Civilisation and Savagery in William Goldings - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1551 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/04/12 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Lord of The Flies Essay Did you like this example? â€Å"Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.† (Werner Herzog) This quote explains and represents the novel, Lord of the Flies in many ways. In Lord of the Flies, written by the Nobel Prize winner William Golding, identity and civilization occur as fragile parts of society. The book was written after World War II, and the aftermath of this event heavily influenced the people, especially the authors and poets. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Civilisation and Savagery in William Goldings" essay for you Create order Golding wrote the novel based on his own experiences, as he fought in World War II, he was part of the Navy and he was involved in the invasion of Normandy. He discovered the true nature of humans; he was disappointed in humankind. (Spitz, 22) The novel draws attention to the loss of identity and the transition between civilization and savagery with the help of symbolism. Golding shows a world of violence and moral desolation through his book to the reader. The main conflict is between two characters, Ralph and Jack, who are the representatives of civilization and savagery. Their continuous fighting for power has an effect on the rest of the boys throughout the novel, as they are slowly losing their humanity and they sink further and further into chaos. The book starts with a plane crashing into an uninhabited island. A group of English boys are the passengers, and the first two characters, who are introduced, are Ralph and Piggy. Ralph is the one who discovers that they are on an island, which is described very appealingly: â€Å"Out there, perhaps a mile away, the white surf flinked on a coral reef, and beyond that the open sea was dark blue. Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lakeblue of all shades and shadowy green and purple. The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently, for to Ralphs left the perspectives of palm and beach and water drew to a point at infinity;† (Golding, 6) The island seems good enough due to the fact that it has food –fruits, pigs to hunt -, trees and shelter. It is possible that it is a biblical symbol for The Garden of Eden. Before the fall of mankind, The Garden of Eden was considered as a paradise, just like the boys considered the island as a paradise, before they ruined it. (Bufkin, 43) As the story develops, they sink further and further into savagery slowly drifting away from the civilized society, and eventually burn down the island. The scar that runs through the island symbolizes how destructive mankind is. As they are bathing in the lagoon they find a conch, which is the first symbol of civilization. Ralph, for Piggy’s suggestion, blows it to gather the rest of the boys. As everyone wonders out from the forest to the sound of the conch, the reader encounters the rest of the characters. The biggest contrast is between Ralph and Jack, who become the representatives of civilization and savagery. Ralph is the one who symbolizes order and civilization. He is described as the typical and perfect English boy: he has blonde hair, blue eyes and he is considered attractive. The conch is associated with him; he is someone to be respected and that is why he is elected as the leader. The conch is a symbol for power because whoever has it can speak up, and everybody has the same amount of respect and right when they are holding it: â€Å"Ill give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when hes speaking. [†¦]And he wont be interrupted: Except by me. (Golding, 24) Ralph also represents democracy; he wants everyone to be the part of the civilized society he plans to establish during their time spent on the island. Despite that, his powers are limited as it depends on order and rules. In the beginning, he becomes a leader to survive, but toward the end of the story, his ego comes before survival as he lost his civilized side. His new identity does not fit for leading, he fails to unite the boys and he is unable to bring order among them. He appoints Jack to be the leader of the hunters, who later on tries to convince the boys to leave Ralph and go with him, and at some point he succeeds. He and Ralph share an odd relationship; they are constantly fighting from the beginning, but at the same time they have respect for one another. Jack represents dictatorship and savagery. In the beginning, he tries to â€Å"sell† himself with his singing ability and his leadership of the choir boys. He tries to prove the others that he would be a good choice as a leader. He eventually succeeds and becomes the new leader of the boys. Jack’s priority is killing and he attracts the boys to him with this. They cannot live out their â€Å"need† for killing with Ralph, so they eventually leave him for Jack. At the beginning of the story, he hesitates when he has to kill a pig, but as the story develops he becomes hungry for hunting. He becomes more violent and aggressive: _Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood._ (Golding, 52). This quote shows that after he kills his first pig, it is clear that he no longer cares or feels guilty about what he has done. He realizes that he has the ability to destroy something, like life, and this is something they can dominate with over the island. The boys also choose Jack over Ralph as a leader, because he believes them when they inform him about the â€Å"Beast†. Although, this so-called â€Å"Beast† is only a creature of their imagination, Jack does what Ralph failed to do as a leader. He does not believe in the â€Å"Beast† – he is using â€Å"if† in his speech every time they talk about it -, but he knows the others do: â€Å"There isn’t a snake-thing. But if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it. We’re going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody. And we’ll look for the snake too-â€Å" (Golding, 36). While Ralph straight up refuses the idea that there might be a â€Å"Beast† on the island, Jack manipulates the boys, with his carefully chosen words, implying to the others that he believes what they said. Later on, he starts using words like â€Å"will† and â€Å"snake† instead of â€Å"if† and â€Å"snake-thing†, which implies that he acknowledged the existence of the Beast. Ralph might be the one who takes responsibility for everything they have done, but Jack is the one who believes in them and actually has an opinion about this â€Å"creature† the boys made up. For them, their belief on the â€Å"Beast† is stronger and stronger as they become more savage. They do not find Ralph very appealing as a leader anymore, especially after this conversation; the only opinion he has about the â€Å"Beast† is rejection and that â€Å"there isn’t a beastie†. T he Beast can be the representation of the true evil within humans as well, which is on the surface as soon as they lose everything that connects them to civilization. Although, the facts that they put on their â€Å"face paint† made of mud and clay, slaughter a boar and dance around the fire like a primitive tribe, indicate that they have turned into complete savages. During this scene, they mistake Simon for the Beast and they kill him. Other turning points of the book are when Piggy’s glasses and the conch breaks. Piggy’s glasses were the symbol of intelligence and science, because the boys were able to light the fire with them. The glasses can also signify as a window which can distinguish good from evil. Piggy used his glasses not only to see, but to decide what is good for all of them. He was more mature than the others, and he had the knowledge of leadership. When Jack broke and stole his glasses, he lost not only his eyesight, but he also his ability to differentiate between what is good and what is evil. Civilization comes to its end when Piggy dies, and the conch breaks. The shell was the last thing which held the boys together and it was the last pillar of democracy, which is also destroyed with the conch: â€Å"the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.† (Golding, 181) Taking everything into consideration, Lord of the Flies is a novel that shows us how evil is hidden in everyone, which only needs time and some change of circumstances to show itself. In the case of the boys, this change was the island. They were alone in an uninhabited island without adult supervision, and despite the fact that they were trying to stay civilized, the freedom they possessed completely changed them. Being civilized is not natural or necessary, unless you want to survive. This shows us that we need rules to stay alive. Golding uses the main characters to show, that humankind is more evil than good. The continuous power struggle between Ralph and Jack results in their loss of identity; they shred off their â€Å"masks† as the proud English boys and replaced it with savagery

Animal Testing Should Save People s Lives - 2260 Words

The first cases of animal testing happened in the ancient times to satisfy a curiosity for anatomy and to obtain knowledge. Back in these days a researcher would cut open an awake animal before a crowd. Belgian Andreas Vesalius and his students in Padua, Italy demonstrated public lectures on anatomy. â€Å"An animal, usually a dog, would be cut open while still alive and the function of each organ would be speculated upon as it was located† (Monamy 9). Today animals are used as a way to test new and unknown medications on a living organism. But even then, one such physician stated that he would rather use a pig as his subject because he wanted to, â€Å"avoid seeing the unpleasant expression of an ape† (Monamy 9). The ethics of animal testing has always been questioned. Humans do not want to think of animals as on the same level of us. Animal testing is helping save people’s lives, but what about the animals lives that are taken to achieve success. The similari ty between humans and animals is terrifying and makes the cruelty obvious. In the 16 century it was recorded that early scientists who performed experiments and operations on live animals, did not consider animals to be equal to humans and barely cared for them. Relado Colombo is a good example of this kind of scientist. He was known for performing live lectures on pregnant dogs. â€Å"Maehle and Trohler said that he would take the young fetuses from the mother and harm them in front of her. Being a mother, she would bark furiouslyShow MoreRelated Animal Testing Needs To Stop Essay990 Words   |  4 Pagescompanies should stop animal testing. By animal testing, the companies not only violate the animals rights (which is breaking the law), but their testing methods are hazardous which endanger the animals life. Finally, the companies should stop animal testing because each year we lose hundreds of thousands of animals and could make a difference by stopping this cruelty. Stop the animal testing, and save a life. To start with, cosmetic and drug companies should stop animal testing theirRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing1502 Words   |  7 Pagesthat animal testing is beneficial to the advancement of human knowledge, while animal rights’ activists claim that animal testing is not humane and violates animals’ rights. The controversy over animal testing is best understood as a disagreement about whether animal testing is beneficial to humans. Each year more than 100 million animals are killed in the U.S. Every country has a law that permits medical experimentation on animals. While some countries protect particular kinds of animals fromRead MoreAnimal Testing Should Not Be Banned Essay1369 Words   |  6 Pagesheartbreaking, miserable animals: that is what comes to mind when animal testing is mentioned. While some of it may be true, testing animals for medical reasons is necessary. 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Government officials and scientists believe that testing on animals is essential for medical research, but many of the results prove to be irrelevant and the reality is that most animals that are experimentedRead MoreAnimal Testing Should Be Banned Essay1632 Words   |  7 Pages Animal Testing Should Be Banned Throughout the decades, animals have been used in medical research to test the safety of cosmetics including makeup, hair products, soaps, perfume, and countless of other products. Animals have also been used to test antibiotics and other medicines to eliminate any potential risks that they could cause to humans. The number of animals worldwide that are used in laboratory experiments yearly exceeds 115 million animals. Unfortunately, only a small percentage ofRead MoreAnimal Testing Should Be Banned880 Words   |  4 Pagesthat the world lived and lives on the many discoveries that helped to clear away many of the obstacles and pests. During the developments and discoveries in the scientific field, people find that the richest discoveries health or medicine generally are depending on animals testing. Therefore, if people talk about laboratories, they should remember animal experiments. Those animals have the right to live, according to people who dislike the idea of doing testing on animals; the other opinion, supportsRead MoreAnimal Testing Should Be Banned Essay1646 Words   |  7 Pages Animal Testing Should Be Banned Throughout the decades, animals have been used in medical research to test the safety of cosmetics including makeup, hair products, soaps, perfume and countless of other products. Animals have also been used to test antibiotics and other medicines to eliminate any potential risks that they could cause to humans. The number of animals worldwide that are used in laboratory experiments every year exceeds 115 million animals. Unfortunately, only a small percentageRead MoreAnimal Testing Is Cruel And Inhumane1323 Words   |  6 PagesThousands of animals every year are euthanized due to animal testing. Animal testing is cruel and an inhumane way to torture animals for mankind’s own benefit. Because of our selfish, millions of animals suffered a vicious and painful death in the name of research every year. Animals are frequently used in biological and medical research, in the testing of drugs and commercial products, and in educational exercises in the sciences. So, can we ask ours elves, deeply in mind, that is it worth to useRead MoreAnimal Testing is the Best Way to Test Products Essay examples1116 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Thesis Statement: If animal testing were prohibited, then in what way would the effectiveness of a product be verified? A quote by Amanullah Ashraf states that, in order to gain something, we have to lose something . According to this, I will be discussing animal testing. Audience: everybody who thinks animal testing should be prohibited. Purpose: convincing people that animal testing is the best way to test products and its not â€Å"cruel† and â€Å"inhuman† as people say. 2. Body paragraphs Read MoreUsing Animals In Research And To Test Products Has Been1623 Words   |  7 PagesUsing animals in research and to test products has been a topic of heated debate for many years. Animals have contributed to research and we have found many cures to diseases that would have otherwise killed us. Many individuals view animals as companions that exhibit emotion and have a personality, they’re not viewed as lab subjects. The fact remains that animals are utilized by research facilities and cosmetics companies, not just across the country but around the entire world. Although humans

Demand of Corn Oil Free Essays

Rising oil prices in the United States have forced discussion on seeking alternative energy sources. One option that keeps being discussed by researchers is the usage of corn oil as a viable solution. This paper will explore the economic factors such as supply, demand and price elasticity around corn oil and its substitute soybeans. We will write a custom essay sample on Demand of Corn Oil or any similar topic only for you Order Now Supply of Soybeans If the demand for corn increases due to is use as an alternative energy source, the supply of corn’s substitutes such as soybeans will decrease. Based upon the determinants of supply – producers, resources, market expectations, subsidies and taxes and technology – the factors point to a decrease in supply. The number of producers of soybeans may decrease. Some farmers may choose to use some of their land to grow corn as opposed to soybeans, to meet the increase in corn demand. A decrease in producers would also cause a decrease in resources used to grow soybeans. Also, the market would expect corn as that is what is being touted as the viable energy source, so there’s more pressure on farmers to have corn. The US government currently gives subsidies to corn farmers, which gives them an even bigger incentive to grow corn instead of soybeans. While the technology is there to grow soybeans, there is only so much farm space and corn is the primary focal point. Price of Corn Oil If the demand for corn increases, the price of corn oil will also decrease. Whenever demand for something increases, and the supply for that item decreases, it drives the price of it up in the marketplace. It becomes that much more valuable as it’s that much harder to attain. If everyone wants corn, but there’s only so much corn available, the corn farmers can charge more for it because they know consumers will be willing to pay more to have it. Price Elasticity of Demand and Total Revenue According to Wally Sparks’ article, corn is an inelastic good because there are so few substitutes for it (Sparks, 2007). When a good is inelastic, that means that customers are not as sensitive to price changes, versus those of an elastic good. So even when corn prices were at an all time high years ago, people were still consuming corn because in the short run, they had few other options. When a good is inelastic, and the price of that good goes up, total revenues also go up. Let’s say corn was $8/barrel and a farmer normally sells 100 barrels. That will yield $800 for that farmer. Well if he raises the prices to $10/barrel and still sells at least 100 barrels – since th good is inelastic and demand hasn’t changed – that same farmer has now made $1,000. While this is just a made-up example, it shows how the increase in price yields more total revenue when a good is inelastic. Conclusion Supply and demand are king in understanding and predicting market trends. When something is in high demand, sometimes producers aren’t able to make enough of it quickly enough. This causes prices to go up because supply is down. This principle applies to everything from the cars we drive to the food we eat, and in this case the corn oil we use. How to cite Demand of Corn Oil, Essay examples

Ambush journalism Essay Example For Students

Ambush journalism Essay Ambush is the act or instance of lying concealed so as to attack by surprise. Journalism is the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news. Ambush journalism Essay is commonly seen in American public affairs and tabloid programs. Ambush Journalism has been around for as long as we can remember and will continue to be around in the future. The question however is if Ambush Journalism is ethical or not. This is a very hard question to answer! First who decides what is ethical? That judgement is left in the hands of both journalist and the public. Some journalists use this technique to obtain the latest and hottest news the outcome can sometimes be damaging or viewed as unethical. Other journalists refuse to use this technique because they feel that it violates the basic journalistic standards of balance and fairness (Day, pg.136). The public on the other hand wants to know everyones private business so much that they sometimes do not care how it might affect the person or persons that the news is about. However if they were to be the subject of Ambush Journalism themselves they would most likely not like it at all. Is this subject a gray area? Yes it is a gray area because there is no set line or black and white answer of what is right or wrong. Take a murder trial for instance. If a murder trial is covered in one way that shows the emotions of the victims family in an interview, after a not guilty verdict is decided, then this could be viewed as unethical. This form of Ambush Journalism can be very rewarding and destructive at the same time. While getting the raw emotions of the family could be good, it could also be viewed as an invasion of the familys privacy as well as disrespectful. However if the same trial is covered so that the emotions of the victims family are not used to spur unreasoned answers then this form of journalism could be viewed as ethical. Journalists sometimes use the element of Ambush Journalism as a surprise technique to get the real story or news and raw emotions. This can sometimes be good because the persons true emotions are not hidden, as mentioned before, but usually the person being interviewed or ambushed does not have time to prepare and tends to have not well-reasoned answers. To fully understand what Ambush Journalism is one would need to observe previous cases and examples of it. First in the case of Chung vs. Gingrich, Connie Chung, a journalist, interviewed Kathleen Gingrich, mother of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Day, pg.137). In the interview Chung asked Mrs. Gingrich what her son thought of the first lady, Hillary Clinton? After assuring Mrs. Gingrich that her answer would just be between them(even though the cameras were still rolling). Mrs. Gingrich feeling secure whispered to Chung that her son thought the first lady was a bitch (Day, pg.137). This situation then turned into a he said she said problem with Connie Chung as the center of attention. Some journalists voiced their opinion that what Chung did was unethical. Chung was even accused of Ambushing Gingrich by the executive director, Everette Dennis, of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University (Day, pg.137). In Chungs defense, David Bartlett, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association said there was no attempt to deceive or trick anyone into saying something on camera that they didnt want to say, (Day, pg.137). Just in this situation it is hard to decide who is right or wrong. On one side you have an elderly lady who was told that anything she had to say would just be between her and the reporter. While on the other side you have a reporter that knowingly asked a loaded question during the interview caught the desired response on tape and used it as part of her story to get better ratings. I myself feel that what Connie Chung did was wrong. She should have never told Kathleen Gingrich that she could say anything and then use it later. I feel that in this situation Chungs actions were unethical and violated the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .postImageUrl , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:hover , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:visited , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:active { border:0!important; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:active , .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57 .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uce4ea94191154f528fe343e432885d57:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Patriotism Essay She did not .

Book Reflection on Holes free essay sample

The book Holes is about Stanley Yelnats. Stanley’s family has a curse brought by his grandfather Elya Yelnats. Elya made a deal with a gypsy named Madame Zeroni. He wanted the fattest pig so he could get a girl to marry him. So he went to Madame Zeroni and she told him to take the pig up the mountain every day and make him drink water from the river, and when the pig gets fat he has to take her to the top of the mountain and let her drink from the river. He forgot to repay her and she had told him that if he forgot to repay her he and his family would be cursed for all eternity until they repay her. From then on his family was cursed with bad luck. One Hundred Years later Stanley is accused of stealing a pair of cleats donated to an orphanage by a famous baseball player. We will write a custom essay sample on Book Reflection on Holes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Stanley was given a choice by a judge to go to jail or go to Camp Green Lake. Stanley picked Camp Green Lake. Camp Green Lake is a boy’s juvenile detention center. Although he was wrongly convicted of his crime he was sentenced to a year and a half to Camp green Lake. By the order of the Warden and her assistants Mr. Sir and Mr. Pendanski each inmate in Camp Green Lake has to dig a 5-foot hole every day to build character. Stanley had no friends when he first got there. He slowly developed a friendship with a boy named zero. Everyone at the camp calls him zero because he never talks and he doesn’t know how to read. Stanley teaches him how to read then they become friends. And zero helps Stanley dig his holes. One day zero and Stanley dug up a hole and found something and gave it to Mr. Sir and he gave it to the Warden. It was an artifact from the famous â€Å"Kissing’ Kate† Barlow. The Warden forces them to dig more, she wants to find the treasure that was buried by Murderer Kate Barlow. Stanley and zero find out about the wardens ideas. zero and Stanley know where the treasure is at. So Stanley and Zero run away from the camp. In camp green lake it has never rained in a hundred years so they are walking around in the hot dessert. They go up a mountain and Zero gets Stanley Carries him up the mountain. When they get up the mountain Stanley found water and gives it to Zero. But Stanley never knew that Zero was related to Madame Zeroni. Since Stanley carried Zero up the mountain and gave him water the curse was lifted and his family no longer had a curse. They went back and dug up the treasure and he police went to the camp and arrested the Warden and her assistants. The treasure had Stanley’s name on it so it was his and he gave Zero half of the money and they both stayed friends. An important quote from the book is that â€Å"there is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There was once a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. It s important because there used to be a lake but it dried out. Another quote is â€Å"if you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy. It is an important quote because they made them dig to find the treasure not to make them into good boys. Also when Mr. Pendanski tells Stanley â€Å"You know why his name is Zero, because there’s nothing in his head. † This quote is important because that why Stanley teaches him how to read. These are some quotes that have a significant meaning to the book. Reading holes shows that you can’t judge someone without knowing that person. We can learn to stop being hasty every time we judge someone. Because we can make huge mistakes. Like Stanley did with Zero. At first he underestimated Zero, probably because of the influence the other kids had on him. He thought Zero was stupid, even though he didn’t know him. Everyone thought he was brainless, but he just didn’t like answering their questions. â€Å"You know why his name’s Zero? † Mr. Pendanski â€Å"Because there’s nothing inside his head. † Mr. Pendanski â€Å"Even you, Zero. You’re not completely worthless. † Mr. Pendanski Every time Stanley wrote a letter to his mother, Zero was always watching behind his back. That annoyed Stanley because he thought Zero was reading everything he wrote. The thing was that Zero didn’t know how to read. â€Å"He didn’t care what Zero thought. Zero was nobody. † Zero asked Stanley if he could teach him how to read, but Stanley refused. He didn’t have the strength to try to teach Zero to read and write. This is what I learned from reading this book.

Football Essays - College Football National Champions, Free Essays

Football Essays - College Football National Champions, Free Essays Football Personal Statement Describe and discuss a significant experience or achievement that has special meaning to you. The 1998 varsity football season was both a significant experience and achievement for me. It was so extraordinary that it defiantly has a special meaning to me. As a team we won North Coast Section (NCS) of California, Division III, and were ranked number one in the state, Division III. This immense reward was not simply given out to every team but instead we had to earn it. After it was all over and completed I could truthfully say that earning it was not easy. One week after we got out for summer last year we started preparing ourselves physically for the upcoming season. As a team through the whole summer we lifted and ran four days a week. It was difficult because all the other high school kids were at the beach, while I was working hard in the gym or on the track. In the championship game I was the one out there while they were the ones in the stands wishing they could be a part of it all. That summer was when I knew varsity football was going to be a commitment. The night before we were going to begin double days, two practices every day for a week, we all slept in the gym as one group united as a team. During that evening we discussed and set goals that we would strive for and that would guide are season on a prosperous path. We came up with three goals: go u ndefeated, win NCS, and be number one in the state. From that point on I committed myself to the team and that it stood for and represented. I knew this commitment would need my devotion and I felt I could make sacrifices in my life in order to be committed. We came into the season ranked number one and that meant we had to keep it. In order to maintain at the top we had to go undefeated. This was once again not easy because the season was mostly filled with tough opponents who would not simply allow us to win. I did not play the star role in these games but I was simply on two special teams, kick off and kick return, and played a little time at linebacker. I still was part of it all by devoting myself 100% to every game and practice. We defeated our first nine opponents and ended up in the playoffs. We gave it our all and won two playoff games versus two of the most competitive opponents I have ever played. In the championship game the special teams I was on were unbelievable. The kickoff team caused the other team to turnover the ball and the return team returned the ball all the way for a touchdown, the first time all season. I was part of both of these teams and am proud to say it. It was a game that brought me pride and happiness. I can now say that this season was well worth the commitment because the reward was so magnificent. We were not simply a championship team but a family. Throughout the season we bonded to each other and moved each week toward a common goal. It felt so good inside to have reach each of our goals. I now look at the plaque on my wall and the championship football ring on my hand and words such as: pride, courage, commitment, sacrifice, and family come to mind. Bibliography none

Application Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Application - Assignment Example The objective of the training program was to orient these managers on the basis managerial and administrative responsibilities in different nursing units to enable nursing unit managers to focus direct patient care. evaluation findings is to determine if the identified goals where effectively achieved. As identified, the training objectives include orienting the newly hired unit managers on managerial and administrative responsibilities to be undertaken at different nursing units; and thereby, to enable nursing unit managers to focus on patient care. The audiences within whom the findings were communicated to were the Department Managers of the Nursing Department and the Vice President for Nursing for review and assessment and forwarding of results to the President and CEO of the organization. Likewise, the results were subsequently communicated to the Nurse Unit Managers for information purposes. Parallel to the discussions presented in Russ-Eft & Preskill (2009), the target audience that were identified herewith were considered according to being: (1) directly involved in the development of the training program; and (2) they are directly interested and affected by the results of the training program (p. 406). The timing of the communication and evaluation reports was considered. As disclosed by Rodgers, although the formal evaluation was scheduled after the six week training period, regular weekly updates were reported to the Department Managers of Nursing Department and to the Vice President of Nursing. Therefore, in addition to the weekly reports, the final evaluation and communication of findings were set at the 7th week from the initial basic orientation to review and evaluated the outcome; any challenges or difficulties encountered; any proposed changes to the current managerial and administrative tasks, as proposed by the unit managers; and to incorporate suggestions or comments recommended by the Nurse Unit Managers. The

Reasons for American Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reasons for American Civil War - Essay Example Southern states pursued an agrarian economy at a time when the north was pursuing industrialization. This meant development of different social cultures and political ideologies and ultimately disagreements on over issues of taxation, trade tariffs and the question of state versus federal rights. A major conflict that disrupted the union was the debate concerning slavery and its future. The dispute over slavery resulted in a war where states in the north and west wanted preservation of the union while southern states were pushing for a new and independent confederation of southern states with its constitution. The agrarian southern states largely relied on slaves to supply free labor while northern states were gradually abolishing slavery. A major constitutional compromise came in 1787 and would later be known as the Three-Fifths-Compromise over how to count slaves for purposes of determination total populations in states for the important reasons of taxation and elective representation. The south wanted slaves to be counted as full persons while the north opposed on the account that they did not have rights to vote. A compromise was stricken to count â€Å"all other persons† as just 3/5 of their actual total number. The Compromise of 1850 is yet another one arrived at between the North and South diffusing a political disputed that had lasted four years surrounding the status of those territories that were acquired in the 1846-1846 Mexican-American War. The Fugitive Slave Act was therefore amended to abolish slave trade in Washing D.C, force Texas surrender its claims to New Mexico & its claims north of the Missouri Compromise Line, admit California to the union as a free state and prevent the adoption of the famous Wilmot Proviso. The Missouri Compromise was also cantered on the same territories from the U.S-Mexican War which had heightened the debate on slavery. Abolished pushed to have slavery outlawed in the

Compare and contrast Pascal, Voltaire, Hume, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche Essay

Compare and contrast Pascal, Voltaire, Hume, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche - Essay Example He stipulated in his popular ‘Pascal’s Wager. He said the people would lose very little for believing that God exists regardless of whether he exists or not. On the other hand, he stipulated that people would gain a lot for believing that God exists. In this case, he concluded that it is appropriate for people to believe that God exists and behave in an appropriate manner. Pascal said that he would rather be frightened of being mistaken about the existence of God. Therefore, Pascal’s Wager is regarded as a rationality of belief in God. His views are directed to those people who waver as opposed to those people who do not believe in the existence of God (Asiado). Voltaire’s life is described as a paradox. In this case, he despised humanity yet he was fond of men. Moreover, he did not believe in God but in real sense he dedicated his life to find him. He stipulated that no religious text or revelation is needed to allow people to believe in God. He believed in the universal laws which are focused in the moral world which are observed in all religious systems. In this case, people are required to have respect for nature and the contemporary world. Voltaire believed that there exists a supreme, eternal and intelligent being. He believed in reason and not faith (Graves). Hume is regarded as an empiricist. He believes that belief would be regarded as rational if there is sufficient evidence to support it. In this case, he questions whether there is enough evidence in the world which would convince people to believe in the wise, powerful, good and a wise God. For example, Hume was very critical of the Catholic Church. He described its activities as ones that are guided by idolatry and superstition. He also stipulated that they practiced uncivilized beliefs. Moreover, he regarded Protestants as corruptors of belief (Quinton, p, 3). Therefore, in this perspective, it is true that Hume was skeptical about religion. Kierkegaard was a religious poet. In this

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Design

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Design Introduction Objective The goal of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is to achieve reusable assets in an agile manner that is aligned with the business needs of the organization. The SOA Reference Architecture provides guidelines for making architectural and implementation decisions. To that end it serves as a blueprint for creating or evaluating a solution architecture for different groups within the organization. In addition it provides insight and patterns for integrating the different elements of an SOA as illustrated by the different layers of an SOA. An SOA Reference Architecture is designed to answer some of the key questions and issues encountered while developing a solution such as: What are the aspects of an SOA as expressed in terms of layers that need to be considered when designing solutions based on SOA principles? What are the building blocks needed to include in each layer of a solution? What are some of the key architectural decisions that need to be made when designing a a solution that is based on SOA? Which roles in a project would benefit from using these principles and guidelines? To answer these questions this document provides the following: Establishes a common vocabulary and set of definitions for services and SOA. Identifies the different functions of an SOA implementation and define their interactions with each other and with functions outside the scope of the Rufus platform. Provides SOA guiding principles. Defines consistent design and implementation across services. Shows when and where to use SOA technologies. Supports SOA governance. Provides an architectural based design methodology. Overview This document presents the layers, building blocks, architectural and design decisions, patterns, options and the separation of concerns needed to design or evaluate an SOA architecture. The architecture consists of multiple components which are divided into the following categories: Quality of Service (QoS) Security Consumer Business Process Integration Services Information Infrastructure Governance Monitoring Management Center of Excellence (COE) Design Time Elements Component View Design Time Elements Design-Time Activities are the technical activities, guidelines, and deliverables that allow for everyday development within the SOA and Integration Architecture. Including: Service Modeling and Design Canonical Data Modeling Policy Specification Service Assembly Service Testing Service Identification Service Lifecycle Management Service Modeling and Design Services must be modeled and designed to support an extensible plug-and-play model by being: Reusable So that other Services leverage an existing Service. Composable So that a Service can leverage other Services. Interoperable So that Services can work with each other. Discoverable To support location independence. To enable the above qualities, each Service (except for Data and Utility Services) needs to have: A well-defined Service Contract To enable loose couple by hiding low-level implementation details from Service Consumers. SOAP-based Web Services achieve this by specifying a WSDL interface with XML-based document exchange. RESTful Web Services define a contract with HTTP input parameters and JSON/XML-based responses. Coarse-grained So that operations have enough data to carry out all tasks in a stateless manner. Stateless operations Statelessness (i.e., not maintaining state between invocations) enables a Service to be reused in many contexts. A way to handle Exceptions to notify its caller if there are problems carrying out an operation. To ensure that each type of Shared Service is designed and implemented in a uniform manner, a SOA Governance team should create SOA Best Practices documents for: Service Design, Web Service Design, and XML Message Design in Designers Guides (i.e., working agreements). Topics would include: Service Specification and Design Interface (including Canonical Data model for messages see section 3.5.2) Policies (see section 3.5.3) SLAs (Service Level Agreements) A description of what the Service does A description of the Services operations. Best practices for each type of Shared Service (Business, Common, Data, Integration, and Utility). Examples showing the difference between Service-Oriented Design and Object Oriented Design. How to develop a SOAP Web Service (and handle Exceptions). How to develop a RESTful Web Service (and handle Exceptions). Canonical Data Modeling (XML) Many organizations have several autonomous packaged and custom developments that have evolved independently of one another. Many times, each system has become a system with its own implementation methodology, culture, processes, business rules, and vocabulary. Many companies face the problem of using the business data to enable applications to communicate in a distributed systems environment. Organizations design Canonical Data Models (CDM) to help analyze the message exchange within the organization and with their trading partners. Data is embedded in the basic architecture of any organization. To develop the CDM, an organization must inventory business concepts and map the vocabulary into fundamental business concepts. The CDM provides a framework for integrating the disparate terms for each line of business. The CDM is a catalog of neutral terms defined in an XML Schema, including: Entities in the business domain (e.g., Order, Customer, etc.) Agreed-upon data structures so that a domain element has a single, common definition. Formatting rules. A CDM defines an organizations data in motion the XML messages exchanged between: Services within an enterprise. An enterprise and its external trading partners. Many industries have an industry standard (e.g., ACORD, for Insurance, or EDRM for e-Discovery) to define core concepts and define data exchanged between companies. A Canonical Data Model provides the following benefits: An enterprise can easily exchange data with its business partners. An enterprise can adopt a single approach to exchanging data across all services the enterprise. The canonical model helps define the interface for each Service (thus hiding the structure of the physical data in the database). Changes to the canonical data model are required only when an entirely new business concept arises. Policy Specification Policies provide service-level meta-data to Web Services consumers. Specifying these policies is an important step in Web Service design, and this is accomplished by attaching policy expressions to the WSDL. Specifically, these policies include: Security: Transport Protocol Algorithm (RSA, etc.). Messages Authentication/Authorization Level of Service (e.g., Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.). For example, a Platinum customers requests execute on best-provisioned server for better performance (but also at a higher price). Performance For example, send notifications if performance for a particular service dips below the promised SLA. Auditing For example, begin auditing when a particular service consumer invokes an operation on a Service. Service Assembly A Business Analyst first develops a Business Process Diagram (using BPMN Business Process Modeling Notation) to model a business process at a business/requirements level. Then, designers and developers create a runtime model in either BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) or JBI (Java Business Integration) to: Assemble existing Shared Services into a Business Process Enable a BPMS product and/or ESB can run the business process. Designers use MEPs (Message-Exchange Patterns) to model the runtime characteristics of a business process. Typical MEPs include: Pipes and Filters Content-based Router Recipient List Wire Tap Dynamic Router These patterns are gaining in popularity and many of the newer ESB and BPMS products support executable MEP models. Please see the following for further information: Enterprise Integration Patterns Home Page Enterprise Integration Patterns, Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf, et al. Service Testing Most Shared Services will be implemented as Web Services, and it is important to take a Test-Driven Development (TDD) approach to Web Services development because: Designers and developers need early feedback on the design, functionality, usability, and performance of each Web Service. QA personnel need to be able to test Web Services. Overall quality is very important because each Web Service could be used by multiple consumers. Service Testing includes: Inspecting Web Services: Documentation Generating HTML documentation from the Web Service interface. Debugging Show SOAP/HTTP requests that are sent received over the wire. Invoking Web Services: Generating Web Services requests from WSDL to set the Web Service. Simulating/Mocking Web Services Generating Unit Tests based on the Web Service interface. Functional/Performance Testing Web Services Simulating load conditions. Reporting on performance under load conditions. Commercial products include: Eviware soapUI Pro iTKO LISA Open Source products include: Eviware soapUI Community Edition WebInject PushToTest TestMaker Points to Ponder (for Evaluation) Does the product support both SOAP and RESTful Web Services? How? Does the product enable you to view SOAP/HTTP messages over the wire? Does the product have a good/usable Web UI to make it easy to test? Can a QA/Tester use the product without developer intervention? What level of SOAP, WSDL, and HTTP does the product support? Does the product support an Agile/TDD approach with Unit Tests and Mocking? Does the product generate Unit Tests to support Continuous Integration? Can the product simulate load conditions and report on performance/scalability? How much setup is involved? How does the licensing work? Service Identification Service Identification is one of the key steps in designing a Service-Oriented solution because it defines and identifies high-level Business Services by using the following the following approaches: Top Down: Analyze and model business processes. Design new Services that enable the tasks and activities in the business processes. Bottom Up: Service-enable existing and applications systems. Create business processes from the Services. Middle Out: Analyze and model business processes. Catalog existing applications and services. Determine which can be Service-enabled. Create Service Adapters. Map tasks and activities from the business processes to existing Services. Create new Services to fill in the gaps. A Middle-out approach is recommend because it takes the best parts of the other approaches: The bottom-up approach creates isolated silos that dont align with the business. The top-down approach takes a long time, and the enterprise cant wait for every business process to be defined in order to begin designing and developing Services. A compromise approach takes into account the need for timeliness, but also instills enough discipline to design Business Services that match up with the goals and objectives from the Business Architecture by: Taking a first cut at the Business Services from Marketing materials and meetings with the CMO and other business stakeholders. Starting with only a few Business Processes. Driving toward a thin/vertical slice of functionality based on the business processes. Service Lifecycle Management Service implementations are software like any other software module or application. As such, they go through a similar lifecycle. The service lifecycle is depicted in the following diagram. The lifecycle starts with Service Identification. Services are part of more general business processes. As such, new services are usually identified by the design of a new business process. This is not the only way that new services are identified however. Sometimes services are identified as part of portfolio management. This involves analyzing the requirements for a service across the breadth of the enterprise. The level of analysis required for this type of identification is difficult to gauge and therefore CIBER does not recommend using portfolio management for service discovery at this time. Once a service has been identified, it follows an iterative development process. Iterative processes use the feedback from subsequent phases to make corrections in previous phases based on lesson learned or issues that may crop up. Services are part of a greater distributed system however and any changes made can have an impact on other development efforts. Therefore it is important to be mindful of the effect change can have even during development of a service. The Service Specification and Design phase produces at a minimum the specification for the service interface. This interface specification includes the semantics and data that the service supports. This represents the contract between the service and its consumers. Diligence should be applied to the design of this interface as changes to the interface have the greatest impact to subsequent phases. Changes to the service interface can impact both clients that may be developed in parallel, implementation of the service, as well as test plans that have been implemented to test the service. This does not mean that a service interface must never be changed once it is designed. Designs are not perfect and in todays IT environment it is not always possible to take the time required to produce an interface definition that is ideal. Therefore it is prudent to put processes in place that take into account that service interfaces may change. Whenever implementing a service take into account tha t the interface may change to the extent possible to minimize the impact of that change. This also applies to the implementers of consumers of the service. In some cases, consumers may want to wait until the service has been through some number of rounds of testing before starting their implementation. This allows for some experience to be developed with using the service thereby (hopefully) minimizing the possibility of change to the interface. Once the service has been designed it proceeds to the Service Implementation phase. In this phase the service will be developed based upon architectural standards developed by the university OIT group. Any issues encountered trying to implement the design of the service should be fed back to the designer in order to refine the design if necessary. Finally, service need to be tested before being deployed into production use. Testing of services involves four primary areas of focus: Security testing is essential to assess the risk of a service with regard to vulnerability, data privacy and data integrity. Tests need to be developed to test boundary conditions which can assess the robustness of the service handling inputs outside the range of anticipated values. Tests should also be created that ensure the service performs as expected based on the roles as defined within the system. Type of Testing Description Functional This area of testing focuses on ensuring the service performs its function according to the requirement of the business process it support. Automated test suites should be developed to perform regression testing to quickly verify functionality during the life cycle changes that may occur. Performance This area of testing focuses on performance characteristics of the service including measurement of time to perform the service and load testing of the service. The output from this type of testing forms the basis of understanding how to configure and deploy the service in a production environment. Interoperability This area of testing ensures the service adheres to its service specification. Early identification of interoperability issues is key to integration of the service through exposure to university partners and clients. This type of testing is especially important when the service interacts with multiple data sources and/or systems. Security Security testing is essential to assess the risk of a service with regard to vulnerability, data privacy and data integrity. Tests need to be developed to test boundary conditions which can assess the robustness of the service handling inputs outside the range of anticipated values. Tests should also be created that ensure the service performs as expected based on the roles as defined within the system. Regression One of the more important types of testing related to usage of services is regression testing. The more applications that depend on a given service, the more impact a change to that service can have on the environment. As such, when changes are made to services, regression testing must be undertaken to ensure that the service not only supports new or updated functions but all other functions upon which the service relies. Table 1 Service Testing Types Once the service is ready it is deployed into production use. At this point the service enters the maintenance cycle as opposed to the development cycle. Services in production sometimes require change. The change may be due to a defect in the system or a request to add more functionality to the service. It is important to understand how this change should be handled based on its nature. Defects that are a result of a fault in the underlying implementation of the service and do not change the behavior of the service may be handled by a Defect Remediation process. In this case it is desirable to apply a fix as quickly as possible to the existing service as it may be affecting multiple university processes and causing a disruption to the universities ability to perform its function. Changes that modify the behavior of an existing service or its interface are best handled by identifying a new service or a separate version of the service. In this scenario versions are really new services that are separate from the original. Taking this route minimizes impact on consumers using the original service but can cause a proliferation of services within the enterprise. This may not always be desirable however and some effort should be put into defining conditions under which an existing service in production may be modified (for instance, only one business consumer is affected and the change is well understood). This should be documented so that everyone understands the conditions and ensure that changes are handled in a consistent manner. Service Withdrawal is the final step of the lifecycle. Eventually services will start ballooning (especially when changing production services leads to the creation of new services) and some services will stop being used. Removing service can be problematic as a service may support multiple business process owned by different colleges and departments. A procedure needs to be adopted to define and orderly withdrawal of services from the system. Such a procedure may start with deprecating the service (with a note explaining why and some suggestion as to another service to replace it). Secondly, services can be monitored for use and the consumers identified. Finally, if the service is still being used the consumers should be contacted to discuss a solution. This should result in establishing a schedule for the consumers to switch over to another service so that the service may be withdrawn. Consumers of a deprecated service may not have incentive to change. Making changes requires effort and possibly some risk to the consumer. This needs to be recognized when seeking collaboration from consumers to switch over to another service. In this case it will be necessary to be creative in coming up with a common understanding of the benefit of switching to a newer service so the deprecated one may be withdrawn. Center of Excellence (COE) An online community to: Impart the SOA Vision. Educate IT and business staff on SOA. Communicate SOA best practices. Gain feedback on how to adapt the SOA Governance process and overall SOA program. Provide support advice for new and ongoing SOA implementations. Provide SOA Resources: Books Web Sites Industry Standards Quality of Service Logging Most applications and systems use some form of logging that stores messages to a persistent medium (DBMS, file, etc.). Logging provides the following benefits: Troubleshooting Applications log errors upon failure, and system personnel use this information to repair the problem. Reviewing System personnel examine log messages to check for problems. Auditing Security personnel can review log messages to see what actions a user performed in the system. Debugging Developers generate log messages to debug their programs. Identity Management Identity Management is the ability to identify a requestors (person or system) true identity and relationships between people and organizations (groups). The current policies and level of enforcement are expected to continue into Managed Services by using Microsofts Active Directory as the source for identity management. Confidentiality Confidentiality assures that during transport of the data it was never visible, accessible or viewed other than by authorized recipients. There currently is no Smart Energy or Smart Grid requirement to secure messages for Confidentiality. Authentication Authentication is also done within Microsofts Active Directory and adds authorization policies to the verified identity. Authorization Authorization is currently done at the application level. Within Managed Services (stage MS3) authorization will be performed to determine whether the requestor (person, application, service) is authorized to access the requested service, data and even the Managed Data Repository. Integrity / Non-repudiation Integrity requires that during transport and even as read by the sender there were no unauthorized modifications of the content of the message. Non-repudiation assures the sending service that the receiving service has received the intended message. Current Smart Energy and Smart Grid projected needs do not require message Integrity, but for sensitive messages (time, confidentiality, event, or priority) there is Non-repudiation. Consumers Service Consumers are the end consumer/user of the services provided by an enterprise. The consumer has the flexibility to process and display useful and relevant information provided by Services. Service Consumers access Services through a consistent interface (or contract) exposed by that Service. Service Consumers can be: User Interfaces B2B Applications Business Processes User Interaction Users can access enterprise services through variety of mechanisms, including Portals, web sites, or PDAs. A web site provides a web-based interface to enable users to perform daily, job-related tasks. A web site leverage the services created provided the organization, as a part of SOA implementation, and do not contain any business logic themselves. The site seamlessly integrates with back-end services (using SOAP/WSDL, REST/JSON) and business processes. The site can be secured by global security policies, but also can include role based authentication that limits access to only relevant information making it easier to manage. A Portal is a web site that enables users to access highly personalized information and services. It can increase the productivity and effectiveness of employees within an organization through a consolidated view of available services and information. Typically the site is highly interactive, allowing the user to run a wide variety of tools and functions such as, global search queries, and custom dashboard and advanced business intelligence tools. Portals provide a unified entry point to the organization and provide common look and feel all across applications. Portals form the front end for business processes and custom applications created as composite applications. The site can also be utilized to mash-up other applications or services from 3rd party sites. Wikis, Blogs, RSS feeds, and content can all be made available within the site. A PDA enables mobile users to access enterprise services. Like sites and portals, a PDA has no business logic of its own, but it allows the end user to interact with back-end services by seamlessly accessing the Web Services exposed by an enterprise. However, a PDAs interface and functionality is much more limited than that of a web site because of display and memory constraints. B2B Applications An organization normally collaborates with external business partners such as suppliers and customers to achieve its business objectives. An external partners B2B application (e.g., a web site or portal) will invoke a Web Service exposed by an enterprise, which in turn executes business functionality on behalf of the client. Business Processes A Business Process codifies and streamlines the rules, practices, and business s activities in an enterprise. Business analysts create Business Process Diagrams using the industry-standard Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) to document a set of coordinated tasks and activities that lead to an organizational goal. You can think of a business process as a graphical representation of a Use Case (RUP) or User Epic (Agile / Scrum) in that it shows normal and alternate flows along with exceptions encountered during processing. In SOA, a business process coordinates the business services (see section 3.2.1) developed by an enterprise. SOA architects and developers derive business services from the tasks and decision points in a business process diagram. Business logic is used to form business flows as parallel tasks or sequential tasks based on business rules, policies, and other business requirements. Examples of Business Processes include: Purchasing a product Time Entry / Approval Billing Service Provisioning For information on tools and products, please the Workflow / Orchestration section (3.4.5). Collaboration Services Presentation Services Presentation Services define a common set of services to manage interaction with users or trading partners (to the extent this second interaction is needed). Presentation services are provided by: web servers, portal servers, and application servers that provide the capability to quickly create the front end of business processes and composite applications to respond to changes in user needs through channels, portals, rich clients, and other mechanisms. Presentation services integrate with other foundational services, such as security (e.g., single sign-on). Users can access enterprise services through variety of mechanisms, including Portals, web sites, or PDAs. A web site provides a web-based interface to enable users to perform daily, job-related tasks. A web site leverage the services created provided the organization, as a part of SOA implementation, and do not contain any business logic themselves. The site seamlessly integrates with back-end services (using SOAP/WSDL, REST/JSON) and business processes. The site can be secured by global security policies, but also can include role based authentication that limits access to only relevant information making it easier to manage. A Portal is a web site that enables users to access highly personalized information and services. It can increase the productivity and effectiveness of employees within an organization through a consolidated view of available services and information. Typically the site is highly interactive, allowing the user to run a wide variety of tools and functions such as, global search queries, and custom dashboard and advanced business intelligence tools. Portals provide a unified entry point to the organization and provide common look and feel all across applications. Portals form the front end for business processes and custom applications created as composite applications. The site can also be utilized to mash-up other applications or services from 3rd party sites. Wikis, Blogs, RSS feeds, and content can all be made available within the site. A PDA enables mobile users to access enterprise services. Like sites and portals, a PDA has no business logic of its own, but it allows the end user to interact with back-end services by seamlessly accessing the Web Services exposed by an enterprise. However, a PDAs interface and functionality is much more limited than that of a web site because of display and memory constraints. BI / Reporting BI (Business Intelligence) / Reporting provides a high-level view of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to business stakeholders to enable them to make decisions and manage the business. Examples of KPIs include: Efficiency of business processes. Job Costing. New customers acquired. Sales information by demographic (age, ethnicity, geographic region, etc.). Churn / turnover of accounts by demographic. A BI product uses the information stored in a Data Warehouse to present it to the user. A BI tool (such as Business Objects) uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs e.g., sales conversion rate, in-force polices, market penetration, for example) to report on data, identify trends, perform data analysis, etc. to enable business users to make decisions and operate the business as efficiently as possible while advancing a business strategy. BI increases business agility and shortens timeframes for decision-making. It gives companies the ability to identify and anticipate opportunities represented by seemingly unrelated events. It is a key enabler of strategic and tactical decision making. Commercial products include: IBM COGNOS MicroStrategy O

Thomas Edison Essay example -- History Biography

I decided to do my report on Thomas Alva Edison because he brought a lot of things into our world. He invented the light bulb, the alkaline battery, the phonograph, and many other things. Many of our modern electronics origins came from Thomas A. Edison. I thought he was very interesting. That is why I chose him. Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847, and lived with his middle class parents, Samuel Edison (his father) and Nancy Edison (his mother). Surprisingly, the young boy did not even talk until he was four years old. In 1854, at age seven, Tom and his parents moved to Port Huron, Michigan. There, near the beginning of the year in a noisy schoolhouse with 38 other kids, his teacher lost his patience with Tom's behavior and endless questions. So, his mother pulled him out of school and home taught him very well, for she used to be a teacher. But, Tom's parents were not educated enough to home teach Tom, for his growing interest in things dealing with physics found his parents stumped. Luckily, his parents had enough money to hire a tutor. By age twelve, he had persuaded his parents to let him sell snacks and newspaper on the railroad. By age fourteen, he had published his first newspaper called the "Weekly Herald." At its high point, Tom sold 400 copies per day and was getting $10 per day (which was a lot back then). Because of the newspaper, he now had enough money to focus more on experiments. Tom now had one lab in the basement of his home and kept things for experiments in his locker on the train. One day, while crossing a bumpy section of the track, the train jerked, letting a chemical from Tom's experiment fall on the floor and set fire to the train. The conductor was so mad he hit... ...three more children. When Thomas grew older, so did his deafness. Mina told Tom what people were saying by tapping the words on his knee in Morse code. All in all, Thomas Edison was not a very good father because he was busy all the time. However, this busyness and hard work changed our lives with his many inventions. One of his famous quotes describes his attitude, "Invention is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Thomas Edison died on October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey. At his funeral, these words were spoken, "Picture an electric-lightless, an electric-powerless, a telephoneless, a motion-pictureless, a phonographless world, and a faint realization of his greatness dawns upon us." Bibliography Kevles, D., Keysarr A., Maier P., & Smith, M. (2002) A History of the United States: Inventing America. New York: W.W. Norton.