Agency Dream Position for Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Agency Dream Position for Advertising - Essay Example The skills necessary for this position include proficient multilingual skills. There is no need for talent but creativity is very essential for this position (Rachel Deahl, 2013). This means that one should be able to craft words and ideas by seeing images, slogans, and products. Social skills are necessary in addition to excellent organization and communication skills. Good administration as networking skills will be necessary if one is to succeed in this job. Self-motivation, flexibility, working under pressure, ability to multi task, resilience to absorb both internal and external criticism is also required. Good researching skills as well as an interest in popular culture and current trends is very necessary (Paul Owiti, 2014). I believe this position will suit me because of my good networking skills as well as my ability to multitask. I am very social, intelligent, sharp and always in tandem with the latest technology. I have good communication skills and I am excellent when it comes to team work. For all the above reasons, I believe I qualify to be a top copywriter. AGCAS Editors. (2013, December 13). Prospects: The UKs Official graduate careers website. Retrieved 2014, from Advertising copywriter: Entry requirements:

Moral values Essay Example for Free

Moral values Essay This approach to humanitarian emergencies has been accepted by newer humanitarian agencies and NGOs, like Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). These agencies and NGOs reject the principle of neutr4ality, and instead support the principle of impartiality that allows them to make a judgment on a conflict situation, that is, to speak out. 5 For instance, MSF claims that it refuses to wait for the approval of all parties before acting. It insists on the right to speak out in the face of human rights violations, because [it is] not sure that speaking out always saves lives, but [it is] certain that silence kills. However, the integration of human rights into humanitarianism would imply that aid is withheld in cases that the conditions for the effective humanitarian action are not in place. 6 This conditionality in aid has some serious consequences. Fox warns the danger of aid conditionality. should NGOs be doing politics? The notion that aid agencies can predict the long-term impact of humanitarian interventions; No matter how mush we want to act in a way beneficial in the long-term, its pretty much an exercise in ideological vanity. It also begs the question as whether aid workers should be making important political decisions. 2) Risks of losing humanitarian space. New humanitarians accept that speaking out carries a risk of losing access to those in need but they insist this is a price worth paying for drawing international attention to human rights abuses. Agencies cannot expect immunity or humanitarian space if the are leaning towards solidarity. Another risk of politicizing humanitarian aid is that aid agencies are seen to have lost their independence from western governments whose aid policies have often had more to do with promoting national interests than meeting human needs. The human rights approach means the elevation of political rights over basic needs. Many would argue that such suffering may be justified in the short-term in order to alleviate the long-term suffering of women in Afghan society? The danger of the new developmental relief is that it puts strengthening processes and institutions before saving lives. What always distinguished humanitarian aid from developmental aid was the minimalist goal of saving a life. Using humanitarian aid to promote peace and justice will save more lives in the long term. The logic is that lives lost now can help save lives in the future. People are left to suffer and die in the interests of a long-term political solution. Humanitarian assistance is supposed to help people and protect them from suffering and abuse is missing from developmental aid. It is not possible to analyze the changing nature of humanitarian aid without at least asking whether new humanitarianism is a new form of colonialism. Those groups that comply with the Western version of human rights and conflict resolution will receive aid. Those that reject western values will be left to their fate. In this way conditional humanitarian aid is becoming yet another tool available to western governments to control developing countries. Defining a new universal set of moral values. Developmental relief and the new human rights humanitarianism are all based on western moral values which are necessarily posited in opposition to the barbarism of conflicts in developing countries. One principle worth reviving from the list of traditional humanitarian assistance is universalism- the right of everyone to receive humanitarian relief in times of crisis. People dying without food, water, and medicines should receive unconditional humanitarian aid. The human rights approach, developmental aid and the rejection of neutrality amount to the politicization of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid cannot be divorced from politics. Warring sides, international agencies and foreign governments can manipulate relief for political ends. But the political manipulation of humanitarian aid is entirely different to the conscious use of humanitarian aid by agencies to pursue the political ends that is proposed by new humanitarianism.

Germ Line Therapy :: Genetics Science Genes Papers

Germ Line Therapy When I was a student in elementary school I was first told about genetics. I was told that traits are passed from parents to offspring and that each parent contributes equally. Someday, I was told, parents will be able to go down to the corner drug store and pick out what kind of baby they want. They could pick things like blue eyes, high intelligence and could even pick out the sex of their child. At the time I was being told this I believed that I would see it in my lifetime. I expected that by the time I was having children I would be able to pick their traits. I was especially excited to think that my children would not inherit my genetic disease. I wasn’t quite sure how all of this would work, but I was curious to find out. As I progressed in my scholastic career I went on to learn more about genetics. I finally decided that genetics was the field of study that I wished to pursue in college. Once in college I learned that determining your child’s traits was not as easy as going down to the corner drug store and taking a pill, as I had imagined when I was a child. In fact determining most traits, such as eye and hair color was probably not even in the foreseeable future. What was involved I couldn’t even begin to understand as a freshman in college. The more I understood about molecular biology, the less feasible trait determination seemed. Then along came Dolly, the cloned sheep. For some time scientists have been pursuing the idea of germ line therapy. Germ line therapy is essentially alterations made to the germ cells. Germ cells are eggs, sperm and early embryos (Henzig 1998). Any manipulation to the germ line would be transferred to future generations. Any corrections made at this stage would not need to be made again in that person’s descendants. Traditional gene therapy on adult subjects is called somatic cell therapy. This type of gene therapy must be repeated for each affected person in succeeding generations (Svitil 1998). Dolly was an important discovery because she was the first animal to be created from an adult differentiated cell. This cloning technique made germ line research much easier. Adult cells are more abundant than embryonic cells, and there should be no objection to doing research on differentiated cells from an adult donor.

A Comparison of the Influential Role of the Chorus in Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea

A comparison of the influential role of the chorus in Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea It has been said by Napoleon Hill, â€Å"Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another†. This has been put to use in the plays Antigone by Sophocles and Medea by Euripides. The chorus which was an integral part of ancient Greek drama was used in the dramas to play an influential role. However, the group they mainly influenced contrasted and thus will be explored in the essay. The chorus in Antigone is composed of Theban men who were summoned by the newly crowned king Creon. Its interaction was mainly with Creon. Sophocles has shown a relation between the chorus and Creon, both being old and wise men of Thebes. They are introduced rejoicing the victory of Thebes over Argos. As the play develops they get actively involved commenting on every action and decision of the main actors. Its support wavers from Creon to Antigone during the course of the play. The women of Corinth formed the chorus in Eurpides Medea. They chiefly served as a commentator to the play. Euripides has shown a relation between the chorus and the character they interact the most, Medea, as both belonged to the group of women living in the male-dominated society. The involvement of chorus has been minimized after Medea asks them not to interfere in her action of revenge towards Jason. The chorus feeling sympathetic towards Medea gives her their consent on the future happenings in the play, â€Å"I will. You are right to take revenge on your husband. † Being women and able to understand Medea’s miseries, the chorus was moved to such an extent that they supported Medea, a foreigner to their land in killing the daughter of their ruler. This shows them primarily as women before good subject of Creon. Both Sophocles and Euripides have used the chorus to influence the audience. They have conveyed emotions the writer wants the audience to feel for the proceedings of the play. The chorus has also been used to influence the minds of the actors. The chorus in Antigone has little role in influencing the emotions of the audience. They enter the play and introduce Creon to the audience also creating a doubt in the mind of the viewers of his immediate plans which made him call the old Theban men. The chorus is also given the responsibility of informing the viewers of the status of Ismene over her sister being caught denying the law. They introduce Ismene as, â€Å"Here comes Ismene from the palace, Shedding a fond sister’s tears. Her face is flushed† This is different from what was observed in the opening scene where Ismene besides refusing to help Antigone with the burial also warned her of the consequences of her act leading to Antigone telling her, â€Å"you will earn my hatred† . While Creon and Haemon are fighting over Creon’s decision of executing Antigone, Haemon’s fiancee, the chorus justifies both their points for the audience. The play ends with chorus’ last words with the message the writer has tried to convey through the drama. The chorus takes its responsibility of burying the dead while propagating the importance of wisdom. They also criticize Creon’s pride and arrogance associating with Zeus’ hatred towards ‘boasts of a proud tongue’ . The chorus in Medea in the first scene provokes the feeling of sympathy towards Medea from the audience when they say, â€Å"I don’t like the family suffering. I sympathise with them. † This conveys the thought to the audience that the society is sympathetic towards Medea thus she indeed has been done great wrong by Jason. Further in the play when Creon banishes Medea and her sons from the kingdom and gives them only one day in Corinth, the chorus enlightens the audience of the troubles she faces after being banished from the land which gave her refuge. This increases the sense of sympathy from the audience towards Medea. The chorus emphasizes, â€Å"What an impassable sea of troubles, Medea, God has launched on you! Later in the play when Medea confides about her plan of killing Jason’s new wife, the chorus accepts her decision and supports her completely in taking her revenge. But when Medea tells them that she is also planning to kill her sons to punish Jason, the Chorus reacts in a way the audience should have as only it, the chorus and the audience know about her plans, â€Å"Since you have confided this to us†¦ We want to help you, but we can’t reject The laws of human life. We say, Don’t do this! † The chorus also shows curiosity when Medea goes inside her house to kill her sons. The same feeling would have developed among the audience to know whether she is actually committing the sin. The chorus in Antigone also plays the major role of influencing the decisions of Creon and making Antigone realize her mistake. After listening to the sentry about the burial of Polyneices, the chorus, superstitious in nature proclaim suggest Creon, â€Å"Lord, all this time my thoughts have been saying that this might be the work of the gods† This was the first attempt of the chorus to influence Creon to take back his decision of not giving Polyneices a respectful burial. However, this was only responded with anger by Creon who warned the chorus that they might prove it insane and senile as the Gods will not give an honorable burial to the person who came to burn their temples and pillars. Creon had decided to prosecute Ismene along with Antigone; they was then the chorus who questioned him about Ismene who was not involved in the burial leading to a change in mind and Ismene being set free. The chorus and Antigone have a long conversation after Antigone is declared to be hanged. The chorus informs her that she departs from the world with a glorious death. When Antigone compares herself to the Gods, the chorus informs her that she has not resembled the goddess Niobe in her life but they is honorable for her to die like gods. The chorus press on her that she is at fault as she defied the royal orders and make Antigone reflect on the curse on her family regarding marriages. First, her mother married her son, followed by her death just before her marriage. The prophecy by Teiresias leaves a doubt in Creon’s mind and they are the chorus who give her the advice to â€Å"Go and free the girl from her cell of rock, and set up a tomb for him who lies unburied. Creon takes this advice and he rushes to the place of Antigone’s assassination. Hence, a strong influence of the Theban men can be seen on the main characters of the play Antigone. The influence of the chorus in Medea over the characters is negligible as the women only serve as commentators over every action and decision. The chorus attempts to influence Medea not to kill her sons when she confides her plan to them. However, Medea turns down their advice without much consideration. This shows the negligible impact of the chorus on the character. Both the plays were written in ancient Greek times when the society was dominated by men. As the chorus of Antigone consisted of men, they had an active role in the play, their advice was sought, their opinions were heard and they were respected. On the other hand, the chorus of Medea consisting women played a passive role talking to itself and the audience most of the times. Their interruptions in conversations were ignored by the other characters. They also portrays the feministic views of Euripides. They sympathized with Medea and supported her in her decision to avenge Jason for betraying her. They condemned men, who are unfaithful to the wives, a thought common in most women. Therefore, while in Antigone, the chorus has a major influence on the actors, the chorus of Medea mainly influences the audience. Sources referred http://ancienthistory. about. com/od/greekliterature/a/GreekTheater_4. htm http://www. sparknotes. com/drama/antigone/characters. html http://www. shmoop. com/medea/themes. html http://www. shmoop. com/antigone-sophocles/themes. html

Batangas Authentic Food Essay

Introduction Food plays a significant role in people’s lives. These may encompass food as a tool for comfort, reward, as a hobby and also for travel. It has become a defining obsession among the young and urbane, viewing it as a legitimate option for a hobby, a topic of continual discussion and a playground for competition. Food’s transformation from a fetid hobby to a youth-culture phenomenon happens remarkably fast. In these events, food becomes one of the primary reasons in motivating a person to travel (Idov, 2012). Culinary tourism covers beyond the dining experience. It includes a variety of culinary, agri-tourism and agri-food activities, developed specifically for tourists that showcase food and beverages. This also provides opportunity for visitors to discover dishes indigenous to each region while learning about its unique talents and creativity. The International Culinary Tourism Association also defines Culinary Tourism as, â€Å"the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences.† Cuisine is among the most flexible and dynamic elements of culture. It involves the blending of ingredients and preparations for different cultures. Agricultural diversification, food preservation technology, efficient transportation, awareness of new food preparation techniques, prestige foods and migrations into and out of communities have been ushering supplementary culinary traditions in the Philippines. Culinary traditions are important elements of a people’s history. As local tourism and heritage conservation become significant to community pride and income, histories about food are needed as reference for contemporary projects and planning. There are many reasons for valuing culinary history (Sta. Maria, 2006). The Philippines’ 7,107 islands, divided into 77 provinces, show an enormous diversity in both their people and landscape. From the rugged cliffs and Ivatans of Batanes Islands through the sophisticated urbanites of Manila to the coral islands and Moslems of Tawi – Tawi, this is a land of extraordinary contrast and variety (Hicks, 2005). Philippine cuisine begin with a simple fare, a variety of vegetables readily gathered from the environment – yams such as taro, an assortment of leaves, coconut milk, fish, and chicken and pig, both of which are native to Southeast Asia. The Malay-Polynesian kitchen contributions such as coconut milk, varieties of rice, garlic, ginger, salted dried fish, shrimps, fish sauce, leaf-wrapped cuisine and roast pig are the staple. The use of peanuts and spices is more passive than in neighboring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. From the Chinese cuisine evolved the lumpia and pancit which have taken the form of pancit luglug, pancit guisado, pancit marilao, pancit palabok and pancit molo. Spanish cooking introduced meat boiled as in puchero, cooked in vinegar as in adobo, stewed in tomato sauce as in mechado and scopped out and restuffed as relleno; along with desserts like leche flan and pastry such as ensaimada (Roces, 2006). Heading on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region lays the province of Batangas which offers acclaimed taste sensations. The name Batangas come from the word â€Å"batangan† meaning a raft that the people use for fishing in Taal Lake. Two of the world’s rarest freshwater fishes namely maliputo and tawilis are found in Taal Lake. Batangas cow is widely sought throughout the country. It is said to be one of the best species of cattle in the Philippines. Batangas culture is greatly influenced by the Spaniards because of their long period of settlement. Food is an integral part of the Batangas culture. Most Batangueà ±os are farmers and fishermen who sell their own products in the market. People can find a very hospitable culture in the Batangueà ±os, sharing more than the usual of the food they eat. Tourists keep coming back to Batangas not only for its attractions but also for the authentic food it offers. Batangas cuisine is attractive not because of the presentation of the dish, but because of its essence. The philosophy of cooking in Batangas is that cooking should highlight rather than coat. This study entitled â€Å"Culinary Tourism: Assessment of Batangas Cuisine† aims to evaluate the prominence of culinary attractions in Batangas, and the perception of the tourists in the native cuisines. Statement Of The Problem The researchers sought the answers to the following questions: 1. What is the profile of the tourists in terms of: a. Age; b. Gender; c. Place of Origin; and d. Frequency of visit 2. What is the profile of the local dishes in terms of: a. Ingredients; b. Presentation; c. Techniques; d. History; e. Geography; and f. Prevailing Flavors 3. What is the perception of the tourists on the local dishes in terms of: a. Authenticity; b. Related programs and activities; and c. Feedback of tourist on the local dishes 4. Is there a significant relationship between the profile of the tourists and their perception on the local dishes? Research Objectives The researchers fulfilled the following objectives: 1. Identify the profile of the tourists in terms of: a. Age; b. Gender; c. Place of Origin; and d. Frequency of visit. 2. Distinguish the profile of the local dishes in terms of: a. Ingredients; b. Presentation; c. Techniques; d. History; e. Geography; and f. Prevailing Flavors. 3. Determine the perception of the tourist on the local dishes in terms of: a. Authenticity; b. Related programs and activities; and c. Feedback of tourists on the local dishes. 4. Determine the significant relationship between the profile of the tourists and their perception on the local dishes. Significance Of The Study This study would be beneficial not only for the researchers but also for the other sectors of the society. The research would be significant for the endeavors of the following people: For hospitality students and professors The research will serve as a reference for the students and professors in their Hospitality Management courses. This study will also help students and professors to gain a deeper understanding in relation to the study. For the local community The study will strengthen the awareness of the local community in authentic cuisines of the different municipalities in Batangas. Through this study, they will be more familiar with their own traditional cuisines. For producers of the cuisines The study will serve as an opportunity to preserve and sustain the cuisines to the future generation. It will be beneficial for the producers of these cuisines to enhance their reputation and prestige. This will also be the source of their revenue if the cuisines will be recognized more by the people. For the local government The research will help the local government of Batangas in establishing a framework for the development of Food tourism. It will also help in promoting Batangueà ±o cuisines and the province itself. For the tourists The research will help the tourists to be more knowledgeable of the authentic cuisines the Batangueà ±os has to offer. It will also guide them in experiencing and familiarizing with the different cuisines in Batangas. For travel entities. The study will serve as a guide for the travel entities in promoting the Culinary Tourism of Batangas to their clients. It will also serve as a basis for formulating tour packages that will suit the preferences of the clients. For the researchers The study will be significant for the researchers in enhancing their knowledge about the native cuisines in the province of Batangas. It will serve as a tool in boosting the awareness of the researchers in the field of Food Tourism. For future researchers. The study will be helpful for the future researchers as their basis for their potential study. Scope and Limitation The study only covered Food Tourism of selected areas in Batangas. It also determined the main dishes the Batangueà ±os have to offer. These main dishes included Maliputo, Tawilis, Adobo sa Dilaw, Taghilaw, Tinindag, Bulalo and Sinaing na Tulingan that can be found in Lipa City, Taal, and Sto. Tomas. The dishes selected are most frequently encountered by the researchers in books, magazines, newspapers and government brochures. The study evaluated the perception of the tourists on the local dishes but not those of the local residents. It did not cover the eating habits of the tourists and the ethnic diversity of the dishes. Moreover, the study did not include the native delicacies and beverages.

Causes of Suicide - Emile Durk essays

Causes of Suicide - Emile Durk essays The causes of suicide (especially in males) will try to be explained by using the theories of Emile Durkheim and numerous other ideas by familiar sociologists. Modern approaches to the study of suicide are preoccupied by the idea of 'risk' factors but it is argued that this approach does little to advance the understandings of suicide rates. Durkheim provided a realist theory. By contrast modern approaches to the study of suicide which talk of 'risk factors' (Bluementhal Charlton, 1993; Davison 'Risk theory' has become the dominant framework within which approaches to the study of suicide are currently framed but it offers little insights into the phenomena. Durkheim however, knew about altruistic suicide deriving from over-integration (Durkheim, 1952, p 171). He offers a theory that might account for it. Risk theory presents us with lists of pre-existing conditions which provide circumstances in which suicides are more likely to occur. Suicide rates for men and women in Canada followed similar trends throughout much of this century until the early 1970's when they diverged. Rates reduced during both the First and Second World Wars, rose during the depression of the nineteen thirties and rose again, unsteadily, with post war economic growth to a peak in the nineteen sixties (World Health Statistics Annual). All these fluctuations are as Durkheim could have predicted. The significant resulting trend has been the gender divergence with young male suicide rates climbing steadily since that time and women's declining. Overall rates show that suicide is currently five times as common in men as in women in Canada (World Health Statistics Annual 1993 and 1994, 1994 and 1995). Given that the suicide rates among young men in Canada and the US have risen disturbingly in recent years the question that is being asked is why? In both countries it seems as if...

EDF about europe essays

EDF about europe essays French issue about Europe : EDF (French national electricity company) needs to be privatised? EDF is a french public company which provides electricity in the entire France. It has a monopolistic position, and as a consequence, it has a huge turnover. This turnover allows investments everywhere. Furthermore, as EDF is a public company, it can borrow money from banks with the Government as guarantee. The possibility of getting loans which are supported by the State is a huge advantage. The company can find money easily to invest and to protect its monopolistic situation. As a matter of fact, EDF has a great advantage on its European competitors, which are private companies. The European community ask to the French government to change this situation by selling EDF to private investors. But at this time, this privatisation is not debating on the political scene. The subject was avoided during the presidential election of May 2002 because it is a French dilemma. Indeed, our country wants to keep this system in order to have a good repartition of the electrical network, particularly in the rural area. People are afraid that different private networks will break the good access to electricity in the areas which account just few inhabitants. Indeed, this kind of areas are not profitable places to provide an electrical service. On the other hand, the opening of this market will create competition, which could imply a diminution of the prices for the consumers... As a conclusion, we think that this French and European issue shows how complex and difficult the harmonisation of the Economies and Business laws in the EC is. ...

How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017 - CoSchedule

How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017 Google Analytics is the most popular freemium web analytics service in the world and it is estimated that today over 50 million websites  across hundreds of countries  use the tool. Google Analytics today is nearly twelve years old and has come in several different shapes and sizes over the years adding ever increasing levels of insight. The unrivaled level of data and tracking that it offers today means that if you don’t have it installed on your website youre missing out on such crucial statistics as: What user demographics are visiting your site How they are reaching your site What pages on your site are performing well or badly †¦ and much more! What webmaster in their right mind wouldn’t want access to such crucial data that can help them grow their business for free? None, of course. But what happens when you skew the data with spam? What happens when the statistics that you thought were giving you such in-depth insights into user None, of course. But what happens when you skew the data with spam? What happens when the statistics that you thought were giving you such in-depth insights into user behavior on your website are actually bogus? Well, it completely devalues the data and renders it almost useless, especially if you’re a smaller brand with much less website traffic than a huge company. Whether you are a small business owner conducting landing page A/B tests or part of a large company and need to present data to your boss, analytics spam can cause you a mighty headache. But don’t fear! This article will fully explain each type of spam that may affect your Google Analytics profile and exactly how you can remove it to prevent spam from ruining your data in the future. Before We Continue: Get Two Free Google Analytics Bonus Guides + 5 Custom Reports Google Analytics can be complicated enough without worrying about spam. Once youve filtered out all the junk from your account, learn how to leverage it for success with these free resources: Five Questions About Your Site Google Analytdics Can Answer: Learn how Google Analytics can help you better understand your sites performance. Write Smarter Content With Google Analytics: Learn how to write content your audience wants, backed by real data. Best Times Google Analytics Custom Reports: Get pre-built one-click dashboards to help you identify the best times to post on social media, send email, and more.How to Crush Google Analytics Spam in 2017How Does Analytics Spam Work Why Would Anyone Bother? There are several types of spam that affect  Google Analytics but by far and away the most popular is referral spam, sometimes referred to as ghost spam, as often it never actually reaches the affected website. Apart from the contamination of statistics, luckily this spam technique never actually harms the affected sites. Referral spam is the process that spammers use where they utilize web spiders or bots to send one or more fake hits to a Google Analytics account (a hit can take the form of anything from a page view to a transaction). The spammers will target thousands of websites per day, presumably at random, so don’t be lead to believe that you or your agency has committed an SEO crime which has plagued you with this problem! In some cases, advanced spammers can make bots read your Google Analytics script that is embedded on your web page. They will then extract your unique Property ID, add it to their database and continually spam your site, making it look like they have sent huge amounts of referral traffic to your site and putting them top of your referral list in Google Analytics. Sneaky. "Okay, I get it so far, but why would anyone bother to create Google Analytics spam?" I hear you ask. Well, apart from the pure fun of it, there are a number of reasons people are doing this: Generate traffic of their own. Arguably the main reason for referral/ghost spam. Not only are spammers inflating and blemishing your traffic stats, they are also increasing their own through people’s natural curiosity to click their links and it’s reported that they are in fact increasing sales  with this tactic. Whether they redirect the link to a site where they are selling physical products or services or simply taking you to sites covered in ads, the additional traffic is profitable Get commission.  Affiliates often get commission through increasing traffic statistics and this is an easy way for corrupt sites to do so Propaganda. Believe it or not, some users are even creating referral spam to spread their own personal political beliefs and propaganda. The most notorious case being the pro-Trump spam spread by Russian spammer Vitaly Popov. 4. Black Hat SEOs. There have been rumors in some cases where SEO’s or marketing agencies have used referral spam as a way of bloating their own client's traffic statistics to give a false impression of success. 5. Harvesting emails. The spammers will then sell the email addresses to 3rd parties who can use them for bulk email campaigns. 6. Spreading malware. There’s nothing spammers like more than causing havoc for the sake of it. Could spammers be trying to spread malware in your #Google #Analytics account? Find out (and fight...Now we’ve established what exactly Analytics spam is, why anyone bothers to create it, and how harmful it can be for your Google Analytics account and business, let’s talk about how we can prevent it. Recommended Reading: Using Google Analytics to Write Smarter Content Know the Different Types of Google Analytics Spam Out There ( How to Prevent Them) Google Analytics spam comes in different shapes and forms. Here are some common varieties to be aware of. Referral Spam Referral Spam is the main method here and one we’ve touched on already. It started a few years ago with the main culprits being sites such as "semalt" and "buttons-for-websites" and now it’s rare to see an analytics account that doesn’t have "abc.xyz", "free-traffic.xyz" or "ilovevitaly.com" as a referrer. How can you stop it? One of the first suggestions that surfaced on forums, social media and SEO news sites was blocking the related URL’s through your .htaccess file  in the root directory of your domain. How to Block Spam Bots in .htacess This method involves copy and pasting a bunch of code into your site and can be dangerous when done incorrectly as the .htaccess file is extremely important and defines how your server behaves. Entering the code incorrectly can take down the whole site so exercise this technique with extreme caution. If you do feel skilled enough at having a go at this method then check out this handy guide on blocking spam bots in .htaccess. Although in a lot of cases this works, as mentioned previously, most of the bots now do not even visit the website rendering blocking their URL in your .htaccess useless. It’s also extremely time-consuming to block all the URL’s, especially as there are new ones seemingly popping up every day. There must be a better solution†¦ Recommended Reading: How to Boost Traffic With 34 SEO Tips You Need to Know (+ Free Kit) Filtering Spam Bots with Custom Filters in Google Analytics Utilizing Custom Filters was the most effective workaround to the Google Analytics referral spam problem for a long while and it’s still a handy solution to know. It’s a much easier method to implement than blocking spam domains through .htaccess and you don’t need any coding skill. The only potential hazard here is filtering the wrong set of data and further polluting your data by entering the correct filter string. Follow the guide below and you won’t have any problems: Step 1: Head over to your Google Analytics profile and click Acquisition All Traffic Referrals: Step 2: Sort Referral Traffic by Bounce Rate: And make sure that you’ve set the timeframe to at least a couple of months: A zero or 100% bounce rate, with at least 20 sessions is a strong indicator that the referrer domain is spammy. If you’re unsure the domain you’re looking at is, in fact, spammy and you want to make sure you’re not excluding legitimate traffic sources, then you can check them against our trusted Ultimate Referral List  (a 128 domain strong list of referral spammers). Step 3: What to do if you can't find the domain? If you can’t find the domain in our list or other user-generated ‘Referral Spam Domain Lists’ that you can find online, such as ... https://github.com/piwik/referrer-spam-blacklist https://referrerspamblocker.com/blacklist https://perishablepress.com/4g-ultimate-referrer-blacklist/ ... then consider search the site’s domain on Google or social media to see what others are saying about it. Remember to err on the side of caution and not visit the potentially spammy sites as we already know they can be malicious and full of viruses. Step 4: Now that you have collated your final list of spammy referring domains we can then block them using ‘Custom Filters’. Head over to your Google Analytics profile and hit the ‘Admin’ tab. Then under the View  column, you will want to click the Filters button: Once you’ve navigated to the ‘Filters’ page click the big red Add Filter button: Step 5: Once you’re on the Edit Filter page you can enter the name that you’d like to call the filter. In the example below I have simply labeled them ‘Spam Referrers’ but you may wish to make this more descriptive or specific, especially if you have a lot of spam sites that you are wishing to filter out. Select the Custom Filter Type and check the Exclude option from the options below. Under Filter Field, you will want to select ‘Campaign Source’. Next, you’ll want to add in the Filter Pattern as you see it in the example below. ‘example.com|example2.com|example3.com’  etc. The pipe symbol ‘|’ is used as an "or" operator meaning that the filter ‘example.com’ or  example2.com or  example3.com will be excluded. However, Don't end the filter pattern with a pipe, as Google themselves warn that this â€Å"will exclude ALL referral sources†. Remember that you can only add in around ten or so spam referring domains as there is a 255 character limit for each filter. To get around this simply add in more filters until you’ve blocked all of the desired domains. Need to filter out spam bots in #Google #Analytics? Here's how:Referral Exclusion List The final method of blocking spam referral domains in Google Analytics that we’re going to look at is called the ‘Referral Exclusion List’ method and is the first solution that Google themselves have created for excluding rogue domains. The first thing that needs mentioning about this method is that it only works if you’re using the newer Universal Analytics rather than Classic Google Analytics. When Google released this new feature within Universal Analytics they highlighted two common uses for it: Third Party Referrals.  Especially payment processors. After you have added a payment processor into your Referral Exclusion List, when a user leaves your site to the payment processor then returns to your site following a purchase, the processor won’t show as the referring domain. A great example of this is if you use PayPal and you constantly see that as a referring source. Add PayPal as a referral exclusion and this will no longer skew the data. Self-Referrals. If you have several subdomains that a user may jump back and forth from you can add your own site into the exclusion list to prevent artificially inflating traffic data. Your site is automatically added to this when you set up your Analytics property so needs no implementation. However,  Google make no mention  of using this technique to block spam and some will argue that there is a reason behind this! Google states: â€Å"When you exclude a referral source, traffic that arrives to your site from the excluded domain doesn’t trigger a new session.† But, this doesn’t mean that the visit has been completely removed from your Analytics data. In some cases, it has been reported  that Google Analytics merely attributes the source of the visit differently, from a referral to ‘direct’ traffic. It has removed the referral spam attribution but the data can still be ruined. Again, exercise with caution! Recommended Reading: The Best Advice on How to Grow Your Blog Traffic By 1,044% In 1 Year With all that in mind, here’s how to access the Referral Exclusion List and block single domains: Step 1: Head over to the Admin tab in your Google Analytics account then click Tracking Info within the Property column: Step 2: Under the ‘Tracking Info’ dropdown select ‘Referral Exclusion List’ ...then click the ‘+ ADD REFERRAL EXCLUSION’ button. Step 3: Simply add in the domains that you wish to exclude from your referral traffic. One downside to this technique is that you can’t add domains in bulk which is another reason that the filter method (mentioned previously) may be more efficient. Language Spam The Future of Spam Just when we thought we had it all figured, along came a brand new brand of spam ready to pollute our beautiful Analytics data once more! Towards the back end of 2016, a new wave of Analytics spam hit many accounts, Language Spam. Ever notice sentences similar to this in your Language Report on Analytics? How about these: o-o-8-o-o.com search shell is much better than google! Vitaly rules google ☆*:ï ½ ¡Ã£â€šÅ"ï ¾Å¸Ã¯ ½ ¥*ãÆ' ½(^á ´â€"^)ï ¾â€°*ï ½ ¥Ã£â€šÅ"ï ¾Å¸Ã¯ ½ ¡:*☆  ¯_(ãÆ'„)_/ ¯(à ²  Ã§â€ºÅ Ã  ²  )(à ² ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¿Ã  ² ¥)(ʘ†¿ÃŠËœ)áÆ'Å¡(à ²  _à ²  Ã¡Æ'Å¡)( Í ¡Ã‚ ° ÍÅ"Êâ€" Í ¡Ã‚ °)ãÆ' ½(ï ¾Å¸Ãâ€Ã¯ ¾Å¸)ï ¾â€°ÃŠâ€¢ÃŒ «Ã ¡ÃŠâ€Ã¡ ¶Ëœ á µâ€™Ã¡ ´ ¥Ã¡ µâ€™Ã¡ ¶â€¦(=^ ^=)oO The Language Spam problem was combined with yet more referral spam and often saw sites such as  brateg.xyz, begalka.xyz, bukleteg.xyz etc. in your data. Eventually, the referral spam was managing to use legitimate websites such as reddit.com, twitter.com  Ã‚  thenextweb.com to disguise itself. According to reports, research has shown that this is not too dissimilar to the standard referral spam we saw previously in how it works which means that it’s easy enough to block. Once the Language Spam has been recorded there is no way to permanently remove it from your historical data but you can filter it to report accurate historical statistics. You can also utilize the same methods to block Language Spam as you can with Referral Spam as we explain in detail further up the page. Has your site been hit by Language Spam? Here's what to do about it.Here’s how you can utilize Custom Segments to view accurate historical data even after you’ve been inflicted with Language Spam: Step 1: On report view in your Google Analytics account click ‘+ Add Segment’ at the top of the page ... ... then click the big, red ‘+New Segment’ button. Step 2: Staying on the ‘Demographics’ tab that you default to, give your new Segment a simple, easy to identify name: Step 3: Next up, you want to select ‘does not match regex’ from the drop down tab next to ‘Language’ and enter the following expression and then hit save: .{15,}|s[^s]*s|.|,|!|/ The filter above excludes any traffic where the language name contains 15+ characters as most, .com,.co.uk, .fr for example, don’t go over that limit yet the Language Spam names often do. It also excludes symbols which are invalid for use in the language field, such as commas, exclamations marks and speech marks, that are used to construct these spammy domain names. Once saved, you can now look back at data in your Google Analytics account over any period of time and analyze non-infiltrated stats. Lovely! Google Analytics spam is not a new thing and has been frustrating website owners and marketers alike for quite a while now. Whilst, with these techniques, you can block most of the spam coming through, there will no doubt be something else affecting your account somewhere along the line. Keep an eye out for any suspicious looking websites and the methods in this article may just be able to still help you.

Resource Project (Motivation) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7250 words

Resource Project (Motivation) - Assignment Example Carrefour is listed as the Europe’s leading retailer and the second-largest in the world followed by Wal-Mart. It was selected for this study because of its success and achievements in the world retail industry. In fact, more than 10 million customers annually visit Carrefour stores and 25,000 suppliers provide fresh food, grocery and other items such as small house-hold goods, textiles, home appliances (photo equipment, DVDs, sound and multimedia equipment) to these stores. Annual net sales at Carrefour amounts approximately 76,789million Euros of which forty-six percentage, proportion is generated in France and the rest from abroad. Fournier, Badin and Defforey founded Carrefour in France in 1959 with the purpose of â€Å"creating, acquiring and operating, in France and abroad, stores for the sale of all items, products, food and merchandise and, secondarily, providing within the said stores all services that may be of interest to the customers† (Carrefour 2012 p.272) . Now Carrefour is a multi-format, multi-channel and multi-local group, comprising of 9,994 stores in thirty three different countries in the Europe, America, Middle-East and Asia. Employee motivation is viewed traditionally as the â€Å"struggle to get more for less† because more the performance of individual employees, less the cost of salaries for the company (Perry & Porter 1982). Cutting down the number of employees however helped sustain some businesses during the last economic recession. It suggests the importance of improving the workforce productivity rather than hiring new labour. In a study conducted in Germany revealed the economic recession in 2009 affected employment in many companies. Some employers had modified employees’ working conditions and pay in addition to the employment levels and staffing measures. Example, 67% of respondents in metalworking and electrical industry, 53% of respondents in chemical industry, 47% of respondents in financial

Managing a Golf Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing a Golf Business - Assignment Example Rendering of ‘Custom-Fitting’ equipments for the individual golfers rather than depending on ‘Off-the-Shelf’ technique helped the company gain on larger revenue margins. The ‘Off-the-Shelf’ clubs depended more on the custom of ‘One-Size-Fits-For-All’ that tended to affect customer interests and thereby affected profits and revenues earned. Secondly the dry summer months add to the strength of the company in significantly contributing to the turnovers of the firm. Thirdly the work atmosphere in the Professional Golf Club is also found to be quite amicable and prosperous for development of business relations. The work atmosphere is also found quite congenial in fostering an environment that would promote innovation and empowerment. Weakness Firstly the current state of business affairs relating to the carrying out of the training operations of the Golf Professional Club is affected by the emergence of the winter and wet summer months. The business is affected owing to the wet outside soil restraining effective performance of golf training sessions.Such seasonal factors also happen to create obstacle to the optimal utilisation of the resources available with the Golf Club and thus restrain the effective meeting of customer care needs. Secondly the space rendered to carry out training activities indoors has also been seriously affected owing to unavailability of adequate space. Thus under-utilisation of the available space and resources coupled with bad weather and soil conditions contributed in weakening of the existing business conditions. Assessment of the Competition and the Market External Analysis of the Business Opportunities The demographic factors of the Mere Valley region render a host of opportunities for the P rofessional Golf Club to effectively thrive in the area. Mere Valley population consists of high income individuals and also composed of people from business backgrounds possessing a passion for Golf. These people are frequent visitors or members of the Golf Club that in turn reflects the opportunity for the club to further expand in helping the people to pursue Golf as an effective sport. Moreover the availability of large number of open spaces in the Mere Valley region also renders significant opportunities for the Golf Club to effectively grow and accommodate a larger crowd of trainees. Thus presence of required customer profiles along with open spaces effectively contributes in business continuity of the Golf Training and Professional Club in the region. Moreover the availability of baking facilities in the region also helps the different clubs to gain adequate loans for working on renovation and replenishment activities in an effective fashion. Threats Firstly owing to the pres ence of opportunities pertaining to required customer

Economics and care work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Economics and care work - Essay Example The dynamics of care work have changed from the care work practices provided in the Victorian period. Economic conditions during the Victorian era were quite harsh. Middle-class men worked like machine to earn livelihood and their desire to return home after hard labor was fructified by the comforting home environment provided with the home care efforts and artful handling of the home sphere by the ladies working whole day providing needed care to all members of the family. Relationship between the middle class spouses was based on mutual trust of exchanging and sharing gifts unlike the â€Å"crass† (Nelson, 2006). The Victorian ideology was not a totally correct presentation of the economic life; the lower class underwent all the harshness of economic reasoning of working as labor in shops along with their children over time without any additional wages. Thus, in the Victorian times, the ideology of â€Å"angel in the house† put curtains on the job of running a home and exploitation of the poor women and children by increasing industrialization (Nelson, 2006). Nuns used to perform care work out of religious bonding or until they got married. Theme of charity was behind most of care provided to the needy and under-privileged by nuns, single women and married women with earning husbands. It was assumed that nurses, healthcare workers, foster parents, and child care providers felt emotionally charged and motivated in Victorian times but the same legacy has led to believe in the wrong notions that people either work for money or freely out of love and compassion (Nelson, 2006). Care work is perceived by society to be done with the profit motive only, as is evident from the reference to the foster care provided by Rosa Fernandez who takes care of two foster children besides her own two children. Irony of the care providing mother is that she develops kinship with the foster children and her attachment while nurturing them creates a bonding although she is being paid for the care work she is providing but she will miss the children when taken aw ay by the lawyers and the case workers for adoption. There are not only emotional but financial constraints if the children are taken out of the foster care. Difference between a foster parent and a case worker and lawyer, as told by Rosa Fernandez to the sociologist, Teresa Toguchi Swartz, is that money is the leading motive of the case workers and lawyers irrespective of the welfare interest of the children (Nelson, 2006). This case shows that Rosa and her family is related and attached to the children under her foster care because of economic and at the same time ethical considerations. The social service providers overlook the love angle between the foster children and Rosa and assume that money is the only motive of the foster care provided by Rosa. They are least caring about the financial compulsions of the working-class people who would bear the pangs of separation from the child as their love is reciprocal; the child would also feel the loss of separation likewise Rosa and her family (Nelson, 2006). The crucial question that arises here is that is it possible to be inspired by love and money both. Some care workers acceptance of monetary help does not mean that they are not kind-hearted because they have accepted money and â€Å"commodified† the transaction. Here, the issue of motivation and care becomes crucial not only to be decided in care work but in any job taken to earn money (Nelson, 2006). Motivation being the significant factor in providing free care in the Victorian era, it could be either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. Both these are crucial and basic elements of motivation theory, which says that it is non-spatial irrespective of the rewards accruing from intrinsic motivation elements or extrinsic elements although the issue of motivation is quite personal and difficult (The Happy Manager, 2011). When care work provides intangible rewards, it is because they are inspired from within and, therefore, highly

Organisational change 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Organisational change 2 - Essay Example one were to google-search the phrase â€Å"what is change?† close to 20 million book entries would align themselves in his computer screen as if one could have the luxury to get to the 20-millionth entry. But indeed, as Stickland (1998) observes as early as in his writing time, change would be a subject that could swiftly expand in treatment and in scope due to the speed with which it would show itself in human activity. In the two decades preceding Stickland’s book publication, the word â€Å"change† has more than doubled its appearance in literature titles (Stickland, 1998). Most book publishers and authors, it is observed, get deep into serious treatment of the subject of change, its nature, its effects and anything it can do, yet miss out on its definition. In fact, Ly (2009) notes that change is a â€Å"phenomenon for which there is no agreed-upon definition.† It is just like saying it is just there; it just happens. It assumes the characteristic of time, that the more people attempt to define it, the more it confuses, making description the easiest way towards understanding. But of course, a few authors made some sincere attempt to define it, if only to have some sense of it. Ly (2009) was resourceful enough to feature some of them. Hanelock defines change as any significant difference in the status quo. Linquist refers to it as a modification of, deletion of, or addition to attitudes and behavior. Morgan defines change as a process or condition of being different between time 1 and time 2. Of course, the most common reference for definitions, Webster, calls change as an act of becoming different. (Ly, 2009). And if man sees change as part of himself and his evolution, never has change been more obvious, pronounced and ubiquitous in organizations than now because of the constantly varying character of the environments they are in. Zimmerman (2011) notes very profoundly that in view of these highly charged surroundings, organizations need to change

Protection of Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, and Freedom of E Essay

Protection of Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, and Freedom of Expression on the Internet - Essay Example Internet suppression can maintain its vital role in providing an efficient and democratic means of distributing information around the world. The act of hate speech, pornography and the like are very alarming in the country as it can affect the lives of the people involved with some sort of wrong information. These are my main concern for opposing the use of free speech. Websites that contain pornographic and obscene material and information are also widespread on the internet which can give a bad effect to the users. Even it is impossible to totally discontinue its operation on the internet, the government shall act on carrying out the censorship by filtering its every feature and applying the rules in creating a useful website.As the technologies progress, any person with an internet connection has the potential to reach other people with anonymity thus, syndicates can easily use cybercrime to perform their bad intention with the advantage of hidden personal identity from the law e nforcers. Crimes and dilemma which emerged from improper usage of the internet can be reduced if people using it are responsible enough of their right and if the law is implemented strictly.Encouraging awareness and advocacy in protecting one’s own right as well as the rights of others will be of great help in minimizing the risks of crimes and the dilemma associated with internet use.Legal aspects related to utilization of networked information devices and technologies such as the existence of cyber law will also help in regulating some of the most important topics including intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.

Computer Professional Ethics Journal #2 & #3 Essay

Computer Professional Ethics Journal #2 & #3 - Essay Example With such inevitability, there is a need to make precautionary measures to counter forces that are bound to "steal" their "intellectual rights". In the United States, there has been a growing problem in appellate courts particularly in patentability of computer programs where they have been struggling with the subject matter requirement for patentability. The courts have been having trouble deciding whether various types of software can be accurately characterized as falling under any of the areas of patentable subject matter such as "processes" or "machines". During the early 70s, this has been the problem in the case of Gottschalk v. Benson, where the Court framed the issue as "The question is whether the method described and claimed is a process within the meaning of the Patent Act." As the years progressed, problems in patentability became more critical and complex. From the definition of "process", issues in patentability also delved into software originality, novelty, piracy, p rotection, and even at face value "stealing" (by pirating or recruiting the computer scientists from another company). And because of this, computer scientists must be well aware of these facts so that they could create counter measures such as security programs, password protections, and other suitable alternative

Protection of Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, and Freedom of E Essay

Protection of Intellectual Property, Confidentiality, and Freedom of Expression on the Internet - Essay Example Internet suppression can maintain its vital role in providing an efficient and democratic means of distributing information around the world. The act of hate speech, pornography and the like are very alarming in the country as it can affect the lives of the people involved with some sort of wrong information. These are my main concern for opposing the use of free speech. Websites that contain pornographic and obscene material and information are also widespread on the internet which can give a bad effect to the users. Even it is impossible to totally discontinue its operation on the internet, the government shall act on carrying out the censorship by filtering its every feature and applying the rules in creating a useful website.As the technologies progress, any person with an internet connection has the potential to reach other people with anonymity thus, syndicates can easily use cybercrime to perform their bad intention with the advantage of hidden personal identity from the law e nforcers. Crimes and dilemma which emerged from improper usage of the internet can be reduced if people using it are responsible enough of their right and if the law is implemented strictly.Encouraging awareness and advocacy in protecting one’s own right as well as the rights of others will be of great help in minimizing the risks of crimes and the dilemma associated with internet use.Legal aspects related to utilization of networked information devices and technologies such as the existence of cyber law will also help in regulating some of the most important topics including intellectual property, privacy, freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.

Starbucks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 7

Starbucks - Essay Example Productivity: â€Å"Starbucks plans to open significantly fewer new stores in the U.S., over the 2009 to 2011 period, to less than 400 net new stores per year, opening approximately 250 company-operated stores in each of the three years. At the same time, the company plans to continue to accelerate its International unit expansion, targeting net new store openings as follows; approximately 1,050 in 2009, 1,150 in 2010, and 1,300 in 2011† (Business Wire, 2008, 3). Competitive Position: â€Å"Total store count will be approximately 21,500 stores by the end of fiscal 2011, with the companys international presence growing from approximately 30 percent to over 40 percent of the global store portfolio† (Business Wire,2008, 3). Employee Development and Relations: Starbucks envisions to promote cultural diversity in the workforce and to continue providing comprehensive benefits and incentives, including access to numerous partner clubs and programs that assist in the holistic development of personnel, providing a balance between work and family life (Starbucks: Working at Starbucks, 2011, 1). Public Responsibility: Starbucks is committed to be a responsible company by extending corporate responsibility to the community, to protect the environment, to implement ethical sourcing of raw materials and provide wellness by awareness of health components in their products (Starbucks: Responsibility, 2011). This section requires an analysis of the firm’s current long-term objectives, as identified and enumerated under Section 1. In this regard, given the Starbucks had outlined their long term objectives in the light of the seven areas of profitability, productivity, competitive position, employee development, employee relations, technological leadership, and public responsibility, it is validated and supported that Starbucks possess the qualities that strategic

HIS 103 Week 2 Discussion Question 1 Essay Example for Free

HIS 103 Week 2 Discussion Question 1 Essay This document of HIS 103 Week 2 Discussion Question 1 contains: Chinese Social and Political Order Systems Read The Chinese Tradition and Lessons for Women. Compare and contrast Daoism (Taoism), Legalism, and Confucianism. What did each system stress as most important? In what ways did they speak to the people? Which had the most impact on the development of society? Why? Include data from your textbook and supplementary readings to support your response. History General History ASHFORD HIS 103 All discussion questions Pick out classes that are challenging and interesting to you instead of the ones that people think are very easy. Giving yourself a challenge is rewarding. You are sure to gain more knowledge from tough courses, and you might make connections that will benefit you later on. This document of HIS 103 Week 2 Discussion Question 1 contains: Chinese Social and Political Order Systems Read The Chinese Tradition and Lessons for Women. Compare and contrast Daoism (Taoism), Legalism, and Confucianism. What did each system stress as most important? In what ways did they speak to the people? Which had the most impact on the development of society? Why? Include data from your textbook and supplementary readings to support your response. History General History ASHFORD HIS 103 All discussion questions Pick out classes that are challenging and interesting to you instead of the ones that people think are very easy. Giving yourself a challenge is rewarding. You are sure to gain more knowledge from tough courses, and you might make connections that will benefit you later on. This document of HIS 103 Week 2 Discussion Question 1 contains: Chinese Social and Political Order Systems Read The Chinese Tradition and Lessons for Women. Compare and contrast Daoism (Taoism), Legalism, and Confucianism. What did each syste Search for more tutorials here https://bitly. com/1oJNqEQ Pick out classes that are challenging and interesting to you instead of the ones that people think are very easy. Giving yourself a challenge is rewarding. You are sure to gain more knowledge from tough courses, and you might make connections that will benefit you later on. History General History ASHFORD HIS 103 All discussion questions

Descriptive Essay - New York City in the Morning -- Descriptive Essay,

A violin song pulls us out of sleep, dreams of trains and pineapples, like a silk rope. He notices the morning light come to the wall. In the city we left only a few days ago, we learned about waking up before dawn, not to the light, but to the stirring that moves the blood in our thighs and hands. The morning was ancient before the sun even rose. Rising early in New York City allows you to hear the birds on the street. When we emerged from the tight doorway leading out of the apartment, I saw that the color of the sidewalk and street matched the tone of the sky. A perfectly unassuming shade to provide backdrop for the yellow taxis and traffic signals. Scuff went out heels of our cowboy boots over the sparkling sidewalk. Sparkling with grit and cement. Maybe to combat the snobbery of c...

Outsourcing Development Work to India Essay -- Globalization Jobs Work

Outsourcing Development Work to India I. Introduction Globalization has had a major impact on the way business is conducted. Companies are increasingly turning to offshore software development outlets for design management. Anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies are already outsourcing to India and the amount of work done there for U.S. companies is expected to more than double this year according to Forrester Research. This paper will take a look at some of the arguments for and against outsourcing IT development to India. Most importantly this paper will take a look at ethical standpoints taken on outsourcing. But first, we'll take a look at the history of outsourcing to India. II. History In the late 1980's the rise of India outsourcing had its start. During this phase, India provided skilled contract workers for the US. Efforts to outsource projects to India arose in the late 1990's. This was driven by a combination of rapidly changing technologies and shrinking IT budgets Little by little the small offshore development projects started to multiply. In the beginning it was trial and error because there wasn't much focus on a repeatable and process driven model. During this time offshore outsourcing led to several failures. The big outsourcing force during the late 1990's came with Y2K. Work needed to get done quick and outsourcing to Indian companies was a solution to this. Indian companies had the ability to scale rapidly. Y2K conversion wasn't too high in the value-chain job, however it gave Indian companies a view of what was possible. Then came process maturity and standardization through processes. Indian companies have spent much time honing rigorous developmen... ... http://news.com.com/2100-1011-5175699.html [4] Gupta, Sachin. For a global software company, outsourcing began at inception . World Paper. April 19. 2004 http://www.worldpaper.com/2004/april/april4.html [5] India greets H-1B cutback with a shrug -- But cap could sting if U.S. market rebounds. Electronic Engineering Times: 1, October 13, 2003. [6] Kripalani, Majeet & Egnardio, Pete. The Rise Of India. Business Week Online. December 8, 2003. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_49/b3861001_mz001.htm [7] Outsourcing created more jobs in US. MSN Business. IANS. http://autofeed.msn.co.in/pandoraV2/output/33601A5C-9FA2-491F-8E3B-EBC7CC04EDAF.asp [8] Pink, Daniel. Wired Magazine. The New Face of the Silicon Age. How India became the capital of the computing revolution. February 4, 2004. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html

Present Simple

PRESENT SIMPLE 1-When do we use it? -When we are talking about a habit; -When we are talking about a schedule; -When we are stating a fact; -When we say something that is generally true; -When we give instructions or directions. 2-TIME EXPRESSIONS for things that happen regularly are: -Every†¦. -Once a†¦. -Twice a†¦. -On Tuesdays†¦.. -In winters†¦. OR -Always, Frequently, Often, Usually, Regularly, Generally, Sometimes, Seldom, Rarely, Never. * Time Expressions that are one word, we put before the main verb. . g. I always do my homework. e. g. We don't usually spend so much money. * If the main verb is BE (am, is, are), we put the Time Expression after it. e. g. I am never late. * When we have a sentence that is a general fact, we don't use any time expression and we have to know that it refers to PRESENT SIMPLE. e. g. The sun shines in the east. My father works in a factory. We live in Boston. How To Use The Present Simple? i) Affirmative form: -Subject + Ve rb + Object e. g: I play football every day. **3rd person of singular: -Most of the verbs take the letter â€Å"s† to from 3rd person of singular, e. g. : Live-lives Work-works but †¦the verbs ending in â€Å"sh, ch, o, x, ss†, we ad â€Å"es† e. g. : wash-washed, teach-teaches, go-goes fix-fixes kiss-kisses and†¦the verbs ending in consonant + letter â€Å"Y†, we cut â€Å"y† and add â€Å"ies†. e. g. : fly-flies cry-cries study-studies but†¦the verbs ending in vowel + letter â€Å"Y†, we add â€Å"s†. e. g. : play-plays say-says Stay-stays ii) Negative form: To do the negative form in present simple tense, we must use the auxiliary â€Å"to do†. -Subject + verb to do (conjugated) + not + main verb (infinitive) + the object. e. g. : I do not play tennis every day. She does not work in my company. [do not= don’t †¦. does not= doesn’t ] iii) Interrogative form: -Like in negative form, we must use the auxiliary â€Å"to do†. -Verb to do (conjugated) + subject + main verb (conjugated) + object + ? e. g. : Do you go to school on Sunday? Does Carlos play football every weekend? Carlos Vieira

Infection Control Essay

This is a reflective assignment that will reflect upon a scenario that took place during the clinical placement of a student nurse in theatres. The assignment will focus on MRSA protocols in theatres, why it is important and how the use of reflection assists in the continuous professional development of a student nurse. Throughout the assignment the author will use the Rolfe reflective framework (2001, cited in Jasper, 2003) to explore what happened through out the scenario using the three stages of what, so what and now what. Reflection is a useful tool which health care professionals use to improve their skills and advance their future practice by revisiting scenarios that occurred and exploring why something happened, whether it could be improved in any way or to recognize good practice (Jasper & Rosser, 2013); In accordance to The Code (NMC, 2008) which dictates that all patient information should be kept confidential, and the Data protection Act (1998) which also governs that patient information should be kept secure and released to only those necessary or to who the patient shares it with; All patient details will be kept private and the patient is referred to only as the patient. During a surgical procedure in theatre the MRSA protocol was being followed. However during the procedure a Doctor left the theatre and then tried to re enter the preparation room, the â€Å"clean† circulating nurse did not allow this and informed the doctor to change scrubs and wash their shoes straight away. A full description of the scenario is attached as Appendix 1. The nurse was trying to minimize risk of cross infection as clothing and footwear could be contaminated by surfaces (Kumar, Saunders & Watson, 2000). The student nurse needs to have a good understanding of MRSA, protocols and research and evidence based approaches to deliver safe and appropriate care whilst minimizing risk of cross infection. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that is resistant to a number of antibiotics that treat infection including methicillin. There are different strains of Staphylococcus aureus making it harder or easier to treat. MRSA can live in the nostrils or on skin and is  easily transferred from person to person or surface by contact, it can also be dispersed by skin particles through the air (McNeil, Mody & Bradley, 2002), contaminating beds and surfaces (Kumar, Saunders & Watson, 2000 ) and can remain active for longer than 6 months (Wagenvoort, Sluijsmans & Penders, 2000).This is why hand hygiene and environmental cleanliness is so important (Crowcroft, 1996). The bacterium can enter the bloodstream through small cuts or a wound; Depending on individuals’ immune system people can fight off lower strains of MRSA with minimal infection symptoms such as pain, temperature, dizziness etc. However people with lowered immune systems i.e. people in hospital w ith existing health complaints or infections can be harder to treat (Dougherty &Lister, 2004). MRSA is a virulent pathogen and when it doesn’t respond to treatment can cause sepsis, urinary tract infections, endocarditis, pneumonia, septic arthritis, osteomyelitis and can even result in death (Weigeit, 2007). During theatre procedures the same source isolation nursing that is used on the wards is used in theatres nursing that is used on the wards (NHS, 2012). St George’s Hospital (NHS St Georges Trust, 2012) theatre policy outlines during theatre and recovery staff numbers should be kept to a minimum, all unnecessary equipment should be removed from theatre, staff should wear protective clothing and a plastic gown, after the procedure all equipment and surfaces should be cleaned and patients should be nursed using source isolation practices. (Dougherty & Lister, 2004) Source isolation aims to keep the source of infection from spreading anywhere by means of hand washing, washing, protective clothing and incineration of all disposable waste in a controlled manor. The National Institute for clinical excellence also highlighted the importance of source isolation regarding MRSA discussing its negative impacts on health ranging from discomfort to serious disability or death. (NICE, 2011) in 2009/10 the NHS dealt with almost 1900 bloodstream infections, each infection cost the NHS around  £7000. The aim in following guidelines is to protect patients, protect staff and to protect the environment for the next patient who will enter the theatre having an operation (Dougherty & Lister, 2004). Thanks to evidence based clinical practice and improved hand hygiene MRSA bloodstream infection rates have dropped by 41% in the NHS across England  since 2009 and a further 29% in 2012/2013 (Department of Health, 2012) From this event the student was able to reflect on research and evidence based approaches specifically in regards to MRSA and gain a more in-depth understanding of MRSA. Reading about bacterium and paths of transmission helped the student nurse have a better understanding of infection control measures and their importance.

The Malala Debate

The Malala debate There is a groundswell of sympathy for Malala and also a strong demand for the Pakistani state to do something about the issue. Much of the discontent is directed toward the Pakistani Taliban, the extremist group that has claimed responsibility for the shooting and declared it has vowed to kill Malala if she recovers from her injuries. Also, it has issued fresh threats to another girl Hina Khan of Islamabad who is also known for her female rights activism and pro education stance.This threat comes two weeks after the Taliban shot Malala. Hina is originally from the Swat valley but was forced to move with her family to Islamabad in 2006 after she publically criticised the Taliban’s atrocities. The Malala incident has renewed the attention on the plight of women in Afghanistan. Twenty one year old Afghan activist Noorjahan Akbar, who has been leading a fight for women’s rights in Afghanistan, has articulated that Malala’s case will strengthen her and others fight for girl’s rights.Cofounder of a non profit group called Young Women for Change; she has been instrumental in organising trailblazing efforts such as the first Afghan march against street harassment, radio campaigns about gender equality and street posters against child marriage and abuse. This year, her group opened a women’s Internet cafe in Kabul, providing a forum for women to gather and share ideas. Although women in Afghanistan are for the cause of Malala and support her fight but there are many other women activists like Akbar who are fighting for the same cause and not getting the support they deserve.No doubt, Malala’s case is more horrifying as she is young and nobody would look at her as a threat as a 14-year old girl promoting education, no one has heard about Hanifa Safi women activist who was killed this summer. Fifteen girls had acid thrown on their face a couple of years ago but no public protest was held. More than 300 girls wer e poisoned in Afghan schools this summer specifically because they wanted to have access to education; unfortunately no one talks about it. Malala’s case has created a buzz which it deserves and the way its gaining popularity can help to highlight these cases which re otherwise completely ignored. The Civil Society Movements The Malala incident and eventually her cause got support from almost all parts of the World especially from the South Asian Countries where human rights activists, acedemicians, students and members of civil society took to streets to condemn the attack. From Madonna to Angelina Jolie to top Politicians like Hina Rabbani Khar and Rehman Malik, people from all walks and corners of the World are appreciating her courage and have vowed to support her mission to ensure education for girls in Pakistan.The Pakistan government has offered to provide security to Malala when she will return to Pakistan and has promised to provide all necessary help. Even the Sunni clerics in Pakistan have issued a Fatwa against the Taliban, decrying an attack on a girl as un-Islamic, which speaks volumes about Malala and her cause and how people from diverse background are in the same boat for the cause. In a message of defiance to the Taliban, authorities in Swat have decided to rename a government college after Malala. The College offers high school and undergraduate education for 2,000 girl’s and young women.Can this be sustained? Although the cause for women’s rights in Taliban affected areas has been supported by the developing countries and the western world, it has always been very hard to implement it at the grass root level. The women activists or others spreading education or fighting for women’s rights have to face the brunt of the Taliban. Malala’s cause has gained support from every corner, the blog she wrote for BBC with the pseudo name Gul Makai about the poor state of girls in Swat under the Taliban earned her innu merable sympathizers.The International Children’s peace prize in October 2011 and Pakistani first National peace prize further gave recognition to her work and the documentaries made on her added to the popularity. The Taliban feared that she is being held as a hero by the World and thus shot her which only added to more support for her cause. Thus, considering all the above factors and the debate and support she has generated, it is not wrong to say that the momentum evoked by the Malala movement is likely to sustain for a longer period of time and even more so if she returns to Swat and take the battle to its logical end.

Write a detailed report on a song using key musical terms Essay

Write a detailed report on a song using key musical terms - Essay Example The first verse and the corresponding chorus is sung by   Paisley and it mainly focuses on the male traits whilst the second verse and corresponding chorus is sung   by Krauss, which mainly talks about the female counterpart. The song commences with elucidating the underlying way in regard to the promise of true love was washed away by the womans infidelity because the man went away to fight for his country. The man, however, does not easily forget about her and, therefore, turns to alcoholism to try and wash the memories away to no avail. The middle of the song clearly relates with the start as it shows the regret the woman felt because of what she did. She blames herself and turns to alcoholism too. The last part of the song thereby summarizes the middle and the beginning when the woman finally kills herself. The meter or the number of lines in the verse is the same in the chorus and the two main verses. The verses have five lines while the chorus is composed of eight lines. The prevailing  lyrics of the song  are described as additive going by the increased number of lines from five in the verses to eight in the chorus. The instruments used in the song included: the light drum that keeps the beat and the guitar that sets up the melody. There is also the use of Dobro that entails a brand of acoustic guitar and commonly by the singers on their lap with raised bridge and metal resonator cone. The voice of both Brad and Krauss are quite appealing and they sing in a manner that brings out the melodious nature of the guitars used. The melody of the song first comes across as sad, but close analysis brings out the melody as not happy, but more of a bittersweet sound that is relevant to the lyrics of the song. However, the song can be described as predominantly of one melodic voice (homophony) as there are no simultaneous lines of independent melody. The melody also invokes a sense of heaviness or solemnity due to the Aeolian

Quality Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Quality - Research Paper Example The CNE article uses reliable data through showing consultations with the IOM report of 2000 and the studies of James in 2013. For instance, by referring to the studies such as that of James, it is clear that the research conducted is of high quality, reliable, and valid. The assumption is that the study involves the identification of preventable adverse events that are readily applicable in the hospital contexts. For example, some of the preventable adverse events encompass the errors of omission, errors of context, errors of commission, errors of communication, and those of context. The experimental design used in this article entails several measures concerning the patient safety and culture. Besides, the experiment includes varied elements of the patient safety culture that undergo developments. The design in this context gains confidence by using numerous tools to ascertain the safety of the patients. Some of the tools involved include the safety attitude questionnaires, safety cultural surveys, and the safety cultural improvement tool. There is tailoring of the instruments to various individuals to gain a broader perspective of the issue in question. Contextually, the tools targeted the hospital staff, the patients, and the medical personnel. Thus, it is a good design for the analysis of the safety of patients in the health care setup. Ulrich & Kear (2014) have managed to use accurate data and statistics from recognized studies and reports. For instance, the IOM report indicates the numbers of people injured and those that died due to preventable adverse events. In spite of the accurate use of this data, the research fails to carry out a critical statistical analysis to ascertain and give feedback to the individuals that participated in the surveys and questionnaires. In summary, the article provides an account of what safety has entailed in the US after the patient safety took the center stage of the health care system. It reflects on

Managment Change and Creativity in Organizations Essay

Managment Change and Creativity in Organizations - Essay Example As the discussion declares the nature of this complex phenomenon is elusive, thus vesting the scientific approach with the linear characteristics. The development of creativity research is taking various forms and seems to be growing into different directions, similarly to the buds on a branchy tree; the sprouting of the new sprigs is likely to bear underlying disposition to be considered. Despite being based on the common theoretical background, the research studies do not reflect the unified paradigm. The ambiguous and ephemeral essence of creativity stirs the interest towards the quintessence that is driven and drives the evolution. According to the paper findings the creativity is the engine of human aspiration. The concept forms a strong nexus with the innovation, which is the origin of the unexpected value, and it can hardly be underestimated in the context of the overall corporate performance. Without exaggeration, the new era has been born, and nowadays its prevalence dictates the new rules, where the major task is to transform the social and intellectual capital into fresh and necessary ideas. The abruptness of the knowledge economies shift has provoked the enormous curiosity towards creativity-innovation duet on open spaces of the workplace. Today, innovation is the main prerequisite for the corporate survival, frequently acting as the key to a variety of significant challenges on a worldwide scale, implying sustainability and global warming.

Environmental Conflict Resolution Research Paper - 1

Environmental Conflict Resolution - Research Paper Example The expansion of the Oka golf course was approved in 1989 by the Oka mayor. The golf course would cover the land claimed by the Mohawks and it would include sixty luxury Condos and nine additional holes on the course that included members only. The Mayor’s office refused to discuss the issue despite the fact that many people in the region were against the expansion. This caused acute uproar from the Mohawks who decided to take an action by setting up barricades leading to the site where the expansion was being made. The mayor once again blocked all avenues of discussion and sternly ordered the barricades to be removed. The Mohawks were not ready to desert their quest for justice so easily and so they refused to dismantle the barricades. This made the Mayor to deploy the Quebec provincial police and the SQ to intervene and clear the barricades as well as removing the Mohawks who were demonstrating from the site. The way the Local government handled the case leaves many questions unanswered and so this paper will try to show the role of each party in environmental conflict management. The parties included in this case are;- 2. The legal system which is responsible for making the judgments’. Some of the judgments though based on the law fail to address the case at hand and so laws should be set to accommodate the communities’ historical information. 3. The local and the federal government should not use excessive force on its citizens. As it is always better to prevent a cause than to cure the disease, negotiations should always be emphasized. The interests of the community should be considered and the law should be applied to ensure that there is justice and peace after the issue is

Midterm Exam Employment Law 2009 Research Paper

Midterm Exam Employment Law 2009 - Research Paper Example The company was a large international firm in San Francisco with almost 5000 employees. Jami had given the interview with the employment group of 6 people. One of them was John Clark, a V.P and the others were Human Resources V.P, V.P in charge of sales and two other supervisors. During the interview, she noticed many of the unwanted things i.e. all of them in the selection panel kept a special eye on her physical features and was asked all kinds of personal and absurd questions just before the interview was going to complete. Despite this unfamiliar circumstance, she joined the job with an insurance benefit of 401K plan and annual salary of US$80,000.00. She was also said that after three months of probation period she could be terminated with a valid cause. After her efficient work of six months, she was offered a lunch by Mr. John Clark, V.P. In the dinner, Clark said that the company needs another V.P just like Jami. In addition, he also offered Jami to spend the weekend with him in Yosemite so that the details of the plan can be discussed. When they visited the place together, Jami came to know that Clark was having an eye on her from the very first day and she would be provided with name and fame if she agrees to all the unwanted offers of Clark. When she refused to the offer she had to go through a lot of harassment in the office. Her performance was considered to be poor and she was not allowed a leave for her mother’s surgery. Irrespective of all these adversities, she went to visit her mother without a leave notice. On returning, she was demoted to a supervisor and had a decline in salary of US$40,000.00 per year. After all these occurrences, she lodged a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and therefore sued the company to the Federal Court. It can be viewed that all workplace related issues in the form of cases are handled by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of the US (State Human Resources Manu al, â€Å"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act†). According to the case provided, Jami Jensen has been the victim of sexual harassment by the Vice President of the company, wherein she was working. When an offer was provided to Jami and not accepted by her, the V.P. threatened to sue her from the company and also lessened her salary to a huge proportion. The V.P. also kept a condition that in order to avail the facilities of the company, she must take back the case and in return, she would be rewarded with a higher position in the company and a greater hike in her salary. However, she did not accept the condition and decided to file a complaint against the company in the federal court of the US. Jami can also file complains for violating the privacy rights by the employer during the interview process in accordance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hence, the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 of the American law can be applied in the case of Jami Jensen. A PPLICABLE TORT CLAIMS In the United States, the federal tort claim provides compensation for the damages made to a property or any sort of injury arising from the activities perform by the federal officer or the employer (United States Court, â€Å"

Reaction Paper- Asian and Global Crisis Essay Example for Free

Reaction Paper- Asian and Global Crisis Essay Reaction Paper Asian and Global Crisis During the Asian and Global Crisis many of the criticisms are against accounting and accountants. In my further readings, I’ve read that during the Asian Crisis in 1997, where affected countries suffered severe setbacks in their economies and where development stagnated, the accountancy profession, including its standards, policies and levels of information disclosures, had played a role in the start of the crisis, and perhaps had even worsened it. Moreover, I’ve also read that during both crises, the Asian Crisis and Global Crisis in 2008, insufficient clarity in what was being measured, the wrong things being measured or things being measured inappropriately, lack of standards, inadequate transparency and poor ethical conduct, in short, poor corporate governance is the main breadth and depth of the crises. As a future accountant, what will I do after all the doubts and criticisms against the profession? In my opinion, sufficient clarity on what to measure, measuring things appropriately, following the applicable standards, adequate transparency and good ethical conduct are the things that I should carry out. It should be clarified in the accountant on what is the thing that he/she should measure. If I’m the accountant I should be knowledgeable on the nature and I should have understood necessary facts about the account when doing measurement or on examining the reasonableness of the measurement method used by the management. In addition, in measuring risks like financial risk, I should use a valid and reliable risk measurement technique because the information that I’ll be giving will be the basis for the management’s decision-making. If I have measured the things incorrectly or a wrong technique has been used, it could be misleading to the decision-making of the management and may cause chaos in the future to the company. In an accounting perspective, applicable generally accepted accounting standards should be used in the accounts of the financials of the company. Strict compliance should be observed so that transactions are properly recorded, summarized, classified and accounted for. Adequate disclosures should also be done. In the auditing perspective, as an auditor, auditing the company should be in accordance with the applicable generally accepted auditing standards. The auditor should be independent so that the opinion will be unbiased. I would like to emphasize that in compliance with the generally accepted auditing standards, the auditor should always take into consideration if the company provided adequate disclosures. Disclosure on significant matters is really important for the users who don’t have enough information regarding the matter will be informed. However, I have read in an article that there is also a lack of standards that also caused the hitch on crises. Regarding the lack of standards, I think it is already in the hands of the appropriate groups with authorities. Accountants need to refocus the structuring of financial transactions so that they comply with generally accepted accounting principles and that the economic substance of financial transactions is communicated. More accountability and ethical awareness needs to be instilled in the individuals who deceitfully structure financial transactions. Regulatory bodies need to ensure more transparency by closing loopholes and better enforcement of accounting standards. Audit committees, need to be sure that a company is communicating the true economic reality of the financial transactions and financial position of the business entity. Off-balance-sheet financing is one of the most significant ways, among others, that the user of financial statements can be misled. It is time for regulatory bodies to eliminate overly rules-based standards, clearly state the economic objective of each standard, and require firms to disclose the economic motivations for the accounting practices they adopt. While making judgment accountants need to be cautious and prudent. Accounting transactions and other events are sometimes uncertain but in order to be relevant it should be reported in time. Accountants have to make estimates requiring judgment to counter the uncertainty. Prudence is a key accounting principle which makes sure that assets and income are not overstated and liabilities and expenses are not understated. The bottom-line for all of these is to have good corporate governance. As defined by Robert M. Bushman, corporate governance structures serve: 1) to ensure that minority shareholders receive reliable information about the value of firms and that a company’s managers and large shareholders do not cheat them out of the value of their investments, and 2) to motivate managers to maximize firm value instead of pursuing personal objectives. I believe that all of the things I have mentioned are some of the keys that can help me as a future accountant in dealing the reality and to get out of all the doubts against the accounting profession.

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay

Detailed Analysis Of Silent Hill Two Media Essay Silent Hill 2 is a 2001 survival horror/puzzle game released for the playstation 2 by Konami. It is the sequel to the first Silent Hill game released in 1999 for the original playstation. Silent Hill 2 is seen by many as landmark game, which capitalised on elements of game design previously ignored or seen as of secondary importance. It is difficult to categorise the appeal of Silent Hill 2, as at first glance its gameplay could appear primitive or certainly repetitive, while its subject matter and storyline are nothing new to the horror genre. To put it in more prosaic terms Silent Hill 2 is very much more than the sum of its parts, and this makes it a particularly interesting candidate for in depth analysis. For the greatest part of this essay I will refer to the game via the shorthand reference: SH2. Gameplay in SH2 revolves around a mixture of puzzle solving and simple combat. As the main protagonist progresses through the town of Silent Hill, he must fight various monsters using a variety of weapons. These range from a simple plank to a hunting rifle. In keeping with the survival horror nature of the game, ammunition is quite scarce as are the supplies necessary for healing, and individual enemies can take significant time and effort to kill. The player will find him/herself conserving ammunition for the stronger enemies and bosses, and thus any encounter with a monster brings with it a sense of trepidation and anxiety. Even the least powerful of the monsters becomes formidable if the players health and ammo is low, and he/she is forced to use the wooden plank. This is compounded by the fact that the enemies in SH2 are extremely resistant to damage and take a considerable time to kill outright (though they may be knocked to the ground for a temporary immobilisation). All of the se elements combine to nurture a sense of extreme reluctance to progress through the towns environs, and help create a fear of the unknown path ahead. Unfortunately the game fails to find the right balance between challenge and enjoyability with its combat. Defeating the monsters in Silent Hill is far more tedious than it is gripping. There is far too little variety in the methods of attack and too much time is required to kill each one that soon combat becomes a slow and repetitive affair of repeatedly swinging the iron bar at low powered enemies in order to conserve ammo. Furthermore once an enemy locks into combat with the player, it no longer becomes necessary to reposition the main character, resulting in gameplay requiring no more input than holding down the attack button. There is no heads up display in SH2, and the player must access the start menu to see how much ammo or health remains. When the player has taken excessive damage the playstation controller will subtly vibrate alerting him/her to the condition they are in. This merely adds to the frustrating nature of the combat in SH2, as no clear indication of how much damage can be taken against an enemy is ever given. This results in the player frequently dying while fighting the numerous minor enemies, even with plenty of health packs in reserve. Attacks given and received in combat are accompanied by a vibration of the controller which masks the warning vibrations when close to death and further jeopardises health management. This is a grave shortcoming which detracts from the rather well designed puzzle element of SH2. Puzzles range from fairly untaxing instances of collecting and combining items to extremely cryptic riddles requiring a good deal of thought to solve. The riddles show imagination in their intricacy and leave the player with a sense of achievement for having solved them. Unfortunately instances of these riddles are far less frequent than the occurrence of monsters in silent hill. SH2 is the story of James Sunderland, a man looking for his deceased wife after receiving a letter from her which says that she is waiting for him in the town of Silent Hill, a place where they used to holiday when she was alive. James wife was named Mary, and he begins the game with a photograph of her along with the letter signed by her in his inventory. The game begins with James having driven to Silent Hill only to find the entrance road blocked. He stops at a highway toilet , examines his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, reads the letter from his wife again and decides to enter the town on foot. James commences walking through the woods. The games atmosphere is established early on by thick fog and strange disconcerting noises as he makes his way. James eventually comes upon a graveyard and we are introduced to the games first non-playable character: Angela. As James finds her she is sitting among the tombstones. The conversation between the two seems disjointed. This sets the tone for the dialogue in the game. Much of what Angela says makes little sense, James asks her questions but she seems incapable of giving him a straight answer, as though her thoughts are not fully in the present. We gather enough from what she says to learn that she is looking for her mama in Silent Hill. At a later point in the game we learn that Angela had an abusive childhood and that this has left her with a desire to end her own life. Her father was killed (it seems likely by Angela), and the family home burned down. James proceeds to enter the town proper. Everything is covered in a thick fog. The town looks for the most part normal except that it is utterly deserted and the cars, signage, and architecture have an outdated feel. We soon meet our first enemy- a non descript grotesque humanoid shape which James dispatches with the aid of a wooden plank. Soon James finds himself in an apartment building. The building is in an appalling state of repair, displaying many signs of decay with walls stained horribly with rust, mildew and blood. Here we meet our second character, Eddie. The room we find Eddie in does not display such advanced decay. Eddie is in the process of vomiting into the toilet when we meet him, and the body of a human can be seen in the kitchen unit. This is not overly remarkable in light of the monsters roaming the apartment, but Eddie is instantly defensive in his conversation with James, and his frequent uncalled for denials that he murdered the man in the kitchen lead us to suspect that he in fact did. It is noteworthy that Eddie never mentions the monsters, which would conveniently explain the body. Eddie appears to be a man of limited intelligence- coarse, with a cruel side to his nature. When James finds his way out of the apartment he discovers a little girl named Laura wandering the streets by herself. Laura tells James that she shared a ward with Mary in the hospital during Marys illness. This strikes James as highly suspect, Mary was supposed to have died three years ago, when Laura would have been very young indeed. He tries to question Laura on the matter but just like the previous conversations with Angela and Eddie, it bears little fruit. James continues on towards Rosewater Park, one of the places which would fit Marys description of a special place from her letter. Instead of Mary James meets a woman who calls herself Maria. James is astounded at Marias appearance, as she looks almost identical to his dead wife Mary. Their personalities are less similar however; Mary is extraverted and bawdy whereas Mary was reserved and ladylike. Maria is dressed in a suggestively low cut outfit with a mini skirt and an incident later on in Heavens Night strip club infers that she works as a stripper. Maria says she doesnt know Mary and takes James confusing of the two women badly. It is significant that James should meet Maria in the place he expected Mary, not to mention the similarities in appearance. Maria resolves to join James in his search for Mary. After an episode in the hospital Maria is violently killed on front of James by a sinister pyramid headed monster which is seemingly impervious to attack. Later on he finds her i nexplicably alive and well before she is again killed on front of him. This pattern repeats itself three times in the game, as James is forced to witness his dead wifes doppelganger murdered in front of him. James receives no explanation for this, or the manner in which Maria seems to share memories of Mary with James; and though she becomes angry when James confuses the two women, it seems that even she confuses herself with Mary. James surmises that Marys special place must be the hotel by the lake and makes his way there. He encounters Laura and Eddie at various times but their conversations reveal little apart from the extent of their mutual confusion. In a prison on the way to the Hotel James meets Eddie in a room full of recently murdered human corpses. This is strange as Silent Hill appears to have been deserted for some time. Eddie has lost his mind, and starts talking about having to kill people for making fun of him. Eddie becomes convinced James is just like all the rest and tries to kill James but fails, losing his own life in the process. James finally reaches the Hotel. A look in the games inventory screen reveals that Marys note has gone blank. This raises the question of whether or not it ever existed. James reaches the room where he and Mary stayed. The room is in perfect condition and is empty apart from a vcr and a television. James inserts a video he found elsewhere in the Hotel and watches in horror at footage of himself putting a pillow over Marys face in her hospital bed. It finally becomes clear- James killed Mary. He sits with his head bowed for some time until Laura enters. We wonder how she made it into the hotel past all of the monsters and traps. James tells Laura he killed Mary. At this point the player realises the origin of James confusion. Mary was dying and James killed her and subsequently blocked out the memory. Now the chronology of the game makes more sense; Mary didnt die but merely got sick three years ago and James killed her much more recently. This explains how Laura had met her not long ago. It transpires that Marys illness badly affected her appearance and demeanour, causing her to lash out at James. This goes some way to explaining why James did what he did. Just before the final boss James again meets Angela. She is consumed by despair and James can do nothing to dissuade her from suicide. James is forced to witness the death of Maria at the hands of pyramid head one last time before proceeding to the roof of the Hotel where an evil incarnation of either Mary or Maria (depending on the players actions during the game) awaits. There are four endings to SH2: 1: In the Leave ending, the woman on the roof is Maria yet again, disguised as Mary in an attempt to trick James. James refuses her and Maria transforms into a monster. After James defeats this Boss Maria, he finds himself by Marys bedside once again. He explains to Mary that he killed her to end her suffering but also selfishly to end his own difficulty in having to care for her. He reads Marys letter in full and then leaves the town with Laura. 2: The in water ending is the same as above except instead of leaving with Laura we hear the sounds of James car driving into a lake. We surmise that he could not live without Mary and chose to drown himself. Marys letter scrolls across a screen with a watery background. 3: In the Maria ending James is reunited with Maria after the fight and the pair leave town together. As he helps her into his car she begins coughing. It seems likely that Maria will fall ill just like Mary did. It could be construed as a punishment for James, or perhaps even a chance of salvation if he sees Marias illness to the end, the way he never did for Mary. 4: The rebirth ending, which can only be unlocked during a replay sees James killing boss Maria, and then taking Marys body out to an island in Toluca Lake via boat. It appears as though he intends to resurrect Mary using various talismans he found in game at the church on the island. SH2, with its multiple endings and abundant ambiguity has no single reading or interpretation. Just as James discovers his own true past after watching the video the player must assemble his/her own definitive narrative based on the events they have witnessed. Many of the events negate each other, or have causes and consequences which are mutually exclusive. These include Marys note which disappears partway through the game, or Marias frequent resurrections. It becomes apparent after some reflection that if SH2 provides an account of these inconsistencies it is not made explicit and its left up to the player to make sense of events. The one theme each one of the endings have in common is that someone along the line in the story, be it Maria or Mary, turns out to be a figment of James imagination. Given that each ending allows for this possibility it seems likely that much of what James has experienced in Silent Hill was a product of his own mind. This reasoning is the only way to bui ld a logical picture of the events of SH2. The best way to examine this theory is to look closer at James encounters with the other characters in the game. The characters in SH2 converse with each other in a disjointed way, as though each inhabits a separate reality which only they have access to. It appears as though the town presents a subjective reality to each person who visits it. It also makes sense to think that each characters reality can only be observed when they meet face to face. The evidence for this is quite strong when one examines how the characters interact. Eddie never once mentions the monsters that threaten James, for him Silent Hill is a place full of people who make fun of him. James never sees any of these people except lying dead in and around Eddie. The town is less dilapidated when we meet Eddie, such as in the apartment room, where sports posters adorn the wall. It is uncertain why Silent Hill drew Eddie to it but his experience there is a failure, he loses his mind and commences slaughtering everyone. His experience of Silent Hill ends when he meets a real person- James, who kills him. Angela provides an even more dramatic example. When James rescues her she is being threatened by a monster that she refers to as daddy. This scene provides a good insight into how the town manifests itself to different people. The room is full of the decor of a domestic living room, even though it occurs in an underground labyrinth. Angela apparently sees Silent Hill through the eyes of her childhood. She saw her father while all James saw was a monster. The last time James meets Angela it is in the burning hallway. This seems to be a representation of how her childhood home burned down. James remarks that its hot as hell in here, while Angela replies You see it too? For me its always like this. The fire only exists when Angela is near; when James leaves the room, the Hotel is back to its damp rotting self. The town seems perfectly normal in the presence of Laura, and this explains how an eight year old girl could run from place to place without being harassed by monsters. In the bowling alley we find Laura and Eddie together eating a pizza. This too is revealing. The silent Hill James experiences is far too old and unsanitary a place to find food in, whereas for Laura and Eddie it appears just ordinary enough to find a pizza. Now we have some idea of how the town works for different people we can make more sense of James experiences. Firstly the chances of Maria being a real person seam dubious. Unlike the other characters in the game Maria is the only one who shares James experiences and can witness the things he can. This is evidence against her existence outside of James imagination, as none of the other characters seem to have any idea what James means when he talks of monsters. Furthermore none of the other characters ever see Maria, and when she and James arrive at the bowling alley she stays outside, away from Laura and Eddie so as not to reveal her illusory nature by appearing on front of people who cannot see her. There is also the more obvious discrepancy of her many deaths and resurrections; the other characters seem much more conventional in this regard. Finally there are the comparisons between Maria and Mary. She has the same body, and appears in the same spot James expects to see Mary- all suggestive of an imaginary Maria hypotheses; a construct of James mind composed of elements of his dead wife. Pyramid head, like all the monsters in SH2, is a further construct of James imagination. He plays a role in that he forces James to face his own guilt by killing the image of his wife before his eyes again and again. James admits this to himself before the final fight with the twin pyramid heads: thats why I needed you, needed someone to punish me for my sins. Interestingly James never actually harms pyramid head during combat. All the encounters with him are survived by endurance rather than by beating him. In the end it is pyramid head that kills himself. So the definitive narrative of SH2 is thus: James, forced to care for what was left of his sick wife, decided to kill her rather than have either of them suffer any longer. Once he had killed her however, he was filled with feelings of guilt and began living in denial, telling himself and others that she had died three years ago. In fact however; he hated himself, and needed to face the truth of what he had done, and so he was drawn to the town of Silent Hill where the forces of the town led him on a journey to face himself. Aesthetically SH2 has a very unified and clear vision of itself. As an audio visual experience the different elements tie together very well and form quite a cohesive feeling game of seamless stylistic integrity. Particular attention was given to the design of the monsters which reflect the nature of James inner turmoil. Apart from pyramid head every monster in SH2 is feminine in nature. Even the indistinguishable humanoid shapes that spit acid have high pitched female voices and long legs. Some of the monster designs have sexual overtones such as the mannequins or the nurses. It seems plausible to read this as a manifestation of James relationship towards womankind since he murdered his wife. It could even be said that the form of the monsters are derived from the nature of Marys disfiguring illness. The sense of atmosphere in SH2 is superbly well crafted. To this end the designers have employed prolific use of heavy fog and darkness to create a fear of progressing forward into the unknown. This is coupled with the use of a noise grain filter that lends an organic feel to the textures and ties in with the static motif reflected in the radio. The noise filter plays tricks on the eye, making walls appear to crawl and adding to the sense of chaos and unease. Every area exhibits a very high level of detail, with various bits of rubbish, graffiti, and detritus creating a thoroughly believable, lived in, (though abandoned) town. The minimal soundtrack is no less appropriate, with Akira Yamaoka opting more for industrial or ambient soundscapes than a conventional soundtrack (although a conventional song was also composed for the game). The imagination displayed in the composition of the soundtrack is impressive. Yamaoka employed very few conventional instruments, instead creating deeply unsettling otherworldly cacophonies of banging iron, bee-hives, saws, miscellaneous improvised percussion, sirens, wild animals, and heavy machinery. It is unfortunate therefore considering the quality of SH2 as an aesthetic experience, to find it marred by the camera. SH2 uses a third person viewpoint at all times with only a miniscule degree of control afforded to the player. The game has a very cinematic attitude to camera placement and as a result the camera is tyrannical in its inflexibility. Examination of the detail in the graphics is forbidden at all times by the camera, which will change position at the drop of a hat to the other side of a room. Though the camera positions are clearly deliberately chosen to lend the game an avant-garde and cinematic veneer they succeed only in hampering movement, increasing combat difficulty and generally detracting from SH2s enjoyment on every level. In conclusion the strength of Silent Hill 2 lies in its ability to tell a compelling and intriguing story while successfully evoking a palpably uneasy atmosphere. SH2 represents an advance in the video game as form, as it redefines the areas in which a game succeeds at entertaining. By all traditional standards the gameplay is uninspired, even tedious at times, yet SH2 remains a deeply affecting and compelling experience. The attention to detail in the feel of the game, along with the subtle, mature, and ambiguous storyline create a game of tremendous artistic unity, which represents a true formal leap in video games. .