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How to Write a Project Charter By Joe Raasch, eHow Member I want to do this! What's This? User-Submitted Article Ever get partway through a project and forget why you were doing the project? Or maybe the project team has grown a bit larger than you expected? With a project charter, you can mitigate or eliminate these and other project management challenges. It is helpful to write a project charter before starting any business project. This simple, one-page document will provide an anchor and guide as you move forward in executing, implementing or solving the project you have. Difficulty: Moderately EasyInstructions Things You'll Need: * A completed project charter template Choose a Project Charter Template 1. 1 Check with your colleagues or your organization's project management office for any prevailing templates. 2. 2 Ensure the project charter template in some way covers the following areas: project name, problem statement, project team, start date, end date, project goals, projec t financial impact, project sponsor, project scope. 3. 3 Everyone on your project team will need to have the applicable software, such as MS Word or PowerPoint, to read the project charter. Complete the Project Charter 4. 1Complete the project name. The name should help identify what the project is about. For example, â€Å"New Science Lab Installation Project† or â€Å"Mortgage Application Cycle Time Reduction Project. † 5. 2 Complete the project summary section. You should write a brief paragraph that tells anyone with basic knowledge of your organization/department what you are doing as a project. 6. 3 Complete the problem statement section. Ask yourself what problem or issue you are trying to solve by doing this project. For example, â€Å"the mortgage application process is taking 3 weeks longer than what is acceptable by our clients. 7. 4 Complete the project goal section. What do you expect to accomplish by completing this project? Use S. M. A. R. T. goals: Spe cific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound. For example, â€Å"The goal of this project is to reduce the time it takes to process a new mortgage application from 4 weeks to 2 weeks by the end of second quarter this year. † 8. 5 Complete the project team section. If you do not know the specific names of team members at this time, put in the job titles. Some examples are Assistant Project Manager, Business Analyst or Operations Tech. 9. Complete the financial section. Here is where you estimate the financial impact of doing the project. Will there be savings of actual expenses? Cost avoidance? Increase in revenue? You will want to restate your project goal as part of this section. For example, â€Å"by reducing the cycle time of new mortgage applications, we will receive our fees 50 percent faster, resulting in an increase in revenue. † 10. 7 Complete the start and stop date. When will work begin on the project? What is the estimated completion date of the p roject? 11. 8 Complete the project sponsor section.Who in the management or executive ranks is directly supporting this project? 12. 9 Complete the project scope section. This is where you determine exactly what will and will not be part of the project focus. We are doing this in Step 9 to give you an opportunity to tighten up your problem statement if needed. For example, â€Å"new mortgage applications are in scope, refinancing or home equity mortgages are out of scope. † Read more: How to Write a Project Charter | eHow. com http://www. ehow. com/how_2180920_write-project-charter. html#ixzz0zZRVWz7N

Rational decisions Essay

This is a very difficult choice, but the world and humanity as we know it depends upon it. In my last hours, I have to make rational decisions, though some may not agree with whom I have chosen to carry on humanity. The first person I choose is Cindy Smith. She is 16 years old and since she will be in the tube for seven years, she will be an adult when she gets out. She may be diabetic, but it is not hereditary and if she eats properly, it should not impact her ability to survive. Next, I choose Adelle Purity. She is a one month old, but she will be seven when she gets off. She will not take up much food for the first couple of years and should be able to mate with any children that may be produced in the future. This will also give more variety to the gene pool. Wanda Good is my next choice. She is a female psychiatrist, which means she is also medically trained. She may be blind, but she is doctor. She also can conceive and blindness is not hereditary. Next, I choose Dr. Amoc. He and Dr. Good are around the same age and may be able to reproduce. Besides, he is catatonic and may not take up much food. Dr. Good may be able to coax him out of this state. Perhaps the sound of baby Adelle’s coos may remind him of one of his children and bring him back to reality. He is medically trained as well and will be helpful for the survival of the human race. I personally believe he is in shock and it will wear off in several months. Joe Nemesis is my next choice. He is 19 and a good mate for Cindy. He has no apparent issues and being young and healthy, he can probably father a child. Last but not least, I choose Jake Spade. Yes, he has been convicted of kidnapping, rape and assault, but he is a professional hunter. In seven years, if no other humanity is out there, someone will have to know the basics of surviving. He will be an asset to these people and a potential mate for Dr. Good. Since she is a trained psychiatrist, perhaps she may get to the root of his problems and figure out the reasons for his criminal behavior. The others do not seem like viable candidates to me. For instance, Tommy Manly killed his wife. He was an outdoor salesman. We do know that he can reproduce, but he is unstable. Ricky Slive is a definite no. Teaching others to believe in Satan and all that he stands for will only wreak more havoc and mayhem. We are trying to rebuild humanity, not annihilate it. The same goes for Phi Data. He is pretty much under a similar philosophy to Ricky and has no known survival skills. Dusky Ruth is barren so she cannot help replenish the earth. Sister Mary Catherine is a nun, so she will not have children. Besides, she is not at a good age to reproduce anyway. Disco beano is 56, which makes him too old. Besides, there will not be any music for him to listen to. Who knows how he will respond to that! Armando Pepper is 43. He is a master chef, but I am sure these people can prepare a meal. It does not matter that he is gay. He may still be willing to reproduce, but he is too old. Since Sasha Winky’s gender is in question, it makes it difficult to know if he/she is capable of reproduction. A transsexual cannot reproduce and it would be a wasted chance to take on this person. Zeke Allen is too old. He is 64, so he is not a good candidate. I am not sure if his religion allows him to marry and since I have but a few hours of survival myself, I do not have the time to research this. Marilyn Manson would be great entertainment for Disco Beano, but since I do not know his age, there will BEANO space for him. He has no skills that persuade me to choose him over anyone else. Rock Stone is too stoned to be a viable candidate. Even if it were not for the HIV, he is a drug addict and who knows how he will respond. Besides, this may be a way to eradicate the illness, if he is the last surviving person with it. Neila Borg appears to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and would have to be medicated to function properly. She is too unstable to consider and a hazard because at any given time, she can think that someone is out to get and attack her. Nick Chance has Down’s syndrome. He may not be able to consent to sexual contact and that is necessary to continue humanity. Given that we do not know much about the history of Adelle and Joe, they are wild cards. We have no idea on what they may contribute or take away from humanity, but that is not known no matter who we choose. The people that I chose were more so, on a level of skill. Survival goes to the fittest. Who is fit to survive? Most certainly not a rock star, who is used to being waited on hand and foot. I also must factor in the possibility of reproduction taking place before the seven years is up, which is why I choose the catatonic doctor. At the present, he takes up less food and so does the baby, which leaves more food just in case it is needed. I highly doubt that Mr. Spade would want to be isolated from the only know civilization and since he seems to be of sound mind, I can only hope that he will be able to control himself for the furthering of mankind. I am getting very weak now from the radiation. I do have to take age into account because agility will be necessary to build things, such as homes or shelters. I have thought about not having any religious leaders available. However, most people have a faith and perhaps they may be able to carry on what they know to their children. I hope that these people will find other people as well. I pray that Dr. Amoc becomes functional again. Perhaps in these seven years, Dr. Good can teach Joe about Medicine and perhaps he can become a doctor. He may also learn to hunt from Mr. Spade. He and Dr. Good may also have a child. Well, only God knows how everything will turn out with the choices I have made. I pray that you find them acceptable.

Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER EIGHTEEN COLLISION

COLLISION Stor Gendibal was edging toward Gaia almost as cautiously as Trevize had – and now that its star was a perceptible disc and could be viewed only through strong filters, he paused to consider. Sura Novi sat to one side, looking up at him now and then in a timorous manner. She said softly, â€Å"Master?† â€Å"What is it, Novi?† he asked abstractedly. â€Å"Are you unhappy?† He looked up at her quickly. â€Å"No. Concerned. Remember that word? I am trying to decide whether to move in quickly or to wait longer. Shall I be very brave, Novi?† â€Å"I think you are very brave all times, Master.† â€Å"To be very brave is sometimes to be foolish.† Novi smiled. â€Å"How can a master scholar be foolish? – That is a sun, is it not, Master?† She pointed to the screen. Gendibal nodded. Novi said, after an irresolute pause, â€Å"Is it the sun that shines on Trantor? Is it the Hamish sun?† Gendibal said, â€Å"No, Novi. It is a far different sun. There are many suns, billions of them.† â€Å"Ah! I had known this with my head. I could not make myself believe, however. How is it, Master, that one can know with the head – and yet not believe?† Gendibal smiled faintly, â€Å"In your head, Novi†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he began and, automatically, as he said that, he found himself in her head. He stroked it gently, as he always did, when he found himself there just a soothing touch of mental tendrils to keep her calm and untroubled – and he would then have left again, as he always did, had not something drawn him back. What he sensed was indescribable in any but mentalic terms but, metaphorically, Novi's brain glowed. It was the faintest possible glow. It would not be there except for the existence of a mentalic field imposed from without – a mentalic field of an intensity so small that the finest receiving function of Gendibal's own well-trained mind could just barely detect it, even against the utter smoothness of Novi's mentalic structure. He said sharply, â€Å"Novi, how do you feel?† Her eyes opened wide. â€Å"I feel well, Master.† â€Å"Are you dizzy, confused? Close your eyes and sit absolutely still until I say, ‘Now.† Obediently she closed her eyes. Carefully Gendibal brushed away all extraneous sensations from her mind, quieted her thought, soothed her emotions, stroked – stroked. He left nothing but the glow and it was so faint that he could almost persuade himself it was not there. â€Å"Now,† he said and Novi opened her eyes. â€Å"How do you feel, Novi?† â€Å"Very calm, Master. Rested.† It was clearly too feeble for it to have any noticeable effect on her. He turned to the computer and wrestled with it. He had to admit to himself that he and the computer did not mesh very well together. Perhaps it was because he was too used to using his mind directly to be able to work through an intermediary. But he was looking for a ship, not a mind, and the initial search could be done more efficiently with the help of the computer. And he found the sort of ship he suspected might be present. It was half a million kilometers away and it was much like his own in design, but it was much larger and more elaborate. Once it was located with the computer's help, Gendibal could allow his mind to take over directly. He sent it outward – tightbeamed – and with it felt (or the mentalic equivalent of â€Å"felt†) the ship, inside and out. He then sent his mind toward the planet Gaia, approaching it more closely by several millions of kilometers of space – and withdrew. Neither process was sufficient in itself to tell him, unmistakably, which – if either – was the source of the field. He said, â€Å"Novi, I would like you to sit next to me for what is to follow.† â€Å"Master, is there danger?† â€Å"You are not to be in any way concerned, Novi. I will see to it that you are safe and secure.† â€Å"Master, I am not concerned that I be safe and secure. If there is danger, I want to be able to help you.† Gendibal softened. He said, â€Å"Novi, you have already helped. Because of you, I became aware of a very small thing it was important to be aware of. Without you, I might have blundered rather deeply into a bog and might have had to pull out only through a great deal of trouble.† â€Å"Have I done this with my mind, Master, as you once explained?† asked Novi, astonished. â€Å"Quite so, Novi. No instrument could have been more sensitive. My own mind is not; it is too full of complexity.† Delight filled Novi's face. â€Å"I am so grateful I can help.† Gendibal smiled and nodded – and then subsided into the somber knowledge that he would need other help as well. Something childish within him objected. The job was his – his alone. Yet it could not be his alone. The odds were climbing – On Trantor, Quindor Shandess felt the responsibility of First Speakerhood resting upon him with a suffocating weight. Since Gendibal's ship had vanished into the darkness beyond the atmosphere, he had called no meetings of the Table. He had been lost in his own thoughts. Had it been wise to allow Gendibal to go off on his Own? Gendibal was brilliant, but not so brilliant that it left no room for overconfidence. Gendibal's great fault was arrogance, as Shandess's own great fault (he thought bitterly) was the weariness of age. Over and over again, it occurred to him that the precedent of Preem Palver, flitting over the Galaxy to set things right, was a dangerous one. Could anyone else be a Preem Palver? Even Gendibal? And Palver had had his wife with him. To be sure, Gendibal had this Hamishwoman, but she was of no consequence. Palver's wife had been a Speaker in her own right. Shandess felt himself aging from day to day as he waited for word from Gendibal – and with each day that word did not come, he felt an increasing tension. It should have been a fleet of ships, a flotilla. No. The Table would not have allowed it. And yet. When the call finally came, he was asleep – an exhausted sleep that was bringing him no relief. The night had been windy and he had had trouble falling asleep to begin with. Like a child, he had imagined voices in the wind. His last thoughts before falling into an exhausted slumber had been a wistful building of the fancy of resignation, a wish be could do so together with the knowledge he could not, for at this moment Delarmi would succeed him. And then the call came and he sat up in bed, instantly awake. â€Å"You are well?† he said. â€Å"Perfectly well, First Speaker,† said Gendibal. â€Å"Should we have visual connection for more condensed communication?† â€Å"Later, perhaps,† said Shandess. â€Å"First, what is the situation?† Gendibal spoke carefully, for he sensed the other's recent arousal and he perceived a deep weariness. He said, â€Å"I am in the neighborhood of an inhabited planet called Gaia, whose existence is not hinted at in any of the Galactic records, as far as I know.† â€Å"The world of those who have been working to perfect the Plan? The Anti-Mules?† â€Å"Possibly, First Speaker. There is the reason to think so. First, the ship bearing Trevize and Pelorat has moved far in toward Gaia and has probably landed there. Second, there is, in space, about half a million kilometers from me, a First Foundation warship.† â€Å"There cannot be this much interest for no reason.† â€Å"First Speaker, this may not be independent interest. I am here only because I am following Trevize – and the warship may be here for the same reason. It remains only to be asked why Trevize is here.† â€Å"Do you plan to follow him in toward the planet, Speaker?† â€Å"I had considered that a possibility, but something has come up. I am now a hundred million kilometers from Gaia and I sense in the space about me a mentalic field – a homogeneous one that is excessively faint. I would not have been aware of it at all, but for the focusing effect of the mind of the Hainishwoman. It is an unusual mind; I agreed to take her with me for that very purpose.† â€Å"You were right, then, in supposing it would be so. Did Speaker Delarmi know this, do you think?† â€Å"When she urged me to take the woman? I scarcely think so – but I gladly took advantage of it, First Speaker.† â€Å"I am pleased that you did. Is it your opinion, Speaker Gendibal, that the planet is the focus of the field?† â€Å"To ascertain that, I would have to take measurements at widely spaced points in order to see if there is a general spherical symmetry to the field. My unidirectional mental probe made this seem likely but not certain. Yet it would not be wise to investigate further in the presence of the First Foundation warship.† â€Å"Surely it is no threat.† â€Å"It may be. I cannot as yet be sure that it is not itself the focus of the field, First Speaker.† â€Å"But they†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"First Speaker, with respect, allow me to interrupt. We do not know what technological advances the First Foundation has made. They are acting with a strange self-confidence and may have unpleasant surprises for us. It must be decided whether they have learned to handle mentalics by means of some of their devices. In short, First Speaker, I am facing either a warship of mentalics or a planet of them. â€Å"If it is the warship, then the mentalics may be far too weak to immobilize me, but they might be enough to slow me – and the purely physical weapons on the warship may then suffice to destroy me. On the other hand, if it is the planet that is the focus, then to have the field detectable at such a distance could mean enormous intensity at the surface – more than even I can handle. â€Å"In either case, it will be necessary to set up a network – a total network – in which, at need, the full resources of Trantor can be placed at my disposal.† The First Speaker hesitated. â€Å"A total network. This has never been used, never even suggested – except in the time of the Mule.† â€Å"This crisis may well be even greater than that of the Mule, First Speaker.† â€Å"I do not know that the Table would agree.† â€Å"I do not think you should ask them to agree, First Speaker. You should invoke a state of emergency.† â€Å"What excuse can I give?† â€Å"Tell them what I have told you, First Speaker.† â€Å"Speaker Delarmi will say that you are an incompetent coward, driven to madness by your own fears.† Gendibal paused before answering. Then he said, â€Å"I imagine she will say something like that, First Speaker, but let her say whatever she likes and I will survive it. What is at stake now is not my pride or self-love but the actual existence of the Second Foundation.† Harla Branno smiled grimly, her lined face setting more deeply into its fleshy crags. She said, â€Å"I think we can push on with it. I'm ready for them.† Kodell said, â€Å"Do you still feel sure you know what you're doing?† â€Å"If I were as mad as you pretend you think I am, Liono, would you have insisted on remaining on this ship with me?† Kodell shrugged and said, â€Å"Probably. I would then be here on the off chance, Madam Mayor, that I might stop you, divert you, at least slow you, before you went too far. And, of course, if you're not mad†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yes?† – â€Å"Why, then I wouldn't want to have the histories of the future give you all the mention. Let them state that I was here with you and wonder, perhaps, to whom the credit really belongs, eh, Mayor?† â€Å"Clever, Liono, clever – but quite futile. I was the power behind the throne through too many Mayoralties for anyone to believe I would permit such a phenomenon in my own administration.† â€Å"We shall see.† â€Å"No, we won't, for such historical judgments will come after we are dead. However, I have no fears. Not about my place in history and not about that,† and she pointed to the screen. â€Å"Compor's ship,† said Kodell. â€Å"Compor's ship, true,† said Branno, â€Å"but without Compor aboard. One of our scoutships observed the changeover. Compor's ship was stopped by another. Two people from the other ship boarded that one and Compor later moved off and entered the other.† Branno rubbed her hands. â€Å"Trevize fulfilled his role perfectly. I cast him out into space in order that he might serve as lightning rod and so he did. He drew the lightning. The ship that stopped Compor was Second Foundation.† â€Å"How can you be sure of that, I wonder?† said Kodell, taking out his pipe and slowly beginning to pack it with tobacco. â€Å"Because I always wondered if Compor might not be under Second Foundation control. His life was too smooth. Things always broke right for him – and he was such an expert at hyperspatial tracking. His betrayal of Trevize might easily have been the simple politics of an ambitious man – but he did it with such unnecessary thoroughness, as though there were more than personal ambition to it.† â€Å"All guesswork, Mayor.† â€Å"The guesswork stopped when he followed Trevize through multiple Jumps as easily as if there had been but one.† â€Å"He had the computer to help, Mayor.† But Branno leaned her head back and laughed. â€Å"My dear Liono, you are so busy devising intricate plots that you forget the efficacy of simple procedures. I sent Compor to follow Trevize, not because I needed to have Trevize followed. What need was there for that? Trevize, however much he might want to keep his movements secret, could not help but call attention to himself in any non-Foundation world he visited. His advanced Foundation vessel – his strong Terminus accent – his Foundation credits – would automatically surround him with a glow of notoriety. And in case of any emergency, he would automatically turn to Foundation officials for help, as he did on Sayshell, where we knew all that he did as soon as he did it and quite independently of Compor. â€Å"No,† she went on thoughtfully, â€Å"Compor was sent out to test Compor. And that succeeded, for we gave him a defective computer quite deliberately; not one that was defective enough to make the ship unmaneuverable, but certainly one that was insufficiently agile to aid him in following a multiple Jump. Yet Compor managed that without trouble.† â€Å"I see there's a great deal you don't tell me, Mayor, until you decide you ought to.† â€Å"I only keep those matters from you, Liono, that it will not hurt you not to know. I admire you and I use you, but there are sharp limits to my trust, as there is in yours for me – and please don't bother to deny it.† â€Å"I won't,† said Kodell dryly, â€Å"and someday, Mayor, I will take the liberty of reminding you of that. – Meanwhile, is there anything else that I ought to know now? What is the nature of the ship that stopped them? Surely, if Compor is Second Foundation, so was that ship.† â€Å"It is always a pleasure to speak to you, Liono. You see things quickly. The Second Foundation, you see, doesn't bother to hide its tracks. It has defenses that it relies on to make those tracks invisible, even when they are not. It would never occur to a Second Foundationer to use a ship of alien manufacture, even if they knew how neatly we could identify the origin of a ship from the pattern of its energy use. They could always remove that knowledge from any mind that had gained it, so why bother taking the trouble to hide? Well, our scout ship was able to determine the origin of the ship that approached Compor within minutes of sighting it.† â€Å"And now the Second Foundation will wipe that knowledge from our minds, I suppose.† â€Å"If they can,† said Branno, â€Å"but they may find that things have changed.† Kodell said, â€Å"Earlier you said you knew where the Second Foundation was. You would take care of Gaia first, then Trantor. I deduce from this that the other ship was of Trantorian origin.† â€Å"You suppose correctly. Are you surprised?† Kodell shook his head slowly. â€Å"Not in hindsight. Ebling Mis, Toran Darell and Bayta Darell were all on Trantor during the period when the Mule was stopped. Arkady Darell, Bayta's granddaughter, was born on Trantor and was on Trantor again when the Second Foundation was itself supposedly stopped. In her account of events, there is a Preem Palver who played a key role, appearing at convenient times, and he was a Trantorian trader. I should think it was obvious that the Second Foundation was on Trantor, where, incidentally, Hari Seldon himself lived at the time he founded both Foundations.† â€Å"Quite obvious, except that no one ever suggested the possibility. The Second Foundation saw to that. It is what I meant when I said they didn't have to cover their tracks, when they could so easily arrange to have no one look in the direction of those tracks – or wipe out the memory of those tracks after they had been seen.† Kodell said, â€Å"In that case, let us not look too quickly in the direction in which they may simply be wanting us to look. How is it, do you suppose, that Trevize was able to decide the Second Foundation existed? Why didn't the Second Foundation stop him?† Branno held up her gnarled fingers and counted on them. â€Å"First, Trevize is a very unusual man who, for all his obstreperous inability to use caution, has something about him that I have not been able to penetrate. He may be a special case. Second, the Second Foundation was not entirely ignorant. Compor was on Trevize's tail at once and reported him to me. I was relied on to stop Trevize without the Second Foundation having to risk open involvement. Third, when I didn't quite react as expected – no execution, no imprisonment, no memory erasure, no Psychic Probe of his brain – when I merely sent him out into space, the Second Foundation went further. They made the direct move of sending one of their own ships after him.† And she added with tight-lipped pleasure, â€Å"Oh, excellent lightning rod.† Kodell said, â€Å"And our next move?† â€Å"We are going to challenge that Second Foundationer we now face. In fact, we're moving toward him rather sedately right now.† Gendibal and Novi sat together, side by side, watching the screen. Novi was frightened. To Gendibal, that was quite apparent, as was the fact that she was desperately trying to fight off that fright. Nor could Gendibal do anything to help her in her struggle, for he did not think it wise to touch her mind at this moment, lest he obscure the response she displayed to the feeble mentalic field that surrounded them. The Foundation warship was approaching slowly – but deliberately. It was a large warship, with a crew of perhaps as many as six, judging from past experience with Foundation ships. Her weapons, Gendibal was certain, would be sufficient in themselves to hold off and, if necessary, wipe out a fleet made up of every ship available to the Second Foundation – if those ships had to rely on physical force alone. As it was, the advance of the warship, even against a single ship manned by a Second Foundationer, allowed certain conclusions to be drawn. Even if the ship possessed mentalic ability, it would not be likely to advance into the teeth of the Second Foundation in this manner. More likely, it was advancing out of ignorance – and this might exist in any of several degrees. It could mean that the captain of the warship was not aware that Compor had been replaced, or – if aware – did not know the replacement was a Second Foundationer, or perhaps was not even aware what a Second Foundationer might be. Or (and Gendibal intended to consider everything) what if the ship did possess mentalic force and, nevertheless, advanced in this self-confident manner? That could only mean it was under the control of a megalomaniac or that it possessed powers far beyond any that Gendibal could bring himself to consider possible. But what he considered possible was not the final judgment. Carefully he sensed Novi's mind. Novi could not sense mentalic fields consciously, whereas Gendibal, of course, could – yet Gendibal's mind could not do so as delicately or detect as feeble a mental field as could Novi's. This was a paradox that would have to be studied in future and might produce fruit that would in the long run prove of far greater importance than the immediate problem of an approaching spaceship. Gendibal had grasped the possibility of this, intuitively, when he first became aware of the unusual smoothness and symmetry of Novi's mind – and he felt a somber pride in this intuitive ability he possessed. Speakers had always been proud of their intuitive powers, but how much was this the product of their inability to measure fields by straightforward physical methods and their failure, therefore, to understand what it was that they really did? It was easy to cover up ignorance by the mystical word â€Å"intuition.† And how much of this ignorance of theirs might arise from their underestimation of the importance of physics as compared to mentalics? And how much of that was blind pride? When he became First Speaker, Gendibal thought, this would change. There would have to be some narrowing of the physical gap between the Foundations. The Second Foundation could not face forever the possibility of destruction any time the mentalic monopoly slipped even slightly. – Indeed, the monopoly might be slipping now. Perhaps the First Foundation had advanced or there was an alliance between the First Foundation and the Anti-Mules. (That thought occurred to him now for the first time and he shivered.) His thoughts on the subject slipped through his mind with a rapidity common to a Speaker – and while he was thinking, he also remained sensitively aware of the glow in Novi's mind, the response to the gently pervasive mentalic field about them. It was not growing stronger as the Foundation warship drew nearer. This was not, in itself, an absolute indication that the warship was not equipped with mentalics. It was well known that the mentalic field did not obey the inverse-square law. It did not grow stronger precisely as the square of the extent to which distance between emitter and receiver lessened. It differed in this way from the electromagnetic and the gravitational fields. Still, although mentalic fields varied less with distance than the various physical fields did, it was not altogether insensitive to distance, either. The response of Novi's mind should show a detectable increase as the warship approached – some increase. (How was it that no Second Foundationer in five centuries – from Hari Seldon on – had ever thought of working out a mathematical relationship between mentalic intensity and distance? This shrugging off of physics must and would stop, Gendibal silently vowed.) If the warship possessed mentalics and if it felt quite certain it was approaching a Second Foundationer, would it not increase the intensity of its field to maximum before advancing? And in that case, would not Novi's mind surely register an increased response of some kind? – Yet it did not! Confidently Gendibal eliminated the possibility that the warship possessed mentalics. It was advancing out of ignorance and, as a menace, it could be downgraded. The mentalic field, of course, still existed, but it had to originate on Gaia. This was disturbing enough, but the immediate problem was the ship. Let that be eliminated and he could then turn his attention to the world of the Anti-Mules. He waited. The warship would make some move or it would come close enough for him to feel confident that he could pass over to an effective offense. The warship still approached – quite rapidly now – and still did nothing. Finally Gendibal calculated that the strength of his push would be sufficient. There would be no pain, scarcely any discomfort – all those on board would merely find that the large muscles of their backs and limbs would respond but sluggishly to their desires. Gendibal narrowed the mentalic field controlled by his mind. It intensified and leaped across the gap between the ships at the speed of light. (The two ships were close enough to make hyperspatial contact – with its inevitable loss of precision – unnecessary.) And Gendibal then fell back in numbed surprise. The Foundation warship was possessed of an efficient mentalic shield that gained in density in proportion as his own field gained in intensity. – The warship was not approaching out of ignorance after all – and it had an unexpected if passive weapon. â€Å"Ah,† said Branno. â€Å"He has attempted an attack, Liono. See!† The needle on the psychometer moved and trembled in its irregular rise. The development of the mentalic shield had occupied Foundation scientists for a hundred and twenty years in the most secret of all scientific projects, except perhaps for Hari Seldon's lone development of psychohistorical analysis. Five generations of human beings had labored in the gradual improvement of a device backed by no satisfactory theory. But no advance would have been possible without the invention of the psychometer that could act as a guide, indicating the direction and amount of advance at every stage. No one could explain how it worked, yet all indications were that it measured the immeasurable and gave numbers to the indescribable. Branno had the feeling (shared by some of the scientists themselves) that if ever the Foundation could explain the workings of the psychometer, they would be the equal of the Second Foundation in mind control. But that was for the future. At present, the shield would have to be enough, backed as it was by an overwhelming preponderance in physical weapons. Branno sent out the message, delivered in a male voice from which all overtones of emotion had been removed, till it was flat and deadly. â€Å"Calling the ship Bright Star and its occupants. You have forcibly taken a ship of the Navy of the Foundation Federation in an act of piracy. You are directed to surrender the ship and yourselves at once or face attack.† The answer came in natural voice: â€Å"Mayor Branno of Terminus, I know you are on the ship. The Bright Star was not taken by piratical action. I was freely invited on board by its legal captain, Munn Li Compor of Terminus. I ask a period of truce that we may discuss matters of importance to each of us alike.† Kodell whispered to Branno, â€Å"Let me do the speaking, Mayor.† She raised her arm contemptuously, â€Å"The responsibility is mine, Liono.† Adjusting the transmitter, she spoke in tones scarcely less forceful and unemotional than the artificial voice that had spoken before: â€Å"Man of the Second Foundation, understand your position. If you do not surrender forthwith, we can blow your ship out of space in the time it takes light to travel from our ship to yours – and we are ready to do that. Nor will we lose by doing this, for you have no knowledge for which we need keep you alive. We know you are from Trantor and, once we have dealt with you, we will be ready to deal with Trantor. We are willing to allow you a period in which to have your say, but since you cannot have much of worth to tell us, we are not prepared to listen long.† â€Å"In that case,† said Gendibal, â€Å"let me speak quickly and to the point. Your shield is not perfect and cannot be. You have overestimated it and underestimated me. I can handle your mind and control it. Not as easily, perhaps, as if there were no shield, but easily enough. The instant you attempt to use any weapon, I will strike you – and there is this for you to understand: Without a shield, I can handle your mind smoothly and do it no harm. With the shield, however, I must smash through, which I can do, and I will be unable then to handle you either smoothly or deftly. Your mind will be as smashed as the shield and the effect will be irreversible. In other words, you cannot stop me and I, on the other hand, can stop you by being forced to do worse than killing you. I will leave you a mindless hulk. Do you wish to risk that?† Branno said, â€Å"You know you cannot do as you say.† â€Å"Do you, then, wish to risk the consequences I have described?† asked Gendibal with an air of cool indifference. Kodell leaned over and whispered, â€Å"For Seldon's sake, Mayor†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Gendibal said (not exactly at once, for it took light – and everything at light-speed – a little over one second to travel from one vessel to the other), â€Å"I follow your thoughts, Kodell. No need to whisper. I also follow the Mayor's thoughts. She is irresolute, so you have no need to panic just yet. And the mere fact that I know this is ample evidence that your shield leaks.† â€Å"It can be strengthened,† said the Mayor defiantly. â€Å"So can my mentalic force,† said Gendibal. â€Å"But I sit here at my ease, consuming merely physical energy to maintain the shield, and I have enough to maintain that shield for very long periods of time. You must use mentalic energy to penetrate the shield and you will tire.† â€Å"I am not tired,† said Gendibal. â€Å"At the present moment, neither of you is capable of giving any order to any member of the crew of your ship or to any crewman on any other ship. I can manage so much without any harm to you, but do not make any unusual effort to escape this control, for if I match that by increasing my own force, as I will have to do, you will be damaged as I have said.† â€Å"I will wait,† said Branno, placing her hands in her lap with every sign of solid patience. â€Å"You will tire and when you do, the orders that will go out will not be to destroy you, for you will then be harmless. The orders will be to send the main Foundation Fleet against Trantor. If you wish to save your world – surrender. A second orgy of destruction will not leave your organization untouched, as the first one did at the time of the Great Sack.† â€Å"Don't you see that if I feel myself tiring, Mayor, which I won't, I can save my world very simply by destroying you before my strength to do so is gone?† â€Å"You won't do that. Your main task is to maintain the Seldon Plan. To destroy the Mayor of Terminus and thus to strike a blow at the prestige and confidence of the First Foundation, producing a staggering setback to its power and encouraging its enemies everywhere, will produce such a disruption to the Plan that it will be almost as bad for you as the destruction of Trantor. You might as well surrender.† â€Å"Are you willing to gamble on my reluctance to destroy you?† Branno's chest heaved as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She then said firmly, â€Å"Yes!† Kodell, sitting at her side, paled. Gendibal stared at the figure of Branno, superimposed upon the volume of room just in front of the wall. It was a little flickery and hazy thanks to the interference of the shield. The man next to her was almost featureless with haze, for Gendibal had no energy to waste on him. He had to concentrate on the Mayor. To be sure, she had no image of him in return. She had no way of knowing that he too had a companion, for instance. She could make no judgment from his expressions, from his body language. In this respect, she was at a disadvantage. Everything he had said was true. He could smash her at the cost of an enormous expenditure of mentalic force – and in so doing, he could scarcely avoid disrupting her mind irreparably. Yet everything she had said was true as well. Destroying her would damage the Plan as much as the Mule himself had damaged it. Indeed, the new damage might be more serious, since it was now later in the game and there would be less time to retrieve the misstep. Worse still, there was Gaia, which was still an unknown quantity – with its mentalic field remaining at the faint and tantalizing edge of detection. For a moment, he touched Novi's mind to make sure that the flow was still there. It was, and it was unchanged. She could not have sensed that touch in any way, but she turned to him and in an awed whisper said, â€Å"Master, there is a faint mist there. Is it to that you talk?† She must have sensed the mist through the small connection between their two minds. Gendibal put a finger to his lips. â€Å"Have no fear, Novi. Close your eyes and rest.† He raised his voice. â€Å"Mayor Branno, your gamble is a good one in this respect. I do not wish to destroy you at once, since I think that if I explain something to you, you will listen to reason and there will then be no need to destroy in either direction. â€Å"Suppose, Mayor, that you win out and that I surrender. What follows? In an orgy of self-confidence and in undue reliance on your mentalic shield, you and your successors will attempt to spread your power over the Galaxy with undue haste. In doing so, you will actually postpone the establishment of the Second Empire, because you will also destroy the Seldon Plan.† Branno said, â€Å"I am not surprised that you do not wish to destroy me at once and I think that, as you sit there, you will be forced to realize that you do not dare to destroy me at all.† Gendibal said, â€Å"Do not deceive yourself with self-congratulatory folly. Listen to me. The majority of the Galaxy is still non-Foundation and, to a great extent, anti-Foundation. There are even portions of the Foundation Federation itself that have not forgotten their days of independence. If the Foundation moves too quickly in the wake of my surrender, it will deprive the rest of the Galaxy of its greatest weakness – its disunity and indecision. You will force them to unite by fear and you will feed the tendency toward rebellion within.† â€Å"You are threatening with clubs of straw,† said Branno. â€Å"We have the power to win easily against all enemies, even if every world in the non-Foundation Galaxy combined against us, and even if these were helped by a rebellion in half the worlds of the Federation itself. There would be no problem.† â€Å"No immediate problem, Mayor. Do not make the mistake of seeing only the results that appear at once. You can establish a Second Empire merely by proclaiming it, but you will not be able to maintain it. You will have to reconquer it every ten years.† â€Å"Then we will do so until the worlds tire, as you are tiring.† â€Å"They will not tire, any more than I will. Nor will the process continue for a very long time, for there is a second and greater danger to the Pseudo-Empire you would proclaim. Since it can be temporarily maintained only by an ever-stronger military force which will be ever-exercised, the generals of the Foundation will, for the first time, become more important and more powerful than the civilian authorities. The Pseudo-Empire will break up into military regions within which individual commanders will be supreme. There will be anarchy – and a slide back into a barbarism that may last longer than the thirty thousand years forecast by Seldon before the Seldon Plan was implemented.† â€Å"Childish threats. Even if the mathematics of the Seldon Plan predicted all this, it predicts only probabilities – not inevitabilities.† â€Å"Mayor Branno,† said Gendibal earnestly. â€Å"Forget the Seldon Plan. You do not understand its mathematics and you cannot visualize its pattern. But you do not have to, perhaps. You are a tested politician; and a successful one, to judge from the post you hold; even more so, a courageous one, to judge from the gamble you are now taking. Therefore, use your political acumen. Consider the political and military history of humanity and consider it in the light of what you know of human nature – of the manner in which people, politicians, and military officers act, react, and interact – and see if I'm not right.† Branno said, â€Å"Even if you were right, Second Foundationer, it is a risk we must take. With proper leadership and with continuing technological advance – in mentalics, as well as in physics – we can overcome. Hari Seldon never calculated such advances properly. He couldn't. Where in the Plan does it allow for the development of a mentalic shield by the First Foundation? Why should we want the Plan, in any case? We will risk founding a new Empire without it. Failure without it would, after all, be better than success with it. We do not want an Empire in which we play puppets to the hidden manipulators of the Second Foundation.† â€Å"You say that only because you do not understand what failure will be like for the people of the Galaxy.† â€Å"Perhaps!† said Branno stonily. â€Å"Are you beginning to weary, Second Foundationer?† â€Å"Not at all. – Let me propose an alternative action that you have not considered – one in which I need not surrender to you, nor you to me. – We are in the vicinity of a planet called Gaia.† â€Å"I am aware of that.† â€Å"Are you aware that it was probably the birthplace of the Mule?† â€Å"I would want more evidence than resides in your mere statement to that effect.† â€Å"The planet is surrounded by a mentalic field. It is the home of many Mules. If you accomplish your dream of destroying the Second Foundation, you will make yourselves the slaves of this planet of Mules. What harm have Second Foundationers ever done you specific, rather than imagined or theorized harm? Now ask yourself what harm a single Mule has done you.† â€Å"I still have nothing more than your statements.† â€Å"As long as we remain here, I can give you nothing more. – I propose a truce, therefore. Keep your shield up, if you don't trust me, but be prepared to co-operate with me. Let us, together, approach this planet – and when you are convinced that it is dangerous, then I will nullify its mentalic field and you will order your ships to take possession of it.† â€Å"And then?† â€Å"And then, at least, it will be the First Foundation against the Second Foundation, with no outside forces to be considered. The fight will then be clear whereas now, you see, we dare not fight, for both Foundations are at bay.† â€Å"Why did you not say this before?† â€Å"I thought I might convince you that we were not enemies, so that we might co-operate. Since I have apparently failed at that, I suggest co-operation in any case.† Branno paused, her head bent in thought. Then she said, â€Å"You are trying to put me to sleep with lullabies. How will you, by yourself, nullify the mentalic field of a whole planet of Mules? The thought is so ludicrous that I cannot trust in the truth of your proposition.† â€Å"I am not alone,† said Gendibal. â€Å"Behind me is the full force of the Second Foundation – and that force, channeled through me, will take care of Gaia. ‘What's more, it can, at any time, brush aside your shield as though it were thin fog.† â€Å"If so, why do you need my help?† â€Å"First, because nullifying the field is not enough. The Second Foundation cannot devote itself, now and forever, to the eternal task of nullifying, any more than I can spend the rest of my life dancing this conversational minuet with you. We need the physical action your ships can supply. – And besides, if I cannot convince you by reason that the two Foundations should look upon each other as allies, perhaps a co-operative venture of the greatest importance can be convincing. Deeds may do the job where words fail.† A second silence and then Branno said, â€Å"I am willing to approach Gaia more closely, if we can approach co-operatively. I make no promises beyond that.† â€Å"That will be enough,† said Gendibal, leaning toward his computer. Novi said, â€Å"No, Master, up to this point, it didn't matter, but please make no further move. We must wait for Councilman Trevize of Terminus.†

Response Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response - Essay Example In the analysis provided below, it is posited that perceived beauty or physical attractiveness is influenced by the individual’s culture, which means that self-images formed from these perceptions of beauty are also culture-based. â€Å"The ugly truth about beauty† by Dave Barry is an example of the cultural differences between men and women when talking about beauty or physical attractiveness. Evident in Barry’s discussion is the greater attention to detail that women give in assessing their beauty as compared to men, who seem to have a rather shallow or simple criteria in assessing their physical attractiveness to the opposite sex. Inherent in Barry’s analysis of the female perception of beauty is the influence of popular culture in the formation of females’ standard of beauty or attractiveness. Referring to this as the â€Å"Barbie† culture, the author implied how Barbie, as an icon of beauty in the early childhood among females, has provided the â€Å"ideal† yet unrealistic standards of beauty. A woman’s inability to meet these ‘Barbie standards’ would then feel inadequate and incomplete, as explicated in women’s attitude (generally) to being dissatisfied about a man’s assessment of her beauty—whether this assessment is a positive one or not. â€Å"The Scar† by Cynthia Audet, meanwhile, provides a thought-provoking and implicit interpretation of beauty, as perceived by a ‘scarred’ woman. The author had not only expressed pride in having the scar in her left cheek, but she also felt uniqueness in her personality in that her scar made her feel proud â€Å"as a reaction to the assumption that I should feel embarrassed.† Her scar functioned not as a source of embarrassment, but instead as a source of pride and courage to assert her individuality. The scar became Audet’s reason to become different from the people in her society—simply because she is different because of her scar. Like Barry’s analysis of beauty

Racism in the United States in the Context of Freedom of Expression Essay

Racism in the United States in the Context of Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association - Essay Example Some of these people have made racist associations strong and thereby passing extremist messages (Bleich 81). These people act the way they do, in some cases, a bid to overcome dilemmas just like Allen presents in Where I come from Is Like This, â€Å"Most Indian women I know are in the same bicultural bind†¦ We resolve the dilemma in various ways†¦ We act in these destructive ways because we suffer from the societal conflicts caused by having to identify with two hopelessly opposed cultural definitions of women† (Allen 45). When individuals are denied the chance of organizing themselves into groups, they will have a difficult time presenting their views or opinions in a democratic society. Majority of the people in the United States and other nations such as Western Europe do not value freedom of association. This is because they join private clubs, bowling leagues, and political parties without any reason. They have become accustomed to the associations such that l imiting or denying any group from organizing to further their interests is considered to be limiting their desires to promote a vibrant political sphere and civil society (Bleich 85). This is evident in Paula Gunn Allen’s article Where I Come From Is Like This. Allen states that members of her community resolve issues and dilemmas in many ways; partying all the time, drinking in excess, and engaging in violent exchanges (Adams 203). This indicates the way the people have become accustomed to associations that link them on a common agenda. Countries measure freedom of association against racism in a number of ways. Racists’ autonomy in the United States has been aggressively protected. Groups or associations such as the Ku Klux Klan, racist skinhead crew, anti-Semitic black separatist groups, and small neo-Nazi parties function legally and openly in the United States. Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama has tracked these groups, and associations for years and it stat es that there were 900 of them in 2008, indicating an increase in 200 active hate groups since 2000. The modern interpretation of Constitution in the United States has made the freedom of association a fundamental right thus making it nearly difficult to outlaw a group on the basis of its racist characteristics (Bleich 86). Protection of the racist groups in the United States can be equated to Harlem in the James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues. The Harlem community is faced with numerous problems such as poverty, frustration, and drugs. However, the community members come together to protect and watch over one another. The adults use most of their time in the afternoon sharing stories and offering their children a sense of protection and warmth. The â€Å"music becomes the means for the brother’s reconciliation and functions as an â€Å"art of communion† which extends the meaning of each individual’s ‘blues’ (i.e., sorrow) to become a metaph or for the African American community in general† (Recker 30). The brothers and the community watch and protect one another despite the problems facing them. Outlawing such an association can be very difficult because of the protection developed among them. Thus, it is the mandate of the United States to show brotherly love to the racist associations as indicated in

Judgment of Auditors Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Judgment of Auditors - Research Paper Example The auditor has to be independent and objective during all the instances that he has to rely upon his judgment to assess the impact of any evidence and should be careful that his independence and objectivity is not impaired. In the start of the audit, the auditor plans his course of work that has to be performed during the audit of any client. During the planning, the auditor accounts for the client business risk, operations, position of the client, financial health and other audit determiners. The level of work that is to be performed by the auditor provides the auditor to plan the work and allocate the working hours of the audit for which the previous year’s hours are taken as a base and a time budget is prepared for the audit to be conducted in a timely manner.   During the preparation of the budget, the managers, as well as the seniors, lay emphasis on the cost control because of the fact that their motivation is provided through the evaluation of their performance. The firm also communicates it to the seniors as well as the managers regarding the fees that the firm will obtain from a particular client and this is communicated well before the preparation of the time budgets so that the short term profitability can be kept in mind. This approach of the auditors impairs the judgment and therefore the independence and the objectivity of the audit as the auditors pay less attention to the audit and exercise lesser judgment and expertise due to lack of time and pressure to complete the work on time. The increased fee pressure tends to decrease the positive impact on the risk assessment of the auditor and that has a direct consequence on the auditor’s judgment which may later impair the objectivity of the audit.

Nuisances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Nuisances - Essay Example   Secondly, the plaintiff must also prove that the act of nuisance constituted unreasonable and unlawful conduct. In arriving at a determination of whether the defendant’s actions can be held to be unlawful and unreasonable and thereby constitute the private nuisance, the Courts will take into account the locality of the land, because actions in areas may constitute nuisance while they would not in others. The Courts will also consider whether the nuisance action would have affected the sensitivity of a normal, everyday person.   For example, in the case of McKinnon Industries v, Walker fumes from a neighboring factory destroyed delicate orchids.   But the Courts held that since the smoke would have affected even ordinary flowers, the act constituted the private nuisance.  An act will not be construed as the private nuisance if its general outcome is to be of some use to the community, after taking into account the location and the time of the activities.   For examp le, in the case of Harrison v Southwark Water Company building work that was carried out during the day was not deemed to be a nuisance because it was carried out at a reasonable time during the day and was likely to improve the value of the surrounding property when completed.  An act will be held to be a nuisance if it can be demonstrated that the defendant had a malicious intent because this will serve to establish that the defendant's actions were unreasonable and thereby constitute the nuisance.

Military Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Military - Essay Example advanced capabilities, the need of an amphibious force has come under media scrutiny in the recent times because a full-fledged amphibious operation has not been conducted ever since the end of World War 2 (only small scale operations have been conducted). Additionally, the cost of maintaining an amphibious force is also very high (Mullen, 2008). However, the amphibious force provides some specific advantages to the military power, given the volatile relationship that the United States has with several nations across the globe. This study takes a look at some of the reasons because of which United States still needs the capability to conduct amphibious operations. Most of the operations that are conducted in the modern day are of a joint nature, where all the branches of the military collaborate to achieve the mission. In any joint operation, the presence of an amphibious force provides a certain edge (Forbes, 2012). For instance, because of the advancement in technology related to military aircrafts and artillery, most countries anticipate air-raids and ground operations and therefore, do not pay enough attention to protects it littoral area (area which is near to the shore of a water body). Such areas are often only protected by a small coast card and small navy units deployed in certain points. In such cases, an amphibious attack can prove to be successful because the hostile nation will not be able to defend the littoral region against the strong and powerful amphibious attack of the US military. Even if the littoral area is defended by the forces, the amphibious force has the capacity to respond in a rapid manner and this provides the military with a strong forward presence (Speller and Christopher, 2001). One of the main tactics of a joint operation is to disperse the forces so that the hostile military is not able to focus on one particular region and respond in a strong manner. In such a scenario, the amphibious force proves to be a strong point

Criminal Justice Agency Interventions with Female Offenders Essay

Criminal Justice Agency Interventions with Female Offenders - Essay Example However, in the recent past, there has been an increasing proportion of female offenders, especially the female sex offenders. Unlike the traditional perception that females had motherly love to nurture the males and children, it is shocking to note that an increasing proportion of females sexually abuse other females, males, and children in the contemporary society. The types of sexual abuse are numerous and vary with different situations. The reasons that lead to the increase in such practices among the females are also not very clear. Besides, there is a high possibility that much of the sex-related crimes are not reported to the criminal justice agencies. These are, thus, not included in the estimates by the criminal justice agencies. It is likely that many victims of sexual abuse suffer silently without seeking the help of the authority. Over the years, various states have enacted criminal laws to protect those that are vulnerable to the criminal malpractices from the perpetrato rs. The laws require that justice prevail and that the criminals be punished for their wrong deeds. However, there is an increasing concern that the some of the criminals do receive more punishment than they deserve. There are certain adverse consequences that the criminals face following the provisions of the law that may not serve to correct their behaviors as required. Besides, the poor perceptions that the public have on the criminals following a given offense often do not allow the victims to transform into respectable members of the society. For instance, a woman that has committed a sexual offense to various individuals in the society may be viewed by the pubic as having a unique character compared to a male counterpart who has committed the same. Importance of recognizing â€Å"What works† and â€Å"gender responsive† camp in intervening with female offenders An effective criminal justice system involves the cooperation between the government agencies and other actors like the community to ensure that the members of a given society are protected from criminal activities. Such a system ensures that justice is practiced in handling the criminals and the victims of the crimes. The criminal justice agencies promote social development in the society by alleviating criminal activities and subjecting the lawbreakers to the appropriate penalties. Different reasons could lead to one committing a criminal offense. This could be seen in the kinds of crimes and the frequency with which an individual commits the same crime. Irrespective of these varied factors, it is desirable that the agencies transform the individuals back to responsible members of the society. The criminal laws provide for rehabilitation of the criminals and preventing the subsequent and successive crimes. The laws advocate for proportional punishment to the criminals that can transform them into respectable members of the society. Besides, the crime suspects should not be harassed in the process of criminal investigation and in prosecution as this may lead to a forced submission to the law order. The criminal laws prevent the criminal justice agencies to abuse the criminals and suspects of criminal offenses. There are literatures that focus on what works in relation to the correctional treatment provided to the offenders of different gender. Some literatures pointed out that females have special needs different from the needs of the males. These

Degas Private Life of a Masterpiece Little Dancer Aged Fourteen Assignment

Degas Private Life of a Masterpiece Little Dancer Aged Fourteen - Assignment Example aining the young girl aged fourteen called Marie, he takes and mould many parts of her body, and finally after that Degas comes out with an audition of the little dancer aged fourteen. The public did not receive this theme warmly or with full acceptance but instead the public warned their children against dancing and refer to it as misleading to the young generation. With young people, things were different, instead they liked it more and it triggered many young female to join the dance, this extends until today young people like dancing a lot. Degas makes it more attractive by painting the ballets dancers, he spends much of his time watching the dancers this is because he is more attracted towards young female dancers. Degas liked the artwork just from the time when he was young. He and he worked on his talent until when he meet his dancers in Paris city. This triggers him to work with extra effort and comes out with the theme the little dancer aged fourteen. This is after meeting the young girl by the name Marie who was so determined with dancing and sculpting as a special art in her life. Degas took her after realizing that her mother and her entire family were very poor. Degas emphasized on training and strong body movement. This was the drill that he used to archive a perfect dancer as far as his tile is concerned. By doing this he only concentrated on young people who were referred as children, this was the only controversy that he had against the public and more so they were female and not male. With Degas, he was using the young women so that to bring out the aspect of capability and self esteem. With the posing, the special dancing, and especially the final posing it was unique and not very common this made his dancing art very powerful. Apart from that, also Degas concentrated on the material that he was using in his artwork since it is also a major aspect as far as stage presentation is concerned. It appeared to be very unique also and so much

Human Nature or Affirmative Action Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Human Nature or Affirmative Action - Assignment Example In all their activities they engage in, the human kind engage in activities that are geared towards achieving their individual targets but also, they at the back of their minds bear the ideology that this should not infringe of their neighbors peace and existence. This explains the existence of treaties and protocols, the peace deals and the different national and international organizations, groups and societies that exist in an effort of human kind to work together towards the achievement of their common goals at the different levels. The egalitarian belief will be used in subsequent arguments for my view which supports moral rights to euthanasia, in order to protect the innocent from unnecessary suffering. Libertarianism will also be incorporated due to its notion that anything done among adults with their consent is morally allowable and so is its stance against paternalism. On top of this, principles that are related to prima facie or that are prima facie of the actual beneficen ce and normal evidence will be used, mostly the well known kindness virtue in normal perfectionism. This kindness virtue is very well known to many people, and those who know its importance regularly display or use it. Then, I will persistently try to employ the use of utilitarianism also. 2A. As opposed to the simple-minded historical relativism which is traceable to Hegel’s influence, the deficiency when it comes to moral philosophy that combines consistency in theory and fidelity to known facts regarding human nature does not really change; this is because the problems have relatively remained the same in the changing social conditions. Blind alleys have revealed both the past theories and their critics; therefore it is possible to be on the past moral philosopher’s shoulders while trying to come nearer to both the facts of human nature and the new social conditions. Although one could sit in the same room with great mind in this field such as Plato, Montaigne, Hobb es, Aristotle and Adam Smith just to mention a few, one can read a paper regarding procedural justice to these brilliant minds. In the proceeding discussion, it is evident that those present were deliberating on the same subject and that it was certain that this was not a subject sustainable only by the syllabus used in a university. The underpinnings and origins of justice is what the discussion is likely to touch on, that is of the universal and usual elements present in justice, and the private to public relation of morality (Hampshire 157). 2B. I agree with this statement. 2C. Human nature naturally exists and this is the ability of a human being to make a perception about something. I believe it is a biological element that exists between us and gives us a way to go about different events and activities in life. It is our human nature that enables us to respect the virtues that are there to guide us on how we go about our daily activities. The virtues like honesty, loyalty and many others are guided by our human nature. We are able to forgive ourselves and others because of our human nature (Aristotle 14). Our responses to tasks and activities portray our human nature like when we are sad, we cry, when we are hungry, we look for food and eat and many other activities. Our ability to choose who to love and who to hate and the fact that we make this choices based on reasons and conviction from within us proves to us that human

Museum of Art Essay Example for Free

Museum of Art Essay After visiting the Raleigh Museum of Art, I discovered two paintings that conjured up opposite feelings that I will compare and contrast. The painting I liked most was titled, Jungle Camp, 2000 an Acrylic on canvas 72 x 60 in. (182. 9 x 152. 4 cm), from one of North Carolina’s most respected artists, Maud Gatewood. Her paintings record the varied experiences of a wandering life. Writing on the back of the canvas, the artist notes the origins of this picture: Trapped in the Amazon with a bad leg. Confined to a hut, she made the most of the opportunity. The second painting titled, Venice without water, by North Carolina’s artist Donald Sultan was the painting I truly disliked because of the feelings it provoked. Sultan’s painting from 1990 was an acrylic painting and measured 96 x96 inches in dimension. Sultan used Butyl rubber, acrylic paint, and plaster on vinyl composite tiles, which were mounted on four Masonite panels. Both painting represent landscapes captured by the artists’ eyes or through a photograph. These paintings gave me two strong, but opposite, feelings: joy and sadness. I will describe the differences and contrast these two works of art. The two pieces of art works have several differences in style. First, the shape in the painting, jungle camp, is rectangular; while the second painting is square. The choice and use of color in the two paintings are completely opposite. Since color is most important to me, I chose the jungle camp painting due to the variety of bright colors that pop from canvas. The painting from Mrs. Gatewood is colorful, which gave me a feeling of joy and warmth. However, Sultan decided to use contrast instead of colors in his painting. Thus, Sultan’s painting is filled with different tones of grey, black, or white. Gatewood’s painting represents a jungle’s view from a patio or balcony. I can see tall palm trees all stuck to each other in her painting, which gives the impression of abundance and fertility. She chooses many different variations of green. For example, she utilizes certain hues of light green to create an effect of sun reflection. There are two types of curtains on the patio, hanging on a fine line. The first is really colorful, a mix of tropical color, and the second is like a white veil, which you can see trough it. The mix of materials and colors for the curtains, added to the jungle, procures me a sense of evasion, vacation, and relaxation. I was drawn to the atmosphere of serenity and tropic jumbled together, which is the reason that this painting evoked my interest. However, Sultan’s painting is the exact opposite of abundance and excursion. The whole artwork is quite dark and sad. It’s a representation of the well-known Rialto’s bridge, which is an infrastructure between to planes. The first plane is an illustration of wood’s pillars, which surround the Venetian canals; they are use by the gondoliers to park their â€Å"original dinghy†. The second plane is the bridge; it looks pretty scary and dark with no one crossing it. The final plane, which is the background, consists of some Venetian’s buildings. These buildings form a line that converges towards the bridge; which helps my eyes focus on the main subject the bridge. Sultan’s painting does not reflect the Venice that I saw five years ago. When I think about my trip to Venice, I have an enriched memory filled with bright colors from the Carnival. I remember vivid colors on all the masks, costumes, life, and crawl of people. Sultan’s artwork doesn’t have any of my souvenirs. Instead, the painting is more like a sinister version of the beautiful city, Venice. Although I do not like this particular outlook of Venice, I realized after studying his painting that the artist is expressing his environmental point of view of the city, which I completely agree with. As an admirer of this city, I feel concerned by the environmental issue depicted in the painting. The notion that the excess of tourism could be destructive to a fragile city like Venice is a valid concern. The artist conveys his dismay over â€Å"the deteriorating environment with the unused mooring posts, the dry canal bed of mud-like tar, and the melancholy mood of the painting†. I think that colors or tonalities are the essence of the painting, like the rhythm and tunes are for music. In my view colors are strongly subjective, they can have different psychologist effects and symbolist’s significations, they can differ from a culture to another; associating Black with mourning is normal, in our occidental countries, while in Asia it’s the actual opposite, White. In my case the colors are the main cause, on what I think is pretty or not.

Exploring The Illusion Of Conscious Will Philosophy Essay

Exploring The Illusion Of Conscious Will Philosophy Essay The experience of conscious will can be defined as the feeling that we are doing things, that we consciously cause our actions. However, this feeling may not be an accurate interpretation of what is happening in our minds, brain and bodies as our actions are produced. If we had access to a variety of information we could uncover the mechanisms that activate our behavior and we could explain why we are acting in a specific way. However, another way to explain our actions is that we consciously willed what we are doing. There is a confliction between the ideas of conscious will and psychological mechanism, having never been reconciled in a proper way. One solution for bridging the gap is that the explanation given from the mechanistic approach is preferred for scientific purposes, but that the persons experience of conscious will is very convincing and important to the person and must also be examined and be understood as well. Conscious will can be perceived in two ways. First, we can assume conscious will as the experience of consciously causing an action. This feeling of voluntariness or performing an action on purpose can be considered as an indication of conscious will. Secondly, we can think of conscious will as a force of mind, in other words, as the causal link between our minds and our actions. One might infer that this two interpretations of conscious will are corresponding to the same thing but it turns out that they are completely distinct and we are often tend to confuse them. This confusion is considered as the source of the illusion of conscious will. By examining conscious will as an experience it is concluded that will is a feeling. In other words, will is not consider as a cause or a force by itself but the personal conscious feeling of such causing and forcing. Also, this experience of willing an action is accompanied by a feeling of doing, which is an internal force that certifies genuinely that one has produced the action. Experiences of conscious will can only be confirmed by self- reports. The problem is that self- reports are not always corresponding with some other external evidence of the experience. There are several examples in which the experience of will does not seem to accompany actions that appear to be willed by other external factors. Considering the alien hand syndrome which is a neuropsychological disorder patients typically experience one hand as acting independently, in its own conscious intention. In this case there is a problem classing the alien hands movement as willed or unwilled. On the one hand the a ctions that are performed by the alien hand are seemed to be willful while on the other hand the person states that these actions are not consciously willed by himself. Another example in which the feeling of involuntariness is observed is hypnosis. People in this case feeling that their actions are happening to them rather than they perform the actions themselves. The only difference between hypnosis and alien hand syndrome is that in the second case the person cant predict what the hand will do but in hypnosis conscious will is lacking even though the person knows that the action is present. Considering these examples it is useful to draw a distinction between action and the sense of acting willfully. There are four basic conditions of human action. In the first two conditions we can observe the expected correspondence between the action and the sense of acting willfully. More specifically there is no controversy when a person does something and feels also that he is doing it or w hen a person is not doing anything and feels he is not. However, the case in which the person does not have the feeling of will when there is in fact action encompasses the examples of the alien hand syndrome and hypnosis. These instances can be classed as automatisms and draw a distinction between action and the sense of acting willfully. Another special case that highlights this distinction is the illusion of control. This term was used in order to describe instances in which people have the feeling that they perform an action when they actually dont do anything. This illusion of control can be observed in the interactions between humans and machines or when someone is rolling a dice or flip a coin in a specific way hoping to influence the outcome. Examining these two last conditions it is concluded that the action and the feeling of doing are not coexist inevitably. This might happens because the process of mind that produce the experience of will is different from the process of mind that produce the action itself. As it was mentioned before will is not only considered as an experience, but also as a force. Wegner states that conscious experience is an immediate perception of ones conscious mind causing an action. From this point of view will is considered as a quality of power that resides in the person and causes his or her actions. There are two fundamental problems arising from this concept. First, conscious will is considered as an entity that explains a variety of thing but nothing can explains it. In this way this entity cannot be examined in a scientific way because assuming that will is a force that causes a persons actions is like saying that God is causing an event. This is a barrier to any other explanation because it is not predictable what will is going to do as it cannot be said what God is going to do either. Secondly, the assumption that will is a force that resides inside the person creates further objections. As Hume pointed out causality is not an attribution inhering in obj ects. Another thing that was stated by Hume is that it cannot be seen causation in something, but must only be inferred from the constant relation between cause and effect. Causation is not a characteristic that is nestled in objects but an event. Thus it cannot be assumed that causation is an attribution of persons intention. It cannot be observed that an action is caused by ones conscious intention but it can only be inferred from the relation between the intention and action. One reason why people confuse the experience of will for a causal mechanism is because they try to make sense of themselves as causal agents. Most humans perceive themselves and the other people as entities that acting independently in order to achieve a future goal. The concept of causal agency is very important for people because it helps them understand in a deeper sense human action. Humans are considered to be agents that are acting in purpose and they have the capacity to discern their goals consciously in advance of action. Thus the experience of will seems to be a causal agent. People perceive their own minds as systems that have mental causing properties, as causal agents and in this way they need to accept that the experience of conscious will is real. 2. Theory of Apparent Mental Causation What are the mechanisms that give rise to the experience of conscious will? Why do people feel like they are doing things? Wegner states that the experience of consciously willing an action is departing when people interpret their own thought as the cause of their action. In this sense conscious will is experienced independently of any actual relationship between ones thoughts and actions. This perception of will usually arises when people think themselves before the action takes place and that produces the sense of agency. In other words people seem to see themselves as the authors of an action when they perceive relevant thoughts about this specific action in advance and in this way they tend to infer that their mental processes caused this action. However will is not perceived as s force that causes action but as a conscious experience that depicts weakly the actual causal connection between the persons cognition and action. In this way, there is a fundamental distinction between mental process and the perception and the verbal report of that process. The mental process does not reveal the person any further information about the mechanism of this process and in this case it may be that the person uses prior causal theories to explain his or her own psychological functions. The conscious will may depart from a theory that was formed in order to explain the constant relationship between thought and action. But many scientific findings support that conscious will does not reflect the real causal relation. In fact brain events are those that determine intention and action while conscious intention itself cannot cause action. According to many studies the feeling of will is not tied inevitably to voluntary action and so must be considered as a distinctive phenomenon. Wegner propose a model of mental system that explains how people end up having the experience of will which is consistent with various empirical findings. According to this model, there are a series of events that end up to a voluntary action. In this network conscious thought and action are activated by unconscious mental processes which are may be linked to each other. But the path that gives rise to the experience of will is not actual but apparent. More specifically, when someone believes that his conscious intention caused the voluntary action he is experiencing a sense of will, that he willfully caused the action. The problem is that the perceived conscious will is not always corresponding with the actual mechanisms that connect the thought and the action. In other words, the experience of conscious will is not an indication of the actual relation between the mind and the action. What is truly might be happening is that conscious will arises from a causal illusion, from a third variable that interferes. As it can never be drawn with certainty that A causes B because there is always exist a variable C that cause both of them, in the same way it is not certain that ones thought cause his actions because there are unconscious mechanisms that produce both of them. Wegners theory proposes that experience of will is arising when people infer that their thoughts have caused their actions, whether this inference is true or not. According to this people tend to infer that thought causes action when the principles of priority, consistency and exclusivity are fulfilled. First, the thought must be appear in consciousness prior to the action (priority) secondly, it should be consistent with the action (consistency) and finally there must not be other potential causes of the action (exclusivity). Studies have shown that the perception of causality is based on these principles in order to be established a relationship between the cause and the effect. In fact, these principles do not depict an actual causal relation because the perceptions of causality that are based on these principles arise from reality. In a nutshell, the theory of apparent mental causation assumes that the experience of consciously willing our actions is a construction. When a thought appears to be prior and consistent with the action and exclusive of any other alternative causes this construction produces the feeling that we are the authors of this action. However, this feeling is just an inference that our thoughts cause our action, not a direct perception of this causal relationship. 3. Why do we have the illusion? Why do people occupied with experience of intention if it is no causally effective? As we mentioned before conscious will departs from the interpretation that our thoughts cause our actions. In this way, apparent mental causation is produced by an interpretive mechanism that is completely different from the mechanistic process that forms the real mental causation. Thus, the experience of will is considered to be an indication that mind determines our actions, is the way that mind illustrates their functions to us, not their real functions. These prior thoughts that people have are not intentions that cause things but previews of what we may do. Wegner states that conscious will is the minds compass. More specifically is the experience that alerts our minds when actions are present and that these actions are the products of their own agency. Therefore the will is an indicator that informs us about the way we operate, does not cause our actions. Will also serve another purpose, is it a feeling that gives us information about our understanding of our own agency. In other words, it is an emotion of authorship and functions as a guide to ourselves and marks out our own functions. It informs us about who we are and what we are able to do. Finally, the most important thing is that will cultivates feelings about our responsibility for our actions and our sense of morality and guilt. 4. Empirical evidence Is free will exists? What is causing our actions? Libet (1999) had taken an experimental approach in order to give conclusive answers to these questions. In his empirical study, he found that free voluntary actions were preceded by the readiness potential RP, that is a specific electrical shift in the brain, that starts 550ms before the action. The awareness of the intention to act comes 350-400 ms after RP begins but 200ms before the action. Therefore, the processing of the voluntary acting was initiated unconsciously. In this way it can be drawn that if the brain initiate this voluntary action before conscious intention is appeared then consciousness is too difficult to be the cause of the action (Blackmore). However, the conscious processing can control the result if it veto the action and that confirms that free will cannot be excluded. It is supported that free will is not able to initiate a voluntary action but it can control it (Libet, 1999). Libet experiments had raised many philosophical and methodological problems. First of all, he has been critised Mele(book) tried to interpret Libet findings in an alternative way. According to him there is a crucial distinction between the concepts of deciding and intending on the one hand and other states such as wanting on the other hand. Libet uses the terms of intending, urging, wanting, deciding, willing alternatively without making any discrimination among them. In particular, in order to explain how does a specific intention for an action arises in the subjects he strongly claims that the brain decides to initiate or at least to prepare to initiate the act before there is any reportable subjective awareness that such a decision has taken place. Therefore, Libet believes that decisions are causing our actions and that this electrical shift that happens in our brains seems to be correlated with the causes of our actions because they precede of the muscle motion by approximately half a second. In this way the brain made the decision 500ms earlier before the subjects become aware of that. B ut this can lead to contradiction because decisions cannot be made without being conscious of them. According to Mele, deciding to do something is completely distinct from having an urge or wanting to do something. One might want to produce an action but finally not decide to do it. In this way it is more plausible that brain produces urges rather than decisions because urges correspond to an unconscious processing. Thereafter, this unconscious urges helps the decision to be generated in order for the act to be produced. As Libet point out the conscious self can control or permit or veto the final motor action by deciding to do so and in this case the decision to initiate the action is more direct from the unconscious urge that initiated the whole process. In this way the conscious self that is intending and deciding still has a causal efficacy.(mele) Trevena and Miller (2009) disproved Libets core assumption that the electrophysiological shifts of the brain that prepare the action, that are present before the subjects are consciously aware of making the decision to move, is not evidence that voluntary action is initiated unconsciously. It is also concluded that these signs are not related only with the preparation of the movement. In the experiment that it was conducted the researchers compared the electrophysiological sign before a decision to move with signs before a decision not to move and they found that there were no significant differences between the signs in the two conditions. In this way these signs are not in charge of preparing these movements. Thus, Libet findings dont prove that voluntary actions are initiated unconsciously.

The History Of Zara Information Technology Essay

The History Of Zara Information Technology Essay Zara is the most successful brand of Spanish company Grupo Inditex. Its owner, Amancio Ortega, opened first retail store in 1975 in La Coruna, a small port in Spain. Zara became the worlds largest fashion retailer by 2008 end. By this time it had stores in over 70 countries, out performing its rivals like Gap of USA and Sweden based HM (Hennes Maurits) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/12/retail.spain). Zaras Innovative Operations: Daniel Piette, director of fashion, LVMH has described Zara as possibly the most devastating and innovating retailer in the world http://tbmdb.blogspot.com/2009/12/business-model-example-zara-devastating.html, owing to the companys innovative and unique approach in fashion retail. Zara follows the concept of a vertically integrated supply chain, in which the company has a tight control over most of the design phase, production phase and distribution system to its chain of retail outlets. The rest of these processes is handled by its sister concerns with nearby locations. Unlike its competitors Zara does not outsource its production to Asian developing countries; the proximity of production units helps Zara by giving flexibility in production so that the company can meet the ever-changing demands of the consumers more efficiently than its competitors. Zara has integrated the system of POS (Point Of Sales) and has formed a unique method that helps in the production of new designs. POS helps in monitoring what designs are bringing in maximum sales at the retail shops. The store managers are allowed freedom to decide which designs to display and which ones to keep back in the store, depending on the sales of those designs. Zaras employees at the retail outlets gather feedbacks from the customers and convey the information to the headquarters with the help of hand-held PDAs that each employee is required to carry. At the headquarters, the design teams immediately respond to feedbacks sent via PDAs and begin designing new clothes accordingly. The clothes are manufactured and distributed to the retail stores within a short period of 2 to 4 weeks owing to the vertical integration of its supply chain. While its rivals are busy finding and identifying what the latest trends might be and finally take 4 to 9 months to distribute new designs to their respective stores, Zara manages to design, manufacture and distribute new designs in a matter of just of 30 days. Taking advantage of the fast turn around time, Zara eschews the concept of producing just one collection per season, like its rivals do. Instead the designs keep on changing frequently so that Zara manages to deliver new designs twice a week to its retail shops. Zara only produces small quantities of each style so that there is continuous demand of popular designs. It cuts down on manufacturing costs as well. Thus Zara manages to deliver around 12000 different styles in a year whereas its competitors can produce only 4000-5000 per year. Hence, the company-coined phrase, fast fashion http://www.3isite.com/articles/ImagesFashion_Zara_Part_I.pdf. Current Technology in Information Communication Zaras use of technology in information technology is unique from its competitors. Firstly Zara uses much less technology, in terms of expenditure and work-force, than its competitors just 0.5% of its work force compared to 2.5% of employees that its rivals utilise. Similarly Zara spends only 0.5% of its revenue on information technology compared to expenditure of 2% by its competitors. Secondly Zara employs a unique combination of human and IT intelligence. Managers at the stores and the market survey done by the employees, form the human intelligence while IT intelligence consists of the PDA devices used to send information collected by the managers and other employees carrying the PDAs. An order form is transmitted to each managers PDA asking for information such as availability of garments and patterns of garment sales. The managers of each retail outlets then divide this order form into sections and these sections are transmitted to the PDAs of each employee to fill up, based o n customers feedback and the kind of designs sold. Employees then transmit back their respective sections to the managers PDA, after entering the customers requirements. The managers of each store are given total authority to determine and identify which sections are to be retained in the order form. The edited order form is then sent back to headquarters where the designing teams start working on the basis of the order forms. This unique hybrid of humans technology helps in managing the inventories efficiently and quick and efficient link between demand and supply, thus successfully helping in their own doctrine of fast fashion. Summing up Zaras use of technology http://leoborjblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/zara-it-for-fast-fashion/: Gather customer requirements PDAs Logistics and transmission of order form POS terminals and modems. Quickly designing new style CAD (Computer Aided Design) Advantages of such an Innovative System Vertical integration of supply chain and short turn around time lead to High turnover of product. Quick and efficient distribution helps to eliminate warehouse requirement, saving on additional storage costs. Searching the market for latest fashion trends and responding quickly to the consumer requirements with the help of hand-held PDAs. Complete autonomy and flexibility to the employees and managers who are in direct contact with the customers. POS terminals run on DOS operating system, which is cheap and easy to maintain and operate. Perceived limitations of this System http://www.slideshare.net/koffman/zara-case-study-2780928 Zara and its sister concerns have been using DOS as their main operating system in all the processes. It is an outdated operating system. As the POS vendor supplies DOS OS to zara only, it can always stop its supply, while continue to supply other operating systems to its other customers. Store managers are the decision makers. Zara headquarter relies solely on the experience and intuition of the managers. Instead of looking after customers, managers and employees have the time-consuming task of manually entering the garment details in small PDAs. This could result in the employees failing to assist some customers in choosing and might miss out on few garment sales. Inventory is maintained manually as well. Information transmitted is one way only. Managers have no knowledge of the inventories at headquarters and the stores distribution centre. Consequently managers cannot promise a customer if a particular garment that has been sold out, can be replenished and in how many days. Promises made to customers not kept can damage Zaras reputation, so the managers need to know about the garments inventories at headquarters and the distribution centres. There is a great demand for Zaras garments even though new designs are available twice a week. Zara may consider increase in production to meet these ever growing demands. Gathering of information therefore may need to be upgraded in terms of frequency. Its competitors can change to a better OS or software package and increase their turn around time, neutralizing Zaras edge of fast fashion over them. New IT Technology for Sustainability http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=97642 Benefits: New technology may not help Zara in increasing the competitive edge over its competitors but will help in sustaining that edge. A new operating system will help in installing software packages that will help in efficient access of inventory at the stores as well as headquarters and distribution centers. Upgrading to new OS will remove the companys dependency on its current supplier of DOS. Using more than one IT supplier will increase Zaras bargaining power. A Network can be set up between HQ, production centers and retail stores. POS system can be automated so that each sale will automatically update the POS devices. If the POS system of all stores can be interlinked all the store managers can easily know the inventory online and can make and keep their promises to customers demanding a particular garment. POS automation will help reduce overall workload of the employees and managers, as they will not have to manually enter every detail required in the order form. There will not be any need of hand held PDAs. Dedicated POS software will ensure that orders will now be made on the basis of theoretical inventories and will be more accurate. Orders can now placed continually increasing the frequency from twice a week to daily. Ideal software to be used for integration would be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Linking all the process in the supply chain, from HQ, design centers to retail stores, will not only help the managers in accessing inventories but will also help HQ to regulate the supplies more accurately according to the orders placed. Production will become even leaner than before. ECQ (Economic Order Quantity) can help in determining quantities of different garments that buyer can order so that there is sufficient stock for the customers. This will reduce inventory cost as well. Knowing reorder levels will streamline managing of the inventory and help in maintaining the autonomy of the managers. Managers can determine from the reorder levels whether a particular garment needs to be ordered before it will go out of stock and can transmit the same to the production centers that are now linked to the retail outlets. Of course manual checks will still be needed occasionally to check a stores real time inventory is same as the theoretical inventory in case of exceptions like garments getting stolen or gone missing. Designers at HQ will now not depend entirely on the managers discretion and can observe themselves sales of new designs due to two-way system integration by ERP. Just in case a store does run out of stock on a particular garment, the manager can easily check the inventories of local nearby stores for availability and suggest the customer to go there. Inter-store connectivity will have added advantage of shipping garments to another store that has more demand of a particular garment. This will further increase the speed-to-market. Besides HQ even managers of different stores will benefit if they know through network what is selling at other stores and what is not. Cost Analysis: Zara will have to upgrade to better OS that will support ERP like Linux, Unix or Windows NT. Implementation cost of Linux is lowest of the three OS. But recurring costs like service-contract is much higher (McAfee et al). Annual cost of using Unix is the lowest and if functionality remains more or less same, Unix will be best suited. If other costs like plans for systems failure are not taken into consideration then implementation cost will relatively much lower than prospective ROI (Return On Investment). Risk Analysis: Changing software and operating system in all retail shops world over is not an easy task. Due to location of Zaras retail outlets all over the world, there will be many extra tangible costs. Cost of replacing current POS system with the new one. Cost of installation of new cables in each store and maybe new infrastructure to support the cables. Cost of external IT support, hiring professional consultants. Cost of internal IT management and technical training of personnel. Time taken to train the personnel till outside assistance is not required cannot be determined as level of training and learning will be different at different locations around the world. Risk Reduction: Both current and new systems should operate together till the personnel of each store can run the new system smoothly; this will not interrupt any service provided to customers. Zara has a huge pilot outlet that is around 1,500 square meters. Zara can use this as training facility from its personnel from all over the world. Zara can use it to test the new system as well. Zara can hire experienced software professionals and open an in-house department for software management and development. Zara can outsource the management and development to experienced software companies. However Zara will have to trade-off between highly efficient and expensive companies. Zara should develop a contingency plan and an exit plan as well in case the company cannot continue with the up gradation for some reason. Robust data backup is required in case the new system crashes due to mishandling by inexperienced staff.