American Military history Essay

American Military history is filled with examples of complex operations executed with varying degrees of success. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The most complicated of these missions typically involve multi-phase implementation. The success of multi-phased missions is typically contingent on the actions of multiple agencies, which as a matter of course must interact throughout the duration of the mission. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Historically, the nature of the interaction between various agencies with vested interest in the success of given operations has been varied. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The overall success of such operations is contingent upon many factors, not the least of which is a high level of cooperation between agencies. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The reasons for operational failures in complex missions are many and varied, but the lack of cooperation between agencies is one reason that is inexcusable and preventable through proper training. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Background: The Iran Hostage Rescue Mission of 1980 is one of numerous examples of American attempts to rescue hostages that ended in complete or partial failure. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Up to that point, the record of American military and paramilitary forces in executing successful missions against relatively soft targets had been poor. A facile explanation of this trend would be a lack of proper training and poor execution by the soldiers, sailors and airmen on the ground, but the facts do not support this hypothesis. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) In all cases, the failures of hostage rescue missions lay in the planning and command-chain difficulties that compromised the discretion of the assets on the ground. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Task Force Baum in 1945 was a POW rescue mission commanded by General George S. Patton. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Their mission was to rescue 200-300 POW’s being held by the Germans behind enemy lines. As a result of poor intelligence, the Task force encountered no fewer than 1500 POWs, whom they rescued. The larger number of rescuees compromised Task Force Baum’s exit strategy. As a result, all the POWs and nearly 300 of the rescuers were killed. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The failure in this case was not on the ground, but with faulty intelligence, a problem that would become thematic in accounts of mission failures as time went on. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Another example of bad intelligence compromising a mission took place in 1970. A rescue team led by Col. Bull Simmons and consisting of fifty-six Special Forces units was dispatched into north Vietnam for the purpose of liberating a POW camp at Son Tay. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The assault force ended up attacking a camp that had been emptied of prisoners for at least one month. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) In yet another example of intelligence failure, the U. S. Marines attempted to rescue the crew of a captured cargo ship in 1975. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) The opposing force in this case was the Cambodians, and the operation centered on Koh Tang Island, where the hostages were thought to be held. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) After a coordinated assault on the island cost nearly seventy casualties (eighteen dead or missing), it was discovered that the hostages had already been released and were, at the time of the assault, returning to their own ship on a Thai fishing boat. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) This poor track record of agency conduct of intelligence continued in 1980, when a joint multi-service force attempted to rescue fifty three Americans who were being held hostage in the embassy in the capital of Iran. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) A close examination of this mission yields insights into failures that resulted from inter-agency and inter-service communications breakdowns, intelligence problems, and command issues. From the planning stage on, this mission suffered from the lack of interagency cooperation. (McGeorge & Wegner, 1983) Analysis: In the planning stage of any operation, it is vital that a number of elements be present. (Schnaubelt, 2005) The plan must articulate the organizational objective, accurately describe the current strategic and tactical situation, set forth the intended flow of events, and a definition of the expected contribution of all individuals and groups involved. (Schnaubelt, 2005) In order to have the maximum odds of success, such a plan must contain a clear indication of chain of command, robust and accurate intelligence, and sufficient secrecy to ensure the integrity of the mission. (Schnaubelt, 2005) The Iran Hostage Rescue attempt failed on many of these criteria. Of particular issue was the chain of command. (Sick, 1987) During the execution of the task, pilots in the operation later told investigators that they had no clear understanding of who had authority to be issuing orders. (Sick, 1987) This determination is an element that should have been made abundantly clear to participating personnel well before the execution phase of the operation. (Sick, 1987) In another critical example of failure of the articulation of the chain of command, the Task Force commander and his inferior officers were unclear on who held the responsibility for mission training of the helicopter crews. This state of affairs was allowed to persist for months before the execution phase of the operation. (Sick, 1987) The result of this confusion was a situation that resulted in a collision of helicopters during the aborted mission, which cost several lives. (Sick, 1987) These failure pale in comparison with relation to scope compared to the issues of intelligence that were brought about by multi-agency participation in information control. The numerous intelligence liaisons were encumbered by a specific and inflexible OPSEC (operational security) protocol, which hampered attempts to make information known to the necessary portions of the task force. (Halloway, 1980) This resulted in an unnecessary delay in intelligence compilation and analysis. It is important to note that this deficiency does not point to a shortcoming in intelligence gathering mechanisms, but rather in the inter-agency handling of gathered intelligence. (Halloway, 1980) The resulting delays in formulating intelligence estimates could have been avoided with a centralized intelligence conduit within the task force to which all relevant agencies would be required to contribute. (Halloway, 1980) This failure was justified by the decision-makers in the name of operational security, yet the fragmented gathering of relevant data made the intelligence much more vulnerable to compromise than would have been the case with a centralized intelligence mechanism. (Halloway, 1980) In the preparation phase of the Iran Task Force Operation, failures again occurred predicated on multiple agencies withholding cooperation on the basis of OPSEC issues. (Halloway, 1980) The result was a lack of a full-scale rehearsal for the operation, an element vital to anticipating contingencies, training personnel and refining operational plans. Across the board, there seemed to be more of an interest in rapid execution than in sufficient preparation. (Halloway, 1980) It is clear that a number of involved agencies would have had an issue with lack of preparation, but their objections were not given sufficient attention as the organizational decisions were out of their hands. The Joint Chiefs of Staff commissioned an analysis of the Task force operation (called Operation Eagleclaw) that was completed and presented to the Department of Defense in 1980. The analysis indicated twenty-three issues that contributed to the mission failure, and in many cases, lack of inter-agency organization and coordination were at the heart of the issues. (Halloway, 1980) The first issue addressed in the analysis was that of OPSEC. Since this was acknowledged to be a mission-critical priority, it was this element that was stressed the most during planning and preparation. (Halloway, 1980) The lack of inter-agency communication was said to have negatively effected the planning of and preparation for the operation. It was concluded that the OPSEC plan ought to have had more flexibility at least within the Joint Task Force. (Halloway, 1980) A clear delineation of who was â€Å"in† and who was â€Å"out† that transcended agency affiliation would have been a far more effective method of OPSEC, but interagency mistrust of the integrity of various agencies compelled coordinators to adopt inflexible OPSEC protocols. (Halloway, 1980) Despite the conclusion that OPSEC of the mission was adequate, it is clear that other issues could have been resolved in the preparation phase with better cooperation with regard to OPSEC. A second issue addressed in this mission was the fact that the planning did not include all necessary agencies at all stages. (Halloway, 1980) The planning team began with a limited number, and was expanded as the contingency became more of a definite probability. The haphazard organization of the Joint Task Force created gaps in planning and contingency that might have (but did not, in this case) compromised the success of this mission. (Halloway, 1980) In the absence of a standing task force consisting of multi-agency input, the necessary agencies should have been determined in advanced and all agencies should have been privy to all elements of planning. Again, the justification for the â€Å"need-to-know† contribution to the plan was OPSEC. (Halloway, 1980) The report also noted that intelligence coordination for the mission was executed in the same ad hoc manner, and reporting mechanisms were inconsistent, as task force command got direct reports from some agencies while others reported to component commanders. (Halloway, 1980) As cohesive, accurate and timely intelligence is vital to mission success, this qualified as a major concern in the execution of Eagleclaw. (Halloway, 1980) The fact that intelligence failure did not play a role in the ultimate failure of Eagleclaw should not be construed as an endorsement of the interagency disorganization inherent in early intelligence coordination efforts. (Halloway, 1980) The fact that as planning progressed, the intelligence conduits gained efficiency is also ancillary to the critique of the earlier efforts. (Halloway, 1980) The next major issue identified in the operation was the lack of independent overview of the plan-in-chief. (Halloway, 1980) While reviewed at several phases by the Joint Chiefs, Eagleclaw was never subjected to the robust evaluation by an independent panel of qualified experts. Once again, the blame for this oversight could be laid at the feet of OPSEC. (Halloway, 1980) This deficiency may have been mission-critical, because had such an independent review board contained an expert on local climate conditions and their effect on operational equipment, he or she might have informed the Task Force leadership about the necessity of specialty equipment, repair and spare parts that could have prevented the reduction in force from eight to five helicopters, which fact resulted in the abortion of the mission. (Halloway, 1980) Perhaps the most important deficiency of the Joint Task Force efforts was the lack of comprehensive, multi-agency rehearsal of all elements of the plan. (Halloway, 1980) The execution of such rehearsal is of vital importance at all levels of the operation. At the personnel level, rehearsal gives the actors a sense of the mission circumstances in a safe manner that reflects real-time environment. (Halloway, 1980) The rehearsal is equally beneficial to planning personnel in that a run-through can highlight unforeseen practical or logistical problems in the plan, which can be corrected in subsequent planning. Again, the specter of OPSEC, along with the logistical difficulties of planning a rehearsal of a joint exercise prevented the execution of this vital step. (Halloway, 1980) An issue that also undermined the success of the mission was the constant change in the political circumstances of the hostage situation during the planning phase of the operation created a constant flow of changes in the composition and organization of the task force, which, in turn, created confusion within the command structure regarding chain of command. (Halloway, 1980) Ultimately, the operatives went into mission without a clear sense (in the case of the pilots) of the authority of those giving orders to be giving those orders. While this circumstance did not prove to be a vital flaw in this particular mission, it is a flaw that could easily resulted in a disastrous mission marred by conflicting orders, causing confusion, and, very likely, casualties and mission failure. (Halloway, 1980) The implementation of Signal Integrity contingencies was another area of major failure within the Joint Task Force. While all the agencies involved has a robust understanding and solid implementation of signal protocol during the mission, the agencies did not coordinate these protocols. (Halloway, 1980) As a result, assets entered the area without a uniform protocol with respect to signals integrity. In the case of the helicopter pilots, the maintenance of strict radio silence prevented them from getting vital updates on the weather conditions in the area, leading to some of the mechanical issues that contributed significantly to mission failure. (Halloway, 1980) It is likely that the agencies with the best understanding of the importance of the weather would have implemented an signal integrity protocol that allowed for frequent conditions updates without the need for requests from the pilots, but such a plan was not implemented because it would have combined signal integrity protocols from multiple agencies. (Halloway, 1980) The origin of the circumstances that led to the abortion of the mission was the lack of helicopters necessary to complete the task in the face of mechanical failure of three of the helicopter units. (Halloway, 1980) An independent review of the equipment parameters would likely have called for at least ten helicopters to account for the possibility of mechanical failures. Such a provision would have prevented the abortion of the mission, which was precipitated by the disabling of three of the available helicopters. (Halloway, 1980) Again, proper review and oversight of the mission by independent auditors would likely have recommended ten helicopters be mission-ready at the time of the launch of the operation. These assets were readily available and could easily been incorporated into the Joint Task Force’s equipment requirements without compromising other endeavors. (Halloway, 1980) The mission training protocol for the helicopter pilots also presented problems that were in part caused by the interagency coordination of efforts. (Halloway, 1980) The Navy pilots tasked to drive the helicopters lacked operational experience in the conditions for which the mission called. The Joint Task Force Command addressed this deficiency by supplementing the number of pilots with those from the Marine Corps who had more experience flying in the expected conditions. (Halloway, 1980) Problems developed as pilots were rotated in and out of the training protocols on the basis of ability. In addition, the need to be mission-ready on short notice necessitated several two-three week sessions for training, rather than a preferred five-month long continuous program. (Halloway, 1980) The end result was a group of flying personnel who were not optimally trained, and did not have the necessary experience to deal with conditions in which they found themselves. (Halloway, 1980) The deficiency here mainly lies in the exclusion of Air Force pilots from the docket of potential pilots. It had been established after the fact that the Air Force had several pilots with operational experience in rescue missions, mid-air refueling, and other elements of the flight portion of the mission. (Halloway, 1980) It stands to reason that these pilots would have been likely to accomplish the mission training in a faster, more efficient manner than pilots without this background. When the mission commanders elected to use RH-53D helicopters for this mission, they were institutionally bound to use the pilots checked out on these machines, even though their flight experience did not match the particular mission parameters. (Halloway, 1980) Obviously, the primary factor in the operational failure of the mission was the unexpected dust storms encountered by the pilots en route to the mission. As previously noted, communication liaisons with local weather reporting services may have compromised the security of the operation, however, in retrospect, it seems that such a risk was worth the potential problem given two factors. First, this communication would necessarily be short-term, as any other weather information would be unreliable. (Halloway, 1980) This would relieve security concerns because even if the mission parameters were compromised at that point (and there is no particular reason to assume it would have been) the opposing force would not have sufficient time between the breach of security and the execution of the mission to mount sufficient contingency plans. Second, the ability to successfully navigate to the target area was a critical element in the mission, and a â€Å"sine que non† requisite of success. (Halloway, 1980) Again, in retrospect, it would appear that marginal security concerns outweighed common sense in making the determination to fly without up-to-the minute weather condition updates. Another related option rejected by the Joint Task Force was the use of C-130s in a pathfinder role. (Halloway, 1980) The employment of such equipment in such a manner would have gone further to guarantee rendezvous times and protocols despite adverse weather conditions. Crew of the mission copters lacked confidence in the navigation equipment and their own ability to use it. (Halloway, 1980) This sort of arrangement is the type of non-typical application that would raise alarms between agencies, some of whom would deem off-book applications of material as an unnecessary risk for their own assets. (Halloway, 1980) The decision of the pilot of helicopter #5 to abort mission given the particular damage to his vehicle reflected a lack of knowledge of the capabilities of the vehicle in question. Given the nature of the damage as indicated by on-board diagnostic equipment, the craft would have been able to continue at minimal risk for several hours given the speed and other operation conditions. (Halloway, 1980) The pilot’s decision to abort mission on the basis of this particular damage reflected both a lack of understanding of the nature of the damage, and a gross underestimation of the criticality of the vehicle’s participation. (Halloway, 1980) It was Helicopter #5’s decision to abort that triggered a mission-wide abort, as the number of operable craft had dropped below that which was determined to be mission-critical. (Halloway, 1980) The pilot’s possibly mistaken decision to abort was a function of his lack of training on the vehicle, and understanding of the criticality of his component of the mission. (Halloway, 1980) The fault for these deficiencies lay not with the pilot, but with the afore-mentioned training deficiencies, and a lack of mission-brief emphasis on the lack of discretionary aircraft available to the mission. Lack of information control in the area of intelligence resulted in the pilots acting upon inaccurate intelligence with respect to the capability of the opposing forces’ radar. After the fact, it became apparent that a number of pilots relied on inaccurate intelligence regarding this factor in making tactical determinations regarding flight altitude. The use of the bad information resulted in high-risk, unnecessary flight protocols. (Halloway, 1980) Despite the lack of immediate functional consequence resulting from this breach, it bears mentioning that intelligence need always be reported to the appropriate agencies for confirmation or denial before being acted upon. (Halloway, 1980) The culture within the Joint Task Force regarding intelligence flow encouraged the informal passing of vital intelligence. A lack of an interagency focal point of intelligence analysis made the confirmation and even identification of raw data difficult. It remains a possibility that the pilots placed an inordinate amount of trust in intelligence, believing it to have been confirmed by the responsibly agents, when in fact it had not. (Halloway, 1980) Such considerations are beyond the scope of responsibly of assets in action or support of action. These assets have to be able to assume that any intelligence that makes it way to them is either accurate, or that they have been informed of the probability of inaccuracy, and counseled as to the weight the information should receive in the operations. (Halloway, 1980) When the helicopters began to stray from mission parameters in location and timetable, the radio silence protocol prevented each unit from having vital information about the conditions and locations of other units in the operation. (Halloway, 1980) The USS Nimitz had the capability of conveying such information with minimal risk to OPSEC. Again, the rigidity of OPSEC protocols, brought about by inflexibly inter-agency protocols led to a critical information gap at a vital time in the mission. (Halloway, 1980) Thus, the lead helicopter had no way of knowing that #8 had recovered the crew of #6 and that #6 had been abandoned in the desert. (Halloway, 1980) Lead also could not determine whether the other elements followed him when he turned back in the dust storm, and where and when the unit had fallen apart. Most significantly, if Helicopter #5 had known that his termination would cause an entire mission abort, he might have more carefully weighed the risks of continuing. Essentially, between the weather and the radio silence, the pilots were flying blind and deaf in enemy territory. (Halloway, 1980) Yet another factor at issue was the decision to limit landing options to a single site near a road in the desert near the Iranian capital. The abandonment of the mission after the landing at Desert One guaranteed OPSEC compromise. (Halloway, 1980) The addition of a secondary landing place for refueling and the on loading of combat personnel would have opened many alternatives for the flyers and other mission decision-makers in determining whether to abort, or accounting to course and destination changes prompted by weather contingencies. (Halloway, 1980) The culmination of these factors was the abortion of the rescue mission, which in turn led to a fatal accident as the pilots attempted to withdraw back to base. The operation was a strategic, tactical and political failure. Counterargument: The conclusion that the deficiencies noted above can solely be laid at the feet of the interagency coordination (or lack thereof) is facile and inaccurate. Indeed, even given the modern day organization of counter-terrorism mission task-forces, this mission was fraught with potential for failure. (Houghton, 2001) Operational security became the end-all consideration for the mission’s success, which determination caused many other factors creating risk to be finessed or ignored. Contingencies such as poor weather and mechanical failure cannot be laid at the feet of poor planning. (Houghton, 2001) The clarity of hindsight makes the deficiencies in operation EagleClaw obvious, but it takes a rather torturous analysis to reach the conclusion that the deficiencies can all be blamed on lack of inter-agency coordination. There are several factors that contributed to the failure of EagleClaw that had little to do with the planning and execution difficulties endemic of multi-agency involvement. (Houghton, 2001) First the fluidity of the political situation called for necessary plan adjustments throughout the preparation phase. Second, the unpredictability of weather played a significant role in the mission failure. Such a factor cannot reasonably be blamed on the planning or practice phases of the operation. Decisions that were based on OPSEC considerations were not necessarily a product of interagency confusion. (Houghton, 2001) While it is true that multiple OPSEC protocols were combined to create a stifling procedure on information, the need for secrecy in this mission was considered of paramount importance to its success. (Houghton, 2001) Conclusion: While several unrelated factors contributed to the failure of Operation EagleClaw, it is indisputable that the compartamentalization of information and the ineffective standardization of protocols contributed to the failure of the mission. (Taillion, 2001) Owing to a faulty intelligence analysis protocol, actors proceeded on faulty intelligence. Operation Security concerns ended up compromising reasonable safely contingencies as well. (Taillion, 2001) A determination of Operation Security parameters would have been much more easily concluded by an inter-agency organization that specializes in anti-terrorist operations and is willing to subordinate specific agency protocols for the sake of mission-specific parameters. (Taillion, 2001) The organization of assets in anti-terrorism operations have since been consolidated in agencies such as Homeland Security, yet operations continue to be hampered by reluctance to share assets, particularly intelligence, between agencies. It is recommended that the culture of competition between agencies be undermined by institutional policies that encourage cross-agency cooperation efforts. (Taillion, 2001) It is further recommended that operation planners for future endeavors be encourgaged to ignore inter-agency discrepancies in favor of protocols most able to facilitate the duccess of the missions.

Hp Swot Matrix

HP SWOT Strengths of HP 1. Global presence. 2. Strong brand image with high quality of product and service. 3. Providing customers service with specific technical support. 4. Successful Strategic Acquisitions. Hewlett-Packard has strong financial condition. Hewlett-Packard is a global company and became world’s biggest computer hardware. The growth of 26% in the Americas; 28% world-wide percent in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and 16 percent in Asia Pacific and Japan with the broad-based global recovery (HP Annual Report, 2010).Hewlett-Packard is maintaining the No. 1 position in worldwide market share, as well as healthy average selling prices. Hewlett-Packard is differentiating through remarkable product design and customer experience from the range of high-end gaming PCs to sleek, powerful notebooks to fashion-inspired netbooks and innovative smartphones (HP Annual Report, 2010). Hewlett-Packard has its own support organizations to provide customers service with spec ific technical support.Hewlett-Packard can provide end-to-end IT solution, including infrastructure technology, business process outsourcing, technology support and maintenance, application development and support services and consulting and integration service. Hewlett-Packard continues on recognizing and capitalizing on strategic acquisitions. The company’s major mergers and acquisitions in recent past include Compaq Computer Corporation in 2002. In April of 2010, Hewlett-Packard announced to buy Palm for 1. 2 Billion. It increases its competitiveness therefore creates value for investors and customers of the company.Weaknesses of HP 1. Weak Market Segment Integration 2. Over rely on three-party supplier 3. R&D department has significantly less investments 4. Not comprehensive product portfolio HP lack presence in some segments. Comparing to its major competitors, such as Accenture, EMC and IBM, HP’s portfolio offers less significant on software product or manage con sulting services. Also, according to HP 2010 annual report, it has a great preformance on enterprise customer market but weak at small-scale market. HP over rely on three party supplier.HP's procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing and assembly of HP's products all over the world. The suppliers includes contract manufacturers, electronic manufacturing services providers, original design manufacturers, and commodity suppliers. It is would be compliated and difficult to remain the relationships with the suppliers. HP invest less on R&D, compare to historical spending. HP does not develop the new technology for new product. Althoug HP has its brand smart phone, however, this properly attributes to the acquiring Compaq. For the smart phone technology, HP is leaved behind its competitors.Thus, they trend to acquire Palm. HP’s competitiveness mainly focus on 14. 1 inch notebook, however, the 15. 4 inch notebook is the current second largest market need. HP product line lack of attention on 15. 4 inch notebook. And also HP hardly focus to 13. 3 inch product. However, those size of notebook is the market need. It seems HP has not comprehensive product portfolio. Threats of HP †¢ Hyper-competition in IT market †¢ High bargaining power of Smartphone market †¢ Slowdown in economic conditions in US †¢ Foreign currency exchange rate Although Hewlett-Packard is maintaining the No. position in worldwide market share, some of the companies as a formidable competitor threatened in IT market such as Toshiba, Lenova Group and Aver. They compete in terms of price, quality, brand, technology, reputation, distribution and also range of other products. Hewlett-Packard wants to redevelop their Smartphone market, but they lack of this experience and technology. Hence, compare with Apple, Google, it still has a lot of space to improve and catch up. So this is the high bargaining power in Smartphone market when they want to expand this market.The economic slowdown has negatively affected many market segments, including information technology. Hewlett Packard has experienced this decline not only in the U. S. but also in its global markets. Worldwide spending on IT was predicted to decline by 4% in 2009. Foreign currency exchange rate is one of the external factors that we cannot expect. It is the big threat when foreign currency exchanges rate changes, it might influence the cost of production or the selling price in different countries. Opportunities of HP †¢ High growth rate of Smartphone market †¢ Change of lifestyle Change of consumer spending †¢ Innovation of 3C(Computer, Communication, Consumer Electronic) products The Smartphone market is having the high growth rate of nowadays. According to the researcher ISuppli Corp. , the global Smartphone shipments may increase 36 percent to 247 million in 2010. The high growth rate can reflect the demand of Smartphone is also high for customers. The lifestyle of p eople is change that they will more enjoy the online social with others. The online social is one part of daily life of many citizens. Internet is very important for citizen to keep connect with others online.The relative products were useful for them to keep online, such as Net-book, Smartphone. The spending custom of customer is change to spending more. They are more emphasized on the quality and function of the product more than price. The purpose of consumer is also change from useful to habit and symbolize of 3C products. The change of IT products is fastest of nowadays environment. The innovation of product and system improvement is very important for 3C products. The successful innovation product can be come a trendy of customer to buy and follow. Customers are easy to substitute the old product by new product in 3C product markets.

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 12

Reflection - Essay Example Though simple but it is an interesting calculation that gives a fair idea of my performance in the class whether I stand below or above average. The term ‘average’ has its own limitation to inform the correct information. That is where median comes to rescue. Per capita average income of a population is good first hand information; however, it is a median income that gives more precise information about half of the population that is below or above certain income levels. While per capita income misguides about the country’s poverty spread, the income distribution data flashes more clarity giving an insight which state, race, gender, or community needs more state help to reduce the prevailing disparity in incomes. Statistics can be applied to extensive uses in the modern times. Businesses forecast their sales and profit figures using regression models based on the past data. Investigative agencies nab the criminals based on the past statistical data of crime or pattern in the specific area. Drug companies estimate success rate of their newly derived flu shots for its effectiveness from the carefully chosen sampling data across the population of the

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Business Law - Essay Example 2 In order to have a valid contract, an offer must sufficiently be accepted. In this case when Simon ordered the 20 coffee machines, there was already a valid offer to purchase the said product from the wholesaler. In order that the contract may be perfected, what is needed is the valid acceptance of the wholesaler. But since the wholesaler made no reply since the offer to purchase on Thursday, Simon had every right to change his mind. When Simon sent a telefax canceling his order on Tuesday thereafter, there was still no perfected contract. The general rule is, once the acceptance is made, the offerror can no longer revoke the offer. But the acceptance becomes binding on the offerree only when it reaches the offeror. In this case the telefax was sent on Tuesday, while the letter of acceptance, confirming the order was received the next day. In order for the contract to be valid, acceptance of the offer is needed to create legal rights and duties arising from such agreement. In this case Simon has revoked his offer prior having knowledge of the acceptance the next day. In the case of Entores Ltd. v Miles Far East Corporation (1955)3, where the parties where dealing on an agreement based on telex communication between parties, it was held that it was not until the message of acceptance was received by the offeror until the contract is deemed perfected or complete. Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, provided that if a notice of withdrawal was sent during business hours, the withdrawal was effective as of the time it was received by the telex machine, regardless if the other party received it or not based on their own neglect.4 In our case it is obvious that after a number of days without confirmation of the request, Simon sent a telefax canceling his order on Tuesday, a day before there was a valid acceptance from the wholesaler. Hence, he had all the right to revoke his primary offer to purchase the coffee makers since there was no acceptance yet made, there was no contract yet perfected or created at that time. The telefax remains open to receive messages, there was also no confirmation made by the wholesaler that the request to purchase their product was even accepted, in addition to that there was no consideration or payment made. Simon had timely withdrawn his offer before any contract was created, hence he will not be liable for any demand based on breach of a contract that was never effective. The use of disclaimers in shops or place of business is generally allowed by law, but the rule is not absolute, as it does not include responsibility for negligence as provided in the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. Simon cannot rely on his general disclaimer from preventing himself to be sued based on negligence that resulted to damages. The law provides that although disclaimers are allowed, it cannot be made or put in general terms as to limit the liability of the owner in every case, as the limited liability depends on the nature of the obl igation and must be reasonable as not to cause boundless responsibilities. It was held in the case of Staples v West Dorset District Council (1995) 5that a disclaimer or notice to be valid must renounce responsibility based on specific issues6. In this case, Simon posted a notice renouncing all responsibility for

Operation strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Operation strategy - Essay Example Customer requirements: This step involves identifying the market segments that is relevant for collection of information regarding the requirements of the customer. This step is important in QFD since it ensures that a firm does not waste resources in obtaining unnecessary information from the non-potential customers. This is also the first step which enables the firm to gain more knowledge about the existing market segments. Regulatory requirements: This benefits the firm during the creation of HOF as it provides the customer with the appropriate information about the requirement of the product. This makes the customer aware of the product and hence can participate in the process. Customer importance: This step allows the customer to rate the significance of the requirements on a scale of 1-5 which the given firm uses in creating the relationship matrix. From the customer importance the company obtains information about the relationship between the needs of the customer its ability to meet the needs. Customer rating of the competition: This is the fourth step and it benefits the given firm with tremendous competitive advantage considering that it obtains information about the strength of the competitors in the market. Through this step, an organization can remodel their strategies to outcompeting its rivals. Core competencies refer to the abilities that guide a firm in meeting the fundamental interest of the customers. The core competencies involve researching about the reason behind a customer choosing one product over another. Core competencies and operation management share a lot. In operation management, there is need for an organization to carry out a production process that is efficient and will maximize the profit realized. Normally, the organization strives for the highest efficiency as far as possible. This shows that the ability of a firm to achieve operation management relies on whether a firm has the core competencies. The organization, in

Discrimination in the work place. Workplace Safety Research Paper

Discrimination in the work place. Workplace Safety - Research Paper Example There are high numbers of employees who lose their lives while others become physically or mentally incapacitated by the kind of work they engage in. ( cited in work place safety ) This research focuses on area of discrimination of single women in the work place. The research begins on the hypothesis that ‘Single women are discriminated in the work place’. The research will be looking at different methods of data collection in order to establish whether the hypothesis is valid or null. The research will be looking at whether single women get promoted in their places of work as compared to their married counterparts, do they receive pay rises at the same rate as their married counterparts, does the work place treat them more harshly as compared to their married counterparts?, these are some of the questions that the hypothesis will be trying to answer. The Research Process The research process is divided into various processes that may at times overlap but largely work in dependent of each other. The research process will entail doing research in a number of work places specialised in different fields of profession. It will be a sampling process that will see us sample the population size to a sample size of only 15 single mothers. The process is as follows. 1. Defining the area of research specifically; our area of research will be conducted in eight major companies whereby we will be seeking to conduct a research on the single mothers in these companies. The four companies are ‘ABC Forex’, Savannah Coffee Lounge, Barclays Bank, Mayfair Casino, Deloitte, TNT, Securex, Westgate. All the eight areas have people specialised in different fields major companies whereby 2. Developing an overview of the area of study or what we intend to achieve. This is one of the most important parts of this research. In the research, we will be seeking to find out whether the single and married women in the work place face any kind of discrimination as comp ared to the male and married counterparts. Here we will be expecting answers either in the positive or in the negative with reasons to support these answers. 3. Determine methods of data collection. In our research various methods will be used. However, sampling will be the major method of research. The research method will be supplemented by other methods such as interviews, questionnaires, observation, focus groups, and mail surveys. This methods will be necessary in coming up with all the data required in a very efficient and effective manner. 4. Determining information requirements. This is where we have to make a choice on whether we may need to adopt and survey other reports on research done by others I this area of discrimination among single women in the workplace. 5. Organization of the information. This is where we will need to organize the information collected in the study. The information will have to be organized in a systematic manner in different sections each showin g how we have been conducting the process right from the beginning of the process to the ultimate end of it. 6. Analysis and evaluation of the information. This is where we will be analysing and giving critical inferences about our research process. We will be seeking to either support or dismiss the hypothesis based on our research. This is one crucial part as it forms the main reason as to why the research was conducted in the first place.(Research Methods) The Research Process As stated earlier, the research involved a study conducted among people working in different areas of specialisation. All the women involved were single some mothers, others widowed and others still had just cleared from school and had just begun working. The research was as

Analyzing the passage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyzing the passage - Essay Example Her chief concern for delicate subjects on woman issue for which conventional history offers limited regard Pilar opts to explore in wider context, given the opportunity of being able to decide with keeping other things on record. By asking ‘Who chooses what we should know or what’s important? (Garcia, 28)’ enables Pilar to reiterate her significant understanding of a responsible initiative on knowing or learning by an individual’s will and sense of accountability. These lines which Cristina Garcia thought of constituting Pilar’s objective with a more sensible basis, is dealt with in several respects of taking action in ‘Dreaming in Cuban’ as the author directs the protagonist to adopt mobility and nostalgic means of arriving at the resolution for the fulfillment of her purpose (Goliath). On stressing ‘If it were up to me, I’d record other things (28)’ alludes that it is not Pilar’s sole discretion to carry out an extra-special undertaking that requires meeting and reconnecting with the early times of her original homeland through the tools of the present. With such tone as may be imagined to align with the theme of the radical statement, Pilar is likely found to have assessed equivalent worth at discerning matters beyond the realms of her Cuban foundation. Even while Celia, Pilar’s grandmother, creates the main influence behind her endeavor, the control does not entirely restrain Pilar from choosing how to act in convenience for herself. As she exemplifies options of discussing the Bombay prostitutes or the natural disaster in Congo, similarly she speaks out of an empowerment radiating between herself and the subject of interest under a common gender. In the process, Pilar figures she could only obtain too much of learning and appears to admit certain level of ignorance saying ‘Why don’t I know anything about them? (28)’ which signals how intricate her journey could get on accomplishing the task. Shifting physical as well as psychological settings by varying depths of imagination, Pilar attempts to gain access to real points of unknown origins in Cuba to fill in the gaps of ignorance as she allows pertinent experience of commodities that are Cuban in nature. Globalization, thus, imposes upon her ‘recapture progress’ the role of demonstrating the outcomes of ‘commodification’ or of modern mass production of pop culture in many forms of Cuban goods such as those in music, art, and fashion (Goliath). Without the knowledge of information and concerns not within her typical reach as indicated with ‘Why don’t I know anything bout them? (28)’ it would perhaps amount to improbability of leading the key of recollections to justify her momentary attachment to ‘commodified’ encounters though the latter barely imparts the much-needed aid to facilitate recovery of the crucial past for Pilar. A s a main female character in the novel who makes profoundly sentimental exclamation of the famous passage, Pilar naturally draws in the capability of distinguishing the priceless authenticity of the classic old world from the current truth of evolved styles and movement that all come with a market value. With ‘Like the time there was a freak hailstorm in the Congo and the women took it as a sign that they should rule; or life stories of prostitutes in Bombay (28)’

Comparison Between Parse Theory & Watson Theory Essay

Comparison Between Parse Theory & Watson Theory - Essay Example The human becoming theory gives a clear view of a person's will to achieve goal through the nursing practice. Rosemarie Rizzo Parse had initially published the theory in 1981 as the "Man-living-health" theory, but later in 1992, the name was officially changed to "the human becoming theory" to eradicate the term "man" from the theory, after the alteration in the dictionary definition of the word from its previous meaning of "humankind". The human becoming theory was presented as a human science nursing theory in the practice of Heidegger, Dilthey, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer and Sartre. Many of the European philosophers such as Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty, along with works by the pioneer American nurse theorist, Martha Rogers, synthesized the assumptions supporting the theory. The theory itself is structured around three unshakable matters or themes, those are meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence. The first theme, which is meaning, has been mentioned in the first principle of the theory, which states "Structuring meaning multidimensionally is cocreating reality through the languaging of valuing and imaging". The principle means that people take interest in creating what is real for them through self-expression in living their values in a predetermined way. For instance a person who has to be an actor acts at many occasions, this happens because the actor's only concern is with acting and in order to make people realize about his ability, the actor keeps on acting at most of the public places. This means that there is a hope in that person's life, which makes him to act. The second theme is rhythmicity, which has been expressed in the second principle of the theory, which states, "Co-creating rhythmical patterns of relating is living the paradoxical unity of revealing-concealing and enabling-limiting while connecting-separating". This principle means that the unity of life includes noticeable opposites in regular patterns of relating. It means that in living life continuously and in small parts one shows and does not show self as opportunities and boundaries appear in moving with and apart from others. For instance, at times we look for opportunities in life and give sacrifices to avail it, at times according to the situation we lie to others about few matters and hide our things that if known to others can make us ashamed, although every lie is unintentional but we have to lie as not doing so can cause many other problems, it is not something we are in favor of doing always, yet we get bounded to do so. The third theme is transcendence, which is discussed in the third principle of the theory, which states "Cotranscending with the possibles is powering unique ways of originating in the process of transforming". This principle means that moving away from the present moment is like making a unique personal path for oneself, which creates a lot of confusion and also keeps on changing. A good example in everyday life is that all of us keep on dreaming about various things, even when it comes to take decision of our lives, we keep on changing them time after time as we do not keep in mind one goal. The point to be made is that, we all should keep on living life as it has come to us, all

World History College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

World History College - Essay Example The condition of women within a particular society was dramatically impacted by the amount of socialization the central culture had developed. For example, India had a heavy caste system wherein women were viewed as weak, frivolous, unimportant, etc. (AUTHOR # 1 132). The fact that the social system perceived women in such a negative light, and was then too inflexible to accommodate change, resulted in women remaining in oppressive or inferior positions with no recourse. In fact, it was the very development of these types of systems that relegated women to a lower class structure. As AUTHOR # 2 states, "women enjoyed broader occupational options and a stronger voice within the family and in society as a whole before the emergence of centralized politics and highly stratified social systems (AUTHOR # 2 268). Not unpredictably, the more money a woman's family possessed, the better daily life she lived. A poor woman would be expected to work in the field or perform other menial tasks while a rich woman would be less likely to experience hardship.

Issues Affecting the Aged Essay Example for Free

Issues Affecting the Aged Essay The human being is flesh and blood with built-in sensors and mechanisms, components which enable him to respond to a variety of stimuli that surround him. Being a sensual creature, an individual is confined and dependent to the workings of his body. And because the body ages and deteriorates through time, it is better to know and become aware of the changes that it goes through to be able to help oneself, or a loved one who is already in his/her senior years, when time comes these changes manifest. Because of the fact that the body deteriorates as it ages, this has set limitations to man’s whole physical existence. The world of human anatomy and physiology is such a very interesting subject which every person is at home. All the nooks and crannies in his body speak volumes of significance and relevance to his myriad of experiences that whatever new information is available to be learned on the workings of his physiology, it will be of utmost importance to him. This paper attempts to convey to the reader the most common and prevalent issues which include primarily the changes that are brought upon individuals unique to the stage of human development labeled as the aging years. It therefore seeks to capture the essence of the aging years; their joys and sadness, the struggles and pains, as well as their anticipation of what tomorrow might be with or without a loved one beside them. Discussion Central to understanding the issues pervading the stage of the late adulthood is the fact that many behavioral scientists as well as mainstream science had made significant breakthroughs to enable every person today to have a grasp in understanding what it is like to be an aging person. The following distinctions are made to specifically address many of the issues. A. Biological changes that occur in late childhood and how health and fitness affect the aging process. These physical changes during the so-called sunset years are described and explained in the following important aspects of vision, hearing, and muscles and bones. ~VISION Studies showed that by the age of forty, human eye starts to diminish in its capacity to perceive objects. The reason for this is that at this age (40 years), the pupil of the eye begins to reduce in its size, diminishing its ability to see clearly. In this condition, adults need double or triple amount of illumination to be able to read, distinguish, and even respond to the movements of things around (Smith et al, 1990). This explains why in sports, athletes who are in their late thirties or those who are forty years of age, are considered to be â€Å"old† already, while in other fields, to have reached the fourth decade is to begin life. As is often said, â€Å"life begins at forty† ( Sensory Changes with Aging, http://www. uatpat. org). ~HEARING The prospect of losing one’s hearing is alarming. When still young, people do not entertain such as a possibility. Statistics, however, show that 30% of people over the age of 60 have their hearing ability weakened. As people continue to age to pass more than the age of 70, the problem is getting worse. Thirty three percent of those ages 75 to 84 have hearing impairment, while 50 % of old folks over 85 have lost their hearing altogether. This accounts for the many adjustments a family has to face (Isbell, 2007). Conversations now at this time are difficult. It’s not easy to conduct a conversation with others when there is impairment to one’s hearing. It is embarrassing to the one with the problem, and requires patience and understanding to others (Saxon, 2007). Oftentimes, as a result, older people choose to withdraw themselves from ordinary conversations. At times, old folks avoid giving inappropriate remarks as they were afraid they have misunderstood what was said (Smith, in NIA/NIH, 2007). It usually results in isolation. Solutions to these problems exist and available to help households to cope and thus minimize the potential problems (Saxon, 2007). ~MUSCLES AND BONES Regular exercise does help. Because of the many physical changes that occur in aging, a lot of adjustments as well are in order so that the body is better able to cope with these changes. Two major parts of a person’s physique are affected in the aging process; namely, the muscles and bones. Joints and bones’ structure become rigid with age. This causes a decrease in height, a bent posture, and hence, pronounced limitations in movements. The prospect of these changes, however, need not hinder nor discourage a person to establish or maintain a regular regimen. Though it may now hurt to move and stretch one’s joints, to yield to inactivity will all the more result to deterioration and more agony (Smith, in http://nihseniorhealth. gov/exercise/benefitsofexercise/03. html, 2007). Because the tendency of less and less movement goes with aging, and because calcium (a necessary mineral for the bone) is not absorbed into the bones generously as when younger, the resulting consequence is the brittling of the bones, a common cause of skeletal or bone fracture among the elderly. When ligaments connecting bones lose flexibility, it causes pain and discomfort. Older people as compared to younger ones need more cushioned shoes as the fat between the bones of the foot is becoming thinner (Aging: physical changes). B.Contrast of the overall decline of memory, language processing, and problem solving abilities in late adults with the benefits of practical life experiences they offer. For many of the older or aging individuals the issue about mental health is not affecting them to a significant degree. Problems that commonly beset younger generations such as alcoholism, depression and other illnesses may not necessarily afflict them and in many cases may even be reversed, for instance, dementia, as long as timely treatment is afforded to the patient. Only Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multi-infarct dementia are cases where the patient’s condition is no longer reversible (Papalia et al, 2002). At this stage, what is termed as crystallized intelligence or abilities are more pronounced than fluid intelligence. According to Baltes, the dual-process model which includes the mechanics of intelligence and pragmatics of intelligence are also contrasted during the aging years, with the former in decline and the latter in continuous growth. Another important change includes the gradual slowing down of the rate of information processing due to the reduction of functioning in the nervous system. Although considered an important development aspect, this slowing down is also dependent on certain factors including individuality (Papalia, 2002). In contrast with the general slowing down of these functionings, which includes what is termed as instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), the aging years are marked however, with ability to work out interpersonal or emotionally charged problems. There is indeed a great difference to memory especially working memory, or one’s capacity to remember some detailed or events in particular, has sufficiently declined. Other than that, semantic, procedural, sensory, and priming types of memory are comparatively the same with those in the earlier stages (Papalia et al, 2002). C. Biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that affect people’s ability to cope with dying. People in their aging years are in most cases individuals constantly aware of their mortality. However, the more the aging person is exposed to a variety of influences, his/her attitude with regards to his/her own death and more so with a spouse or loved one who’s gone on ahead will be greatly impacted. Research reveals that profound loneliness is one of the greatest struggles or burdens that a widow or widower faces especially that in countries like the United States people in their old age live away from their children or direct relatives. Although this is true, adjusting to loss is a lot different to this particular age compared to those who encounter bereavement in the younger years. More specifically, studies show that there are certain personalities too that account for many of those who were able to cope better in the wake of the death of a loved one like the spouse. People who have high self-esteem, the more outgoing types, are said to be more resilient, although men are still at risk (mentally and physically)compared with women where gender is the issue as men tend to be more dependent emotionally on their wives (Berk, 2004 in Ferraro, 2001) and as they are less religious than women in general Berk, 2004 in Lee et al. 2001). Moreover, Caucasians versus their African-American counterparts succumb to mental illness and disturbances due to the family constellation difference: the former living more solitary existence whereas the latter have connectedness or extended families as well as church relationships (Berk, 2004 in Balaswamy Richardson, 2001). D. How grieving the loss of a loved one is influenced by individual and circumstantial factors. Specifically, as mentioned in the preceding page on how a person in the aging years cope with the death and dying, the individual’s response at this stage to the loss of the loved one depends on a lot of factors. Conclusion Recommendation Devolution and not evolution is the fact of life. There’s no point arguing the fact that we (as years eat its way into our bodies) are decaying, so to speak. To some, who were once strong and athletic, the reality of losing one’s vigor seems unacceptable. It’s hard to swallow the negative realism of aging. The simple chores that once were indeed â€Å"simple† have now become impossible tasks to some of us who were once upon a time, mighty competitors in some events in sports. Running may not be advisable anymore. Walking, the most common movement to a normal functioning individual is difficult when arthritis has already crept into his joints (Smith et al, 2007 in http://www. nlm. nih. gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004023. htm). Physical changes are natural occurrences of wear and tear and are included in the order of things since time immemorial (Smith, Suzanna et al in Rantanen et al, 1997). This is one of nature’s physical laws that no matter how many technological breakthroughs have been discovered and come to the forefront of human existence, up till now, the best of these man-made intelligent inventions are not able to arrest these signs of deterioration. A senior citizen has to deal with problems such as high blood pressure, the cumulative effects of fatty deposits or cholesterol build up, some parts of the body that almost do not work anymore, and those parts that work may incur pain and a degree of discomfort (University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)). Physical activity as mentioned, have some benefits to slow down degenerative disorders but are not designed to reverse the course of aging. What is more tragic at times is, whenever people realize that the symptoms of aging are already there, it’s too late for them. They are now coping with regrets for earlier times and opportunities that had passed; these were opportunities supposed to avert and prevent the speedy physical breakdown and enjoy more quality of life in their later years. Reference: Berk, Laura E. 2004. Development Through the Lifespan. Allyn Bacon, Pearson Education.Aging: physical changes. University of Iowa, Hospital and Clinics Accessed in http://www. uihealthcare. com/topics/aging/agin4120. html April 19, 2007. Saxon, Sue et al. Physical Change And Aging. A Guide For The Helping Professions, 4th Edition GNP Originally published by The Tiresias Press, Inc. Accessed in http://www. aginginplace. org/traits/sensory/ April 19, 2007. Isbell, Lou. Physical Changes in Aging. Accessed April 19, 2007 in http://extension. missouri. edu/explore/hesguide/humanrel/gh6729. htm Papalia, Diane E, Sally W. Olds, Ruth Duskin Feldman. 2002. Human Development 8th Ed.

Artificial Intelligence in Web Design

Artificial Intelligence in Web Design Richard RoÃ… ¡ko Abstract—This paper deals with a new trend in web design and that is to introduce some degree of artificial intelligence into the task of designing a website. One of the first companies that came up with implementation of this idea id thegrid.io, which we will be mostly discussing in this paper. We will take a deeper look as to what does in fact artificial intelligence means in this connotation and how is it implemented throughout thegrid.io system for automated web design. Keywords— GSS, webdesign, grid, SEO, performance I. Introduction When it comes to using artificial intelligence in any sphere of, technical or other, we always have to be careful with this notion, as it can get quite misleading as to what is really the power behind that or other action supported, derived from, or even controlled by artificial intelligence. The web is an increasingly popular platform and as such, a great amount of attention is being payed to it and its content. Web is, of course, populated by websites and these are so diversified in the matter of their content, that it would be really hard to classify them in any sensible way. Each one of these websites, however consists of two main parts, that are responsible for the operation of the portal as a whole. These are backend and frontend. When the web first started to be commercially available, the presentation side of the websites, i.e. the frontend was not of much, if any concern whatsoever. The idea behind the styling of the web was built around other popular media, newspaper. The syntax for writing the main components of pages (HTML) still resembles the organizational structure of the newspaper articles with headings divided into different levels, paragraphs and many other article-related styling. Back in these days, there was almost no styling aside from breaking the websites into different sections. Internet back then was used for almost entirely different purposes than it is now and hence, there was no actual need of doing anything more with the presentational side of the web. All of this changed, however, when non scientific people started to become familiar with internet and first commercial solutions started to appear. New language, that was supposed to make the web look much better arose and its name was CSS. CSS stands for cascading style sheets and basically, it allowed the designers to style the content of the website much more accurately. CSS is still widely used nowadays, even though designers and programmers today tend to use many other style pre-processors, but the core always stays the same. Web always continues to evolve and while its users, most of the time, do not care about the action behind the scenes, which is essentially the core of the whole site, they do care about the appearance on the other hand. That is the reason, that great amount of time and resources is put into the frontend and UI of the websites nowadays. The design of the website, its look and feel, the interaction with the user, feedback it gives, these all are very important factors to consider in the process of web development. Hence, the web designer profession is becoming increasingly sought and picked by many people and companies alike. What is going to happen when we introduce artificial intelligence to this process? It could have an enormous impact on the job market, if we consider that it could be one of the first steps in the process of automatizing web design and that is always risky, even to consider. This is also one of the topics we will discuss in this paper. II. TheGrid.IO The company behind thegrid.io are comapring it to the movie Her to some degree. It was a movie about a perfectly voice-recognizing computer personal assistant, that was also able to simulate emotions and basically behaved as a human being. On their website we can see, that they state, that now She can do webdesign for you as well, referring to her ability to analyze the content of the site and adapt the design to it. They describe the basic principle behind the algorithm as an engine, that is measuring and analysing the content of your website constantly and changing it and designing it everytime it detects a change in the purpose of the site. The idea behind all of it, is to provide a personal computer-driven and automated webdesigner for every webdeveloper. Fig.1 thegrid.io landing page / index [1] As a proof of concept, in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) part of the website you can find out, that thegrid.io website was actually built using thegrid.io system itself. This fact immediately caught attention of many web developers and web designers and upon researching the public HTML and CSS of the website, we find a few interesting facts. The website is generally pretty heavy. That doesn’t mean it is just really long, which it is in this case, but nevertheless, if a user scrolls down the whole page, he downloads roughly around 100 MB, which is quite a lot considering the lightweight trends in today’s world of web development. Interestingly enough, the load time of the website actually measures pretty good. If we take a closer look at the HTML, we can see, that the styles and javascripts are inlined, which is quite unorthodox, but seems to work here and it might be one of the reasons the site is loaded optimally even though its load is pretty strong. As Austin Wolf wrote for medium.com, the website is somewhat self-indulgent and it is really long. Fig. 2 thegrid.io performance test [2] From the given statistics we can deduce, that the webpage as a whole actually performs quite well against all expectations, which renders the system really ambitious. Thegrid.io website has a few notable sections, like FAQ, team and info for possible investors. It even contains an e-commerce part with a possibility to opt for a subscription, that is currently set at 25 â‚ ¬ / month. It is very important to note, that the algorhitms and AI behind this automated webdesigning project is still under heavy development, so all the results and test we can do for now might differ from the actual performance by the ready and commercialy available application. But this pre-research can still give us an interesting view of what it might look like once it is available to public. At this stage of development we can only guess how does the analysis of the content on the website actually work, but it good to know, that the whole company has a very transparent and open-minded point of view when it comes to licensing and sharing resources online. The team behind thegrid.io have the ambition to share source code of each and everyone of the websites that will be created on github in public repositories for others to be inspired and reproduced. We have no information as to what licensing is going to look like yet. Another interesting fact about the whole ecosystem of thegrid.io is, that they not only offer you to make your website autodesigned, they can also handle the domain registration and the hosting for your website. And what is even more interesting, they plan to make this available for the same fixed monthly fee. This suggests, that their ambition is to make user’s businesses go online in a matter of hours for a decent price and maintain it for them without requiring them to have any prior knowledge of the web or any other technologies that accompany it and to instead, let them focus on the content. This whole service is then complemented by many other small features, like scraping the web for mentions of your brand and automatically generating a press release section for your page, or for your brand. This, of course, from the technical point of view, could be quite heavy on the resources, but from what we can observe as of the current state of the application, the tema behind thegrid.io proves to be quite apt at responding to heavy scripts challenges that may arise throughout the course of developing a website. Fig. 3 GSS templates [3] GSS is what we could call grid’s replacement of CSS, or templating engines as a whole. In the history, there were a few tries on taking out the programming out of the webdesign process by introducing some or another form of GUI for this creative process. None of these were actually extremely popular and thegrid.io promises to change that. What they base their strategy at is the fact, that they reverse engineer the process of all these systems. Whereas these former were built on allowing the users of the system design the layout, or pick some template, or predefined parts of a website and then let them fill it out with their content, thegrid.io reverses this and just lets the user type in the content into a blank website canvas and lets their system analyze the content and based on that creates the most suitable desing, that works well with content of the webpage. III. Issues With a project this ambitious and possibly this proportional, there is a lot of skepticism that is arising from many directions towards it. In this chapter we will discuss some of the categories of remarks thrown at the development team. We can also try to approximate their possible solution to these problem and the way they might address these issues in the future release version of thegrid.io system and its automatic web design algorithms. A. SEO SEO stands for search engine optimization. Let us first take a quick look at what that actually means. SEO is actually the process of increasing the exposure your site gets when searched for a similar topic using a search engine (such as https://duckduckgo.com/, or https://www.google.com). This process focuses on the visibility of the unpaid results and is related to as generating organic or natural traffic. If SEO is done correctly on a website it can lead to an immense increase of traffic, that is generated without further action needed from the side of the developer, or the programmer. In the past, SEO was solely thing of text search, but as we push into the future, there is a rising trend of optical character recognition and optical image recognition, which allows the users to search for their desired topics by images, or even sounds. These trends are also affecting the SEO as a whole. As stated before, if SEO is done correctly, it can lead to making the page appear generically much more often in the results of the search engines. To optimize a site for search engines and index the page proper way many techniques are employed. SEO experts start by editing the actual content of the website, then they can also edit the raw HTML of the webpage in order to increase the actual relevance to the content of the page. There also is a number of, so called, external techniques for increasing the SEO rank of a website. This include promoting the website, construction of backlinks, or inbound links, that lead back to the SEO optimized page and paying for written PR articles. Implementation of SEO as it is really difficult and requires constant effort, involvement and implementation of the new trends in this field as it is. In order for it to be precise and to work well, it needs to be thought of constantly, while creating new content and updating the old one as well. In today’s overcrowded web environment, it is very important to make your site stand out in any possible way and SEO is becoming increasingly popular in addressing this problem. The team behind thegrid.io relies on filters to take care of many web designing aspects. They act as the entry point to any and every grid.io powered application. Fig. 4 one of many others grid.io marketing strategies As we pointed out before, SEO is all about conforming your HTML to your content and that is where filters come in place through the grid.io algorithm. Filters serve in filtering your raw HTML. Since SEO is basically translating the HTML wrapped around the specific parts of your content to let search engine scrapers index and â€Å"get to know† your content better basically. The way we can speculate these probably work is, that they scrape the content of your articles, items, or any other elements and then parse it into meta tags probably via the URL. As we saw from the example page they built, it is probably using some kind of SPA (Single Page Application) framework, but it most likely is not one of the popular ones, quite possibly it is their own internal one, since doing SEO on a SPA could prove troubling, as for reloading just the parts of your html including the content which is relevant to the specific asynchronous change in the scope of your application. These are just theories and speculations based on what is publicly available as of the moment of writing this article. B. Performance Performance is one of the most important factors to consider as it influences the feeling of quality. Impact of the page speed on the traffic, conversion and satisfaction is huge. According to Aragon [5] in her article on crazyegg.blog about SEO, company Amazon found out, that for every 100ms their page loaded quicker they got about 1% of increased revenue overall, which is a truly tremendous impact. Other big companies are reporting the same findings, which only goes to show, that performance could be a huge deal breaker when it comes to thegrid.io as well. One of the elementary aspects when it comes to minimizing the page load is to minimize the number of HTTP requests. If we refer to picture [2], which states that there is exactly 123 HTTP requests on thegrid.io page when it first loads. This number is pretty high and suggests, that there is a place for optimization of these standards in order to make the page load faster. Other techniques might include caching the resources on the site (storing them permanently if they are present on more than a few sub-sites of the website in order to reduce server load). In this field, thegrid.io got and F, referring to [2] once again, which is suboptimal to say, at least. When it comes to compression of images, the best choice here is to go with JPEG or PNG formatted images. But as thegrid.io states, the content uploaded to the website is entirely in the hands of the user, the grid just analyses it and styles the content around it accordingly. So the performance when working with images is entirely in the hands of the user. As far as we are concerned there is no information yet as to some auto convertor of images or anything similiar, but it would definitely make sense for thegrid.io to implement such a functionality as this can have a great impact on the overall load speed. With all that being said, the overall experience of the grid.io created website is pretty good and slightly above average in our opinion. If they really relied on their own algorithm when creating their presentational site, it is safe to assume, that the team already have a very stable and delivering product, which displays quite a potential when it comes to delivering apps with an optimal user satisfaction. C. Design The actual design of the websites created with thegrid.io is one of the fields that we can not measure objectively even if we would have more templates, or filters, as they prefer to call it at the grid, because design is pretty objective. From the teaser screenshots we can however see, that the design have all the modern practices, such as flat design and minimalism in their scope and portfolio and they tend to generally cling into this direction. Another big issue could be the responsiveness of manufactured designs. In the world of today’s web, if a site is not responsive and potential client base is expected to view and interact with a website on a device other than a computer, it is almost 100% expected for the site to be responsive (meaning, the site is stretching and adapting to different screen sizes dynamically). One of the main points of the responsive web design is to actually adhere to the content and style it according to it, not according to HTML elements, or anything else on that matter. With this in mind, thegrid.io is promising its users a responsive experience on all devices ranging from smartphones, through netbooks up to 4K capable retina big displays and smart TV’s. Other issue that comes to mind that has to do with design is the fact, that users often tend to want to personally add their touches to the design. And that is something that is impossible to be done automatically or with any kind of algorithm, since it depends on the feelings, emotions and personal tastes of the user. It might seem though, as thegrid.io is not targeting such people and are basically more into helping people kick start online presence of their brand and as such, this functionality, or the ability to meddle into the code of the applications might not be needed for most of their customers. Still, in the final version of the product they might introduce such a functionality and it would be really interesting to see how this plays out in the end. Other issues that might arise are the ones concerning originality of such designs. Of course, every website is different when it comes to content, but there could be many, e.g. e-shops dealing with cosmetics imported from France. How could an automated engine handle such a challenge? We do not know that yet, as the service is still in a stealth mode when it comes to unveiling the principles of its internal mechanics, but it is definitely something to consider and take into account. IV. Similar projects As of right now, thegrid.io seems to be the only one that introduced some degree of machine learning (or artificial learning as the call it) to web design and it seems to be really promising and interesting. V. Conclusion Thegrid.io is one of a kind applications that in summary should be able to give us the ability to create websites on the fly, without any prior knowledge, with an easy-to-no learning curve whatsoever and that styles itself around the content scanned. That is a very bold idea, but if executed properly and after implementing precautions could help people digitalize their brands very easily. References TheGrid.io landing page snippet [online]. Available: https://www.thegrid.io/ Thegrid.io performance test, conducted by Austin Wulf, on 28.12.2014 [online]. Available: https://medium.com/@austinwulf/the-grid-io-builds-incredibly-slow-websites-24ca1980c8f2 GSS templates used in thegrid.io [online]. Available: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/artificial-intelligence-platform-the-grid-looks-like-the-future-of-web-design-1.2117158 Thegrid.io marketing strategies [online]. Available: https://www.thegrid.io/ K. Aragon (2013, Nov 12). 10 ways to speed up your website – and improve conversion by 7%, [online]. Available: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/12/11/speed-up-your-website/

Wedding Speech - Best Woman or Maid of Honor :: Wedding Toasts Roasts Speeches

Wedding Speech – Best Woman or Maid of Honor Good Evening! For those of you who don’t know me, I am Sarah, Frankie’s slightly older sister. I want to start by congratulating Frankie and Erik, and thanking all of you for coming here today. I of course have known Frankie, a very, very long time. Frankie and I have always been pretty much inseparable as long as I can remember and we have always managed to keep each other laughing. I vividly remember Frankie and I staying up until well past our bedtime, throwing stuffed animals at each other, talking about boys and laughing so hard at everything and anything. To this day Frankie is the only person I know that can make me laugh so hard it hurts. Now, I of course have lots and lots of fun embarrassing stories about her†¦but because it is her special day, I will leave her alone. But there is always Erik†¦Erik, Erik, Erik. The big bonus of Frankie and Erik dating as long as they have is that we have all gotten to know Erik really well, really, really well†¦he has become the big brother I never had†¦ or wanted. But honestly he has really become a part of our family. He hunts, drinks beer, and wears flannel so it wasn’t too much of a stretch. Now, I have been trying for weeks to come up with a single embarrassing story, something about meeting Erik for the first time, or the first time he met our family, and frankly I came up with nothing. Erik has always been polite, kind, and funny to everyone†¦EVERYONE†¦frankly man it’s a little spooky.

Story of a Different Hour :: Essays Papers

The Story of a Different Hour Mrs. Millard just found out that Mr. Millard was killed in a tragic train wreck. Because of a heart condition, Josephine (Mrs. Millard's sister) was hesitant to tell her what happened. Richard (Mr. Millard's good friend) was also there to comfort the newly widowed Mrs. Millard. Josephine was concerned for her sister. To everyone?s surprise Mrs. Millard was rather joyful rather than devastated of the tragic news about her husband. ?Free! Free! Free!?, ?Free! Body and free soul?. Everyone was a bit confused, why Louise was jumping for joy when she just received that her husband passed away few minutes ago. Something smells fishy in this story and who really is Richard? Is he a good friend of Mr. Millard or he is a lover of Louise?.. Well, we will modify some sentences in this story. We all knew what happened in the end. Mrs. Millard was having the time of her life because she just found out that her husband just died. Was Louise happy because of the hefty insurance money that her husband left her? We can?t tell. So as the door was being opened by a latchkey everyone ran through the long stair case and found ?Brently Millard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella?, then Louise was so flabbergasted that she had a heart attack and eventually died. In my opinion the story could use a better ending than Louise dying at the end of the story. If only Chopin talked to me about this story before she published it in 1894 it would probably be a little different. We left of where before Brently opened the door. After Brently died, Louise was alone in her huge plantation. She asked Josephine to move in with her because she can?t bear to be alone any longer. One day Richard dropped by to check on Louise and to drop the title of the house, Richard is a prominent lawyer nowadays. Richard stayed for supper, and Louise told him ?

Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye

Cognitionll saa iva_aa yaa ivamau>yao ll That is knowledge which Liberates! Dear friends, do you know the meaning of this famous â€Å"Sanskrit† quotation? I’ll explain it to you. Generally we call vidya to everything which gives some knowledge. There are many types of vidya which we can learn in this world. Among these, one is . And according to the scriptures â€Å" † alone liberates the human being. One can get Mukti from this world, Because of knowing & experiencing the .The meaning of getting â€Å"Mukti† is not dying, but getting true knowledge of Atman & Paramatman. It is like waking up from a dream. Because after getting Mukti a human being knows that everything we experience in this world is like a dream & it is not true. And so, I am different from what I feel or think now in this world. I am Aatman & not what I am called by everybody. The person who is mukta, is called the â€Å"Enlightened One† (Aatmasaakshaatkaari). That means He knows this world as a play or a dream. He fully knows that this sharir / deh is not me, I am Atman.Like in a dream nobody can do anything to me because nobody knows me, who I am. Dream is an illusion. In our dream anything can happen anywhere & we are present everywhere, we know everything, we are saakshi of every moment in the dream, because it is our dream. Likewise in this world also what we experience is our own experience. â€Å"Pindi Te Brahmaandi† Pind experiences only what is his feelings & nothing else like we experience in a dream. Each one's life is special for that pind. Experience of two persons are never the same. Each ; every person think differently. Pinde Pinde matirbhinnaa † Each person has got different mati. It is a long process for a pind to achieve mukti As our saints say the pind has to undergo 84 lacs of births for mukti. That is why we have to try for mukti in this very birth. Because nardeh only can try for mukti. Simple Meaning Of Mukti : When we are awake from a dream we understand that we were watching a dream in our sleep. And nothing has happened as seen in the dream. It was my illusion. In the dream, I was thinking all (which is happening there) as a real.I was experiencing all that with attachment, but now I’m awake from that illusion & now I can understand that I am different from what I was in my dream. That’s why whatever I had experienced in the dream was everything false & I understand now that nothing has happened to me. In the same way what we experience here in this world is not happening to me because I am very different from what I’m experiencing here as myself. This body, my name, my family, my status, my education, my colour, my looks, my habits, my home†¦.. all these things are not mine. I am very different from all these things.I am Atman which is bound in this deh. When this deh will be perished / dead all these things will disappear & only I (the Aatman) will remain. Atman has to try to come out or to be free from this deh without any harm to this body that is called mukti. This is an exact meaning of mukti. When the Atman comes out of this deh without any damage to it, it is mukti from this world. He can have the knowledge of all Brahmand that means he can have gyan of everything like divine. He will be totally blissful, all pervading, omnipotent. All the God’s adjectives can be put before his name.Atmagyani saints are all mukta, as they have seen their own Atman out of their body in this very birth. If man / human being has got this capacity to see the Atman out of his body (Aatmasaakshaatkaar) & be free from all bondages, then why not try for the same, in this very birth? Easiest Way For Attaining Mukti : †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Bhakti is the easiest way towards mukti. The person who does bhakti becomes pure minded. Mind has the power or potential to pure itself when it comes into contact with God.When mind comes in contact with God, wi th feelings, it is out of the effect of time & space. Time & space doesn’t affect the mind & body each time when it comes in contact with God with love. See the persons who love God, they look younger than others. His mind also is truly pure. That means he /she skips the time in his/her life by contacting God the Parmaatman with love. This is a magic mantra to be young. But my dear friends for that we must have a pure heart. then only it CAN happen. You can also see the Yogins & Bhaktas, how young they look.We can never make-out the age of Yogins & true Bhaktas i. e. Saints. || SA VIDYA YA VIMUKTAYE || That is knowledge which Liberates! Dear friends do you know tha meaning of this famous â€Å"Sanskrit† question? I’ll explain it to you. Generally we call vidya to everything which gives some knowledge about anything. There are 64 types of Arts which we can learn in this world, according to the scriptures. Among these 64 kata, one is Adhyatma Vidya. And it is writ ten in the Hindu sciptures that â€Å"Adhyatma Vidya† only is a Vidya because it liberates the human being.Because of it’s knowledge one can get Mukti from this world. The meaning of getting â€Å"Mukti† is not dying, but getting true knowledge of Atman & Paramatman. It is like waking up from a dream. Because after getting Mukti a human being knows that everything we experience in this world is like a dream & it is not my true self. I am different from what I’am now in this world. The person who is mukt, is called the â€Å"Enlightened One† (Atamashakshatkari). That means He knows this world as a play or a dream. He fully knows that this sharir / deh is not me, I am Atman.Like a dream nobody can do anything to me because nobody knows me, who I am. Dream is an illusion. In our dream anything can happen anywhere & we are present everywhere,w e know everything, we are sakshi of every moment in the dream, because it is our dream. Likewise in this world also what we experience is our own experience. Experience of two person’s are not same. Each & every person think differently. Pinde Pinde matibhirna | Each person has got different mate. It is a long process for a pind to achieve mukti As our saints say 84 lacs of births the pind has to undergo if he doesn’t try for mukti.That is why we have to try for mukti in this very birth. Because nardeh only can try for mukti. SIMPLE MEANING OF MUKTI When we are awake from a dream we understand that we were watching a dream in our sleep. And nothing has happened as seen in the dream. It was my illusion. In the dream, I was thinking as a real. I was experiencing all that but now I’m awake from that illusion & now I can understand that I am different from what I was in my dream that’s why whatever I had experienced in the dream was everything false & I understand now that nothing happened to me.In the same way what we experience here in this world is not happening t o me because I am very different from what I’m experiencing here as myself. This body my name, my family, my status, my education, my colour, my looks, my habits, my home†¦.. all these things are not mine. I am very different from all these things. I am Atman which is bound in this deh. Atman has to try to come out or to be free from this deh without any harm to this body that is called mukti. This is an exact meaning of mukti. When the Atman comes out of this deh without any damage to it, it is mukt from this world.He can have the knowledge of all Brahmand that means he can have gyan of everything like divine. He will be totally blissful, all pervading, omnipotent. All the God’s adjectives can be put before his name. Atmagyani saints are all mukt, as they have seen their own Atman out of their body in this birth. If man / human being has got this capacity to see the Atman out of the body & be free from all bondages then why not try for the same, in this very birt h? STEP FOR ATTAINING MUKTI (THESIS) EASIEST WAY FOR ATTAINING MUKTIHa janm aahe mukti milavnyacha Ha janm aahe bhakti karnyacha Ha janm naahi punha†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Bhakti is the easiest way towards mukti. The person who does bhakti is pure minded. Mind has the power or potential to pure itself when it comes into contact with God. When mind comes into contact with God, with feelings, it is out of the effect of time & space. Time & space doesn’t affect the mind & body each time when it comes in contact with God with love. See the persons who love God, look younger than others. His mind also is truly pure.

Research report

Group has evolved as important Bloc in the world. As the BRICKS nations have distinguished from other emerging markets by their economic and demographic potential to rank among the world's largest and most influential economies in the 21 SST Century. China and India are the major contributors of the growth not only in the BRICKS group but also In the World. Over the past two decades the trend has been clearly suggesting the rise of the two countries as growth engines.Throughout the article we will try and understand the major factors that undistributed to the growth of the China In comparison to BRIM nations. And also we will analyses the current challenges ahead for both China. Whether China will be able to hold up this momentum In future Is most difficult question to be answered. Even though many World organizations are ranking China as the leading Economic power of world and India among top 3 most developed nations of the world by 2050. GAP of the BRICKS nations is on the rise whe n looked over the past two decades clearly suggests that the GAP growth in absolute terms is on the rise.The chart below has en generated by converting the local Currencies in to Current US Dollars. (Ignoring the Currency changes for easy comparison) GAP Growth rate of China has been on the top throughout the two decades and it has sustained the growth consistently. Let us look at the Factors responsible for the Growth of China Beginning with China the main Factors responsible for the China's Growth are High Productivity of Labor and 2. Investments of both by the Government and Private Sector.The export and manufacturing sectors are key drivers of China's economy. The Workforce of china has been very productive and according to Study done by one f reputed Management Institute it was that China's Labor force was 18% more productive than American labor force. It was also found that there Is still more scope for Improvement in Productivity for Chinese Labor. With Productive labor and n ew skills being imparted by the large number of Universities, more number of people are to Join the current Labor market with advanced skills.There Is more likely chance that the labor will be available at optimum price levels as gone are the days as China was considered for cheap manpower. Investments and the Total savings to GAP of Chinese are highest In the BRIM nations. They are at record levels of around 48%, one of the highest among the world. With this amount of Savings going In to the Investments Is a very good plus to a nation, which Is making China an Investment driven economy.There Is a significant role of Investments in China's economic growth story as foreign Direct Investments started Infrastructure which again helped to raise their output levels further. Over the last decade Chinese Government budget is in the surplus except in 2009, when Chinese government had to provide for Stimulus as western world was in grip of Financial Crisis. The Surplus of Chinese Government budget is helping them to procure advanced Technology, oil assets in African Continent and Sovereign funds.Again China tops the BRICKS nations in growth of Exports. China has transformed itself in to manufacturing hub of the world. Its global export share has skyrocketed from just 1. 9 per cent in 1990 to 11. 5 per cent now, finally reaching parity with its global GAP share. Recent slump in Chinese exports can be seen in chart which is attributed to the weak demand in both US and European countries which are China's major export markets. Weak demand in the western countries is due to slow down of the economies due to recent financial crisis.This can be a temporary trend as once US and European Economies pick up there will be greater demand for Chinese exports. China has maintained competitive edge over the world with its large cheap labor force which was productive, cheap raw materials, low power costs with sophisticated Infrastructure and Technology. But few Analysts predict Chines e competitiveness is no longer due to 1. Rising labor wages, owing to a stunning 66-per-cent increase in wages since 2008. 2. China has kept the Credit rates very low helping easy debt financing for manufacturers and exporters.With rising inflation and bad loans crept in to the system, Chinese government has to act swiftly to clean financial sector. This may have an adverse effect in near term. Conclusion: Though facing with near term challenges China is well poised to take on the challenges in a better way and Chinese growth story will remain intact. Till now China's growth was supported by Exports. Now China transformed itself in to a Factory of the world with large number of workforce adding to already workforce.As per estimates these working class will have 40% of china's population as Middle Class by 2020. This middle class with raising aspirations and spending will spur the demand. In near term China will see a lot of Domestic demand spurred by consumption of this middle class . Till recent times China's Economy which was spurred by Manufacturing and Exports sector will also have Consumption driven economy demanding services and goods. This will contain the current levels of the GAP growth rates. Hence I will definitely buy in to the China's sustained growth story in long term.

Extracurricular Activities in a Student’s Life Essay

Extracurricular activities can empower students to make their own decisions and help them gain vital experience and skills to lead them on the path to their future. The Facts According to the Montana State University Extension Service, students involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to become leaders, more willing to complete tasks, more willing to voice opinions, and more likely to graduate from high school and have annual incomes of more than $50,000. Extracurricular activities are also a good way to explore social, political, and career interests. Gain Experience through Extracurricular Activities Extracurricular activities help students gain experience in a variety of areas that will enhance their future. Through participation in sports, students learn cooperation, teamwork and time management. By serving as an officer in an organization, students learn responsibility, problem solving and communication. Extracurricular activities can also help students discover hidden talents, meet people they might otherwise not encounter, and learn about things outside their own environment. How to Choose an Activity But which activities should a student choose? Should they choose activities that use talents they already possess and meet people with similar talents, or should they choose something new and different and meet people who possess different opinions and skills? Some students are comfortable with growth while others will feel more comfortable with familiarity. If a student enjoys outdoor activities, he or she may want to look into archery clubs, horseback riding or other sports. If a student enjoys reading he or she may also enjoy literary clubs, writing clubs or journalism activities. Extracurricular activities are also a good way to learn appreciation for new and different activities. A student who would ordinarily choose football or baseball might think about exposing themselves to archery or bird watching. Choosing something outside a student’s comfort zone widens horizons and expands knowledge. Being open to new avenues by joining the newspaper staff, the computer club or the decorative painter’s club will expose students to new people and new ideas. What Activities Are Available? Activities can be found by checking with school counselors, reading the club section of the local newspaper, calling the Chamber of Commerce, asking other students what activities they are involved in and checking with area churches. Information on volunteer activities can often be obtained from community service organizations or teachers. Teachers can be a wealth of information concerning work-study programs, internships and summer jobs; all of which help students build their resume and gain valuable experience in their career field. If a student has already chosen a career path, extracurricular activities can help pave the way. If he or she is interested in teaching science, being an officer in the science club or entering the local science fair can show commitment. Community service at a nearby pharmacy or volunteering at a lab at a nearby hospital or plant can also give experience in the chosen field and can be included on a resume. Ask Questions It’s important to inquire about the organization. Is there a cost involved? Will participants be asked to raise money? How often does the organization meet? Are evenings and weekends involved? Are outside activities required? How many hours will the organization’s activities entail? Checking school and work schedules should also be done before joining any organization. Extracurricular activities are important, but they shouldn’t take up all of a student’s time outside the school day. There should still be time for homework, chores, relaxing, and spending time with friends and family. A combination of all these are an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Extracurricular activities should complement a student’s life, not complicate it. When students are involved in too many activities or in an activity that takes up too much time, students will become stressed and grades and family relationships begin to suffer. Students should be careful not to overextend themselves by taking on too many activities or volunteering for too many jobs or committees in an organization. Serving as an Officer of an Organization Serving as an officer of an organization can also teach a variety of skills. Leadership and management responsibilities can be gained through serving as President. Recorders or Secretaries gain experience in writing and journalism. Treasurers gain bookkeeping and money handling experience. Each office holds valuable skills that can be used in the future. Many students who ran for Student Body President of their school have gone on to become Chief Executive Officer of an organization or President of their own company. Running for office also gives students experience in campaign management, advertisement and people skills. Some students may choose to get to know an organization better before becoming an officer. They will still have opportunities to serve on committees or volunteer for projects throughout the year. Teamwork, communication and organization skills are all gained by serving on a committee or working on a club project. Commitment Learning to stick with an activity from start to finish is another important lesson of extracurricular activities. Once a commitment to a club, activity or committee is made, students should hang in there even if the activity isn’t quite what they expected. By learning to see activities through to the end, students learn valuable lessons they will use later in life. They will be less likely to drop out of school, less likely to quit a job and less likely to walk away from a relationship prematurely. Gain Vital Experience and Skills for the Future Experience gained from extracurricular activities will follow students throughout their lives. It is surprising to note that when the top two candidates in the running for a job are closely matched, something like â€Å"Eagle Scout† listed on their resume can help decide the tie. Prestigious honors like National Honor Society, English Honor Society or Gamma Beta Phi are noticed by potential employers. They look for competent workers that are go-getters and are willing to get involved and go the extra mile. Even something like Scouting or 4-H tells employers about the person behind the resume. Taking the time to get involved in extracurricular activities will benefit students in a variety of ways. Time away from the school day through participation in extracurricular activities can also serve as an outlet for stress and a way to build confidence and self-esteem. Students need encouragement to pursue their dreams. Not only will it empower them to make their own decisions, they will also be given a chance to gain vital experience and skills that will lead them on the path to their future.