an efficient digital factory. The transformation of goods and services (or things that may not normally be regarded as goods or services) into a commodity is known as commoditization. Commoditizing repeatable processes improves efficiency, but also gives scope to resources for additional regional emphasis i.e. localization. The strong brand name of Citibank is a resource that translates into increased trust as a trusted provider when competing with Deutche Bank and other competitors. In fact, most Fortune 500 companies assign value to Citibanks specific offerings, and prefer it to other international payment providers. Citibank, then, offers multiple areas of value to customers. The evidences of constant work in the field of imbibing recent technologies and adjusting to the changing business environment are many. The cooperation of the software giant, Microsoft and financial giant, Citibank led to the reinforcement of high standards. With a global network spanning more than 100 countries, Citi will benefit from this collaboration because the CitiDirect BE platform will help monetize its best-in-class service offerings and broad geographic coverage, while taking f ull advantage of Microsofts expertise in platform engineering, development of independent software vendor communities, and product life-cycle management, read an article on internet. Thus the commitment of Citibank to deliver global services and enhanced value through world-class partnership and innovative e-business solutions that meets the customers expectations in very evident and worth trusting. But the question that is worth focusing on now, is whether this value translates into a competitive advantage which translates into additional profits. The focus now would shift to question how unique are the solutions offered by it. Soon the cutting edge technological capabilities might become hygiene factors which will be considered to be required and not a competitive advantage and thus would not qualify for differentiation. Potential growths in e-business are always happening and continuous developments are indispensable. More and more companies are willing and opting to do everything from banking to purchasing to marketing online. Thus it becomes very essential for Citibank to align itself with the right partners in order to maintain their standards and their sta nce in the e-business sector. Company executive Tom Edgerton stated, In the future, it wont be what your company can do, but what the network of companies you work with can provide. In order for Citi to continue to grow, it must evolve in its e-Business model and develop unceasing updates to its online products. Expanding on their existing good reputation, enhanced web features and exceptional customer service, would be the fundamental opportunities for Citibank. According to Edgerton, Citibank brings considerable value to potential alliance partners. Theyre interested in our brand, our financial services expertise, our global presence, our strong customer relationships and position as a trusted provider, as well as our knowledge of specific industries and international markets. The regionalization and specialized processing centers that Citibank has developed has provided them with scale and continual improvement opportunities. Like all other sectors and organizations, Citibank is also dedicated towards improving information management practices. This in turn improves the efficiency of business processes, the demands of compliance reg

Mans Transition to Agriculture Essay -- History, Neolithic Revolution

During mans transition to agriculture human achievements were both interesting and essential even though archeologists needed to interpret the remains of tools, cave paintings and burial sites. The social norms adopted during this period led to the creation of society as we know it today. Agriculture led to the formation of more complex societies where people were able to settle in one place for longer periods focus on economic, political, and religious goals which helped to increase the number of people in the world. On the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Mesopotamia and the Nile in Egypt emerged civilizations affected the history of the eastern half of the Mediterranean. Theses civilizations led to formation of cities and increased urbanization over a vast period of time. On the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Mesopotamia and the Nile in Egypt emerged civilizations that were to have profound influence on the history of the eastern half of the Mediterranean. The rise of these civilizations, led to increased urbanization, and the formation of states. (Bogucki, 1999) During this period people lived off what they came across, off the animals they hunted, and the plants they gathered. The people were constantly moving to areas were animals were more abundant which kept them constantly on the moving to new areas in search of new food sources. This meant that some groups of people could remain in one area for longer periods of time, sheltered from the elements in primitive huts and caves. The next step in mans development was the transition to an entirely new way of life characterized by greater control of nature. Man started to cultivate the cereals which he had always gathered as wild plants, and domesticat... ...as possible to stand with one foot in a green field and the other in the dry desert sand. Secondly, being totally surrounded by uninhabitable land Egypt was far less accessible than Mesopotamia and consequently far more isolated from the outside world. This difference had major political consequences in that the history of Egypt was fairly stable and static with little interference from the outside world. Mesopotamia faced constant invasions from others. Many of the invaders assumed control and founded new empires. However, a considerable degree of continuity was preserved in Mesopotamia because most newcomers adapted to the current cultural traditions. (Zvelebil, 2009) With agriculture human beings were able to settle in one place and focus on economic, political, and religious goals and activities along with increasing the number of people in the world.