Arlington National Cemetery :: essays research papers

Arlington National Cemetery As the birds are singing their sweet melody, the terrain of Arlington National Cemetery is filled with sadness. Although the brilliant rays of sun are shinning through the thick colossal treetops, there is a chill in the air. While watching the mourners, the feeling of their sorrows is all too real. Thousands of headstones in the far distance create magnificent mazes against the horizon. The immense land has very little room to spare as it is overflowing with graves of heroic soldiers. The white marble graves are like oversized dominos stacked precisely in the thick wind ruffled grass. It is almost inconceivable to imagine each tomb is the physical eternal home to a once courageous and patriotic warrior of our homeland. As the fireball in the heavens slowly descends, it creates a glorious silhouette of the infinite number of tombstones. As you leisurely and respectfully journey through the peaceful burial ground, John F. Kennedy’s last resting place will be discovered. Watching over JFK’s grave is an eternal flame. The ever lasting flame emits a propane aroma into the calm air. As one may gaze at Kennedy’s grave, it is difficult to imagine someone would intentionally seize the life of a great leader from our nation. Continuing on, the Tomb of the Unknowns is the next stop on the journey. An extravagant white marble sarcophagus symbolizes the resting place for patriotic fighters who could not be identified during the time of war. Guarding the stunning sarcophagus are Tomb Guard sentinels. These sentinels are considered the best of the elite in the United States military. The elite soldiers stride back and forth in such a beautiful rhythmic motion that it is spectacular. A wonderful feeling is aroused knowing the brave unknown soldiers are being honored for giving their lives in a terrible time of war.

Demonstrating communication skills Essay

Communication with employees will guarantee alignment with the organization’s overall strategy (mission- vision- goals). Supervisors could use internal communication to provide a supportive working environment with a clear set of expectations for all staff. As a result employees will have a better understanding of the decisions made by the organizations, so supervisors could avoid miss expectations by developing and maintaining communication channels with employees. Figure (1) shows some channels to communicate strategic information 1. 1 Efficient Intranet â€Å"The intranet is one of the best and most valuable tools available for employee communication. A company intranet can help employees and HR save time by giving employees instant access to contact lists, company policies, announcements, training opportunities, and benefits information. † (Business & Legal Reports, 2007a1, p. 1). However, â€Å"the company should take some steps to achieve this communication channel such as: update frequently, make it simple and easy, provide a search feature, track the usage, organize locally according to departments ad teams, provide a starting page for each department, include files, documents, policies, and procedures, list phone extensions and contact lists, allow for feedback forms, use a content management. † (Business & Legal Reports, 2007a1, p. 1-2). 1. 2 Open Book Management Style or Dissemination of strategic information Rubin, L. and Merripen, C.(2003) presented this practice which includes sharing information with employees for better understanding of management decisions. Employees became better informed about the business and feel more inclusive and entrepreneurial about their contribution and impact. Then employees moved their focus from just their job to looking at the company as a whole. † (p. 4) Collins, R. and Druten, K. V. (2003) â€Å"found a strong link between organizational performance over the past three years and the emphasis placed on communicating information to all members about the organization’s purpose, aspirations, strategy and performance. † Figure (1) shows some communication channels that managers and supervisors could use to communicate strategic information with employees. Figure (1): Channels to communicate strategic information Source: Collins, R. and Druten, K. V. (2003). Human Resources Management Practices 1. Determining Effective Orientation and Training Methods 2. 1 Best practices for effective orientation New employees orientation is important to facilitate the integration of new employees in the organization with understanding the organization’s culture, mission, vision and values. Orsini, B. (2000) presented some best practices for new employees orientation such as: â€Å"sessions for new employees to introduce them to the organization and provide them with an overview of the organizational mandate and structure, mentoring new employees by a staff member, profile of employee new to group by within a local newsletter or e-mail, and office tours as an opportunity to meet staff face-to-face and get a sense of what they do†. 2. 2 Best practices for effective training methods. Training nowadays is not a luxury anymore. Due to the competitive marketplace and the complexity of jobs, training became a necessity for surviving and competing for both organizations and employees. Recently. There is â€Å"much greater emphasis on training as a means to cultivate, motivate, and retain quality workers†. (Hays, S. W. , 2004, p. 261) â€Å"Operationally, supervisors and managers are responsible for ensuring their employees get the training they need and/or the opportunity to attend the training classes. † (Bjomberg, L. , 2002) 2. 2. 1 Learning for life Program To show how could such practice help the organization, it’s useful to mention a real case study. For example, â€Å"Honeywell Limited’s Scarborough factory developed a learning for life program to improve productivity and quality and reduce costs in an effort to remain competitive in the global economy. Eighty percent of the factory participated in this program and Honeywell has increased its factory throughput by 180% and improved the quality of its products by 92%†. (The Conference Board of Canada, 1998, p. 5) This innovative program â€Å"developed more productive employees, increased productivity, improved quality, effective collaborative decision-making, improved communication skills. † (The Conference Board of Canada, 1998, p. 5) 2. 2. 2 Other best practices The Conference Board of Canada (1998) presented many other best practices in training or workplace literacy such as: ? Empowering adult learners ? Excellence in workplace literacy? Skills for a stable workplace ? Literacy through e-learning ? Establishing a baseline for training ? Peer tutoring: employee helping employees Such practices has resulted in increased productivity, reduced staff turnover, enhanced performance, improved quality, effective collaborative decision-making, improved communication skills, in another word, it helped in creating a positive environment for both the employer and employees because benefits was achieved for both of them. 2. Improving Productivity for Teams Improving productivity for teams and for employees in general is the ultimate goal for all organizations to maximize the overall performance. And because we are talking about humans or employees, improving productivity should include creating a convenient environment that could help them to work productively.

Consumer Buying Behavior †Marketing to teenagers Essay

Topic: Consumer Buying Behavior – Marketing to teenagers Article Summary: This article states that although only two percent of teenagers are smokers; fifty percent of tobacco companies marketing monies go to targeting teenagers. The author feels that the big tobacco companies target teenagers to help make up for those who ultimately die from tobacco related illnesses or realize on later in life that they need to stop smoking. It goes on to say that for every one person who dies from tobacco-related causes, two new smokers under the age of twenty-six start the habit. Although the Joe Camel cartoon advertising has since been removed, when that particular character was created the sales of Camel increased thirty-four percent in kids showing that campaign had an impact on who they were targeting and who began to purchase their product. The author goes on to say how impressionable teenagers and children are, as opposed to adults, and how stopping the tobacco use is not easy to do. Once someone starts it is a hard habit to break. Many of those who start smoking at an early age become addicted to the product before they are even of legal age to purchase the product. Even the warnings on the boxes are not enough to keep the young consumers from purchasing the product. Class Application: Cigarette companies need to market to the proper consumer market. A consumer market is purchasers and household members who intend to consume or benefit from the purchased product. By Camel advertising in  magazines, using â€Å"fun† cartoon characters, and also making tobacco use look cool, they are not targeting the proper market. Being sure to market cigarettes to those who are legally allowed to use the product is a must. They can still use a differentiated targeting strategy and market to those in different demographics, but they need to be sure to leave out those who are not legal to use the product. Cigarette companies should be using demographic segmentation variables to come up with ad campaigns geared towards the proper segments. With cigarettes, the companies have to focus on age since there is a legal age for smoking. Also, since cigarettes have been proven to be unhealthy and cause of cancer, among other things, they are not something that sho uld be advertised to children or teenagers; no matter what.

Barriers and solutions to international trade

Barriers and solutions to international trade INTRODUCION This essay provides an overview of the barriers to international trade faced by economies today with examples of barriers faced in various countries, and their solutions. International trade promotes high standard of living for trading nations and hence, despite its various ill effects, it is best to practice international trade as it provides economic and social benefits to economies bringing about an upturn in global economy. This essay attempts to bring to light, the general barriers international trade faces presently and its solutions with recent examples. INTERNATIONAL TRADE: AN INTRODUCTION Trade among countries has existed for a long period now. The trade between Asia and Europe marks this fact as Morrison (2006, pp.314-315) examines that these two continents have engaged in Trade since a long period. He also suggests that with time, international trade has come a long way as far as volume and patterns of trade between nations is concerned. Morrison (2006) has re ferred to figures by the World Trade Organisation (2004, cited in International Trade Statistics 2003, World Trade Developments 2002) from the official website of the WTO that Asia’s share of global merchandise exports has gradually increased, Northern America’s share has slightly decreased and Western Europe’s share has recovered from a downfall in 2001, but not as much as it did in 1990. Morrison further suggests, from 2000 to 2002, China’s exports and imports rose by 30 per cent and today, China is one of the world’s largest traders. Therefore, we may note that International trade plays a very essential role in globalization trends in the world economy. UNDERSTANDING ‘TRADE PROTECTIONISM’ Protectionism is †The deliberate use or encouragement of restrictions on imports to enable relatively inefficient domestic producers to compete successfully with foreign producers, or to protect and preserve those industries and producers con sidered of critical national interest.† (McCracken, 2005) Coughlin et al (1988) state that Protectionist Trade Policies are meant to improve the position of domestic products as compared to its foreign equivalents, and that this may be done through various policies – by increment of the market price of the foreign product or by barring access of foreign products to the domestic market. They explain that protectionist trade policies aim to expand domestic production in the protected industries for the benefit of the owners, suppliers and workers of the protected industry. However this may lead to a downturn in the consumption of protected goods due to either associated rise in its price or consumers start using less of other goods as a result of the decline in outputs and increase in prices. Coughlin et al hence, argue that domestic consumers are said to be impaired as the price of the protected goods keep increasing. Hence, imposing of tariffs lead to domestic producers ’ and the government’s gain, while domestic consumers’ and other domestic producers’ loss. These trade policies also affect foreign interests. ‘FREE TRADE’ & ITS THEORIES Free Trade is †trade between nations that is unhampered by Government constraints such as tariffs, restrictions, and other barriers.† (Financial Times Limited, 2009) Theory of Absolute Advantage

Illustration of Federalism The Immigration Debate Assignment

Illustration of Federalism The Immigration Debate - Assignment Example The law states that it is illegal for a person not to carry a foreign identification if they are illegally in the state. The law also allows residents of Arizona to sue any government society that is found not following the laws of immigration. It prohibits people who are hiring labour from taking up illegal immigrants. The law further stipulates that fines will be given to anyone who does not follow the immigration laws. Supporters of SB 1070 say that illegal immigration is a problem in Arizona since the resources in the state are taken up by people who do not belong to the state, and that the illegal immigrants have bought with them many evils in the state such as drugs from the Mexico border. Views of those in opposed to the immigration law are mostly the immigrants who are there legally, and they say that they feel threatened by the strict laws since they may be targeted because of their heritage. Those in favor of the laws feel that it will keep the state safe from the evils that the immigrants bring to the state, and residents will have access to all resources. The federal judge (Judge Susan Bolton ) was opposed to the laws requiring police officers to check a person’s identity while implementing other laws, and the one requiring immigrants to carry their foreign identification documents or risk being charged. However, she preserved the policies that require all entities to abide by the immigration laws and the restriction of hiring illegal immigrants as daytime workers. The interests of the federal government in opposing the Arizona law are political and economic in that the government aims to increase its economic stability by using the immigrants. The political reasons are in getting support from many people in order to get votes during elections. The case in the Supreme Court is whether the ruling made by Judge Susan Bolton should

Yahoo Inc Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Yahoo Inc - Case Study Example It is a multilingual consumer interface accessible in 20 foreign languages over the planet, including English. Jerry Yang along with David Filo who were scholars from Stanford created the website in the first month of 1994. In the beginning, the site was named after Jerry referring to it as a guide to World Wide Web (WWW). It served the purpose of a directory since it linked with other websites in a chronological order. It was again named â€Å"Yahoo!† three months later in the same year, where it gained remarkable viewer hits. The exclamation mark was added as a trademark to register it under the law to avoid the resource infringement. In an effort to improve the service range to motivate the users to utilize extra time at the site, Yahoo launched an online e-mail service called four one one (411). The firm acquired Rocket mail, in addition to, Classic Games lines to expand its varieties that were by now common. In the year 2000, on the onset of millennium, Yahoo recorded the ir best results in the dot-com period when the revenue collection rose by 4.5%. In addition to that, the company merged with Google command searches since one would access the sites on either accounts. This resulted to Yahoo inventing a modern technology that would enable its viewers to enjoy their services directly. The deal that existed between the two firms was broken when the invention took place-precipitating creation of 2GB storage accounts, the opposite of Google’s 1GB. Major Issues or Problems of the Organization Every organization must face challenges in the formative stages and during the routine operations. Yahoo Corporation was faced with the challenges of account hackers, brain drain and cyber crimes. The common and most prevalent crisis at Yahoo is the hacking of accounts where respondents claim that at one time or the other their accounts have been hacked. Hacking is an art where an individual intentionally or unintentionally access an account of the other for security reasons or by clicking malicious links. Account hacks causes are mostly use of general Internet terminals or Wi-Fi prior to the attack. Moreover, they connect to links that might result to malicious locations. Almost every time, the hacked accounts, are used to distribute spams and frauds. The best way to avoid this is by altering the passwords to a secure one or applying different passwords foe every website frequented. Extra vigilance should be practiced when using public terminals. Another challenge is the brain drain experienced at Yahoo Corporation whereby staffs are leaving the firm at an alarming rate to set up competing firms. The best employees at the firm are speedily leaving to join other rival firms or set their personal firms. This is a challenge to Yahoo because these gone staffs understand the weaknesses and strengths of the firm which they can employ to their gain. Lastly, cyber crimes are illegal measures on the net that pose security issues to the users. T he cyber crimes comprise of software piracy, e-mail spying and credit card swindles which invade the privacy of the users. It is feared that the modern fraudsters loot more money through Internets than robberies. These crimes are directed to individuals, properties or institutions. Cyber crime rules have been enacted to curb the spread of these crimes to innocent, unsuspecting users (Wall, 2007). Competitive Environment As borrowed from Yahoo 10K, Yahoo chiefly challenges other businesses to draw users to its website and promoters to its marketing services. Yahoo expects the market to develop progressively more competitive in the event that online marketing persists to nurture and gain reception on an international basis. Yahoo’

Compare the food with The book Omnivore's Dilemma Research Paper

Compare the food with The book Omnivore's Dilemma - Research Paper Example However, most health experts have warned against eating processed food. This is due to the health risks associated with processed food. For instance, most Americans are over obsessed with eating fast foods such as humbugger prepared in famous restaurants such as McDonalds. Before the humbugger comes to the table, it undergoes processing and the addition of food preservatives which health experts say is not good for human health. William Pollan in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, exposed to people the health risk they are exposing themselves to by eating American foods, which he says are full of chemicals. Pollan claims that most foods that Americans eat today be it meat, eggs, chicken, or milk comes from corn. According to Pollan, chicken, cows, fish, and turkey are all fed on corn (Pollan 4). However, his main concern is that the corn has certain ingredients that expose people to health risks. Some of the ingredients that come from corn include riglycerides, lecithin, the ci tric acid, and the mono-, the coloring and raspberry flavor. These ingredients are harmful to human health. In fact, some authors have claimed that the increased cases of chronic diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are attributable to the unhealthy foods that Americans eat, in the form of processed foods. ... Kenner begins by moving into various slaughterhouses and factory farms. While in a factory farm, he is amazed to observe how chickens are conditioned and fed on chemicals that make them grow too fast to move properly (Food Inc.). In another farm, he observes how cows are fed on toxic chemicals after which their products, such as meat and milk, are sneaked into the market by illegal immigrants, at an affordable cost. The filmmaker’s main concern is that Americans eat these unhealthy foods daily without knowing the health risks that they are exposing themselves to. Kenner concurs with Pollan’s observation that the rising cases of chronic diseases, such as heart diseases, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are largely to blame on the toxic chemicals that people eat in the processed foods and products from animals fed on toxic chemical substances. Industrial food is not only an American food as other countries, like China, are also increasingly becoming over obsessed with indust rial foods. According to the Eurominitor, a leading research firm in Europe, China will soon surpass America in terms of the consumption of industrial foods (Holt par. 1). In fact, the research firm predicts that China will become the number one consumer of processed foods by the year 2015. The Euromonitor states that China could consume as much as 107 million tons of processed foods compared to the 102 million tons consumed by the U.S. In fact, eating packed food is increasingly becoming a norm in the U.S. Holt noted that most Chinese foods come from animals fed on chemicals that make them grow and fasten too fast (par. 3). Since China has no any environmental