Thursday, November 7, 2019

Internet Intervention essays

Internet Intervention essays The Internet is a method of communication and a source of information that is becoming more popular among those who are interested in, and have the time to surf the information superhighway. The problem with much information being accessible to this many people is that some of it is deemed inappropriate for minors. The government wants censorship, but a segment of the population does not. Within this examination of the topic of, Government Intervention of the Internet, I will attempt to express both side s of this issue. During the past decade, our society has become based solely on the ability to move large amounts of information across large distances quickly. Computerization has influenced everyone's life. The natural evolution of computers and this need for ultra-fas t communications has caused a global network of interconnected computers to develop. This global net allows a person to send E-mail across the world in mere fractions of a second, and enables even the common person to access information worldwide. With th e advances with software that allows users with a sound card to use the Internet as a carrier for long distance voice calls and video conferencing, this network is the key to the future of the knowledge society. At present this net is the epitome of the F irst Amendment: freedom of speech. It is a place where people can speak their mind without being reprimanded for what they say, or how they choose to Recently, Congress has been considering passing laws that will make it a crime punishable by jail to send "vulgar" language over the net. The government wants to maintain control over this new form of communication, and they are trying to use the protect ion of children as a smoke screen to pass laws that will allow them to regulate and censor the Internet, while banning techniques that could eliminate the need for regulation. Censorship of the Internet threatens to ...

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

How to Efficiently Publish Content With Shawn Smith From Trizone

How to Efficiently Publish Content With Shawn Smith From Trizone Have you thought about what makes someone a thought leader? One of the best ways is to publish content consistently. Today we’re talking to Shawn Smith, the co-owner of Trizone. Shawn knows all about how to create high-quality content with limited resources, how to involve subject matter experts in creating your content, and why automating processes can help you get everything done. You’ll want to stay tuned to hear about all of this and more! A bit about Trizone and what Shawn does there as a â€Å"jack of all trades. What it’s like working with a small team and how they work as efficiently as possible. What fluidity means to Shawn and how it helps his team be more effective and productive when it comes to creating great content. How automating some of the process helps Shawn and his team be more efficient and save time. How and why the Trizone team works with subject matters to help them with their content creation and thought-leadership. Also, Shawn talks about how he gets into contact with them and gets them to contribute. Shawn’s best tips for working with subject matter experts and collaborating with a remote team of people. Information about the Trizone workflow process and why it works for them. Advice for a small team who is looking to become an authority in their niche through content creation. Links: Shawn Smith Trizone Slack If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Shawn: â€Å"Once we’ve built a piece of content, we start to go and jiggle it. We use the social media template and then we start building it out. It’s so quick and easy.† â€Å"We spend a lot of time with [experts] talking about their subject matters in depth because they do bring a wealth of information that, clearly, we will never have.† â€Å"Stay on point. Whatever you believe is right, stick with it.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Ethics even in the Worst Circumstances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ethics even in the Worst Circumstances - Essay Example This philosophy was clearly exemplified by one parent, a former FBI agent, who urged his son to turn himself in and face the legal consequences for the murders his son admittedly committed. The current essay aims to proffer pertinent issues that surround ethics even in the worst circumstances. A story written by the Associated Press and published in The Augusta Chronicle narrated the story of John Cook, a former FBI agent, who was faced with the confounding ethical dilemma of duty, prevailing on doing the right things, and respecting the moral law despite knowing that it is his son, Andrew Cook, who is to be convicted. The initial reaction for parents when children face challenges and trials in life is to be supportive and to provide whatever assistance is necessary. In this case, Andrew Cook committed murders of two university students, supposedly for no apparent reasons (Associated Press par. 11). When his father confronted him to determine the veracity of the allegations, Andrew admitted he murdered those students. Despite the pain and the initial natural response to protect his son from impending conviction, his concept of good will prevailed, consistent with Kant’s philosophy. The story clearly indicates that the concept of doing right, conformity to morality and legal rules, codes of conduct and proper behavior, is universal. Parents could not hide their children who erred from justice. In worst circumstances, no one could hide from the law: not even a former FBI agent could protect his son from the imposition of justice. In the end, justice will still

Thursday, October 31, 2019

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

Synesthesia - Essay Example Then, in 1704, a parallel was noticed between a musical scale’s notes and the colors of a spectrum by Isaac Newton, and Leibniz recounted the case of another blind man who understood scarlet by a trumpet’s sound. In 1710, another case of a blind man who had experiences of colored visions by responding to sounds was reported by an English ophthalmologist, Thomas Woolhouse. Castel noticed the same relationship as Newton in 1735 and built, presumably, the first color organ in the world. George Sachs developed the first medical platform for scientific reports on synesthesia in 1812, where he described his own experience with the condition in his PhD dissertation, and it was also the topic’s most approved account (Ward, 2008). He gave a report about his colored vowels, essentially about his albinism, and a depiction of colored hearing even though the significance was only retrospectively apparent (Duffy, 2001). In 1871, Gustav Fechner, who gave rise to the field of ps ychophysics, reported the first empirical study of the photisms of colored letters. By that time, however, there was still negligible interest in the subject, until Charles Darwin’s cousin, Sir Francis Galton, reported on people suffering from the condition and the attention grew considerably in the 1880s, especially in the scientific community. Researchers from the US, Germany, France and England carried out vigorous investigations on the topic, and this led the term synesthesia to be introduced by the American Scientist Mary Calkins. These early studies corresponded with psychology’s dawn in the field of science. It is believed that the pioneering international academic conference was held in March 1927 to objectively discuss synesthesia, presided over by George Anschutz in Hamburg, Germany. The second conference, also in Hamburg, was conducted in October 1930. The third was in October 1933 and the fourth, and last, in October 1936 (Hochel & Milan, 2008).

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Utopia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Utopia - Essay Example On the contrary, I think its' very far from being Utopia. But what is Utopia I would think that it is a world where there is peace and love among all men. But according to Plato's The Republic, he considered a perfect state to have two things: the perfect man and the perfect justice. A perfect world cannot exist if the people that consists it are flawed. I must agree albeit hesitantly, because come to think of it, the world is nothing but the sum of the people which consist it. Hence, to make a perfect world, the men that form it must be perfect as well. Although we have come a long way since our barbarian ancestors, we are not perfect still. According to Charles Darwin, men may have noble qualities and god-like intelligence and yet "men still bears in his bodily frame the inedible stamp of his lowly origin." Since it is our body that limits us and prevents us from being perfect, Plato has suggested in The Republic that in the modern world, sickly and deformed children are segregated and put to death so they don't contaminate nor burden the rest. They are flawed, and there is no room for flaws in a perfect world. Plato suggested that in a perfect world, there is unity among men and they are one with the state. Men cease to be mere individuals and instead they are seen as members of the state. I agree with this line of thinking because if men today would think this way, they would hesitate before doing harm to another, because if they injure another, they injure the State. And in a way, they injure themselves. However, to attain this oneness with the State, Plato suggests communal property under the control of the state. Likewise, it suggests that the State rears the children without parents knowing their offspring. All of these are aimed to prevent accumulation of wealth, brains, beauty and other qualities of birth. Again, I must agree to this line of thinking. Because to have a complete unity with the State, one must surrender everything to it, otherwise, wealth will be concentrated only to certain individuals, beauty and brains would only be limited to only one family. This is what is happening now. And as we see, it leads to inequality and injustice. Can We Attain Utopia In my opinion, it will be nearly impossible to attain Utopia. First of all, we are flawed men. And as things are going with respect to human rights advocacy, I don't think it is possible to segregate the deformed and sickly and put them to death. Such would be contrary to all tenets of human rights. Likewise, while it's more possible to have community of property as such exists in certain communist nations today. I don't think it is possible for the State to rear children. No parent would agree to give up their child. All of us are brought up in a family environment and we are taught how important family ties are. In the work of Rene Descartes, he concluded that a piece made by one person out of scratch is more perfect than a piece that evolved from different pieces merged together. We are the latter. The human race evolved and our society is what it is now based on various experiences. Thus, it is less perfect. To attain perfection, we must start over. Destroy what we have now and build it

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Case Study Ethics Guide Dialing For Dollars Marketing Essay

Case Study Ethics Guide Dialing For Dollars Marketing Essay In Dialing for Dollars, a company is faced with low sales. Desperate to meet quota, a boss authorizes a salesperson to offer customers a 20% discount if they take delivery before the end of the quarter, and to start dialing for dollars. Get what you can. Be creative. This prompts the salesperson to try out a few creative but questionable ways of trying to boost sales. The sales person moves from customer to customer trying different tactics to convince the customers to buy some products. This article raises the question of how far one is willing to go to succeed. In this report, we aim to discuss the creative sales tactics the salesperson employed, to evaluate if they were ethical or not, and in instances, to evaluate whether they were legal or not. We will also discuss the merits and demerits of each tactic, and whether they were in the scope of what the company would find acceptable. The four questions asked are: Is it ethical for you to write the email agreeing to take the product back? If the email comes to light later, what do you think your boss will say? Is it ethical for you to offer the advertising discount? What effect does that discount have on your companys balance sheet? Is it ethical for you to ship to the fictitious company? Is it legal? Describe the impact of your activities on next quarters inventories. Case Study Questions Q1. Is it ethical for you to write the email agreeing to take the product back? If the email comes to light later, what do you think your boss will say? According to the American Marketing Associations Statement of Ethics, marketers should be forthright in dealings with customers and stakeholders. To this end, marketers should strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times.  [1]   In business, stakeholders refers to any person(s) and/or entity/ies that has/have vested interest in the decisions businesses make. In general, these people are usually employees, customers, stockholders, consumers, and even society at large if a companys business decisions were to affect them. In the case of Dialing for Dollars, a salesperson finds himself in quandary when the sales forecasting system predicts quarterly sales to be substantially under quota, prompting the salespersons boss to suggest that the salesperson start dialing for dollars. Get what you can. Be creative. This results in the salesperson offering a management-authorized 20% discount on orders that are delivered before the end of the quarter to its customers. Unknown to management, the salesperson also offered to take back any unsold stock the following quarter. He confirms this offer by email to the customer instead of on the purchase order, as accounting would not log the order this quarter under those conditions. The question is: Who is affected by this decision? And what would be the outcome to those affected? In the case of the salesperson, his total sales would be upped, including his commissions, resulting in a net gain to him. In the case of the customer, he gets his 20% discount on the new merchandise, along with a guarantee than unsold inventory could be returned the following quarter. For the customer, this is also a winning situation. In the case of the company, the companys bottom line shows hearty sales and income flows for the quarter as a result of this decision. In the short time, it is a good business decision. But businesses do not exist to operate for a short term. They exist with the hope that they will continue operations indefinitely. So a decision such as this that may appear to be a net positive in the short-term, could have disastrous consequences in the long term. This brings me to the other stakeholders, the stockholders. Stockholders purchase stock in a company based on the faith they have that the company will go on to thrive. A business decision that seeks to be deceitful and cut corners in one quarter, which will negatively affect business the following quarter, is a bad one from the point of view of stockholders. A companys public reputation is dependent on the internal ethics of the company and its employees. Any hit to its public image could perceivably cause stock prices to plummet drastically, as was the case with Martha Stewart stock during her insider-trading scandal. To answer the question, it was not ethical to write the email to take the product back without the expressed consent of management, and if the email comes to light, the boss would probably be disappointed at the action. To quote the American Marketing Associations mantra referred to above à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ marketers should strive to be truthful in all situations and at all times. Clearly this was not the case. Q2. Is it ethical for you to offer the advertising discount? What effect does that discount have on your companys balance sheet? Because the companys sales forecasting system has predicted that quarterly sales will be substantially under quota, the vice president of sales has authorized a 20-percent discount on new orders, with the only stipulation being that customers must take delivery prior to the end of the quarter so that accounting can book the order. Start dialing for dollars, she says, and get what you can. Be creative. With that said, three creative strategies were implemented. The second strategy that the salesperson tried was that instead of offering the discount, the salesperson offers the product at full price, but agrees to pay a 20-percent credit in the next quarter, that way the full price is booked for this quarter. The salespersons pitch claims that the companys marketing department analyzed past sales with a fancy new computer system and determined that increasing advertising will cause additional sales, so if they order more product now, next quarter the company will give 20-percent of the order back to pay for advertising. The obvious is that the customer is going to receive the credit next quarter and not buy product in that quarter, killing your sales for that quarter, but thatll be a problem for next quarter. According to the Journal of Indian Management, Advertising is the life blood of all business organizations, without which the products or services cannot flow to the distributors or sellers, and on to the consumers or users. Unethical issues in advertisement include providing misleading information, using ambiguous terms and defaulting and promised rewards.  [2]  After analyzing the given circumstances that the companys salesperson created, many of these unethical issues were brought up. The salesperson first gave misleading information, by claiming that the marketing department analyzed past sales using a fancy new computer system that determined increasing advertising will cause additional sales. Secondly, the salesperson promised a reward, by stating that by buying more product in this quarter, the company in return will reward 20-percent of their order back for advertising. Lastly, the whole sales pitch used ambiguous terms. For example, the salesperson used terms such as, ou r fancy new computer system, but mainly well give you 20-percent of the order back to pay for advertising.' What and how exactly will the company determine whether or not the 20-percent given back to the customer will be used for advertising, as that is a part of the agreement in the salespersons pitch? With all said and done, the salespersons advertising discount offer strategy for increasing the companys quarterly sales is highly unethical and raises several red flags. If the advertising discount offer is accepted by both sides, then the balance sheet for the current quarterly sales will show a boom in sales, however in the following quarter, the advertising discount will show up as a bust in the balance sheet, because that is when the 20-percent of the customers order will be credited back to the customer for advertising purposes. Q3. Is it ethical for you to ship to the fictitious company? Is it legal? According to Business Law and the Legal Environment by Beatty and Samuelson, Ethics is the study of how people ought to act.  [3]  We believe the Dialing for Dollars salesperson acted very unethically for the reasons stated below. Many organizations create a Code of Ethics which states the organizations primary values, and sets the rules employees should abide by. No legitimate business will have a Code of Ethics that makes behavior such as this salespersons actions acceptable. Due to expected low quota, the vice president allowed employees to offer a 20% discount on new orders. The words start dialing for dollarsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and get what you can. Be creativeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are not instructions to behave unethically. They mean that the salesperson should use creativity in trying to sell as much merchandise as possible, but in an ethical and legal fashion. This particular salesperson, out of desperation, sold $40,000 dollars worth of merchandise to a fictitious company owned by his brother-in-law. It is not ethical to ship to a fictitious company. The quota is met but the product is returned in the next quarter. A big lying scheme was formed with the brother-in-law. This deception causes the company to produce more merchandise based on deceptive sales amounts, which will result in the company being harmed in the long run. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, their mission is to reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime. They performed a research using Benfords law to detect fraud,  [4]  which looked at investigative and audit sampling methods. They described something similar to what was done by the salesperson to be an embezzlement scheme. It is also illegal because the sales person created a fictitious company using his brother-in-law as the front person and allowed the company to perform a credit check. Moreover, this salesperson is also causing his company to record fictitious revenue which is also fraud. This is a serious problem as the company is not aware of the scheme it is being unwittingly involved in. The CPA Journal provides ways for company auditors to catch this type of fraud. They provide the following advice: Be skeptical about large revenue transactions recorded near the fiscal year-endà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and In reviewing purchase orders, auditors should look for cancellation clauses that could negate the sale. Auditors should read sales contracts and look for cancellation privileges and lapse dates. Revenue should not be recorded until the cancellation privilege lapses.  [5]   In summary, shipping products to a fictitious company is both unethical and illegal. It causes many problems for the company in the long run. Ultimately, the company is responsible as it should take the proper steps in reviewing sales to ensure no such scheme is happening. Since the salesperson represents the company, if caught, they will both be charged with fraud. Q4. Describe the impact of your activities on next quarters inventories. The impact of the three sales actions above would have terrible effects on the inventories. All of the returned material would become overstock. Since the automated system noticed the trend of increase in sales of the product it would wrongly forecast higher demand of the product. This would result in compounding the overstock problem by eventually increasing the amount of finished goods of the product in stock even more. On top of receiving back the returned product, the automated process to increase production would cause increased orders for raw materials for the manufacture of the product. With the finished product overstock from the returns as well as ill-advised over-production and increased raw materials, space for storing all of the inventories within the warehouse may also become a problem. Further, with the increased orders for the raw materials and possible negative net income from all of the returns, the company could be placed in jeopardy with its cash flow. Depending up on how bad the situation gets, the company may be put in a position to have the sales team sell the product at a loss in order to get inventory levels back to normal and not take any further, worse losses. In terms of accounting for inventories, one can also look at the calculation for Cost of Goods Sold as referenced from Cornerstones of Managerial Accounting: Cost of Goods Manufactured + Finished goods inventory (beg. of period) Finished goods inventory (end of period) Cost of Goods Sold The Finished Goods inventory at the end of the next quarter (regardless of when the items are returned) would be increased dramatically by the returned product. This in turn would inevitably have a negative effect on the Cost of Goods Sold at the end of the next quarter. Materials inventory as used in calculations for Cost of Goods Manufactured would also be affected because of the increase in raw materials purchased. The formula for Cost of Goods Manufactured as shown in Cornerstones of Managerial Accounting is: Direct Materials + Direct Labor + Overhead + WIP (beg. of period) WIP (end of period) Cost of Goods Manufactured Since the Direct Materials would be increased because of the increase in purchases, then the Cost of Goods Manufactured would be increased, which in turn would increase the Cost of Goods Sold again. Summary Why is ethics in business important? Society views unethical behavior by business leadership as being socially irresponsible. Bad ethical behavior can result in crushing blows to a companys public image, resulting in a greatly decreased bottom line. Ethics is so critical that management has to pay close attention to it in order to survive. Customers reaction to unethical management behavior can force an organization out of business. Additionally, deceptive behavior and short cuts usually result in lawsuits and injuries, adding to a companys woes. In the end, its always best to do the right thing from the outset.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Essay

Control is the social construction constituting exercising authority over other beings. It can take many forms, the most prominent of which between Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer being physical, psychological, capitalist and patriarchal. Both novels are of the Bildungsroman genre, however whilst Jean-Baptiste  Grenouille has a predatory and psychotic personality, this is something to which Tess  Durbeyfield  is subject without reciprocity until the end of the novel, and it is ultimately this  hamartia  which leads to her oppression. Physical Under the historical influence of Darwin’s natural selection, Hardy attempts to highlight the physical control that Alec has over Tess through an animalistic comparison. In a reference to the rape of Lucrece, and thus to Tess’ rape, he states ‘the serpent hisses where the sweet bird sings’. This imagery highlights the sly, predatory tendancies of Alec, and diametrically opposes them to Tess’ delicate predispositions. Later, Hardy implies  that she  is raped. ‘Feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer’ displays Alec’s unconscious urges to control such a virgo intacta. The sibilance in this phrase contributes to Alec's presentation as a predator she is also described as ‘blank as snow’, a tabula rasa, a form of innocence Alec physically destroys. These factors, along with the traditional norms of wedding days, culminate to create a grotesque parody of a wedding night. The  moon’s later description as ‘tarnished’ is symbolic of how Tess’ has been physically abused  by Alec, although it also exposes a disrupted parallel between the moon’s 28–day cycle, and Tess’ menstrual cycle due to the development and birth of Sorrow. Lucrece, just like Tess is described as if she wer... ... of the works of D.H. Lawrence Study of Thomas Hardy and Other Essays, D. H. Lawrence, page 99, Cambridge University Press,  25 Jul 1985 [2] Barron’s Book Notes Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, page 114 – Douglas Brown: Social and Individual Fate in Tess from Thomas Hardy, 1961 [3] John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Chapter 1, The social presence of men and women, page 5, 1972 [4] "Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy." 123HelpMe.com. 04 Jan 2014 . [5] Sin, Society, and the Double Standard, Male and Female Transgressions in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Scott Fowler [6] Twentieth Century Interpretations of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Albert J. LaValley, 1969 [7] Kristen Brady, Tess and Alec: Rape or Seduction? 1986 [8] Cruel Persuasion: Seduction, Temptation and Agency in Hardy’s Tess, James A. W. Heffernan