Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Analysis - Assignment Example A higher ratio is recommended since it indicates the firm’s ability to raise revenue from the investments. The 7th year had the best performance with approximately 24% return on equity this was followed by the 5th year; the 7th year exceeded the investor’s expectations while the 5th met the investor’s expectations. This is favorable to the stockholders since it implies that for every dollar invested the shareholder received 24 cents. The worst periods were 8th, and 10th year with negative ROI meaning the company was operating at a loss and 9th year when the ROI was 0. Stock Prices -Stock prices in most cases show the firm’s performance, a method of communicating to the public. The prices are expected to increase as the company grows. From the graph the investors have been expecting the prices to grow, the 5th and 7th years met these expectation while the rest of the years failed to do so. This is a bad image of the company and shows inefficient operations. In conclusion, the EPS, ROI, and stock prices are necessary tools to indicate on the firm’s performance and management efficiency. It is clear from the analysis that the 7Th year was the best performed followed by the 5th year. Poor performances were in 8th, 9th and 10th

Fast Food Franchise Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Fast Food Franchise - Case Study Example Fast food is a foodstuff that is readily available and dished up promptly at sites known as fast-food bistros. This is the multi-billion dollar business which inturn keeps on progressing extremely fast around numerous international locations. A fast-food franchise is somewhat different from fast-food points as it is recognized from nominal service and by meals simultaneously which may be presented immediately soon after placing the order. The food items around such dining places is usually prepared in volume upfront plus preserved hot for its reuse. A lot of fast food restaurants are sections of reputable restaurants or franchise's, while standard food products are supplied to every eating venue through main sites. As compared to some other food businesses, the budget fundamentals to set up a fast-food restaurant are comparatively compact in UK, especially at locations consisting of low and medium earning community. Mostly eateries wherever people sit a while and enjoy their lunch or dinner are also measured as fast food (Luffman & Sanderson, 2001).Fast Food Restaurant at Cambridge has proposed to offer the customers with a huge variety in terms of its menu products. Derived from the mentioned food items, the proposal suggests that CFF must offer low-priced combo food to its consumers. The proposed combo meal offers will contribute to increase the traffic to the restaurant. This is really appealing to undertake a sizable diversity of food products to grab an increased niche.

Role Of The Quantity Surveyor in Construction

Role Of The Quantity Surveyor in Construction 1.1 Background to the Study A competent design team is crucial for any new building project according to Lee (2008:127). The quantity surveyor can be a very valuable addition to the design team for the client, giving expert advice on contractual and financial matters. The quantity surveyor will have the clients interest as his number one priority and his services can be of great value to any person considering constructing a new building. According to Bowles Le Roux (1992:1) any person considering building or investing in construction projects needs expert advice from a quantity surveyor. No matter the size or complexity of a project, the quantity surveyor provides valuable advice through the various stages of the project. The Guide for Quantity Surveying Appointments (2006) states that any client who is considering building any structure of any size, changing an existing structure or investing in construction projects no matter how simple or complex, needs the expert advice of a professional quantity surveyor for establishing budgets, cash flows, cost planning, cost management and obtaining value for money. Construction projects differ from each other and every project has its own unique challenges. Construction projects are not standard products which have been designed and mass manufactured in a controlled environment. There is a lack of a relatively stable market price. This is due to monthly payments which are made as the work proceeds, before the project reaches completion. As a result of technological, financial and economical influences the methods adopted for construction work are varied and complex and the expert advice of a quantity surveyor should be obtained before the start of any project planning. This is the main reasons why there is a need for the services of a quantity surveyor. (Bowles Le Roux, 1992:2) The ordinary member of the general public has little knowledge or experience in the construction industry. However economically active individuals who can be seen as potential clients for residential construction projects are often reluctant to utilize the services of a professional quantity surveyor. According to Lee (2008:123), a potential pitfall for the first-time homeowner is to utilize the services of a non-reputable contractor who is not affiliated to the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC). Members of the general public who are not experienced in the construction industry can be subjected to un-ethical practices and this may lead to their exploitation. Due to the many problems caused by these un-ethical and non-reputable contractors to the homeowners and other property professionals, the South African government passed legislation in 2001 known as the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act. The intention of this Act is to guard homeowners against non-reputable contractors who build to substandard quality and then refuse to be held responsible. (Lee, 2008:123) One factor which may deter people from using the services of a quantity surveyor is the professional fees. According to research done by Cruywagen and Snyman (2005) professional quantity surveying services can be rendered as affordable in South Africa. The research shows that, due to the competitiveness of the market, it has become the norm for quantity surveyors to reduce professional fees. Cruywagen and Snyman (2005), state that there is a distinct relationship between the profitability for the quantity surveyor and the value of a project. This means residential projects are not profitable as compared to big industrial developments, shopping centers etc. This may be the reason for the lack of marketing in the residential sector and why the general public is not aware of the quantity surveying profession. The purpose of this study is to identify and understand the specific role of the professional quantity surveyor in the construction industry and to explain the significant effect a quantity surveyor can have on a construction project. 1.2 Problem Statement The general public who is not involved in the construction industry is unaware of the quantity surveying profession and the functions the quantity surveyor perform and this lack of knowledge can lead to their exploitation if a quantity surveyor is not involved. 1.3 Hypothesis For the purpose of this study the following hypotheses are set out: The general public is unaware of the quantity surveying profession and the services the profession provide. Fees associated with the quantity surveyor may intimidate homeowners who are looking to complete a project with as little investment as possible, not realizing that the quantity surveyor can save you a substantial amount of money by providing you with expert advice on financial and contractual matters. 1.4 Objectives This study has four primary objectives. The objectives are to: Outline the specific role of the quantity surveyor. Realize the major effect a quantity surveyor can have on a building project Make the general public aware of the quantity surveying profession and the functions the quantity surveyor performs. To learn why the general public is reluctant to use the services of a quantity surveyor. 1.5 Methodology A qualitative research approach was follow for the purpose of this study. The researcher has conducted a comprehensive review of relevant literature on the topic. The focus has been on the quantity surveying profession and the services it provide. Personal interviews have been conducted with professional quantity surveyors. To understand the broader picture members of the general public who recently became homeowners (of newly constructed buildings) was asked to complete a questionnaire. Attention has been given to whether or not the services of a quantity surveyor was utilized and if not, why? 1.6 Delimitations The research is limited to the residential construction industry. The focus of the research is on the services of a professional quantity surveyor and not that of the contractors quantity surveyor. Members of the general public who was approached with questionnaires was limited to those who were recently involved with the construction of a residential building. 1.7 Assumptions The researcher assumed that all data collected are accurate and all interviews and questionnaires conducted were answered truthfully. CHAPTER TWO THE QUANTITY SURVEYING PROFESSION 2.1 Introduction In this chapter all the literature on the related topic collected by the researcher will be reviewed. This review will include literature on the history of the quantity surveyor, the contractors quantity surveyor, competencies of a professional quantity surveyor, fees of the professional quantity surveyor, estimating and cost advice as well as the use of a bill of quantities. The core focus however will be to outline the specific functions of the professional quantity surveyor. 2.2 History of the quantity surveyor According to the Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (2010), the quantity surveying profession started with the turn of the nineteenth century. The first recorded use of the term Quantity surveyor was in 1859. Before then the terms measurer, Custom surveyor or surveyor were used. At that time it was custom for the surveyor to work for the master builders, measuring the completed work and often submitting biased final accounts to the building owners. As a result of this behavior it became the norm for building owners to enter into a contract and invite tenders before any work commenced. According to Bowles Le Roux (1992:4), this gave rise to competition and builders tendering realized that they were spending an immense amount of time and effort measuring and calculating to arrive at a tender figure. In addition there was the added danger that the builders interpreted the architects drawings differently which would lead to inaccurate pricing and result in the tenders not being calculated on an uniform basis. The builders realized that a surveyor could be employed to act as an unbiased person to measure the quantities on their behalf. This insured that the builders tendered on the same basis whilst sharing the cost for the surveyor. Building owners were afraid of unethical practice between the builders and the surveyor and realized it would be to their personal advantage to appoint and compensate the quantity surveyor. This is how the independent professional quantity surveyor gained consultant status. In South Africa the title quantity surveyor is reserved under the Quantity Surveyors Act of 1970 for the sole use by those who had acquired the obligatory qualifications and experience stipulated under the Act. Furthermore, those persons must register with the South African Council for Quantity Surveyors before they can act as consultants to the general public (ASAQS, 2010) 2.3 Contractors quantity surveyor The main difference between a professional quantity surveyor and a contractors quantity surveyor is that the latter is employed by the construction company and not by the client. Dent (1970:7) states that a contractor who undertakes big projects will need a quantity surveying staff. The contractors surveyor will represent the contractor and the contractors interest will be the main priority. According to Cornick and Osbon (1994:108), the contractors quantity surveyor spends comparatively the same amount of time on cost planning, feasibility studies and tender appraisal as the professional quantity surveyor and significantly more on post-contract services but significantly less on preparing tender documentation. Project cost control is one function that requires equal efficiency by both surveyors, the contractors quantity surveyor on behalf of the contractor and the professional quantity surveyor on behalf of the client. Cornick and Osbon (1994:109) identified seven main functions for the contractors quantity surveyor namely: Valuation of work completed for payment from client and payment to subcontractor. Determination of change due to variation from client or designer. Preliminaries allocation. Subcontractor accounts to agree tender and actual costs. Financial reporting for quarterly account forecasts. Cost accounting for plant and material use by company. Cost accounting for labour use by the company. Clients expectations of project cost control will increase as the clients and their cost advisers become more complex. The clients will be expecting the cost of their buildings to be reduced to match their budget. Therefore contractors quantity surveyor must strive to improving their cost controlling and accounting capabilities for the construction companies that they work for. 2.4 The professional quantity surveyor According to Bowles Le Roux (1992:3) the quantity surveyor is a professional consultant appointed by the client who wishes to invest in property development. It is the quantity surveyors responsibility to advise the client, architect and engineer on all financial and contractual matters from the pre-tender stage right through to the completion of the project. For the quantity surveyor to accomplish this role he must develop a comprehensive understanding of the various construction methods and have a transparent understanding of the different forms of contract and sub-contract agreements available in the construction industry. The quantity surveyor must be capable of advising on the cost of alternative construction methods and costs of different materials. An analytical approach must be adopted in finding beneficial solutions in the interest of the client. The Guide for Quantity Surveying Appointments (2006) states that a professional quantity surveyor will draw on extensive cost information obtained from client databases and experience from other projects for effective budget setting. It is the quantity surveyors ongoing implementation of financial discipline in the areas of budget setting, alternative design option costing, cash flow predictions, final cost forecasting, management of variations including potential areas of dispute and timeous final account settlement, etc. that allows the maximum value for money requirement to be achieved. 2.4.1 Standard quantity surveying services According to A Guide for Quantity Surveying Appointments (2006) the standard services that can be provided by a professional quantity surveyor are: Financial viability studies and the initial budget planning prior to the detailed design to establish whether the project is feasible in terms of the clients financial budget; Preliminary cost studies and comparing alternative designs and materials in terms of operating and maintenance costs; Monitoring the design as it evolves to ensure it stays within clients budget; Preparing tender documentation for pricing by contractors and advising on contractual arrangements; Evaluating the submitted tenders and reporting on the suitability thereof; Negotiating the contract sums with the individual contractors; Preparing cash flow predictions; Preparing cost reports at regular intervals; Valuing construction work in progress; Preparing the final account thus determining the final cost; Settlement of the final costs with the contractor and sub-contractors. Additional specialist services that many quantity surveyors are experienced in providing are: Acting as project manager; Acting as principle agent; Consulting on property development; Valuation of buildings for insurance purposes etc.; Acting as an expert witness; Advising on the settlement of disputes through mediation and arbitration. Facilitating with fast track construction projects; Providing services for projects in engineering, mining and petro-chemical industries. It is recommended to employ the quantity surveyors full services as a professional consultant rather than in a technical/measurement role in order to utilize the quantity surveyors expertise to the best advantage. 2.4.2 Competencies of the professional quantity surveyor Competencies can be defined as the ability a person should have in a given occupational area subject to external and internal factors like organization size, type, and age (Barret, 1992). (Holmes Joyce, 1993) defined competence as a description of an action, a mode of behavior or outcome that a person should be able to demonstrate, or the ability to transfer skills and knowledge to new situations within the occupational area. In the construction industry the quantity surveyor can be seen as the economist and cost accountant, whose services facilitate the client to obtain the maximum value for the clients investment. There are three aspects which reflect value for a client in the construction industry, namely cost, time and quantity. Quantity surveyors add value to the construction project performance by using the appropriate competencies. It is therefore important for an assessment of the quantity surveyors competencies in order to highlight the continuing relevance of their services in the construction industry (Nkado Meyer, 2001:483). The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) set out the competencies required by professional quantity surveyors in three categories, namely basic -, core and optional competencies. Table 1 below presents the competencies in three categories. Under the structure of the RICS the basic competencies are present in all construction professions, the core competencies primarily for quantity surveyors and the optional competencies are required for specialization in a specific field. Table 1: Competencies set out by the RICS (Nkado Meyer, 2001:484). A Study conducted by Nkado and Meyer (2001:484) identified 23 defined competencies which apply to quantity surveyors in South Africa. A questionnaire was sent to randomly selected members of the ASAQS of a different demographic background. The questionnaire listed the 23 competencies in alphabetical order. The respondents were asked to rate the importance of the competencies for a career as a professional quantity surveyor in South Africa at present, the importance in the future and the level of evidence of each competency in the quantity surveying profession. Rating worked on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"not important and 5 being à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"very important. The researchers ensured the respondents anonymity to attain an honest response. Table 2: Competencies ratings (Nkado Meyer, 2001:487). Table 2 shows the ratings which have been converted to percentages for effective interpretation. It is interesting to note that three of the traditional core competencies are rated in the top five competencies required by quantity surveyors in South Africa at present, the three being procurement and financial management, economics of construction and construction contract practice. The results showed that management orientated competencies were rated of higher importance for future services while the highest importance for current services were technically orientated. The five most important competencies required by quantity surveyors in South Africa at present are: Computer literacy and information technology; Procurement and financial management; Economics of construction; Construction contract practice; Measurement. The five most important competencies required by quantity surveyors in South Africa in the future are: Computer literacy and information technology; Procurement and financial management; Economics of construction; Project management; Marketing. Competencies utilized by quantity surveyors with greatest efficiency in South Africa are: Measurement; Procurement and financial management; Professional practice; Construction contract practice; Economics of construction. It is evident that management orientated competencies will grow in importance and will replace the traditional technically orientated competencies as the core competencies of the quantity surveyor (Nkado Meyer,2001:490). 2.4.3 Professional quantity surveying fees The fees charged by professional quantity surveyors are proportionate with the work done for the client and according to A Guide for Quantity Surveying Appointments 2006 there are 5 options available: A time charge; A percentage fee based on a tariff recommended by The South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession (see Table 3); An agreed percentage of the contract value; A lump-sum fee; Any other fee arranged between the quantity surveyor and the client. 2.4.3.1 Time Charges The following recommended hourly time charges for the private sector were approved by The South African Council for the Quantity Surveying Profession with effect from 1 January 2010 (SACQSP, 2010). (All rates are exclusive of VAT.) Not exceeding 5 years experience R 700-00 Exceeding 5 years and not exceeding 10 years experience R 1 250-00 Exceeding 10 years experience R 1 750-00 Specialist work R 2 190-00 2.4.3.2 Percentage fees By using table 3 a basic fee will be determined and multiplied by the appropriate percentage (Table 4, 5 6). The basic fee shall be calculated on the value for fee purposes (see table 3). Table 3: Basic fee (SACQSP, 2010) Table 4: Appropriate percentages for building work (SACQSP, 2010) Table 5: Appropriate percentages for engineering work (SACQSP, 2010) Table 6. Appropriate percentages for management services (SACQSP, 2010) Once the primary charge (table 3) is established, the amount is multiplied by the appropriate percentage. In addition to this there will be a marginal rate which would be added to the primary charge. The gross amount will be payable to the quantity surveyor as the professional fees. 2.5 Estimating and cost advice Aibinu and Pasco (2008:1258) states: Pre-tender cost estimation (or early stage cost estimation) is the forecasting of the cost of a project during the planning and design stage. Research done by Trost and Oberlender (2003) identified 11 factors that play a role in the precision of estimates of which the 5 most important are: Process design; Estimator team experience and cost information; Time spent on preparation of estimate; Site requirements; The current labour and bidding climate. According to Bennett, Morrison and Stevens (1981) estimating is the main function of cost planning services provided by the quantity surveyor. They conclude that cost planning is unsuccessful without decent estimating. Morrison (1984:57) states that quantity surveyors have developed different methods for estimating to deal with the large variety of projects and designs. These different methods differ in detail with some estimates being very thorough, for instance a priced bill of quantities. Other may be very simple and only entail a simple lump sum estimate. All other factors being equal, the estimates accuracy will increase as the detail and time spent in preparing the estimate increases. 2.5.1 Clients brief The client, architect (design team) and the quantity surveyor are the most important members in the in the project briefing process. According to research done (Bowen, Pearl, Nkado Edwards, n.d.) it is vital to have an efficient client brief if the client is to reach his objectives with regard to the time, cost and quality of the project. Insufficient briefing of the design team by the client can lead to major frustration and unhappiness for the client. The brief procedure is the process where the client explains and spells out the objectives and requirements of a project (Bowen et al., n.d.). Bowen (1993) states that: The purpose of this stage is for the clients to communicate to the design team and specialist consultants their needs and objectives in initiating the project. For the client to be satisfied, the design of the building must fulfill the clients needs with regards to the technical aspects and quality standards. In addition to this the project must be completed within the budget and on time (Seymour Louw, 1990). In order to achieve this, a detailed and complete client brief is necessary to eliminate as many uncertainties as possible. 2.5.2 Feasibility studies After the briefing process, the quantity surveyor will do a feasibility study. The outcome of the feasibility study helps the client to decide whether to go ahead with the project. A feasibility study is conducted to ascertain whether a project idea is economically viable (Hofstrand Clause, n.d.). It is the quantity surveyors responsibility to make recommendations to the client on the viability of the project and give professional advice on any alternatives. The feasibility study involves economical and technical investigations that allow the client to decide whether to proceed with the project (Association of South African Quantity Surveyors, 2010). According to Hofstrand Clause (n.d.) a feasibility study: Identifies alternatives. Identifies reasons not to proceed. Indicate new opportunities. Gives quality information for better decision making. Assist in acquiring funding from banks and other investors. 2.6 Use of bill of quantities After the quantity surveyor completes the elemental estimate the client will decide whether the project will go ahead or not. This decision is largely based on whether the estimate is within the clients budget or not. If the estimate is within budget the client should instruct the architect to prepare detailed working drawings for construction. The quantity surveyor can start with the preparation of the bill of quantities once he has received these drawings (Bowles Le Roux, 1992). Davis, Love and Baccarini (2009:99) states that the bill of quantities has 2 main uses and these can be categorized under pre-contract and post-contract stage. In the pre-contract stage the bill of quantities aid contractors to prepare their tenders. In the post-contract stage the bill of quantities assists the quantity surveyor and the contractor in the valuation of the work in progress and work completed for payment purposes. The bill of quantities is mainly used for tendering purposes. It enables contractors to prepare tenders using the same information which will lead to more accurate tender sums. The bill of quantities allow for a common basis on which the tenders can be compared. This brings about a competitive market (Kodikara, Thorpe McCaffer, 1993:261). According to Bowles and Le Roux (1992) the bill of quantities describes the nature of the building. It is a document which lists all the items that need to be completed for the construction of the building. These items required for the completion of the building is measured from drawings and specifications received from the architect and engineers. The total cost for the project will be the sum of all the individual items added together. When these items are priced there must be an allowance for the execution of each item as well as a realistic profit margin. The information in the bill of quantities can be classified into three fundamental categories namely; preliminaries, preambles and bills. The preliminaries of a contract entail all requirements of the project which do not have a direct impact on the construction works. The preliminaries of a contract may include health and safety requirements, access to and from site, accommodation for workforce, insurances required etc. Preambles define the standards of workmanship and materials to be used. The bills contain the measured items needed to complete the works and comprises of the description, units and quantities (Kodikara et al., 1993:261). The bill of quantities, detailed construction drawings, engineering drawings and specifications will be issued to building contractors. These documents form part of the tender documentation. The tender documents enable contractors to submit a competitive tender for a project and aid them in determining an accurate price for the completion of the building. A practical time limit is set for the contractors to price the bill. All tenders should be handed in before the specified closing date. According to Davis et al. (2009:103), the bill of quantities has various advantages to the parties involved in a project: Pre-contract stage: Database à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" It provides a cost database for future estimating Fee calculation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" It provides a conclusive basis for the calculation of professional fees Asset management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" It provide data for asset management of finished building, insurance, maintenance schedules etc. Taxation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Provide basis for precise preparation of depreciation schedules as part of the asset management plan. Post-contract stage: Accurate progress payments à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" It becomes a basis from which the interim payments can be evaluated. This insures work is done at a reasonable price and gives the contractor and client peace of mind that the contractor is not paid too much or too little for work completed. Pricing of contract instructions à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" It provides a basis for the valuation of variations to the project. Risk management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Prices from the contractor in the bill of quantities can be compared with current market related prices. According to Davis et al. (2009:103), the major disadvantages of the bill of quantities are that the preparation is time consuming and it tends to increase cost. 2.7 Conclusion It is clear from the above that the quantity surveyor can be a very valuable addition to the clients professional team. Quantity surveyors in South Africa are competent professionals. From the inception stage of a project, right through to the final payment, the quantity surveyor will give expert advice on financial and contractual matters. The successful completion of a project can never be guaranteed due to the many uncontrollable factors in the construction industry. However having the services of a quantity surveyor at your disposal will greatly improve the chances of completing a project successfully and within budget. CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY 3.1 Data In this chapter the data collection methods and the analysis of the data is explained. For the purpose of this study a qualitative research methodology was followed in order to test the hypotheses put forward. The research was conducted by way of a comprehensive literature review and collecting data through interviews and questionnaires. The research problem is mainly that the general public is unaware of the quantity surveying profession therefore data relating to the services that the quantity surveyor offer and the profession in general were required. 3.2 Collection of data Books and journals on the related topic from local and international sources were used for the collection of data. All the data was collected before the field work started and was done over a two month period. Furthermore, primary data was collected through personal interviews and questionnaires. Interviews were conducted with quantity surveyors. The interviews were informal but due to the researchers relative lack of experience in conducting interviews the questions were well prepared. Questionnaires were used to obtain the necessary data from members of the general public who were recently involved in the construction of a residential building. The questionnaires consisted out of open ended questions and were administered in person. To maximize to accuracy of the response the questions were short and in unambiguous language (Leedy Ormrod, 2005:190). To insure the validity of the research an honest response is required. For this reason the names of individuals and the quantity surveying company approached for the research will be held confidential. 3.3 Data analysis The qualitative data was organized, summarized and analyzed by the researcher in order to reach a conclusion and make recommendations. It should be noted that the sample is very small, but for the purpose of this study it is sufficient for the researcher to understand the problem at hand and reach a conclusion. CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 4.1 Introduction Primary data was collected through interviews and questionnaires as explained in the previous chapter. Ten individuals who were recently involved in a residential project were approached to complete the questionnaire. This chapter will discus the findings of the questionnaire and will incorporate the data collected from interviews with quantity surveyors. 4.1.1 Awareness of the quantity surveying profession Figure 4.1 Indicate the awareness of the quantity surveying profession. It was found that the large majority of the respondents were aware of the profession. However this does not necessarily mean they understand what the profession entails. An interesting observation was that the respondent, who was not aware of the quantity surveying profession, was the only respondent under 30 years of age. 4.1.2 Understanding of the quantity surveyor The question was what the understanding of quantity surveyors was by the respondents. Three of the ten respondents had reas

Family and Medical Leave Act Essay -- essays research papers

Family and Medical Leave Act   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On August 5, 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act became effective for most of the employers and employees covered by the act. The FMLA is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to take reasonable unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons, including serious health conditions that prevent the employee from working. Not only has the FMLA evolved over the years, but also the current application in the workplace environment is very complex for the employee as well as the employer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Over the years, FMLA has evolved into a one of the most discussed and complex laws in the United States. Since 1993, over 35 million eligible workers have taken leave for family or medical reasons. For all the employers covered by the act, 80 percent reported that it had a positive effect or noticeable effect on business productivity, profitability and growth. (www.familyleavesurvey.com) As the FMLA has evolved, it has had positive effects on both employees and employers. However, even though it is very effective, it is also a very complex law.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  FMLA covers private sector employers that employ 50 or more individuals. Public employers are covered under FMLA no matter how many workers they employ. The FMLA requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees for childbirth or care of a child, adoption, their own serious illness or that of a...

Different Modes of Thought

Courses are different to turn from the up-to-the-minute to the post modern in the dominion of philosophy and other theoretical dissertations, having the representation of complex pedigree of various and often deviating shadows through diverse restraints and cultural territories. In The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (Habermas 1987), in a way showed how a pathway moves through a practice of irrationalism from romanticism to existentialism to French postmodernism. French postmodern theory had proliferation on the said movements through the figures of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Bataille.According to Lyotard, every utterance in the language games is thought of as a move in a game, and â€Å"to speak is to fight [†¦ ] speech acts fall within the domain of a general agonistics. † By linking each statement to one another, there can be an analysis with these terms in a game with specific rules as Lyotard refers speculative discourse as a language game. He gave the name diffe rend in a language game to the calming player. The differend exist when the procedures for what is different to be presented in the contemporary sphere of influence of discourse have no agreement.This can be a suggestion, criticism or aesthetic principle. The stillness of an impossibility of wording an injustice is marked by the differend. The measurement of a unique state of mind which distinguishes its inability to find an object sufficient to the inspirational feeling, the inspirational sensitivity does not come from the object. Powerlessness is a sign by the sublime wherein it becomes the untainted sign when it is understood by the indication of the differend.An event that is historical is an instance of the differend in which a philosopher is tasked to search out for these signs to be given expression by an existing variety of discourse (EGS 2008). There are three remarks about language games. First, legitimating does not carry rules with themselves however they are the object of an agreement, explicit or not, between players. This only means that the players somehow invent the rules. Secondly, there is no game without having such rules. It is a necessity to the games because it serves as a guide to distinguish how players will lose or win to make a fair judgment to both parties.And lastly, utterances are considered as â€Å"moves† in a game. Best example is in basketball. Players in this game do not only play physically but also ethically and morally. Once a player says obscene words against a player or any official during the game, it is somewhat a point against him. This final examination and inspection conveys us to the primary standards fundamental in our technique in one piece is, speaking is fighting, in the good judgment of taking part in, and verbal communication as in talking takes actions to drop within the sphere of influence of a universal anguishes.But does not directly suggests that winning is the primarily concern when playing. For the absolute satisfaction of its creation a particular move is made. The involvement of struggle of language aggravation carried out by trendy speech and by literature is that enormous ecstasy is had in the infinite creation of rotations of expresses, of statements and implications, the development following the advancement of language on the height of parole.But unquestionably even this gratification is dependent on a feeling of accomplishment succeeded at the price of a challenge – at least one adversary, and a redoubtable one: the acknowledged language, or suggestion. (Lyotard 1984) Losing the sight of the second principle which sets as a balance to it and presides over our examination that the discernible social bond is composed of language â€Å"moves† should not happen by the influence of the idea of agonistics of language.The core of everything at hand is at the end of the elucidation of this proposition. In the Modes of Discourse: The local structure of texts, book by Carlota Smith, she mentioned about the Discourse Mode which she broadened an argument for the position that there is an appropriately linguistic stage in discourse stated that the earlier unsuccessful linguistic approaches to discourse are over-reaction made by the pragmatic turn.The observation of linguistic regularities in adjacent sentences is made possible by text passages like the successions of at least two sentences which belong to different discourse approaches that are determined by the types if discourse units such as occasions, states, overviews, concepts which are being introduced in the course and the form of progression from one discourse entity to the next which is called simply as the â€Å"semantic progression†. In nature, it can be temporal or a temporal.Narrative, Description, Report, Information and Argument are the five discourse modes Smith recognizes. These modes speak about regular models of linguistic forms in texts to regular understandings t hereof which claimed to be linguistic units. Having an investigation on questions as how linguistic properties of passages can shed light on features made by Smith aside from making an argument for the existence of linguistic discourse modes and elucidating the characteristics of their features which are shared by all discourse modes.Expressions of subjectivity in the sense of point of views and the effects of â€Å"surface presentation† in the sense of commentary and focus-background modulations in discourse are of these features. As what had Lyotard stated, in relation to Smith’s ideology, linguistics is not just mere verbal or nonverbal concepts. It also deals with various considerations and factors. These can be culture, environment, traditions and customs, religion and others.Two people of different races, geographical locations can have a vague interpretation to a certain subject or topic or just to a plain word. Diversity is a major concern but can be arranged o r managed if appropriateness is dealt with. As a language game, rationalism comes with its own rules of engagement—objectivity, certainty, universality, instrumentality and predictability. However, the game is played within various â€Å"forms of life† (Lebensformen) and the latter provide the background and context against and in which the game plays out its sense and reference (Schrag, 1997, p.32).Discourse as a concept is introduced as a theoretical refinement of the concept of paradigm and applied to the sets of knowledge claims of the natural and social sciences. Horizontal differentiation defines particular modes of sociological discourse and vertical differentiation from everyday discourses defines general modes of scientific discourse. Science is the best medium for the concerns on diversity. Scientific names and such others are universally accepted that is why there would never be a problem on confusion, misconceptions and misunderstanding.It is another langua ge that unifies other language speakers used for scholarly studies and to communicate about indefinite species. Lyotard is claiming that the conventional idealistic measures and evaluation of knowledge and genuineness within the restraints are but interior legends, which efforts to disagree with the societal foundation of omnipotence or all-knowing. The postmodern point of view like an amount of other scholarly practices and traditions, announces that all human comprehension and understanding is integrated through a shared cultural leveling, and is a social edifice.

Pablo Neruda’s Use of Nature Essay

The natural world is one that exists outside of all human constructs and limitations, and illuminates a valuable reality in the world. When considering Pablo Neruda’s body of work, a clear thematic focus on nature is visible. Many of his poems reference the natural, untouched world. This is a thematic juxtaposition to the over-structured, artificial nature of human culture. Using nature symbolically within these poems allows for a clear distinction to be drawn between the real and the artificial, and speaks to the flaws that Neruda sees within society. He brings to the reader’s attention the value of instinctual behavior and emotion, as well as the natural qualities of humans, women in particular, and the social constraints by which all people are bound. His disapproval and call for change is apparent. Neruda’s use of natural symbolism within Walking Around and I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair illustrates several separate issues of superficiality versus reality, The poem I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair serves as an excellent demonstration of this divide of the real versus the superficial. Natural imagery is used within this poem to illustrate that the woman in question supersedes the artificial constructs of society. â€Å"Your hands the color of a savage harvest,/ hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails† is an evident example of this natural symbolism. Within this poem the female is portrayed as raw and real, an element of nature, as opposed to a part of the society that humans have created. Neruda uses similes and metaphors to draw this comparison, illustrating her value and power within the world and upon him. Through his stylistic choices, he demonstrates how his attraction, his need for this woman, is not merely superficial and lustful, as she herself is something greater than what society allows. Although throughout the poem the woman’s physical features are illustrated as the attractive elements of her, it is clear that it is not in fact the body to which he is speaking, but to the qualities that supersede shallow lust. Furthermore, Neruda addresses the most complex and visceral elements within the woman, which he finds the most attractive. â€Å"I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body† may at first seem as a line speaking to lust for her body, when this is not the case. Neruda’s utilization of the sunbeam to describe her body makes this evident. He is not addressing her body, or any material aspects,  but in fact addressing the elements of true humanity, that so many people lack, within her. It is clear that he values this true sense of life more than her outward appearance, and it is this yearning for the natural and real that stands as true for all of Neruda’s works. He makes it evident that it is the elements beyond superficial beauty, those that are more than the wants or needs of society, which he truly values and adores. This natural imagery, often used in the context of woman, speaks to Neruda’s overall belief that true emotions are fundamentally more valuable than what society has to offer. He clearly illustrates that although the artificially constructed may be more comfortable, whilst the natural may be more vulgar and unpleasant, the latter is more valuable nevertheless. It is evident throughout his works that he yearns for real emotion and true feeling, as can be seen through several lines in I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair, where he describes himself as â€Å"Silent and starving,/ I prowl through the streets.† The visceral qualities here, as well as the direct comparison of himself to a predatory animal, allow the reader to understand what he perceives as important: the return to natural ways and instincts. Accompanying this is natural emotion, without the veil of social or political acceptance present. His metaphoric hunt for this woman can be paralleled to his search for true emotion and rawness thought within the world. The woman can then be seen as a metaphor for the society that Neruda lived in, within which the natural and instinctual was hidden behind an outward appearance. This importance cast upon true emotion is also emphasized in Walking Around: â€Å"The only thing I want is to lie still like stones or wool.† Neruda speaks to the condition of being a man in society, with many expectations placed upon him, and his discontentment with it. Instead he would prefer to simply exist, in his purest form, like stones, or wool, preferring to be nothing as opposed to living and feeling falsely as society demands. Through this poem Neruda’s frustration with his inability to do this, due to the social constraints that bind, him is apparent. The use of natural comparison allows for a portrayal of the pure and natural things he wants to feel, and that he believes others ought to feel as well. Neruda acknowledges that society is the barrier to these true emotions, and  within the poem Walking Around he discusses the constraints that the human, artificial world imposes upon people by juxtaposing elements of society against the natural world, saying â€Å"And it so happens that I walk into tailor shops and movie houses/ dried up, waterproof, like a swan made of felt†. Neruda draws a stark contrast between the situations within his life that should be moments of comfort, possibly even luxury, and how he feels, dried up, internally dead. He delivers his message through this imagery, illustrating how society has bound him, and how it binds all people living within it. He goes on to say â€Å"I don’t want to go on as a root and a tomb,/alone under the ground, a warehouse with corpses,/ half frozen, dying of grief.† This very powerful image of decay and entrapment within the earth continues to assert his message. Through this stanza Neruda speaks to the internal death and suffocation he experiences being forced to conform, having to act and feel as is expected, while basking in false comforts and enjoying false commodities. His use of natural symbolism illustrated his wish to break free, and feel true freedom. However, he is also willing to acknowledge the firm grasp society has on all existing as a part of it. â€Å"I don’t want to go on being a root in the dark† is a clear acknowledgment of Neruda’s understanding of the system. Although in this case, the natural imagery used does not bear a positive connotation as it does in other places within his work, it is used to demonstrate power and intensity, and a stronghold upon people greater than anything else in their lives. He understands that he is a root, holding up this tree that inevitably traps him and everyone else, although he does continue to hope for an emotional and spiritual freedom, and indicates the small vict ories that he finds within his life. His desire for a real experience â€Å"†¦pushes me into certain corners, into some moist houses, into hospitals where the bones fly out the window,/ into shoe shops that smell like vinegar† These are the places in which Neruda describes freedom, where the grip of society is not as firm and he can truly feel the ugliness and raw nature of the world can be felt. This entire stanza stands to discuss the places in society that are generally deemed as negative, and although he uses words with commonly negative connotation to describe them, the message he is putting across is a positive one. Through the graphic imagery portrayed and the disgust it evokes, Neruda calls out to the reader, to feel more often, and illustrates how these  negative feelings serve as a great positive. He uses this to juxtapose the feelings of contentment so often evoked in society, and the lack of emotion that exists within this. It is within these ugly places that Neruda feels the reality of life comes through and it is these places he deems most valuable. Through his thematic use of nature this is vividly illustrated for the reader and the importance of this freedom and its extreme power is really emphasized throughout his works. Within I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair as well as Walking Around Pablo Neruda uses natural symbolism to illustrate three separate issues of superficiality versus reality, and to discuss what he views as the problem with this superficiality. He brings to light the value of the natural within people, in particular in women; the importance of natural behavior and emotion; as well as the social constraints under which all people exist and should attempt to break away from. The use of nature symbolically does this particularly well due to the drastic juxtaposition that can then be drawn between the constructed, artificial human world and the completely untouched natural, true world. This theme is present not only within these two poems but within Neruda’s entire body of work. It serves as a unifying element for his poetry and as a message of great value for his readers. Works Cited Neruda, Pablo â€Å"I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair† trans. Stephen Tapscott. 27 December 2012. Neruda, Pablo â€Å"Walking Around† trans. Robert Bly. 27 December 2012

Sweet essays

Sweet essays I chose the book Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger because Ive always heard my friend Chanel always saying something about it; like how good it was and how everyone seemed to be asking her if they should read it or not. So, it finally became my turn to ask her. And I decided to ask Chanel because I kept asking Lexie, and I thought it was time for her to take a break from recommending me books. The book is excellent so far, and Im glad Im reading it because this girl is giving this guy some writing tips, similar to the ones Mr. K is teaching us in class. And since we do have 5 writing pieces due this term, its like helping me out with my own writing. And you can never get enough help. But whats even better, is that there are actually pieces from these zing magazines in the book, giving you different types of writing. One I really liked was that there werent really any periods, just once in a while, and it was really caught my attention because you kind of had to guess where the periods went and it would confuse you. It was actually kind of fun! In the book, the guys life is practically falling apart; his moms getting married to some fifty-year old who still lives with his mom, and the guys mom just doesnt seem to want to be with him or even near him. But thats only half of it. Him and his dad dont even talk. And when they do, his father doesnt event think he can handle it, when really hes always been able to handle it. Just imagine, you meaning nothing to your parents except a brat that they have to support, as if you were a mistake. You would feel so alone, so lost, as if you had nothing to live for and you would do anything just to be loved again. You beg that you could have the one special moment again, where you felt that you were part of the family again and you were loved. So I think that the theme is letting it slip. Many kids, especially ...

Back-to-School After Hurricane Katrina

Back-to-School After Hurricane Katrina Contributed by Associate Writer Nicole Harms It has been a year since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. As children around the country are out buying their school supplies, what will the children affected by Katrina be doing? How did Hurricane Katrina affect the schools of New Orleans and the other areas that were affected? As a result of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans alone, 110 out of 126 public schools were completely destroyed. The children who survived the storm were displaced to other states for the rest of the school year. It is estimated that close to 400,000 students from Katrina-ravaged areas had to move in order to attend school. Around the country, school children, churches, PTAs, and other organizations have had school supply drives to help replenish the schools and students who were affected by Katrina. The Federal government has donated a substantial amount of money specifically for the cause of rebuilding post-Katrina schools. After a year, efforts have begun to rebuild in New Orleans and the other surrounding areas, but significant struggles face these schools. First, many of the students who were displaced have not returned, so there are fewer students to teach. The same goes for the staff of these schools. Many people had their homes completely destroyed, and have no intention of returning to the area. There is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, though. On Monday, August 7, eight public schools in New Orleans opened. The city is attempting to transform the traditionally poor public schools in this area as they rebuild. With those eight schools, 4,000 students can now return to class in their hometown. There are forty schools scheduled to open in September, which will provide for 30,000 more students. The school district had 60,000 students before Hurricane Katrina hit. What will school be like for these kids? New buildings and materials may serve to make the schools better than they were before the storm, but no doubt children will be reminded every day of the devastation they just lived through. As they go to school without friends who are no longer in the city due to the effects of the storm, they will always be reminded of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. The schools have had trouble finding enough teachers for the classrooms. Not only were students displaced by the storm, but most of the teachers were evacuated as well. Many of these have chosen not to return, finding jobs elsewhere. The lack of qualified teachers puts the re-opening date for some schools in limbo. Students who have returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina can attend any school they choose, no matter where they are living. This is part of an effort to improve the district. By giving parents the chance to choose schools, officials believe they will force all schools to improve in order to draw post-Katrina students. Teachers and staff of these post-Katrina schools will not only be teaching academics to their students but also dealing with the continuing emotional trauma these students are facing. Nearly all of their students have lost someone they knew and loved as a result of Hurricane Katrina. This creates a unique atmosphere for these teachers. This year for New Orleans schools will be a year of catching up. Students who missed large portions of last years school year will need remedial instruction. All educational records were lost to Katrina, so officials will have to begin new records for every student. While the road ahead for post-Katrina schools is a long one, the officials and staff of the newly opened schools are optimistic. They have made great strides in one years time, and have proven the depth of the human spirit. As children continue to return to New Orleans and the surrounding areas, there will be schools with open doors ready for them!

Business Card Etiquette

Business Card Etiquette: A Must Master Have you ever experienced how mortifying it is when you’re asked for a business card and you don’t have any? Either you forgot to bring one or run out of business cards, this incident is embarrassing both to the asker and to the one being asked for. Habitually forgetting the business cards is the most famous neglect that someone makes when it comes to business card etiquette. In the business world it is important to always remember the business card etiquette as this would speak much of you and the business that you are representing. So, what do we have to be harking backed to when it comes to business card etiquette? First, it is always helpful to have a system to remember to bring a bunch of cool business cards with you every time. Put it in a business portfolio or your purse or desk drawer or a cool business card holder, whichever is applicable and more convenient for you. As one of your most important marketing weapon, a cool business card should always be present in business meetings and basically everywhere. This system would also save you from doing the same mistake that most forgetful entrepreneurs do. The second business card etiquette you should be dredging up on is that it should present creativity. Creative business cards not only state your name, contact numbers, or company logo. The style itself should discourse what kind of service you do or product you provide. You might even want to try cool digital business cards if you’re on the PC or electronic business world. Creative business cards give respect to the card giver and receiver alike. Third thing to consider in business card etiquette is the poise of the card. Cool business cards make the receiver want to keep the card for some reasons like future reference or simply because it is something likable. Either way, cool business cards promote boost in the owner’s individuality. The last and most important thing to ruminate in business card etiquette is the manner on how you present your card. Handing over wrinkled, torn or stained business cards give a reflection on how you see the receiver. This is a big no, especially when you’re dealing with CEOs and managers of companies. Also, it is but proper not to present business cards during personal or emotional correspondence like condolences, get well soons, and even congratulations. So, you can understand that business card etiquette is as much as important as the card itself. Mastering it not only brings potential income to the business but a lasting impression of good reputation as well. Design diaries batch 2 (9-28) 9. China  Travel Depotwww. chinatraveldepot. com Anyone planning to travel along China might want to browse www. chinatraveldepot. com, the official website of the top destination service provider of the country. The site provides information regarding China activities, flights, hotels, tour packages, cars rental, Yangtze cruises, top China tours, prices, and promotions. Basically, what they offer is within- China travel services. But they also provide an option for add- on international travel services by teaming up with Expedia, one of the leading online tour operator in the world. The company also deals with the possibility of customization options and packages to provide the perfect travel destination. China Travel Depot serves over 60 chain stores and outlets located all over China. 10. Extreme Piewww. xtremepie. com It’s up for the hippies to search for the biggest surf, snow, ride, and skate brands online at www. extremepie. com. Nike, Oakley, Nixon, Jansport, Billabong, Converse, Sanuk, Roxy, Havaianas, Element, and Reef are just some of the wide array of brands to choose from. The site features a full assortment of styles that are hip for the current season. Products are categ orized as to usage (by ladies, men, and kids), gift items, and hardware. Extreme Pie offers their customers with a 110% price promise and a good pact of 90 day returns policy(both subject to company’s discretion). The company also gives a deal of free delivery for UK Mainland residents at some point detailed in the terms. 11. Fitness Footwear  www. fitnessfootwear. com If someone is looking for quality footwear, fitnessfootwear. com is a must- visit site for him. Trendy and superior footwear from brands like Adidas, Birkenstock, Reebok,The North face, Under Armor Tactical, New Balance, Havaianas, Merrell, Vivo Barefoot, Fitflop, Hi- Tec, and Saucony are in store at www. fitnessfootwear. com. Another great feature of this site is that it has a shoe size converter for UK, Europe, and USA shoes. Visitors can choose from the variety of Running, Toning, Casual, Outdoor men’s and women’s shoes, insoles, socks, and accessories. To top all that, product updates, promotions, and discounts are given to customers who sign up to the FitnessFootwear. com newsletter. 12. Moonbasawww. moonbasa. us Moonbasa is powered by Mola Group, a China- based company established in 2007, which currently have 800 employees. They specialize in women underwear and clothing but also offer other products such as shoes, handbags, home textile used outdoors and indoors, and Euro- style apparel. They have an elite staff of hunting professionals like Terry Drury, Mark Drury, Jay Gregory, Spook Span, Ronnie â€Å"Cuz† Strickland, Hank Parker, Rick Kreuter, Keith Beam, and more. The company started in the 70’s when the owner, Pete Shepley, experimented with new ideas for bow release aids. From flexible plastic arrow vane to replace the feathers, he trialed to the perfection of his first compound bow. Today, the line of PSE products vastly includes Pro Series Bows, Main Line Bows, Field Ready Bows, Recurve Bows, and a lot more.

Human Geography Thinking Geographically About Global Processes RED Essay

Human Geography Thinking Geographically About Global Processes RED WINE - Essay Example There are different varieties of red wine based on the place of origin and the pattern of consumption of it in different places requires the understanding of the influence by the geographical aspects. The question that needs to be answered with regard to red wine is "What is the significance of the consumption pattern of different varieties red wine all over the world " The different geographical concepts like scale, globalization, landscape, etc can be applied on this topic to get a clear picture of the consumption pattern. Red Wine is said to symbolize class, culture, maturity and refinement. It has a special significance that the different varieties of red wine are related to the place of origin although they don't exactly have the name of the city or town. It is a fact that there is no uniformity in the consumption of red wine. Researching the above question helps to find out the extent of globalization of a given variety of red wine. It also shows the trade relations between countries and how information flows between people during transport of these products. Cultural influences by countries also occur during communication and commuting. The importance with red wine lies in today's world the fact that the consumption level is growing worldwide due to its health benefits and this earns high revenues for the Government through trade (Euro Monitor, 2007). The red wine production and sale in different countries creates interaction in spatial context among people. Production of wine starts from the plantation of vine yards containing grapes. The grapes are cultivated with the variety required being selected and then grown in the particular season. The grapes hence produced are moved to the place where they are fermented for a period of time. From here, the wine is moved for further processing to lessen the acidity content and increase the taste. Finally the bottling and packaging of red wine in different forms is done and is ready for sale. The product is transported to different places by people of different places and culture thereby promoting a flow of information between them Scale of activity: The consumption of red wine is not dependent locally and is based on the availability of farm products, the presence of good season, availability of labor required in fermenting, packaging and transport of products. Space, place and landscape: The more the revenue earned through production and sales of red wine, the more will be the change in demography and landscape of the place of production. Increase in housing and more vine yards will be formed as a result. Terroir refers to the combination of natural factors associated with any particular vineyard. These factors include such things as soil, underlying rock, altitude, slope of hill or terrain, orientation toward the sun, and microclimate (typical rain, winds, humidity, temperature variations, etc.). Also, no two vineyards have the exact same terroir. Vineyards are often on hillsides and on soil of marginal value to other plants. A common saying is that "the worse the soil, the better the wine." Planting on hillsides, especially those facing south, is most often in an attempt to maximize the amount of

Culture and Socialization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Culture and Socialization - Essay Example There is no easy way to break this ice because the elevator ride would be finished in a matter of few seconds therefore a comfortable silence is certainly one of the acceptable ways to handle the situation. At the same time, it seems inappropriate to make other people in the elevator a party to a conversation between two friends therefore it can be observed that the second rule is adhered to as well. More importantly however, the elevator is often a confined space which puts people in close proximity with each other and that is an invasion of private space. However a distance of 2-3 feet can be established in a reasonably sized elevator therefore people would probably try to give each other as much personal space as possible to avoid invading that personal space. Individuals in the same elevator may be aware of each other’s presence but it seems like they are completely ignoring the presence since there is little or no eye contact once a person getting on to the elevator has found a spot for him/herself. Since they are not looking at each other, they follow the fifth rule to look at the top of the door with the floor marker which could also add to the illusion of space within the elevator since there is often no one to block the view to the top of the door. Social norms give us the means and examples of behavior in situations which may not have codified laws for conducting ourselves. Carspecken (1996) uses the example of elevator behavior to show how norms work in western society and suggests that while behavior in close proximity with strangers can be explained in terms of meanings, norms is a better term because it is related to the word normal, i.e. normal expected behavior which is agreed upon by the rest of the social setup in a given location. Carspecken goes on to write that norms are, â€Å"certain modes of acting

Organizing Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizing Paper - Essay Example One of the organizations that have effectively accomplished the organization function is Dell Inc. The management has efficiently and effectively organized the physical assets, the human talent, knowledge, technology and financial resources in order to ensure competitive advantage in the market. The company is headquartered in Texas, United States but has operations across the globe. Dell Inc has utilized the industry’s most efficient organization model. Some core organization elements include just-in-time inventory management, employee training, delegated authority and efficient allocation of capital resources (Williams 7). Physical assets In 2000, Dell established computer assembly factories in Austin, Lebanon, Tennessee, Ireland, China and Malaysia. The company also acquired assembly factories in Brazil in order to extend the manufacturing of the computer products (Holzner 19). In 1998, Dell added about 1,600,000 square feet of office space to the Round Rock complex thus in creasing the demonstration center and visitor’s meeting rooms. Currently, Dell has full functional facilities in US and India that support all business functions such as manufacturing, research and development and customer service. Dell has enough assembly physical facilities in UK, China, India, Brazil, Poland, Malaysia, Philippines, Florida, North Carolina, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire. From 2002, Dell launched kiosk locations in various shopping malls in order to reach out to more potential customers. In 2005, the company expanded the kiosks to Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore (Williams 5). Dell has ensured efficient utilization of all production facilities and production space in its operations. The company leases out excess space in order to ensure maximum utilization of the physical assets. The company is geared at replacing the outdated physical assets such as machinery (Holzner 60). Human resources Dell Inc has more than 109,40 0 employees spread in more than 30 countries in the globe. The employees are expected to serve customers in more than 170 countries. Dell has attained a leadership position as the preferred provider of computer and networking systems due to his talented workforce and excellent customer service. The Chief executive officer and chairman is Michael Dell who has been in the company since 1984. Dell board of directors consists of nine members and the Global Executive management committee is tasked with managing the daily operations and providing strategic direction to the company. Dell Inc has established efficient channels of communication within the organization. The company has effectively delegated authority and responsibility to teams and managing directors who are responsible for different market segments (Williams 6). Dell Company conducts a job analysis that identifies various roles in the organization, the duties performed in the position and skills required. The company through its human resource planning has been able to forecast the skills demand in the organization. Due to its reputation of excellent human resources policies, the company attracts and retained qualified professionals in all functional departments. The company offers sufficient training to its employees in order to enhance the productivity and creativity of employees. Dell employee reward policies

Reading response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 16

Reading response - Essay Example The emotions that one feels as an audience include the following: (1) empathy: (â€Å"I do not want the public smoking of marijuana around my kid -- I do not† (Smith par. 1); (2) affirmation (â€Å"Threatening people who consume marijuana in public with arrest and a 60 day jail sentence will not deter this behavior† (Smith par. 3); and (3) distraught (â€Å"the criminalization of public smoking could perpetuate these same racial and class disparities in marijuana law enforcement† (Smith par. 5). Councilmembers appear ready†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Smith par. 3); (2) â€Å"I want my daughter to grow up into a society†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Smith par. 10); and (3) â€Å"We should discourage people from smoking marijuana in public areas†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Smith par. 10). These statements affirm the convictions of the author and those that he wants to elicit from the readers. Councilmembers appear ready†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Smith par. 3); (2) â€Å"Threatening people who consume marijuana†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Smith par. 3); and (4) â€Å"Thousands of displaced and homeless residents who have no other choice but to survive in public spaces should not be punished more severely for smoking marijuana than their more affluent neighbors† (Smith par. 5). These words are emotionally packed that elicits the intended reaction and response from the target audience. Smith, Grant. "Locking People Up for Public Marijuana Smoking Is Not the Answer." 28 February 2014. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grantsmith/locking-people-up-for-pub_b_4876164.html. 3 March

Argument essay against marxist idea Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argument against marxist idea - Essay Example For example, our environment is degrading at a rapid pace. The quality water in the oceans and rivers, the pollution levels in the air we breathe and the steady destruction of erstwhile pristine ecosystems can all be attributed to lack of private ownership. If only all these resources were privately owned, it is difficult to foresee how they will be allowed to decline as is presently happening. When valuable resources such as these will have private ownership, the owner will ensure that his property is kept in good condition. This fact makes a strong case for promoting private ownership of property and wealth. Let us take the case of prosperity in America. For long, the cherished dream (the so-called American Dream) for every family is to own a comfortable house, decent car and have the money to be able to send children to college. It is fair to claim that hard-working and sincere citizens should be entitled to this basic aspiration. And the institution of private ownership is what ensures that such wishes are fulfilled. To put it in perspective, we only need look at societies that had embraced the communist view of common property and its effectiveness. In the erstwhile communist society of USSR, the standards of living for a large majority of the population were just above levels of sustenance. Moreover, the spirit of individuality was suppressed and in its place a uniform conformist mentality instated in the minds of citizens. This explains why the USSR eventually, but inevitably, collapsed. And a dynamic capitalist economy has taken center stage in Russia presently. The prosperity of countries in Western Europe can also be attributed to their governments’ active encouragement of private ownership of land, business enterprises, consumer goods, etc. In their defense, Marx and Engels would point to the collateral damage that result from capitalism and private

Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Coursework Example Therefore, the best way to use means is with large sample size because when the samples are small and has some scores that are higher than the rest, it will be skewed higher as opposed to other scores. In general, the median refers to the middle score from a list of values. It is the point at which one half of the values are above while the other half is below. The advantage of media is their less sensitivity to extremes. Therefore, they are a better measure of central tendency for use in determining the middle score or salary especially when the sample size is not big. The mode provides the salary or wage that is common, or the amount of salary that appears the most number of times in the set of salaries. The advantage is that is provides a common figure that can be used as the measure of salary payable by the institution. The disadvantage is that it may not reflect any significant statistical value for decision making The mean salary provides the average salary that is payable within a set of salaries. We are able to know the average amount of salary payable. The mean is most appropriate statistical value when making decisions regarding management of salaries. The disadvantage is that the distribution of salaries may not be normal owing to the great differences between the maximum and minimum salaries hence may not provide appropriate decision making model The median is the amount of salary that appears at the middle when the whole set of salaries are arranged from the lowest to the highest. The median only shows the salary that appears at the middle and cannot be used in decision making. Standard deviation measures the deviation of values from the mean, unlike rage that only shows the difference between the maximum and the minimum salary. Therefore, standard deviation is the most appropriate measure to assess how the salaries are distributed because it shows whether the distribution is normal or not. The standard deviation is measure variability

Argument essay against marxist idea Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Argument against marxist idea - Essay Example For example, our environment is degrading at a rapid pace. The quality water in the oceans and rivers, the pollution levels in the air we breathe and the steady destruction of erstwhile pristine ecosystems can all be attributed to lack of private ownership. If only all these resources were privately owned, it is difficult to foresee how they will be allowed to decline as is presently happening. When valuable resources such as these will have private ownership, the owner will ensure that his property is kept in good condition. This fact makes a strong case for promoting private ownership of property and wealth. Let us take the case of prosperity in America. For long, the cherished dream (the so-called American Dream) for every family is to own a comfortable house, decent car and have the money to be able to send children to college. It is fair to claim that hard-working and sincere citizens should be entitled to this basic aspiration. And the institution of private ownership is what ensures that such wishes are fulfilled. To put it in perspective, we only need look at societies that had embraced the communist view of common property and its effectiveness. In the erstwhile communist society of USSR, the standards of living for a large majority of the population were just above levels of sustenance. Moreover, the spirit of individuality was suppressed and in its place a uniform conformist mentality instated in the minds of citizens. This explains why the USSR eventually, but inevitably, collapsed. And a dynamic capitalist economy has taken center stage in Russia presently. The prosperity of countries in Western Europe can also be attributed to their governments’ active encouragement of private ownership of land, business enterprises, consumer goods, etc. In their defense, Marx and Engels would point to the collateral damage that result from capitalism and private

Creon Antigone by Sophocles Essay Example for Free

Creon Antigone by Sophocles Essay In Antigone, written by Sophocles, Creon dominates the play with his powerful yet arrogant personality. Even though Antigone is the name of this play, Creon, the ruling king of Thebes with a no turning back attitude, proves to be the main character. Creon rules over everyone but that does not stop the intelligent Antigone from protecting her brothers dead body. She gets caught in this illegal act by the very dynamic character of Creon. There are endless personality traits to describe Creon, but certain traits that pop out are his strength/power and his stubbornness. Who is the man here, she or I if this crime goes unpunished?(Scene 2, lines 82,83). This quote is a simple example of how stubborn a king with that much pride can act toward his own family. We then learn that no matter how wrong he is in his decisions, he still sticks with what he believes to be the right punishment to Antigone. The other proving quote in Scene 3 (line 26) is when Creon states, Do you want me to show myself before the people? Or to break my sworn word? No, and I will not. Creon slowly starts to realize the right thing to do in his situation but something inside of him prevents him from saving Antigone. It could quite possibly be him knowing his own strength and power compared to everyone else. His strength plays a key role in the problems that occurred. Antigone sees right through this personality trait of his. Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way.(Prologue, line 35) Also,in Scene 1 line 118 Creon says,Theres nothing in this world that is more demoralizing than money. Creon really means it when he says this. He thinks that everything in the world has a price. His strength can be translated as a waste cause he doesnt use his powers for the better of the city of Thebes. His power completely forces him to believe that no one is above him. That is where the conflict began for Antigone and Polyneices. There was not much motivation for his actions besides his pride, which is apparently the cause of all their troubles. If Creon would have realized early on that the right thing to do is more important then power and pride, Antigone would not have of been dead. In Scene 2, (line 75,76) Choragus is right on when he says, Like father, like daughter both headstrong, deaf to  reason. Creon believes that his word over all should be the final say. But when Antigone, a female at that, defies him, he flips out and sentences her to rot in a prison cell. In his mind, he was rational with the choices he made. When it comes down to it, Creon was just trying to represent the position of the king. Unfortunately, his greed overcame his responsibility of the throne. His power against everyone else in Thebes proved to be significant when he sentenced Antigone. After the events that happened, he was still so stubborn to turn back. At the very end of this play, Creon finally realized his wrong doings and he said, I was the fool, not you. And you died for me.(Scene 5, line 92) Both his stubbornness and his power broke down and we saw the real Creon. Characters like this in Greek literature are important because the form the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. Without the Creons in plays, there would not be any tragedy or any thing to resolve at the end.

Solution of a System of Linear Equations for INTELx64

Solution of a System of Linear Equations for INTELx64 A multi core hyper-threaded solution of a system of linear equations for INTELx64 architecture Richa Singhal ABSTRACT. A system of linear equations forms a very fundamental principal of linear algebra with very wide spread applications involving fields such as physics, chemistry and even electronics. With systems growing in complexity and demand of ever increasing precision for results it becomes the need of the hour to have methodologies which can solve a large system of such equations to accuracy with fastest performance. On the other hand as frequency scaling is becoming limiting factor to achieve performance improvement of processors modern architectures are deploying multi core approach with features like hyper threading to meet performance requirements. The paper targets solving a system of linear equations for a multi core INTELx64 architecture with hyper threading using standard LU decomposition methodology. This paper also presents a Forward seek LU decomposition approach which gives better performance by effectively utilizing L1 cache of each processor in the multi core architectu re. The sample uses as input a matrix of 40004000 double precision floating point representation of the system. 1. INTRODUCTION A system of linear equations is a collection of linear equations of same variable. A system of linear equations forms a very fundamental principal of linear algebra with very wide spread applications involving fields such as physics, chemistry and even electronics. With systems growing in complexity and demand of ever increasing precision for results it becomes the need of the hour to have methodologies which can solve a large system of such equations to accuracy with fastest performance. On the other hand as frequency scaling is becoming limiting factor to achieve performance improvement. With increasing clock frequency the power consumption goes up P = C x V2 x F P is power consumption V is voltage F is frequency It was because of this factor only that INTEL had to cancel its Tejas and Jayhawk processors. A newer approach is to deploy multiple cores which are capable to parallel process mutually exclusive tasks of a job to achieve the requisite performance improvement. Hyper threading is another method which makes a single core appears as two by using some additional registers. Having said that it requires that traditional algorithms which are sequential in nature to be reworked and factorized so that they can efficiently utilize the processing power offered by these architectures. This paper aims to provide an implementation for standard LU decomposition method used to solve system of linear equations adopting a forward seek methodology to efficiently solve a system of double precision system of linear equations with 4000 variable set. The proposed solution addresses all aspects of problem solving starting from file I/O to read the input system of equations to actually solving the system to generate required output using multi core techniques. The solution assumes that the input problem has one and only one unique solution possible. 2. CHALLENGES The primary challenge is to rework the sequential LU decomposition method so that the revised framework can be decomposed into a set of independent problems which can be solved independently as far as possible. Then use this LU decomposition output and apply standard techniques of forward and backward substitution each again using multi core techniques to reach the final output. Another challenge associated is cache management. Since a set of 4000 floating point variable will take a memory approximately 32KB of memory and there will 4000 different equations put up together, hence efficiently managing all data in cache becomes a challenge. A forward seek methodology was used in LU decomposition which tries to keep the relevant data at L1 cache before it is required to be processed. It also tries to maximise operations on set of data once it is in cache so that cache misses are minimum. 3. IMPACT With a 40 core INTEXx64 machine with hyper threading the proposed method could achieve an acceleration of ~72X in performance as compared to a standard sequential implementation. 4. STATE OF THE ART The proposed solution uses state of the art programming techniques available for multithreaded architecture. It also uses INTEX ADVANCED VECTOR SET (AVX) intrinsic instruction set to achieve maximum hyper threading. Native POSIX threads were used for the purpose. Efficient disk IO was made possible by mapping input vector file to RAM directly using mmap. 5. PROPOSED SOLUTION A system of linear equations representing CURRENT / VOLTAGE relationship for a set of resistances is defined as [R][I] = [V] Steps to solve this can be illustrated as Decompose [R] into [L] and [U] Solve [L][Z] = [V] for [Z] Solve [U][I] = [Z] for [I] Resistance matrix is modelled as an array 40004000 of double precision floating type elements. The memory address being 16 byte aligned so that RAM access speeds up for read and write operations. FLOAT RES[MATRIX_SIZE*MATRIX_SIZE] __attribute__((aligned(0x1000))); Voltage matrix is modelled as an array 40001 of double precision floating type elements. The memory address being 16 byte aligned so that RAM access speeds up for read and write operations. FLOAT V [MATRIX_SIZE] _attribute__ ((aligned(0x1000))); LU Decomposition To solve the basic model of parallel LU decomposition as suggested above was adopted. Here as we move along the diagonal of the main matrix we calculate the factor values for Lower triangular matrix. Simultaneously each row operation updates elements for upper triangular matrix. Basic routine to do row operation This routine is the innermost level routine which updates the rows which will eventually determine the upper triangular matrix. For each element of row there is one subtraction and one multiplication operation (highlighted). LOOP B designates row major operation, while LOOP A designates column major operation. Basic Algorithm SUB LUDECOM (A, N) DO K = 1, n – 1 DO I = K+1, N Ai, k = Ai, k / Ak, j DO j = K + 1, N Ai, j = Ai, j Ai, k * Ak, j END DO END DO END DO END LUDECOM Each row major operation (LOOP B) iteration can be independently executed on a separate core. This was achieved by using POSIX threads which were non-blocking in nature. Because of mutual exclusion over the set of data MUTEX locks are not required provided we keep the column major operation (LOOP A) sequential. Also for 2 consecutive elements in one row operation 2 subtraction and 2 multiplication operations are done. These 2 operations each are done in single step using Single Instruction Multiple Data instructions (Hyper threading) Multi core Algorithm SUB LUDECOM_BLOCK (A, K, BLOCK_START, BLOCK_END) DO I = BLOCK_START, BLOCK_END Ai, K = Ai, K / AK, K DO j = K + 1, N Ai, j = Ai, j Ai, K * Ak, K END DO END DO END LUDECOM_BLOCK SUB LUDECOM (A, N) DO K = 1, N – 1 BLOCK_SIZE = (N – K) / MAX_THREADS Thread = 0 WHILE (Thread P_THREAD ( LUDECOMPOSITION_BLOCK (A, K, Thread*BLOCK_SIZE, Thread*(BLOCK_SIZE + 1) ) ENDWHILE END DO END LUDECOM Forward substitution Once LU decomposition is done, forward substitution gives matrix [Z]. Here again Single Instruction Multiple Data instructions are used [L][Z] = [V] for [Z] Backward substitution After forward substitution final step of backward substitution gives current matrix [I] [U][I] = [Z] for [I] Here again Single Instruction Multiple Data instructions are used 5. CACHE IMPROVEMENTS On profiling it is observed that the core processing in above solution happens to be LU decomposition. However if we create threads equal in number to available cores the result was improving but not in same proportion to the number of cores. A VALGRIND analysis of cache performance reveals that because of large size of matrix each row operation was suffering a performance hit due to cache misses happening. If we observe above solution it could be observed any jth is processed for (j – 1) columns. So (j – 1) threads are forked for each iteration of column major operation (LOOP A). The data to be processed refers to same memory location but by the time next operation or thread is forked for the same row the corresponding memory data had been pushed out of lower level caches. Thus cache miss happens. To solve this we adopted a forward seek approach wherein we first pre-process a set of columns sequentially thus enabling more operations on a row to be performed in the same thread. Now the data happens to be at lower level cache as we do not have to wait for another thread to process the same row. Multi core Algorithm with forward seek operation SUB LUDECOM_BLOCK_SEEK (A, K, S, BLOCK_START, BLOCK_END) DO I = BLOCK_START, BLOCK_END DO U = 1, S M = K + U -1 Ai, M = Ai, M / AM, j DO j = K + M + 1, N Ai, j = Ai, j Ai, M * AK, M END DO END DO END DO END LUDECOM_BLOCK SUB LUDECOM (A, N) K = 1 WHILE (K //Forward seek DO J = K, K + F_SEEK LU_DECOM_BLOCK_SEEK (A, J, 0, J, J+F_SEEK) END DO //Multi core K = K + F_SEEK DO L = 1, N – 1 BLOCK_SIZE = (N – L) / MAX_THREADS Thread = 0 WHILE (Thread P_THREAD ( LUDECOMPOSITION_BLOCK (A, L, F_SEEK, Thread*BLOCK_SIZE, Thread*(BLOCK_SIZE + 1) ) ENDWHILE END DO END WHILE END LUDECOM CONCLUSION Results For purpose of computation a sample array of double precision floating point matrix of size 40004000 was taken. Performance numbers were generated on an 8 core INTEL architecture machine. TABLE 4.i A programmer that writes implicitly parallel code does not need to worry about task division or process communication, focusing instead in the problem that his or her program is intended to solve. Implicit parallelism generally facilitates the design of parallel programs and therefore results in a substantial improvement of programmer productivity. Many of the constructs necessary to support this also add simplicity or clarity even in the absence of actual parallelism. The example above, of List comprehension in the sin() function, is a useful feature in of itself. By using implicit parallelism, languages effectively have to provide such useful constructs to users simply to support required functionality (a language without a decent for loop, for example, is one few programmers will use). Languages with implicit parallelism reduce the control that the programmer has over the parallel execution of the program, resulting sometimes in less-than-optimal solution The makers of the Oz programming language also note that their early experiments with implicit parallelism showed that implicit parallelism made debugging difficult and object models unnecessarily awkward.[2] A larger issue is that every program has some parallel and some serial logic. Binary I/O, for example, requires support for such serial operations as Write() and Seek(). If implicit parallelism is desired, this creates a new requirement for constructs and keywords to support code that cannot be threaded or distributed. REFERENCES Gottlieb, Allan; Almasi, George S. (1989).Highly parallel computing. Redwood City, Calif.: Benjamin/Cummings.ISBN0-8053-0177-1. S.V. Adve et al. (November 2008).Parallel Computing Research at Illinois: The UPCRC Agenda(PDF). [emailprotected], University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The main techniques for these performance benefits– increased clock frequency and smarter but increasingly complex architectures– are now hitting the so-called power wall. The computer industry has accepted that future performance increases must largely come from increasing the number of processors (or cores) on a die, rather than making a single core go faster. Asanovic et al. Old [conventional wisdom]: Power is free, but transistors are expensive. New [conventional wisdom] is [that] power is expensive, but transistors are free Bunch, James R.;Hopcroft, John(1974), Triangular factorization and inversion by fast matrix multiplication,Mathematics of Computation28: 231–236,doi:10.2307/2005828,ISSN0025-5718. Cormen, Thomas H.;Leiserson, Charles E.;Rivest, Ronald L.;Stein, Clifford(2001),Introduction to Algorithms, MIT Press and McGraw-Hill,ISBN978-0-262-03293-3. Golub, Gene H.;Van Loan, Charles F.(1996),Matrix Computations(3rd ed.), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins,ISBN978-0-8018-5414-9.

American Intervention in Cuba and Puerto Rico Essay -- American Histor

End notes are missing from the paper. To Secretary of State John Hay, the Spanish-American War was a "splendid little war", one that would bring tremendous benefit to those fortunate colonies liberated from Spain. For those places where the Spanish were forcibly expelled, there was nothing splendid about either about the war or its aftermath. To state simply that war is hell and that change is disruptive is merely to state the obvious. Beyond this, many U.S. historians have characterized the results of U.S. intervention and subsequent occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines as a bequest, an opportunity to enjoy previously unknown individual liberties, political self-determination and potential economic prosperity. Other historians have characterized the actions of the United States as nothing short of exploitative imperialism, designed to subjugate those who it considered inferior to a state of political and economic servitude. What is clear is that, in Cuba and Puerto Rico, many viewed the American involvement initially as a positive development. What is equally apparent is that after the war and over time, these pro-American attitudes soured considerably. There were many reasons for this development. Leaving the economic, sociological, and psychological examinations of this large issue to other more ambitious endeavors, this paper aims to explore the way in which the intervention and occupation disrupted and complicated the normal political construction of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Also, in an effort to avoid the larger historiographical debate, political developments will be presented simply in response to conditions. The premise of this paper is that, intentionally or otherwise, the U.S. intervention and subseque... ...s E., Cuba 1933†¦Prologue to Revolution. 1972 Cornell University Press, N.Y. Carrion, Arturo Morales, Puerto Rico, A Political and Cultural History., 1983 WW Norton, N.Y., N.Y. Foner, Philip S., The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism, Volume 2, (1898-1902), 1972 Monthly Review Press, N.Y., N.Y. Knight, Franklin W., The Caribbean, The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism. 1990 Oxford University Press, N.Y., N.Y. Maldonado-Denis, Manuel, Puerto Rico: A Socio-Historic Interpretation. 1972 Random House, N.Y., N.Y. Perez, Louis A., Cuba Under The Platt Amendment, 1902-1934. 1986 University of Pittsburgh Press, Pa. Suchlicki, Jamie, "The Political Ideology of Jose Marti" from: Beckles, Hilary and Verene Shepherd, Caribbean Freedom: Economy and Society from Emancipation to the Present. 1996 Marcus Wiener, Princeton, N.J.

Affirmative Action :: Affirmative Action Essays

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"under representationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ of any racial group, it was decided, was evidence of discriminationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(Guernsey). Affirmative action did not start out as a reverse discrimination towards white males, but it was meant to help everybody, but failed nearly completely after a time of which it was affected. The original concept of affirmative action excluded any mention of preference. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Launched during the late 1960s by the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, affirmative action programs call for guidelines and goals in the hiring of racial and ethnic minorities, the handicapped, and women. They have been effective in promoting change in hiring practices because they have the weight of the federal government behind them. As a direct result, a broader range of opportunities have become available for blacks in government, the corporate world, and colleges and universities. In the beginning, the 1960à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ s, when President Johnson used the affirmative action policy it was necessary and effective. At that time there was racial discrimination towards people of all black races in the United States of America, so it was a necessity to have such a law to create equal opportunity, but this was also created to have a racially and gender blind solution. This has turned into a racially unequal program that now has a negative effect on society. Affirmative due to quotas and favoritism towards minorities have a negative effect on society and have created a reverse discrimination. Many years ago there was a mistreatment of blacks and other minorities. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“During much of American history, it was generally accepted by white people that blacks were not the same kind of human beings as whites and that slavery was the proper role for black people(Guernsey). People were not permitted to attend certain schools due to their à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“color.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? There were separate eating facilities, bathrooms, parks, and drinking fountains for them as well. The first legal sign that the mistreatment of blacks was finally realized when in 1954 the Brown v. Board of Education overturned the Plessey v. Ferguson case. In 1964 there was there was the Civil Rights equal protection laws passed to make discrimination illegal were the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title II and VII of which forbid racial discrimination in "public accommodations" and race and sex discrimination in employment, respectively; and the 1965 Voting Rights Act adopted after Congress fo und "that racial discrimination in voting was an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of the country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution.