Adam Capital Management

Adams Capital Management: Fund IV Joel Adams, founder and general partner of Adams Capital Management (ACM), a $700 million early-stage venture capital firm investing in the information technology, networking infrastructure, and semiconductor industries, glanced up as his fellow general partners trooped into his office on a brisk December morning in 2005 for their annual retrospective and planning meeting. The main topic on the agenda was a new one, ?would 2006 be the right time to launch their fourth fund?Since late 2000, ACM had been deploying its $420 million third fund, using its â€Å"markets first† strategy, an approach that identified and sought to take advantage of discontinuities within the three industry segments it targeted. Having invested in a company exploiting such a change, the general partners then guided the investment through a five-point structured navigation system. In November 2005, ACM Ill sold a portfolio company and made its first distribution to its l imited partners (Lips).The fund's portfolio also had 18 other operating companies that were showing steady growth, ND two new investments were in the due diligence phase and preparing for final negotiations. â€Å"The question as I see it,† said Adams to his partners, â€Å"is whether we need to exit more companies and generate additional distributions to our Lips before we start raising ACM Since Scam's first fund had closed in 1997, the investment environment had gone from robust to hysterical to deflated and now, finally, to what appeared to be a modest recovery. Likewise, Scam's performance had been whipped about.Fund I was almost top-quartile, Fund II could return capital with a few breaks, ND Fund Ill, a 2000 vintage fund was â€Å"too new to tell, â€Å"Adams noted (see Exhibit 1 for performance data). The firm had adopted its strategy in part to differentiate itself for potential Lips. But the partners also believed that the pure opportunistic approach of many vent ure firms?where each general partner was often given wide leeway in determining which, and how many, markets and business models to invest in?could cause the firm to lose sight of the portfolio as a whole.Without a â€Å"markets first† strategy, through which the entire firm agreed upon the markets of interest before engendering individual companies, the partners felt that firms would invest more on the basis of the fashion of the moment than on business fundamentals or market analysis. In Fund Ill, ACM had taken more significant ownership positions than in the past?typically 35% or more?led every deal, and held a seat on every board. In 85% of the fund's investments, it was the first institutional money in the company.Adams believed that this was the only way to respond to the sharply reduced volatility of the venture capital market: â€Å"build a collection of really good companies and own enough f them to matter. † Associate Ann Lemon wrote the original version of t his case, â€Å"Adams Capital Management: March 2002,† HOBS Case No. 803-143 which is being replaced by this version prepared by Professor Field Harmony and Senior Research Associate Ann Lemon. HOBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion.Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call -800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. Hobs. Harvard. Due. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any meaner?electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise?without the permission of Harvard Business School.This document is authorized for use only in FINDINGS Alternative Asset Classes – SSL/2013 by Jas on Zen at University of New South Wales from March 2013 to September 2013. 806-077 ACM knew this strategy was not without its risks. Fund Oil's portfolio contained some rinsing companies, but, Adams said, â€Å"When you own a significant chunk of the company and it doesn't do well, that hurts the fund. † Going to market with a good small early fund, a struggling second fund and a yet unproven third fund might not be easy. â€Å"The Lips may want to know why we don't go back to taking smaller positions in more companies,† he noted. L have to be able to give them an answer. † Venture Investing in 2005 The first half of the 21st century had truly witnessed the Dickens best and worst of times. The final years of the sass had seen an unprecedented run-up in venture activity. Everything had increased?the amounts of capital raised, the management fees paid, the amounts invested, the prices that companies could command, the exit valuations received, and the speed with wh ich investments became liquid. As the century changed, so did the venture environment.The NASDAQ reached its peak in March 2000 and by 2001, the party had come to a grinding halt. After a decade marked by continuously rising amounts of capital flowing into venture funds, 2001 raised half of sass's record of $71. 7, and 2002 and 2003 raised barely 10% ($7 billion and $8 billion, respectively). L (See Exhibit 2 for fundraising data). By 2005, the numbers of deals, their price levels, and the size of the rounds had all fallen considerably from their peaks in 1999 and 2000. Since the precipitous drop, though, they had steadied (see Exhibit 3 for trends).The initial decline, termed a â€Å"train wreck,† reflected the fact that almost three years of record-breaking venture activity had funded too many companies chasing too few customers in almost all technology customers had cut their capital expense budgets, and on top of that, were suffering from a backlog of earlier technology i nvestments that had not yet been fully implemented. Spending on technology fell off sharply. As a result, portfolio companies significantly underperformed expectations, often forcing their investors to resort to inside rounds for continued financing because all firms were trying to fix their own troubled portfolios.Thereafter, activity had resumed albeit at a lower level. A further complication for the venture capital (PVC) industry was the longer path to liquidity. The Initial Public Offering (PIP) market dried up in 2001, only to revive?at least to a degree–in 2004 and 2005. The number of venture-backed mergers and acquisitions had stayed reasonably steady in the vicinity of 300 transactions from 000 through 2004 and even looked likely to continue for 2005 based on first-half data, the number of Ipso had plummeted from 264 in 2000 to 41 in 2001 and a mere 24 and 29 in 2002 and 2003.Although this number had tripled in 2004, to 93, sass's first half saw an uninspiring 20 Ipso , a number nonetheless close to the total for all of 2002. 2 By mid-2005, though, glimmers of recovery pierced the gloom. PVC fund- raising for 2004, at $1 5 billion, equaled the sum of the previous two years' total. Firms had triages the worst of their problem companies, by selling them for the intellectual repertory, merging them with other weak companies, or shutting them down.Technological evolution provided market opportunities for young companies and some older ones, weaned off the easy-money of the bubble, had brought their products to market and were profitable. Disclosed prices for mergers and acquisitions rose to the highest average since 1 Abstracted from data from Private Equity Analyst and Asset Alternatives. 2 Thomson Financial/Venture Economics, Venture Backed M&A Volume Holds Steady,† www. Nava. Org, accessed December 8, 2005. 2 IQ 2002. 3 The door to the PIP market, blown off its hinges in 2004 by PVC-backedGoogle's debut, reopened, with new companies pricing their offerings almost every week. The pace and valuations of deals had risen, and with it, investor confidence. â€Å"It's not that PVC has become hard,† said one veteran venture capitalist. â€Å"It's Just gotten back to normal. † Adams Capital Management Joel Adams, founder of ACM, grew up in Phelps, New York, a small town between Rochester and Syracuse. â€Å"My dad owned a dairy farm,† recalled Adams, â€Å"and his and doing chores. † Adams was 15 when his mother passed away, leaving his father with no choice but to delegate most of his wife's responsibilities to the three children.Looking back on those days, Adams said: â€Å"At the time the confluence of events was a hell of a wake-up call for a teenager, but I learned invaluable lessons about money and time management. † After graduating from the University of Buffalo in 1979, Adams Joined nuclear submarine manufacturer General Dynamics, where he became a test engineer, the lead engineer re sponsible for starting and testing a sub's nuclear reactor and representing General Dynamics during the Navy's sea trials of the new boats. In 1984 he moved to Pittsburgh to attend the business school at Carnegie Mellon University (UCM), lured by its strong program in entrepreneurship.During Adams' second year at UCM, he worked part-time for Foisting Capital, a small PVC firm that invested on behalf of the Foster's, a wealthy Pittsburgh family. Adams Joined Foisting after graduation as a Junior partner, with the firm's new $14 million fund. Shortly thereafter, the firm and Adams became involved with PAP/Foisting l, a Joint venture formed with Patricia ; Co. To manage the $40 million fund that the state of Pennsylvania wanted to invest in PVC. In 1994 after nine years with Foisting, Adams, SCOFF Andrea Joseph, longtime secretary Lynn Patterson, and former partner Bill Hulled armed Adams Capital Management, Inc. O handle the Foisting portion of the $60 million PAP/Foisting II, raised in 1992. In 1997, ACM raised its first fund, the $55 million ACM l, with its markets-first investment strategy. Discontinuity-based investing Ever since he had Joined Foisting, Adams had been dissatisfied with what he considered a lack of focus and discipline in the firm's investment strategy. â€Å"Here's a nuclear engineer, walking into this industry, with a very small fund in Pittsburgh whose strategy was to be diversified by stage, by industry, and by geography,† Adams recalled. After about a year, I said, ‘This isn't a strategy at all? you could do anything. He was especially nonplussed by the method of developing deal flow. Rather than learning about markets and then targeting specific deals within them, he said, â€Å"The approach at Foisting was to open the mail in the morning† to see what business plans had arrived. Two of Adams' experiences at Foisting acquainted him with the power of targeted investing. The first was his involvement with Sharper Corpor ation, a developer of software applications for engineering product data management. â€Å"l understood the issues of engineering data management from my says at General Dynamics,† Adams said. L was a much smarter investor looking at an industry that I knew. † Not only was he a better investment manager and board member, he realized, 3 Ibid. 3 but he was also a better negotiator. â€Å"Entrepreneurs are passionate and biased about their businesses,† he said. â€Å"If the first time I hear about a market is from the entrepreneur, I'm at a big disadvantage. † His second revelation was even more powerful. Seeking a computer in 1987, Adams happened to learn about a mail-order operation in Texas called PC's Limited that custom-built personal computers and undercut retail prices.After speaking with the company's CEO, Adams invested $750,000 in the future Dell Computer's first outside venture round. Had the firm held this position, it would have been worth $382 m illion as of the end of September 2005. Adams realized that Dell had created such an explosion of value by exploiting a discontinuity ? a dramatic and sudden change in a large and established market. In this instance, the discontinuity involved distribution. The rise of direct distribution surprised the large personal computer manufacturers, which had highly entrenched outworks of retail dealers.These networks, Adams noted, â€Å"couldn't be unwound overnight. † Dell could build a multi-billion dollar business from scratch because his large and sleepy competitors could not respond to this distribution discontinuity in time. As ACM expanded, Adams resolved that any new partners would be engineers, and thus bring their technical training to bear in thorough examinations of a few promising markets (see Exhibit 4 for partner biographies). Scam's strategy evolved to focus on investments in markets that the partners already knew well and had already identified as attractive.A few i nitial prerequisites had developed over time. The first was that the companies in which ACM invested would sell to businesses, not consumers, and their value propositions would be driven by return on investment (ROI). â€Å"That's ROI for the customers, not us,† said Adams. â€Å"Our first question is, ‘If somebody is going to buy this company's product, what does the Chief Financial Officer's recommendation look like? † The second criterion was that the business was fragmentation applied technology,' or one of the first companies to use a specific technology for a specific application.Given the partners' engineering backgrounds, the firm focused on the information technology (IT) and telecommunication/ semiconductor industries, areas that were, in their view, experiencing significant discontinuities. The most important criterion was that, as in the case of Dell, Scam's portfolio companies would exploit discontinuities in existing markets, shifts that would creat e opportunities for start-up companies to become market leaders. In the IT industry, the partners anticipated that the need to create virtual enterprises on a global scale would force companies to look for highly adaptable systems.The telecommunications industry, faced with global expansion in bandwidth requirements for data, seemed to be faced with an entire rethinking of the existing technology and infrastructure, while reaching the limits of current silicon technology appeared likely to revolutionize the semiconductor industry. Within these areas, Scam's partners sought to identify four primary causes of discontinuities (see Exhibit 5 for more on discontinuities): 1 . Standards. Despite the emergence of a technology technologies in an attempt to preserve their captive customer base.Even as customers demented the standard, the existing manufacturers perceived it as a threat to their oligopolies market positions, and were reluctant to adopt it. One such example was FORE Systems, wh ich built communications devices that conformed to the ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) standard for communications in wide-area networks. The big players at the time, AT&T/Lucent and Northern Telecoms, each had proprietary protocols for those communications. These manufacturers clearly had the technical prowess and market muscle to 4 exploit ATM as well, but they were slow to do so for fear of cannibalizing their own racket shares.In April 1999, FORE was acquired by GEE Pl for $4. 5 billion. 2. Regulation. Unexpected regulatory changes could force market players to adapt quickly to a new market reality. An example of such a dislocation had occurred in the U. S. Cellular market where a host of new opportunities and networks had emerged after the government's creation of the PC'S spectrum. From a technology point of view, the new spectrum provided a chance for GSM, the cheaper and more easily-deployed base station technology popular in the rest of the world, to gain ground on the unw ieldy proprietary technology dominant in the United States.GSM equipment manufacturers and the upstart carriers who provided their services used their agility in the new regulatory environment to challenge the giants. 3. Technology. A technology-based discontinuity could take two forms. In one, it could appear as a whiz-bang package that took big competitors months or years to duplicate, such as Apple's Macintosh operating system. Alternatively, it could involve the convergence of technologies that had hitherto been separate, requiring innovation to allow these once-disparate systems to interact.An example here was the rise of corporate remote access, which forced companies to buy technology that would connect the public carrier telephone networks to the corporations' internal local area networks. 4. Distribution. Dell Computer in the earlier example provided the ultimate example of a distribution-based discontinuity?the rise of mail-order completely surprised existing personal comp uter manufacturers, to the great enrichment of Dell and its shareholders. This top-down approach to identifying markets was crucial in helping ACM achieve consensus about and control over where its partners would invest.Adams firmly believed, â€Å"Market due diligence is the only due diligence you can do independent of a transaction. If you present the partners with the industry and market dynamics ahead of time, then we can all talk about each other's prospective investment. † Scam's approach to identifying discontinuities included its Discontinuity Roundtable, a group of advisors that met periodically with the ACM partners to identify and discuss market discontinuities that could lead to fruitful investment theses. The 20-person Roundtable comprised industry experts and observers who attended meetings depending on the topic at hand.Among their number had been Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School known for his research on how innovation affected markets; Georg e Symmetry, inveterate entrepreneur and founder and backer of over 200 companies; Attic Razz, former CEO of MAD, the chip-maker that competed against Intel; and Mike Maples, former COT of Microsoft. The process required partners to write discontinuity white papers that advanced the investment thesis and to present them to a Roundtable of appropriate experts drawn from the pool.The group would discuss the merits of the thesis under consideration, usually greening to pursue two or three of the eight to ten papers presented in a meeting. The meetings would also identify other avenues for future exploration. Once an investment thesis was thoroughly vetted by the Discontinuities Roundtable, the ACM partners would systematically search for deals in that domain. Sometimes this took the form of identifying pockets of excellence in the appropriate technology and supporting entrepreneurs in forming a company.In other cases, it was a matter of identifying and sorting through several existing p otential investments. This process eve the partners deep knowledge of these companies' opportunities and therefore made ACM more attractive as an investment partner. 5 Structured Navigation In addition to a systematic approach for identifying markets, ACM also developed a system for managing its investments, called â€Å"structured navigation. † The system was born out of the observation that early-stage technology companies shared many of the same benchmarks and needed many of the same elements to succeed.Jerry Sullivan, who had Joined the firm from MAC, Tektronix and Phillips, explained: Our investments typically have high development costs coupled with the direct sales Orca characteristic of companies at these stages. The majority of our investments? 90%?are software-based, so resource planning and allocations are well understood by all of our general partners. We feel that our structured navigation strategy applies to all companies within the model. Aspects of the structu red navigation included : 1 . Round out the management team.Like most other PVC firms, ACM was deeply involved in helping its entrepreneurs complete their management teams. â€Å"Almost 85% of the management team without capital,† Martin Neat, a former executive vice president with IBM and now ACM general partner, said. People are going to Join a company that has some capital behind it, so we fundamentally believe that if you've got a great opportunity that's well-funded, you're going to attract a lot of talent. † ACM devoted significant resources to the creation of its Services Group, which helped its portfolio companies in this area. . Obtain a corporate partner or endorsement. The notion that an early stage company, hoping to exploit a sea change in a large existing market, could forge a partnership (an endorsement, a distribution deal, or an equity investment) with one of the very players from whom it hoped to steal market share mimed entirely contradictory. But the ACM partners believed that this should almost always be possible. From Scam's perspective, forging these relationships early would often create other exit opportunities. . Gain early exposure to industry and investment banking analysts. Industry analysts such as Garner, Gaga, and Forrester often created the first wave of market interest in a new technology. This group's validation could speed the acceptance or application of a new technology. While industry analysts could help create a market for the technology, analysts at investment banking firms could create an exit for the company, and ACM tried to make sure they met the portfolio companies early. First of all, the good analysts really do understand the businesses of these little companies,† N. George Sugars, a general partner in the Silicon Valley office, said. â€Å"But the second thing is, [bankers are] in the fee business, and they need to put marriages together. [Introducing the two parties early] is a tactic that w ill set you up for deals later on. † 4. Expand the product line. A first-generation applied technology company would be confronted by sigh initial costs of development and sales.In such a case, Bill Freeze, a general partner in Scam's Boston office, observed, â€Å"The marginal cost of the development for subsequent products or the next sale is much lower. † Once a new technology product had been developed and a base of customers secured, the costs of leveraging that technology into another, similar product and selling it into a base of existing accounts was comparatively small. But â€Å"sometimes the entrepreneur hasn't thought that out yet,† he noted. Our approach ensures that the companies are adequately focused on this value creation opportunity. 5. Implement best practices. Scam's partners felt that their entrepreneurs should focus on developing products and selling them to customers, not on structuring stock option packages or compensation 6 plans. After w orking with dozens of companies with similar structures, the partners felt that they should be able to provide boilerplate versions of plans that worked. ACM used these five â€Å"steps† (in no particular order) to manage its investments, complete.The process, the partners felt, not only made their investments more successful, but also provided the partners in four offices across the U. S. With a molly understood internal barometer of a company's progress (see Exhibit 6 for offices). â€Å"If ten months into a deal you can't attract talented people, corporations don't care, and you can't get the bankers interested?you're learning something,† observed Sullivan. â€Å"And maybe you ought to get out. † Defending the Strategy Was it really necessary to formulate such a rigorous strategy for investing in early- stage businesses?Adams admitted that, to a certain extent, the strategy was motivated by the practical necessities faced by a small firm based in Pittsburgh r aising a $55 million fund in 1997. We had to get ourselves above the muck, and the way you do that is with a well-defined, market-centric strategy that you execute in a disciplined manner,† he said. It had also given a small partnership, scattered among offices in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia (later Boston), and Austin, Texas (Silicon Valley was added in 1999) a common language and approach that facilitated communication.Adams balked at the conventional wisdom about PVC and venture capitalists?namely, that PVC was a personality-driven business, and that successful venture capitalists were all genius dealers whose vision turned everything they touched into gold. L just don't buy the ‘rock star' model that many venture firms promote,† Adams said. Instead, he wanted to build a venture firm in the same way that most businesses were built ? with a structure in which any of its employees were, in principle, replaceable. â€Å"We wanted to develop a system where you could th row anybody out of here and the thing will still cook along,† he said. We wanted to build a system for executing this business. We're engineers, we think that way. We're not rock stars. We have a system for finding areas that are of interest, getting deals, and making them valuable. That's what we do. † The Funds Since 1997, the partners felt that strict adherence to strategy, combined with the systematic portfolio management that navigation provided, had served the firm well. They had grown from a $55 million fund to managing $700 million and from one office in Pittsburgh to four in areas in which 68% of all PVC activity in the U.S. Occurred. Each fund had been invested according to plan, although the results had not been entirely anticipated. ACM I had invested in 15 companies for a total cost basis of $55 million. Information technology accounted for 49% of the portfolio; electrification for 30%, medical devices for 11% and networking infrastructure for 10%. As of Sep tember 2005, the fund was fully invested and had exited all but one company, distributing stock valued at $122. 7 million for a net IR to its Lips of 46% Oust below the upper quartile).The general partners hoped to achieve at least $140 million in total proceeds by the end of Fund Xi's contractual life. With its smaller size, ACM I had aimed for percentage ownership in the low teens. The firm had held a board seat in 67% of its original 15 companies, and its positions could get diluted if it as 7 unable to participate fully in subsequent rounds. However, as Adams said, â€Å"This was the home-run era of early stage PVC investing?significant returns were almost the norm. We had our share, with three acquisitions and three Ipso. That was a good fund. Based on the early success of Fund I and the frenzy around PVC, ACM had closed the $1 50 million ACM II at the end of 1999, followed quickly by the $420 million ACM Ill at the end of 2000 (see Exhibit 7 for fund statistics). In the over- heated environment of 1999 and early 2000, though, the partners found that the game had changed. At first it seemed that home-runs were still possible,† said Adams: †¦ Putting money to work was paramount. Unfortunately, this meant that we had less time to investigate new markets and we therefore had less diversification in the portfolio.If the big companies were looking for drop-add-multiplex-switches, that was what we backed as all of them were being bought because every big company needed its own drop-add-multiplicities. We ended up with a lot of similar companies. Our goal was to own around 20%, and we usually had enough money to keep our position, which was not always the best thing in retrospect. Fund II had stayed the strategic course. Of the 14 companies in the portfolio, three had been acquired, five written off, and six were still active and showing strong revenue growth.The firm had moved away from investing in medical devices though. Information technology made up 45% of the portfolio, semiconductors 38%, and telecommunications 17%. Although Fund Sis's value currently stood at a 40% discount to cost, Adams hoped that, with a few breaks, it could return the Lips' capital. Fund Oil's approach of taking larger position had been adopted in response to the changes that the partners noted in the market in particular, a reduction in volatility. As Adams explained,: The days of the consistent home-runs are gone.Reduced volatility meaner that we need to build portfolios that are more balanced and consistent in their performance. We're not looking for xx returns, although we certainly wouldn't refuse them. I Just don't think that's the norm anymore. Instead, we're looking to build a solid portfolio that yields xx to xx returns based on operating success?positive cash flow and net income. We look to own enough of each company that every deal is an impact deal, both for us and for the company. And here, because outcome volatility has fallen so substa ntially, we need to have diversity among our companies.You might say that beta has fallen so we must increase alpha. We had to assemble an interesting collection of really good companies that addressed significant discontinuities in the market and own enough of them to matter. We've done that. We've also added value to them through the ACM Services Group, which provides corporate partnering, recruitment and financial management guidance. By September 30, 2005, Fund Ill had called 74% of its committed capital. Information technology accounted for 59% of

Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Essay

The United States of America was founded and built by hardworking and innovative immigrants. Immigrants, whether legal or illegal, perform most of the dirty and arduous jobs that many native-born Americans are unwilling to perform. They are hardworking and taxpaying individuals that positively impact our economy and our communities. Many immigrants, especially illegal immigrants (those who enter the United States illegally or without proper documentation) work long hours and for little pay. There are over 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States who deserve a chance to have a good job, earn citizenship and become a legal member of American society. According to the Organization for U.S. Immigration Support, amnesty can be defined as â€Å"the government’s pardon for violating policies relating to immigration or politics† (Amnesty for Illegal Immigration 1). The federal government forgives these individuals for using false documentations to more easily get employment in the United States and be able to remain in the country. Amnesties allow illegal immigrants or undocumented workers to gain permanent residency in the United States. In 1986, the United States granted its first amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, allowing them to receive a Green Card which could lead to the attainment of United States citizenship. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is beneficial to the United States because it will bolster the U.S. economy, increase tax revenues, and allow millions of people to attain the American dream of homeownership and education, thus benefiting American society. For these reasons, all illegal immigrants should be granted amnesty. Illegal immigrants are beneficial to the United States economy. They perform the necessary high labor and menial jobs that many native-born Americans are unwilling to do. According to the March 6th 2007 issue of Conservative Politics: U.S. , President George W. Bush was quoted as saying, â€Å"There are people doing jobs Americans will not do. Many people who have come into our country are helping our economy grow. That is just a fact of life† (Illegal Aliens: Helpful or Harmful to America? 1). Increasingly fewer educated, native-born American workers are unwilling or unable to perform the strenuous jobs that don’t even require a high school diploma†¦but immigrants are. According to an immigration policy brief written by Rob Paral of the American Immigration Law Foundation, it is evident that immigrants come here  to fill available jobs by the â€Å"fact that, as of 2005, 94% of adult male undocumented immigrants and 86% of adult male legal immigrants were in th e labor force. Immigrants are already an integral part of U.S. society and an indispensable part of the U.S. labor force† (Paral 1). Illegal immigrants also contribute to the United States economy by purchasing American goods and services. They purchase houses, automobiles, as well as, patronize the local supermarkets and Mom and Pop stores. Francine Lipman of the Chapman University, School of Law strongly believes that â€Å"undocumented immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy through their investments and consumption of goods and services; filling of millions of essential worker positions resulting in subsidiary job creation, increased productivity and lower costs of goods and services† (Lipman 1). Lower consumer prices are one of the many contributions that immigrants make to our economy. Annually, illegal immigrants contribute at least 300 billion dollars to the U.S. gross national product (Immigrant Workers: Making Valuable Contributions to Our Communities and Our Economy 1). Even though there are critics who are adamantly against granting amnesty to illegal immigrants, a survey conducted by the Social Science Research Network concluded that 85% of prominent economists felt that illegal immigrants have had a positive impact on the United States economy (Lipman 1). Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will increase United States tax revenues. Amnesty will provide illegal immigrants with a tax identification number or a social security number. Thus allowing over 12 million non-U.S. citizens who are living and working illegally in the United States to file taxes and prove their economic contribution, as well as, document their residence. Amnesty allows illegal immigrants to file their taxes without fear of being deported, in turn more people will file their taxes, thus increasing tax revenues. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates show â€Å"that amnesty would significantly increase tax revenues. Because both their income and tax compliance would rise, we estimate that under the most likely scenario the average illegal alien household would pay 77% ($3,200.00) more a year in federal taxes once legalized; therefore, amnesty would significantly increase both the average income and tax payments of illegal immigrants† (The High Cost o f Cheap Labor 1). Everyone who works in the  United States is required to pay taxes. On average illegal immigrants pay about $4,200.00 in federal taxes. Almost half of this tax revenue goes directly to Social Security and Medicare (Illegal Aliens: Helpful or Harmful to America? 1). Despite America’s strong history of opposing taxation without representation, undocumented immigrants are required to pay taxes, but do not have a voice in American society. They don’t have the right to vote at any level, be it local, state or federal. Nonetheless, every year illegal immigrants contribute billions of dollars in property, sales, excise, income and payroll taxes to federal, state and local funds. According to a paper written by Francine Lipman entitled, â€Å"Taxing Undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal and Without Representation†, she states that â€Å"undocumented [workers] actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services. They also make unrequited contributions to Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance programs† (Lipman 1). Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants file federal and state income tax returns each year even though they are barred from receiving all government benefits including Food Stamps, Medicaid, Federal Housing, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security and the Earned Income Tax Credit. This is a clear example of taxation without representation. Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would fix this social injustice in America, as well as, bolster the United States tax revenues because once legalized, illegal immigrants will be paying more money annually in federal taxes. If illegal immigrants are granted amnesty then millions of hardworking people would finally be able to attain the American dream, thus benefiting themselves and American society. Amnesty will allow illegal immigrants to purchase property and homes. As a result, communities will be revitalized. Illegal immigrants would be able to set down their roots and integrate into American society. According to an article written by Sue Kirchhoff, entitled, â€Å"Immigrants Chase American Dream†, an estimated â€Å"8 million to 10 million foreign born people are in the United States illegally, lacking documents to get a mortgage† (Kirchhoff 3). Granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would alleviate this problem because they would be able to purchase homes which would keep the American housing market strong, which in  turn leads to a healthy economy. Illegal immigrants are an increasingly important factor in the American housing market because by the purchasing of homes they are revitalizing inner cities, changing the appearance of suburbs and prompting subtle changes in home design, therefore, many economists believe that the United States housing market will remain strong as a result of the elevated rates of both legal and illegal immigration in the country (Kirchhoff 1). Amnesty will allow illegal immigrants to seek and attain higher education which will ultimately have a favorable impact on the United States. According to a study by Keith Maskus, an economist at the University of Colorado, and Aaditya Mattoo, a lead economist at the World Bank’s Development Economics Group, â€Å"foreign students, skilled immigrants and doctorates in science and engineering play a major role in driving scientific innovation in the United States. Their research found that for every 100 international students who receive science or engineering PhD’s from American universities, the nation gains 62 future patent applications† (Anderson 3). Education plays a crucial role in producing successful and productive citizens. There is evidence that suggests that through education immigrants improve their lives and that of their children and have very little negative impact on the nation. According to an article entitled, â€Å"Immigration Issues in the United States† in the March 1st 2004 edition of Eriposte â€Å"as immigrants leave school and become productive workers, they repay most or all of the cost of those services that they have received in the form of taxes† (Immigration Issues in the United States 3). Providing illegal immigrants with the opportunity to seek higher education is also a solution for ending poverty and foreign aid. In a June 19th 2006 open letter on immigration written by David J. Theroux and addressed to President George W. Bush, the author states that â€Å"immigration is the greatest anti-poverty program ever devised. The American dream is a reality for many immigrants who not only increase their own living standards, but who also send billions of dollars of their money back to their families in their home countries-a form of truly effective foreign aid† (Theroux 1). Immigrants, both legal and illegal, add diversity and a fresh perspective to the American business market, therefore, by granting amnesty to illegal immigrants we are  encouraging them to improve their education and skills in order to provide the United States with a more competitive labor force. In the end, amnesty favors both the nation and the illegal immigrants. The United States would positively benefit from granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants because of the increased economic, tax and societal benefits amnesty would bring. Immigrants, both legal and illegal, contribute their skills, innovation, capital, and culture to the American economy. They have become an indispensable asset to America, both culturally and economically. The aspiration of attaining the American dream is what inspires illegal immigrants to come to America; therefore, it is unfair to hinder or deny them in their pursuit of happiness and prosperity. After all, our country was founded and built by the sweat and hard work of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Ultimately, granting amnesty to illegal immigrants benefits both America, its people and society. Bibliography â€Å"Amnesty for Illegal Immigration.† U.S Immigration Support. 4 Mar. 2007. 7 Mar. 2007http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/amnesty.html. â€Å"Illegal Aliens: Helpful or Harmful to America?† Conservative Politics: U.S. 6 Mar. 2007http://usconservatives.about.com/od/theeconomy/a/illegalaliens.htm. â€Å"Immigrant Workers: Making Valuable Contributions to Our Communities and Our Economy.† Service Employees International Union. 5 Mar. 2007 http://www.seiu.org/issues/immigration/immigration_facts.cfm. â€Å"Immigration Issues in the United States.† Eriposte. 1 Mar. 2004. 6 Mar. 2007http://www.eriposte.com/civil_rights/non-citizens/illegalimmigration.htm. â€Å"The High Cost of Cheap Labor – Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget .† Center for Immigration Studies. 2004. 5 Mar. 2007 http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html. Allport, Allan. Immigration Policy. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. Anderson, Stuart. â€Å"The Debate Over Immigration’s Impact on U.S. Workers and the Economy .† National Foundation for American Policy. June 2006. 6 Mar. 2007http://www.meragefoundations.com. Dudley, William. Illegal Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Green HavenPress, 2002. Kirchhoff, Sue. â€Å"Immigrants Chase American Dream.† USA Today 5 Aug. 2004. 5 Mar. 2007 http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2004-08-05-immigrant-housing_x.htm. Lipman, Francine J. â€Å"Taxing Undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal and Without Representation.† Social Science Research Network. 15 Feb. 2006. Chapman University – School of Law. 5 Mar. 2007 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract. Paral, Rob. â€Å"The growth and Reach of Immigration – New Census Bureau Data Underscore Importance of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Force.† AILF. 162006. 12 Mar. 2007 http://www.ailf.org/ipc/policybrief/policybrief_2006_81606.shtml. Stern, Andrew L., Anna Burger, and Eliseo Medina. â€Å"SEIU Announces Agenda for Comprehensive Immigration Reform- Letter to Senator Kennedy.† Service Employees International Union. 17 Jan.2007. 5 Mar. 2007 http://www.seiu.org/media/pressreleases.cfm. Stevens, Christel. â€Å"The Overlooked Value of Immigrants.† Editorial. TheWashington Post 3 Feb. 2008: 6Theroux, David J. â€Å"Open letter on Immigration.† Letter to George W. Bush. 19 June 2006. 6 Mar. 2007http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1727#1. Toness, Bianca Vazquez. â€Å"U.S. Tax Program for Illegal Immigrants Under Fire.† All Things Considered. National Public Radio. NPR. 5 Mar. 2007. Transcript. 10 Mar. 2007 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId. Vargas, Theresa. â€Å"Pro-Limited immigration Group Links Gangs to IllegalResidents.† The Washington Post 25 Jan. 2008: B5.

Supply chain Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Supply chain - Term Paper Example housing allows for transport optimization in the supply chain and equips companies with the ability of working with optimal inventory based on economic order quantity and improved service quality. For instance, transport systems’ terminal points involve stockpiling activities aimed at producing full loads for further transportation. Warehousing a subset of supply chain and is used in storing unloaded goods within the major vessels (Shah 67). Industries that produce goods requiring longer periods of maturation between retail and production, warehousing is used in storing the goods based on the larger quantities. Products within modern todays markets have contributed to better product designs with diverse impacts of globalization coupled with ease in accessing alternative. The concept also generates demand through significant efficiency and effectiveness principles. There is increased demand and strategic pricing as supply and competition among firms increases on limited markets (Khan and Zsidisin 98). The impacts of globalization on supply chains are felt even in marketing as products have lesser distinguishing factors, and product design plays different roles in providing attractive features to markets. Demand generation can be used in defining interesting product designs in terms of demand creation. It involves the ability of product designs in generating demand through satisfaction of customer expectations. On the other hand, product design impacts demand generation and manufacturing quality, processes, lead time, and cost (Shah 23). Product design influences performance of associated supply chain as well as direct requirements. Supply chain management addresses issues such as production schedule, manufacturing, quantity, transportation, production policies, regulations, production technologies, quality, material selection, and laws. The supply chain success is dependent on product designs and supply chain capabilities. Efficiency in supply chain management

Comparing Susan Glaspells Play Trifles with her Short Story A Jury of Essay

Comparing Susan Glaspells Play Trifles with her Short Story A Jury of - Essay Example The sense of male authority more effectively forms the hallmark of the story, which is more than can be said about Trifles if acting in the play is left out of the question and just text is scrutinized. Angel appears to be deeply fascinated with the short story version of Trifles in her article. She claims that compared to the play, the story focuses on women’s perspective who were shunned from the legal system. These were women who had judgment skills far superior to any men around, but were not given credit for that because it was men and not women who made the law, who were judges, and who investigated murder trials. The women in the story managed to see beneath the surface and reached different legal conclusions than men did. Women reached correct conclusions because of their different experiences and values than men and this difference is very superiorly explicated in the short story version of the play. It is suggested by Ben-Zvi in her article that compared to Trifles, Glaspell goes further in her short story to highlight patriarchal power and its implications on women. Trifles does not as brilliantly and as deeply analyzes the awkwardness of Mr. Hale’s character as the â€Å"Jury† does. In the start of the short story, the authoress dedicates many words to explaining how easily Mr. Hale is intimidated by fellow men like the County Attorney. However, when it comes to women of the house, he effortlessly undermines their perceptions of judgment. It is Mr. Hale and not the women of Mr. Wright’s house who gets to detail the murder report because of his gender. He directly taunts the women refusing to acknowledge that they could possibly have any clue about murder. Such examples of patriarchal power and female marginalization are more efficiently detailed in the Jury. In her article, Mael explains that just as the short story

Philosophy, the second Topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Philosophy, the second Topic - Essay Example Aristotle’s viewpoints also underscore Plato’s assertion in that philosophy has a purpose of practicality attached to it. Gaining knowledge for its own sake does not restrict the projection of the acquired knowledge in any way. Rather, practical philosophy can be attributed to numerous situations that are intrinsically separated from merely conjectural inquiries made for the sake of flaunting one’s pedantic affectations. The rational components of practical philosophy have, however, been questioned by modern scientific innovations that strive to theorize every phenomenon. This is the main point of debate in this paper. What is the purpose of philosophy in real life? Does philosophy have any bearing on human life, individual or collective? The paper shall examine the arguments propounded by five seminal thinkers from the world of philosophy: Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. The existential quandaries of modern men have been addressed in-depth by the French thinker Jean-Paul Sartre. Commenting on philosophy, he claims that philosophy as an abstraction of human perception is only a vague concept which does not yield any ethical or realistic principles. The basis of his argument involves the interdependency of existentialism and Marxism for the sake of comprehending reality and its evolution from the past. This is an interesting premise because Marxist philosophy is different from existentialist philosophy in terms of explaining idealism (Sartre and Priest 17). Marx’s investigation is more akin to presenting every individual within a social setup which should be in perfect accord with a totalitarian worldview. Hence, the existential essence of subjective idealism is not the point of philosophical contention for Marx. He argues that betterment of living can be achieved not by the

The Impact of the Nursing Shortage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Impact of the Nursing Shortage - Essay Example The long-term impact of the nursing shortage will become increasingly more significant in several areas. The primary concern will be the impact it has on the ability of nurses to provide quality health care. With fewer staff, nurses are required to work longer hours and assume additional responsibilities. Overworked nurses, burdened with fatigue and job stress, are more prone to accidental errors and a reduction in timely medical attention. A survey of registered nurses indicated that 79 percent of hospital employed RNs believed that short staffing contributed to a reduction in the quality of patient care. A long-term and escalating nursing shortage could contribute to the 98,000 deaths per year due to medical errors as reported by the Institute of Medicine in 2000. Aside from the important issue of the quality of patient care is the factor of rising health care costs. As the labor supply of qualified nurse's shrinks, the competition for nurses increases. A wage war may result from the shortage and will contribute to the rising costs as hospitals increase the wages and compensatory packages for their staff. Costs associated with temporary hiring practices have also increased due to the shortage. While an increase in wages may seem to benefit the nurses, increased demands may not be worth the cost. Nurses working extended shifts and longer hours may come under increased scrutiny from administrators and government regulators struggling to eliminate the human errors and the increased cost of malpractice insurance.

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima Essay

Should the US have dropped the bomb on Hiroshima - Essay Example After three days allied forces used another bomb which dropped on Nagasaki, which easily killed 37000 people and injured 43000 people who also consequently died in the following days1. The bombings were intense, and were soon followed by the surrender of Japan to USA on August 14, 1945. These bombings were the first in history and till date is the only time when nuclear power has been used in the whole world2. Japan and the Atomic bombings Japan was devastated after the bombarding of US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the after effects of which were seen through a number of years. Apart from heavy destruction, the bombs resulted in a lot of human loss, people suffered from Gamma radiation which caused instant deaths in just 2 seconds of the explosion, others died from burns as a result of the fires which were caused by the explosion along with mechanical injuries which were caused by the falling of debris resulting from the collapse of buildings. Many who did not die instantly after the e xplosion, suffered injuries from radiation and consequently died in the following days. ... The United States president, Truman provided a justification to the US citizens that the bombing was to save the lives of US citizens and to impress the Soviet Union from playing a role in the war and further making the war last many more days and even years. It was also argued that Japanese had demonstrated a very brave fanatical resistance in surrendering and so without the bombings it would have been nearly impossible for them to surrender. On an event of being asked that there should have been first a demonstration of the nuclear bomb over an unpopulated area to warn Japan and to force it to surrender, Truman said that it would have been a very risky decision to waste one bomb when there were only two available. Another justification in the favor of the bombings provided by the United States was that the two targeted cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, would have been destructed in any case with the use of fire bombs which were already being used in the war. Therefore, they justify t hat the use of the nuclear bombs did not cause more destruction than that from the fire bombings on Japan. The use of nuclear power has always been criticized, therefore, US states that they used the bombs also in order to fear people from the use of it in the future. Nagasaki and Hiroshima already had to be destroyed during the prevailing war and so the use of bombings also saved the life of US citizens, did not harm Japan more than the already predicted outcome of war and also prevented the future use of nuclear power by the rest of the World. The bombs use also ended the war quickly, which in any other scenario was not possible. In the result of the bombarding, the Soviet Union got intimidated by the US and USSR dropped the idea of demanding a joint

Career Explorations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Career Explorations - Assignment Example eason why there is certainty in the future of the careers in the field is because of the findings by the researches that improvement in the health sector in the next coming years will not be guaranteed by research in medicine but public measures to prevent them. The other reason to pursue career in public health is because in modern days, there is a shift in focus towards concentrating more resources in the prevention measures in order to cut health costs. This is through public education and other raft of measure to improve public health. The specific career in the field is senior development specialist. A post in Essentia located in greater London. It is in health-public, health industry and technology development. The term of employment is permanent. Its’ main work is the design and development of programs to improve the public health infrastructure. This is important because it enables smooth and organized running of the healthcare services. It greatly helps facilitate the offering of services and it is important as it saves the overall cost of running the health sector due to its ability to reduce the number of labor workforce. It is not just about design; it goes beyond that to implementation. It requires one with knowledge in both commercial and the health sector. It focuses on the implementation of proper solutions that improve service efficiency for both workers and patients. To enter the field one need to have experience in JavaScript application to be guaranteed position in the internal service, now development team. The preferred candidates should have Knowledge and experience in BMC, CA, remedy or other ITSM tools. To be more suited for the job or be highly recommended for the job, one ought to possesses good technical background knowledge specifically in Jelly scripting and also being conversant with software development that are helpful in JavaScript application. A candidate should possesses good knowledge in modern technology, but the candidate

Mozart's Background Leading Up to Don Giovanni Coursework

Mozart's Background Leading Up to Don Giovanni - Coursework Example During the seventeenth century, London was full of Italian opera. English composers did little to counter this trend. Most of the music that was sung in English was composed in an Italian manner. Arsinoe was such an example, which was sung with recitatives in place of spoken dialogue, and was the first of such opera to come to the London stage. As more performances were held, still Italian opera dominated English opera.Mozart concentrated in performing operas. Mozart’s opera production made a great change in English opera. Â  Later, people performing in music were differentiated, depending on details of rhythm, harmony, and accompaniment. Even the tone of the voice was used. Mozart had a skill that no other composer equaled to. his ensemble finale represented a section in which all the lines of the action were brought together and driven more and more swiftly to a climax or to the final solution of the plot, involving the appearance on the stage of all the characters, singly and in various combinations but in increasing numbers and excitements as the end of the act approached. Mozart’s music differs from Italian opera buffa and follows a general pattern indicated2. Mozart’s operas led to Mozart’s Don Giovanni, an operatic masterpiece full of iconic and mythical tensions. The opera had both the aesthetic and moral legacies.Mozart had an opportunity to listen to every kind of music which was written and heard in Western Europe during the many tours that he made alongside with his father. Mozart’s father had made numerous tours across Europe, alongside his family, Mozart included. Therefore, everywhere they stopped, Mozart had an opportunity to listen to music that was written and heard in that town. At each stop, Mozart acquired all the music that was not available in Salzburg, his birthplace. Mozart also met musicians who introduced him to new ideas and techniques of music. It is through these ideas that Mozart was capable of developing an excellent musical career that inculcated almost all the genres of music. For instance, Mozart imitated the music of Johana Schobert while they made a stopover in Paris, during one of their tours across Europe. Â  

Counterstereotype Essay Example for Free

Counterstereotype Essay Stereotypes are so prevalent in our everyday lives that people don’t even realize that they are making racist comments. They are so use to making these comments in their own inner circles, that they don’t even realize how detrimental they can be outside of their circle. Stereotypes affect people’s social lives, emotions, and how people interact with their environment. Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination are known to be related but having different concepts. Stereotypes are regarded as the most cognitive component, prejudice as the affective and discrimination as the behavioural component of prejudicial reactions. That slight pause in the processing of a stereotype gives conscious, unprejudiced beliefs a chance to take over. With time, the tendency to prevent automatic stereotyping may itself become automatic. Past studies have shown that people perform poorly in situations where they feel they are being stereotyped. Are there lingering effects of prejudice? Does being stereotyped have an impact beyond the moment when stereotyping happens? Stereotypes have an enormous impact of how we feel. It affects people’s social lives, emotions, and how people interact with their environment. Regarding the quote, â€Å"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? From The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, even after a person leaves a situation where they faced negative stereotypes, the effects of coping with that situation remain. People are more likely to be aggressive after theyve faced prejudice in a given situation. They are more likely to exhibit a lack of self-control. They have trouble making good, rational decisions and are more likely to over-indulge on unhealthy foods. These days’ people are afraid to be themselves, because they fear other people. They don’t want people to think something bad for them. Secrets, thoughts, and ideas, are all held down. Stereotypes can be an obstacle as to how open you are with people and how you make people feel when you are with them. Instead of focusing on all the mistakes of each person, we should start paying more attention of how unique each person is. Stereotype causes people to feel lonely and even sometimes depressed. It’s also harmful for their environment and their social life. We should keep stereotypes out of the picture, even though sometimes we can be victims ourselves. The study of culture may someday tell us where the seeds of prejudice originated; for now, the study of the unconscious shows us just how deeply theyre planted.

Smoking During Pregnancy

Smoking During Pregnancy The Dangers of Smoking During Pregnancy When a baby is conceived, it is most often a joyous occasion for the parents. A lot of changes are obviously in store for them, as well as some apprehension about what the future holds. They will have approximately nine months to plan for the birth of their child. Undoubtedly, they will begin making arrangements for day care, because they understand that, upon birth, the child will be totally dependent on them for all of his or her needs. What they may not realize is that complete dependence begins long before birth. During the first couple of weeks after conception, the embryo travels from the mothers fallopian tubes to the womb, where it will attach itself to the uterine wall. During this voyage, the embryo will spend its time splitting cells and multiplying rapidly. While the embryo is extremely busy during the first 17 days, this is not an extremely critical time of development when major organ systems are formed. If anything unhealthy is introduced into the mothers body during this time, the affect on the embryo will either be no affect at all or they may completely destroy the embryo, causing a miscarriage. If this happens, it is likely that the woman will have no knowledge that she was ever pregnant (Hawkesley 8). It is an entirely different situation during the next stage of fetal development. Many organ systems are developed during the second stage, which happens from the third to the tenth week of pregnancy. Any abnormality that forms during this time will be present from that time forward (Hawkesley 9). Because this stage is a significant period in which organs are being formed, its unmistakably essential that the mother take tremendous care in what she ingests, injects and inhales into her body. Any unhealthy substance that enters her body may have a tremendous impact on the health of her unborn child. The third stage of fetal development lasts from day 56 until the baby is born (Hawkesley 10). During this time, organs developed in the second stage are simply becoming larger and more robust. While its unlikely harmful substances will affect the development of organs, they may retard the growth of them. It should be noted that the brain continues developing throughout the entire pregnancy, meaning that any harmful toxins used by the mother may, in fact, cause the baby to be born with brain damage (Hawkesley 10). The fetus is attached to the mother by the placenta, which carries all of the oxygen and nutrition it will need until it is born. It is imperative for the mother to eat well-balanced meals because she is not only providing nutrition to her body, but to her babys body as well. Anything she eats, sniffs, injects or inhales will be passed onto the fetus and may impair the development or growth of it. Due to the fact that cigarettes contain 580 carcinogenes in addition to nicotine, smoking is not only harmful to the mother, but it is also extremely harmful to her unborn child. Cigarette smoking can cause a greater chance of miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight, and placental abruption. These babies also have higher perinatal death rates [stillbirth or death soon after delivery]. It is believed that the carbon monoxide in cigarettes negatively effect the fetuses red blood cells and cause small blood vessels to constrict, consequently reducing the oxygen transferred to the fetus (Thurston 381). Nine months later and the baby is born, apparently healthy. The mothers smoking didnt seem to cause any harm to the child; or did it? There are many other risks associated with smoking during pregnancy. One of them is SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). While babies appear seemingly healthy, the CDC reports that babies born to mothers who smoked during their pregnancy, have an increased chance of dying from SIDS before their first birthday. The risk is 1.4 to 3.0 times than those babies born to women who did not smoke during their pregnancy (CDC website citation). While its also very important that the mother not smoke during her pregnancy, she also needs to be cognizant of her surroundings. If she is around anyone else who is smoking, the secondhand smoke she breathes in is just as harmful to her growing fetus as though she were smoking the cigarette herself. The same is true of infants who are exposed to secondhand smoke. Additionally, infants exposed to smoke both in the womb and secondhand smoke after birth have an even greater risk of SIDS. Simply states, the CDC says that â€Å"parents can help protect their babies from SIDS by taking the following three actions: not smoking when pregnant, not smoking in the home or around the baby after the baby is born and putting the baby down to sleep on its back [another risk factor for SIDS]† (CDC website citation). Other complications that can arise are asthma, learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Works Cited http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/health_effects/pregnancy.htm (Aug 14, 2007) http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/Factsheets/Sids.htm (October 2006) http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/TobaccoUsePregnancy/index.htm (Oct 2,2007) Tobacco Use and Pregnancy: Home

Ellen Foster :: essays research papers

At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this breathtaking saga of a young girl’s tragic memories of her childhood. As with Ellen, Gibbons’ parents both died before she was twelve-years-old forming the basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and actions of Ellen. The simplistic and humble attitude that both Gibbons and Ellen epitomize in the novel is portrayed through diction and dialogue throughout the novel allows the audience to gain a better understanding and personal compassion for both the character and author. The novel is written in a short, choppy sentence structure using simple word choice, or diction, in a stream of consciousness to enable the reader to perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining. Gibbons’ and Ellen’s harrowing past is related in the novel through Ellen’s inner thoughts and the dialogue between characters. However, when Ellen converses with other characters, Gibbons chose not to use quotation marks or any of the formal methods of documenting dialogue between characters; she Ellen Foster :: essays research papers At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this breathtaking saga of a young girl’s tragic memories of her childhood. As with Ellen, Gibbons’ parents both died before she was twelve-years-old forming the basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and actions of Ellen. The simplistic and humble attitude that both Gibbons and Ellen epitomize in the novel is portrayed through diction and dialogue throughout the novel allows the audience to gain a better understanding and personal compassion for both the character and author. The novel is written in a short, choppy sentence structure using simple word choice, or diction, in a stream of consciousness to enable the reader to perceive the novel in the rational of an eleven-year-old girl. One short, simple sentence is followed by another , relating each in an easy flow of thoughts. Gibbons allows this stream of thoughts to again emphasize the childish perception of life’s greatest tragedies. For example, Gibbons uses the simple diction and stream of consciousness as Ellen searches herself for the true person she is. Gibbons uses this to show the reader how Ellen is an average girl who enjoys all of the things normal children relish and to contrast the naive lucidity of the sentences to the depth of the conceptions which Ellen has such a simplistic way of explaining. Gibbons’ and Ellen’s harrowing past is related in the novel through Ellen’s inner thoughts and the dialogue between characters. However, when Ellen converses with other characters, Gibbons chose not to use quotation marks or any of the formal methods of documenting dialogue between characters; she

Privatization Essay -- Government Businesses Papers

Privatization Privatizing services is a more attractive option for most local governments and is widely practiced around the state. There are certain government services in which it is impractical to create a free competitive market. For others, it is almost impossible to predict the potential success or failure of privatization. These unclear predictions make privatization a very complicated issue for local governments. The combination of rapidly rising service costs and slowly increasing revenues has led officials in some cities and counties to use non-traditional income services to fund government options. Throughout the mid 1980's state and local governments continue to be in trouble because of the rapid increase in the demand for services they provide along with an increasing resistance on the part of their citizens to raising taxes in order to provide those services. Privitization is an outsourcing of functions to private companies that the financial burdern of providing these services shifts from the taxpayers at large to the individual consumers. Doing away with government services at the local level is almost impossible. Elected officials are often resistant to vote to cut services. The elected officials are usually familiar with the people who might be negatively impacted by such an action. Citizens usually do not want to do away with local government services because they view services such as water/sewer, fire , police and recreation as being life sustaining. Citizens feel that services can't be provided adequately by state or federal governments, and would like to keep services at the local level. A factor to keep in mind when looking at the potentials and downfalls of privatization is the private... ...ion/BURZASH.htm. Privatization on the Roll, says RPPI http://www.reason.org/apr98central.html The Opportunities and Challenges of Privatization http://www.doe.gov/privatization/report/chapt-3.htm The Opportunities and Challenges of Privatization http://www.doe.gov/privatization/report/chapt-4.htm The Legal and Political Enviornment of Privatization http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/pgem/ch1c.html ASCH, Peter, and Sececa, Rosalind S. Government and the Marketplace 2nd Edition. The Dryden Press, a division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1989 Weicher, John Private Innovations In Public Transit. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public policy Research, 1988 Krikorian, Greg and Riccardi, Nicholas Board Votes to Test Privatizing Child Support System. Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1988.

Essay on Role of Women in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart :: Things Fall Apart essays

Women in Things Fall Apart The position and image of women in Things Fall Apart is an important topic. Unfortunately, people have not paid much attention to it beyond going along with the assumption that this novel presents women as a sadly oppressed group with no power. This assumption may appear to be right, but there is much more to think about. Women in Things Fall Apart are the primary educators of children. Through story telling and other forms of discourse, they educate and socialize the children, inspiring in them intellectual curiosity about social values, relationships, and the human condition. The stories the women tell also develop the artistic consciousness of the children, in addition to entertaining them. The women bear children, cook and take care of the household in many other ways. Through their labor, they are an important pillar of the society. The presence of Chielo, the priestess in Things Fall Apart is instructive. She is a spiritual leader, whose authority is unquestioned. Grace Okafor comments on the Igbo view of women's ritualistic power: The ritualistic function of women emanated from belief in the ritual essence of women as progenitors of the society. The idea is that women know the secret of life since they are the source of life. Because of their biological function in the life-giving process, the society looks on them to safeguard life. Thus, it is the biological role of women that influenced belief in their power. (Okafor, 9-10) There is a memorable question that old Uchendu asks, which emphasizes the position of women in Things Fall Apart in a dramatic way: Can you tell me, Okonkwo, why it is that one of the commonest names we give to our children is Nneka, or "Mother is Supreme"? We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family.

The Greek Polis

The polis is the city-state of ancient Greece where Greek politics, commerce and creative culture was centered. It developed from the Archaic period and is considered the ancestor of the terms city, state and citizenship. It was the central urban area that may have some degree of rule over the surrounding countryside. Among the Greek polis were Athens, Thebes and Sparta which were considered independent with each other. The polis is typically bounded around a citadel or an acropolis and would essentially have a market called the agora and would usually have one or more places of worship and a gymnasium. The Greeks considered the polis or city-states as a unique institution because in ancient times, it was the first gathering of people wherein the rulers or officials were elected by the people and laws were passed. Although the polis was composed of several tribes or demes, it was ruled not by a particular king or oligarchy but rather considered as a political entity ruled by the inhabitants or citizens themselves. To some extent, there is a high degree of citizen involvement and participation in the management of the public organization in a polis. The polis was considered as the most significant contribution in politics of the Greek people. The fundamental difference between the ancient Greek polis and a modern day country city like that of Western Europe or America is that the Greeks did not consider the polis as under any sovereignty while a modern age city is necessarily under a sovereign country or state. In other words, the polis is an autonomous entity while a modern city is positively positioned in a sovereign state. The polis is not identified by territory but rather by the citizenship of its people whereas a modern city is generally set apart by land area and population. Their similarities lie greatly in them being both centers of commerce, artistry, politics and the melting pot of state development.

Experiments made in Transfer of Training or Learning Essay

The question of transfer has been definitely put to a test in order to show far training in one line influences other lines. Many experiments and studies in transfer of training have been performed by psychologists. Starch considered the problem of transfer in two fields: 1. Transfer in Specific Psychological Activities—The experiments performed in this field were the following: Experiments in memory, by James—William James was the first to attack the problem of memory-training experimentally. He investigated the effort of memorizing one kind of material on ability to memorize other kinds of materials. James himself memorized 158 lines from Victor Hugo’s Satyr and kept record of the time spent. He then devoted thirty-eight days (20 minutes per day) to the mastery of Milton’s Paradise Lost. After his Training in memorization, he selected another 158 lines from the Satyr and memorized them. He discovered that he needed more time to learn this selection than he had spent in memorizing the first selection from the Satyr. His result showed negative transfer. From their studies James was led to believe that formal discipline is not an efficacious means of improving the memory (National Society for the Study of Education, 2000). Experiment in perception, by Thorndike and Woodworth, in 1901— Thorndike and Woodworth studied the influence of special training on the estimation of magnitudes upon the ability to estimate magnitudes of the same general type, and the influence of training in observing words containing certain other letters. Thorndike and Woodworth concluded from the first part of the experiment that there was more improvement in the ability to estimate areas similar to the practice material than in the ability to estimate dissimilar areas. The result of the second experiment showed that practice in cancelling words with certain letters had an indirect effect on the cancelling words of words with other letters (National Society for the Study of Education, 2000). Experiments in judging weights of various sizes transferred to estimation of other weights, by Coover, in 1916—these experiments showed positive transfer. Experiments in maze-learning for both rats and human, by Webb in 1971—It was concluded from the results of these experiments that there were carry over effects from practice in one sensory-motor activity to another but the amount of transfer varied with the individual subject (Morgan, 1999). From these studies of transfer two conclusions may be drawn: (a) both negative and positive transfers occur between specific learning activities: (b) the more similar the specific activities, the greater the positive transfer. In other words, whatever transfer occurred could be expanded in terms of identical elements of procedure, habits, and methods. Transfer in School Subjects—Most of the experimental studies made of transfer in high school subjects were the following: From Latin to English by Thorndike and Rugger in 1923—Thorndike and Rugger found out that their studies that high school freshmen who studied Latin made slightly higher scores in an English vocabulary test than did students who had not studied Latin, the gain made on all words derived from Latin roots. So far as pedagogical practice is concerned, Thorndike’s and Rugger’s investigation established the fact of transfer of training (Skinner, 2000). From Latin to English vocabulary, by Hamblen in 1924—Hamblen concluded that transfer from Latin to English vocabulary was great when word derivations were stressed in the teaching of Latin (Skinner, 2000). In conclusion, experiments in the effect of cross-education, in observing and judging sensory and perceptual data, and in forming sensory motor association habits have been conducted in considerable number by other psychologists. A few experiments in special school functions have also been carried out. The results obtained from the experiments in those different lines, although confusing and sometimes contradictory, seem to warrant the belief that the old idea of a vast transfer, in some subtle and unexplained way, of special improvements to a general faculty, is false. It may be summed up by saying that the weight of evidence is all against formal discipline. The experimental evidence is against the idea that the faculties or powers of the mind can be trained like muscles so that the strengthening of these powers will automatically insure a high degree of efficiency in new and unrelated material or activities.

What Is Risk? (Report)

1Introduction 2What is risk? 2. 1Material world and risk 2. 2Case study 1: allotment 2. 3Case study 2: sun exposure 2. 4Risk society and Ulrich Beck (1992) 3Understanding and knowledge 3. 1Geoffrey Rose (1850) 3. 2Epidemiology 3. 3Uncle Norman and last person 5Conclusion 6References Title: Risk and understanding through expert knowledge and lay dispute Introduction This report will look at how modern society is a risk society, how expert knowledge is used to understand risk and how lay people respond. Case studies will be used to show how expert knowledge on understanding and managing risk is communicated.These will show how the lay person disputes risks and make decisions without following the expert knowledge. The work of sociologists of Geoffrey Rose (1850) and Charlie Davison and colleagues (1991) is used to show how the lay person disputes expert knowledge by using their own everyday knowledge and experience. What is risk? 2. 1 Material world and risk In modern society we live i n a material world that now provides us with material goods which previous societies didn’t have. However these new material goods can bring us benefits but also can bring us risks.Putting yourself, or something, at risk is putting yourself in a possible situation which would have a negative outcome. Thompson et al. did a study in 1989 on cyclists who wanted to try to manage the risk of a head injury by wearing a helmet while cycling. The results showed an 85% decrease in the risk of a head injury if a helmet was worn. However, research by Walker (2006) concluded that if a car was to overtake a cyclist wearing a helmet, they would drive closer. Using this expert knowledge some people may chose to not wear a helmet to keep divers at bay even though with a crash the risk of a head injury would be higher. . 2 Case study: allotment In 2003 Tim Jordan and his family had an allotment in Hackney in which they thought the soil was safe. Eighteen months after getting the allotment the ir local authority, sent them a letter telling them the soil was poisoned with arsenic and lead. The test used by the council measured the total amount of poison in the soil using soil plugs. These samples were sent to a laboratory where the level of poison was compared to ‘soil guidance values’ (Exploring Social Lives, 2009 p. 54). This was a well established tests scientists used to develop their expert knowledge about soil and poisons.The soil was then tested in a different way with a PBET (physiologically based extraction test). The basis of this test was to measure the level of poison in the soil that would enter the human body. The test tries to create a situation of the soil passing through the human digestive system of a two year old. This test showed that the level of poison in the soil was less then the earlier test. Both tests gave the public information about the level of poison and therefore the level of risk in gardening on that soil. But each test gave th e lay person different information making it difficult for them to be certain about the risk.This case study shows that expert knowledge if not always consistent. 2. 3 Case study 2: sun exposure The sun exposure case study concentrates on Glaswegians attitude towards sun exposure whilst knowing the risks. Simon Carter conducts research on the attitude towards sun exposure drawn from interviews and focus groups of tourists between ages 20 – 35 who regularly travel abroad. This research found that those involved were aware of health advice on how to protect themselves from the dangers of sun exposure and why. Glaswegians find going on holiday without a pre-holiday tan as embarrassing.The Glaswegian term ‘peely-wally’ is used to describe people who are pale ‘When you’re away and the sunglasses and white legs come out I’m ashamed to be Scottish †¦ it’s like if you see a group of peely-wally people then they are Scottish. ’ (Expl oring Social Lives, 2009 p. 75) Even though these people knew about the risks of sun exposure they decided not to follow the advise to decrease the risk of damaging themselves due to the idea of looking healthy with a tan. This is an example of expert knowledge being disputed by the lay public because getting brown and having a tan was more important than the risk of illness in the future. . 4 Risk Society and Ulrich Beck In 1986 reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power complex exploded and released radiation causing 28 deaths and left 200 people sick with radiation (Spivak 1992). As radioactive material is invisible to the human eye, it was a challenge for humans to know exactly where had been affected. This meant the public who lived in the ‘fallout’ zone to the radiation became reliant on the expert knowledge of the risk they were faced, ‘open to a social process of definition’ (Beck, 1989, p. 88). Beck defined ‘risk society’ (Expl oring Social Lives, 2009, p. 0) to describe the social impact of risk and showed how the complex risks in society needed expert knowledge to explain them. Understanding and knowledge of risk 3. 1 Epidemiology Epidemiology is a way of understanding how illness and disease is transferred across populations by tracing how the infections move across countries. Epidemiology has also been used in understanding risk when experts have used data to work out the probability (chance) of a risk happening. Doll and Hill (1950) showed that a high percentage of people who smoked had lung cancer and so they argued that smoking was a risk.This expert knowledge is based on understanding a pattern rather than the cause of lung cancer. 3. 2 Geoffrey Rose (1850) Epidemiological research is always carried out on a whole group of people but when the risks are communicated they are aimed at the individual. Prevention paradox was defined by Geoffrey Rose (1850). It describes the situation where the solution to prevent a risk will offer the community benefit that may not apply to each individual. Rose describes it best by saying that the ‘measure that brings large benefits to the community offers little to each participating individual’ (Rose, 1891, p. 850). Rose uses vaccinations to describe prevention paradox. Not every child will suffer from the illnesses prevented by vaccinations however every child will have a vaccination in order to prevent the one child that would need it. ‘599 â€Å"wasted† immunisations for the one that was effective’ (Rose, 1981, p. 1850). 3. 3 Lay dispute of risk Davison et al. found that people in every day life talked about health and illness. They knew people who had followed all the health advice and still became sick and died and other people who had not followed any of the advice and had no negative effects.This results in a type of lay epidemiology through which people dispute the expert knowledge and reinforce the exp erience of individuals in their everyday life. 4. Conclusion As society has become more complex and the public have more choices of consumer goods and services that there are risk as well as benefits in these. Many of these risks are complicated to understand and so need experts to study and explain them. This has led to the risk society where expert knowledge is used to help the lay public understand the risks facing them everyday.There is evidence that the lay public disputes the expert knowledge and makes decisions not to follow advice, such as using sun protection. This is partly because expert knowledge can be contradictory with different studies showing different risks but also because the expert knowledge does not always match the individuals experience. 1295 Words Beck, U. (1989) ‘On the way to the industrial risk-society? Outline of an argument’, Thesis Eleven, vol. 23, pp. 86-103 Bromley, S. Clarke, J. Hinchliffe, S. Taylor, S (2009) ‘Exploring Social Li ves’ Carter, S. and Jordan, T. Chapter 2 Living with risk and risky living’, Open University, Milton Keynes. Carter, S. (1997) ‘Who wants to be a â€Å"peelie wally’’? Glaswegian tourists’ attitudes to sun tans and sun exposure’ in Clift, S. and Grabowski, P. (eds) Tourism and Health: Risks, Responses and Research, London, Pinter. Rose, G. (1981) ‘Strategy of prevention: lessons from cardiovascular disease’, British Medical Journal, vol. 282, pp. 1847-53 Walker, I. (2006) ‘Drivers overtaking bicyclists’ [online], http://drainwalker. com/overtaking/overtakingprobrief. pdf (Accessed 14 April 2009)

“Go Home!” Orbit the thrills of Baseball

Baseball – one of the most enticing games aired on television or even watched on an arena (Thomas & Hall, 2004). What could have been the thrills and the grills being offered by such game that it has continuously captured the hearts and the beats of those who have the â€Å"it† on sports? What makes it distinctive from other sport? Why not chose indoor games for efficient viewing and playing? Why do players risk their lives over the sturdiness of the bat and that round piece of hard material? Which is most likely to give them scars and hit them in the most fragile part?And most of all – what’s with going â€Å"home†, that all seem to fasten their seatbelt for every player which takes the run for that square realm (Young, 2007)? The answer is sought between the lines of the art and the adventure of the game mixed with a feeling of hysteria taking the audience to a whole new dimension called ‘adrenalin rush’. Why do we love baseball? It i s quite rigid to put into words the perfect and precise definition of a certain sport which caters almost the entirety of a fan.An individual’s fondness of such sport is considerably taken to be like an addiction which tends to make one forget the atmosphere a person is on to given the fact that according to psychological explanations, an individual’s enthusiasm for a certain material, event or person, creates a stable visual image which apt to trigger the person’s cognitive side making one’s self have the feeling of attachment to the one being idolized (Formosa & Hamburger, 2006).Being a player, and being a member Branch Rickey, a baseball almanac feature icon (Young, 2007), once stated a conducive line with regards to baseball stating that it is only in the field of baseball sphere that a player is able to fulfill its essence of individualism at the initial part, and a team player after playing across the line of the rules as well as with the gameâ€⠄¢s spirit.Further, baseball analysts found the game the sole representation of the simplicity of sports, and that is for a player to only follow the rules. Unlike all the other complicated sport which has been established, baseball is the only sport by which argumentative perspectives are not given credit onto, for the reason that the life of the game lie on the ‘calls’ of the umpire and the guidelines of such (Formosa & Hamburger, 2006).Baseball tools as armors in the game There are four basic tools considered in the game that would be the component of the bat, ball, mitt and the field which requires every player for the familiarity of each item. Considered as an offensive tool, the bat, which is usually made of aluminum or of wood, actually dependent on the certain game, is characterized as a stick particularly with a diameter of 2 inches exception of its handle ranging about 1 inch in length.The ‘runner’s fear’ when inside the field, the ball, us ually in a size like of that of an average man’s fist conceivably colored in white with red stitches (Formosa & Hamburger, 2006). Furthermore, the glove, which is described in modern idiom as that of a baker’s, deemed as a defensive tool which is ended through leather intended for the â€Å"fielders† to catch the ball and â€Å"hit† on home-running opponents. And finally, the filed, the immortal â€Å"diamond† catering four â€Å"bases† or â€Å"plates†, guarded and sought by players.The considered â€Å"guards† of each ‘diamond’ inside the ‘diamond’ are called â€Å"infielders† while those outside the boundaries of the diamond are called â€Å"outfielders† (Thomas & Hall, 2004). Must-know as a player This adrenalin-rushing roller coaster ride game is played by two teams, taking turns as the â€Å"offensive† and â€Å"defensive† party. Each team are to aim for â€Å"runsâ⠂¬ , with 9 or 10 players shifting turns, as they strive to complete counter-clockwise tour in the four bases (Young, 2007).But one must take note of the risk in the mentioned tour, it does not only require one â€Å"mere walking†, there will be â€Å"opponents† whose only goal is to catch the ball â€Å"hit† by the â€Å"batter† and hit it on bases, or either pass on the the â€Å"pitcher†, defined as the â€Å"king of the defensive team†, for the reason that, he must see to it that the ball is aimed to their team’s â€Å"catcher† situated behind the opponent’s â€Å"batter† so as to call for a â€Å"strike†. The dreadful â€Å"strike†, takes a â€Å"batter† get a chance to get a gist for a homerun and thus after 3 â€Å"strikes† shall be considered â€Å"OUT† and won’t be able to make that tour in the diamond.Like all the other sport, there are also certain techniques l aid on the table so as to prevent from getting â€Å"strikes† or getting â€Å"it† by â€Å"fielders†. Modus operandi on baseball A popular technique for offensive players, specifically the batter, is to trick the pitcher from where the bat is lined to, so as to get a full blast of the hit. For fielders, waiting for a run however, since that they are given the chance to leave the â€Å"base† if the ball is released, may trick the opponent to make-believe that they are about to run, thus confuse the fielders on which base to are to settle (Staff, 2005).Regardless of how complicated the web of techniques baseball has to offer, a player only needs to remember one thing, and that is to go for a homerun without getting caught in between. On the contrary, the defensive team, being on the crucial side of the â€Å"inning† may as well send implicit collaborated messages, through the pitcher and the fielders, most especially the catcher, so as to hit the ba ll to the â€Å"active† opponent positioned on the plates. Don’t let the batter go for a tourFive common ways to out an offensive player are as follows: strike-out (3 strikes, so the batter won’t be a runner), ground-out (batter hits the ball, but pitcher gets the ball right after it is hit), force-out (when a runner tries to steal an advance run to the next base and the fielder catches the ball before the runner steps on the plate), fly-out (a fielder catches the ball after it had been hit) and tag-out (fielder touches a runner with a held ball).There are various methods in order to click on the game and win it all actually depends on each player’s wit in playing and team-spirit without selfish credence (Cramer & Stout, 2004; Young, 2007). Conclusion The only effective and practical secret on to winning the game is through following the rules and loving the game.Individual skills are indeed important to reach the height of success, but what takes much in the spirit of the match is not on what one will gain over one’s effort, sometimes, the most important part of it isn’t the victory garnered in fame or in price, but the experience and the moment shared with all the other members who fulfilled the joy of the team (Young, 2007), and most persistently, it’s completing baseball fanatics’ dream of taking an exhilarating fun ride watching their stars making homeruns.So, fasten your seatbelts, prepare your yells, it’s all you need to stay alive while experiencing the thrill of a baseball game. References: Cramer, R. B. , & Stout, G. (2004). The Best American Sports Writing 2004 (Reprint ed. ). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Formosa, D. , & Hamburger, P. (2006). Baseball Field Guide: An In-Depth Illustrated Guide to the Complete Rules of Baseball. New York: Thunder's Mouth PressStaff, S. P. I. (2005). The unwritten rules of sports — in writing (Publication. Retrieved July 11, 2007, from seattl epi. com: http://seattlepi. nwsource. com/othersports/207552_unwrittenrules12. html Thomas, K. , & Hall, G. (2004). How Baseball Works. Toronto CA: Maple Tree Press. Young, G. (2007). Baseball Almanac (Publication. Retrieved July 11, 2007, from Hosting 4 Less: http://www. baseball-almanac. com/index. shtml

History the world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

History the world - Essay Example The early human communities were dependent on the nature for food as they were hunters and gatherers. The early settlements were sparse as compared to the new age due to numerous hunters present, and the game would not suffice. In addition, they would fish for their food along water bodies within their proximity. Their tools were of basic materials such as rocks and wood. They also acquired a language through which they would communicate, and developed the ability to use it in order to pass on what they had learnt. The early cultures were vulnerable to wild beasts and natural disasters, which may have developed enormous fear of the unknown forces of nature, these uncertainties of human life established religious beliefs and practices in an effort to preserve themselves from the unknown forces (The birth of civilisation 2). As the clock turned, the early man’s tools grew more complex and advance, and were more precise. These advancements lead to domestication of plants and animals, meaning that people could move to areas where these plants and animals did not naturally occur. The communities explored other areas such as valleys and riverbeds allowing their expansion and creating room for more advancement. The farmers also built dwellings that are more permanent in an effort to care for their crops from the planting season to harvesting. Along the riverbeds, pottery was acquired, illustrating the beginning of specialisation. Communities can be distinguished from each other owing to the level of social complexity and organisation, as well as their vast economic and cultural activities. For instance, the earliest of civilisations in Mesopotamia would use rivers for irrigation in the fields, which was not observed in other regions. This ensured sufficient food production for the community who would engage in other