Extract from one of the posted Model Answers:

1) Pour qu’on ne puisse abuser du pouvoir, il faut que , par la desposition des choses, le pouvoir arrete le pouvoir. Montesquieu argue that this may be achieved in De L’esprit des Lois. By what means does Montesquieu suggest a moderate may be ensured l’esprit des lois.

The epigraph for the Spirit of the Law is taken from the Metamorphoses of the ancient Roman poet Ovid: “An offspring created without a mother” (2.553). Montesquieu understands his work as offering a creative or original approach to both longstanding and novel problems of politics. His political science thus harnesses the new natural science of the Enlightenment to address despotism, which he deems mankind's fundamental problem in older and newer times and in every land. One of his novel means for overcoming this enduring obstacle to human civilization and liberty, thus providing for mankind's needs and wants in a humane way, is a powerful but disguised judiciary which can change both the manner and structure of political life for any people or government. The best, most humane kind of government will be one most imbued, though still imperceptibly, by a judge's concern with due process and protecting individual security.

Throughout this examination of Montesquieu’s judging power recourse will be had to one of the “principles” of his work - principles which, he claims, explain “the histories of all nations” (Preface, 229, xliii). This is moderation, by which he means a balance, or equilibrium, which avoids extremes, and it is the fundamental principle of Montesquieu's new political science. One of its particular forms is a doctrine of constitutionalism for which he is justly famous, since in its application to human beings and politics Montesquieu's moderation takes the form of separation of powers. This principle of balance or equilibrium deeply informs his noted study of the constitution of England: “it is an everlasting experience that any man who has power is led to abuse it; he continues until he finds limits … So that one cannot abuse power, it is necessary that, by the disposition of things, power check power" (XI.4, 395, 155). Montesquieu's more general and fundamental formulation of the principle of moderation, however, is the understanding of esprit (spirit) which informs the work's title, namely a Newtonian equilibrium achieved in the relations between bodies in motion (inanimate and animate). This is clearly evident in Montesquieu's notion of the “principle of each [type of] government:" the right "relation between the laws and the principle strains all the springs of the government; and the principle receives, in its turn, a new force. It is in the same way as, in physical motion, an action is always followed by a reaction” (V.1, 273, 42).

In the final analysis it is apparent that if the core idea of The Spirit of the Law is the humane provision of liberty and the overcoming of despotism in its obvious modes, the specific problem is how to do so while also moderating the despotic aims of both classical republicanism and Christian faith. As evidenced in the quoted phrase, Montesquieu's diagnosis calls for an equilibrium or balancing of all the passions and forces in political life, and he offers a judicialized constitutionalism as the crucial remedy for these problems. His notion of equilibrium or moderation thus defines these problems of politics and judging as the crucial solution. This science of the laws of equilibrium of both natural and political forces is one of the initial, outer layers of Montesquieu's teaching in The Spirit of the Laws.
 

Extract from the Posted Argumentative Essay: Within the context of the larger global ad national legal environments in which they operate, corporations have their own set of regulatory and legal policies. These are designed to simultaneously ensure employee adherence to national/international law and the protection/promotion of the company’s best interest. More often than not, the two coincide, not only because employee legal infringements adversely impact upon a company’s public image but because the violation of laws from within the organization, even if they are the independent action of single employees, places companies in questionable legal positions. It is, thus, in this age of office automation and the electronic exchange of information, that company policies are geared, among other things, towards abidance by copyright laws, intellectual property rights and data ownership and privacy laws.

Extracted from the Posted Brand Management Research: In an age of globalisation, global brands have penetrated into practically every corner of the earth, every country and neighbourhood within. McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, to name but three examples, may be described as home-grown American brands, founded upon American lifestyles and national food tastes, which have internationalised and achieved a transnational identity. As globally popular as these brands, and numerous others, are, and despite the fact that most of their sales and profits are generated outside of their home markets, there are challenges to their penetration into, and later retention of, foreign markets. Following a definition of the report’s key terms, a review of brand management literature, this report will identify those challenges and forward a set of recommendations for their amelioration.

Extract from the Posted Critique: As a classically trained dancer, my initial reaction to the possibility of my performing a modern dance piece will be uncertainty. Modern dance is vibrant and full of vitality. The energy which the dancers exude is breathtaking. Even as, in their overwhelming energy, their movements appear chaotic and haphazard, they are extremely disciplined and minutely choreographed. Modern dance performers communicate strength and power while the classical dancer conceals her strength behind a veneer of daintiness and fragility. Indeed, not only are our movements different but so are our on-stage attitudes and the relationship which we consciously forge with our audiences. While there are points of similarity between the two forms of dance, there are definite and inarguable differences, as I shall now try to explain in reference to Giselle and Esplanade.

Abstract from the posted Research: Multinational corporations are, arguably, the purveyors of globalisation, its initiators and primary beneficiaries. Insofar as it has facilitated the movement of goods and services across national borders and removed much of the barriers to foreign direct investment, globalisation has allowed corporations the opportunity to internationalise. While conceding to the fact that internationalisation is a risky endeavour, international business theory has proposed a number of risk-minimising strategies and a set of recommendations for the constructive exploitation of globalisation for the purposes of profit maximisation. Needless to say, while some corporations have successfully implemented these recommendations and have substantially expanded their markets and financial returns as a result, others have not. This research looks at one of the corporations which has successfully reaped the rewards of globalisation: Coca-Cola. Drawing on international business theory, the study engages in a critical analysis of Coca-Cola’s external and internal environments for the purposes of shedding light on its corporate strategy and the uncovering the determinants of its success. The analyses, which utilise Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT and PEST, indicates that Coca Cola’s success is a direct outcome of an internationalisation strategy which is deeply considerate of the particularities and peculiarities of the various national markets within which it operates.

Extract from posted Marketing Case Study: Migros is Switzerland’s leading retailer and has occupied that position for decades but, as it is operating within a highly competitive market and against major national and regional players, the maintenance of its leadership position is both a challenge and a problem. Its primary national competitor, Coop, operates alongside the same market philosophy as does Migros and has as much credibility. While Migros dominates Coop insofar as prices are concerned, the latter is more adept at the exploitation of aggressive promotional strategies as which allow it to retain its status as a tough competitor despite price differentials. As regards its regional competitors, Carrefour is currently Migros’ biggest threat. By 2005 it was operating 12 mega, or hyper-markets in Switzerland, with net sales totalling € 402 million. Added to that, there is significant incoming competition from Germany’s leading retailers, Aldi and Lidl, who announced their intention to expand into the Swiss market. The implication here is that both present and prospective competition are expanding and intensifying, with it being incumbent of Migros to design a strategic marketing plan, based on a careful and critical study of the market situation and environment, should it want to retain its leadership position in the Swiss retail market.

The intent of this report is to draw on strategic marketing and communications theory for the design of a marketing plan as would allow, or enable, Migros to maintain its leadership position in the Swiss retail market.
 

Extract from one of the Model Political Sociology Exam Questions: 

Why has France found the integration of immigration so difficult?
French universalism as a strategy for multiethnic and multicultural assimilation may have proven a successful approach to the immigration of immigrants in the past. With specific reference to the North African immigrants and to the post-colonial waves of immigration which struck France from the 1960s onwards, it proved a failure. The question, therefore, is not just why France found the assimilation of immigrants difficult but more to the point, why it faced such consternation and difficulties in its bid to assimilate this group. In order to answer this question, the politicization of difference since 1981 must be explored and explained.

The fact that North Africans brig with them a non-European culture and religion explains very little. Rather some explain the crisis of French universalism as a result of the failure of the institutions of modern society to socialize citizens in the fashion required by the republicanism of the Third Republic. According to this logic, the contemporary inefficacy of state education, secularism in the public sphere, trade unions, political parties, the army, and other state apparatus, not to mention marriage and the family, to achieve the requisite equality and socialization of citizens, has opened the floodgates for new methods of identity construction.

Without the structuring devices of the state, labor, and the family, the citizen is left to his own devices, forced to search out surrogate means of self-definition in a deinstitionalized landscape of citizen formation. Within the context of the stated, cultural and religious difference, in the form of postmodern tribalization, has become the chief strategy for identity creation. in an era of deinstitutionalized citizen formation. Indeed, individuals find themselves trapped in multiple definitions of identity; they are defined in terms of familial belonging, social network membership, communal identity and associative group memberships, among others. These myriad of identities instil a feeling of belonging within the individual but belonging here is on a communal, social group, rather than a national level. Within the context of the stated, there is hardly a stimulus for national integration and the adoption of a national identity. As such, immigrants find themselves in a position where they are, in essence, without national identity due to the failure of assimilation.

The assumption of a national identity is inextricably linked to effective and successful assimilation. Similarly, assimilation is ultimately predicated on the immigrant’s acceptance of the national identity and on his redefining himself for greater affiliation with the majority group. Universalism, multiculturalism dissuade against this as they founded upon the legitimacy of defining oneself in opposition to others and, indeed, in flaunting differences. Within the context of the stated, differences override similarities and the very motivation to highlight similarities or work towards achieving them is absent. This is precisely why assimilation has proven difficult.
 

Extract from the posted case: In regard to the statement taken from Ms. Mason, I understand that she had engaged herself with Supercar Traders Co. to purchase a car, model Fonda hatchback and to do so she agreed for a loan from Rich Finance plc, which she went under a hire-purchase agreement.

In advising you about this matter, I would like to lay down the remedies available for Ms. Mason against the both parties, namely Rich Finance plc. And Supercar Traders Co. Allow me first to explain remedies available against Rich Finance plc.

Based on document 2, reveals that, Ms. Mason had purchased her car on hire-purchase term, on agreement which regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Even though it is regulated by Consumer Credit Act 1974 (hereinafter referred as ‘CCA’ 1974), but this agreement or transaction is governed by Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973.

According to LB (Urzon) in his Law dictionary, hire purchase agreement is the agreement other than a conditional sale agreement under which goods are bailed in return for periodical payments by the bailee and the property in the goods passes to the bailee, if the terms of the agreement are complied with and the bailee exercise his option to purchase or some other specified event occurs, Helby v Mathews (1895).

Now I would like to look into the possible remedies when is available for Ms. Mason. It will be appropriate, if I could lay down the defects on the purchased car before I go on with my explanation about the remedies available.

Here on document 1, it is evident that, the car was a bit grubby and after a washing Ms. Mason saw some scratches on a point work and besides all this she notified that there was no radio when Mr. Evans deliver the car to Ms. Mason house. Furthermore there was a leakage in the car.

Here I would like to merge the defects of grubby and scratches on the car. We should understand that, we Ms. Mason purchased the car there was a implied condition applied to her purchase that is, Supply of Goods (Implied Terms) Act 1973, Section 10, more accurately Section 10(2B), where it provides that, the goods will be on satisfactory quality.

The main aspect to be considered here is Ms. Mason’s expectations of buying a new Fonda car. It is appropriate to consider few cases before we could answer what could be her expectation. In Roger v Parish (1987) the Court of Appeal is on the view that, any buyer of a new car will not only expect the car to function properly but also for them to ‘look good’.
 

Extract from the posted Term Paper: Adult education, also referred to as continued learning, refers to the enrolment of adults in formal instructional and educational programs for the explicit purpose of betterment through the expansion of their available career options and opportunities, among others (DeWitt, 2003; Manning, 2003). Popularly regarded as a voluntary form of education, researchers contend the perception to be erroneous insofar as it is often imposed on adults by a variety of imperatives, encompassing both personal and professional factors.

The reasons which motivate adult learning are as varied as are the adult learners themselves and, accordingly, impossible to enumerate or identity in their entirety. Indeed, Keenan (2002) concedes to as much upon noting that a large array of factors incites adult learning, even as he fails to precisely articulate them. Instead, and while admitting to the import of understanding that which makes adults enrol in continuing learning programs, Keenan (2002) determines the identification of the characteristics of adult learners to be as important and, possibly, a more attainable objective than the former.
 

Extract from the posted Research Paper: The English language has never been able to find peace with its imperfections and “from the earliest times . . . was naturally the language of protest and dissent” (McCrum 44). It was especially during the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries when dissatisfaction with the current condition of the language and concern for its future developments raised the distress bar very high. The language was described as “barbarous” (Monboddo, in Congleton 20), “corrupted” (Congleton 30), “unruly,” and “unrefined” (Crystal 72).

Even though from the early ages, most scholars recognized that no language is immune to changes, the speed at which the English language was changing in the seventeenth century was unprecedented (Crystal 72-73), and it perturbed scholars and writers alike. The influx of neologisms and borrowings from other languages, especially from French, was not welcome. Many believed that the English language was “copious enough and ought to be protected against chance and novelty” (Mencken, in Congleton 68). Especially such men of letters as Swift and Dryden, who hoped to “have a Chance for Immortality” (Swift, qtd. in Crystal 73), expressed deep concerns that without proper regulation and direction, the English language “is in a manner barbarous” (Dryden, qtd. In Bryson 138).
 

Extract from posted Essay: Researchers and IT specialists appear to have reached consensus on one point: while Information Technology in all its manifestations is a critical component of business success, it remains the Achilles’ heel of most corporate entities (Gold, 2001; Rhode-Ousley, Bragg and Strassberg, 2003; Chen, Thompson and Elder, 2005). Information technologies invaluably contribute to an organization’s capacity for effective, near-instantaneous, intra- and extra- organizational communication; enables the organization and storage of data for retrieval upon request; and facilitates multiple business processes by automating many of the steps therein. The mentioned contributions, however, are not exhaustive and are only intended to demonstrate the extent to which IT has become an integral part of corporate life and the business process. At the same time, however, IT functions as an organization’s primary area of vulnerability as it is through their malicious use that attackers can infest an organization’s system with viruses, worms, spyware and countless other types of malware (Gold, 2001; Rhode-Ousley, Bragg and Strassberg, 2003; Chen, Thompson and Elder, 2005). In light of dependency versus vulnerability, therefore, it is incumbent upon organization’s and business entities to institute such protections as would shield the entity from such attacks. Sometimes, however, whether intentional or unintentional, the attack may come from within.

Extract from posted Research Memo:

Memo
To: Keith Olberman, MSNBC Anchorman
From: xxx xxxx
Date: 04/23/2007
Re: Iraq: Phased wthdrawal
Following eight hours of extensive research, I am in a position to inform you that there is overwhelming evidence for the imperatives of immediately implementing a plan for the phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. These arguments revolve around all of economic, political and national security considerations. They are further guided by the increasing exigencies of mending US foreign relations.
 

Extract from posted Essay: The insanity defence directly speaks to mens rea because its primary focus is the mental capacity or intent of the perpetrator upon the commission of the offense. In other words, as determination of criminal culpability is inextricably linked to intent and, importantly, awareness, a guilty finding is predicated on the establishment of intent and awareness, on mens rea. Within its legal context, insanity specifically focuses on mens rea or intentional and mental capacity. As regards the stated, there are three approaches to the insanity defence, all of which may be defined as standards. These are the M’Naughten, Durham, and ALI defences/standards/models. Following a brief comparative definition and discussion of each, this essay will argue in favour of ALI as the better of the three models.

Abstract from posted Undergraduate, Information Systems Security, Dissertation:  Within the context of IP networks, network layer protocols tend towards the assumption that routers can be trusted. Certainly, they do acknowledge that some routers can become adversarial but, other than that, the tendency is towards, often unwarranted, trust. The fact is, however, that routers are vulnerable to unauthorised infiltration and can, under these circumstances, be compromise. If routers are compromised by an attacker, the attacker/hacker is subsequently in a position to disrupt network operations, compromise data and inflict substantial financial loss on the entity/network in question. In other words, by compromising routers, attackers can inflict substantial, wide-ranging harms upon an organisation. It is, thus, that routers functions as attractive targets, upon which hackers routinely wreak their subversive efforts.

Given the ever-increasing number of operational routers which have been compromised, the imperatives of securitizing networks can hardly be overestimated. As important, however, is ensuring that networks remain operational and data transmission is secure even within the context of an adversarial operational environment. Indeed, ensuring that networks remain available despite adversary presence is the focus of considerable research attention because it implies the capacity not only to detect but to recover from the failures inflicted by adversaries.

This report reviews the research literature on the identified problem. Following a detailed overview of this multidimensional problem, the report concludes with a series of practical recommendations.
 

Extract from posted Essay: There are a variety of both commercial and public domain intrusion detection systems, most of which use misuse detection. As Ilgun, Kemmer and Porras (1995) explain, they depends on a set of rules that define different types of known intrusion signatures. When the conditions of a rule are met, they generate an alert indicating that it has detected an intrusion. Concurring, Skoudis (2002) argues that maintaining and updating these rules and responding to alerts are ongoing and time-consuming tasks, and if the rules become out of date, then the intrusion detection system becomes increasingly less effective. In addition to maintaining the rules, someone must respond to the alerts. Sometimes signatures may also match valid activity, meaning that responding to alerts first requires determining whether the alert is the result of an intrusion or unexpected, but valid, system activity. All of these require highly trained personnel to carry out (Skoudis, 2002). The implication here is, and as our company’s ICT director confirmed, that current intrusion detection systems are somewhat limited in capacity. This does not mean that current intrusion systems are not effective but only they are not as effective as required. Within the context of the stated, it is commonly held that anomaly detection will ultimately prove more valuable and robust because it has the potential to identify previously unknown intrusions or attacks. It is, thus, that the corporation is currently investigating the implementation of honeypots.

Extract from posted Essay: Researchers agree that current security technologies, while largely effective, have inbuilt limitations. These limitations can be exploited by hackers and used as a entry point into the system in question (Ilgun, Kemmer and Porras, 1995; Skoudis, 2002). Conceding to the validity of the aforementioned, our company’s ICT director mentioned that it was precisely because current intrusion detection systems are somewhat limited in capacity, that that department was investigating the parallel implementation of an anomaly detection system. Honeypots, a form of anomaly detection systems, have been identified by ICT professionals and scholars as extremely robust and potentially valuable because of their capacity to identify previously unknown intrusions or attacks. Even though the research literature is largely supportive of the implementation of honeypots as a supportive, rather than stand-alone, security system, our ICT director asserted that decisions should be based on a cost-benefit analysis. This is precisely what this paper will seek to do. Following a definition of honeypots, their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed in relation to our company’s needs to determine the efficacy of their implementation.

Extract from posted Essay: Security, as in physical and network security, issues are among the most important confronting our organization at the present time. The current security system, primarily reliant on ID badges and password protected networks, is effective but not efficient. It is effective in the sense that without the requisite security clearances and the appropriate ID badges, employees cannot access certain areas of the network nor, indeed, of the building itself. It is inefficient, however, because it is an extremely bureaucratic and time-consuming system. Issuance of ID cards and the assignment of passwords is time-consuming and the movement from one security clearance level to another, is problematic. From the perspective of employees, the present identification and authentication system is quite backwards and frustrating. More importantly, it has the potential to impose delays upon task completion. It is because of the stated that the Director of Corporate Security and the Director of the ICT unit are jointly investigating an alternative security system.

Extract from the posted Essay: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” contains a wealth of meaning, communicated through various interconnected and somewhat complex themes. At the centre of the story supposedly stands Miss Emily but beyond that the Old South. Indeed, in this story about the interaction between the past and the present, human loneliness and isolation, the search for love and companionship, the escape from the present and the truth, and death versus life, the true protagonist is the Old South, personified in Miss Emily. It is tenaciously and persistently present throughout “A Rose for Emily,” and stubbornly resists being swept away or cast aside by the New South. Miss Emily is the personification of the Old South and emerges as a tragic figure, largely because of her inability to interact with the present or to confront reality. The past versus the present is the story of Miss Emily’s life and, as shall be argued in this analysis, her hold on the past and her rejection of the present ultimately condemn her to a life of loneliness and culminate in psychological disorder.

Extract from posted Argumentative Essay: Ever since humans began living together in groups, deterrence occupied a place of singular importance as a strategy for the protection of the rights of group members. As Garland (2001) explains, deterrence strategies emerged as a natural and proactive response to the possibility of group members transgressing against group norms and, in so doing, harm the collectivity or members within. It supposedly discourages individuals from participating or engaging in crime/transgression against norms by clearly outlining the consequences of doing so. From this perspective, deterrence can be defined as a strategy for the safeguarding of the ethics system which a society/group has adopted and implemented. It is designed to ensure compliance with the ethics system in question, and the laws it has given rise to, through the threat of sanctions. While it has often been argued that the deterrence system will work if potential offenders are certain that severe sanctions will be imposed, increase in crime and the associate expansion of prison populations is a clear indication that deterrence does not work.

Abstract from posted Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Essay: Food labelling is mandatory in most countries and is rationalised by the consumers’ right to know, on the one hand, and health and dietary reasons, on the other. For the purposes of determining whether or not consumers read and understand food labels, the researchers conducted a survey in which 54 respondents participated. The survey, in addition to the literature reviewed in this study, suggest that the majority of consumers do not read food labels most of the time.

Extract from posted Research: The commission of violent crime by adolescents in this country is a significant problem. Overall reported violent crime statistics decreased for the year 2002 by 1.4 percent from the previously reported figures of 2001 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2001, 2002). The downward trend of reported violent crimes in recent years, however, indicates that this decrease does not equally apply to all domains of violent crime. Reports of both murder and forcible rape have maintained a steady increase since 1999, according to the most recent Uniform Crime Report (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2002). For this reason, the need for research focusing on violent crime and predictors that can be targeted for early intervention are needed.

An increase in adolescent violence is an alarming trend that seems to be occurring as well. The United States far exceeds other industrialized nations in its level of violence (Snyder & Sickmund, 1999). Violent crime arrest rates as committed by juveniles in the United States are twice that of those committed by youth in Canada (Kashani, et al., 1999). Indeed, In recent times, there have been numerous instances where seemingly well adjusted adolescents have acted out violently against others. Most prominently have been school massacres such as Jonesboro and Columbine, which have brought increased attention to the struggle that schools are undertaking to keep their students safe from violence. Within the past decade there have been numerous cases in which children younger than 18 were responsible for the killings of multiple victims within school settings. Incidents of violence on and off school campuses have necessitated the examination of why young people are increasingly acting out violently. Even with the drop in overall crime, a persistent increase in juvenile violent crime has been observed. Murders and rapes committed by adolescents appear to be increasing, rather than decreasing, and as a consequence of this increase, the study of the precipitating factors to violent behavior is required.
 

Extract from posted Argumentative Essay: Affirmative action, an inherently ethical policy, is, paradoxically, a subject of ethical controversy. The intent of affirmative action is the elimination of discrimination against minority groups through the extension of educational and employment opportunities which would have otherwise been unavailable to them. As Gamliel explains, affirmative action aims towards the leveling of the playing field by extending minority group members opportunities which are typically only available to members of the hegemonic socio-economic and ethnic classes (685-86). It is, therefore, ethical because it intends to equalize between all, irrespective of ethnic, racial and gender group affiliation. Many disagree, however, and, as Howard points out, denounce affirmative action as discriminatory (16-17). Although the implementation of affirmative action may entail discrimination, it is justified in terms of its intent and outcomes.

Affirmative action entails a level of discrimination. As Howard explains, by the very nature of the quota system which it espouses, affirmative action means that some qualified job or college applicants may be overlooked in favor of less qualified ones, simply because the former are affiliated to the dominant socio-economic group while the latter to the less privileged groups (17-18). Added to that, Gray (29) and Baker (148) assert affirmative action to be further discriminatory because it assumes that minority group members need extra help in order to succeed and that they cannot do so on their own merits.
 

Entry from posted Annotated Bibliography:

Extract from posted Cultural Sociology Research Paper: Contemporary masculinity is, according to some, in crisis and, to others, in a state of redefinition and reformulation. The previous, or earlier, images of masculinity are somewhat outdated insofar as they placed tremendous emphasis upon the dominance of the male, the male as the breadwinner, the male as the unquestioned authority, and the male as the heterosexual. A critical and honest review of contemporary masculinity indicates that the male is no longer the primary breadwinner, is not necessarily heterosexual, is hardly the unquestioned authority and power-holder and is, within the context of Western societies, not necessarily dominant. It is, thus, that images of masculinity and the implications of the concept are a topic of debate and academic research, questioning and exploration. Despite the stated, however, there remains a persistent tendency towards the maintenance of earlier images of hegemonic masculinity. Indeed, a review of Connell’s notion of hegemonic masculinity will reveal the extent to which contemporary images of masculinity are being overtly countered and contested by the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Following a review of Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity, this essay will argue that Connell’s concept serves to shed invaluable light on the extent to which contemporary masculinity is experiencing crisis. This crisis, as briefly touched upon in the preceding, is a direct outcome of the dominant culture’s refusal to accept changing notions of masculinity and its determination to maintain the gender status quo.

Extract from posted Essay: Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures through Wonderland does not reinforce Victorian stereotypes about women. While some may, and have, interpreted it as projecting the Victorian ideal of girlhood, a critical reading of the narrative reinforces the argument that it rebels against that ideal. Alice is not the demure, pleasant and obedient ideal of Victorian girlhood which some, such as Auerbach have identified her as (p. 63). She is, more accurately, a rebellious spirit who rejects the Victorian world, as evidenced in her descent into fantasy, and engages in the continued questioning of the virtues of her day, as is clear from her argumentative spirit and her refusal to accept things at face-value. Indeed, as this essay will argue, Alice’s Adventures Through Wonderland rebel against, rather than reinforce and affirm, Victorian female stereotypes.

Extract from the posted Research Paper: Stereotypes are biased opinions which one group of people have towards another. The primary problem with stereotypes, however, lies in the fact that they do not project themselves as opinions but, instead, are presented as incontrovertible facts. Indeed, as Hinton (1993) maintains, “stereotyping can be seen as a more extreme form of typing where we see a whole group of people as homogeneous, with the same characteristics” (56). In general, stereotypes derive from behaviours which may be observed in one, or a few members, of a particular group by members of another group. Instead of presenting those behaviours as having been observed in a minority, they are projected as being particular to the entire group and, indeed, as being immutable social and psychological characteristics. Over time, people come to believe these stereotypes as literal representations of an undeniable reality and, accordingly, perceive of and treat members of the stereotyped group from within the confines of these biased opinions.

Extract from the Research Paper: Popular perceptions of what it means to be Indian, or Native American, has been shaped and reinforced by a variety of strategies, some of which have relied on the written word and others on imagery. Commerce, as the stereotyping of the other through corporate logos, brand images and advertising, has functioned as an important purveyor of American Indian stereotypes. Indeed, close to eight decades ago, Larson (1937) remarked on the phenomenon of the stereotyping of Native Americans through corporate logos, brand images and hence, advertisements. As Larson (1937, p. 338) apart from the patent medicine packages which featured the “coppery, feather-topped visage of the Indian” butter boxes depict the doe-eyed, buckskinclad Indian ``princess.’’ The American Indian, and that which popular culture has determined that he/she represent, has been exploited within the context of commerce and commercial advertising for close to a century with the purpose being the purveyance of specified messages regarding the company or the brand in question. Following an overview of the commercialisation of the American Indian image, two case studies of corporate/brand use, of the American Indian image shall be analysed.

Extract from the posted Essay: The creation and implementation of corporate policy frameworks is dependant on understanding the current state of information security practice, on the one hand, and the nature and extent of the organization’s use of information systems, on the other. Moreover, computer security programs must be aligned with the organization’s internal and external needs. The problem that this essay addresses derives from the aforementioned and is, simply stated, the strategy for the alignment of security program and projects to meet organizational needs, both internal and external.

Extract from posted Research Paper: There are few places where multiculturalism leaves itself more open to popular criticism than in the areas of gender and human rights. Indeed, multiculturalism is held responsible for legitimizing situations of domestic/private discrimination, such as husbands having more freedom of mobility than their wives, or daughters facing stricter rules around dating than their brothers. The question is frequently posed: which has more weight - the rights of cultural groups to retain patriarchal practices, or the rights of women to live in an equal society? While on the surface this question seems to lead to the obvious conclusion that multiculturalism enables gender discrimination by asserting the right to culture-based patriarchy, the issue is far more complex. The intent of this essay is to closely examine the extent to which gender discrimination in Canada is a consequence of state-sponsored multiculturalism. If multiculturalism is indeed responsible, as Susan Okin (1999) has claimed, for encouraging gender-based human rights abuses, then this situation could signal the end of multiculturalism policies. However, this essay will argue that Canadian multiculturalism is compatible with gender equality.

Extract from posted Marketing Case Study: Costa Coffee does not command the brand recognition and consumer market popularity which its primary rival, Starbucks, does. With specific reference to St. Andrews, Costa Coffee does not enjoy the visibility and popularity which Beanscene does. That being said, however, it is important to emphasise that Costa Coffee is popular in the area. It commands a loyal consumer base and is popular in the St. Andrews area. The introduction of its mobile coffee shops can expand Costa Coffee’s consumer base as it will bring the product to consumers and give them the option of enjoying it in their own environment. The efficient and effective branding of its mobile coffee shops can promote Costa Coffee’s popularity amongst its target consumer group, St. Andrews’ students, faculty and staff.

Sample entry from posted Annotated Bibliography:

Arner, Robert. “Kate Chopin’s Realism in `At the Cadian Ball’ and `The Storm’.” Markham Review, 2.2 (1970): 1-41.
Arner contends that Chopin was a realist and her two stories, “Cadian Ball” and “The Storm” are a study in realism. Arner supports this view through a close textual analysis of both stories. As regards “The Storm” he maintains realism to be primarily expressed in the illicit incident of adultery and both lovers’ expressions of feelings and emotions throughout. Within the context of the stated scene, Arner insists that Chopin let the two speaks and act for themselves, with hardly any noticeable authorial intervention. While the article contains valuable insights into “The Storm,” Arner’s persistent interpretation of the story solely through the lens of realism detracts from it, because it disallows the interpretation of its symbolic meaning. Within the context of the stated, the act of adultery is just an illicit sexual encounter and not one woman’s symbolic defiance of society’s shackles.
 

Extract from posted Extended Essay: Antigone presents us with the trials and tribulations of one of Oedipus's daughters as she attempts to fulfil the obligations she feels towards the shattered remains of a family that are left to her. Her particular dilemma centers on her desire to provide her dead brother, Polyneices, with a proper burial even though this act contravenes an edict issued by the ruler, Creon, who also happens to be her uncle and the father of her fiancé. Antigone's conflict pits her yearning to honor her dead brother against her duty, as a citizen, to respect the laws of the state. Her conception of the good prioritizes her proposed actions in the service of her family honor above her civic responsibilities. She adamantly states to Creon that "I know that I please those whom I am most bound to please." (Line 89) While Antigone is not by nature a rebel or a troublemaker, she feels "most bound" by her obligations to pursue the happiness of her family members and places her obligations for the contentment of the custodians of the law below them. She believes that the responsibility to honor the blood ties of family has an importance that is unrivalled by other duties. Indeed, her refusal to obey the state, as represented in Creon’s edict, is a consequence of her perception of the state as having disobeyed the natural law, as put forth by the gods and as represented in blood ties. Within the context of the stated, Antigone is not engaged in the active redefinition of the role of the individual within the state but is withholding her obedience from a state which she perceives of as being in violation with a higher order of law.

Extract from the posted Research Paper: One thousand and four hundred years ago, Moslem Arabs from what is known today as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,, swept into, and overtook North Africa and the Levantine area. With seemingly little effort quickly conquered much of the nations we now identify as Arab countries. However, as Hitti (1943) writes in his analysis of the Islamic conquest, this particular event is not simply militarily or historically significant but, above all, is culturally and politically important. The Arab conquest of the North African and the Levantine countries was as much a cultural conquest as it was military one. Quite simply stated, the Arab conquest of the region gave birth to the Arab World, to the notion of Arab unity and to the Arab peoples themselves. It took a diverse group of people and gave them a common language, culture, religion and, over time, a common identity. It is, thus, that the Arab conquest of the region stands out as one of the most significant turning points in the history of the Middle East and, indeed, the roots of Arab Nationalism can be directly traced to it (Hitti, 1943). Arab nationalism, tracing its roots to the Moslem conquest of North Africa and the Levantine, has survived over the millennia due to a complex set of historical and political circumstances.

Extract from the posted Archeology Research Paper: Historical accounts, fortified by geological data, prove that in, or about, 79 A.D. Vesuvius erupted, destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii and buried it beneath mounds of volcanic dust, debris and molten lava. As explicated by the late archeological scholar and researcher, Professor Merrill, upon the eruption of Vesuvius Pompeii was “overwhelmed by a tremendous river of liquid mud, which appears to have penetrated and filled every nook and cranny of the place, and accumulated to a depth of sixty to seventy feet”(304). Consequent to this natural catastrophe, Pompeii all but disappeared. The hardening of the lava and mud made excavation of the city, until the evolution of scientifically-based archeological tools and methodologies, impossible (304-5). Certainly, the location of the lost city of Pompeii was known, since it had been explicitly recorded in ancient annals and in the letters of Pliny the Younger, one of the most reliable eye-witnesses to the eruption. Furthermore, as Professor Milner writes in a second article, the location of Pompeii was confirmed in 1595 when excavations for a new aqueduct unexpectedly led to the discovery of Pompeian coins and artifacts (263-4). However, further excavation was rendered impossible due to the fact that the ancient city was buried deep in molten lava, ash and mud which had hardened into over sixty feet of rock. Over the centuries, the gradual evolution of science and technology enabled not only the excavation of Pompeii but an accurate reading of the volcanic eruption and the history of this ancient people.

Extract from the posted Information Systems Security Essay: Fifteen years ago the economist, Stephen Polasky (1992), identified information as one of the most valuable commodities known to man. Information, as he argued, was coveted both because of its tangible and intangible value, because of its financial and non financial rewards. Hence, it was imperative that information owners ensure against unauthorized access to this commodity (Polasky, 1992) More recently, Sturdevant (2005) reiterated this statement but added that within the context of an e-economy and the proliferation of e-commerce and electronic data storage banks, information becoming increasingly vulnerable to unauthorized access. The consequences of unauthorized access, on the one hand, and the tampering with information, on the other, are enormous, whether accessed in terms of its impact upon individuals, corporate entities or the economy as a whole (Sturdevant, 2005). Indeed, a considerable of the potential consequences of the unauthorised violation of information, or of cyberattacks, highlights the aforementioned.

Extract from the posted, public policy research: There is little, if any doubt, that Australia’s immigration policy was a socially engineered one. In order to better understand the implications of this claim, it is firstly important to define socially engineered policies as public policies which are designed to satisfy a specific societal purpose or lead to well-defined social outcomes. Within the context of this question, socially engineered immigration policy refers to an immigration framework which is designed to satisfy a certain image of society and ensure, or at least try to, a specific demographic and racial composition. Added to that, if Australia’s immigration policy was socially engineered as this research will try to establish, the country was hardly unique in this regard. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that most immigration policies, both past and present, are socially engineered. With that in mind, this research will engage in a historical overview of Australia’s immigration policy, for the purposes of establishing that it was socially engineered.

Extract from uploaded Information Systems Security Essay: Organization X, according to its IT Director does not have a strategy for the promotion of organization-wide information security awareness. It is, however, currently involved in the review of several information security awareness models for the purpose of doing just that. With the aforementioned organizational objective in mind, this research will critically review the information security awareness construct for the purpose of potentially contributing to the design of the said model/program.

Extract from the posted research: Brands are, and always have been, of utmost importance and value to organisations. Indeed, any consideration of an organisation’s most valuable assets, or evaluation of its existent assets, must include the brands owned by the firm in question. Further to the stated, the proliferation of globalisation, implying the intensification of competition over both domestic and global markets, has only contributed to the importance of brands to organisations. Adopting the position that brands are critically important to organisations, this essay will try to establish the aforementioned by elucidating on the value of brands through a definition of the concept, an analysis of the implications of brand equity, a discussion of the benefits of brands and a clarification of the relationship between brands and firms.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Post-globalisation, 21st century Australia is sociologically and culturally quite different from post-World War II Australia. Whereas it had previously adhered to a discriminatory pro-immigration policy which sought the maintenance of an Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian majority which would safeguard Australia’s Western cultural identity, since the mid-1980s, it has abided by a non-discriminatory immigration policy. The consequences have been the emergence of a sociologically diverse and multicultural nation which embraces its Asian regional belongingness, rather than shy away from it. Despite the said change, primarily instigated by a somewhat dramatic shift in national immigration policies, the current ethnic composition of Australian society has largely been influenced by the views and politics of Arthur Calwell. Even while conceding to the fact that Calwell’s policies have been overturned and Australian societal composition has undergone a parallel change, this research will argue that Calwell’s background, ideas and temperament gave rise to post-World War II immigration policies which have had an inordinate effect upon Australian societal composition. Establishing the veracity of the aforementioned is contingent upon a review of Calwell’s background, an articulation of his ideas and temperament and, importantly, a critical analysis of his immigration policies and their societal effects.

Executive Summary from the posted Research Paper: The report examines two consumer behaviour constructs and two segments. Focusing on the cosmetics surgery industry, the study examines the behaviour of the affluent and the elderly within, for the purpose of recommending strategies to marketers. The report concludes with a reflective statement.

Extract from the posted African American Literature Essay: Raymond Carver is, by popular literary consensus, a minimalist. His stories are short, his language is stark, his characters are uncomplicated and his symbols are basic. None of this, however, implies poverty of meaning as Carver’s short stories are about the meaning of life, the meaning behind relationships and the meaning underscoring human action (Hallett, pp. 488-89). As Carver himself explains in “On Writing,” short stories are “glimpses” of life and, more importantly, “illuminating” glimpses (p. 17). In other words, from Carver’s point of view, even though they are nothing more than a brief glimpse at a particular moment in life, short stories illuminate one’s understanding of life, insofar as they are focused, concentrated and in-depth `glimpses.’ Accordingly, while his literary style lends to his categorization as a minimalist, Carver is a `maximalist’ insofar as meaning is concerned. It is, thus, that a comparative analysis of “Cathedral,” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and “A Small Good Thing” are replete with meaning regarding light and dark, faith and love. In all, and as will be argued in this essay, the mentioned meanings/themes are symbolized through the male-female relationship.

Extract from the posted Argumentative/Music Essay:  Although .popularly associated with African-American communal religious worship and prayer, gospel music actually evolved out of the American experience itself, independent of race. Boyer, a music historian, clarifies the confusion surrounding the origins of gospel music stating that its roots go back to the Second Awakening religious revival groups of the early 1800s. The Second Awakening’s prayer camp meetings embraced both black and white and Protestants of all sects who came together for the sole purpose of cleansing their souls and giving themselves a temporary respite from the hardships of their everyday life. Accordingly, from the very moment of inception, gospel music tended towards the soulful and sorrowful, expressing a longing for spiritual comfort (Boyer, 36-37). With the passage of time, gospel music gradually evolved, branching out into three distinct categories, these being bluegrass gospel, or mountain music, traditional black gospel and traditional southern gospel. Internal divisions and distinctions, lending to the variety detectable in this genre, has significantly contributed to the survival of Gospel music over the centuries and allowed it to maintain its status as a positive music tradition in this country.

Extract from posted Christian Theological case study: Raymond Carver is, by popular literary consensus, a minimalist. His stories are short, his language is stark, his characters are uncomplicated and his symbols are basic. None of this, however, implies poverty of meaning as Carver’s short stories are about the meaning of life, the meaning behind relationships and the meaning underscoring human action (Hallett, pp. 488-89). As Carver himself explains in “On Writing,” short stories are “glimpses” of life and, more importantly, “illuminating” glimpses (p. 17). In other words, from Carver’s point of view, even though they are nothing more than a brief glimpse at a particular moment in life, short stories illuminate one’s understanding of life, insofar as they are focused, concentrated and in-depth `glimpses.’ Accordingly, while his literary style lends to his categorization as a minimalist, Carver is a `maximalist’ insofar as meaning is concerned. It is, thus, that a comparative analysis of “Cathedral,” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and “A Small Good Thing” are replete with meaning regarding light and dark, faith and love. In all, and as will be argued in this essay, the mentioned meanings/themes are symbolized through the male-female relationship.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Consumer decision-making is defined as the behaviour patterns of consumers that precede, determine and follow the decision making process for the acquisition of need satisfying products, ideas or services (Du Plessis & Rousseau, 1999). During the consumer decision-making process, not only do consumers make decisions regarding which brand options to choose but they also decide what quantity of the good to purchase. Consumers make decisions in order to reach their goals, which include making the best choice among alternative possibilities, reducing the effort in making the decision, minimizing negative emotions, and maximizing the ability to justify the decision. In summary, consumer decision-making is a constructive process (Mowen & Minor, 2006).

With the above stated definition of consumer decision-making in mind, this report will investigate the consumer behaviour construct for the purposes of articulating a consumer decision-making model. In so doing, the report will critically discuss the influence of internal factors, such as perception and motivation, on consumer behaviour and, importantly, discuss the ways and means by which consumer behaviour principles can be used as a conceptual framework to help managers understand and solve marketing problems. Following a review of the scholarly literature on the aforementioned issues, the report will report on the results of a survey which focused on consumer buying behaviour in relation to remedial massage therapy. Four respondents were involved in this study.
 

Extract from the posted Research: Since the 1960s, several social and psychological intervention strategies, tools and programmes have been developed which identify home visitation as a core component of treatment programmes for minority, or at-risk-groups (Klass, 1996; Banks, 2000). Although the majority of such programmes identify home visitation as an integral component of early intervention programmes, it is increasingly employed as a method, not just for assessing the home environment of troubled/problem teenagers, but for consulting with parents and families, detecting the aspects of their behaviour and treatment which may contribute to the identified problems and, ultimately for designing an all-inclusive intervention programme which embraces family/parent training as an integral part of the treatment (Thoburn, Chand and Proctor, 2004).

The rationale behind home visitation is that working alongside parents and families contributes to the success potentials of the intervention program (Banks, 2000; Thoburn, Chand and Proctor, 2004). However, within the context of an increasingly heterogeneous society, wherein both culture and language have emerged as a barrier to communication with children and families, enlisting the support of families/parents is problematic. Powell (1993) and Roberts et al. (1996) contend that the success of intervention programmes is largely predicated on the extent to which parents actively cooperate in the promotion of cognitive, social and psychological well-being, concomitant with their utilisation of change strategies whose primary intent are the correction of behaviour disorder and conduct problems. To enlist the required parental/familial support, it is imperative that social workers effectively communicate information which would both establish the imperatives of intervention and the exigencies of cooperation. Therefore, not only does the social worker have to employ direct intervention strategies which address the teenager/child in question, but indirect strategies which provide parents with general support and enhance their parenting skills (Powell, 1993; Roberts et al., 1996). As earlier stated, within a cross-cultural framework wherein linguistic communication is identified as an additional problem, the successful attainment of the intervention programme’s defined objectives is a formidable challenge.

Theory maintains that while the social worker confronts a set of formidable cultural and linguistic challenges when dealing with immigrant families, the desired outcomes can be achieved. Whether or not this is the case shall be tested through the presentation of a case study and the theoretically-informed intervention strategies employed therein. Through reference to various social intervention approaches, the ethical guidelines which inform the profession and relevant legislature, the following reflective research shall both test the aforementioned claim and critical analyse the efficacy of the strategies which, I, as the social worker in question, employed.
 

Extract from posted Research Paper: To claim that China feels it necessary to ignore, or trample over human rights is an ethnocentric value judgment predicated on the belief that the Western conceptualization of human rights is universal or, at least, should be. As Magnarella (2004), however, clarifies Chinese and Western human rights values are markedly different with the implication being that to evaluate Chinese human rights practices according to Western standards would be fallacious. Nevertheless, even while evaluating Chinese human rights practices according to Chinese cultural values, one notices that there are a plethora of incontrovertible abuses, all of which are justified through communist precepts referring to the general good and the imperatives of economic development and progress.

Western human rights values center on individual rights and focus on the individual person, rather than on the group. In direct comparison, Chinese and Asian values emphasize the group and underscore group rights (Madison, 2002). There is, in other words, a fundamental cultural difference between East and West, as which gives rise to divergent, although not conflictual, notions of human rights.
 

Extract from posted Case: Agreements for the sale of goods, whether recorded in a contract or verbal, should be straightforward arrangements for the transfer of ascertained, or unascertained goods, from the owner/seller to the buyer in exchange for an agreed upon sum. Within the context of the law and practical application, however, this perception is simplistic and, as such, irrelevant to discussions on sale of goods agreements or contracts. In fact, given the problematic nature of commercial exchanges/transactions, and the imperatives of protecting both the rights of consumers and sellers, UK law has clearly articulated the principles governing sales of goods in the Sale of Goods Act (1979), the Sale and supply of Goods Act (1994), the Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act (1995), and the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations (2002). All of the mentioned outline the rights and duties owed to the seller by the buyer and, importantly, provide for consumer protection through the explication of buyers rights and the remedies available upon the transgression of these rights. In assessing the Mr. Marshall’s legal rights and liabilities, the relevant legal issues and questions shall be identified and assessed in accordance with the principles established by the mentioned acts.

Extract from posted African American Comparative Literature Essay: The African American struggle for recognition, identity and acceptance as part of the human race may, quite accurately, be used to summarize the general premise of both Richard Wright’s “Big Good Black Man,” and Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal.” Both stories expose the struggle which African Americans confront as they try to operate within the confines of societies which persistently perceive of them through the racial lens. Ellison’s protagonist is confronted with the imperatives of having to prove his individuality and having to enter into a battle royal in order to be granted a college scholarship and, thus, the chance to become someone. Wright’s protagonist has to prove himself a human being and, indeed, all his actions, words and attitudes are continually compared to the norm for determination of whether he is a man or beast. Both protagonists are viewed as quasi-human because of their skin color and, accordingly, their struggle, whether consciously or unconsciously taken, begins from point zero. The implication here is that theirs is a struggle to establish that which non-blacks take for granted; the struggle to achieve societal recognition of their humanity and establish their individuality. Racism, as both authors communicate, contests their humanity, their manhood and individuality. Proceeding from the aforementioned, this essay will critically compare and contrast the primary theme, setting and viewpoint of either story in order to illustrate how each author deals with the topic of race.

Extract from posted English Cause and Effect assignment: College drinking is a serious problem. Wendy S. Slutske, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and an alcoholism expert, emphasizes that the available empirical evidence indicates that the tendency of college students to engage in heavy and binge drinking is problematic on several fronts. Apart from the harm that it does to the drinkers themselves and the adverse effect it has on their academic performance, the phenomenon contributes to on-campus violence (321). Statistics from the National institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism established that “alcohol is involved in approximately 1400 student deaths, 50,000 injuries, 600,000 assaults and 70,000 sexual assaults each year on college campuses” (qtd in Slutske, 321). These figures, which are quite staggering, stand as a testament to the magnitude of the problem and underscore the importance of asking and answering the following question: what are the factors which drive college students to drink and can university policy annihilate this problem. Available evidence suggests that the primary factors are immaturity, lack of self-control and peer pressure, further suggesting that a well-designed policy response can stem the problem.

Extract from the posted Christian Theological Critical Analysis: The word, creed, derived from the Latin credo, simply means `I believe.’ In ecclesiastical terms, however, the term assumes unique importance insofar as it is employed to reference a concise statement of church formulated and accepted doctrines of faith. One of the most widely, cross-denominationally, accepted of these is the Apostles’ Creed. Although it was not written during the time of the Apostles, tradition holds that each of them contributed a clause to it and, more importantly, it is a summative declaration of belief in the totality of Apostolic teaching. It is, thus, that within the body of this creed that a dozen seminal Christian doctrines are found. This essay shall list the doctrines contained in the Apostles’ Creed, following from which it will discuss both Christology and Soteriology.

Extract from the posted Social Work research: Even within the national and local settings, social work has become an inherently multicultural and multiethnic practice. British social work researchers have, in recent years, repeatedly written about the multiethnic and multicultural nature of contemporary British social work in order to elucidate upon its practical, ethical and theoretical implications (Walker, 2001; Scourfield, 2002; Bisman, 2004). From the practical point of view, the stated development has rendered social work even more complex and complicated than it previously was, if only because practitioners and clients no longer speak the same language nor do they share similar/comparable cultural references and worldviews (Hawkins, Fook and Ryan, 2001). From an ethical perspective, multiculturalism has made negotiations through the ethical minefields of social work all the more treacherous. Suffice to say, as Bisman (2004) points out, the contemporary British social worker can no longer be guided by the ethical guidelines which inform professional British social work but needs to adopt a more universal, a-cultural ethical approach which acknowledges and respects the ethnic/cultural ethics of clients. From the theoretical perspective, this means that not only is a more multicultural professional ethics guideline required but that interventions strategies which address the challenges posed by the increasingly cross-cultural nature of the practice need to be developed (Walker, 2001; Scourfield, 2002).

Not only has multiculturalism complicated the work of the British social worker from all of the theoretical, ethical and cultural perspectives, but contemporary social worker can find him/herself in a position wherein legal restrictions and regulations clash with professional duties and obligations. Given that since 1998 population and demographic changes across Britain were a direct result of the inflow of refugees and asylum seekers (Rees and Boden, 2006), social workers often find themselves in a situation wherein both their professional ethics and training dictate the imperatives of their extending help to members of this group while the law effectively constrains their ability to do so. In other words, considering that likelihood of the British social worker’s having, not only to counsel and help an ethnically diverse clientele but both refugees and asylum seekers as well, the chances of coming into contact with illegal immigrants who, despite their status are in dire need of help, are high. As I discovered through personal professional experience, in cases such as this, it is incumbent upon the social worker to negotiate between professional duties and legal strictures and try and find a way for helping the client without violating the law. Through a critical analysis of the aforementioned experience, the conflict between legal and professional obligations shall be highlighted and the intervention strategies which might negotiate between the two shall be explored.
 

Extract from the post Research Paper: Islam, like the other monotheistic religions, was born in the Arab Middle East but unlike Christianity or Judaism, is regarded as an alien and obscure faith. The reason for the stated difference lies in that while both Christianity and Judaism were Westernized and, in more instances than not, informed and shaped Western culture, Islam, with some exceptions, remained fixed in the Middle East. Added to that, Islam was surprisingly resistant to trans-cultural transferences. For centuries, Islam, largely represented by Egypt’s Al Azhar, maintained that the religion was fixed in language, culture and tradition, with the implication being that people came to Islam and Islam did not go to them. Hence, translations of the Quran were deemed misrepresentative of the faith because much was lost n translation and it was, consequently, expected that people learn Arabic as a prerequisite to their learning the faith itself, let alone embracing it. It was only upon the relaxation of the aforementioned strictures that understanding Islam became somewhat easier, although not easy.

The West, however, has only recently met Islam and the circumstance of the meeting were fiery, to say the least. The September 11th terrorist attacks only confirmed the Western perception of Islam as an incontrovertibly alien faith, a ”Green Menace” and an “ancient” belief system (Esposito, 1994). Descriptors which inspire fear and suggest a persistent failure to modernize, to become part of the contemporary world (Esposito and Piscatori, 1993; Esposito, 1994). Indeed, the misunderstanding and stereotypes which surround Islam, largely instigated by the 2001, September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, have enabled the propagation and proliferation of Islamophobia. Paradoxically, however, even as Islamophobia grows, so does the number of converts to Islam, not only in the United States but across Europe.

Converts to Islam and the attitudes of these converts to the religion they have embraced, is an interesting topic of exploration. It is interesting because converts to Islam differ in significant ways from those who were born into this faith. While the belief system, as in the five pillars, rituals and principles have remained the same, Western converts have, largely as an outcome of the manner of induction on the one hand, and the reasons for conversion, on the other, have adopted a paradoxically usouli (traditionalist) and modernizing interpretation and conceptualization of Islam.
 

Extract from the posted Article Critique: Distance leaning, as delivered through information and computer technology, has effectively changed the face of education. Neidorf (2006), while conceding to distance learning’s century-long history, maintains that the current format has challenged time and space in previously unimaginable ways, to the extent of extending a liberal arts Western undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education to learners in remote third word rural villages. If it is to realize its potential, however, distance learning as e-learning must be restructured towards a more interpersonal delivery paradigm, as would give distance learners the advantage of one-to-one mentorship and guidance and, as such, substantially reduce current drop-out rates (Neidorf, 2006). That distance learning paradigms can benefit from the aforementioned is emphasised by Alan Tait, a faculty member at the Open University, UK, whose article is the primary focus of this critique.

Extract from posted Criminal Justice Research Paper: America's juvenile justice system is responsible for keeping citizens safe and rehabilitating delinquent youth. Meeting these two responsibilities has been the goal of the system since it was first implemented. The dilemma that has faced policymakers and citizens has been deciding which of the two aims should receive the most emphasis, and thus, funding. Should the state build more juvenile penitentiaries and immediately protect its citizens, or should it teach current prisoners lie skills that will help them to live in such a way that they will be less likely to re-offend? In a separate, preventative effort, should the state use its resources to fund parenting, recreational, and mentoring programs that build up youth and enable them to make good decisions early on? In the end, the state must balance effectiveness with necessity. Preventative and rehabilitative measures have been proven time and time again to significantly lower the likelihood of a youth offending or reoffending.

American prisons have become the world's most populated. As of December 2004, 2,267,787 persons were incarcerated in the United States (Harrison & Beck, 2005). Of that number 102,338 were juveniles (Harrison & Beck). Juvenile crime rates have increased dramatically over the past 15 years, at rates estimated to be near 22% (Harrison & Beck). Approximately 2 million youth are arrested in the United States each year and around 100,000 are placed in juvenile detention and correctional facilities on a daily basis (Rawal , Romansky, Jenuwine, & Lyons, 2004).

Juvenile delinquency is not new; but it has reached significant proportions due to the factors such as the increasing numbers of at risk juveniles, the disparities of human existence, and the connection of guns and drugs as they impact the adolescent population (Cohn, 2004). More and more correctional facilities are being erected, and "get tough" sentences are being implemented to gain control over the juvenile crime rate. But this does not seem to be deterring the juvenile from committing more crime. The development of effective programs and interventions to reduce juvenile recidivism is a national priority.

Extract from posted Criminal Sociology Research Paper:  The link between crime and drug use is an established fact, fortified by a wealth of empirical evidence and, certainly, not a claim premised upon weak assumptions. It is this link and the strong foundations upon which it is established which has motivated the design and implementation of drug rehabilitation programmes for prison inmates in the UK, just as it has in the United States, Australia and most Western European nations. As Johnson, Lipton, and Wish (2001) explains, given the link between drugs and crime, the implementation of drug rehabilitation programmes in prisons may be defined as a strategy for the reduction of recidivism rates and for the assurance of the successful re-integration of offenders into their societies. It is, in other words, an integral part of prisoner rehabilitation programmes which target the possibilities of recidivism by addressing their root causes, in this case, drugs.

While not claiming that drugs are responsible for the entirety of the recidivism rate which the UK currently suffers, it is one of its more important causes (Burnett, 2004). Drug rehabilitation programmes for offenders has the potential to significantly reduce recidivism rates and, thus, to reduce the nation’s overall crime rate (Burnett, 2004). Indeed, Burnett (2004), a criminologist and offender management expert and researcher, argues that the Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO) and the Drug Rehabilitation Requirement (DRR) which evolved from it, derive from the empirically-proven link between drugs and crime and are motivated by the imperatives of reducing the nation’s crime rates by confronting one of the primary causes of recidivism. This research, however, will not proceed from a premise of unquestioning acceptance of the correlation between addiction and crime, hence treatment and reduction in recidivism rates. Instead, the research will critically analyse attempts to divert drug users out of the prison system and reduce recidivism rates through their inclusion in drug treatment programmes, with particular reference to DTTO and DRR. The study will first begin with the identification and definition of its key terms, following from which it will discuss the relationship between drugs and crime, review causal models of the drug-crime relationship and then examine the extent to which DTTO and DRR have emerged as solutions, at least partial, to the problem under investigation.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Essentialism is inextricably linked to Grosz’s particular brand of feminism. Indeed, one may even posit the claim that her feminist philosophy derives from her definition of the feminine essence. This is amply evidenced in the following quote,

Women's essence is assumed to be given and universal and is usually, though not necessarily, identified with women's "biology" and "natural characteristics." There are cases in which women's essence is seen to reside not in nature or biology but in certain given psychological characteristics--nurturance, empathy, supportiveness, non-competitiveness (Grosz, 1994, p. 84).

The preceding quote very explicitly identifies several forms of essentialism, those being biological, social and cognitive essentialism, and holds as universal to all women. In other words, gender is not just an inherently biological characteristic but it is equally so a matter of cognitive perception and social attribute. Grosz’s definition or understanding of feminism emerges from within her understanding of essentialism and its correlation to gender.

Equality feminism is somewhat at odds with the essentialist representations of the female gender. As Genovese (1996) explains, this feminist ideology highlights the similarities between men and women, irrespective of biological differences, and argues gender equality on the basis of the similarities. This stance may be interpreted as a negation of essentialism, insofar as it only concedes to biological differences but does not acknowledge the inherent importance of social and cognitive essentialism.

In direct comparison to equality feminism, feminism of difference emphasizes the differences between the genders. As Ebert (1993) explains, difference feminism argues that the sexes are fundamentally different but that differences, whether cognitive or social, do not negate the equality of the sexes, or make one more equal than the other. This feminist ideology is reflective of essentialism.

In the final analysis, and speaking from a subjective viewpoint, essentialism is an inescapable reality. The sexes are not just different because of biology but because of cognitive and societal perceptions. Equality feminism, insofar as it fails to acknowledge the aforementioned, is weak. Its weakness is rooted in its assumption that equality is only applicable to those, or that, which are alike. Difference feminism, on the other hand, draws its strength from its recognition of essentialism and its understanding of the fact that equality does not have to be founded on similarity. The sexes are different but differences do not undermine equality.

Extract from uploaded Research Paper:  The research shall explore the effect of cyberschools on public education. Huerta, González and d'Entremnont (2006) affirm that the popularity of cyberschooling is on the rise, largely consequent to the fact that it expands the educational environment beyond geographically imposed limitations, on the one hand, and because it furnishes students/learners with an array of previously unimaginable learning tools and aids. Cyberschools are effective education delivery media and allow for the student-student and teacher-student interaction relationship models which are considered integral to successful schooling (Huerta, González and d'Entremnont, 2006).

There is, as many professional educators and researchers have contended, little doubt that cyberschools are a positive addition to the education and information delivery models available. The cyberschool, may function as a viable and valid alternative to public schools in instances where the latter are not available to students or whose attendance is problematic.

Extract from uploaded Argumentative Essay: Many, having read about a few successful internet dating relationships have the tendency to dismiss the dark side of online friendships and dating. The truth, as stated in People magazine article, is that tragic stories outweigh the happy ones. Internet dating is dangerous. People hide their true identity, lie about their intentions and often harm their online dates and friends once they meet in the real world. Therefore, even if internet dating involves the practice of basic human rights such as freedom of speech and the freedom to chose whom to date, when and where, it is extremely important that the governments step in to regulate and limit this activity for the sake of fighting crime and eliminate harm to society. Therefore, while Internet dating may be defended as a practice which involves both freedom of choice and freedom of speech, the fact is that it is a deadly form of interaction insofar as it enables people to misrepresent their identity and trick young teens into face to face meetings which may lead to their kidnapping, sexual exploitation and, possibly, murder.

Extract from uploaded Research Paper:  The Victorian novelists, amongst whom are Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, were products of their socio-cultural environment. The assumption here is that the world of their novels would realistically represent social norms and mores. As such, Victorian gender relations would be accurately represented and women would be portrayed in the subordinate social position that Victorian norms and mores had relegated them to. Indeed, as Wilson explains in The World of Charles Dickens, Victorian society had much the same expectations of women as it did of children; both were expected to be seen but not heard (109-110). Interestingly, however, both Dickens’ Great Expectations and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, portray female characters and protagonist who violate this expectation (109-110). By delving into the respective authors’ portraiture and presentation of Miss Havisham, Estelle and Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, this research will show that, contrary to contemporary expectations and stereotypical perceptions of the Victorian world, both Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice boast a varied array of female characters. The fact that the majority of these characters hardly subscribes to the stereotypical image of the submissive and passive Victorian female evidences the fact that Victorian social expectations were at odds with the Victorian social reality, on the one hand, and that both Dickens and Austen were writing about a world in transition, on the other.

Extract from uploaded Information System Security Essay: As a healthcare organization whose business involves the collection and storage of highly sensitive and confidential patient data, privacy concerns occupy centre-stage. As the director of our legal department clarified, however, the organization’s policies tend towards emphasis upon the inviolability of patients’ privacy, as opposed to that of employees. The law compels the placement of this emphasis and, indeed, if investigations indicate that the organisation was, in any way, negligent in the execution of its responsibilities towards the protection of patient privacy and confidentiality, the organisation is held liable. Therefore, upon the detection of suspicious computer incidents, the organization immediately launches a forensics/digital investigation which is fully compliant with a policy which has been jointly drawn up by both the legal and the IT departments. This report will begin with a brief overview of privacy considerations, following which it will describe the organization’s policy and highlight both its strengths and weaknesses.

Extract from uploaded Critique:  Disney’s fairytale adaptations are often criticized for their negative, stereotypical, portrayal of female characters. The female heroine in all of Disney’s “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” to name but a few, have neither personality nor substance. They are incapable of standing up to evil or defending themselves. Characterized by supposedly unparalleled beauty, all that any of these characters seem capable of is suffering in silence and, it is because of that, that they are finally given the ultimate reward: salvation through a handsome prince. Even though some, such as Pollitt (1995), have assumed that Disney is not to be faulted since all it did was adapt popular fairytales to the screen, this is not true. An analysis of “Cinderella,” as an example, indicates a tremendous difference between gender representation in the Disney film versus the fairytale itself, whereby women are portrayed as proactive and strong characters in the latter and weak and passive in the former.

Extract from uploaded Critique:  Within the context of a network interconnected world where sensitive corporate data is stored, thereby potentially accessibly, on servers linked to the World Wide Web, security issues are a real and critical concern. Indeed, when questioning my immediate supervisor/manager on the reasons why the company did not open an e-commerce front, the response was “security concerns.” There is a belief, at least as expressed my both my manager and several work colleagues, that data stored on servers is potentially accessible by hackers, with the implication being that establishing an e-commerce front would render the company highly vulnerable to what Schwartau (1994) termed Level Two Attacks. Paradoxically, however, following an exploration of four criminal hacker websites, I discovered that the criminal hacker community actually acted as a very good source for data securitization.

Extract from uploaded Opinion Essay: Digital Rights Management (DRM) can be defined as a technological approach to the protection of copyrighted material, such as music. It protects copyrighted music from unauthorised dissemination and duplication through the encryption. The encrypted digital audio disk supports playback but does not support transference to a second medium. Developed and implemented in an effort to stem the rising tide of copyright violations and the resultant financial losses suffered by the industry, DRM was first employed by Bertelsmann in 2002 and soon thereafter by leading music producers such as Sony and EMI (Thompson). The controversy which its use aroused eventually compelled music producers to cease the inclusion of DRM technology on its audio discs, with EMI being the last company to do so in 2007 (Thompson). DRM faded out of use because it violated existent copyright laws and did not produce the expected results.

Extract from uploaded Opinion Essay:  There is a difference between organized crime and drug trafficking. Irrespective of the fact that organized crime is the force behind drug trafficking, the fact is that the former is involved in numerous other illegal activities, many of which, whether child prostitution, sex slave trade or money laundering, to name but three, have incalculably destructive impact upon societies and the lives of the people therein. This is not necessarily the case with drugs, with the implication being that the optimal response to either differs.

Governments, not least of which is the American one, have lost the war on drugs. The US government persistently maintains the de-legitimization of all forms of drugs. In doing so, however, it has not eliminated drug use or effectively combated addiction rates. Instead, all that the mentioned policy has done is push the drug trade underground and out of sight. The delegitimization of both drug use and the drug trade has not led to the elimination of either and, indeed, has only made the drug trade all the more difficult to control.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Employee relations have long occupied a place of central importance in both political and economic discourse. Political economists, from Marx to De Sotto, have interpreted employee relations as the primary determinant of an organisation’s performance and, indeed, the overall performance of national economies. Beyond that, employee relations have further been identified as an issue of socio-political concern because they both reflect and impact a society’s commitment to social justice and its level of adherence to its precepts.

Given the socio-political and economic importance of employee relations, its ascendance into a discipline and field of study in its own right, is hardly surprising. Within the practice and study of business and management, Human Resource Management has emerged as the arena for discourse on employee relations and optimal human resource management trends and paradigms. As with any other discipline and field of practice, it has undergone several changes over the past decades and is engaged in a multitude of debates. These changes have been imposed upon it by shifting ideologies, on the one hand, and by the mercurial nature of the international political economy, hence, global business, on the other. The debates have been instigated by these same forces, amongst others. Among the more important of these debates is that which pertains to the relevancy of the pluralist ER ideology within the context of a globalised business environment.

Through an exploration of the ways and means by which globalisation has impacted employer-employee/employee-organisation relations and a critical analysis of the more dominant of the ER theoretical frameworks, this research will argue in favour of the argument which disputes the relevancy of pluralism to current business realities. In other words, the research will provide evidentiary support for the assertion that the pluralist ideology is troublesome, archaic and serves no purpose in today’s global economy.

Extract from posted Law Coursework:  The criminal justice system assumes innocence until guilt is established beyond reasonable doubt. The establishment of guilt, however, is not simply a matter of presenting evidence against defendants but, according to Breyer (2005) a question of presenting evidence in a way that is compliant with the due processes established by the law and consistent with Constitutional guarantees. The implication here is, therefore, that even if evidence of guilt is overwhelming, this is not sufficient for conviction because the manner in which the said evidence is presented and whether or not the defendant’s constitutional rights were observed is equally important. It is important to note here that among the said guarantees are the right to confront accusers and answer charges brought against one. The defendant has the right to be present when charges are brought against him/her. It is, thus, and as shall be argued through reference to the due processes of the law, civil liberties and constitutional guarantees, that the absence of defendants from Grand Jury hearings is a violation of the defendant’s right to hear the charges brought against him/her.

Extract from uploaded HRM article critique:  The British labour market is a highly diverse one. According to available statistics, it is constantly moving towards greater diversity. According to 2005 statistics released by the Office of National Statistics, 5.4% of the British labour force is foreign, with EU and former Commonwealth migration statistics, among other non-British sources of labour inflow, indicating a continual increase. The previous year, 2005, saw the largest ever influx of foreign workers to Britain, totalling approximately 400,000 (Salt and Miller, 2006). In addition to that, diversity statistics indicate that ethnic minority groups comprise approximately 8% of the current workforce; 25% are non-Christian; and around 12% are disabled. Statistics relating to gays and lesbians are indeterminate, largely because of a lack of national surveys but, are estimated to stand between 5-7% (Salt and Miller, 2006). What these statistics and figures tell us is that the British labour force is an extremely diverse one and that the concern over diversity management and equality within organisations needs to be understood from this perspective.

Extract from posted HRM research: The British labour market is a highly diverse one and, according to available statistics, is continually moving towards greater diversity. According to 2005 data released by the Office of National Statistics, 5.4% of the current labour force is foreign, with EU and former Commonwealth migration statistics, among other non-British sources of labour inflow, indicating a continual increase. The previous year, 2005, was witness to the largest ever influx of foreign workers to Britain, totalling approximately 400,000 (Salt and Miller, 2006). In addition to that, diversity statistics indicate that ethnic minority groups comprise approximately 8% of the current workforce; 25% are non-Christian; and around 12% are disabled. Statistics pertaining to gays and lesbians are indeterminate, largely because of a lack of national surveys but, are estimated to stand between 5-7%. The implication here is that the British workforce is, incontrovertibly diverse; a fact which poses challenges to organizational management.

Over the past thirty years, legislature has effectively acknowledged the reality of the nation’s existent and, ever-increasing, gender, ethnic, racial, religious and cultural diversity and has sought its positive address. From 2003 to 2006, Employment Equality regulations addressed the issues of all of age, religion/belief and sexual orientation, effectively establishing the legal and regulatory framework for both the prevention of direct and indirect discrimination against minority group employees while, at the same time, outlining the imperatives of equity. Prior to that, all of the Equal Pay Act (1970), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), the Race Relations Act (1976) and the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000), among others, sought to ensure against both direct and indirect discrimination in the provision of goods and services and within the workplace. Consequently, from the legal and regulatory perspective, Britain has taken the requisite steps to ensure that its minority groups are extended the necessary opportunities for integration and assimilation.

While the legal and regulatory framework provides against both direct and indirect discrimination in the workplace, the fact remains that it did so largely because it outlawed the aforementioned. It imposed a toleration of differences upon employees and co-workers but, does not establish the mechanism for directing either to look beyond the differences or, indeed, to accept, rather than simply tolerate them. From the perspective of the management sciences, the aforementioned can function to inhibit efficient and effective operation; can stand as an obstacle towards the articulation, let alone realisation, of strategic objectives; and can offset the design and subsequent dissemination of a unifying organizational culture. Of equal importance is the potentially negative effect it can have upon teamwork. At the same time, if managed efficiently, the benefits of a diversified workforce can reflect upon both financial and non-financial performance indicators. The concept of diversity management arose from within this context. It aims, not only to achieve more than toleration for differences but, the realisation of the benefits of workforce diversity for the organisations in question.

Extract from uploaded HRM research:  As globalisation spreads and deepens, as the EU enlarges and as Britain faces increasingly large waves of immigration, the question of diversity becomes more important to UK corporations. On the one hand, business leaders are beginning to acknowledge the integral role which workforce diversity plays in maximising the effectiveness of organisation’s in a global economy. On the other hand, societal diversity leaves them no choice but to hire a diverse workforce should the criteria for employment remain merit and qualifications (Dreachslin, 2007). The implication here is, and as emphasised by several management scholars, that as customers become more diverse and a the market becomes increasingly heterogeneous and global, rather than homogeneous and national, the workforce must change. It must change to reflect the said diversity and in so doing, partially contribute towards the amelioration of cross-cultural, transnational and cross-linguistic paradigms (Hon and Brunner, 2000; Grin and Korth, 2005; Morrison, 2006). If they are to effectively perform within the bounds of multicultural societies and ethnically diverse markets, organizations must hire a diverse pool of talented people who bring skills such as language and cultural expertise to the equation.

Extract from uploaded Information Systems Security Essay:  “While we have not yet implemented e-commerce, the board has decided that we must do so within the next year to facilitate transactions with customers and to avoid being swallowed up by our competitors” (ICT Director). Management is concerned about the potential impact of e-commerce on the company’s information security system and about the possibility of fraudulent transactions. While both concerns are serious, a cost-benefit analysis evidences the imperatives of adopting e-commerce.

Extract from posted African American Literature Essay: Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” was published over five decades ago and, as a story, dealt with the experiences of a young, African American male living during the era of racism and segregation. It is, in other words, a story that is supposedly distant from the contemporary reader, whether in terms of the historical period it focuses on or its subject matter. The story, however, has survived and continues to be read with interest, not just by African-Americans or Americans but by numerous racial and national groups. As a foreigner to whom this story has supposedly no historical or cultural interest, it had deeply personal meaning because its focus was not the plight of an African American male as such but the human condition. “Battle Royal” holds a permanent interest because its underlying themes are human ones, with those being the battle against prejudice and the struggle to find a place in society.

Extract from uploaded political science Research Paper:  The European Union stands out as a political economic phenomenon and a historic testimony to the fact that regional integration, despite challenges and resistance from within, can transform from a dream to a reality. Originally envisioned in 1948, the process of gradual integration began in 1952. As Herbert Biggs explains, the Treaty of Paris was proposed and passed at a time when Europe, politically and economically weakened by World War II, realized that it would not be able to restore its previous political and economic influence were it not to enter into closer regional economic cooperation and plan for political and economic integration. At this stage in history, and despite realization of the importance of integration, only six European countries, Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris (Biggs, 110-111). Great Britain, possibly encouraged by the fact that it was not part of continental Europe, refrained from signing this treaty.

Extract from uploaded political philosophy Research Paper:  The twentieth century was not only one of the bloodiest in history but it was also one of the cruelest. Milton Leitenberg (2006), of the Center for International and Security Studies, has estimated that the wars and conflicts of the past century have claimed the lives of 216 million people. The actions of despotic regimes and tyrannical dictators account for a little under half that figure. One only need recall that during the Maoist regime in China, anywhere from 16-30 million people were killed by the government, or that the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia was responsible for the death of almost 70% of the entire citizenry, to realize that the quoted figure could very well be a conservative estimate (Leitenberg, 2006). Indeed, just over a decade ago one million Rwandians were killed in just under 100 days while the world watched; their government had ordered their slaughter because of ethno-racial reasons. Within the context of the stated, man, the human being, emerges as the savage Thomas Hobbes insisted he was and the uncivilized brute Rousseau believed that he had once been, and hardly as the rational and civilized being that Enlightenment philosophers argued him to be.

Extract from posted political philosophy Research Paper:  During the Enlightenment period, political philosophers arrived at a number of interesting theories regarding the relationship between citizens and the state, or subjects and ruler. Protesting against the very fact that rulers had absolute powers and disputing the doctrine which claimed that they derived their powers from God, or were authorized by Him to govern, theorists such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau maintained that power was limited by the rights and duties which the ruler owed the citizens and that they did not derive their power from God but from the people themselves. In other words, sovereignty lay with the people and it was from the people that rulers derived their legitimacy.

As theorized by the Enlightenment philosophers, the legitimacy of rulers, of governments only lasted as long as they fulfilled their duties, responsibilities and obligations towards the masses, in accordance with the social contract. Resignation of sovereignty by the people to the government was not, in other words, to be interpreted as the people’s having permanently giving up their sovereignty or their having done so unconditionally. Indeed, the very concept of the social contract emphasizes the sovereign rights of the people, acknowledges that a sovereign people have given a certain person, the ruler, their consent to govern over them in exchange for his protection of their rights and liberties, among other things. The social contract is, therefore, the constitution which outlines the legal basis of the state as a moral, political and economic institution and the rights and duties of the citizens within, and the state’s responsibilities and obligations towards citizens.

Extract from uploaded Research Paper: Numerous definitions have been forwarded for globalisation, from the integration of global capital to the unification of national economies for the purposes of creating a global political economy (Dicken, 2002). Held and McGrew (2002) review several definitions for globalisation and emphasise that while all are accurate, few capture the complexity of the phenomenon and therefore, do not comprehensively define globalisation. From their perspective, while it is virtually impossible to define globalisation in a single sentence, it can best be described as an economic phenomenon whose primary motivation is the imposition of the capitalism and economic liberalisation upon the global economy and, in brief, the globalisation of capital (Held and McGrew, 2002). According to this definition, globalisation is the removal of obstacles towards the movement of goods and services across national borders, such as import and export taxes, customs and tariffs, resulting in reduced state control over economies and markets (Soros, 1998; Held and McGrew, 2002).

As may be inferred from the foregoing definition, globalisation has facilitated the movement of capital goods across national borders, with little, if any, state intervention. Within the context of this understanding, globalisation has expanded markets and, importantly, has provided producers, manufacturers and business entities both with access to foreign markets and the ability to compete with domestic goods on relatively equal terms. Even while emphasising the validity of the aforementioned and stressing that trade liberalisation has, to a very large extent, achieved all of the stated, it is important to concede to the fact that environmental regulations have countered the trend towards the free movement of goods and services across national boundaries. Indeed, as this research will argue, environmental regulations have functioned to somewhat stem the flow of capital goods across national boundaries and, to an extent, have afforded domestic producers an advantage over their foreign counterparts.

Extract from uploaded Research Paper: Business and media are inextricably linked in a co-dependent, mutually beneficial relationship. As explained by the media and advertising scholar, Gossage (1987), the media functions as the information bridge between corporations and the public and is the primary and most important channel through which any business concern publicises its existence, let alone its products and services to the public, or consumer market. As for the media and despite the fact that it is supposed to be n objective observer and informant, its fundamental incapacity to do so vis-à-vis business interests are amply proven by King-Shekleman (2000). As King-Shekleman (2000) establishes through the use of empirical and factual evidence, not only is the media owned by business interests and corporate conglomerates but media revenues are primarily generated through positive relations with the business world. Quite simply stated, even the so-called independent, non-corporate owned media cannot function or survive without corporate advertising accounts (King-Shekleman, 2000). Given the inextricable relationship between media and business, a number of ethical concerns, primarily revolving around advertising, emerge. These concerns may be articulated as the persistent failure of the media to constructively discriminate between the products and services it agrees to advertise, the content of advertisement claims, and the consistent failure of many advertisements to adhere to either the media’s ethical guidelines or those imposed upon business concerns through the principle of corporate social responsibility. Even though one must acknowledge the principles of freedom of speech, the fact is that a significant percentage of advertisements, as shall be proven through the use of examples, not only directly violate established media and corporate ethics but have a discernibly and undeniably negative impact upon the society which they target.

Extract from uploaded Information System Security Essay:  CISCOs cannot rely on information security and ethics policies to ensure adherence to ethical computing practices. In spite of information security policies and organizational cultures which both promote and reinforce them, violations are commonplace. In reflecting upon the problems of information technology and computing ethics, this research will explore the academic literature on workplace computing, computer ethics and ethics compliance strategies. This investigation is motivated by the objective of understanding why violations occur and the strategies for enforcing compliance.

Extract from the uploaded Political Science Research:  The European Union, as most critical observers recognize, is a political and economic phenomenon. The successful political and economic unification of a bloc of countries that share neither language, nor even history and a specific culture in common is, indeed, amazing. To underscore this, one need only look at the Arab countries and their failure to even achieve a shallow form of integration, not even a deep one, despite shared language, culture and several centuries of history. Furthermore, the European Union, from its earliest roots as a steel and mining trading unit between a limited numbers of countries, seems to be in a constant process of evolution and development. That is, it sets very comprehensive goals for itself, covering economic, political, social and regional and international security policy frameworks, in addition to future plans for the expansion of the Union. As a means of understanding the European Union’s path and its goals, a brief overview of the evolution process of the Union will be helpful. This overview will provide the basis for a discursive analysis of the phenomenon of labor migration within the framework of the European Union. Labor migration, as the analysis shall highlight, has proven, despite some benefits, to be highly problematic especially since the Barcelona Declaration expanded the parameters of the stated to include migrant labor from within the larger EU neighborhood. In other words, labor migration within the EU is not confined to labor flows between member countries but has been expanded, and further complicated by the inward flow of labor from without the EU.

Extract from uploaded Critical Analysis Essay:  In an era where the traditional notion of the family is being challenged by same-sex marriages, single-parent households and foster-parent families, to name but a few, it is necessary to redefine the concept of the family. Most would immediately, and possibly unthinkingly, define or describe the family as a legal unit which consists of a female wife, a male husband and, possibly, children. The nuclear family, therefore, is assumed to be composed of a father, mother and their children. This notion of the family, however, is not only being challenged by new social realities but by anthropologists such as Jane Collier, Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Sylvia Yanagisako, who quite persuasively argue that the family is not “a universal human institution” (p. 1). As controversial as this argument sounds, one finds support from it in Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of Love and Sara Ruddick’s “Thinking About the Father.” Both scientific and anthropological perspectives on the concept of the family invalidate earlier understandings of the concept and establish that the family is not a universal phenomenon and even where and when it exists in its traditional form, reflects the human desire for familiar patterns.

Extract from uploaded critical analysis:  Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), referring to the inherent right of disabled children to receive a satisfactory and relevant education, is grounded in both civil rights and educational legislature in the United States. It is grounded in Civil Rights doctrine insofar as affirms the rights of disabled children and upholds them as equal to, and just as important as, those enjoyed by non-special needs students across the country. As a civil rights doctrine which confirms and affirms the educational rights of disabled children, it derives its legitimacy from educational legislature such as the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA). Free and Appropriate Public Education is, within the context of the stated, an affirmation of the right of disabled children to receive an education which meets their specific and special needs, without extra cost to them or to their families. Given the legislative roots of the defined right, schools are obligated to provide special needs students with an education which is tailored to meet their specific requirements, even as it prepares them for future independent living and employability. It is interesting to note that even though Free and Appropriate Public Education is clearly delineated by legislature as a right owed to disabled children, the constituent elements of FAPE are not clearly outlined. Questions regarding precisely what constitutes a free and appropriate public education persist. This paper will try to answer these questions.

Extract from the uploaded critical analysis:  Education is not referred to directly in the Constitution. However, there is a veiled reference in Article [X] of The Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by the First Congress on September 25, 1789, and ratified by the States, that does not give the federal government powers to govern public school education, but reserves the rights to the states respectively, or to the people (Kimmelman, 2006). However, included in his proposals for the War on Poverty, President Lyndon Johnson with support from Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) in 1965. ESEA 1965 became part of a long history of over forty federal acts related to education through to the present (Kimmelman, 2006). While all of these acts were designed to improve the delivery of education, to ensure equitable educational opportunities and standardization, the more recent of them (No Child Left Behind) have aroused controversy. In essence, NCLB, among others, has been interpreted as federal intervention in state affairs. As this brief reflection will argue, however, the said intervention has the potential to be highly constructive insofar as it centralises the accountability factor.

Extract from uploaded Research Paper:  There are a plethora of reasons for the persistency and prevalence of female circumcision, popularly referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM). Scholars and FGM activists maintain that the practice has persisted despite campaigns designed to eradicate the practice, not only because of popular perceptions of it as a rite of passage and cultural ritual, but as a direct consequence of its association, however, erroneous, with religious belief and its place in mythology (Hayes, 1975; Obermeyer and Reynolds, 1999, Saadawi, 2002) Hence, as this essay will argue, the persistency and prevalence of FGM in Africa can be traced to its cultural, mythological and religious origins.

Extract from uploaded theology Research Paper:  America experienced social turmoil and racial discord during the 1960s. Black Americans rejected segregation and discrimination, unprosecuted racial violence, and second-class citizenship as status quo. Some believed that peaceful marches and nonviolent sit-ins would accomplish racial equality. Others argued that oppressors will never willingly grant equality. Therefore, it must be demanded, and if necessary, taken by force. As a result, the civil rights era, black power movement, protestors, segregation, bombings, murders, marches, assassinations, racism, the calling up of the National Guard, and riots are all images that evoke the historical period of the 1950s and 1960s. In the midst of this turbulent period, a relatively unknown theologian from a rural town in Arkansas emerged to confront the abstract and irrelevant definitions of white mainstream theology and to speak to the social conditions of black Americans.

Extract from one of the 9 Management Information Study Questions contained in this upload:  The work system is basically comprised of six elements, organized in pyramidical form. At the top of the pyramid is the customers element, followed by products and services then, the business processes. Occupying the base are the participants, information and technology. These elements, or components, their arrangement and the manner in which they are linked, and their modes of operation, are the core of what is referred to as the work system’s architecture, referencing the organization of information within the parameters of the referred to system. This architecture, referring to the manner by which a system operates, is often confused with the concept of work system performance, referring to how well the system operates. These two, however, are distinct despite the fact that the elements and subelements of the architecture furnish the variables used to evaluate performance.

Extract from the uploaded Essay: Conducting business beyond the boundaries and borders of one’s home country is common practice, nowadays. Globalization has not only made international business less complicated but has imposed a set of principles which actively encourage the practice, among which one may mention the removal of all artificial barriers to trade. Despite the ease by which a business firm from the West, for example, may merge with another from the East and undertake investments in the South, however, international business is as bound and regulated by law just as is business conducted within the boundaries of the home country. Therefore, to avoid problems, it is necessary that international corporations, or business forms which intend to expand internationally, have an understanding of the sources of international law and the function of the relevant international organizations.

Extract from uploaded Information Systems Security Essay:  The growing indispensability of computer and internet technologies to the storage, retrieval, communication and analysis of information data has made the adoption of data security technologies an imperative. Most, possibly all, organisation which handle sensitive data have security technologies which are designed to pre-empt and prevent unauthorized intrusion but there is no fool-proof preventative strategy. Therefore, many organizations have digital forensic techniques in place which are designed to trackback unauthorized intrusions and attacks and identify their source. Quoting from the FBI, Oseles (2001) quite effectively highlights the importance of computer forensics by defining it as “the science of obtaining, protecting, retrieving, and presenting information that has been processed electronically and stored on computer.” As indicated in this definition, computer forensics involves the extraction of information which is invariably embedded on a computer or network’s storage system and deciphering it for the purposes of constructing a chain of events which led to the unauthorized intrusion/attack. It is, hence, computer detective work.

Extract from uploaded Information Systems Security Essay: “Largely due to the failure of our board of directors to understand that investment in network defense systems is an investment in the security of the company’s most important asset, its data, our network defense systems are technologically retarded” (ICT Director). Over the past six years, the company has been the victim of several worm outbreaks. Each of these attacks cost us several thousand dollars and, in the case of Mydoom, Witty, and Melissa, close to a hundred thousand per attack. While any one of these incidents should have convinced our board that our network defense systems needed an overhaul, it did not. A recent change in leadership has influenced a change in this way of thinking. The ICT Department has been authorized to implement a more effective and efficient network defense system. It is, thus, that we are moving towards the adoption of a Stego defense system.

Extract from uploaded political economy Research Paper:  Few global economic ideologies or phenomenon have instigated as much controversy as has globalisation. Proponents perceive of it as a blueprint for the globalisation of capital whose benefits, among others, include the transfer of business interests and foreign direct investment to the Lesser Developed Countries of the South (LDC), thereby propelling their economic development and industrialisation. Opponents, however, are more likely to view globalisation as a nefarious plot for the global promotion of the capitalist interests of multinational/transnational corporations culminating, not only in the increased poverty of LDCs but, in the subjugation of nation-states to multinational corporations. While conceding that both perspectives are exaggerated, the following paper shall, through a review of the definition of economic globalisation and the role of global trade and multinational corporations therein, establish economic globalisation as primarily favouring the capitalist interests of transnational corporations. Globalization, by the very nature of its definition as the globalisation of capital, favours capitalist interests, is founded upon the promotion of free trade and actively promotes the interests of multinational corporations. Indeed, following a definition of globalisation, the forthcoming argument shall illustrate that globalisation does not only favour transnational capital but that its twin engines are international trade and multinational corporate activities.

Extract from the uploaded Political Science Researh Paper:  The collapse of the Berlin Wall on 9 November, 1989 highlighted a dramatic year which saw the end of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe and effectively brought the protracted and costly Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union to a close. The peaceful nature and the lack of bloodshed (Romania excepted) was perhaps the most remarkable facet about the events of Eastern Europe in 1989, especially in the light of previous Soviet experiences with independence movements during the Cold War. In dealing with this change, a number of key questions arise: What happened to change Soviet perspective and policy concerning the importance of Eastern Europe, a region in which during the Cold War it twice used force to repress popular political movements and maintain uniformity? In what ways did the “New Political Thinking” of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev mark a radical break from the past, and how did this departure influence events in Eastern Europe? Why did the Soviet Union peacefully allow the members of the Warsaw Pact the right to choose their own future and sociopolitical system? What was happening in CEE in the 1980s that had an impact on the thinking of Gorbachev and other key figures involved in Soviet policy formation, leading them to abandon CEE and, in so doing, facilitate the collapse of communism? This research will examine the relevant events of the late 1980s in order to determine why the Soviet Union left Eastern Europe and the extent to which Gorbachev can be held responsible for the subsequent collapse of communism. Though the reasons for the collapse of communism in the CEE countries are numerous, Gorbachev is at the heart of the said event.

Extract from the uploaded Literature Essay: Jean Paul Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher and writer, contended that “hell is other people.” This statement does not mean to imply that individuals should isolate themselves from others and sever all human ties but that relationships should be based on authenticity and honesty. If not, relationships with others, as evidenced in both Hamlet and The Great Gatsby, have the potential to transport a person to hell.

Hamlet is in hell and while an argument can be made for his having played a fundamental role in the creation of that hell, there is no doubt that his relationship with his mother is at the heart of it. Queen Gertrude’s marriage to Hamlet’s uncle is, without doubt, a source of grievance for Hamlet. That grievance is only compounded upon his learning of his uncle’s complicity in his father’s death. Hamlet’s relationship with both his uncle/step-father and his mother, place him in hell. The fact, however, remains that while his hell is other people, it is also of his own making. This is clearly evidenced in his continued lack of authenticity, expressed in his use of double-tongue and failure to say what he means. When greeting King Hamlet in Act I, for example, he remarks in an aside, “a little more than kin and a little less than kind.” Aloud, however, he greets his uncle quite courteously and does not show his true feelings. This attitude, which is typical of Hamlet and symptomatic of his “to be or not to be dilemma,” evidences the extent to which he is complicit in his own suffering. His failure to be true to his own sentiments and confront his own feelings and beliefs plays a key role in his suffering and, indeed, makes other people hell.
 

Extract from uploaded Philosophy Essay:  Husserl’s phenomenology is difficult to grasp at first due to the fact that his argument appears to contradict the way in which we have been conditioned to think since childhood. The entire concept of ideas and things being known by the senses, while believable, is basically at odds with the way in which we have been programmed to think as people. To explain this, one should refer to the fact that throughout our educational careers, we have been discouraged to think independently or to formulate our own ideas and independent knowledge. Instead, we have been taught that we need first to learn, to acquire the knowledge that has been uncovered for us, and passed down to us by the earlier generations, not to mention that contained in the Holy Books and then, formulate our own ideas and opinions on the basis of that collective knowledge. We may use our senses to make up our minds and pass judgment on certain issues but not to arrive at knowledge as such. Accordingly, and as stated, it is quite safe to say that the primary difficulty that a student faces when reading through Husserl’s Phenomenology is that it forwards a different process of knowledge acquisition and the formulation of ideas than we have been conditioned to operate by. Despite the fact that Husserl’s philosophy is quite different from the way in which we have been normally trained to think, leading to difficulty in fully understanding him, once we open our minds to his argument and his thoughts and consider them carefully, we are hit by the dawning realization that not only is Husserl’s phenomenology directly relevant to the contemporary world but, in a way expressed ideas and conceptualizations of knowledge that exist in most cultures and in many schools of philosophy. This is especially evident in his discussion on “transcendental idealism” (§40) and “phenomenological reduction” (§41).

Extract from posted Political Economy Research Paper:  Poverty is the supposed antithesis of development. Within the parameters of developed societies/nations, there will naturally be those who are relatively poor but there will rarely be those who suffer from chronic or absolute poverty. Conversely, within the confines of underdeveloped societies, both chronic and absolute poverty are the rule, not the exception. The aforementioned has been asserted by several development scholars, with the crux of their argument being that widespread chronic and absolute poverty in any given society is a symptom of underdevelopment and an obstacle to development, with the inference being that poverty alleviation and development policies are coterminous (Sawhill, 1988; Korzeniewics and Smith, 2000; Moller et al., 2003; Ellis and Freeman, 2004; Cornwall and Brock, 2005). Consequently, and as Keen (1992) contends, given that development theory embraces poverty alleviation strategies, one may assume that development policies and programmes are inherently focused upon poverty reduction/elimination.

While the above assertion is valid and development policies, as does development theory, embrace poverty alleviation strategies, the fact remains that they are, more often than not, characterized by failure. The failure of development policies to successfully eradicate, or reduce poverty, is an immediate outcome of inaccurate definitions of poverty, a vague understanding of its causal factors, and a tendency to adopt prescribed development policies, as opposed to ones which have been specifically designed to address the type, cause and consequence of poverty in a specific society/nation. Through an analysis of the meaning of poverty, it variant causes and consequences, and the extent to which type and cause need inform poverty alleviation and development strategies if they are to successfully accomplish the objectives of development and poverty alleviation, the stated hypothesis will be investigated.
 

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Essay: IT has significantly contributed to organisational efficiency and effectiveness. Indeed, in this information age where companies deal with volumes upon volumes of data every single day, it is difficult to imagine the possibility of doing so with any measure of efficiency in the absence of computer and information technologies. At the same time, these same technologies have rendered organisations vulnerable to insider and outsider attacks. This report will focus on the role which organisational employees play in compromising their workplace’s network security and an organisation’s response to incidents of this nature. A case study approach will be used because the focus will be on the Healthcare organization in which the researcher is employer.

Extract from posted Law Edinition Essay:  While the terms judicial independence and judicial impartiality give the impression of an overlap, possibly interchangeably, in meaning, the fact is that each refers to a distinct phenomenon. Prior to defining and explaining each, however, it is important to emphasize that, despite distinctions, judicial impartiality is ultimately linked to, and largely dependant upon judicial independence. The implication here is that the former cannot unfold in the absence of the latter.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of the more pervasive and protracted of our times. It is hardly, however, one of irreconcilable differences since a critical review of the six-decade history of this conflict indicates that periods of calm and tolerant co-existence are not uncommon and that, indeed, more than once, peace transitioned from a distant dream to a semi-tangible reality. The implication here is that peace is possible. This essay will try to establish this argument by focusing on the imperatives of reconciling competing narratives. Proceeding with a historical overview of the conflict, the competing Israeli-Palestinian narratives will then be reviewed, following from which Oslo, despite its eventual failure, will be used to establish the possibility of reconciling the said narratives.

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Essay: Our organization runs an ad hoc wireless network system. At the present moment, and consequent to problems which arose from previous network management systems, the organization is engaged in the implementation of a policy-based management framework for wireless ad hoc networks with focus on Quality of Service [QoS] management. Until the completion of implementation, the ICT director informed me that the questions I was posing were irrelevant. They were irrelevant because they were related to operational automatic network management systems, currently not in place in our organization. Accordingly, the information collected from the ICT director, and which determined the direction of this report, centered around the management of wireless ad hoc networks and policy-based management frameworks.

Extract from posted Contract and Consumer Law Research: As the international trade and contract law scholars Yeon-Koo Che and Tai-Yeong Chung explain, a contract between two parties is the ultimate arbitrator in disputes, insofar as its primary function is not just the coordination of economic interests between parties but the explicit articulation of buyer and seller rights, responsibilities and duties. A contract, within the parameters of the stated definition, is a legal document which specifically articulates the nature of the commercial transaction, inclusive of item/good/service description, mode of delivery and receipt, further outlining the rights and duties of the contracting parties towards one another. The aforementioned definition of a sale of goods contract is further upheld by the law lecturer and scholar, Paul Todd. As noted by Todd, the sale of goods contract functions to articulate the conditions of a particular transaction and elucidate its particularities, from the description of the goods being sold to the place and time of delivery. In other words, the sale of goods contract details the conditions and circumstances which would govern a particular transaction. Given the supposedly comprehensive nature of the referenced document it thus functions as a reference point in instances of contract dispute.

Extract from posted Management and Leadership Research: Contemporary management models, ranging from the classic ones such as strategic and behavioural management to the more revolutionary ones, such as lean and total quality management, devote considerable space to the role of leadership in organisational success. The delegation of responsibilities, the creation and sustenance of proactive, problem-solving work force/human resources, and the imperatives of shared decision-making are all incontrovertibly important and, accordingly have been interpreted by some theorists as testament to the decreasing importance of leadership (Gilbert, 2004; Svensson, 2005; Rad, 2005). This is an erroneous assumption, predicated on a misunderstanding of the distinction between authoritarian leadership and involved, proactive leadership. The distinction between the two is not only real but is one which makes all the difference between organisational success and failure; between organisational atrophy and organisational flexibility. As Baker et al. (1993) asserts, effective organisational leadership is a leadership which acknowledges the inherent value of delegation and autonomy but which at the same time, is present and involved; a leadership which displays, not only acumen in decision-making and strategic planning but which has the capacity to proactively to extraordinary circumstances through the utilisation of both change and crisis is management tools, such as demanded by the specific of the situation/crisis/change at hand. The effective leader is, in other words, one who has successfully negotiated the fine balance between involvement and delegation.

Extract from posted Political Philosophy Essay:  In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their co-authored political treatise, The Communist Manifesto (Laski, 1999, p. 49). This rather short book has, in the decades following its publication, established itself as one of the most influential in modern history. The Communist Manifesto has not only directly impacted the lives of millions around the world and incited revolutions, with the most famous being the Russian Revolution of 1917 but, it changed the course of world history. As Marx himself wrote in Theses on Feuerbach, “hitherto … it was the mission of philosophers to interpret the world: now it is our business to change it” (qtd in Laski, 1999, p. 52). Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine the Cold War ever having unfolded were it not for The Communist Manifesto and the ideology to which it gave rise. Given the scope and range of the influence which The Communist Manifesto has had on the world, it is interesting to question the work’s roots and origins. As this essay will show, the work was influenced by a wide variety of factors, the most important of which were economic history and Marx and Engels’ contemporary economic reality.

Extract from posted Analytical Essay: Some correlate the value of life with race, rather than with personal attributes and character traits. It is, thus, that the death of a poor inconsequential black youth may be disregarded by law enforcement, the public and the media while the death of a middle-class, white youth may be mourned as a national tragedy. In a world where all things are equal, both deaths would be regarded as a tragic and unnecessary waste of life but, as Gary Younge proclaims in “Shots in the Dark,” all things are not equal. While Younge’s argument is over-reliant on emotional appeals and his word choice is indicative of bias, his argument, strategy of argumentation and word choice is persuasive, carries an ethical appeal and, ultimately, emerges as credible.

Younge’s argument is overly reliant on emotional appeals, as evidenced through his strategy of argumentation. He begins his argument with an image of Brandon browsing through video games at a store, thereby emphasizing the extent of his ordinariness as a 16 year old American teen. His interests and hobbies are those of any other teenager; he likes to hang out with his friends, play video games and go out with girls. By projecting this image of Brandon, Younge is negating law enforcement’s counter-image; the image of Brandon as a gun-wielding and violent gang member whose murder is, thus, justifiable.
 

Extract from the posted Medical History, Deductive Essay:  The Ancient Greeks have, for millennia, been credited with laying the foundations of professional medical practice. In consideration of the fact that the Ancient Egyptian civilization not only predated that of the Greeks but by popular acclaim was, in its heyday, more advanced, archaeologists have often questioned whether the Greeks were, indeed, the fathers of medicine. As Pain (2007) explains, while “according to the textbooks, science-based medicine and effective pharmacy began with the Greeks … the Ancient Egyptians clearly practiced medicine long before the Greeks” (Pain, 2007, para 3). Both Egyptologists and medical practitioners have tended towards this view for quite some time. As reported by Pellegrino (1963), Egyptologists, archaeologists and medical practitioners have long argued that existing evidence of the scientific advances which the Ancient Egyptians had attained rendered the assumption that they had not made similar medical advancements nonsensical. Indeed, while not minimizing the role of the Ancient Greeks in the foundation of the medical profession, available evidence indicates that the Egyptians, not the Greeks, were the founders of the field and the profession. Translations of ancient Egyptian papyri establish that the Ancient Egyptians established the science of pharmacology, dentistry, surgery, orthopaedics and general medicine, among others, clearly supporting the contention that medicine was born in Ancient Egypt, not Greece.

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Essay: An increasing variety of malware like worms, spyware and adware threatens both personal and business computing (Computer Security Institute, 2005). Since 2001, large-scale Internet worm outbreaks have not only compromised hundreds of thousands of computer systems but also slowed down many parts of the Internet (Moore et al., 2002; Moore et al, 2003). As a company we were not immune to malware attacks and infections but we do try to protect our data as effectively as possible. It is, thus, that we have implemented two levels of protection: client and server anti-malware software and technologies.

Extract from posted Research Memo: Having been the flu season, last January we were forced to hire temporary workers for our call centre. All came highly recommended and were interviewed by the HR department. All temporary workers sat for an orientation session and their work duties were explicitly outlined for them. There appeared to be no problems with either their understanding of their tasks or their references and qualifications. Shortly, thereafter, however, the ICT Department detected unusual IT activities and launched an investigation. The Secret Service was informed as initial investigations indicated that patients’ files were being accessed and data contained therein, copied. Later investigations revealed that it was an insider incident, involved the theft of subsequent selling of patients’ credit card numbers, and that the activities emanates from the Call Centre. Having provided you with a general overview of the situation, I will now explain its potential and actual consequences, summarize the results of the post-mortem and clarify both lessons learnt and future action.

Extract from posted Sales Law Research: As pertains to Mr. John Green’s statement, it is evident that he entered into a sales contract with Breakspears Bathrooms Ltd., for the purchase of the Carlton Suite and, as per the contractual arrangement, a free shower cabinet. He paid a 10% deposit and the remainder upon the delivery of the suite. The arrangement between Mr. Green and Breakspears Bathrooms Ltd., is governed by the SoGA and assessment of liabilities and remedies shall proceed in accordance with the terms provided by the aforementioned act, in addition to the Trade Description and Consumer Protection acts.

Advice to Mr. Green shall first proceed from the understanding that the product delivered was not of satisfactory quality and did not correspond with the prominently displayed description. Further, the failure of Breakspears to deliver the shower cabinet, explicitly identified as included within the Carlton Suite and the poor quality of installation service extended shall all be considered from the perspective of the stated acts, with the relevant remedies identified.
 

Extract from posted Political Economy Research Paper: In an era of economic globalisation and the supposed triumph of the neoliberal market ideology, the role of the state in the economy has been, theoretically speaking, minimised. Indeed, some political economic theorists have proclaimed the demise of the state as an economic force, contending that the global economy is moving from shallow to deep integration, a transition which effectively renders the state an obsolete economic entity. Some development economists have even gone so far as to argue that the state no longer has a place in national economy development programmes, projects and strategies as the age of intervention has receded into history. While not denying that globalisation has, to an extent, reduced the economic role of the state, the fact remains that it retains the power to formulate and implement such protectionist policies as would restrict the volume of trade inflows into the domestic economy. Protectionism, in other words, has survived globalisation and in that survival is both a testimony and concession to the fact that, beyond the globalisation-rhetoric, the state has retained its role as a significant economic player.

There is no doubt that globalisation has reduced the role of the state in the economy but, there is equally no doubt that protectionism has survived globalisation and remains one of the more significant of the state’s instruments for ensuring the welfare of its domestic market. Following a definition of protectionism and an examination of its pre- and post-globalisation forms and mechanisms, this paper shall argue that despite arguments to the contrary, protectionism often serves fundamental and constructive economic purposes.
 

Extract from uploaded Information Systems Security Essay:  Anti-piracy laws are strict and offenders, whether individuals or corporations, are often confronted with very high fines. As regards organizations, it is the responsibility of management to ensure that employees do not violate anti-piracy laws. This responsibility is often delegated to the IT, or ICT, department. Corporate policies alone cannot, and do not, ensure employee compliance with anti-piracy laws and regulations (Kizza, 2002). Since, however, it is the company, not employees, who are held liable for copyright infringements, they often look for deterrence mechanisms which go beyond policies. Following an audit by the Business Software Alliance, in which our organization was found guilty of violating copyright laws and of running unlicensed, pirated, software on some of its computers, the ICT department experimented with both software and hardware deterrence mechanisms prior to implementing the former.

Extract from posted Law Coursework:  The Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Consumer Credit Act 1974 say that, if you can show the goods to be faulty or misdescribed, you have 'for a short time after purchase' a right to reject the goods and get a refund of the purchase price. This will include the return of the product in question if this is still available, or of the full value placed on it, if it has been disposed of.

In Mr. Green’s case, since he had the suite for a short time and as a consequence of the fact that it was faulty and misdescribed (shower cabinet), he is entitled to a refund.

Since Mr. Green has decided to try to reject the cabinet, he must stop using it and contact the seller/finance company to clarify his rejection and reasons thereof. Following that, it is necessary to record the rejection and the reasons for the stated, in addition to the desire for a refund, to the finance company/seller. A repair of the taps, replacement of the discolored bath and delivery of the shower cabinet may be accepted as a remedy. However, if this remedy is not satisfactory, consequent to faulty repair or the failure to deliver the shower cabinet, as per the contractually described one, Mr. Green may still claim a refund. Furthermore, considering that the fault was detected immediately upon delivery and installation, another remedy available to Mr. Green is the request for a reduction in price to compensate for the fault and the non delivery of the shower cabinet. In other words, the available remedies are refund, repair, reduction in price or rescission.
 

Extract from posted Literature Essay:  Written in December 1898, and one of Chopin’s last stories, “The Storm” was unpublished until 1969, when Per Seyersted included it in Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. In fact when Daniel Rankin published Chopin’s works in 1932, he chose to “pass it over in silence” (Seyersted 164). The reason, as any reader may determine for him/herself lies in the boldness of the story itself. When considering that this was written in the nineteenth century and follows the adulterous affair of a mother and wife, and reports it without condemnation, one can see that the reading public at the turn of the century was hardly ready for Chopin’s almost light-hearted presentation of adultery. In this story, the bonds of matrimony are surprisingly loose; the hidden world of passion is able not only to seep out but to be enjoyed. Chopin even says the main character finds her “birthright” in her adulterous encounter with her old boyfriend, suggesting her affirmation of transgression against marital vows and societal norms and moral codes. A critical reading of this story suggests that all of setting, style, tone and language affirm the incident of adultery from which the story gains its impetus and that even the weather, the storm, conspires to protect the lovers’ secret.

Extract from posted Criminal Law Research Paper:  Within the framework of criminal liability, the concept of inchoate liability and criminal attempt seemingly emerge, not only as self-explanatory but, as intrinsic elements of a comprehensive structure for the evaluation and determination of criminal responsibility. A more critical review of these concepts, especially within the framework the law of attempts, exposes the complexities inherent therein. From the liberal point of view, to hold a person criminally responsible for a crime which has not actually been committed, although evidence indicates that it had been prepared for, implies holding people guilty on the basis of their thoughts alone. Indeed, attempts liability entails punishing a person for something which he has not actually done but which he had planned to do at some point in the future. As such, attempts liability is founded upon a “deeds principle” which appears in direct violation of the “harms principle” upon which the very concept of punishment is founded. The stated brings us directly to the subjectivism/objectivism debate which, in itself, reflects important controversies in the entire concept of criminal liability.

Extract from posted Management Model Answers:  Family-run and staffed business enterprises are not uncommon and should job requirements correspond with individual qualifications, should not be problematic and may be successful. The problem with Argentina Suites, therefore, is not that it is staffed with family members but that the predominant criteria for hiring appears to be familial connections, irrespective of professional abilities and, added to that, there is neither a strong organizational cultural or an effective and efficient management in place. The implication here is that a thorough review of the case indicates that the primary cultural and social institutional challenges/problems confronting Argentina Suites is the absence of an organisational culture, as would promote both organisational commitment and ethical behaviors among employees, and a leadership vacuum.

Arguing that Argentina Suites’ problem primarily stems from the absence, or nature of its organisational culture, necessitates the definition of the latter and an explanation of its importance. The concept of organizational culture is of singular importance within organizational framework, insofar as it embraces and articulates specific organization’s unique set of ethos. That ethos is the primary force shaping and directing the level of formality operative within an organization; the degree of loyalty employees exhibit towards it; and the ethical standards and behavioural norms that supposedly guide the actions of employees. Indeed, as MacMohan and Harvey (2007) contend, an organization’s culture simultaneously functions as the foundations upon which employees base their behavior and the environment within which organisational commitment and loyalty are born. As such, it is the framework within which an organisation’s social and institutional characteristics are defined and, accordingly, can function to either motivate organisational success or determine failure (MacMohan and Harvey, 2007).

In direct reference to Argentina Suites, the absence of an organisational culture is evident in the behavior of employees. Irrespective of the fact that the majority cannot seem to articulate the requirements and responsibilities of their job, the fact is that they do not even adhere to those responsibilities which they know to be an integral part of their job description. Hence, the front of the hotel is often left unattended and employees regularly leave their posts. Added to that, employee behaviors and decisions have, on occasions, been incontrovertibly unethical and have, as such, functioned as an immediate threat o the hotel’s financial wellbeing.
 

Extract from posted Case Law Essay:  Negligence, as defined by case law, occurs when a proprietor has `reasonable’ knowledge of hazard but fails to prevent it or warn patrons of its presence. As noted in Deering Woods, supra, 377 Md. At 264, the invitor/proprietor has a legally established duty to ensure the safety of his invitees/patrons and in executing the stated duty, is required to eliminate a known harm and to exercise the effort requisite in identifying harm. A failure to do so, culminating in that harm’s negatively impacting an invitee/patron, means that the proprietor/invitor was negligent in the execution of his duties. Therefore, it is within the parameters of the invitor/proprietor’s legally defined responsibilities to exercise reasonable vigilance for the detection of hazard and to remove identified hazards.

Extract from posted Civil Justice Systems Research: Where the civic rights of their citizenry are concerned, Canada and Turkey stand in sharp contrast to one another. As Roach (2000) explains, the passage of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms fundamentally changed criminal proceedings in the country and irrevocably limited the powers of the police force with regards to arrest, detention and seizure. While not intending to imply that prior to the passage of the Charter in 1982 Canadian law enforcement and criminal justice were dismissive of the civic rights of their citizenry, Roach (2000) contends that the Charter fortified and solidified those rights. Arrest, detention and seizure are governed by stringent regulations and limitations which, according to Pilon (2000) are primarily intended to protect the citizenry against unreasonable searches, unjustifiable detentions and importantly, against the possibility of law enforcement’s abusing its powers. It is in relation to the stated that Turkey stands in direct contrast to Canada. This Eurasian nation has been cited for human rights abuses on countless occasions and both Amnesty International and the European Commission for Human Rights have repeatedly shed light on abuses vis-à-vis all of search, seizure and detention (ECHR, 2003; U.S. Department of State, 2007). A comparison of the arrest, detention and seizure framework in Canada and Turkey will serve to underscore the imperatives of limiting police authority through the clear explication of the citizenry’s civic rights for the prevention of abuses which translate into nothing less than inexcusable miscarriages of justice.

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Essay: “Our operating system is the nerve centre of our entire organization. Upon infection, every single computer user in this entire company feels the effects and in instances of OS crash, every linked terminal is paralyzed” (ICT Director). Choice of operating system, therefore, is one of the most important decisions which an organization makes, as is the decision to upgrade the OS or implement another. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s domination of the OS market has wrested that choice away from user and, to all intents and purposes, imposed the Windows OS family upon them, irrespective of their preferences.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Online/distance learning programs are rapidly gaining international popularity because they provide adult learners with the opportunity to further their education, whether for career or personal purposes, irrespective of time and space. Within the context of an increasingly and intensively competitive labor market, continued education is an essential strategy for the acquisition of a competitive edge but the primary obstacle to the acquisition of this particular competitive advantage is time constraints and geographic distance. Online education has emerged as the solution to the stated and, as such, is gaining ever-increasing popularity.

Paradoxically, however, even as more and more people are expressing interest in enrollment in online programs, online learners are experiencing dissatisfaction and disappointment. There are several reasons for the stated, not least of which are the lack on interpersonal interaction and the novelty of the experience. It is precisely because of this that it is imperative that universities which deliver online courses and educational programs design and implement a best-practices framework. Doing so requires that university administrators and faculty review and evaluate their online courses for the purposes of determining extent of adherence to best practices, following from which, if needed, they should redesign the courses in question with the said best practices framework in mind.
 

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Research Memo: Dear Ms. O’Shaunessy,
Prior to answering your question, I would like to draw attention to the fact that there are no accurate figures on the cost of computer crimes. Rhodes-Ousley, Bragg, and Strassberg (2003) point out that many identity theft victims are not aware of the fact that their privacy has been violated and their identity exploited and more companies than imaginable do not report intrusion and data violation. As pertains to the first, individual users do not have the means/technologies to detect intrusion and are only made aware of identity theft when their credit scores are virtually destroyed. As pertains to the second, publicity concerns often dissuade companies from reporting violations to authorities. They fear that doing so would adversely impact their standing in the market and undermine customer trust. Accordingly, many prefer not to report incidents of attack. Even those who do sometimes betray a definite lack of transparency regarding the financial losses incurred as a result (Rhodes-Ousley, Bragg, and Strassberg, 2003). Hence, the figures which I will cite are not an accurate representation of the cost of computer crimes, although they are based on the latest data.
 

Extract from one of the posted Model Answers:  What is the difference between MIS, DSS, and EIS?
Management Information Systems (MIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Executive Support Systems, all of which are Business-related Information Systems, share some similarities but, are ultimately differentiated in terms of components, dynamics, analytical methods and general properties.

MIS function to furnish managers with reports on past and current organizational performance, thereby enabling the monitory of actual business performance and aiding the prediction of future ones. Within such a context, it may be described as addressing the needs of those managers who are interested in weekly, monthly and/or yearly results, compared to day-to-day ones. Furthermore, founded upon the Transaction Processing System (TPS), MIS draws data from internal organization sources, summarizes it, and presents that transaction data in long report-format. These reports which are produced regularly and answer structured questions, are processed via a simple method that relies on comparison and summarization. Therefore, processing involves reports, simple models and low-level analysis, outputting summary and exception reports. As regards users, MIS are primarily employed by professionals and staff managers.
 

Topics Covered:

MIS, DSS, and EIS
EDI vs SCM Systems
DBMS
DFD
Five Levels of Integration.
Information and Work Systems
Efficiency vs Effectiveness
Six Data Processing Operations
Moore’s Law
 

Extract from one of the posted Study Questions: What are some of the special characteristics of information products and why are these characteristics important?
Information products may be defined as the primary type in today’s digital world and, have five primary characteristics. These are intangibility, copyability, non consumability, transportability and manipulability. To these five, which will shortly be expanded upon through definitions and examples, we may add a few more such as the fact that information products are somewhat time-dependant (new releases of software; and to be distinguished from nonconsumability), can be shared by multiple users in a non rival manner (countless may purchase a subscription to read the same book over the Internet), and can be transported via a multitude of methods.

Topics Covered:

Information Products
Cookies
Storage of Personal Information
Machine-Centered and Human-Centered Design
People vs Machines
RISC and CISC
Parallel Processing
Machine, Assembly, Higher-Level, and 4G Languages
COBOL vs 4GLs

 

Extract from uploaded Criminal Law Essay: As crime increases in both intensity and rate, the justifications for violence are similarly increasing. Not only is aggravated assault being justified but the ultimate in crime, the murder of innocent civilians, is being excused through reference to such phenomenon as road rage, black rage and, more recently, sports parent rage, among others. Commenting on the aforementioned trend in an article entitled “The Abuse Excuse Is Detrimental to the Justice System, the renown defense attorney and legal scholar, Alan Dershowitz argues that the problem is not so much that the justifications for murder and violence are becoming increasingly ludicrous but that jurors and courts are accepting them. Added to that, and as the equally famed defense attorney, Leslie Abramson points out, the criminal justice system is further conspiring against its own self and undermining its own effectiveness by reneging on the principle of the equality of all before the law. People are not comparably judged for comparable crimes, according to Abramson. Indeed, the arguments forwarded by both Dershowitz and Abramson appear to underscore the degree to which the law is failing in its responsibility to deter crime through the deliverance of justice. Even while conceding to the validity of Dershowitz and Abramson’s arguments, the fact remains that some homicides are justifiable, that retaliatory justice is a legitimate phenomenon and, the key to the deliverance of effective justice lies in the implementation of Black’s Law Dictionary’s distinctions between the various types of homicide.

Extract from posted Research Paper: In the study of human evolution the importance of understanding the paleoanthropological evidence from Asia cannot be overemphasized. This is true not only because a substantial part of the total evidence derives from Asia, but also because the Asian evidence has figured prominently in previous and current arguments about the nature of organic evolution in general and hominid evolution specifically. Renewed research efforts in China, Indonesia and other Asian localities also underscores the importance of placing new finds in a chronologic and phylogenetic framework which logically and consistently accommodates all Asian hominid finds.

Extract from posted Information Systems Security Essay: Our organization runs an ad hoc wireless network system. At the present moment, and consequent to problems which arose from previous network management systems, the organization is engaged in the implementation of a policy-based management framework for wireless ad hoc networks with focus on Quality of Service [QoS] management. Until the completion of implementation, the ICT director informed me that the questions I was posing were irrelevant. They were irrelevant because they were related to operational automatic network management systems, currently not in place in our organization. Accordingly, the information collected from the ICT director, and which determined the direction of this report, centered around the management of wireless ad hoc networks and policy-based management frameworks.

Extracted from posted Sales and Contract Law Research: As pertains to Mr. John Green’s statement, it is evident that he entered into a sales contract with Breakspears Bathrooms Ltd., for the purchase of the Carlton Suite and, as per the contractual arrangement, a free shower cabinet. He paid a 10% deposit and the remainder upon the delivery of the suite. The arrangement between Mr. Green and Breakspears Bathrooms Ltd., is governed by the SoGA and assessment of liabilities and remedies shall proceed in accordance with the terms provided by the aforementioned act, in addition to the Trade Description and Consumer Protection acts.

Advice to Mr. Green shall first proceed from the understanding that the product delivered was not of satisfactory quality and did not correspond with the prominently displayed description. Further, the failure of Breakspears to deliver the shower cabinet, explicitly identified as included within the Carlton Suite and the poor quality of installation service extended shall all be considered from the perspective of the stated acts, with the relevant remedies identified.
 

Extract from posted Information System Security Essay:  In an era of information technology, it is contingent upon organizations to both secure their computers and networks against unauthorized penetration and to implement a digital forensics system which would provide them with the necessary details regarding digital incidents. As Francia (2006) contends, the implementation of both network security and digital forensics technologies is a responsibility which organizations owe to themselves, their customers and the law. Concurring, Hasan, Sion and Winslett (2007) emphasize that each and every incident of attempted and successful unauthorized penetration should be investigated and the findings of the investigation be written up in reports which detail the incident, identify the attack source and forward recommendations for action. Certainly, digital forensics investigations are time-consuming and resource-consumptive but are integral to the continued securitization of an organization’s data and the protection of both its customers and its market status. Following a brief overview of the type of information which Digital Investigation Reports are expected to contain, this essay will examine the question of what organizational managers expect to see in these reports and why.

Extract from posted Research Paper: Osama Bin Laden, a citizen of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was born to a self-made Saudi construction billionaire. His family life appears to have been somewhat unstable as evidenced in the fact that his mother was his father’s tenth wife and were divorced early in his childhood. With three half brothers and sisters from his mother’s side and over fifteen from his father’s, it would be hard to assume that he, in anyway, benefited from a stable home environment. Nevertheless, while his family life may have been unstable, familial wealth afforded him countless opportunities and experiences. These included education in the best private schools in Saudi Arabia, education in Europe and the United States as well as unlimited world travel and contact with the global economic and social elite (Jacquard, 2002). Despite these and countless other opportunities, however, Bin Laden exhibited a persistent tendency towards religious fanaticism and upon the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, joined the mujahedeen forces. His career in terrorism began at this point.

Extract from posted Essay: The legal department is the core of our organization and, indeed, is deeply involved in the activities of most departments, serving both to guide and to counsel. As one would assume the case to be with any organization involved in research, development, manufacturing, business to business sales and post-sales services, not only are their contracts to fulfill and intellectual property issues to contend with but the IT department has, twice in the past year, been at the forefront of legal cases. To further illustrate the centrality of legal policies and issues, hence the legal department, to the organization’s overall and general activities, this essay will define a number of legal terms in relation to the organization’s activities.

Contracts and the organization’s ability to fulfill them are intrinsic to its business survival. As Adoranti (2006) explains, business to business and commercial contracts explicitly define the obligations of sellers and buyers. This includes the specifications of the contacted for products/services, their quality and time/place of delivery. The violation of contractual obligations, on either side, can be cause for the invalidation of the contract and grounds for the payment of financial penalties (Adoranti, 2006). As our organization’s legal councilor emphasized, the binding form of contracts implies that it is incumbent upon the organization to ensure that a contract works in its favor and not against it. Hence, within the context of our organization, the policy is that no sales contract is signed prior to the formulation of an inter-departmental business plan which details how the organization will fulfill the contract and whether, indeed, it can. Only following a thorough review of this plan does the legal department authorize the signature of the contract.
 

Extract from posted International Civil Law Research Paper: The law of salvage, dating back to the Byzantium era, is comprised of five elements. These are (1) voluntary, (2) services, (3) maritime property, (4) danger and (5) success. The accurate understanding of the common law of salvage and how cases within are decided is dependant upon a comprehension of the implications of each of these terms/elements of salvage law. It is, thus, that each shall now be discussed in turn and as they have been defined by both the Merchant Shipping Act, 1995 and case law, or decided cases.

The first fact which must be determined when assessing maritime claims is whether or not the vessel in question was in danger. This means that in order for there to be grounds or justification for a salvage operation, or effort, it is imperative that a vessel be identified as confronting imminent pr potential peril. The danger, or peril, referred to here implies the actual, imminent or potential confrontation of conditions which would, or already have, exposed the vessel to the threat of loss, destruction or deterioration. Not only that but, for salvage to be justified, the vessel in question cannot have the situation under control. Quite simply stated, if the supposedly endangered vessel has threat under control, then there are no grounds for salvage. Hence, salvage is predicated on the presence of a risk to all that which is on board the vessel.
 

Extract from posted Information Security Systems Essay: Over the past five years, my organisation suffered two security incidents, one of which was somewhat unavoidable and the other a consequence of an oversight by the network administrator. This essay, which shall describe both attacks, will attempt to clarify the extent to which the unauthorised penetration of a company’s network can have consequences which extend beyond damage and impact to the potentially catastrophic.

The first security incident to which the company was exposed was not a consequence of an outsider attack but an insider’s theft of the network administrator’s password. As related by the network administrator himself, despite everything he knew about the imperatives of committing passwords to memory and not writing them down or, if one does write them down, ensure that no person has access to the device or slip of paper on which the password is stored or written. The administrator had stored his admin password on his mobile phone and had left the phone unattended in his office. At that time he had not realized that his mobile had been tampered with or that anyone had retrieved the admin password and user name from it. Approximately two weeks later, a virus was uploaded to the company’s server and effectively shredded all employee information. Investigations into the attack uncovered evidence from the data dump and the syslog files which indicated that the virus had been directly uploaded from within the organization by the administrator himself. At least, the username and the password the attacker had entered to access the company’s server were the administrator’s. Further investigations revealed the password theft incident and identified the attacker as a disgruntled IT employee, who had just been put on notice by the administrator. The employee in question was, of course, fired and legal measures were taken against him. The employee records, after the investment of considerable effort and time by the IT department, were retrieved.

The security incident described in the above, comprises a malicious attack whose potential for damage was significant. The attacker limited himself to the uploaded of a virus but, alternatively, he could have retrieved company information which was of value to competitors, such as client lists and a proposal that the company was putting together, at that time, for a bid. The consequences, in other words, could have been more damaging than they ultimately were, not because the company’s network security system was effective but because the attacker’s goal was limited to the uploading of the virus in question.
 

Extract from posted Comparative Justice Systems Research Paper: Within the context of civil law, to which almost 50% of the world’s countries profess adherence, criminal justice theoretically derives from the Roman tradition. As Reichel (2005) explains, this system is, in comparison to other legal traditions and most notably common law, it is an uncompromisingly inquisitorial system wherein the word, as opposed to the spirit, of the law predominates and the accused, in comparison to the aforementioned system, have somewhat lesser rights. It is a fundamentally elitist system wherein the sovereign/political leader is above the law and there is an abiding respect for tradition, as opposed to common law custom (Reichtel, 2005). The provided definition, largely because it tends towards the general, is a valid description for the majority of civil law systems, with Saudi Arabia standing out as a notable exception. As a civil law system, the uniqueness of the Saudi Arabian criminal justice system leads one to question whether indeed it can be categorized as such or, more accurately, as a religious system.

Extract from one of the posted Study Questions:What is the difference between SSL and SET?
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol that Netscape created. In brief, it enables the establishment of a secure connection between web servers and web clients. Generally speaking, SSL employs the public key cryptology system as a means of ensuring data security during a transmission process. In addition, within the context of the SSL session, both client and server create a unique session key which will be used for the encryption of sensitive data during SSL data exchange process.

In comparison, Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) refers to a credit card payment system developed by Visa and MasterCard as a means of ensuring security of data during online payment/financial transactions. Similar to SSL, it is primarily dependant on cryptology technique with the primary difference here being the use of the e-wallet in which are stored credit card numbers and digital certificate.
 

Topics Dealt with:

SSL vs SET
Shortcoming of Passwords
Pilot Implementations, Acceptance Testing, and Post-Implementation Audits
Traditional System Life Cycle
Business Process Reengineering
Interorganizational Information Systems
Legacy Systems
Bandwidth Limitation
Twisted Pair, Coaxial Cable, and Fiber Optic Cable
 

Extract from one of the posted Exam Answers:

1) Discuss the relationship of myth and history in Barthes’ MYTHOLOGIES
Myth is historical and semiological; it is not natura. As such, history mythologized as a consequence of the progress of a collective of contextual signifiers. These signifiers are composed of historically located responses to historical events. The implication here is that the relationship between myth and history emanates from historical texts and the language with which history is communicated and subsequently interpreted and re-interpreted.

Given the outlined source of the relationship between history and myth, semiology and signs emerge as central concerns. The whole of semiology contains as an inherent notion the correlation between the signifier and the signified: the synthesis of these two elements leads to the sign. The signified, in Barthes' terminology, is the concept; the signifier is the mental or lexical referent to the signified; and the sign is the correlation between the signifier and the signified. This is the basic pattern for following a “tri-dimensional” approach to semiological definition. A semiological metacritical approach to the canonization of a. particular text, representative here of history, equates the signified, or historical concept, with its representative text; the signifier, or mental/lexical referent to the signified, to the range of critical response to the event/epoch; and the signifier and the signified ultimately coalesce to form a sign, in this case, the continual interpretation and re-interpretation of history. Barthes' conjecture that “myth is a peculiar system, in that it is constructed from a semiological chain which existed before it: it is a second-order semiological system,” facilitates the equation of history with mythology (Mythologies 114). Like myth, criticism is not isolated; criticism occurs and is apprehended within an existing system.

In other words, myth exists because it is absorbed within a history of thoughts and concepts that pre-exist the formulation of the myth and give form to the myth-a concept that invests theories of evaluation as well. At the same time, history exists and continues, passing from one generation to the next, because it has assumed the stature of myth. A myth cannot exist without an historical and sociological influence, just as criticism does not exist independent of historical and sociological influences. As history, mythology is best understood through the linguistic science of semiology. Myth is a signification, as opposed to a sign or a signifier.

According to Barthes, language, which he refers to as the “language/object,” is necessary only in that it is essential to the conveyance of the myth itself and the subsequent perpetuation of history. Mythology must have a mode through which it passes into realization. Mythology usurps the language-object and converts it to metalanguage. It is this conversion into metalanguage that allows the mythologist a clear notion of the form behind the myth, of the history which gave rise to the myth. The mythologist's ability to see beyond the confines of the language-object into the cohesive formulation of the mythical metalanguage is paramount. Myth depends upon the overlapping of the second-order onto the first-order system. Barthes offers a description of the difference between the signifier, signified, and sign in the traditional semiological system (first-order) and the mythological (second-order) semiological system.

As indicated in the foregoing, this overlapping of semiological referents is essential to grasping Barthes' idea of the formulation of myth and the correlation between myth and history, or the mythologization of history. Barthes' use of "signification" as the final term of the myth is important because, as he points out, the myth serves a further purpose than offering one central meaning. Indeed, a mythologist's job is fully realized when she realizes the impossibility of locating the origin of a mythological referent. Much like deconstruction, myth denies conclusion; myth allows only eternal displacement. Myth is history and history is myth from within the Barthesian perspective.
 

Extract from one of the posted Model Answers: 

1) Discuss the influence of existentialism on Beauvoir’s account of ‘la condition feminine?
When The Second Sex is read in the context of Beauvoir's ethical and political project and against the background of Sartrean philosophy, the extent to which it is influenced by existentialism is clarified. It is important to note, however, that Beauvoir hardly repeats Sartrean existentialist philosophy and despite her defence of its basic tenants, ultimately conveys her own brand of ethics. Indeed, The Second Sex is philosophically grounded in the ethics that Beauvoir developed in The Ethics of Ambiguity and is driven by her insistence, contra Sartre, that ethical relationships with others are possible, and that relating to others ethically will require the acceptance of our ambiguity as situated and embodied subjects.

Beauvoir’s work demonstrates that existentialism (or more precisely, Sartrean existentialism) could provide the basis for an ethics. However, it would be wrong to read The Second Sex only in the context of Sartre's thought, or even to assume that in them Beauvoir remains entirely consistent with Sartre's thought in Being and Nothingness. One of the ways in which her description of the female condition show Beauvoir's thinking diverging from Sartre's is in the relation between situation and freedom.

The concept of freedom that founds The Second Sex isn't Sartrean absolute ontological freedom (the pour-soi) but is a conception of concrete freedom that Beauvoir developed in the essays: freedom that requires concrete opportunities, an open future and the recognition of others. For Beauvoir, freedom is not the spontaneous upsurge of consciousness, but is the extent to which we can establish real, concrete actions and projects on the basis of this upsurge. Freedom requires certain material conditions for its realization; it is conditioned, and can even be denied by our situation. There are social and economic situations which are so restrictive that they are experienced as natural, as given.

Beauvoir describes the female condition of being a freedom-in-situation as ambiguity. This ambiguity is complex: as a freedom/consciousness, we are solitary and separate, but since that freedom requires concrete expression and the recognition of others we are also interdependent. As a situated freedom our freedom is always made manifest through our body, and this too is an aspect of our ambiguity. Since our body is our grasp on the world, it is the instrument through which we express our individuality, but it is also as embodied that we are enmeshed in a species. As it involves us in a species-being, our body doesn't express our individuality but contests and undermines it. Beauvoir insists that women must assume this ambiguity in a 'conversion' that moves us beyond oppressive and dominating relations with others and allows for the possibility of generosity as we take on the real risks of human freedom.

Beauvoir's focus on women led her to see that embodiment was not the same experience for women as it was for men. She began to see that the experience of embodiment was enmeshed in a web of social and material conditions. Indeed, she developed a very pointed thesis: that in patriarchal culture, men are very easily able to identify their bodies with freedom and transcendence, and that women are led, almost inevitably, to identify their own bodies with immanence. This realization merges with her ethics and her growing awareness of the importance of material conditions and concrete freedom to make up the main argument of The Second Sex.

In the final analysis, one can confirm that the existentialism is clearly apparent in Beauvoir’s depiction of the female condition. It is amply evidenced in her argument that men have defined themselves as the Absolute Subject by creating women as the Other, and that a crucial aspect of this is the identification of women's very embodied being with a lack of freedom.
 

Extract from posted Medieval Literature Research Paper:  The theme of trickery and the figure of the trickster loom large in Tristan and Isolde. With specific reference to Gottfried’s version of the tale, this research will critically analyse the theme of trickery and the trickster figure. In this epic tale, three tricksters can be easily identified: the narrator, Isolde as lesser tricksters, and, chief among them, Tristan himself. The narrator, who manipulates the many tropes to be expected in the medieval prologue such as sentential generalis, prologus ante and praeter rem, prepares the stage not only for trickery, but also for trickery as a tool of literature that undermines its claims to truth and goodness in making these claims wholly contingent on the recognition of the text as good. As Tristan's pupil in formal education as well as trickery, Isolde the Blonde (distinct from the two other Isoldes, the Queen of Ireland and Isolde of the White Hands) for a brief time demonstrates her own acumen as a trickster before it unravels when Marke discovers them.

Extract from posted Case Study: Frito Dips has been a major player in the salty snacks market with 33% market share. It is North America’s largest and most popular snack food manufacturer, and controls a good third of the salty-snack market. Its position in the dips market, however, is unstable. This is largely because of the reputation of its competitors, which include Borden and Kraft, not to mention several local companies who are also determinedly trying to capitalize on the popularity of cheese dips’ market. The fact is that the reputation of both Borden and Kraft in the cheese dip market function as an immediate obstacle to Frito-Lay’s capacity to realize its strategic objective vis-à-vis the cheese dips’ market.

Extract from posted English Analytical Essay: Same-sex or lesbian and gay parenthood is a highly controversial issue with arguments for or against tending towards the emotional and moralistic as opposed to the objective and scientific. Stacey and Biblarz (2001) suggest as much in their assertion that the mainstream media’s adoption of the same-sax parenthood debate has effectively led to unsupported conclusions, either for or against. The latter camp argues that the children of same-sex parents invariably experience normal and healthy psychological development, while the former camp argues the exact opposite (Stacey and Biblarz, 2001). Concurring with the aforementioned, Ahmann (1999) asserts that the emotionality which invariably accompanies the debate over same-sex parenting tends to obscure the reality of the situation. That reality suggests that the children of gay and lesbian couples can experience healthy and normal psychological development were it not for societal tendencies towards discrimination, on the one hand, and the innate tendency of children to react negatively to uniqueness, or difference, on the other (Ahmann, 1999). In other words, while homosexual parenting does not, in itself, limit a child’s capacity to undergo a normal psychological development process, the fact that it unfolds within societies which, despite public statements to the contrary, are innately protective of the traditional family structure and biased against same-sex families, detrimentally impacts the child’s opportunities for healthy development. Through a review of the arguments on either side, the research shall attempt to prove the stated argument.

Extract from posted Education Management Research Paper: On of the major goals of developmentally appropriate curriculum for gifted children in early childhood education is that curriculum and adult interaction are responsive to individual differences in ability, strengths and interests. Furthermore, different levels of ability, development and learning styles are expected, accepted and used to design appropriate activities. Researchers, as will be illustrated in this essay, have stressed the wide variations in individuals’ development at a specific age and the need to create early childhood programs or options that matched and addressed the specific needs of these individuals. For practices to be developmentally appropriate, they must be individually appropriate. Developmentally appropriate programs must reflect the importance of establishing a caring, inclusive community in which all children can learn and, importantly, where the potential of gifted preschoolers may be realized and given the opportunity to flourish. The question, thus, becomes, how can teachers identify gifted children and what are the guidelines for designing a curriculum for gifted children?

Extract from the posted International Relations Research Paper: Within the parameters of an increasingly interdependent world, concerns over global, regional and national security have escalated. Intensified concerns primarily emanate from the fact that interdependency implies that instability within a specified region or states could have global repercussions and directly impact the welfare and national security concerns of other nations. As such, the imperatives of identifying the componential elements of national and global security, on the one hand, and of attaining a more accurate understanding of state behaviour on the global level, on the other, are incontrovertible. It is in response to the articulated imperatives, international relations scholars have forwarded theoretical paradigms designed to both interpret and identify threats to global security and the motivators of state behaviour within the international arena. The more popular of these theories, the realist and the neoliberal, however, have failed to provide a comprehensive understanding, or interpretive guideline, for state behaviour or, in fact, articulate a workable methodology for the enhancement of global security. Given the fact that both schools provide partial answers to the question at hand, one may argue that a more comprehensive understanding of the componential elements of global security is predicted upon the amalgamation of their arguments and interpretations.

Extract from posted Business Case Study:   A review of Pfizer’s website evidences the extent to which Pfizer emphasizes its identity as a global corporate entity, not as a transnational or multinational but as a company whose declared affiliation is global, not national. Its trademark slogans, “working for a healthier world,” and ‘caring for community,” are expressive of the aforementioned. It is precisely within both this context and Pfizer’s activities as a pharmaceutical corporate entity that one need evaluate whether the question of whether Pfizer is better off with home-country nationals or parent country nationals.

As a corporate entity whose claims of loyalty are towards global, rather than national, citizenry, any suspected proclivity towards the hiring of parent country, rather than host country nationals, would negate its cited, and highly publicized claims. Banai and Sama (2004) argue that empirical evidence indicates that MNCs who betray a preference for home country employees/managers, do not simply establish themselves as foreign entities within their host economies but, place themselves at the forefront of ethical questioning and suspicion. Rather than be regarded by host country citizens as potential employers and sources of foreign investment, they are regarded as conduits for the channeling of financial resources from the host economy to the parent one (Banai and Sama, 2004). Needless to say, this constrains the potential for constructive cooperation between the MNCs in question and the host economy. Insofar as Pfizer is concerned, it will further cast suspicion on the veracity of its publicized slogans. Judging by the stated, therefore, Pfizer should rely on host-country employees.
 

Extract from posted Business Case Study:  Toyota, to all intents and purposes, has become a model for the automobile industry. As Taylor and Kahn (1997) write, automobile manufacturers are not trying to compete with Toyota as much as they are trying to learn from it and, strangely enough, Toyota appears to be quite a willing tutor. This is evidenced in the fact that, on a bi-monthly basis, the top automobile manufacturers across the United States are given a tour of Toyota’s plants and production and manufacturing facilities (Taylor and Kahn, 1997). This, however, does not put Toyota in any immediate danger of its giving away its secrets to its competitors since, as Schonberger (2001) points out, Toyota’s lean manufacturing model is not an industrial model per se as much as it is a management philosophy. This management and manufacturing philosophy is, without doubt, the key to Toyota’s global success but, upon consideration of the reasons for its recent overtake of the U.S. market, one finds that it is a combination of both its decision to Americanize and its management philosophy.
Toyota has Americanized and, its Americanization is largely, although not entirely, responsible for its success in the U.S. market. As Naughton et al. (2005) explain, a change of leadership at Toyota led to the abandonment of its “cooperative competition doctrine,” as which outlined that Toyota’s presence in the United States would not be that of a competitor whose goal was to overtake leading American car manufacturers such as GM. Instead, Toyota was to maintain a “respectful distance” in order to avoid arousing both public and political anger as a direct outcome of its appearing to undermine U.S. symbols, in this case GM (Naughton et al., 2005). Therefore, even though it had the capacity and the potential to compete with GM and, eventually, to dominate the U.S. market, Toyota’s leadership made the strategic decision to avoid doing so.
 

Extract from posted English Critical Analysis Essay: The substantial differentiation between traditionally produced and GM foods underscores the reasons why it is a source of such ethical controversy. Genetic modification, as Roller and Harlander (1998) explain, involves the altering of the genetic composition of foods in order to reduce, possibly eliminate, certain characteristics and limitations, while highlighting others. It, accordingly, involves the re-composition of any, or all of, the food’s texture, coloring, taste and chemical and nutrient constituent elements. As such, Roller and Harlander (1998) maintain its significant variation from traditional farming/breeding techniques, wherein the laws of nature supersede. The implication here is, and as confirmed by Hallman et al (2002), that the primary different between the two food types is that the laws of nature dominate in the one and the laws of man, in the other.

The fact that GM foods involve the tampering with the laws of nature have been identified by several researchers and organizations as one of the more serious of the ethical concerns which confront GM foods. According to organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, current scientific knowledge does not allow for such tampering, insofar as it has neither the tools to limit the effect of GM foods, or even to deduce, let alone, counter their consequences. Many scientists, according to both Hallman and Metcalfe (1995) and Hallman et al (2002) agree and cite numerous concerns regarding the impact of GM foods on both nature and human health.
 

Extract from posted American Literature Essay:  Tony Barnstone’s The Golem of Los Angeles is a difficult book of poetry to contend with. It is seemingly engaged in the persistent destruction of popular notions of culture, most especially poetry, as high art. It borders on the colloquial and its themes are unapologetically hopeless. His poems are brief and sparse, rarely given to descriptions but more intent on the conveyance of images of humanity weighed down by life. There is nothing beautiful about his poems and very little which inspires hope. Yet, and despite the validity of the aforementioned description of this collection of poems, readers detect an aura of extreme authenticity in Barnstone’s poetry. If they are brief and tend towards the monosyllabic, then they are simply echoing the fast-paced nature of contemporary life and virtual breakdown in interpersonal/human communication; if they are open to interpretations of hopelessness and pessimism, that is simply because they are reflecting the contemporary human condition; and if they come across as decidedly un-poetic, that is because they are realistic representations of life and not beautifying interpretations of it. With specific reference to the theme of death in “The Golem of Los Angeles,” this essay will argue that Barnstone realistically expresses the contemporary human condition.

Extract from posted Research Paper Proposal:  The predominant tendency to define outsourcing as a globalisation-induced and enforced business trend and to argue it as a direct and immediate threat to human and labour resources in developed nations is largely inaccurate. Outsourcing, or contracting, is hardly a novel business development but has been a persistent feature of business enterprise since the evolution of the nation-state as an entity which comprises both town and country and seeks the coordination of relations between both for their mutual welfare (Domberger, 2005). Outsourcing, as in contracting, evolved when rural areas began to outsource the certain processes in the foodstuff and agricultural industry, such as canning, to the town and the town began to rely on the comparatively cheaper labour located in the rural areas for the execution of specified jobs or tasks (Domberger, 2005). Outsourcing, within the context of its definition as contracting, is not a new phenomenon and has, for over two centuries, been an integral component of cost-efficient manufacturing process and business enterprise.

Outsourcing, within the context of its definition as off-shoring, however, is a relatively novel development and is, arguably, an immediate by-product of globalisation. Insofar as globalisation has redefined the concept of economic geography and created a more interconnected economic world, it is responsible for the evolution of outsourcing as off-shoring (Ward, 2004). It is responsible because it effectively created the legal basis for, and argued the economic exigencies of, internationalising the economic principle of contracting and of expanding beyond the parameters of the nation-state in search of both cost-effective and efficient labour and production facilities for the explicated purpose of executing some of the firm’s business and/or manufacturing processes and tasks (Ward, 2004).
 

Extract from uploaded law critique:  While rails do not constitute a part of the hospitality industry but the transportation industry, there is little doubt that they have a tremendous impact upon the hospitality industry. Apart from the fact that employees may very well rely on them for work transportation purposes, rail transportation is popular among tourists. Therefore, the unreliability of the service could very well impact upon the hospitality industry.

As regards the relevant laws, the fact is that a rail ticket may be interpreted as a contract between the service user and the service provider. The service user pays a specific prise in order to reach a specific destination at a specific time. Delays, therefore, may be interpreted as a violation of this agreement and, if delays are regular and extended, they may have economic repercussions on the service user. Within the context of the stated, the government is launching an inquiry for the purpose of evaluating the situation and resolving the apparent conflict between the primary stakeholders – the service providers and the service users.
 

Extract from posted Tourism Case Study:  Brazil is a country which possesses numerous tourist attractions and its tourism industry has strong growth potential. It appears, however, that Brazil has not achieved the level of tourism that has the potential to garner, particularly from Western Europe and the United States. While the Brazilian tourism industry greatly aspires to broaden While there are numerous reasons for the explicated failure, they can be, in essence, summarised as the failure to invest in the design and implementation of effective marketing strategies In consideration of the country’s tourism potential, this report will undertake a critical analysis of the industry, identify the market segment which brazil should target and propose relevant marketing strategies, designed to realise the potentialities of Brazil as a tourist destination for citizens of the United States and Western Europe.

Extract from posted law critique:  The article brings to light a very interesting question regarding the laws and the hospitality industry in instances where a crime has, supposedly been committed on the premises. Hotels are legally bound to maintain certain levels of hygiene and cleanliness. This is an incontrovertible legal requirement and the maintenance of license is predicated on their adhering to the defined health standards. The stakeholders, as in the clientele, expect hotels to adhere to these standards. At the same time, when there is a suspicion that a crime has been carried out in a part of the premise, as in a hotel room, cleaning constitutes the destruction of evidence.

Extract from posted International Business Research:  International business activities are evaluated at 1 trillion dollars per annum (WTO, 2005). This figure, according to the World Trade Organization, has the potential for substantial growth. For realization of the said growth, on the one hand, and the maintenance of its current annual scope, on the other, it is imperative that IB is managed in accordance with empirically proven, theoretically valid and time-tested paradigms (Kumar, Markeset and Kumar, 2005). Concurring with the aforementioned, Beer (2003) has forwarded Total Quality Management as the optimal international business management strategy. An analytical review of the root disciplines from which TQM derives validates Beer’s (2003) assertion. To establish the correlation between TQM and IB, this essay will begin with a brief definition and overview of the latter.

International business, which has both been facilitated by and imposed upon firms by the advent of globalization, may be briefly defined as the global exchange of goods and services, or cross border economic transactions. As a number of scholars have quite rightly pointed out, international business is the internationalization and the concomitant expansion of the scope of traditional business activities. Within this context, it may also be defined as a natural evolution in the development of the scope of business activities, from the intra-tribal to the inter-tribal, from the intra-township to the inter-township and from the national to the international (Wiles and Wiles, 2005; Carbaugh, 2005; Marx, 2006; Sundaram and Black, 2007). The implication here is that while international business is founded upon the same precepts and principles of traditional/national business and, accordingly, withstands adherence to the same management paradigms, the significant expansion of its parameters and sphere of activities necessitates the embrace of sociology, international economics, politics and linguistics, to name but a few disciplines.
 

Extract from posted law critique:  The hospitality industry is bound by laws and legislatures to ensure that their property/premise are not regularly used for criminal activities. If they are, and regardless of whether or not the owners/manager are implicated, the premise becomes a crime scene and is sealed pending investigations. Added to that, in such instances, the owner’s license can be revoked.

One of the city’s most popular nightclubs, DCM, was recently subjected to a police raid following reports regarding the sale and use of illegal drugs on the premise. Substantial amounts of illegal drugs, both cocaine and Ecstasy were seized and the club was subsequently closed. While none of the club’s stakeholders, as in owners and employees, was implicated in the stated criminal act, the fact remains that the premise was used for the sale and use of illegal drugs for an extended period of time.
 

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Gambling may be a source of significant profits for the hospitality industry but it is a source of tremendous social problems for countless people, not to mention society at large. At the present moment, council do not have the authority to discriminate against gambling establishments or hotels which have a gambling license. The implication here is that they do not have the legal right to deny a request for the extension of opening hours to gambling establishments. Council members argue that the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act should be amended to give them this power. Their argument is that 24 hour access to poker machines will have tremendously negative social effects.

Extract from Law Critique:  The concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is still one that is largely debated among theorists and practitioners. Some argue it a passing fad and others a constructive and positive evolution in marketing theory and practice. Adhering to the latter perspective, Lars Buer, chairman of the Berghs School of Communications in Stockholm, insists that, “integrated communications is not only an operational necessity, it is a strategic imperative for sustainable success” (Walsh, O'Donnell & Osgood, 2004, p. 56). The quoted stands in sharp contrast to views of IMC as nothing other than an inconsequential fad whose popularity is predicated on media hype rather than on its realised, or potential, contribution to marketing communications. Focusing on this debate, this research will begin by defining IMC, following from which it will critically analyse both sides of the issue, ultimately arguing for the long-term value and importance of IMC.
 

Extract from posted Research Proposal:  Cross-border or international mergers and acquisitions (IM&As) have become the preferred method of foreign direct investment (FDI) over the past two decades (United Nations, 2000). For example, the number of national and international mergers involving European Community-based companies nearly tripled during fiscal years 1983-1987 and increased further in the 1990s (Lyroudi, Lazaridis, & Subeniotis, 1999). The trend shows that IM&As go both ways: toward developing countries and from them, "reshaping the world's economic boundaries" (Chapman, 2003). This trend of increasing numbers of IM&As has been discussed by several researchers, such as Hennart and Reddy (1997), who have focused on IM&As' success or failure. They have found a failure rate of more than 40 percent (Rondinelli & Black, 2000), while Marks and Mirvis (2001) commented that three out of four IM&As fail to achieve their financial and strategic objectives. In short, researchers suggest that "the expected financial benefits of M&As are often not realized" (Auster & Sirower, 2002).

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Consequent to the impact of the practice on the music and entertainment industry, Australia has strict anti-piracy laws. These laws, which are compliant with international laws pertaining to copyright and piracy, are strictly enforced and suspected violations are investigated and, if cause is found, prosecuted. The hospitality industry, by its very nature, is concerned with these laws. Nightclubs, wherein entertainment often revolves around music, have an obligation to ensure that the DJ’s they hire do not play pirated music.

Extract from posted Argumentative Essay:  Education is of primary importance in the lives of nations and the individual. A well-educated person has a greater chance of a successful future than a poorly educated one, just as a country whose population is educated has the greater chance of being successful, powerful and independent nation than one whose population is illiterate. Consequently, the quality of education that schools offer student is always a subject of concern, especially among parents. It is because of such this concern that hundreds and thousands of American parents have taken their children out of the public education system and are home schooling them. Why is this system specifically chosen by a lot of people? Home schooling is considered to be the process by which children are educated at home and it is considered to be private education as they learn alone without studying in a class with other students. It is a response to many weaknesses that many parents have detected in the public education system. Therefore, as Chris Lubienski mentions, home schooling may be defined as “a flight from modern American school.” Despite the fact that its popularity is growing, a lot of parents, teachers, and politicians are still criticizing the subject of home schooling. Even though home schooling has been strongly criticized as contradictory to the public and the children’s interests, it is a strong and positive alternative to traditional education and serves both the best interests of the children and the public.

Extract from posted Educational Management Essay:  Teachers bring a wide range of instructional tools and strategies with them to the classroom. Needless to say, each instructional approach has its particular strengths and weaknesses but, without doubt, all facilitate the task of imparting knowledge and information to special needs students.

The identification of special needs students and their subsequent referral to a special educations program is a meticulous process. Teachers are first required to conduct Response-To-Intervention (RTI) assessment test for determination of whether or not the student in question is truly in need of special education and if all efforts have been exhausted in the general classroom setting. Enrollment in a special educations program is predicated on the results of the RTI.

Within the context of the classroom setting, the teacher is required to identify the most effective of the teaching strategies which may be deployed vis-à-vis the special needs students. Identification is done through either the problem solving or the special protocol approach (Teaching LD, 005). Ideally, the characteristics and needs of the students function as the primary determinant of the learning approach which will ultimately be selected.
 

Extract from posted Political Philosophy Research Paper:  Thomas Hobbes and John Locke stand out as two of the most prominent and influential of the political philosophers. Both are classified as social contract theorists but Hobbes, whose work predates Locke’s by approximately one century, was the polar opposite of the latter. Indeed, it would hardly be an exaggeration were one to claim that the one’s theory is the antithesis of the other’s. The aforementioned is evidenced in the fact that both had very different notions of human nature and, accordingly, of the rationale behind the entry of citizens into a social contract, the implications of the said contracts and the rights of the populace versus the limits of government. Indeed, the differences between the two are such that Locke ultimately emerges as a theorist for democracy and Hobbes as an advocate of authoritarian and autocratic governments.

Hobbes’ Leviathan may be described as a political philosophic treatise whose primary purpose is the legitimisation of the constraints which governments impose on human behaviour and their curtailment of human liberties and freedoms. In presenting his justification for the stated, Hobbes proceeds from a description of the state of nature, or pre-government societies and post government societies, effectively illustrating that within the context of the former, men may have enjoyed completed and unfettered freedom but they lived in a constant state of insecurity. In other words, and as MacPherson points out, men were completely free to do and act as they chose but because there were no limitations on freedom, they lived under the constant threat of the harm that may befall them or their property consequent to the actions of others. Consequently, the price of freedom was excessively high.
 

Extract from posted political economy research paper:  National, regional and global economies are in a constant state of flux as states attempt to dynamically respond to the challenges posed by globalisation. Many have attempted to do so, and thereby render their markets either more attractive for international business or more competitive, through entry into economic integration agreements. It is important to clarify, however, that economic integration agreements possess both advantages and disadvantages, and the nature of either is immediately related to the level and type of economic integration in question. Following a brief overview of the different types of economic integration and their implications for business, this essay will focus on economic integration in the European Union and how it impacts upon business and market activities therein.
There are four different types and levels of economic integration. One of the most popular in the post-globalisation era and generally perceived of as a first step towards eventual regionalisation or the formation of a regional economic bloc is free trade agreements (Held and McGrew, 2003).

As Hill (2007) clarifies, within the context of free trade agreements, all types of internal barriers to trade, or the movement of goods and services between member countries, is removed. While in FTAs member country set their own trade and economic policies with non-members, policies towards members are determined by the agreement in question. As far as the impact upon business and market relations is concerned, it is important to clarify that the said level of integration has tremendous benefits for member states and businesses within as it effectively expands the market. At the same time, competition over markets is intensified and, needless to say, if the member states in question are unequal, this can be a disadvantage. In simpler terms, within the context of NAFTA, Mexican businesses have to compete with U.S. ones over both the regional and the domestic markets without the protection they were once afforded (within the home market) by tariffs, quotas and subsidies.
 

Extract from posted Cultural Sociology Research Paper: Heteronormativity and heterosexism are pervasive facets of the cultural context; heterosexuality remains the dominant mode of relating, the standard against which 'others' are measured. This has exerted pressure on individuals and families to assimilate to heterosexual norms and it is precisely because of the stated that the words marriage and family are central to of one of the most fiercely debated issues of our time. At stake is the very definition of marriage: Who controls the definition, and for what purpose? Due to the pervasive cultural climate of heteronormativity, implications for the field of marriage and family include the need to actively re-define marriage as inclusive of gay and lesbian couples.

Despite the increased visibility of gay men and lesbian women, there remains no definition of family in the public consciousness that refers to same-sex couples with children. In fact, in the not too distant past, the notions of lesbian mothers/homosexual fathers or lesbian/homosexual families would have been nonexistent. This culture of heteronormativity (Gamson, 2000) dictates that a viable family consist of a heterosexual mother and a father raising children together. Heterosexuality and heterosexual forms of relating are the norm. All other forms of relational experience are thus viewed in contrast. For example, the descriptive term "couples" means heterosexual couples, then, there are gay and lesbian couples. Families are nuclear and headed by two heterosexual parents, then, there are gay and lesbian families. Similarly, "woman" means a heterosexual woman, then, there is the lesbian. Heteronormativity supports the dominant norm of heterosexuality by marginalizing any relational structure that defies it.
 

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Welfare to work laws in Australia need to be overhauled as rising unemployment rates for those who have suffered mental illnesses have reached critical proportions. Employees, especially those in particular industries such as the hospitality one, are vulnerable to mental stress, possibly culminating in their having to seek mental treatment. In instances where employees discover this, they prefer to pay employees out rather than support their return to work. Current employment laws support the ability of employees to do so. Indeed, a review of the nation’s unemployment laws indicates that there is no strong support, if at all, for the employment of those who suffer from, or who have suffered from, mental illness.

Extract from Posted Political Science Research Paper:  The first and the second Palestinian Intifadas, or uprisings, were not borne out of isolation but were an immediate outcome of the violent confrontations which preceded them and expressive of the economic misery and socio-political oppression which the Palestinians suffered under the Israeli occupation. As such, the Palestinian Intifada may be defined as a social-political movement engaged in contentious politics for the purpose of bringing the Israeli occupation to an end. Given that the definitions of both intifada stages coincide, it may very well be assumed that the root causes and objects of both are similar. Indeed, as this research will argue, despite seemingly changing circumstances and conditions, both the 1987 and 2000 Intifadas were provoked by a similar combination of politico-economic circumstances and were incited by the desire to end the Occupation, i.e. political oppression and economic misery.

Extract from Posted Research Paper:  The veritable tomes which has been written on HRM testifies to its centrality in organisational life and its status as a determinant of organisational success, not to mention the capacity of corporations to successful attain their strategic objectives. An organisation’s human resource, and most definitely its management, plays an integral role in defining a company’s potentials and its limitations. Added to that, while the HRM model operative within an organisation is largely determined by the intra- and extra-environmental cultures, HRM tools and strategies can directly influence organisational culture and, indeed, may affect a transformation within it. As this research shall argue, however, contrary to the popular assumption that compensation schemes are the primary method for doing so, it is the collectivity of HR functions which impinge upon, and have the potential to transform the mentioned culture. In other words, while one cannot deny the fundamental role which compensation plays in affecting employee motivation levels, enhancing organisational commitment and, ultimately, transforming the dominant organisational culture, it would be fallacious and, consequently, indefensible to ignore a host of other HRM practices which, taken as a collectivity, effectively modify organisational culture and increase employees’ commitment.

Extract from the posted Research Paper:  The Single European Act [SEA], approved by European heads of state and passed into EU law in 1986, stands out as a significant treaty within the context of European deep integration and has, undoubtedly, substantially contributed to the harmonization of labour, consumer and general economic laws and policies across the EU (Moravcsik, 1991). Despite its indubitable significance, however, claims to the effect that the SEA is solely, or even primarily, responsible for the harmonisation of economic, consumer and labour laws throughout the union, is erroneous insofar as it effectively ignores the contribution to the aforementioned made by treaties both pre and post the SEA. Through a historical overview of the treaties upon which the EU is founded, followed by a discursive analysis of the enlargement process, the creation of joint borders through the Schengen Agreement, and the formulation of a monetary regime whose outcome was he implementation of a single EU monetary unit, the research shall demonstrate that while the SEA contributed to both the deepening and the fortification of the integrative process, it is hardly single-handedly, or even primarily, responsible for the evolution of the EU of 2005.

Extract from posted Research Paper:  Globalisation did not give rise to the phenomenon of cross-cultural/international business but it certainly facilitated it and contributed to its increase and proliferation. National firms are increasingly taking advantage of globalisation’s facilitation of international business because it opens the door to highly lucrative economic and market opportunities. As profitable as engagement in international business activities are, it is a highly challenging endeavour. The reason, quite simply stated, is cultural variations. Differences between national culture function as an obstacle to various aspects of international business management, including HRM and marketing. With specific reference to HRM and marketing, this essay will examine the potential problems which a UK owned hotel, operating in China and Russia, among numerous other countries, may confront.

Extract from one of the posted Law Questions:  As the international trade and contract law scholars Yeon-Koo Che and Tai-Yeong Chung explain, a contract between two parties is the ultimate arbitrator in disputes, insofar as its primary function is not just the coordination of economic interests between parties but the explicit articulation of buyer and seller rights, responsibilities and duties. A contract, within the parameters of the stated definition, is a legal document which specifically articulates the nature of the commercial transaction, inclusive of item/good/service description, mode of delivery and receipt, further outlining the rights and duties of the contracting parties towards one another. The aforementioned definition of a sale of goods contract is further upheld by the law lecturer and scholar, Paul Todd. As noted by Todd, the sale of goods contract functions to articulate the conditions of a particular transaction and elucidate its particularities, from the description of the goods being sold to the place and time of delivery. In other words, the sale of goods contract details the conditions and circumstances which would govern a particular transaction. Given the supposedly comprehensive nature of the referenced document it thus functions as a reference point in instances of contract dispute.

Example Entry from the posted Modern Literature Annotated Bibliography:

Foulkes, A.P. “Kafka’s Cave Image.” MLN. 82. 4 (Oct. 1967): 462-71.
While, as Foulkes writes, literature has consistently described the body as a prison house of the soul,” Kafka “describes human life as life in a cell” (462). Kafka’s works revolve around man’s absurd belief that he is free, even when he is locked up in a cell or a cage. Foulkes’ interpretation will be very useful for the research as it exposes the fact that the hunger artist, who is locked in a cage and who has signed a contract which signs away his freedom to eat or move when he wants or needs to, understands life and the human condition. In other words, the artist’s actions are not absurd. He has accepted the absurdity of living as a free person when man can never be free.
 

Extract from posted Law Case Study Research Paper:  Canada is the world’s true melting pot. While the United States has historically claimed that title for itself, the racial tensions and violence which fill the country’s history pages and persist until this very day, indicate otherwise. Races co-exist in the United States but they have not melded into one another. In Canada the story is very different. It is not only the world’s most racially and ethnically diverse countries but it is one of the very few which have accommodated racial diversity through the adoption of two languages. Added to that, and as Mahtani (2002, p. 3) points out, Canada was the first country to adopt an official government policy on diversity. Its multicultural policy, which entered into legislature over thirty years ago, was “Canada’s official legislative response to ethnic plurality for a multicultural society (Mahatani, 2002, p. 3). This does not mean, however, that there are no racial and ethnic tensions in Canada but only that the nation is comparatively more tolerant and accommodating of diversity than are many others. If Canada is to maintain relative ethnic and racial harmony it must diffuse the poisoned environment phenomenon which pervaded in the case of Clive Stevens and Robert Symister versus Lynx Industries.

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Liquor laws have, until recently, prohibited the sale of liquor by licensed shops on Sundays. This meant that the purchase of liquor and drinking in public was generally confined to hotels. Needless to say, this legislature drove a significant amount of business in the direction of the city’s hotels and pubs. Legislative changes, however, largely instigated by the fact that the described legislature was deemed outmoded and archaic, have removed the stated prohibition. Licensed stores can now sell liquor on Sunday.

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Current liquor licensing legislature is a source of debate and controversy in NSW. Proponents of the status quo maintain that existent laws are an integral way of maintaining control over drinking and, accordingly, for avoiding the social problems which arise from binge drinking. Opponents contend that current legislature is unfair, on the one hand, and ensures that the hospitality industry remain under the control of the larger players on the other. Politicians are increasingly realising the veracity of the aforementioned and conceding to the imperatives of removing restrictive licensing. The Property Council of Australia has publicised its support for amendment, cutting the economic advantages of supporting small bars.

Extract from posted Law Critique:  The Australian Hotel Association has formally announced its reservation regarding the proposed amendment to the NSW liquor licensing laws. While conceding that these laws are both very tough and highly restrictive, the AHA says that they are reflective of the seriousness of the responsibility inherent in serving alcohol to the public. A license to serve alcohol is conditioned on the licensee’s adhering to a certain standard, amongst which are the exercise of discretion when serving alcohol in an effort to mitigate against binge drinking and alcoholism, on the one hand, and to prevent minors from being served alcohol, on the other. The implication here is that the restrictive nature of the legislature is justified through a consideration of societal welfare.

Extract from posted Law Critique:  Hospitals are incontrovertibly part of the healthcare industry but they are related to the hospitality industry in the sense that apart from the provision of medical treatment, in patient care standards now vie with the treatment which hotels offer their guests. Indeed, the article in question does establish a relationship between hospitals and the hospitality industry.

The issue of concern raised here is the duty of care which hospitals owe their patients. Healthcare laws maintain that hospitals are obliged to offer their parents the best possible care pending, of course, informed consent. Current hospital policies in NSW are tending towards the imposition of a more health conscious regiment upon patients and are doing so through the elimination of junk food from hospital menus, irrespective of the patient’s condition. That is to say even if the patient’s health condition does not necessitate the removal of junk food from his/her diet, hospitals have done so.
 

Extract from Law Critique:  The hospitality industry and the legislature which protects the interests of its primary investors and players, are being challenged by would-be smaller players. Currently liquor licensing laws significantly restricts the ability of smaller investors to open bars. The implication here is that this particular aspect of the industry is controlled by the larger investors who favour the large and glitzy, money making variety of pubs. The public, however, is increasingly agitating for more intimate, smaller and quieter bars. While this does not seem to be a legal issue but a marketing one, licensing restrictions have made it a legal one. The three stakeholders, the public, the larger investors and the smaller would-be ones, are locked in a contentious debate regarding nightlife style in Sydney.