Nintendo Wii Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nintendo Wii - Research Paper Example For sometime now, Nintendo has been a strong market force, having bigger companies like Sony and Microsoft as closest competitor. This performance is however not global as in parts of the world such as Japan, were â€Å"sales were falling below those of Sony's PlayStation 3 during March 2009† (Harding, 2009) SWOT ANALYSIS Strength Rank (2008) observes that Nintendo has four major strengths which have to do with â€Å"a strong brand name, high returns, high employee efficiency, and debt free status.† This means that the company the potential of building a very formidable market base in many parts of the world since it is globally known and free from financial constraints. Weakness Nintendo’s greatest weakness has to do with its inability to meet demand of its products, especially the Wii. Rank (2008) laments that â€Å"the new Nintendo Wii console is under such high demand that the manufacturers are not able to supply the key components.† Opportunities Nint endo can take opportunity from two major areas, which are â€Å"Growing US games software market and increasing demand for online gaming† (You Sigma, 2009). The company is therefore challenged to take up the opportunity to grow its stake in the video game industry. Threat The company is threatened with the general slowdown of the Japanese, American and European markets (You Sigma, 2009) as a result of the global economic crisis. Analysis via Porter’s Five Forces Model Threat of new entrants The technology industry is a fast growing one with new entrance seen every now and then. Because of the seemingly lucrative nature of the industry, Nintendo risks stiffer opposition from new entrants who may not be new to technology but to the video game industry. In such a situation, such entrants are likely to cause a commercial stir with their existing name. Bargaining Power of Buyers Global economic hardships result in increased bargaining power by buyers (Konadu, 2004). Because the world is yet to recover fully from the global economic crisis, Nintendo risks buyer opting for lesser fee of products and services. Bargaining Power of Suppliers Nintendo’s suppliers raised their bargaining power due to offset of stricter opposition and competition in the video game market. Nintendo had to face competition from Microsoft and Sony and so had no other option than to give in to the bargain of suppliers. Substitute Products/Services Currently, Nintendo have shown lesser power to substitute its products as services. This is because for a very long time, the company’s focus has remained video game. Intense Rivalry Microsoft as one of the rivals of Ninendo will continue to offer intense rivalry because Microsoft is faced with stiff competition in other areas of its production such as software and computer production. For this reason, Microsoft is likely to pay more attention to the video game section of its company. Strategy used Nintendo’s strate gy can be seen in two major areas. First, taking advatange of technology where by the company’s â€Å"innovative approach to videogame technology is evinced through the Wii’s controller system† (Roccols, 2008). Such use of technology was perhaps neglected by competitiors. Secondly and closely linked to the first, the Nintendo Wii is able to target a larger user base as it targets consumers of all ages. With this strategy, â€Å"The Wii has allowed Nintendo to not only compete with Sony and Microsoft, but to experience the incredible success it remembers

Of Mice and Men - Importance of Dreams Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men Importance of Dreams Essay Dreams are an ingrained part of our lives, and those who strive to achieve them show extraordinary devotion and resolve. The allure of a brighter future, of a better life, can both benefit and harm, as John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men illustrates. Living in a time of pain and loss, the characters in the novella cling to their dreams. However, these dreams are beyond attainment, of no importance for accomplishment, and bring them nothing but regret. This essay will demonstrate how hopes and dreams are unimportant for success and happiness, as they are unachievable and bring only pain. Firstly, the pursuit of dreams is futile, as they cannot be achieved. The dream that the two protagonists, George and Lennie, harbour recurs throughout the novel. Their dream is to one day own their own property and to become self-sufficient, and the realization of this dream becomes more likely as the novel nears its climax. However, the dream shatters with the death of Lennie, devastating George, as George cannot envisage the dream without Lennie. The dreams of the other characters, such as Candy and Crooks, are also shown to be beyond realization. Candy, knowing that he is soon to outlive his usefulness, hopes that he can come and live with George and Lennie and to have the freedom to work or rest as he pleases. However, this also is broken when Lennie dies. The black stable-hand Crooks is the only character that clearly understands the futility of dreams. I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an on the ranches. . . every damn one of ems got a little piece of land in his head. An never a God damn one of em ever gets it. Just like heaven Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.(Crooks, Chapter 4) Crooks dreams of being equal to the other workers, but he understands that he is not considered equal. He briefly joins the dream that George and Lennie have, but withdraws his offer to help on the farm when he accepts that dreams are not possible: the freedom and happiness that they wish for is not found in the world they live in. The impossibility of achieving dreams makes them unimportant; they remain unfulfilled, leaving the holder with nothing. Secondly, when unfulfilled, dreams cause regret and misery. The unfulfilled dream of Curleys wifes has left her discontent, and she lives a lonely life with her inattentive husband. Her dream was to escape from her oppressive mother and become an actor. A show come through, an I met one of the actors. He says I could go with the show. But my ol lady wouldn let meIf Id went, I wouldnt be livin like this, you bet.' (Curleys wife, Chapter 5) Because of her mother, Curleys wife was never able to achieve her dream, just like the other characters, leaving her only with the knowledge that she could have had a better life. Her attitude and manner around the ranch evidences this. Her bitterness and attempts to draw attention from the other men, simply so she can have some companionship, are clear indicators of her dissatisfaction and loneliness. Curleys wife is an example of dreams leaving the holder with regret when unfulfilled, and of how they are not important for success. Lastly, without dreams, people can still be successful and satisfied. The ranchs skinner, Slim, is described as a highly skilled and content man, and as the prince of the ranch. He moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen his authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject, be it politics or love. (Chapter 2, Of Mice and Men) However, while the other characters have dreams, Slim appears to have none. He never mentions any of his own, but rather supports others with theirs. It is demonstrated that he does not want anything outside of what he has, and that he has not created any plans. Whether it is because he, like Crooks, understands the futility of dreams, or because he is simply satisfied with his place in life, Slim does not possess them, and despite of this, he has the highest status among the workers. He stands as the primary example of how dreams are not required for somebody to be successful. In conclusion, it can be seen that dreams are not important. Not only do dreams leave those who keep them with unhappiness, such as with Curleys wife, but they also cannot be achieved due to the cruel nature of fate, leaving them unfulfilled. These dreams, whether they are fulfilled or not, are shown to be unnecessary for contentment, as evidenced by Slim, the most successful worker. Ultimately, the nature of dreams is best illustrated by the poem from which the novel draws its name. The best laid schemes o mice an men Gang aft agley, An leae us nought but grief an pain For promisd joy. (Robert Burns, To a Mouse) As it has been shown, dreams are not important; they are beyond reach, offer nothing, and bring only unhappiness to those who keep them, whether they are accomplished or not.

Kant Essay -- essays research papers

Isaac Newton had a new approach to the existence of space and time that contradicted that of great philosophers such as Leibniz and Descates. Newton felt that space and time are infinite and independent of the body and mind, that the bodies and minds of the world existed in space and time and even without the presence of physical bodies there still would be space and time. He stated there â€Å"are positions in space and time which are independent of the material entities† that existed in them and that the principles of empty space and time are possible. In the Prolegomena, Immanuel Kant seems to have agreed in part with Newton’s views of space and time and attempted to support Newton by presenting two forms of judgment that would maintain Newton’s thesis, these being judgments of perception and judgments of experience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kant first described the ability of a judgment of perception to become a judgment of experience. Judgments of perception are our own purely individual perceptions of an object or feeling and may not be the same experience as that of another persons. He states that judgments of perception are merely subjective intuitions of an object and have no objective validity. He believed that judgments of perception â€Å"require no pure concept of understanding, but only the logical connection of perception in a thinking subject.† Kant feels that for a judgment of perception to become a judgment of experience, the subjective observation of the object must be the same for all subjective perceptions thereby becoming universally true to all people, only then will the judgment becomes objectively valid and a pure concept and only then do we have an experiance. An example presented in the Prolegomena to address the difference between judgments of perception and judgments of experience also helps to understand how a judgment of perception becomes a judgment of experience through the notion of causality. The example stated is when the sun shines on a rock, the rock grows warm. This would be a judgment of perception if the statement remained as shown. We cannot say that just because the sun is shinning it caused the rock to warm. When we change the statement to the sun warms the rock, then this statement presents additional information to the original perception, that of cause. With the addition of causality, the statement becomes objecti... ...niverse does not conform to the laws of geometry. He showed that space-time may be a four-dimensional curve of space and that the fourth dimension is time itself. This new form of physics makes more sense if we assume that space and time are able to exist independent of the mind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even though Kant was able to base many of the laws of science in philosophy, he was not able to show that space and time are tools we use to perceive our world and could never exist themselves absent of the mind. Scientific laws must be judgments of experience and universally objective to be considered laws of science because they need to have the ability to give all observers the same experience of a phenomenon. Where Kant is wrong is his belief of space and time as dependent upon the mind. New discoveries in physics have shown that space and time must be able to exist in the absence of the mind, proving that Kant was wrong in his presumption that space and time could never exist absolutely. Science today may have its elementary basis in philosophy, but the higher principles of science, particularly that of physics, are outside the understanding and thinking of philosophy.

Registration and Billing System Essay

1.1 BACKROUND OF THE STUDY Technology nowadays has played a major role in the success of business and helping business to become more competitive in the industry as well as in the economy. Having a broad understanding and a responsible knowledge of information technology and its role in the new economy enables the business to be successful and reach its goals effectively and efficiently. Since the use of manual system on billing is very time consuming, it is usually done and used only by extremely small establishments. This is where the introduction of computer technology integrated with manual procedures started in businesses. This system will deal with the company billings and also keeps a record of stocks. It is not only highly accurate but also saves much time and money over the long term. The main advantages of a computerized billing and accounting system is fast and accurate invoices, credit notes, purchased orders, printing statements and payroll documents are all done automatically. The accounting records are automatically updated; the data is instantly available and can be made available to different users in different locations at the same time. Computerized  accounting programs reduce staff time doing accounts and reduce audit expenses as records are neat, up-to-date and accurate. Billing system can give the company and its clients all of the required da ta that they will need for items related to billing. The major advantage of having billing system in place is that they allow you to effectively manage customer payments. The Royal Residence Condominium is the third project of a proven and tested company, the BESTWAY Construction and Development Corporation, in the field of Real Estate Residential Development. The project was conceptualized to offer an innovative property investment opportunity and set a benchmark in making upscale residence-service provider, a lucrative business. The project was completed in a period of one year, from the ground breaking in September 2010 to receiving its Certificate of Occupancy in September 2011. The Royal Residence Condominium has been established to meet the growing need for convenient, safe and wholesome residence-provider and as a second home to qualified university and college students, board reviewees, and young professionals in the metro City of Baguio. The Royal Condominium is a 7-storey building with 4 commercial units (canteen, mini-mart and stock bar, laundry shop and salon spa) and 12 condominium residential dormitory units. Each unit consists of 12 condotel-like rooms. The Royal Condominium is located along Rimando Road, Aurora Hill- Trancoville, Baguio City. 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The study aims to design a computerized registration and billing system for Royal Condominiums. The proposed system will minimize, if not, eliminate the existing problems the company encounters with regards to the registration and billing system. The minimization and or elimination of the existing problems would then make the information more effective, efficient and reliable. It will also facilitate an organized billing system for the user through the implementation of a computer – based information system that can help in the organization’s operations to become more efficient and reliable. The study aims to answer the following questions: 1.2.1 What are the hardware to be used in the billing and registration system? 1.2.2 What are the processes involved in the said system? 1.2.3 How to incorporate the billing and registration system in the existing  setup of the company 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3.1 To identify the hardware to be used in the billing and registration system. 1.3.2 To enumerate the processes involved in the billing and registration system. 1.3.3 To know how the billing and registration system be incorporated in the existing set-up of the company. 1.4 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY The researchers have conducted a study about the application of a Front Office System (FOS) with regards to Billing and Registration to Royal Dormitory and Condominium since there is no existing Information System (IS) yet. Manual transactions of more or less 200 tenants have given rise to problems in processing records. In line with this, this study of application of a FOS will provide an appropriate solution. It will give a faster recording transaction and more accurate records to improve the business process. A shift from manual transaction to an automated one will benefit both the business and the residents for both greater satisfaction and comfort. Being a student is never easy. But this study will make the researchers more patient and prepare them to the fast approaching business world. As students, it will help the researchers be knowledgeable in the operation of a business. Since they are yet to be businesswomen, it is a stepping stone to professionalism. To other researchers , this will serve as a guide and a motivation. Hardships had been a deposit but success is always priceless, indeed. 1.5 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION The research was conducted to be able to give solutions to the problems being encountered by the Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory. Conducting such research requires a deeper understanding the problems of the business entity. The research covers the problem of the said business entity with regards to their registration and billing system. The researchers proposed an Information system – Registration and Billing System – which can help the entity to lessen errors when it comes to recording transactions among their tenants (College students, reviewers, transients and others) because the entity does not have an existing information system. The proposed system would then require less processes and human errors with the desired output of the entity. More or less 200 tenants occupy the said entity in which it  composes of men and women of with different age brackets. Tenants of the dormitory came from different provinces who are usually college students. The said entity is near universities and also near different business establishments which gave interest to customers to live to the Royal Dormitory and Condominiums. Before the research started, researchers scheduled interviews which were used by the researchers to create a proposed system by conducting an interview with the owner/manager which have great control over the registration and billing system of the company. With the help of the information given by the owner/manager of the entity, researchers were able to understand the main problem of their entity and be able to propose an appropriate Information System with regards to the problem. The researchers collected the needed data and information for their proposal. After gathering such information, problems being encountered by Royal Dormitory and Condominiums were determined and possible solutions were planned. However, different problems may also arise especially if the proposed system of the researches will be effective or might add more errors with regards to the records of the business entity which composes of payment of rent, electric bills, food, violations, and others. The management must make sure that the staff or employee who will control or operate the proposed Information System must have knowledge and be able to know how to handle if ever he/she encounters problem with the system. The proposed system does not cover losses and damages with regards to personal things, money, or gadgets inside the condominium. It only covers the organizing or recording different transactions which are registration of each tenant, their monthly payments of rents or violations and billings of each tenant. The researchers limited the research with these processes to be able to focus on a certain problem which the entity needs at the present. First month of using the information system may result to confusion on how it works and it might also have positive impact with the management and also with the tenants. We cannot also deny the fact that the proposed Information System may arise different problems but as much as possible avoid them. The said research will take five months to finish and be able to help the entity solve their problems and the proposed system has a useful life of 3 years. 1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS Billing System – It is a combination of software and hardware that receives call detail and service usage information, groups this information for specific accounts or customers, produces invoices, creates reports for management, and records (posts) payments made to customer accounts. Information System – It consists of a collection of people, processes, data, models, technology and partly formalized language, forming a cohesive structure which serves some organizational purpose or function. Registration System – it is a system that allows registrars to make changes to the database in real time. References: Anonymous. (2012). Management snformation systems (MIS). p 3 Billing system. (2009). Billing dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.billingdictionary.com/ Glossary. (2009 – 2013). European Identity. Retreived from http://www.eurid.eu/en/ CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Online Registration System Another study is the â€Å"Online Registration System† which was conducted by Al-Shaikh in Jordan. According to Al-Shaikh, the problem is the difficulty to register and manage the data of more than 15,000 students who are taking their exams in the universities using the conventional manual system. Using this system, it is hard to communicate between the colleges and the unit that is responsible for the examination of the students. The gathered data can be inaccurate and the fact that not all the colleges fill their students’ data properly or correctly and data storage might be susceptible to corruption at any time. In his study, the proposed system is the Online-Registration system but it is just a sub-system of Web Portal. Web Portal is defined as a system that presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. The proposed system is a 3-Tier web-based. 3-Tier Architecture is a Client/Server Architecture. In registration system, as a result, after entering the student data to the system, user can have the confirmation to assure the students was enrolled into the exam and the exam receipt to be given to the student. For the reporting subsystem, it will be easily know how many students applied for the exam and the fees required for  each student. Last is the repository subsystem where the user can download the files necessary to manage the activities. Computerized Billing for Time Improves Client Communication and Firm Profitability As cited in the article entitled â€Å"Computerized Billing for Time Improves Client Communication and Firm Profitability† by Murphy (1996), he stated that, accounting firms can improve their profitability and relation with clients by automating client billing with computers. Accounting firms can use personal computer as an economical means of computerizing the billing process. A Computerized Billing System allows accounting firms to more effectively manage their employee’s productivity and give them the means to analyse the hours available and hours billed of each employee. A Computerized Billing System provides more control over accounts receivable and client work processes. Computer in Today’s World Philippines According to the article entitled, â€Å"Computer In Today’s World Philippines† by Bitter (1995), stated that the function performed by the computer division of various organizations has become identified as data processing program expedite many business functions such as the accounts payable system. They keep records of vendor’s number, special accounts and dates of payments. There are many advantages in using an accounts payable package: all information remains in one done automatically; calculations are easily made; the time involved to do work is greatly reduced. Information to Computer and Information System According to the article entitled â€Å"Information to Computer and Information System† by Syzmanski (1998), Computers are used in business for many tasks that can be grouped into category called data processing. Data processing includes tasks such as word processing, billing, and assembling number and facts associated with general office functions, such as order processing, inventory and billing. Billing System A research about Billing System was conducted by various students from International School of Informatics and Management in Jaipur. This study, therefore, is closely-related to our topic which is Billing and Registration System. According to their case study, there are several problems with the existing system the business uses that must be worked on and improved. That’s why they decided to make and propose some solutions for the said system. The researchers – Anil Kumar Anjana, Bhaiya Lal Anjana, and Saurabh Jai – figured out that time (to retrieve and store data) is a common problem with the existing system the company uses. The system also requires a lot of paper works and even a small transaction requires many papers to be filled. Thus, any fortuitous event (such as fire and such) can easily destroy all the data of the organization. A loss of even a single paper or a document can lead to a burdensome situation for the business, because all of the papers are interrelated. Another problem states that the data cannot be shared or utilized by different persons at the same time. Actual movement of the data must be done in order to make it usable by several persons at any time. To sum it all up, these problems should be solved by altering or improving its processes. Time is always of the essence, and it is very important in businesses. Just by the mere identification and analysis of the problems being showed in the existing system, it would cost the business itself MORE once these are not solved. They also conducted a feasibility study with regards to their proposed system. They considered the technical, behavioural, and economic feasibilities of the study. They identified things from software to the hardware that the system might be using once it is implemented. In terms of behavioral feasibility, they studied or evaluated the behavior of the end users of the system which may affect the system’s implementation. Some people are resistant to changes. So, a good estimate should be made on how strong a reaction the user staff is likely to have towards the development of a computerized system. As the aim of the system is only to satisfy the information needs, no employees will lose their position by the proposed system. In fact, the proposed system will help the organization in reducing  the voluminous work involved. With the economic feasibility involved, the procedure is to determine the benefits/advantages and savings that are expected from the system and compare it with the costs to be generated once implemented. If the benefits outweigh costs, such as manpower and hardware and software costs, then it is said to be that the system is approved and ready to be designed and implemented. But, if otherwise happens, wherein costs are greater that the benefits, further alterations should be made in order to make the proposed system a better one. Design and Implementation of Accounting Models for Services in Agent-Based Information Systems According to Rupert Rockinger and Hubert Baumeister, the fast growing field of electronic commerce brings today’s applications to their limits. Information systems are now being used to further automate the processes. A fully automated process can also help busy users who want to spend as little time as possible with a single transaction. A system capable of accounting can return the needed product without requiring any further attention by the user. In the study of Rockinger and Baumeister the design and implementation of the basic agent framework billing system (BABSy) is described. It includes an overview about payment models in everyday life, parts of the system that are already being used today, and where BABSy takes its place in this context, and describes the architecture of BABSy and its implementation using the FollowMe framework. The term ’service’ is used in the study instead of merchandise since in the electronic world goods are often virtual. Buying information for example can be considered the service of supplying this data. With all the benefits of agent technology in mind, one would expect that there are many solutions available for accounting in commercial agent frameworks. This, however, is not the case at this time. Mostly this is due to the fact that agents cover only a certain aspect of the behavior model. To identify the participating agents let’s take a look at a conventional transaction. Say, for example, you buy a meal at your favorite restaurant. Two parties are obvious: you, the paying customer, and the selling restaurant owner. The third party in the interaction is a banking service that provides the guarantee for the payment used. When paying cash this is the central bank of a country that guarantees the value of your bank notes; for credit card payment this is the cred it card company; and when paying by check this will be bank that issued the check. Either way  there is always a third party involved that both others must recognize and trust. So within the agent framework three independent components are needed. One for the provider, one for the customer and a third that represents a banking service. In this paper the design of the accounting system BABSy for services in an agent community was presented. This can greatly improve the value of electronic commerce applications in the future.The design of the BABSy core components covers the most important payment models while still leaving room for further functionality. Most components can be extended for much greater complexity if desired. Online Bill Payment 2.0 Digital financial transactions have caused the increase in consumer convenience and its ease of use that was evidenced by a Consumer Trends Survey conducted by Fisherv Inc. in 2011. Despite the former, e-billing and e-statement users reduced bad debt by 50 percent and at the same time has reduced the reconciliation costs by 40 percent. Electronic billing also has reduced the use of paper, meaning no postage and no wastes. Another upgrade in the digital financial transactions is the personalization of online payment. In one study, payments increased more than 350 percent payments were made with personalized tools compared to other Web-based payment systems (source: confidential client data). According to Mark Snow, the main reason why personalized online billing is more effective than that of the others is the intrigue it creates in the minds of the users. The moment they see that personalized link to access their own website, curiosity kicks in and they want to see more. The ease of access and the convenience that regular online billing providers are doubled by the personalization of the existing systems by directly integrating the billing and payment system to the provider’s account that increases efficiency and reduces the time is called the consuming manual payment processing. He also cited in the article the steps taken in the personalized online payment which starts by sending a personal notification that directly goes to the patient via letter or email. In that letter, there would be an existing link and password that would lead them to the patient’s personal website where the existing personal information and the services the patient has undergone. In the said link, the patient can already pay their bills via credit card, debit card,  or ACH on their account and can even update their personal information. And with just one click of a button, their payment is processed, confirmation of payment is sent to both the provider and th e patient, and the money is already deposited into the provider’s account. References: Al-Shaikh, A. M. (n.d.) Online registration system. Retreive from www.cscjournals.org Anjana, A.K., Anjana, B. L., & Jain, S. (n.d.) Billing system. International school of informatics and management. Jaipur. Snow, M. (2012). Online bill payment 2.0. Health Management Technology, 33(10), 18-19. Bitter, Gary G. (1995). Computer in Today’s World Philippine. The McMillan Com. Smith, Murphy L. (1996). Computerized billing for time improves client communication and firm profitability. (Management of an accounting practice) the CPA journal Syzmanski, Robert A. (1998). Introduction to computer and information systems. merrill publishing co. R. Rockinger. (1999). Design and implementation of accounting models for services in agent-based information systems. Master’s thesis. Institut f ¨ur Informatik. Universit ¨at M ¨unchen, M ¨unchen. Germany. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Quantitative research methodology was used for this study. Quantitative research is a formal, objective, and systematic process. In situations where little is known, like in the case of Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory, quantitative method was used in conducting the interviews, to focus groups, and others. Data based on the interview were used by the researchers to find out problems of the existing system used by the said company. Once the problem has been identified by the researchers, then, the quantitative approach will be used to measure to what extent this problem may have to the company and its customers. The said method also aims to answer questions with regards to the â€Å"how many†, and â€Å"how much† of a problem. 3.2 RESEARCH TOOLS Interview The researchers interviewed the marketing officer from the accounting office  of the Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory. Researchers asked for the information about the company and the existing system the company is currently using and other relevant information that are useful to the study. The actual interview was recorded by the researchers. Observation It has been observed that the administration keeps a lot of paper files. In addition, manual transaction is very evident. These caused problems, and in effect, the researchers proposed the Registration and Billing System. Journals The researchers used some published journals and other related research papers for reference and for comparability purposes. 3.3 EXISTING SYSTEM Currently, the Royal Residence is utilizing the Microsoft Excel as its system. This software is a spread sheet application developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language. Using excel, the company is able to keep a record of its tenants. One unit has its own excel file where every tenant has his/her own worksheet where his/her amount due can be found. In that worksheet, the utilities payable of the tenant and even the other payables like penalties/ interest are already computed just by entering the formula. Since the system can perform the calculation, the company can determine the total amount due of each tenant by using the functions of excel. In this system, the company still performs the manual input. 3.4 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED WITH THE EXISTING SYSTEM During the interview session with Miss Maria Vilma T. Lerpido, Marketing Officer from the Accounting Management of The Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory, we asked her if they have been facing some problems with the registration and billing system they are using in the business. And as evidenced by the interview we conducted and through our observation, we have figured out some complications with the system. As for the royal residence condominium-dormitory, time is one of the problems they are encountering with their system. We could say that it is  time-consuming because manual input of data is being practiced. In addition to this, we, the researchers, have noticed that the records of the tenants in each unit in their condominium-dormitory are being individually filed in excel. Each excel file contains the records of the each tenant in different worksheets. One file is equivalent to one unit, with several rooms, in the condominium-dormitory wherein it contains its corresponding tenants’ records. The file consists of the tenants’ payment dues – from the monthly rental up to the electric and water bills a tenant has incurred. Computation of the penalty dues and other expenses by the tenant is being performed by the Microsoft Excel itself. Thus, once an authorized personnel looks for a tenant’s records, it would take time for him searching the name from the list of the documents saved in the computer. So, what if all of the tenants – more or less 200 – would pay their dues at the same time, would the staff do the computations that fast and easy considering that s/he will be accommodating numbers of customers in just a short period of time? The system must be developed to improve its performance, less cost, less pressure, and with that, the personnel can just simply look for the records with the already-computed charges, then, it can already be printed as a physical evidence of the tenant’s accounts. CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND FINDINGS 4.1 PROPOSED SYSTEM One of the advantages of the system is that, it is time saving. It is created in order to save time creating and sending invoices. It has low mistake risks, secured from typographical errors, miscalculations, and erroneous invoicing to the customer. Another is it provides a lot of different features. You can adapt billing program to yourself considering specifics of your business. For example you can define when, to whom, and how often you want to send recurring invoices. It is a cost effective way to protect a record through a centralized application process. Renewal and subsequent changes concerning ownership details can also be handled using this centralized process. And registration ensures a single, consistent approach to monitoring quality service. It gives confidence that all tenants have achieved the same essential levels of safety. For the disadvantages of the  system, Registration and Billing System would be costly. A small business may not afford this. If in case it can purchase, return of investment would take longer. Purchasing this system is a costly investment. Sometimes, the money paid could be used to other greater income generating investments, with higher assurance of return. When the system is implemented, there will be a reduction of labor force. There will be less job opportunities for human resource. And in some instances, the labor force would be too dependent with the system, and considering that the system is not 100 % guaranteed free from error. When the labor force doesn’t personally check the entered information, an overstatement or understatement of accounts may happen. Though, this is one-in-a-million case, the system still possesses accuracy. The system still follows the input data. Once they are mistakenly done, the system will also provide an incorrect output. For example, when the tenant/administration entered a wrong tenant number for a specific payment, then the system will follow what was entered. It cannot detect such an error. The system is restricted to cash payment only. Credit cards and bank transactions are not involved. 4.2 DATA FLOW DIAGRAM 4.2.1 CONTEXT DIAGRAM Registration and Billing System consists three entities – tenant, administration, and accounting. In this system, it starts with the tenant entity wherein it gives details that are needed by other entities. Once the tenant gives those details, the system will work on it in order to produce outputs from the entities in the said system. 4.2.2 DIAGRAM 0 Diagram 0 is a confounded version of the context diagram that shows the major processes done in the system. The start of these processes is to classify the old and new tenants. If tenants are new, a new profile is created, saved in a data store, and the tenant details are used by the system to proceed to  the next processes – create statement, apply payment, and lastly, create reports needed by the administration and accounting entities. On the other hand, once old tenants are sorted, processes would already follow (same with the preceding processes with a new tenant) 4.2.3.1 DIAGRAM 1 PROCESS 3 Process 3 of Diagram 1 revealed three further internal processes – find tenant records (3.1), classify dues (3.2), and compute payment due (3.3). The processes are related to payments – past dues, city services, and rent payments. They have to produce statement of accounts to tenants and invoice details to accounting entity, and the cycle continues. 4.2.3.2 DIAGRAM 1 PROCESS 4 Process 4 of Diagram 1 revealed three further processes – record payment (4.1), create cash receipts (4.2), and update account (4.3). They produced and updated accounts to the involved entities, tenant and accounting, respectively. 4.3 DATA DICTIONARY ENTITY TENANT Name: Tenant Description: One that pays rent to use or occupy land, a building, or other property owned by another. Input Data Flow: Statement of account, Cash receipts, Tenant code Output Data Flow: Personal details, Payment details ADMINISTRATON Name: Administration Description: A body of persons who manage. Input Data Flow: Tenant Profile, Report Details Output Data Flow: Tenant Number ACCOUNTING Name: Accounting Description: The system of recording and summarizing business and financial transaction and analyzing, verifying, and reporting the results. Input Data Flow: Invoice Details, Tenant Accounts, Updated Accounts Output Data Flow: Financial Statement CHAPTER V SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION, AND CONCLUSION 5.1 SUMMARY This project involves information system specifically, registration and billing system. The goal is to make the registration and billing of Royal Residence Condominium-Dormitory easier and more accurate. This has been done by improving their existing system through automation of the said activities. Before, their registration and billing system is manually-operated and it is time-consuming. The research covers the problem of the said business entity with regards to their registration and billing  system which can help the entity to lessen errors when it comes to recording transactions among their tenants (College students, reviewers, transients and others) because the entity does not have an existing information system. The proposed system would then require less processes and human errors with the desired output of the entity. 5.3 RECOMMENDATION Registration and Billing System is effective. However, some recommendations are advised. The researchers recommend further study of the system. It is believed that longer period of research would provide more information that would let users maximize the ability of the system. It is also recommended that the visual presentation of the system be improved. For validity purposes, a good visual presentation would let the users input the correct data. This will reduce human error. The system covers only the registration of the tenants themselves. Registration of all belongings, particularly those gadgets and appliances, is therefore recommended for safety purposes. In addition, the system is limited to cash payment only. As a result, the researchers recommend that credit and bank transactions be included. The researchers also recommend making an assessment of the tenant’s point of view about the system. It is important to acknowledge this since Royal Residence exists because of the m. 5.3 CONCLUSION This study aimed at improving the existing system of Royal. The results of this study indicated both positive results and negative results. It can be concluded that the findings were consistent with their results. Furthermore, this study found that the registration and billing system helped the administration and accounting department for the safe keeping of their documents. In addition, the study also revealed some obstacles that the entity had to face when they applied the system. These obstacles may be summarized as costly, labor force will be lessened and it is not free from human error. However, in the long run, the system is more preferred. This is supported by the earlier findings. To sum it up, elimination of manual transactions benefited the company. The proposed system made transactions faster and more accurate. It is far more advantageous when compared to manual transaction and the existing system by the business-Excel. Thus, introduction of Registration and Billings Syste m is effective and yield the expected positive results.

High-tech crime (computer crime) Essay

High-tech crime (computer crime) is the use of technology to commit a crime. It is the biggest tech related threat to the society. According to the 2011 Norton Cybercrime Report, in 2010 more than 430 million adults were victimized at a cost of US$388-billion in direct and indirect losses from computer crime world wide. The direct financial losses from cybercrime stood at US$114 billion, while US$274 billion was the value of time that victims spent in solving the crimes [1]. High-tech crimes include identity theft, cyber-stalking, hacking confidential systems, pyramid schemes, planting harmful viruses, and many others. Identity theft is a form of fraud in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person’s identity. There are five types of identity theft criminal, financial, medical, child, and identity cloning. Criminal identity theft is when a criminal identifies himself as another person when the police arrest him. Not only does the criminal escape, but also he victim may encounter problems for months and even years because of the incorrect criminal records. Financial identity theft is using another person’s identity credit, goods, and services. Medical Identity theft is using a person’s name or insurance information to get medical services/goods or just to make false claims. Child identity theft on the other hand is using a child’s Security Number for personal gains. Identity cloning on the other hand is to assume the identity of another person for daily life. Cyber-bullying is the use of modern technology (mostly the internet) to harm people on purpose. New bullying statistics revealed that around half of teens with Internet access have been the victims of cyber bullying [2]. Cyber-bullying can lead to depression and even suicide. Unlike physical bullying, cyber-bullies can remain anonymous and the bullying can continue all day every day. Many think cyber-bullying only happens to children, but it also happens to adults, which is known as cyber-stalking. Cyber-stalking includes making threats, gathering information about the victim, encouraging others to harass, false accusations, requesting minors for sex, false victimization, and ordering good/services in the victim’s name. Hacking is when a person accesses a computer or a network without the owner’s consent. The most common hacker targets are government agencies, business networks, bank security systems, insurance providers, and hospital networks. Some hack personal/organization computers to plant harmful viruses that can destroy entire systems. While some hack private computers to obtain personal information such as pictures and credit card number. Others hack bank security systems to illegally obtain money (also known as defrauding). Other reasons for hacking are creating public attention for oneself, illegal subscription, and altering or obtaining classified information. And even though security systems are being improved, so is hacking. Other major high tech-crimes include drug trafficking, cyber terrorism, and cyber warfare. Drug dealers are taking advantage of the Internet and other technologies to sell illegal drugs. And the lack of face-to-face communication causes an increase of Internet drug trade. Cyber terrorism is the act of terrorism through the use of cyberspace. Cyber warfare, which is considered one of the most controversial and threatening high-tech crimes, is the act of sabotage and espionage through politically motivated hacking. These examples and many more are the reason why high-tech crime is the biggest threat to society when it comes to technology. Sources: 1. 1. http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/07/cyber-crime-cost-canadians-5-5-billion-in-2010-study-finds/ 1. 2. http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

The Poetics of Popular Music Essays (2197 words) - Pop Ballads

The Poetics of Popular Music Essays (2197 words) - Pop Ballads 14004 1247555 Neil Briffett13words The Poetics of Popular Music December 9, 2014 Final essay Every day a person finds that special someone to love or thought to be love. Relationships are the hardest thing to work on. Many work out but many dont. Most of the times the means is clearly no ones fault. If there were a lyricist that explore most of his songs on the same topic who would it be? A speaker with the same motif in his songs is Bruno Mars, in which some of his are about breakups and betrayals. Songs like Grenade, Natalie and When I Was Your Man are some good example of which it shows Brunos relationship problems with woman. Bruno Mars expresses the consequences of his decisions throughout different concepts such as broken hearth, regrets and betrayal; also they are represented by using symbolism, irony and metaphor, in order to show his depressive mental state. Firstly Grenade by Mars, generalizing about the lyrics of this song, it is about a broken heart guy just got dumped by a girl, who did not love him and made him suffer a lot. The lyrics expressed show that the speaker is very sad and depressed, which are the same to a failure stage in a relationship like every other unhappy couples. The first sentence of this song, which says Easy come, easy go/That's just how you live oohh (1-2), makes you immediately think that this is the type of girl who doesnt view relationship as anything serious, which causes a lot pain and stress for Bruno when he tries to save their failing relationship. The artist says he willingly gave the other person his all in the relationship, he treated her with respect but she instead took advantage of his love. She treated Brunos undying love and devotion like a piece of rubbish and threw it away without thinking. This person that Bruno was really into must have been really something to him because he goes on to des cribe all the ways in which he would be willing to die for his beloved: grenade, blade, train, and bullet. A lyric that illustrates well this situation is Id catch a grenade for ya (11), the word grenade is referred to his ex, for whom he would do everything for the other person, and in this case he would catch a grenade, or die for that person. Although, the writer does not show any anger towards the woman, but instead shows a heart broken man who tells us what he would do for her afterwards, in contrast she wouldnt do anything in return to him. These actions are illustrated by the use of hyperbole, whereas the speaker says Yeah youll smile in my face/Then rip the brakes out my car (21-22). These lyrics are an example of overstatement, as it means that the girl is two faced enough to smile when she with Bruno, then rip out his breaks once he turns his back, knowing very well that could lead to a fatal car crash. Secondly, betrayal is one of the most painful experiences. Natalie, is about Mars telling a story of his speakers revenge against a gold digger named Natalie who took the protagonist for everything and how he wont stop at nothing to make sure she pays even if he ends up spending life time in jail. Not like the previous song was about breakup, this one is focuses more on betrayal, in which the girl stole Mars money and left him broke, for that reason it causes him to go on a vengeance spree. Although Natalie played with his emotions, the speaker describes the situation with a positive tone; for example when he tells us that I spend a lifetime in jail (yeah, thats what Ill do) Ill be smiling in my cell (yeah, thinking about you) (32-33), the composer is admitting that he doesnt care about the consequence of murdering Natalie; as long as he can get his revenge on her, hell be happy to spend the rest of his life in jail, knowing shes long gone. The writer uses a technique in the song, wh ich is the synecdone of lines. The method changes the way you interpret the song, because

Conceptualizing And Operationalizing Within Festival And Event Tourism Essay Essays

Conceptualizing And Operationalizing Within Festival And Event Tourism Essay Essays Conceptualizing And Operationalizing Within Festival And Event Tourism Essay Essay Conceptualizing And Operationalizing Within Festival And Event Tourism Essay Essay Festivals occupy a important function in towns and parts all over the Earth, Getz for case opines that this acts as attractive forces, image-makers, energizers of inactive attractive force and influence rapid development. Such Festivals and events range from nutrient, vino, cultural, athleticss, drink, husbandmans market, music and movie festival, to advert but a few. The of import function of particular events and festivals has been reiterated in several scholarly plants on the turning tendency and impact on the touristry industry ( McDonnell et al 1999 ; Getz 1997 ; Crompton et al 2001 ) . This therefore paves manner for a multiplicity of positions that are related to the survey of festival and event, such as touristry relationship, event direction, impact literature all define the complexness of the comprehensiveness of touristry research. In recent old ages, the development of touristry has made it possible for several bookmans to specify the nature and extent of touristry related to festival and event research ( Formica 1998 ; Hede et Al 2003 ; Getz 2004 ) . Stokes ( 2005 ) opined that strategic direction and event touristry is construed as a sector chiefly influenced by the end of economic benefits. Gestating festivals and event falls under event touristry, which is at the link of both touristry and event surveies ( Getz 2008, p.406 ) .Limiting the end of festivals and events to economic impact entirely nevertheless is an aberrance and it reduces other factors such as civilization, leisure, traditional saving of norms to advert but a few. This link is based on the premiss of a set of interrelatedness that influences the selling of events to tourers alongside the development and selling of events for touristry and economic development intents. This fundamentally leads to the point of unwraping the assorted impacts of such events, the conceptualisation and operationalization of the events. Historical overview of particular events and festivals Getz ( 1997 ) and Janiskee ( 1980 ) posited that festivals and events can be comprehended or depicted as formal periods or plans of enjoyable activities, amusements or events with a alone character of celebration and publically observing a peculiar construct, go oning or fact. The populace, celebratory characteristics in the definition are important because festivals and events have been in being for long and existed as important cultural patterns stand foring the signifier of public show, corporate jubilation and civic rite. Harmonizing to South Australia Tourism Commission ( 1997 ) , people in all civilizations identify the demand to sequester a peculiar clip and infinite for communal creativeness and jubilation. These patterns nevertheless day of the month back to centuries, with spiritual underpinnings which were largely prevailing in the in-between ages with public shows and civic rites as important in the Renaissance epoch ( Fox Gotham 2005 ; Muir 1997 ) . Dywer et Al ( 2004 ) nevertheless explains how imperial alongside international exhibitions became portion of public life and the corporate imaginativeness in Europe from the mid nineteenth century onwards. Researchs unwrap that throughout these earlier periods, festivals and events revolve around individuality in footings of the state province, which brings to fore the sense of topographic point, the personal and heterogenous individualities of a peculiar group of people ( Matheson 2005, p.224 ) . The Handel Centenary Festival held in London s Crystal Palace which started in 1859 for case was marketed as a tourer attractive force and remains a annual festival ; same can be said of Scots Highland games in North Carolina. Festivals and events therefore have a drawn-out historical flight which revolves chiefly around traditions of assorted yesteryear. They continue to boom and be in modern-day society, which can be traced to the demand and production driven factors. The demand driven factors underpinning the growing of festival and events can be conceptualized within the constructs of socialisation, demands, and the growing of serious leisure and experience ( Getz 2008 ; Prentice and Andersen 2003 ) . The production side as discussed in urban surveies, and urban geographics literatures view the modern-day generation of festivals and events as dependant on urban restructuring procedures ( ibid ) A chief driver for the growing and revival of festivals and events globally has been identified as the possible to present a series of development results which are in footings of economic restructuring and revival, finish or topographic point repositioning, internal investing and touristry gross coevals which instead are used in mensurating the impact of festival and events ( Schuster 2001 ) . The foregoing therefore calls for the scrutiny of the impacts of festival and events, the changing ways of conceptualizing and operationalizing festival and events. Prevailing subjects in the discourse of Festival and Events Several literature reappraisals have disclosed the nucleus countries of research and publication in the field of festivals and event. Formica ( 1998 ) and Getz s ( 2000 ) for case submitted that economic impacts, selling, event profiling, sponsorship, direction and forecasting/ tendency description are the chief subjects.More late, Jackson et Al ( 2005 ) , Moscardo ( 2007 ) submitted that the touristry literature on festivals and events is dominated by four major subjects which includes economic impacts, audience analysis with a solid motivation of bettering selling and service quality, the direction of events with a specific concern to advance selling and service quality and broader events impacts as perceived by occupants, participants in footings of satisfaction. The foregoing is nevertheless contradicted by Getz ( 2008, p.421 ) submits that event touristry surveies and related research are in their early phase of development. Measuring the impacts of festival and events hence seem to be important. Measuring Impacts of Festivals Fredline A ; Faulkner ( 2000 ) Crompton ( 1995 ) and Hall ( 1992 ) submits that festivals and events have a societal and cultural impact while another impact is the physical and environmental which comes from the entry of bookmans such as ( McDonnell, Allen and OToole 1999, Arcodia and Whitford 2002 ) . The economic impact seems to derive a more prevailing audience as the net economic alteration in a host community with the exclusion of non-market values paves manner for disbursement which is a map of the festival or event ( Crompton A ; McKay 1994, Chhabra et al 2003 ; Cole A ; Chancellor 2009 ) . From the predating it is graphic that festivals possess a scope of aims which connotes that measuring the impacts or success of any festival would change, and it poses a trouble to execute comparings between festivals. In add-on, Faulkner ( 1993, p.4 ) posits that before the beginning of an event or festival, its impacts tends to be over overdone by its organisers chiefly because of the enthusiasm for the undertaking and partially to derive support for support from the authorities, private organisations and the community. In order to derive public support, authorities support, it is noteworthy that an aim or comparable agencies of measuring economic impacts of festivals is required. It would be worthwhile unwraping the bing theoretical accounts or agencies of mensurating the impacts of festivals and events. The three traditional theoretical accounts employed when prediction or measuring economic impacts of festivals or events are Computable General Equilibrium ( CGE ) input -output analysis and cost benefit analysis, with each theoretical accounts or measuring technique relevant in different fortunes and instances. For case, Cost benefit analysis is applied when societal, fiscal costs and benefits derived from a festival are evaluated. This reiterates the placement of societal or environmental issues or chance costs of events of peculiar involvement in the analysis ( Hunn A ; Mangan 1999 ) . The lacks noted in this theoretical account or measuring technique nevertheless is the absence of entire information, the trouble in rating of societal or public assistance costs and benefits which makes the theoretical account excessively complex for application by little regional festival organisers in finding the impact of festivals or events. CGE theoretical accounts are nevertheless good applicable to patterning herding out impacts and structural alteration in the economic system, with the inclusion of labour markets both at national and province degree, nevertheless the handiness of extra capacity within organisations or insouciant labour and in short term context, the complexness and trouble in using and construing CGE theoretical accounts in a regional context might non be well-founded ( Adams A ; Parmenter 1999 ; Jackson et Al 2005, p.361 ) . The input-output theoretical account is besides used in touristry impact analysis and has been used widely in Australia for regional analysis ( Jackson et al 2005, p.362 ) .The application of the input-output theoretical accounts is nevertheless limited to regional analysis because of its long term span. In instances of little regional festivals where there is underutilization of bing labour resources or available insouciant labour, the input-output theoretical account is suited for measuring regional economic impacts. Another development in the operationalization of festival and events is the DIY ( Do-it -Yourself ) Kit which was developed by a squad of advisers in a Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism ( CRC ) . The aforesaid kit was designed by using excel spreadsheet macros for calculation with an embedded synergistic sheathing that facilitates the easiness of informations entry to supply a comparatively merely applied tool for analysing economic impacts ( ibid ) . Among the issues captured by the DIY are the right step of the benefits of such festival or events, spacial distribution, continuance of event to advert but a few. Therefore, this provides an ex station rating of economic impact of the festival, with the kit bring forthing informations related to visitant features, industry allotment of entire festival outgos and industry allotment of visitant outgo ( ibid ) . The foregoing is nevertheless buttressed by Hall A ; Sharples ( 2008 ) entry that there are three different types of mensurable impacts or effects ; which are direct disbursals, indirect disbursals and induced effects. Direct disbursals which correspond to the disbursals accrued by the festival or event is analyzed under different act uponing variables such as rewards, rents, execution of programmes in a period of clip and topographic point. Indirect disbursals are defined as disbursals that emanate from the audience as a consequence of ingestion of the cultural goods while induced effects depict the impacts non included in the old classs, which spread or spread out to the remainder of the economic system. Festival and events, revisiting the impact phenomenon At this point, it might be important to see some popular or successful festivals, the engagement of several histrions and the effects. Get downing from a nutrient and vino festival, Hall A ; Sharples ( 2008 ) submits that paramount to the apprehension of festival and events is the composing of the festival. In this instance stakeholders and their outlooks are important. Stakeholders are therefore defined as those groups of persons who can impact or are affected by the festival or event. Not all nutrient and vino festivals would hold legion stakeholders. For case Hall A ; Sharples ( 2008 ) stakeholders revolve around voluntaries, employees, cordial reception nutrient and vino industries, occupants, tourer attendants, community groups, authorities, media, patrons, other concerns, stockholders and private patrons. The results or impact of different stakeholders nevertheless differ, Hall A ; Sharples ( 2008, p.89-90 ) submits that authoritiess through tourer section are interested in the economic impacts that such nutrient and vino festivals can bring forth whereas an educational section is interested in the educational and developing results. The Melbourne nutrient and vino festival is incorporated as a non-profit organisation nevertheless funding comes from both public and private sectors. Taking the Melbourne nutrient and vino festival as an case to construct the discourse of impact on, the festival celebrated on the 15th annually has a high profile of international chefs with a system of ticketed and non-ticked events ( ibid ) . The effect of the long term planned event meant that there were legion patrons and spouses every twelvemonth. In this specific instance two local newspapers, the State of Victoria, Tourism Victoria alongside City of Melbourne, Melbourne casino and a host of other patrons were available. The attendant consequence is a web base of patrons. The short results were increased demand for local nutrient and vino green goods, increased trade at take parting hotels, eating houses and coffeehouses, while the long term results were increased consumer penchant for locally produced nutrient and vino comparable to imported 1s, increased investing in local nutrient and vino industries, increased chances on a long term for employment in cordial reception, nut rient and vino industries, increased exportation of local nutrient and vino green goods. The Stakeholder helpers were occupants, cordial reception, nutrient and vino industries, other concerns, authoritiess, employees and voluntaries and stockholders if relevant. In decision, the impact of such event is that it develops societal capital in host communities.

How to Make a Rubric for Differentiation

How to Make a Rubric for Differentiation Rubrics are rules or a way to explicitly lay out expectations for an assignment, and the means to evaluate or grade an assignment using a point system. Rubrics work very well for differentiated instruction, as you can establish different levels of performance for general education students and for children receiving special education services. As you start making your rubric, think about the things you need to know to assess a students performance on a project/paper/group effort. You need to create four or more categories to evaluate and then establish the criteria for each score. You can format your rubric as a questionnaire or as a chart. Be sure it is clearly written, as you want to give it to your students and review it as you introduce the assignment. When you are done, you can tailor your use of the information for the following: IEP data collection, especially for writing.Your grading/reporting format: i.e., 18 of 20 points is 90% or an A.To report to parents or students. A Simple Writing Rubric The numbers suggested are good for 2nd or 3rd-grade assignments. Adjust for the age and ability of your group. Effort: Does the student write several sentences on the topic? 4 points: Student writes 5 or more sentences about the topic.3 points: Student writes 4 sentences about the topic.2 points: Student writes 3 sentences about the topic.1 point: Student writes 1 or 2 sentences about the topic. Content: Does the student share enough information to make the writing selection interesting? 4 points: Student shares 4 or more facts about the subject3 points: Student shares 3 facts about the subject2 points: Student shares 2 facts about the subject1 point: Student shares at least one fact about the subject. Conventions: Does the student use correct punctuation and capitalization? 4 points: Student begins all sentences with capitals, capitalizes proper nouns, no run on sentences and correct punctuation, including one question mark.3 points: Student begins all sentences with capitals, one or fewer run-on sentences, 2 or fewer errors in punctuation.2 points: Student begins sentences with capitals, ends with punctuation, 2 or fewer run-on sentences, 3 or fewer errors in punctuation.1 point: Student uses capital letters appropriately at least once, ends with punctuation. This rubric needs at least 2 more categories- it is easiest to score them with a possible 20 points. Consider Style, Organization or Focus. Rubrics in Table Form A table is a great way to clearly organize and present a rubric. Microsoft Word provides an easy table tool to lay out a rubric. For an example of a table rubric, please see a table rubric for a report on animals.

Dream vacation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dream vacation - Essay Example Whenever I would get a chance to visit Italy I won't miss a single museum. However my family is planning to visit my aunt in Italy in the next summer vacations, if so, I would plan every single hour of my vacations to enjoy the utmost. Churches and national shrines hold significance, as they are the primary concern for tourist attraction. The works of famous sculptors and painters like Leonardo Di Vinci, Michelangelo and Filippo Brunelleschi can be found in Tuscany, one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the world. (VacationIdea, 2006) I have often heard about the great Tower of Pisa, which is famous for its five degrees tiltness amazing most of the tourists. My curiosity lead me to investigate the reason of being tilted and then I got to know that it was just a coincidence that the tower got tilted as one side of the ground was soft and so the tower leaned one side. That coincidence became the center of attraction for majority of the tourists around the world. The most exotic art and architecture to which I would prefer to visit Rome is the Roman Colosseum built in 80 A.D for gladiator fights. I am quite inspired by such fights and wish if I had to be among one of them, what had been the consequences. Visiting Fontana Di Trevi is my heart most desire which I would fulfill in the next summer vacations. ... The reason for this is nothing particular except for the nature and greenery that island possesses. Another greener place to explore is the Cinque Terre, a place for hiking in the Northwest of Rome, enriched with botanicals of lemon orchards; I wonder I would be lost in the beauty of Rome. Rome also possesses one of my interests, a museum renowned for keeping the latest stylish and the most antique cars, Galleria Ferrari. This museum tells us all about the Romans history, people, importance of cars in Roman history and the modern Roman approach. Ranging from the sports car to modern luxury car this museum enjoys an auditorium, ground floor and first floor for the visitors all around the world. I wonder about the prices of the cars, must be expensive enough to deem to buy. Roman Forum is also a historical place to visit, as it used to be the main center of preaching religion of ancient Romans. The Forum consists of other monumental places like the Temple of Saturn, the House of the Vestals, Arch of Septimus Severus and Faustina and the Arch of Titus. After Rome, the first place to visit in Paris in my hit list is Eiffel Tower. This antique and valuable identity of Paris, well known for being the tallest building in the world serves as the main source of tourist attraction. According to my knowledge the tower comprises of three huge floors, whenever I think of spending vacations in Paris I assume myself being on the top of the floor where to enjoy the scenic view of observing the whole Paris would be like a dream turning to reality. What knowledge I have come across, tells that Paris "The City of Lights" is renowned for its monumental buildings. After Eiffel Tower comes the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe and its

HIstorical Film Assignment on JFK Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HIstorical Film Assignment on JFK - Movie Review Example The Warren Commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren along with other investigating authorities such as House Select Committee FBI and Dallas police issued reports identifying Oswald as the sole assassin. A gallop poll conducted after 30 years of assassination indicates that 75% of Americans still believe in conspiracy theories (McCauley & Jacques, 1979). However, the conclusions made by these reports on assumption that Oswald was guilty, even triggered conspiracy theories about the involvement of federal agencies in the assassination (Kurtz, 1982). JFK is a 1991 motion picture, which examines the various events leading to the murder of President John F. Kennedy as explored by New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison. From his existing knowledge and what he learned about links to the murder subsequently, Garrison suspects several loopholes in FBI’s official story. He reopens investigation in 1966 after reading the warrens report, which convinced him of the numerous ina ccuracies and conflicts in the government’s story. ... Garrison presents evidence in court in the trial proceedings of Clay Shaw. However, in the endings, Shaw was acquitted of those allegations and Garrison stated that he will continue to dig out the truth. Though director Oliver Stone was severely criticized for distorting history, his film provoked calls and eventually succeeded in declassification of few secret documents relevant to the assassination (Benoit, 1998). The character portraits were criticized of being unauthentic. For instance, the original character of Garrison was totally inverted and his personality was falsely portrayed as a sympathetic figure in the film. The beating of Martin Jack, a historically dubious character, by Banister was exaggerated and the reasons altered in the film. The death of Ferrie was shown to be a murder, while he actually died of natural causes. Andrews’ claim about Shaw and Bertrand being the same person was falsely depicted in the film. In reality, Andrews totally denied this assumption and never testified to the fact. The witness Perry Russo, who was the key character in real Garrison’s case, was completely ignored and film substituted her with a fictional character O’Keefe (Smolla, 1992; Lambert, 1998). The personality of Shaw was greatly distorted as an arrogant, overt homosexual, while in truth he was a respected individual. There was no such character as X in reality, but fictional and loosely based on Col. Prouty who actually had no access to secret service or inside information. JFK asserts that Lyndon Johnson reversed Kennedy's new withdrawal policy from the Vietnam War, while as evident from declassified documents, the memorandum was drafted when Kennedy was

Lewis and Clark expediation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lewis and Clark expediation - Essay Example e expedition, Native Americans’ land was viewed as a mere continuation of American territory, with the Americans seeking to enlarge their territory by acquiring the Native Americans’ land. However, the Native Americans were primarily not objective towards the expedition seeing it as a way of enhancing trade relations with America, thereby increasing their access to commodities. Most Native groups cooperated with the discovery team by serving as the latter’s interpreters and guides, for instance, the Lewis and Clark led expedition include the Mandans, who grew corn on their land and resided in earth lodges. This group of natives agreed to trade with America and assisted the discovery team in finding food, accommodation and provided protection to the team. In addition, other groups of cooperative natives were the Sioux, the Hidatsa, the Chinook, Shoshone and the Arikara. All these groups had a positive impact on the success of the expedition and assisted the discov ery team in creating rapport with other groups (DeVoto, 1953, 29). One of the most notable Native American who assisted the expedition team was Sacajawea, wife to one of the hired Natives. Sacajawea played a key role in maintaining amiable relations between the team and other Native groups. However, there were some Native American groups that were not quite cooperative and who sought to have the discovery team expelled from their land through all necessary means, including warfare (Neuberger, 1962, 15). For instance, the Piegan  Blackfoot  warriors, whom the expedition team encountered at the Marias River. The expedition team was forced to retreat from the Piegan’s land for fear of attack when the Native group attempted to forcefully acquire the team’s weapons. The Lewis and Clark expedition had a major effect on the U.S policy towards Native Americans. U.S considered Native Americans in two conflicting ways that are Native Americans were either United States’ enemies during war, or they were

HR - Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

HR - Final - Essay Example The role of HR is changing fast with leapfrogging technological and marketplace advancements. The HR department’s primitive objectives were to ensure a smooth personnel management system, administration, hiring process etc. It was considered as a administrative overhead. The present day HR role is more strategic. It is directly connected to business success, revenues and opportunities being seized for organisational benefits and accomplishment of long terms and short term goals. (PWC, 2012, p. 1) As the industrial revolution began, it took the entire world in its grasp, changing and transforming work, its definition and the way people approached them. New roles got created starting from financial accountants, lawyers, executives, sales personnel, managers, administrators etc. Divisions such as Finance, Sales, Marketing, Legal, Accounts etc got created, roles got assigned to such departments and several designations like specialists, senior specialist, intern, contractor, proba tioner, part timer, summer worker etc got created. Human Resource Management in the 1800s or earlier involved clearly defined tasks such as recruitment, appointment with roles and responsibilities, observation during probation period, confirmation, appraisals, compensation and promotion. The scope of the Human Resource Management was limited and there was nothing as Strategic human Resource Management, as strategy was not required. What was important during the pre-industrial revolution and the pre-20th century period was finding the people with necessary qualification to do a particular job. Monopoly existed, competition was unimaginably less, organisation processes were simpler, goals were easier to comprehend and tangible. Therefore the Human Resources Arm either did not exist as a specific department or even if it did exist, it had limited scope and function. Work mainly had to do with a lot of physical exertion and there were very few main stream disciplines like: teaching, des igning, building, carpentry, plumbing, construction, electrical work, research, practising medicine, surgery, law, policing, agriculture, army and civic operations. As a result of the limited scope of work, Human Resource Management had limited things to deal with and was relatively underdeveloped. The real shift came into the picture form the 1900s when the very definition of work and profession started changing. After the industrial revolution, thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders around the globe identified a tremendous potential for their respective businesses to flourish. The scope for growth given the industrial boom and technological leap was found to be immense. This needed information management. Thus the gradual change in the nature of work, its perception and treatment started. Work changed from the simple paper and pen based design, hand tooling of machines, laborious exercises of packaging, unpacking, in short Assembly Line work to knowledge work. A change in the Human M anagement Strategy followed. Fundamentals were changes. How work is defined and how people fit in to their roles, how organisations create and handle work, how businesses are run with the help of knowledge forever changed the system of the Human Resource Management System. With time HR departments became important entities in organisations, its effectiveness affecting the organisation’s performance, general perception, market value and reputation to a great extent. (Rai, 2012, p. 1) As organisations

Business Systems Analysis and Design Coursework - 1

Business Systems Analysis and Design - Coursework Example Performance appraisals build effective habits among members such as employees are able to clearly understand the organisational goals and identifying the best way forward to meeting these goals. Managers ensure that they evaluate the best process that will be able to improve the performance of their employees (Jones, 1997). In this process managers should be capable of ensuring that the team members achieve their goals and objectives. Team members should also be improving constantly and developing in their skills to become in order to become a great asset to the organisation. Managers should ensure that the hindrances to improvement are addresses by having a personal conversation with team members and listening to every issue. The issues and concerns raised should be solved immediately and in the most effective manner in order to avoid major issues in the future. Managers should also be in a position of asking themselves whether their employees are achieving the desired expectations of the business and whether they have the potential to achieve these goals. Finally managers should be able to gauge how much the employees have improved since the previous appraisal or the value they have added to their development since the manager started supervising. Once the above goals are well focused, then managing people will become an easy process. Kate (2011) describes that effective management include assessing the current situation of a team member, setting effective goals and working together to ensure that member achieves those goals. The first step in managing people is to have a clear vision. The managers should be able to be precise on the expected performance by analysing the role of every team member. These expectations should then be communicated to the team members informing them to be accountable of their activities. The second step of effective people management is to make the expectations clear to the team members. The objectives should be discussed in a pos itive way to the members and the manager should communicate the ongoing basis for the team member to know exactly what they have achieved and what is remaining to attain their target. The third step involves letting the team members be aware that their work is of value to the entire organisation. Richard et al. (2009, p. 50) shows this involves a short brief to everyone reminding them of the purpose of the organisation, the purpose of the team and the benefits to other departments. Managers should make sure that the team members are aware that they play a major part in achieving the entire output of the organisation. This should be a continuous assessment that the supervisor has to show to their members. This makes the employees feel valued therefore making them motivated to performing better. The forth step involves getting to know each team member basing on their abilities, skills and personal behaviour. This will make you understand them well and it also improved mutual respect. 2. Rich picture Rich pictures represent processes, structures and issues within an organization that are relevant to the problem definition. These also provide a thinking model about the system, how to think about the system and also how to group pertinent issues. Rich pictures also enable an

HR - Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

HR - Final - Essay Example The role of HR is changing fast with leapfrogging technological and marketplace advancements. The HR department’s primitive objectives were to ensure a smooth personnel management system, administration, hiring process etc. It was considered as a administrative overhead. The present day HR role is more strategic. It is directly connected to business success, revenues and opportunities being seized for organisational benefits and accomplishment of long terms and short term goals. (PWC, 2012, p. 1) As the industrial revolution began, it took the entire world in its grasp, changing and transforming work, its definition and the way people approached them. New roles got created starting from financial accountants, lawyers, executives, sales personnel, managers, administrators etc. Divisions such as Finance, Sales, Marketing, Legal, Accounts etc got created, roles got assigned to such departments and several designations like specialists, senior specialist, intern, contractor, proba tioner, part timer, summer worker etc got created. Human Resource Management in the 1800s or earlier involved clearly defined tasks such as recruitment, appointment with roles and responsibilities, observation during probation period, confirmation, appraisals, compensation and promotion. The scope of the Human Resource Management was limited and there was nothing as Strategic human Resource Management, as strategy was not required. What was important during the pre-industrial revolution and the pre-20th century period was finding the people with necessary qualification to do a particular job. Monopoly existed, competition was unimaginably less, organisation processes were simpler, goals were easier to comprehend and tangible. Therefore the Human Resources Arm either did not exist as a specific department or even if it did exist, it had limited scope and function. Work mainly had to do with a lot of physical exertion and there were very few main stream disciplines like: teaching, des igning, building, carpentry, plumbing, construction, electrical work, research, practising medicine, surgery, law, policing, agriculture, army and civic operations. As a result of the limited scope of work, Human Resource Management had limited things to deal with and was relatively underdeveloped. The real shift came into the picture form the 1900s when the very definition of work and profession started changing. After the industrial revolution, thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders around the globe identified a tremendous potential for their respective businesses to flourish. The scope for growth given the industrial boom and technological leap was found to be immense. This needed information management. Thus the gradual change in the nature of work, its perception and treatment started. Work changed from the simple paper and pen based design, hand tooling of machines, laborious exercises of packaging, unpacking, in short Assembly Line work to knowledge work. A change in the Human M anagement Strategy followed. Fundamentals were changes. How work is defined and how people fit in to their roles, how organisations create and handle work, how businesses are run with the help of knowledge forever changed the system of the Human Resource Management System. With time HR departments became important entities in organisations, its effectiveness affecting the organisation’s performance, general perception, market value and reputation to a great extent. (Rai, 2012, p. 1) As organisations

Business Stategy - Transforming Sanofi-Aventis Essay

Business Stategy - Transforming Sanofi-Aventis - Essay Example (Fred Pringle, Brian H. Kleiner. 1997) Sanofi-Aventis’s product portfolio includes in it leading medicines for cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, sleep disorders and other healthcare problems. The main objective of Sanofi-Aventis’s research and development is to provide the patients with efficient medicines at the right time. And for diseases that are difficult to treat, they try to provide real patient benefit by multiplying their scientific approaches. This is also the reason why clinical trials are carried out to treat diseases. (Philippe Hermel, Annie Bartoli. 2001) Sanofi-Aventis makes sure that research doesn’t fail to take into account the complexities of human body. TRENDS OF PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY First of all we need to examine the trends of pharmaceutical industry which include structural changes that have led to important transformations, industry’s very strong dependence on research and development and some significant factors leading a future sales growth. (Fred Pringle, Brian H. Kleiner. 1997) Environmental analysis (PEST) Increasing political attention In the recent years, importance of healthcare as a component of social welfare has increased as a result of which the industry has been receiving increased political attention. ... So, Sanofi-Aventis is playing a very unique role as good health is an essential social and personal requirement. The pharmaceutical companies nowadays are trying hard to maintain good communications with the society because of the increasing media attention. Technological advances The industry players are adapting to the new environments faster than ever. All this is being forced by modern technological and scientific advances in science. These advances have also led to an increased expenditure on R&D by companies to promote further innovation. Legal environment Pharmaceutical industry is a very highly regulated industry. There are a lot of legal and compliance overheads that the company has to bear as a result. Porter’s five forces: Barrier to entry: patent restrictions and really high research and development costs are the major barriers to entry for new entrants. Industry competition: competition in the industry is very high. The advantage is for innovators. Suppliers: the power of suppliers is very low. Buyer: buyer power is also low in the industry. Substitutes: because of patents there are less substitutes but there are more substitutes after patents expire. Increased competition in the industry The competition in this industry is intense. There have been a lot of new entrants in the industry lately also a number of mergers and acquisitions have taken place. Therefore, the changing face of pharmaceutical industry suggests that competitive advantage is being redefined all the time. In order to achieve sustainable growth and maintain presence the key industry players are changing their organizational structures. Structural changes There is a

Charles Manson Essay Example for Free

Charles Manson Essay Charles Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to 16-year-old Kathleen Maddox. Kathleen had run away from home at the age of 15 and spent the next few decades drinking too much, with periods of time spent in jail. Since his mother couldnt take care of him, Charles spent his youth at the homes of various relatives and often at special reform schools and boys homes. By age nine, Charles Manson had already started stealing and soon added burglary and stealing cars to his repertoire. In 1954, at age nineteen, he was released on parole after an unusual bout of good behavior. The next year, he married Rosalie Willis, a waitress, and they had a son together, Charles Manson Jr. (born March 1956). Even while married, Manson had continued making extra money by stealing cars. In April 1956, he was again sent to prison. After Manson had been in prison for a year, his wife found someone new and divorced Manson in June 1957. In 1958, Manson was released from prison. This time he headed to San Francisco where, with a guitar and drugs, he began to get a following. In 1968, he and several followers drove to Southern California. Manson was still hoping for a music career. Through an acquaintance, Manson met and hung out with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys did record one of Mansons songs, which appeared as Never Learn Not to Love on the B-side of their 20/20 album. During this time, Charles Manson and some of his followers moved into the Spahn Ranch. Located northwest of San Fernando Valley the Spahn Ranch had been a popular location to film westerns in the 1940s and 1950s. Once Manson and his followers moved in, it became a cult compound for the Family. Charles Manson was good at manipulating people. He took pieces from various religions to form his own philosophy. When the Beatles released their White Album in 1968, Manson believed their song Helter Skelter predicted an upcoming race war. Helter skelter, Manson believed, was going to occur in the summer of 1969 when blacks were going to rise up and slaughter all the white people. He told his followers that they would be saved because they would go underground, literally, by traveling to an underground city of gold located in Death Valley. However, when the Armageddon that Manson had predicted did not occur, he said he and his followers must show the blacks how to do it. Manson told four of his followers to go to 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles and kill the people inside. This house once belonged to Terry Melcher, the man who had not helped Manson with his music career. However, Melcher no longer lived there; actress Sharon Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, had rented the house. On August 9, 1969, four of Mansons followers brutally murdered Tate, her unborn baby, and four others who were visiting her (Polanski was in Europe for work). The following night, Mansons followers brutally killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home. Manson was reprieved from the death penalty in 1972 when the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. Charles Manson now serves a lifetime sentence and periodically comes up for parole. Though hes been in prison for over three decades, Charles Manson has received more mail than any other prisoner in the U. S. Charles Manson is currently being held in Californias Corcoran Prison. The who and the why In 1994, Oliver Stone directed a film, using a Quentin Tarantino-written script about a pair of serial killers, (partially using the â€Å"Bonnie and Clyde† theme) entitled â€Å"Natural Born Killers. This film portrayed the main two characters who, at the point between innocent teen-ager and experienced adult, defy society, and get lost in their own little world, killing, and robbing whoever they come across. Although still on Earth, they live by their own morals, beliefs, and at the end of the film, expose the media and the law for its flaws. The truth to this movie is that it was not made to reproduce the Bonnie and Clyde theme, but it was almost an exact parallel to one man, with similar experiences in the late nineteen-sixties; Charles Manson. Oliver Stone stated later, in an interview related to the movie â€Å"The idea was that he could become more like Charles Manson. † (Describing an interview with Mickey Knox, the serial killer in Natural Born Killers. ) The parallels from the film to the most stunning murders in the sixties can be seen from the similarities in the interviews between Manson and Knox, to the setting and time period. The point being that the movie was later considered one of the most daring movies of all time, thus just scraping the surface of the severity of the story behind Charles Manson and his so-called â€Å"family. Charles Manson was born near 1935 to an unknown father and a prostitute. Not much is known about his past, just abstract things. Manson went to a foster home at age three, and his mother later was arrested for robbery. From then to the age of eighteen and past, he was moved around from foster home to foster home, juvenile prison to juvenile prison. His prison record included two counts of forgery, two counts of mail theft, check forgery, probation violation, pimping and GTA. It was around this time in his life that he met the early members in his family. Patricia Krenwinkle was an average girl growing up in the suburbs. She got average grades, and sang in her school’s glee club. She had one sister, a mother, and their father was an insurance agent. At age eighteen, she was a secretary, and had just joined the hippie movement. She met Charles Manson at a party at the house of her sister’s friend. He was playing an original, yet sad song on his guitar. She was drawn to him by his karma, mood, and attitude, which led to their sleeping together that same night. He enticed her, by words of love and happiness, to an extent that she was happy whenever he was around, and never wanted to leave him. Two days after meeting him, they, with others, left for San Francisco. Leslie Van Houten had a similar upbringing. She was a suburbanite who sang in a church choir, and was later the homecoming princess at her high school. Other than the fact that her father left the family when she was young, she had an uneventful early life. At her late teenage years, she wanted more than normal girls had at that time. She heard about Manson, how he had the answers, and how closely he portrayed Christ. She too met with him and with the happiness that he appeared to bring with him. With Manson she later explained her actions â€Å"I followed him because I anticipated a positive change. † Others like Krenwinkle and Van Houten had gotten word of Manson’s unearthly beliefs and prophecies. Charles â€Å"Tex† Watson, once an All-American high school athlete, later became Manson’s biggest believer. Lynette â€Å"Squeaky† Fromme, whose father was an Aeronautical Engineer, was also a follower, and later was the acting head of the family when Manson was not around. These people, and dozens others followed Manson out West, first to San Francisco, and then further South, winding up at a place called Spahn Ranch. Charles Manson would later have a â€Å"family† of these followers, who literally did whatever he asked. They found happiness in his and each other’s presence. It was mainly a piece of the hippie movement; a way to stray from the norm and live opposite of what one was raised to learn. The structure was simple; he was the leader, the Christ, the martyr of the group, and they listened and did what he said. This type of control, however innocent the motives, could be considered a cult, and was later labeled as such. Yet, the main principals behind their family was, and only was, Manson’s will. The Mind and Motives of Charles Manson, and society’s counteractions are best described when his beliefs, his actions to support and uphold these beliefs, and society’s laws to stop him are taken into account. Image, perception, beliefs Manson has been proclaimed by many to be insane. The question of whether or not he is insane is a question of opinion, which cannot have a â€Å"true† right answer. However, his beliefs, which fueled his and his family’s actions between 1968 and 1975 conflicted with society’s morals, around which this country revolves. The severity of Manson and his family’s doings are reasoned behind his beliefs toward himself, his family, nature, other people, and the law. Charles Manson, on many occasions, has compared himself to Jesus Christ. He believed that he was Christ, and the world had made him suffer just as Christ did two thousand years ago. He also had his family believing that he was Christ. He said in an interview, when asked how he got his followers to believe that he was Jesus, â€Å"I was just being myself†¦ all men is Jesus Christ. † He also believed that he was Satan, to come to Earth and start Helter-Skelter, what he called a prophetical Armageddon. His family, he believed, had two main spiritual duties to learn to be him and to act like him, and to also learn and believe in what he did. He and the family lived with each other, living off, what he would consider love, for each other, and the earth. He told them that the happiness is in love. He believed that they should, when necessary, die for him, and not feel remorse. He preached to them that death was not bad, just another high. The family eventually adopted these beliefs, thus putting them at his complete control. Nature, according to Manson, was one of the most precious things in life. He subscribed to the belief that ATWA (Air, Trees, Water, Animals) kept humans alive, and we should treat ATWA with equal respect. He once metaphored that ATWA was a ship, and the humans wastes to the earth, pollution, and forest destruction was like a hole in the bottom of the boat. He, when living and Spahn Ranch, would tell his family to let the scorpions crawl over them, as they were animals, not meant to endanger the family. Helter Skelter Helter Skelter, revenge were part of his beliefs. Humans had corrupted the Earth and ATWA, and had been ignorant about it. Manson had felt that society dumped him and he felt great rage for society, and people, and later found an anthem for his rage. When asked about his actions, many years after the murders, he had said that he is a part of everyone, that he mirrors people, because they shaped him. The Beatles’ â€Å"White Album† included songs (Helter Skelter, Revolution #9, Piggies, and others) that Manson felt documented his rage toward society. When at the ranch, he and the family listened to these songs many times over. Manson thought he had heard his name being said in one of the songs. Their thoughts about Helter Skelter, or the Armageddon, were brought out by these songs. In Revolution #9, he heard machine gun fire, the oinking of pigs, and a man saying, â€Å"rise. † His beliefs would later incite Helter Skelter, using his family as a type of â€Å"army. † Some people believe that he just brutalized people, that the murders were for no cause, and he was just insane. Yet, more than twenty-five years after he and his family were convicted, he still has the same beliefs and still can logically explain his actions. August 9, 1969 and August 10, 1969. These two days carry a dark shadow over them. Two of the first ritual cult-style mass murders in U. S. history. The first of the two changed the mood of the entire population of L. A. for almost a year. These murders were the coming of Manson’s Helter Skelter, the Armageddon of the Earth. Spahn Ranch is a small, run down ranch near L. A. It was owned by George Spahn, who was then a decrepit, eighty-year-old wrangler, whose kids had gone away and whose wife had died. He was depressed near death when a group of hippies came to his door. They agreed to take care of him, and the ranch in exchange for living space. He agreed. The group, otherwise known as Manson’s family, had Squeaky take the most care of George, which included cleaning, cooking, making love to him, and other various tasks. The family, which consisted of twenty-six people, began its cultish life in the desert. â€Å"We played a lot of music, we did a lot of drugs, we loved, we were happy† relies Manson when later asked about life at the ranch. The family did these things, and more. They lost their humanity at the ranch. Life was lived â€Å"now† for â€Å"today. † Manson told them to always â€Å"live today. † The family members never talked about the past, never thought about the past or the future. The initiation of female family members was just that they joined. Male members would pick any woman they wanted and made love to them. Manson’s thoughts on this was that that’s what women are for, to bait the men. The women were not allowed to deny who picked them. They had no watches, to forget time, and society. Manson would walk up to members daily, and have them mirror his actions, to try to be exactly like him. They took hundreds of acid trips, they did marijuana, and during the acid trips, he would have them reenact the crucifixion. During these times he would ask them if they would die for him, if they would â€Å"be him. The members had started to live Manson’s reality. Manson would hear about the discrimination against the blacks in the South, and this was partially where he based his proof that Helter Skelter was near. The members started getting more guns, knives, and other weapons. They had lookouts at the ranch. They also robbed places to get money. Leslie Van Houten even robbed her father to get money for the cause. The crimes By August 8 1969, Manson had already killed a few people for various reasons. These drug dealers, and bums that he did kill are civil compared to the two ritualistic murders, done for Helter Skelter. Manson once tried to get a record contract from a producer, living at 10050 Cielo Dr. In Bel-Air, which later failed. Manson, who had been telling the family for months that they needed to start Helter Skelter themselves, needed money to bail out a member from jail. Near midnight, on August 8, he called a meeting about this. He sent Pat Krenwinkle, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Tex Watson to 10050 Cielo Dr. to get money. He had told the women to do whatever Tex told them and was remembered saying â€Å"I don’t care how you do it, but do it and get it done now! That night, just after midnight, August 9, they pulled up to the driveway. Tex cut the telephone wires, and bypassing the electric gate, the women scaled a fence and climbed up a hill to the yard. This house was no longer occupied by the record producer of Manson’s acquaintance, but instead a beautiful new actress named Sharon Tate. Her lover and soon-to-be husband Roman Polanski, who was a movie director, wa s in London at the time. She was pregnant with their eight-month-old baby. She, Jay Sebring, Voytek Frykowski, and Abigail Folger were at the house for the night. Sebring was a worldwide known hairdresser, owning Sebring International. Folger was the heiress to the Folger coffee fortune. Frykowski was an actor, her lover. Back behind the house in a small shack was William Garretson, who was a caretaker of the house, who would later be an important witness. At the time when the women jumped the fence and were waiting for Tex, they heard four gunshots. He has seen Steven parent driving up to the residence. He was an acquaintance of Garrtetson, coming to visit. He was killed instantly, four shots at point-blank range. Tex then caught up with the women, and walked to the front door. It was locked, so he went through an open window next to the door, leading the women in first. They got the four people into the living room, together. Sebring, who tried to protect Sharon, was bludgeoned in the head once, then shot and stabbed by Tex. The other three people were panicked at this time. Frykowski tried to run out the back door, but was caught up to by Tex. He was clubbed in the head several times, shot, and stabbed. It was later counted that he was stabbed fifty-one times. Before his death, Abigail Folger had been tied up, and now was starting to get free. She ran out the back, pursued by Krenwinkle. She was ran down, and stabbed to death. Krenwinkle later recalled her saying â€Å"I’m already dead†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Later found to have been stabbed twenty-eight times. ) Finally, Sharon Tate, the only one left, was begging for the life of her baby to Tex, who replied, â€Å"Look, I have no mercy for you. † He then stabbed her to death. After these five brutal murders, the killers would up taking only seventy dollars before leaving. When returning to the ranch, Manson was remembered saying only two things, â€Å"Do you have any remorse? and â€Å"Don’t tell anyone. † â€Å"Sharon Tate, four others slain in ritualistic murders. † These were the headlines the following day in the Los Angeles Times. Even the New York Times, which never printed murder cases on the cover page, printed the Tate murders on the cover for almost a week. The night of August 9, 1969, Lenio Labianca and his wife, Rosemary, were driving back from a vacation at Lake Isabella. It was about 3:00 AM, August 10 when they finally arrived back at their house. Manson had picked Krenwinkle, Van Houten, and Tex to go to their house. Manson still needed money, and he said that he went to a party at the neighboring house once before. He had asked Van Houten, â€Å"Can you be me, do you believe enough in me to do this? † This time, Manson came with them in a separate car. They arrived, and walked through the front door. Tex tied up Leno, who was reading the paper in the living room. At this time, Manson had left, leaving no evidence of his presence. The two girls took Rosemary into the bedroom. Manson had told Tex â€Å"Don’t scare them like last time, just kill them. † Leno was stabbed to death while Rosemary was forced to listen. Tex then came in, stabbed her to death. He then handed a knife to Van Houten, who then stabbed Rosemary in the back fifteen times. Pat then went out to the dead body of Leno. She took a fork, and stabbed him on the stomach multiple times, and finally left the fork in him. No money was taken. During the first set of murders, they had written â€Å"Piggies† and â€Å"Helter Skelter† in Tate’s blood on the door. In the second set, they wrote with Leno’s blood â€Å"Rise. † â€Å"Death Pigs,† and â€Å"Helter Skelter† on the walls before they left. These cultish writings were the only things that the police could find in common to the two murders. By 1970, Manson and his followers had killed more people than the victims in the Tate-Labianca murders, but the severity of the two back-to-back slaughters shocked the nation. Nobody had seen killings like these. Unprovoked, unnecessary, and inhuman. Four months after the two murdering, police finally caught up with and arrested Manson and his followers for the murders. The cultish actions and Manson’s control over the family, however, didn’t stop when they were all in custody of the law. It had taken years after the trials for the family to break Manson’s will over them.