To Appreciate the Nature of Life We Must First Understand the Cell

Life itself is amazing. It surrounds us on a daily basis from the ants in our window seal, the squirrels on the power line, to the bacteria we all have in our mouths and on our bodies. Life is indeed a gift. Every life that comes into this world is made up of cells, life of humans, plants, and animals. I know that to understand the nature of life we must first comprehend the cell, its parts, and organelles. There are two different types of cells, including prokaryotic and eukaryotic. Living bacteria is an example of something that contains prokaryotic cells.Eukaryotic cells are in just about everything, all humans and all animals. I must say that the eukaryotic cell is way more complex than the prokaryotic. A prokaryotic cell does not even hold a nucleus, which is the brain of the eukaryotic cells. Human and animals cells cannot be developed without prokaryotic cells. Even though these two different types of cells are very different they also are somewhat similar. Both contain riboso mes, cell membranes, and cytoplasm. Plant cells are eukaryotic cells but there are items that definitely set them apart. Cell walls, chlorophyll, and vacuoles are difference between the two.By plant cells having these different organelles, they function in a unique order. Each organelle in the cell do different task. Supporting all organelles in the cell is the cytoplasm. Cytoskeleton maintains the shape and gives it strength. The nucleus is a cell’s brain and operating system. The mitochondrion develops energy through cellular respiration. Ribosomes produce protein, while the nucleolus is what makes ribosomes. The vacuole is the largest organelle and it stores food, wastes, and water. The cell wall which is in all cells except animals, protect the cell and allows elements such as water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide to enter.Endoplasmic reticulum is what carries materials through the cell. Lysosomes are what break down large food molecules into smaller ones. Using energy from t he sun to produce glucose is the chloroplast (which can only be found in plant and algae). Cells make up life. We cannot live or operate without them. Each individual cell is like groups of workers that work together. Without the nucleolus which makes the ribosomes, we would not have any protein. And without protein, we as humans could not be healthy. Humans need cells and all their many organelles. Without cells, there is no life.

How to Maintain a Good Health Essay

Nowadays, most people are busy with their daily work and lives which cause most of them have less time to care for their health including me. I used to eat foods that are easily to prepare in short period of time for example French fries, chicken nuggets or even pizza without paying attention to its nutrition if they are harmful or healthy for my health. According to Rockwell, high- fat foods may increase your risk for high blood cholesterol and this puts you at a higher risk for heart disease and other health conditions (2011). Here are some steps that we can follow to avoid high-fat foods, not smoking and eating foods high in vitamins help protect the eyes.There are three steps that I recommend others to follow of how to avoid fat foods, it may not work on everybody but at least it works on me. First, making a list of good and healthy foods before going to supermarket then just follow what we have listed out and buy it for our meal. Secondly, try to put as much as foods such fresh fruits in the refrigerator so that every time we need something to eat, especially in night time, we can replace junk foods or fatty foods with fruits. Last, we need to put our health on the top of everything in life that is why we need to read the nutritional fact carefully before we buy something.Not only fatty food can affect our health but also smoking could be dangerous for us. By reading an article from Black stated that â€Å"currently some 444,000 people die annually from direct and indirect tobacco diseases ( 2011).† It is good to avoid smoking that everybody has to do as soon as possible to save our lives. Here are some ways that people should follow to avoid tobacco. Keep yourself busy with daily activities instead of thinking about tobacco. For example, take your free time to go to the gym for working out instead of smoking or you can take a walk for sightseeing. Efficient nutritional intake is the most important part to keep our body healthy. There are certain types of minerals and vitamins are required for the eyes need. Vitamin A is one of the major sources to keep the human’s eyes work properly, and this kind vitamin we can obtain mostly from fresh fruit and vegetables. Furthermore, Vitamin D is also crucial to maintain and improve vision suggested by Dr. Mercola because it helps â€Å"reductions in retinal inflammation and levels of amyloid beta accumulation which is a hallmark of aging† (2012). Those are some information that I want to let people know how avoiding high-fat foods, not smoking, and eating foods high in vitamins help protect the eyes. Hopefully people will have a good life and stay healthy. Works Cited Black, Ken. â€Å"How many people dies an hour smoking?.† College Central. May 1, 2011. Web. October 2, 2012. http://www.collegecentral.com/Article.cfm?CatID=hlt&ArticleID=3964. Dr. Mercola. â€Å"This Vitamin Found to Rejuvenate Aging Eyes.† Take control of Your Health. February 6, 2012. Web. October 2, 2012. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/06/this-vitamin-found-to-rejuvenate-aging-eyes.aspx Rockwell, Kay. â€Å"Can Fatty Foods Cause Dark Circles Under the Eyes?†. The Limitless Potential of You. May 2, 2011. Web. October 2, 2012. Http://www.livestrong.com/article/395649-can-fatty-foods-cause-dark-circles-under-the-eyes/

Conversion and Adaptation of Buildings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Conversion and Adaptation of Buildings - Essay Example urant will be arranged in a manger that leaves space at the centre meaning that the tables and the chairs will be placed at the edges (Barrows, Powers, & Powers, 2009:37). This will provide a historic/ traditional feel but also be combined with a trendy fashion that looks amazing. Energy is an essential resource in the operation of the hotel. To ensure that it meets its mandate and satisfies customer needs, the hotel must have sufficient energy that will be used for cooking, lighting, heating, entertainment and refrigeration purposes (Jones & Zemke, 2010:43). Dependence on electricity, oil and gas will be essential but will not be enough. Therefore, the restaurant will use solar energy though solar panels to augment the other sources of energy. This will ensure that the restaurant has enough power for all the requirements and saves on energy use especially non-renewable energy. The design uses Greenfield space to minimize wastage of energy. Key-card systems were installed to control light, heating and air-cooling when rooms are not in use (Baker, 2005:17). Health and safety is an essential aspect as part of sustainability initiatives of the restaurant. To achieve this initiative cleanliness will be one of the most vital aspects in terms of the restaurant’s hygiene in the menu it provides, and also within and outside its premises. The foods provided by the restaurant will undergo constant health and hygiene checks from public health officers and nutritionists. The health and safety department is established specifically to deal with such issues. The reports from such checks will be availed to the relevant authorities and the public upon request. All employees’ safety and health will be guaranteed through constant medical check-ups and in safety precautions put in place at work. The restaurants design has been developed to prevent health risks by ensuring there is enough space for movement. The restaurant will also contain notices of slippery flows and any

Euro-civlization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Euro-civlization - Essay Example Thus Pope Boniface VIII was tried posthumously for apostasy, murder and sodomy. The Templars were tried as Devil-Invoking heretics. Anyone who could actually read so-called witchcraft texts was often suspected of being in league with the Devil merely because they were literate. Thus the elite were in some way condemned by the spread of a popular culture of fear regarding witchcraft. The "Caroline Code", the basic law code of the Holy Roman Empire (1532) imposed heavy penalties for witchcraft. As society became more literate (due mostly to the invention of the Printing Press in the 1440s), increasing numbers of books and tracts fuelled the witch fears. More people were becoming literate, books were cheaper to print and thus became available in greater numbers and were within reach of more of the population. Witchcraft was thus more likely to occur within the logic of the Witch Craze mindset. A sense of community, both within the wide context of countries and within local areas, was starting to break down because of the growth in a peculiar kind of paranoia. In 1630 the nuns of Loudun provided an interesting view of the Witch Craze and the extremes to which it could go. The nuns conspired to accuse Father Urbain Grandier of witchcraft by faking symptoms of possession and torment. They feigned convulsions, rolled and gibbered on the ground, and accused Grandier of indecencies. Grandier was convicted and burned at the stake. But after his death, and thus after the plot had succeeded, the symptoms of the nuns only grew worse, and they became more and more sexual in nature. This shows the degree of mania and insanity present in such witch trials. Community had often broken down into a series of groups that were always suspicious of others and afraid of being accused themselves. The breakdown of community reflected the wide rift that occurred during the period between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics often accused Protestants of witchcraft, such as when the Jesuits pursued them in Austria for a hundred years after 1560. Protestants in turn did the same, such as occurred during Henry VIII's reign in England in the 1500's. Thus "witch" was used convenient label that could be used as a tool against one's enemies, political, cultural or personal. 2) Language itself-as I have so often mentioned- is a primary source of information about its author's attitudes towards phenomenon described. Do a literary deconstruction of Las Casas' language by making two lists of metaphors- one for Spaniards, the other for Indians- as these appear in his text. It is the tension between theses two sets of images which creates the dynamism in this text. Pay special attention to gender as you do this. Who is masculine, who is feminine and what are the implications thereof Consider the following section from Los Casas' description of the Spanish treatment of the Indians in Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (1542): Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days. And Spaniards have behaved in no other way during tla! past forty years, down to the present time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied

ISLM model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ISLM model - Essay Example money demand equals to money supply. In the IS-LM model, money demand is assumed to be given exogenously at any point of time. It is the Central Bank, which determines money supply in any economy at any given point of time. The intersection of the two curves is known to be as the point of general equilibrium at which both the money market and the goods market are in equilibrium. In the above figure, the positively sloped curve is the LM curve, while the negatively sloped curve is the IS curve. E* is the intersection point of the two curves and represents general equilibrium. r* and y* is the general equilibrium values of r and y at which goods and money markets are simultaneously in equilibrium. Whether an economic model is reliable in terms of the values of different variables that it predicts and/or whether an economic model is capable enough of capturing what is actually happening in the real world depends on the reasonability of the assumptions it is based on. To examine how well IS-LM model captures what actually happens in the economy, one needs to check whether the two basic assumptions of the IS-LM model are reasonable. The major problem with the IS-LM model is that its two basic assumptions mentioned above have certain limitations and for this reason in spite of being a fundamental macroeconomic model, economists not very frequently use it for estimating the parameters involved in this model as well as the future values of output. (Clarida and Gertler, 1999 First, consider the problem with the assumption of price rigidity. IS-LM model always makes a prediction that equilibrium can be obtained at any level a it considers a passive kind of supply. According to this model, producers produce whatever is demanded by the buyers. In IS-Lm framework, if in an economy demand changes, then the economy will make all the adjustments to that change in demand in

Outline the key features of a sports development strategy, and discuss Essay

Outline the key features of a sports development strategy, and discuss the relevance that this has to contemporary sports management - Essay Example It is also a roadmap to good health. It resists diseases and helps to improve the quality of life. The economy of most of the countries depends upon the sports (Girginov, 2008). In the past decade there has been an enormous evolution in the sports. The health and fitness sector has expanded itself to meet the demand of athletes and sportsmen. Employment in this sector has been increased due to the increased professionalism of the National Governing Bodies and huge investments by different organizations. As this industry has groomed itself, the need of qualified and educated mangers has increased. Because they could better understand the sports market and cater its needs and could apply their professional knowledge in an organized way. Thousands of schools and colleges have been established to cater the needs of the sports sector (Trenberth & Hassan, 2011). The management has been turned into sophistication and it is constantly evolving. Due to the global nature of the sports it has to deal with all kind of socio-economic barriers. Certain issues like gender relation, social responsibility and violence are to be really addressed. These are some of the challenges which the sports managers of today are facing (Hassan & Lusted, 2013). Sports management are the set of skills relating planning organizing, Leading, controlling and budgeting for an organization whose main responsibility is to cater the services in the sports. The sports industry has been segmented into three main categories. First one is the Sports Performance. It includes the activation and participation of the people related to the sports industry and its stakeholders. Second segment is Sports Production which is related to its products and influence on the products. The third division of the sports industry is the Sports Promotion which is the core of Sports Event Management. Different promo tools are used to promote the sports event and make it familiarize

An Overview of the Auditing Process, The Risk-Based Audit Approach Essay

An Overview of the Auditing Process, The Risk-Based Audit Approach with in an AIS (Accounting Information System) - Essay Example This paper not only outlines the basis for risk based approach to auditing but also its implications for carrying out audit work in the context of accounting information systems is discussed here below. Businesses typically identify the risks which are facing their operations and auditors can base their evidence collection and validation of information process on the assessment of risks by businesses. Internal audit function of a business needs to ascertain the overall audit risk which refers to the likelihood of financial statements being misstated. The audit risk is a combination of three types of risks which are namely inherent risk, control risk and detection risk. Inherent risk implies the threat of material error or omission pertaining to an account or a class of transactions. Control risk covers the inability of the internal controls to detect and prevent material errors. Detection risk is the failure of audit procedures to unveil any material error, misstatement or even fraud in reporting. Both inherent and control risks determine the extent of detection risk. It is suggested that the higher the control risk is the lower is detection risk set by the auditors which may requi re greater substantive testing by them (Romney & Steinbart, 2005). The risk based approach allows assessing the weaknesses in the accounting information systems and controls over such systems for determining the nature, extent, scope and timing of audit procedures. This allows auditors to assess the threats and opportunities in order to deliver better opinion on the information processed by their clients. The audit procedures not only restrict to the information manually prepared by different businesses but also extend to the accounting informational systems which are maintained by companies for data recording and reporting (Romney & Steinbart, 2005). The

The Analysis on the success of Tesco Assignment

The Analysis on the success of Tesco - Assignment Example The success of an organization as argued by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller (2005) is mainly through the deployment of the 7Ps of marketing. In this section a critical analysis on the Price, product, Promotion and Place elements of the 7Ps is presented as these are identified as the critical elements in reaching the customer. Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettit (2003) argue that although the marketing mix can be explained using the 7Ps, the four critical elements that form the marketing mix are the four identified above. The authors further argue that the Marketing Mix plays a vital role in the overall marketing communication strategy of an organization, as it is the marketing mix that provides input to the marketing communication. The TESCO Finest and TESCO Value of the own brand range of products sold by the organization along with the leading brands in the retail industry is a classical example for the organization's success in the target market through extensive range of products as argued by Sandrine Mac and Scott A. Neslin (2004). The fact that TESCO Plc presents a wide range of choice in every category of its products is the major element fuelling its success in the UK and global retail market. 1.1.2: Price: The company pioneers in selling its products at competitive prices mainly lower than its supermarket competitors in the UK as well as in its global locations as argued by Isla Gower (2004) who says that 'the low price strategy of the organization without compromising the quality of its products is the key for its success in the UK retail market as the market leader'. Furthermore, the increasing awareness among the customers that quality need not be compromised with low price (Oliver Hupp and Ken Powaga, 2004) is the driving force for the organization in its continuous low price strategy. 1.1.3: Promotion: Promotion as argued by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller (2005) is 'the key for increasing the sales in the retail industry and retaining the customers in the target market'. The fact that TESCO Plc has established itself as a brand in the retail industry through pioneering in promotions like combination sales, event focused promotion of products and above all market focused promotion by its stores targeting the local markets is the major element for its growth in the UK retail market along with its pricing strategy. 1.1.4: Place: Place or the location for an organization in the retail sector is a critical element for its success as argued by Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettit (2003). This is naturally because of the need for local knowledge in the target market that serves for the promotion of its products and above all the choice of products presented in the shop floor (David Olson et al, 1982). The fact that the local knowledge is the key for increasing sales in the target demography as an organization can increase its sales only through the process of identifying the customer needs and understanding the behaviour of its target demography justifies that place or the location is a key element for the success of a retailer. The location of

Project Management(file one) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Project Management(file one) - Essay Example The activity is determined by Mean = (o + 4m + p)/6. Its variance will be given by activity (Variance) = ((p - o)/6)2. The value attained is the z-value which can be related in the z-tables to give the probability of completing the project in time (Phillips, 2004). The CPM/PERT technique were used alongside the base lines for cost, work and schedule variances. The assumption taken was that the duration of activities was established with certainty. The realistic duration will make up to precisely as estimated (Oduwole, 2002). Nonetheless, in actual activities, this is impossible and several projects entail variability in activity times owing to factors like lack of previous experience, breakdown of equipment, erratic weather conditions. Besides, late supply of deliveries is an impediment. PERT analysis is applicable when activity durations are not known with precision. It constitutes three estimates of the activity duration as opposed to the single value analysis identified with CPM: The base line conditions for this report assessed and evaluated the situation of work considering the baseline and actual reporting. For instance, a deviation in the original budget is captured and observed in the percentage of work covered, the budget allocation and the amount of work remaining. This is a useful piece to learn from since the project manager can read the variance with ease and try to correct any change in project scope (Oduwole, 2002). This is the significance of using project management techniques to monitor and evaluate work progress. Any work related delays will be easily identified and correction made by observing the cause of such changes (Heerkens, 2007). Similarly, the schedule can be monitored for deviation. The possible correction to schedule is to check on the capability of the manpower or work force (Cleland, & Ireland, 2006). If work is going slowly than expected, it may mean that

Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Psychology Essay Example for Free

Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Psychology Essay Watson believed that psychology did not accomplish the goal of predicting and controlling the behavior of a person. He believed that psychology had two problems; the pursuit of consciousness as an object of study and the use of introspection as a method. Watson developed a type of psychology that he believed would address these issues, behaviorism. â€Å"Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior† this is the definition of behaviorism that John Watson expressed as his Columbia address. Behaviorism is said to limit the psychological study of behavior. Watson believes that humans had three innate emotions when they were born: fear, rage, and love. The goal would be to take one of the emotions and condition it to a stimulus in order to create a response that was not previously elicited. This was demonstrated in the â€Å"Little Albert† experiment. Watson had a baby, Little Albert, who was not fearful of white rats. During the experiment whenever Little Albert was shown a white rat Watson would pair it with a loud noise until the baby showed fear. This experiment showed that fear can be conditioned in a person. Behaviorism tended to dominate American Psychology until approximately 1954 when cognitive psychology started. â€Å"You say you want a revolution. Well, we all want to change the world.† This quote describes the change in psychology that developed cognitive psychology during an era of social change. Experimental psychologist began seeing a change when the number of unexplained human behavior increased. Psychologist started to think that in order to understand human behavior, mental processes can no longer be ignored. Cognitive psychology was created to understand these mental processes by analyzing the way sensory information is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recover, and used in the brain. It can be e xplained using a computer metaphor, which means that the ideas of conceptual models played a role in the processing, storage, and retrieval of information. Which leads to Gestalt’s psychology experience should be studied as it occurs. Experience is processed into storage in our brain and that storage is available for retrieval for later experiences. An example of this would be Gestalt’s Organizing Tendencies, organization such as grouping is learned at a young age and stored in our memory, now every time after that   experience the mind tends to organize the stimuli into groups without the person’s awareness this is happening. In conclusion, behaviorism is the prediction and control in behavior and cognitive psychology has to do with the way the brain senses, percepts, imagines, retains, recalls, problem solves, and thinks. Behaviorism and cognitive psychology both need each other to exist it is not possible for one to exist without the other. Behaviorism is human experience that is argued that experience is not directly knowable. Scientist began to see an increase in unexplained behavior and determined that mental processes must be analyzed in order to have an accurate depiction of the experiences that should be studied as they occur. Cognitive psychology may be superior to behaviorism because it takes behaviorism to the next level. Behaviorism is the human experiences and cognitive psychology added the extra factor of analyzing the mental processes. In closing, cognitive psychology would not exist without the basic theories of behaviorism and behaviorism would have faded away quickly having so many unexplained behaviors. Cognitive psychology and behaviorism need each other to exist. Work Cited Benjamin, L.T. (2007). A brief history of modern psychology. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.

Human Colony On Mars By 2023 Marketing Essay

Human Colony On Mars By 2023 Marketing Essay In March 2011 Bas Lansdorp came one step closer to his dream: Creating a manned mission to Mars, by founding Mars One. Mars One is a public company with a clear vision: taking humanity to Mars in 2023 and establishing a permanent settlement. The Mars colony would present a breakthrough in mankind exploration of outer space and would set a starting point for potentially invaluable research, all of this while broadcasting live the life on Mars in the form of a reality TV show. After more than 18 months of self-funding, Mars One has attracted its very first sponsors. At the same time it has also sparked media interest as well as raised certain doubts about its mission and feasibility. The initial investment by early sponsors has marked the next step for the company initiating the funding stage. This is merely a drop of water into an ocean as the costs of only the first mission are estimated to be 6 billion of dollars. Therefore the main concern on Bas Landorps mind is how to ensure the future financing of Mars One and if his business strategy will hold. Overview The founders Bas Lansdorp, M.Sc., Co-Founder General Director Bas is a 35 year old entrepreneur. He studied a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in the Twente University in 2003. After his studies, he worked for five years at Delft University of Technology. Later, in 2008, he founded Ampyx Power in order to develop a new, viable method of generating wind energy. Bas sold his shares Ampyx in 2011 and started working full time in Mars One, Bass dream for many years. Lansdorp says that he has been thinking about the colonization of mars for at least 15 years, since when he was still in University. In 2007, he revised the idea and began making more serious calculations. I knew this idea would be possible, but I just didnt know how to finance it he says. After some brainstorming, Lansdorp turned to Paul Rà ¶mer, the producer and creator of the internationally successful Big Brother reality TV series for financial advice. After hearing the technical plans for the mission, Rà ¶mer told him funding should be no problem if we create the biggest media event ever around it. This endeavor is an incredible challenge, overwhelming at times and a bit scary. But we press on. I believe the human exploration and habitation of Mars is imperative, the next giant leap for humankind. Arno A. Wielders, M.Sc., Co-Founder Technical Director Arno studied Master of Science in Physics in the University of Amsterdam and graduated in 1997. After that, he started working for the Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, to work at the Dutch Space Program in the Very Large Telescope Interferometer Delay Line project. By 2002 he finished his advanced graduate research, TWAIO certificate and began working as a scientist at the Space Department of TNO TPD in Delft. There, he worked in the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), a project that was developed by the NASA agency. In 2005 he founded Space Horizon and did a pre-feasibility study of a suborbital spaceport on the Dutch island of Curacao. He worked for the European Space Agency (ESA), performing in the following capacities: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Instrument scientist for BepiColombo (mission to the planet Mercury) science team (2005-2007). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Payload study manager for Cross Scale mission studies, a constellation of satellites orbiting the Earth for magnetosphere research (2007-2009). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Payload study manager for a mission to Jupiter (2009-2011). In addition, Arno co-founded the Mars Society Nederland, an organization with the objective to promote a human mission to the Red planet. Nowadays he volunteers for the Planetary Society and organizes, with the Netherlands Association for Spaceflight special events related to the space. At the moment, he divides his time between Mars One and working at the European Space Technology. I believe mankind is destined to be a multi-planet species, to move beyond the confines of our home planet. To work with Mars One is to be a living part of this incredible undertaking. Mars One Project: Mission Mars One is a private, apolitical organization. It is the Mission Objective of Mars One to establish a human settlement on the planet Mars in 2023. Mars One plans to accomplish this through the integration of existing technologies developed by aerospace corporations who have demonstrated expertise in space travel. Vision of Mars One Mars One believes the human exploration of the solar system is greater than the ambition of a single corporation or achievement of an individual nation. Mars exploration offers an opportunity to celebrate what a united humanity may accomplish. As with the Apollo Moon landings, a human mission to Mars will inspire generations to believe that all things are possible, that anything can be achieved. Mars One believes it is not only possible, but imperative that we establish a permanent outpost on Mars in order to accelerate our understanding of the formation of the solar system, the origins of life, and of equal importance, our place in the universe. Where it would otherwise be too costly for a single corporation and too risky for a solitary government agency, Mars One intends through the integration of existing technologies to succeed in establishing the first human settlement on Mars by April 2023. Schedule: 2013: The first 40 astronauts will be selected; a replica of the settlement will be built for training purposes. 2014: The first communication satellite will be produced. 2016: A supply mission will be launched with 2500 kilograms of spare parts, solar photovoltaic panels, and general supplies in a modified SpaceX Dragon. 2018: An exploration vehicle will be launched to pick the location of the settlement. 2021: Six additional Dragon capsules and another rover will be launched with two living units, two life support units and two supply units. 2022: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch with the first group of four colonists. 2023: The first colonists will arrive on Mars in a modified Dragon capsule. 2025: A second group of four colonists will arrive. 2033: The colony will reach 20 settlers. The Technology Mars One has developed a plan to establish a settlement on Mars by 2023. This plan is built upon existing technologies available from proven suppliers. Mars One is not an aerospace company and will not manufacture mission hardware. All equipment will be developed by third party suppliers and integrated in established facilities. The fully equipped mission is comprised of the following, primary hardware components as stated in Mars One website: Launcher: This is the rocket used to take payloads from Earth launch into Earth orbit or to Mars. Mars Transit Vehicle: Is a vehicle responsible for transporting the astronauts to Mars, and consists of two propellant stages, a landing module and living quarters. Lander: The Lander will be used for 5 functions: Life Support Unit: A Lander that contains the systems for the generation of energy, water and breathable air within the settlement. Supply Unit: A Lander that contains food, spare parts and other smaller components. Living Unit: This Unit is a Lander that is outfitted with a special inflatable section. After reaching the surface of Mars, this allows it to create a large living space for humans. Human Lander: This is the unit which carries the astronauts to the surface of Mars. Rover Lander: This is the unit which carries the rovers to the surface of Mars. Rover: The Rover is a semi-autonomous, solar-electric powered exploration and construction vehicle used to explore the surface of Mars in search of the most suitable location for the settlement, for transport of large hardware components (in a tractor-like fashion), and then general assembly. Mars Suit: protects astronauts from extreme temperatures, the very thin, non-breathable atmosphere, and otherwise harmful radiation. Communications system: The communications system transmits the video streams from Mars to the communication satellite in Mars orbit and back to Earth. (Essential for communication between Earth and Mars as well as vital for broadcasting reality TV show) A new era in Space Industry The development of the space industry according to Elon Musk (CEO of the private owned company SpaceX) can be resembled to the one of the internet. They both were, at a first stage, governmental initiatives created to enhance the mankind frontiers. But it was only until the arrival of private owned and commercial companies that they developed their real potential. Mr. Musk believes that what is going to happen with the space industry in the upcoming years is going to be similar to what happened with the internet in the 90s. Reaching high grow rates and becoming more accessible for the general public. In May 2012, the company SpaceX launched the first private owned cargo delivery for the international space station. The falcon rocket successfully sent more than 500Kg of food and supplies to the ISS departing from Cape Canaveral, FL. For many analysts this was a milestone for the entire space industry and for the mankind itself. Nasas administrator Charles Bolden said: Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration The significance of this day cannot be overstated; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Stationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ This certainly opens the gates for other commercial companies to build space vessels and successfully execute space missions. DVBDSA Major Challenges: The main technical difficulties of the mission to mars come from the return trip; it implies the necessity of a fully operational vehicle capable of escaping the gravitational field of mars, with enough fuel and supplies for a 7 month trip to earth, and capable of landing on earth or assembling to the international space station. All of these are huge barriers that have stopped humans from going to mars. Why is going to Mars so expensive? Mainly its the distance from Earth. At its closest point in orbit, Mars lies 35 million miles away from us, necessitating a journey of many months, whereas reaching the Moon requires just a few days flight. On top of this, Mars has a surface gravity that, though only 38 percent of Earths, is much greater than the Moons. It takes a lot of fuel to blast off Mars and get back home. If the propellant has to be transported there from Earth, costs of a launching soar. Without some radical improvements in technology, the prospects for sending astronauts on a round-trip to Mars any time soon are slim, whatever the presidential rhetoric. -Paul Davies (New York Times interview, 2004) The health conditions of the cosmonauts are also a constraint for a long trip to mars. Since the gravity in mars is only 38% of the gravity of earth, after some time, the human body adapts itself top the new environment loosing osseous density and strength in the muscles. If a person stays for too long on that environment, it would be impossible for its body to readapt to earths conditions again. Skepticism and doubts A challenge of this kind is expected to raise all kinds of doubts and skepticism, and so it is in this case. First of all, the tight schedule that Mars One has defined seems to be a huge barrier for some people, that argue that 11 years wont be enough to find and assemble all the pieces of the puzzle that are missing. In this group of people belongs Dr. Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, an international space advocacy non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the human exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. Dr. Zubrin is also skeptical about the sponsorships and fundraising of the project; he stated to the Business Insider Magazine: I dont think the business plan closes it. Were going to go to Mars, we need billions of dollars, and were going to make up the revenue with advertising and media rights and so on. You might be able to make up some of the money that way, but I dont think that anyone who is interested in making money is going to invest on that basis invest in this really risky proposition, and if youre lucky youll break even? That doesnt fly. Theres also another group of people that after hearing about Mars One plans, think that this is just a hoax to gain public attention and make money with marketing. Bas Landorp has responded to this: The problem with proving something is not a hoax is that people who are behind a hoax would answer in exactly the same way. This is a huge potential hazard for the company, as if they want to raise the money needed, they will have to prove to potential investors that it is not a scam. Status Report The Working Plan In 2011, the founding members of the Mars One team started planning for the colonization of planet Mars. In the first year the completion of feasibility study has been achieved, and contacts have been made with experts from space agencies around the globe and private aerospace companies. Written letters of interest in support of the Mars One plan were received. The analysis conducted by Mars One has included technical, financial, social-psychological and ethical components. Mars One team is looking in to possible location for its training facilities that will resemble the surface of Mars, Gobi desert and Sahara are being considered. Concise Road map for Mars One mission has been laid out. Human settlement on Mars in 2023 has been carefully thought of as the planetary positions and the respective distance from Earth to Mars presents a key factor for the voyage. European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia have estimated that the Mission to Mars and back would cost more than 20 billion dollars. Bas Lansdopr and the team behind Mars One have calculated that their Mission to Mars will cost 6 billion dollars. This high drop of cost compared to global space agencies estimate, comes at a price. For Mars One to be feasible, the mission to Mars is planned as a one way trip. This means that anyone going to Mars with Mars One will have to be prepared to stay on Mars potentially for the rest of their lives. One way trip to planet Mars is not a novel idea, as it has been a topic of discussions for some time in space exploration circles. However this is the very first time someone suggested it as an actual proposition and part of their business plan. Forming the team In 2011 and begining2012, Lansdorp and Wielders placed the groundwork for Mars One through the development of associations with private aerospace corporations, researchers and industry experts who are now moving to support the Mars One initiative. Bas and Arno have formed the competent team of experts in various fields to carry out Mars One mission. The team behind Mars One next to Bas Lansdorp (Co-Founder General Director) and Arno A. Wielders (Co-Founder Technical Director) consists of (Appendix A): Bryan Versteeg (Mission Concept Artist), Suzanne Flinkenflà ¶gel (Director of Communications), Kai Staats (Director of Business Development) and the newest team member since 4. October 2012. Norbert Kraft (Medical Director). Mars One has relayed the support of various industry and scientific experts who bring real-world experience to Mars One. At the moment there are nine of them and their number is rising. Tanja Masson-Zwaan (Deputy Director of the International Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University and President of the International Institute of Space Law) Brian Enke (Senior Space Research Analyst at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, USA) Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund (Lead investigator with the NASA Astrobiology Institute) Dr. Gino Ormeno (Seasoned Aviation Medical Examiner with long history of cooperation with NASA) Dr. Raye Kass (Professor of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; involved in numerous space research projects around the globe) Steve Carsey (UK television executive with a reputation for creating and producing various showsn on BBC, Chanal 5, Sky One, FOX) Prof. Thais Russomano (MD, PhD, Brazil, Aerospace Medicine, Space Physiology and Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Telemedicine eHealth research and development) Dr. Christopher P. McKay (Planetary Scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames) Dr. John D. Rummel (Director of East Carolina Universitys (ECUs) Institute for Coastal Science and Policy and chairman of COSPARs Panel on Planetary Protection). At the same time Mars One has managed to attract attention of few notable persons in form of Mars One ambassadors. Most known are Prof. Dr. Gerardt Hooft (Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist), Paul Rà ¶mer (The co-creator and very first producer of the The Big Donor Show and Big Brother), Mary Roach (American worldwide published author, specializing in popular science), Dr. Gerard Blaauw (Chairman of the Netherlands Space Society), Prof. Dr. Ir. Boudewijn Ambrosius (Chairman of Astrodynamics and Space Missions at TU Delft), Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (Fellow Researcher at Institute of Space Science National University of Malaysia UKM, orthopedic surgeon and astronaut). Contacting the suppliers Mars One has visited several major aerospace companies around the world to discuss their plan and the hardware components needed for the mission. For each component they have found at least one potential supplier. Mars One has visited the companies outlined below (Appendix B) and has received letters of interest from them. Astrobotic Technology Inc. is a Pittsburgh based company that is pioneering affordable planetary access and mobility solutions. ILC Dover is the forerunner in the soft goods industry for current and near term space  programs and advocate for commercial space activities across the globe. MDA Corporation  is a worldwide provider of information systems and is an established provider of custom space systems to government and commercial markets internationally, from earth orbiting infrastructure and spacecraft servicing to deep space and planetary exploration. Paragon Space Development Corporation provides environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. Space Exploration Technologies has developed a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft that increase reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation. Surrey Satellite Technology is the worldwide leader in the construction of small satellites. Thales Alenia Space has an enduring history in building habitable systems and has successfully developed a large number of pressurized elements for the International Space Station. Sponsorship Mars One has only received initial sponsorship money so far. With most of the corporate sponsorship funds they will finance the conceptual design studies provided by the aerospace suppliers. Sponsors for Mars One include(Appendix D): Byte Internet (Dutch internet service provider), VBC Notarissen (Dutch law firm), MeetIn (Dutch consulting company), New-Energy.tv (Dutch web station), Dejan SEO (Australian search engine optimization company), Interpidrd (small new Engineering company based in USA) and Adknowledge( the U.S. based fourth largest advertiser marketplace). Online presence Mars One has made its debut in online sphere with creation of Mars One website (www.mars-one.com). The website provides the information about Mars One and serves as a portal for Mars exploration enthusiasts. It also includes an online shop that sells Mars One merchandise (in form of shirts, posters and coffee mugs). The revenues from sale are spent on funding the Mars Mission. With the launch of Mars One website the promotional introduction video has been released and was seen by more than one million viewers in the first four months. Case Problem Bas and the Mars One team face an extraordinary task; they have 11 years to make a human colony on Mars. In that time they need to acquire the resources, and convince the investors as well as the global community that their plan is real and feasible. They will face high risks, uncertainty, all kind of complications and possibly competition. In the history of mankind, there have been several cases of almost unachievable endeavors, from the construction of the Pyramids to the Columbus trip to America and the Apollo missions to the Moon. Funding this kind of projects has always presented a major difficulty, especially now in this case, since the aerospace industry is shifting from governmental run organizations to private sector. Regular mechanisms of financing and funding companies may not apply to a business of this kind, Banks are not expected to lend money for these projects, and Venture capitalists Business Angels generally focus on sectors with less risk. Therefore, Bas and his team have to come up with a new plan for gathering funds, attracting investors and guaranteeing a net cash flow of US6Bn in the next years in order to execute successfully the plan. Imagine that you are Bas Lansdorp. Try to reevaluate your strategic plan. Focus on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Mars One. Furthermore think how would you raise the funds necessary to make this project a reality? What potential investors would you contact and what models of financing would you pursue? How would you convince the public that Mars One isnt a practical joke or marketing trick and assure the potential financiers that Mars One presents a sound business opportunity? Appendices Appendix A: The rest of Mars One team Bryan Versteeg, Mission Concept Artist Bryan Versteeg has worked for over 20 years in the graphics industry, specifically 15 years as a conceptual artist in the architectural and engineering fields. For the past six years, Bryan has worked as an independent artist and in 2011 founded Spacehabs.com in order to focus on the conceptual visualization for space exploration. Bryan is responsible for all the animations and illustrations on the Mars One website. Suzanne Flinkenflà ¶gel, M.A., Director of Communications Suzanne graduated in 2005 in International Business Communications and Spanish at the University of Nijmegen. Suzanne brings to Mars One her working knowledge and experience in online marketing, social media and web analytics. Before Mars One Suzanne worked as a Marketing Manager for Dutch hosting provider Byte Internet. In her spare time, she works as a voluntary coach at the 1%Club, a crowd-sourcing platform that connects smart development projects with people, funds, and knowledge around the world. Kai Staats, Director of Business Development Kai Staats comes to Mars One with extensive experience in business development, mission critical systems development, and professional writing. Staats was for ten years the founder and CEO of Terra Soft Solutions, the former developer of Yellow Dog Linux for the PowerPC architecture. In this capacity, he led his team to develop supercomputing systems built upon Apple, IBM, and Sony computers for the United States Departments of Energy and Defense, NASA, top-tier university labs, and commercial entities in the tele-communications, defense, life sciences, and research arenas. Terra Soft systems were used to process images from the Mars rovers, to conduct real-time sonar imaging on-board the U.S. submarines, to train both military and commercial pilots, and conduct bioinformatics research. Norbert Kraft, M.D., Medical Director Norbert Kraft, M.D., USA. Dr. Kraft received the 2010 Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in the Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects of Aerospace Medicine. He has over 17 years of experience in aviation and aerospace research and development. His primary area of expertise is developing physiological and psychological countermeasures to combat the negative effects of long-duration spaceflight. Dr. Krafts experiences span Europe, Asia, and the United States, where he has worked for several international space agencies, including the Russian Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency. Appendix B: Potential Suppliers to Mars One Astrobotic Technology Inc. is a Pittsburgh based company that is pioneering affordable planetary access and mobility solutions that promise to spark a new era of exploration, science, tourism, resource utilization and mining in the solar system. Astrobotic is flying a mission to the moons pole in 2015 to find water ice. ILC Dover is the forerunner in the soft goods industry for current and near term space  programs and is very supportive of commercial space activities across the globe. ILC Dover is one of the few  companies in the world that can claim to have products on both the Moon and on Mars. They have contributed to the Apollo spacesuits and the three-airbag landing systems that helped land the NASA rovers on Mars surface. MDA Corporation  is a worldwide provider of information systems and is an established provider of custom space systems to government and commercial markets internationally, from earth orbiting infrastructure and spacecraft servicing to deep space and planetary exploration. Provider of the robotic systems aboard the Space Shuttle and Space Station as well as robotic systems and science instruments successfully operating on the surface of Mars , MDAs exploration heritage traces back over three decades of human spaceflight and Mars exploration. Today MDA supports US, Canadian, European, Russian, Japanese and commercial space programs from operating units across Canada, the US and Europe. Paragon Space Development Corporation provides environmental controls for extreme and hazardous environments. Paragon designs, builds, tests and operates premier life support systems and leading thermal control products for astronauts,  contaminated water divers, and other extreme environment adventurers, as well as for unmanned space and terrestrial applications. Space Exploration Technologies has developed a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft that increase reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. As the first rockets developed in the 21st century, the Falcon series take advantage of the latest technologies, as well as 50 years of lessons learned in the aerospace industry. SpaceX is demonstrating that through simplicity, both reliability and low cost can be achieved in commercial space flight. Surrey Satellite Technology is the worldwide leader in the construction of small satellites. The British company provides a range of affordable satellite solutions to a variety of customers in the fields of Earth observation, science, technology demonstration, telecommunications and navigation. Thales Alenia Space has an enduring history in building habitable systems and has successfully developed a large number of pressurized elements for the International Space Station, including Node 2 3, Cupola, Columbus and ATV Cargo Carriers. Thales is also currently developing the pressurized cargo carriers for the Orbital Cygnus vehicle in the frame of the NASA Commercial Resupply Services initiative. Appendix C: Initial Mars One sponsors Byte Internet is a hosting provider with a strong emphasis on service and technology and focuses on professionals (web designers or companies). Byte was founded in 1999 and in recent years has grown very rapidly. (www.byte.nl) VBC Notarissen is an independent Dutch law firm with 3 branches. They have more than 70 employees in their offices in Amersfoort, Barneveld and Nijkerk. (www.vbcnotarissen.nl) MeetIn is a Dutch consulting company, established in 2004 by Dirk Aleven and is located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. New Energy.TV is an Dutch independent portal and internet station which focuses at the long-term process towards a sustainable energy supply in the Netherlands. Founding Partners are: Roelf van Til Productions and New Energy Works. The web station began on 1 January 2006. Dejan SEO is in a nutshell an Australian search engine optimization company. They have provided professional marketing services to a diverse clientele since 2001. Founded in Brisbane, the companys initial focus was providing consulting services for other marketing firms. Starting in 2008, Dejan SEO began offering search engine optimization services directly to the public as part of the newly-formed corporation SEO Pty Ltd. The company expanded internationally in 2009 opening two European offices and forming a business partnership in the United States.   Intrepid research development is an engineering company in the USA, Pittsburgh area founded in 2011 by two Penn State honors graduates, Timothy Baxter and Joshua Vogel. They focus on optimizing research development and providing consultancy and services to other companies. Adknowledge, the fourth largest advertiser marketplace, specializes in performance-based marketing solutions that help make the long tail web accessible to search engine advertisers. Since its founding in 2004, Adknowledge has grown organically and through acquisitions, including Miva, Super Rewards and Hydra, became the largest privately-owned internet advertising network. In 2011 Adknowledge raised over $200 million in debt and equity financing to fuel its growth.

Are Bull Markets Supported By Rational Growth in Stock Valuations? :: Finance Financial Economics Essays

Introduction â€Å"The rich get richer† is a frequently heard adage in the United States, a country quickly associated with capitalism. US financial markets make headline news on a daily basis, so people are well aware when the domestic stock market’s indices rise or fall. Given the widespread distribution of information on the stock market’s performance, much excitement can easily be generated during a bull market, broadly defined as a trend during which stock prices are climbing. Does the publicity and excitement surrounding a bull market further perpetuate rising stock prices? A look at historic daily closing values for the S&P 500 index from January 2, 1997 to December 31, 1999 reveals overall growth of 99.35%[i], which on average indicates similar growth in the stock prices of the companies included in the index. Clearly, this three year period falls within a bull market, since the S&P 500 is commonly utilized to represent average performance of the stock market on the whole. A return of 99.35% on an investment is excellent and far exceeds the general return on â€Å"risk-free† investments like FDIC insured savings accounts or Treasury bills. [i] Percent change calculation derived from widely published market data Examination of Common Stock Valuation to Account for Rising Share Prices Like most economic evaluations, the decision to purchase a share of a company’s stock is based on an individual’s willingness to pay versus the current selling price of the share. Fundamentally, the willingness to pay is determined by a valuation of that share of stock. For a given share of common stock, the willingness to pay is, or should be, linked to the present value of the stream of future cash flows that the investor will receive from expected dividends and through any expected capital gain for selling the share at a higher price than at which it was purchased.[i] Thus, there are three main factors the affect the valuation of a share of common stock: future dividends, future market price of the share, and the discount rate used. [i] Fundamentals of Financial Management, Eugene F. Brigham & Joel F. Houston, Harcourt College Publishers: Forth Worth, 2001. (p. 409) Future Dividends Are Bull Markets Supported By Rational Growth in Stock Valuations? :: Finance Financial Economics Essays Introduction â€Å"The rich get richer† is a frequently heard adage in the United States, a country quickly associated with capitalism. US financial markets make headline news on a daily basis, so people are well aware when the domestic stock market’s indices rise or fall. Given the widespread distribution of information on the stock market’s performance, much excitement can easily be generated during a bull market, broadly defined as a trend during which stock prices are climbing. Does the publicity and excitement surrounding a bull market further perpetuate rising stock prices? A look at historic daily closing values for the S&P 500 index from January 2, 1997 to December 31, 1999 reveals overall growth of 99.35%[i], which on average indicates similar growth in the stock prices of the companies included in the index. Clearly, this three year period falls within a bull market, since the S&P 500 is commonly utilized to represent average performance of the stock market on the whole. A return of 99.35% on an investment is excellent and far exceeds the general return on â€Å"risk-free† investments like FDIC insured savings accounts or Treasury bills. [i] Percent change calculation derived from widely published market data Examination of Common Stock Valuation to Account for Rising Share Prices Like most economic evaluations, the decision to purchase a share of a company’s stock is based on an individual’s willingness to pay versus the current selling price of the share. Fundamentally, the willingness to pay is determined by a valuation of that share of stock. For a given share of common stock, the willingness to pay is, or should be, linked to the present value of the stream of future cash flows that the investor will receive from expected dividends and through any expected capital gain for selling the share at a higher price than at which it was purchased.[i] Thus, there are three main factors the affect the valuation of a share of common stock: future dividends, future market price of the share, and the discount rate used. [i] Fundamentals of Financial Management, Eugene F. Brigham & Joel F. Houston, Harcourt College Publishers: Forth Worth, 2001. (p. 409) Future Dividends

Soliloquies of Shakespeares Hamlet - The To be or not to be Soliloqu

Hamlet -- the â€Å"To be or not to be† Soliloquy  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In William Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy Hamlet the fourth of the seven soliloquies by the hero is generally considered exceptional and more famous than the others. This essay will examine and analyze this soliloquy, and explore the reasons for its fame.    This famous soliloquy manifests the expression of very deep and conflicting emotions. Ruth Nevo in â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging† explains the basic conflict within the hero’s most famous â€Å"To be or not to be† soliloquy:    Since we know what Hamlet’s obligatory task is, we cannot but register the possibility that the taking of arms and the â€Å"enterprises of great pitch and moment† refer to the killing of Claudius, though the logic of the syntax makes them refer to the self-slaughter which is the subject of the whole disquisition. And conversely, because self-slaughter is the ostensible subject of the whole disquisition, we cannot read the speech simply as a case of conscience in the matter of revenge – Christian revenge and the secular sanctions and motivations of honor. (46)    Is the fourth soliloquy addressing only the prince’s specific situation? Or is it applicable universally to humankind? Lawrence Danson in the essay â€Å"Tragic Alphabet† discusses the most famous of soliloquies as involving an â€Å"eternal dilemma†:      The problem of time’s discrediting effects upon human actions and intentions is what makes Hamlet’s â€Å"To be, or not to be† soliloquy eternal dilemma rather than fulfilled dialectic. Faced with   the uncertainty of any action, an uncertainty that extends even to the afterlife, Hamlet, too, finds the â€Å"wick or snuff† of which Claudius speaks: â€Å"Thus conscience† – by... ...ons: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from The Motives of Eloquence: Literary Rhetoric in the Renaissance. N.p.: Yale University Press, 1976.    Levin, Harry. â€Å"An Explication of the Player’s Speech.† Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from The Question of Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959.    Nevo, Ruth. â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging.† Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Form in Shakespeare. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 1972.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.            

The Importance of The Bill of Rights in Society Today Essay -- The Bill

When the Second Constitutional Convention wrote the Constitution in 1787, there was a controversy between the federalists and the anti-federalists surrounding whether or not to have a Bill of Rights. The anti-federalists claimed that a bill of rights was needed that listed the guaranteed rights that the government could never take away from a person i.e. â€Å"inalienable rights.† A Bill of Rights was eventually deemed necessary, and has worked for over 210 years. There are many reasons why the ten amendments are still valid to this day, and the best examples are the First Amendment, concerning the freedom of religion, the Fifth Amendment, and the Sixth Amendment. The Amendment I of the Bill of Rights is often called â€Å"the freedom of speech.† It provides a multitude of freedoms: of religion, of speech, of the press, to peacefully assemble, to petition the government. Religious freedom is vitally important to this day because it eliminates the problem of religious conflicts. Historically, many people died for their beliefs because their government only allowed and permitted one religion. T...

Cost-Effective Service Excellence: Lessons from Singapore Airlines

Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines is well known as a paragon of in-flight service. It is also a remarkably efficient and profitable airline and has been for decades. Loizos Heracleous, Jochen Wirtz and Robert Johnston explain how it combines service excellence with cost effectiveness. Singapore Airlines (SIA) has achieved the Holy Grail of strategic success: sustainable competitive advantage.It has consistently outperformed its competitors throughout its 30-year history. In addition, it has always achieved substantial returns in an industry plagued by intermittent periods of disastrous under-performance (see Table 1). Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines SIA has done this by managing to navigate skilfully between poles that most companies think of as distinct – delivering service excellence in a costeffective way. SIA’s awards list is long and distinguished.In 2002 alone it won no less tha n 67 international awards and honours including â€Å"best airline† and â€Å"most admired airline† in the world in Fortune’s Global Most Admired Companies survey. Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1 Business Strategy Review 33 Since Michael Porter’s influential suggestion that differentiation and cost leadership are mutually exclusive strategies and that an organisation must ultimately choose where its competitive advantage will lie, there has been fierce debate about whether a combined strategy can be achieved – and sustained over the longer term.SIA is proof that the answer to both these questions is positive. So, how does it consistently deliver premium service to demanding customers in an industry where both price pressures and customer expectations have been continually rising? In common with many other organisations with a reputation for providing excellent service, SIA has top management commitment to service, customer-focused staff and systems , and a customer-oriented culture. However, our research into SIA, spanning many years and at all levels in the organisation, has uncovered a umber of insights into developing and maintaining a reputation for service excellence that is applicable to a wide range of service organisations. Ultimately, SIA’s success is attributed to a customer-oriented culture, its recognition of the importance of its customers. â€Å"Our passengers are our raison d’etre. If SIA is successful, it is largely because we have never allowed ourselves to forget that important fact,† says Dr Cheong Choong Kong, former CEO of SIA. However, what distinguishes SIA’s culture is that these are not just abstract, â€Å"motherhood† statements.The values of cost-effective service excellence are enshrined in a unique, selfreinforcing activity system that makes the values real for all employees. We found that the five pillars of this activity system (see Figure 1) are: G rigorous ser vice design and development G total innovation (integrating continuous incremental improvements with discontinuous innovations) G profit and cost consciousness ingrained in all employees G holistic staff development; G reaping of strategic synergies through related diversification and world-class infrastructure.Rigorous service design and development Twenty years ago Lyn Shostack complained that service design and development is usually characterised by trial and error. Unlike manufacturing organisations, where R&D departments and product engineers were routine, systematic testing of services, or service engineering, was not the norm. Things appear to have changed little since then. SIA, however, has always regarded product design and development as a serious, structured, scientific issue. Performance metrics Revenues $m SIA United Northwest Continental American DeltaBA Cathay KLM Quantas 5,133 16,138 9,905 8,969 18,963 13,879 12,103 3,903 5,788 5,207 Net income (loss) $m Net profit margin (%) Operational profit margin (%) Revenue / cost ratio Revenue per $1,000 labour cost Net income per Load Tonne – Km $0. 001 343. 2 (2,145) (423. 0) (95. 0) (1,762) (1,027) (206. 1) 84. 2 (138. 2) 212. 3 6. 68 —— —— —— —— —— —— 2. 16 —— 4. 08 10. 4 —— —— 0. 016 —— —— —— 2. 73 —— 6. 83 1. 12 5,310 0. 81 2,279 0. 92 2,499 1. 02 2,969 0. 88 2,361 0. 93 2,266 0. 99 3,581 1. 03 3,989 0. 9 3,739 1. 07 3,995 2. 73 (10. 53) (3. 06) (1. 02) (8. 64) (6. 27) (1. 55) 1. 03 (1. 35) 2. 54 Table 1 Singapore Airlines’ performance relative to competitors Sources: Annual Reports for the airlines’ most recent financial year. IATA World Air Transport Statistics 2001; www. exchangerate. com (past rates based on respective report dates). 34 Business Strategy Review Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1 Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines Cost Effective Service Excellence Ingrained profit consciousness Rigorous service design Figure 1The five pillars supporting SIA’s cost-effective service excellence SIA has a service development department that hones and tests any change before it is introduced. This department undertakes research, trials, time and motion studies, mockups, assessing customer reaction – whatever is necessary to ensure that a service innovation is supported by the right procedures. Underpinning continuous innovation and development is a culture that accepts change as a way of life. A trial that fails or an implemented innovation that is removed after a few months are not seen as problems.In some organisations personal reputations can be at stake and so pilot tests â€Å"have to work†. At SIA a failed pilot test damages no-one’s reputation. In some organisations, service, and indeed product, innovations live beyond their useful years because of political pressure or lack of investment resources. SIA expects that any innovation is likely to have a short shelf life. The airline recognises that to sustain its differentiation it must maintain continuous improvement and be able to kill programmes or services that no longer provide competitive differentiation.According to Yap Kim Wah, senior vice-president, product and service: â€Å"It is getting more and more difficult to differentiate ourselves because every airline is doing the same thing†¦the crucial fact is that we continue to say that we want to improve. That we have the will to do so. And that every time we reach a goal, we always say that [we’ve] Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines got to find a new mountain or hill to climb†¦you must be able to give up what you love†. Customers as well as competitors raise the stakes for SIA.A company with a high reputation attracts customers wi th high expectations. SIA’s research team has found that SIA draws a disproportionately large number of very demanding customers. â€Å"Customers adjust their expectations according to the brand image. When you fly on a good brand, like SIA, your expectations are already sky-high. And if SIA gives anything that is just OK, it is just not good enough,† says Sim Kay Wee, senior vice-president, cabin crew SIA treats this as a fundamental resource for innovative ideas. Weak signals are amplified.Not only written comments but also verbal comments to the crew are taken seriously and reported back to the relevant sections of the airline. An additional source of intelligence is SIA’s â€Å"spy flights†, where advisors travel with competitors and report on their offerings. Finally, SIA recognises that its competition does not just come from within the industry. As a rule, SIA sets its sights high and instead of aiming to be the best airline its intention is to be the best service organisation. To achieve that, SIA employs broad benchmarking not just against its main competitors but against the best service companies.Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1 Business Strategy Review 35 Holistic staff development Total innovation Strategic synergies NewsCast High flying: but also ‘outstanding service on the ground’ â€Å"It is important to realise that [our customers] are not just comparing SIA with other airlines. They are comparing us against many industries, and on many factors. So when they pick up a phone and call up our reservations, for example, they are actually making a mental comparison, maybe subconsciously, to the last best experience they had.It could be a hotel; it could be to a car rental company,† says senior vice-president, product and service, Yap Kim Wah. â€Å"If they had a very good experience with the hotel or car rental company and if the next call they make is to SIA, they will subconsciously make the compari son and say ‘How come you’re not as good as them? ’ They do not say ‘You have the best telephone service system out of all the other airlines I’ve called’. Being excellent, our customers, albeit subconsciously, will benchmark us against the best in almost everything. Total innovation: integrating incremental development with unanticipated, discontinuous innovations An airline has a multitude of sub systems, such as reservations, catering, maintenance, in-flight services and entertainment systems. SIA does not aim to be a lot better but just a bit better in every one of them than its competitors. This means constant innovation but also total innovation in everything, all the time. Importantly, this also supports the notion of cost effectiveness.Continuous incremental development comes at a low cost but delivers that necessary margin of value to the customer. â€Å"It is the totality that counts. This also means that it does not need to be too expensive. If you want to provide the best food you might decide to serve lobster on short haul flights between Singapore and Bangkok, for example; however, you might go bankrupt. The point is that, on that 36 route, we just have to be better than our competitors in everything we do. Just a little bit better in everything.This allows us to make a small profit from the flight to enable us to innovate without pricing ourselves out of the market,† says Yap Kim Wah. While cost-effective, incremental improvements are an important basis for its competitive advantage, SIA also implements frequent major initiatives that are firsts in its industry, both on the ground and in the air. One example is its â€Å"Outstanding service on the ground† programme. This initiative involved working with the many other organisations that impact on customer service before and after a flight to ensure a seamless, efficient and caring service.SIA’s latest service excellence initiative, cal led â€Å"Transforming customer service† (TCS), involves staff in five key operational areas – cabin crew, engineering, ground services, flight operations and sales support. The programme is about building team spirit among staff in key operational areas aimed at ensuring that the whole journey from the purchase of the ticket onwards is as pleasant and seamless as possible. SIA employs an innovation approach called the â€Å"40-30-30 rule†. It focuses 40 per cent of the resources on training, 30 per cent on the review of process and procedures, and 30 per cent on creating new product and service ideas.In addition to continuous incremental innovations, SIA’s reputation as a service innovator is also based on unanticipated, discontinuous innovations in the air. Examples of current innovations include the full-size â€Å"space-bed† and on-board email and Internet services in business and first class. In addition, SIA has made the strategic choice to C ost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines Business Strategy Review Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1 be a leader and follower at the same time. It is a pioneer on innovations that have high impact on customer service (for example in-flight entertainment, beds and on-board email).However, it is also a fast follower in areas that are less visible from the customer’s point of view. In doing so, SIA relies on proven technology that can be implemented swiftly and cost-effectively. For example, SIA’s revenue management and customer relationship management (CRM) systems use proven technology where its partners had the experience to ensure a smooth and costeffective implementation rather than going for the latest technology, which would not only be much more expensive but also carry a higher implementation risk.Profit-consciousness ingrained in all employees Though SIA is focused on the customer and providing continually improving service, managers and st aff are well aware of the need for profit and cost-effectiveness. All staff are able to deal with the potentially conflicting objectives of excellence and profit. This is created by a cost and profit consciousness. â€Å"It’s drilled into us from the day we start working for SIA that if we don’t make money, we’ll be closed down. Singapore doesn’t need a national airline.Second, the company has made a very important visionary statement that â€Å"We don’t want to be the largest company. We want to be the most profitable†. That’s very powerful,† says senior vice-president Yap Kim Wah. Performance related reward system Team concept Peer pressure to perform Ingrained profit consciousness Related diversification High profitability Cost Effective Total innovation Service Excellence Strategic synergies Competitive intelligence, spy flights Extensive feedback mechanism Benchmarking against best-in-class Holistic staff development Suppo rting infrastructure Rigorous service designDemanding customers Developing the Singapore girl Figure 2 Singapore Airlines’ self-reinforcing activity system for developing cost-effective service excellence. Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1 Business Strategy Review 37 As a result, any proposed innovation is analysed very carefully on the balance of expected customer benefits versus costs. Station managers and frontline staff constantly trade-off passenger satisfaction versus cost effectiveness – the customer has to be delighted but in a costeffective manner.Second, and like many service organisations, SIA has a rewards system that pays bonuses according to the profitability of the company. The same formula is used throughout the company. As a result there is a lot of informal peer pressure from individuals within the organisation; staff and managers appear quite open in challenging any decisions or actions if they see resources being wasted or money being inappropriately spent. SIA builds team spirit within its 6,600 crew members through its â€Å"team concept†, where small teams of 13 crew members are formed and then fly together as far as possible for at least two years.This leads to the development of team spirit and social bonds within the team that reinforces the culture of cost-effective service excellence and the peer pressure to deliver SIA’s promise to customers. Developing staff holistically Senior managers say that â€Å"training in SIA is almost next to godliness†. Everyone, no matter how senior, has a training and development plan. New stewardesses undergo training for four months, longer than any other airline. This includes not only functional skills but also soft skills including personal interaction, personal poise and the emotional skills involved in dealing with demanding passengers.In addition to training, SIA also encourages and supports acti vities that might on the surface be seen as having nothing to do with service in the air. Crew employees have created groups such as the â€Å"Performing Arts Circle†, staging full-length plays and musicals, the â€Å"Wine Appreciation Group† and the â€Å"Gourmet Circle†. These activities help to develop camaraderie and team spirit as well as personal knowledge of the finer things in life, which feeds into the service the crew delivers in the air. Achieving strategic synergies through related diversification and world-class infrastructure SIA uses â€Å"related diversification† to achieve ost synergies and at the same time control quality and enable transfer of learning. Subsidiaries serve not only as the development ground for management skills and a corporate rather than a divisional outlook through job rotation but also as sources of learning. In addition, related operations (such as catering, aircraft maintenance, airport management) have healthier p rofit margins than 38 the airline business itself because competitive intensity is lower and the industry structure is more favourable.SIA Engineering, for example, ensures that SIA does not pay expensive aircraft maintenance fees to other airlines; rather, it sells such services to other airlines at healthy margins. SIA’s fleet, the youngest in the world, ensures low maintenance costs, low fuel expenses and high flight quality. SIA’s Inflight Catering Centre produces SIA’s own inflight cuisine, ensuring high quality, reliability and responsiveness to customer feedback, but also caters for other airlines at a healthy margin. SIA’s SATS Group subsidiary manages Changi Airport, which is regularly voted the best airport in the world.This airport management and infrastructure entices passengers who are travelling on to Australia, New Zealand or other countries in the region to pass through Changi and to choose SIA as their carrier. SIA’s subsidiaries o perate under the same management philosophy and culture that emphasises cost-effective service excellence. Even though they are part of the group, they are quoted separately on the Singapore Stock Exchange and are subject to market discipline with clear profit and loss expectations. In SIA the conventional wisdom of outsourcing (outsource â€Å"peripheral† activities and focus on what you do best) does not apply.External suppliers would not be able to offer the value that SIA’s own subsidiaries can offer it. This kind of related diversification within SIA leads to strategic synergy in terms of reliability of key inputs, high quality, transfer of learning and cost effectiveness. Loizos Heracleous ([email  protected] edu. sg) is associate professor of strategic management at the National University of Singapore. Jochen Wirtz ([email  protected] edu. s g) is associate professor of marketing, director of the APEX-MBA (Asia-Pacific Executive MBA) Program, codirector of the UCLA-NUSEMBA Program, and a member of the management committee of the NUS Business School, National University of Singapore. Robert Johnston (bob. [email  protected] wick. ac. uk) is professor of operations management at Warwick Business School. Bringing it all together: building a self-reinforcing activity system How, specifically, do these elements lead to costeffective service excellence? The five pillars of SIA’s cost-effective service excellence are made real through a self-reinforcing activity system of virtuous circles (see Figure 2). The cultural values of cost-effective service excellence are more than just abstract ideas.They are ingrained into the minds of both employees and organisational processes. This may help to explain why SIA’s competitive advantage has been sustained for so long. While it is easy to copy single elements, it is much harder to reproduce an entire, self-reinforcing system. I Resources: Porter M. , Competitive Advantage, Free Press , New York, 1985 Shostack G. L. , Designing services that deliver, Harvard Business Review, vol 62, no 1, JanuaryFebruary 1984 Cost-effective service excellence: lessons from Singapore Airlines Business Strategy Review Spring 2004 G Volume 15 Issue 1

Modern Poetry Comparison Essay

Over the past few weeks, my class and I have been studying a bank of poems, all of the same theme, they all deal with racist issues in modern life. I have chosen two of these poems to compare, these are, ‘The Negro’ and ‘Prayer of a black boy’. Throughout the coursework I shall be calling ‘Prayer of a black boy’ Poem ‘A’, and ‘The Negro’, poem ‘B’. Poem ‘A’ uses imagery contrasting white and black cultures, lots of words and expressions in the poem underlines the wonder and amazement of the Negro’s natural environment, and the barrenness and unproficness of the white man’s. I will be disusing these and pointing out the affects they have. Poem ‘B’ is in 6 clear stanzas but uses imagery of a symbolic and/or historic kind, and so I will also explain the affects this has upon the poem, and although Poem ‘A’ is written continuously, it can easily be broken into six stanzas for comparison. Also both poems are written in the first person, we know this because they say ‘I’. Due to Poem ‘B’ being in six stanzas it is very quick and easy to read and understand, so I have split Poem ‘A’ into six parts as well to make it easier to compare. Poem ‘A’ tells us that the mans roots are very black, and that he is proud to be Black and that him and his people originated from Africa, I concluded this from the line â€Å"Black as the depths of Africa†. In poem ‘B’ the man says â€Å"he is tires of this world†, he is saying a prayer, which means he is fed up of the way white people act and live and he wants out, also he says â€Å"since the cock crew he wandered†, this means he is worn out of looking for a better place of peace amongst the white people. Poem ‘A’ explains that the man in the poem has always been used as a slave and that he has been treated like a second class citizen because of his race. Also he says â€Å"Caesar told me† this means that black people have been slaves for a very long time, even when Caesar was around. But he seems to be proud of what he and his race have done to get where they are now. During the second part of Poem ‘B’, the man describes a beautiful scene of where and what he wants to be, but then he thinks about what will really happen, which is that his people are slaves and workers all day then he says they are spat out of the factory in which they work. He also dreams of going back to his own country and living freely amongst his people, but he then awakes with great disappointment to se he is still stuck in a white mans world. In the third part of Poem ‘A’ the man explains that he worked on ancient buildings as well as very modern buildings, which shows us a sense of time, of which he and his people have been treated with a lower standard from the white people, and over a long period of time. The man in Poem ‘B’ tells us that what the so called gentleman is, he doesn’t want to be, because he can see the real white people and they are not kind and generous as a real gentleman is thought to be. Also he compares his brown skin with the brown sugar bags in the street, which are from his country and makes yet again think of being at home with black people. The forth part of Poem ‘A’, tells us that he is a singer, and this shows he is proud of the situation he is currently in. We have a mention that he worked his way up from his homeland (Africa) to Georgia, where he sings ragtime for white people and they like it, and this makes him very proud to be who and what he is, a Negro. In the forth section of Poem ‘B’ the Negro explains that he really wants to be back where he knows is a lot better place, which is his country, because in this country there is nothing better than his home, Africa. In section five of Poem ‘A’, he tells us that he and his race have been victims all their lives, he tells us the horrors oh what has happened in the past to him and his race. They have been treated unfairly and with no trial they are punished. Poem ‘B’ section five, tells us that the man doesn’t want to learn the ways and religion of the white people, he wants to know his own history and practise his own religion, the religion of the black people from his home country. He asks why he should read about things he doesn’t know or understand of. The white people’s religion comes from a book, (the bible), whereas black religion is carried through time in stories and songs. The final section of Poem ‘A’ is the exact same as the first stanza, he repeats how proud he is of where how hard him and his race have worked, and that he is proud of his wonderful country, his wonderful home, Africa. The final section of Poem ‘B’ isn’t the same as it’s first, in this final part, the black man explains that white people are too sad for his kind, and that his culture are in touch with there countries natural habitat and that the white people are far too industrious. The final line tells us that the white culture needs to lighten up a bit.

Lai Bahadur Shastri Essay

Childhood is the most innocent phase in human life. It is that stage of life when the human foundations are laid for a successful adult life. Many children, instead of spending it in a carefree and fun-loving manner while learning and playing, are scarred and tormented. They hate their childhood and would do anything to get out of the dungeons of being children and controlled and tortured by others. They would love to break-free from this world, but continue to be where they are, not out of choice, but force. This is the true story of child labor. Innocent children are employed by industries and individuals who put them to work under grueling circumstances. They are made to work for long hours in dangerous factory units and sometimes made to carry load even heavier than their own body weight. Then there are individual households that hire children as domestic help and beat and physically torture them when they make a mistake. The children are at times made to starve and are given wor n out clothes to wear. Such is the story of millions of children in India painful and yet true. The two primary reasons for the ever-growing social malice of child labor are poverty and lack of education. Poor parents give birth to children thinking them as money-making machines. They carry infants to earn more on the streets from begging. Then as they grow they make them beggars, and eventually sell them to employers. This malady is rampant across the length and breadth of India. The status of the girl child is the key to achieving women’s equality and dignity which is, in many ways, a litmus test of the maturity of a society. Girls are to be the future mothers besides future policy makers and leaders. The importance of women hardly needs emphasis. Woman is the mother of race and is the liaison between the generations. Our culture attaches much importance to women, therefore, India has been symbolized as ‘MOTHER INDIA’. Jawaharlal Nehru once said, â€Å"To awaken the people it is the women who must bye awakened. Once she is on the move the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves.† But we see girls facing discrimination everywhere, in each corner of the world. Now-a-days corruption can be seen everywhere. It is like cancer in public life, which has not become so rampant and perpetuated overnight, but in course of time. A country where leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lai Bahadur Shastri and Kamraj have taken birth and led a value-based is now facing the problem of corruption. When we talk of corruption in public life, it covers  corruption in politics, state governments, central governments, â€Å"business, industry and so on. Public dealing counters in most all government offices are the places where corruption most evident. If anybody does not pay for the work it is sure work won’t be done. People have grown insatiable appetite for money in them and they can go to any extent to get money. Undoubtedly they talk of morality and the importance of value-based life but that is for outer show. Their inner voice is something else. It is always crying for money. It has been seen the officers who are deputed to look into the matters of corruption turn out to be corrupt. Our leaders too are not less corrupt. Thus the network of corruption goes on as usual and remains undeterred. Corruption is seen even in the recruitment department where appointments are ensured through reliable middle agencies. Nexus between politicians and bureaucrats works in a very sophisticated manner. Nexus does also exist between criminals and police. A total war against these and a few other evils like drinking and smoking is of utmost necessity. There is legislation against these evils but they can be effectively checked only if the people decide to check them.

Cognitive Dissonance Classic in Psychology

Cognitive Dissonance Classic in Psychology Areej Alemer [Instructor’s Name] [Class Title] Cognitive Dissonance Classic in Psychology Introduction There were famous experiments conducted in psychology and many of these experiments gave scientists a new perspective on understanding people. In the 1950s, scientists began conducting test about the effect of social pressures and influence to the behavior of people. Among these scientists is Leon Festinger. He became a well known scientist about the topic social influence through his famous theory of cognitive dissonance[1].Cognitive Dissonance Festinger came about this theory in the 1950s at a time when a doomsday cult attracted media attention. The cult worshipped a certain god named Sananda. Cult members believed that Sananda gave them these warnings The uprising of the Atlantic bottom will submerge the land of the Atlantic seaboard; France will sink†¦. Russia will become one great sea†¦ a great wave rushes to the Rock y Mountains†¦ for the purpose of purifying it of the earthling and creating a new order. [2] Believers claimed that these warnings would happen in midnight of December 21.Festinger got interested with the cult and in his mind he had these questions: â€Å"What would happen when on the midnight of December 21, nothing happens? Would the group lose faith? How do human beings react when prophecy fails? †[3] Festinger found out that when the prophecy failed the believers did not lose their faith. They found ways to justify the failed prophecy. One of famous explanation was earth was spared because the cult members went into action and believed in the prophecy. Christians and Jews will find this justification not hard to believe.In the book of Jonah in the bible, Jonah prophesied that Nineveh would be destroyed by fire (Jo. 3:1-10). The people of Nineveh believed and decided to fast and put on sackcloth to show that they had repented. Even their king fasted, sat on ashes and put on sackcloth. Eventually Nineveh was spared and destruction did not happen. So when cult leaders told their members that the earth was spared because of believing Sananda's message, the members bought it, but not Festinger. To him the explanations are a bunch of lies, which he politely called â€Å"cognitive dissonance. Festinger saw the effort of cult leaders in lyng to the media in making excuses to their failed prophecy. They contacted TV stations ABC and CBS, they welcome New York Times, the phoned the writers of Life, Time and Newsweek and gave dozens of interviews to reporters. [4] These actions according to Slater were â€Å"attempts to convince the public that their actions and beliefs were not in vain. † The attempts of cult leaders to justify their actions and beliefs became the basis of Festinger’s theory and experiments on cognitive dissonance[5].Through his readings about history, people tend to proselytize (a sort of desperate defense mechanism) when their belief is disconfirmed. He also found out that the â€Å"disjunction between what one believes and the factual evidence is highly uncomfortable. †[6] When prophecy of a cult fails members would attempt to convince everyone to join the cult through false justification. The more people join the group, the more the members feel that they were not mistaken. Is it possible for people to engage in extreme lying just to reconcile their seemingly irreconcilable ideas?Festinger found out that people indeed lie in order to avoid dissonance. In fact, he discovered several forms of dissonance. According to Cooper , what Festinger observed in the cult, he called it the belief disconfirmation paradigm[7]. When he conducted experiment regarding dissonance and money, he called it the insufficient reward paradigm. In his last research he also identified another dissonance- induce compliance paradigm[8]. To understand cognitive dissonance theory it is important to review Festingerâ€⠄¢s experiment. The ExperimentBut to be able to explain Festinger’s experiment and his theory of cognitive dissonance, discussion of the actual experiment is necessary. Festinger’s experiment is considered a classic in psychology and can easily be retrieved in the net. It was first published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and was entitled â€Å"Cognitive Consequence of Forced Compliance. † The experiment objective is to investigate how cognitive dissonance takes place when people are force to comply. Slater simply called cognitive dissonance as â€Å"irreconcilable ideas†[9].Social Psychology authors such as Brown simply defined cognitive dissonance as a state of opposition between cognition such as beliefs, views and opinion[10]. It is a perceived inconsistency within a person’s mental processes, in which he believes in something then acts in a different way from what he believes. Festinger exp[11]eriment aimed to measure the cognitive diss onance effect during force compliance and to test the validity of the following two statements: â€Å"If a person is induced to do or say something, which is contrary to his private opinion, he tends to change his opinion to bring congruence to what he has done or said. and â€Å"The larger the pressure used to elicit the overt behavior (beyond the minimum needed to elicit it) the weaker will be the above-mentioned tendency†) Festinger and his colleagues hypothesized that the larger the reward the lesser would be the subsequent opinion change. Therefore, if one puts their words in research method statements, the main hypothesis would be â€Å"there is a significant relationship between the amount of rewards and the magnitude of cognitive dissonance†[12]     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To test the validity of the hypothesis, Festinger divided his subjects into three groups, one controlled group and two experimental groups.The two experimental groups are named- one-dollar g roup and twenty-dollar group respectively, the name correspond to the amount of money that the two groups will received in order to comply. The subjects for the experiment were college students and the primary technique utilized by the researcher was deception. The subjects were told that the experiment is about their behavior on a monotonous activity. However, the real experiment would only begin when the researcher tries to deceive them, by telling another group will be exposed to a variable in which a confederate will tell them that the activity is enjoyable.However, the original confederate will not come and that the experimenter needs the respondents to act as proxy and be the one to tell lies to the other subject (who herself is also a confederate) on the other room. The persuasion involves a monetary reward a one-dollar for the first group and a twenty-dollar for the other. The rewards are  intended to affect the subject’s behavior or the dissonance effect. Deception was not included in the control group to be able to control its effect. The first experimental group receives a one-dollar amount in order to tell lies. The other experimental group receives 20 dollars.The authors theorized that the one-dollar group would have a greater magnitude of dissonance compared to the 20 dollars group[13]. By applying statistical treatment and comparing the responses of the experimental group with the control group the researcher found out that the one dollar group came to believe that the experiment as enjoyable where in fact, the control group finds it extremely boring, the twenty dollar group find the experiment slightly boring not far from the control groups answer. These results support the theory that the smaller the award the greater is the magnitude of the dissonance.Hence the authors accepted the hypothesis. Festinger’s experiment also has limitations. It is only limited to the response of the subjects who were mostly college students. The r esults might be different if conducted on professionals and middle age adults. Impact of the Experiment to Psychology Festinger’s findings were considered a milestone in psychology. It gave convincing explanations to mysterious human behaviors. Gawronski[14] provided an example. During the Korean War she wrote, the Chinese were able to convince American prisoners to become communists.They did this not by torture but by offering a bit of rice or candies. In exchange of these goodies, Americans were asked to write an anti-American essay. After the essay writing many American soldiers espoused communism. Ordinary people might find such behavior baffling and stupid. Why throw democratic principles in exchange of a bit of rice? It would be easy to accept that these Americans were tortured and went through a near death experience that is why they converted to communism. It is a rational explanation and very acceptable. The fact that Americans embraced communism for a candy is somet hing people could not accept.Cognitive dissonance theory provided an answer- the simpler the reward for engaging in behavior that is contrary with one’s beliefs, the higher the tendency of the person to change his or her beliefs[15]. Even though this answer seems to make no sense, it really happens. The one and twenty dollar experiment supported it. According to Petty, there is a rational explanation for changing one’s belief. It was such a horrible thing to sell one’s self for a piece of candy[16]. The emotional pain would be so great. The person may lose his feeling of self-worth and may look at himself an undignified individual.Slater coined this feeling a â€Å"schmuck. To avoid such a feeling, the person should come up with a better explanation for selling his principles for a very cheap price. Festinger’s theory provided an alternative explanation for behaviorism. Formerly Skinner had said rewards reinforce and punishments extinguish. Skinner expla ined human behavior through his reward theory. Humans operate in their environment and through this operation they learn certain behaviors. Humans acquire behavior through operant conditioning. Skinner took away the mental element of humans. He made humans simple machines that behave through the means of conditioning.After cognitive dissonance theory, humans were seen as punishment driven beings that act not because of conditioning but because of mental processes. Festinger added the element of thoughts in explaining human behavior. His theory challenges the behaviorism. Behaviorism claimed that mind and thoughts are not worthy of psychological investigations because they belong to the realms of philosophy and not empirical science. Festinger discovered that behavior is influenced by the way people think. Psychologists cannot set aside the mind and thought processes in explaining human behavior.Without considering the mind and thought processes, psychologists would never understand why American soldiers embraced communism in exchange for a piece of candy or a bit of rice. Human beings are not only motivated by rewards and punishment. For, if this were so, the Chinese will have a hard time convincing Americans to espouse communism because their offer of rewards were not actually rewarding. Festinger has drawn a concrete conclusion from his cognitive dissonance theory. Human are hypocrite beings. They are beings motivated by minds that must be made comfortable.Reward theory alone can never explain human behavior. Human beings think. They engage in the most amazing mental gymnastics, all just to justify their hypocrisy[17]. Explaining Mysterious Human Behavior Cognitive dissonance theory is not only an elegant explanation for mysterious human behavior. It is also became a tool to discredit religion especially Christianity. Using the belief – disconfirmation paradigm, one can conclude that the spread of Christianity was due to cognitive dissonance and lack of deep knowledge of human behavior during the early years of Christianity.Everybody knows for a fact that Christianity spread through the effort of Jesus’ disciples. Ancient critics of Christianity suspected that early Christians had engaged in mass hysteria[18]. They collectively had seen unreal things. Before, cognitive dissonance theory, such accusation of mass hysteria was dismissed because of the martyrdoms of virtually every apostle of Christ. The apostle would not sacrifice their lives for something that is founded by fallacy. They were burned at the stake, cut into two, crucified upside down and immersed in boiling oil all because they refused to decant their faith.To avoid such horrible tortures, all they had to do was to tell the emperor that they there were no truths in their claims about Jesus and presto they will be released. But they chose death, indicating that they were not under mass hysteria but had really seen Christ resurrects from the death. This is a si mple Christian defense; it stood unchallenged for thousands of years until Festinger discovered cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance explained that when prophecy fails, people will not leave their beliefs instead, they would create lies in order to justify the failed prophecy perhaps even to the point of death [19]. The apostles of Christ were expecting him to free Israel from bondage. This is the duty of the messiah. They expect Jesus to liberate Israel and establish a new Jewish kingdom. The apostles believed that Jesus was the messiah. They gave up everything in order to become Jesus’ disciples. They were promised to receive an important position in Jesus kingdom. They expect that the earth will be destroyed by fire and a new heaven and earth will be created. The kingdom of Jesus will be established in this new heaven and earth. The apostles will co rule with Jesus. But Jesus was killed and everything that they have believed turned to ashes.Some left Jerusalem and st arted a new life. Others were left and continue to meet secretly. This gathering can be likened to the case of the doomsday cult, in which members did not go home and confessed their mistakes; instead, they change their behaviors, speeches and way of thinking to explain carefully their failed prophecy. They began attracting more followers despite of the fact that their prophecy failed. They engaged in pathological lying just to convince people that they were not wrong. If ordinary people in the doomsday cult had engaged in lying when prophecy failed, then it was also possible that the apostles had also lied.Cognitive dissonance theory states that it was possible for the apostles not to recant their faith even until death. Hence, Christianity martyrdom defense is weak. After his death, his apostles claim that Jesus is coming very soon and judgment day is at hand. Like in the case of the doomsday cult, believers also had sold their belongings and give the money to the apostles. The ap ostles have all died but judgment day did not come. Despite of these, believers became more aggressive in recruiting new members and Christianity grew in numbers. Two thousand years have passed but Christ did not return and judgment day was nowhere to be found[20].Yet, Pastors and priest were able to find plausible explanation for the delayed second coming and people really buy it. No offense to Christian readers, but after reading chapter five and Festinger’s original study, it was very hard for this writer not think that cognitive dissonance was really involved in Christianity. Cognitive dissonance is not just a simple social psychology experiment. It is a mind opener, a myth buster and a truth engine. If religious fanatics explore its basic concepts, they might leave their faith. Cognitive dissonance theory explained that humans would lie in order to avoid dissonance.It is the best explanation why religious cults and organizations do not cease to exist even though their pr ophecy and beliefs fails or contradicts reasoning. Festinger’s theory is all about the tendency of humans to lie to avoid discomfort. It is about the selfishness of human nature. This is the only conclusion one can derive from his experiments. Humans are hypocrites and engage in all sort of mental gymnastic in order to justify their hypocrisy. Conclusion Slater believed in cognitive dissonance theory but disagree with Festinger’s revelation on the selfishness of human nature.Do humans lie because of selfish motive, i. e. to avoid the pain of being a â€Å"schmuck† or was there something else. Festinger forgot to mention the good side of human nature. All he saw was its tendency to deceive and lie[21]. To show that dissonance is caused by other elements aside from selfishness, Slater told a story about Linda Santo. Linda Santo has a bed-ridden daughter named Audrey whom she takes care of for the past couple of decades. Her daughter got an accident when she was th ree and became bed ridden from that time on. Linda patiently took care of his daughter since then.Her husband left her a few months of the accident. Linda took care of Audrey. Audrey though invalid is a miracle worker, Statues of Mary and Jesus were put near her and these statues produce miracle oil. The oil was used to heal sickness of any kind. Linda finds an explanation and was not mystified with the miracles. She knew that her daughter was a â€Å"saint, that God had chosen Audrey to be a victim soul, to take on the pains of other people so that they could be healed (121)† It’s a classic example of cognitive dissonance, the mother finding an explanation for her daughter’s dreadful fate.It was not clear whether Linda manipulate the miracles and told people that her daughter takes away people pains. But according to Slater , if ever she lied, there was no selfishness in her heart, but love, which makes Festinger view of human nature somewhat wrong. People do n ot lie only because they avoid of being a schmuck but also because they are loving creatures. Linda was found to have breast cancer. She regularly underwent therapy. She now takes care of herself alone aside from taking care of her daughter. Slater wondered why Linda would not ask her daughter to heal her.Perhaps she knew that the miracles were a fake. She simply told Slater that mothers do ask something from their child; it is they who give something to their child. Slater concluded that dissonance is not always about selfishness; it’s also about love. Slater was a mother and understands very well why Linda was doing all this[22]. Perhaps, there is another form of cognitive dissonance paradigm that Festinger failed to identity. To conclude, Festinger experiments were indeed convincing but he failed to consider the other aspect of human nature such as love and caress.Some people engage in dissonance not because of cognitive pain but because out of love just in the case of Lin da Santo. Bibliographies Brown, Richard, Social Psychology 5th Edition New York McGraw Hill. 2006. Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. London: Sage publications. 2007. Gawronski, Brand. Cognitive consistency: A fundamental principle in social cognition. New York: Guilford Press. 2011. Myers, Steven. Social psychology  . Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson. 2006. Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength.Social Cognition. 2007. 25(5), 657686. Chen Mark Revisiting the Three Choice Paradigm Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2010. 99(4), 573. Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box New York, Penguin Books. 2005. ———————– [1] Myers, Steven. Social psychology  . (Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 90-120 [2] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 110 [3] Ibid 111 [4] Cooper, John. Co gnitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 90 [5] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 111 [6] Cooper, John.Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 91 [7] Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 90 [8] Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007. 25(5), 657–686. [9] Cooper, John. Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 92 [10] Brown, Richard Social Psychology 5th Edition (New York McGraw Hill, 2006) 91 [11] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 115 [12] Cooper, John.Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory. (London: Sage publications, 2007). 99 [13] Myers, Steven. Social psychology  . ( Toronto:Gra w-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 95 [14] Gawronski,Brand. .  Cognitive consistency: A fundamental principle in social cognition. (New York: Guilford Press, 2011) 106 [15] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 114 [16] Petty, Ronald . The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007, 25(5), 658. [17] Petty, Ronald .The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes: Implications for attitude measurement, change, and strength. Social Cognition, 2007. 25(5). [18] Myers, Steven. Social psychology  . (Toronto: Graw-Hill Ryerson, 2006) 99 [19] Brown, Richard Social Psychology 5th Edition (New York McGraw Hill, 2006) 91 [20] Chen Mark Revisiting the Three Choice Paradigm Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2010. 99(4), 573. [21] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 125 [22] Slater, Laura Opening Skinner’s Box (New York, Penguin Books, 2006) 150