Presidents’ Stand on Environmental Issues Essay

The environmental issue has dominated most of the United States presidential candidate debates and is definitely a major concern for everyone. The major concerns that need a faster response action are the greenhouse gases that are increasingly causing global warming. Global warming refers to increased temperatures of the earth’s atmosphere with progress in time. Research has shown that the increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are due to the human activities especially industrialization that is increasingly releasing carbon monoxide fumes in the atmosphere. The results of the greenhouse effects are causing an increase in atmospheric temperature and disrupted climatic conditions world wide. Being a serious problem worldwide, the issue has been on the U. S presidential campaign platforms and policy making by the presidents of the United States, both former and current president. The campaigns to reduce global warming have seen calls for investment in green issues and encouraging use of bio-fuel by former presidential candidates like Al Gore (also a former Vice president under Clinton administration) who is considered to be a staunch environmentalist working against global warming. Former presidents `The issues about global warming date back to industrialization as in it’s the time that saw increased use of fossil fuel though its effects were to be noticed after some time. Many of the United States presidents have been under criticism on the type of policies they applied for environmental conservation issues during their administration. The Regan – Bush era was critical in addressing the global warming debate with Al Gore, the then Senator and Environmental conservation lobbyist criticized the policies of Bush administration (Inc Mead Data Central 1998). Clinton is considered the only president who understood that green pays as he supported green investment and fought against global warming. President Clinton’s Stance on Environment President Bill Clinton faced so much criticism on environmental issues since he relied so much on his Vice president who was an environmentalist. Most of the Democrat supporters even threatened to ditch Clinton and Support Richard A. Gephardt who was a House Minority. This move seems to be a tricky one since Al Gore was an environmentalist and conservative that most people admired and supported and he was one of the campaign planks used in the presidential campaigns. President Bill Clinton did not gain popularity because of the environmental record but on his attacks on the congress (Peterson 2004). The president managed to stop extravagant spending on the Environmental Protection Agency plus he managed to stop the most egregious efforts to adjust regulations were taking care of the species in danger of extinction and water quality standards (Inc Mead Data Central 1998). The Clinton administration came under criticism because of two critical concerns; 1. The Local air quality control standards 2. The global warming, greenhouse emissions Local air quality control: The quality control of air was not addressed and the Clinton administration did not meet the tough requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) while at the same time rejected republican proposals for adjusting some of the EPA requirements to reduce standards for certain areas. The Greenhouse effect: Clinton administration cannot claim to have taken a centrism position. During President Bush (Bush senior) governance, Al Gore (Clinton’s Vice President) was a senator and a tough environmentalist, he criticized Bush’s and on global warming and even advocated for tough laws by the Global standards. Al Gore wanted a strong American leadership and proposed a Marshall plan for funding other regime’s program to decrease greenhouse effects (Peterson 2004). Though the government signed the deal, coming in of Clinton administration failed to commit to the plan of reducing US own greenhouse gas emissions, rather the Clinton Administration went as far as stating that other governments’ objectives were too ambitious. Most of the people are less concerned about the air pollution in urban areas and greenhouse fumes. All what people seem to care about is the federal laws governing government lands. The bodies taking care of such property include bureau of land Management (BLM), United States Forest service and bureau of Reclamation among others. These agencies have faced criticism since Regan to Bush’s administration. Large state owned farms have been used by private developers to ranch their animals. Private landowners had considerably increased their fees for land, while federal administration had not, ensuing in federal subvention to few individuals. Clinton proposed an increase in the fees of the ranching to federal owned land to raise market level, a move that was not to be welcomed by the congress and he gave up before more issues arose. Clinton’s policy on logging federal lands was not a smart one and received so much disapproval. The Clinton administration was selling trees from federal lands to private companies at smaller fraction, lower than that of the market value. This is actually an abuse of office by those in charge, at to add insults to the injury, the government under the Name U. S Forest Services spent billions of Tax payer’s money constructing roads to enable logger’s access the trees with ease. The forest service being part of the Agriculture department, it does not allocate public money to land reclamation instead, they encourage logging. Initially Clinton’s policy on logging in federal lands an aggressive one as he made calls to manage forest department scientifically, he called a timber summit that approved the idea of ecosystem management. He even hired a wildlife biologist to execute the new policy. Sadly, the policy was not supported by the white house and it therefore did not work. It’s estimated that the federal government lost close to $ 1 billion selling its own forest resources between 1992 and 1994. In 1995, President Bill Clinton signed a bill (a bill proposed by Charles Taylor) that supported selling of logs and dead trees, a deal he could have vetoed. The sell included any trees that were considered to die soon! , that meant that if there was one dead tree in the forest, a number of fine trees would be cut as well since it would not be of used to sell one tree. This is what Al Gore termed as the Worst mistake made by Bill Clinton as a president. Clinton’s environmental record has never been a good one, Al Gore in his renown book â€Å"Earth in the Balance† he demanded that all political leaders had to take a stand on their view of environmental conservation issues. The Clinton stance on environment did not show what representing democracy actually was. Bush’s Policy on Environment Global warming is the major feature that is addressed when talking about environmental conservation since it affects the whole world and needs a joint solution. Climate scientist have found out that it’s usually initiated by the green house effect, a phenomenon in which some of the gases in the atmosphere, trap and reflect back the heat on the surface of the earth. President Bush came in to office in 2001 to and declined to support the Kyoto Protocol (Goodell 2007). This was a United Nations Convention changes to climate policies that intended to cut down the amount of greenhouse fumes that were being released in to the environment. The United Nations (UN) recognizes carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide as the major greenhouse gases that are released in to the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burnt. President Bush argued that there was no strong evidence to show that human activities were the major cause of global warming. Bush said that the uncertainty of scientists concerning the extent to which man’s actions were the problems in the treaty and did not agree on the impact the treaty would have on the United States economy as well as industrialization. President Bush also argued that since other big nations like India and China had not agreed, then he was not going to, either. The Bush government agreed that the climate changes that had been observed in the previous years were greatly due to human activities in their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issue, though it was affirmed that that could not rule out the fact that the environmental changes could be due natural environmental variation. The fact that climate scientist have proved that global warming was a direct consequence of human activities over years could not be the reason as to why there was need to reduce greenhouse effect, according to president Bush. He reaffirmed his stand on the Kyoto protocol despite the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) issue that accepted the United Nations claims. President Bush termed the EPA as bureaucratic measure by his critics. President Bush has been accused of downplaying the acknowledgment that relate human activities and global warming, and at one time it was alleged that Philip Cooney, an official from the white House and former oil industry advocate had adjusted explanations of environmental changes investigation that had already been endorsed by government scientists, an allegation that the white house denied. Papers from the State department showed that Bush administration had thanked Exxon managerial for their active role and the assistance they gave to help decide climate change policy, especially the United States’ position on the Kyoto Protocol. The global climate coalition lobby was also a feature in the downplay of Kyoto by the government. Throughout his presidency, President Bush maintained a controversial stand on the environmental issues and has kept on questioning the consensus of climate scientists. This has lead to criticism of Bush administration. One significant was James Hansen, in 2004; he was the director of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). He came out openly and insensitively and criticized the government for misleading the general; public by suppressing scientific proof of the dangers of the greenhouse fumes (Goodell 2007). He claimed the Bush administration only accepted information that fit predetermined conclusions and unbendable stance they had taken so as to make the dangers of global warming appear lesser than they actually are. This is a direct opposition to elemental precept of science. President Bush insists that he understand the effects of global warming and maintains that the debate is whether it’s man-made of from a natural cause. And in spite of the cause, his administration would work hard to solve the problem of dependence on foreign oil for economic and national security grounds (Goodell 2007). This was to reaffirm citizens that the government was encouraging use of bio-fuel as an alternative to fossil fuels that were linked to global warming. The Bush administration has made a gradual shift accepting that the greenhouse effect was a serious problem and needed argent solution. The government encourages the use of technological breakthrough to help Americans live oil independent lives that promoted environment conservation hence reducing global climate disruptions. Under President Bush, the U. S has signed the Asia Pacific Partnership that is calling for a clean development and Climate, an agreement that allows participating countries to set objectives unconditionally for cutting down emission of gases that are presumed to be causing the greenhouse effect. Some of the republicans have proposed the adoption of some of the recommendations made in the Kyoto Protocol in this agreement. President Bush has also pushed for 2004 Methane to Markets proposal through lobbying it to the congress. It is estimated that Methane would reduce a great deal of greenhouse gas released to the atmosphere, though some critics dispute Bush‘s Methane Proposal as more intoxicating contributor to greenhouse effect than the carbon dioxide emissions in the Kyoto protocol (Philander 2008). They claim that the Methane treaty would just reduce as much as what was proposed in the Kyoto protocol and that this Methane plan by Bush was not any better. The future Presidents The US government has to reformulate its policies on the conservation of environment at large and more so to reduce greenhouse effect. One of the changes would include investing in technology that supports green issues. There is very little that can be achieved in attempting to reduce the time for changing the global warming since, development of technology takes several years. Future leaders therefore need to reduce fossil oil usage by cutting down energy demands. The President Elect: Barrack Obama  The president elect Barrack Obama seems to draw much of his policies from former president Bill Clinton, as during the campaigns, Clinton gave his insights and he said that climate change needed to be taken as the major concern of the next administration. The outgoing president has not accomplished most of the environmental issues that have been pending under debates, however there is hope that the next President would do batter. In the 2008 United States presidential campaigns, both candidates seemed to understand the need to regulate the release of greenhouse gases to the environment. Barrack Obama is expected to improve o the Bush’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% in 40 years to target an 80% cut by the year 2050. This is the target even advocated for by climate scientist though they seem not to agree on the time limit (Urevick 2007). The world wealthiest nations have all joined campaigns to cut down the amount of fumes they release to the environment while the emerging economic powers like China and India have declined to support the move. President Elect, Obama has proposed a ‘good’ energy policy that is very clear i. e. Americans need to cut dependence on fossil fuel from the Middle East and that the U. S also has to cut down greenhouse gas release to the environment (Licher & Rothman1999). With the two objectives in mind, the future presidents can develop reasonable policies that can greatly reduce greenhouse effect as well invest in bio-fuel to cut down dependence on fossil fuel. Obama has proposed residential tax credits to encourage energy conservation; this is a great deal since even large firms have realized the benefits (cost savings) that come with saving energy The current ethanol policy is very unreliable plan to be included in the energy policy as it’s not sustainable; the US would be better positioned by importing sug3er based ethanol from Latin America. President elect Obama has proposed to invest about $ 150 billion in clean energy in the subsequent ten years, as this would promote alternative energy sources and encourage change of the fuel being used to the one that that is lower in carbon (bio-fuel) (Urevick 2007). Obama is also campaigning against offshore drilling plans that were being referred to as energy panacea by the republican candidate John McCain. Presidential elect Obama has plans to establish a leading role in world in terms of policies formulation and energy conservation efficiency. He intends to hold discussions with like minded nations such as the group of eight (G-8 i. e. France, Italy, Japan, Britain, Germany, Russia and the U. S) and G8 plus 5 to jumpstart the use of energy efficient standardized appliances (Philander 2008). Obama encourages the use of hybrid vehicles. Having an excellent energy policy translates to a good environmental policy since the two issues go hand in hand and that climate change resulting from poor energy policy is the major global environmental risk. Due to this Mr. Obama has intensions of cutting down current carbon gas emissions by a rate of eighty percent by the year 2050. Generally the future look bright for the Americans and the whole world at large as President elect has promised to cut up the current Bush environmental policies and establish a key climate change bill. This would help to take back the U. S to an international fold. Conclusion Conservation of environment has a serious impact on the whole world if left unmanaged and most those likely to suffer are innocent populations who have no idea of the global warming issues. Environmental policies that are set by politicians and especially the presidents of America have to be multi-front operation, and include ethical education on the need to protect the environment. The governments should invest in systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as support individuals to make these changes. The efforts need to go beyond borders hence demanding global cooperation since the effects of the environmental mismanagement bring universal crisis.

Buddhism: Religion or Philosophy?

Whether or not Buddhism is a religion revolves around the contestation of whether or not it is a philosophy instead. This presents myriad problems of logic, as even the definitions of religion and philosophy are themselves a point of contestation. There is the school of thought that defines religion as a belief system, a firm ascription to a set of rules and utmost truths that therefore make religion of whatever kind dogmatic. To use this definition is to make Buddhism anything but a religion, as Buddhism essentially discourages any sense of rigidity in any belief system.It even does not advocate the supremacy of its own doctrines – the 4 noble truths, the 5 Skandhas, the eight-fold path. There are no parameters. The other thought line on religion defines it as a search for transcendence; a quest for an existence, purpose and authority higher than oneself, as advocated by the likes of Karen Armstrong. In this sense, Buddhism is a religion because it seeks to bring those who pr actice it to a new, profound realization of themselves and the world around them; to ‘see the world as it is’, which is the Buddhist idea of ‘realization’.This probably explains why there are quite a number of brands of Buddhism. Still, others wonder why anyone should be distinguishing between religion and philosophy. According to some, this distinction is a fairly new phenomenon, as recent as the 18th century. Throughout history, it is argued, philosophy and religion have been intertwined; take Plato’s Euthyphro for example. In it, the virtue of piety is inextricably argued from a standpoint of what ‘the gods’ believe is right or wrong, even though the whole discourse follows logic.Similar observations can be made in the Epistles of Apostle Paul in the New Testament. Distinguishing the two, it is said, betrays our own biases rather than clarifies things. Dogmatism v. Reason In following up on the more popular definition of religion bein g a set of beliefs, and therefore inherently dogmatic, religion has been criticized as being irrational – that one is required to have faith in absolute truths that not only make little sense to him, but provide no means through which they can be proven factual or otherwise.I this sense, religion is superstitious and irrational, throwing a spanner into attempts at objective human reasoning. Religions after all, have been the source of the greatest conflicts in world history, more fierce than quests for imperialism or economic dominance. In contrast to religion by popular definition, Buddhism encourages objective discourse through reason in a quest for truth, i. e. it is philosophy, just like Plato and Aristotle practiced it.This is however complicated by the fact that while some brands of Buddhism, such as Zen, do not ascribe to a deity, others actually do have absolute truths. But then again this might only fuel the argument that it is not a religion, seeing as there is no u nifying commonality as is common in other religions – Christ in Christianity, Mohammad in Islam, etc. Mysticism Allowing someone to find their own truth wherever they will is to tell them that whatever direction will take you to your destination, and most Buddhist practices have inevitably ended up in mysticism.Hence, when one asks what Buddhism is, in many cases they are told that they have to experience it, as words cannot sufficiently explain it. This trait is inherently religious rather than philosophical. In the latter, one must be unambiguous, while in the former, things like faith, revelation and prophecy are cornerstones. Being mystical, therefore gives Buddhism the appearance of religion rather than philosophy. All in all, I guess Buddhism is what one makes it.

Why transfer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why transfer - Essay Example We helped raise funds in order to build the bridge, because many children die when crossing the river during flood seasons. I discovered that, though the bridge project was going well, the basic living conditions in the village had not improved.  However, when I visited another village in a different province in China, I was completely shocked to find that the people led progressive lives, while keeping their tradition and culture intact. Instead of remaining in a progressive rut, they parlayed what they knew of their traditional culture into a briskly functioning art and handicraft industry. They actually had a working business model that I did not expect to see in such a backward village. I realized that my dream to help the other village by spoon feeding them was wrong. When I explained to my father that we could actually do much more for the village than what we were already doing, he told me that I had the right idea. But without a solid foundation in Business and Economics, I would not be able to put my theories and plans into reality. Then I realized what my true calling was, and began to follow this new career path. Upon my return to UW, I enrolled in Economics courses and utilizd my free time in a manner that would allow me to mingle and discuss economic theories with my classmates and professors. My diligence and desire have a highly positive relation to the grades that I got in those Economics centered classes. I was averaging a 4.0 in my Macroeconomics, Statistics, and Business Law classes. I enjoyed dipping my feet in the School of Business and Economics pool, and my interest was further fueled by my participation in an information technology project at the Foster School of Business at UW. My impressive performance has convinced me that I am truly ready to become a Business and Economics

Neil Postman's theory on technology is outdated Thesis

Neil Postman's theory on technology is outdated - Thesis Example For others it may be a release from the daily stress of work by watching a grand movie on the television. For still others it may be finding solutions to problems faced by mankind, which works as a combined shot at development of the human race. No matter what form of technology or what meaning one chooses to give to technology, crux of the discussion can be simply put that â€Å"technology is defined by how one chooses to use it†.   Neil Postman, a very famous cultural-critic of the USA, came out with a book in, called Technopoly. Being a successful critic, Neil, in this book, raises issues that state, â€Å"In the age of technopoly, technology is not merely the dominant factor within culture; rather technology seeks to redefine culture itself â€Å"(technopoly, 2002). Neil described today’s American culture as one, which is ruled more by technology than their beliefs and morals so much so that technology has evolved into a culture. The book claims that these three cultures of technology and advancement are relevant and apparent through put to the world in a number of different ways. He goes ahead and describes his claim and alleged culture in three simple yet complete words as: Tool-using: The book claims that the very primitive of technical-culture was the tool-using culture. It came in the very start of the world. In this culture the entire technology was aimed to achieve the solutions to all human’s problems in the physical life and in the artistic dimension. For this purpose a variant number of tools were made which were representatives of all the technology of that age. None of these tools had ever been a nuisance to the humans. Soon these tools and technology were integrated into the lives of the people and did not stand out on their own. So they only affected the human life to the extent of problem solving and not anything else. And so they did not change the human culture in the slightest of means. These also did not change an y of the human believes about the existence of god or a higher superior power. And so were deemed harmless. This culture assumption was based on theology and was used as a means of controlling ideology. The very basic theological belief is and forever has been, that God is the inventor and giver of all intelligence and efficiency, so whatever number of tools that humans did make with this intelligence so these tools and inventions were only a means of furthering man’s belief in god and the higher powers. In that time, man was the slave of theology and not technology. Technocracy: the second part of the book introduces the concept of technocracy. The book says that in this culture the tools invented for the development of man-kind are the main-point or the through put of the world. Technocracy deals with the invention of techniques and tools. But it is different from the tool-using culture in the sense that it does not make tools which leave after the work of humans is done. I t also enhances the thought process of humans, forcing them to think of customs and procedure regarding the use of technology as a part of them. The highlight of this culture is the invention of the clock, the printing press and the telescope. These inventions were the breakaway of the humans from their independency on tools. Among them the telescope was by far the most important invention of this culture, both in the good way and the bad way. Before the advent of the telescope, it was

ETHICS, LAW AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

ETHICS, LAW AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT - Essay Example Although, the augmenting complexity of business, because of the extensive transformations and developments of the technologies and globalization offers an apparent indication that now we have in an extremely complex business environment and is turning out to be more complex due to novel ethical, cultural, social and legal transformations (Maniam & Teetz, 2009). Business and corporate â€Å"Ethics† is an everyday incidence in the business world as well as in someone’s life. Business ethics is the similar to a normal ethics. These both kinds of ethical practices offer us to identify, what is wrong or right, or else we are in process of discovering what is wrong or right in the environment in which one is concerned. An ethical matter can not have a tangible response; therefore a persons preference can rely on that persons state of affairs. This can take place for the reason that "business and corporate ethics is a large and murky area as well as the place of work is full o f ethical problems and issues. As a result, workers reaction to force to perform can resort to unprincipled decisions so as to convene the objectives they experience are difficult. This can take place at some level of administration (Tutor2u, 2009). This report presents the detailed analysis of the Wal-Mart business and its associated ethical factors. The Wal-Mart is acknowledged as the king of marketplace because of its huge size. It has driven lesser retailers out of commerce; forced companies to be well-organized, frequently leading these suppliers to move industrial jobs overseas; and changed the method that up till now large and established productions do business. Wal-Mart has existence or death decisions over all the customer supplies industries that survive in the US, for the reason that it is the number-one supplier-retailer of the majority of our customer goods, not still toys, clothes, shoes but home applications, electronic goods,

Designing for organizational Effectiveness Essay

Designing for organizational Effectiveness - Essay Example Companies can adopt organization effectiveness technique as a parameter to assess growth and the rate at which goals are attained. There are numerous methods that can be used to conceptualize how organizations work. For instance, Gareth Morgan described a model that can be used to study organization effectiveness. In the model, Gareth uses metaphors to study organizational effectiveness; that is, machine, organism and brain (Morgan 17). Machine in used as a metaphor for explaining the mechanical aspect of organizational effectiveness. It seeks to investigate issues such as complexity in structure, competition and random changes that take place in the organization’s external environment. It is important to identify that the system of command within an organization influences its effectiveness. In addition, the functioning of an organization is dependent on its structure. Complex structures and systems of command are sometimes confusing and, therefore, result in dismal performance of an organization (Daft 79). Structures within an organization should be simple and easy to work with in order to boost efficiency and performance. In essence, research has shown that bureaucracy in organizational structure is a core determinate of performance in any enterprise. Organization structures that facilitate good customer relations and conducive working environment have proved to be the best in management. However, different organizational structures fit different organizations. In this regard, enterprises should conduct comprehensive research when deciding the type of structure to adopt. Competition in the market highly influences the performance of an enterprise. For an organization to survive in a competitive environment, certain measures must be put in place to ensure that operations are not interrupted. It is essential for an organization to study the surrou nding environment cognitively in order

Argumentative paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Argumentative paper - Essay Example Notably, the year-round school plan ensures that students do not have the three-month summer break, but are in school throughout the year. Although the year-round school seems to be highly favorable, it has certain disadvantages that need proper consideration as will be highlighted in this paper. The year-round calendar adopted by some school districts presents certain challenges, especially when it comes to the storage space needed for both students and teachers. Notably, many multitrack year-round calendars do not follow the usual single class operating in a specified classroom. The system allows many students to enroll in different programs throughout the school year. Therefore, school districts adopting the plan have budget wisely in an effort to ensure that there is sufficient storage space for both students and teachers. Unless this happens, the multitrack year-round calendars will strain school facilities contrary to its objective of ensuring proper utilization of the facilities throughout the year (Chittom and Klassen 1). The year-round calendars adopted in some districts introduce additional demands on the school subordinate staff cafeteria systems as well as the maintenance services. Usually, all these services are continuously needed throughout the year. Compared to other plans that allow students to have a three-month summer break, support staffs working in different schools face the compulsion of constantly providing services to the schools. Therefore, many support staffs do not find the systems favorable because the year-round calendar strains them (Long). The year-round calendars pose challenges for teachers who pursue further education during the summer break. Notably, teachers need to advance their education in an effort to become more qualified for their job responsibilities. Usually, the three-month summer break gives teachers sufficient time to study each year. With the

Asthma Management Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Asthma Management - Annotated Bibliography Example Follow ups are recommended to ensure that the patients and their caregivers receive patient education and reinforcement on the correct use of the prescribed drugs. In earlier intervention studies conducted, results showed that patient education provided by asthma nurses resulted in better control of childhood asthma. The authors, in a previous study, have already demonstrated and suggested that the effectiveness of outpatient management led by a nurse is comparable to that of a pediatrician in terms of airway hyperresponsiveness and quality of life. . However, because of the encumbrance asthma has on healthcare utilization, the same authors deemed it necessary to further conduct a study on the costs associated with the said utilization for both approaches thereby producing an appraisal of the two. The study aimed to assess and determine the difference in costs between outpatient management of asthma rendered by a pediatrician and a nurse. All costs related to the management of asthma provided by either a pediatrician or nurses were calculated. Results of the study showed that costs of nurse-led outpatient management of asthma are generally lower than that of the medical option. Moreover, time spent by nurses with patient contact is more than that of the pediatrician. During this time, they discuss asthma management issues and provide patient education.

Poetry Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Poetry - Coursework Example 2. On a Sunday evening, the cars that spent relaxation time in the countryside return to the city to bring their passengers back to work/school again. 3. Children play ragball on the streets on a Saturday afternoon. 4. Yes, the speaker is in the poem content. The speaker constantly refers to her/himself in the first person (i.e. I). S/he, for instance, â€Å"have done [the] laundry,† is â€Å"sitting by the window,† etc. Little Rich Boy 1. The little rich boy visits the speaker because he wants something from the speaker which his rich father can't give him. It was â€Å"something more solid, something more – substantial.† 2. The boy receives something to suck, chew, and blow out in balloons - a gum, perhaps. 3. The speaker gives the boy the twist. 4. The boy didn't want the twist at first because he thought it was a cane, belt, or whip – things associated with physical punishment. A shumba is a kind of growling monster. Other Questions 1. The autho r employed language in a way that makes the poem accessible and easy to follow. Most of the words used are simple and have direct, literal meanings. The poem flows seamlessly from one word to another and from one sentence to the next, because of the simple vocabulary used. As a result, literal interpretations are easily obtained after reading the entire poem.

Family diversity in today’s society Essay Example for Free

Family diversity in today’s society Essay Examine the extend,of and the reasons for family diversity in today’s society. Many sociologists argue that the nuclear family is a universal and dominate institution however there has been an increase in diverse family types for various reasons. Examples of these diverse families are lone parents, reconstitutions and cohabitation families. Although most people experience life in a nuclear family, it represents only a stage in their life cycle. Social and demographic changes have meant that an increasing part of many people’s lives are spent in households that are not based on conventional nuclear families. Firstly the increase of single parents (lone parents) has tripled since 1970s in the UK. About 25% of all families with dependent children are single-parent families. There are various reasons which contribute to the increase of single parenthood but one main one is the demographical changes in the UK, is divorce. Divorce was legalised in the early 1970s and as a consequences it is cheaper and easier to get a divorce and this one of the explanations for the growth in lone-parent families since the early 1970’s. Whereas in the past it would take years to get a divorce and even then the outcome was not always fair. Feminist argue that diversity is valued and liberal as it gives women a choice. They also argue that this not only benefits women but en as well as they can have more time with the child and care for their children, then in the past that was only seen as the women job. However these traditional values are stilled established by ethnic groups not so much. Another reason for the increase in single parent families is due to greater acceptance in society. There is no longer as stigma that you have conceives a child with in marriage. This is interlinked with secularisation, which means the decline in religious practice and thinking. Therefore religion has very little influence over people lives hence they have a wider option in regards to the type of family they chose. The media also contributes the greater acceptance of single-parents as it depicts them in a positive light today, whereas in the past were it was seen as ‘sinful’. The increase is in single parent families is also due to help of the welfare state. The welfare state provides the single pare nt finical support hence taking the position or the role of the father. As a result women no longer need to rely on men or marriage for support. The increase in never married single mother now accounts for about 40% of all lone parents. Although Britain has become more diverse single  parenthood is still not accepted by everyone. The new right thinker Charles Murray (1984) argues that the increase in lone-parents is due to the over generosity of the welfare state as they have provide for both the parent and their children. Murray argue that this creates ‘perverse incentive’, that is rewarding irresponsible behaviour hence creating a ‘dependency culture’ in which people assume that the state will support them. One of the consequences of the lone parent family is step families (often called reconstituted families) which accounts to about 10% of families with the dependent children in the UK. A reconstituted family is made up of an adult couple, living with at least one child from a previous relationship of one of the partners. However although there is an increase in diverse family types the stepfamily are more at risk of poverty because the stepfather would have to provide for his current step children and his children form a previous relationship. In addition a difference in sexuality has contributed to the increase in family diversity. Gay and lesbian households have become more common and more acceptable in society than in the past. As Jeffrey Weeks, Donovan and Heaphey did their study in 1999 they argue, ‘During the past generation the possibilities of living an openly lesbian and gay have been transformed’. According to Weeks et al (1999) the same sex families look upon their household and friendship network as a chosen family. Same sex families have more option than the conventional heterosexual family and others see these families and an alternative and continuous devolving. Weeks et al argues that this part of a wider social change which can be based on culture and ethnic difference. Another sociologist called Roseneil (2005) develops the idea of chosen your own family. She uses the term hetronorm to refer to the intimate relationship between a heterosexual couple is seen as normal. Cheal (2002) notes that many gays and lesbians are legally allowed to adopt nevertheless many want to retain status of difference because they may feel that by adopting a child they are being shaped or moulded to portray a heterosexual family. Another main reason in why same- sex families increase is the decline in secularisation because some religions condemn homosexuality and now less people are religious in the UK they are more acceptant of homosexuals. Another type of family is singletons; this means that when someone lives by themselves. About 3 in 10 household contains one person. The reasons for  these changes are the increase in separation and divorce has created more 1 person households especially with men under 65 because children are more likely to live with their mother. Also the decline in marriage and the trend in marrying later because people are living longer hence there are more people that are single. Stein (1976) argues the growing number of people choosing to be single is a deliberate choice. However, while many of these choose to remain single some are alone because e there are few partners available in their age group. Furthermore, another type of household is living apart together. It is often assumed that those living alone do not have a partner. However the researcher by Duncan and Phillips (2208) found that 1 in 10 adults are ‘living apart together’ and has become increasingly common. Living apart together is a significant relationship, but not married or cohabiting. Duncan and Phillips found that some couple cannot live together for finical reason and the minority actively chose to live apart may be because they want to keep their home as a security because if the relationship does not work then at least they have a home to go to. Nonetheless although there are various other families it does demolish the existence of the nuclear family as they are still common but it has changed hence becoming more modern. Perspectives like the functionalist and new right as described to be ‘modernist’ because they see modern society. The nuclear family has shaped and changed to fit society which helps maintain it by performing some essential functions. According to Chester (1985), there was little evidence that people were choosing to live on a long-term basis in alternatives to the nuclear family. However, he did accept that some changes were taking place in family life. In particular, many families were no longer ‘conventional’ in the sense that the husband was the sole breadwinner. He accepted more women are out working to finical support their family. He called this new family form, in which wives have got jobs, the neo-conventional family. Although many people are not part of the nuclear family at one time in the life is largely due to the life-cycle. Many people who are currently living alone i.e. widows, singleton or those who are yet to get married, were either part o f a nuclear family in the past or will be in the future. Chester argues that the statistics is misleading and does not portray that most people will spend a major part of their life in a nuclear family. The extended family is another type of family which is three  generations living together. The extended family was strongest in working-class families. It is less important today because of geographical mobility, but research by Finch and Mason (1993) shows that kinship ties are still important for most. They also receive finical help from extended family and they also found that the women are more actively involved with extended family. Wilmot (1988) did his study on the dispersed extended family and the beanpole family. Wilmot (1988) argues that there are four main types of extended family; extended family of residence where the members live in the same household, the local extended family – where 2 or 3 nuclear families live separately but in close proximity and see each other often, the dispersed extended family – nuclear families who see each other frequently but live further apart and do not see each other as regularly and the attenuated extended family – similar to the dispersed extended family but the contact is even less frequent. Brannen (2003) argues that there is a strong intergenerational links between generations mainly because people are living longer. However the links between the intragenerational links between siblings, cousins etc. were somewhat weaker. Therefore Brannen characteristic contemporary family structure as being long and thin and she compares it to the beanpole. A beanpole family is a nuclear family with one or two children who maintain regular contact with grandparents. Furthermore another concept which has contributed to the increase in diverse families is culture diversity. There’s is an increase of people with different ethnic background hence this means there alternative family forms and living arrangements. Ghazala Bhatti carries out her study in 1999 on Asian families living in the southern England. She found that the conflict between generations has created a new family type as the children may not marry someone with the same background. However Bhatti stresses that these families were not the norm. Within black families there is high rate of female-headed houses, lone-parent black families has someti mes been seen as evidence of disorganisation which link back to slavery. This is because under slavery when people were taken the children would stay with their mothers. Also due to high rate of unemployment among black men has meant that they cannot provide for their family which as a consequence lead to high rates of desertion or marital breakdown. Also among Asian families their household do contain three generation but most are in fact nuclear  rather than extended families. Larger Asian households also to some extent reflect the value placed on the extended family in Asian cultures. These differences are likely to have resulted from the fact that many Asian immigrants have come from a traditional agricultural economy where family patterns are more like pre-industrial Britain. Thus, minority ethnic families have not just contributed to family diversity through each group having its own distinctive family pattern. They have also contributed to it through developing diverse family patterns within each ethnic group.

Rio Grande River

Rio Grande River River Pollution in the Rio Grande River Environmental Pollution in the Rio Grande River The Rio Grande River is known as the river that provides a natural boundary between the United States and Mexico. This river is over 2,000 miles long reaching from the southern Rocky Mountains to the end of Texas. Many people depend on this river as a source of drinking water for them. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley this river receives a lot of agriculture due to all the farmlands and is also used by many people for recreation purposes. Additionally, this river provides a home to much wildlife. Due to an increase in the economic growth and rapid population in the surrounding cities, the Rio Grande has had a tremendous increase in pollution that has caused a negative impact on the surrounding environment. Furthermore, the American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has severely impacted the river causing it now to become the seventh most endangered river in the United States (Flynn 2000). Scientific studies have confirmed that the contamination/pollution of the Rio Grande still poses a prob lem (Garcia et al. 2001, Berry et al. 1997 a b, Mendoza et al. 2004, Mora et al. 2001, Rios-Arana et al. 2003). Since these arising circumstances the river endures problems of run-off pollution, discharging of polluted water, over-pumping and the release of millions of gallons of raw sewage by Mexico which clearly defines a present danger to the surrounding environment. Such negative effects have been linked to border health issues and have been attributed to wildlife defects and deaths. For example, in 1994 a young boys death was linked to swimming in the Rio Bravo. The cause of his death was traced to an amoeba which was found in the river water that can cause deadly brain infections. In 1994, the United States and Mexican governments completed a study regarding the presence of toxic substances in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo between Mexico and the U.S. During a three year period, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got involved and completed phase two of this study ending in 1997. Results from the study identified an increase in chemical pollution in the river which then led to identifying Laredo, TX as a pollution trouble location (U.S. EPA 2007). The major pollutants observed to have significantly increased over the years in the Rio Grande were heavy metals and pesticides (Garcia et al. 2001, Berry et al. 1997 a b, Mendoza et al. 2004). In general it seems that some segments of the Rio Grande along the US-Mexico border do pose potential health and/or reproductive harm for wildlife and fish that depend on this river for survival along with the humans that eat fish from those segments (Mora et al. 2001). In 2001, Mora et al. (2001) conducted a study in the Texas, USA-Tamaulipas, Mexico border region to investigate the contamination of pesticides in fish from Texas. Results showed that pesticides were present in fish where concentrations were reported to be significantly greater than data collected during the 1980s and 1990s. The presence of heavy metals in the Rio Grande has continued even up to the year 2003. In 2003, a study performed by Rios-Arana et al. (2003) confirmed the presence of heavy metals in the water and sediment of the Rio Grande in the area of El-Paso-Juarez. In this study, they found that zinc and lead surpassed the freshwater chronic criteria set by the EPA. Again, this study emphasizes that elevated heavy metal concentrations in the river can post significant harm to the health, survival and reproduction of organisms (Rios-Arana et al. 2003). Furthermore, in 2004 a study conducted by Mendoza et al. (2007) examined the microbial contamination and chemical toxicity of the Rio Grande for a 112 km segment of the Rio Grande between Fort Hancock, TX and Sunland Park, NM. Their results showed the presence of fecal coliform and E. coli in the river. This study suggests that chemical toxicity applies for most sites along that segment which leads to a concern of water quality in those sections. However to date, the year 2007, Carlos Rubinstein, Rio Grande watermaster and area director for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Region 15, stated that the situation in the Rio Grande is improving. Rubeinstein mentioned Weve had infrastructure improvements on both sides of the river and those will clearly assist in water quality. He then goes on and says that the rivers water quality is influenced by many elements and that the U.S. can only control part of those elements. Rubeinstein states that wastewater dumping in Mexico, and agricultural runoff still contributes to the pollution problem in the Rio Grande. TCEQ suggests that in the Gulf, dissolved-oxygen levels (water quality parameter) have showed some improvement over the years from 1996 to now (McEver 2007). On the other hand, a study conducted by Buelna and Riffat (2007) suggests that there is still a need for constant monitoring in the Rio Grande in order to keep track of the environmental status since results from their study still showed high levels of contamination. References Berry MR, Johnson LS, Jones JW, Rader JI, Kendall DC, Sheldon LS (1997a) Dietary Characterization in a study of human exposure in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: I. Foods and beverages. Environment International 23(5):675-692 Berry MR, Johnson LS, Brenner KP, Thomas KW (1997b) Dietary Characterizations in a study of human exposures in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: II. Household waters. Environment International 23(5):693-703 Buelna G, Riffat R. (2007) Preliminary environmental monitoring of water quality in the Rio Grande in the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo Region. J Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng. 42 (10):1379-90 Flynn LR, (2000) Rio Grande No. 7 on List of Endangered Rivers Laredo Morning Times, April 12, 2000 Garcia SS, Ake C, Clement B, Huebner HJ, Donnelly KC, Shalat SL (2001) Initial results of environmental monitoring in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. Environment International 26:465-474 Hernandez-Romero AH, Tovilla-Hernandez C, Malo EA, Bello-Mendoza R (2004) Water quality and presence of pesticides in a tropical coastal wetland in southern Mexico Marine. Pollution Bulletin 48:1130-1141 McEver M (2007) River water quality report finds some improvements, new trouble spots July 23, 2007. The Monitor Harlingen, TX Mendoza J, Botsford J, Hernandez J, Montoya A, Saenz R, Valles A, Vazquez A, Alvarez M. (2004). Microbial contamination and chemical toxicity of the Rio Grande. BMC Microbiol. 22:(4):17 Mora MA, Papoulias D, Nava I, Buckler DR (2001) A comparative assessment of contaminants in fish from four resacas of the Texas, USA-Tamaulipas, Mexico border region. Environ Int. 27(1):15-20 United States Environmental Protection agency (U.S. EPA) EPA Region 6 Toxic Substances Study Questions and Answers, Binational Study Regarding the Presence of Toxic Substances in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo and Its Tributaries Along the Boundary Between the United States and Mexico. Available [Online]: http://www.epa.gov /region6/water/ ecopro/watershd/monitrng/usmexico/rio_qa.htm. Retrieved Aug. 2, 2007

Essay --

KATA PENGANTAR Puji Syukur kami panjatkan kehadirat Allah SWT, Tuhan Yang Maha Pengasih lagi Maha Penyayang, karena atas Rahmat dan karunianya maka Pengabdian Masyarakat †Pelatihan Pembuatan Web bagi Kelompok Informasi Masyarakat† telah selesai dilaksanakan dan dapat berjalan dengan lancar sesuai dengan perencanaan. Diharapkan penyelenggaraan pelatihan tersebut dapat bermanfaat bagi seluruh peserta khususnya dan bagi masyarakat pada umumnya sehingga mampu meningkatkan ketrampilan pengelolaan di bidang Web Site. Laporan kegiatan ini sangat penting dibuat sebagai bukti pertanggungjawaban pelaksanaan kegiatan yang telah dilasanakan dan harus disampaikan kepada pim-pinan. Adapun tujuan dibuatnya laporan ini adalah sebagai berikut : 1. Sebagai dasar untuk pengembangan rencana selanjutnya. 2. Sebagai penentuan kebijakan atasan 3. Sebagai bukti laporan kegiatan yang telah di laksanakan 4. Untuk mengetahui proses dan perkembangan kegiatan yang dilaksanakan. Dalam laporan ini berikut kami sampaikan tentang : Dasar Penyelenggaraan, Tujuan Pelatihan, Pembiayaan , Kompetensi,Pelaksanaan, J...

Review of Sublime video :: essays research papers

The music video that I chose to write my paper on, is called "Date Rape" and it is performed by Sublime. I've seen the video plenty of times and I taped it back in 1993 when I first got their album 40 oz. to Freedom. The song is about a man that picks up a lady in a bar and rapes her. He winds up going to court and the judge finds that, "he was full of shit, and he gave him twenty-five years." Then it talks about the man going to jail and even getting "butt raped by a large inmate." The video is much like a movie in the way that it is displayed. As the song goes on and on the video accompanies the lyrics by showing what the man looked like (which in the song was with "a double chin and a plastic smile"). At the beginning, the video shows the man go into the bar and getting the attention of the lady. He convinces her to take a ride in his van and forces her to succumb to his will by saying, "if it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid." After he is finished he lets her out and she files a police report and then "she took the guy's ass to court." She goes to court and low and behold, the judge is the great Ron Jeremy (of porn fame). Ron sentences the man to twenty-five years of imprisonment and later it shows a depiction of the guy being raped in prison. The video says a great deal for women and actually won a couple of awards for their "anti-rape message." Although Sublime's lead singer, Brad, claims that it was just a song he wrote when he was high, it received a rather large acceptance by many women's groups. The video sends this message out to the viewer as well. Any man that will rape a woman will almost definitely hate getting butt slammed in jail by a large Review of Sublime video :: essays research papers The music video that I chose to write my paper on, is called "Date Rape" and it is performed by Sublime. I've seen the video plenty of times and I taped it back in 1993 when I first got their album 40 oz. to Freedom. The song is about a man that picks up a lady in a bar and rapes her. He winds up going to court and the judge finds that, "he was full of shit, and he gave him twenty-five years." Then it talks about the man going to jail and even getting "butt raped by a large inmate." The video is much like a movie in the way that it is displayed. As the song goes on and on the video accompanies the lyrics by showing what the man looked like (which in the song was with "a double chin and a plastic smile"). At the beginning, the video shows the man go into the bar and getting the attention of the lady. He convinces her to take a ride in his van and forces her to succumb to his will by saying, "if it wasn't for date rape I'd never get laid." After he is finished he lets her out and she files a police report and then "she took the guy's ass to court." She goes to court and low and behold, the judge is the great Ron Jeremy (of porn fame). Ron sentences the man to twenty-five years of imprisonment and later it shows a depiction of the guy being raped in prison. The video says a great deal for women and actually won a couple of awards for their "anti-rape message." Although Sublime's lead singer, Brad, claims that it was just a song he wrote when he was high, it received a rather large acceptance by many women's groups. The video sends this message out to the viewer as well. Any man that will rape a woman will almost definitely hate getting butt slammed in jail by a large

Free Nature vs. Nurture Essay :: Nature Nurture Biology Socialization Essays

The Nature vs. Nurture Debate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being yourself, being who you are. When you hear those two lines you may think they mean the same thing but do they? Think about it, you were born into this world a tiny little baby with no ideas, or preferences, but as you grew you developed a personal identity, but did it really develop or was it in you to begin with. Such questions are what leads to the great debate of nature vs nurture. If you believe you were born already with a personality, then you take the side of nature. on the other hand if you believe that your personality developed based on influences in your life beginning when you were a child then you believe in nurture. Two totally different theories, both which are believed to make us who we are.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nature, the more scientific theory of the two, is the belief that hereditary traits found in our genes make us who we are, believable but not very convincing when we consider the theory of nurture. Human beings learn new things everyday, as soon as we come in to the world, our learning process begins. As a newborn baby, we slowly learn and adapt in order to survive in a new environment which is unlike that of our mothers wombs, our first environment in which we first grew, adapted to and developed in. The home environment parents and siblings play a huge role in determining personality. Influences from outside the family are also very important to the development of ones personality. But everything starts at home.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One can't enjoy snowboarding or claim to like it, until one tries it, without the experience its impossible to say you enjoyed it. Correct? Or do you think its already embedded in you're genes that you'll like snowboarding. Unlikely right? Exactly, experiences and influences are what make us who we are. On the other hand think about it, what if you went snowboarding for the first time and broke your arm; deciding then that you hated snowboarding. Well then it couldn't have been embedded in your genes that you'd like it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientists make a good point about genes but I believe physical aspects come through genetics, but that personality development is shaped based solely on how a person has been nurtured through their lives. All children are bad at one time in their lives; consider this, a 4 year old girl throws a book at her brother, and is punished she is put in the corner.

Sports Participation and Academic Success

Sports Participation and Academic Success Kurtis Arnold Grand Valley State University As an increasingly relevant part of society, sports seem to find a way into many parts of our everyday lives from the global stage to our own individual experiences and feelings towards them. Not only are sports and athletic competition used for the purpose of entertaining, but the core values of athletic competition are reflected also in the mainstream cultural values in society (Snyder & Spreitzer, 1974).Some of these values include striving for excellence, fair play, sportsmanship, hard work, and commitment to a goal, and all are applauded in virtually every area in society outside of sports. Another interesting point to be made about athletics in society is that those who seem to excel in an area of athletics, and participate competitively in sports, seem to be held to higher status than those who are not viewed to be athletic.This trend can occur as early as middle school (Eder & Kinney, 1995), and often continues through high school (Zentner & Parr, 1968), college (Finkenberg & Moode, 1996), and even beyond college in professional sports as many dream of one day becoming a professional athlete (Stiles, Gibbons, Sebben, & Wiley, 1999). Much has been written about the relationship of sports and society in a broader sense, but little has been discovered through about the role of athletics as it relates to academic outcomes for adolescents.Even less is known about the specific benefits of athletic participation that may exist for various students of different racial backgrounds. What is currently assumed in the literature is that participation in sports benefit adolescents academically in a number of important ways. First, it seems that sports participation enhances students feeling of connectedness to one’s school. Secondly, sports participation seems to promote its own intrinsic value on students.That is, students who are able to find structured activities within sc hool settings that capture their attention will be more likely to assimilate to the philosophy of schooling (Jordan, 1999) Participation in sports may also foster an extrinsic motivation for students to do well in their academic studies so that they may stay eligible to participate in athletics. Although the literature illustrates some of the reasons participation in sports may facilitate higher academic achievement, the question still remains.Does sports participation in fact have a positive effect on academics? This may be an easy enough question to ask, but the difficulties in answering this question seem to be extensive. Many past studies have sought to answer this question by conducting regression analyses of cross-sectional data sets collected from students throughout the country in order to determine if sports participation is correlated with higher academic outcomes.It seems from a review of the literature that no one has been able to conduct an experimental study which test s the effects of sports participation verses non-participation on some form of academic outcome. The difficulty in conducting a truly experimental study of the relationship of sports participation with academic outcomes comes from a number of different problems that come with the design of such a study. One such difficulty is the voluntary nature of sports participation.Sports participation occurs on a voluntary basis in which student athletes choose whether or not to participate in sports. Because of this, it becomes difficult to design a study in absence of self-selection biases among participants (Jordan, 1999). Another difficulty in designing an experiment testing sports participations effects on academic outcomes is the vast number of participants that would be needed to participate in the experiment. The benefit of using data from national longitudinal surveys is the vast amount of data that can be obtained in a relatively simple and inexpensive fashion.Also, in the analysis o f this data, researchers are able to statistically control for a number of variables such as socioeconomic status, risk factors, and parental education level that may contaminate the effects of sports participation on academic outcomes. In contrast, an experimental study would have to offset these variables through random selection, and random assignment to conditions. Both of these processes require a large population in order to truly eliminate these confounding variables. It is for these reasons, among others, that research n the topic of sports participation and academic outcomes remains in its early stages of development, and tend to rely heavily on the analysis of data. Although the research on the relationship between athletics and academic outcomes remain in its early stages, current research has made important contributions to our understanding of how participation in sports may have an impact on academic outcomes. One such interesting finding from the research is that in g eneral, an extremely few number of students participate in organized sports (Jordan, 1999).According to the National Educational Longitudinal Study conducted in 1988 (NELS: 88) only about 21% of students participated in teams sports, and 15% of students were involve in individual sports when students who participated in both team and individual sports were included. This finding suggests that whatever impact sports participation may have on students’ academic outcomes, very few students have the opportunity to receive these benefits. Jordan (1999) also found that participation in sports did have a positive relationship with students GPA, self-concept, academic preparedness, and standardized test scores.Although the relationship between sports participation and the academic improvement in these areas may be small, the relationships remain both positive and consistent for students across gender, and racial lines. It is also noted that these types of improvements may not be limi ted only to sports participation, but may also be expanded to other school related extracurricular activities as well (Jordan, 1999). Another study, also analyzing data from the NELS: 88 surveys, found similar effects of sports participation on academic outcomes.According to Broh (2002) student participation in athletics does help to facilitate success in the classroom. This facilitation of increased success may be for a number of reasons, and Broh attempts to explain the findings in this study according to three different theoretical models. The first, and most popular of these theoretical models is the developmental model. For a number of years it has been the belief of researchers, educators, and the public that involvement in athletics helps to socialize students in ways that promote academic success.While participating in athletics, students learn important skills such as a strong work ethic, self-discipline, respect for authority, and perseverance which can all be used for aca demic success as well (Miracle & Rees, 1995). Also, repeated success in athletics through the learning of a new skill, and also in winning a competition helps students to develop a higher level of self-esteem, and confidence which can be carried over into academics. In Broh’s (2002) study, the developmental model accounted for one third of sports participations effects on academic outcome.Sports participation does in fact seem to help to improve students’ self-esteem, locus of control, and time spent on homework. It is assumed that these habits eventually translate into better academic outcomes. Another model used by Broh (2002) to explain why sports participation may be linked to academic outcome is the leading-crowd theory. For many years the developmental theory dominated popular beliefs of the relationship between sports participation and academic outcomes.So much in fact that little attempt was given to make an alternative argument for it. Recently however, the le ading-crowd theory has offered some challenge to the developmental theory. According to the leading-crowd theory, participation in sports offers a higher social status to those who participate and facilitates a membership into the â€Å"leading-crowd. † Consisting of the most popular students in high school, this leading-crowd is disproportionately comprised of college oriented, high achieving students (Rehberg & Schafer, 1968).Although the argument may be indirect, there is some evidence that suggests that high school athletes are among the students with the highest status in high schools (Zentner & Parr, 1968), and they also seem to be part of a college oriented peer group (Wells & Picou, 1980). In Broh’s (2002) study, only a small effect was found between being in a high status, college oriented peer group and higher academic outcomes. This may be the case because students do not gain as much from being a part of a high status, college oriented group of peers as the y do from the social connections made by participation in sports.The third model used by Broh (2002) was the social capital theory. The social capital theory is the idea that people have the ability to accrue benefits through membership in various social networks. According to Coleman (1988), the family is the greatest source of social capital for students. Students whose parents are well educated, and spend a significant amount of time interacting with their children, often tend to have higher educational outcomes than those who do not. Sports may also serve as a way for students to have greater amounts of interaction with highly educated adults.Because high school sports are often coached by administrators, teachers, or highly respected members of the community, an increased amount of interaction with these authority figures may in fact help to encourage athletes to not only be successful on the field, but also in the classroom (Portes, 2000). In Broh’s (2002) study, there was some evidence that a social capital exchange may be taking place among students and the adults they interact with in their athletic activities.It seems from this study that social capital had an effect on student’s grades, but did not have an effect on standardized test scores. What is important to note is that when each of the theoretical models were analyzed individually in Broh’s (2002) study, the results indicated only small, if any, effects on academic outcomes. The best results of analysis occurred when all three models (developmental theory, leading-crowd theory, and social capital theory) were analyzed together.Even when all three models were analyzed, there is still a great deal of variance left unexplained when it comes to the effects of sports participation on academic outcomes. This has been consistent with much of the literature involved with sports participation and academic outcomes (Broh, 2002). Other research in the area of sports participation foc uses on the types of people who participate in sports. As previously described, research in the area of sports participation has mostly come from cross-sectional data analysis.This has made it difficult to determine a causal order between sports participation and academic outcomes. Although sports participation may in fact be the reason for higher academic outcomes, it could also be the case that higher achieving, disciplined, determined, and goal oriented youth are the ones choosing to participate in sports (Spreitzer, 1994). It is for this reason that some researchers have sought to discover more about the types of people who participate in sports.According to a study conducted by Videon (2002) participation is athletic activities may be associated with a student’s socioeconomic status, siblings, family structure, year in school, attendance at a private school, size of school, region of the country, and whether or not the school was located in an urban area. After analyzing data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health), it was discovered that a number of the variables previously mentioned could be used to predict whether or not a student would participate in athletics.Variables contributing to the influencing of students towards sports participation may be referred to as socialization into sport. One of the major factors contributing to the socialization into sport has been found to be parental influence. Often times, a child’s parent, or parents are the first to expose their child to athletics and their encouragement to participate strongly influences a student’s decision to start playing sports, and continue to play them throughout their schooling (Videon, 2002). Another key factor in predicting which students will play sports and continue to play them is a student’s socioeconomic background.It is a known fact that participating in sports often comes with its expenses. Although some school s may offer the use of equipment for some of the sports offered, often times this does not include all of the equipment needed to play the sport. At a minimum, most parents will have to purchase cleats, special gloves, bats, and numerous other types of equipment in order for their child to play any given sport. Along with the expense of equipment, most schools have a â€Å"pay to play† policy for sports in order to subsidize their lacking in the sports budget.It is for these reasons that those students who participate in sports also tend to come from a higher socioeconomic background (Videon, 2002). Another import thing to note from research is that sports participation tends to be much lower for girls than it is boys, especially among African American students (Videon 2002, Jordan 1999, Zentner & Parr 1968). Although the passing of title IX has encouraged more female participation in sports, over thirty years later the number of girls participating in sports is still far les s than the number of boys.This especially true in suberban, and rural areas where the number of girls participating in sports is only about three for every five. These numbers are compared to those of urban schools where the number of girls participating is three for every four (Videon, 2002). It may be the case that because of lower participation rates among girls that fewer benefits of athletic participation are being experianced by girls. This may or may not be the case. Some research suggests that the effects of sports participation among boys on academic outcomes may be stronger for boys than it is for girls (Snyder & Spreitzer 1974, Videon 2002).There are a number of explanations for boys benefitting more from athletic participation. One such explanation is that by being involved in a sport, boys will be less likely to skip class in order to avoid not being allowed to play. Also, boys are more likely to respond to the high expectations of coaches in order to stay eligible to p lay (Videon, 2002). These relationships may not be showing up as strongly for girls, because on average girls have higher academic outcomes than boys, and skip class less often regardless of whether or not they participate in sports (Jacobs, 2009).Although from the research conducted by Videon (2002) indicates that some of the reason for athletes having higher academic outcomes may be contributed to other factors (student’s socioeconomic status, siblings, family structure, size of school, region of the country, and whether or not the school was located in an urban area), the net result of the analysis still showed that some of the varience can be explained by the sports participation itself.In this study (Videon, 2002), in Brohs study (2002), and in Jordan (1999), none were able to show that sports participation could explain more than about nine percent of the variance for any type of academic outcome. In all three, however, the results seemed to be consistant and positive. In spite of the small amounts of varience explained, it still seems that sports participation could be a contributing factor for positive academic outcomes.What is important to remember when making a judgment on the variance explained by sports participation on academic outcomes is that there are innumerable variables that may contribute to a student’s academic outcome. It is difficult to narrow down an explanation for academic outcomes to only a few variables that explain a great deal of the variance. So, when we see that sports participation can only explain about three to five percent of the variance for various factors contributing to academic outcomes this is in fact a considerable amount.Although the findings of these studies were able to find significant positive effects of sports participation on academic outcomes, these findings do not seem to be representative of the public’s perception. It has long been the belief of the public that sports participation has strong influences on academic outcomes. Various studies have investigated public perceptions of sports participation and its relationship to academics and found that it is strongly believed by the public that athletics and academics are strongly related (Goidel & Hamilton, 2006; Fairweather, 1988; Finkenberg & Moode, 1996).Regardless of these beliefs, there has yet to be a study that shows a strong relationship between athletics and academic outcomes that is representative of the public’s perceptions. It is unknown as to why the public so strongly believes in this relationship, but the fact still remains that the effect of athletics on academics remains too small to make an argument for encouraging students to participate in sports in order to achieve higher academic outcomes.Instead, encouragement for students to participate in sports should be done on the basis of improving student’s health and wellness, and should not be used as an alternative to proven methods for improving academic outcomes among students. Works Cited Broh, B. A. (2002). Linking Extracurricular Programming to Academic Achievement: Who Benefits and Why. Sociology of Education, 69-95. Eder, D. , & Kinney, D. A. (1995). The effect of middle school extracurricular activities on adolescents' popularity and peer status.Youth and Society, 298-324. Fairweather, J. S. (1988). Reputational Quality of Academic Programs: The Institutional Halo. Research in Higher Education, 345-355. Finkenberg, M. E. , ; Moode, F. M. (1996). College students' perceptions of the purposes of sports. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 19-22. Goidel, R. K. , & Hamilton, J. M. (2006). Strengthening Higher Education Through Gridiron Success? Public Perceptions of the Impact of National Football Championships on Academic Quality. Social Science Quarterly, 851-862.Jacobs, J. A. (2009). Review of The gender gap in college. Gender & Society, 722-724. Jordan, W. A. (1999). Black High School Students' Participation in Sc hool-sponsored Sports Activities: Effects on School Engagement and Achievement. Journal of Negro Education, 54-70. Miracle, A. W. , ; Rees, C. R. (1995). Lessons of the Locker Room: The Myth of School Sports by. Journal of American Studies, 292. Portes, A. (2000). The Two Meanings of Social Capital. Sociological Forum, 1-12. Rehberg, R. A. , ; Schafer, W. E. 1968). Participation in Interscholastic Athletics and College Expectations. American Journal of Sociology, 732-740. Snyder, E. E. , ; Spreitzer, E. (1974). Sociology of sport: An overview. The Sociological Quarterly, 467-487. Spreitzer, E. (1994). Does Participation in Interscholastic Athletics Affect Adult Developement? A Longitudinal Analysis of 18-24 Cohort. Youth and Society, 368-387. Stiles, D. A. , Gibbons, J. L. , Sebben, D. J. , ; Wiley, D. C. (1999). Why adolescent boys dream of becoming professional athletes.Psychological Reports, 1075-1085. Videon, T. M. (2002). Who Plays and Who Benefits: Gender, Interscholastic Athl etics, and Academic Outcomes. Sociological Perspectives, 415-445. Wells, R. H. , ; Picou, J. S. (1980). Interscholastic Athletes and Socialization for Educational Achievement. Journal of Sport Behavior, 119-128. Zentner, H. , ; Parr, A. R. (1968). Social status in the high school: An analysis of some related variables. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 253-264.

Sport as Solvation to Reduce Stress

Stress is generally known as a reaction, or a natural system defender. In mostly recognized situations, stress can be annoying, disturbing, and the detach from activity. Most of our generation tends to work, and the same amount works in the service industry. We do not however realize how much, or how long per week we should work. Usually the working hours combines between 35hpw and 45hpw, but in many cases this is the rule which just the contract contains. The general definition is â€Å" working longer means earning more†, so people do, and reach absolutely records of â€Å"long hours „of work such as 60/70hours per week. In return we collect few more coins, and extremely high level of stress, which reflexes at our homes, and on our health condition. This is just a little step forward to achieve mental disaster, to ruin home stabilization, or simply get a heart attack. Do we want this? To keep ourselves up and running, we could set our day with some sport activity, which in my opinion is the best solution for any kind of stress. First of all, it will drug as out from the habit being at work, at home and work again, so look around you neighborhood to find a swimming pool or gym. Then join it and try to get there for at least twice a week at beginning. No one sais to lift the heaviest weights, but analogically you will find it relaxing. Exactly the same with swimming pool or any other kinds of sport such as running. Do not try to overwork and the result will be guaranteed. You start to sleep better, your concentration will improve, and after sometime you want be able to leave without it. Its hard to break habits, but remember, nothing last for ever, and especially our health. There are money to earn, but no health. If you wish to end up as ailing in your early forties, forget about the sport activity and keep working as crazy, however you want appreciate the fact of earned money because you will spend them for medical treatment.

Law and South African Education

The question here is whether the harm caused was unjustified in the circumstances. In the absence of wrongfulness (egg where there was no intention to harm) a defendant may not be held liable. 4 The act must be the result of fault in the form of intent (dolls) or negligence (culpa). Fault refers to the blameworthy attitude or conduct of someone who has acted wrongfully. (4) There is a causal link between the conduct of the perpetrator and the harm suffered by the victim. In general, it should be shown that the person's injury did result from the actions of the person charged with negligence.In other words, there must be a clear causal relationship between the act and the injury. A person cannot be liable if he or she has not caused any damage. (5) delicate is a wrongful and culpable act which has a harmful consequence. Damages (causing harm) in the form of patrimonial (material) loss or informational loss must be present. There must be a connection between the negligent conduct and t he injury (physical or mental). To receive an award for damages, a plaintiff must have suffered an injury as a result of the defendant's negligent conduct. The plaintiff must prove that some damage occurred.Although the injury or damage does not need to be bestial for an award to be ordered, the injury must be real rather than imagined. The courts are generally reluctant to award damages where there is not some form of injury. Educators may be found guilty of negligence if they fail to provide proper supervision fail to aid the injured or ill permit learners to play unsafe games fail to provide adequate instructions take unreasonable risks fail to organize field trips properly All these elements must be taken into consideration when answering the question. Ask questions such as, who was wrong, who is liable and why?Support your answer tit the requirements for dedicate liability as stated above. TOEHOLD/202 5 Question 2. 2 Comment on the possibility of â€Å"contributory fault† on the part of the learner. In this case negligence is one form of fault. A negligent educator might not be held liable if a learner contributed to the injury by his or her own negligence. In other words, if a learner fails to exercise the degree of care usually expected of a person of that age, knowledge and experience the court may decide that owing to the learner's contributory negligence/fault, the educator is not solely liable for damages resulting from an injury by his or her act.Contributory negligence could be important in situations involving older learners, especially if such learners understand the full implications of their actions. On the other hand, young children cannot be expected to fully comprehend the consequences of some of their actions and behavior. Comments: There have already been a number of cases involving sport in South African legal history. The principles of the law of delicate apply to sport as they would to any other scenario in society.This would re late to 3 possible areas, namely, personal injury, violence and spectator injury The law of delicate is a section of private law. This branch of law deals with civil wrongs against another person that cause the injured party to go to court to seek compensation from the wrongdoer for damages. If an educator creates a potentially dangerous situation, and then fails to remove the danger, which then results in loss or damage being caused to another, he/she will be held liable for such loss or damage.A legal duty rests on the educator to prevent the potential danger from becoming a real danger. A delicate has 5 key elements that must be present. These are: (a) An act; (b) Wrongfulness; (c) Fault; (d) Damage/Loss (e) Causation. Each of these elements must be present before a person can be held liable in delicate. 6 In participating voluntarily in a game, the victim therefore consents to the possibility of injury and limits the possibility of pursuing a dialectal claim. Thus, contributory negligence involves some form of fault (in the form of negligence) on the part of the injured person.The injured person failed to exercise the required standard of care for his or her own safety. Contributory negligence comes into play when conduct on the part of the injured person contributes to his or her injuries. When the court has to determine the damages, it will reduce the damages apportioned to the plaintiff in proportion to his or her own fault (e. G. Contribution to his or her own injuries) In , the law does not expect educators to anticipate every accident, but I them to behave as reasonable people.It is easy to anticipate the poss. of an accident involving educators and children if a group of children supervised, if a minibus that transports children is not maintained or equipment is not properly stored. Only in the case of a truly unexpected be possible to assert that it was not reasonable to foresee harm. To educator can reasonably be expected to foresee dangers and an ticipate depend on the facts of the case and on the circumstances (e. G. The n school activity, the location of the school or the age of the learners).In you will need to be able to: define and explain education and legal concepts and principles identify and explain the purpose of important legislation discuss and interpret the relevant sections of the South African Echo discuss and apply common law principles to practical situations (egg t natural Justice, memo dudes in USA cause and stare decides principle) illustrate your answers by referring to examples from education practice 2. 4 Reading and interpreting questions

Rabbit Proof Fence †Help to Study Essay

While watching the movie, take notes and think about the following questions: 1. What is the history and context of the film? When is it set? In what genre is it? Is it based on a true story, a book? Is it fictional? True story. 2. How did the cameraman use specific angles, lighting and music in the film to indicate different moods? What did you notice about the camera angels as the girls became more threatened, for example? What happened to the music when the girls were trying to escape? The music is trying to sound like native music but with a modern feature. 3. What is the fence designed for? How does the fence function as a symbol? Why is the film titled rabbit-proof fence? 4. Very early on in the film, we see the eagle, Molly’s totem, her spirit bird. Her mother tells her the eagle will look after her. When does the bird appear again in the film and why? 5. Discuss Mr. Neville’s theory of eugenics. What were his policies and official duties? Is he a villain or is he a misguided idealist? Why are half-caste children seen as a problem? Think about Neville’s attitude toward the girls? Does it change over the course of the film? Give examples of words and actions that indicate this change. 6. The three children are not experienced actors. Do you find them convincing? Give your reasons. 7. What do you think are some of the film’s key themes and issues? Are these issues/themes effectively communicated through the film? 8. Finally, did you enjoy the movie? Either way, find examples and use descriptions to state your opinion.

Rural Telecom Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Rural Telecom Industry - Essay Example Cities, towns, villages, remote interiors across the globe, are all getting connected through fixed landlines or GSMs. In this context, besides the basic issue of connectivity, network management has become a challenge. A few years ago, getting connectivity to rural areas was a huge task. Today, it is the management of data, which has taken precedence in the area. Here, we review the challenges faced by the rural telecom industry worldwide and the shifts that have taken place in the past few years. "Network managers tasked with managing their company's telecom budget are familiar with the fact that their bills are often incorrect. From charges for circuits that should have been disconnected years ago to using old, higher rates for current data lines, errors are not uncommon." Other companies, which outsource the software solutions, are also offering bill auditing and TEM services. As telecom companies grow to cater to the needs of the rural populance, the same business users may just find an increased need for TEM products or services. According to C. Jagadish*,,1, Vinod Kumar Jammula1 and Timothy A. Gonsalves2 in the paper Low-cost data communication network for rural telecom network management "the backbone networking infrastructure of rural telecom networks is often costly and is of limited bandwidth. ... According to C. Jagadish*,,1, Vinod Kumar Jammula1 and Timothy A. Gonsalves2 in the paper Low-cost data communication network for rural telecom network management "the backbone networking infrastructure of rural telecom networks is often costly and is of limited bandwidth. The availability of connectivity such as DSL or leased lines is scarce. In order to keep operational costs low, these rural telecom networks are often kept unmanned and are managed from a centralized network management station (NMS). This often requires a low-cost, efficient and reliable data communication network (DCN) between the rural telecom equipment and the central NMS. The conventional DCN used for telecom management consists either of leased lines or Internet connectivity. These are often costly and not freely available in rural areas." The researchers developed a new DCN model, based on dial-up, which is easily available. This DCN has been implemented in corDECT networks, which is currently in use in India and Tunisia, and is under implementation in other countries. It has been shown that this DCN meets the QoS requirements of a telecom network at an affordable cost. Today in India and other developing countries the telecom network is fast growing and considered to be critical for technological development. But the growth rate in urban and rural areas is asymmetrical. Telecom operators often neglect deployment in rural/undeveloped areas. The major discouraging factors are low population density, low affordability and lack of skilled personnel. Thus factors absolutely necessary for a rural telecom solution are low cost infrastructure and low operational costs. A centralized network management system (NMS) will ensure low infrastructure cost . A centralized NMS will

Modern Art, Culture and Issues of Class and Gender Essay

Modern Art, Culture and Issues of Class and Gender - Essay Example The essay "Modern Art, Culture and Issues of Class and Gender" investigates culture and modern art, issues of class and gender. Still we see such cases in our daily life involving gender and class discrimination. Though we have stepped into 21st century but our society is still male dominated. Women are not given equal rights to most of the parts of this world. Gender discrimination is most common issue in both urban and rural areas, though a bit high in rural areas of different countries of the world. On the other hand class discrimination has little suppressed due to literacy and education among people but till today people are categorized in classes on religion, money and power basis. Hinduism class system is an existing example. Here we are discussing the art work of three different artists, all portraying visual culture and all pin pointing the class and gender issues in our society. Ewa Lajer-Burcharth is a professor at Harvard University of fine arts major of history of arts a nd architecture. She is also an author of numerous writings. Her renowned work Necklines: The Art of Jacques-Louis David after the Terror is one great achievement. In this work she describes the masterpiece of the French painter Jacques-Louis David. This painting portrays the height of brutality done with Sabine women during the French revolution. Ewa has done justice with this artwork by giving proper details and the main message of the artwork. She has not only cited this but also the crisis of professional life. of Jacques-Louis David. The book starts with keen examination of the artwork produced by David in the prison which the author thinks is his self-representation, the inner him. Further on she discusses the involvement and the memories of the artist in the revolution, which revolves around the Sabine Women. She collected the preparatory drawing of the actual painting from his sketch book. She has discussed the body language and body construction beautifully. This art work l ed to major changes in the history of gender relation in French society and their laws. Coming on Linda Nochlin, she is an American professor, art historian and a writer. She is notable by the fact that she dedicated all her work in representing the true image of a woman. We are discussing one of her famous work named as Dealing with Degas: Representations of Women and the Politics of Vision.  This work talks about certain collection of art pieces interrelated to each other. Linda Nochlin wrote a part in it which discusses The Bellelli Family, especially women of this family. It represents the picture of a woman whose core interest was to pinch the burning question of that time which was gender discrimination. Linda Nochlin has done a marvelous job in describing the Degas artwork, a woman is no less equal to a man and there is no house which can be home without her. The artwork of Degas shows that there was a passionless relation and an emotional disjunction between family’ s man and woman. Last but not the least, coming onto the third book â€Å"The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers† by T.J. Clark who is an historian and also a writer. This book discusses mainly the artwork of Edouard Manet and his followers. Manet without discriminating on class has portrayed the image of the bar-maids and courtesan. Through the nudity, he displayed the equality of women over the men of the society. His every art piece speaks for the freedom of women. T.J. Clarks in the book explains

Throughout This semester you will work in a small group(maximum four Essay

Throughout This semester you will work in a small group(maximum four persons)to analyse the strategic activates and decisions of - Essay Example The importance of location when expanding internationally is further verified through the study of Luo (2000). According to the above researcher, the expansion of each firm internationally is likely to be influenced by three factors: ‘ownership advantages of a firm, location advantages of a market, and advantages related to the internal processes of a firm’ (Luo 2000, p.103-104). It is made clear that choosing the appropriate location can affect the internationalization efforts of a firm, depending on the existence of increased or decreased location advantages in regard to the country chosen. According to Neelankavil (2007) choosing the appropriate country for entry is quite important due to the following reason: the selection of an inappropriate country for entry ‘can lead to severe damages on a firm’s performance while the time period required for recovering from such damages can be quite long’ (Neelankavil 2007, p.82). ... This means that the location chosen should secure the achievement of the above target, even in the long term (Ebner 2011). China meets the above term; the country’s population is quite high and the demand of products of such type, i.e. of products related to the nutrition of babies, is quite high, as also analyzed below. 3.2.2 Geographic distance When reviewing the appropriateness of a country as a target market emphasis should be also given to the distance between the home market and the target market (Tallman 2007). Indeed, ‘geographic distance’ (Tallman 2007, p.295) is often regarded as a factor that can highly influence the success of a product in a new market (Tallman 2007). Developing strategic alliances locally can be an excellent method for limiting the risks related to such initiatives (Tallman 2007, p.295). 3.2.3 Local demand for similar products The level of demand of products of similar characteristics is critical for choosing the location of a firmâ⠂¬â„¢s international expansion. In the case under examination the choice of China as a target market for Aptamil Power milk can be characterized as fully justified. In terms of its economy China ranks among the most powerful countries worldwide. In a report published by Economist (2013) emphasis is given to the power of the Chinese economy but also to the threats that the particular economy has to face since it is mainly ‘consumer – led’ (The Economist 2013). For Aptamil Power milk the Chinese market seems to be an excellent destination due to the following two reasons: a) the demand for products of the particular type is quite high in China (BBC News 2013), b) a recent scandal related to the quality of such

The United States Move to IFRS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The United States Move to IFRS - Essay Example One positive aspect of the IFRS is it allows the management of companies to have more desertion when it comes to asset valuation, which in turn can increase company income. In fact European companies, who made the switch from the GAAP to the IFRS in 2002, reported that eighty two percent of their companies had higher income under the IFRS than under the GAAP (Briginshaw, 2008). Due to this fact most would assume that investors would be for the switch, there are some other aspects to consider, however. One aspect is that the reports of higher incomes of these European companies came from the same year. So the companies actually had the same profits and expenditures, yet the IFRS reported a higher income yield than that of the GAAP which leaves some investors wondering how accurate the IFRS reports really are. This means that a dollar profit calculated under the IFRS will hold less meaning that one calculated under the GAAP so investors will have to change there way of thinking as far as profits are concerned. Also because the IFRS reports are not quiet as current as the GAAP are they will show less association between reported earnings and stock prices. Overall this means that investors are going to have to relearn and rethink how they read the reports they are given. This knowledge will in turn, however, give them more expertise in investing in companies outside the U.S. Multinational Companies For multinational companies who have long been dealing with converging the two sets of standards, this is a long awaited change. The switch to IFRS will allow them to coordinate all of their accounting systems under one set of guidelines whether the branch is located in the U.S. or another country. This will also be of use... The United States’ Move to IFRS The United States’ Move to IFRS The world of accounting seems to be on the precipice of undergoing a dramatic change in the United States. For more than seventy years the United States accounting system has relied on a set of generally accepted accounting principles known as the GAAP. These principles set out by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), guide accountants in preparing, presenting, and reporting financial statements for various entities, including: publicly-traded and privately-held companies, non-profit organizations, and governments. They are implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The globalization of business and finance has led to over twelve thousand companies in more than one hundred nations to adopt an internationally recognized set of accounting principles known as the International Financial Reporting System (IFRS) (â€Å"International Financial Reporting,† 2010). With many of the United States’ companies expan ding overseas, and foreign corporations now purchasing companies in the United States, there has been a huge push for the United States to forgo there use of the GAAP and adopt the new IFRS standards. So on August 27, 2008 the SEC set out a road map for all U.S. companies to adopt the IFRS by 2014 and some of the large companies started adopting them as early as 2009. If the SEC calls for a higher standard in the IFRS before and while adapting it, then it seems to be a win for all countries and companies involved.