Plato vs. Machiavelli Essays

Plato vs. Machiavelli Essays Plato vs. Machiavelli Paper Plato vs. Machiavelli Paper Plats view of human nature can be seen when considering his view of the soul, which, according to him, Is comprised of three distinct parts; one of reason, one of appetite, and one of spirit. Ones inclination towards a particular part of the soul determines his place in society. The spirit-dominated soul is one of courage and bravery, therefore, these people are the soldiers in Flats ideal society. The workers or craftsmen are those with an appetitive soul, one that yearns to fulfill only lifes basic needs. Finally, we have the oils that are Inclined towards reason and these select few are those that Plato deems worthy of ruling. For Plato there Is no greater goal In life than the pursuit of knowledge. An intelligent man is just and therefore fit to preside over the state for he will always have the best interests of the state in mind. These characteristics are inherent in someone, they are not things that can be achieved or taught so the act of discovering what role each man is more apt to fill is the only task to be done. Then people are simply given the education needed to take on the duties they were meant o perform. In Flats mind the result of this Is a truly harmonious society where everyone strives to contribute to the success of society as a whole. This seems simple enough in theory but in reality in deprives humanity of any creativity, ambition, or any sense of self-worth. Machiavelli, a realist, presents a much different representation of human nature than that of Plato. In his opinion, man is both good and bad but when push comes to shove he will always choose what best serves his own Interests. This leads to Machiavellian construction of an Ideal prince, which Is one ho possesses virtue. According to Machiavelli, virtue Is the ability or skill with which becomes successful. As I have said, he should do what is right If he can: but he must be prepared to do wrong if necessary (Machiavelli, p. 55, 1994). This is the balance the prince must employ using virtue so as to allow him to achieve the best possible ends for both himself and the state. Machiavelli does not discourage the prince from engaging in amoral activities, however he does quite the opposite. For example, he promotes ruthlessness If It Is necessary to establish his power. However, Machiavelli advises that It be done all at once and as early In ones reign as possible. This Is so that it may quickly be forgotten and so the people may see that these acts were only done for their benefit and the preservation of the state. Machiavellian prince is much more concerned with his image and the perception the people have of him rather than the actual morality of his choices. If he engages in immorality for the right reasons and is able to retain the support of the populace then his actions are seen as both Justified and necessary. The necessity of a good prince Ills In his Utterance Ana conservation AT ten state as a wangle. I Nils Is conclave tongue a strong army that can both defend the state in times of attack and conquer surrounding territories when expansion is warranted. These are the ends that Justify any of the means taken by the prince in order to achieve them. Machiavellian prince is any man that possesses the virtue required to gain and retain power over the state. This is in stark contrast to Plats view of those who are qualified to be in power. Then, dont you see that in your city, too, the desires of the inferior many are untroubled by the wisdom and desires of the superior few? I do (Plato, p. 106, 1992). This undoubtedly conveys Plats belief that philosopher-kings are those that must lead fore they are the only ones fit with the wisdom to do so. They are seemingly forced into a position of power; they rule not because they choose to but rather to achieve the good and harmony of everyone, even the inferior many. In Plats work the founders and rulers of his society are an absolute necessity. A perfect society could not exist without them for then the responsibility of leadership would all to those unfit to lead. In Machiavellian case an ideal prince is something that is desired rather than something that is essential to the existence of a state. This is evidenced by Machiavellian entire purpose behind writing The Prince, which is to persuade Lorenz De Medici, who he sees as a potential prince, to unify the country of Italy which found itself in a condition of utter disarray. Machiavellian prince is necessary to facilitate an enduring, truly successful state but surely states can exist and experience reasonable amounts of success without such a prince. In terrorist, the only theory to have any true usefulness would be that of Machiavelli. Plats Utopia is simply an imaginary world that may work in theory but that is that only place in which it does. There is no practicality in it when you consider the real world and the true nature of people. The result, then, is that more plentiful and better-quality goods are more easily produced if each person does one thing for which he is naturally suited, does it at the right time, and is released from having to do any of the others (Plato, p. 45, 1992). It would surely be illustrious if people would ay into this acceptance of a given role for their lives as Plato proposes and live in such a way where their only goal would be to live out that role as best as possible for the betterment of society as a unit. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people are corrupt, envious, self-interested, and many times do whatever they can to improve their own situation regardless of the effect their actions have on the situations of others. Machiavelli recognizes these aspects of human nature and integrates them into the theory of governance that he constructs. He does this by first coking into history and learning from the successes and failures experienced by nations in the past. He recognizes that there is a degree of good and bad in everyone and the extent to which people perform in either direction is entirely up to them. People are by nature inconstant. It is easy to persuade them of something, but it is difficult to stop them from changing their minds. So you have to be prepared for the moment when they no longer believe: Then you have to force them to believe (Machiavelli, p. 20, 1994). This conveys Machiavellian appreciation of the fact hat people can be manipulated; especially by someone whom has the intelligence required to master the use of both good and evil to the point that it becomes an art. The evil in this case is the application of the force needed to keep the belief or support AT ten people. I nest are ten men, won more tales than not, Tina themselves in positions of power because of their somewhat cunning and deceptive nature that allows them to deceive others Just enough to gain their support while still presenting an image of themselves that is above reproach.

10 Fascinating Praying Mantis Facts

10 Fascinating Praying Mantis Facts The word mantis comes from the Greek mantikos, for soothsayer or prophet. Indeed, these insects do seem spiritual, especially when their forelegs are clasped together as if theyre in prayer. Learn more about these mysterious insects with these 10 fascinating facts about praying mantids. 1. Most Praying Mantids Live in the Tropics Of approximately 2,000 species of mantids described to date, almost all are tropical creatures. Just 18 native species are known from the entire North American continent. About 80% of all members of the order Mantodea belong to a single family, the Mantidae. 2. The Mantids We See Most Often in the U.S. Are Exotic Species Youre more likely to find an introduced mantid species than you are to find a native praying mantis. The Chinese mantis (Tenodera aridifolia) was introduced near Philadelphia, PA about 80 years ago. This large mantid can measure up to 100 mm in length.  The European mantid, Mantis religiosa, is pale green and about half the size of the Chinese mantid. European mantids were introduced near Rochester, NY nearly a century ago. Both the Chinese and European mantids are common in the northeastern U.S. today. 3. Mantids Can Turn Their Heads a Full 180 Degrees Try to sneak up on a praying mantis, and you may be startled when it looks over its shoulder at you. No other insect can do so. Praying mantids have a flexible joint between the head and prothorax that enables them to swivel their heads. This ability, along with their rather humanoid faces and long, grasping forelegs, endears them to even the most entomophobic people among us. 4. Mantids Are Closely Related to Cockroaches and Termites These three seemingly different insects – mantids, termites, and cockroaches – are believed to descend from a common ancestor. In fact, some entomologists group these insects in a superorder (Dictyoptera), due to their close evolutionary relationships. 5. Praying Mantids Overwinter as Eggs in Temperate Regions The female praying mantis deposits her eggs on a twig or stem in the fall ​and then protects them with a Styrofoam-like substance she secretes from her body. This forms a protective egg case, or ootheca, in which her offspring will develop over the winter. Mantid egg cases are easy to spot in the winter when leaves have fallen from shrubs and trees. But be forewarned! If you bring an overwintering ootheca into your warm home, you may find your house teeming with tiny mantids. 6. Female Mantids Sometimes Eat Their Mates Yes, its true, female praying mantids do cannibalize their sex partners. In some instances, shell even behead the poor chap before theyve consummated their relationship. As it turns out, a male mantid is an even better lover when his brain, which controls inhibition, is detached from his abdominal ganglion, which controls the actual act of copulation. But most instances of sexual suicide in mantids occur in the confines of a laboratory setting. In the wild, scientists believe the male partner gets munched on less than 30% of the time. 7. Mantids Use Specialized Front Legs to Capture Prey The praying mantis is so named because when waiting for prey, it holds its front legs in an upright position as if they are folded in prayer. Dont be fooled by its angelic pose, however, because the mantid is a deadly predator. If a bee or fly happens to land within its reach, the praying mantis will extend its arms with lightning quick speed, and grab the hapless insect. Sharp spines line the mantids raptorial forelegs, enabling it to grasp the prey tightly as it eats. Some larger mantids catch and eat lizards, frogs, and even birds. Who says bugs are at the bottom of the food chain?! The praying mantis would better be called the preying mantis. 8. Mantids Are Relatively Young Compared to Other Ancient Insects The earliest fossil mantids date from the Cretaceous Period and are between 146-66 million years old. These primitive mantid specimens lack certain traits found in the mantids that live today. They dont have the elongate pronotum, or extended neck, of modern-day mantids and they lack spines on their forelegs. 9. Praying Mantids Are Not Necessarily Beneficial Insects Praying mantids can and will consume lots of other invertebrates in your garden, so theyre often considered beneficial predators. Its important to note, however, that mantids dont discriminate between good bugs and bad bugs when looking for meals. A praying mantis is just as likely to eat a native bee thats pollinating your plants as it is to eat a caterpillar pest. Garden supply companies often sell the egg cases of Chinese mantids, touting them as a biological control for your garden, but these predators may do as much harm as good in the end. 10. Mantids Have Two Eyes, but Only One Ear A praying mantis has two large, compound eyes that work together to help it decipher visual cues. But strangely, the praying mantis has just a single ear, located on the underside of its belly, just forward of its hind legs. This means the mantid cannot discriminate the direction of a sound, nor its frequency. What it can do is detect ultrasound, or sound produced by echolocating bats. Studies have shown that praying mantids are quite good at evading bats. A mantis in flight will essentially stop, drop, and roll in midair, dive bombing away from the hungry predator. Not all mantids have an ear, and those that dont are typically flightless, so they dont have to flee flying predators like bats.

Analysis of a NewYork landmark Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis of a NewYork landmark - Term Paper Example The paper intends to reveal certain facts of the Statue of Liberty based in New York. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and the beginning of a new life in the land of liberty. Moreover, the depiction of the landmark regarding the history of New York and the character of its inhabitants will also be discussed in the paper. In order to explain about what The Statue of Liberty communicates towards the history of New York City, it can be affirmed that the landmark can be duly regarded as a symbol of character of the city and the residents residing there. The landmark is often viewed to be a famous tourist attraction in New York since a long time period. The Statue of Liberty shows a picture of the slavery system being crushed in the feet of the lady as portrayed in the Statue. It also depicts the improvement of the life of the people of New York. Earlier in the United States, there exists the slavery system. This Statue reveals the abolition of t slave system in the history of New York and the rise of a better life style of the residents of the city. It is often considered to be a universal symbol of freedom against the slave system prevailing in the city along with the nation (Murthy Law Firm, â€Å"Statue of Liberty†). The Statue of Liberty not only communicates about the history of the previous days but also the characteristics of the citizens residing in the city. Along with the abolition of the slave system, the statue also highlighted the start of an efficient life of the people. The torch of the lady is a symbol of the characteristics of the residents of the city. New York is a city with large population having kind nature. This character has been reflected by the statue (Fleegler 193-196). The Statue of Liberty communicates a lot of information about the city of New York. The statue itself is a universal symbol of freedom which reveals the abolition of slave system

Honda Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Honda - Assignment Example In spite of the bad timing of its entry, the company’s determination to succeed in the international industry led it to where it is now. Product- In terms of product efficiency 100 % quality is not good enough for the company, the standard is set to120% product quality (â€Å"Aiming for 120%†). This has always been their basis into making their products, in line with the goal of meeting or even exceeding customer satisfaction. Honda is focused on the creation of innovative technologies for the enhancement of safety. It is considered as the most fuel efficient car manufacturer in the US for the year 2010. Price- The versatility of their car models are fit to those who plan to buy a car that is enough with their budget. Americans are busy people that’s why owning a car is definitely important. Considering the quality of vehicles manufactured by Honda and with prices that are not too high to be reached, attracting buyers to purchase their product is not at all hard. Place- Honda’s successful penetration into the US market is something that is now catching the attention of strategic management theorists. Standards of the American people are totally different with those of the Japanese. It is one of the challenging parts of business when a firm decides to put up a branch or expand in an unfamiliar place. Having been able to introduce products with a Japanese approach and with the US market’s favorable reaction, Honda’s decision to launch its first out of the country subsidiary in the US was a success. Promotion- The people’s word of mouth helps in the promotion of a product most especially when it is a positive feedback of what they have experienced upon using it. The satisfaction of the customers is what Honda and its dealers from around the world hope to achieve. That is why in order to gain popularity and a good

Child Abuse Essay Example for Free

Child Abuse Essay Child abuse is any emotional, sexual, or physical mistreatment, as well as neglect of a child. Some countries may vary in their definition of the term. In the USA. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) defines child abuse as child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. A UK guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010 (1. 33-1.36) says that there are four types of child abuse: Emotional abuse Sexual abuse Physical abuse Neglect Although the UK guidance does not specifically mention bullying as a form of abuse, the countrys authorities say that there is compelling evidence that it is abuse, and will invariably include at least one of the four abuse categories defined. Child abuse can happen anywhere, in the childs home, school, community or other organizations, environments or places. What is physical abuse? Physical abuse may include, as defined in the UK and most other European Union countries: Burning Drowning Hitting Poisoning Scalding Shaking Suffocating Throwing When a parent/caregiver fabricates a symptom in a child When a parent/caregiver induces an illness in a child deliberately ..and any other type of physical harm to a child Some countries specifically define the following, as forms of physical abuse (some overlap those listed above) Belting, Biting, Blinding a person or causing impairment of sight, Cutting or  otherwise exposing somebody to something sharp, Drowning, Excessive pinching on the body, Exposure to a dangerous animal, Exposure to a toxic substance, Exposure to cold, freezing, Exposure to electric shock, Exposure to heat or radiation, Burning, Head-butting, Infecting with a disease, Kicking, Kneeing, Placing in stress positions (tied or otherwise forced), Poisoning, Punching, Pushing, pulling, Slapping, Sleep deprivation, Stabbing, Strangling, Striking with an object, Striking, Throwing acid in someones face, Throwing or shooting a projectile, Tickling non-consensually, Tripping, Whipping, Withholding food or medication. In a growing number of countries, using corporal punishment as a form of imposing or teaching discipline, is seen as a form of physical child abuse.

Ethics and Medical Practice Essay -- Medicine Healthcare

Ethics and Medical Practice Since Alasdair MacIntyre's landmark book, After Virtue, there has been renewed interest in the role of the virtues in the moral life and attention paid to reappropriating the Aristotelian notion of a "practice." (1) Recent reappropriations of the virtues and virtue theory in medical ethics have contributed to conceiving more adequately the nature of good medicine. In this paper, I wish to explore some of these insights and the special relevance the notion of a practice has in an account of good medicine. Yet, I want to suggest, too, that much remains to be done. This renewed attention to the virtues needs to be supplemented by a similar reappropriation and transposition of the notion of nature in order to navigate successfully the Dardanelles of an ahistorical essentialism and the Bosphorus of a historical relativism. (2) Practices are essentially cooperative endeavors. In order to satisfy some need, individuals perform certain acts in the hope of relieving some distress or of attaining some object. Rarely if ever, though, can either be done through one's own efforts alone. When we act, we participate in already expected and agreed upon ways of doing things, and our participation in them is structured in large measure by mutual sets of expectations to which we hold each other accountable. Because it makes possible the attainment of desired goods on a regular basis, this pattern of cooperative human activity is itself a good. For this reason, Bernard Lonergan termed the actual functioning of human institutions a "good of order." (3) While particular goods may satisfy some human want or need, the regular and recurrent enjoyment and the ordering of human action are themselves distinctly valuable. ... ...ysician, and the Ethics of Medicine," p. 246, and Pellegrino and Thomasma, For the Patient's Good, Chapter 9, p. 118. (20) See Lonergan, Method in Theology, Chapter 3, p. 80. (21) See Kai Nielson, "Critique of Pure Virtue: Aniadversions on a Virtue-Based Ethic," in Virtue and Medicine, pp. 133-150. Robert Veatch's criticism is, in part, similar (see his, "Against Virtue: A Deontological Critique of Virtue Theory in Medical Ethics," in Virtue and Medicine, pp. 329-345). If one defines virtue as a praiseworthy habit or characteristic, then it may very well be the case that what is praised is in fact neither good nor right. For this reason, the virtues must be defined not in terms of praise and blame but in terms of the ends of medicine and the good it seeks. (22) Lonergan, Insight, Chapter 18, p. 629.23 See MacIntyre, After Virtue, Chapter 12, p. 139.121

Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum

BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK's largest corporation, with its headquarters in St James's, City of Westminster, London. BP America's headquarters is in the One Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas; the company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six leaders.In order to project social responsibility and improve its image British Petroleum changed its name into BP in year 2000 with a logo of green and yellow sunflower patterns. Paradoxically the same company symbol is now under derision and the object of controversial attacks from environmentalists and damaging court cases. The company’s predicament further worsened when it was listed as one of the â€Å"ten worst corporations† during the year 2001 and 2006. In fact, BP and its competitors Royal Dutch-Shell were co nsidered by activists to be responsible with the threatening phenomenon of climate change.BP was warned before the oil pipeline leak happened in Alaska, but no action was made by the higher officials to mitigate its possible occurrence and reduce damages. In March 2005, BP's Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapor cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant.The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London. The fall-out from the accident continues to cloud BP's corpor ate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board which offered a derisive evaluation of the company.The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London. The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation. On October 30, 2009, OSHA fined BP an additional $87 million— the largest fine in OSHA history— for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations.BP is appealing that fine. In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipe lines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million liters of oil in Alaska's North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight this bacteria.There are estimates that about 5000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1513 barrels (240. 5 m3) of liquids, about 5200 cubic yards (4000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200000 barrels per day (32000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation pl ant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities. On 16 October 2007 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline.Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines. From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company's Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him.On April 1 2009, a Bond Offshore He licopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP's platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board. On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field.The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5000 barrels per day. On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster. BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producin g nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators. The U. S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation. On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.Coming to analyze BP's risk management, it is noted first that BP organization employs the systems of centralized direction and decentralized implementation. The centralized direction system was designed to attain business goals and objectives. The company unifies the corporation by implementing strategic objectives, values, behaviors and standards to be performed and easily understood by their people. On the other hand the systematic objective of BP is decentralized implementation of its operations in order to deliver the best quality of products or services and satisfy the needs of the consumers.The decentralized implementation covered three business segments namely: Exploration and Production, The Gas, Power and Renewable and Refining and Market. As is well known, procedures and controls are a necessary condition for effective risk management, but not a sufficient one. A company’s standards and processes will fail if employees do not feel empowered to follow the standards during times of stress or they fear retaliation for reporting â€Å"unwanted† information. Reading the report of BP and other esources at my disposal I have found that how parts of BP’s culture may have tolerated shortened safety procedures as they fell behind investment schedules and other deadlines. For example, the compan y cut short a procedure involving drilling fluid that is designed to detect gas in the well and skipped a quality test of the cement around the pipe (another buffer against gas) despite BP’s report finding that there were signs of problems with the cement job and despite a warning from the cement contractor company.The experts also concluded that there was not a strong culture of communication across its own team leaders and partner companies. Having multiple players can restrict access to critical knowledge and slow decision-making processes to a dangerous point. Nor did there appear to be a culture where managers were expected to seek out or share contrary information from a different perspective. These cultural elements allowed issues to continue without the application of comprehensive expertise.It seems to be necessary adding more controls, more checks and balances, with auditable risk management processes new minimum standards, and increased self-audits. While some crit eria and thresholds did not exist prior to the accident, it is unclear whether the lack of these controls and audit mechanisms directly caused the accident itself Companies are not able to entirely shift operational or reputational risk to a partner, subcontractor, or supplier. Presumably, BP had in place significant and comprehensive controls and contractual requirements for its contractors and other service providers.However, questions remain about whether these contractual requirements were actually implemented, assessed, and monitored by BP. Anyway, risk management referred to in this paper are the activities related to managing an organization that integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources. Its primary objective is to reduce the different risks related to threats caused by environment, technology, humans, organizations and politics.Firms usually formulate strategies in order to manage o r mitigate risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. BP must apply risk management in its corporate financing as the technique for measuring, monitoring and controlling the financial or operational risk on the firm. The commonly used framework breaks risks into market risk (price risk), credit risk and operational risk and also specifies methods for calculating capital requirements for each of these components.In enterprise risk management, a risk is defined as a possible event or circumstance that can have negative influences on the survival of a company. Its impact can be on the very existence, the resources (human and capital), the products and services, or the customers of the enterprise, as well as external impacts on society, markets, or the environment. In a financial institution, enterprise risk management is normally thought of as the combin ation of credit risk, interest rate risk or asset liability management, market risk, and operational risk.All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. In the case of BP, the following must also be undertaken in addition and consideration of those discussed above. Firstly, it is of major importance to planning how risk management will be conducted must be undertaken: in this regard the plan must include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget.Secondly, managers responsible for BP will assign a risk officer who will be responsible for foreseeing potential problems. In this respect, it is important also to maintain the risk database and each risk should have an opening date, a title, a brief description, a probability and a suggestion of importance. Once potential sources of risk have been identified, it will also need preparing a p lan for reducing the risk (mitigation plan) for risks that are chosen to be mitigated.In this regard, it is well known that the purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will it be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. BP, in a perspective of reducing the risks described above in the long run as well as in order to optimize and reduce the resources used for that purpose, must eventually summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities, and effort spent for the risk management. Risk Management Failures of British Petroleum BP is a British global energy company which is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. As a multinational oil company, BP is the UK's largest corporation, with its headquarters in St James's, City of Westminster, London. BP America's headquarters is in the One Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, Texas; the company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six leaders.In order to project social responsibility and improve its image British Petroleum changed its name into BP in year 2000 with a logo of green and yellow sunflower patterns. Paradoxically the same company symbol is now under derision and the object of controversial attacks from environmentalists and damaging court cases. The company’s predicament further worsened when it was listed as one of the â€Å"ten worst corporations† during the year 2001 and 2006. In fact, BP and its competitors Royal Dutch-Shell were co nsidered by activists to be responsible with the threatening phenomenon of climate change.BP was warned before the oil pipeline leak happened in Alaska, but no action was made by the higher officials to mitigate its possible occurrence and reduce damages. In March 2005, BP's Texas City, Texas refinery, one of its largest refineries, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes. A large column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapor cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant.The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London. The fall-out from the accident continues to cloud BP's corpor ate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There have been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the U. S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board which offered a derisive evaluation of the company.The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London. The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, and sentenced to three years probation. On October 30, 2009, OSHA fined BP an additional $87 million— the largest fine in OSHA history— for failing to correct safety hazards revealed in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been previously cited but not fixed and 439 new violations.BP is appealing that fine. In August 2006, BP shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, due to corrosion in pipe lines leading up to the Alaska Pipeline. The wells were leaking insulating agent called Arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice. BP had spilled over one million liters of oil in Alaska's North Slope. This corrosion is caused by sediment collecting in the bottom of the pipe, protecting corrosive bacteria from chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight this bacteria.There are estimates that about 5000 barrels (790 m3) of oil were released from the pipeline. To date 1513 barrels (240. 5 m3) of liquids, about 5200 cubic yards (4000 m3) of soiled snow and 328 cubic yards (251 m3) of soiled gravel have been recovered. After approval from the DOT, only the eastern portion of the field was shut down, resulting in a reduction of 200000 barrels per day (32000 m3/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.In May 2007, the company announced another partial field shutdown owing to leaks of water at a separation pl ant. Their action was interpreted as another example of fallout from a decision to cut maintenance of the pipeline and associated facilities. On 16 October 2007 Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation officials reported a toxic spill of methanol (methyl alcohol) at the Prudhoe Bay oil field managed by BP PLC. Nearly 2,000 gallons of mostly methanol, mixed with some crude oil and water, spilled onto a frozen tundra pond as well as a gravel pad from a pipeline.Methanol, which is poisonous to plants and animals, is used to clear ice from the insides of the Arctic-based pipelines. From January 2006 to January 2008, three workers were killed at the company's Texas City, Texas refinery in three separate accidents. In July 2006 a worker was crushed between a pipe stack and mechanical lift, in June 2007, a worker was electrocuted, and in January 2008, a worker was killed by a 500-pound piece of metal that came loose under high pressure and hit him.On April 1 2009, a Bond Offshore He licopters Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma ferrying workers from BP's platform in the Miller oilfield in the North Sea off Scotland crashed in good weather killing all 16 on board. On April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout and sank two days later, killing eleven people and causing a massive oil spill threatening the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Florida. The rig is owned and operated by Transocean Ltd on behalf of BP, which is the majority owner of the oil field.The company originally estimated the size of the leak at about 1,000 barrels a day but later accepted government estimates of a leak of at least 5000 barrels per day. On April 30, BP stated that it would harness all of its resources to battle the oil spill, spending $7 million a day with its partners to try to contain the disaster. BP was running the well without a remote control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producin g nations, Brazil and Norway, as a last resort protection against underwater spills. The use of such devices is not mandated by U.S. regulators. The U. S. Government gave the responsibility of the incident to BP and will hold it accountable for costs incurred in containing the situation. On May 11, 2010, Congress called the executives of BP, Transocean, and Halliburton to a hearing regarding the oil spill. When probed for answers regarding the events leading up to the explosion, each company blamed the other. BP blamed Transocean who owned the rig, who then blamed the operators of the rig, BP. They also blamed Halliburton, who built the well casing.Coming to analyze BP's risk management, it is noted first that BP organization employs the systems of centralized direction and decentralized implementation. The centralized direction system was designed to attain business goals and objectives. The company unifies the corporation by implementing strategic objectives, values, behaviors and standards to be performed and easily understood by their people. On the other hand the systematic objective of BP is decentralized implementation of its operations in order to deliver the best quality of products or services and satisfy the needs of the consumers.The decentralized implementation covered three business segments namely: Exploration and Production, The Gas, Power and Renewable and Refining and Market. As is well known, procedures and controls are a necessary condition for effective risk management, but not a sufficient one. A company’s standards and processes will fail if employees do not feel empowered to follow the standards during times of stress or they fear retaliation for reporting â€Å"unwanted† information. Reading the report of BP and other esources at my disposal I have found that how parts of BP’s culture may have tolerated shortened safety procedures as they fell behind investment schedules and other deadlines. For example, the compan y cut short a procedure involving drilling fluid that is designed to detect gas in the well and skipped a quality test of the cement around the pipe (another buffer against gas) despite BP’s report finding that there were signs of problems with the cement job and despite a warning from the cement contractor company.The experts also concluded that there was not a strong culture of communication across its own team leaders and partner companies. Having multiple players can restrict access to critical knowledge and slow decision-making processes to a dangerous point. Nor did there appear to be a culture where managers were expected to seek out or share contrary information from a different perspective. These cultural elements allowed issues to continue without the application of comprehensive expertise.It seems to be necessary adding more controls, more checks and balances, with auditable risk management processes new minimum standards, and increased self-audits. While some crit eria and thresholds did not exist prior to the accident, it is unclear whether the lack of these controls and audit mechanisms directly caused the accident itself Companies are not able to entirely shift operational or reputational risk to a partner, subcontractor, or supplier. Presumably, BP had in place significant and comprehensive controls and contractual requirements for its contractors and other service providers.However, questions remain about whether these contractual requirements were actually implemented, assessed, and monitored by BP. Anyway, risk management referred to in this paper are the activities related to managing an organization that integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources. Its primary objective is to reduce the different risks related to threats caused by environment, technology, humans, organizations and politics.Firms usually formulate strategies in order to manage o r mitigate risk by transferring the risk to another party, avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of the consequences of a particular risk. BP must apply risk management in its corporate financing as the technique for measuring, monitoring and controlling the financial or operational risk on the firm. The commonly used framework breaks risks into market risk (price risk), credit risk and operational risk and also specifies methods for calculating capital requirements for each of these components.In enterprise risk management, a risk is defined as a possible event or circumstance that can have negative influences on the survival of a company. Its impact can be on the very existence, the resources (human and capital), the products and services, or the customers of the enterprise, as well as external impacts on society, markets, or the environment. In a financial institution, enterprise risk management is normally thought of as the combin ation of credit risk, interest rate risk or asset liability management, market risk, and operational risk.All risks can never be fully avoided or mitigated simply because of financial and practical limitations. Therefore all organizations have to accept some level of residual risks. In the case of BP, the following must also be undertaken in addition and consideration of those discussed above. Firstly, it is of major importance to planning how risk management will be conducted must be undertaken: in this regard the plan must include risk management tasks, responsibilities, activities and budget.Secondly, managers responsible for BP will assign a risk officer who will be responsible for foreseeing potential problems. In this respect, it is important also to maintain the risk database and each risk should have an opening date, a title, a brief description, a probability and a suggestion of importance. Once potential sources of risk have been identified, it will also need preparing a p lan for reducing the risk (mitigation plan) for risks that are chosen to be mitigated.In this regard, it is well known that the purpose of the mitigation plan is to describe how this particular risk will be handled what, when, by who and how will it be done to avoid it or minimize consequences if it becomes a liability. BP, in a perspective of reducing the risks described above in the long run as well as in order to optimize and reduce the resources used for that purpose, must eventually summarizing planned and faced risks, effectiveness of mitigation activities, and effort spent for the risk management.

An Analysis of Writing Techniques in the Achievement of Desire Essay

This essay is elegantly written with well-chosen words. Besides that, Richard Rodriguez’s adept skills in depicting the author’s complicated yet conflicting mental activities through various literary devices is also the shinning point of this piece of work. In the essay, the author mainly used several techniques such as flashbacks, comparisons and contrasts, definition, quotation, and satire to enhance the readability and entertainment of its content, which cater to most readers’ tastes and could lead them to further and in-depth thinking and reflection. Before analyzing the Rodriguez’s skills to shape and present his idea, a briefing on the essay is necessary. Rodriguez, the author, devoted most of his time to gaining knowledge. He saw schooling as the best way to get rid of his embarrassed status as an immigrant Mexican and to escape from being a poor educated person as his parents. However, after reading hundreds and thousands of classics, he found himself becoming a â€Å"scholarship boy†, otherwise pedant or book worm, overweighed with knowledge but do not have his own views on things. In other word, the whole learning process of him is mimicking and memorizing other’s words. He did not realize this until he wrote a dissertation on Renaissance Literature. He became bored of ceaseless learning and grew nostalgic and missed the family intimacy and consolations. But what irony is that in his efforts to return his family life, he found that it was education that enabled him aware of his status quo and gave him another chance to cherish the forthcoming life. Now, after gaining a rough idea of the essay, we could turn to his first writing technique-flashback. Most stories began with such a written pattern, which could leave the readers in suspense and give them a lingering aftertaste. This is also true of Rodriguez’s work. In the opening of the essay, the author appeared as the guest speaker to give a lecture on the mystery of the sounds of words to the ghetto students. No one was really interested in his speech except a girl whose eagerness to learn and ways of taking note reminded the author of his school days. In order to propel the readers to move on, he uses such a sentence â€Å"It is myself (as a boy) I see as she faces me now (a man in my thirties)†. How could an adult see his youth in a girl’s eyes? A question like that will occur to most readers’ mind, and as a result they would read on with the intention to unravel it. This sentence also plays play the role of linking the preceding and the following passage, because in the second paragraph the author began with words like â€Å"the boy†. The following paragraph all dwelled on in a sequential narration matter. Apart from leading the reader to run along the plots, the main intention Rodriguez employs flashback is to introduce the main question, which is also the clue running through the whole essay, â€Å"How did I manage my success? †. By putting forward the question, the whole work has a pivot on which the reader could gain a better understanding of Rodriguez’s strange behaviors and complicated emotions in the rest content. The sharp and stark comparisons and contrasts between classroom and home, family life and school life, teachers and parents are also prevailing in Rodriguez’s writing. In Rodriguez’s eyes, home is a place one could feel the intense pleasure of intimacy and consolations while classroom is a place relatively reclusive and lonely, but the latter is more favorable when one is ready to embark on a road to knowledge. School life is dull and attentive while family life (concerning the author’s situation, the working class may be more pertinent) is an adult life full of trivial and petty things related to mundane life, such as Rodriguez’s description of his mother’s ironing and father’s habitual self-talks. Teachers, as Rodriguez sees it, they are the idols who could guide him in the process of searching for more knowledge. We can see this in his narration that even as a fourth grade students, he asked his teacher for booklists and librarians even reserve books for him. Parents, however, are poor educated who speak English with Mexican accent, making Rodriguez rather shameful in the grammar school graduation ceremony when the nun condescended to speak to them. These three comparisons and contrasts could be concluded as the conflicts between study and family. The author, with the eagerness to read more and the ambition to become elite, he chose the former. All these may render a strong sense of sympathy in the readers. They may be sorry and even curse the education which brings the author into such a tragic situation. Some readers, who have an intense interest in unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, might awaken to the reality that they are also leading a tragic life just like the author. Consequently, the illuminations people obtained from this essay may even change their way of life. Definition could also be spotted in this essay. The key term, scholarship boy coined by the author, has multiple levels of meanings. Definitions like â€Å"the scholarship boy must move between environments, his home and the classroom, which are at cultural extremes, opposed†, â€Å". . . The scholarship boy does not straddle, cannot reconcile, the two great opposing cultures of his life. †, â€Å"the scholarship boy makes only too apparent his profound lack of self-confidence. †, â€Å"The scholarship boy is a very bad student. He is the great mimic; a collector of thoughts, not a thinker. † and so on so forth. Any reader, who follows closely with the author’s flow of thoughts, could readily identify the scholarship boy he referred in distain and shame is himself. We could also draw such a conclusion from the last paragraph â€Å"I was a scholarship boy at the time†¦Ã¢â‚¬  So why does Rodriguez define it so frequently with different interpretations? What’s his purpose? In my view, Rodriguez in doing so is just want to highlight his regrets of distancing himself from family life and his shame of being a machine learning by mimicking and memorizing without originality. Like a person who committed some bad deeds, he would keep bubbling and muttering to show his regrets and sorrows. This would also give a sharp impression on the readers, making them reflect on the purpose of education and their own ways of learning. Quotations are scattered in this essay, most of them are from The Use of Literary Written by Richard Hoggart. For instance, in order to explain a scholarship boy’s nostalgic feeling at the end of his education he cited a paragraph from Richard Hoggart’ book, â€Å"The nostalgia is the stronger and the more ambiguous because he is really â€Å"in quest of his own absconded self yet scared to find it. He both wants to go back and yet thinks he has gone beyond his class, feels himself weighted with knowledge of his own and their situation, which hereafter forbids him the simpler pleasures of his father and mother. . . .† The contradicting moods are vividly presented in these words, which also makes the readers easier to grasp Rodriguez’s painful and conflicting emotions. He wants to go back to the family life and enjoys the intimacy but his desire for knowledge prevented him from doing that, which resembles a girl who is longing for a piece of candy but her decayed tooth deprives this enjoyment. So the author must be very helpless and painful during this process. Satire is also another main technique the author used to better present his idea. The repeat definition of scholarship boy is a satire, people’s constant inquiry of the secret of his success and his unexpected answer (I couldn’t forget that schooling was changing me and separating me from the life I enjoyed before becoming a student. ). The biggest satire of this work is that the author found that the education made him distant himself from his parents while it again offered him chance to care for them. What an irony it is! These ironies add an entertaining yet painful effect to the essay and the readers, driving them to think deep. To sum up, all these writing technique do bring the readers forward and hold their attention, but the unique experience of the author is the trump card of this essay’s success.

Essay on Biology Water and Water Depth Water

Essay on Biology Water and Water Depth Water Essay on Biology: Water and Water Depth Water Introduction to Ecology environments rapidly changing maintaining health/welfare depends on efforts to cope with environ. changes Ecologyseeks to understand distribution and abundance of organisms 4 main levels: organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems organismsexplore morphological, physiological, and behavioral adaptations that allow individuals to live in a particular area. ex: salmon migrate from saltwater to freshwater env's populationfocus on how numbers of indiv's in a population change over time (mathematical models) ex: each female salmon produces thousands of eggs. Only a few will survive to adulthood. On avg, only 2 return to stream of birth to breed. population decline because of dams and pollution. communityask questions about the nature of the interactions between species and consequences of those interactions. ex: interactions of salmon and other species in marine communities. salmon are prey as well as predators ecosystemstudy how nutrients and energy move among organisms and through surrounding atmosphere and soil or water. (impact of pollution/increased temp on species) abioticair, wind, soilphysical components ex: impact of pollution/- temperature on species. salmon link marine and freshwater ecosystems. salmon die and then decompose, releasing nutrients that are used by bacteria, archaea, plants, protists, young salmon, and other organisms. Conservation biology: the effort to study, preserve, and restore threatened populations, communities, and ecosystems. particular species, partic. area, partic. population size Types of Aquatic Ecosystems bioticmembers of the same or different species interacting organisms have restricted set of physical conditions in which they can survive and thrive. Freshwater/Saltwater3 physical factors affect distribution and abundance of organisms: nutrient availability, water depth, and water movement. Nutrient Availability Many aquatic ecosystems, nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are in short supply if water is moving, nutrients tend to be washed away. if still, tend to fall bottom and collect in the form of debris. Why important? Nutrient levels limit growth rates in photosynthetic organisms that provide food for other species. Ocean Upwelling Oceans, nutrients in sunlit surface waters constantly lost in form of dead organisms that rain down into the depths. In certain coastal regions of world's oceans, nutrients are brought up to the surface by currents that cause upwellings. 1. winds blow prevailing winds blow north, moving water at surface 2. surface water moves as the earth rotates, moving surface water is forced offshore 3. upwellingas surface water leaves, it is replaced by nutrient rich water welling up from the bottom Basically, this recycles nutrients that had earlier fallen to ocean floor Ex: when currents are favorable and upwelling is steady anchoveta fishery very happy Lake Turnover 1. Winter stratification dense 4 degrees C water at the bottom becomes nutrient rich while colder water near surface becomes oxygenated 2. Spring Turnover surface water warms to 4 degrees C and sinks, carrying O2 down and driving nutrients up 3. Summer Stratificationdense 4 degrees C water at bottom becomes nutrient rich while warmer water near surface becomes oxygenated 4. Fall turnover surface water cools to 4 degrees C and sinks, carrying O2 down and driving nutrients up Water Flow Organisms that live in fast-flowing streams have to cope with physical force of water which threatens to move them downstream (esp. intertidal regions) Nutrient and light availability influence productivity in aquatic ecosystems, water movement has effect on productivity Water Depth Water absorbs and scatters light, so the amount and types of wavelengths available to organisms change dramatically as depth increases Surface= all wavelengths available. Ocean water removes light in violet and red regions of visible spectrum.

Timeline of Major US Public Land Laws and Acts

Timeline of Major US Public Land Laws and Acts Beginning with the Congressional Act of 16 September 1776 and the Land Ordinance of 1785, a wide variety of Congressional acts governed the distribution of federal land in the thirty public land states. Various acts opened up new territories, established the practice of offering land as compensation for military service, and extended preemption rights to squatters. These acts each resulted in the first transfer of land from the federal government to individuals. This list is not exhaustive, and does not include acts that temporarily extended the provisions of earlier acts, or private acts that were passed for the benefit of individuals. Timeline of U.S. Public Land Acts 16 September 1776: This Congressional Act established guidelines for granting lands of 100 to 500 acres, termed bounty land, for those who enlisted in the Continental Army to fight in the American Revolution. That Congress make provision for granting lands, in the following proportions: to the officers and soldiers who shall so engage in the service, and continue therein to the close of the war, or until discharged by Congress, and to the representatives of such officers and soldiers as shall be slain by the enemy: To a colonel, 500 acres; to a lieutenant colonel, 450; to a major, 400; to a captain, 300; to a lieutenant, 200; to an ensign, 150; each non-commissioned officer and soldier, 100... 20 May 1785: Congress enacted the first law to manage the Public Lands that resulted from the thirteen newly independent states agreeing to relinquish their western land claims and allow the land to become the joint property of all citizens of the new nation. The 1785 Ordinance for the public lands northwest of the Ohio provided for their survey and sale in tracts of no less than 640 acres. This began the cash-entry system for federal lands. Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, that the territory ceded by individual States to the United States, which has been purchased of the Indian inhabitants, shall be disposed of in the following manner... 10 May 1800: The Land Act of 1800, also known as the Harrison Land Act for its author William Henry Harrison, reduced the minimum purchasable unit of land to 320 acres, and also introduced the option of credit sales to encourage land sales. Land purchased under the Harrison Land Act of 1820 could be payed for in four designated payments over a period of four years. The government ultimately ended up expelling thousands of individuals who could not make the repayment of their loans within the set time, and some of this land ended up being resold by the federal government several times before defaults were rescinded by the Land Act of 1820. An act providing for the sale of the land of the United States, in the territory north-west of the Ohio, and above the mouth of the Kentucky river. 3 March 1801: Passage of the 1801 Act was the first of many laws passed by Congress giving preemption or preference rights to settlers in the Northwest Territory who had purchased lands from John Cleves Symmes, a judge of the Territory whose own claims to the lands had been nullified. An Act giving a right of pre-emption to certain persons to certain persons who have contracted with John Cleves Symmes, or his associates, for lands lying between the Miami rivers, in the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio. 3 March 1807: Congress passed a law granting preemption rights to certain settlers in Michigan Territory, where a number of grants had been made under both prior French and British rule. ...to every person or persons in actual possession, occupancy, and improvement, of any tract or parcel of land in his, her, or their own right, at the time of the passing of this act, within that part of the Territory of Michigan, to which the Indian title has been extinguished, and which said tract or parcel of land was settled, occupied, and improved, by him, her, or them, prior to and on the first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety six...the said tract or parcel of land thus possessed, occupied, and improved, shall be granted, and such occupant or occupants shall be confirmed in the title to the same, as an estate of inheritance, in fee simple... 3 March 1807: The Intrusion Act of 1807 attempted to discourage squatters, or settlements being made on lands ceded to the United States, until authorized by law. The act also authorized the government to forcibly remove squatters from privately-owned land if the owners petitioned the government. Existing squatters on unoccupied land were allowed to claim as tenants of will up to 320 acres if they registered with the local land office by the end of 1807. They also agreed to give quiet possession or abandon the land when the government disposed of it to others. That any person or persons who, before the passing of this act, had taken possession of, occupied, or made a settlement on any lands ceded or secured to the United States...and who at the time of passing this act does or do actually inhabit and reside on such lands, may, at any time prior to the first day of January next, apply to the proper register or recorder...such applicant or applicants to remin on such tract or tracts of land, not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres for each applicant, as tenants at will, on such terms and conditions as shall prevent any waste or damages on such lands... 5 February 1813: The Illinois Preemption Act of 5 February 1813 granted preemption rights to all actual settlers in Illinois. This was the first law enacted by Congress which conveyed blanket preemption rights to all squatters in a speciï ¬ ed region and not simply to certain categories of claimants, taking the unusual step of going against the recommendation of the House Committee on Public Lands, which strongly opposed granting blanket preemption rights on the grounds that doing so would encourage future squatting.1 That every person, or legal representative of every person, who has actually inhabited and cultivated a tract of land lying in either of the districts established for the sale of public lands, in the Illinois territory, which tract is not rightfully claimed by any other person and who shall not have removed from said territory; every such person and his legal representatives shall be entitled to a preference in becoming the purchaser from the United States of such tract of land at private sale... 24 April 1820: The Land Act of 1820, also referred to as the 1820 Sale Act, reduced the price of federal land (at the time this applied to land in the Northwest Territory and Missouri Territory) to $1.25 acre, with a minimum purchase of 80 acres and a down payment of only $100. Further, the act gave squatters the right to preempt these conditions and purchase the land even more cheaply if they had made improvements to the land such as the building of homes, fences, or mills. This act eliminated the practice of credit sales, or the purchase of public land in the United States on credit. That from and after the first day of July next [1820] , all the public lands of the United States, the sale of which is, or may be authorized by law, shall when offered at public sale, to the highest bidder, be offered in half quarter sections [80 acres] ; and when offered at private sale, may be purchased, at the option of the purchaser, either in entire sections [640 acres] , half sections [320 acres] , quarter sections [160 acres] , or half quarter sections [80 acres] ... 4 September 1841: Following several early preemption acts, a permanent preemption law went into effect with the passage of the Preemption Act of 1841. This legislation (see Sections 9–10) permitted an individual to settle and cultivate up to 160 acres of land and to then purchase that land within a specified time after either survey or settlement at $1.25 per acre. This preemption act was repealed in 1891. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, every person being the head of a family, or widow, or single man, over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen as required by the naturalization laws, who since the first day of June A.D. eighteen hundred and forty, has made or shall hereafter make a settlement in person on the public lands...is hereby, authorized to enter with the register of the land office for the district in which such land may lie, by legal subdivisions, any number of acres not exceeding one hundred and sixty, or a quarter section of land, to include the residence of such claimant, upon paying to the United States the minimum price of such land... 27 September 1850: The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, also called the Donation Land Act, provided free land to all white or mixed-blood Native American settlers who arrived in Oregon Territory (the present-day states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and part of Wyoming) before December 1, 1855, based on four years of residence and cultivation of the land. The law, which granted 320 acres to unmarried male citizens eighteen or older, and 640 acres to married couples, split equally between them, was one of the first that allowed married women in the United States to hold land under their own name. That there shall be, and hereby is, granted to every white settler or occupant of the public lands, American half-breed Indians included, above the age of eighteen years, being a citizen of the United States....the quantity of one half section, or three hundred and twenty acres of land, if a single man, and if a married man, or if he shall become married within one year from the first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty, the quantity of one section, or six hundred and forty acres, one half to himself and the other half to his wife, to be held by her in her own right... 3 March 1855: – The Bounty Land Act of 1855 entitled U.S. military veterans or their survivors to receive a warrant or certificate which could then be redeemed in person at any federal land office for 160 acres of federally owned land. This act extended the benefits. The warrant could also be sold or transferred to another individual who could then obtain the land under the same conditions. This act extended the conditions of several smaller bounty land acts passed between 1847 and 1854 to cover more soldiers and sailors, and provide additional acreage. That each of the surviving commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who were regularly mustered into the service of the United States, and every officer, commissioned and non-commissioned seaman, ordinary seaman, flotilla-man, marine, clerk, and landsman in the navy, in any of the wars in which this country has been engaged since seventeen hundred and ninety, and each of the survivors of the militia, or volunteers, or State troops of any State or Territory, called into military service, and regularly mustered therein, and whose services have been paid by the United States, shall be entitled to receive a certificate or warrant from the Department of the Interior for one hundred and sixty acres of land... 20 May 1862: Probably the best recognized of all land acts in the United States, the Homestead Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on 20 May 1862. Taking effect on 1 January 1863, the Homestead Act made it possible for any adult male U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never taken up arms against the United States, to gain title to 160 acres of undeveloped land by living on it five years and paying eighteen dollars in fees. Female heads of household were also eligible. African-Americans later become eligible when the 14th Amendment granted them citizenship in 1868. Specific requirements for ownership included building a home, making improvements, and farming the land before they could own it outright. Alternatively, the homesteader could purchase the land for $1.25 per acre after having lived on the land for at least six months. Several previous homestead acts introduced in 1852, 1853, and 1860, failed to be passed into law. That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid or comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section [160 acres] or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands...

Cyber security Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cyber security - Coursework Example Despite the mounting threats in cyberspace, it emerges that the cyberspace domain holds key solutions to these threats. The threats are further compounded by fact that threats are anonymous and emerge from a multitude of sources worldwide (Ward, 2000). With prevailing drastic revolution in cyber technology, the human dimension of the security problem cannot be disregarded. The behavior of the users, failure in compliance with security policy and ignorance of cyber threats are common human factors that compromise the overall security of cyberspace. An underestimation of the potential magnitude of a cyber threat due to distraction or ignorance is the main reason for successful cyber attacks. A critical factor to consider when formulating cyber security is the response time to cyber attacks. Incidents of attack happen at cyber speed, but often it takes a while for the management system to detect and respond to the incident. Failure to respond with urgency to cyber attacks increases the company’s vulnerability. Appropriate training of employees on the threat and remedy framework is a critical obligation of any organization. Cyber security threats that can affect important goals In e- commerce for instance, rights of access to digital content have become an issue of immense economic and social significance. Wealthy nations have come under criticism from poor countries for â€Å"information imperialism†, arguing that intellectual property rights are an impediment to overcoming the digital creative and intellectual divide. Consequently, elusive questions have arisen on whether to reinforce these rights, or whether to eliminate all protection in cyberspace all together. The electronic environment provides ease of operation across borders, which renders issues of cyber crime an international affair and which inevitably requires renegotiation of agreements between governments, and signing of new treaties in international mediums. Provision of stability and certainty in the cyber business environment then raises concerns of protecting consumers with emerging threats of electronic fraud, cyber terrorism and crime. The ethical concerns that emerge comprise: personal privacy, protection of copyrights, availability of critical crime information to agencies of law enforcement, hacking and computer technology infringement crime, and many other legal framework aspects formulated for citizen right protection Other than the legal and ethical dimensions, cyberspace issues also have social aspects and implications. It’s not clear from the cyberspace management framework who exactly has authority to manage the rights and privileges of users on the web, and who has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of the individual in are protected cyberspace. More important to note is the fact that both users and content providers will be greatly limited in taking full advantage of the evolution in network technologies, unless users take respons ibility of the uses to which they put web content. Vulnerabilities that can be exploited through cyber crime and cyber warfare Valuable information and content is continuously being posted on the Net by publishers and content providers, but with an increasing concern on how to control access and use of this