Continuing Case: Cory and Tisha Dumont Essay

1.Using the earnings multiple approach would result in the following life insurance calculations for Cory and Tisha. Cory’s needs= $38,000 x (1 – 0.22) x 12.46 = $369,314 Tisha’s needs= $46,000 x (1 – 0.22) x 12.46 = $447,065 Cory currently has $76,000 (2 x $38,000) of term life insurance through his employer. Consequently, Cory should consider purchasing approximately $293,000 of additional life insurance coverage. Tisha has $69,000 of term insurance through her employer, as well as a whole life policy of $50,000. She should consider purchasing an additional $328,000 of life insurance coverage ($447,065 – $119,000). While Tisha or Cory would continue to earn their salaries, if widowed, and would receive some Social Security benefits, they would experience a significant reduction in their standard of living without adequate life insurance. 2. The Dumonts, and Cory in particular, take a big risk when their life insurance is entirely in the hands of their employers. If Cory or Tisha leave their jobs, their group term coverage ends. However, they may be able to convert the group coverage to an individual policy. Since the Dumonts need additional life insurance, they should purchase individual policies to supplement the coverage they have. This will reduce the risk of later becoming uninsurable or, if they were to lose their jobs, having no life insurance at all. 3.At their stage in the life cycle, term insurance is the best option for the Dumonts. It provides the greatest amount of insurance per premium dollar. Universal and variable life policies both include cash value components, through earnings from interest or mutual funds, respectively, which increase the cost of insurance coverage. These policies also tend to have high insurance, investment and administrative expenses, which add to their cost. The option to skip the premium payment on universal life or a  variable universal life may prove too tempting, as it does for many policyholders, who subsequently let the policy lapse. The Dumonts would be well advised to purchase affordable term insurance and do their saving/investing outside of their insurance policies. 4. The life insurance policy features that should be explained to the Dumonts include: ï‚ · Type of policy: term or cash value. The Dumonts’ policies provided at work are group term insurance policies available for the duration of their employment. Tisha also has a whole life policy (cash value insurance) with $1,800 of accumulated cash value. ï‚ · Nonforfeiture clause (on Tisha’s whole life policy): options for receiving a policy’s cash value, a paid-up whole life policy with a reduced face value, or a paid-up term policy with the original policy face amount in exchange for ending the policy. The Dumonts could exercise this right if they are unable to pay the annual premiums to continue the coverage for an extended period of time. ï‚ · Beneficiary designation: persons named as primary and contingent beneficiaries to receive the death benefits from the policy. ï‚ · Coverage grace period: automatic extension, usually 30 to 31 days after a premium payme nt is due, before a policy lapses. The premium may be paid without penalty. ï‚ · Loan clause: (on Tisha’s whole life policy) describes procedures and the interest rate charged for borrowing against the policy’s cash value. ï‚ · Suicide clause: clause stating that the face amount of the policy will not be paid for a suicide death within 2 years of the purchase of a policy. ï‚ · Incontestability clause: clause stating that the insurance company cannot dispute the validity of a contract after it has been in force for a specific period, usually 2 years. ï‚ · Settlement options: section that describes alternative ways that the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy can choose to receive death benefits. ï‚ · Riders: special provisions added to a policy that either provide extra benefits or limit the insurance company’s liability. Riders attached to one or more of the Dumonts’ policies could include: guaranteed insurability, multiple indemnity, COLA, waiver of premium for disabili ty, or living benefits. 5. Life insurance is meant to provide funds to replace a breadwinner’s to protect and support dependents. Chad and Haley are dependents, not income providers. Therefore, the purchase of life insurance is unnecessary and not recommended. The Dumonts should use the money they would spend on policies for the children to increase their own coverage. The claim that Chad and Haley would always be insured is only relevant if (1) the Dumonts continue the premium payments and (2) there is a high probability, based on family health history, that Chad or Haley will contract cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. Otherwise, they will be eligible for insurance in the future and there is no need for â€Å"permanent† coverage starting at this young age. 6. As a â€Å"comprehensive major medical insurance policy,† the Dumonts’ coverage includes basic health insurance for hospital, surgical, and physician expense needs, as well as major medical expense coverage. The latter is very important to extend the basic coverage to protect the Dumonts from the financial effects of a catastrophic illness or accident. The policy has a very adequate lifetime cap of $3,000,000 per insured. The Dumonts should continually analyze the health plans from both employers to determine which offers the best overall plan. But, the annual coinsurance, stop-loss amount, and family deductible, are all standard policy features with reasonable amounts. They are currently paying annual premiums of $2,700 for the coverage, but the monthly opt out fee, from Cory’s employer, effectively reduces this by $1,020 (less the taxes paid on the increased income). Overall, their health care coverage is very cost effective, so no changes are recommended. 7.The Dumonts have four options for paying a $5,000 medical bill incurred through an auto accident, including payment by: Health insurance. Medical expense coverage with their auto insurance.  Bodily injury liability coverage on an auto policy, assuming someone else was at fault for the accident. Personal funds, or out-of-pocket. These funds would supplement the health insurance coverage, or be the only source of payment, should the Dumonts not have health insurance. Luckily, they do. Expenses for an emergency appendectomy would be covered through health  insurance and personal funds. Assuming no one else has made a claim this year, Tisha’s health insurance would pay $3,600: the $5,000 medical bill minus the $500 deductible and the $900 of co-insurance (0.20 x $4,500). Tisha would be responsible for the $1,400 of deductible and co-pay expenses because the Dumonts’ out-of-pocket expenses for the year have not yet exceeded the $5,000 stop-loss limit. 8. Advantages for the Dumonts of switching to an HMO include: regular physical examinations and preventive care, minimized paperwork, and lower costs. Tisha may be able to reduce the $225 monthly premium charged for her current coverage. Disadvantages associated with an HMO focus on concerns about quality of care stemming from the incentive system—quick, cursory services and the difficulty in receiving a referral, particularly outside the geographic region. Some fear the system does not allow for building a trusting relationship with a well-qualified physician. Restrictions on physician choices and the associated level of reimbursement vary with the HMO system: individual practice association, group practice plan, or a point-of-service plan. The Dumonts need to thoroughly comparison shop the plans; Checklist 9.2, Choosing an HMO, should be helpful. If Tisha switches to a PPO, costs and paperwork may also be reduced. Members, typically representing an employer group, receive health care at a reduced cost—with the negotiating power of the group determining the level of discount. The disadvantage of a PPO is that participants must seek medical services from participating doctors and hospitals, thereby limiting their choice of care. With a PPO, a participant can go to a non-member doctor but must pay an additional, or penalty, co-payment to do so. 9.Assuming Tisha works for an employer with 20 or more employees, she is eligible—under the federal COBRA law—to continue health insurance coverage for 18 to 36 months, depending on the reason for leaving the company. Tisha would be responsible for the full cost of coverage, but it may be less expensive than an individual policy. Although this does not apply to every â€Å"opting out† situation, the Dumonts also have the option of enrolling for Cory’s health coverage. According to the Health Insurance Portability and  Accountability Act of 1996, employees and their dependents must be allowed special enrollment rights, beyond the open-enrollment period, (1) if they declined coverage because of coverage through another plan or (2) if their family situation changes (e.g., marriage, birth, adoption). The former situation applies to the Dumonts, so if Tisha loses her family medical coverage, the Dumonts could enroll on Cory’s plan. To insure protection from preexisting condition exclusions, it would be important that the Dumonts arrange for continuous enrollment, with no breaks or lapses between policies. Should Tisha decide to become a self-employed accountant, the Dumonts would have another option besides Cory’s coverage. The household would be eligible for a high deductible health plan and a Health Savings Account (HSA). Access to a HSA is limited to the self-employed, small business owners, employers of small to medium-sized businesses that offer very limited health benefits, and those under age 65 who individually pay for health care—all of whom must have a qualified high-deductible health plan. The combination is cost effective because high-deductible plans have lower premiums and annual HSA contributions (limits apply) are an adjustment to income, so the funds are not taxed and they grow tax-deferred, and tax free, if spent according to the HSA rules. The HSA funds accumulate for paying health care costs incurred prior to meeting the annual deductible or for health care expenses not covered by the high-deductible health plan. Funds not spent remain in the account for future expenses, such as for health expenses after retirement or long-term care expenses. 10. Disability insurance policy features that Cory and Tisha should purchase include: ï‚ · Definition of disability: Tisha and Cory should look for a policy that provides coverage if they can’t perform the duties of their current occupations (i.e., accounting and retail management). ï‚ · Residual or partial payments benefits: this policy feature provides partial payments if they were disabled and unable to return to work full-time, but could return part-time. ï‚ · Benefit duration: the Dumonts should select policies that provide benefits until retirement age (e.g., 65) or for their lifetime. ï‚ · Waiting or elimination period: the Dumonts should select a realistic waiting  period (i.e. one to six months) during which they would have to â€Å"absorb† the income lost. They should consider their employer’s sick day policy (e.g., whether or not sick days can be accumulated) and emergency fund when selecting an elimination period. The longer the delay, t he lower the premium. ï‚ · Waiver of premium: this important provision waives premium payments if a policyholder becomes disabled. ï‚ · Noncancelable: this provision protects against both policy cancellation and future rate increases and guarantees that the policy is renewable. ï‚ · Rehabilitation coverage: this provision provides for employment-related educational or job-training programs. 11.The Dumont’s $25,000 HO-4 renter’s policy amount is probably sufficient given their estimated personal property value of $12,000. However, their property insurance coverage is inadequate for two major reasons: ï‚ · It lacks replacement cost coverage on personal property, which provides for the actual replacement cost of a stolen or destroyed item (e.g., stereo equipment). Currently, the $25,000 coverage is actual cash value, or coverage for the depreciated cost of property. ï‚ · It lacks a personal articles floater to increase the limit of coverage on Tisha’s $19,700 antique jewelry collection. To improve their coverage, Cory and Tisha should add a replacement cost rider and a personal articles floater to the existing HO-4 policy. Increasing the deductible could offset a premium increase. See the response to question 14 below for other cost saving ideas. 12.The Dumont’s auto insurance is inadequate because of its low liability limits. The 25/50/25 split liability and property damage limit is extremely low in relation to current medical, repair, and liability costs. The Dumonts should increase their liability limits to at least 100/300/50. Otherwise, they could be liable for judgments in excess of their current liability limits. Higher limits, such as 200/600/100, are also available. The Dumonts also have low uninsured motorist coverage limits. These, too, should be increased to a minimum of 100/300/50 to provide adequate protection against negligent drivers who carry no or inadequate liability coverage. The $20,000 of medical expense coverage is far lower than the recommended $50,000 of coverage per person. Assuming the Dumonts increase their  emergency fund or other savings, they should increase the $200 deductible amounts. 13.Cory and Tisha’s current auto insurance policy would pay $25,000 for bodily injury losses incurred by any one person hurt in the accident, a total of $50,000 for bodily injury losses incurred by all persons hurt in the accident, and $25,000 for property damage if they were judged to be at fault. In other words, these are maximum liability coverage limits. If the accident resulted in a total of $65,000 of bodily injury losses to more than one person, the Dumonts would be personally responsible for arranging payment for the remaining $15,000. However, if the $65,000 in bodily injury losses were incurred by only one individual, the Dumonts would be personally liable for $40,000. This coverage is not adequate; the Dumonts are risking their financial future in lieu of paying a slightly higher annual premium. 14.To reduce the cost of property and liability insurance, the Dumonts could: Make every effort to keep their insurance credit score high, to qualify for lower premium rates. Increase insurance deductibles (e.g., $200 to $500 or higher). ï‚ · Take advantage of multiple policy discounts (e.g., HO-4 and auto insurance with the same company). ï‚ · Pay insurance premiums less frequently (e.g., annually or semi-annually instead of monthly). ï‚ · Shop around and compare the costs of at least three insurance providers. ï‚ · Consider only high quality insurers, and possibly a direct writer. ï‚ · Install security systems or smoke detectors. ï‚ · Inquire about ANY other available discounts; these can vary significantly by company and may relate to the property (home or auto, such as fire-resistant building materials, auto passive restraints or anti-theft devices) or the characteristics of the policyholder (e.g., over age 50 or 55, noncommuter, or good student). ï‚ · Buy a car that is cheaper to insure and consider low â€Å"damageability† models; be sure to check insurance rates when auto shopping. ï‚ · Drive less (e.g., fewer miles, join a carpool) and improve driving records. ï‚ · Double check your policy to insure that all features and endorsements are included as planned; a claim could be costly that you  thought was covered, but was not because of an oversight in the policy. ï‚ · Include adequate liability insurance to avoid paying damage awards from personal assets or income. 15.When the Dumonts become homeowners, they should purchase an HO-3 policy. An HO-3 policy is the most comprehensive of available policies for homeowners because it covers losses to the structure from all perils except those that are specifically excluded. Typical excluded perils include flood, earthquake (supplemental coverage is available for both, if needed), war, and nuclear accident. Coverage on an HO-3 policy on the contents is limited to the named perils coverage provided in a broad, or HO-2 policy. The Dumonts should strongly consider adding personal property replacement cost coverage for their contents. The additional premium cost of 5 to 15 percent over the cost of a policy without this coverage is meager when compared to the increased level of reimbursement. Inflation guard and personal articles floaters—particularly for Tisha’s antique jewelry or any other items that exceed the value of the policy limits—should also be added. The minimum level of $100,000 of personal liability coverage is likely inadequate, and should be increased to $300,000 to $500,000. However, the Dumonts should review this relative to their individual situation (i.e., pets owned or other unique situations). Cory and Tisha should consult Checklist 10.2, A Checklist for Homeowner’s Insurance, when shopping. An umbrella policy extends the liability coverage of the auto and homeowner’s policies owned by the insured. An umbrella policy protects against large lawsuits and judgments associated with your home or auto. Umbrella policies do not cover activities with the intent to cause harm, activities with aircraft and some watercraft, and most business and professional activities. The latter require a separate policy. Typical limits range from $1 million to $10 million; the policy does not become effective until the limits of the underlying policies have been exhausted. As the Dumonts proceed through the life cycle and attain more wealth, they may want to consider a policy of this type. However, in the interim, a more cost effective alternative may be increasing their existing liability limits to $300,000 or $500,000.

In the Penal Colony

Although Kafka’s story â€Å"In the Penal Colony† can be considered 3rd person omniscient, I believe the story was primary narrated through officer. I agree with Brittany’s interpretation that the traveler benefits from the narration of the officer, because I believe that the traveler symbolizes the reader while the officer plays a more active role as the narrator. The traveler like the reader is brought to a foreign place where the officer’s explain the intricacies of his beloved machine. The officer seems to be in control of everyone on the penal colony, while the traveler seems to be a passive bystander who did not try to stop the officer’s â€Å"unjustified† punishment. â€Å"The traveler now wanted to remain silent, but he felt the eyes of the condemned man on him; he seemed to be asking whether the traveler could approve the procedure that had just been described. † (Page 40) Even when the traveler believed that it was immoral to â€Å"judge† the condemned man without a fair trial, he believe it was wiser to not to interfere with the officer’s judgment. Nevertheless, he had to remind himself that this was a penal colony, that special disciplinary measures were necessary here, and that military procedures had to prevail throughout. † (Page 41) Therefore, I think the authoritative officer seems to be primary narrator. By presenting the narrative in this perspective, the reader like the traveler is able to emotionally and intellectually react to story; however, we can only be the passive bystander watching the inhumane acts unfold right before our eyes. Perhaps we are the traveler who just happens to be â€Å"invited† to penal colony. Perhaps we possess neither the courage nor the power to stop torture of the condemned man. More importantly, by representing the traveler as the reader, Kafka asks the reader several critical questions. Would we impose our judgment upon others, if we deem them immoral? Are we the passive bystander who would do nothing to stop torture? How can we â€Å"be just? †

Fast Food Nation Essay

In Eric Schlosser’s book, â€Å"Fast Food Nation†, the author presents an in depth analysis of the fast food industry, from its origin of Southern California to its ubiquitous manifestation of today’s culture. Schlosser argues that the fast food industry has used its political influence as a way of circumventing issues of health and working conditions, while greatly increasing profits and expansion. The intent of Schlosser’s book is to impact the reader to stop and consider the consequences of eating at a McDonald’s or similar chain. He expands upon his ideas in a series of broad and diverse ways such as criticizing schools that received payment for Coke machines and advertisements (53). He goes on to argue in chapter 4, â€Å"Success,† that the expansion of the fast food industry accelerated franchising, which can be beneficial for both the company that wishes to expand and for the business oriented person who doesn’t want to risk it alone. McDonald’s has become a real estate giant by leasing property to franchisees which, Schlosser argues, keeps franchisees fully under the control of the corporation because the lease can be terminated. He points out what was once a step to becoming a millionaire is now at a 38. 1% failure rate (98). Schlosser’s view is successfully defended by his careful Pinedo 2 and precise analysis of the fast food industry, effective writing dialect, and his ability intertwine statistics with moral and sympathetic appeal. Schlosser’s book is written for the general population, to which he is conveying a message. One effective writing device that Schlosser uses in this chapter is appealing to the readers’ emotions effectively by creating a background for the individuals. The reader becomes sympathetic to the fast food workers as one learns of their daily lives. Schlosser’s book is written for the general population which he is trying to convey his message to. He introduces the chapter with Matthew Kabong. The reader continues to learn about Kabong’s daily work routine as a Little Caesars delivery guy. â€Å"He earns the minimum wage? and on a good night he makes about fifty bucks† (91). He is a poverty-stricken optimist that wants to own a Radio Shack in the future as Schlosser points out. I can not help but to feel sympathetic to this young man’s current situation. Schlosser intentionally build’s the character of Kabong by using bits of humor such as Kabong referring to his car as his office (92). This appeals to a broad audience who have held such jobs in the past and wish for better things for this individual. Schlosser builds a connection with the reader, instead of introducing the chapter with statistics and franchising information, he builds up the chapter and then introduces his points, which is a very important tool. Shortly after in the chapter, Schlosser introduces Dave Feamster, an ex-NHL player who became a Little Caesar’s franchisee. We learn that a bone fracture at the base of his spine halted his career in the NHL. He vanished from the NHL without so much as Pinedo 3 a good-bye handshake (93). Feamster contacts an old friend and relative of Mike Hitch, company founder of Little Caesars. He buys a Little Caesars franchise with what little money he had left. We learn that his devotion to Little Caesars led him to a good income and a total of five Little Caesars restaurants. Again, Schlosser builds up the individual’s character. In this case, Dave Feamster was shown as a NHL star, who was unfairly dropped and soon had nothing. He rose from nothing and made a new career. I sympathize with Feamster as he undergoes hardship and it builds a certain connection. Schlosser’s uses this connection to his advantage and is able to persuade me to listen more attentively to Schlosser’s message. He is able to capture the reader’s attention and then focus their attention subconsciously to his other points on franchising. Another effective writing tool is Schlosser’s in-depth information surrounding franchising and his powerful argument supported with statistics and reports. Towards the middle of the chapter after Schlosser captures our attention, we learn â€Å"three-quarters of the American companies that started selling franchises in 1983 had gone out of business by 1993. † He backs up this claim with William Bates, a professor of economics at Wayne State University, â€Å"the franchise route to self-employment is associated with higher business failure rates and lower profits than independent business ownership† (98). I am persuaded to believe through his intellectual correspondents that franchising may not be the way to go and not a sure-fire way towards money. He later points out a study conducted by the Heritage Foundation that found almost six hundred new fast food chains were launched in 1996 due to government-backed loans. He shows that according to the study the chain that benefited most from the loans was Subway, which had 109 of Pinedo 4 755 stores opened by government loans (102). In this case the reader is persuaded to believe a study that conducted by what appears to be an unbiased organization. Schlosser’s uses the emotions of the reader; in this case he wanted to create anger in the readers’ mind toward the fast food industry, particularly Subway. We are led to believe we are paying for the opening of these fast food chains with our tax money. This creates an anger and resentment towards the fast food industry. Another example shown, â€Å"According to a 1995 investigation by Canada’s Financial Post, Subway’s whole system seems ? almost as geared to selling franchises as it is to selling sandwiches. ‘† It reports that the lowest investment to open a major fast food chain is Subway at $100,000, but they also take the most royalty at 8% (100). This is a legitimate investigation shared by Schlosser to persuade the reader into seeing his view. Schlosser, in this part of the chapter, is conveying the message that the fast food giants are out only to expand and make money, and really care less about the franchisee. The general population cannot help but to take what these studies say for truth. Schlosser knows this and uses it effectively throughout the book. Another effective tool is the language incorporated in this chapter. He uses certain words to his advantage in persuading the reader to his view. For instance, when talking about Pete Lowe, Schlosser describes him as â€Å"a latter-day entrepreneur, the greatest superstar salesperson of all time, who built a multinational outfit from scratch† (106). Schlosser uses a persuasive dialect to influence his readers and appear as an accredited source. He says earlier in the chapter when describing the city in which Kabong and Pinedo 5 Femster work, â€Å"Pueblo is the southernmost city along the Front Range? a town with steel mills that was never hip like Boulder, bustling like Denver, or aristocratic like Colorado Springs† (91). Again, Schlosser aims at a certain view. He suggests to the reader that the town of Pueblo is sluggish and poverty-stricken. We follow Schlosser’s views as a credible source as one would not know what Pueblo was like without a prior visit. He describes the town and the people in it to complete the background of the chapter. Schlosser, later in the chapter, reinforces his views when describing poor fast food workers, â€Å"these fourteen fast food workers from Pueblo can almost reach out and touch the famous people† (105). Schlosser is indirectly reinforcing his earlier statement. In conclusion, Eric Schlosser’s book, â€Å"Fast Food Nation† writes an accomplished and thought-provoking book on the broad spectrum of effects the fast food industry has on today’s culture. Schlosser’s repetition, dialect, and persuasiveness, along with his ability to appeal to the reader’s emotions, provide a strong and successful argument. When backed up by research studies and investigations performed on the restaurants, Schlosser’s argument only becomes more strengthened.

Political Economy of Race, Class and Gender Research Paper

Political Economy of Race, Class and Gender - Research Paper Example An increase in population still kept African-Americans and the whites in separate neighborhoods. These separate neighborhoods deprived African-Americans of receiving quality education and competing with the whites in the labor market. Segregation also created a feeling of hostility between the two communities who still fail to interact and comprehend the behavior of each other. This research paper will investigate the ways in which segregation among different communities, namely African American and the whites, creates inequality in the labor market. For this reason, this paper will examine three very important elements to understand why the problem of income disparity exists in one of the largest metropolitan cities of the USA. The three important elements identified by research are demographics, education and unemployment. Demographics play a critical role in understanding the labor market of Chicago. Chicago is one of the densely populated cities of the US with  a population of over 2.5 million people out of which about 32% are African Americans while 45% are white (Reich 17). However, Chicago is highly segregated. The major ethnic groups like to live among themselves in what they call their neighborhood. Jobs are highly dependent upon the neighborhood where people live. In order to understand the labor market of Chicago, it is critical to look at some of the details in history. The Second World War gave opportunity for the masses to work in factories as the US prepared for war. The Chicago Defender broke the news to African-Americans living in the South that there were plenty of jobs in the city of Chicago and ensured African-Americans would live a much happier life there (Ellen 261-277). It worked for most private firms, who were looking for cheap labor and also for Africans American, who found it difficult to find jobs at that time. There were nearly 3,000 African Americans

Due process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Due process - Essay Example It is meant to provide a balance on the powers that are owned by the laws while providing protection to individuals. Various cases have been used in the understanding of this clause, in this essay a focus on the Plessy vs Ferguson and Brown vs Board of Education will provide more insight on the concept of Due Process. The concept of Due Process has a very long history that dates back in A.D 1354. Historical evidence indicates that the first time this phrase appeared was during the reign of Edward III of England as provided in a statutory rendition of the Magna Carta. English jurist Edward attempted the interpretation of the Magna carta, he established the modern thought of Due process. In the United States, the ratification of the Fifth Amendment done in 1791 provided for the Due Process. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 to provide a limit to the powers that are held by the state (Sunstein 1567). These laws have continued to evolve; usually attracting various interpretations from the Supreme Court. The Due Process provides checks and balances to the governments so that they do not violate the provisions of the Bill of Rights. The Due Process clause was extended from the federal government as provided in Amendment Five to include the state governments since it was seen to be an advocate for the Bill of Rights, this was achieved through a series of Supreme Court decisions. Due Process is so much inclined to the procedure in which justice is dispensed, this procedure should retain fairness and equality. This explains the provisions of the landmark ruling Brown vs Board of Education. The Due Process Clause has some generality, which has been used by judges in their decisions, especially on the Plessy vs Ferguson. When the government is obliged to follow fair procedures by the two amendments, there is lack of clarity on the aspect of fairness. For example, the judges in the Plessy vs

Nursing Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Nursing Research - Essay Example Overall, the project focused on improving the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores in order to ensure that the facility achieved and maintained a competitive edge that made it provide quality care. In addition, it was evident that the failure to keep the HCAHPS scores high might affect the amount of the hospital’s reimbursement since the scores are influential in calculating the amount of reimbursement a healthcare facility received. In view of the level of importance and the benefits that the facility would accrue from the project, the planning, development, and the eventual implementation of the plan had to be aboveboard in order to leave no room for failure. There are various approaches that a healthcare facility can use in order to raise its HCAHPS scores. However, the unique nature of each facility necessitates a healthcare facility to examine the areas that required attention to raise the HCAHPS scores. For example, a healthcar e facility’s score on the aspect of pain management might rank high on the HCAHPS scores while the HCAHPS scores on the facility’s environmental conditions might rank low. ... The need for effective case management arose from the importance attached to improving the quality of care, which has to start with effective case management. Therefore, raising HCAHPS has to start with efficiency in case management. Communication is another key component that the practicum project focused on improving in order to raise the facility’s HCAHPS scores. In this regard, the practicum focused on communication among the members of staff and communication between practitioners and their patients. In this case, it is evident that communication helps improve the management of a patient’s case in order to provide quality care. Finally, the practicum project focused on improving the hospital setting and the environment in order to provide care that was safe and high in quality. Importantly, improving the hospital setting and environment not only improves the quality of care that a healthcare facility provided, but it also raises the HCAHPS scores in the facility. E ventually, raising the hospital’s HCAHPS scores was the overall objective of this scholarly project. Development of the Project The development of the project involved a series of steps as outlined below: Carrying out an analysis on the need to improve the low HCAHPS scores in the facility. Development of an action plan based on the analysis carried out on the need to raise HCAHPS scores in the healthcare facility. Implementation of the developed action plan in order to improve the HCAHPS scores. Evaluation of the implemented plan in order to find out the need for modifying the project. Analysis on the Need to Improve the Low HCAHPS scores Before implementing any project, it is important to carry out an analysis that highlights the need

Southwest Airlines Marketing Plan Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Southwest Airlines Marketing Plan Report - Essay Example The company encourages the employees to be creative in their own way while performing at the workplace. Goals and Objectives The company has the goal of ensuring that there is no compromise on the quality when the people fly in Southwest Airlines. The employees are to be trained in such a way that they always come forward to address the needs of the customers whenever required. Safety of the travelers during the flight time is also one of the aspects that South-western Airlines wants to ensure on a day to day basis. The company is popular for its low cost Airline services. South western intends to retain this strategy in the future course of its business as well. Thus it would want to increase the frequency of the flights and would try to maintain the prices at the low cost segment so that it is able to retain a larger market share (Lauer 218). SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is an important marketing analytical tool that helps an organization to determine its key internal strengths, wea knesses and external opportunities, threats. Southwest Airlines is known as one of the leading low cost airlines. This part of the marketing plan will conduct a SWOT analysis for southwest Airlines. Strengths Southwest Airlines is one of the leading and successful low cost airlines around the globe. The organization implemented several key and effective business strategies in order to achieve potential competitive advantages and maximize the business profit. Marketing The organization has a strong General Counsel Department in marketing in order to review each and every marketing material in order to maintain potential target customer base. Effective promotional strategy helped the organization to create huge brand awareness among the target customers. Product The organization uses Boeing 737s as its products. The organization always tries to ensure the quality of the product. As all the planes are Boeing 737s; the turnaround, training and maintenance costs are contained. In additio n to this, the organization has no meals, central reservations, baggage handling and assigned seats (Gittell 137). Financial The financial position of the organization is quite strong with 3 billion US dollar in cash. The organization generates 716 million US dollar in free cash flow in the tear 2012. Figure 1: Free Cash Flow (Southwestonereport 33) In addition to this, the organization returned 422 million US dollars to its stakeholder. Technology Integration of advanced and modern technology increased the business perform ace of the organization. In addition to this, utilization of several modern technological equipments in each and every business operation process helped the organization to reduce its business operation cost. Management It is important for a service providing organization to ensure healthy work place environment in order to enhance effective business performances. Southwest Airlines has an effective, fun loving, strong and employee oriented culture that helps the organization to focus on several business aspects. Synergy Effective customer service helped the organization huge customer preference. 28 years of long reliable and safe operation increase the brand loyalty of the airlines. In addition to this, the route systems of Southwest Airlines have grown significantly. Effective environmental sustainability training program in employees program helped the organi

Parenting and child development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Parenting and child development - Essay Example Parental values and attitudes foreshadow parental goals and programs, with children taking on parental values depending on the structure of the society. Nso parental values, particularly parental expectations and reinforcement, promote the anticipatory socialization and guided participation of children in the routine work of the family and community. This study pointed out that parental values critically influence children’s development. Nso parents help children to accept and understand their identity and behavior as future adults. This situation engages children in anticipatory socialization, that is, peer-group activities related to the knowledge and practices needed for the adult world. Child-to-child interactions are more important than parents-to-child interactions. The intensity and harshness of the descriptors used by the Palestinian children and to a lesser extent by the Israeli-Jewish children underscore the presence of ethnic stereotyping as young as 4 years of age. It emphasizes as well that efforts to reduce ethnic stereotyping must begin at an early age.

The concepts of constructivism and speech communities beyond language Essay

The concepts of constructivism and speech communities beyond language - Essay Example tilize socially loaded linguistic resources to construct the interactions that they are engaged in, as well as their own identities, or social objects. The paper explores how non-linguistic aspect of the social world should be understood about socially inscribed meanings, and also outlines how a group’s system of meanings can be imposed on another group. Non-linguistic elements encompass features such as gestures and written symbols that do not constitute language, unless when they manifest within the language framework. Non-linguistic features of the social worlds manifest in the form of action, identification, and representation. Non-linguistic features of the social world may be a way of interacting within social events. Spoken words often employ non-linguistic cues such as gestures, gaze, and facial expressions. Non-linguistic form of meaning can be derived instances in which a set sign is linked to another event naturally devoid of requirement for a conventional association between the two such as a natural association between clouds and rain. In some cases, the meaning of an expression is considered to lie within its consequences. Some of the non-linguistic meanings derive from natural history such as the connection between predator and prey, which manifest powerful intrinsic (life and death) meaning for people (GonzaÃŒ lez & Bovone, 2012). Meaning can be applied to describe the internal workings of the mind, separately from any linguistic activity. Such a meaning is highly psychological, whereby some communication by body language may emanate from bodily signals, which draw form human instinct as highlighted by examples such as tears, blushing, erections, and startle reaction. Language has been shown to interface with non-linguistic aspects of mental representation (Eller, 2009). Language can impact on non-linguistic cognition, which draws from the understanding that language does not only mirror conceptual representation, but rather can impacts and

IT Professional Presentation Essay Example for Free

IT Professional Presentation Essay Presentations are meant to be professional with a lot of effort required in the structuring of speech and the assurance of putting across the right message. Professionals in any field or walk of life need to have a good speech which would make them better presenters and hence a noticeable being among all the other employees. An organization has hundreds and thousand and sometimes even more than that employee in number. To make oneself noticeable in the eyes of the one that matter, makes a lot of difference in the career growth. Hard work is something that everyone does but few are those who are able to present it in a manner that enables the top officials to notice you. There are many ways to present and presentations are becoming increasingly common in today’s world. PowerPoint and Flash are the most utilized of all but written means of assistance and even plain verbal speech is also presentation. All these means of presenting are justified depending on the situations and the matter to be presented. Hence, it is not the material that matters to a large extent but it’s what you say right at the right time is what matters. Introduction Information system can be any organised combination of people, hardware, software, communication networks, and data resources that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an organisation. Like any other system operates within an environment, information system and technology are very important in contemporary business, because they have become a significant component for success in any organisation, such as university, healthcare centre and company. However these are the most important and vital in internet business area because it cannot be managed without information system and technology. In addition internet business can increase their sales and profits by implicating efficient and effective e-commerce which is one of major parts of information system. There are big names that are involved with the IT industry such as the Amazon. com which is solely an internet based company. Other multinationals such as McDonalds are also involved in it despite being a fast food organization. Brief information regarding the two organizations are as follows. Critical Analysis of the Presentations ‘Things they are Achangin-1’ talk about the computer and Information Technology details. It starts off with telling the memory capacity of a computer. The different memories and the capacities that a computer and its hardware has, is explained in the presentation. Along with that it talks about the computer networking and the usage of broadband. It had become increasingly famous and popular in the current years and most of the people in the world have it. ‘Things they are Achangin-2’ on the other hand talks about other energy sources such as batteries and cars and how their mechanism works. These two mentioned sources have also become increasingly important over their years for day to day life. Along with that it has compared their mechanical sources with human body and mind and has talked about the structure of a robotic body. Delivery Channel Strategy ‘Delivery Channel Strategy’ defines the objective of delivery channel which are Projecting and representing the brand defending and developing the active consumer base, obtaining new customers and meeting essential service requirements. It also talks about the benefits of branches, which branches are used more for financial services and why. It explains self servicing and explains the benefits of automated machines which empower the customers. It takes into account the different product used by the financial institutions and their usage. Key Implications of Delivery Strategies In order to have an effective delivery strategy, one needs to take into account all the aspects that come before that as well in order to execute the plan in the most effective manner possible. The following delivery process is explained with an example of Amazon. com, the online trading place. a) Goods, products, ecommerce solution: It started off as a book store with an online presence but later on it kept on adding products in its portfolio and now they have different categories in which they divide their products into such as ‘Books, Music and Movies’, ‘Clothing and Accessories’, ‘Computer Office’, ‘Consumer Electronics’, ‘Food and Household’, ‘Health and Beauty’, ‘Home and Garden’, ‘Kids and Toys’, ‘Sports and Fitness’, ‘Tools and Automotives’, ‘Bargains’ and ‘Gifts and List’. There are further bifurcations within these categories as well which offers further variety to the customers. There services are divided into the categories of ‘Make Money’, ‘For the Community’, ‘For Developers’, ‘For Advertisers’ and ‘Partner Services’. .A9. com caters to the information content requirement which is a search engine present directly on the Amazon. com. (Amazon, 2007). b) Performance and services: The existence of the website over this long period of time indicates its efficiency and the level of customer satisfaction. The website is very well put together so that the customer can easily find their way through to their desired destination. â€Å"Amazon. com, BN. com, and Half. com aren’t getting any complaints at all because they are very simple to use and to understand. Each of these web sites are made for the computer illiterate or just plain lazy† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). c) Personalization: The site lay out of the website is also user friendly and it takes no time to find where one wants to go unlike the complicated sites which are hard to browse. It offers the customer to personalize by offering a shopping cart just like an actual shopping mall to create a sense of personalization. They have many products and services and â€Å"different categories of all their items. They also have the option to make â€Å"Your Store,† this is where they store all the information that you like the best and what products you are most interested in† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). This gives a sense of individuality to the customers wanting them to come back for a visit. d) Communities and Look and Feel: Amazon. com also offers chat forums for the customers in order to discuss their views and opinions. This is also one reason for the customers to visit the website. ‘Internet Chat Headset Forum’ is one of the examples of their chat forums and virtual customer online communities. The storefront of Amazon. com has been rated high as it offers a number of varieties on the page and also provides clear layout for the customer to assess where they are required to go. e) Incentives: Amazon. com offers different incentives to the customers such as bargains of Friday Sales, Today’s Deals and many more. It offers auctions and personal accounts to give the customers a sense of individuality and personalization encouraging them to visit more often. f) Security Reliability For such sites security is utmost important and therefore it can be said that â€Å"Security and Privacy Policy for these are very well put together and are very private† and one has to â€Å"go through various checks and double checks for e-mail and password verifications. This ensures that the website company and you have the right passwords and e-mail addresses for your privacy and protection. They also have protects programming on their sites to ensure that no one can get you password, e-mail address, and most important your credit card number† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). g) Successful achievement One of the many highlighted features of the website is that very recently â€Å"Amazon. com is to Webcast Investor Conference Presentation Morgan Stanley Technology Conference† (Business News, 2007) which is considered to be a huge achievement for the organization along with earning million of dollars of revenue. Another one of its achievements could be the introduction of software called the Amazon S3â„ ¢ which is â€Å"a simple storage service that offers software developers a highly scalable, reliable, and low-latency data storage infrastructure at very low costs† (Amazon Web Services Launches Amazon S3, a Simple Storage Service for Software Developers, 2005). Ethics and Professionalism in the ICT discipline ‘Ethics and Professionalism in the ICT discipline’ talks about the importance of the code of ethics in the professional environment not for one’s career but for the sustainability of its moral values. It describes Ethics as Doing good, Not doing bad, Not screwing people, Only screwing the competition, Letting the competition screw you, Doing things right, Doing the right thing. Key Implications These key implications of Ethics in IT are explained with respect to the example of Amazon. com. For such sites security is utmost important and therefore it can be said that â€Å"Security and Privacy Policy for these are very well put together and are very private† and one has to â€Å"go through various checks and double checks for e-mail and password verifications. This ensures that the website company and you have the right passwords and e-mail addresses for your privacy and protection. They also have protects programming on their sites to ensure that no one can get you password, e-mail address, and most important your credit card number† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). Risk Assessment of Ethics in IT Despite the existence of internet over the years, it has still not been able to gain trust regarding the transactions online. Amazon. com along with other organization based online for selling face the challenge of assurance of security to its customers. As for Amazon. com, it failed to provide trust in regard of security to e-commerce project because they did not concern about technical risks. Despite the presence of a huge customer base, a lot of potential customers are hesitant to buy from amazon. com because of this particular reason. However, there is a long procedure regarding the security of credit cards and its personal information which is utilized by many websites present today. â€Å"Many sites that accept credit cards claim they are secure when they have an encryption certificate. This is where you can see the padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen. The encryption certificate encodes the message with the credit card details when it is sent and the organization issuing the certificate (e,g, Thawte or Verisign) verify the business before they issue it. (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Amazon. com follows the same long procedure of ensuring that the customer feels safe but even then there is a lot of chance of stealth of the information and its misutilization might lead to disastrous losses to an individual. This is the fear that stops the potential customers from entering into the market of internet. â€Å"If credit card numbers are stored on a server they are still potential targets for a hacking attack. Afferent Media protects its server with anti virus and firewall systems. Its ultimate defense though is that it does not store any credit card numbers† (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Hence, despite the effort, due to technical risk involved Amazon. com is facing the same threat as many other online retailers. Although Amazon. com has developed a trustworthy image over the years but when it comes to monetary losses people are hesitant to take risk as the loss incurred might get too huge to counter. This technical risk can however be countered in order to gain the potential customers that are hesitating at the moment. This can be countered if â€Å"transactions are carried out in real time, in just the same way as an EFTPOS machine. The message is encoded and sent to the bank, if the card passes the checks then funds are transferred directly to the vendor. This is just like when you buy petrol or shop in a supermarket. The vendor swipes your card in and EFTPOS machine, they do not store the card details. † (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Like every weakness, if this factor is also addressed in its early stages it might not even classify as a problem and may be included in one of the challenges but the more Amazon. com delays it, the more it might lead to disaster and reduction of customer base. It has the advantage that the solution has already been identified, therefore the company just needs to incorporate this procedure in its security e-commerce procedure and keep proper checks and balances over a period of time and the job is done. Once the authenticity of the procedure is verified, it would not be hard for customer to develop trust in the online services. Despite the overall success of the organization, there are still factors that it needs to counter before the issues convert into real threat to the existence of the organization. The security factor is always vital in e-commerce as no customers would want to risk their monetary gains for shopping online. Lean Thinking ‘Lean Thinking’ is a presentation which defines the importance of customers with the help of practical examples taken from different scenarios. It also takes into account the impact of value on customer’s choice and the importance of value in a product. Key Implications McDonalds is a world wide known brand and hence it is famous and loved all around the world for its customer hospitality. A fast food chain, so customer friendly has also made use of the IT sources which is explained as further. The company is a fast food chain across the world known by the name of McDonalds. It is world renowned and is among the top most fast food chains across the globe. It has different kinds of fast foods in its menu ranging from rapid on-the-go burgers to healthy breakfasts and other food items. The organization is known for its quality and variety in food across the globe along with paying its full due to the corporate and social responsibility to the members of the society. Our organization not only is concerned about regular people who are health or weight conscious but also make sure that people with certain individual problems are also given attention to. The entire nutrition information is available on its website and can be completely relied on as it is taken from â€Å"from testing conducted in accredited laboratories, published resources, or from information provided from McDonald’s suppliers. The nutrition information is based on standard product formulations and serving sizes. All nutrition information is based on average values for ingredients from McDonald’s suppliers throughout the U. S. and is rounded to meet current US FDA NLEA guidelines† (McDonalds – USA, 2006). Despite of enjoying the top most notches in most of the countries we are present in; it is made sure that the organization does not lag in its due responsibility towards its customers, employees or the society it caters to which is evident by the brochure of Corporate Responsibility by McDonalds. This brochure is known as ‘The McDonalds USA Corporate Responsibility Brochure’ and another third worldwide corporate responsibility report has been published recently in 2006. It has the ability to adapt to country to country environment and culture. It pays utmost importance to kids and their meals and therefore because of that reason we have specialized meal for children as well. These meals are set with kids preferences in mind and offers incentive such as toy gifts which children can enjoy along with their respective meals. Capabilities and Potential with Risk Assessment McDonalds is known for its customer service and for increasing indulgence in the technology sector as well. McDonalds has some of Information technology involved in its procedures as well as to offer to the customers. As a Manager it is very important to be well equipped and well informed regarding the knowledge of the on-going dynamics in the information technology sector of the country. The advancement of the organization in the information technology sector is indicated by the fact that it offers one of the most novel technologies of the information system which is the McDonald’s Wireless Connectivity. It offers Wi-Fi service to its customers so that they can even bring their work to McDonalds along with enjoying a good meal. Its not just limited to United States which is one of the most technologically equipped country of the world but 7,000 outlets around the globe. We believe in giving the best to our customers and Wi-Fi is a part of it as â€Å"We believe in bringing you innovative and convenient services that enhance your McDonalds restaurant visit, and Wi-Fi is a perfect example. As McDonalds continues to deliver fast and friendly food service at more than 30,000 convenient locations around the world, you can now enjoy the possibility of staying connected with friends, family and co-workers† (McDonalds Wireless Connectivity, 2006). Apart from this, our organization has even stepped in introducing a technology that would bring into use the real time network used by huge and well-known places such as Wal-Mart. In order to manage its hardware and software in different location across the globe, it took help of the Fujitsu Philippines Incorporation to implement a system the system. The system is called Help Desk which enables in the monitoring of the inventory system and the management of the SMS and documents. Due to Help Desk the technical support service now take half the time it previously did. (McDonalds Philippines improves customer service via technology, 2007). Due to high volume of sales of McDonalds around the globe, the manual or low level storing data system is not anymore a product of efficiency for the organization. Therefore, it has moved a step forwards and â€Å"The PC POS system replaced proprietary computer registers that delivered information to in-store processors. These computers are a McDonalds restaurants black box, recording information on operations such as an individual stores total sales for the day, and the number of patties, buns, cups and other products used, and delivering it back to the McDonalds mainframe systems in Oak Brook each night over a modem connection† (Food, Folks and Forecasting, 2006). We as Managers also make use of this technology to place orders to the suppliers for replacement as well, hence making tasks easier for everyone of storing the large bulks of information everyday. The Future of Business Information System ‘The Future of Business Information System’ talks about the consultancy by Dennis Keeling. It takes into account the trends in business cycle, the types of business applications and the industry changes. It talks about different operating systems and system designs and data file structure. Key Implications of The Future of Business Information System The most upcoming trend in the future is outsourcing. Outsourcing is a trend that has recently become very popular among the multi-million and multi-billion organizations around the world. Outsourcing â€Å"often refers to the delegation of non-core operations from internal production to an external entity specializing in the management of that operation† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). There are various functions of an organization that are not the main operations and therefore can be outsourced to other parties such as â€Å"Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). There are several reasons why one would outsource their operations to an outside party, which might include the purpose of exploiting cheap labor in case of third world countries or utilizing the efficiency of specialized expertise in a particular field of work. Outsourcing might also involve reducing the cost even it effects their quality to a slight extent. IT outsourcing helps improve the efficiency of IT department as after outsourcing there is special attention given by an entire group people to only one operation, hence in return increasing its importance and therefore its efficiency. IT outsourcing might also be done due to cost reduction by utilizing brains that are willing to work for less as compared to the human resource that is present domestically. Along with a lot of benefits in outsourcing, there comes a bucket full of criticism as well. The critics believe that outsourcing reduces the quality of the operation outsourced hence reducing the overall performance of the organization. Hence, it is believed that organizations reduce their cost by compromising on their quality and exploiting cheap labor by outsourcing. On the other hand â€Å"proponents of outsourcing believe that arguing that outsourcing leads to lower product quality is pointless because if it were true, consumer demand will force firms to shift back to producing the good or service in-firm rather than out-firm† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). Risk Assessment regarding Future of IT With respect to outsourcing, the possible risk or problems that IT could face in the future are as explained further. There are different outsourcers depending to where they are located. They include three kinds that are outsourcing, offshore outsourcing and offshoring. Although these terms are used as a replacement of the other but their meaning is different from one another. Outsourcing is the allocation of an organization’s operation to another responsible party. Now the difference lies in the presence of this third party, that is, if the third party is located outside the host country, it is known as offshore outsourcing. While on the other hand, offshoring is when an operation of an organization is taken to another country without transferring control to the third party. Hence the difference is of transfer of control to another party, that is, the power remains within the organization in case of offshoring while in offshore outsourcing it is transferred to the third party. In case of IT offshore outsourcing, the main country that receives the majority deals is India due to its IT success in recent years with able IT graduates and world-renowned IT universities present in India. Different problems might occur due to the location of the outsourcer, that is, in case of offshore outsourcing, the cost of checks and balances, transportation, dealing across distances might end up being equal or surpassing the cost cut that is the purpose of outsourcing. Hence, nullifying the effect of outsourcing with the cost incurred for distant dealing. â€Å"One issue offshoring of technical services has brought more attention to is the value of education as an alleged solution to trade-related displacements† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). The foreign location of the outsources in case of offshore outsourcing and the exapanding of business globally in case of offshoring might also be subject to crticism due to the reason that it causes the host country to suffer with opportunities travelling to other countries rather than being available to others. Hence, along with certain positive outcomes, outsources is subjected to a sufficient amount of criticism as well. In order to counter the crticism, it would have to scrutinze itself and remove such drawbacks. Weaknesses in Current Information Technology Capabilities However, the McDonalds journey may be rapidly moving towards the success ladder but there are several pitfalls that have occurred in its Information System and its capabilities. For us as managers, it is very important to identify those pitfalls and rectify them as soon as possible in order to avoid any forthcoming problems or issues. The technological world is an extremely rapidly evolving environment, with information becoming obsolete after a certain period of time. Hence, it is very important for the Managers to take that into account and be on the constant guards to protect their image. Wi-Fi is a very innovative and healthy technology but in those countries that are well equipped to support this kind of technology and the citizens prefer to have it in a restaurant. As per a management’s perspective, to implement it in a country like Bangladesh or Pakistan, where there isn’t much knowledge of technology among the masses, would not only be unfeasible but also irrelevant expenditure. As for the PC POS System implemented, it does save time but being a Manager it is very important to receive the detailed information to further process it for other uses which it failed to do. â€Å"The data that is batch-dumped to the McDonalds mainframe system in Oak Brook every night doesnt offer the detail McDonalds executives needed and, worse, took as long as a week to be compiled analyzed and distributed to managers who would then order more patties, buns, etc. from McDonalds vendors†. Hence, it needs to take that into account as well. Professional Presentations Requirement of Soft Skills All the organization of such calibre are required to have high aptitude personnel in it with the presence of hard skills as well as soft skills. In order to sell your product, one has to make sure that its presentation and the its communication is up to the mark. The more the people are convinces the more is the popularity of the product or service meant to be. It is very important for a professional to possess the skills of speaking well and hiring such professional can be a tedious process but all the effort is worth it. Hiring is a very difficult process; it takes a lot of time, patience, and money. Gone were the days when management only looks for technical skills alone, now, they are more focused with soft skills referring to non technical skills of an individual. What are soft skills? According to Mannering (1998) they are considered to be harder to identify, to distinguish. Ironically, for many managers, the soft skills are the hard skills. Ask anyone who has had to manage change, deal with organizational politics, or build a disparate group of people into an effective team (Holbeche, 2006). Platinum skills are developed through training and delegation, active listening, giving and receiving feedback, and creating a motivational environment. (Topchik, 2004). Companies Who Values Soft Skills Fujitsu Here’s an excerpt from an article â€Å"Hi-tech soft skills† IT Training; Jan2007 Fujitsu Services has set up an international Management Academy, headed by Paula Graham (right), to help IT professionals brush up on their interpersonal skills As they progress up the career ladder, many IT professionals could find themselves at a crunch point. They have been hired and valued primarily for their technical and engineering abilities, but as they become more senior they will be expected to adopt more custodial and managerial responsibility over junior colleagues. But where, along the way, were they supposed to have picked up these managerial and interpersonal skills? IT giant Fujitsu Services is tackling the problem of helping the technical person be a better people manager with a new company-wide experiment in delivering soft skills training at leadership level. This programme is about raising the bar on the organization’s people management skills, adds Jeremy Hill, London-based managing director of training partner DIEU. Fujitsu employees are comprised mostly of IT professionals, yes they have all the various technical skills that needed to become one of their programmers, and they keep on giving other technical trainings in order to stay competitive and knowledgeable on diverse IT trends. And yet, management feels they lack something, they need to brush up with communication skills. Employees needed to be more effective communicators; they need to get their message across clearly with the people they are dealing with. Communication is very essential and powerful tool not everybody has the knock off communication skills, and essentially improvement on this part will have a big impact both for employees and their company.

Media Essays Media Violence Society

Media Essays Media Violence Society Media Violence Society Media violence has been one of our biggest problems in our community. Violence comes from every age, from a child to an adult. Violence has increased every year because people do not understand how important our life is and do not take it serious. Media violence occurs when people do not have common sense and do not take responsibility. There are couple cases that think that media violence causes society violence, and two against it. Most cases of media violence come from movies, games, and the influence people have on others, all of which have shown someone or something crucifying anything in its path. Those are some ideas about media violence throughout our society. There are two people whose lives were only about killing; it was as if it was in their nature. Stone’s most controversial film, â€Å"Natural Born Killers† was mimicked by murderers Ben Darras, and Sarah Edmondson. Darras and Edmondson have killed over fifty two people and, in the course of their actions have become media celebrities. Both of them have a history in their life that is unforgettable. The public made this inconclusive accusation despite the troubled past of both of the offenders. Oliver Stones said â€Å"Ben and Sarah are deeply disturbed youths with histories of drug and/or alcohol abuse and psychiatric treatment. Ben’s alcoholic father divorced his mother twice, and then committed suicide. Sarah carried a gun because she feared that Ben would attack her†. Obviously, there were many factors inducing their criminal behavior further more complicated than just watching a movie and doing what you have just seen. Many cases like this one have bee n pointing fingers at movies for the actions of disturbed youths, doing so is a ridiculous attempt to find a quick answer to an excessively complicated matter. Michael Zimecki believes that â€Å"ideas have consequences† and that is why the ideas expressed in a movie have a negative effect on society. To support his opinion he uses several examples of crimes that have been committed in the past and are similar to movie scenes. For example in 1993 a 9 year old girl was raped with a bottle at the beach by a group of juveniles, this incident was believed to be induced by the movie â€Å"Born Innocent† where a plunger was used to rape a victim. A boy from Pennsylvania died from imitating a movie called, â€Å"The Program†. He died in the center lane of a highway where he got ran over by a car. Michael Zimecki also uses a different approach to support his theory, he compares movies to pollution. He states â€Å"a polluter should not be allowed to escape responsibility for his actions simply because environmentally induced cancers are late-developing. Violence too, can fester for years†. Zimecki believes that societal violence is displayed excessively and needs to come to an end he asserts â€Å"the hour has come at last, and the rough beast that the poet William Butler warned about is already born†. Some kids think that it is â€Å"cool† to do what happens in the movies, but sometimes what happens in the movies is not safe. Movies can change people’s behavior and personality. Violent movies promote the minds of young kids who do not know what they are doing, but they get hurt in the process of poisoning their minds. Rated â€Å"R† movies that show killing and blood are the movies that kids are not suppose to see, but those kids that do are the ones that change because they think that it is â€Å"cool† to kill people, so they try it. Killing has lead to family separation, rising of violence with in the family, and in the society. That is what happens when these children try to do what they see without knowing if it is possible in real life. Gregg Easterbrook has been working for the New Republic for the past four years and has written magazines of beliefs and values. Easterbrook states that â€Å"movie and television violence has a serious effect on childrens propensity to behave violently later in life†. This theory has been question for years and it still is, but still many people have found connections between media violence and societal violence. At the age of nineteen is when the mind of children has developed enough to know that violence is never the answer and that all kids are doing is hurting them selves. Many kids below the age of nineteen may think that is normal to act in a violent way and becoming juvenile prisoners. There are many movies that people have seen that show a very high amount of violent and blood like the movie â€Å"Scream†. This movie starts by a teen girl watching her boyfriend getting punished. Thought out the whole movie students get hung, tortured and cut to death. Movies li ke this can encourage children to do the same thing since they find what they see very amusing. Many people have died from others mimicking what they have seen in the movies and have been killed or sent to jail for a very long time and won’t be coming out any soon. Maggie Cutler has seen media violence and has ideas of what has happened through out the years. Cutler said, â€Å"Media violence is a risk factor that, working with others, can acerbate bad behavior†. She affirms with the idea of aggressive and brutal matters that have multiplied within the United States. Crime rates of juveniles have decreased about thirty percent in the United States. The media has been reducing the principles for accepting profanity. Further more, Cutler points out that â€Å"given the overall juvenile crime count in 1997 the report implied, some 250 murders and 12,100 other violent crimes would not have been committed if it were not for the likes of Batman Beyond†. She comments that on August of 1999 a Senator reported that â€Å"television alone is responsible for 10 percent of youth violence†. Cutler believes that this subject is too complex to study conclusively. There are some facts and ideas of what our nation has turned into with in th e years. Scott Barbour strongly believes that media violence does not cause societal violence in teens. He supports his idea by stating that laboratory tests cannot be generalized to the real world. Barbour believes the teenagers’ results may be influenced by the adult researchers, he quotes Durkin associate of psychology â€Å"Even quite young children are good at working out what adults want them to do, or will let them get away with.† Another testing method he implies is invalid is correlation studies. Barbour suggests that the results cannot be taken into serious consideration because â€Å"it could just as reasonably be argued that viewing violent television programs is caused by the child’s preexisting tendency to be aggressive†. He also quotes Jonathan Freedman psychology professor at The University of Toronto when comparing boys’ tendencies to girls’ tendencies in relation to personality characteristics. Boys watch and play football more than girls do, and it is not because television influences them to, it is because of personality characteristics. Barbour believes that a child’s violent personality is induced by bad parenting. Stuart Fischoff is a professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. Fischoff has studied media violence and real-world violence and cannot find a connection between them. Nothing states that media violence causes societal violence. He believes that anyone who studies media violence can have a thought of what people may do in the real world; it is not proven that everyone will do it. It is up to how people think, how they can take certain things, and if their common sense can change their life in a good way or ruin it by doing the wrong. Many people that are against media violence think that â€Å"The plethoric effluence of screen violence, murder and mayhem is an undisputed menace to society†. That is what the opposing side has to say against what many people think about media violence. In Conclusion, media violence has taken place since the day we were born, but it has grown by the years mostly because of the messages sent out to the public. Movies reach people who do not know what their purpose in life is, so they go do the first thing they like or see. It starts off by imitating a movie people enjoy, then killing people who have done nothing to you. It can also be that you have an immature mind that has not grown into what would let you realize common sense. People have observed and realized that our humanity has been taken over by what most people would find most entertaining but deadly to perform at the same time. Some people may think that media violence is not connected to societal violence because they have the proof that we have. That is why people think media violence has been one of our biggest tribulations in the world. Works Cited OConnor, Tom: Environmental Factors Contribute to Juvenile Crime and Violence. Juvenile Crime. Auriana Ojeda, Ed. Opposing Viewpoints ® Series. Greenhaven Press 2002. Cutler, Maggie: Research on the Effects of Media Violence on Children Is Inconclusive. Is Media Violence a Problem? James D. Torr, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press 2002 Fischoff, Stuart: â€Å"No link between media violence and youth violence has been established†, Opposing viewpoints: Media violence. Ed. Louis and Gerdes, San Diego: Greenhaven press 2002 Zimecki, Michael: â€Å"Violent Films cry a fire† in Crowded Theaters. From Patters for college writing (9th Ed.) Laurie Kiszner and Stephen Madell. Bedford/St. Martins Boston 2004. Page 612 Stone, Oliver: Memo to John Grisham: What’s next -â€Å"A movie made me do it†? From Patterns for college Writing (9th Ed.) Laurie Kiszner and Stephen Madell. Bedford/St. Martins Boston 2004. Page 607 Easterbrook, Gregg: â€Å"Media Violence Makes People More Violent†. At Issue: Is Media Violence a Problem? Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002

Rate of Diffusion of Potassium permanganate, Potassium dichromate, and Methylene blue1

Rate of Diffusion of Potassium permanganate, Potassium dichromate, and Methylene blue1 1 The Effect of Molecular Weight and Time on the Rate of Diffusion of Potassium permanganate, Potassium dichromate, and Methylene blue1 scientific paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements in General Biology I laboratory under Prof. Diana Rose Gonzales, 1st sem., 2013 2014 _ 2 ABSTRACT The effect of molecular weight and time on the rate of diffusion of potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, and methylene blue was tested using a petri dish of agar water gel with three wells. The three substances were dropped simultaneously in the petri dish. Potassium permanganate (MW 158g/mole) increased rapidly (14.50 mm) while Methylene blue (MW 374 g/mole) gradually increased (9.50 mm) only. Thus, molecular weight and time affects the rate of diffusion. INTRODUCTION Diffusion is a movement of molecules from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. The particles will fuse when they are evenly distributed and have reached equilibrium. Potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, and methylene blue are substances used as indicators and oxidizing agents. Potassium permanganate is used in organic compounds and used commercially to purify water and sanitizer. It is chemically used to regulate certain reducing compounds. Potassium dichromate is used to determine ethanol concentrations in solutions and determine the presence and purity of silver. Researches also suggest that potassium dichromate functions as an agent that cause genetic mutation against DNA repair deficient strains of Escherichia coli. Lastly, methylene blue is used as dye to identify bacteria and nucleic acids. The dye will have the deepest shade of blue when in contact with acids. As indicators and oxidizing agents, the substances stated above must prove that their diffusion must be fast in order to do their functions. Due to their difference in molecular weight, a test was conducted to prove what substance is more recommendable _ 3 to be used in getting the rate of diffusion. To further verify the experiment rate of diffusion was also tested with time. To test this, agar water gel is one of the materials was used. Agar water gel is a substance that functions as a thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier since it do not melt at room temperature until it is heated to 85oC and more. Also, with a stopwatch the substances were measured (mm) at a regular three minute interval for thirty minutes. The study aims to determine the effect of molecular weight and time on the rate diffusion of potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, and methylene blue. The specific objectives are 1. to prove that molecular weight affects the rate of diffusion; and 2. to explain why molecular weight must also be observed with time MATERIALS AND METHODS In testing the effect of molecular weight and time on the rate of diffusion of potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, and methylene blue, agar water gel was used. Three bottles with dropper containing the substances and a petri dish with agar water gel were given to each group. As three members of the group dropped all substances together in the wells of the agar water gel, the stopwatch started simultaneously with it. One member measured each wells of the agar water gel with a ruler to get the initial measurement (mm) of the wells. The group then drew the initial appearance of the experiment (Figure 4.1.). One member was assigned to signal the group if three minutes have passed and the member of the group who is assigned to _ 4 measure the wells will immediately but carefully measure the area with the ruler. There was a regular three minute interval for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, the group then drew the final appearance of the experiment Figure 4.2. Also, the group computed for the average of the substances by adding all the data that were gathered divided by number of time intervals. To test the effect of time on the rate of diffusion the data gathered were computed by partial rate. Partial rate is computed by subtracting the diameter of colored area immediately (di-1) before the diameter of colored area at a given time (d1) divided by the time when d1 was measured (t1) minus the time immediately before t1 (ti 1). Again, the average of each substances were computed by adding all the date divided by the number of time intervals. A graph comparing the average rate of diffusion of each substance was plotted against its molecular weight in Figure 4.3. Also, a graph comparing the partial rate of diffusion of each substance was plotted against the time elapsed in Figure 4.4 _ 5 Potassium dichromate Methylene blue Potassium permanganate Figure 4.1. Initial appearance of the substances in the agar water gel wells. Potassium dichromate Methylene blue Potassium permanganate Figure 4.2. Final appearance of the substances in the agar water gel wells. _ 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS As seen in Table 4.2, potassium permanganate (MW 158 g/mole) has the highest average rate of diffusion with 11.32 mm/min, followed by potassium dichromate (MW 294 g/mole) with 10.86 mm/min, and methylene blue (MW 374 g/mole) with 7.95 mm/min. In Table 4.3, potassium permanganate has the highest partial rates of diffusion with 0.35 mm/min, followed by potassium dichromate with 0.32 mm/min, and methylene blue with 0.19 mm/min. This results shows that molecular weight has an effect in the rate of diffusion. When the molecular weight is lower then the rate of diffusion will be higher meaning they have an indirect relationship. Also, with time the rate of diffusion of the substances decreased, meaning time and the rate of diffusion has an indirect relationship. _ 7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION The effect of molecular weight and time on the rate of diffusion of potassium permanganate, potassium dichromate, and methylene blue was determined. Each substance was dropped simultaneously with each other into the petri dish with agar water gel. With a stopwatch the time was observed with an interval of three minuets in thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, the average of the circumference and the partial rates of diffusion were computed. Results showed that potassium permanganate (MW 158 g/mole) which has the least molecular weight had the highest average rate of diffusion compared to methylene blue (MW 374 g/mole), which has the greatest molecular weight among the three. In time, the circumference (mm/min) of each substance increased since there was diffusion in the agar water gel wells. Hence, molecular weight and time has an effect in the increase, decrease, slowness, and fastness of the diffusion of substances. Nevertheless, further experimentation must be done to improve the results of the experiment. It is recommended to use other substances, a different medium other than the agar water gel, a longer time period to test the diffusion, a more stable environment, and have more trials to observe better results. _ 11 LITERATURE CITED Dean, John A. Lange's Handbook of Chemistry, 12th ed.; McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York, NY, 1979; p 9:4-9:94. Ebbing, Darrell D. General Chemistry 3rd ed.; Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, MA, 1990; p 137. Andrew Mills, David Hazafy, John A. Parkinson, Tell Tuttle and Michael G. Hutchings The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2009, 113 (34), 9575-9576 Chongmok Lee, Yoo Wha Sung, and Joon Woo ParkThe Journal of Physical Chemistry B1999, 103 (5), 893-898 _

Marlows Transformation in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Essay

Marlow's Transformation in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness After returning from a voyage in the Congo of Africa, Joseph Conrad said "Before the Congo I was a mere animal," and implied that only a select few of the rest of society have risen above the animal state. Conrad had a bout with malaria, and while recovering went through radical changes in thinking. He began to despise his fellow Belgians, and for a time he was furious with them for their very existence. Leonard Dean's collection of Conrad's letters show the writer's scorn of regular society after his journey: "Everything is repellent to me here. Men and things, but especially men...all have a gift for getting on my nerves." (103) Conrad eventually accepted himself as one of these people, and began to work on Heart of Darkness, a cathartic novel based on his journal written in the Congo. He wrote about Marlow, who will take a journey into the Congo and into his own soul, in an attempt to discuss the evil he experienced in Africa. Conrad presents a situation that he and Marlow both know, and that the average listener can't comprehend. Conrad was appalled and shaken by what he saw being practiced in the Congo, and by his statement cements his belief that a man cannot truly understand, sympathize, or feel anything significant on the emotional level unless he has also experienced the dark and the diseased side of himself. Everything up to that point is only scratching the surface of human nature. A human being needs suffering and experience with depravity before he is able to appreciate and embrace what is good in himself. He is only an animal up until that point. Marlow goes to Africa on a quest, though he isn't aware of it. Jerome Thale compared Marl... .../DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v407/n6800/full/407025a0_fs.html Evans, Robert O., "Conrad's Underworld". Cambridge: Purdue Research Foundation, 1956. Guerard, Albert J., "The Journey Within", 1958. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Hewitt, Douglas, "Reassessment of Heart of Darkness". Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes Publishers Ltd., 1952. Modern Fiction Studies, IX, No. 4 Winter '63-64. Cambridge: Purdue Research Foundation Reid, Stephen A., "The 'Unspeakable Rites in Heart of Darkness," Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, "What I Learned in the Gulag." Excerpted and abridged from The Gulag Archipelago http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/4942/gulag.html Telgen, Diane, Novels for Students. 2 vols. Detroit: Gale Researcher, 1997. Thale, Jerome, "Marlow's Quest," 1955. Toronto: University of Toronto Quarterly, XXIV July.

Murphy V. Brentwood District Council 1991 Ac 398 Essay -- Law Critica

OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY OBJECTIVES: TO STUDY AND CRITICALLY ANALISE THE CASE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. TO DRAW UP THE COMMON INFERENCE WHILE STUDYING THE USE OF THE PRINCIPLE IN OTHER CASES. METHODOLOGY THE BASIC METHODOLOGY ADOPTED TO PREPARE THIS RESEARCH IS DEDUCTIVE THAT IS TO STUDY VARIOUS CASES, TO ANALYSE THE LAWS IN THE SAME TOPIC AND UNDERSTAND THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE TO DRAW A GENERAL CONCLUSION. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1:......................................INTRODUCTION 2:......................................PRINCIPLES INVOLVED 3:......................................CRITICAL ANALYSIS 4:......................................CONCLUSION 5:......................................BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION Since the Annus case the trends rather we should say the general trends were to provide the damages to the owner of the premises and they were purely economic losses. But in this case that trend was overruled and there began a new trend and new principles that we will come across while going through the whole project. There were many questions raised like a duty of care is owed to whom? How damages can be provided in a particular case like this? But one thing is for sure that this case can be considered as a landmark case in the history of `Torts' as we come across a very few cases where the well established principles like here are overruled. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE MATERIAL FACTS The plaintiff bought a built as such to the plans approved by the defendants. But the independent consulting engineers who had carelessly failed to note an error in the calculations which rendered inadequate the concrete raft foundation necessited by the sl... .... The requirement that the house be "imminently dangerous" was was unworkable and the novel type of damage introduced byAnnus was inherently unstable and indeterminate: if seen as personal injury, the damage is purely potential, not actual; If seen as actual,it is economical loss, the money needed to make the house safe. Therefore there arose a requirement of the new principles which could overrule the orthodox principles as established by the Annus case and this was nicely done by Murphy v. Brentwood district council case. BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS - Dr. R. K. Bangia, Law Of Torts, (Allahabad Law Agency, Faridabd, 17th edn., 2003) Justice G. P. Singh (Ed.), Ratan Lal & Dhiraj Lal On The Law Of Torts (Wadhwa And Company, Nagpur, 24th edn., 2002) REPORTERS ALL ENGLAND REPORTERS WEBSITES VISITED - WWW.GOOGLE.COM WWW.WESTLAW.COM

Introduction to K Means Analysis for Stock Portfolio Essay

1. Background[1] Investment decisions are about making choice. Investors need to decide what asset to be invested. This is an important decision because these assets are the means by which investors transfer today’s purchasing power to the future. In effect, investor must decide on a portfolio of asset to own. A portfolio is simply a combination of assets designed to serve as store of value. Poor management of these assets may destroy the portfolio’s value, and investor will then not achieve their financial goals. There are many assets like stocks, bonds, derivatives that investors may include in the portfolio. In Hong Kong, stock portfolio is the most common investment. But what stocks have higher return? What stocks are risky? What stocks in the portfolio that it has higher return? Many investors may use fundamental analysis to analysis financial data for answering above questions. In the last decade, some researches applied data mining techniques on financial market. Data mining is the process of automatically discovery useful information in large data repositories. It can be used to support a wide range of business intelligence applications such as customer profiling, targeted marketing, store layout. 2. Motivation In America, there are some research papers[2] about applying clustering technique on America financial market. For example, using Self-organizing map(SOM) to cluster stocks and financial ratio for fundamental analysis, using SOM to find the valuable stock. These all researches want to find the characteristic of the stocks. However, most these researches use SOM clustering technique, and focus on America financial market. It seems that few researches do similar thing in Hong Kong stock market. Moreover, these researches only want to find the characteristic of stocks. In real case, investors will not only purchase one stocks. They will construct a stock portfolio to eliminate the risk. So I want to apply similar approach on Hong Kong stock market and change the clustering technique to K-means, not SOM. And I not only want to cluster the stocks, but also the portfolio. I want to cluster many combinations of the portfolio as I can to find the characteristic of different combinations of the portfolio. I am interested in investment, and I study information technology in university. I want to combine two aspects for my final year project. And I believe this project is very useful for my future career. I have read relative books, papers for getting the basic idea and concept of portfolio and data mining. In this project, I use many technical skills, methods and knowledge learnt from City University of Hong Kong in the past three years. Java programming is used to do the data preprocessing like normalization, financial calculation. It is also used to generate the combination of the portfolio and the simulation of K-means. MYSQL database is used to store the data of stocks and portfolio. The simulation result is also stored in the database. 3. Objectives In this final year project, there are several objects: 1. To investigate the characteristic of stocks in Hong Kong stock market. 2. To investigate the characteristic of different stock portfolios in Hong Kong stock market. 3. To determine that different combination of stocks how to affect the performance of the portfolio. 4. To investigate the strength and weakness of applying K-means on financial data. 4. Report outline  There are total 6 chapters in this report. Following this Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 2 Literature Review refers to related theories applied on the simulation, result analysis and discussion. Chapter 3 Simulation presents the methodology, project flow chat of the simulation. Chapter 4 Result Analysis will do the data processing of the result from the simulation. Chapter 5 Further Development will discuss the further development and improvement of the project. At the end, Chapter 6 Conclusion will do the conclusion of the whole project. 5. Chapter Summary This chapter mentions the background of the project. It also presents the motivation of this project and give the objective, report outline to the readers for better understanding of the project.

A Modern Anachronism

Authors have their own unique style to develop different tones and themes, and there are countless ways each author conveys his or her theme in the story. Kurt Vonnegut is an esteemed author of many well-known novels. He is also known for his collection of short stories known as Welcome to the Monkey House. One of the short stories called â€Å"All the King's Horses† displays a perfect setting of suspense, and how the effects of war erode soldiers and their families. To do this, Vonnegut uses a satirical tone with hints of unusual playful expressions; by doing so, he lets readers know that many sacrifices are at times necessary in order to protect loved ones, just Vonnegut's character Pi Ying says, â€Å"a chess game can very rarely be won . . . without sacrifices. The theme is that people shouldn't rely on their own individual talents and social status to get themselves past obstacles in the path to their goal. Kurt Vonnegut creates his theme with the aid of the satirical tone in the story â€Å"All the King's Horses†. Vonnegut is implying that there needs to be a point where people use their own unique abilities to enhance what they do for a living. The reason Vonnegut used a game of chess, instead a game of checkers, is for the immense magnitude of possible choices a person can make in the game of life. Every person has his or hers own style, making it so each player in the Miguel 2 game of chess must learn quickly the style of the other person. This concept of adapting rapidly to the opponent is the basic theme Vonnegut clearly wants to convey in the story. Characters in Vonnegut's short stories have a unique role, especially in his story â€Å"All the King's Horses†. There are two main characters that develop the tone of sarcasm and cynicism. Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying are two leaders of their own respective groups armed to play a game of chess, which symbolizes two armies in battle. Although Pi Ying uses life-sized chess pieces, Colonel Kelly's family and the soldiers under his command must listen to the colonel's orders like pawns. Pi Ying's second in command is Major Barzov, who makes a point, † He'll learn to be a pawn yet . . . It's and Oriental skill Americans could do well to learn for the days ahead, eh? † (99). This quote adds a satirical tone as Kelly is continually losing soldiers literally. Vonnegut chose this tone because he wanted to criticize the lack of respect some people have towards international cultures or at least the misunderstanding. All the King's Horses† brings the concept of reality to the reader's attention. Vonnegut wants to make sure his readers of future generations don't take family and their prized possessions for granted. Work is a must as technology advances to engulf the â€Å"archaic† ways of doing tasks. But some tasks require the archaic work ethic in order to master the task such as in the classic game of chess. Like Colonel Kelly and Pi Ying, people must work efficiently to earn possessions and a loving family.