Good vs Bad Economics - Sample Paper

ESSAY ORDERED AND NOT WRITTEN BY ROB FREEDOM

Introduction:

The difference between good and bad economics is that bad economics focuses on short term benefits and ignores long term consequences. The reason that this has continued to prevail is because bad economist are better at defending their errors than good economists are at convincing the public of the truth. This fact is further aggravated because the public is easily dissuaded from listening to the long, important but downright boring arguments whichconsist of the truth, thereby making it easier for the bad economists to get them to simply assume that the policies being laid before them is to their advantage. Perhaps, in the short term, this is true. And, also perhaps, there are also benefits in the long term. But what the public fails to see is that the benefit is only for one group at the expense of everyone else. Below are the fallacies that the public has been made to swallow and the truth behind such fallacies.

The role of government in public works and taxation:

Public works and taxation are just two of the many examples of bad economics. People are convinced to fund the construction of public works under the notion that it will make their lives more convenient, along with other benefits. People are convinced to pay taxes under the notion that their money will be used for the development of their welfare, their protection, along with other benefits. But what is not pointed out to the public is the freedom they would have had to dispose off their income as they see fit, had the government not compelled them to shell out the amount for its own projects.

The role of government in lending and the overlap on taxation:

Private lenders are more stringent in their lending policies and, consequently, have to turn down some high risk borrowers. This is where the government comes in. The government is willing to lend these borrowers the money they need for capital to carry out their businesses. These borrowers will then be able to acquire the resources they need to produce what they need. What is overlooked at this point is the fact that, because these high risk borrowers were able to get what could have been acquired by low risk borrowers from private lenders, the resources ended up in the hands of less efficient producers who may not be as productive as the producers who qualified for private lending. Furthermore, the money being lent by the government came from none other than taxpayers' money. In effect, they are lending to people private lenders would not - another example of a practice to the benefit of a few at the expense of everyone else.

The synergy of technology, production and employment:

Many labor unions exist to argue against the need for self sufficient machines as this is a threat to employment. What this argument ignores is that these machines are the results of technological advancements that have made lives easier for the majority and has made production more efficient. This higher production in turn has contributed to higher wages and standards of living - the economic goal of any country. This argument overlooks the fact that full production equates to full employment in the sense that everyone has something to do within the time they are employed. It further overlooks the fact that there are many people within the government who are fully employed without being fully productive.

The role of tariffs in industries:

Tariffs are intended to protect local industries by discouraging importation of goods. But importation of goods is necessary for other countries to have the money to buy the goods produced by local industries. But, on another note, tariffs do protect a country's net balance. This net balance remains stagnant and so do the employment, wages and standards of living of the people working in local industries - the people sought to be protected by tariffs.

The misuse of bailouts and the selfish expansion of industries:

Bailouts are necessary to save some dying industries. In the process, the resources that could have been used to further develop thriving industries are being allotted to those industries which won't be able to attract investors anyway.

Another factor that hampers the growth of industries is the priority given to 1 industry while ignoring the development of others. This priority is created by businessmen who decide by looking at what will reap the most profit for them, and abandoning industries which wail to meet this requirement even when they leave behind customers who are unsatisfied with what they have paid for.

The domino effect of price fixing and control:

Governments intervene and impose a maximum price for goods, under the pretext that such intervention is temporary, and necessary for the rehabilitation of some industries. The effect of this is greater demand but not a greater supply due to lack of capital. If demand for a certain product cannot be met, the public will start turning to substitutes. It will only be a matter of time until these substitutes will be pressured to produce more due to increased demand, and the government will find another excuse to intervene and fix their prices too. As government intervention widens, so will the rationing of wages, labor and raw material. The end of the line is an entire economy at the mercy of the government. Price fixing and control should be nipped in the bud so both sellers and buyers can be free to negotiate and compete on the amount one is willing to sell at and the amount the other is in a position to pay for.

Pressures imposed on minimum wages:

There are two forces pushing minimum wages - legislation and labor unions. But both these forces ignore the fact that they cannot impose a price for labor that employers cannot pay for. The driving force for wages is production and employers cannot afford to pay for labor that does not produce. Even if employers were to succumb to the pressure of law and unions, they will end up sacrificing the development of the business which, in the end, will equate to the lack of growth in the labor industry. Legislation imposing minimum wages and labor unions operate under the presumption that there are limited resources which need to be shared. This presumption ignores the fact that the amount of production which drives one industry creates a demand for the production of another industry. If this fact were able to operate unabated, there would not be a need to force industries to give what they cannot afford because then they will be able to well afford beyond the minimum wage.

Determining factor for profit:

The lack of a free market kills profits because there is no chance of negotiation for wages, costs and prices. At the same time, commodities of the same nature need to be sold at similar prices otherwise they will not find buyers. In the end, the seller who profits the most is the one with the lowest cost of production.

Inflation in black and white:

Inflation results from the printing of more money than there are commodities available for purchase. Inflation is used to justify the need to expand industries and provide full employment. The obvious consequence is the increase in prices due to a lack of commodities. The people who are spared from this brunt are those who succeed in convincing their employees they need a raise, while those who fail at this task need to bear with lower wages as a consequence of higher costs. But no consumer really benefits since the people with the higher wages also end up paying just as much as the people with the same wages. The benefit are for the hoarders of currencies and stocks who hold such goods until they can exchange or sell them for the most favorable prices.

Why saving is good:

Saving is discouraged because of its adverse effect on the demand for the goods produced by industries. What this argument ignores is that what people do not consume goes into buying capital goods.

Savings is also the demand for more capital. On this note, there is an assumption that the amount of needed capital has a ceiling. The truth is that standards for countries and businesses continue to increase. And, so long as there are countries and businesses which are not as technologically advanced as their neighbors and competitors, more capital will always be a necessity.

Conclusion:

As implied in the earlier part of this paper, these fallacies arose due to the failure to consider long term consequences of decisions made. What is recommended now is a need to thoroughly examine and debate proposed economic decisions before they are implemented. There is a need to revive the dying free economy. It is dying because it is being choked off by too much government interventionism. Yet, the necessity for some form of interventionism cannot be ignored without repeating the chaos that Wall Street experienced in late 2008. Governments need to learn from the mistakes of history and open their eyes to these fallacies.

Today, inflation continued to be at an all time high, the minimum wage battle continues, and governments continue to provide welfare support for all at the expense of the few.

The challenge for governments is in one word - balance. They need to intervene just enough to make sure that the rights and interests of the majority are protected, and at the same time allow enough freedom to make sure that investors are not being discouraged to put their money in industries due to controlled earning potential.

Verbal Slips

This paper aims to dissect 2 theories on what influences verbal slips.

Theory of Sigmund Freud:

It is Freud's theory that verbal slips are semantically related to the speaker's internal cognitive state. In other words, what accidentally slips out of a person's mouth depends on his perception of what he heard, and how he understands what he heard. Freud further claims that semantic interferences come from outside the verbal context of the intended utterance. In simple terms, Freud claims a person can make a verbal slip by taking what he hears or reads out of context from what was really intended by the outside world.

In Freud's theory, there are 2 factors that influence verbal slips: stream of situations and relaxation of inhibiting attention. Given these factors, there is a greater possibility that a person will make a verbal slip that reflects what is really going on in his mind if he were placed in an environment where his defenses are down.

On a side not, he also makes mention of stream of associations, the influence of which can vary. The stronger the association a person may feel with an interference, the greater the frequency of semantically related verbal slips.

From the above points, this hypothesis was arrived at: The frequency of slip errors related to situational cognitive sets is greater for subjects with higher levels of situational related anxiety. In simple terms, a person in a stress induced state has a greater chance of making verbal slips.

The theoretical basis for the experiment conducted by Motley and Baars:

Motley and Baars conducted studies aimed at validating, if not challenging, Freud's theory. These experiments were conducted via the S.L.I.P. (Spoonerism of Laboratory Induced Predisposition) procedure, the very idea of which is about putting a group of subjects in a situation where they are deliberately influenced into making verbal slips.

One of the implications of this study is the process of pre-articulatory editing. This is where a S.L.I.P. interference is introduced (a pair of common sounding words read by the subject)

the intent of which is to create confusion. This confusion increases the available choices for phoneme sequences (combination of common sounding words). The subject will then have to decide via editing which potential phoneme he will articulate out loud. The criterion for pre-articulatory editing was phonotactic integrity. This means that verbal slips were more frequent when the error phoneme string (group of words presented before the word targeted to be misarticulated) formed real words than when they were nonsense words.

The studies showed that higher frequencies of spoonerism errors were produced when the target word is preceded by interference word pairs semantically similar to the expected error, as compared to when the same target word was preceded by phonologically similar but semantically neutral interferences.

These studies also produced the following findings:

S.L.I.P. errors are output errors and not input errors. This means that there were no signs that the subjects misread or misunderstood the words given to them. They simply made an error in reading them out loud after having been presented with words intended to confuse them. S.L.I.P. errors were automatic and came from the subconscious.

In other words, these errors were made because they were not subject to the conscious monitoring of speech.

Based on the above findings, Motley and Baars came down to this hypothesis: Frequency of S.L.I.P. spoonerisms is greater for targets yielding errors semantically congruent with the subject's situational cognitive set. In simple terms, verbal slips are influenced by a person's inability to correctly assess his or her environment.

An experiment on 36 subjects was conducted to prove the above hypotheses. The subjects, who were in different levels of sexual anxiety, were put in a sexually provocative environment. They were read a set of word pairs, some of which were control error word (words which had nothing to do with the environment) and sex error words (words that, if arranged in a different sequence, were sexually related).

Both hypotheses were confirmed. Sex error spoonerism was higher than control error spoonerism for all the subjects. But the subjects who were on a higher level of sexual anxiety made more sex error spoonerisms than the other subjects.

CONCLUSION:

If there is a point of agreement between these studies and Freud's claim, it is that one's perception can influence verbal slips and can reveal this perception which is sometimes different from what the speaker actually wanted to say.

However there are still at least 2 conflicting points:

Freud claims that linguistic factors do not play a role in verbal slips. This study believes otherwise.Freud claims that one's cognitive set (or ability to perceive things) is responsible for the stream of associations made which lead to verbal slips. This study believes that these associations are merely referred to before articulation and verbal slips are a result of a disturbance while one is figuring out the sounds to produce words.

REACTION:

I agree with the theory that linguistic inclination does play a role in verbal slips. I have worked with foreigners who tend to mispronounce English words that are spelt in the same way as words in their language. They tend to pronounce the English word the way they would in their language.

But similar to the environment induced in the studies, this was only because they were in an anxiety charged situation (like a presentation to a group or a meeting with the big boss). In other words, these slips were made only because there was no time to think of the correct pronunciation. I think what this goes to prove is that when people are put in an anxious situation, they tend to revert back to their comfort zone where old habits resurface.

I disagree with the contention that one's cognitive set plays a role in verbal slips. I think there is a more appropriate term for this - misjudgment. A situation where, due to a failure to understand or misinterpret what one sees or hears, one inadvertently says something which they would otherwise not say had they perceived the situation differently.

But verbal slips are not about misjudgments. The latter is a whole different ballgame where a person is afforded ample time to assess a situation and control his or her response. There is no verbal slip involved since the person has enough time to control what this study has called prearticulatory editing. Verbal slips occur in situations where one does not have time to judge because spontaneity is required.

References:

Baars, B., Camden, C. and Motley, M. (n.d.). Personality and situational influences upon verbal slips: A laboratory test of Freudian and prearticulatory editing hypotheses.

Essay Coupons. How to write a Laboratory Report for a Study. Online. essaycoupons.com/research/laboratory-report-writing/

Business Risks in Real Estate

The risks that the commercial real estate business is exposed to can be divided into two: good and bad risks.

Good risks:

1. There can be favorable governmental action near or around the property which is the inventory of the business. These actions include:

a. Infrastructure development like building of bridges, roads and railways;

b. Urban zoning that includes building of government offices or causing private business to converge in the area due to offer of benefits as tax haven for urban business that opt for relocation;

c. Relocation of hubs like bus and railway stations, even airports and seaports if feasible;

d. Government sponsored or led housing projects to decongest urban centers

2. Natural happenings like earthquakes and typhoons in some areas can leave a particular real estate business (probably due to sheer luck) stock in trade property spared. This will lead to an exodus of people and business from the damaged areas to the lucky property, thereby increasing its sale value.

Bad risks:

1. Economic downturn may happen locally, nationally and internationally. This is what happened in the United States right at the time when the Obama administration took over. This caused the collapse of Morgan and a number of businesses. Many more would have suffered the same fate had the government not rescued them. An example of this is the bailout which the AIG was privileged to be subjected to.

An economic downturn adversely affects the employment rate. This has the further consequence of affecting the buying power of the working class. This class happens to be the biggest group of consumers of real estate business. This can be rather ironic considering that the acquisition of real estate is not a top priority in the row of man's needs.

An economic downturn will also put a squeeze on the credit market. This credit market serves as the wheel that spins for the acquisition of real estate. People do not usually put their cash to acquire real property. They would rather acquire property on payment terms as they watch their property revalue in time while the money that they spend for amortization devalues but remains nominally fixed. If this is not a good set up, I don't know what it is.

2. Big investments for acquisition of inventory by businesses can slowdown. While these investments signal the road to recovery, this recovery can be hampered due to the installment terms practiced in the industry.

3. There can be unfavorable governmental actions which are exactly the opposite of No. 1 (Good Risks) above. Politicians can step in to protect their own self interests. They play a big role as non-development of areas that are not their sympathizers.

4. The government has an excuse to impose new taxes which could be great burden to real estate sales. They can also impose new rules on the pretext of regulating the industry like delimitation of stock in trade; and probation of sale over a minimum area in some areas that are deemed industrial.

Network Security Paper

This paper deals with the issue of network security. Before this issue can be addressed, there is a need to define exactly what network security is. The first part of this paper will explain the concept of network security, how it is protected, the possible attacks to this protection and the goals which need to be achieved.

As the following paragraphs will indicate, network security affects everyone. It is not limited to one's personal access to a private computer. As a matter of fact, the following paragraphs will indicate that the more important data one holds, the greater the need for network security.

The following paragraphs will also indicate that the concept of network security is not a 1 man show. It involves the aspects of security and risk management, assessment of risks, planning and implementing a strategy to combat threats to the network.

Network security, definition, attacks and objectives

Network security broadly refers to the policies implemented by a network administrator to guard against unauthorized entry, use and modification of a computer network and it's accessible resources.

The first step towards this end is via the authentication of a username and password. The second step is the formation of a firewall which determines the extent to which users may avail themselves of the network's resources (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia).

A network attack takes place when an attacker (or hacker) uses technological means to maliciously compromise the security of the network. This could be for the purpose of using the data from corporate networks for financial gain or corporate espionage; to gain access to user accounts and privileges; to damage or corrupt data by implanting a virus; to steal data and software; to prevent the legitimate users of the network from using network services, along with other reasons (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents).

Hackers can resort to different attempts to invade a network. Footprinting is usually the first step. This is the process of creating a map of the network to determine it's operating systems, applications and the address ranges being used, and to identify possible access ports. Port scanning, another strategy, is the process of collecting information about the services of a target network. Enumeration is the process of collecting information on applications and hosts on the network, and the user accounts on the network. Then there is privilege escalation wherein a hacker manages to get a higher level of access to control the network.

Backdoors can be installed for accessing the network in the future with the assistance of access granting codes (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents).

Network security has 4 main goals

Confidentiality - the information involved is intended by the sender for particular recipients only;

Integrity - the sender and recipient need to be assured that the information sent and received are not altered in the delivery process;

Authentication - senders and receivers need to be able to confirm each others identity and the level of security must allow enoughmeasures to trace back sources of information, as well as measures to track the path by which information travels;

Availability - the needed information and other resources needed from the network must be accessible (Matik).

Network security and security management

The security management for different networks varies depending on the circumstances. The level of security management for a household would be lower than the level of security required by a fortune 500 company (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia).

This difference in the level of security needed in turn determines the kind of tools necessary for security management. A household will not need a commercial vulnerability assessment scanner which may be necessary for a company with 100 or so employees who communicate with clients via 1 network system. Such a tool is necessary for companies to monitor the network related activities of their many employees and to guard against the entry of any information that may threaten the network at least and the company at most. On a similar note, a household network will probably be fine with a mere vulnerability assessment tool, just to make sure the children are safe from on line intruders and no one is attempting to steal anyone's email information.

Another point related to security management is risk management. Securing information within a network deals with risk management. Information is just like any asset. The more important an asset is, the greater the security threat and, consequently, more resources must go into guaranteeing it's security (Matik). The idea of risk management is significant because total network security is next to impossible. The next achievable goal is to minimize the number of risks and it's effects.

Network security and assessment

In order to protect a network from attacks and breaches of security, it is important to determine the types of threats the network is susceptible to. This requires assessing the risk that each network threat poses on the entire infrastructure (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents).

Some risks may include eavesdropping, IP address spoofing, and man-in-the-middle attack, just to name a few. Eavesdropping is the process of listening to network traffic and interpreting unprotected data. IP address spoofing is the process of assuming the source IP address of IP packets, then making it appear that the packet originated from a valid IP address, for the purpose of identifying the computers on a network. The man-in-the-middle attack takes eavesdropping a step further by capturing and controlling data being communicated between 2 parties, for the purpose of obtaining information to impersonate the communicating parties (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents). These risks could have far reaching consequences that may bring down an entire company or affect the professional future of the legitimate users of the network depending on the information acquired and manipulated. With regard to the government and it's military, the consequences could lead to unimaginable damage to diplomatic relations and national security. These are the consequences that need to be assessed in the realm of network security.

Network security assessment consists of 4 phases

Reconnaissance phase- this is the discovery of the network devices through alive scanning via Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) or TCP;

Enumeration and assessment phases - this is where the security assessor determines whether a service or application is running on a particular host and assesses it's potential vulnerabilities;

Exploitation phase - this is where the assessor leverages one or more vulnerabilities to gain some level of privileged access to the host and uses this access to further exploit the host or to escalate privilege on that host or throughout the network or domain (Cochran).

Assessment also refers to the tricks and tools employed by professional security consultants to identify the above risks that internet-based networks need to reckon with. This may include a penetration testing model to secure networks of governments, militaries and commercial establishments. The penetration testing model to be employed depends on the level of intrusion that a network seeks to avoid. Black box testing seeks to avoid intrusion from someone who has no prior knowledge about a network. White box testing seeks to avoid inside jobs from users of the network (Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia).

Penetration testing has the additional function of assisting network administrators in discovering the vulnerable spots in a network. These vulnerabilities include incorrect configuration settings and holes in security processes and policies (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents).

Network security, planning and implementation

Part of maintaining network security is to monitor for network intrusions on a daily basis. There is a need to be alert for any strange activities or files to outsmart the hackers who try to disguise their activities. Firewalls should be configured to log the traffic that it blocks, and monitoring firewall logs is 1 way of detecting intruder activities (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents).

As a means of addressing security breaches in an orderly manner, it is important to come up with an incident response plan. This is the strategy of having a planned approach which is based on a security policy. Security policies should define the reaction that is to be received by different breaches of security, the reaction to be received by the individuals who perpetuate these incidents, and the procedure for escalation when the same should be necessary.

It is also important to have an incident response team that has the skills and training to deal with security breaches systematically so that the organization involved can either recover quickly, or not be disturbed at all, by such incidents (Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents). They need to take into account what the actual risk is in order to avoid long-term failure (Matik).

To summarize, the security plan for network protection mainly consists of 3 phases:

Prevention - this is the phase of implementing measures to safeguard information against modification, destruction or compromise;

Detection - this is the phase of implementing measures to identify when a security breach has been and the source of such a breach;

Reaction - this is the phase of implementing measures to rectify a security breach by recovering lost information, reverting altered data back to its original form, restoring network operations and avoiding future instances of invasion (Matik).

Conclusion

The goals which network security need to achieve is easy to grasp. So are the processes which are put on paper. But the fact remains that there are no hard and fast rules to follow when it comes to protecting a network. It depends on so many things, primarily what needs to be protected and the threats to this protection. Then there's the ever developing field of technology that evolves faster than the human capacity to solve problems. Simply put, a security risk which is killed today may rise from the dead tomorrow to become an even more invincible enemy. In conclusion, the only solution seems to be to remain vigilant. Network administrators have no other option but to keep watching and cannot expect the network to act like an artificial being that can take care of itself - it cannot. It is being threatened by this specie of human beings called hackers. While technology has afforded many tools which can serve as weapons for defense, in the end the best defense remains the other specie of human beings who can combat the hackers.

References:

Cochran, J. 10 Network Security Assessment Tools You Can't Live Without.

Matik, M.(n.d.). Planning Network Security.

Network security. In Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia.

Responding to Network Attacks and Security Incidents.

ARTEMIS, THE GODDESS OF HUNTING

ORDERED AND NOT WRITTEN BY VENNY SUDJONO

I. Introduction
This research paper goes into an in depth account about the enigmatic nature of the goddess Artemis.

This paper starts by creating an idea of who Artemis is and the following pages are manifestations of the deeds of Artemis, the other gods and goddesses who crossed her path, and the role she plays in the lives of mortals. The aim of this paper is to get to know the goddess and create an understanding of her contributions to Greek mythology.

II. Identity of Artemis

Artemis is one of the most highly worshiped of the Greek deities. She appeals to both men and women. This is because not only is she the goddess of hunting, wild animals and nature, but also childbirth, and the protector of young girls. She is the patron of good health and recovery from diseases.

However, she is also the advocate of sudden death and diseases to women and girls. Her curse can either include plagues, stunted growth, death during childbirth or stillborn infants ("Artemis: general information").

Artemis is often portrayed as a girl dressed in a short, knee length chiton, flat-heeled sandals and carrying a hunting bow and a bag of arrows. Her identity is associated with wild animals like the bear, the boar, the goat and dogs. As the goddess of hunting, she is also associated with death (Coffey, 1998).

Lastly, Artemis is associated with the crescent moon, sometimes found on her head. She is a chaste goddess and her followers take vows of chastity while in her service (Coffey, 1998).

III. Birth and attributes of Artemis

1. Birth

Leto had an affair with Zeus, this being the reason Hera hounded her all over the earth. In her quest to escape Hera, she traveled all over the world. But no earth, sky or water would accommodate her despite her pangs of labor. Finally, she reached Delos which took pity on her. This is where she gave birth to Artemis. Artemis then helped her give birth to Apollo ("Birth of Artemis")

On the same coast as Delos, is Ortygia, a paradise of trees. Leto is said to have rested by an olive tree after giving birth. Above Ortygia is the Mount Solmissos where the Spirits of Kouretes hid themselves.

They frightened Hera away while she was spying on Leto. They also helped Leto hide the birth of Artemis and Apollo from Hera ("Birth of Artemis")

2. Other names

a. Diana - this is the name of Artemis in Roman mythology. She has the same characteristics as Artemis.
b. Selene - the Romans then associated Diana with Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon (known as Luna in Roman mythology). But unlike Diana and Artemis, Selene was not known for her chastity. She sired Zeus 3 daughters, and was seduced by Pan in exchange for fleece ("Artemis identified with Selene the Moon") .

3. Symbolic associations

a. Bow and arrows

When Artemis was 3 years old, Leto brought her to Hephaistos, the god of fire, and the one eyed giant Kyklops Brontes took her on his knees. The story goes that she pulled the hair out of his chest and the middle part of his chest remained hairless ever since. Hephaistos gave Artemis a gift in the form of a Kydonian bow and arrows.

He said that if he were to hunt, Kyklops will just end up eating his prey ("Childhood of Artemis").

While the arrows given by Hephaistos were intended for hunting, they served other purposes as well. Artemis was also given the power to infect people with plagues, or punish them for doing her wrong.

Her association with childbirth equated to her ability to use the arrows to relieve women in labor (Coffey, 1998) .

b. Kerynitian hind

The Kerynitian Hinds were deer, larger than bulls, with golden horns. There were 5 of them, 4 of which were taken by Artemis to draw her carriage. Hera caused one of them to escape over the river Keladon, as she was planning to assign Heracles to catch it as part of his 12 labors from Eurystheus ("Childhood of Artemis").

Heracles, in his quest for one of the Kerynitian hind, spent a whole year in hot pursuit. The animal finally rested on Mount Artemision and crossed the Ladon River. While it was crossing, Heracles attempted to hit it with an arrow. But Artemis was watching, grabbed the hind, and scolded Heracles for attempting to kill the animal which she considered sacred. Heracles explained that he was acting under the orders of Eurystheus. This pacified Artemis ("Childhood of Artemis").

c. Hunting-pack

The bearded god Pan gave Artemis 2 black and white dogs, 2 reddish and 1 spotted which were capable of bringing down lions and bringing them back alive. He also gave her 7 Kynosourian ******* which could run faster than the wind. These ******* were of the Arkadian breed, which were known for their ability to catch fawns and hares, to mark the lair of the stag and the porcupine's burrow, and to lead up to the track of the gazelle ("Childhood of Artemis").

d. Other symbolic associations

Like her twin brother Apollo, Artemis also had some association with music with her depictions holding a lyre. In other accounts, she is said to be identified with holding a torch while wearing an animal pelt .

IV. Wrath and love of Artemis

1. Orion

Orion was a giant who had the power to walk across the sea. He was taken by Eos, who fell in love with him, to Delos. Here he was killed by Artemis for challenging her to a discus match. But there is another story that says he was shot by her because he was harassing Opis, a virgin from the Hyperboreans. And still, another story goes that he was killed because he attempted to rape Artemis ("Artemis wrath: gigante Orion")

Contradictory to the last account, another story goes that Artemis fell in love with Orion and this made her twin brother Apollo jealous. While Artemis and Apollo were hunting in Crete, Apollo saw Orion swimming from a distance. Knowing that it was Orion, Apollo challenged his sister to hit the swimming object with her arrow. Artemis ended up hitting Orion on the temple. To make amends for killing him, she raised him up into the sky, now known as the constellation Orion (Coffey, 1998).

Another story that accounts for the death of Orion says that it was the earth goddess Gaea whom he angered. He claimed that he could hunt down all the animals of the earth, so the earth goddess sent a scorpion to poison him ("A small selection of heros, kings and villains")

2. Agamemnon

The expedition for Troy was in progress. During the chase, Agamemnon shot a stag and boasted that even Artemis could not do what he did. This claim infuriated Artemis and she sent stormy winds so the expedition could not continue. The fortune teller Kalkhas told them about the anger of Artemis and instructed them to sacrifice Iphigenia, the most beautiful of Agamemnon's daughters, to Artemis. But at the sacrificial altar, Artemis replaced Iphigenia with a deer, and transported the girl to the Taurians where she was set up as her own priestess ("Artemis and the Trojan War")

3. Actaeon

Artemis was bathing with her nymphs in the woods one day. A hunter named Actaeon was wandering around the same woods after a long day of hunting, and accidentally stumbled upon Artemis in the nude. Artemis was afraid he was going to boast about seeing her naked. As she did not have any arrows with her, she splashed him with water. This transformed Actaeon into a stag and he ran away. His own pack of dogs caught up with him and ate him ( Coffey, 1998).

4. Callisto

Callisto was the daughter of Lycaon, the ruler of Arcadia. She was an avid hunter and adored Artemis. Artemis loved her back greatly because of their similarities. But Callisto got pregnant with Zeus' child.

When Artemis discovered that she had surrendered her virginity and betrayed her trust, she turned her feminine features into that of a bear. Another story goes that Zeus transformed himself into Artemis, helped Callisto in her hunt, and embraced her when they were out of vicinity. This is how she ended up pregnant and, when questioned by Artemis, claimed it was the Goddess' fault. The second story ends the same way - Callisto is given the features of a bear ("Artemis: general information").

V. Worship of Artemis

1. Temple of Artemis

The Temple of Artemis was built in Ephesus, now known sa Selcuk, Turkey. It was rebuilt 3 times before it's permanent destruction in 401 B.C. by St. John Chrysostom, archbishop of Ephesus. The same archbishop led a Christian mob to destroy the temple. But the foundations and sculptural fragments of the last version are still at the site ("Temple of Artemis").

But Artemis was widely worshiped in anceint Greece and she had a number of other shirnes and temples in the countryside. She had a cult that spread in the southern and eastern regions of the Peloponnese. Her most popular shirnes were the bear-Goddes of Bauron in Attika, and the Lakedaimonian shrine ("Athena cult")

While Artemis is known to be the protector of women, worship of Artemis was not limited to women. Some men were said to take vows of chastity under Artemis. Her priests voluntarily castrated themselves to be in her service (Coffey, 1998).

Hunters also made sacrifices to her. A story goes that when a hunter had a successful hunting venture, he would hang the skin and horns of his prey on a tree or pillar as a display of gratitude to Artemis (Coffey, 1998).

2. Athenian Festivals

There are at least 2 known celebrations dedicated to Artemis. One is the Suidas s.v. Artemision which is celebrated in the month of May for Macedonians. Then there is Suidas s.v. Mounykhion wherein the Athenians offer a sacrifice to the goddess on the tenth month ("Artemis cult")

3. Rituals

a. Act the bear

Artemis was the protector of girls aged 9 and above. These children are said to be newly released from their mother's control but not yet at the Aphrodite stage. At Ancient Greek festivals, these young girls would wear bear skins and play 'acting the bear.' This play consisted of dancing, gesturing and growling like a bear. This was for the purpose of realizing the physical sense of the body, but not yet the sexual or maternal sense. This ritual marks the last chance in a girl's life where she gets to play and have fun before venturing into the Aphrodite stage (Coffey, 1998)

b. Aphrodite stage preparation

The night before the marriage ceremony, young women sacrificed tunics, toys, dolls and other childhood possessions to Artemis as a way of bidding farewell to youth. A story goes that these young women want to please Artemis so she will make childbirth easy for them (Coffey, 1998).

VI. Conclusion

As the preceding accounts indicate, Artemis was a strong woman. Her strength most prominently displayed itself in the defense of women who were under attack. Needless to say, she also used her strength to defend herself and to bring the people who offended her to their knees.

While Artemis is a goddess, she also manifests male characteristics by being the goddess of hunting and being associated with the bow and arrow. While she was generally a doer of good, the above research indicates the chaos she is capable of reaping should she be angered or taken for granted.

Racial Discrimination - Sociology Paper

ORDERED AND NOT WRITTEN BY LAURA MCCARN

1. Introduction:

This topic is geared towards the issue of racial discrimination. As a basis for the discussion, this topic will present a case of discrimination against Negro citizens and their right to vote. This case will show the conflicting roles which the different aspects of the government play in order to display an attempt to address this social problem. At the same time, this topic will show how the government can have no control over the forces within the society that have a far greater influence on the perspective of human beings.

On the other hand, this topic will also show how the government can lose control due to forces within the society that have a greater influence on the perspective of human beings. These forces will be explained further and will manifest their role in the presented case to show how human beings can destroy the safeguards created by the government to counter discrimination.

2. Sociological Approach:(Structural Functionalist, Social Conflict, Symbolic Interaction)

The material may be related to the Social Conflict theory. This is a theory that claims that people within a society vary on the amount of resources available to them, and the people with more resources are, by consequence, more powerful. These people use their power and available resources to exploit the people with less power.

In the case of U.S. vs. Alabama et. al., the Board of Registrars and the District Court were the parties in power. The available resource the Board of Registrar had was in the form of political power which they intended to monopolize by not allowing the negro citizens a voice in the decision making process. The District Court had the resource of legal knowledge which it used to make an oppressive decision in favor of the Board of Registrars. The Negro citizens, so long as they were being denied of their power to vote, were also being denied of their opportunity to be represented so they can voice their grievances and uplift their standing in the society.

The Symbolic Interaction theory may also be applicable to the material. This is a theory that
claims that people deal with circumstances, people and other things depending on how much
value these things have for them. These values are determined by interactions within the society and altered by individual interpretation.

This theory can be applied to the way the District Court made its decision and how it interpreted the Civil Rights Act of 1957. If the District Court had allowed the declaratory and injunctive relief, this would mean the Board of Registrars could no longer continue their discriminatory activities. This might affect the very culture of Macon County where the Negro citizens right to vote was not the only problem. In the case of Lee vs. Macon County Board of Education (267 F. Supp 458,470-M.D. Ala 1967), there was another racial discrimination issue - segregation.

Perhaps the District Court decided the way it did, and ignored the amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, in order to avoid wreaking havoc within a highly racist community.

But what caused the prejudice within the Macon, Alabama county? In the absence of any details of what the Board of Registrars did and the effects of their actions, I will have to play safe and resort to the Culture Theory of Prejudice. This is the theory that claims that everyone is prejudiced because it is part of how we were raised. An example of this is when parents tell their children they need to marry someone of the same race. With regard to the norms within Macon county, I have sited another case on top of the material discussed here as a means of showing the norms. Discrimination was practiced and accepted, and the children growing up in that environment grow up believing that discrimination is right. The Board of Registrars and, probably even the district court, may have been composed of people who were born and raised in the same environment. Given that discrimination may be embedded in their system, it will take more than a legal amendment to change their ways.

3. Body:

This case was filed by the United States for practices that deprived Negro citizens of their voting rights. The United States prayed for declaratory and injunctive relief from the 5th District Court with the Board of Registrars of an Alabama county (Macon) as defendants. The district court denied the petition on the following grounds:

1. The individual respondents were sued as Registrars. They resigned from their offices and
could no longer be sued in their official capacities;

2. The Board of Registrars could not be sued;

3. The action was not authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

The decision was affirmed by the Appeals court and paved the way for a petition for certiorari.

The central argument for this case is based on the amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
which authorized actions against the state? The Supreme Court ruled that the District Court had authority to hear the case by virtue of the amendment, and that such amendment had already taken effect before the case reached the Supreme Court.

I think the decision of the Supreme Court appears discriminatory since it will compel the state to defend it's efforts to stop discrimination. But, from a legal standpoint, what the Supreme Court merely did was acknowledge the right of the public to question actions effected by the state. This is a necessary safeguard for democracy to thrive. Unfortunately, what was being questioned was an action for a good cause - to stop the proliferation of racial discrimination.

The above ruling implies that the government may be subjected to legal attacks even when it is making an effort to stand up for the rights of it's citizens who they suspect are being oppressed by the majority. The more positive implication with the Supreme Court ruling is that the state is not infallible and the decisions made by the people in it's government mat be questioned.

The option to question the state is still relevant today. The government is composed of mere mortals who have made mistakes in the past and will most likely continue to make mistakes in the future. It should be comforting to the society to know that they can demand for the correction of these mistakes rather than simply surrender to the decisions of a higher power even when such decisions are detrimental to their interests.

However, the right to vote has long become moot and academic, at least in the New World. This is a right that is already widely granted to citizens regardless of their race. If there is any discrimination issue that surrounds voting and elections, it may be the amount of confidence that people will put on a candidate who belongs to a minority, and if people vote for candidates simply because they are white even when there is a more promising candidate of color.

4. Conclusion:

This topic centered on the social implications of discrimination. The case zeroes in on the right to vote among Negro citizens as an example of racial discrimination. This case showed the intent of the government to ease the discrimination. The case also showed the legal impediments that stand in the way of the government in it's attempt to make sure that all it's citizens are given equal rights.

But this topic also showed that discrimination stems from the attitude of human beings, which in turn is developed by their different experiences within the society. The negativity in their attitude may be aggravated by their social standing and the resources that are available to them. These are factors that the government cannot control without also controlling the amount of freedom that their citizens are entitled to.

Auditors and Investors Paper

The aim of this article is to inform the reader of the legal developments which impact the liability of auditors within and outside the U.S.; to understand the rationale for changes in accounting practices; and to understand the consequences of allowing private anti-fraud claims.

In the 2010 case of Morrison vs. National Australia Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the extraterritorial powers of the Security and Exchange Commission. This led to the dismissal of

many important claims against member firms outside the U.S. Then comes along the Dodd-
Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Auditors oppose the Dodd-Frank act, which threatens to allow the United States and the S.E.C. to initiate claims on securities fraud taking place outside U.S. territory. The same act has authorized the S.E.C. to determine whether or not, and to what extent, private persons should be allowed to make such claims. The intent of the act is to protect investors and the integrity of the U.S. market from the security transactions conducted beyond the borders.

However, auditors oppose the steps of the Dodd-Frank act on the following grounds:
There is no need to expose the non U.S. counterparts of accounting firms to U.S. private
litigation. The former are under the extensive control of the accounting firms in the home
country, and below par auditing is easily detected and punished. There is no evidence of
any negligence to justify the need for private liability.

The U.S. stands to supersede the policies and regulative measures being imposed by other
countries by extending a private right of action under U.S. law. This is a threat to
jurisdiction which could affect cross border cooperation.

Extraterritorial private law suits can discourage investors because of increased costs and a
greater need for auditing services. This could further lead to decreased competition in the
market.

Furthermore, auditors argue that litigation in catastrophic proportions could be avoided if the following conditions were to be met:
The S.E.C. needs to be more vigilant and needs to bring charges against auditing firms
and their partners upon acquiring knowledge of auditing and abetting frauds.

The U.S. auditing firms and their non U.S. counterparts must disclose the amount of
litigation they are being subjected to, as well as their funds, and sources of funds, to
cover such litigation.

The arguments posed by the auditors were branded to be selfish; that such arguments were
intended to protect themselves and not the interest of public company shareholders. But after everything is said and done the main issues remain: who should be liable for audit failures and how to run after them. In conclusion, it seems the only point of agreement is that the lack of regulation and enforcement cannot continue without expensive consequences.

Reference:

Mckenna, F. Auditors Abandon Investors On Liability Limits.

Order ID 7839873636, ORDERED AND NOT ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY CHRISTINA INNOCENT

PETIT V. THE CITY OF CHICAGO

1. What was the legal issue in this case? What did the court decide?

The legal issue in this case is whether or not the tests conducted by the Chicago Police Department (or CPD) for promotion to the rank of sergeant violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The court ruled that there was no violation of the Equal Protection clause. Even though the court acknowledged that the process of developing the test was created from data that reflected the views of white sergeants, the court also took into account that the raw scores of the tests were standardized based on race. This standardization eliminated whatever possible advantage the white exam takers had over the minority exam takers.

2. On what basis did the court conclude that a "compelling interest" existed for the police department to hire more persons of color as sergeants?

Based on the testimony of Professor Samuel Walker about the lack of trust and the belief on police misconduct that was rampant among the minority group, the court concluded that the CPD needed a racially diverse police force. The compelling interest this would fulfill is the public trust and confidence which would follow if the police force had people of the same race as the minority groups. This public trust and confidence would further equate to greater cooperation in solving crimes which would make the police's job easier.

3. On what basis did the court conclude that the use of race in these promotion decisions was "narrowly tailored?"

The court used the requirements set by the Grutter case as their basis. According to that case, some form of discrimination is justified if there is a compelling state interest that justifies it.

Again, going back to the testimony of Professor Walker, the need for minorities in the police
force was necessary to earn the trust, confidence and cooperation of the diverse city.
More specifically, the need for minorities within the rank of sergeant was necessary as this rank of officers were in the position to influence people in the streets thereby improving cooperation within and outside the police force.

Another requirement of the said case was the need for the limitation of time. The tests in
question were not used after 1991 nor have any race related promotions been made.

4. Do you agree with decision in this case? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I agree with the decision to the extent that there is neither a compelling argument nor evidence of discrimination. The fact that the test was based on data reflecting the views of white sergeants does not amount to discrimination if the knowledge being tested is something all patrol officers should know regardless of their race.

However, from what I understand of the Equal Protection clause, all persons who are similarly situated must be similarly protected. Any discrimination must be based on a clear distinction to justify such discrimination. What the court failed to look into is why there were only 3 races being identified - whites, blacks and Hispanics, with everyone else in between being counted as white. In the end, 298 of the 402 promoted candidates were said to be white. But what remains a question is how many of them were actually white and, if a different race was thrown into that number, will it then not prejudice the number of white people actually promoted?

ENGEL V. RAPID CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

1. What was the legal issue in this case? What did the court decide?

There were 2 main issues and 1 side issue in this case:

First, whether or not the Rapid City District School (or RCDS) is entitled to summary judgment. The court ruled in the negative since there was a genuine issue of material fact which was established. That is, whether or not RCDS was responsible for the hostile working environment suffered by Engel after their first corrective measure.

On this note, the court ruled in the negative. The corrective measures imposed by RCDS were prompt and reasonable, even though it failed to totally abate the harassment. The court also pointed out that RCDS was not required to fire Herrera on the first complaint of harassment

Second, whether or not RCDS is liable for constructive discharge. The court ruled in the
negative. Engel failed to convince the court that the sexual harassment she suffered was
deliberately intended by the employer. While RCDS was obviously negligent in abating the
harassment, this negligence does not equate to liability for constructive discharge.

2. What did the plaintiff need to show in order to establish the employer's liability for the hostile environment created by her coworker? What evidence supported the conclusion that the employer was liable?

As implied by the passages below, the plaintiff needed to show that the employer did not act on her claims of harassment. Or, if there were actions taken, these were not calculated to stop the harassment.

[Proper remedial action need be only "reasonably calculated to stop the harassment," Carter, 173 F.3d at 702, and remedial action that does not end the harassment can still be adequate if it is reasonably calculated to do so. Moore, 461]As the passages below indicate, the employer was NOT LIABLE because they had policies in place that the court was convinced were reasonably calculated to stop the harassment.

[The response was prompt, reasonably comprehensive in scope, and stern in its warnings. We therefore conclude as a matter of law that RCSD cannot be liable for a hostile work environment]

3. Why were the employer' actions not sufficient? What else should the employer have done? Would it have been "safer" to terminate the harasser?

The employer's actions were not sufficient mainly because they failed to stop the harassment altogether. There was a threat of termination which was never carried out and there was even a decrease in the severity of the sanctions which encouraged Herrera in his activities. The employer could have transferred Herrera to a different office and/ or subjected him to counseling.

While it would have been "safer" for Engel and the other women involved if the harasser were terminated, this would have been a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Herrera can just get a job somewhere else and harass someone else.

From a legal standpoint, instant termination would be a violation of due process since it seems like a penalty that is too severe for the crime. Making lewd comments and touching another person is not tantamount to rape to justify the imposition of penalty along the ranks of capital punishment.

Order ID 0515001852. ORDERED AND NOT ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY MARIELLA CORDOVA

The Peaceful Warrior

SYNOPSIS:

The Way of the Peaceful Warrior is a book by Dan Millman where he talks about his journey from being a self absorbed and ambitions gymnast to a peaceful warrior who learned to be happy by simply allowing life to take its course.

Dan Millman starts the story from his college days in Berkeley University where, amidst the euphoria of representing his country in international gymnastic competitions, he started experiencing bouts of depression. Soon he started experiencing nightmares, dark and morbid enough to leave him awake in a cold sweat. One character in his dream was an old, wise man that he names Socrates.

In the company of Socrates, Dan finds himself stumbling, tripping and questioning his potential as a human being.

As the book unfolds, Dan finds himself resisting the flaws in his life which Socrates forces him to confront. At the same time, he finds himself learning to appreciate the simple things which he used to be too busy to notice.

In his journey with the wise, old man, Dan learns some life changing lessons like:

...a person may go through a lot of experiences in life. But none of these experiences will make a difference if the person doesn't learn from them;

...one's education may have imparted a lot of knowledge and a lot of information about everything and everyone else in this world. But all of that is just clutter in one's mind which doesn't make a difference in one's life. One needs to dedicate time to get to know one's self;

...there is a need to take responsibility for one's actions instead of blaming other people for one's circumstances. In the end, it is one's own mind that is responsible for one's circumstances.

But the most important lesson Dan learned is what it takes to be a warrior. The surprisingly simple answer is that being a warrior means learning to be happy with the way life is and learning to be serene through the power of meditation.

Socrates showed Dan that learning how to be happy was his challenge because he didn't know how to just let life happen. He was too caught up in being an achiever that he was a prisoner to his own self expectations. He was living under the illusion that his achievements brought him happiness when in truth his addiction to success is what left him empty and depressed to begin with.

MY OPINION:

This book is a good reminder that there are things in life we cannot control. When this happens, it is better to surrender to fate rather than beat one's self up for failing to achieve the goal set for oneself. This book is also a good reminder that, while competition has the power to bring out the best in everyone, too much of anything is bad. When wanting to come out on top becomes the be all and end all of one's life, it's just a matter of time when one reaches a breaking point.

Dan's continued resistance and defensiveness to Socrates' teaching points is a validation of the human inability to break old habits until the human being admits that there is something wrong and there is a need for change. But what compounds the human problem to break old habits is the fear of change. This is another reality that the book managed to acknowledge. People don't like to change their way of thinking because how they think, albeit destructive, is familiar. It seems what the book is trying to imply at this point is that people are disillusioned into believing that what is familiar is good for them.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking is a hindrance to self awareness.

Another reality the book makes evident is the fact that many people are not ready to simply be happy, with the angle showing Dan and Socrates in a separate world from Dan's friends. While Dan wanted to introduce the idea of Socrates to his schoolmates, he was aware of the possibility that the idea would not be well received and maybe misunderstood.

The book makes it evident that, only when Dan finally admitted that he had problems, only then could he find the answers to his questions.

When Dan was given a view of his future given his present state of mind, this brings us to a realization that time is of the essence and that family is important. As someone once said, no one on their deathbed ever says they wished they spent more time at the office. It's always they wished they spent more time with their loved ones. It would be a really sad situation for Dan if he only came to this realization after losing his wife and kid to divorce.

Socrates' bizarre approach as a life teacher is an indication that experience is the best teacher and sometimes getting one's pride hurt is the only way to learn the most valuable life lessons. Socrates' approach was similar to what Jack Nicholson pulled over Adam Sandler in the movie Anger Management. Similar in the sense that part of his intent was to test the limits of his student's patience and to annoy and test if his student can constructively express this annoyance.

If there is any criticism that can be offered for this book, it is the inconsistency in the mention of the Koran, the Muslim holy book which Socrates claimed he was meditating upon. All through out the book, there is this theme of being happy by surrendering to fate and resisting any desires and expectations. This attitude leans more on the teaching of the Buddha rather than the teaching of Mohammed.

Crime Research Paper

Executive summary:

This paper makes mention of some of the most common crimes in Canada and highlights the cities where these crimes are concentrated. The paper then zeroes in on the most common crime of homicide and discusses the reasons that contribute to the high homicide rate. Next, the paper will discuss some possible measures which squarely address the contributing factors to the high homicide rate. Lastly, the paper will explain why these measures were suggested and what kind of effects are predicted.

Introduction:

Canadian culture is marked by equality and respect for other people regardless of gender, race, religion or cultural background (Canadian Culture). However, this paper will indicate that, just like any other nation, Canada has its share of crimes.

Research results

A 2006 consensus revealed the following crime rates for 4 of the major crime indicators. For the crime of homicide, Nunavut topped the list at a crime rate of 6.5 per population of 100,000; followed by Saskatchewan at 4.3; Manitoba at 3.3; Alberta at 2.8; and British Columbia at 2.5.

For the crime of level 1 to 3 assault, Nunavut is again on top of the list with a crime rate of 5,893 per 100,000 population; followed by the Northwestern territories at 5, 834; Yukon at 2,655; Saskatchewan at 1,671; and Manitoba at 1,243. For robbery, Manitoba is at number 1 with a crime rate of 182

per 100,000 population; followed by Saskatchewan at 150; British Columbia makes it to the list at 110; followed by Alberta at 93; and Quebec at 91.

For breaking and entering, the Northwestern territories are number 1 with a crime rate of 2,332 per 100,000 population; Nunavut is at number 2 with 1,965; British Columbia at number 3 with 1,088; at number 4 is Manitoba with 1,074; and Quebec at number 5 with 867(Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia).

While no formal consensus was available for the other years, newspaper articles indicate that in 2003, Saskatchewan had the highest homicide rate (Munroe, 2003). By 2009, Manitoba had the highest homicide rate. Other developments in 2009 came to show that the crime severity index or CSI (a measure of the seriousness of police-reported crime) of Saskatchewan was reported as the highest followed by Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta.

Given the above data, it seems there are at least 5 cities rating high in the crime list. Nunavut ranks high in the crimes of homicide, assault, breaking and entering. Saskatchewan ranks high in homicide, assault and robbery. Manitoba ranks high in robbery, homicide, breaking and entering.

British Columbia ranks high in homicide, robbery, breaking and entering. While Alberta seems to rank low in other crimes, it has its prominent share of homicide and robbery. Given that homicide seems to be the most common crime committed in these cities of crime, this paper will attempt to address this issue by offering some possible solutions to avoid the commission of this crime. This paper will also attempt to device a strategy by which the success of these solutions may be measured.

Before addressing any problem, there is a need to look at the possible reasons for its existence. Why does the homicide rate exist and what is fuelling its existence? In order to answer this question, it is worth looking into the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia which finds itself on the number 1 spot for

having the most homicides per capita in 2009. Abbotsford's high murder rate is likely due to its popularity with gang leaders who have been engaged in a murderous turf war in recent years. Other realities suspected of playing a role in the high homicide rates reported is the attention given by the authorities to the wrong targets.

A report has shown that despite decades of mandatory handgun registration, the use of handguns to commit homicide has increased from 27% in 1974 to 66% in 2002. 2/3 of the accused for murder had a criminal record, while 73% of the 2/3 had been previously convicted (Breitkreuz).

Another interesting fact that may contribute to the homicide rates is that aboriginals, who make up 3% of the Canadian population, accounted for 21% of those accused of homicide. And yet, police have been internally instructed to no longer collect information on the aboriginal status of accused.

Other contributing factors on record: 68% of accused were on alcohol, drugs or both at the time of the offense. Lastly, 13% of the accused were mentally ill (Breitkreu).

Crime prevention strategy

A crime prevention strategy for homicide needs to take the above facts into consideration. First, there is a need to tighten gun sales to gang members. The sellers should be held liable with the users of unregistered guns incase the object of their sale is used for homicide. Second, repeat offenders should not be out on the streets. There needs to be a no-bail policy to make sure repeat offenders are not given another opportunity to commit the same crime. Third, it's baffling to learn that aboriginals contribute to the crime but are not being accounted for it. The 'internal policy' allowing this, needs to go.

Drug and alcohol addiction has also been shown to contribute overwhelmingly to the homicide rate. On this note, the government needs to step up its rehabilitation program and make sure that the people who pose a danger to the society should remain confined.

Lastly, there's the mentally ill who contribute a small but nevertheless visible portion to the homicide rate. People like this should not be out on the streets and the government needs to either guarantee their confinement to a psychiatric ward or hold their guardians liable for their actions.

Now, the question is: will these measures be effective? Let's see: if guns serve as a weapon to commit homicide, restricting its access will make it more difficult to commit the crime. If the criminals who commit the crimes are locked up and religiously guarded by authorities, they cannot roam the streets

to commit more crimes. Same goes for the drug addicts, the alcoholics and the mentally challenged.

If the police will thoroughly keep records on the people committing crimes, it will be easier to prosecute these people and keep them in jail. Of course, these are just predictions. Only time will tell if these measures will actually bring down the homicide rate.

Conclusion:

This paper zeroes in on the crime of homicide but, as the research has indicated, this is not the only widespread crime in Canada. There are many more property crimes, counterfeiting crimes, and more serious assaults that take place around the country. This research has also discovered that the regulations

on running after criminals need a makeover. The law needs to tighten its grip on erring residents if not citizens. Lastly, the authorities need to realize that they play an important role in preventing these crimes by not allowing the criminals to roam free.

References:

Abbotsford, B.C. is Canada's murder capital, again. (2010).

Breitkreuz, G. (2003). StatsCan Homicide Report Shows Right and Wrong Targets for Saving Lives.

Canadian Culture (n.d.)

Munroe, S. (n.d.). Canadian Crime Rates for 2003.

Police Reported Crime Statistics. (2009).

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. (2007).

Order ID 7987971003, ORDERED AND NOT WRITTEN BY KELLEN FETTER

Degree Paper - General Studies (Teaching)

I. INTRODUCTION: Plans for the degree/ reasons to take that direction

I plan to become a substitute teacher and an athletic director. Such a plan gives me the best of both worlds in the sense that it creates a variety in the kind of career I plan to have. Being a substitute teacher is an opportunity to not only impart knowledge but also to meet different students from all walks of life. This is an opportunity to meet a new face everyday, instead of going in an out of the same classroom everyday to be with the same students (of course, this kind of setting also has its advantages).

Being a substitute teacher is also a chance to study new subjects and learn new skills which perhaps go beyond the boundaries of a university education. After all, no one knows what kind of assistance the educational system will need. A background in Social Science and Humanities does not mean I cannot explore the world of home economics, graphic designing and, who knows, even portfolio creation if these subjects should ever be offered as electives in high school.

The bottom line is this: there are no limits to the opportunities open for a substitute teacher, while still allowing ample time to pursue other passions.

My other such passion is sports. My plan to become an athletic director would mean having a hand in the decision making process of what kind of sports are taught and played in schools, the development of varsity programs which students can participate in, the development of sports facilities which a school has at it's disposal, along with other things.

In comparison to the other aspects of education, physical education may be perceived as trivial...and this is the reason for the growing rate of obesity. Many schools have either lagged behind or become lenient in their physical education programs, while computer games take the front seat in extracurricular activities, side by side with a growing passion for burgers, hotdogs, and French fries.

I have spent some time working in my family's farm. The long days taking care of animals and running the fields taught me the importance of being physically fit and rising to the challenge of physical activity. Such an environment compelled me to burn off whatever I eat so I didn't have to worry about not getting enough exercise. But that would be the life of people who actually live and work in farms. It is not the life of typical students whose environment does not compel them to get on their feet and run a mile or two. Nevertheless, no one can guarantee that these students will not eventually end up in professions of high physical activity like the police force or fire fighting. Should a student ever be interested in these options, it would be good if they had the physical stamina to follow through. However, a laid back environment plus easy access to the refrigerator can spell health disaster ten or fifteen years down the road.

I am in no way implying that technological advancement is bad or that kids should be subjected to a strict diet of bread and water. What I am saying is that they need to start exercising to burn off what they are becoming accustomed to eat.

Geared towards this end, I plan to introduce programs to enhance physical education and wellness, perhaps starting with an increase on the number of hours children should spend on the track field. I would also encourage campaigns to disseminate information on good health habits, and the consequences of neglecting one's health. I would also step up varsity programs to accommodate the interests of students so they will be motivated to participate.

I was fortunate enough to be granted a football scholarship so I know the benefits that this kind of assistance can give students. While it is a lot of physical hard work and discipline to study while training, in the end the sacrifices are worth it.

However, I'm also aware that the world does not revolve around football. There are students out there who play other sports and they are good at what they do. I want to give them the options to use their skills to get them an education.

I was led to this direction by someone back home in Ohio who told me that I needed a teaching certificate to become a substitute teacher. As for the direction of becoming an athletic director, I simply love sports. Being an athletic director is a good way to be a part of it all without directly being involved in the job of a coach.

As for being a coach, I would love to coach football, basketball, and track someday. I think it would be a good stepping stone towards my ultimate goal. It will give me a chance to see what its like to be actually out there in the sports battlefield and having a direct hand in the strategic planning to win tournaments. I don't also mind having a direct hand in molding athletes and varsity players to be all that they can be in the field of sports.

While these are my plans, I am aware of the other possibilities that my areas of specialization can offer.

The subjects I took led to a better understanding of people and how they work. I can also explore the areas of social work, human relations and research and development which will lead me to deal with people on a more professional level rather than an academic level.

The wellness courses I took can lead me to the challenging but interesting role of being a life coach to people who feel they need to get their lives back on track. This line of work would mean dealing with less people at any one time, but it would also mean obtaining fulfillment from being able to get your fellowmen to break their self-defeating habits.

The subjects I took also led me to better understand my country's history, culture and government. This can allow me to explore the field of international relations and diplomacy. This should be a professional challenge on a whole new level since it could mean defending national interests in unfriendly territories.

There are also more laid back options to consider. The subjects I took also led me to a better appreciation of arts and music. Becoming a tour guide for a museum is one way to get other people to also appreciate the ramifications of human creativity. Becoming an art or literary critique for written publications is another option to share views and ideas on what constitutes good entertainment.

Again, the bottom line is that the possibilities are endless. The subjects covered by this course are so broad that they allowed a learning of a little about everything. While any field that I eventually decide to concentrate on will obviously require more intensive learning and training, the course itself has provided the tools to qualify for a number of different options.

II. FIRST DISCIPLINE: Education

My first area of emphasis is Education. This discipline was aimed at pursuing a teaching job in the future. This discipline was dedicated to understanding the learning process of people and understanding the nature of people.

The discipline of Education will help me in my future plans in the sense that it has helped me to understand the different ways people learn. This understanding will help me determine the right approach to take towards the different kinds of students I will be dealing with. The importance of the right approach cannot be emphasized enough given that the consequences of the wrong approach will be wasted time inside the classroom, a frustrated educator who feels there's a generation gap to close, and students who are probably going to be left scratching their head in bewilderment.

One of the courses I took was Child & Adolescent Development (EPSY-327). This was a subject that dealt with the development years of children. It dealt with the factors that influence the attitude of children, like the role of the family, the teachers and peers.

It also dealt with the awkward years of adolescence and the challenges that come with growing up, like peer pressure, hormonal developments and the increased responsibility with moving towards adulthood. The course also dealt with other external factors that influence child development like interaction among races, adoption and social welfare intervention to name a few examples.

I know for a fact that there are no limits to the kinds of students I might face as a substitute teacher. They can be toddlers today and a group of junior high students tomorrow. This course will help me in dealing with them on their different levels, while also reminding myself of the different challenges that come with growing up.

My work experience at the YMCA Learning Tree daycare taught me the importance of recognizing the differences among people as early as when they are children. The reason the daycare had different child care programs is because different children learn, study and play in different ways. It is important to cater to these differences so that each child can develop at his or her own pace and does not have to feel threatened by a seeming need to conform to one standard (okay, they have the rest of their adult lives to be exposed to this sometimes rude reality....). The same principle can be applied in the classroom - adapt approach to the student.

Another one of the courses I took was Intro to Persons W/ Exceptions (SPED-100). This was a subject that looked into the 2 extremes of human beings - the very intelligent and talented, and the mentally challenged. This subject leads into a deeper understanding on the different areas of intelligence, like mathematical, spatial and verbal, to site a few examples, and the prodigies who have excelled in these areas. On the other extreme, this course also brought an understanding into what causes idiots, imbeciles and mongoloids, to give a few examples of members who belong to this other extreme, and the kind of education they need to cope with the challenges in the society.

Should I ever run into these people who do not belong to the norms, this course will definitely come in handy. This course has led me to an understanding of people who belong to a different league. Whether they are the geniuses or the mentally challenged, I now realize that all they need is a little patience.

Another really enlightening course was Children's Literature (LIBM-205). This dealt with literature written or chosen for children and by children. It dealt with the different kinds of literature for children based on their age, which range from picture books, short stories, poems, dialogues all the way to fictional books for the older children. Aside from literary content, this subject also covered effective ways to present literature to children taking into consideration such differences as culture and language skills. These strategies included story telling, role playing, drawing to name a few examples.

Should I ever find myself in a situation where I need to pass the time reading a story to a group of 5 year olds, this course has taught me not to pick a book on science fiction with all words and no pictures. This course taught me the importance of choosing the right material for the group of students I will be facing.

III. SECOND DISCIPLINE: Humanities

My second area of emphasis is Humanities. This discipline was aimed at an appreciation for creativity. This discipline was also aimed at developing a sense of style and beauty, and a mind for constructive criticism.

The discipline of Humanities will help me in my future plans in the sense that it has brought me to the realization that learning takes a combination of mind and heart. The discipline of Humanities is a reminder that creativity is as important as knowledge, and this discipline will keep me grounded when I get too focused on what the books are saying. No matter what the subject is or who the students are, no learning is complete if the teacher expects students to bury their heads in the books and never encourages them to think outside the box. The discipline of Humanities is a reminder that humans are animals with instincts that should not be caged. Instead, these instincts should be nurtured to explore and improve the world.

One of my courses in the realm of Humanities was Music Appreciation (MUS-100). This offered not only the enjoyment for different kinds of music, but also the different kinds of music that came out of different cultures. This course dealt with the study of theory, classification, analysis and relevance of different kinds of music. In order to actually develop an appreciation for music, this course also required the learning of elements of a famous classical piece, the study of the composer and his contemporaries, and the historical context within which the music was composed. The main intent of this subject was to learn what to listen for, and listen critically.

Another course under this discipline was Introduction to Theatre (THEA-100). This course introduced the different strategies to understand and analyze performance. It dealt with both representational and non representational theater. It examined the utilization of both dramatic scripts and live performances. It also dealt with the different aspects of theater art and process like acting, designing, and music, to name a few. The activities for this subject included reading and analyzing plays, answering worksheets on their elements and discussion on what were analyzed.

Thanks to the courses of Music and Theater, I know my teaching options are not limited to books, blackboards and classrooms. I know I have the option to listen to the different kinds of music offered by the different instruments invented and continue to be reinvented. I know I have the option to turn a stage into a classroom and impersonate a Grammy winning actor.

Music has developed my ear for constructive criticism and I will not hesitate to share this ability with future students. If for no other reason, then at least so they can form their own opinion on the kind of music they prefer to listen to.

Theater developed my appreciation for acting and script reading. Aside from the importance of stage presence, this course brought me to the realization that the words on a script are deeper than they appear to be. Should I ever venture into the world of theater training, I know exactly what I want my students to discover.

IV. THIRD DISCIPLINE: Social Science

My third area of emphasis is Social Science. This discipline was aimed at an understanding of human interactions and addressing human weaknesses. This was a discipline that aimed to shed light on the rationale behind past events as a means of appreciating present developments. In the process, it also confronted everyday health and social problems with possible solutions.

The discipline of Social Science will help me in my future plans in the sense that it brought me to a better understanding of the world we live in. This understanding will bring me to realize the kind of students I have to mold so they can both fit in to the society and become useful citizens. This discipline has also taught me of the need to be aware that a society has a life of it's own. Through the years, we have seen groups of people evolving and developing to be what they are today. This awareness reminds me of the constant need for flexibility. And, in connection to being an educator, it is also a reminder that the standards of education which need to be reckoned with today, may not be the same tomorrow. Also along this line is the need to remember that change is good so long as students are nurtured to change for the better and not fall into the trap of bad influence.

One of my courses in Social Science included United States History II (HIST-152). This dealt with the events after the Civil War and reconstruction to the present. In between, it dealt with the reconstruction of the southern agricultural system, expansion and development of western railroads, the rise of industrialization and urbanization, to name a few. It placed a primary focus on the Christian foundation of the United States. It required an understanding of key historical events, analysis of historical evidence, and writing on both. This subject required a variety of sources for research.

Two other interesting courses were Western Civilization I and II (HIST-121/ 122) were 2 subjects that dealt with the start of western civilization, from the spread and migration of homo sapiens to the developments in the different parts of the western world, like the rise of different empires, developments of trade routes in Ancient Greece, the spread of Christianity, Islam and other faiths, and the conflicts that arose due to these different faiths, to name a few examples. These subjects also developed an appreciate for the different results of the mentioned developments in the form of democracy, individualism, proliferation of science, arts and sports and the creation of citizenship and a civil society.

These subjects were further enriched with a series of group and individual activities like the
presentation of reports, discussions on film showing sessions and debates on the different
developments and their effects on today's world.

Another course I took was Introduction to Sociology (SOC-100). This introduced the structures and dynamics of human behavior which interplay with one another within the society. This subject required the application of scientific method to the observation and conceptualization of social roles, class and culture. It also considered the processes of socialization, intergroup and collective transactions, and specific analysis of major institutions, population, social changes and trends.

Then there was American Government (POLS-100). This dealt with the construction of the American government and the various forms of government in the world, and the differences between government structures and economic systems. There was focus on the foundation of the American Republic, an overview of its constitution, the 3 branches of government which were established by the early advocates. These early advocates include the Federal system, the checks and balances strategy, and elements that cause the government to function. The subject also dealt with the role of the state governments, and compared these with the other governments of the world. This course required a lot of reading and research, and an analysis of the historical and political trends that influence present day politics.

The subjects of History, Sociology and Government should come in handy if ever I end up with some of the older students in junior and senior high. I am of the opinion that these students are at a level of their education wherein they need to develop some social consciousness. After all, they're just a few years shy of the voting age. It would be a shame for them to reach that age wherein they become a part of the decision making population and they do not have the ability to make sound decisions. It would be a failure on the part of their education if they are not trained to analyze issues and judge political candidates on what they can contribute for the future of the country.

I plan to use my own education to hone their communication and critical thinking skills by engaging them in discussions over different issues that plague the country, the outside world, and how these issues impact the future. In this manner, they will be compelled to confront the difficult questions and think for themselves in stead of just blindly following what the majority has to say.

Another thought provoking course was General Psychology (PSYC-101). This introduced the critical examination of behavior in humans and other life forms. It also dealt with the nature of psychology, biological foundations of behavior, perception, the ability to learn and memorize, language skills and thought processes, factors that affect motivation and emotion, developmental psychology, altered states of consciousness, personality, social psychology, psychopathology and psychotherapy, to name a few.

The course of psychology is always useful in any field which requires interacting with people. The school environment is no exception. Given the pressures and challenges in just about every level, I am sure that the need for student counseling is far from coming to an end.

This should be another course that will take me out of the mundane routine of the classroom and into the real jungle of the school playground. Should a bullied kid ever need a shoulder to cry on, or a graduating adolescent at the crossroads of his life trying to decide what discipline to pursue, my course in psychology tells me I can help them out by guiding them to an understanding of their own problems.

V. FORTH DISCIPLINE: Wellness

My forth area of emphasis is Wellness. This was a discipline that aimed to deal with the overall health of human beings. The courses focused on an understanding of human weaknesses from a social, mental and physical standpoint.

The discipline of Wellness will help me in my future plans in the sense that it has brought me to understand the many facets which compose the package of a human being. This discipline serves as a reminder that physical health and social development are important, and neglecting these aspects of one's life can defeat one of the purposes of teaching, which is to mold children into well rounded adults. Wellness addresses an aspect of human development which is often marginalized, like the effects of peer pressure, bullying, child abuse, divorce and other negative experiences that a human being may have been exposed to while growing up. The discipline of Wellness opens the door towards recovery and letting go. This may fascinate the world of education but it is a world that dedicates most of it's resources to academic development. Someone needs to pay attention to what no one else does so it might as well be me.

One of my courses under the discipline of Wellness was WEL-100 Wellness for Life (WEL-100). This course provided an overview of wellness topics, which are concepts geared towards becoming a totally healthy person. This concept included physical, mental and emotional health. The course covered topics like nutrition, self concept and social skills, to give a few examples.

This course was supplemented by Wellness Lab (WEL-100L). This combined physical fitness ideas with wellness concepts. This subject allowed the freedom to design and implement individual exercise programs designed for one's goals, needs and other habits. This subject was a combination of lectures and activities.

I think the above Wellness courses will enrich my role as a future athletics director. While the main role of an athletic director is to oversee the work being performed by coaches, this role does not have to be limited what goes on in the field. Many coaches fail to realize that sometimes poor team performance has its roots in the poor self esteem and social skills of their players. If this isn't an issue, there is still the issue of poor team performance due to bad nutrition or bad eating habits. These are issues which the discipline of Wellness can address. I plan to propose measures to develop good nutrition and eating habits among varsity players. For those who are a little behind in the social scene, I plan to propose programs to develop self esteem or programs to simply make them more comfortable with other people. These are issues which are never addressed but are nevertheless present one time or another. Another possibility to enrich varsity programs is to introduce team building activities for those teams who are a little challenged when it comes to unity and working towards the same goal.

Another course under Wellness is Philosophy, Concepts, Contemporary Issues in Coaching (PE-355). This dealt with the theory and practice of sports coaching. It also dealt with managing coaching problems, research strategies to further sports education, research design for sports exercises, sport leisure and recreation, to give a few examples.

I cannot begin to explain the importance of this course to my goal of becoming an athletic director. This is probably the course that will come in most handy in those situations where I need to have discussions with administrators on the need to develop sports education in a manner that will motivate more students to get into the habit of playing sports and away from the television set. This course will also come in handy in case I need to have 1 on 1 discussions with coaches on individual problems regarding different teams.

Lastly, I would like to make reference to the course of Prevent & Care of Athletic Injuries (PE-354). This dealt with the prevention of athletic injuries. It also developed the skill of familiarizing one's self with the symptoms of common athletic injuries and their possible means of treatment and care.

I see this as another course that can enrich my goal to becoming a future athletic director. While I cannot take the place of a doctor, I think this course will allow me to temporarily play the role of one should I ever be on the field and should there be an injury that needs to be immediately taken care of. I don't think an athletic director can ever totally relinquish the role of being a coach at the same time, and the latter role will always require taking care of team players.

VI. CONCLUSION: Relationship of the Areas of Emphasis: An explanation of how the four areas of emphases are related.

Social Studies, as the term implies, is a study about society. The course develops an understanding of the people who compose the society, their interactions with one another, and the influence that these transactions have on the developments within their communities.

A course in Humanities strengthens social studies in the sense that it leads to a greater understanding of human expression. Humanities are a reflection of what people consider beautiful and acceptable. Humanities help in understanding norms of a community since it is a reflection of what a community considers acceptable. By inference, Humanities can also determine what a community frowns upon.

The study of Social Studies and Humanities can complement each other since they both require a deeper understanding of people and their cultures. Social Studies has a more direct approach since it deals with the actual events which have shaped communities. Humanities has a less direct approach since the lessons it imparts about communities and people is reflected in the kind of art and literature they have. Nevertheless, this less direct approach of Humanities can give an understanding that the course of Social Studies cannot accomplish alone.

There are communities of people who prefer to keep to themselves, and it may be difficult to learn about them by merely looking into the facts and circumstances which compose their history. There are people who prefer to remain silent rather than voice out their opposition to the decisions made by their leaders. But these feelings may be reflected in their choice of art and literature via satire or other means - something a study of Humanities will explore but Social Studies will not.

So when does the study of Education come into the picture? Someone once said that it doesn't matter how much you know if, in the first place, you do not have the ability to share this knowledge with other people. To bring the point home, it doesn't matter how well you understand people if you don't know hoe to impart this knowledge to others. This is where the study of education comes in.

Education, again as implied by the term, means educating people. Sharing what one knows so that others will also know. The study of education will bring to life whatever was studied in Humanities and Social Studies. It will bring such knowledge to life in the sense that it will teach an individual the most effective way to impart the knowledge of Humanities and Social Studies. And, when knowledge is imparted effectively, it sticks to the minds of people and they act upon their knowledge by also sharing it with other people.

Once again, Education covers areas that Humanities and Social Studies do not. Education takes into consideration that human beings have different attitudes towards learning. People have biases which need to be considered in finding the most effective approach to get them to accept a lesson they need to learn. No matter how important or how interesting a historical event or a work of art is, if the subject is not taught in a way that effectively reaches into the hearts and souls of people, they will not appreciate it.

Another thing, I'm sure many people are just too familiar with this scenario: a math professor drones on and on about the three sides of a triangle, or the formula to arrive at X, or any other equally complex mathematical problem. Meanwhile, half of the class is having a siesta in dreamland.

Maybe the above scenario is an exaggeration (or math is a bad example. But replace the math professor with a history professor who's having a monologue about the Trojan war and it's the same difference). The point is, a course in Education teaches about the right approach, and this is an important lesson for the educator who wants to make time in the classroom worthwhile.

Now, where does Wellness fit into the whole picture? Well, again, someone once said: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
The discipline of Wellness brings the whole learning experience in full circle. Again, it has a focus that Education, Social Science and Humanities do not bother to touch on - the social and physical development of the human being.

I'm sure we are all familiar with that often exaggerated picture of a nerd: a thirty or so pound weakling, thick eye glasses, and a ton of books in his arms - this is an overdose of education. Then there is that exaggerated picture of the daydreaming musician or artist whose life either revolves around a guitar, a piano and a recorder, or a paintbrush - this is an overdose of humanities. Then there is that exaggerated picture of the all consuming, self absorbed student activist who is often found yelling for reforms at the top of his or her voice in the middle of the assembly area - this is an overdose of Social Science. While all of these characters are fictional, they reflect a very relevant truth - there are students in school who lack balance. They have become too absorbed in the road they have decided to take that they forget the other aspects of their personality that they need to develop. This is where the discipline of Wellness comes in to bring them back to earth.

A person who knows how to take care of his or her health doesn't have to bother with not feeling well and can focus more energy on appreciating the beauty of music and art in every corner, or can better address the problems that everyday life can throw in his path.

A well adjusted social human being can connect better with people. This connection is essential to reach out and teach others what one knows. This connection is essential in influencing others to think as one thinks and do as one does.

Therefore, Social Studies, Humanities, Education and Wellness is a necessary synergy. These 4 courses working together can create a combination of an individual who not only has a thorough understanding of how people and communities work but also an individual who has the energy and training to effectively share his knowledge with others.

This scenario in turn will create students who are armed with a complete knowledge of their history, their community, their norms and the charismatic personality to win the favor of other people. A proliferation of like individuals can move societies towards heights of unimaginable progress.

Order ID 7425752535, ORDERED AND NOT WRITTEN BY JISOO KIM

A Formal Letter to Judges to Reopen The Legal Case

To my esteemed colleagues:

More than 2 decades ago we disposed of a question in the case of DeShaney vs. Winnebago, on whether or not the state should be held liable for the permanent disability suffered by Joshua DeShaney due to the failure of the Department of Social Services (or DSS) to remove him from his father's custody despite repeated observations of abuse.

We ruled that the state was not liable on 3 grounds:

1. In the first place, the state is under no obligation to provide adequate protective services to its citizens;

2. There is no affirmative duty to protect in this case that was established at par with our
previous rulings, wherein it was shown that such duty arises when it is the state which
deprived its citizens with the liberty to protect themselves;

3. Not all cases of torts give rise to an affirmative duty to protect (upon reviewing the case, I noticed we failed to clarify exactly when torts cases equate to an affirmative duty to protect, this being one of the reasons for this letter).

Today, I would like to support the move to reopen the case on at least 4 grounds:

1. To claim that the state is under no obligation to provide adequate protective services to its citizens is a violation of, not due process, but the equal protection clause. This angle was dismissed because it was not raised in this case.

But the 5th Circuit of the Court of Appeals made a ruling on this point to the effect that it should not be used as an end-run around the DeShaney principle that the constitutional right to state protection does not cover acts carried out by a private actor (Conservapedia the Trustworthy Encyclopedia, 2008). This ruling implies that the lower court was put on notice on the substance of the issue on equal protection. Based on the ruling in Nelson v. Adams (99-502) 529 U.S. 460 (2000), this is sufficient preservation of a potential ground to be decided in higher courts.

Implicit from the present ruling, the state is only obliged to protect its citizens when it is the state imposing a limitation on freedom to protect one's self before the obligation to protect arises. But we need to address the question of whether such qualifying circumstance exists in the constitutional definition of equal protection which simply states: no State shall...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (14th Amendment, United States Constitution). Will ignoring this other clause of the constitution not defeat the ends of justice?

2. The cases sited to support the state obligation to provide protection are not on all fours with this case. As a matter of fact, the sited cases ignore 1 crucial point: Joshua DeShaney was a child in the custody of an abusive father. The situation cannot be compared to that of a prisoner in Estelle vs. Gamble or a mental patient in Youngberg vs. Romeo who are deprived of their liberty to protect themselves therefore the state has the obligation to protect them. What these cases are justifying is the state's inaction when it is not the reason for the citizen's predicament. But, going back to the first point, it ignores the fact that the state has an obligation to protect every citizen within its jurisdiction;

3. I am of the opinion that we were also wanting in response to the issue of whether or not a special relationship was created between Joshua DeShaney and the DSS when the latter came to know of the former's plight. As pointed out by the dissenting opinions of Justices Brennan et al, the DSS took action which was an expression of their willingness to help. This show of willingness created a special duty to protect which is enforceable under the due process clause. If we cannot agree with the dissenting Justices, then we should at least reopen the case to clarify how such actions taken by the DSS do not qualify as an assumption of control over the person of Joshua Deshaney, and that no special relationship to require protection existed. Another point which I believe requires a clarification is how can the state start to take on a vital duty then not follow through when there is no showing that what gave rise to the vital duty to begin with continued to exist. Let us not ignore that the DSS continued to see evidence of abuse but did nothing more than record it.

4. After so many years, I can no longer ignore the staggering implication of our 1989 ruling.

The Colorado case of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales (04-278) 545 U.S. 748 (2005) implied that
parents cannot protect their children from violations no matter how brutal. And whether parents are present or whether the children are at school, the state has no affirmative duty to help children. Parents and schools take measures to protect children because they are not in a position to protect themselves (Buchanan).

Women were also not spared from the implication of our decision. The rampant violence they
face 1 time or another compels them to run to law enforcement for assistance. Since law
enforcement has been given the freedom to respond as they please (or, to put it fastidiously, upon their discretion), these women's complaints have had the tendency to either get brushed off or ignored. And, of course, the violence raged on. In comparison to the 2 years before the Deshaney decision was made, law enforcement officials were made liable for withholding their assistance (Does Law Enforcement Have a Duty to Victims of Violence Against Women? 8 Key Legal Cases). Maybe its time to recognize that the vulnerability of women and children make them a special class that require a greater level of protection.

If the purpose of law is to protect those who need to be protected, and make sure that those assigned to protect actually carry out what they have been assigned to do, then the Deshaney ruling has terribly failed on these 2 counts. If the Deshaney ruling was made to strictly comply with the technical requirements of due process at the expense of equal protection, then in the end it also failed to attain justice by not looking at the entire picture painted by the Constitution.

Given the above reasons, I respectfully request that this motion be granted. Thank you.

(sgd.) Justice ***

References:

"Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights." The United States Constitution.

Buchanan, Betsy. "Innocence Lost and No Remedy to Be Found: A New Standard for Section 1983 Supervisory Liability in the Context of Sexual Abuse of Students in Public Schools." (n.d.).

"Castle Rock vs. Gonzales (04-278) 545 U.S. 748 (2005)." Cornell University Law School (n.d.).

"DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dep't of Social Servs." Conservapedia the Trustworthy encyclopedia. (2008).

"Does Law Enforcement Have a Duty to Victims of Violence Against Women? 8 Key Legal Cases." Women's Justice Center. (n.d.).

"Nelson v. Adams USA, INC. (99-502) 529 U.S. 460 (2000)." Cornell University Law School. (n.d.).

The Roles of Supervisors in Education

1. Theory of supervision

Sergiovanni believes that competence and virtue should be the main sources of authority, and should be supplemented by bureaucratic, psychological and technical-rational aspects. Hierarchical authority and psychological leadership are alternative strategies for supervision since there are no hard and fast rules which can apply to every setting (Brandt, 2006)

In his book, Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools, Sergiovanni explains the competencies which an effective leadership needs to develop:

Attention management - this is the ability to get others to focus on values, ideas, goals and purposes which bring them together and provide a reason for whatever goes on within the school. Attention is managed by leaders through what they say, what they reward or pay attention to, and the reasons they give for their decisions.

Meaning management - this is the ability to bring teachers, parents and students together in a sensible and valuable manner. Leaders should have the ability to connect the daily routines of school to the big picture that define who people are, what they are doing in school and why their participation is needed.

Trust management - this is the ability to create an impression of credibility, legitimacy and honesty. Aside from making decisions, it is important for a leader to be able to explain these decisions and link them to the school's vision.

Self management - this is the ability to understand one's own identity, beliefs and actions. This is an ability connected with practical intelligence, or the ability to know how things work and put this knowledge into action. A leader is said to have achieved self management when he can defend his actions in a manner that people will at least understand and respect his behavior even when they don't agree with it.

Paradox management - this is the ability to reconcile conflicting ideas, like giving adolescents the independence they yearn for and a venue for discipline when needed, or involving parents without sacrificing the school's autonomy. Paradox management becomes easier when leaders are guided by ideas, values and visions of the common good.

Effectiveness management - this is the ability to monitor the development of a school in a manner that it improves performance over time. This requires an understanding of how school success is understood and measured. School success requires effective management to get results. It also requires learning and cultivating relationships. Learning leads teachers to discover more about their profession and to discover more efficient ways to reach success. These result to improved practice as a teacher.

Responsibility management - this is the ability to get people to internalize values and purposes that creates the obligation for them to satisfy commitments to the school and to each other. People are motivated by what they feel is their duty to do. Once this feeling of obligation is instilled, people act even when it means making a sacrifice in personal terms. The motivational tool of duty and obligation are stronger than gain or pleasure because it can sustain itself.

Aside from these competencies, Sergiovanni also emphasized the need for moral commitment, and its priority over psychological leadership. To get his point across, he made an example of a leader who is psychologically strong but fails to lead his people anywhere because, if there is anything a leader of this kind is good at, it is lead people towards the wrong direction (Brandt, 2006).

Sergiovanni also believes that an emphasis on leadership downgrades professionalism. He would prefer to face the challenge of nurturing more leaders so there will be less worry over who are leaders and who are not (Brandt, 2006). In other words, he believes that everyone has the potential to be a leader. If this potential was developed in every individual, then everyone can play the role of a leader whenever the role is called for. There won't be the need for the hierarchy found in traditional forms of leadership. But, more importantly, there will be less finger pointing when it comes to taking responsibility because everyone is accountable for their own actions.

2. Philosophy of education and supervision

Sergiovanni defines leadership in education by starting with what it is not - it is not about 1 person coming up with a slogan then claiming that it is the school's vision. Going back to his idea about nurturing more leaders, he advocates the idea of every member of the faculty bringing to the table their own unique concepts. These unique concepts combined become the idea structure for the school. While these concepts may be different from what the principal considers ideal, what Sergiovanni banks on is the belief and passion that these faculty members have from knowing that they were an authority in arriving at the school's vision (Brandt, 2006).

What Sergiovanni is trying to pull away from is this manner of supervision which can be likened to a one-man show. He advocates cooperation and collaboration from the conception of policies all the way to its implementation.

Sergiovanni likens the school to a community within a society, and it serves as an alternative community for those youths who do not belong to one. In the latter, the school leaders play a vital role by serving, following and inviting others within their school to share in the responsibilities of leadership. Through this process, schools become a 'communities of mind' because of shared ideas, ideals and purposes (Leadership discussion: Sergiovanni in Victoria, 2005). In other words, the school should be like a family which the students should be able to come home to and express their ideas and reconcile these with the other members in the school. The role of school leaders is to bring more people into the school so their community can grow. As it grows, then more people will play a role in the development of the school.

3. Mission and vision

At the heart of Sergiovanni's theory of school leadership are moral connections rooted in cultural norms. He wrote that moral connections stem from the duties accepted by teachers, parents and students and the obligations they feel towards their community. These obligations result from a commitment to share values and beliefs.

Sergiovanni believes that moral connections should be at the core of building communities in schools. In order to accomplish this end, schools should move towards the goals of:

increasing the sense of family, neighborliness, and collegiality among faculty members:

becoming a professional community by getting everyone to care about each other, help each other, learn and lead together;

cultivating a school-parent relationship wherein parents are included in the growing community (The Developer, 1997).

What Sergiovanni is envisioning is a synergy of teachers and parents to aid in the creation and growth of a community in schools. While this is a goal intended for the benefit of the students, the teachers will also be benefited because the cooperation from parents and their fellow teachers can aid in alleviating the challenging task of teaching students. The fact that a school is not just a learning venue but also a community implies that teachers also play a role in raising the students to become adults. The task of raising the children is not only left to the parents, and the task of teaching is likewise not left to the teachers - thus, a convenient synergy is created.

4. Roles I will assume as a supervisor in a school

As a supervisor, you will assume the role of a head follower. A head follower engages others in conversation because this is the means to generate ideas. You will not engage in one way communication in the form of directives, reminders and reprimands (Sergiovanni, 2001).

As a supervisor, you will act as a model for your followers. You will do this by supporting teachers, leading discussions, assisting meetings and be careful with your use of language and display of attitude (Sergiovanni, 2001).

As a supervisor, you need to display humility in your decision making process. You can do this by reasonably procrastinating through the use of trial and error techniques. Another strategy is to stagger the implementation of decisions through gradual changes and getting feedback as a means of checking progress (Sergiovanni, 2001). In other words, policies should not be implemented with finality. There should always be room for improvement and negotiation with those people who do not quite agree with the policies, or the people who can offer ideas to improve their implementation.

Sergiovanni frowns upon dictatorship as a means of supervision. He advocates the strategy of communication as this is the means by which a supervisor can get to know the norms of the school which he or she is a part of. At the same time, there is also the need to play the role of a leader by guiding teachers towards their individual goals and showing initiative to assist during discussions.

5. Methodology

Sergiovanni calls for the need to scrap evaluation systems. He says that the reason they don't work is because after teachers have been observed for a couple of hours and no one is observing them any longer, they will continue to teach in a manner that makes sense to them according to the norms. Norms are connected to the cultural side of life and not the managerial side. So there needs to be new management and leadership practices that acknowledge this truth (Brandt, 2006).

Another reason why evaluation systems don't work is because of the ever changing circumstances in every classroom. What may work for 1 group may not work for another group. So having an evaluation system which is used for all circumstances will just leave an inaccurate and, maybe even unfair, assessment of a teacher and a class.

Strategies and action plans need to be planned and executed on a daily basis. These plans should address what needs to be done by whom and when. These plans should identify specific training needs.

With regard to supervision, a system to monitor everyday activities and provide in-class and on-call professional assistance need to be in place. Action plans should also address the kind of assessment needed and the daily steps that need to be taken to realize the action plan (Sergiovanni, 2005).

Going back to the competencies of leadership (see part 1), school leaders should master the competency of effectiveness management and be good at following up. This requires detailed, careful and continuous supervision with an emphasis on learning and an assessment on whether or not this learning is being achieved (Sergiovanni, 2005).

Superintendents and other key officials need to be involved in the daily task of implementation. They should play a part in professional development training. Learning walkthroughs should become their weekly routine rather than an occasional thought. They need to visit schools and classrooms to acquire a firsthand impression on the progress being made (Sergiovanni, 2005).

The responsibility to follow up must not be delegated otherwise the implementation of quality, no matter for how long, will eventually be abandoned. Teacher leadership is also critical to successfully follow up how things work and not simply how things look (Sergiovanni, 2005).

For the effects of implementation to be permanent, it is important that follow ups be done by the key leaders. This is a task which they may share with the teachers who they are also training to become leaders. This idea of sharing is based on the reality that sometimes superintendents need to address more pressing matters outside the implementation of school policies. But by the end of the day, it is important that the key leaders of the school have an accurate and primary idea of where the school is and where it is headed. Sharing and delegation are not the same since the latter implies an abandoning of responsibility to someone else.

6. What would I do with curriculum?

Schools need to respond to the growing complexity of public life. Schools need to produce graduates who are enlightened on public issues which confront the nation, and how to participate in political discussions (Sergiovanni, et al., 1998). This means that a curriculum and instructional methodology needs to employ experiential processes to reach a school's academic achievement standards. There might be a need to play it by ear for a while to determine what works and what doesn't in line with the school's standards. But, in the long run, this trial and error approach is better than sticking to a curriculum that has lost its ability to reach the objectives set by the school.

In order for education to address the nation's problems, it needs to enhance the students' reasoning ability, inquiry skills, and rational problem solving. A student with these abilities will equate to a citizen who will use the power of knowledge to decide the best direction to take as he travels the continuously developing world. Sergiovanni bases this assumption on the Socratic principle of knowledge equals virtue - if your knowledge is deep enough, you can think clearly enough to do what is right (Sergiovanni, et al., 1998).

So what should be done with a curriculum? It should be developed towards the above goals. It should advocate books and other reading materials that advocate social consciousness and awaken nationalism. At the same time, it should encourage activities like debating, role playing, music, art and other manifestations of creativity so that students can have a venue for the expression of their knowledge.

A curriculum should encourage the collection of knowledge but should not end there. Students should be allowed to explore venues outside the classroom like public libraries, museums, banks, factories and other places. Educational tours should be encouraged and students should be made to process the significance of these tours to their overall education.

7. Hiring practices

Sergiovanni advocates the idea that in order to transform schools into real learning communities for students, these schools also have to be learning communities for teachers. The adults who teach in schools need to be actively engaged in the learning process by inquiring and encouraging problem solving (The Developer, 1997).

With this principle in mind, it is important to hire teaching staff that are open to questions and encourage students to solve problems while also guiding them in the process. Schools should hire teachers who see learning as a 2 way process, and not simply an environment where they speak and everyone else listens.

During hiring interviews, schools need to ask teachers questions in the nature of:

how would you describe your teaching approach?

how do you feel about students asking questions?

how would you encourage students to explore the answers to their own questions without making them feel abandoned?
These questions and others of similar nature can gauge if the teacher applying for a teaching position has the right attitude to support the goal of creating a learning community.

8. Professional development

Sergiovanni came to the conclusion that the organizational principles that govern corporations in the business world cannot be used to govern schools which are sprinkled with children, books and sandboxes. He likened schools to families and small communities. What are needed are the right substitutes for parents and casual leaders, not traditional leaders or dictators (Brandt, 2006).

Teacher development must be the priority in school improvement. This means that management systems, organizational patterns, and teacher growth strategies must take the following factors into consideration:

the need to adapt to individual differences among faculty members:

the need to encourage teachers to reflect on their own practices;
the need to prioritize open dialogue among teachers;
the need for a venue that allows collaborative learning among teachers;
the need to create a caring attitude;
the need to create awareness for a moral response to one's work.

Sergiovanni says that in order for permanent change to come about it must be based on norms and not rules. The tools for such permanent change include professional socialization, shared values and purposes, collegiality, and natural interdependence (The Developer, 1997).

In other words, it's time to abandon the old tradition of rules which are followed so long as someone is watching. If the people who need to follow the rules are allowed to play a role in their creation, then there is no reason for them to disobey their own rules. There is no reason for them to disobey the rules which they believe in, and the rules which they have committed to follow.

References:

Brandt, Ron. (2006). On Rethinking Leadership: A Conversation With Tom Sergiovanni.

Office of Learning and Teaching, Department of Education and Training. (June 2005). Leadership Discussions: Sergiovannin in Victoria. (Issue no. 3).

Sergiovanni, Thomas. (2001). Leadership: Whats in it for schools?

Sergiovanni, Thomas. (2005). Strengthening the Heartbeat: Leading and Learning Together in Schools, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pgs. 142-149

Sergiovanni, T.J. & Starratt, R.J. (1998). Supervision: A redefinition (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

The Developer. (1997, February). Community Must Guide School Reform, Says Sergiovanni. National Staff Development Center.

yet another 1.....more to come!

A custom-written book report on the book, How Did You Do It, Truett?

Order ID 2644922382

I. Truett's Story:

a. What was your favorite story Truett tells in the book and
why? How did that story have any bearing on the success of this CEO and his company?

My favorite story is the one about opening new stores and franchising his company. He would only allow 1 operator per Chick-Fil-A branch to make sure they were available to manage the business 24/7. He also required someone who was integrated with the community.

The reason I liked this story so much is because I think it is very relevant to today's business environment. Given the current financial crisis, multitasking as a means of cost cutting has become the trend. Consequently, managers end up spreading themselves too thin, sometimes at the expense of business

operations. I also liked the fact that Truett recognized the need for integration into a community. With regard to being responsible for a new franchise, it's difficult to tailor a store to fit a new place without knowing anything about the place. Every store has to fit in with the people it will be catering to, otherwise it's not going to have too many customers.

This story contributed to his success as a CEO in the sense that he did not try to do too many things at the same time. Every aspect of his job always got his undivided attention at a particular time. I think this value of integration into a community is manifested in his attitude of listening to people and giving them what they want, which was reflected in the earlier part of the book.

b. Of all the advice Truett gives in his book, what piece of advice did you most take to heart? How do you think you could apply this advice in your life right now, as well as in the future?

I don't think there is a better advice than the Golden Rule itself. This really hit home with the fact that Chikc-Fil-A is closed on Sundays and the employees are not required to work. Many companies today close on a Sunday for religious reasons but require their employees to report for that day.

I think this advice will always be applicable to remind me to be considerate of other people and to respect them as I would respect myself. If there is some dirty job I want done but don't want to do, most likely neither will anyone I pass it on to. This advice is definitely applicable when we are tempted to blame other people for whatever goes wrong be it at work, school or home without considering what we did wrong. This advice is about empathizing with our fellowmen and trying to understand how we would feel if we were put in a situation we don't want to be in.

II. Chick-Fil-A's Success Story:

a. Truett discusses many "mantras" or ways of doing business that can be seen at any Chick-Fil-A restaurant. Which of these policies, or "mantras" do you think delivers the most value to their external and/or internal customers? Why?

The policy of offering free meals goes a long way. Again, I cannot help but point out the financial crisis and how this kind of value added service can help customers and clients. This definitely makes Chick-Fil-A stand out amidst the other restaurants which are either downsizing their people or their servings. I see no reason why Chick-Fil-A customers and clients would opt to go anywhere else when they see how well they are treated by this 1 company.

b. Based on information from the book as well as outside information (optional), to what do you attribute the success of this company? Be specific and give examples where appropriate. This company is successful mainly because of the personal relationship that Truett managed to build with his operators. He respects opinions, he engages in dialogues to arrive at the right decision for the whole company. This attitude of making his leaders feel involved and important is what keeps them around in the long term.

Truett also believed in luck but was not sidetracked into believing that this was going to be the be all and end all of his success. In other words, he believes in luck. And he found that the harder he works, the luckier he gets. Hard work matters and this was evident from the way Chick-Fil-A upholds quality and cleanliness in their products.

Last but not the least, Truett trusted in a higher power to show him the way. He was not arrogant enough to believe that he alone was the reason for his success. He kept Chick-Fil-A closed on Sundays to make sure everyone acknowledged the presence of God. c. Do you believe that Chick-Fil-A is an ethical company and please support your answer.

Definitely. I will never forget these lines: there is no such thing as business ethics, there is just personal ethics. Business ethics are just a reflection of your personal ethics. I think what makes Chick-Fil-A an ethical company is the very strict selection when it comes to managers and employees. People are hired based on their 'servant leadership' and willingness to treat others with the highest respect possible. Cathy emphasized the value of going the second mile, going above and beyond

expectations, and serving from the heart. Ethics start from the top and it starts from the people who have it. A company cannot expect it's people to behave ethically if they don't have a good example to look up to.

d. Take one topic covered in class and examine its application at Chick-Fil-A, based on information found in the book. For example, if you choose the topic of research, how did Chick-Fil-A conduct research when launching its product? You may choose branding, distribution, relationship marketing, or any other topic we've discussed over the course of the semester.

I choose relationship marketing. As far as Chick-Fil-A is concerned, I think this will also overlap with research. Chick-Fil-A established relationships with customers and clients by finding out what they like. There was a portion of the book which explains how nuggets came to be a part of the menu and not just part of the party platter - because Truett talked to customers and found out that this is what they wanted. Conducting informal interviews and surveys is a way of researching to gather data. At the same time, letting a customer know that a company is interested in learning about their demands so these demands can be satisfied creates the long term connection that relationship marketing aims for.

III. Conclusion:

a. Your reaction to the book - Did you like it? Hate it? And why?

It was a beautiful book. I would recommend it to any entrepreneur who believes that he can claim to be an ethical person while pulling all sorts of stunts to evade liability to employees, customers and even the law. This book is a reminder that a business is a juridical person composed of real persons. A juridical person has no soul but the real persons composing it have.

What makes this book so appealing is it's far reaching implications. While it was intended to be for business people, it has stories which apply to ordinary people as well. It teaches ordinary people the value of hard work, faith, and believing in what other people have to offer. If there is any criticism I can offer for this book, it is the

lack of depth on public relations and management tactics. Again, it is intended for business people, and I think it would have helped them more if Cathy gave specific tactics on how to lead people within the world of restaurants and headquarters.

ANOTHER ONE OF MY MASTERPIECES...AN ONGOING DISSERTATION..

Improved Techniques in securing Intelligent vehicular Ad Hoc Networks.

Order No. 1921421326, ORDERED AND NOT ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY Patrick Sevwou

Literature review:

Vehicular ad hoc networks (or VANETs) face a variety of risks with the services they provide.

The 2 most common risks are in the aspects of security and privacy.
With regard to security, VANETs can be exploited to send out bogus information and cheat other
vehicles. This may be done for the purpose of either clearing up one's own way or throwing
another vehicle out of its way by means of false traffic reports. Criminals and terrorist can send
out false information to other vehicles for the purpose of blocking police cars or creating
collisions through conflicting traffic reports. Needless to say, this can lead to losses in property
and lives (Zhang).

On the aspect of privacy, VANETs allow access to information on speed, status, trajectories and
locations of the vehicles within its range. This kind of information may be exploited by observers
to draw conclusions about a driver's personality, lifestyle and social relationships. This kind of
information may be further traded in underground markets exposing both vehicles and drivers to
harassment, blackmail and other dangers (Zhang).

There are also some technical challenges that need to be addressed:

- The lack of a centralized infrastructure for synchronization and coordination in the
transmission of messages equates to an excessive use of bandwidth;

- The current decentralized and self-organizing networks are subject to high node mobility,
solution scalability requirements and a variety of environmental conditions;

- The radio channels used in VANETs, which are necessary for wireless communications, create
weak and bad quality signals;

- The networks within a VANET have to operate with many different brands of equipment and
vehicle manufacturers, which is difficult without standard communications;

- Safety related information need to be processed and exchanged quickly;

- The node to node connections leave nodes dependent on other nodes to make decisions, and leave any node in a position to ask for information or distribute the same depending on the situation (Vehicular ad hoc networks call for papers).

There have been a few solutions proposed to address some of the above issues. However, none of
these solutions are full proof and leave other issues still to be addressed.

Efficient and secure threshold-based event validation - this means that the number of vehicles
reporting an event will be limited. Many applications rely on a threshold for the purpose of
reaching an agreement among the vehicles involved, to determine the validity of a report and to
prevent the abuse of emergency alarms (Hsiao et al, 2011).

VANET alert endorsement via multisource filters - this means proposing a security model
wherein spurious messages can be weeded out from the legitimate ones. This model leverages
multiple sources of information which become a part of a multi-source detection model that
alerts drivers only after a percent of sources come to an agreement. This filtering model has 2
main components - a threshold curve and a Certainty of Event (or CoE) curve. The first refers to
the importance of a report to a driver depending on his position, while the second refers to the
confidence level put on received messages. When the CoE goes beyond a threshold, an alert is
triggered (Kim et al, 2010).

Privacy preserving VANET - this is a mechanism for authenticating messages, and separating the
legitimate from the illegitimate vehicles. A Public Key Infrastructure (or PKI) can satisfy these
functions via certificates and fixed public keys. A Temporary Anonymous Certified Keys (or
TACKS) is recommended to prevent eavesdroppers from linking to a vehicle's different keys,
promptly removing misbehaving drivers while not adding to the overhead for communication
among vehicles (Studer et al, 2009).

DOS Resilient VANET authentication - in the past, TESLA was used as an alternative to
signatures. It used symmetric cryptography with delayed key disclosure. This was to provide the
needed asymmetry to prove that the sender and the source of the message were the same. Symmetric cryptography is faster than signatures, thereby making TESLA immune to computational DOS attacks. The same cannot be said for memory-based DOS attacks. In the

latter, receivers store data until the corresponding key is disclosed. Attackers can send out a
million invalid messages with no corresponding key disclosure thereby polluting the receivers.
The TESLA++ was proposed to address the need for reduced memory requirements (Studer et al,
2008).

Now there is the VAST (or VANET Authentication using Signatures and TESLA++). This joins
the benefits of Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (or ECDSA) signatures for fast
authentication and non repudiation, and TESLA++ which avoids any kind of Denial of Service
attacks. These developments did not come cheap (Studer et al, 2007).

Authentication of location claims - the physical location of a sender is said to be as important as
their cryptographic identity. With this in mind, VANET safety applications have 2 new
requirements: Convoy Member Authentication (or CMA) and Vehicle Sequence Authentication
(or VSA). These properties verify if a sender is driving with or is in front of a receiver. It has
been claimed that these properties can detect a range of attacks and further serve as a warning for
any security threats (Studer et al, 2007).

Some solutions have also been proposed on the sharing of data within VANETs.
Packet routing needs to be replaced by a new system of information routing. Destination of
information need to be defined. The dissemination destination idea has to reckon with the
limitations of time, space and vehicles.

There is a need to devise push strategies, where vehicles push data to their neighboring vehicles
so other vehicles can easily access such data when necessary. These strategies in turn need to
consider the impact to data caching and aggregation.

Because each vehicle is in a position to generate a traffic report, there is a need to combine
duplicate traffic reports while in the process of propagation so as to reduce the overhead for dissemination.
A transmission schedule needs to be created to make sure reports meet each other at the fork of a
routing tree. But a fixed routing structure is not feasible. Instead, rebroadcasting has been
suggested as a better alternative. But this is only possible in the exchange and dissemination of
local information and has not yet been developed to accommodate city-wide dissemination (Yu,
Xu, 2010).

Methodology:

This is a thesis that aims to discover improved techniques to secure VANETs from attacks
1st, there is a need to understand the different kinds of attacks that VANETs are subjected to.
Research has revealed 2 very prominent aspects - security and privacy. There are other more
technically related issues which first need to be understood before they can be addressed.
2nd, there is a need to look into the present solutions to secure VANETs from attacks and the
weaknesses of these solutions or what other attacks they fail to counter
3rd, in line with the weaknesses of the present solutions and the remaining threats that these
solutions cannot address, propose solutions that will address the above issues.
4th, conduct experiments to prove the soundness of the proposals in the 3rd step.
As reflected by the above steps, the methodology should be evaluative in nature. This thesis
needs to look at the current solutions already in place for a problem, what are the weaknesses in
these solutions and what can be done to address these weaknesses.

The research method also has to apply the qualitative approach because there are still some technical issues that VANETs are exposed to and not yet fully understood. There is a need to conduct surveys allowing open-ended responses from drivers to discover what these technical issues are. These open-ended responses will allow drivers an opportunity to explain their plight and allow a better understanding into their problems on the road.

At the same time, the quantitative approach needs to be applied in understanding the weaknesses of the solutions that are currently in place. Once new solutions are proposed, there will be a need to compare how these new solutions measure up to the old solutions.

There have been many case studies for previous researches. One is the vehicular mobility traces of Portland, Oregon conducted at the Los Alamos National Laboratories (or LANL) to evaluate flat and opportunistic infrastructure routing (Marfia et al). Another case study, which did not zero in on a particular group, employed the use of peer-to-peer video conferencing systems via the internet (Hossain et al). A suggested course of action would be to go back on these groups or studies and explore the success rate of the results, and offer suggestions on the weaknesses the studies revealed.

The ethical requirement that this project needs to comply with is the security and the anonymity of the participants. The surveys required to satisfy the qualitative approach need to be conducted in a manner that the participants will not have to reveal their identity. The quantitative approach which will require a look into previous studies and their results need to be discussed without being too specific as to betray the identity of the sample groups.

At this point, it is too early to suggest software. There is a need to suggest improvements to the current solutions, after understanding the weaknesses of the current solutions. Then looking for a software that can accommodate the suggested improvements can begin.

Research proposal:

As the literature review above indicates, vehicular ad hoc networks are exposed to a variety of
risks in carrying out the functions for which they were created. Some measures have been put in
place to assure the security within vehicular ad hoc networks. However, these measures leave a
lot of improvements to be made and there are still many security issues left unaddressed.
This research paper aims to look into these measures and examine why they fail to provide the
utmost security needed. Geared towards this end, this research will include analyses into the
weaknesses of current security systems, and the consequences of such weaknesses.
Upon finding an answer to these queries, this research will look into some possible solutions to
further improve the security measures which have already been implemented in the past.

After another month of delayed payment, I have decided to display a sample of my masterpiece....hey! bear with me, I need an out.....

Celmacch Company - Strategy Paper

Celmacch to take emerging markets by storm!

Paper ID 8426145654, ORDERED AND NOT ORIGINALLY WRITTEN BY Luca Celotti

1. RECOGNISE THE OPPORTUNITY:

A. DEVELOP AN IDEA:

The concept of developing an idea includes detailing the steps towards which an initial idea will move towards. It also includes exploring the potential of the initial idea. In this case, the initial idea is doing business in China.

Celmacch is eyeing China for the production of their new flexo printing machine. While the rest of the world is plagued by the financial crisis, total packaging output in China was given a ballpark figure of US$125 billion (RMB860 billion). The country's lower costs have been a luring force for manufacturing and production activities from across many industries. Global manufacturing is expected to continue migrating towards China, and the rest of Asia, over the next few years (Wong, P).

China has 3 key production regions which contribute greatly to corrugated packaging production: The Pearl River Delta region (Guangdong, Fujian) produces a total of 550-600 million tons of corrugated carton annually; Yangtze River Delta, (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui) has an annual corrugated production contribution of 550 million tons; and Bohai Sea Area (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong) has an annual production capacity that reaches 500 million tons (Wong, P).

B. TRIGGER EVENTS:

Trigger events refers to the concept that there are prevailing circumstances in the market which serves as the basis to move towards a certain direction. In this case, towards the direction of China as the following paragraphs will reflect.

The increased demand for accuracy and customization in the carton packaging market has led to the popularity of die-cutting equipment. The development in the packaging and printing industries led to the need for automatic stitchers and gluers as a response to rising labour costs.

Chinese carton factories look for high speed, wide width, and high performance coupled with the latest technological advances when purchasing corrugated packaging production lines.

Corrugated boxes need to compete against reusable plastic shipping crates and other types of plastic packaging. This, however, is a minor threat. First, corrugated boxes have an environmentally friendly reputation. Second, old corrugated boxes may be disposed off to recycling companies, instead of the cleaning and returning costs that plastic crates are subjected to (World Corrugated Boxes Market).

Some players in the industry like Boix, Serra, Insun, Tangcheng Machinery, Godswill Paper Machinery, Shanghai Eterna, Shenyang Jinchuan, Shanghai Jiayi and Shanghai Hongjing are promoting energy-saving products to promote environment friendly production options (Overview of Latest Technologies and Manufacturers in Corrugated Cardboard Manufacturing Industry 2011).

C. PRE-START PLANNING AND PREPARATION:

Pre-start planning and preparation is the concept of defining the steps which need to be taken before business can commence. These include the behind the scenes ideas which a company is considering for the business. In this case, the main plan is to partner with a Chinese company for the production of a new flexo printing machine.

As a small company, Celmacch does not have the resources to build a factory. The solution is to partner with another company - this is where China comes into the picture.

Celmacch's plan is to partner with a Chinese company for the production of their new flexo printing machine. They also plan to give their Chinese partner the opportunity to sell this product in Asia in exchange for a royalty commission.

D. ENTRY AND LAUNCH

The concept of entry and launch includes the actual implementation of the ideas formed and plans detailed for the business to start. This is where the entrepreneurial team comes into the picture to carry out the marketing plan for the company.

As Celmacch translates it's plans into action, the company's entrepreneurial team will begin the process of exploring the available resources in China (see MARSHAL RESOURCES for more details) .

The entrepreneurial team will aim to address the issues that the global corrugated carton industry is currently facing. The global corrugated carton industry needs to address production costs and the supply of comprehensive services. There is also the need to address safety issues and reconcile globalization with standardization (Wong, P). Lightweight, quantification, resource saving and cost reduction - this is the expected future of corrugated carton as a result of scientific and technological development (Overview of Latest Technologies and Manufacturers in Corrugated Cardboard Manufacturing Industry 2011).

E. ESTABLISH AND GROW AN ENTERPRISE:

The concept of establishing and growing an enterprise refers to the next step after launching the business. It answers the questions of what the company has to offer and how it can use the resources of it's partners to further expand the business.

Celmacch's plan has the following key strengths:

1. The new flexo printing machine will satisfy the need for cost reduction without sacrificing quality;
2. Celmacch is subject to the rules of an organization which not only aims to protect the environment but also upholds consumer health and safety;
3. Celmacch is providing China with the opportunity for business expansion with it's Asian neighbours while also imparting technical knowledge.

The launch of this planned partnership will allow Celmacch to grow it's enterprise beyond it's European comfort zone and into the emerging market of Asia.

2. MARSHAL RESOURCES

Celmacch, though it is a small company, has its own marshal resources allotted for this partnership. The company has invested in a lawyer who will pave the way for the negotiations and eventually create the agreement for the concerned parties. Celmacch also has a highly developed level of technology which it is in a position to impart to the future Chinese staff via training. Lastly, Celmacch has allotted resources for advertising in order to make the company and it's products known to the Chinese market.

While Celmacch is obliged to manage their limited resources very carefully, it also has a team of different members who have the capacity to bring in different resources and other forms of entrepreneurial capital.

REFERENCES

Marketing or safety driven, traceability has key role to play in the future. [online].

Overview of Latest Technologies and Manufacturers in Corrugated Cardboard Manufacturing Industry. [online].

Wong, Philip. Asian Corrugated Case Association: Industry Profile.

World Corrugated Boxes Market. [online].