Preventive Measures for Teenage Pregnancy

There are a lot of teen mothers growing up in this world wondering, what if I would have stayed in school? What could I have become? Would it have made my life easier if I had thought first? Teens don†t think of the consequences of their actions. They don†t think that the aftermath of their irresponsibility can lead to pregnancy. Having a child comes with a lot of responsibility. The teen doesn†t fully understand that all free time is lost, that she will have to find some may to support herself and the child, and that any of her aspirations for future plans are now drastically changed. Children take up a lot of time, which also means, no more school. If we can some how get through to them that this is what happens when you get irresponsible, it will eliminate a big portion of the problem. One of the best ways of getting the point across is to have a guest speaker that has been through a teen pregnancy before. Whether it be, the person that it actually happened to or that teens mother, which is some times even better. It all comes down to the education of the teen being the best form of prevention. The more they know about sex and it†s consequences at a young age the less likely they are to are to go out and be irresponsible about it. Teaching teens about different types of protection and how they work is some times one of the best ways of keeping the number of teen pregnancies down. Not to mention a fall in the number of teen sexually transmitted diseases. The reason why teaching about protection is good is obvious. The reason the words â€Å"some times† are underlined is because teaching them about sex some times drives a teen that normally wouldn†t have had sex till later on in there lives to think, ‘well, it seems like everyone is doing it. If it†s important enough that we must learn about it in school then I guess it†s normal.† So the argument that education is the best prevention goes both ways. On another plane, parents can help and/or hurt the situation. Every once in awhile at the dinner table or in some public place it seems that parents or even relatives are always wanting to know if you have a girlfriend yet or not. This is definitely not an extreme case but there is always that subconscious thought in the back of there heads that†s saying, I guess I should get on the ball and start looking for a mate. On the other hand, though not every parent thinks so, but their children do listen to them. Any words of advice or even telling them about your own experiences as a teen will help. Even if the parent doesn†t know much about the subject they should try to tell the teen that and a little of what they do know. That will make the child think you care and maybe think twice about their actions. Teens are not dumb and if it seems to them that you are making and honest effort and you really believe in what you are saying they will respect that and listen. There is no real solution to the teen pregnancy problem but education and teen to parent communication are good steps in the right direction. We need to let our children know that we are there for them and that we care. After all no one wants to think of what they ‘could have† become.

Are Technology Advances Bad for Society?

Steven Thai Ms. Katie English 110 Feb 28th, 2013 Are Technology Advances Bad For Society? Over the past 30 years, humans always tried to create something that helps us reduce the amount of work we have to do. Games were created to help human release our stress while mobile phones help us to call and access the internet anywhere we want. Technologies really help us in every task of our life. However, technological advances are bad for our society because of addiction, censorship, and they may lead us into another technological weapons war between countries around the world.First consider how addictive technology has become. According to Sherry Turkle from TED Talk, her daughter spent time with her friends together looking at their mobile phones devices (Ted. com). These kids had so much fun on their mobile phones that they didn’t even look at their friends. On the other hand, technology became an essential part of our lives right now. Most of us spend time with our electronic d evices that we forget where we were standing, what we were doing, or what is the purpose and objective of our life. What makes us addicted to mobile phones?Nowadays, we can do almost everything with our cellphones, such as playing videos games, accessing social networks, and watching videos online. These things have become too addictive to us, and we have spent so much time on such devices. Look back to 20 years ago, back when the time technologies were not very common compared to today. Eventually, we spent more time with each other; we hung out with friends. Technologies are advancing so rapidly that we have become addicted and have forgotten what surrounds us. Some people might argue that there is also a good side of technology advances.According to Dr. Rick Nauert, a Senior Editor of Psych Central, there was an unexpected discovery that playing video games helped human-beings reduce the production of the stress-related hormone cortisol (Psychcentral. com). In order to prove this , Dr. Nauert recorded a group of 23 newly recruited employees of a Montreal-based call center to play games. Later on, he found an amazing result that the games showed an average 17 percent reduction in cortisol production compared to the group who did not play games (Psychcentral. com). This showed that echnology advances can be applied for good purposes to our life. Although technologies help us to reduce the stress related hormone, it brings to us many health problems. Dr. Ripudaman, a master in science and a frequent computer user, claimed that there are heaths concerned when you sit and work in front of the computer for a long time, such as eyes problems from bright screen, and wrist ache after working at the computer all day (Ripudaman). In addition, if we keep using the computer for a long time, these problems grow bigger.We might have joint problems, and our eyes have to work a lot so they get worse, in which case it costs us a lot of money for eyes and back surgery (Ripudam an). Another thing to be concerned about when we use technology is government censorship. You would feel bad if you lost your own privacy when the government tracked down your phone record, and eavesdropped on your phone call. This is the world when you need your own privacy, but most of our technological devices such as cellphones and laptops are tracked down by our own government every minute.According to Jennifer Valentino, the FBI was concerned by the citizens when they had the rights to access people’s phone record after the attack of September 11th, 2001 (Devries). Additionally, Professor Stephen Vladeck from American University Washington College of Law had put a good question to all of us; â€Å"How can you protect the First Amendment rights at the same time as you protect the government’s interest in secrecy? † (Vladeck). More importantly, no one among us would have see that our record had been tracked down, which should be a concern for an individualâ €™s freedom.Others might claim that the government is doing the right thing in order to protect national security. By tracking down citizens’ record the government can easily find terrorists, who are trying to attack their country. After the incident on September 11th, the concerns over the government keeping track of people’s technological devices who they suspected as terrorists and a threat to the country (Vladeck). To answer for that, we should take China as an example; where the presses have been ranked as â€Å"not free† by Freedom House (Wikipedia. rg). In China, everything is monitored by the government mostly technological devices. We feel bad when our privacy are managed by the government. Therefore, these technology advances are not helping our life get better. Furthermore, technological advances help the government to access our privacy easily compared to our past 50 years. It leads us to a question, should we continue to use devices like cellpho nes, laptops or smartphone when the government is monitoring our activities through those devices?Lastly, technological advances can lead us to a world war. Countries with strong economies like the United States, China, and Russia always compete to have the strongest technologies for weapons in their hands. The rapid changes in technology help many countries in the world to create their own weapons, tanks, aircrafts, and nuclear bombs. Why are these countries are competing for war technology advances? Take a look at it this way, when a weapon or a bomb is created, it will be tested in Iraq or Afghanistan.There will be more deaths and bigger destruction as the technology of those weapons further advanced. The founder and leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement, Altaf Hussain, has brought us great attention to a possibility of a third world war, where these imperial powers continued to act in a presumptuous manner in world affairs (mqm. org). In fact, world powers countries should stop competing for war technologies advances with each other in the present world to make a better world, to bring peace to those countries whose need it.However, there are others who oppose that the United States and Russia are creating nuclear bombs and missiles defenses to protect their own national security. In reality, they are creating these defense systems to make other countries to be afraid of them. The more weapons and bombs created, the more deaths and destruction the world has to suffer. Instead of using billions and billions of dollars to make technological advances that kill people, we should use that huge amount of money to improve education, health care, and reduce the amount of starvation.There will be more people will feel happy as the government will use money to solve social and political problems. In general, by not using money to develop war technological advances, we can save a lot of lives, rather than killing them by weapons, bombs, and missiles and so on. In co nclusion, technological advancement has seen many negative impacts on our society; it causes unhealthy addiction, encourages government censorship, and might lead to another destructive world war. We must stop using technology devices, we should stand together to stop these bad problems from our life.For the great future of our young generation, for the better living of our life, we must stop the bad effect of technologies on our life. Work Cited â€Å"A Third World War May Start If Countries Continued to Compete with Each Other for Superiority: Altaf Hussain. † A Third World War May Start If Countries Continued to Compete with Each Other for Superiority: Altaf Hussain. Mutahida Quami Movement, 7 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. . â€Å"Censorship in China. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013 . Devries, Jennifer V. â€Å"Covert FBI Power to Obtain Phone Data Faces Rare Test. † Online. wsj. com. The Wall Street Journal, n. d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013 . . Hall, Canseco. â€Å"Texas A&M International University – Laredo, Texas. † Violent Video Games Help Relieve Stress, Depression, Says TAMIU Professor. N. p. , 17 June 2010.Web. 21 Feb. 2013. . Nauert, Rick. â€Å"Video Game Lowers Stress Hormone | Psych Central News. † Psych Central. com. N. p. , 24 Oct. 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. . Singh, Ripudaman. â€Å"Health Problems Caused by Computer. † Articlesbase. com. Articlesbase, 21 Mar. 2009. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. .

Business Mgt Essay Example for Free

Business Mgt Essay Part I. Assume you have taken over responsibility to play the lead Information Technology (IT) management role in Magnum Enterprises. Your boss, Rachel Heigl, is Magnum’s CIO. The IT management group is comprised of six people who you will be supervising. Ms. Heigl is an enlightened manager, and she believes that if you are to carry out your responsibilities effectively, you need to work with her in defining your IT management role. As a first step, she invites you to write a short statement where you describe what you see to be your role as head of the IT management effort at Magnum. Proper IT Management requires researching and discerning information technology as a company resource guiding both operational and crucial company capabilities. Using information technology to maximize satisfaction of the customer alongside productivity and profitability will ensure that our competiveness with other business stays at a maximum. In turn IT can make business processes more effective and efficient to provide said resources to customers. The lead IT shall ensure performance of the company through managing technology while encompassing priorities of the business into the role. Striving to be a partner with great initiative this business will discover its leader will have accomplished and achieved what they desired. My first role of business would be to establish the parameters and to understand the IT knowledge areas. These are made up of development processes; management challenges information technologies, business applications and foundation concepts. Concepts of the foundation are making sure the role of information systems paired with business and technical concepts are a familiarity with the end user. Familiarity of concepts in entry level information systems bind with a competitive strategy can lead to an overwhelming strategic advantage. Educating Magnum’s team upon the significance of information technology with the three roles that the business world performs in order to combine business management, software, and hardware capabilities. At the Management level, decision making would lead to significant improvements for IT utilization. Business operations see information systems as a huge support to review and collect data from financial operations, managing manufacturing processes that are very sophisticated, tracking company inventory, and productivity. The use of metrics paired with identifying trends to assist the company in making informed decisions faster to provide information about our competitors. IT  is used quite often to provide a strategic support advantage for the company. Automated inventory and ordering systems an assist with the savings costs. With this information we would need to review our mission statement that identifies the company’s functions, provides oversight on the overall goal, a sense of direction, and guides decision making. Investigating and development towards understanding how we generate money and ensuring a customer base for our company. Envisioning the business plan, mission, with current IT structure and the ability to communicate with senior leadership will guide me with necessary tools to assist the Chief Information Officer (CIO). To ensure a strategic IT plan is created in which will be shared and implemented with my team. Planning to have Magnum’s team familiar with data resource management capabilities, hardware, networks, telecommunications, and software within the company is the second area of information systems known as information technologies. In today’s society PDA’s (personal digital assistants; IE. Blackberry’s ETC.) Personal computers and network servers are integral computer hardware and are crucial in our business environment. Being extremely knowledgeable is vital to our team troubleshooting and resolving hardware issues instead of having to call anot her company for maintenance. We have the ability to break down our company’s software into two categories, application software and system software. Both types normally off the consumer shelf as commercial software instead of having an employee on the team write the software codes for these programs. I plan to ensure my teams are extremely familiar with all software programs and have a firm foundation when troubleshooting and resolving technical issues. Additionally, if not already formed, I will institute a configuration control board and implement test scenarios to ensure future hardware and software being purchased will not have compatibility issues. Also a part of information technologies is data resource management. This is essential in sustaining and maintaining our company. We will require a database management system of good quality that is capable of data consolidating into a database in turn can be accessed my several program applications. Within the past fifteen to twenty years networks and telecommunications software have played a vital role. To ensure the expansion and growth for Magnum Enterprises, we will need out network to be consistent, reliable, monetary sufficient. I would prepare the team to  either install or review and change as needed our network management system that assists with traffic management, capacity planning, network monitoring, and security in essence that our system will grow and change with modern day business culture and practices as the company expands. In order to have the most dependable and proven with the cost of it a ring network should be put into place. The next area, development processes, deals with designing, planning, identifying ideas, and implementing information systems to meet potential business opportunities. It is critical that we ensure our business management capabilities alongside our hardware and software are integrated successfully within our company. Basis within t he development process and depending upon the circumstance, there are a couple of processes we want our team to employ as resolving problems com along with our business systems. Those processes are considered or known as the prototyping approach and he systems development life-cycle. The synopsis of prototyping involves quickly developing or constructing test modules of a desired system in which we will engage when we cannot determine or classify the end user requirements. These systems would be used to assist our personnel with the capabilities to design or create an information system that will be intuitive and easy to navigate for consumers. Prototyping involves four steps with the first being investigation and analysis step. This step, requirements grouped and defined. Second, is the analysis and design step in which a model is developed and constructed to meet consumer business requirements. Next, in the design and implementation, this finalizes the model that was tested and begins the initial installation. The last step to this four step process is implementation and maintenance, which would consist of the business system being accepted, used, and maintained. Prototyping advantages are: decrease in the development time, development costs and requires user i nvolvement. This generates higher satisfaction results. I plan to employ this type of approach to small initiatives. The next area is business application for information systems. This will consist of being familiar with commerce and business applications for our employees and which are used within the company to make strategic leadership and management decisions. A few of the most used business applications within a majority of companies are accounting, human resource management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management, financial management,  and supply chain management. An Architectural picture of or IT business applications will ensure that I will have familiarity with all applications that we use. This approach will identify the current interrelationships, interfaces with customer, employees, business applications, and stake holders. We will then need to review the chart and see if there are any potential process improvements that we can make to integrate those systems cross functionally and keep operational costs to a minimum. The systems devel opment lifecycle employs the systems approach to create IT solutions. This lifecycle is often utilized for large applications and it is composed of five processes that I expect my team to know and become familiar when employing the systems development lifecycle: systems investigation, systems analysis, systems design, systems implementation and systems maintenance. The first process, systems investigation, involves project brainstorming, planning and performing a feasibility study. During the brainstorming and planning initiative, a project management implementation plan is created identifying the detailed steps that will be accomplished during the creation and development of the system. The feasibility study is critically important as this outlines all requirements for the system. It also explores four major areas, organizational, economic, technical, and operational feasibility, which determines if it’s worthwhile to invest in potential business ventures. In reviewing the organization’s feasibility, we need to determine if the system is in line with and supports our company’s strategic objectives. The economic feasibility identifies and evaluates the project’s tangible and intangible cost and benefits. Technical feasibility is assessed by confirming if the necessary hardware and software will be available or can be developed and tested before implementation. Operational feasibility is determined by the motivation, desire, willingness, and competence of the stakeholders (management, employees, customers and suppliers) to use and operate the proposed system. Systems Analysis consists of consolidating requirements and includes a detailed breakdown of the business needs and requirements of the organization. This starts with an organizational analysis from one of the business end users. This individual must be keenly aware of the organizational management structure, business requirements, and current IT systems operati ons and its proposed relationship with the newly created system. Some of the outputs generated from the systems analysis  include system flowcharts, data flow diagrams, and connectivity diagrams which aid in the development of the analysis report The next process, systems design, focuses on the design, process diagrams, business rules, and developing specifications for the hardware, software, data resources that will meet the proposed requirements for new business system. The three major outputs produced from the systems design phase are user data, interface, and process design. The fourth process of the systems development lifecycle is system implementation. This encompasses either acquiring the hardware or software or developing it from company resources and then testing the products in a test environment to see how well they operate and integrate with your existing IT architecture. If testing goes well, an implementation plan including training end users and developing system documentation will be accomplished prior to incorporating and execu ting this system within our IT architecture. The final process, systems maintenance consists of consistently monitoring and evaluating the newly implemented system. This also includes correcting errors and discrepancies not identified during the testing phase and continuously making system improvements, advancements and upgrades. The final area of information systems is management challenges. There are numerous challenges that our IT team may be faced with at Magnum Enterprises. One challenge is addressing our security concerns which involve several areas. For instance, our IT team needs be constantly vigilant and on the alert for potential competitors trying to or actually hacking into our systems to steal or damage our data. Additionally, we may also be challenged with setting up restrictions and locking down the network for personnel to only use the network and its software applications for official business. Ensuring that our software is controlled and that employees are not illegally making copies of software for personal use is another area of concern. Preventing virus attacks to our network and installing anti-virus software to diagnose and remove computer viruses is of utmost concern. Failure to maintain a secure network can potentially halt our business from being productive and resulting in thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Additional challenges the IT team may be faced with may involve expanding our infrastructure and network to address our growing business. Ensuring our network provides our employees accessibility to the data they need, wherever they require it, regardless of their location will test our innovativeness.  The company may not have a backup plan to allow it to operate effectively and efficiently in the event of a forced relocation. If that is the case, I will recommend to our management staff that we establish a continuity of operations plan enabling us to relocate with minimum impact to our business operations like a hot site for temporary functionality. In the dynamic world of IT we will always be faced with challenges, however, utilizing IT and being on the leading edge of new IT systems provides our business with many benefits and makes our organization more effective and efficient. For example, IT can be used to improve and promote new business processes such as creating an automated inventory system which will save money in additional labor costs. Another use of IT in making it more efficient and effective is that using certain software programs enables us to identify and target our top customers in terms of profitability to our business. In summary, IT enables our company to successfully plan, integrate, manage, and carry out strategies which lead to profit. Part II. Six months after you take over the lead IT management role at Magnum, the CIO, Ms. Rachel Heigl, is pleased with your work. She has just attended a meeting of Magnum’s executive committee (the committee comprised of the most senior managers of Magnum), where the CEO and Vice President of marketing have indicated that Magnum’s mediocre e-business capabilities must be strengthened. As CIO, Ms. Heigl is given primary responsibility in improving Magnum’s e-business performance. She in turn puts you in charge of a small task force comprised of representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. In order to advance and improve Magnum’s e-business performance operations, it’s vital I establish a cohesive team with representatives from the marketing, operations, finance, and legal departments. Their input and perspective is necessary and essential in developing a way ahead and strategic plan for the future of our e-busin ess department. Developing success with our e-business begins with marketing the company. Marketing is concerned with developing and creating an innovative plan so that the product or service can be promoted and sold. Promoting our products and services are key and critical in attracting new customers as well as maintaining our current customer base. It is important that I develop an understanding of the marketing role and how it can benefit  by using Information Technology systems. Marketing information systems support well established and e-commerce processes that sustain major elements within the marketing function and is described as a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control. The major components of marketing information systems include interactive marketing, sales force automation, customer relationship management, sales management, product management, targeted marketing, and market research. Two of the seven components I will be discussing are interactive marketing and customer relationship management. In our environment today, marketing information systems aid marketing personnel in a variety of tasks associated with branding products and customer service initiatives. For instance, interactive marketing is largely dependent on utilizing the internet, which permits the business and its customers and potential customers to become partners in developing, socializing, acquiring and advancing products and services. With the IT department enabling this type of communication, the company benefits from generating new ideas for other products and services as well as establishing strong customer loyalty. Another area within the marketing information systems is C ustomer Relationship Management (CRM). This incorporates and automates many customer service processes. It consists of utilizing an IT framework to construct, automate, and integrate marketing processes with the company’s business operations. CRM is usually comprised of a software suite that allows a business to provide efficient, effective and reliable service to its customers. Additionally, CRM permits a company to identify and target their most important customers as well as facilitate real-time customization of products and services based on the customer’s wants and desires. Understanding the marketing department’s views and concerns enables the IT department to implement and install an IT infrastructure that will be capable of supporting various information technologies. Some of the benefits that can be obtained from the marketing department are: an opportunity to increase sales and revenue, a chance to touch new market areas, 24/7 accessibility for the customer, and more flexibility and convenie nce for the customers. The production and operations function is supported by  manufacturing information systems. Manufacturing information systems are designed to be used specifically in an operations and production environment. Different types of manufacturing information systems consist of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), process control, machine control and robotics. CIM involves using computers to control the total manufacturing process, from design to distribution, to produce produces products of the highest caliber. Process control involves utilizing computers to oversee and control continuing physical processes. Machine control consists of using a computer based system to direct the actions of a machine. Robotics involves designing, constructing, and building machines that have the intelligence of a computer and human like physical capabilities. It’s key I understand how the operations representative depends on these information systems to operate effectively as well as their expec tations for these systems. Working together as a team will enable the IT and operations department to develop better ideas to increase the manufacturing and production process. Developing an understanding of all the accounting and financial based systems within our business and discussing these systems with the finance representative enables our IT and finance departments to plan effectively when troubleshooting and performing upgrades. These systems include but are not limited to order processing, inventory control, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, cash management, investment management, capital budgeting and financial planning. The success of these systems is integrally connected with its information technology and services. For example, the order processing system â€Å"captures and processes customer orders and produces data needed for sales analysis and inventory control and the accounts payable system keeps track of data concerning purchases from and payments to suppliers. Communicating with the finance representative is essential in setting up or modifying these systems to meet the needs of our business. Any interrupti on or degradation in service can lead to severe damage to the business and financial services that Magnum Enterprises relies on to function and operate. As with any business, competitors are always looking for an advantage to get them ahead in their particular discipline or industry. Unfortunately, being extremely aggressive and ambitious can sometimes cloud your decision making capabilities to the point that you may  be committing breaking privacy laws and monitoring and copyright violations. As the IT lead manager for Magnum Enterprises, I’m charged with ensuring our network infrastructure and IT systems are operating proficiently. However, when it comes to addressing privacy issues from an IT perspective, opinions and viewpoints from a legal expert are necessary. In regards to privacy, several websites accumulate usernames and passwords and personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers without authorization from users. Applying internet monitoring technology within the workplace raises concerns about where the boundaries lie between personal use and public resource use. Copyright concerns and violations has become an issue with the development of the Internet and upgrades to technology. Discussing these concerns with a legal expert and implementing and adhering to strict guidelines will help prevent our company from committing these violations. In addition to the goals of strengthening the capabilities of the e-business, attention must be paid to some key technical challenges. Overseeing secure information throughout our business is extremely difficult to implement and maintain successfully. Key technical issues that may be encountered when re-engineering our e-business include privacy and confidentiality, authenticity, data integrity, access control, availability and infrastructure. Privacy and confidentiality involves businesses protecting and securing personal information while being stored or t ransmitted through email. This can be accomplished by utilizing encryption devices or firewalls. Authentication is used to confirm an individual’s identity and during e-business transactions, the purchaser and buyer wants assurance that proper identity is established. A secure way to assist with confirming identity to both individuals is to utilize a virtual private network. Data integrity means the data is correct and has not been altered while being stored or transmitted. The use of firewalls assists in preventing unauthorized users and safeguarding data. Another way to ensure data integrity is through the use of antivirus software which also aids in keeping your data free from viruses. Access control exists when you’re authorizing certain individual’s permission to restricted systems or data. Several measures that can help with access control include firewalls, access privileges, passwords, digital certificates and virtual private networks. Availability is an issue when customers and employers need information  without any disruptions. Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, data backups and the use of anti-virus software assist with ensuring data is always available. Our e-business infrastructure constantly needs to be monitored to ensure its meeting the needs of our business. An infrastructure that is unable to consistently support the network traffic load can potentially cost our company thousands of dollars in lost sales. If the network is continually slow, increasing the speed of the network backbone will assist in providing faster and reliable support for our customers. In addition to increasing the speed of the network backbone, implementing cross-functional enterprise systems will assist in improving critical business processes throughout Magnum enterprises. A final technical challenge is ensuring all of our systems are compatible and can operate on several different hardware platforms. By having this capabi lity, our operating costs from a technical refresh perspective will decrease. While strengthening capabilities and addressing technical issues, there are management challenges within the e-business that must be addressed. As discussed earlier, our team must be vigilant in addressing security challenges such as hacking into our systems, software theft, and protecting our software applications. In addition to security issues, there are ethical concerns that must be addressed. Privacy has always been a serious and contentious issue amongst employers and employees. For instance, computer monitoring is considered by many personnel to be an infringement on the employee’s privacy and shouldn’t be allowed. However, employers argue that since the computer is a company owned resource, they should be allowed to monitor the work of their employer. In reality, many employers are concerned as to whether or not the employee is actually working and producing or just goofing off and surfing the internet. Utilizing IT equipment at work has been mentioned to cause a variety of health issues which management must address. For example, if your job consists of being in front of a computer all day, some of the health problems you may experience damage to the neck and arm muscles, eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, job stress, poor posture and poor circulation. Resolutions to some of these health concerns can be through the science of ergonomics. The objective of ergonomics is to devise and create safe health work conditions with the goal of decreasing health issues and increasing employee morale and work productivity. If  Magnum Enterprises has customers internationally, they also may be faced with political, geo-economic and cultural challenges. From a political concern, there are countries that have restrictions regulating or denying the transfer of data across their borders which can potentially result in customers or businesses from having to pay import or export fees. Geo-economic concerns involve issues such as identifying and locating personnel with IT skills to work at remote sites and communicating with personnel across all 24 time zones. Cultural challenges â€Å"include differences in languages, cultural interests, religions, customs, social attitudes, and political philosophies†. For example, if Magnum Enterprises was conducting a business transaction via a Video Teleconference it would be disrespectful to look them in the eye when introducing yourself. Before meeting an international customer, it would prudent to review their customs and courtesies to ensure a smooth business relationship. Improving Magnum’s e-business performance faces several challenges. Consulting with key department personnel from operations, marketing, finance and legal as well as addressing technical and management obstacles will assist me in charting a plan to put our e-business on the right track towards success. Business Mgt. (2016, Oct 17).

Self-Reflection on Working at a Group Presentation Essay

Self-Reflection on Working at a Group Presentation - Essay Example Preferably the group aimed a postcode with numerous cases of crimes and an equal presentation of all forms of crimes. Hanger hill was selected as a collaborative decision. All members supported the decision since the postcode was known for its crime rates and it presented numerous talking points that would increase the creativity in the project. In addition, the location was researched friendly since most of our group members have visited the place which minimized the challenges that may be presented. After the creation of the group, we embraced the assumption that the arrangement provided us with an opportunity to exploit the abilities of each member(Finch & Fafinski, 2012). For this reason, each group member was provided with specific responsibility and a time framework before they could present their works. However, the activities were conducted in a collaborative manner. For instance, the group member in charge of coming up with online data on the selected postcode requested for website suggestion and all group members obliged to the request. After all, responsibilities were presented, the croup would then convene and discuss the results and date collected. At this time, presentation ideas were presented as a collective selection on the idea was reached. However, minor differences were experienced as group members disagreed on the ways of collecting data, the time margin provided and the mode of presentation. In addition, the group lacked motivation and this was a major hindra nce to the quality and completion of the project. The group dynamic makes it easy to complete projects since one is able to specialize in one activity and the rest of the members handled other requirements. Research for the presentation was conducted mainly from online sources. Through online sources, updated data could be easily obtained (Finch & Fafinski, 2012).

History of Hip-Hop Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History of Hip-Hop - Essay Example This essay begins from explanation that the music that is known to us today as hip-hop was then called disco rap. It was a man named Keith Cowboy, a rapper with the band Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five that coined the famous term â€Å"Hip-hop†. The term â€Å"hip-hop† that is analyzed in the first part of the essay was used for the first time in print by Steven Hagar, an author in his work the Village Voice in the year 1984. But this does not imply that the Keith Cowboy was the true pioneer of hip-hop music and culture, but on the contrary, hip-hop was there even before Cowboy was born, only then it was known by a different name. This essay tries to trace the history of hip-hop. And for that one will need to go about four decades back to the 1970’s, to the city of Bronx. The essay describes the history of the music genre to 21th century and to the times when the rappers started incorporating serious issues into their lyrics. The Jamaican born Clive Campbe ll who later famously came to be known as Kool Herc or DJ Kool Herc can be said to be the ‘godfather‘ of hip-hop music. Essay focuses not only on his impact to the genre, but also provides the reader with detailed analysis on the 80s and 90s history of hip-hop. The 80’s saw a dramatic change in the hip-hop scenario. The hip-hop of the 70’s got more complex as it developed more. A glance of Hip-Hop through the 80’s, the 90’s and the new Millennia is also described by the researcher. In concluion, the researcher suggests to enjoy the present scenario of hip-hop music and what will follow next.... MC would just go on about pairing nonsensical rhyming words, making a clown of their friends and enemies with their witty words, hence taking the shape of folk music. It was later, that the rappers started incorporating serious issues into their lyrics. (History, n.d.) DJ Kool Herc the Pioneer of Hip-Hop The Jamaican born Clive Campbell who later famously came to be known as Kool Herc or DJ Kool Herc can be said to be the 'godfather 'of hip-hop music. He was born in Jamaica on April 16th 1955 and was a Jamaican DJ by profession. The credit for making hip-hop music what it is today goes to DJ Kool Herc. He was the one to experiment with the segregation of the instrumental part of a record and give more emphasis to the drumbeat or the "break". He used two turn tables, a set up used by the DJs and the same record in each of the turn tables hence elongating the break of the beat. This method of breaking the beat of the hard funk and rock records and mixing them with Latin percussion then formed and still forms the basis of hip-hop music. Later Kool Herc used dancers to dance in tune to his prolongated breaks and guess what, there were break-dancer. Kool Herc influenced many other greats of hip-hop including the Afrika Bambaataa and Joseph Saddler a.k.a. Grandmaster Flash who later starte d DJ-ing in Kool's fashion. It was due to Kool's impact that Bambaataa a notorious general one timer of the Black Spades gang in Bronx converted himself and his followers into the non-violent group of Zulu Nation. Of this transition period Steven Hagar writes, "For over five years the Bronx had lived in constant terror of street gangs. Suddenly, in 1975, they disappeared almost as quickly as they had arrived. This happened because something better came along to replace the gangs. That

Toyotas Strategy and Initiative in Europe Case Study

Toyotas Strategy and Initiative in Europe - Case Study Example However, instead of being engaged in price competition, companies are scaling down their operations. The uniqueness of Toyota's strategy was that it designed and manufactured locally adapted models. This strategy helped the company to increase sales: "by almost 50 percent from 2000 to 2005. The new strategy paid off financially, too. According to Business Week, the operating profit increased ninefold to $654 million in 2003" (Thompson et al 2008, p. C245). Research and innovation are a part of Toyota's success. The company launched its new car Aygo and "challenged many of its traditional views: the car was specifically designed for the European market and exclusively" (Thompson et al 2008, p. C245). For Toyota, this business decision is multi-dimensional and extremely complex. It is impossible to assume that business decisions even approach rationality, let alone perfect rationality. Toyota has to make complex decisions and, because of the multi-dimensionality of their decision conditions, they make many decisions (Annual Report Toyota 2008). Product adaptability and outsources are also key success factors. Today's consumer has a tremendous number of choices. Most of the products are complex and many of them have additives, preservatives, and other chemicals. Some of them are dangerous. Many of them have hazardous long-term effects. It is virtually impossible for the modern consumer to be rational and maximizing. Normal average consumers are typically confused and have difficulty making satisfactory decisions. Even though they may have the capability to evaluate functional product attributes in a rational manner, they lack the time and motivation to do so (Annual Report Toyota 2008). Global expansion and penetration to the North American market improves Toyota's position on the market "For 2006 Toyota was expected to reach 9 million units in production-with luxury brand Lexus reaching the 500,000 units mark for the first time (up from 400,000 units in 2004)" (Thompson et al 2008, p. C246). Toyota follows growth strategies based on the idea that expansion and market development will help it to attract new customers. According to its Annual repot: "Toyota expects to record net sales of 2,000.0 billion ahead of schedule for the fi scal year ending March 31, 2008" (Annual Report 2008, p. 3). The global car market is not only very complex but also not quite open for entry. Investment in research and development improve its position and increase opportunities on the global scale (Financial Results. Presentations 2008). 2. SWOT analysis shows that there is a strong correlation between successful strategies and direction selected by the company and its financial performance. The main strength is stable position on the market and loyal consumers. Financial statements highlight that in 2007 Toyota has increased its sales in 4.7% in comparison with 2006. Its operation income increased in 17.3% and income before income taxes and minority interests increased in 29.2 %. The net income is $40,309 million (2007) in comparison with 30,268 million in 2006 (see Appendix 1, 2). The main opportunity for Toyota is growth. Growth up until the 1990s meant expanding productive capabilities and market opportunities and making sure that this growth would yield better

Write about how wars affected the art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Write about how wars affected the art - Essay Example and ending in 1918 witnessed some great Artwork of Sigmund Freud, who was the founder of a new art related movement named Surrealism, in which artists tried to portrayed the dreamy and subconscious thoughts of people controlled and impacted by war situation in a lifelike manner. A new style of art was formed by Pablo Picasso named as Cubism, and this style covered bold, geometric and sharp angles in artistic works. The arts during civil war i.e. from 1861 to 1865 was shaped and excelled by numerous artists like McNeill Whistler, who created extremely beautiful art based on the impact of French impressionism by using oils and drawings. Albert Pinkham Ryder created the idealistic artistic work by using various effects of emotions. Thomas Eakins focused on presenting extra ordinary sensitive works based on psychological impacts of wars. Among all these wonderful arts Winslow Home also contributed his works based on portraying landscapes and seascapes via watercolors (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2011) The beginning era of revolutionary civil war also witnessed some breakthroughs of arts that involved energy and self confidence of American nation via art and represented it in form of strong builders. The war had string impacts on artistic works on all kinds and brought new breakthroughs in every

Best theories explain crime Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Best theories explain crime - Essay Example There are numerous theories such as rational choice theory, strain theory, social disorganization theory, social learning theory, and social control theory, labeling theory as well as biology, genetics and evolution. Although there are many theories that have been put forward to explain why some people have high propensity to commit crime, I find strain theory to be the most suitable for explaining crime. Robert Merton, a sociologist from the United States, was the first to assess criminal behavior using Strain Theory in 1938. According to Merton’s Strain theory, all members of the society have the same aspirations, but have varying opportunities or abilities to achieve their aspirations (Agnew & Brezina, 2010). Consequently some people will fail to achieve what the society expects of them through accepted ways like embracing hard work first then enjoying the fruits of labor later in life. Merton identified and explored five basic adaptations of people who cannot legitimately achieve the societal aspirations. These include: innovation, rebellion, conformity, retreatism and ritualism (Rios, 2007). Conformity is where a person acknowledges that he or she cannot attain goals expected by the society and embrace the limited opportunities within their reach. Innovation is where an individual resort to illegal means to attain societal goals. Rebellion is where an individual disowns b oth societal goals as well as the means of achieving them and decides to give life a different approach. Retreatism also rejects societal goals and means of attaining them while ritualism is where an individual gives up hope on societal goals, but still embraces the means of achieving them (Rios, 2007). The choice of Merton’s Strain theory as the most appropriate for explaining crime is informed by its pragmatic approach and coverage. Strain theory further takes into consideration cognitive dissonance for every societal member in examining the tendency of

Critically discuss the Strategy in Action of the organisation 'Nestle' Essay

Critically discuss the Strategy in Action of the organisation 'Nestle' - Essay Example With the power of innovation, advanced technology, and high investment in Research and Development, the company has outpaced competition thereby creating an edge of its competitors. Mission statement of Apple is â€Å"to produce high-quality, low cost, easy to use products that incorporate high technology for the individual. We are proving that high technology does not have to be intimidating for non computer experts†(Apple Annual Report 2010). The strategies and mission of Apple is largely affected by the external environment it operates in. This would better be analyzed through PESTEL analysis of Apple. PESTLE Analysis Apple being a US company faces barriers related to rules and regulations imposed by the DOJ, EPA and the SEC. The governmental agency like SEC inspects the fair practice and compliance and the governmental agencies like DOJ and EPA inspects the antitrust laws and environmental compliance. Political risks are high in Technology Company like Apple. In addition, the laws in communication industry are subject to change that affects the compliance of Apple. The required the company to invest heavily in compliance of laws and regulations and even pay fines as a result of investigations. Apple is technology company build on a global platform where factors like inflation rates, interest rate and current exchange rates in bear some impact, but such impact can’t be considered influential (US Technolgy Sector Analysis, 2010). As the interest rates are slashed as a result of recession in the economy, the company could borrow money at a cheaper interest rate. Same is the case with changes in current exchange rates. Change in economic conditions could also materially affect the performance of the company in an adverse way. The socio-cultural forces impact the company’s operations as Apple network spans across various countries and continents. Information display, privacy issues and information sharing across people in different countries depends upon the socio-cultural forces operating in that country (US Technolgy Sector Analysis, 2010). It can be argued that if Apple spans in network to the country like India (For e.g.) it has to keep in mind the culture of people there and whether the current configuration of the company is best suited for operating in that country. Global markets for different products and services of Apple are subject to technological changes in rapid advances along with high competition (US Technolgy Sector Analysis, 2010). Technological factors possess a great impact on the success of the company and a failure to cope up with these could materially affect the financial position of the company. Legality also has a role to play in operations of any company that intends to span globally. Apple has expanded its business across continents and political and legal policies of the countries can well decide on the fate on how the company can operate within a country. Issues over intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents lead to legal proceedings against the company from time to time (Apple Annual Report 2010). The environmental forces do not have a significant role to play in the operations of the company. When the company was incorporated, its primary target was young generation which wanted to connect to each other in spite of differences in physical boundaries. With the growing aging populating, the company has also shifted its focus to people of senior age groups.

AIRPORT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

AIRPORT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT - Essay Example According to London City Airport (2006: 10), LCA Master Plan indicates that the airport is in a position of accommodating 8 million passengers up to 2030. This is anticipated to occur in line with continued support of London growth, and meeting the increment in the demand for business travel. Moreover, the LCA Master Plan illustrates that the airport focuses on maintaining good neighbourhood with local citizens and environmental record. In addition, the plan illustrates that the airport will maintain its operational hours of closing at night during weekdays, and operating 24 hours during weekends (London City Airport 2006: 10). Further, the Master Plan claims that the airport will neither create another runway nor will it host larger aeroplanes. As such, the airport focuses on achieving its growth through maximization of its runway, creation of better facilities, and improving flight occupancy for passengers. Finally, LCA Master Plan indicates that passenger growth will increase duri ng the Olympic Games and employment opportunities will be created through the implementation of the Master Plan (London City Airport 2006: 10). The purpose of LCA Master Plan is to indicate the growth potential of the airport up to 2030 (London City Airport 2006: 10). The Master Plan was prepared in response to 2003 government requirement on White Paper that all UK airports have to develop Master Plans, which indicate growth in response to passenger demand. As such, LCA Master Plan indicates how to optimize on the current runways without a need of constructing new runways. In addition, LCA Master Plan reflects White Paper principles, as well as how the airport intends to make objectives outlined in the Master Plan a reality. LCA Master Plan illustrates how the airport intends to have a growth of 8 million passengers by 2030, minimize noise, and maintain environmental sustainability (London

Personal Fictional Writing Essay Example for Free

Personal Fictional Writing Essay Imagine you are Ralph on the island; write a series of at least three diary entries, which record important episodes during your stay there. Include in the entries your changing thoughts and feelings about what occurs and about yourself and the other boys with you. Diary Entry 1: Chapter 5: Beast from water I just do not understand. It is not meant to be like this. I mean, everything requires improvisation. I call a meeting and all of them, Jacks group of boys, think that they are there to make jokes. There is no time for fun, but business. I tell them about the huts and how they are unstable, but they remain pessimistic as if they have something better to do. What can that something be? Hunting. Well, Jack seems to think so. He said that he would hunt down the beast. Really, we do not even know if the beastie truly exists. Jack is so aggressive, marching on an army of anarchy among the boys to hunt down an imaginary beast. Mass hysteria erupted when one of the diffident littluns, Percival was his name, said that the beast came from the sea, like a giant squid. I really do not know what has gone into their poor, innocent souls, torturing them like that. The fear of the boys is mounting, day after day. Well, perhaps there could be a beastie. I know that even I am not immune to fear. Nevertheless, Piggy says there is no beast, so there isnt. Piggy knows. I mean, he is intelligent unlike me. He can think and make decisions without being unsuccessful with his natural, intellectual ability. He would be so much better at being chief than I am. It is just inequitable that Jack bullies him. But what can I do? Do I really want Jack on my back too? Its enough I cannot stand having him within a one-metre radius of me. Moreover, Jacks focus on hunting will prevent all of us on this island from leaving it and seal our fate as no more than animals. I just cannot help realising this. However, Jack and his hunters do not. It is simple to them: fear ferments and spreads in the group, so they result to violence and hunting as a solution to the obstacle. They do not care about where they use the lavatory, about keeping the fire going, or most importantly, getting rescued. Even the rules they do not care about. I am very frustrated. I just cannot stand this any more. Without my rules, there will be disastrous consequences to everything Jack and his hunters do. My rules keep the boys tethered to some semblance of society, but they seem oblivious to it and are willing to drop the rules like a hot pan. Life on this island just seems to get harder by every passing day. With Simon wandering off at night, no wonder the littluns are frightened. However, I should not let that bother me. On this island, there are by far more important things to do, like being rescued. How much boys on this island do believe in ghosts? What are the children on this island? Humans, animals, or savages? Piggy was head-on right by yelling at them. Surely, there are not any ghosts or beasties on this island, because Piggy told me so. He tells me everything, and everything he says is true. It has to be true. I feel as if I should step down as chief, for once and for all, but Piggys already warned me that if I do, Jack will become leader and the only thing he will lead us to do is hunt. But being rescued is better than hunting and I, for that matter, want to be rescued and back to my old life: with my mother and father. It is dreadful here. I try to shut my eyes of the surroundings that envelope me, and force the image of my life before this tragedy. Nothing. There is nothing to see. This life is like a virus, invading and sweeping the happy memories of my life before until there is nothing. I thought life here would be different, better somehow, but it seems that I got the contrary. Now, everything on this island makes me feel depressed. Even my own physical appearance, especially my hair; it has grown shabby and uncomfortably long. I have all grown shabby with neglect. With all the oppressive responsibility weighing down on my shoulders, I wish that the ground now would open up and swallow me down into its depth, to close me off the problems on this island, which I face. Diary Entry 2: Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees This is it. A change from this place will do us all a whole lot of good. I have become so dirty and unclean over the past few months, that the conditions that I take myself for now is normal. The rest of the boys seem to take these conditions as normal too. The longing that I have for a deep, hot bath to purify my body and wrap me up in its enclosing warmth is unbearable. Every thing seemed to have been going well, but every step I take on this island to please Jack, just defines the how hard it will be, when you try to break the boys away from Jacks spell-binding habit: Hunting. Not that I am complaining. I followed the hunters today and the view that is to be seen on the opposite side of the island is utterly different to the view that is observed from the side of which we have settled in. However, although there are spectacular sceneries that can be viewed from this island, there is no place like home. The ocean is like a thick wall, an impermeable barrier, preventing my and the other boys escape. Simon seems to think that we will leave the island eventually. But I doubt that will ever happen. Simon is so batty. Now, with Jack thinking himself chief, everything is impossible. But I have to say, I did enjoy myself at the hunt. It was breathtaking. Originally, we were meant to be hunting down the beast, but Jack suggested that we could also hunt a pig in addition to continuing our search for the beast. It was smashing! I was excited so much that I was caught up in the adventure; I threw my spear at the boar, and hit it. But I suppose it was not much of a hit; it only nicked his snout. That was the first time I took aim and I cannot believe my luck. It has to be good marksmanship. I felt so exhilarated during the hunt, as the primal appeal of killing pigs dawned upon me. At least I have something to be proud of, other than some cut by a boars tusks. Jack thought that it was necessary to point the wound on his left arm out to the crowd of boys. I cannot understand Jack. He has such an eccentric personality; predictable though, he would not actually change much from his self-centred self. I hit the boar but he still pays the same attention as if I were thin air. The boys are impervious too, when they are around Jack that is. It is like he has the glamour that allows the other boys to be absorbed in him. No matter how much attention you persist or demand to acquire, the power that is bound inside Jack will not give in. I tried to show the boys that I was a good aimer, even though it was my first time hunting, but it was useless, like I said. Jack and the boys were truculent when they closed on towards Robert. They started chanting, Kill the Pig and I guess they were caught up in their momentum of chanting, that they actually started jabbing Robert with their spears, at first in jest, then with a more dangerous intent. He was yelping so much that I though my ears would give out. Instantly, all the excitement that I had in me from the hunt vanished. I was so glad that Robert escaped their grasp. I did join them with this too. I didnt know what was happening to me. The urge to kill was too overpowering. For all I know, we would have killed him. Jack was so self-absorbed, taking himself seriously, that he said that they could use a littlun next time to dress up as a pig, so that they can actually kill it. That was such a sick idea. They are taking a life away. The matter of life is not a game. However, the boys enamoured by Jacks statement began to laugh. This was not funny. They had to be reminded that this is only a game. I am starting to get concerned about the increasingly violent and impulsive behaviour of the hunters. Killing the littluns is trivial compared to what these hunters are capable of. We started climbing the mountain, as evening fell, and I realized that we would not be able to get back to the beach until morning. I did not want to leave Piggy with the littluns all night. I thought it was too much responsibility for one to handle, but I suppose Piggy would not mind; he will work things out easily. But Jack did not address this concern for Piggy kindly; he mocked me about it. What good chief would he make if he does not treat the boys with respect? But luckily Simon offered to go and inform Piggy of our whereabouts. Jack was still on his frenzy of hunting a pig, in the dark. Surely he could see that it was not a suitable time to hunt, but he is so impulsive that even he will not be blinded by the darkness that encloses the island. I thought that if we hunt in the morning it would be more apposite. He does not even think twice when I speak to him. I am chief, he should listen to me as any other boy on the island does. Giving the new understanding that Piggy provided me with, and sensing the hostility from Jack, I knew that he loathed me. I asked him why but he had no answer. What would he answer if he had one anyway? I never showed him any hatred but if he wants me to play his game, I will play. He was so pressing to climb up the mountain, even though most of the hunters were tired and, of course, afraid. It was unveiled in their eyes. At that moment I thought of going back myself too, but what Jack said obliged me to remain. He said that I was afraid. I am not afraid more than he is and he knows that, but he just doesnt want to admit it. I was surprised that my voice actually balanced itself proportionally, so that none of my reluctance or weakness showed. I was almost motivated by it. Just moments before this, Jack was accusing me of being afraid and now he was. He claimed that he saw something bulge on the mountain. Of course, due to my newfound bravery, I agreed to search for it immediately. But while I had a mask of bravery composed on my outside, inside I was not sure of what to do. Not sure about whether I should take a step forward or backward. What to do if the beast attacks me. It was so frustrating that it felt like the anxiety was scratching my brain away bit by bit. It seemed at the top of the mountain that I was paralysed. But I realised, eventually, what I was doing this for. To show Jack that I am not scared like he claims. So I fused my hatred for him, with my will and took two steps forward. That is when I saw it. My legs gave out under me, like an involuntary reflex reaction, but a button inside triggered me to get upon my feet as quick as I can and escape. It seemed like hours had passed in those few seconds for me to get over the shock of what I had just observed. It was like a huge rock thing and it bowed, and when the wind blew, it lifted its head to reveal a ruined face. It was unapproachable. Terrifying. I realised that the horror witnessed by the littluns in words, is inconsequential, in comparison to when you view the beast yourself. I am glad it is over for now, but I have a deep feeling that this thing, beastie, will not take long to return its visit. We must get prepared. Diary Entry 3: Chapter 8: Gift for the Darkness No one believes me. Even piggy. He was sceptical of the whole idea of me witnessing a beast on the top of the mountain. What angered me more is Jacks assurance to the group of boys that the hunters can defeat the beast. But are his hunters any good when faced with a beast that even the bravery of me, Roger and Jack could not defeat? His hunters are merely boys with sticks. I was right to point this out to him; he cannot be so ignorant of the beastie. Piggy said that I should not have called his boys that, but honestly, what choice did I have! And he never left it there either. Oh no. He called me a coward and accused me of calling the rest of his hunters cowards too. What right does he have to call me that? He even said that I am not a proper chief. As if he would be better than me as chief. All he cares about is hunting, hunting, hunting, and nothing else. If this is how he wants to live his life, then I doubt he will ever have a life, since he will be spending the rest of it on this doomed island. Adding more to this, the punch from the whole of this meeting came when he put my position of being chief in a vote, between him, and me to the boys. It is so hurtful when I think about it; I cannot believe that he holds such a grudge against me, that much to challenge my position of being chief. I have not did anything wrong to him. But, I guess I should not be so surprised. Its so Jack. Whenever he comes across something that he cannot stand, he feels compelled to sweep it out of his way. In this case, it is me. Oddly, I do feel sad and uneasy due to him leaving. I, certainly, was not expecting him to leave so quickly. Especially crying. The thought of him crying has never crossed my mind at all, even though I have been living with him for several months. It is not like him. He was always that kind of person like a rock, with his weaker feelings and emotions imperceptible, no one would have thought that he would be exposed so easily like that. Relieved that he left, Piggy and Simon seemed untouched, as if a burden has been lifted away from their shoulders. I guess they are calm now, since all Jack would do is pick on them, as they are the weaker vessels of the boys. Piggy tried to make me realise that there are potential benefits from Jack leaving, but I have this strong feeling inside me, telling me that something ominous is about to happen, resulting from this predicament. I just cannot put my finger on what is going to happen. He said that now we can start focusing on the fire more. Now that the fire has been built on the beach it may be difficult to see from far away, but at least somebody will keep it going. At least there is a trace of hope of being rescued. However, I really doubt that most of us will actually be rescued, as just after the building of the fire was done on the beach, I noticed several of the biguns missing. I did not know what to do. I felt as though Jack had taken part of me as an equipment to equip himself for evil and savagery on this island. The more I come to think about it, the clearer it becomes to me that Jack is the disruptive element and the root of destruction on this island. My authority is slipping away faster than I could imagine. Just a few months ago, I had it all, but now there is nothing left. I cannot understand the appeal of hunting if you do not attempt to be rescued at the same time. There is a battlefield of emotions warring in me. I tried to show the boys that I am a good chief, that I will get them rescued, but they were all oblivious to me and so left for Jack. It hurt so much that even speaking was like climbing a cliff for me. I suppose now everything is too late; everything is set in motion, I cannot do anything to change it. Maybe it would be better. We could be happier. Piggy says so. Piggy is so confident that everything will turn out to be okay, it almost scares me. We still have Samneric to help us keep the fire going, some littluns and I suppose Simon. Although Piggy and I never knew where he was, we thought that he might be climbing up the mountain. He would still stay unfazed by anything. He has cracked. With Simon, he is that kind of person that his feelings are buried deep inside him and you would have to dig a lot before reaching them. I am surprised that I never thought of Simon, in a way like this, before. You just have to listen to him to get to know him, but of course, Jack never listens to anybody or anything, so what would he know? At this point, I really dont care who I have got in my group as long as they are with me; I need all the support I can get. I was startled by the sudden uproar in the forest. Jack, wearing just dazzle paint and a belt, was even more startling. He told us that he and his group were living across the beach, by a flat rock, where they have fun. It was kind of him to invite us to join his tribe, but I know that if I were to join his tribe, there would be no going back and certainly no hope of rescue. I thought he was about to take the conch at first, when I saw him. I mean the conch to me is still a symbol of ritual and order, and without order on this island, there would be nothing. I still do not know why that thought passed through my head at that moment. But I saw that some of his hunters did take some branches of fire. Perhaps they took it to keep warm, or even cook their latest hunting victim on. But even by how much I would like to go to eat the meat and have fun, keeping the fire going was and is still the most important task at hand. It is going to be hard to keep the fire going, and the amount of wood that we need is even harder to get. I suppose Samneric could take two shifts. But Bill appeared sceptical to the whole idea that we will be capable of keeping the fire going. He suggested that we go to Jack and his hunters feast and tell them that the fire is hard among us. Moreover, the fact that there was meat there, hot and satisfying, was enough to make us sprint to cross our enemys border. Even Piggy could not resist. He was ravenous. I saw it in his eyes. Every face that my gaze landed upon was burning with the overwhelming hunger for meat. No one would ever let a chance like this pass by and we werent going to either. The thought of food and meat was too appealing, so we gave in to our desire.

Evaluating a Torsional Pendulum Experiment Essay Example for Free

Evaluating a Torsional Pendulum Experiment Essay I will firstly work out the overall experimental error and how far it was from the true value, using the same formula used in the preliminary. =2? = 10.36 Therefore the total error from what the true value should be is [(11.368-10.36)/11.368] x 100= 8.89% This shows that my experimental results had an overall 8.89% error, where as in my preliminary I had an error of 15.89%, therefore I believe my improvements have improved the accuracy of my results. From the 2 graphs above I can see that the result for 0. 1 meter length seems to be the furthest away from the line of best fit, and may be considered as an anomalous result, however I dont think its necessary to remove this result. The reason for this error could be any of the ones stated below, or possibly as it was the first reading I took, there could have been an initial fault in my experiment set up. Even though I have improved the accuracy of my experiment there are still many errors which will have decreased the accuracy of my results. I will now state each one and estimate percentage errors for the reading error and also experimental error if possible. * The meter ruler is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.5mm, therefore error on the smallest length would be (0.5/100)x100=0.5% and largest length (0.5/500)x100=0.1% . Therefore the error here can be no greater than 0.5%, so this is not a very significant error. However there is also a large span for experimental error, the length of string may not have been fully straight due to not being stretched fully, and also every time I change the length of the wire there will be a new random error generated. These cant be avoided but overall these experimental errors may have been about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.3cm , meaning the maximum error would be (3/100)x100=3% error, which is therefore very significant. * The micrometer is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.005mm, therefore the error on my diameter of 0.49mm was (0.005/0.49)x100=1.02%, this shows a reduced error that of the preliminary, however a 1% error on the diameter can still be a major factor. This is due to the fact that the diameter is raised to the power of 4 in the equation. Therefore a very small change in the diameter may cause a larger than expected change in time period. Therefore I think the error of the diameter may have been the most significant error. If the diameter had been 0.48mm then the percentage error calculated above would have been only 5%, this shows how significant it was. The experimental error is also a factor due to the fact I had to twist two wires together to make a larger diameter. After taking 5 readings of the diameter, which were 0.49, 0.49, 0.48,0.49,0.47mm. I decided to use 0.49 as my value being the mode, however the fact that the diameter varied slightly meant there was an error. The range was 0.02mm, this could therefore have caused an error (0.02/0.49)x100=4.08%, therefore also very significant. Also the fact that I twisted two wires together, after some use, parts of the wire may have untwisted meaning the diameter would change again, this again contributes to the error above. One of the major improvements was the recording of the time period. Using the light gate and an interval of 0.01seconds, the error was only to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.005seconds therefore the maximum error was (0.005/4.15)x100=0.12% and smallest error (0.005/8.40)x100=0.060%, this shows the improvement in recording the time period, where the human error is eliminated. However one small difficulty in taking the actual reading was knowing where to take the intervals. However there was also an experimental error where I had to estimate where the middle of the peak was, and this was slightly different for each run. However the peak was never longer than about 0.1 seconds, therefore the largest error would only have been (0.1/4.15)x100=2.4%. Again the experimental error is greater than the reading error, but the overall error was much lower than the preliminary. * The value for shear modulus I used was 44.7x109GPa, however when doing research for this value, there were more than one of the same value, so there is no guarantee that the value I used was the value of my copper wire. The following website gave me a range of 40-47GPa. http://www.efunda.com/materials/common_matl/common_matl.cfm?MatlPhase=SolidMatlProp=Mechanical However, as the shear modulus is so large the error will be so small. Its difficult to work out the percentage error, therefore my error is just a range of 40-47GPa * The scale is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.05 grams so error on my bar was (0.05/196.3)=0.0254% error, there is no real experimental error in this reading. The percentage errors above show that the overall error should have decreased, where time period is now a very small error, reduced from about 8% in the preliminary. From my log log graph I got 0.4532 as my gradient. However theoretically it should have been 0.5. I also found that if I exclude the 0.1meter length and time period from the log log graph then my gradient would change from 0.4532 to 0.4963, which is very close to 0.5. This again shows that the 0.1m length may be considered as an anomalous result. To work out the percentage error for the gradient, I have to consider the error on the time period and the length, by adding these errors. Therefore the error on the gradient is approximately [{(0.5+3)/2}+{(0.12+2.4)/2}]=3.01%, this was using the average of the reading and experimental errors. From the percentage errors above I believe the main source of error was the diameter of the wire, this had the highest total percentage error and as seen from the equation any error in the diameter will cause a major difference due to being raised to power 4. Reliability of results Time Period(seconds) Experiment Results T=11.368 x l^0.4532 T=2?(I/K)^0.5 Difference1 Difference 2 4.20 4.00 3.27 0.19 0.92 4.65 4.81 4.01 -0.16 0.64 5.23 5.48 4.63 -0.25 0.60 6.16 6.06 5.18 0.10 0.99 6.51 6.59 5.67 -0.07 0.84 7.10 7.06 6.13 0.04 0.98 7.50 7.50 6.55 0.00 0.95 8.04 7.92 6.95 0.12 1.09 8.38 8.30 7.32 0.07 1.05 The table above shows my actual experimental results in the first column. Then the expected experimental result using the relationship I found in the second column. The third column is the theoretical result using the equation derived in my research. The forth column shows the difference between the values I obtained in my experiment and the expected values from the relationship I determined through experiment. And as you can see the maximum difference is only 0.25 seconds away. Therefore this relationship has very strong correlation, as shown on the previous graphs. However, in the fifth column, which shows the difference between my experimental value and the theoretical value according to the equations I noticed that I was constantly above the expected value. Also I was constantly about 1 second above for almost every length measured. From this I came to the conclusion that there must clearly have been some sort of systematic error. This will have increased the time period by approximately a constant amount each time. From my error analysis earlier I believe this may have been the diameter of the wire, as even being 0.1mm away from the true value will cause a large change in time period, which is what may have happened. Improvements to final method If I was to perform this experiment again I would try to further decrease the reading and experimental errors in the following ways. * As I found diameter to be the largest error I would ensure that the wire I am using has a constant diameter, by using only one wire and ensuring it has not been stretched in any way before using it. I would then also measure the diameter of the wire at least 5 times for each length, as when the length is decreased the weight will be pulling down on a wire of shorter length, and may stretch the wire more. Therefore I will record the diameter for each length I do and if it changes take these new diameters into consideration. * The shear modulus of copper ranged from 40-47GPa, therefore I was unable to even come up with an actual error for this. Therefore to reduce the error to almost zero I would measure the actual shear modulus of the copper wire I am using to do the experiment. This can be done using the following formulae G = E / [2(1+?)] where G is the shear modulus, E is the tensile modulus, and ? is the Poissons ratio of the material.

The Political Climate Of 16th Century England

The Political Climate Of 16th Century England Introduction Rarely has there been a time in history where there has been a convergence of scholarly mind, political activism and ardent spiritual concern as that of the four Thomass of 16th century England. The four men represented in this research were all born within 16 years of each other, attained to the pinnacles of religious and political power and fell to meet there demise in disfavor, and with the exception of Wolsey (who died on the way to trial for treason) met their end at the hand of an executioner. Subsequently, having the same name was only one of many commonalities that each of these contemporaries possessed. Yet, the most important attribute by far (whether that was a blessing or bane), was that each had the ear of King Henry the VIII. How did they use their influence? Was this influence wielded in favor of their religious conviction? Were they primarily motivated by self-interest? This research asserts that a combination of the two motivations existed. Two of the men here focused upon were influential Catholics (Cardinal Wolsey and Saint Thomas More) and two were instrumental in establishing the reformed position in the Anglican Church (Cromwell and Cranmer). It might be noted that each had varying degrees of commitment to a reformed agenda, especially in the case of Cromwell; however the influence of these men set the stage for a breech between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic See, which remains to this day. In fact, the issues that were a precursor to this division still provides constant fodder for the present Archbishop of Canterbury and others who seek a reunion with the Church at Rome. In order to examine the extent of the influences of the four Thomass on 16th century England, it becomes necessary to first survey the political and religious climate that existed, as well as the Roman church and the seeds of Protestantism that were planted by the Reformed movement in Continental Europe. Perhaps the most monumental time in the history of English reformation, and therefore one that would later directly impact religious development in the North American colonies, was the period in the 16th century between the reign of King Henry the VIII and Elizabeth I. The reign of the Tudors proved at times to be as much controversial, as it was tumultuous. This was due in large part to the relationships surrounding Henry VIII and his six wives. Therefore, Henry was not a reformer at heart, or for theological reasons as much as for the legal ramifications surrounding his annulment to Catharine of Aragon, and the reluctance of the Pope to recognize this annulment. In fact, the pope was requested to reverse an earlier Papal dispensation that would then make Henrys first marriage, (a marriage to Catharine, his brothers widow) of no effect. Henrys position was that this marriage should be annulled because it went against Cannon law which was based on a passage from Leviticus. This ordin ance made it unlawful to marry a brothers widow, based on a passage in Leviticus. However, Catharine was the aunt of Charles V, Who was the leader of Spain as well as the Holy Roman Emperor, and as Gonzalez states, The pope, cement VII, could not invalidate Henrys marriage to Catherine without alienating Charles V. Most historians suggest that this position was the primary factor for further alienation between the house of Tudor and Rome, yet Henry had been a dedicated catholic and even came to the defense of the church, writing a remonstrance of sorts to the work of Luther. Newcombe states, But Henry VIIIs agenda was quite different and he was generally hostile to the reforming ideas that began to find their way to England from continental Europe. This hostility took the form of a pamphlet written, probably with the help of the theologian Thomas More, called Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Marinum Lutherum (defense of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther) which first a ppeared in 1521. Henry was awarded the title Defender of the Faith by the Pope, and this recognition was so pleasing to the king that he continued to acknowledge it and kept it in his royal style even after the break with Rome. Indeed, there is little evidence to suggest that Henry was dissatisfied with the doctrines or practices of the church in themselves. The Religious/Political Climate of 16th Century England At the end of the Wars of Roses, Henry Tudor ascended to the throne (as Henry the VII) and until the civil war in 1642, the reign of the house of Tudor was generally a peaceful one. After the death of Henry VII the throne was passed to Henry VIII in 1509. Forgeng states, Henry had no desire to make any significant changes in church teachings, but there was growing pressure in the country to follow the lead of the continental Protestants such as Martin Luther; English Protestants were later heavily influenced by Calvin, a French Protestant who established a rigidly Protestant state in Geneva. This form of religious awakening would continue to have an effect on the populace, some of which would express itself in the Puritan movement in later years. Noll states, In most general terms, the Puritan movement had represented a desire to finish the English Reformation, to complete the work of purifying church, society and self that began under henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547) and Edward VI (15 47-1553) which was temporarily reversed under the Roman Catholic Mary I (1553-1558), but which was eventually secured under Elizabeth I (1558-1603). It would seem that even though Henry was very firmly ground in the Catholic faith and tradition, the new waves of Protestantism on the continent of Europe were lapping, as it were, at the white cliffs of Dover. The seeds of reformation were being sown which in turn would make the movement grow in earnest during the reign of Edward. The Catholic Church in the Tudor Period In a much broader sense, the Catholic Church was in the midst of withstanding an onslaught of reformation activities which was to decrease its influence in Europe exponentially. This was in part, due to the erosion of Papal authority which was a direct result of its intervention in affairs of state. British author and historian A. G. Dickens states, Standing on the summit of this huge pyramid, the medieval Popes, however unwillingly, became political rivals of emperors and kings. Thomas Hobbes must admittedly be accounted a hostile witness, yet he did no more than overstate a genuine historical insight when in 1651 he looked back on the Papacy and called it the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. So long as the church maintained friendly contacts with the Empire and its powerful successor-states, it could normally call upon physical force to crush doctrinal dissenters, and usually, in the authentic Roman style, without permitting any two-way ar guments. So it was that the Pope, at the time of the conflict with Henry VIII, saw the wisdom in avoiding alienation of the Holy Roman Empire, and in particular, Charles V who was at its head, and also was directly related to Catherine, Henrys first wife. Dickens also notes that, Without question the English Reformation belonged to that far larger breakaway which detached half Europe from the Papacy. The Protestant Reformation in Tudor England It seems that the Protestant Reformation was quite inevitable in 16th century England, given the winds of change blowing from the continent of Europe and bolstered by the teaching of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. It was only a matter of time until the force of these teachings found its way into the heart of the people of Great Britain. However, the endeavor received impetus that was quite unexpected, in the form of the tenuous relationship that arose between the Pope and the Crown. Rosman states, According to the laws of the land, England became a Protestant realm in 1559. This legislative definition of religion was more important that twentieth-century readers may appreciate. The nation-states that emerged in sixteenth-century Europe were validated by religion. People who adhered to alternative faiths in preference to the official one challenged the political as well as the religious order. In England citizenship and creed were inseparable, as they were in most other European states. To be an English person was to be a member of the Church of England. This paradigm or way of thinking, serves to amplify the magnitude of what was taking place in Tudor England. Though there were many complex issues that constituted this irrevocable change, it must also be noted that the actions and influence wielded by certain individuals, close to the crown, played a decisive role in the events that would follow. These events would shape the Reformation, and it is here that we examine the four Thomass. The Influence of Four Contemporaries Thomas Wolsey (1478-1530) Thomas Wolsey served as the chief advisor to Henry the VIII in a position known as Lord Chancellor. He was born in humble surroundings, yet received a fine education and then becoming ordained as a priest in 1498. Through a series of advancements, he was appointed Royal Chaplain for Henry the VII, and it can clearly be seen that he would naturally have the ear of the royal prince who succeeded his father. In fact, Henry the VIII made Wolsey part of his privy council, and eventually Lord Chancellor In 1515. Wolsey continued to grow in stature and cultivated favorable relationships with those who could profitably help his causes. Those that did not, were equally disregarded. Wolsey was rewarded for his service to the crown and was made Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of York. Wolsey was not only faithful in his service to the crown, but he also held favor with Pope Leo X, who made him a Cardinal in 1515 and later, a Papal Legate in. Wolsey became one of the most powerful servants to t he Crown in English history. However, this divided allegiance came to a crossroad when the issue of Henrys annulment to Catharine of Aragon came to a head. Although Wolsey appealed to the Pope more than once to disregard the Papal dispensation that allowed the marriage in the first place, the Pope disregarded these attempts and as Papal Legate Wolsey found himself in conflict with Henry, who began to question his allegiance. By 1528, there was little more Wolsey could do and by 1529, he was arrested and accused of treason. Ordered to London to stand trial, he died en-route in 1530. To Wolseys credit, he did promote the education of the clergy, seeing he himself had benefited from this. Taunton states, There are two ways of bringing about a reform; and they can be summed up in the two words, dont and do. It is easy enough to issue prohibitory laws, and it is just as easy to evade them. This Wolsey understood; and the absence of such decrees in all his educational work is noteworthy. He built upon the more reasonable and therefore more lasting foundation of teaching men to know, and then desire to work. Ignorance, he knew, was the root of most of the mischief of the day: so by education he endeavored to give men the means to know better. In this way, Wolsey, with his influence in the rise of a number of the universities, contributed to education reform as well. Thomas More (1478-1535) The role of Thomas More in this period and the influence he wielded proved a bit more complex. More, like Wolsey, rose through the ranks of faithful service also becoming a member of Henrys privy counsel in 1517, was knighted in 1521 and became the Kings personal secretary and advisor but later, served as a liaison between Wolsey and King Henry VIII. It can clearly be seen that his sphere of influence, though not as extensive as Wolseys, was however rather intimate with regard to his relationship to the king. After Wolsey was deposed in 1529, More was appointed Lord Chancellor in his place. Despite Mores close relationship with Henry, a series of religious reforms enacted by the latter, caused the Chancellor to elevate his opinions in favor of the Church at Rome and therefor against the King. One of the telling events was the refusal of More to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn, but of greater importance still, was his disagreement with the King order to forbid the payment of Annates, or other contributions to Rome. But the biggest issue was Mores refusal to loyalty to the king as the head of the church. This was due to the Act of Succession passed by parliament in 1534. The act not only assured that title to the English Crown would pass to the Children of Henry and Anne Boleyn, (Elizabeth) but it also required all subjects to swear an oath to the Kings supremacy as head of the Church of England. This was something More was not prepared to do and later, he was charged with treason and finally beheaded in 1535. More, having been a staunch supporter of the Roman church was later beautified by the Pope and finally canonized, and In 1935, four hundred years after his death, Thomas Mores name was added to the official list of saints of the Roman catholic church. However Marius states, So More died for the sacral church. He thought that the pope was the head of that church, but the papacy was merely one office among many in the priestly order, and it is a critical error to say that he died for the authority of the pope in England and to leave it at that, not explaining that he held none of the high-flown doctrines of papal infallibility that have spread their black wings over the skies of catholic modernity. Regardless of ones views on Mores commitment to papal infallibility, one thing is for certain. He supported papal authority as head of the church, and he paid for this conviction with his life. Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) Of all those who could be counted as leaders in the reformation movement in Great Britain in the 16th century, Cromwell was one of the strongest proponents. After being instrumental in assisting Henry in the annulment of his marriage to Catharine, Cromwell was rewarded as vice-regent and vicar-general, overseeing the affairs of the Church of England. Though he had earlier been an aid to Wolsey, he avoided being associated with Wolseys positions and Cromwell himself was named a member of the privy council, growing in favor with the King. Cromwells importance can particularly be seen as an enforcer of the many new acts of parliament that supported the Act of Supremacy which made Henry and subsequently, his heirs, head of the church. It might also be noted that Cromwell helped to shape religious reform by calling a synod of bishops along with Cranmer and Foxe and the result was a document known as The Institution of the Christian Man. This doctrinal treatise was used to help quell the u prising of several of the clergy who balked at the suppression of the monasteries in England. So it may be seen that Cromwell was more so interested in the doctrinal aspect of the reformation, howbeit, these position supported his own agenda as well. It would see that his real voice was found in the political arena and to that end, he was instrumental in the proceedings of what was known as the Reformation Parliament. However, not long after, his manipulations were short lived in that he helped to arrange the marriage of Henry to Anne of Cleves and this proved to be his undoing. Coby states, Cromwell was answerable for this disaster of a marriage. He conducted the long-distance negotiations with Cleves. Correspondence passed through him and his office without ever receiving comment by henry. The honor or the King required that he not be seen begging for a mate, so underlings had to woo in his stead. That was one reason for Cromwells taking the lead; but so too was the objective of a German alliance, which Cromwell pursued more avidly than any other. Thus as Henry soured on his new wife and despaired of begetting additional heirs, he looked around for someone to blame; and who better than the Lord Privy Seal, who first reported on Annes preeminent beauty. Bolstered by a substantial retinue of Cromwells political enemies, the King had him arrested and he was charged with several crimes including treason. Though he sought to show support for the King, he was executed in 1540. In recent years Cromwell has been called everything, from Henry VIIIs most trusted minister, to his most Notorious minister. Regardless of ones opinion in this regard, there can be no doubt that he had the ear of the sovereign and did push the advancement of Protestant reform in England. Though he was highly motivated by a number of issues, in the end, the means that he employed to bring about his designs were considered somewhat Machiavellian and he faced the scourge of his antagonists when his day finally came in court. It has rightly been pointed out that service to the King at this time was a very precarious proposition. Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) Cranmer studied theology at Cambridge eventually attaining his doctorate and was associated there for over 30 years. When Cardinal Wolsey turned to the universities over the annulment issue, Cranmer gave a good showing and assisted Henry with his support of the annulment and later assisted with the proceedings. Cranmer was then chosen to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532. Perhaps the most monumental decisions Cranmer made was to denounce the marriage of Henry to Catharine as illegal and in so doing, opened the door for his marriage to Anne. Being archbishop, and therefore under the supposed supervision of the Pope, Cranmers actions infuriated Clement VII. Soon after, both Henry and Cranmer were excommunicated. Cranmers theological positions continued to change and by 1534, it was clear that he took up a Reformist position which continued and helped to solidify the English churches break with the Church of Rome. Shortly thereafter, Anne was sent to the Tower of London for purp orted infidelities and Cranmer was summonsed to hear her confession. Though he supported Annes innocence, he declared Henrys marriage to her null and void, and shortly after this, she was executed. Reforms continued under the guidance of Cromwell and Cranmer and after the death of Cromwell, Cranmers influence grew even more. Cranmer was to come under fire by conservatives who accused him of several misdeeds and though Cranmer escaped their plot with the support of the king, these men, who were opposed to any more reformist ideas continued in their attacks. These too were thwarted and Cranmer continued with his Reformation agenda which culminated in The Book of Common Prayer which effectively changed the liturgy of the church eliminating much of the Catholic form and doctrine. This was one of the most significant changes in the early Reformation period in England. The Book of Common Prayer, for the first time, gave the English people a liturgy in their own language. Cranmer continued to serve, even beyond the death of Henry in 1547 and through the rise of Edward VI. Since Edward ascended the throne at such an early age, the door was open for Cranmer to continue making reforms and this he did with diligence. Advances were made for several years and this continued until the death of Edward. It was Edwards d esire to put his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne to succeed him and she, being a protestant, was supported by Cranmer. However, after the death of Edward, support for Jane fell in the council and, in her stead, the staunchly Catholic Mary was put on the throne. In Queen Marys reign, and earnest attempt was made to restore Catholicism and most of the reformist bishops were replaced by conservatives. Cranmers continued support of reformed doctrine led to his arrest and charged with sedition and treason. Cranmer succumbed to pressure and recanted the doctrine of the reformation and instead espoused the doctrines of the catholic faith. However, when he looked to have his sentence commuted, Mary did not stay the execution. In the end, Cranmer renounced the fact that he recanted from the Reformist doctrine and determined to die a martyr of the Protestant faith. In his final statement, he determined to thrust his own had first into the fire, which signed the recantation, and this promise he kept, when he was burned at the stake in 1556. However, as was true of the blood of the martyrs who died in faith in the past generations, the death of this man also played a role in steeling the courage of those that would follow. Observations and Conclusion Try as she may, Mary could never undo the seeds of reformation that had earlier been planted and these efforts proved to be short lived because she died in 1558. Mary was succeeded by Elizabeth who would enjoy one of the longest sovereign reins up until that time. Elizabeth was a staunch Protestant. Gonzalez states, If the head of the church in England was the pope, and not the king, it followed that the marriage of Henry VII with Catherine of Aragon was valid, and that Elizabeth, born from Anne Boleyn while Catherine still lived, was illegitimate. While Elizabeth was not a protestant extremist in practice, it was certain that she felt that Henry was justified in proclaiming himself head of the Church of England. Elizabeth did not stamp out the practice of Catholicism in the realm, but only suppressed it. However, some Catholics sought to make Mary Stewart, who was in exile, the next sovereign and according to them, rightful heir to the throne. A series of plots to undermine Elizabeth were thwarted and subsequently, Mary was executed, having been found to be a part of them. The seeds of reformation began to grow, and so England saw the rise of a growing number of puritans who were influenced by the teachings of Calvin and one of the primary goals of this group was to return to Biblical Christianity based on the teachings of the New Testament. This growing focus on authentic Christianity lead the way to further reforms and paved the way for a great awakening and evangelical revival in England. Of the four Thomass it is concluded that Cranmer had the most profound and substantial effect on the English reformation in the 16th century. However, it can also be found that political expediency played as much a part of early English reform as did a shift in theological opinion. In balance, all four Thomass, wittingly or unwittingly, hastened the Protestant Reformation in 16th century England. In the case of Cranmer on the protestant side, and More on the Catholic side, these two men seemed to be guided more by conviction than political favor. Wolsey and Cromwell were, as it would seem, more of an opportunist than anything else. In balance, never has there been a time, or religious circumstance for that matter, quite like the 16th century rule of the Tudors. Furthermore, it would seem that the self-interest of the second sovereign (Henry VIII) more than anything, provided the catalyst for reforming work in this period. The researcher therefore concludes that some of the subjects of this research indeed used their substantial influence in favor of their religious convictions, while others were primarily motivated by expediency and self-interest. Therefore, a combination of the two motivations existed. Bibliography of Selected Works Coby, J. Patrick. Thomas Cromwell: Machiavellian Statecraft and the English Reformation. Lantham: Lexington Books, 2009. Dickens, A. G. The English Reformation. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991. Forgeng, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010. Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Reformation to the Present Day. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2010. Marius, Richard. Thomas More: A Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. Newcombe, David G. Henry VIII and the English Reformation. New York: Routledge Publishing, 2003. Noll, Mark A. The Rise of Evangelicalism. Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2003. Rosman, Doreen Margaret. From Catholic to Protestant: Religion and the People in Tudor England. London, University College Press, 1996. Taunton, Ethelred L. Thomas Wolsey: Legate and Reformer. New York: John Lane Publication, 1902.