Last Clinic Standing Essay Example

Last Clinic Standing Essay Example Last Clinic Standing Paper Last Clinic Standing Paper   Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Last Clinic Standing† is a thoughtfully written article by Amanda Robb. She discusses the only Planned Parenthood abortion clinic left in South Dakota, putting it in the larger context of the heated abortion debate in that state. Abortions not necessary to save the life of the mother were banned on March 6, 2006. Robb looks at the abortion issue from both sides – the pro-choice and the pro-life.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb sets the scene for her article by describing what it takes to get a doctor to perform abortions in South Dakota: the doctors must be flown in from another state, which in this case is Minnesota. The clinic itself has been built and reinforced to discourage attacks from militant pro-lifers, though these individuals do protest at the site. Abortions are performed once a week, on Mondays. Robb describes the abortion process itself, using a matter-of-fact tone. She does not gloss over the fact that a tube is inserted in the woman’s uterus and it will be connected to a machine that will suck out the fetus. The fetus will be placed – in pieces – in a glass jar and disposed of as all medical waste.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb transitions to the story of Nancy, who is at the clinic to get an abortion that day. She has a 6 year old child and a slightly younger boyfriend, so it is not the right time to add a new child to the family. While many would insist that Nancy take responsibility for her choice, it seems she already has: birth control simply didn’t work for her. Leslie Unruh is a staunch supporter of abstinence (and most fascinatingly, a descendent of Laura Ingalls Wilder) and she insists that there is no excuse for an unwanted pregnancy. In her opinion, â€Å"sex creates many other ills, too- cervical cancer, bad grades, and poor female self-esteem.† Robb takes offense at this, admitting that she did sleep around and doesn’t feel those negative effects. Even so, the move to promote abstinence has President Bush’s approval and a $113 million budget.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb approaches this article not only from the view of a writer looking for a good story, but as a woman who can relate to the plight of the abortion doctor – her uncle Bart was a doctor who performed abortions until he was assassinated in his home. Bart’s experience with abortion – and especially repeat abortion taught him that the real solution was to increase access to birth control and make it free to those who need it. This is the case in Denmark, which has had mandatory sex education/birth control programs in schools since 1970 and has a much lower abortion rate than the United States.   Before Bart’s death, he was hounded by protesters with whom he was willing to make a deal. He said if they would stop harassing him and his family (he particularly didn’t like them following his kids to school and asking them not to grow up to be â€Å"killers like daddy†), they could set up a table inside the clinic where he worked two days a week and pass out pro-life information. The pro-lifers, of course, did not accept this offer. Their bottom line was that they were only willing to teach abstinence.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb drives into the state capital of Pierre, where she sees Representative Roger Hunt, the prime abortion opponent and sponsor of the anti-abortion bill. After listening to a lecture on abstinence, Hunt became an active crusader against abortion and plans to continue to support legislation that â€Å"chips away at Roe v. Wade†.   He has no sympathy for incest victims as he insists that studies have been done that prove that the children of incest often prove to be the most intelligent in the family. He feels that taking a human life is worse than rape – one must wonder if he has ever consulted with a rape victim on this theory.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb understands his pro-life position, even though she doesn’t agree with it. It is her willingness to listen to all sides of the abortion debate that encourages even the most militant pro-lifer to open up to her about their views. While Robb inserts sardonic comments here and there (the aforementioned â€Å"I slept around and it didn’t hurt me† remark, for example), she writes about both sides of the argument fairly, without making the pro-life supporters appear uneducated or naà ¯ve.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb’s most prevalent complaint is that anyone would support not teaching contraception to sexually active teenagers. She ponders whether birth control education is more like a seat belt â€Å"which protects me but doesn’t make me drive crazily†, or overdraft protection – â€Å"which also protects me while occasionally enticing me to spend recklessly†.   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robb ties up the article by going back to Nancy and her boyfriend, admitting that Nancy wasn’t one of the women who needed to be protected due to rape, but just due to her own bad luck. She ponders what Nancy’s options might be if the Senate bill holds and abortion is absolutely banned. Nancy would have to choose between having an illegal abortion (which she might have to perform on herself), giving up the baby, or keeping a baby who will only bring more stress into an already strained relationship. These were the only options a woman could decide between pre-Roe v. Wade.   Ã‚  Ã‚   According to CNN.com, the anti-abortion bill failed on November 7th with 148,664 votes supporting the ban on abortion and 185,934 votes to keep abortion legal. The bill failed to pass with only 56% of the vote against the bill. It is clear that South Dakota has not seen the last of anti-abortion legislation attempts. Amanda Robb’s work is far from over.

Quotes From The Brothers Karamazov

Quotes From The Brothers Karamazov The Brothers Karamazov is one of the greatest novels of all time. The book was the final novel Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote before his death. This important Russian novel is often praised for its complexity. Quotations From the Novel Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end... but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature ... And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell me the truth!Im a Karamazov... when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and Im even pleased that Im falling in such a humiliating position, and for me, I find it beautiful. And so in that very shame, I suddenly begin a hymn. Let me be cursed, let me be base and vile, but let me also kiss the hem of that garment in which my God is clothed; let me be following the devil at the same time, but still I am also your son, Lord, and I love you, and I feel a joy without which the world cannot stand and be.Is there in the whole world a being who would have the right to forgive and could forgive? I dont want harmony. From love for humanity, I don t want it. I would rather be left with the unavenged suffering. I would rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unsatisfied indignation, even if I were wrong. Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; its beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. Its not God that I dont accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket. Listen: if everyone must suffer, in order to buy eternal harmony with their suffering, pray tell me what have children got to do with it? It’s quite incomprehensible why they should have to suffer, and why they should buy harmony with their suffering.The stupider one is, the closer one is to reality. The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence wriggles and hides itself. Intelligence is a knave, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.Everything is permitted...All is lawful.There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satans pride and murmuring against G od. Viper will eat viper, and it would serve them both right!What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but thats a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, thats all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it.I think the devil doesnt exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral; everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side.Hesitation, anxiety, the stru ggle between belief and disbelief- all that is sometimes such a torment for a conscientious man... that it’s better to hang oneself. In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.Very different is the monastic way. Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet they alone constitute the way to real and true freedom: I cut away my superfluous and unnecessary needs, through obedience I humble and chasten my vain and proud will, and thereby, with God’s help, attain freedom of spirit, and with that, spiritual rejoicing!Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ.I may be wicked, but still I gave an onion.A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. Wh en he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lyingto others and to yourself. Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground.Even there, in the mines, underground, I may find a human heart in another convict and murderer by my side, and I may make friends with him, for even there one may live and love and suffer. One may thaw and revive a frozen heart in that convict, one may wait upon him for years, and at last bring up from the dark depths a lofty soul, a feeling, suffering creature; one may bring forth an angel, create a hero! There are so many of them, hundreds of them, and we are to blame for them.There are souls that in their narrowness blame the whole world. But overwhelm such a soul with mercy, give it love, and it will curse what it has done, for there are so many germs of good in it. The soul will expand and behold how m erciful God is, and how beautiful and just people are. He will be horrified, he will be overwhelmed with repentance and the countless debt he must henceforth repay. Psychology lures even most serious people into romancing, and quite unconsciously.It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.To be in love is not the same as loving. You can be in love with a woman and still hate her.Its the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.The more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity.

Educational Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Educational Evaluation - Essay Example This would provide an opportunity to introduce the standards to teachers and allow them to infuse them into their curriculum and develop assessment based on their understanding of the critical/creative thinking standards. 4. Allow teachers the time to use these strategies and assessment principles in their classrooms in an attempt to help them develop their own individuality when designing and assessing instruction while at the same time providing them with innovative experimentation. 5. Reunite with teachers to dialogue about what they thought was effective and ineffective, their evaluation of the critical thinking standards, and what barriers they felt impeded their abilities to utilize this manner of instruction and assessment. Having a healthy dialogue with teachers about critical/creative thinking and then affording them the time to utilize methods and strategies for teaching and assessing thinking would allow teachers to think about and identify their own practices. Building metacognitive opportunities into the process, would allow teachers to think creatively and intellectually about their own teaching processes. This would motivate them to recognize what they thought was valuable and what they thought should be changed in their curriculum and instructional methods, along with recognizing where they might be able to learn more about critical and creative thinking and instruction. All good decisions and solutions to problems require a clear understanding of what the actual problem is. Helping students separate causes from solutions, symptoms from problems, and sub-problems from real problems is essential for teaching students to think critically. For example, defining the wrong problem can send a student down the wrong path to, at a minimum, irrelevant solutions, and ensure that she will not understand the subject matter or concepts she is examining. Helping students define problems to take what they are learning and phrase inquiry in the form of questions to be answered through research and collaboration is a goal of critical instruction. Helping students see the goals and objectives in what they are studying is essential to help them understand subject matter. Many problems with students' understanding of, for example, biology or history come with the fact that they do not know why they are studying biology or history what biologists and historians attempt to accomplish through their scholarly endeavors. By not identifying the goals contained within various disciplines, students cannot be expected to understand the discipline as a system. For example, without understanding what a biologist seeks to accomplish by studying cells, let's say, the student cannot possibly hope to identify biological problems in the area of cellular formation or development. It cannot be taken for granted that students understand what historians, biologists, mathematicians, artists, or journalists do; in fact, it should be assumed the opposite and engage students in discussions as to the purposes behind studying one subject or another. Simi larly,

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

History - Essay Example The sudden and drastic increase in the number of industries provided women with another opportunity to demonstrate their independence (Women and Family History in America - The 19th Century). The result of this industrialization was an increase in the number of women employees in factories and industrial production units Women assumed new responsibilities in the teaching profession as well as in the industry. They were no longer confined to their homes and eagerly sought outside work. These factors encouraged women to be independent and to improve their self – esteem. Several new trade unions were formed, in order to address women’s difficulties at the work place, and many women became active members of these trade unions (Women and Family History in America - The 19th Century). However, many of these women were compelled to relinquish their jobs after marriage and to take care of their family and children. Nevertheless, some of them, continued in outside employment even after marriage. Moreover, many women with a heightened sense of morality had established women’s associations to help women whose condition was miserable. These associations assisted distressed women in several ways, promoted religious ideals, attempted to eradicate prostitution and poverty, and sought to enhance self – esteem (Women and Family History in America - The 19th Century). These associations conducted rallies to pressurize the government to improve conditions in prisons, asylums and hospitals. These movements culminated in the subsequent movement to procure women’s suffrage under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott. The nineteenth century witnessed two major movements, namely female suffrage and labor (Women and Family History in America - The 19th Century). The 19th Century Industrial Revolution drastically changed the economy and life of the people.

Nokia Sustainability Report Essay Example for Free

Nokia Sustainability Report Essay Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications and information technology organization that originated and is headquartered in Finland. Its main products are mobile phones and portable information technology devices. It also offers Internet services such as games, music, media, messaging, applications, as well as free map information and navigations tools through its exclusively owned subsidiary Navteq. Nokia also has a joint venture with Siemens, and Nokia Siemens Networks, a telecommunications network equipment and services company. Nokia is a large company, with almost 100,000 employees in 120 countries, with sales in more than 150 countries; it is the world’s second largest mobile phone manufacturer, after Samsung, by 2012 unit sales. However, beginning in 2007, this organization is undergoing a major crisis that is challenging its current and future sustainability. While it was the world’s prime vendor of mobile phone from 1998 to 2012, it has suffered a declining market share over the past five years due to the outpouring popularity of smartphones from companies like Apple (iPhone) and Samsung. Therefore, Nokia’s share price has significantly lowered from a US$40 in 2007 to under US$2 in mid-2012. After this huge downfall, Nokia decided to implement a strategic partnership with Microsoft in which Nokia smartphones will have Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system within them, replacing Nokia’s previous operating system, Symbian. However, this decision did not prove to be a success nor save Nokia from its downfall, as the company reported six consecutive loss-making quarters before finally returning to a profit in its fourth quarter in 2012. So what exactly happened to Nokia that has brought it to its current financial and economic state today? Is there any way that they can bounce back from this tragedy? If so, how? In this research report, I will attempt to explain how and why Nokia is now facing a severe technological challenge, as well as why it has now become an organizational and managerial failure, a sharp contrast to how successful it once was. Next, I will explain how Nokia’s failure to outsmart the competition and its poor choice of disregarding technological trends and advancements has brought it to its economic and financial state today. I will then remark on Nokia’s current management’s actions and reactions in terms of the organization’s state and whether or not I believe these actions will lead to either sustainability or failure for the future of this company. I will then end this report by providing some suggestions on how to improve Nokia’s chance for sustainability, and hopefully, success in the near and further future. While Nokia faces sustainability, global, and technological challenges, I will focus on their technological failures which greatly attributed to their catastrophic downfall. Nokia was once one of the worlds’ leading mobile-phone producers. However, in 2012, they failed to adjust their strategy to comply with the new ways people used their phones. By looking through Nokia’s long-running history, it comes as a shock to some as to how disastrous and despairing their situation has become. Nokia started as a riverside paper mill in south-western Finland in the year 1865. It then evolved to produce rubber products such as rubber boots and tires. It was not until 1912 that Nokia began its cable and electronics business. Nokia’s first electronic device was a pulse analyzer for use in nuclear power plants, produced in 1962. The company’s first endeavour into telecommunications was made in 1963 when it developed radio telephones for military and emergency services. Nokia’s hugely successful period began in the 1979, beginning with the creation of a radio telephone company, and launching the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) service, the â€Å"world’s first international cellular network†¦to allow international roaming (Nokia. com). In 1987, Nokia introduced its first handheld phone for NMT Networks and became a classic. The Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications was also implemented as the European standard for digital mobile technology. International roaming, text messaging, and high-quality voice calls were all easily available on GSM, providing Nokia with a starting point for further innovation. Nokia manufactured its first GSM phone, the Nokia 1011, in 1992. In the same year, new Nokia President and CEO Jorma Ollila made a crucial and game-changing decision to solely focus on mobile-phone manufacturing. In 1994, Nokia began producing the 2100 series of mobile phones and by 1998, it is the world leader in mobile phones; the company’s strategic decision to focus solely on telecommunications definitely paid off. Innovation and continued success did not end there; in 1999, Nokia launched the Nokia 7110, a phone equipped with web-based capabilities such as email and web browsing, the first of its kind. They also produced a phone that included a built in camera and video capture in the early 2000s. However, Nokia’s biggest success was in 2002, when the introduction of 3G technologies allowed them to create phones with a wide range of functions including downloading music, watching TV on the go, and so much more. In 2005, due its huge success and impact on the mobile technology industry, Nokia was named the 5th most valuable brand internationally. Things began to take a turn for the worst in 2010 when Nokia met its competitors, namely Apple and Android-based devices. The smartphone era was surging in popularity leaving Nokia behind with its â€Å"candy-bar style† phones and outdated operating system. This downfall for this once highly successful company called for some serious changes, including the assigning of new President and CEO, Stephen Elop, a former head of Microsoft’s business division. Elop has â€Å"a strong software background and proven record change management (Nokia. com). † It may come as no surprise then that Nokia announces its partnership with Microsoft; Nokia mobile phones will be adopting the Windows 7 operating system in order to compete with the Apple iOS and Android. Nokia launched its first Windows phone in 2011. Since the introduction of Apple and Android devices, Nokia’s economic state has never been the same; and it is quite difficult to say whether they will ever reach that same success in the future again. There are several reasons that can be credited to Nokia’s downward spiral. Firstly, Nokia failed to respond to the changing consumer trend in technology; while consumers were moving on to smartphones with newer, faster operating systems within the likes of Apple and Samsung, Nokia’s Symbian operating platform remained the same and struggled to compete with these new â€Å"pocket-sized mini-computers. In summary, Nokia did not react quickly enough to changing consumer demand, and therefore, were aggressively crushed by the competition in terms of capturing market share. Their late response with the introduction of the Windows phone did not occur until 2011, while Apple and Samsung have been continuously improving their devices and operating systems since 2007. With technology improving so quickly nowadays, four years is a long period for Nokia to, with any luck, catch up. The integration of Microsoft’s Windows 7 as Nokia’s mobile operating system has yet to reap rewards for the organization either. This may be due to the fact that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms have gained popularity since their early introduction and remain the leaders of mobile operating systems. Another problem that Nokia encountered is due to its late strategic change; many people associate its classic ‘candy-bar style’, brick phone with outdated technology, just like cassette tape players, and VHS players. Today’s consumers are also very technologically savvy; they need to have the best and newest device as soon as they can get their hands on it. Nokia also did not market itself as an innovative brand as it stuck by its brick-style phone and operating system for almost a decade before considering any major changes. While Nokia and Microsoft are both huge and strong companies, they will have to go through some rough patches before, and if, they can reach success again. As of now, they are in a financial struggle, cutting many jobs and other financial expenditures. Nokia is indeed focusing on attempting to reinvent the company, and to, hopefully, bring it back to where it once was: a leader in mobile technology. While there are many opinions floating around the media, it is hard to say what will happen to Nokia in the near future. While they have not done anything drastic, such as file for bankruptcy, they are going through some major, rough changes right now, including cutting thousands of jobs worldwide, and the closure of several factories. In 2012, Nokia announced their plans to cut 10,000 jobs internationally by the end of 2013 as well as the closure of research and development facilities in Finland, Germany, and Canada as stock prices continue to fall. Nokia’s market value today is below $10 billion. At the end of 2013, it is estimated that about 25,000 employees will be laid off at Nokia; this number of job cuts totals to about 36% of Nokia’s workforce. Things continue to look dim for this organization as Moody’s Investor Services downgraded Nokia’s rating to ‘junk’, further proving its dire state. Nokia’s human resource management did not play a part in its recent downfall as it was due to a technological failure, not a human resource issue. Nokia was a large, multinational company for quite some time, and its long-run success proves that their human resources teams are nothing short of competent, effective, and diligent. The goal of their human resources management is to satisfy their customers, motivate employees, and increase the dexterity and flexibility of management to address specific HR needs. Nokia’s HR team is also responsible for creating customer satisfaction through the manufacture and delivery of products and services in order to fulfill customer needs. They were able to do this by providing leading and innovative technology, in the past, to a wide range of clients around the world. Nokia’s intangible services, such as telephone helplines, are available 365 days a year, exemplifying dedicated and excellent customer service. Nokia also treats its employees very well. This organization works together with its employees in order to create a healthy, efficient, and successful environment so everyone can achieve their full potential. Encouragement, motivation, and keeping employees happy are vital for Nokia to perform productively. Because Nokia is a goods manufacturer, the free flow and exchange of ideas among employees at any level is strongly encouraged. In order to encourage and motivate employees, Nokia has compensation plan consisting of an annual base salary and bonuses. Short-term incentives for both individual and group projects also exist. Overtime pay and call-out pay are also implemented, and employees are able to purchase stock or performance shares. Finally, employee health and pension benefits are compensated to Nokia’s employees to form a healthy and productive work environment. While the HR strategy and structure at Nokia seem sustainable, some may argue that Nokia’s current and most recent President and CEO, Stephen Elop, has contributed to its present dismal state. Before working for Nokia, Elop worked for Microsoft from 2008 to 2010, and was responsible for Microsoft Office products as a member of the organization’s senior leadership team. The controversy surrounding Elop when he first joined Nokia was the release of his internal company memo titled â€Å"Burning Platform† which was immediately leaked to the media. The memo compared Nokia’s current situation, failing within the flourishing smartphone industry, to a person on a burning oil platform. The reception received from the media was mixed, some stating that Nokia needed that harsh wake-up call to make some drastic changes in strategy, while others called it â€Å"the costliest management memo ever written (Ahonen, 2011),† believing he should be fired due to Nokia’s severe and rapid disasters since his arrival. In 2011, Elop made the decision for Nokia to discontinue their in-house mobile operating systems and replace it with Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. The plan was to be carried out gradually in the next few years, with Elop expecting a full discontinuation of the previous Symbian platform by 2016. Technology writers have criticised Elop for this decision by stating that it was done in bad timing and with a lack of communication; later, Elop himself admitted to the damaging effects of his Burning Platform memo. Ahonen has also stated that, because of this memo and Elop’s lack of communication to Nokia employees, the organization â€Å"is doing the most rapid death in the shortest period of time ever, for a global market leader Fortune 500 company. So what’s next for Nokia? Throughout all the journals, newspaper articles, blogs, and interviews, it is quite obvious what the main message for Nokia is: do something, and fast. While it is apparent that Nokia faces all three challenges of sustainability, technology, and global endurance, technology is and will remain to be their biggest challenge. Unless Nokia succeeds thr ough technology, being a mobile phone manufacturer, they will not be able to overcome or accomplish the other two challenges of global endurance and sustainability. It is quite unfortunate that Nokia, once a world leader in its field, failed to meet the technology challenge of keeping up with the current, fast-moving trends of technology and consumers. Nokia’s slow reaction to the shifting trends and the reactions they have made to support themselves have negatively impacted the company’s current economic state, as well as the state of their human resources. Elop’s poor strategic decisions in the hopes of saving Nokia have yet to bear fruit; instead, Nokia has been forced to cut thousands of jobs, and close some of their facilities worldwide. While these decisions are crucial for Nokia’s short-term survival, serious changes need to be implemented to obtain long-term sustainability, besides partnering with Microsoft. Nokia is a huge, well-known company, and its brand is something everyone knows of; their challenge is to change the way people think about and look at the company: not as an old, obsolete form of mobile technology, but a new, state-of-the-art organization that can adjust to the ever-changing technological tendencies. Elop still has some time to redeem himself as the President and CEO of Nokia, but unless he makes some rastic, positive changes to Nokia, other forms of recovery should be considered. One suggestion for Nokia would be to change its operating system from Microsoft’s Windows Phone to Google’s Android. One of Nokia’s mistakes leading to failure was making the unpopular choice of using Windows as its operating system; they should have realized that choosing Android as their platform would have reaped huge benefits for them as its surging popularity and success have made brands such as Samsung and LG skyrocket to economic prosperity. Technology experts, such as one engineering executive has even stated that they â€Å"don’t understand why Nokia couldn’t develop Android phones—even in parallel with Microsoft’s Windows phones. † Choosing Windows instead of Android as their new operating system is a huge opportunity Nokia definitely missed out on. Another recommendation would be to sell the company to a successful brand, such as Samsung, who has now redeemed themselves to become Apple’s leading, and closest rival. By putting themselves under Samsung’s wing, Nokia will gain Samsung’s competitive advantage of being a visionary and innovator, and a fast mover in capturing modern technological trends. While it is never an easy task to admit defeat, selling Nokia to a prosperous company just may be what this organization needs to save itself from further fiascos. A merger with a strong, competitive company, with massive market share and organizational resources may just be what Nokia needs to bring itself back up to what it used to be: an innovative, mobile communications giant with shareholder value, technological advancement, and worldwide success.

No Child Left Behind Act Essay -- School Education Learning Essays Pap

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush's education reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002. The No Child Left Behind Act says that states will develop and apply challenging academic standards in reading and math. It will also set annual progress objectives to make sure that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years. And the act also says that children will be tested annually in grades 3 through 8, in reading and math to measure their progress. The test results will be made public in annual report cards on how schools and states are progressing toward their objectives. States will have until the 2005-06 school year to develop and apply their tests. Once the tests are in place, schools will be required to show "adequate yearly progress" toward their statewide objectives. This means that they must demonstrate through their test scores that they are on track to reach 100 percent proficiency for all groups of students within 12 years. The schools that fall behind may tend to have school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring measures forced by the state. The No Child Left Behind Act has many positive and negative aspects. Many school teachers and community members are starting to challenge many of the features of the No Child Left Behind Act. Many people feel that the law was developed too quickly and that it was pushed through Congress. For many years, both Democrats and Republicans h...

AT&T Case study Essay

1. Review AT&T’s past financial policies and financing choices. Were these appropriate for the nature of the business? AT&T Corp., one of the largest companies in the United States, has had a long and storied history. Initially, AT&T operated as a monopoly, but in 1982, Justice Department, broke up the company into individual companies. Prior to divesture (in 1981), AT&T was the largest private company in the world and despite many challenges, AT&T remained an archetypical â€Å"widow-and-orphans† stock for a long time. The term â€Å"widows and orphans† was used to describe stocks with a relatively high degree of safety and dividend income and numbers from exhibit 1speak for themselves. By 1982 the company increased all its key financial indicators. Revenues and operating earnings increased 12% and 6% respectively comparing to year 1981. In ten years, the company raised its revenues, net income, cash and assets more than 2 times. It`s worth to mention that AT&T was able to reduce its total outstanding debt by $ 725 mil and at year-end, the company`s debt ratio stood 42.3% down from 46.7% in 1980. In addition, AT&T neither cancelled nor lowered dividends, and only increased dividend per share by 10% annually. Aforementioned facts suggest that company`s financial policies and financing choices were appropriate for the nature of the business and that AT&T was one stable, reliable and profitable companies in the world by 1982. 2. In what fundamental ways will AT&T’s business change in the near future? Throughout most of the 20th century, AT&T held a monopoly on phone service in the United States. In 1982, through an agreement between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T agreed to divest itself of its local telephone operations but retain some of its businesses. The principal provision of the antitrust settlement was that the corporation would be split into seven completely independent regional corporations. Each regional company would continue to provide local telephone and other telecommunication services in addition to ability to sell telephone equipment. The remaining or new AT&T would focus on long distance, R&D and manufacturing arms. 3. In view of AT&T’s changing strategic and economic environment, what debt policy would you recommend? What other financial policies are appropriate for the â€Å"new† AT&T? What are likely to be the consequences of these financial policies? The new â€Å"AT&T† was no more monopoly and the company`s management group faced new challenges. First of all, I think that when AT&T was monopoly, managers were averse to risk and led more financially conservative policy. After divestiture, it was clear that the external environment changed and effective actions needed to be taken to beat off intense competition. Moreover, there were several serious questions about future profitability of the new AT&T divisions (especially Western Electric) and it was not clear whether they would be able finance their operations in competitive markets. Taking into consideration above stated facts, at that phase I would recommend to shift gears from debt financing and switch toward equity financing. In addition to the change in financial policy, I would also recommend considering a new acquisition strategy to reach more diversified portfolio and to broaden the company’s scope in other areas.

Prior Knowledge Deficit Essay

Prior knowledge comes from visual experiences, seeing those mental pictures of a subject. Prior knowledge comes before understanding what readers read, or understanding the subject. A deficit in prior knowledge inhibits student learning by taking away their educational experiences and replacing them with standardized testing. To begin with, prior knowledge plays an important role in enabling students to learn to read, and to read to learn. First, learning to read starts in kindergarten and continues through third grade, where teachers use books called primers. Primers teach students how to read because they tell stories about subjects that students already have visual experience with, such as family, friends, food, pets, or games. Since students know the basic information about such subjects, when they are being taught how to read, they understand the primers. Finally, when students enter fourth grade, they begin reading textbooks to learn about science and social studies. These students developed prior knowledge of science and social studies from kindergarten through third grade, when they attended field trips to zoos and museums, watched educational films, and completed science projects. If they learned this basic information about the natural world of science, and about the human world of social studie s, students are able to understand their textbooks. As a result, they can add new knowledge to further their education. Additionally, many students struggle with the prior knowledge deficit because of standardized testing. First of all, standardized testing takes time away from educational experience by using all the time and money on the tests. Teachers use the time on teaching students how to become test takers, instead of educating them in different experiences of the world. In the past, schools would take students on field trips to teach them mostly about science, and social studies. However, such field trips cost a lot of money; money that is currently being used on standardized tests. On one hand, traditional education consisted of students reading and writing to understand and explain the knowledge of the world. On the other hand, now day’s students are test takers, and they use their reading and writing skills for the test, just like knowledge is used to memorize all the information without understanding it. Teachers need to focus on this method because they are evaluated by the student s test scores. To summarize, prior knowledge deficit hinders students learning by taking away their educational experiences and focusing their time on standardized testing. A solution to the prior knowledge deficit is for teachers to dedicate more time on teaching students about subjects that will be used later on in further education, rather than teaching students how to become test takers.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles chapter summaries

A Separate Peace by John Knowles chapter summaries Chapter 1: The narrator (Gene) returns to the Devon School in New Hampshire, that he graduated from 15 years earlier. He goes to a certain tree and switches back to the past. Phineas dares everyone to jump from a branch in the tree into the river. Phineas, and Gene both jump. On the way back Phineas and Gene play fight so that they are late for dinner.Chapter 2:Mr. Prud'homme, a master, stops by the boys' room to scold them for missing dinner again for the ninth time in two weeks. Phineas explains that they were late because they were jumping out of the tree to toughen up for the war. Mr Prud'homme, accepts the explanation because, he, and everyone else, feel sorry for the boys that will soon have to go to war.Chapter 3: The boys join The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. The club meets every night.Gene-XPhineas and Gene open each night by jumping out of the tree. They make a new kind of war game called blitzball, in which everyone is everyone elses enemy. Phineas breaks t he schools swimming record, but tells Gene not to tell anyone, he just wanted to do it for himself. Gene and Phineas of campus to the ocean to swim. They have a drink at the bar, the spend the night on the beach, and Phineas tells Gene he is his best pal. Gene is not sure if he feels the same.Chapter 4: Gene and Finny (Phineas) wake up and head back to Devon. Gene fails his trigonometry examination for the first time. Finny tells Gene that he studies too much. Gene thinks Finny is jealous. Gene wants to earn the Scholastic Achievement Citation to get even with Finny. Gene knows that Finny must be best and...

How the First Impressionist Exhibition Came to Be

How the First Impressionist Exhibition Came to Be The first Impressionist exhibition took place from April 15 to May 15, 1874. Led by the French artists Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot, they called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc. Thirty artists displayed 165 works at the photographer Nadars former studio at 35 Boulevard des Capucines. The building was modern and the paintings were modern: pictures of contemporary life painted in a technique that looked unfinished to the art critics and the general public. And, the works were on sale! Right there. (Although they had to remain on view for the duration of the show.) Louis Leroy, a critic for Le Charivari, entitled his nasty, satirical review Exhibition of Impressionists which was inspired by Claude Monets painting Impression: Sunrise, 1873. Leroy meant to discredit their work. Instead, he invented their identity. However, the group did not call themselves Impressionists until their third show in 1877. They were also called the Independents and the Intransigents, which implied political activism. Pissarro was the only avowed anarchist. Participants in the First Impressionist Exhibition Zacharie AstrucAntoine-Ferdinand AttenduÉdouard Bà ©liardEugà ¨ne BoudinFà ©lix BraquemondÉdouard BrandonPierre-Isidore BureauAdolphe-Fà ©lix CalsPaul Cà ©zanneGustave ColinLouis DebrasEdgar DegasJean-Baptiste Armand GuillauminLouis LaToucheLudovic-Napolà ©on LepicStanislas LepineJean-Baptiste-Là ©opold LevertAlfred MeyerAuguste De MolinsClaude MonetMademoiselle Berthe MorisotMulot-DurivageJoseph DeNittisAuguste-Louis-Marie OttinLà ©on-Auguste OttinCamille PissarroPierre-Auguste RenoirStanislas-Henri RouartLà ©opold RobertAlfred Sisley

Should Students Have to Wear Uniforms Research Paper

Should Students Have to Wear Uniforms - Research Paper Example School uniforms convey the message that a school is a place for learning. Many schools in the United States and in other parts of the world are at odds over school uniforms. In many cases, it has been reported that students feel that their right of self-expression has been taken away with the rule of mandatory school uniforms. Although students feel that their right of self-expression is taken away from them, there are several benefits of school uniforms. I believe that the advantages of school uniforms outweigh the disadvantages. One of the many advantages of school uniforms is that they minimize the stress for students and their families. For example, parents and students do not have to worry about buying new clothes frequently for schools (Walsh pp. 38). Students are very sensitive about their image and self-esteem when they are in schools. For example, if one of the students starts wearing branded clothes, his or her peers would feel inferior and their self-esteem would decrease (Brunsma pp. 50). The supportive arguments regarding school uniforms also claim that students feel equal when they wear school uniforms. I would support this argument with further explanation. The standard of living is different among different families. There are some families, which are in a better financial position than others. A school is a place where students from different economic and cultural background come and learn. By wearing school uniforms, students do not get feel inferior to others. However, if students are allowed to choose their dresses for schools, they would be influenced by students from different cultures and different economic background. This would result in an increase in problems for parents and teachers. The rule of mandatory school uniforms would make all students look equal regardless of their financial position and cultural background.