Essay on Computer Forensics

Introduction Computer forensics is a growing branch in the field of computer science and information technology. Occasionally, organizations, big or small, would require an audit of their information systems (Carrier, 2005). This is where the computer forensic experts come in. This paper is meant to give a clear understanding of some of the tasks involved in computer forensics. Description of activities and tasks involved in investigation, documentation as well as reporting has been captured in the paper. The last part of the paper is a brief analysis of expert witness’s challenges as well as a sample courtroom scenario. Types of equipment that should be packed in a field tool kit and the rationale behind the choices The tool kit for the task should include a number of software and hardware devices. One of the most important equipment is the forensic laptop and power supply. Forensic laptop would definitely contain very important software for carrying out the task while the power supply would serve as an emergency source of power incase of power outage (Vacca, 2002).   Digital cameras, case folders, and blank forms are also important. The stated equipment would be used for interview recording of staff as well as other observations made in the field.   Cables for data transfer and blank hard drives for storages of data as well as hardware write blockers would be essential for the task ahead. Hard drive duplicators for forensic imaging and data acquisition are also needed for the task (Kruse, Heiser, 2002). Some other tools that would prove more valuable would include password removal software and equipment. It is important to do have these tools to counteract cases of sabotage or uncooperativ eness from staff. Additional questions for the Supervisor before the operation begins Who are the people who are in charge of safeguarding the safety of the explosives? Who authorizes the release of explosives to be used in the field? Is there a mechanism for explosive acquisition by the company? Could I get the list of the names of all individuals handling explosives in the company? Do the company use IT systems in the management of explosives and substances circulations? Who manages system user accounts in all the company systems? When is the company allowed to release explosives for use in the field? Does the company keep all the records pertaining to explosive use? Who are some of the officers that will be working with me? Is the suspect found with the cache of explosives an employee of the company? Brief address to police officers The operation will begin shortly therefore, I call upon your cooperation as we undertake this task. In order for the success of this task, and to ensure that the culprits are brought to book, I call upon you to cooperate fully and offer any information that might come your way. Take note that in order to get information from the suspect, use of force or harassment might not prove fruitful. I urge you to handle the situation with dignity. Report to me immediately any activity that is suspicious crops up. All computer systems, devices, storage media and any other records should not be touched and should be left as they are until checked by the investigating officer. In case of file deletion that can be noted in any machine, kindly report it to me immediately so that appropriate action can be taken.  Ã‚   Ensure that no company staff are in access to computer systems during the investigation. Secure the data centers and ensure that no company staff gets access to the machines there.   If not sure of any activity in progress, report the same to me immediately. Pieces of potential evidence in the scene and evidence that it might contain From the office picture shown, many devices and documents can be sources of evidence in the investigation.   First is the USB flash drive on the desk. The flash drive could contain data that shows payments made or donations of explosives made by the manager to the culprit captured with the explosives. On the hand phone, records might show calls made by the suspect to various people in the last couple of hours or even days. Following of the leads might lead to resolving of the matter. The memory hard drive might also contain important data with regard to explosive records distribution or acquisition by the company. In the same category as the memory, hard drive is the DVD device and note pads on the desk. In addition to be checked are the sticker notes on the computer. The notes might contain some important information that would contribute to the entire task. Hard drive, DVD, USB flash drive are some of the electronics storage and transfer devices used. The same devices can be used in the storage of company data, such as records of explosive distribution. It is due to this fact that it is important to check them. Sticker notes are also some of the quick reminder objects that can provide valuable information. Methods employed to â€Å"capture† the scene in situ The first method that could be used to capture this scene is to video tape it.   Capturing a video of the scene is advantageous in the sense that the scene can be captured from all angles therefore giving the most accurate scenario of the scene. Video recording of the scene allows sound recording too, therefore audio explanations can be included in the process (Kruse, Heiser, 2002). The real picture of the scene can therefore be captured in the process and understood clearly. Photographing the scene is another method that can be employed in the process. Photographs just like video records provide first hand information of the scene, however photographing the scene has a disadvantage in that it is hard to capture all of its angles. Some objects might be blocked by other objects and therefore bring confusion during review. Describing the scene by taking down notes, is another method through which the scene can be captured. The method is not desirable though due to the variability with which various people can describe an object or a scene. It however has a desirable advantage in that it can offer extra informative information that is hard to comprehend by looking at a photograph. Step of action on seeing the above window Considering the speed of the process, the approach taken would vary. If the clean up speed is faster, the first task would be to cancel it in order to prevent the clean up of important documents, or browser histories.   However if the process of clean up is slow, the first activity would be to make prove of the same. This can be done by photographing the screen of video recording it. Evidence of such an activity could be useful in reporting and provision of expert opinion to authorities.   Whichever task comes fast, the most important thing to do is to stop the process before much data is deleted. Evidences that can be collected thereafter After stopping the clean up process, the first task is to check the documents that were being deleted by the system. The evidence that can be collected include temporary internet files, cookies, web browser history which would show the sites visited by the suspect, last download locations, will give an insight on the locations from which the suspect obtained what data. Recent documents can also be used to verify what one has been working on in the last few days or weeks. If the suspect was running any activity or using any document with relation to the case at hand, then the same information can easily be obtained. Purpose and importance of a chain of custody document for the evidence A chain of custody events refers to a chronological dcocumentation of actions that depict activities involved in the seizure, custody, control, and analysis of evidence (Carrier, 2005). Chain of custody document is important in the sense that it is used to show the order in which tasks were done in the field. It is used to determine whether any tampering of evidence might have occurred during the process for the purposes of evaluation evidence accuracy. It helps to establish that the seized evidence is in fact related to the crime in question and hence remove doubt associated with fraudulent planting of evidences. The document can be used to avert or withstand any challenges that can be raised with regard to the authenticity of the evidence collected (Carrier, 2005). Potential digital evidence not in the office There is need to check the server logs at the server room. It is important to check also the database logs and user logs in the server room or data center. It is important to check this in order to determine the times at which the suspect might have accessed the company systems. Not only will the time of access be known but also the activity done by the culprit. An example is a task such as changing the records in the database. The logs will provide useful information for examination of these activities. The activity done by the suspect can be used to link to any suspicious release of explosives or unauthorized release of consignment to a particular destination. Some of this information can be very useful in determination of a case. Questions to ask the System Administrator Who is in charge of user accounts management in the organization? Is there any way one can access someones account without the owner’s knowledge or the accounts managers’ knowledge? Has there been any security breach in your systems in the recent past, if so, what was its extent and how was it contained? Reasons for talking to the suspect It would be very important to ask the suspect some questions regarding to the digital media collected. This is important as it allows for clarification of some unclear parameters in mind. When adequate information is given, and clarification is sought a clear understanding of the situation is developed. Having a clear comprehension of the situation will help in analysis and reporting. Without proper understanding of the scenario, it is most likely to report wrong information to the authorities. Important information that can be obtained from the computer before beginning the forensic examination of the hard drive itself Web browser histories would prove useful indetermination of the sites recently visited by the suspect. The computer stores this information in the history option of the web browser. Opening those sites can be crucial in evaluation what the suspect had been up to in the recent past. Download locations is another place that is necessary to check. If any data was downloaded from a particular site or server, the same will be found. In order to immediately determine what the suspect was up to some few moments before his arrest, the list of recent documents can help. If one had been working on manipulating some records or accessing some form of documents prior to arrest, the same can easily be determined. This information provides an easy and fast opportunity to analyze information at hand and determine its relevancy to the case. â€Å"MD5† and its significance MD5 is a cryptographic function used in cryptography to produce a 128-bit hash value. Its main purpose is to check data integrity (Carrier, 2005). This report is a problem in the sense that it implies an error in the integrity of data in the hard drive. It furthermore signifies failure of data integrity constraints to be met in the data in the hard drive. It could mean that there could have been manipulation of data or some data might have been lost (Carvey, 2005). Purpose of each of the following folders and potential evidence it might contain â€Å"C:\$Recycle.Bin† directory: This folder contains all the data or documents that have been deleted. They are documents that are no longer needed for use; however, the same might be needed in the future and hence can be retrieved. Some of the information that can be found here includes documents that the suspect might have deleted from the main folders of other partitions in the hard disk. This information might include records of transactions, reports, draft reports or even letters and memos. â€Å"C:\Program Files† directory: The program files directory contains program files. These files are used in running out applications that are essential in the task performance. Such programs include office applications programs and other software. The same will be instrumental in determination of the software applications that are mostly used by the suspect. It will aid in the general reporting and determination of a standing point with regard to the investigations. â€Å"C:\Users\Roberts\Desktop† directory: This folder is a folder that contains all the information stored on the computer desktop. Just like the folders, the information that can be gathered here include documents such as reports, Memos or any other documents that might have been stored in the folder. â€Å"C:\Users\Roberts\Documents† directory: The folder named above is used to store documents. It contains all the documents saved by the client or just automatically saved by the system. Examination on the document in order to determine its owner In order to determine the owner of the spreadsheet, the first thing is to check the name associated with. In as a much as the name might give some lead, the same cannot be prove enough that can withstand legal challenge in a court of law. It is therefore necessary to determine when the spreadsheet was created. After determining the time it was created, a visit to the system log is done. This is to identify the person who was logged into the system at the time the document was created. By use of user name and password associated with the logged user at that particular time the owner of the document can be identified. Checking of the file metadata can help in determining the time of creation and the associated user who created it. Metadata and its importance in computer forensics Metadata is a term used to describe information about data (Carvey, 2005). It actually is data about data. It describes the containers of data and furthermore any individual instances of data. Metadata is important to computer forensics because it gives a clear indication of the environment and particulars associated with any data.   The contents and quality of data can be determined by description of the same. A good example is a description describing the language in which data stored in a database is written in, the tools that were used to create files and when the files were created.   Metadata also provides information relating to rights and administrative access to documents and data. This is most useful in determination of the people who has access to data any particular time (Carvey, 2005). Report on the spreadsheet Upon investigations on the suspects’ computer having obtained consent from him, a spreadsheet document was recovered from one of the folders. The spreadsheet document was created by use of Microsoft Office Excel, version2007.   Upon opening the document, information regarding to the distribution of explosives were indicated. Some columns were marked pending while others delivered. It was noted that the location of delivery was however not indicated against each column. One striking discovery made was the fact that in one of the columns an indication had been made to the effect that the consignment of the explosives had been delivered. The particulars of explosives in question matches the same particulars seized from the terrorist suspect who had earlier been arrested during the week. Investigations were done in order to determine the owner of the document and the time the document was created. This was done by checking on the file metadata, which contains a description of da ta contained in it. System logs were also checked to verify the person who was logged in at the time the file was created. This investigation led to the revelation that at the time the file was created and any other time it was updated, Mr. Roberts was logged in to the system. The file metadata also showed that the spreadsheet document is owned by Mr. Roberts. To this point, it is my subjective assessment that Mr. Roberts created ad managed the document. Difference between expert and fact witness An expert witness is a witness who is admitted by virtue of proven skills or education in particular field and is believed to have expertise in that particular field beyond the comprehension of an average individual and can therefore offer reliable scientific or technological opinion on the matter. A fact witness on the other part is a witness that testifies only by virtue o things seen, tested, heard, touched or smelled. No expertise is needed in any field in order to testify as a fact witness. Expert witnesses are important in this case because the evidences that would largely be depended on come from the expert. It is to be noted that fact witnesses play little role here because electronic and digital information can be changed without, seeing or application of all other senses that play large role in factual witnesses. Importance of looking at the jury when answering questions Facial expressions play an important role in determination of the level knowledge displayed by an individual. Facing the jury will not only help them gauge the leave of confidence they should have on the expert but will also increase confidence ratio in whatever is said. Direct eye contact while expressing oneself can signify deep understanding of whatever is being expressed by the expert witness. Reason for challenges faced in testifying on digital evidences Many lawyers and judges are not familiar with computer technology. Previous evidence that held a lot of value in a court of law were evidence that could be seen with the naked eye. However, digital forensics cannot be seen with a naked eye in a court of law. It becomes difficult therefore to explain to the jury the meaning of terms used in the reports presented as well as how some technologies work. Answer to question about blogs posed by the defense lawyer To insinuate that my political opinions about the government and the governance of this country influenced my judgment is totally misplaced. I just reported what I found out in the system. The same facts can be attested by any other expert if another investigation is done. Systems logs will always show changes that are made in the systems at any particular time. Any attempt to change any document including the system logs themselves will always be recorded in the system logs. That is what I used in my reporting. To add to that my professional code of ethics as well as my own moral principles does not allow me to use my knowledge to disadvantage others wrongly. Reference Carrier, B. (2005). File system forensic analysis. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Carvey, H. (2005). Windows forensics and incident recovery. New York, NY: Addison-Wesley. Casey, E. (2004). Handbook of computer crime investigation: Forensics tools and technology. Academic Press. Kruse, W. Heiser, J. (2002). Computer forensics: Incident response essentials. New York, NY: Addison Wesley. Vacca, J. (2002).Computer forensics: Computer crime scene investigation. Charles River Media.

Chinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart - 916 Words

Bria Kirkland Essay 1 â€Å"Things Fall Apart† by Chinua Achebe Imagine your favorite TV show, and think about the characters. Which character is your favorite? Most of us would say it is the main character, the one that is the most relatable. That character is called the protagonist, and it is often the one that we identify with the most. In contrast to the protagonist, a character we think about less often is the foil character. This character is the complete opposite of the main character. Usually, a foil goes through the same events as the main character however he will see things differently and have a different opinion. The purpose of this character is to shed light on the main character, and to show how things could work out differently†¦show more content†¦He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father (3, 4).† This vastly different contrast between Okonkwo and his father really shows how impressive Okonkwo’s success is. He was able to ove rcome the stigma of his lazy father, and became one of the most successful men in the village. Even from the one single line, that Okonkwo did not have patience for anyone who was not successful, and no patience for his father, we can see that Okonkwo is nothing like his father. Unoka’s lazy characteristics are used to emphasize Okonkwo’s desire throughout the book to be a hard worker, and to be successful. Ikemfuna, a boy sent to live with Okonkwo and his family, is not a foil for Okonkwo, but for Nwoye. If it were not for Ikemefuna, we would not be able to see Nwoye’s connection to his grandfather, Unoka. As Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye is expected to be strong, and hardworking like his father. But when Ikemefuna joins the family, he becomes like the son Okonkwo never had. Ikemefuna and Okonkwo form a bond, a bond that Nwoye and Okonkwo were never able to have, and Ikemefuna even begins to call Okonkwo â€Å"father.† On the other hand, Okonkwo considers Nwoye to be weak and lazy because even though â€Å"Nwoye knew it was right to be

LEGALIZATION Essay Example For Students

LEGALIZATION Essay Dont you think that cannabis should be made legal? Well it is my opinion thatCannabis should be made legal. It is also my opinion that Cannabis is the one and onlyreplacement for tobacco as a cash crop. It is undeniable that Cannabis is a great andwonderful way to make life better for all of mankind. The undeniable fact remains that Cannabis is probably the single most versatile andbeneficial agricultural product known to man. Its direct applications and by-producteffects on the environment are well documented. Only an obsolete and narrow-mindedpoint of view stands between the general public and their enjoyment of its rewards. Cannabis possesses many virtues in regards to industrial usage. Contrary topopular belief, Cannabis fiber is not limited strictly to rough fabrics such as burlap. Thefiber of the Cannabis plant can produce a wide range of textiles, from the consistency of afine linen to that of a heavy sailcloth. Hemp fiber is softer than cotton, warmer thancotton, more water absorbent than cotton, possesses three times the tensile strength ofcotton, and requires virtually no pesticides. I bet you didnt know that roughly half of all the pesticides used in the U.S. areused on cotton. Also, Cannabis cultivation is not at all as detrimental to the soil as iscotton production. As an added bonus, Cannabis fiber is great for paper production- thefirst two copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Gutenberg Bible were bothprinted on Cannabis paper. Additionally, production of Cannabis for paper requires onlyone-fourth of the amount of land required of production of timber for the same use. Plusthere is not as heavy a reliance upon chemicals to prepare the fibers for paper productionas is the case with wood based paper. The seeds, which can be produced in abundance,possess a high nutritional value, and if pressed for oil, that oil is of great value in theproduction of all kinds of paints and varnishes, which could lessen our reliance uponpetroleum products in this area. There are several other useful products which can be made from this plant. Forinstance if one was very sick (i.e. cancer, HIV or other major illnesses) you could dry andsmoke Cannabis to relive pain. This is because of its psychological properties or THCSome people think that legalizing cannabis would make it easier for people tomisuse it. Or that it would make it more available to minors. But the fact remains thatcannabis is very easy to get right now. It is even easier to find than alcohol or cigarettes. People even think that legalizing cannabis would increase the crime level. I think that if itwas made legal crime would decrease because it wouldnt be illegal to purchase ordistribute cannabis, therefore people would not have to lie, cheat or steal to obtaincannabis. And on these grounds alone its stupid to continue its prohibition . Bibliography:

Formal Models of Operating System Kernels

Questions: 1. An operating system that does not support multithreading cannot simultaneously utilize multiple processors (CPUs).Do you agree? Please provide reason(s) to support your answer.2. A process that is waiting for access to a critical section does not consume CPU time.Do you agree? Please provide reason(s) to support your answer.3. Windows 8 Thread can be in one of has 6 states (Figure 4.11 on Textbook page 76); whereas UNIX/Solaris Thread can be in one of 8 states? Answers: 1. Yes, I agree with the statement that an operating system that does not support multithreading cannot simultaneously utilize multiple processors (CPUs). In case of an operating system that supports multi-threading, threads from same of different processes can run simultaneously on the kernel. The programs are designed in such a way that the execution of no two threads interfere one another. A multi-processor system will have more than one processor. It is up to the OS, that all CPUs are utilized simultaneously or not. OS interacts with the hardware through kernel. Thus the kernel need to support simultaneous execution or more than one thread. If the OS does not support multi-threading, then at a time the kernel will be accessed by one thread or process only. Even there is multiple CPUs, at a time, only one will be used. So, it is true that the operating system needs to support multithreading to utilize multiple CPUs simultaneously. 2. No, I dont agree with the statement A process that is waiting for access to a critical section does not consume CPU time. A critical section is the section in the code of a program that contains shared information. Thus two or more process can try to access critical section at a time. But to avoid discrepancies, no two process will have simultaneous access to critical section. One have to wait for another two complete its execution. Now, there are different time to optimize this waiting time. In general, when a process is waiting to enter into some critical section, then the process is checking continuously that whether the critical section is available or not. This process is called busy waiting. It consumes CPU time. Ant this CPU time is just wastage. There are other mechanisms that optimizes these busy waiting. For example, blocking the waiting processes for some time, refrains those from continuous checking of the availability of the critical section and saves CPU time. Thus, it is not true that a waiting process does not consume CPU time while waiting for the critical section. 3. A ZOMBIE process is common in UNIX and LINUX OS based systems. It is a process that has been terminated by calling EXIT function call but the OS has kept information about the process in the process table. This is true for the child processes. The parent process wants to have some information about the exit status of its child. Thus the OS keeps information about the terminated child processes. Such processes are in Terminated state. When the parent process of the ZOMBIE process reads the exit status of the ZOMBIE child process, then the OS reaps out the information about the ZOMBIE process from its process table. So, a terminated child process will be in ZOMBIE state as long as its parent does not read the exit status as requested. So, in UNIX and LINUX process has 8 states including ZOMBIE state. If there is a ZOMBIE process in a system for quiet longer period then there may be system errors and resource leakages. ZOMBIE processes are different than other processes. Thus the KILL command cannot delete it from the system process table. In case of Windows 8, a buggy driver will be there from a ZOMBIE process. To deal with the errors and issues related to ZOMBIE process, the OS cleans the ZOMBIE processes from the system automatically. Thus there is no need to add some explicit state for ZOMBIE process. References Craig, I. D. (2007). Formal Models of Operating System Kernels. Springer. Deitel. (2004). Operating System. Pearson. Fox, R. (2015). Linux with Operating System Concepts. CRC Press. Godbole. (2011). Operating System. McGraw-Hill. Haldar, S., Aravind, A. A. (2010). Operating Systems. Pearson. Naghibzadeh, M. (2005). Operating System. iUniverse. Silberschatz, A., Galvin, B. B., Gagne, G. (2013). Operating System Concepts. Addison-Wesley. Sosinsky, B. (2012). Windows 8. Peachpit Press. Stallings, W. (2012). Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles. Prentice Hall.

Anne Frank essays

Anne Frank essays The Diary of Anne Frank Journeying back to the early nineteenth century, when Nazi forces occupied Germany during World War II, the lives of those living in this territory was spent in constant fear and anxiety. The Diary of Anne Frank leads readers through the harsh times of a family trying to escape imprisonment in concentration camps by Nazi soldiers, where death was almost certain. Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her father's office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During the two years in hiding which Anne refers to as "a time when the ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when the worst side of human nature predominates, when every one has come to doubt truth, justice and God (pg.327)." Anne kept a diary that was given to her by her father, Otto Frank, on her birthday. Between June 1942 and August 1944, from Anne's thirteenth birthday until shortly after her fifteenth birthday, Anne recorded her feelings, her emotions, and her thoughts, as well as the events that happened to her. "...Ideas, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered...yet in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart (pg. 327)." The diary is an accurate record of the way Anne grows up and matures, in the unfortunate situation she found herself. Given the circumstances in which the novel is written Anne gave a very vivid description of her surroundings and the feelings she encountered throughout her ordeal. The novel displays the grief and frustration that is experienced throughout the time spent in hiding. The emotions of the situation are captured in the text and gives validity to the pain and frustration encountered. Despite the amusing and enlightening side of the diary, that documents the...

How Will Outreach Marketing Make You More Successful

How Will Outreach Marketing Make You More Successful The story of the â€Å"great† blogger with â€Å"great† content but no traffic is a common one. Your excuse may be that youre blogging as a hobby, maintaining an online journal just for fun, or not in it for the money. But who are you kidding? Be honest with yourself- if you wanted to journal and didn’t care about having an audience, it would have been easier to write in a diary or Word doc. If you didnt care about an audience, you would have written a diary. #blogoutreachSo, you want traffic, right? Even if you aren’t blogging with the intention of building a million-dollar blog, it’s nice to have your ideas, words, and hard work appreciated. The unfortunate thing is that this idea of â€Å"content is king† has got you believing that, if you write amazing content, the traffic will somehow find you and because of this, you’ve been producing a post or two a day for the last 6 to 12 months. While you haven’t wasted your time, this strategy is incomplete. Whether or not you run your blog like a business, you need to strategize like a business. Focusing on your â€Å"product† with no investment in marketing is like a business sourcing materials, manufacturing 100,000 widgets, storing the inventory in a warehouse, and then wondering why the customers haven’t been buying the product. Not all is lost, however. You have tons of great blog posts already published and now you need to find the right bloggers or audience to share it with. Link Building Strategies: Guest Blogging And Outreach Marketing Unless you’re already recognized as an authority or have thousands of readers a day, a passive form of content marketing isn’t going to work. Instead, your link building campaign must take two forms- guest blogging and outreach marketing. For purposes of link building in this article, let me define guest blogging and outreach marketing: Guest blogging is contributing a blog post to a publication. Outreach marketing is requesting that a blogger link to your content from an existing or upcoming post. Any effective link building campaign should, at the minimum, incorporate a combination of these two tactics. But how do you decide where to leverage each one? Guest blogging Guest blogging should be reserved for highly-relevant, powerful authority sites. This is because, as an individual blogger or one part of a small team, you don’t have the resources (time, energy, money, opportunity cost, etc.) to contribute to every single guest posting opportunity. You have to pick and choose where your resources will yield the greatest results. The obvious example is that you would make a concerted effort to contribute to the Blog, whereas a smaller, lesser-known blog might get a pitch to be included in next month’s roundup. Prioritize your guest blogging opportunities. #marketingtipsFinding guest blogging opportunities. To evaluate a blog, you must find relevant ones. This is really the easiest task of all because whose job is it to return relevant blogs? Google’s! However, you need to be specific. If your blog is about â€Å"personal finance†, you wouldn’t try to reach out to CNN, Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, or Bloomberg, which happen to be some of the top results for that keyword search. Instead, pick a related, niche topic such as â€Å"how to become financially independent† and open up every website in the first 300 results (maybe not all at once). Just remember that, as you work through this guide, it will benefit you to repeat the following process multiple times with different keywords to find the greatest number of bloggers to contact. To find the best guest blogging opportunities, search for one that is relevant and in your niche.Evaluating blogs. To determine if a website is worth guest blogging, don’t bother with the standard PageRank and domain authority (DA) metrics. PageRank hasn’t been updated since December 2013 and doesn’t seem to have the weight it once did in Google’s algorithm. Furthermore, as a third-party metric developed by Moz, DA is easily manipulated. For example, I’ve come across dozens of penalized sites with high domain authority, and I view penalized sites as essentially useless for SEO purposes. If Google penalizes a site and takes away its traffic, it is effectively stripping the strength of that domain, so why get a link from one? Beware of link sellers and SEO’s selling links on crappy high DA sites. Forget DA  and PageRank to find guesting opps. Organic traffic is  better.Ultimately, the best indication of a blog’s strength is the amount of traffic Google sends to it via organic rankings, making SEMrush my favorite SEO tool. Just enter the blog you are interested in contributing to, choose â€Å"Positions† under the â€Å"Organic Research† tab on the left, and click on â€Å"All time† in the â€Å"Organic keywords† section. If you find a level or upward trend, the blog is trusted by Google. Here’s a blog that ranks for nearly 10,000 keywords and is one you would likely be interested in earning a link from: This is a great blog to prioritize for guest blogging opportunities. Note that this  blog has been around for at least 4 years and enjoyed gradual growth until recently exploding with traffic. That’s the kind of blog you should want to be featured on. However, if this blog only had a 6-month history, now that might be a red flag indicating black hat SEO. And while you may get a temporary boost in rankings by guest posting on a site like that, it might be short-lived and thus a waste of your time because the goal is to build a strong, sustainable, long-term business model even if it takes more time and energy. An example of a blog to avoid may have a chart like this: Google penalized this blog, so it's probably not worth your time to send them a guest post. As you can see, this blog was hit by a penalty in late 2011 and has slowly been losing its keyword rankings. Not all penalized domains will demonstrate an obvious trend like this one, but anytime you see a huge drop in traffic and no recovery, the blog is in decline. This doesn’t necessarily make it unworthy of contributing to, assuming the traffic hasn’t finally reached 0; it just means it isn’t a priority right now. Save it for a lull period when you want to tie up loose ends. Guest blog vs. outreach: How to decide? Once you’ve decided a blog is worth reaching out to, you must determine your approach. There aren’t strict rules for pitching a specific blog; it really depends on a number of factors, such as: How many keywords is the domain ranking for? How relevant is the blog to my target audience? Is there a â€Å"Guest Post†, â€Å"Contributor Guidelines†, or â€Å"Write For Us† page? If so, how demanding are the guidelines? Does the author link out often? If so, are the links dofollow? How commercial does the site look? For me, a domain needs to rank for at least 300 keywords or have a large, loyal following (subscribers or social media) to be worth investing hours writing content. The bigger the blog, the more time you should invest in making your contribution absolutely memorable because eventually, your portfolio of work will be your future credentials in email pitches. Guest blogging guidelines:  Blogs must rank for 300 keywords or have  loyal following.On the other hand, if a blog is weak, you’re better off pitching the blogger on giving you a quick link by asking them to check out your content. Here  is a template of the email pitch I use: Here's a template you could follow for outreach marketing. Ask a fellow blogger to include a link to your relevant content. To make this feasible, the page you ask them to check out and possibly link to must be impeccable. Your content has to be extremely unique and insightful, your graphics need to be beautiful and vibrant, or you need to find some way to make a strong emotional connection with the blogger. The page must offer exceptional value to the blogger’s readers to convince him/her to share your resource; otherwise, you are wasting your time. Choosing the right content to promote. I’ve never been a prolific blogger. In fact, I probably don’t build â€Å"blogs† the way traditional bloggers do because I don’t develop content on a daily or even weekly basis. Since I create and grow so many websites, I focus on writing content where it makes strategic sense. There isn’t an exact formula for that, but I’ll use my latest project as an example. After 5 years of being a full-time Internet marketer and SEO expert, I finally thought it was time for me to start sharing my Internet marketing and SEO knowledge. I created StartABlog123.com to teach beginners how to start a blog. Given that the competition in the all-encompassing â€Å"blogging† niche is intense, it was important that I make my content stand out. This meant comprehensive non-commercial content, useful guides and resources, custom images, infographics, etc. For instance, I noticed a lot of solo bloggers discussing burn out, not knowing what to write about anymore, and linking to other resources that helped blog owners come up with new ideas. Knowing there was a â€Å"market† for this type of content, so I created the â€Å"Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas†.

Definition of Progressive and Examples of Progressive Thinking in Essay

Definition of Progressive and Examples of Progressive Thinking in Terms Of History - Essay Example According to Lawson (357), progressivists tried to expose corruption and injustice in the government and undercut political machines. They wanted the citizens to have a direct rule through the power of their vote as well as including women in the political voting arena. In education there was a need to move from rote learning into child-centered and experiment-based learning. Parker argued that it was pointless to acquire knowledge without understanding it. Reforms The progressive era is basically the period between1895-1925. It was marked by social activism and reforms. Examples of reforms during the progressive era include the initiation of direct primary elections by the legislature. This gave voters the right and freedom to choose primary candidates instead of limiting it to party officials. This was a tool of reducing the power of political machines and bosses. This was accomplished by the progressive movement under La Follette’s governance. At this time also state forest s were preserved, monopolies were broken up and railroad taxes doubled. The government started to defend small farmers and small business holders by intervening on their behalf. This was through trade control which ensured that there was competition and free enterprise. In 1911, the first national workers’ compensation program was instituted, cooperatives were encouraged, laws governing factory safety were passed and state income tax was established. The income tax was directed to high incomes alone. Limited labor hours for children and women were also instituted. These were achieved under the governance of Francis McGovern (Lawson 421) In 1913, ratification was done to the Seventeenth Amendment. The ratification required that all senators be directly elected by voters instead of the state legislature. This served to reduce their power and ensure they served the interests of the people not particular individuals who put them in office (Lawson 364). Women were allowed to enjoy their rights to vote. This was achieved through the Nineteenth Amendment of the constitution of the US in 1920. There was a widespread formation of labor unions. These were meant to protect the rights of workers. A restriction in immigration was also passed to control the influx of foreigners into the US at this period. In terms of local governance, many cities instituted municipal reference bureaus to look into the local government’s administrative structures and budgets. Major reformations of state government were done in many states for example Illinois. In terms of educational reforms, a new curriculum was developed at the Lincoln School. This curriculum was meant to eliminate obsolete material while integrating material that could be adapted to the changing needs of modern living. The new curriculum was build on ‘units of work’ which reorganize subject matter in the previous curriculum to a design that considered development of children and their future rol es as adults. Major figures that advanced progressivism Some of the major figures that advanced progressivism include Robert La Follette. He was sparked into action when Philetus Sawyer, a Republican leader wanted to bribe him as an attorney so as to fix a court case. He spends the rest of the decade traveling around the state while making a stand and speaking against corrupt railroad interests, powerful lumber barons and crooked politicians.

The Health Implications of Female Genital Mutilation on the Somali Research Proposal

The Health Implications of Female Genital Mutilation on the Somali Women - Research Proposal Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that FGM causes severe panic and pain among almost to 130 million women annually across the world. Apart from this, FGM has adverse emotional, social and psychological effects on the females involved. Further, FGM causes severe panic and pain among almost 130 million women annually across the world. Among the reasons for widespread FGM in Somalia include deeply rooted Somali traditions, religions endorsement and the need to preserve femininity. Somalia also exemplifies countries that adhere strictly to cultural traditions and practices perhaps compounding the desire to stick to FGM. Meanwhile, the country faces severe economic, financial, infrastructural and political challenges, necessitating humanitarian services offered by community workers from the West. The implication of the presence of these foreign workers has been the introduction of liberal practices, which the Somali women and men seem to be acquiring. As a res ult, the Somalis have started showing reluctance to letting their female children undergo FGM. A bar graph showing the percentages of FGM in selected African Countries. Female genital mutilation is considered illegal in most countries in the world. It is necessary to create awareness of the implications of this practice if other countries like Somalia are to discontinue FGM and consider is illegal as well. The primary objective of this research is to familiarize the society about the perils associated with Female Genital Mutilation. Further, research is needed to further investigate into FGM to reveal the challenges that the Somali women undergo in silence due to stigmatization. Literature Review This literature review identifies the past researchers concerning health implications FGM, factors that motivate the continuity of practicing FGM, and possible strategies that can be used to reduce the act of Female Genital Mutilation. Health Implications of FGM Boyle contends that Female G enital Mutilation is associated with a myriad of health complications; these include psychological, emotional and social consequences of the practice on the victims. Psychological complications constitute the disturbances and lifelong stress caused by the practice of the victims. The uncircumcised girls suffer stigma arising from what is considered disobedience to the cultures of the community. Psychological implications of stigmatization include suicide attempts and insanity. World Health organization recognized some of the implications of female genital mutilation on the fitness of women and girls. This included death resulting from bleeding, life-threatening pain that is caused by the cutting, and psychological stress caused by those undergoing the cut. Moreover, severe infections can attack the victims due to the tools used in clitoridectomy. Clitoridectomy is the act of circumcising girls.

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example Certainly, when great service and quality is the focus, the supply chain becomes the center of attention of the company. When it comes to dealing with issues like rising energy and materials prices and the growing challenges of global supply chains, GSK is focused on factors like countering market dynamics, Global Pack Management, speeding up packaging, efficient communication, and other production and operational challenges of the supply chain. According to sources, when energy and material prices rose, GSK turned to the late pack customization program in which production runs were labeled as 30,000numbers for cost effectiveness with 100-5packs at one point in time. In order to match the packaging speed, GSK also introduced online printing that reduced the costs of online printing. Other than that, the company has also initiated coordination efforts through electronic CAD package. The package manages to communicate minor details regarding packaging as well as reviews so that regulat ions are kept under strict check with its suppliers. In future, the aim of this company is to maintain similar tooling and machines among its suppliers. In order to meet the global supply chain challenges, GSK has very efficiently introduced several implementation programs for standardized changes in packaging, pack catalogue for optimization in packaging, and standard Apple Macintosh computers and software for uniform output as well as input (SCM, n.d.). As far as the corporate response to environmental degradation is concerned, GlaxoSmithKline has encouraged a responsible use of most of the dangerous and harmful chemicals in the production.Inculcating this concept in its supply chain, GSK has managed to apply strict and steady standards in its manufacturing operations. GSK makes sure that its suppliers operate according to requirements that arelegal (Schatsky,2012). It has also managed to establish standardized global EHS requirements for both, the suppliers as well as the manufac turers. In this process, it is made sure that the potential suppliers undergo strict pre-contract EHS evaluations. GSK also manages to perform audits where it is made sure that the concerned parties are provided with the needed encouragement and assistance. The parties in this context are referred to as manufacturers and key suppliers. The GSK thus maintains a sound EHS performance metrics that makes it to the Corporate Social Responsibility Report of the GSK, mentioning the performance of suppliers and manufacturers. The chemicals of priority are hence communicated to the suppliers and contract manufacturers that encourage responsible care programs (Global Public Policy Issues, 2011). Organization no. 2: InterfaceFLOR After its inception in the year of 1995, InterfaceFLOR evolved from a square idea in a broadloom to shaping the future on its industry. Over the years of its operations, the company has always focused on reducing the deadly toxins from the facilities as well as the pr oducts it provides to ensure greater sustainability as it has become one of the biggest requirements for today’s organizations (Appendix).InterfaceFLORalso aims at erasing wastes, and thus uses new and creative manufacturing processes to deal with the global challenges. According to the company’s mission, InterfaceFLOR aims to get rid of any bad impact its operations have on the environment by the year of

Development of Fantasy Football Website

Development of Fantasy Football Website Chapter 1. Introduction Project Overview Last year a project was completed for Mr. Starkey (hereinafter referred to as Client) to design a family website. The website was centered on a fantasy football league created for family and friends from around the world. Many other features were involved in the creation of this website including games, events, family news and many more. With all these and an advanced fantasy football competition, more than just a website site was created. In fact a quote from the Client stated â€Å"The website has brought everyone together into a kind of ‘Family Intranet or in other words, a ‘Virtual Community has been created† (Starkey A.J. 2006). Chapter 2. Design Project Aims With the success of the project, the Client has asked for improvements to be made to the fantasy football feature of the website. For next seasons competition the Client would like the entrants to be able to register on-line. The Clients reasons for this are numerous:- To aid in the ease of entering the competition To save on postage for managers in different countries To have one official route for applications, instead of entries coming in from different ways and therefore getting lost and misled To allow alterations to be made by the entrant without contacting the Client To improve the quality of the website and to continuously bring the website forward with new and innovative ideas Project Objectives To fulfil this project and create the on-line fantasy football application I will have to meet several objectives. 1. To enable the entrant to:- Create a user name and password Log in with correct details View fantasy football rules Scroll through the players in different classes i.e. defence, midfield and forwards Pick and list their selected team Process their chosen team E-mail their application to the relevant address Error messages to be given in these circumstances:- Wrong log-in details are supplied Selected team breaks any fantasy football rules Follow the CSS guidelines set in the website structure, and to consider all HCI aspects throughout the design and implementation. To have the new system installed by 11Dec 2006. Project Considerations During all aspects of designing and building this feature the following considerations will be taken into account:- Superstructure Graphics Colour Content Readability Page Layout Links Project Methodology There were several possible methodologies to help with this project. The ones considered were:- 5 STEPS (Steps to Ensure Project Success) where it helps an individual deliver the project on time within budget. The focus is on developing a realistic schedule for a project and then managing it. AIS (Administrative Information System) which uses 7 structured components. PRINCE (Projects IN Controlled Environments) this was produced by the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) for the development and implementation of IS/IT projects. WebE Process â€Å"WebApps are often delivered incrementally. That is, framework activities will occur repeatedly as each increment is engineered and delivered† (Pressman RS 2005, p 507). Using the WebE Process represents an incremental design structure. The project is split up into increments to be tried and tested individually. This process model is adaptable to fit most tasks or implements. The one I have decided to go with is a methodology called PROMPT (Project Resource Organisation Management Planning Techniques) which although is the predecessor to PRINCE, it is the methodology more suited to my project than the others. PROMPT was designed in an attempt to set down guidelines for a computer project to avoid serious over-running of time limits, which I feel is vital in this project to keep me from falling behind. Even though the WebE process is specifically designed for web applications our project is not incremental. The stage flow guidelines are as follows:- Feasibility Study to determine whether the project should be done/can be done/will work if it is done. Initial stage where the project organisation is set up. Specification Stage in which the user specification was detailed. Design Stage where the logical and from this the physical design of the computer system was designed in detail. Development Stage the system is built and tested. Installation stage the user accepts a working system. Operation Stage when the system is tuned for the work in hand. Interface designs The overall design of the interface has to run along the same lines as the original website, while the log-in and selection pages can follow different routes. There are several different ways of approaching the interface. One option is a simple one click system where you click on a player and it appears in your team. Another option, and the one which will be applied to the feature, is a drag and drop system. Both options are simple for the users to work but the drag and drop system brings little extra to the process. It doesnt have to be just the name that is dragged it can be an icon. This will create a real manager feel to the program. Fig 2 shows an example of this drag and drop procedure. The icon being a players face. User Case The two use case diagrams show how the system will function. Diagram 1 shows how the Entrant will create his account, while Diagram 2 shows what option will be available to the registered manager. Storyboard Storyboarding not only improves your site navigation system but also helps design your website properly. Interface html/css design and layouts The majority of the pages in this section of the website will follow the same guidelines, with the slight exception of the team selection, seen below. Database Design There are several pieces of information required on each player for the database. Each subject data needs to be sorted properly to aid in the running of the database. â€Å"Normalisation is part of successful database design. Without normalisation, database systems can be inaccurate, slow and inefficient and they might not produce the data you expect† (databasedev.co.uk). To enable us to follow the normalisation rules to need to find a piece of information that uniquely identifies that player. As team name, player name player position etc can quite easily be duplicate a player ID has been created for each player. The creation of this ID will be automatically created by the database software (mysql) so does not need to be of a concern. The information held an each player are as follows: Field Example ID 1001 Team Name Arsenal Position Goalkeeper Player Name Lehmann Cost 7.5m Further developments The program has been designed so that any future enhancements that are required can be easily implemented. The program is reusable for the fantasy football competition every year. All that needs to be changed each year is the player information. As the database doesnt carry very much data there is plenty of room for extensions or other ideas and new innovations. The program can in future be used for any other fantasy games the client has in mind for future events. Reflection I found that the project, although not impossible to complete in the time limit, the ideas I had to solve the project objectives were over ambitious. The reasons for this soon became clear: My knowledge of PHP was not satisfactory at the start of the project to complete my ambitious objectives. The plan to keep to the main website theme, instead of aiding in the building of the fantasy football section made the project harder to complete. This was that I could not express myself for this project and therefore were limited in the way I could develop it. Considering this, the objectives and aims did not change as I feel that I still completed them moderately. The problem was that the php was very basic in the whole. Although this doesnt help with the time limit available, I can still improve this in the future as I improve my php knowledge. A good example of this is the team selection process. Diagram 6 shows one example of how I would have liked it to have been done. Chapter 3. Project Tracking Project Risks Due to the small size of this project, the risks are few, although I have included a few extra. These need to be considered even though the probability is very low, as they applied to the original project and so also concern the current one. Risk Identity Risk Probability Risk Impact Assessment of risk Risk mitigation management 1. Budget Unlikely Important Domain and monthly web server costs exceed expectations keep within budget where possible 2. Schedule Possible Important Mismanagement of workload Keep with schedule planed in the Gantt chart 3. Design Unlikely Marginal Unable to design to specification and considerations Research thoroughly and seek aid if required 4. Implementation Possible Marginal Software and hardware problems Prepare for this by having a second pc and alternative software available 5. Personnel Unlikely Serious Illness to myself that halts the procedure Seek extensions if required Reflection Project Risks As already reflected on earlier, concerning the objectives that were unfulfilled this also comes under the project risk category. The risk identity here was â€Å"schedule†. Risk Identity Risk Probability Risk Impact Assessment of risk Risk mitigation management 2. Schedule Possible Important Mismanagement of workload Keep with schedule planed in the Gantt chart Here although it says that the assessment of the risk is â€Å"Mismanagement of workload† I would be inclined to say that it was â€Å"Misinterpretation of expectations† Project Methodology The Project Proposal stated that the methodology WebE was going to be used. This was changed when it became clear that that Methodology wasnt completely suited for this project. The WebE is used for incremental applications, while the PROMPT although outdated was more suited this time. Chapter 4. Testing â€Å"Software testing is fundamentally concerned with demonstrating that observed (actual) program behaviour corresponds with specified (expected) program behaviour† (Jorgensen. P. 2002). What this means is that you build your test conditions to match what the expected outcomes of the software are. The best way of doing is to split your software into manageable sections. This is called Unit testing. This does not cover all the testing required, as our software needs to meet accessibility requirements and also pass a validation test. For all these and more we need to decide on a test strategy. Test Strategy The test strategy will include four different types of testing as described below. Sight testing This test will be used throughout the development and implementation of the website, and will be ongoing over short periods. This will spot simple errors before they become bigger. Usability testing This will be used to test every aspect of the website as defined in the website considerations. The tests and results can be seen in the Test plan. The website will then be put through the W3c Mark-up Validation Service test. Accessibility testing Accessibility testing involves measuring the ease with which users with special needs can complete common tasks on your website. The tests and results can be seen in the Test plan. Acceptance testing The Client will then be involved and asked to test all the features of the website to ensure that everything is designed to the clients expectations. This testing may result in further refinements. Usability Testing Using the list from the project consideration, we will test the web site thoroughly. These tests will be completed using different computers, browsers and internet speeds. Below is the test plan, which gives a table of the tests that were carried out, their expected results and their actual results. Test Plan Test No. Test Expected Results Actual Results Superstructure: 1 Is the site layout easy to understand? Yes Yes 2 Is the navigation around the site easy Yes Yes 3 Is the loading time quick and efficient Yes Yes 4 Is the site accessible to users with inferior hardware Yes Yes 5 Is the site accessible to users with inferior software Yes Yes 6 is the site accessible for short-sighted people Yes Yes Graphics: 7 Are they clear and attractive Yes Yes 8 Are they necessary Yes Yes 9 Do they contribute or just a distraction Contribute Contribute 10 Will they unjustifiable add to excessive loading time No Yes 11 Consider alternatives for people with lower spec browsers and software Yes Yes Colour: 12 Is there an attractive mix of colours Yes Yes 13 Do they add to the appearance of the site Yes Yes 14 Do the colours follow web standards Yes Yes 15 Have I considered colour blindness Yes Yes, See Accessibility test. Content: 16 Is the content interesting and of use to the user Yes Yes 17 Is the spelling correct Yes Yes 18 Is interaction possible Yes Yes Readability: 19 Are the pages readable Yes Yes 20 Does the site load correctly using different browsers Yes No! See note 102 Page Layout: 21 Is each page in the site consistent Yes No! See note 101 22 Use of Cascading style sheets Yes Yes Links: 23 Are the links easy to spot Yes Yes 24 Do they work correctly Yes Yes 25 If they follow the links can they return easily Yes Yes 26 Is there a site map, breadcrumbs or similar Yes, example Yes, Site map Program: Registration 27 Accept names and username Yes Yes 28 Accept Correct E-mail Yes Yes 29 Incorrect E-mail Error Error 30 Passwords Encrypt Yes Yes

Society’s Favor for Mental Labor :: Scientific Sciences Labor Work Essays

Society’s Favor for Mental Labor A claim is a statement made to influence others to accept a certain point of view. In her essay "Science, Facts, and Feminism," Ruth Hubbard presents various claims criticizing the way scientific epistemology works as a separate, exclusive entity. Hubbard’s claims suggest that the way society perceives and values science ought to be reevaluated. I agree strongly with two of her claims. One of these claims states that "this society values mental labor more highly than manual labor" (121). This claim is fairly straightforward in meaning; it says that the Western culture places a higher priority on mental labor than manual labor. In the Western culture, positions which require completion of stringent educational requirements rank higher in status, both in terms of respect and monetary rewards, than those which require physical work. In America people working in mental occupations are often paid higher salaries than those working in manual positions. The number of letters following one’s name that indicate educational achievement often dictates the amount of respect he or she receives. People sometimes look down upon jobs requiring intense physical labor. The people who see mental labor as superior sometimes cite the fact that anyone could work outside all day in the sun, but it takes an educated professional to work in a laboratory. This outlook exemplifies the value society places on mental work. While I agree with Hubbard’s claim, it is a bit naà ¯ve in assuming that every occupation is either all manual or mental. While most jobs are viewed by society as wholly manual or mental occupations, manual occupations cross over into mental occupations (and vice versa) every day. Farmers, for instance, must have knowledge in the areas of business, biology, and mathematics, to name a few, in order to run a profitable operation. However, most farmers, thought of as "manual" workers, do not attain the same respect as a business person or scientist, "mental" workers. My personal experiences have demonstrated to me the truth in Hubbard’s claim that society places a higher value on mental work than manual work. I have lived on a farm my entire life, so I feel I am acutely aware of society’s devaluation of manual labor. While most farmers work hours that would breach those of almost any "day job," they are still, on average, paid far less than, for example, an engineer that has set weekday hours and rare weekend work.

Ethical Audit Report of Tesco Essay

According to Mamoria (2010), business ethics is defined as the businessman’s integrity so far as his conduct or behaviour is concerned in all fields of business as well as towards the society and other businesses. Thus, the conduct or behaviour by businessman towards the society or others may have some conflicts and contradictions. The intention of this report is to highlight what and why the incidents happened. The incidents include the employment of illegal workers, price fixing, and poor product quality. All these incidents tend to spoil the corporate’ image of the company and also bring harmful effect to the communities and other stakeholders. So, Tesco took action by compensating to the victims, restructured corporate management system for better performances, and provided training programme and learning course for the employee. The ethical theories applicable to Tesco include Ethics of Justice, Ethics of Duty, and Feminist Ethics, which will also be discussed in this report. In addition, the organization’s best practices and values such as corporate social responsibility and protecting the environment will also be discussed for the close up of this report. 1. 1 Background of Tesco Tesco, one of the largest retailers in the world started its business in 1919. The Founder, Jack Cohen started a grocery stall in East End of London. He made a profit of ? 1 from sales of ? 4 on his first day. After 5 years, in 1924. Mr. Cohen bought a shipment of tea from Mr. T. E. Stockwell where the â€Å"Tesco† brand first appearance. Tesco expanded its business to petrol station in 1974, and became the UK’s largest independent petrol retailer. It generated a total sales topped ? 1bn and doubled up to ? 2bn in 1982. In order to overtake the UK’s leading grocer in 1990, Tesco made an aggressive marketing campaign to open more stores to gain its businesses. In 2000, Tesco continued to expand its business by product range from clothes to electrical and personal finance products when Tesco. com was launched (www. telegraph. co. uk). For more detail on its corporate background, kindly refer to Appendix I. 2. 0 Ethical Dilemmas Ethics in general and ethics in business are very intimate to one another. Therefore one’s personal ethics cannot be completely separated from one’s business or organizational ethics. If you are a man of principles, then you are more inclined to insist on high moral standards in your business and organizations (Gavai, 2010). No matter how strong the corporate policy and system, ethical dilemmas still exist as everyone is looking for their own interest. Tesco, one of the biggest retailers in worldwide also faces the same problems such as illegal workers, price fixing and poor product quality. . 1 Illegal Workers Tesco was caught for hiring 30 illegal workers who were foreign students at one of its warehouses. These students were from 11 different nationalities; mostly Bangladeshi and Indian origins were alleged for working up to 3? times longer than their allowed working hour in visa permit (www. visabureau. com). They worked as much as 50 hours extra than the allowed ho urs of 20 hours per week. This incident happened after the UK border Agency enforcement team visited their factory on July 2012 in Croydon (www. immigrationmatters. co. uk). The retailer took responsibilities by giving corporation to the investigation as they insisted they did not condone illegal working (www. telegraph. co. uk). Anyhow, employees were considered the victims in this incident as they had not been protected by the company’s employment rules, where they were forced to work for extra hours. They faced big losses such as inability to further education and having a work-life balance. Employer did not protect for employee welfare, they abused employee right to work extra which prompted to product high productivity, maximize the profit margin by saving cost of employee salary. Supplier played a key role in this scenario, as it was the only party to transform information between the employers and the employee while in the process of recruitment. In fact, there was wrong information sending either to the employer or the employee. 2. 2 Price Fixing Tesco was accused in the scandal of the pricing fixing on its dairy products such as cheese and milk. The consumers from the Office of Fair Trading in UK reported that Tesco had charged them an additional of approximately ? 270M between years 2002-2003. The huge amount was accumulated from 3 pence extra for a pint of milk, 15 penny extra for each quarter-pound of butter and the same amount per half-pound of cheese for every single purchased together with another 8 firms were implicated in the collusion (www. dailymail. co. uk). They were caught by breaching the competition act in synchronising the increased price with other competitors for certain dairy products. However, Tesco’s competitors had admitted and OFT had been given discount on the fined amount as they had given cooperation in the investigation. When the corporations did not practice fair competition which comply with the competition law, consumers were the victims because they did not protect in fair trading. This is clearly a strong violation of consumers’ rights (www. savistamagazine. com). Shareholders in the corporations basically earned extra profits in this scenario. Whereas, this practices was not encouraged as they must obey the corporate law which was stated in the Corporate Governance. Government department plays a key role in this embarrass scenario; their intention was to protect the consumers. Their penalty towards the corporations sent a clear signal to them not to violate consumers’ rights. In fact, families in UK suffering big loss of expensed extra for the daily goods in unknowingly. They should be protected under the fair trading policy which ensured them to trade in worthiness. 2. 3 Poor Product Quality Tesco also received a punishment from the Bracknell Magistrate Court for selling 127 outdated foods in the Martins Heron branch on May 2011. The foods included beef-burgers, ham and chocolate cheesecake. This incident happened when a girl fell sick after consuming chargrilled chicken pasta salad. This prompted Bracknell Forest Trading Standards officers to investigate the matter after receiving the complaint. The officers found that the foods had expired for 16 days during a visit to the store (www. getreading. co. uk). Trading Standards officers commented this matter as the â€Å"worst case of out-of- date product† that they had ever seen (www. mirror. co. uk). The irresponsible behavior acted by the management of Tesco was strongly affected to the public health. It also brought suffer to the consumers from physically and mentality. The shareholders were also facing lost when the management was careless in managing the stocks. Besides the above, Tesco was discovered for selling 100 expired food products which included yoghurts, fruit smoothies, soup, gravy, vegetable pakoras, packaged salad, pasta bowls, samosa and bhaji snack packs and guacomole dip. These items were past their sell-by-dated of between 1 to 17 days. The occurrence was engaged by a manager who had 20 years experience but his first time to manage the largest store chain, Tesco Extra. Shoppers had complaint about the poor problems to the Coventry City Council and the trading standards officers had proven the issues after their raids at the branch in Gielgud Way, Walsgrave in November 2009 (www. oventrytelegraph. net) 3. 0 Actions taken to solve these dilemmas According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, dilemmas are situations or problems where a person has to make a difficult choice; an ethical dilemma is a problem where a person has to choose between a moral and an immoral act (smallbusiness. chron. com). Dilemma occurrences in the workplace are common and action taken to solve them is very important, whereas theory of ethics can be applied as guidelines which may bring the moral decision. 3. 1 Reinforce in recruitment and management system Tesco was fined for a total of ? 15,000 by UK Border Agency (UKBA) for 23 students, of various nationalities who had breached the visa working terms (www. telegraph. co. uk). UKBA was reflecting UK government’s intention into act which has promised to overwhelm on visa abuse. The 23 individuals were not permitted to enter UK again (www. visabureau. com). The Britain’s biggest supermarket had ensured that the incident in this nature will never happen again. One of the executive had been laid off after the lacklustre performance (www. telegraph. co. uk). Tesco was a founder member of Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). They searched employee with high standard by applying the ETI base code which included; no exploitation of child labour, working hours not exceeding (20 hours per week for foreign workers) and regular employment is provided (www. tesco. ie). However, the government had carried out a good job by taking serious action against any employers who had breached the visa working terms. After the fined it brought a â€Å"warning† to the competitors and simultaneously as a reminder to them to have good ethical practice while in competition. Nobody is allowed to breach the rules in order to obtain success in competition. In addition, after UKBA taken action against the employer, the rest employees will enjoy the benefits which to work in regularly, fair treated, feel protected and concerned by the government. Employer was ensured that the management system been improved after laid off an employee who made mistake. Employer was informed to put employee’s welfares as priority. 3. 2 Defending the rights Tesco was slapped with the fined of ? 10m for price-fixing of its dairy products by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2011 after seven years of investigation. However, they threatened to fight back by taking legal action against OFT to defend themselves. The company claimed they were â€Å"surprised and dismayed† with the fined and strongly denied with any collusion in changing pricing detail with each other via the dairy processors. Tesco stand at its point vigorously and throughout the court. However, it had urged the government to deprive OFT of its power to investigate and punish firms under the competition act (www. mirror. co. uk). The intention of OFT was to alert the industries that the competition laws was enforced in ensuring the shopper in a fair trade condition. Hence, after the punishments were sent, it was ensure that the competition was maintained under the competition laws. Furthermore, competitors were only able to divulge information to each other via dairy suppliers. Suppliers were also not been honest in this incident. Suppliers did not bear responsibility of providing high quality products with reasonable prices where the consumers are able enjoy the benefits. Thus, suppliers being fined by the OFT were considered reasonable. No matter how the employer wanted to fight back with OFT, they had to pay the fine and settled it in the fastest way where to stop any embarrassing matters to affect their sales figure. At the same time, the costly and time consuming case might affect the expense of both taxpayer and business as well. So the fine paid has benefitted the consumers which bring fairness of their trading. 3. 3 Compensations After Tesco had admitted selling of outdated food, it was fined by the Bracknell Magistate Court for ? 12,000, and ? 15,000 in legal fees and a ? 15 victim surcharge. The Charges were related to 88 types of food which were put on shelves for sales. Tesco had to bear for the penalty as they knew that selling of out-date-food brought harm to the public health (www. tutorcare. o. uk). In order not to repeat their mistake, they were reinforced through staff training at the Bracknell store to ensure all the processes undergone strict quality control and the procedures were complied. Customers are the cause and purpose of every business. A business is supposed to serve them satisfactorily (Gavai, 2010). According to Tesco Corporate responsibility, they were running local s upplier programme for the purpose of getting fresh and quality products. Therefore, the company had to enforce the programme to ensure it was running smoothly and the supplier complied with it. Employers had to bear the responsibility for the incident where there was serious problem in the management. The accused significantly spoiled the corporate image and reputation which cause the sales figure to drop. However, the employers had made a right decision for admitting the mistake and paid compensation. It significantly showed that Tesco was applying the Ethics of Justice. According to Plato (2010), justice is an order and a beauty of the parts of a whole. Justice is effective coordination. It is an effective harmony of the whole. Ethics of justice can be defined as what is right and what is wrong in clear and precision. It was related to the notion of fairness. When a person is been treated unequally or deprived from what he deserved, then he was treated with injustice. Tesco realized that treating someone injustice was an immoral action, so they pledged guilty and paid fined which tend to bring fairness to the consumers as to determine this action on the criterion of rightness, which is one of the concepts in Ethics of Justice as well. Furthermore, Tesco was fined for ? 33,400 for 43 charges of selling 100 out-of-date foods at a hearing in Coventry Magistrates Court and a further of 94 charges after considering their sentenced. However, some shareholders of Tesco were present in court to show their seriousness of this matter and their concern on the case. They pledged guilty on the charges and their managers were laid off and two other employees were being disciplined (www. lacors. gov. uk). Employees had th e responsibility to carry out their job by following the corporate system. Some of the mistakes were not being tolerated and it has brought harm to the public health. The Coventry council was pleased with the results as the sentenced brought a warning to other competitors in the same industry that the government had stand at their point for the communities was appreciated. 4. 0 Best Practices and Values According to Donald, White and Bedner (2010), value is a concept of the desirable, an internalized criterion or standard of evaluation a person possesses. Such concepts and standards are relatively few and determine or guide an individual’s evaluation of many objects encountered in everyday life. Values are tinged with moral flavour involving an individual’s judgement of what is good, right or desirable. Tesco has practiced several communities’ works as a return to the society and tried to deliver values to them. Corporate social responsibility is in the interest of business because, by contributing to social change, it can create a better environment for its own transactions, thereby developing business while being socially responsibly (Rendtorff and Dahl, 2009). 4. 1 Communities Works Tesco plays a vital role in the local communities by supporting them actively without preconditions. They wanted to have a good relationship with the communities in which they operated. The fundamental condition that Tesco can provide to the communities is providing good quality, affordable foods and goods, and offering job to the unemployment. Besides that, they are listening and responding to the local communities for their needs and values, carrying out the issues that matter to them positively, and improve the local area by providing lasting contributions. They regularly set up a new store in the area where the retailers or businesses had been neglected. Tesco also launched a Regeneration Partnership Programs in UK where Tesco was proud as this prompted to providing job opportunities to the long term unemployment. In May 2012, they had their first launched store under the regeneration program in Hungary at Debrecen. Hiring 100 unemployed and providing 42 with courses organized by Regional Labour Centre helped them to readjust in their routine of daily work. Tesco also gathered the local communities in a centre point for them to interact. In Turkey, Tesco Kipa Family Club offered Cooking class, Dancing class, chess and learning English Class to their 60,000 members. In addition, Tesco had over 100 schools of Extended Class in South Korea to let the customers and families to attend Arts and English Class. Presently, Tesco had over 750 communities champion working into the communities which communicated with the communities effectively. They were organizing activities such as Healthy Eating to the primary school and local school children, charity event by collection or bag packing, and also asking the staff and customers to join the events like Race for Life (www. tescoplc. com). Without doubt, values to the communities such as responsibility, accountability, concern and unity had contributed absolutely by Tesco. â€Å"Value† so understood is a very broad category. It includes all sorts of things, from personal desire like health or a sense of humor to social ideals like wealth or liberty (Weston, 2010). They are responsible to the communities by giving them quality product in affordable prices. In addition, they were giving values of accountability by organizing learning class for the communities to gain their knowledge and interests. Tesco is also concerned about the communities of the unemployment, giving priority to the unemployed for job opportunities which also gave them better future and better life. Unity of the communities is very important in local area, Tesco provided a platform for the communities to communicate, interact and work together. They looked forward that every business and store were valued by the communities as they were trying hard to give interest to the communities. Tesco contributed a lot of times and fund to the community works. This demonstrates the application of Ethics of Duty. According to Kant (2010), a duty is obligatory and one has to do his duty regardless of any situation. Most of the time duty implies an action that one is expected to do as a part of society which may be neither for self-satisfaction nor for immediate happiness. Tesco knew what their prime duty to the communities was. Having a good thought is not enough but must in action. An action with potential concern showed their responsibility to the communities. 4. 2 Protecting Environment Protecting the environment is one of the important missions set by Tesco. The only way to deal with it was reducing the impact on the environment, including water and energy usage. All the suppliers have to follow the program with Tesco by reducing carbon footprint on the product and manage the water usage in all the store chain. The mission to be achieved is to become a zero-carbon business by 2050. Achieving a mission is not only in planning but practice. Tesco has converted over 100 stores to natural refrigeration across the corporate. The project in Kenya for the Lake Naivasha water stewardship helped to reduce water pollution and raised the water levels, replace transportation from lorries to rail transport which saved 15,000 tonnes of CO2e per year. Tesco had also collaborated with Unilever to create awareness amongst customers of sustainable product choices; more than 10,000 customers were advised to reduce their water footprint in Turkey. Tesco practiced by reducing in packaging and minimizing waste in their dairy operation which helped to reduce the impact on the environment. Reducing waste was the priority plan for Tesco. They used a market-leading store ordering system which helped to predict what each store chain will sell, this minimized waste of food accurately before it reached their customers. The programmes of minimizing the store’s operational waste started running since 2009 throughout the world’s store chain. They did not send any wastage from the UK store to the landfill. If the wasted were unable to recycle then it will be converted into other sources of energy. In China, cardboard and wasted oil in the stores had been fully recycled. In Poland, in order to increase the rate of recycling, they have conducted an audit of waste segregation in stores. In Malaysia, they encouraged the employees to recycle by launching a weekly league table to record who recycled the most. In US, they sent their waste food to the food bank for those who needed to reduce the wastage. And lastly in Slovakia, they donated the waste food the Hunter’s association for feeding animals. The materials used for product packing were the lightest weight and sustainable and also gave opportunities for recycling. Since 2007, Tesco have reduced the packaging of own-brand product more than 15% in UK, which included cutting glass usage by 420 tonnes annually when producing their own label Champagne. They also changed traditional packaging of toys to new packaging reduction technique that brought 15% reduction. In UK, Tesco also has commitments with WRAP’s Courtauld 2 (Waste and Resource Action Programme) to reduce the packaging waste by 2012. The commitments included the reduction of weight, recycled content of grocery packaging to be increased, rates of recycling to be increased, and carbon impact to be lowered by 10%, reduction of 4% for the UK household food and drink, and reduction of 5% for the products and packaging waste in the supply chains (www. tescoplc. com). Caring for the environment brings value of duty, love, hope, and comfort. Tesco has carried out their duty towards the society by committing on wastage reduction. All the resources taken from the earth and environment were fully utilized and the balances were recycled. This duty is belonging to everyone; therefore Tesco has taken it into priority. Tesco also showed the values of love. In terms of loving the earth, loving the environment, and loving each others in the world by saving the resources such as water. Human being is unable to live without water. Tesco knew the seriousness so they ran several programmes on reducing the usage of water. Tesco is giving Hope to the society as well, saving resources in order to prevent resources shortage, and climate changing. Value of hope is generating with these practices to the people. Living in harmony and secure which may concern for the next generation as well. With the clean environment, the values of comfort arise and the people can feel that they are living in a peaceful world. This is the main objective achieved by Tesco. A comfort lifestyle may bring positive thinking to the people, staying with tolerance and forgiveness. Tesco has significantly practiced ethical theory of right for the programme. According to William Sbaw (2010), a right is an entitlement to act or have other acts in a certain way. Everyone has a right in doing certain action and simultaneously expecting others not to deprive its right. However, others also possess a right to disagree to the action, but they cannot dismiss it. Tesco promoted the protecting environment programme and has prompted to let the communities knew that they had the right to live harmony. Right and Duty are correlated as that our prime duty is to protect the rights of people (Gavai, 2010). Tesco has the duty of giving fairness to the society and the communities have the right to enjoy the fair treatment. 5. Conclusion Business ethics is important for a corporate because it brings significant benefits and advantages. Corporation with good business ethics prompt to have good image and reputation in the market, which assist to create market awareness and promote sales easily. Furthermore, a corporation best practice such as corporate social responsibility is also very crucial which to protect the employees and communities’ welfare, c orporation may enjoy benefits for itself also because a good corporate social responsibility may create loyalty of an employee. A loyal and committted employee will stay with the corporation constantly and increase productivity, which can reduce labour turnover as well. Whereas, Tesco, as one of the biggest retailers in the world, which cover business internationally (refer Appendix II for International business Chart), they realize the importance of these and working hard to practice good ethical behavior, create value for the communities and providing moral decision to settle the ethical dilemma to ensure the stakeholder and communities can enjoy the benefits.

Free Essays on Protagonist Abner Snopes

Gundareva 1 Marina Gundareva English 112 Mrs. S. Grant October 8, 2003 Protagonist Abner Snopes In 1939, William Faulkner writes â€Å"Barn Burning†. The story reflects the life of the people living in Mississippi during the period of â€Å"social, economic, and cultural tumult, the decade of Great Depression† (Mary E. Byrne) The main theme in â€Å"Barn Burning† concerns the relationships between father- Abner Snopes and his son- Sarty Snopes, shows the social and economic injustice that happens â€Å"between the white landowners and the white tenant farmers†, â€Å"the racial distinction between black and whites† (Mary E. Byrne). The plot in â€Å"Barn Burning† depicts a story of a family that is in the lowest social class and endures financial difficulties. Abner Snope’s attempts for better life do not lead to anything and his family has nothing left to do but travel all over the country in search of new farms which they can lend and maybe make some money just enough to merely survive. Abner Snopes is a poor sharecropper; he i s smart enough to understand that his social status is never going to improve, and that his children’s future holds only hard work. Abner Snope’s complex characterization by Faulkner proves that the social position of his family, inability to provide the members of his family with better life environment leads to the frustration and makes him to become a rebel barn burner; protagonist Abner Snopes turns into antagonist only due to the social and economic pressure the society puts on him. Gundareva 2 Abner Snopes is one of the main characters in William Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning†. William Faulkner shows the nature of Abner Snopes through his attitude towards his family and towards society he lives in. Abner Snopes has four children whose destiny is a great concern of his. Abner Snopes, a person with â€Å"wolf-like independence and even courage† (495), becomes discouraged when in spite of his hard w... Free Essays on Protagonist Abner Snopes Free Essays on Protagonist Abner Snopes Gundareva 1 Marina Gundareva English 112 Mrs. S. Grant October 8, 2003 Protagonist Abner Snopes In 1939, William Faulkner writes â€Å"Barn Burning†. The story reflects the life of the people living in Mississippi during the period of â€Å"social, economic, and cultural tumult, the decade of Great Depression† (Mary E. Byrne) The main theme in â€Å"Barn Burning† concerns the relationships between father- Abner Snopes and his son- Sarty Snopes, shows the social and economic injustice that happens â€Å"between the white landowners and the white tenant farmers†, â€Å"the racial distinction between black and whites† (Mary E. Byrne). The plot in â€Å"Barn Burning† depicts a story of a family that is in the lowest social class and endures financial difficulties. Abner Snope’s attempts for better life do not lead to anything and his family has nothing left to do but travel all over the country in search of new farms which they can lend and maybe make some money just enough to merely survive. Abner Snopes is a poor sharecropper; he i s smart enough to understand that his social status is never going to improve, and that his children’s future holds only hard work. Abner Snope’s complex characterization by Faulkner proves that the social position of his family, inability to provide the members of his family with better life environment leads to the frustration and makes him to become a rebel barn burner; protagonist Abner Snopes turns into antagonist only due to the social and economic pressure the society puts on him. Gundareva 2 Abner Snopes is one of the main characters in William Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning†. William Faulkner shows the nature of Abner Snopes through his attitude towards his family and towards society he lives in. Abner Snopes has four children whose destiny is a great concern of his. Abner Snopes, a person with â€Å"wolf-like independence and even courage† (495), becomes discouraged when in spite of his hard w...

Reggae History essays

Reggae History essays History of Reggae and Caribbean Music. To this day there are many mixed disputes about the origin of the word reggae. To Jamaican music fans of the late sixties and early seventies the term came from a song entitled Do the Reggay from legendary band Toots and Maytals. Some think that it comes from the word streggae, a Jamaican slang term for prostitute. The most reputable explanation was by Bob Marley himself which was that the word came from Spanish origin which roughly translated to the kings music. (Timothy White, 16) Reggae music originated from the style of Calypso. For years during and after the 1920s, Calypso was the dominant music throughout the Caribbean. Calypso originated from the celebration of carnival in the Caribbean province of Trinidad. (White, 18) The celebration of carnival gave the Trinidadians an outlet for their music. Carnival is a celebration that emanates from a smorgasbord of European and African cultural expressions. The word CARNIVAL comes from a Roman word which translates into farewell to the flesh. Carnival is celebrated throughout different areas of Brazil and Trinidad prior to Ash Wednesday. (Mascots2000.com) It was during the 18th century that carnival celebrations were brought to Trinidad. During this time period the Spanish were the governors of Trinidad and they invited the French to live in their lands. With the French settlers came their cultural identity and traditions. As business flourished from the French settlers so did mass celebrations originating from French/Creole culture. With these celebratory balls came masks, music and dancing. Soon after, Trinidad was taken over by Britain. This change in ownership did not effect the celebrations as they became a tradition of the island. The Britishs African slaves witnessed the celebrations and began to incorporate their own culture and traditions into the celebration with ...

The Appeal of Marilyn Monroe Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Appeal of Marilyn Monroe - Research Paper Example Grady Johnson’s article for the Coronet magazine, written in 1952, captures the popularity and appeal of Marilyn Monroe when she was a rising star in Hollywood. He notes how the emerging star had seen 11 private foster homes in the first 16 years of her life. Coming out of this uncertain start is tough enough. But when we take into account how she’d always felt as an unwanted, underprivileged and low self-esteemed child, this maturation into a beautiful heartthrob is all the more astounding. Even as early as 1952, she was described with adoration by various journalists and film analysts. Here’s a sample: â€Å"She has been pegged the most promising star of 1952 by Movie Columnist Hedda Hopper, and described by Saloon-and-Sex authority Earl Wilson as having â€Å"the year’s most outstanding figure.† Producer Jerry Wald says, â€Å"She walks like a young antelope. When she stands, it's like a snake uncoiling. When she speaks, you don’t hear h er words – it’s as though she were whispering love to you.† She even is developing a singularly unnecessary skill as an actress.† (Johnson, 1952) If such is the adoration of seasoned critics and commentators, one can understand the kind of impact Monroe must have made on the general public. She was able to transcend class and gender barriers and garner the admiration of a whole generation. Even today her legacy is firmly established and her iconic status remains undiminished.  Ã‚   An aspect of Marilyn Monroe’s personal life which had added to her appeal is her numerous affairs. It is not surprising for actresses of her time to be involved with rich and powerful men. She had had relationships with sport stars, co-male-stars, and even with President John F. Kennedy. Instead of diminishing or sullying her image in the public eye, this tendency had only enhanced her romantic appeal. During her peak, she was every man’s dream girl. (Lockwood, 20 11) Contradictions in Personality Acting did not come easily to Marilyn Monroe. Her personal insecurities and vulnerabilities showed up as stage fright and shyness during her early years of