Monday, September 30, 2019

Electronic Monitoring In The Workplace: Used in Information Age

With the advent of the Information Age, a problem has developed between employers and employees over the use of electronic monitoring in the workplace. Electronic monitoring is monitoring employees' e-mail, computer files, voice mail, telephone use, as well as the use of video and audio surveillance, computer network monitoring, and keystroke monitoring. To employers, the use of electronic monitoring is a very effective management tool to manage employees† activities. Employers feel that electronic monitoring offers a shield of corporate security, a means of achieving good performance, and is a necessity for global competitiveness. On the other hand, many workers frown upon this level of monitoring. Is eyeing an employee's every move, including in the locker rooms and in the restrooms via video camera, necessary? Is the risk of causing health problems to workers for the sake of meeting numerical figures even considered? Is rating a worker's job performance based on production alone an accurate means of assessing a worker's performance? How about the quality of a worker's performance, isn't it important as well? For the most part, courts favor the employers on the issue of electronic monitoring. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (1996) â€Å"laws to protect employees require only that employees be treated equally. Employers are, therefore, free to do whatever they wish to their employees as long as they do so in a non-discriminatory manner† (p. 1). Employees have limited rights concerning electronic monitoring. â€Å"Union contracts, for example, may limit the employer†s right to monitor. Also, public sector employees may have some minimal rights under the U. S. Constitution, in particular the Fourth Amendment which safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure† (Center for Public Interest Law, 1994, p. 6). The courts seem to weigh the reasonableness of an employee's expectation to privacy against the legitimate business interests of the employer. Corporate security is a concern of many employers. Corporate spying and theft can seriously put a corporation at risk. â€Å"A business victimized by corporate spying will find itself at a strong competitive and strategic disadvantage† (Cozic, 1994, 64). To employers, monitoring e-mail and computer networks are necessary. Computers offer ready points for entry for spies, thieves, disgruntled employees, sociopaths, and bored teens. Once they're in a company's network, they can steal trade secrets, destroy data, sabotage operations, even subvert a particular deal or career† (Behar, 1997, 2). With the possibility of confidential information being retrieved via the computer network or a corporate spy in the corporation sending confidential information by e-mail to a competitor, electronic computer network monitoring is one shield that may offer employers some protection. In addition, employee theft is a reality in many businesses that can drive up business costs. From the employers† point of view, video surveillance monitoring throughout the business facility can help deter much of this theft. Video surveillance would allow a employer to see an employee†s every move inside the facility. If employees are aware of this kind of video surveillance, they would be less inclined to steal or at least be very precautious about stealing. According to the ACLU (1996) â€Å"employers have the right to expect an honest day's work for a day's pay. They have a right to set performance standards and expect those standards to be met (p. 3). † The use of Computer Aided Manufacturing is one means of electronic monitoring that enables employers to visually see the performance of their employees, their advanced equipment, and their manufacturing processes. The use of CAM allows managers to monitor vital areas of the manufacturing processes for necessary improvements. With this method of monitoring, managers are able to evaluate whether an employee needs training or whether an employee is fit for the job they were hired to do. In today†s increased global competition, employers of U. S. companies are concerned about bottom line profits and what needs to be done to be competitive with companies of other nations. Employers regard the monitoring method of Computer Aided Manufacturing as a necessary tool to compete globally. It enables employers to manufacture more efficiently by driving costs down and moving quality levels upward. According to Cozic (1994), â€Å"if U. S. factories are discouraged from moving forward with C. A. M. , then American workers will be the ultimate losers as domestic factories won't be modernized even as overseas factories become increasingly efficient (p. 66). † With the world becoming more of a global economy, employers want to be well positioned to compete. On the flip side of this coin, employees have serious concerns also. By pushing employees to meet higher standards through the use of electronic monitoring, their physical health and mental state can suffers. According to the Center for Public Interest Law (1994) â€Å"People involved in intensive word processing and data entry jobs may be subject to keystroke monitoring. This system tells the manager how many keystrokes per hour each employee is performing. It also may inform employees if they are above or below the standard number of keystrokes expected. Consequently, keystroke monitoring is now linked to health problems including stress disabilities and physical problems like carpal tunnel syndrome†(p. 6). This ailment is a result of repetitive motions of the hands. It is because the human body has a certain tolerance for repetitive and continuous motions that employees believe the use of electronic monitoring to push higher standards should have limits. Also, as far as mental health is concerned, â€Å"Maxine, a customer service representative who quit her job as a result of a serious stress-related illness, described her feelings and those of dozens of hotline callers this way: Monitoring makes you feel like less than a child, less than a human being† (Cozic, 1994, 57). When an employee is stressed mentally by monitoring, undesired working conditions may be created. Paced work, reduced task variety, reduced peer social support, reduced supervisory support, fear of job loss, routine work activities, and lack of control over tasks can produce counterproductive effects to the goal of increasing the efficiency of a given business operation. Many employees also believe the use of electronic monitoring by employers for evaluation purposes isn't a totally accurate account of their performance. â€Å"A major theme of complaints by monitored workers is that trying to meet numerical figures, over which they have no control and no input, sets up a conflict between giving quality service and keeping the time down. Airline reservation agents receive scores on five different statistics per day; the number of calls handled, average time per call, average time between calls, unmanned time, and overall average. Agents are expected to take 150-200 calls per day with a 96 percent success rating. They may be disciplined for any of the following reasons: Calls longer than three and one half minutes, more than 12 minutes per day of unmanned time, or too long between calls. One agent was put on warning for spending a total 23 seconds-over a full eight hour shift between calls† (Cozic, 1994, 59). With customers having varying needs, some employees view this as a narrow approach in evaluating how they service customers. Some customers may require more attention than others based on the nature of the customers' call. In addition, employees believe that by employers putting too much emphasis on them making numerical goals, the quality of their performance can be adversely influenced or overlooked. Employees want things like creativity, initiative, leadership, interpersonal skills, and teammanship to be equally included in the evaluation of their performance. Additionally, employees believe much of the monitoring that goes on by the employers have no relevancy to their job performance. â€Å"Several large railroad companies in St. Louis use a system which records the location and length of time employees spend in any part of the building. Workers flash their ID cards through an electronic sensor in each doorway. A computer monitors how long the employees spend in the restroom, the payphone area, the smoking lounge or at a friend's work station. Sandra, a woman who makes four trips to the bathroom per day, was told by her supervisor that four trips was excessive and that she obviously had a medical problem and needed to see a doctor† (Cozic, 1994, 57). Employees view the amount of time they spend in the restroom to be a very private moment. Many employees feel that if they are performing their jobs well, then why make going to the restroom an issue to begin with. â€Å"Employees certainly have a right to privacy when it comes to dealing with problems of a personal nature, as long as they do so on time set aside by their employers and their performance is not affected† (Fineran, 1991, 64). Employees think that there should be a line drawn between monitoring a worker†s performance and monitoring the worker. Employers also want employees to understand their rights to protect their businesses with means best suitable. The suitable means include electronic monitoring which may at times be at odds with employees' rights to privacy. Cozic (1994) points out that, â€Å"Card keys and other authorization measures used by the Department of Defense for security control access to areas containing classified data rely on personal identifying information and, by their very nature, track employee movements (p. 5). † Employees would like notification from their employers by written, visual, or audible means, which indicates electronic monitoring, practices. According to Cameron (1991) â€Å"the requirement that employers provide written notification of monitoring systems and visual or aural signals of telephone surveillance will provide urgently needed protections from some of the most serious invasions of privacy (p. 56). † Employers realize to run a successful business enterprise takes good employees. They have to be able to recognize good and bad employees by justly assessing both the employees† character and productivity. With the aid of electronic monitoring, employers believe that employees would receive more exposure than they would receive without monitoring. According to Cozic (1994) â€Å"such data received from monitoring may assist the employer in assessing an employee's character, productivity, or loyalty (p. 64). † Employees, in general, want to do a good job. They want to be evaluated according to balanced standards with the use of electronic monitoring as only one measure of consideration. According to Cozic (1994) â€Å"With electronic monitoring, the supervisor is in the machine; watching and counting every minute. This supervisor does not take into account that anyone can have a bad day, a slow start, or a difficult afternoon (p. 58). † Employers and employees both have valid concerns to the issue of electronic monitoring in the workplace. Care must be taken to avoid infringement on employees' rights to privacy and well being while maintaining the employers' rights to benefit from the labor they have hired. Employees must try to understand the security concerns of the employers as well as the employers need to be able to operate their businesses in ways that keep them competitive. On the other hand, employers must seek balanced ways in assessing employees' performances as well as their benefit to the company by not relying too much on electronic monitoring. Perhaps if both parties will keep the concerns of the other in mind, a happy medium can be found where conditions favorable to both employees and employers are established.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Analysis and Historical Context from Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke Essay

The previous fragment we’ve read belongs to the work of John Locke, ‘Second Treatise of Civil Government’, who published it anonymously in 1689. It is a work of political philosophy, in which Locke talks about civil society, natural rights and separation of powers. Locke was one of the first empirical philosophers and he believed that the human being was born with no knowledge, and that experience and observation were the base of all human wisdom. In the text, Locke talks about how powers should be separated and not concentrated in the same person (the King) because he would be tempted, and in fact it was happening, to use them just to satisfy his desires. Locke also says that individuals are under no obligation to obey one another, and that we are all born free. He continues talking about how a man has the power to do whatever it takes to preserve himself and others, but always obeying the law of nature. People have the power to overthrow the king if he is not being just with his subjects; people have absolute right to choose a governor, and it should not be all about the ‘great chain of being’, a term Locke finds ridiculous because the governor should be elected by people and not by blood. An absolute monarch is illegitimate because we are all born equals. Locke says that there are three fundamental rights for a human being: life, liberty and property. These ideas were extremely dangerous because they despised the royal way of governing, and that’s the reason why Locke had to publish his work anonymously. They meant a revolution in the mentalities of his time. Locke’s work had a tremendous influence upon the Founding Fathers. Locke’s idea of men being endowed with natural rights had an enormous influence upon the American Declaration of Independence; the rights there enumerated, â€Å"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness†, were for Locke â€Å"Life, Liberty and Property†. For Locke, the Founding Fathers and for us, property is synonymous with the pursuit of happiness and liberty, and they wouldn’t be possible without property. This means that natural rights are intertwined and mutually dependent. The loss of any one means the effective loss of the other two. A government that seeks to extort money from its citizens by overtaxing them is imposing upon the liberty of the people. This was the primary reason the Founding Fathers of this nation embarked upon the Revolutionary War. They understood that taxes imposed without the consent of the governed were indeed a grave imposition upon their liberty. Before Locke wrote his work, there had been many absolute monarchs in the throne of England like John in 1199 or James I in 1603, and later James II in 1685. Then, a civil war came during Charles I’s reign from 1642 till 1651. The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English monarchy with a Republic ruled by Oliver Cromwell. The period called ‘the Protectorate’ may be said when Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector in 1653. From then until his death in 1658, he ruled in a state of conflict with parliaments. On May 1660, the parliament resolved that the government of England ‘ought to be by King, Lords and Commons’. A week later, Charles II was proclaimed king and before the month was out entered London in triumph. Although Charles II’s reign produced the two rival factions, Whig and Tory, from which political parties were later to develop, they were almost identical twins. Each believed as firmly as the other in the maintenance of monarchy; each at different times adopted policies previously pursued by the other. The Restoration of 1660, by restoring crown, church and lords, put Englishmen back once more under a system of government proven unworkable. With a king on the throne who still wanted to govern, and a group of dissatisfied men in parliament who wanted his government to be controlled by them, conflict was hard to avoid. But the civilian revolution did not happen until after Charles II’s death in 1685. King Charles was succeeded by his brother James, who became James II of England and VII of Scotland. James is best known for his belief in absolute monarchy and his attempts to create religious liberty for his subjects against the wishes of the English Parliament. Increasingly members of Britain’s political and religious elite opposed him as too pro-French, too pro-Catholic, and too much of an absolute monarch. When he produced a Catholic heir, the tension exploded and leading nobles called on William III of Orange (his son-in-law and nephew) to land an invasion army from the Netherlands. James fled England (and thus abdicated) in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was replaced by William of Orange who became king as William III, ruling jointly with his wife (James’s daughter) Mary II. Thus William and Mary, both Protestants, became joint rulers in 1689. Parliament issued the Bill of Rights, which stipulated the rights and obligations of the monarch. William and Mary reigned jointly till 1694 when Mary died. Then, William continued to reign alone. He died in 1702 and Queen Anne, the daughter of James II and the last Stuart monarch, succeeded William III. She, like Mary, was a Protestant. On May 1707, under the Acts of Union, England and Scotland were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain, though Scotland kept its legal system and also the Presbyterian Church. Anne became Great Britain’s first sovereign. All Anne’s children died so that her cousin, Sophia of Hanover was declared her heir. However, Sophia died the same year as Queen Anne and so her son George of Hanover was the one in succeeding Queen Anne becoming George I of England. Basically, this text is a more specific critique of government, stressing the rule of the majority as the most practical choice for government. He identifies three elements necessary for a civil society: a common established law, a known and impartial body to give judgment, and the power to support such judgments. He calls for a government with different branches, including a strong legislature, and an active executive who does not outstrip the lawmakers in power. Toward the end of the Treatise, Locke finally arrives at the question of forming a new government. When the state ceases to function for the people, it dissolve or is overthrown and may be replaced. When the government is dissolved, the people are free to reform the legislative to create a new civil state that works in their best interest. Locke insists that this system protects against random unrest and rebellion because it allows the people to change their legislative and laws without resorting to force.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Diet and health issues In the hospitality industry Essay

Diet and health issues In the hospitality industry - Essay Example There is a commonly acknowledged fact, however, that wrong nutrition is one of the main reasons for diseases and deaths. Such diseases as cancer, diabetes, or obesity, cause 2/3 of all deaths, one of the main reasons for these pathologies being incorrect nutrition, and namely - the increased content of cholesterol and fat. Fast-food, in particular, contains a very dangerous form of cholesterol which can damage heart and blood vessels. The fast food industry in the United Kingdom is characterized as "the most prominent, the most dynamic and the most rapidly growing" market. (Jones et al. 2002) Modern spread of junk food is causing different illnesses, of which the most common one is obesity. (Leake & Porter 2003) Not everyone understands nowadays that bulimia, for example, is a kind of addiction, same as alcoholism or drug-taking. But the difference is - food is a "legal drug". The most widespread addiction is considered to be sugar. Food and soft drinks manufacturers use this sugar addiction to the wide range. They know that people cannot eat pure sugar, and therefore they put sugar in excessive amounts into soft drinks and sweets. As a result, many people get addicted to sugar, and do not even realize how much of this product they consume. Almost nobody counts the content of sugar in his everyday Fanta, or in a pack of biscuits. Manufacturers and owners of fast-food restaurants are making their profit, whereas many people suffer from being addicted to sugar. More than half citizens of the USA or Canada are overweight, and everyone knows that it is harmful for health. "According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, a whopping 55% of adult Americans are now classified as overweight" (James-Enger 2007) However, the doctors and dieticians cannot oppose the everlasting flow of ads and commercials propagating "eating non-stop" as the best way of life. The number of people suffering from obesity has been growing fast; especially topical this problem is for the USA, however many European and Asian countries also have increasing number of obese people, and therefore the growth of patients suffering from diabetes is no wonder. Also, nutritionists are sure that the growth of the number of people suffering from increased blood pressure, heart attacks, etc., is also caused by diet disorders, and, above all, obesity. There is an opinion that obesity can largely be attributed to the fact that many people nowadays prefer to eat out rather than stay at home, and mostly in fast-food restaurants. The food in restaurants contains more calories than home-made food, and apart from that, children coming to restaurants normally eat more. Fast-food causes diseases, and it harms human organisms as it normally takes not more than fifteen minutes to eat it, whereas there is a so-called saturation centre that is "switched on" after 20 minutes after a person begins eating. If within these first 20 minutes one eats fast, it is possible to eat far too much. Moreover, some products, even those served in restaurants, can be a source of infection. British doctors recommend not to eat underdone hamburgers as they can contain dangerous microorganisms. It has been proved that a healthy diet can prevent the development of

Friday, September 27, 2019

The reform of Security Council sanctions Coursework

The reform of Security Council sanctions - Coursework Example â€Å"Chief responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security lies with the Security Council. It is therefore essential to its legitimacy that its membership reflect the state of the world.† French President Chirac’s address to the United Nations General Assembly The United Nations is by far the largest and most popular international government organization. The existence of the United Nations owes itself to years behind the Second World War. It should be noted that even before the United States came into the Second World War, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had consented in the eighth point of the Atlantic Charter that a â€Å"permanent system of general security† ought to go operational after the war. In 1943, the Moscow conference of Foreign Ministers established that a new international organization should be put into place to regulate issues after the war. From them, delegates of 50 countries assembled in San Francisco in the months of April and May 1945 and laid groundwork for what we can now call the United Nations1. Therefore and from all intents and objects, the United Nations was a result of the mayhem that resulted from the wars. The main explanation for the existence of the United Nations was to foster a common world order in which mutual cooperation and understanding between nations would ensure world peace. Since June 1946 when the first United Nations Charter was officialised, membership into the organization has prided itself with rising membership and it can now boast of 191 members. What was a herald to the United Nations was the unfortunate League of Nations that saw it incompetent to face one of the world’s greatest challenges – world peace. Since 1945, world order has altered and there exist varying perspectives of what is construed by peace, law and order. These challenges have been taken up by the Security Council, but it has proven that there is an extensive fissure between practice and reality. Constituting itself as a unified system of governments, the United Nations has attempted to bring all member states under one covering of understanding, though the vest differentiation in international perspectives and outlooks signals opposing views with regards to the issue of acting as a unified whole. In an attempt to ensure world security, the Security Council has been given the mandate of responsibility in accordance with the United Nations Charter for the upholding of international peace and security. All 191 members of the United Nations are bound by the charter to accept and implement the decisions of the Security Council. Therefore, the Security Council is an adjudicating body, while the member states are subjects to laws adjudicated by the Security Council. The activities of the Security Council have not been very smooth. The first paralysis was the commotions from the cold war, leading to the polarity of most of the member states. Currently comprising 15 United Nation Member States, with 5 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), having veto powers, which has cost the Security Council much more than what the cold war did. Keep in mind that the veto power is often upheld as a tool to obstruct the actions of other veto members. The 10 remaining members act with no veto powers and their membership is allocated as follows: two seats each to Asia, Latin America, Western Europe; one seat to Eastern Europe and three seats to Africa. Thus, the Security Council wants and equal representation and participation of all the various regions of the world. What Is Liability Of The Security Council? The main objective of the Security Council is to foster peace and security. In an attempt to ensure that this turns out to be what the member states seek for, the Security Council makes use of mediation, peacekeeping in addition to enforcement with regards to Chapter VI of the UN Charter. Since the Second World War, many peacekeeping missions, mediation as well as enforcement missions have been

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Theater Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theater - Research Paper Example According to Stanton and Banham (1996), the first recorded theater of this type was a performance held in Egypt in 2500 BC enacting one of the sacred plays of the myth of Osiris and Isis. In the west, though, the beginning of theater is generally recognized as having its start in Ancient Greece, resurging going into the Renaissance and changes coming into the modern age. Greek theater history starts with Thespis, apparently a playwright whose name is recorded in history as the first winner of the play competition in honor of Dionysus in 534 BC (Wicker, 2004). It is from Greek theater that we get most of our current conventions, language and definition. In Greek theater, the play was generally narrated by a chorus who would let the audience know what they were supposed to be seeing and the background information of the story being told. Sometimes they took part in the action as they interacted with the principle characters. Under Greek influence, the theater developed into two major camps – the comedies and the tragedies. Major playwrights in the ancient period were Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander (Wicker, 2004). These men did much to develop theater into a fully-told story complete with actors, histories and a somewhat scientific approach to the development of story. As the Greek society began to fade, the rising Ro mans adopted their entertainment and brought it into further development. Some of the famous playwrights of this period included Terence and Plautus (Wicker, 2004). Like the Greeks, the Romans generally performed their plays in large amphitheaters where the audience would sit on graduated rows of horseshoe-shaped terraces while the actors would perform on a stage set at the base of these rows in the center of the pinched horseshoe opening. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans reduced the importance of their plays to

Equity and Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Equity and Trusts - Essay Example In fact, trust has been a rather conspicuous beneficiary of equity since the former is an invention of the latter2. Generally, trust laws are applied in situations in which an individual places trust and confidence in another or others to handle or manage his/her affairs. While the law of equity governs the individuals entering such relationships, the law of trust offers the mechanisms for dealing with the different situations and circumstances of such relationships including pension funds, family relationships and charities among others. Although most cases such as estoppels and secret trusts allow the courts to easily deal with the formalities of property laws, there are certain unique and technical situations and terms with which one needs to be conversant to understand trust law3. Trust law, whose applicability may start before or after a trust commences has the objective of clarifying the activities and purposes for which trusts are created. The validity of trusts may be depende nt on the nature of its creation, whether an oral declaration or an instrument created in writing such as a will or a codicil. Additionally, a trust may be created by a mere conduct, without involving any technical expressions or activities. However, unit trusts, real property trusts and non-charitable purpose trusts

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Lesson plan #1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lesson plan #1 - Assignment Example It therefore acts as guideline through which teachers and students must adhere to. The sample of the lesson plan given can be compared to the ones found on most webs. The major quality this sample has is that it is simple to understand given the choice of Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings for elaboration. The desserts by Wayne Thiebaud meet the national standards for visual art link because of the way he presents his paintings to demonstrate and reflect on ideas and emotions. In his paintings, he uses objects commonly known to students and has colored them as if they were real. Learners are able to easily understand and perhaps draw similar objects and even describe them using various adjectives especially if such children are not physically challenged. The National Standards for Visual Art Link include trying to show relationships between visual arts and other related disciplines, selecting and doing evaluation of symbols and ideas and applying knowledge of structures and functions in teaching (Jody 206). For a kindergarten student, it is advisable to draft a lesson plan that is simple to comprehend and use. The primary aim should be to enable them differentiate various desserts used and use adjectives in their descriptions. Colors used should be obvious. Such colors range from the ones which the children are familiar with to those that are complex. In order to make the lesson more interesting, the teacher should use interesting pictorials for demonstration. This includes drawing pictures of appetizing materials like ice cream. Kindergarten children should be left to color the drawing of the ice cream alone but with some support from the teacher. One reason why items like ice creams are used is because children always like them. They taste nice. The sample of the lesson plan given is a perfect example of what every art teacher should stick to. The cookies provided are convenient for kindergarten students given their

Monday, September 23, 2019

PRESENTATION REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

PRESENTATION REPORT - Essay Example History proves that the Gospel of John was written on the polite demand of the Bishops of Asia so that the history of Jesus remains alive in the eyes of Christian people. His writing also proves that it is solely for the Greek readers (Smith 1988, p. 433). John describes the whole story and shows the different viewpoint as compared to previous writers. The purpose of the writing of the Gospel of John was not to add materials in the previous Gospels. For that reason, he added authentic information in the fourth Gospel. His purpose of writing was also not to negate the Cerinthian heresy. In his writing, he just stated the truth in a different or unique way. He also not intended to resolve the problems of the harsh parties by giving them a lesson of unity, just like the Tubingen school did not disapprove Jewish opposition and criticism. This viewpoint is so much famous among scholars (Von Wahlde 1995, p. 381) The purpose of writing the fourth Gospel is to prove that Jesus is the Christ and he is the son of God and one should have a spiritual association with him. He also explains that he has a close relationship with his father. In this case, any other person who is spiritually close to Jesus is automatically close to God. In that time period, Cerinthian heresy was famous among Christians, but because of the Gospel of John, Christians were again attracted towards their own religion and followings. The author of the fourth Gospel was a Palestinian Jew. In his writing he shows that he is closely attached and follows the Jewish customs. He knew the Jews religious customs and followership entirely (De Jonge, 1993, p. 349). He also knew, it is entirely an illegal and non-religious thing to alter the pious book and he could face the bad circumstances. He knew there were strict thoughts and rules, that were followed in the Jewish world and it was unlawful to change the Sabbath, 5: 1 ff.; 9:14 ff. He knew the hopes of Jewish

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Hispanic American Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Hispanic American Diversity - Essay Example This essay stresses that usually, Cuban Americans have higher living standards than other ethnic minorities because of tight socio-economic support and family relations. Cuban Miamian community significantly affects socio-cultural and political background of the region; for example, it reflects on holidays celebration, carnivals, numerous soccer fields, menu in local cafes and restaurants. It impacts their relations with other Hispanic minorities, because â€Å"Cuban Miamians are slowly adjusting to sharing their influence with the growing diversity of Hispanics.† Life within community implies multigenerational families, respect of the elderly and steady family values. Dominican American females have more freedom in independent living, earning money and making career than the other Latinas. This paper makes a conclusion that younger generation prefers lifestyle and family model of White Americans. Approximately 30 – 35% of Puerto Ricans graduated from colleges and universities; this ethnic group has the highest percentage of skilled labor force in the USA. Puerto Rican American students are participated into ESL programs, but many of them know English perfectly. Large national communities promote socio-cultural support in the form of linguistic courses, professional advanced training etc.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Why Person Centered Values Are Important Essay Example for Free

Why Person Centered Values Are Important Essay We all have our own values that have developed as a result of our family and childhood experiences, and as a result of our friendships and relationships. Our values are also influenced by people in our local community, as well as by national figures and the media. Support workers in social care are expected to promote particular values. There are two important points to note. First, the idea that learning disability workers are supporting a person. It is not a question of being in charge or in control, because choice and decision-making should lie with the person, as far as possible. Second, it is very important that these principles are part of your everyday work. There should be nothing special about them, they should be part of day-to day life. Within a few days of starting work with people with learning disabilities, it should be clear to you that everyone you work with is an individual, with their own particular likes, dislikes, strengths and personality. Services and support workers should always focus on the individuals they are working with, rather than the needs of a group of people. You and your colleagues should have the hopes, dreams, interests and needs of each person you support as a top priority in your daily work. Why it is important to promote rights  and values When we talk about promoting rights and values, we mean: • actively using those rights and values to influence everything we do • seeing them as having an important role in all our work as learning disability workers  encouraging their use as the standards by which we and others judge the quality of life of the people we support, and the  quality of the services that support them.  This is a big task. The use of values as standards is a huge challenge to services. But the idea is central to the basic principles of supporting people with learning disabilities.  To demonstrate that you have understood this, you should be able to discuss why it is important to work in a way that promotes these values when supporting those who have a learning disability. The following example  should help you to develop the skills you will need to discuss values in relation to the lives of the people you support. Person centred values mean that people with learning disabilities should: • no longer be marginalised and isolated within society • have the same social status as other people • no longer be subject to exploitation and abuse • have their opinions taken seriously • have their adult status recognised • have the same citizenship rights as other people. The General Social Care Council (GSCC) is the organisation set up by the government in 2001 to register and regulate all social care workers. It has produced a Code of Practice which states that social care workers should work in a certain way. You can see some of these requirements in the table below: Code of Practice for Social Care Workers requirements Protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers Strive to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service Users and carers Promote the independence of service users, while protecting them as far as possible from danger or harm Respect the rights of service users, while seeking to ensure that their behaviour does not harm themselves or other people

Friday, September 20, 2019

Market analysis and management of Liberty Cinema

Market analysis and management of Liberty Cinema At the liberty cinema, the customer comes to the location in order to get the move entertainment, since the customer has to be physically present to experience the movie on the theater screen. The geographical cinema is conveniently located at No 35, Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo-3. This location is very convenient since it is in the heart of Colombo making it easily accessible for all the customers from Colombo as well as out of Colombo. (Service schedules) Speak about time, only geographical location is mentioned People According to Lovelock and Wright (2002) people mean customer and employees who are involved in service production and provision, and many services depend on direct personal interaction between customers, firms and employees. The nature of these interactions strongly influences the customer perception of service quality. Customers often judge the quality of the service they receive largely on their assessment of the people proving services. From a cinema customer expect standard service, value for money and so on. On the other hand the employees need to enhance their profitability by satisfying customers fully. The targeted groups of customers for liberty cinema are mainly teenagers between 16-24 years of age, children under the age of 16 and families and therefore they screen cartoons, fictions and actions movies (English and Hindi only) in order to cater to their target market well. They screen these movies along with the worldwide release dates in order to cater the desperate customers well in advance. As you can see from the diagram, Liberty Cinema employees 17 staff that are recruited by the firm and 2 security officers from an outsourced company. Special training has been provided to the technicians to overcome any interruption .All employees are highly motivated and their efficiency can be easily seen on highly crowded days. Speak about front stage and Back stage employees in the organization try to divide employees The success of marketing a service is tied closely to the selection, training, motivation and management of people (Payne, 2001) Physical evidence According to Lovelock and Wright (2002) and marketing terminology glossary Physical Evidence refers to visual or other tangible parts or clues that provide evidence of service quality and performance which customers can actually see or experience when they use a service. (http://www.mshmgi.com/glossary,P,Physical+Evidence.html) (Lovelock and Wright, 2002 (Offline), Principles of Service marketing and management, Second edition) Or This is the service firms physical environment where the service is created and where the service provider and customer interact, plus any tangible elements that are used to communicate or support the role of the service. (the essence of service marketing, series editor: adrian buckley, author: adrian payne,2001) In this service which is the film entertainment the visual or the other tangible clues that provide evidence of service quality and performance comes in a number of various ways. The Paper works such as invoices which are given when advance booking is made by visiting as well as the e-mail when booked over the internet and tickets provided before entering the cinema hall, furnishings of the interior cinema and seats, Internet WebPages (www.eapmovies.com), uniforms of employees (the employees wear black color trousers and orange t-shirts with the name EAP movies printed on left pocket), the building, the advertisement provided in newspapers and websites and so on. Speak about Create and maintain physical appearances Buildings/landscaping Interior design/furnishings Vehicles/equipment Staff grooming/clothing Sounds and smells Other tangibles Manage physical cues carefully- can have profound impact on customer impressions Product All the components of core and supplementary products that create value for customer Core product and supplementary products of Liberty Cinema Core product In service marketing, product refers as a service. product must be unique from competitors because when customers approach to service organization customers must feel no other service providers offer such features, Libertys core service is entertaining customers so their core product Is movies, especially shows latest Hollywood and Bollywood movies, particularly U rated movies, Liberty targets only Family movie. Supplementary product Supplementary product is additional service, that is delivered during the core production process in order to enhance the core product value and make customers to feel more convenience, Liberty is a one of the best cinema hall in Colombo that provides supplementary services that are Car park (outsource) Snack shop Comfortable seats Air condition Reservation State of the Art Surround Sound System It is apparent is a cinema hall cannot have many other supplementary services however, Liberty provides necessary additional requirements. Other types of products Expected product Expected product (service) is directly links to Core product, Expected product, is customers expectation on the core product. Customers expectation entertainment movies, if customer is not satisfied shown movie. Lets say Two movies are released X and Y and liberty shows Y movie but customers expectation is X movie definitely that will ruin Libertys reputation and profit. Therefore, not only Liberty but also other Service organizations must consider customer expected product. Productivity and Quality Efficient and effectiveness in Service Productivity Better Service productivity is the degree to which organizations reduce input and increase output that is the existing trend in service sector this will help to increase profitability so as Liberty Follows this concept. Productivity can be easily seen when present at the cinema. The staff is highly efficient and productive, helping keep the environment clean and having the viewers enjoy the movie with maximum clarity and quality. Due to this success, Liberty Cinema enjoy houseful shows every time a box office movie is released, which earns an average revenue of Rs 600,000.00. In terms of productivity, Liberty Cinema employees 14 staffs and manages motivate them to gain their potential output. The premises is kept clean after every show so that everyone is able to enjoy. Customer driven approach productivity used in Liberty cinema Changing the timing of customer demand Liberty Cinema, tries their best to cater to the growing demand. They only provide the latest movie and they try their maximum to shows movies on simultaneous release all over the worlds. Example : Raavan was released simultaneously with the world wide release. Robin Hood is delayed due to the growing demand for the movie Eclipse. Involving customer more in production Customers involvement is huge during service production because they have to do all the task to get the service, technologies introduced to reduce the involvement of employees For E.g. Customers can get information such as show time ,place and can reserve tickets from Libertys website, Eticketing or can reserve ticket within a minute using Dialog SMS. Customers willing to server by themselves than others so as liberty follows this concept. For e.g. self-service pumps have increased gas station productivity (book) These factors shows Liberty currently involving improve productivity in order to unique among competitors. Service Quality Liberty Cinema enjoys to be the best state of the art modern theatre, its only competitor is also managed by their parent company that Savoy Cinema. Customers always compare the service with other competitors, when quality is below than competitors that shows poor service quality. Analyzing Libertys service quality dimension Reliability At the liberty cinema there 17 staffs including a manger, they works as a team to provide service accurately without any delay that is what customers always expect. In addition, it is a cinema hall so complete operation is depends on back stage staff, for e.g. they have three operating staffs, an accountant to keep organization finance record. Tangibles Liberty Cinema has been recently undergone refurbishment to give a modern touch. The exterior is more of a classic theater and interior is cozy making the viewer to enjoy the movie. The seats of highest quality and is placed and arranged to provide a clear view of the giant screen. Responsiveness and Empathy Liberty shows movies on time, but customers mostly need to wait to get tickets but they can book in advance by Email/Dialog SMS and can obtain the ticket in less than 2 minutes. Assurance To have good relationship with customers Libertys front stage people are ability to speak fluently in three languages and they are very polite with customers, and backstage staffs well trained to perform services for E.g. To be a Libertys main operator needs minimum two year experience as a co operator. Liberty should improve and maintain quality in order to acquire benefits in long run. Price http://www.eapmovies.com/internal/rates-and-show-times/ Management team tries their best not to vary the price of the ticket depending on what movie you watch. Since, there is less crowd attendant the cinema on weekdays; the management has reduced the ticket prices by Rs 20.00. They believe that this is successful to some extent. Marketers must recognize that customer outlays involve more than price paid to seller Traditional pricing tasks: Selling price, discounts, premiums Margins for intermediaries (if any) Credit terms Identify and minimize other costs incurred by users: Additional monetary costs associated with service usage (e.g., travel to service location, parking, phone, babysitting, etc.) Time expenditures, especially waiting Unwanted mental and physical effort Negative sensory experiences Promotion and Educational Liberty Cinema collaborates with other firms for its promotional campaign. Liberty Cinema uses the following Media for their promotional activities. Radio they collaborate with leading radio station and give away movie tickets to lucky winners. Paper Every weekends in all leading newspapers, Liberty Cinema gives away tickets to winner for question that are based on the current movie that is showed at the cinema. TV- With the help of the sister company Liberty Cinema promotes their movies on Swarnawahini providing review of the movie also promoting their service. Facebook Fan Page Depending on the movie that is screened, the promotion depends. Kids Movie- advertisement and posters at schools and also ticket is slashed by 40 % if a group visits. Teens and Adults Promotions at institutes and firms a Since they are located in a metropolitan area, any traveler or passer can easily notice the latest movie. They also have a large Screen providing movie trailers to passer, allowing them to see a glimpse of the movie. Instructional Material This is where the user or consumer is being helped with services that are provided. Liberty Cinema, does provide sign boards for the supplementary services that they provide additionally in case of emergency they will also project it on to the screen. Ex Vehicle Block. Liberty Website, Facebook and newspapers do provide full details the services that a movie fanatic can expect. Process

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Hamlet Essay -- essays research papers

During Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet has to deal with the responsibility of revenging his father’s murder. He learns of his tragic death when the ghost of King Hamlet comes to him and tells him the truth of his murder: he was killed by his brother Claudius, for his crown and his wife. Hamlet decides that the best plan of action is to fake madness to attain his father’s vengeance by murdering Claudius. As the play develops, Hamlets act of being a madman becomes more and more believable, and his friends and family react as you’d expect someone who is discovering that their loved one is slowly turning insane would. As we read the play and begin to understand Hamlet’s mentality, his inner thoughts, and the reasons for his actions, it becomes clear to the reader that Hamlet is, in fact, totally and healthily sane. It becomes evident that he is simply simulating insanity so that it is easier to fulfill his duties to his father, and that Claudius’s murder doesn’t rest so guiltily on his conscience. Hamlet only feigns madness because it allows him to do and say things that he otherwise could not say without severe repercussions and suspicion being held against him. It also prevents people from blaming him for his ridiculous antics, and from taking him seriously. We first see Hamlet’s initial plan of faking insanity falling into place when he is talking to Horatio and Marcellus, telling them not to comment to anyone about his â€Å"antic disposition (Shakespeare, 75).† Hamlet’s supposed madness allows him to talk to his friends, family, and especially to Ophelia in a manner that is totally unsuitable for a human being to act, especially a prince. He is completely disrespectful and insulting in his remarks, and although his antic disposition backfires while he is talking to his mother, it allows him to severely reprimand her actions and criticize her for her disloyalty to her deceased husband because Gertrude thinks he is insane. She therefore is very passive in her response to Hamlet, being very dismissive of his actions and harsh words because of his supposed insanity. Throughout the play, Hamlet also makes some very sexually inappropriate remarks to Ophelia such as â€Å"That’s a fair thought to lie between a maids` legs (Shakespeare, 157).† He can inappropriately vent his anger toward Ophelia for her abandonment in any way he pleases, being emotion... ...the play sane, normal, healthy, loving, but with the discovery of his father’s murder and his mother’s remarriage, he dies selfish, distraught, and cold-hearted. His feigned madness is maintained throughout the entire play because it allows him to follow through with his plans, which makes Hamlet not only completely sane, but truly genius. Maybe Hamlet thought too much, but he thought (and acted) as only a sane man could. He commits no actions whatsoever without much thought and reason, and he is far too organized, particular, and articulate to be proclaimed insane. His one downfall is also responsible of his many successes: his intelligence. Hamlet thinks far too much and has too much of a conscience to behave as a madman would, and going on a murdering rampage to kill Claudius. His hesitation in doing so is the main key that allows the reader to realize that Hamlet’s insanity is a complete farce, used to help Hamlet to maximize his father’s revenge a gainst Claudius in the most efficient and effective way possible, leaving few repercussions for Hamlet. Hamlet’s portrayal of a mad man is also very complicated because it not only gets his point made, but in a believably insane way.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Women of the Nineteenth Century: Relating protagonists in two short stories :: essays research papers fc

Women of the Nineteenth Century: Relating protagonists in two short stories The short stories, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, both contain analogous regional attitudes resulting in similar outcomes for the protagonists of each story. The archaic 19th century regional standards the authors utilized within the text of these short stories, emphasizes the role of a woman within society as being strictly limited to family and household matters. Can the regional standards of the 19th century be such that if not met, a woman is left with no other option then to become a spinster? Regional values of the nineteenth century placed women in a precarious position within society, influencing their actions so profoundly that upholding honor and duty were simply undisputed. In A Rose for Emily, the protagonist, Emily Grierson, is a woman of great nobility in her town, and she is bound by her duty as their elected icon. Through the years, the town’s residents developed a respect for her family’s wealth and privilege. So much so, that upon the death of Miss Emily’s father, the mayor of her town relieved her taxation obligation indefinitely. However, the mayor, knowing that Miss Emily would not accept charity, concocted an untruth involving her father loaning the town money, in order to justify the tax relief, and allow Miss Emily to proudly accept the gracious offer. There is much to be said for influencing such power in a family name, and much to live up to for Miss Emily. Her father was an ambiguous character, and he made it clear that the common townsmen were not worthy suitors for his daughter. Her father’s obstinate attitude, and her regional afflictions, contributed to Miss Emily being unwed for years longer than expected for a woman of such class and distinction. The town took a sort of perverse pleasure from the fact that â€Å"when she got to be thirty and was still single; we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized† (1350). When Miss Emily was around forty, she met a common man named Homer Barron. Homer was a laborer, not fit to marry a woman of such distinction as Miss Emily. If Miss Emily were to marry such a common man as Homer Barron, the town would be in a quiet uproar of disagreement.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

What Is History? :: essays research papers

What Is History? What is history? Where do I start? And who says it started there? I wasn’t there, does it matter? Can I accept whatever happens in another part of the world into my personal history, or just in the worlds history? What parts of history are most important? Who decides? What a question! The word history has many attached meanings to it, and the result is that the definition for history depends on who it is you are asking. But What is it? Dictionary.com states that, â€Å"history is a narrative of events; a story.† Everyone has stories. it goes without saying then that everyone has history. But what about looking at the world in a broader aspect. I think we could look at humans, in whole, and see that we all have a history; a social history. Also, what students mostly study in textbooks, and in lecture halls; political history. Therefore, history, in my terms, can be broken into three very different branches: Personal, Social, and political. A friend of mi ne unfortunately parted ways with a woman whom he devoted a long period of time to. Inquiring, as I often do, I ask for the details on their break up. I was given a response of, â€Å"Man, She’s history.† And my friend is exactly correct. This woman now lies within his personal history. Had this girl never came into my friends life, he could not claim her a part of his history; his past. We have defined history as, â€Å"a story,† and my friend can tell stories of him and his girl. (in fact lately that is all he talks about) The Vietnam war was a very important part in history. Actually, the boss at my present place of employment served a long period of time in the war. He was a grunt. I have asked him about it, trying to hear maybe a story or two of what it was like, but he doesn’t like to talk about it. this part of his history he shuts out. Many veterans are like this. I believe the reason being is that the war that is in his history is a very differen t war than we could ever read in books or hear about from professors. War is different for everyone; as is history itself. These few examples give way to the first area of history; personal history. This is the story that everyone has.

How do the poems ‘The Choosing’ and ‘As I Grew Older’ explore different lives? Essay

Two different poems explore various aspects in life such as different paths and dreams taken by different individuals. In the poem ‘As I Grew Older’ punctuation causes the poem to flow at a slower paste. This is done by separating each idea into individual lines, causing readers to stop at the end of each line before continuing into the next. â€Å"And then the wall rose,† â€Å"Rose slowly,† â€Å"Slowly,† In the first stanza, the poet seems to have lost hope, feeling hopeless as his dream is forgotten. Then suddenly, his dream seemed to have moved closer â€Å"in front of me† and the ability to reach out to his dreams, once again. In the second stanza, the poet uses and repeats words more than once creating a dream like atmosphere, as the last word at the end of the first two lines are carried and used again in the beginning of the next. â€Å"Wall rose† â€Å"rose slowly† â€Å"slowly† By repeating and having very short lines, it suggests that these words are being echoed again and again almost allowing readers to see an image of this wall rising. Although it does not state whether the wall is visible or not, it tells us that time is passing since the wall is rising higher and higher, slowly. Higher and higher the wall becomes as time passes, it slowly blocks and damages his dream â€Å"Dimming,† â€Å"The light of my dream.† He eventually becomes frustrated as this wall rose so high it touched the sky, again showing the passing of time. The third stanza only contains two short lines, which is able to communicate a lot to the readers. A single word â€Å"shadow† may lead us to think of darkness, which may then link back into the second stanza, where the wall have rose so high that it is causing this â€Å"shadow†. This may further suggest and add to the imagery that the wall is visible. The poet then goes on and describes himself as being â€Å"black† which might put forward the idea of him being racially black, informing readers that he could have been discriminated and therefore, have lost hope or could also imply that the shadow have caused this blackness over him. In the next stanza, the speaker seemed to have given up as he realized that no matter how hard he tries, his dream is out of reach. â€Å"No longer the light of my dream before me† â€Å"above me.† Followed by the most depressed moment in the poem, where the poet uses the word â€Å"only† implying that he could no longer see his future, as all he sees is the wall and the shadow. In the last stanza, there is a change in both the tone and the speed. The lines seem to flow quicker as each line is longer and extended. Exclamation marks are constantly used while there are less full stops, â€Å"my hands!† showing force and motivation. Then the speaker changes his tone demonstrating hope and excitement. â€Å"Break through the wall!† indicating success, having the potential to achieve his dream. â€Å"The Choosing† explores and compares two individuals and the path they have chosen. The eye is the narrator (participant poet) that creates a stream of consciousness effect. The first stanza stronger enforces the idea to readers that the two individuals are â€Å"equal† and â€Å"alike†, by using words such as â€Å"we† â€Å"same† and â€Å"equal† over and over again. This stanza is written in past tense; with the continuous use of the word â€Å"first† indicating that the two individuals have started with the same ability and chances. This stanza informs readers about the similarities and feelings they shared inside school. The second stanza occurs outside school, showing readers that as well as being alike, they are also best friends who have a â€Å"common bond† being the cleverest. The poet has used brackets â€Å"(equal)† reinforcing to the readers that they are still equal. Readers is also told that they do not have many opportunities, as everything is â€Å"small†, â€Å"small town†, â€Å"a small school†. Despite the fact that they are equally bright, the poet also admits that â€Å"fear† is present between them as one individual excels more at a subject whilst they both fear that the other would be able to achieve more. In the third stanza, things begin to change. Since things are no longer â€Å"equal†, they start becoming â€Å"different† in the separate homes but same houses. The idea of alikeness is still present although the word â€Å"home† extends further suggesting different cultural and traditional ideas inside the families. Readers start to become aware that things begin to change as it states, â€Å"Where the choices were made.† This shows how similar two individuals may be physically, with the same coloured ribbons and hair and yet, they are so different. In the fourth stanza, a decision was made as Mary have moved away from their little town, while there is a change in status â€Å"cheaper rent†, â€Å"high school bus.† Readers hear the decision being made as Mary’s father â€Å"didn’t believe in high school education† â€Å"especially for girls† and so we learn that Mary’s father has very traditional and old-fashioned ideas. Informal languages are used to describe how Mary’s father feels such as â€Å"forking.† Then there is a jump in time as it states â€Å"ten years later† where the two individuals meet up again, no longer alike. It has shorter lines that again, would make the flow slower taking in each idea separately. These seem like memories, where Mary is seated on the same bus, but with something extra. Her husband and the newborn baby (suggesting a happy family) since the poet describes how loving they seem. Then the speaker says â€Å"not that I envy her, really† giving an impression to the readers that somewhere deep inside her, she would too like someone who loves her. Finally in the last stanza, there is a comparison between the speaker and Mary. Mary’s arm wraps around her newborn baby, where the speaker’s arm are full of books. The speaker â€Å"wonders† what path would have been taken if the individuals were able to make their own choices, wondering if they would have chosen different paths, as the speaker finishes with â€Å"we do not remember making them.† In conclusion, the two poems explore different lives through the use of punctuation and repetition of words, which helps to create imagery as well as assisting the indication of the passing of time.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Reearch Paper

Recrystallization Estopace, Edgie1, Polintan, Clarisse K. Professor Edgie Estopace, School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biotechnology, Mapua Institute of Technology; Clarisse Polintan, CHM145L/A21, School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biotechnology, Mapua Institute of Technology ABSTRACT This experiment is all about identifying the appropriate solvent for recrystallization and technique and to use the recrystallization technique in purifying a solid sample. Most organic substances are impure and require techniques in order to purify a sample. One of these techniques to make an impure sample pure is by recrystallization.This experiment includes the determination of a good solvent for recrystallization for compounds such as: acetanilide, acetamide, aspirin, benzoic acid, naphthalene, and sucrose, for solvents such as: water, ethanol, benzene, and ethyl acetate. Also pure acetanilide is achieved. here are five major steps in the recrystallization process: dissolving t he solute in the solvent, performing a gravity filtration, if necessary, obtaining crystals of the solute, collecting the solute crystals by vacuum filtration, and, finally, drying the resulting crystals giving us the pure sample of the compound.The best solvent used for each of the compounds listed and the percentage recovery of the crude acetanilide. The physical properties of the compound were also determined. INTRODUCTION Differential solubility is defined as the differences in the amount of solid that can be dissolved in an appropriate solvent as affected by variations in temperature. Solubility is inversely proportional to its temperature, since most solids have solubilities that are lower in liquid solvents at low temperatures. Feature Article Relative Rates:Â  Free-Radical BrominationDifferences in solubilities are sometimes used in the process of obtaining pure compounds by dissolving the solid in hot solvent and allow the undissolved impurities to be filtered off. The filtrate would then be cooled down and recrystallized as a purer compound. There should be differences in the solubilities of the solid and the impurities in order for the recrystallization to be effective. Recrystallization only works when the proper solvent is being used.The appropriate recrystallization solvent should: dissolve the entire compound at high temperature, dissolver very little or none of the compound at low temperature, have different solubilities for the compound and the impurities, have a boiling point below the melting point of the compound, have relatively low boiling point, be inert with respect to the compound, and be relatively inexpensive. MATERIALS AND METHODS The first part of the experiment required the students figure out which solvent is appropriate for recrystallization technique. Approximately 0. 10 grams of acetamide was weighed and placed inside a test tube.The acetamide was then dissolved in two millilitres of cold water. The solubility behaviour was then observed. If the acetamide did not dissolve, the mixture was then boiled and it’s solubility behaviour was again observed. These steps were then repeated but with cold ethanol, benzene, and ethyl acetate as the solvent instead of water. The above procedures were repeated, however, the students used different solutes this time for observation. The compounds used next were acetanilide, aspirin, benzoic acid, naphthalene, and sucrose, followed by the recording of data.The second part of the experiment tackled the recrystallization process using impure acetanilide and water as a solvent to obtain a pure sample of acetanilide. This part used the Hot Gravity Filtration Set-up first, followed by the Vacuum Filtration Set-up. The Hot Gravity Filtration Set-up included the following apparatuses: a stemless funnel, a fluted ashless filter paper, an Erlenmeyer flask, a hot water bath, and a hot plate. The Vacuum Filtration Set-up included water suction, rubber tubing, a 500ml Erlenmeyer flask, a rubber stopper and a porcelain Buchner funnel.Other apparatuses used include the Thomas-Hoover Melting Apparatus, micro test tubes, a test tube rack, capillary tubes, a beaker, and an oven. First, approximately 100 mL of water was heated and approximately 3. 50 grams of crude acetanilide was weighed. The impure acetanilide was then dissolved in 30 mL of water using 150-ml beaker. The mixture was slightly boiled using a hot plate. When the mixture started to boil, 2-ml portions of the previously heated water was added until the white solid had dissolved. A temperature of 90 C was maintained. The total volume of the water used was then recorded.A small amount of activated carbon was then added. Using the hot gravity filtrati on set up, the solution was poured into the fluted filter paper that was in the stemless glass funnel. The filtrate should then be colourless, if not more activated carbon was added and the filtration process was repeated. The flask was then removed from the hot plate and the residue was discarded. FIGURE 1. Hot Gravity Filtration Setup FIGURE 2. Fluted Filter paper The colorless filtrate was then cooled down to room temperature, placed in an ice bath, and was stirred continuously until crystallization was complete.This took about ton to fifteen minutes. When the crystallization was complete, the solution was vacuum filtered and then the crystals were washed in 2 mL of cold water. The crystals were then dried and weighed. The percentage recovery was then computed for and the melting point of the purifying crystals was determined using the Thomas Hoover Melting Apparatus. FIGURE 3. Vacuum Filtration Setup RESULTS Table I. Choice of Solvent (S=Soluble , I=Insoluble) Compound| Water| E thanol| Benzene| Ethyl Acetate| | Cold| Hot| Cold| Hot| Cold| Hot| Cold| Hot| Acetamide| S| S| S| S| I| S| S| S| Acetanilide| I| S| S| S| I| S| S| S|Aspirin| I| S| S| S| I| S| S| S| Benzoic Acid| I| S| S| S| S| S| S| S| Naphthalene| I| S| I| S| S| S| S| S| Sucrose| S| S| I| S| I| I| S| S| Compound| Solvent Appropriate for Recrystallization| Acetamide| Benzene| Acetanilide| Water| Aspirin| Benzene| Benzoic Acid| Water| Naphthalene| Water| Sucrose| Ethanol| Table 1. 1 Table 1. 2 Table 2. Recrystallization of Impure Acetanilide Weight of crude acetanilide in grams| 3. 53 g| Weight of the filter paper in grams| 1. 23 g| Weight of the pure acetanilide in grams| 0. 79 g| Volume of water used in mL| 62 mL| Melting Point of pure acetanilide in | 130-190 |Percentage Recovery| 29. 63 %| Step| Observation| Boiling of crude acetanilide| It boiled slowly and the boiling started at 90 C. White substance boiled as water was added; black substance remained | Addition of activated carbon| Impurities in water were absorbed. | Hot Gravity Filtration| Black substance was left on the filter paper and the white liquid went down and was separated from the black substance. | Cooling in an ice bath| Dissolved acetanilide formed white crystals. | Vacuum Filtration| The acetanilide was filtrated and what was left on the filter was the crystals. DISCUSSION In the experiment, all six of the seven criteria were vividly exhibited. The fist criterion states that the solvent should dissolve all of the compounds at high temperature. The second criterion is that the solvent should dissolve very little, or none of the compound at low temperatures. The third criterion is that the solvent should have different solubility with the impurities and the compound. The fourth and fifth criterion states that the solvent should have a low boiling point and that it should be lower than the melting point of the compound.The last criterion acquired from the experiment is that the solvent should be inert. In t he first part of the experiment, we determined the most appropriate solvent for recrystallization of the compounds by checking whether the compound is insoluble in a cold solvent, and soluble when dipped in hot water bath. The results in Table 1. 2 are based on the data of Tables 1. 1, we chose such solvents because the compounds did not dissolve in the solvent at a low temperature, and it did at high temperature.Using an appropriate solvent for recrystallization is necessary because it can save you time, money and other materials. Time because you are already sure that the solvent would be safe to use in dissolving the compound at certain temperatures, you wouldn’t need to experiment anymore. For the second part of the experiment, the recrystallization of impure acetanilide, we were conducted to separate the impurities of the acetanilide by using the recrystallization process and by using water as the agent or the solvent for recrystallization.During recrystallization, minim um amount of solvent is used to dissolve the solute. This is important because if the amount of solvent exceeded the volume needed to dissolve the solute, recrystallization would not be possible anymore. A fluted filter paper was used in the hot filtration set up because it has a larger surface area to catch the solid impurities, making it easier and more effective to separate the residues from the filtrate in the process.A stemless funnel was used during the hot filtration set up because unlike a regular funnel, the stem where the filtrate would pass could recrystallize the solid immediately within its stem. If the funnel were stemless the filtrate would go straight down to the flask without crystalizing and compounds. The solution was not placed in an ice cold bath immediately after the hot filtration because the flask might have broke due to a drop in temperature. Vacuum filtration is used during the cold filtration step because it is asier to filter out the crystalized solid fro m the liquid since cold temperatures would already recrystallize the solid compounds. The cold crystals are washed with water to remove any impurities that are in the crystals. The main function of the activated carbon was to absorb any impurities in the water without reacting with it. Cooling the filtrate on an ice bath makes the recrystallization process faster because of the relatively low temperature. Based on the results on table 2, the percentage recovery was 29. 3%, which seems fairly low since 70. 37% of the crude acetanilide is impurities. Human error might have caused it to be that low and maybe some crystals might have been left in the apparatus such as flasks. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This experiment proves that the characteristics of choosing an ideal solvent for recrystallization are reliable and important. In the first part of the experiment, which had an objective of identifying the appropriate solvent for the recrystallization technique was achieved.The secon d objective, which was to use the recrystallization technique in purifying a solid sample, was also achieved. I would like to recommend that future researchers experiment on other solutes and solvents, preferably common ones in order to determine which solvents are most appropriate for recrystallization. An understanding of these compounds can be better obtained. REFERENCES 1. Baluyut, J. Y. G. , and De Castro, K. A. , Organic Chemistry Laboratory Manual For Chemistry Students Part1. 2. Klein, D. , (2011) Organic Chemistry, 1st Ed. , Cold United States of America

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Religion and the Meaning of Life Essay

According to Frederich Nietzche, â€Å"A man who has a why to live can bear any how†. To me this statement provides massive insight into the human experience: all people need a purpose in life. As humans we need a constructive outlet through which we can invest our thoughts, emotions, efforts and energies. We need something to thrive for and strive toward. Religion, for many people provides this outlet in life in a most positive manner. It allows people to find themselves by losing themselves foremost. Religion encourages service to others, selflessness, forgiveness and ascetic values that allow people to displace personal prejudices and mental barriers that are roadblocks on the path toward self awareness and understanding. Religion teaches that human beings are direct creations of God. Due to this, the religious person places immense gravity into the definition of what it means to be human. To the religious person human life is sacred therefore all human beings are treated as if they are sacred entities. Dignity is vital to this experience and the religious person lives a decent life based largely on the fact that they find it a grave injustice to engage in dehumanizing acts. A dehumanizing act is any action that undermines the value of what it means to be human, and because human life to the religious person is sacred; treating other people and oneself with respect is part of the job description. Religious people also are heavily focused on remaining loyal to traditions and place heavy emphasis on the concept of togetherness through ceremonies, rituals and even celebrations. Religious people congregate and come together in a forum of mutual understanding of one another’s beliefs and values, and respect for the characteristics that make individuals unique. This is how religious institutions have survived throughout the ages. People of all sorts come together based on a mutual understanding of the same truths. The idea of coming together forms a family-like atmosphere that strengthens dynamics within individual households and strengthens interpersonal bonds among all people whom the religious person encounters. The religious person lives a life of kindness, simplicity and dignity highlighted by unity, loyalty and fairness. These concepts are vital to becoming a well integrated person which is the key component to finding one’s purpose and meaning in life. Once a person gains a sense of purpose, the other aspects of their lives fall into place based around what that person chooses to life for. When a person lives for their faith, their lives are based around morals that encourage reverence for all human beings and a genuine perceptive of righteousness. This is why religious people not only have a strong sense of self, but also have unshakable character based in a solid affection for mankind.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Factors and Motivations That Influence Biological Warfare

Many troops during the years of World War I met their demise in what is arguable the most terrifying and inhumane of all military tactics – biological warfare. Soldiers inhaled a deadly acidic gas that burned them from the inside out, suffocating them in an excruciating and unimaginable pain. Kurth Audrey, a professor of strategy at the U. S. National War College in Washington, stated: â€Å"Science is as neutral as a knife; it may maybe a blessing or a curse depending on the heart and the mind of the man who holds it. †[1] Terrorists organizations are motivated by many factors to use biological warfare. If a terrorist organization has the concepts of science down, as a neutral knife, then they can produce weapons that can fulfill their agenda, whether it is something that has to do with reputation, politics, or religion. Many factors contribute to terrorists using this type of warfare, which stimulates the motivations of terrorist organizations. These factors range from; access to information, cost, ease of dissemination, availability, access to technology, and difficulty of detection. Biological warfare is a dangerous type of warfare, than can cause severe damage to a population of people, crops, or animals. It can also cause harm to the one that is dispersing the biological agent, which causes one to think, why would someone use this type of warfare? Biological agents are often simpler to attain and produce than chemical weapons that can cause mass destruction in a population. The material for biological agents can easily be grown or purchased. There are some agents, such as Anthrax or Brucellosis, which occur naturally in animals in certain parts of the world , and individuals can acquire these agents just by traveling the globe to where these agents grow. For an example, the Aum Shinrikyo cult was reported to have gone to Zaire, a place in Africa, to seek the strains of Ebola for its use in its bio-weapons program. [2] Until recently, anyone could order agents from supple houses around the world. In 1995, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a mail order company that provides biological products, shipped the bacteria, Anthrax, to Saddam Hussein's biological warfare program in Iraq. [3] Just like the increase of technology throughout the decades, there is also an increase of availability of information related to chemical and biological weapons. Information on how to create biological weapons can be taken from articles within scientific literature on a variety of topics, which only requires a trained scientist to understand. The Internet has created forums on which terrorists groups can reach out, recruit members, and spread messages. It also makes a large library of information available to just about anyone who is interested on the production of biological agents. One resource that is found online is, Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America, which is written by Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nation. 4] This manual describes the reproduction and growth of biological agents, and can be purchased for only $30. [5] Another resource available is called, Silent Death, which instructs the reader in ways to kill using chemical and biological poisons. According to the publisher of this book, it sells thousands of copies each year. [6] Bio-engineers are now armed with knowledge on how to cease biological agents, as well as the effects of the agents upon a population. According to Ken Alibek, who supervised the Soviet bio warfare program, â€Å"Although the mos-sophisticated and effected versions [of biological weapons]require considerable equipments and scientific expertise, primitive versions can be produced in a small area with minimal equipment by someone with limited training†¦ They would be relativity inexpensive and easy to produce. †[7] To produce bio-weapons, a terrorist organization must have access to a scientist with some graduate training in the fields of microbiology or genetic engineering. The political and economic situation in Russia created a supply of bio warfare scientists who were not being paid and were unable to provide for themselves or their families. Regardless of the political, moral and ethical standards of these scientists, it is reasonable to expect that many of those scientists are now working for terrorist organizations around the world. Iraq scientists discovered which strains to order by reviews in American scientific journals, which are located at American Type Culture Collection in Rockville, Maryland. For thirty-five dollars, they also picked up strains of tularemia and Venezuelan equine encephalitis once targeted for weaponization at Fort Detrick. [8] The knowledge that is learned, and the availability of the biological agents, caused the relative ease of production of the agents, storage they can be contained in, dissemination factors, increased safety for the troops handling the binary agents, and the less complicated processes of demilitarization. The cost of producing and deploying biological weapons is less expensive than chemical weapons; the materials, equipment, and production space are all so inexpensive, any terrorist organization can afford them. According to an Office of Technical Assessment (OTA) Report, the cheapest overt production of one nuclear bomb costs $200 million, with larger programs costing up to 50 times more. In contrast, a large arsenal costs less than $10 million dollars. 9] Kathleen Bailey, found through interviews with professors, students, and scientists, that all that was needed to create a biological weapons program capable of producing large amounts of agents, would be several biologists with $10,000 worth of equipment – all of which who could fit into the same room. [10] This then causes many terrorists organizations to actually be capable of producing a biological agent. Dissemination of biological agents can be simple and inexpensive. There are a variety of different ways they can be de livered. The simplest methods of dissemination are through the contamination of food products or water. This method only requires direct access to any food product or water- preferably during the purification stages of that food product or of that water. Biological agents can also be dispersed through the contamination of agriculture, indirect transmission through animals, and direct contact, such as the assassination of Georgi Markov in 1978 through a ricin- containing pallet that was shot into his thigh. Dissemination through aerosol or vapor into an enclosed area or the open air is more complex than just through food products or water. Biological agents released into the air, such as through the release of vapors from a crop duster, are subject to biological decay, physical decay, atmospheric thermal stability, wind speed, and dimension of the land surface. The dissemination of agents is more predictable in rural areas than urban regions. The agents must be able to withstand the stress of the dissemination, environmental factors, and physical obstructions. Researchers have found, however, that dissemination of agents at night or enclosed dark areas, such as subways or tunnels, can be particularly effective. [12] Biological agents can be extremely lethal, some biological agents create more deadly affects than others, such as Anthrax. According to the Department of Defense, ten kilograms of Anthrax can cause more damage than a ten kiloton nuclear weapon. [13] This form of warfare can lead a military down by 90% through the intentions of militarization, by giving the military that dispensed the biological agents a form of character. Since most individuals are not vaccinated for different types of diseases, such as smallpox, it can lead to millions of people dying. Small pox is an example of a bacteria that can cause up to 2 million people, if being exposed to a society, to die because of the complete absence of prevention and control measures since 1970, because people do not believe that this disease will emerge again. It has such a high mortality rate (one in three people die) and infectiousness (on average, one person will infect three additional people). Politics seams to be the cause of many disasters from the corrupt French government in 1740 which led to the brutal French Revolution, to the rebellions of Aum Shinrikyo, which formed their own structure based on the Japanese government. Aum Shinrikyo attracted followers that opposed the Japanese government, in the late 1980's and 1990's, which caused their group to become larger. Their goal was to pursue terrorist violence in competition with rival groups that Shoko Asahara, the leader of this violent group, feared would attract support away from Aum Shinrikyo. Their next goal was to take over the Japanese government. On March 1194, Aum Shinrikyo tried to assassinate the leader of a rival religious sect, the Soka Gakkai, but failed because the spraying system mounted on a van malfunction and contaminated its operators. However, the second attempt occurred in Mastumoto on June 27th, 1994, the members working with the biological agents of Aum Shinrikyo, improved the spraying system, which targeted three judges who were expected to rule against the sect in a land dispute. This later resulted in the injuries of 500, including the three political judges they were after. In September 1984, Rajneeshee religious cult the Dalles, Orgeon grew Salmonella typhimurium to manipulate the results of the November 1984 election. They planned to buss homeless people into their commune and register them as voters, and make the opposing voters sick and unable to vote. They then poisoned to county commissioners by using the method of dissemination of contaminating water with salmonella typhiurium, which caused both the commissioners to become sick. The cult then contaminated ten Dallas restaurants, which opened up 751 cases of salmonella. 16] The uses of these pathogens by both these two different groups, had the attentions of manipulating whatever they deemed was politically corrupted. Biological agents can be small and easy to transport. William Patrick, who left the US biological Weapons Development Program around 1969, regularly carries a vial containing a stimulant for anthrax, just to test whether or not it will be detected. In 1999, he brought the vial with him into a hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence without being detected and claimed to make the same move at the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA. 17] Many have traveled through airports, with high-tech security, around the world carrying equipment for deploying these biological agents through the air and never were stopped to explain the purpose for the equipment. The first signs of an attack may not even come until weeks after the agent has been deployed. Thus, by the time the authorities determine an attack has taken place, the perpetrators could be anywhere in the world, trying to escape what they have done. Biological attacks can be mistaken for naturally occurring disease outbreaks. Because of the difficulty in detecting a biological weapons attack, it is almost impossible to lay blame on a particular group or individual for the outbreak. As technology, and information on the biological fields of science increase, so do the potential threats of this type of warfare. It has been examined closely to how the factors help contribute to this type of warfare, as well as how motivation leads for this type of warfare to become some-what successful. The main major factor of groups to use this type of warfare would be religion. Religion plays a tremendous role in human misery, from wars, such as the crusades, to the use of biological weapons targeted at specific religious groups. When terrorism is involved in the name of religion, such as Al-Qaida, it is often motivated by violence that is regarded as â€Å"divine duty† which justifies bloodshed. One of the hallmarks of a religious terrorist is the unquestioned willingness to kill a large number of people without conscience behind their agendas. Since biological warfare is very effective in killing mass number of people, many religious extremist groups use this form of warfare to justify their actions, and views on religion. Terrorists groups have reputations that attract many people. Acquiring such massive biological weapons, or producing such complicated weapons, brings the terrorist group a high-rank reputation as well as to be seen as having no boundaries. It then makes it easier for the terrorist group to achieve their agendas. Aum Shinrikyo cult is an example that uses both of these motivations. Their attack in the subway system in 1995 not only caused the successful attack of fifty-five hundred people, according to their agenda, but had gotten people to realize their dangerous element; the involvement of highly intelligent and educated people, in which some are considered to be Japan's brightest scientists, computer technicians, and trained professionals. Even by the standards of cults, the Aum were a strange bunch. Among other things, members believed in the virtues of levitation and coffee enemas. They also wore elaborate radio sets on their heads so as to better hear the thoughts of their Leader. Despite their unusual ideas, the cult attracted a number of educated followers with scientific and technical abilities. It is a discouraging fact: religious cults may be strange and oblivious, but that doesn't prevent them from attracting capable intelligent followers – or to pursue their doomsday agendas. This type of warfare is an inhumane, dangerous type of warfare, that has killed dozens of people. If we actually take the factors into consideration, than we can lower the motivation and the prevent the further productions of these biological weapons. Bibliography http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_AUM01.htm

Friday, September 13, 2019

Materials Requirement Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Materials Requirement Planning - Essay Example One of these long term benefits of materials requirements planning is the fact that the software involved in materials requirement planning shall serve as a facilitator for the company to even benefit more from commonality because at every point in time, inventory organization is going to be undertaken by the software to ensure that the right allocation of materials and products are in place for production to begin. The system of having to undertake product and material inventory manually and mechanically would therefore be taken care of. Role of commonality and how it benefits the company Going through the models of commonality available to Schwinn Bicycle Company, there are two major roles that the system can be said to be playing for the company. The first has to do with the benefit of overcoming market pressure and the second has to do with assurance of cost reduction for manufacturers. On the benefit of overcoming market pressure, it can be seen that the major idea behind common ality is the ability to interchange components and parts of the bicycles produced with others (The Guardian, 2012). What this means to rate of production is that at any point in time, manufacturers are not obliged to look for the exact component or part that would fit into a specific area of the bicycle in the line of production. Subsequently, the time that spent on searching for parts is incorporated into the actual production time. In a typical example, the search for replacements for steel as against aluminum and aluminum as against titanium can easily be taken care of through the functioning of commonality. Ideally therefore, manufacturers are afforded the luxury of dealing with materials as and when they are available to fit into another component and not necessarily complete a search for a new component. What is more, the company is able to cut down on cost significantly especially when it comes to the cost of labor. Indeed, commonality ensures cost benefit production in sever al ways (Gardener, 2001). In the case of Schwinn Bicycle Company, the company can have the luxury of depending on only a few laborers to get most parts of their production executed because the principle of commonality permits that one employee may play several roles on the production line especially when the use of common materials that can fit into other components are involved (Gardener, 2001). For example within the company’s set up, it would not have to have an aluminum expert as well as a steel expert for the production of crown race. This is because the very laborer who works with aluminum could be trained to work with steel and so the cost of employing two workers becomes saved for the company. Still on cost benefit, it can be said that anytime demand meets supply or even exceeds it because market pressure is beaten by means of commonality, productivity goes high and this results in market revenue. The company therefore has the benefit of completing several units of bi cycles within shorter time frames, sales of which translate into increase in revenue for the company. How materials requirement planning (MRP) is useful to Schwinn One major criticism that has often come up against companies in the line of commonality is their refusal to adhere to the basic principles of materials require

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Self evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Self evaluation - Essay Example My voice tone also reflected various points that were being passed during the speech. To emphasize a point I made sure my tone had a sense of finality unlike at times when I was just stating basic points when my tone was relaxed. As I was preparing for my speech I practiced several times before the mirror to ensure that my body language added credibility to my talk. To make it more effective I made sure there were slight pauses as I gave my talk to ensure the listeners had a few seconds to deliberate over what I just said. I also made use of notes that carried the major points that I covered in my talk. In this way I could just take a glance at them and I could recall the whole point. The introduction is clearly outlined in the first paragraph and does its role of introducing the subject matter. It informs us about Facebook and gives a brief description and background information about the social site. The body contains discussions on the social network site and this is done in detail, starting from more information about the site to the various topics in regards to the site: such as the criticisms to the site and the media impact that the site has on the general population. The conclusion part of my essay was not clearly laid out. This is because after the last discussion point my talk ended. There should be a discussion that summarizes all the points that have been discussed and lets my listeners know my stand in relation to Facebook. Before my next presentation there are several things that I will ensure I do. One of these is practice the speech in front of a mock crowd. This is important as I will be able to evaluate whether all the relevant points were covered and if my presentation was clear as expected. Another thing that I can do to increase the effectiveness of my presentation is to include examples and exact statistics. For example when I write that Facebook has led

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Ethical Issues in Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Ethical Issues in Education - Essay Example The purpose of decision making is to direct human behavior towards a future goal. In school environment, group decision making involves co-acting members with specialized knowledge, interacting to arrive at some valued decisions or outcomes. Ethical and moral decision-making in schools are important because it determines the main trends and approaches to education including staff relations and teacher-student interaction. Educational leadership in schools is interpreted in simple terms, such as getting others to follow or getting people to do things willingly, or interpreted more specifically, for example as the use of authority in decision making. It may be exercised as an attribute of position, or because of personal knowledge or wisdom. Although, modern views on leadership underline the importance of personal traits of educational leaders and his/her ability to lead and direct teaching staff and students. The aim of the paper is to analyze and evaluate the main issues and problems faced by school principals, and their impact on education process and moral development of students. In schools, ethical decision-making is purely a matter of subjective choice or preference, or a matter relegated to religious beliefs and dogma is also misguided. Ethics can be and has been the subject of public debate and public consensus. Ethical decision-making is gained from reflecting on the ways the community solved the practical problems of living together in a self-governing community. Following Beck (1994) in one sense, ethical knowledge does not issue in absolutes, for the community never came up with the one best way to respond in all situations. In schools, ethical and moral decision-making of a principle is crucial because he/she demonstrates how to be an ethical person by living in the community and learning the normal ways the community conducted its affairs and relationships. As long as educators have been able to draw on the conception of science as the authority about the world, they have been able to legitimize a claim to always "know what is best" for their stude nts. Acknowledging that the voice of the student carries its own distinctive authority means challenging the accepted distribution of power and authority within school. If questions of the nature of knowledge cannot be untangled from those of ethics, neither can they be untangled from questions of education politics (Aiken et al 1995). Accordingly, ethics needs to focus on the practical decision-making context. It must certainly be multidisciplinary: sociological, philosophical, psychological, and educational. More importantly, it needs to return to the real roots of education itself and to immerse itself in its own proper theoretical objects. The accumulation of these ethical decisions, together with the technical decisions with which they are intimately linked, contributes importantly to the final outcome of any particular encounter (Ashbaugh & Kasten 1995). Allowing for the context in which the original approach to the school principle is made educational outcomes depend more on the ethical decisions than on any other factors, including the decisions that may, in relevant circumstances, eventually emerge regarding the more familiar life and education issues. In school, the principle is a leader