Saturday, April 25, 2020

John Smith Essays (413 words) - Sociology, Historian,

John Smith History It is the most interesting and innovative approach to history. The pathfinder of the field was the German Historian George G Igger. He developed it as a methodology in 1970's to counter the traditional methodology of Social sciences. The basic objection of him was that through the traditional methodology it is not possible to know the concrete reality of small scale life. The small scale life refers to the Anthropological, Cultural, Sociological, Political, Economic and all other inclusive characteristic features of a society or individual or any productive unit or life System. The originators of micro History thought that it is a methodology to be applied only in the field of cultural and Social History. But it is not so. Any object of the study dealing with the primary Docieties Group or individual or languages or Knowledge or Experience and perfectives of the marginalized mainly come under Micro-History. Ginzburg, a micro historian criticized the large scale quantitative studies on the grounds for the distorted reality on the individual level. The micro Historians placed their emphasis on Small categories of life in which how people conducted their lives. Suych people or society has no wider identity or acceptance for generation together. Even contemporary such categories will come under the domain of micro history. Micro historians never move to general ideas, class terms, or universal or to the formation of concepts. Here historian deals with the "particular" not the general. Purpose of history is to illustrate the meaning of an subject. But usually an object is understood according to the four categories such as substance, activity, quality and relationship. People of a living society is the substance. Every thing that starts from human or human beings. He is either conditioned or independent to perform his duty as a member of the society. This activities are his shown. Selective or impulse actions determine the quality of his actions. The human find a relationship with the activity and quality. Everything in this network is with in the particular. This micro area of action is unique in the sense that it is not related to general. It is unblemished and distinct. Usually the historian understand the object intune with the cause and effect. The nature of cause and effect depend upon the vicious mind of the historian. Yet the micro historians more likely to reveal the complicated functions of individual relationship with each and every social settings and they stress difference from large norms .

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The Future Economy essays

The Future Economy essays Imagine yourself living the dream of being an entrepreneur. You are a business man of the 21st century; you have a popular product that many firms want to purchase. You feel financially secure with your future because of the amount of buyers for your product. Then 5 years go bye, and the once abundant number of firms has dwindled down to a couple of major corporations. You try to think to yourself how did this happen? You then realize that all the little companies that fought for your business, and helped you get the highest capital are gone. They were acquired by or merged with larger firms. You know that when this happens the market gets smaller and there are less people to buy your product. With fewer options of companies to sell your product to, comes a smaller amount of profit for you. Two more years go bye and the market gets more concentrated, the remaining giants can now offer you any price they want. If you choose not to accept it, you dont sell your product. Your dreams of being your own boss and selling a quality product for a fair price are fading away. Some people may think that this story couldnt happen, but mergers and acquisitions take place everyday in the corporate world. This story that I just told you about is real. Instead of being about business men of the 21st century my article was about the beef cattle farmers of southwestern Wisconsin. The article talks about Virginia-based Smithfield foods, acquired American Foods Group and Packerland Holdings Co. Smithfield is the nations largest pork processor; they have a 20% market share. Besides the two recent acquisitions Smithfield also has ownership of Cudahy-based Patrick Cudahy Inc. As a result of this Smithfield will now be the nations forth-largest beef processor, with a 9% market share. Smithfields merger is part of an overall consolidation among the nations larger food processors, which include...

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Cesar Pelli, Profile of the Petronas Towers Architect

Cesar Pelli, Profile of the Petronas Towers Architect Cesar Pelli has become known as a master designer of public spaces such as the Commons of Columbus (1970-1973) in Columbus, Indiana, the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center (1980-1989) in New York, and Founders Hall (1987-1992) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Some critics say that Pellis public rooms contribute to modern-day life in the same way the Italian piazza shaped life in the 16th century. Pelli and his colleagues are often praised for using a wide variety of materials and designs, seeking new solutions for each location. Believing that buildings should be responsible citizens, Pelli strives to design buildings that work within the surrounding city. In 1997, Pellis design for the Petronas Towers was erected in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Petronas Towers are among the tallest buildings in the world. Background: Born: October 12, 1926 in Tucuman, Argentina. Cesar Pelli emigrated to the United States in 1952 and later became a U.S. citizen. Education and Professional: Diploma in Architecture, University of Tucuman, ArgentinaMaster in Architecture, University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign1977: Founded Cesar Pelli Associate, renamed Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in 20051977-1984: Professor and Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture After completing his Masters degree in architecture, Pelli spent ten years working in the offices of Eero Saarinen. He served as Project Designer for the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York and Morse and Stiles Colleges at Yale University. He later became Director of Design at Daniel, Mann, Johnson Mendenhall (DMJM) in Los Angeles, and from 1968 to 1976 he was Partner for Design at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles. While at Gruen, Pelli is known to have collaborated with Norma Merrick Sklarek on a number of works, including the US Embassy in Tokyo. Cesar Pelli Associates was founded in 1977. Pelli Skyscrapers and Towers: 1977-1984: MOMA Residential Tower, New York City1981-1987: World Financial Center (renamed Brookfield Place), New York City1986: Canary Wharf Tower, London, England1990: NTT Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan1998: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia2003: Two International Finance Centre (IFC), Hong Kong (design architect)2004: Bloomberg Tower, New York City2012: Iberdrolas Tower (Torre Iberdrola), Bilbao, Spain Pelli Museums and Theaters: 1984: Mattatuck Museum, at Waterbury, Connecticut1987: Charlotte Performing Arts Center, at Charlotte, North Carolina1987-1990: Carnegie Hall Tower, at New York, New York1991: Ohio Center for Performing Arts, at Cincinnati, Ohio1996: Cinema in Celebration, Florida2006: Carnival Center, now called the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida2006: Renà ©e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and Samueli Theater, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, Orange County, California2008: BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma2009: Connecticut Science Center in Hartford, Connecticut Notable Pelli Architecture: 1966: Worldway Postal Center, at Los Angeles, California1967: COMSAT Laboratories, at Clarksburg, Maryland1967: Kukai Gardens Housing, at Honolulu, Hawaii1969: San Bernardino City Hall, at San Bernardino, California1975: Pacific Design Center, at Los Angeles, California1976: US Embassy, Tokyo, Japan1982-1984: Herring Hall, at Rice University, Houston, Texas2005: Malone Engineering Center at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut2006: Minneapolis Central Library, Minnesota2009: ARIA Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada2017: Transbay Transit Center, San Francisco, California Selected Awards: Cesar Pelli has received more than 200 architecture awards. Some highlights: 1995: Gold Medal, AIA (American Institute of Architects)2004: The Aga Khan Award for the design of the Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia2008: Lynn S. Beedle Award, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Board of Trustees Quotation - In the Words of Cesar Pelli: A building must be both background and foreground. As foreground, it must have some exceptional qualities. But it must also try very hard to knit into the fabric of the city. Learn More: Observations for Young Architects by Cesar Pelli, Monacelli Press, 1999Petronas Towers: The Architecture of High Construction by Cesar Pelli and Michael J. Crosbie, Wiley-Academy Press, 2001Cesar Pelli: Selected and Current Works by Cesar Pelli, 1994 Source: Cesar Pelli FAIA, RIBA, JIA, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects Webstie [accessed October 12, 2015]

Friday, February 14, 2020

Label and Delinquency (Criminal Justice) Assignment

Label and Delinquency (Criminal Justice) - Assignment Example Finally, this paper aimed to assess the robustness of labeling in explaining the different types of delinquency (Adams, et.al., 2003). The analysis on this paper which shall now follow aims to offer an overview of how this research was conducted, the subjects used, and the overall findings of the research. It also aims to present a personal opinion on whether or not this student felt that the authors looked at relevant and pertinent information and data in the article, including the most interesting findings in the article and why. Finally a recap of the pertinent findings and this student’s overall opinion on the article including recommendations on how this article may be improved shall be presented in this paper. The research was conducted by assessing the high school students’ attitudes and behaviors regarding drugs and delinquency in Mississippi. Respondents were juveniles who were held in two training schools in July of 1992. The respondents were mostly from the rural areas. These respondents were also remanded to the custody of the Mississippi Youth Services for behavior which ranged from status offenses to gang-related activities. The research was conducted on group settings with about 25 juveniles per group. A research questionnaire was answered by said respondents. Researchers used overhead projectors and they read each item to the different respondents. There were 337 juveniles who were qualified for the research, and about 277 ended up participating in the study. Reasons like court appointment, preparation for release, and solitary confinement prevented the other respondents from participating in this research. Teachers, peers, and parents were also included as respondents. T hese three groups assessed the informal labeling placed on these delinquents. The data gathered was later coded based on the different variables included in this research. After coding, an index of six contrasting descriptive adjectives was used to

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Literary Analysis of United States Conflict in Iraq Essay

Literary Analysis of United States Conflict in Iraq - Essay Example The continuation of the war in Iraq with no end in sight is producing a negative impact, not only upon individual soldiers, but also upon the average American citizen whose tax dollars are being diverted away to fund causes in another nation, which do not concern him/her. The film â€Å"Stop Loss† opens by focusing on the lives of U.S. soldiers and their combat encounters in Iraq. It then follows them home to Texas, where one of the protagonists Brandon discovers that he is the victim of a stop loss order that requires him to return to Iraq (www.en.wikipedia.org). The sense of relief and joy on his return home changes into a sense of helplessness and a feeling of being trapped, because he now has to return to the scene of suffering and strife. He soon discovers there is no way out from the stop loss order; others who had earlier contested these orders had failed to succeed. This aspect of the film represents the continual nature of the conflict in Iraq. It depicts the way soldiers are forced to keep returning to Iraq, to continue to languish in the needless violence and combat. The inability of the United States to bring about a decisive end to a war which was initially presented as an easy victory is underscored through the plight of individual soldiers as depicted in the film â€Å"Stop Loss†. These soldiers are forced to return again and again to combat regions, while the administration continues to pump billions of dollars into the war, without being able to bring about an effective end to the conflict. As pointed out by Shapiro (2006), the status quo has been preserved in the Iraq war and there is little that the President or his administration can offer in defense to justify the loss of life and the huge financial costs being borne by tax payers to support the United States action in Iraq. In 2007, the budget for its military units controlled by the Pentagon was $450 billion and the â€Å"War on

Friday, January 24, 2020

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Depending on who you talk to, you get different opinions on what subject that you’ve studied in high school will help you most out in the real world. Ms. Bow tried to tell you it’s being able to diagram sentences and understand Shakespeare. Mr. Roberts, on the other hand, has a picture of a toppling bridge that says "Engineer missed just one Trig assignment." If you’ve spent a lot of time staring at Mr. Groon's podium during lectures, you’ve read that "He who knows only his own generation remains always a child." But what does this all mean, how do we truly apply everything we’ve learned in the past four years to the rest of our life, and what really is the most important thing to take away with us from high school? Well, I’ll tell you my opinion: This diploma that we will all receive in a few minutes doesn’t just represent the facts we’ve memorized or the skills we’ve developed. I think the most important thing we can take away with us from Eldridge High School is our experiences that have shaped our lives. Any time you have worked hard to bring up a grade in a class, or set a goal and accomplished it, or anytime you’ve improved a skill, or challenged yourself to do something nobody thought you could do, you have helped shape the person you are becoming. You never know when you will need to diagram a sentence, or when knowing the cosine of 270 will come in handy. Never assume that because you don’t see the necessity of studying certain subjects that it is not worthwhile to study them. I have often heard people say that they will never be able to "use" it in real life, whether it be history or analytical proofs, but they don’t know that. And even if you don’t use something direc tly, you could be using it indirectly in ways you... ... They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try "delousing" the closet in your own room. RULE 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. RULE 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time. RULE 10: Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. RULE 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Agro Credit Case Study

Creating a Process-Driven Organization at AGCredit Answer 1:-AgCredit was a Midwest Agriculture Credit and Loan company. It was a midsize financial institution focusing on agribusiness. It had grown significantly in the past few years and was holding its own against other, much larger banks because of its extensive customer knowledge. Kate Longair to the CEO of the company explained all the processes and the systems the company used and how they were integrated using a diagrammatic view for the same. The CEO then decided upon the need for change into various departments to bring about a transformation in business.Finney, the CEO wanted to focus on AgCredit’s key strategic drivers which included continuous growth, expanded customer relationships, the ability to spend more time with the customer, the ability to cross-sell between business divisions and the ability to provide a consistent customer experience across all delivery channels. The CEO’s vision for growth was to create a customer-centric organization by using technology to support people and processes. Realizing that systems integration by itself would not produce the desired result, management redesigned the company’s business processes from beginning to end.Now the challenge was to redesign the IT organization to support the new organization structure. Answer 2:- IT organizations serve two purposes: development (i. e. , which involves the acquisition of new systems and technology and the implementation of these new systems into the workplace); and operations (i. e. , which involves running the data center, production programs and networking infrastructure is decentralized. It leads to facilitation of various business processes across the bank. IT was in a significant state of disarray.Absence of appropriate IT Governance as well as an architecture plan. IT was organized in silos to mirror AgCredit’s divisional structure and each business unit owned and governed its own IT Pr ojects. The company has outsourced chunks of IT functions. The tasks are unevenly and randomly divided amongst the staff irrespective of their expertise. The current structure seems to be more like the enterprise oriented architecture. Due to irregular IT organizational structure many problems arouse with the business processes which led to different choice for the architecture of IT.The structure moreover has a cross-silo flow which creates confusion amongst the business processes as well as data mess. The information appears in various formats, which is difficult to reconcile. Answer 3:- Key Issues: – IT was completely broken and lack of systems integration. Everyone was aware of adding value to processes to the company but how the business strategy would fit with everyone else’s to deliver enterprise value was unknown by others. There exists lack of knowledge of business processes and how they worked together.The key business processes had never been written down be fore and hence they needed to be documented. The front line staff had to access many systems for simple business processes. IT was in a significant state of disarray. A key problem was application centric approach the organization took to its work. Business people would demand new systems from IT for every process whereas IT staff would always train them to make use of the existing systems. This created data mess as there were various systems with loads of information scattered everywhere.Due to this the information appeared in different formats, which were difficult to reconcile. This was a significant challenge when creating accurate reports for banking and other government regulators. IT is negative in business: expense, inability to get work done in a timely fashion, bad information, customer complaints and poorly trained IT staff. AgCredit starts with no formal IT architecture. It is also about the work the business needs to do first in order to create the right environment for IT transformation, i. . , a process focus and a business value focus, not a systems focus. It stresses that optimizing the enterprise is the new source of business value and this means integrated processes across the company and integrated information. To achieve this, IT will need to transform its structure, governance, and approach to systems development. Answer 4:- Proposed IT Organizational Structure Decentralized organizational structures often have several individuals responsible for making business decisions and running the business.Decentralized organizations rely on a team environment at different levels in the business. Individuals at each level in the business may have some autonomy to make business decisions. The challenge for IT will be in the transformation because it will need to have a structure that supports where the organization is going, while still respecting the fact that it is not there yet. IT should be aligned with processes, not individual business functio ns and all new development should be undertaken with the process owners and with the approval of the Enterprise Integration Program.It indicates that all business-facing IT functions should be aligned with the major business processes that have been identified. Internally, therefore IT will need groups dedicated to each of the major systems that currently support the business. These groups will be responsible for all maintenance and any new development needed to keep the organization running smoothly while new service-oriented functionality and common data are put in place. These groups will be needed to make the necessary adjustments to existing systems as this new functionality is put in place.Pros- Redesigning a company towards a process-based organization implies that all activities, which logically belong together in order to create value for the customer, are grouped together. Customer’-processes are defined and taken as the basis for an organizational unit. ‘Deve lopment’- and ‘planning and control’- processes that are necessary for reaching the core objective of the unit are implied. This implies that the organizational structure of a business or a company is based on organizational units which are organized around the core processes.Structuring a business or a company process-wise implies that coordination across process units is kept at a minimum. The following paragraphs illustrate how companies or business units can be structured around processes. Answer 5:- Project Selection Process to ensure alignment with the enterprise business Vision- Effective collaboration between business and IT is essential to the success of both SOA and BPM. A Business Rule Engine can act both as a technology and collaboration enabler; the below points will explain how the organization can improve business processes and move toward SOA by focusing on these strategies. . Streamline business processes by separating business logic from flow lo gic 2. Create processes that are more agile by making it easy to update business logic 3. Align the business goal of more dynamic decision-making with SOA technology 4. Enable effective IT-Business collaboration by giving IT the control it needs and Business Users the tools they need to maintain business logic Some projects will be foundational in nature, i. e. , be prerequisites to other projects; others may be needed to upgrade the IT infrastructure.It will therefore be important that the IT Steering Committee consider a variety of dimensions of project value, in addition to ROI, in determining which projects they would like to undertake. Projects which are functional in nature would therefore not score as highly as those which contribute towards the overall company strategy. All business leaders should consider all IT projects and make a decision as to which ones to undertake according to their enterprise value. The CIO should also ensure that foundational work is considered and ranked appropriately to enable IT to carry out the business visionAnswer 6:- Manley â€Å"Make the case† for Service-oriented architecture (SOA) helps organizations more easily transform their business processes for high performance by simplifying the underlying information systems. Old architectural approaches that once expanded business opportunities now limit growth—but existing systems cannot be simply be replaced. Service-oriented architecture gives existing systems the flexibility and agility to respond to a business environment which is changing rapidly.Service-oriented architectures allow businesses and governments to capitalize on opportunity by:-Becoming more agile, driving cost reductions, Boosting ROI Manley has to prove that SOA will work and that IT can deliver on what it promises. He doesn’t necessarily have to deliver a project that will have an ROI, but he has to work with the EIP to identify a small sub-process that will demonstrate that SOA ca n deliver functionality in a new way that will be effective for the organization. If he can automate a small process and show how it integrates with various data and systems in a new way, the business will â€Å"get it†.Answer 7:- Internal IT Capabilities should include the following to create an IT department that helps build business architecture:- * A full-time staff of programmers, developers, and other IT professionals * The ability to rapidly develop and deploy large, complex data collection and direct marketing solutions in-house using internal resources * Professional consulting services in the areas of marketing, business process improvement, supply chain management, and process optimization for customer satisfaction.IT will need business analysts who can play an intermediary role between business and technology. These analysts will need to deeply understand a particular business process and have the skills to develop collaborative relationships with the business lea ders of the various functions involved in the process and to work with them to document their process requirements. Solutions architects will need to deeply understand the services approach to assembling systems and to be able to pull together the appropriate services, data and knowledge to deliver the required functionality.Data analysts will be needed to deeply understand the company’s data and to work with the business to create single sources of key business information and to establish data standards. Finally, the company will need excellent IT architects who will build a technology roadmap for data and services and who will manage the processes. Answer 8:- Aspects of IT Governance important for supporting the transformation It is important that everyone in IT understands where IT is going and what their responsibilities and accountabilities are.It is also important that IT staff insulate the business from the technical compromises that will necessarily result from the a ctual transition, which could take several years. Therefore, the business-facing IT governance must be process-centric, while internal IT governance will necessarily be a mix. Business must also clearly understand its responsibilities and accountabilities and these must be enforced. * Define goals and strategies * Define standards, policies, procedures, around financial, Portfolio, Project, service, etc. * Define metrics * Put Governance mechanism in place * Analyze and Improve existing processes Refine and go to the next level Key IT Governance Strategy and aspects for transformation:- * IT Principles * IT Architecture * IT Infrastructure * Business application needs * IT Investment and prioritization * People (human capital) development * IT Governance policies, processes, mechanisms, tools and metrics- decisions on composition and roles of steering groups, advisory councils, technical and architecture working committees, project teams: key performance indicators(KPI’s), ch argeback alternatives, performance reporting, meaningful audit process and the need to have business owner for each project and investment.