Museum and media studies at wildwalk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Museum and media studies at wildwalk - Essay Example The strings that hold us all together are many - and more than that, they are common threads that date back to centuries and generations long gone. I would like to assert that there is a great deal of importance attached to the study and preserving of our history and roots.While the subjects are vast, the elements of such studies form a large platform for determining the socio cultural and geographical implications of recorded history and work in the same context. In this regard, museums are more than just buildings that house pieces for children to enjoy on a field trip. This thought was accentuated during a recent visit I paid to the Wildwalk based in the centre of Bristol. As far as the conception of museums and their aims go, they work to reproduce ideologies in order to lend credibility and authenticity to the existing order of things. Also, museums have been seen as instruments of social reform, which shows a variety of pattern. The first is that the objects in museums can exceed their designated roles as documents or specimens by revolving around the strategic placement to make them give out a certain message in terms of sounds and images. This conforms to the notion of the Wildwalk adopting a certain standard of media culture. The primary role here is to correlate people and material things, so that the museum becomes an important site for the development of new forms of experience, memory and knowledge. In this case, it has adopted an approach that is an amalgamation of the naturalism and simulation theories. In case of naturalism, it has been found that the heritage industry gained a boost when Thatcher's time saw the commemoration of Britain's past when its industrial sector faced a decline in the 1970s. In order to keep the tourist inflow steady, there was a new interpretation of the past heritage and glory in terms of commoditization of a museum and its objects which have helped remove conflict within communities that have lost out on this heritage. (Bird et al, 1993) So far media culture was represented only in fields like film, music and television. But during the latter half of the twentieth century, this concept began to make its foray into various aspects that adhered to the public sphere. Museums now place special emphasis on the conept of media culture owing to the fact that it provides a strong conetxt for the study and presentation of facts pertaining to various material and socil behaviour. In this way, media in museum studies provides an impetus to link cultures and origins. This a point of interest for scholars and visitors alike owing to the fact that the use of media for learning and experiencing something new has been proven as an effective tool. (Piror, 2006) This demonstrates the fact that museums can be theorized as a form of media. To take the case of both historical and contemporary examples, one would have to admit that these examples are clear in international instances as well. Take for example, the play of curiosity and the related use of media to satisfy the same through the avant-garde exhibition design of Lissitzy and Bayer. Also, the use of media has seen the age of experimental museums that have been ushered in by the likes of Paul Otlet and Otto Neurath. Further, science centres hold their own in terms of immersive and virtual museums with major developments such as Guggenheim Bilbao, Tate Modern in London and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. (Piror, 2006) Based in nuances of iconography, the media aspect of Wildwalk is replete in the fact that it is a rainforest crammed with all kinds of live animals, plants and multimedia exhibits, which are waiting to be experienced. We use the word experience because here, one is in close contact with the nuances of the the awe inspiring diversity of the natural world in its spelndor. With an impetus to place facts and information in one's knowledge base through the use of creativity in media

International trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

International trade - Essay Example claim for the insured amount in correspondence to the losses incurred by Emma, the eventual happenings indicate that Abbe Insurers, the insurance company, have denied Emma for the payable because she has only paid 70 percentage of the total purchase amount. Subsequently, this discussion will focus on unfolding all the legal aspects regarding the terms mentioned within the Institute Cargo Clauses (A) 2009 and determining whether Emma will be liable for the insurance amount. The applicable laws in the aforesaid case scenario can be identified as the claiming policies mentioned within the Institute Cargo Clauses (A) 2009. This law was enacted as an international trade law with the prime intention of safeguarding the interests of both the insurance agencies as well as the buyers of the goods (Richards Hogg Lindley, 2009; Chuah, 2009). With reference to the referred case scenario, it is noteworthy that Institute Cargo Clauses (A) 2009 comprises of multiple sections based on the evaluation of which, the claimed amount can be ruled as deliverable or otherwise by the court. For instance, the guidelines concerning this law state that the insurance companies will have to provide a full coverage to any form of damage to the purchased or the transported goods, only if the damage conditions and the factors does not fall under the clauses 4, 5 6 and 7 (Hodges, 2013). Thus, it can be stated that if the reasons related to Emma’s loss does not coincide with the se four mentioned clauses, she will be liable for the insurance amount from Abbe Insurers. The detailed explanations of these clauses have been provided in the later sections (Richards Hogg Lindley, 2009). The mentioned terms within section 4.1 states that the insurance company will not be liable to pay the insured amount for any loss or damage to the goods that have been insured if the damage appears to have been incurred intentionally. In simple words, based on the enquiry that will be conducted by the Abbe Insurers,

Nursing ethical dilemma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing ethical dilemma - Essay Example Such scenarios make it necessary to study the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses to avoiding getting in trouble. Nurses ought to have moral concepts that would ensure that they provide care that is correct, rational and good. Nurses are obliged to give their patients the chance to express their feeling and choose the way they want nurses to serve them. Decision-making and science are the rationales under which ethical nursing care is based on. The essay focuses on two moral dilemmas that are common with practicing nurses in their daily activities. The essay relates the two ethical dilemmas faced by nurses to a particular moral principle that nurses should possess. Nurses are guided by a set code of ethics, which are meant to guide nurses on their actions and help to help solve moral dilemmas. The second part of the essay after the introduction part deals with the first ethical dilemma and the moral principle that relates to the dilemma. The third part of the essay tackles the second dilemma and just like the second part, the section also discusses the ethical principle under which the dilemma falls under. Conclusion is the final part of the paper, and this is where the major points in the essay are put in a clearer perspective. Nurses have reported cases of having to deal with patients who exercise their rights to say no to any directives given to them by nurses. Patients with Anorexia, an eating disorder that is becoming common refuse to take food given to them by nurses as the condition makes an individual detest eating. Patients suffering from the disease fail to eat any food provided to them by nurses and in the process, their body starts consuming itself damaging the patients health. Such an issue raises questions such as how nurses deal with patients who refuse to eat even if eating is imperative for them getting better. Another question on nurses’ mind is the motive behind such a patient’s decision of not

Theme Park in China Essay Example for Free

Theme Park in China Essay Introduction There are a number of theme parks in China. Some of them are well designed and managed. Some are fairylands for the children, which have great fun playing in the fairy tale castles and the animal kingdoms with cartoon characters; The youngsters would like to experience the thrilled and exciting amusement ride. Meanwhile, the elderly like to take pleasure in the folk custom. However, though the market is believed to be big and potential, about 70% of the China’s 2500 amusement parks are losing money. Whom and why will run non-profitable business? Unlike residential developments, the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government to cool the hot property market do not apply to projects categorized as cultural or entertainment purposes. The loophole allows developers to buy land from the government often at a relatively low price to build a theme park and then erect adjoining apartments and hotels. To plug the loophole, Beijing authorities banned the construction of new theme parks over a certain size in August 2011. This measurement canceled many projects in the capital but not deterred most developers from continuing with their amusement park development plans. Actually, many investors do not concern on losing money when operating theme parks, since the sales of tickets and food make up only a very small percentage of their profits, a China Daily reports said. Furthermore, parks require a lot of funding and have high operating costs, so it can take a longer period of times for investors to regain their money. According to China Daily, many theme parks built in the early 2000s have been bankrupted, with the properties failing to sell at dozens of auctions over the past seven years. Amusement Park Industry Trend. Focusing on the theme park business, according to Chris Yoshii, an analyst for AECOM, told USA Today recently that almost a third of Chinas 2,500-plus theme parks have opened within the past two years, with the total number expected to surpass that of the U. S. by 2020. During the five years through 2012, the Amusement Park industry experienced rapid development, growing 14. 4% per year on average to an estimated $2. 3 billion in 2012. Chinas economy developed rapidly over this period, and household disposable income levels improved dramatically. As a result, the number of people paying for leisure activities increased significantly, resulting in strong visitor growth for this industry. The top four operators in China account for about 13. 6% of total revenue in 2012, and this share is expected to increase, as visitor numbers and gate receipts for the industrys largest amusement parks increase steadily. According to AECOM, a Hong Kong tourism consulting firm, theme parks in Asia sold a combined 103. 3 million tickets last year, one-third of the total in the world and second only to those sold in North America (127 million). Also, fewer new players will enter the industry due to its high and increasing barriers to entry. As a result, analysts are optimistic in this industry. It is forecasted that in the next five years, industry revenue is forecast to increase at an average annualized rate of 16. 7%. The increasing popularity of amusement parks was another industry driver. Since World Carnival entered the Chinese market in 2004, visiting amusement parks has become a popular way to spend time. The number of international visitors also rose significantly over the past five years, as Chinas popularity as a tourist destination has improved. According to 5u588. com, a Chinese tourism-industry information website, 70 tourism real estate projects have already been signed this year, with a total investment of 260 billion Yuan. That figure is expected to surpass 1 trillion Yuan by December 2012. Current Outstanding Theme Parks According to China Highlights website, there are top 7 theme parks in China. Here are the list and its brief notes: 1. Hong Kong Disneyland Park It is the newest Disneyland in the world at present, and one of two large theme parks in Hong Kong. There are four theme areas in the Hong Kong Disneyland Park: the Main Street, U. S. A. Adventure World, Fantastic World, and Tomorrow World. 2. Shenzhen Happy Valley There are nine theme sections in Shenzhen Happy Valley, including Spanish Plaza, Cartoon City, Adventure Mountain, Happy Time, Gold Mine Town, Shangri-la Forest, Hurricane Bay, Sunshine Coast, and Maya Water Park. Equipment and fun are unique in China and even in Asia, imported from the USA, Holland, and Germany, attracting numerous tourists to Shenzhen every year. 3. Beijing Happy Valley At present, Beijing Happy Valley occupies about 540,000 square meters. It offers a great opportunity to experience an ecological environment in Fiord Forest, the Mayan disaster in Lost Maya, a crystal city in Atlantis, ancient Greek myths in Aegean Harbor, a dream life in Shangri-La, and environmental protection consciousness in Ant Kingdom. 4. Shenzhen Window of the World Reproductions of the most famous of the worlds greatest wonders, historical heritage, and other interesting places there. At night, there are also many spectacular folk song and dance performances. 5. Cinemlong Happy World The vertical roller coaster there is the worlds best roller coaster. And the ten-looped roller coaster had gained a Guinness World Record. There are five theme sections in the park: the Habi Kingdom, the Screaming Zone, the Rainbow Bay, the Water Paradise, and a central square for shows. 6. Splendid China The 82 attractions have been reduced on a scale of 1:15 and located according to where they are in China. Splendid China is just like a giant map of China. These attractions can be divided into three categories: ancient architecture, landscapes, and folk culture. 7. China Folk Culture Village There are 25 ethnic villages set up on a scale of 1:1. It veritably shows local customs and folklore in China with ethnic performances, crafts shows, and regular large ethnic festivals, including: the Water Splashing Festival, the Shaman Festival, the Torch Festival, the Huaxia Great Cultural Temple Fair, and the Inner Mongolia Grassland Cultural Festival. Apart from Hong Kong Disneyland, all the above theme parks are managed by local Chinese. Another interesting finding is that five of them are located in Southern China. It is suggested that the weather and government authority did affect the location of an amusement park. Since the sub-tropical forest weather is good for amusement parks to raise up animals and could make visitors feel comfortable in winter times. Also, comparing to Beijing and Shanghai, Guangdong Province may not have as many as traditional site seeing spots for international visitors. Therefore, the government is generally accepted theme parks and believes it can boost the tourism. Forthcoming and Promising Players As we all know, Disneyland theme park will start its business in Shanghai 2015, with US3. 7bn investment. Furthermore, there are a number of theme park projects are being widely speculated. Firstly, news from BBC in August 2012, Dreamworks, the Hollywood studio production of Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar, plans to invest US3bn to build â€Å"The Dream Center† in Shanghai in 2016. The main theme is about global cultural centre and the attraction point is the world’s largest Imax screen. Secondly, on the roof of the world, the Tibetan capital Lhasa is building its first theme park, to be opened in June 2013. This amusement parks core culture will be Oriental, ie. from the popular Chinese hero Monkey King to dinosaurs, to Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan. They believe it could help recoup their $472 million investment within six years, says Ding, an executive at Yu Gui Garden investment group. Local Fight Back Company owning â€Å"Happy Valley† theme parks is optimistic on strong and foreign amusement parks component in China. Believed this could cultivate a much bigger market in China. Similar to Japan, the Disney resort promoted the development of other local parks. Another example is the United States: before Disney set up its resorts, the country had only three parks that boasted more than one million visitors per year. After Disneyland opened, the number of overall visitors in the country quickly surged to more than 10 million annually. The same situation happened several years later in Hong Kong. When Walt Disney launched its third overseas theme park in the city in 2006, other amusement parks in Hong Kong, such as Ocean Park and the adjacent Shenzhen Happy Valley, all witnessed a rapid increase in annual revenue and number of visitors. Investment of 25 billion yuan is reportedly being put into the Shanghai Disney project, in comparison with the 2 billion yuan that invested in Shanghai Happy Valley in the first phase of construction work. The company has invested more than 16 billion yuan over the past 25 years to build theme parks. It has finished the first round of strategic theme park construction in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, and has started the second round of park development in cities including Wuhan and Tianjin. It has received 164 million visitors to its theme parks, and has earned a total of 17 billion yuan so far. The company said they invest at least 30 million yuan in every theme park to develop new recreation projects every year. Expected the number of visitors to Happy Valley theme parks to surpass 20 million this year, with a growing trend to 30 million a year by 2020. China has a huge market for theme park operators. According to Wu Wenxue, vice-chairman of the China Tourism Association, over the next five years, the market demand for theme parks may surpass 10 billion yuan a year. Conclusion From my personal viewpoint, theme parks in China will be generally developed into two different main streams. Firstly, it is foreign and famous owned amusement parks, like Disneyland, World Carnival and Dreamworks†¦ etc. The second stream will be full of Chinese and Oriental cultures, which may aim to attract international visitors. Both streams are believed to be growing and promising. However, the key concern is safety. Since there are some fatal accident happened in local amusement parks every year, people may lose confidence in all amusement parks in China. The government body should put the focus on the quality issues ranging from equipment to food safety in the parks. Only quality assurance could allow the industry to develop continuously. References http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/2010-11/22/content_11587814. htm http://usatoday30. usatoday. com/news/world/story/2012-06-26/china-disney-theme-parks/56019074/1 http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/2012-05/22/content_15354029. htm http://www. china. org. cn/travel/2010-03/08/content_19554338. htm http://www. worldpropertychannel. com/asia-pacific-vacation-news/china-theme-parks-china-association-of-amusement-parks-walt-disney-china-shanghai-amusement-parks-walt-disney-shanghai-shanghai-disney-resort-yu-gui-garden-investment-group-6013. php http://www. chinahighlights. com/travelguide/amusement-parks/ http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-19162780.

Quenn Elizabeth I Essay Example for Free

Quenn Elizabeth I Essay During her time as the queen of England, Elizabeth Tudor had to make many decisions on matters both political and personal, such as new religious policies, whether she would marry, whom she would name her heir and also how much power and privilege to delegate to her parliament. The House of Commons and the House of Lords made up Elizabeth’s parliament; the Commons consisted of citizens elected by their constituency, and in the Lords there were around 100 hereditary peers and bishops. At the time, the reigning monarch got a lot more input as to what laws could be passed, and so when decisions had to be made Elizabeth was often very involved in the process. However, this occasionally led to disputes between her and her parliament, as they did not always agree on every matter. Overall, most of the disputes between the queen and her parliament were easily solved – mostly, when such an issue occurred, the queen exercised her prerogative powers to overrule the parliament, and through various methods such as banning topics of discussion, arresting any opposition and occasionally using her power of veto, she prevented any major parliamentary disagreements throughout her reign. In reality, she exercised her power of veto only a few times, and this shows that for the most part she managed to get her parliament to cooperate with her during her reign. When Elizabeth first came to the throne in 1558 she was faced with the difficult task of establishing a new common religion in a country fraught with religious tensions. The first parliament called under Elizabeth convened on 25th January 1559, and its chief business was forming the new religious settlement. The general hatred of the burning of heretics under Mary, the rapid return of exiled Protestants to England, and Elizabeth’s known Protestant sympathies were all factors that led to a distinctly Protestant House of Commons. The Reformation Bill that was drafted by the Commons was recognisably biased against Catholicism; it defined the Communion in terms of Protestant theology (disagreeing with the transubstantiation of the Catholic mass), ordered that ministers should not wear vestments, banned images from churches and included abuse of the Pope in the litany. Naturally, this was met with much resistance in the House of Lords, as there were many Marian Catholic bishops who opposed the anti-Catholic ideas. The Lords reworked much of the Bill, bringing back allowances for the belief in transubstantiation, the wearing of vestments and also refusing to give Elizabeth the title of Supreme Head of the Church. Elizabeth managed to move past the issues between the Commons and the Lords, opting to let the Catholic Lords keep many of their amendments in the Bill. Although she was known to be Protestant, she felt less strongly than many of the members in the Commons that Catholicism should be dealt with harshly. The historian Sir John Neale believes that a so-called ‘Puritan Choir’ worked to make the reforms more radically Protestant, but MPs forced Elizabeth to accept a more radical religious settlement than she wanted. However this is generally disputed nowadays; the queen’s priority was finding a compromise between the two factions and establishing a stable religion in her country. She knew she would have to compromise with the Catholic bishops and take some of their demands into account in order to avoid angering the Catholics throughout the country. However, despite her lenience towards Catholicism in the Bill, she went on to replace many of the Catholic bishops in the House of Lords, showing them that although she let them amend the settlement, she had the ultimate power and could use it to overcome any opposition. The next time Elizabeth called parliament to session, several Privy councillors and bishops (led by Thomas Norton) tried to bring about further reforms in the Church. However, these attempts failed when Elizabeth effectively banned the topic of religion; she never allowed parliament to interfere with her ecclesiastical privileges. In 1571, William Strickland called for Elizabeth to make amendments to the Prayer Book – she had him arrested, showing once and for all that decisions regarding religion were her responsibility and nobody else’s. Therefore, Elizabeth effectively made sure that parliament would cooperate with her over matters of religion. She made allowances during the first session of 1559 since drawing up a new Bill required input from both Protestant and Catholics in order to create a religion that would satisfy most of England. However, once this was established, Elizabeth used her powers to ensure that there were no further issues regarding religion; she did so effectively, and despite a few small problems such as Strickland’s arrest in 1571, the parliament understood that she did not want religion discussed, and for the most part they did cooperate with her desires on this matter. Another issue that challenged the parliament’s ability to cooperate with Elizabeth was t hat of marriage and succession. In the parliaments of 1563 and 1566, the parliament urged the queen to marry, and later on in the sessions of 1572 and 1586 the queen was pressed to name a successor. In 1562, Elizabeth almost died after a bout of smallpox, being unmarried and childless, this made her subjects worry about the situation they would be left in if she did not survive; facing a potential war over who would succeed to the throne. Not long after, in the parliamentary session of 1563, the Commons drew up an official petition, asking Elizabeth to choose a suitor to marry and name a successor her response was to tell them it was none of their business. However, she was up against a large group of influential opposition; the committee that drafted the petition included all eight Privy Councillors sitting in the Commons. This meant that she couldn’t go to her Council for advice as to how to respond – instead she had to rely on her own strength of mind and character to show the Commons that she did not approve of their pressuring her to make decisions. Elizabeth had established herself as a capable queen from the start of her reign, and the main way she avoided being influenced on the matters of marriage and succession was her strong-mindedness and her ability to command her parliament. When it came to the topic of marriage, she was quoted as having said ‘I would rather be a beggar and single, than a queen and married’ – making several such statements during her time as queen, she had made it clear by the latter years of her reign that she would not marry. Whether she planned from the start to remain single, or whether this was the approach she adopted once she had grown too old, she always remained adamant that she would not let her parliament influence her. However, throughout her reign, MPs and members of her Council continued to try, and so marriage was one issue that they were clearly more reluctant to cooperate on, despite Elizabeth’s ability to control how far they took their disagreements. When it came to the issue of succession, once again the parliament wouldn’t cooperate as much as it would on other issues, for example that of religion. From the first parliamentary session, Elizabeth was asked to name a successor, and it was a constant source of tension in the parliament when she refused to do so. Mary Queen of Scots, the next legitimate heir to the throne, married to the French king, and a Catholic, was seen as a threat to Elizabeth’s security, and Elizabeth was always faced with pressure from her parliament to do something about this. In 1572, the parliament tries to have Mary excluded from the succession, accusing her of treason as an excuse. However, Elizabeth refused to sign any bill accusing Mary of treason, thus meaning she would not be ruled out of the succession, and so in 1586 the parliament took this one step further, demanding Mary’s execution. Although Mary was a potential threat to Elizabeth’s throne, Elizabeth respected her as her cousin and as the monarch of Scotland, and so parliament was prorogued for several months while Elizabeth tried to get out of signing her death warrant. However, this is one of the few cases where parliaments refusal to cooperate with Elizabeth’s wishes led to the queen being influenced, and eventually she signed a bill calling for Mary’s execution. This caused many issues between the queen and parliament, as she clearly regretted being influenced by the parliamentary pressure, trying to distance herself from the incident afterwards and using several men, such as the Scottish diplomat William Davison, as scapegoats for the event. It is clear to see that the issues of marriage and succession were not ones that Elizabeth’s parliament wanted to cooperate on – they felt strongly that, should Elizabeth die, she should not leave them without an established successor, and they were willing to defy the queen’s wishes in order to push her on these issues. As a result of this refusal to cooperate, the queen lost her willpower – one of only a few times in her reign. Therefore marriage and succession are significant issues faced by Elizabeth and the parliament where they could not agree on what to do. All members of parliament were entitled to their parliamentary privileges; mainly freedom of speech and freedom from arrest. However, for some MPs this was not enough, and at times during Elizabeth’s reign certain members of parliament tried to increase their privileges, clearly acting against the queen’s wishes. For example, in 1576, Peter Wentworth of the House of Commons made a speech publicly saying that the queen should not be allowed to dictate conversation topics. During Elizabeth’s reign she did exercise her royal prerogative and her power as monarch to forbid certain topics she didn’t want discussed behind her back, such as religion – and as a result the parliamentary privilege of freedom of speech was reduced during her reign. Wentworth demanded that all MPs should be able to use their privilege of freedom of speech. This seems like an example of parliament refusing to cooperate once more with Elizabeth, however Wentworth was only one man, making such statements unsupported by most of parliament. Despite their occasional disagreements, parliament and Elizabeth were on the same side and so by standing up and speaking against the queen, Wentworth had effectively made a speech against his fellow parliamentarians as well. John Neale believes that Wentworth made his speech on behalf of the ‘Puritan Choir’, in support of a large portion of the Commons – however the Revisionist theory sees Wentworth as a rogue radical, an exception amongst the MPs. The events that followed suggest that the Revisionist theory is correct in this case; shortly following this speech, the House of Commons had Wentworth arrested and put in the Tower, thereby proving his point that certain topics could not be discussed without the threat of arrest. However, in arresting Wentworth, the Commons were effectively acknowledging their reduction in freedom of speech and supporting the queen nonetheless, proving that at times parliament could cooperate with Elizabeth very well indeed. Towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign, an issue came about between the queen and parliament that became known as the ‘monopolies crisis’ – monopolies were a form of patronage granted to courtiers by Elizabeth, favoured by the queen because they cost her nothing and bought her support from people at court. However, monopolies over basic commodities (such as giving a courtier exclusive control over the salt trade) led prices to rocket and lined the courtier’s pocket at the expense of the whole country. As a result, monopolies were disliked greatly by members of parliament. Privy Council members benefitted too much from monopolies to support the MPs, however, and Robert Cecil’s resultant refusal to sympathise with parliament made the disagreement worse, until any subsidies requested by the government were unlikely to be supported by the Commons due to the tension. At this point, Elizabeth saw how much conflict was caused by the continuance of the giving of monopolies, and had to step in. She conceded to the Speaker’s request for her to suspend some monopolies, and the Commons were immediately satisfied. This movement signified the start of Elizabeth’s decline in power and status towards the end of her reign. Although she remained the same powerful queen that she had been in her earlier years, respected by her subjects and capable of handling situations, her willpower had seemingly declined and rather than fight a further battle with the Commons she decided to give them what they wanted. In 1601, the queen made ‘The Golden Speech’, where she significantly reduced the number of monopolies amongst the courtiers. Although her message showed that she was conceding to the demands of parliament, she made the speech so well that this U-turn in her policies was as dignified as it could have been. Despite the Commons pressuring her into reducing monopolies, the queen remained respected in her defeat. However, this was another example of an issue over which parliament didn’t manage to cooperate well with the queen. To conclude; there were several different issues throughout Elizabeth’s reign that led to disputes between her and parliament, and each time the two sides tackled the problems with varying levels of cooperation. The debate over parliamentary privileges is an example where the majority of the parliament in fact agreed with the queen, and the lack of cooperation in fact came from only a few individual members, for example Wentworth. The parliament also cooperated fairly well with Elizabeth on the matter of religion, as in 1559 they managed to draw up the new Religious Settlement having reached a fair compromise. The slight lack of cooperation experienced in further years, when members of parliament tried to bring up the topic of religion against the queen’s will (for example in the session of 1584-1585), again came from individual MPs, such as Strickland, rather than from parliament as a whole. The two examples where cooperation between Elizabeth and parliament was lacking are in the case of deciding whom Elizabeth should marry and name her heir, and also what to do about the issue of monopolies. In one instance – that of the debate over marriage and succession – Elizabeth remained strong and would not let the parliament pressure her into doing anything she didn’t want to. She remained in control throughout the decision making process, however it was an issue that continued to arise throughout her reign, in 1563, 1566 and 1586. The fact that the topic was raised by parliament so frequently shows that it was a matter on which they were never willing to cooperate. When it comes to the issue of monopolies, parliament only considered this a problem in the final session of 1601, and the queen conceded soon afterwards. Therefore we cannot tell if this was an issue on which the parliament would eventually have managed to compromise. Overall, parliament did manage to mostly cooperate with Elizabeth I throughout her reign. There were a couple of times when individual MPs stood up against the queen, but in every instance she managed to quash the opposition using her prerogative powers and strong willpower. Although the issue of marriage and succession seems like it was raised many times throughout her reign, it is worth remembering that in her 44 years as queen Elizabeth only summoned parliament 13 times, and so the parliament did not have many chances to disagree with the queen, let alone fall into serious disagreements. Therefore, despite the lack of cooperation over a few issues such as marriage, succession and monopolies, overall the queen managed to maintain control over both parliament and the amount of power the MPs held and as a result the two sides were mostly able to cooperate throughout her reign.

Cyber Crime In The 21st Century

Cyber Crime In The 21st Century As the world has moved into the 21st century and technologies presence in our lives have increased, so has the amount of crime that is committed using the Internet and computers. Cybercrime is a form of crime where the Internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime. Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost or intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. In recent years the U.S. has invested money and effort towards protecting vital systems in the U.S. from following prey to cybercrime and cyber terrorism. However, various studies and recent incidents in the news show that the U.S. lags behind other nations such as China in efforts to combat cyber crime and cyber terrorism. This problem is one that the public often overlooks, yet it is a very serious matter nonetheless. HACKERS What comes to mind when you hear the word computer crimes? A common response is hackers. Although many may not know of a fully fledged hacking case, they often fall under federal jurisdiction. Hacking is nothing new and has been around for many years. It actually can be dated back to 1870 when a male teenager was first hired as a switchboard operator and was able to disconnect and redirect calls and use the line for personal usage. The advent of the computer age brought about the traditional hacker, who was first thought of as a harmless user with a curiosity about how things worked. The best way to figure how things work was to take things apart or view the internal configuration and learn what makes them function, and hackers did just that with electronic devices and systems. Over the years, hacking has taken on a completely different meaning and is often identical with the activity of a computer criminal. Hackers, both good and bad are here to stay and have a role in our society. There are three types of hackers and each is different from the other. For example, a white hat hacker is a person who identifies weakness in a computer system or network but instead of taking advantage of it, expose the weakness to the system owner and recommends a fix before the flaw can be taken advantage of by others (Michael Knetzger, 2008). They usually work with major law enforcement agencies and big industrial corporate offices to help reduce hacking. In contrast with white hat hackers, black hat hackers break into system with malicious intent to steal damage or deface them, (usually a computer, phone system or network) for vandalism, credit card fraud, identity theft, piracy, or other types of illegal activity( (Michael Knetzger, 2008)). Grey hat hackers are those who are on both side of the hacking fence. A gray hat hacker discovers and supplies information about network security issues and weakness to the network administrator and also to black hat hackers to exploit the s ystem. Hacking in general continues to have a negative association and implies any illicit activity against a computer system or other digital device. Hackers can be defined or categorized, there is not a one size fits all hacker profile, but statistics have shown that hackers share similar traits. Hackers tend to be between the age group of 14-25 years, insecure, white males who are intelligent social outcasts or loners who have had previous problems in school and lack positive outlets for their talents. They are also the technical superiors to criminal offenders and are most difficult for law enforcement to track. The actual number of hacking attacks against private and public industry is unknown. Statistics show that only 17% of companies whose computers were hacked report them to law enforcement due to fear of negative publicity. In addition, business owners feel that they may lose hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the New York Times, 90% of Fortune 500 networks have been hacked. In Canada Internet hacking has doubled to 8% in 1998 over a period of just one year (Parker, 1983). If this trend continues then it must now be around 32%. This only includes reported computer hacking trends; therefore it certainly would be much higher. Not only is business having trouble with hacking but also Homeland Security and Department of Defense. There have been approximately 250,000 attempts to break into the Government systems in 1995, 65% of which were successful (Michael Knetzger, 2008). According to research in 1998 the Financial Cost to computer security breaches was reported for the 163 co mpanies at $123.7 Million (1999 CSI/FBI Report). Copyright infringement Hacking continues to be one of the major issues of cyber crime. At another level copyright infringement is the appropriation of new forms of intellectual property that have been created or popularized within cybercrime. Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unconstitutional or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the copyright owners restricted rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work or to make derivative works (Parker, 1983). There are many ways that copyrights infringement are being used; the most common ones from the 21st century are musical works, TV, films, and text. It is a continuous thing that continues to grow. For example, replication of a CD or other recorded media containing copyright material without authorization of the copyright holder may be a form of copyright infringement, depending on local laws. Unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material and sharing of recorded music o ver the Internet, often in the appearance of MP3 files, is another form of infringement; even after the termination of Napster and a series of infringement suits brought by the RIAA. Bootleg recordings are musical recordings that have not been formally released by the artist or their associated administration or production companies. They may consist of demos, outtakes or other studio material, or of dishonest recordings of live performances. Music enthusiasts may use the term bootleg to differentiate these otherwise unavailable recordings from pirated copies of commercially released material, however these recordings are still covered by copyright regardless of their lack of formal release, and their distribution is still against the law (Parker, 1983). Sampling of copyrighted music for use in other works without authorization is also a form of copyright infringement. Some companies exploit this fact by attempting to sue the creators of the new work for copyright violation. Promoti onal screening DVDs distributed by motion picture studios (often for consideration for awards) are a frequent source of unauthorized copying when movies are still in theatrical release, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has attempted to restrict their use. Movies are also still copied by someone sneaking a camcorder into a motion picture theater and secretly taping the projection (also known as camming), although such copies are often of lesser quality than DVDs. Some copyright owners have responded to breaches by displaying warning notices on commercially sold DVDs; these warnings do not always give a fair picture of the purchasers legal rights, which in the US generally include the rights to sell, exchange, rent or loan a purchased DVD. According the Straits Times, a copy of the most recent James Bond movie the World is not Enough was available for free on the Internet before its official release. (Wall, 2001) This and similar other incidents have caused conside rable concern to owners. When a creator is unable to profit from their making of a movie, it causes a massive financial loss. Child pornography Child pornography generally includes sexual images connecting both prepubescent and post-pubescent adolescent minors and computer-generated images with the intention of appearing to involve them. The majority possessors of child pornography who are arrested are found to possess images of prepubescent children; possessors of pornographic images of post-pubescent minors are less likely to be prosecuted, even though those images also reduce inside the statutes. Child pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry; one of the fastest increasing criminal segments taking place in the internet. Philip Jenkins notes that there is overwhelming evidence that [child pornography] is all but impossible to obtain through non electronic means. (Parker, 1983). The Internet has drastically changed how child pornography is reproduced and disseminated, and, according to the United States Department of Justice, resulted in a substantial increase in the availability, accessibility, and volume of child po rnography. (Michael Knetzger, 2008). The production of child pornography has become very profitable and is no longer restricted to pedophiles. Digital cameras and Internet distribution facilitated by the use of credit cards and the ease of transferring images across national borders has made it easier than ever before for users of child pornography to obtain the photographs and videos. The NCMEC estimated in 2003 that 20% of all pornography traded over the Internet was child pornography, and that since 1997 the number of child pornography images available on the Internet had increased by 1500%. In 2007, the British-based Internet Watch Foundation reported that child pornography on the Internet is becoming more brutal and graphic, and the number of images depicting violent abuse has risen fourfold since 2003. The CEO stated The worrying issue is the severity and the gravity of the images is increasing. Were talking about prepubescent children being raped. (Parker, 1983) About 80 percent of the children in the abusive images are female, and 91 percent appear to be children under the age of 12. Prosecution is difficult because multiple international servers are used, sometimes to transmit the images in fragments to evade the law. Some child pornographers also circumvent detection by using viruses to illegally gain control of computers on which they remotely store child pornography. In one case, a Massachusetts man was charged with possession of child pornography when hackers used his computer to access pornographic sites and store pornographic pictures without his knowledge. T he U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has ruled that if a user downloads child pornography from a file sharing network and possesses it in his shared folder without configuring the software to not share that content; he can be charged with distributing child pornography (Wall, 2001). Regarding internet proliferation, the U.S. Department of Justice states that At any one time there are estimated to be more than one million pornographic images of children on the Internet, with 200 new images posted daily. (Parker, 1983). They also note that a single offender arrested in the U.K. possessed 450,000 child pornography images, and that a single child pornography site received a million hits in a month. Further, that much of the trade in child pornography takes place at hidden levels of the Internet, and that it has been estimated that there are between 50,000 and 100,000 pedophiles involved in organized pornography rings around the world, and that one third of these operate from the United States. (Wall, 2001). In 2008 the Google search engine adapted a software program in order to faster track child pornography accessible through their site. The software is based in a pattern recognition engine and is helping to track down people who try to access child pornography sit es. Child grooming The deliberate actions taken by an adult to form a trusting relationship with a child, with the intent of later having sexual contact, are known as child grooming (Michael Knetzger, 2008). This involves psychological manipulation in the form of positive reinforcement, activities that are typically legal but later lead to sexual contact. This is done to gain the childs trust as well as the trust of those responsible for the childs well-being. Additionally, a trusting connection with the relatives means the childs parents are less expected to believe possible accusations. Child pornography images are frequently shown to the child as part of the child grooming process. To establish an excellent connection with the child and the childs family, a child groomer might do quite a few things. For example, they might take an undue attention in someone elses child, to be the childs special friend to gain the childs trust. They might give offerings or money to the child for no apparent reason (toys, dolls, etc.). They may show pornography-videos or pictures-to the child, hoping to make it easy for the child to accept such acts, thus normalizing the behavior. People are very sick they may simply talk about sexual topics to interest the kid. These are just some of the methods a child groomer might use to gain a childs trust and affection in order to allow them to do what they want. Hugging and kissing or other physical contact, even when the child doesnt want it, can happen. To the groomer, this is a way to get close. They might talk about problems normally discu ssed between adults, or at least people of the same age. Topics might include marital problems and other conflicts. They may try to gain the childs parents trust by befriending them, with the goal of easy access to the child. The child groomer might look for opportunities to have time alone with the child. This can be done by offering to babysit. The groomer may invite the child for sleepovers. This gives them the opportunity to sleep in the same room or even the same bed with the child. Sexual grooming of children also occurs on the Internet. Some abusers will pose as children online and make arrangements to meet with them in person. According to a 2003 New Zealand study, 23% of 7-10 year olds and 37% of those 16 or older reported meeting someone face to face that they met over the Internet. In 2003, MSN implemented restrictions in their chat rooms to help protect children from adults seeking sexual conversations with them. In 2005, Yahoo! chat rooms were investigated by the New York State attorney Generals office for allowing users to create rooms whose names suggested that they were being used for this purpose. That October, Yahoo! agreed to implement policies and procedures designed to ensure that such rooms would not be allowed. An organization called Perverted-Justice (known as PJ) specializes in capturing persons who solicit PJ operatives posing as underage teens. To catch a predator is a television show based on such activities. An organization called Crisp Thinking specializes in anti-grooming activities by studying chat room and other Instant messaging logs with a special software that can identify when adults are trying to groom children. Cyberterrorism Cyberterrorism is the convergence of terrorism and cyberspace. It is generally understood to mean unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives (Michael Knetzger, 2008). Further, to qualify as cyberterrorism, an attack should result in violence against persons or property, or at least cause enough harm to generate fear. Attacks that lead to death or bodily injury, explosions, plane crashes, water contamination, or severe economic loss would be examples. Serious attacks against critical infrastructures could be acts of cyberterrorism, depending on their impact. Attacks that disrupt nonessential services or that are mainly a costly nuisance would not. Cyberspace is constantly under assault. Cyber spies, thieves, saboteurs, and thrill seekers break into computer systems, steal personal data and trade secrets, vandalize Web sites, disrupt service, sabotage data and systems, launch computer viruses and worms, conduct fraudulent transactions, and harass individuals and companies. (Furnell, 2002) These attacks are facilitated with increasingly powerful and easy-to-use software tools, which are readily available for free from thousands of Web sites on the Internet. Many of the attacks are serious and costly. The recent ILOVEYOU virus and variants, for example, was estimated to have hit tens of millions of users and cost billions of dollars in damage. The February denial-of-service attacks against Yahoo, CNN, eBay, and other e-commerce Web sites was estimated to have caused over a billion in losses. It also shook the confidence of business and individuals in e-commerce. To understand the potential threat of cyberterrorism, two factors must be considered: first, whether there are targets that are vulnerable to attack that could lead to violence or severe harm, and second, whether there are actors with the capability and motivation to carry them out. Looking first at vulnerabilities, several studies have shown that critical infrastructures are potentially vulnerable to cyberterrorist attack. Eligible Receiver, a no notice exercise conducted by the Department of Defense in 1997 with support from NSA red teams, found the power grid and emergency 911 systems had weaknesses that could be exploited by an adversary using only publicly available tools on the Internet (Wall, 2001). Although neither of these systems was actually attacked, study members concluded that service on these systems could be disrupted. Also in 1997, the Presidents Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection issued its report warning that through mutual dependencies and interconnectedness, critical infrastructures could be vulnerable in new ways, and that vulnerabilities were steadily increasing, while the costs of attack were decreasing. Although many of the weaknesses in computerized systems can be corrected, it is effectively impossible to eliminate all of them. Even if the technology itself offers good security, it is frequently configured or used in ways that make it open to attack. In addition, there is always the possibility of insiders, acting alone or in concert with other terrorists, misusing their access capabilities. According to Russias Interior Ministry Col. Konstantin Machabeli, the state-run gas monopoly, Gazprom, was hit by hackers who collaborated with a Gazprom insider. The hackers were said to have used a Trojan horse to gain control of the central switchboard which controls gas flows in pipelines, although Gazprom, the worlds largest natural gas producer and the largest gas supplier to Western Europe, refuted the report In conclusion, the violent pursuit of political goals using exclusively electronic methods is likely to be at least a few years into the future. However, the more general threat of cybercrime is very much a part of the digital landscape today. In addition to cyberattacks against digital data and systems, many people are being terrorized on the Internet today with threats of physical violence. On-line stalking, death threats, and hate messages are abundant. The Florida teen who threatened violence at Columbine High School in an electronic chat room is but one example. These crimes are serious and must be addressed. In so doing, we will be in a better position to prevent and respond to cyberterrorism if and when the threat becomes more serious. In a matter of years, cybercrime has permeated many aspects of our society. Financial information and other personal information are susceptible to cyber criminals and their actions. Children, nowadays, need constant supervision on the Internet as these criminals seek to hunt and abuse innocent children. Each of these challenges presents the imperative for law enforcement to increase their ability to protect citizens against cyber crime. Perhaps, programs supported by law enforcement to train intelligent individuals with superior technological skills will not only provide law enforcement with skilled individuals to combat cybercrime but it may also prevent many of those people from becoming hackers in the first place.

Performance Appraisal of Agilent Technology Essay -- essays research p

Executive Summary For this report, I had chosen Agilent Technologies Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as my research topic. It is one of the branches in the world that delivers innovative technologies, solutions and services to a wide range of customers in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of Agilent's goals is to maintain a good-quality relationship between employees and management regardless of the economic conditions in which the business is operating. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This report focuses on the Performance Appraisal  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  of Agilent Technologies. Performance appraisal is one of the factors related to an organization’s long-term success. It has the ability to measure how well employees perform and then use the information to ensure that performance meets present standards and improves over time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To help us have a view in the performance appraisal system of Agilent Technologies, an interview was conducted with two members of the company, Ms. Lim and Ms. Tracy Leong. Ms. Lim is the Assistant Manager in Customer Service, whereas Ms. Leong has been working in the Customer Service department for more 2 years. She is responsible for ensuring that their company’s customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns. Also, she interacts with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products or services and to handle and resolve complaints, through a variety of means, either in person, by telephone, e-mail or regular mail correspondence, or fax, or even over the Internet. In Agilent, the Human Resources (HR) department has focused on improving responsiveness, clarifying the scope of its services and continuing to build its expertise. Despite difficult economic conditions in recent years, they have continued working toward making Agilent an employer of choice across the globe. The aim is to provide employees with a working environment they find challenging and enjoyable by hiring some of the best people and encouraging open communication and feedback with management. In Agilent, it is the responsibility of the managers to maintain a work environment where employees can openly discuss their performance, progress and development. This requires open and frequent c... ...l process. This helps reducing sampling error by increasing the number of observations and reduces the effect of possible biases. This way, the supervisors and managers will feel more comfortable, since they are no longer solely responsible for what happens to the person as a result of the rating. Probably there are still many ways to be researched and then be conducted. However, I do think these three ways are as important as they will lead the performance appraisal to a better system in Agilent Technologies. References: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stone, R.J. 2002, 4th edn, Human Resource Management, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd., Australia. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fisher, C. D., Schoenfeldt, L. F. and Shaw, J. B. 1993, 2nd edn, Human Resource Management, Houghton Mifflin Company, London. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paterson, T. T. 1972, 2nd edn, Job Evaluation: A New Method. Business Books Limited, London. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  www.agilent.com.my 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.agilent.com/environment/esr/employment.html 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.agilent.com/environment/esr/2001/agilent-employees.html