Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Manage your boss’s emails and phone calls like a pro

Manage your boss’s emails and phone calls like a pro As an assistant, you will often be asked to manage your boss’s correspondence, including emails. This can often be a tricky task, particularly because its hard to know the correct tone to strike. Should you write in your voice? In his or hers? What if your boss just leaves it up to you?Representing someone else is a huge responsibility, but one you can weather with dignity and poise. Here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you don’t lose the privilege or fumble the ball.Keep it confidential.It should go without saying that whatever you read in your boss’s email isn’t meant to be repeated- to anyone. Don’t discuss personal items you might come across with anyone, least of all your boss (unless he brings something up). And don’t blab about professional developments within your company to your colleagues either- not even to warn them of impending changes.When in doubt, ask.Don’t just accept the email task as yours, silently and resolutely. Ask questions. What is it she wants you to accomplish? Are you authorized to unsubscribe her from unnecessary mailing lists? Are you monitoring so she doesn’t have to weed through everything, or are you actually in charge of triaging, organizing, and (eep) responding. And, if so, how would she like you to do that- as yourself (Sincerely, Your Name, Personal Assistant to Her Name) or as your boss? The more you know going in and the more you two are on the same page, the fewer misunderstandings will crop up.Read them, and take notes.Even if some of this stuff might be over your head, the more you know, the more you can help. Make sure to read carefully and have a sense at any given time of who’s asking for what and which things need to happen first. Make sure to note impending deadlines, appointments, timely actions, etc., and flag them immediately. Make note of these in your own calendar, as well as in your boss’s. That way you can send reminders.Sta y professional.When discussing the content of these emails with your boss or when responding to them yourself, make sure to act the part. Be every bit as professional and polished as your boss is. Remember, you are acting on his behalf.Come up with a system.If you’re given the leeway, try to come up with a system that will work for both of you. For example, you can file everything non-essential into folders like Junk, Personal, and News. Then everything else is work stuff and you can both focus on that. Come up with a flagging system- using different colors or labels- so you can communicate to each other what needs to be done first. Keep it sensible and simple.Check twice.Make sure to bookend your workday by checking emails first thing and then going through for anything urgent at the end of the day. Making sure you do a thorough check in the morning and the evening means that whatever system you came up with for organizing will keep functioning smoothly, rather than falling apart overnight.Stay cool.Don’t bother your boss with a question every time you aren’t sure what to do with a given email- even at the beginning. Try instead to keep a running list of questions you want to ask and save them for the end of the day. In a few days, you’ll find you have far fewer questions.Don’t forget to do your own work.Don’t let your boss’s emails swallow your whole work day, eclipse your projects, or make you neglect your own inbox. Develop a system that works for you so that you can balance both of your correspondences. This will make the arrangement more stable and sustainable for both of you.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Troubleshooting Problems in Crystal Growing

Troubleshooting Problems in Crystal Growing There may come a time when you will try to grow a crystal without success. Here are some ideas for possible problems and ways to correct them: No Crystal Growth This is usually caused by using a solution that isnt saturated. The cure is to dissolve more solute into the liquid. Stirring and applying heat can help to get solute into solution. Keep adding solute until you start to see some accumulate at the bottom of your container. Let it settle out of solution, then pour or siphon the solution off, being careful not to pick up undissolved solute. If you dont have any more solute to use, you can take some comfort in knowing that the solution will become more concentrated over time, as evaporation removes some of the solvents. You can speed this process by increasing the temperature where your crystals are growing or by increasing air circulation. Remember, your solution should be loosely covered with a cloth or paper to prevent contamination, not sealed. Saturation Problems If you are sure your solution is saturated, try to eliminate these other common reasons for the lack of crystal growth: Too much vibration:Â  Keep your crystal set up in a quiet, undisturbed location.Contaminant in the solution:Â  The fix is to re-make your solution. The fix only works if you can avoid contamination (wont work if your starting solute is the problem). Common contaminants include oxides from paper clips or pipe cleaners (if youre using them), detergent residue on the container, dust or something else falling into the container.Inappropriate temperature:Â  Experiment with temperature; you may need to increase the temperature around your crystals to get them to grow (increases evaporation). For some crystals, you may need to decrease the temperature (which slows the molecules down and gives them a chance to bind together).Solution cooled too quickly or slowly:Â  Did you heat your solution to saturate it? Should you heat it? Should you cool it? Experiment with this variable. If the temperature changed from the time you made the solution to the present time, the rate of cooling might ma ke a difference. You can increase the rate of cooling by putting the fresh solution in a refrigerator or freezer (faster) or leave it on a warm stove or in an insulated container (slower). If the temperature didnt change, maybe it should (heat the initial solution). Water wasnt pure:Â  If you used tap water, try re-making the solution using distilled water. If you have access to a chemistry lab, try deionized water that was purified by distillation or reverse osmosis. Remember: water is only as clean as its container! The same rules apply to other solvents.Too much light:Â  An unlikely problem with home crystals, but for certain materials, the energy from light can inhibit the formation of chemical bonds.No seed crystals:Â  If you are trying to grow a large single crystal, you will need to get a seed crystal first. For some substances, the seed crystals may form spontaneously on the side of the container. For others, you may need to pour a small amount onto a saucer and let it evaporate to get crystals. Sometimes crystals will grow best on a rough string suspended into the liquid. The composition of the string is important! You are more likely to get crystal growth on cotton or wool string than on nylon or a fluoropolymer.Seed crystals dissol ve when placed in the new container:Â  This happens when the solution isnt fully saturated. See above for details.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

One flew over the cuckoo's nest Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

One flew over the cuckoo's nest - Movie Review Example Very much calm and controlled, she runs the ward in a tyrannical fashion and with mechanical precision. Without direct threats or accusations, her authoritative manner bullies all the patients into submission. Her own name is a combination of the words "rat" and "wretched" (H.J. Summers and S. Summers, 2003). In spite of what one would expect, Mc Murphy's charisma and energy win the respect and admiration of the patients in the ward. He fits well within the ward's environment and his presence causes some of the patients to show improvement; for example, he involves the Chief in a basketball game, other patients in card games and takes them all on a fishing trip. However, he soon becomes aware of the injustices and mistreatment they are the subject of and starts a personal battle. The incident regarding the use of the television to watch the World Series is a good example of this. One night, McMurphy organizes a party involving the patients, a couple of women and alcohol. During the party, McMurphy notices that Billy likes one of his female friends and he asks her to sleep with him. In the morning, nurse Ratched finds the ward in a mess with the patients sleeping all over the place after passing out from alcohol consumption. When they perform a head count, the nurses find Billy with the woman in his room. Nurse Ratched confronts him and humiliates him once more. The argument causes Billy to commit suicide. At this point, McMurphy physically attacks nurse Ratched and is close to murdering her. The reprisal is terrible: a lobotomy1 that leaves McMurphy severely disabled. When McMurphy is returned to the ward, the Chief realizes that they will not be escaping together now and, as he does not want to leave his friend behind in that state, he suffocates him with a pillow. The closing scene shows how the Chief followed the plan that McMurphy had proposed, throws a hydrotherapy fountain through a window and runs away in the search of freedom. The movie is a fantastic attempt to encourage debate about insanity. Psychology had gone through a very prestigious phase in the USA at the end of the 1950s; but, by the 1960s, this notion had changed radically. Philosophers and sociologists argued that the modern definition of insanity is a cultural invention and a means of control. In this manner, individuals branded as "mad" or "insane" were isolated from society and secluded into asylums, where they no longer posed a threat for society (K. Kesey, 2002). 2. ANALYSIS Randle Patrick McMurphy and Mildred Ratched are the main characters of the movie. In fact, the plot is a series of confrontations between the two characters. McMurphy is a criminal that seeking to "enjoy" his sentence in comfort, feigns lunacy in order to be admitted into a mental asylum. He is a fun-loving individual, a free spirit that challenges authority and resents any form of control. He is intelligent, flamboyant and energetic. Interestingly, he is described by members of the establishment as belligerent, resentful and lazy. In conversation with

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The history of the number zero Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The history of the number zero - Research Paper Example For instance, the numbers 2011 and 211 represent two different numbers and have completely different sense. Secondly, zero is used in its form as a number itself i.e. 0. Both the above mentioned uses of zero have been exceedingly important. Yet, the two above described uses of zero cannot report historical evidence of creation of zero. It would not have been so easy for the term and idea behind the invention of the number to be widely accepted and used. The number and term zero has not been spontaneously derived concept. It took a huge period to develop the concept and use of zero as a name and a symbol (O'Connor and Robertson, 2000). Zero as a number, symbol and a concept has been indeed important and is known possibly worldwide for its significant usage. The recognition, apprehension and functioning of zero has been the fundamental of the world now that today, zero fulfils a key role in mathematics as the real numbers, additive identity of the integers, and a lot of other algebraic structures. In addition, the concept of zero can be employed in calculus, accounting, finance, statistics, computers, and particularly in today's connected world. The development of zero from being merely a placeholder to the driver of calculus has crossed centuries, and involved diverse and extensively great cognitive thinking, both in extent and scope globally (Kaplan and Seife, 2002). As a concept, zero indicates ‘nothing’ or ‘naught’. â€Å"How can nothing be something?† is a question that ancient Greeks asked themselves. Records have shown that they seemed to be uncertain about the interpretation of zero as a number. The creation and status of zero has led to philosophical and religious arguments by Middle-ages (Bourbaki, 1998). As a matter of fact, today’s Arabic number system has originated in India, but is comparatively newly developed. From the beginning, people have been labeling amounts and measures with a variety of figures and sy mbols throughout centuries, while facing difficulties in performing most elementary arithmetic computations with those number systems. A counting system had been first developed by the Sumerians as they wanted to mark and keep the accounts of the quantities of their goods such as cattle, horses, and donkeys. The drawback regarding the Sumerian system was that the system was positional which means that the positioning of a specific symbol as compared to others denoted its value. Around 2500 BC, Akkadians handed down The Sumerian system and in 2000 BC, the same was done by the Babylonians. The evolution of zero seems to have initiated from the Babylonians which has crossed may centuries and was very different from the symbol know to us today. Babylonians were the first to ideate a mark to to make it realized that a number had been missing from a column. For instance, 0 in the number 2011 expresses that there are no hundreds in that number. By that time zero did not have any symbol to denote the space. Although Ancient Greeks have brought many famous mathematicians who learned the basic principles of their mathematics from the Egyptians and they had a number system, but that system lacked a placeholder like the one of Babylonians so they could not suggest a name to indicate that empty space. They might have contemplated the name to denote that place between numbers, but there is no such evidence to draw conclusion that the symbol even

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Infectious Disease and Health Protection Agency Essay Example for Free

Infectious Disease and Health Protection Agency Essay The guidance is divided into sections as follows: Section 1Introduces infection control and explains notification; Section 2deals with general infection control procedures; Section 3gives guidance on the management of outbreaks; Section 4describes specific infectious diseases; Section 5contact numbers and sources of information; Section 6contains additional detailed information and a table of diseases; Section 7contains risk assessments relevant to infection control; Section 8 research sources, references and useful web sites Further information is available from the Food Safety Adviser at Leicestershire County Council and from the Health Protection Agency – East Midlands South. Contact numbers are listed in Section 5. The aim of this document is to provide simple advice on the actions needed in the majority of situations likely to be encountered in social care settings. It is written in everyday language and presented so that individual subject areas can be easily copied for use as a single sheet. 1. 1 HOW ARE INFECTIONS TRANSMITTED? 1. 2 INFECTION CONTROL GUIDANCE Infection control forms part of our everyday lives, usually in the form of common sense and basic hygiene procedures. Where large numbers of people come in contact with each other, the risk of spreading infection increases. This is particularly so where people are in close contact and share eating and living accommodation. It is important to have guidelines to protect service users, staff and visitors. Adopting these guidelines and standard infection control practices will minimise the spread of infectious diseases to everyone. External Factors If you or someone in your immediate family has a â€Å"Notifiable Disease† such as Measles (see 1. 3) or infection such as Impetigo, diarrhoea, vomiting or Scabies, please inform your line manager before coming to work. If you regularly visit people in hospital please be aware of the potential risk of cross infection to yourself and the person you are visiting. Above all when dealing with service users and their families we must all remember we are dealing with people. There will be personal issues of privacy and sensitivity, which we must handle with tact and discretion at all times. What are Infection Control Practices? Infection control practices are ways that everyone (staff, service users volunteers) can prevent the transmission of infection from one person to another. They are practices which should be routinely adopted, at all times with every individual, on every occasion, regardless of whether or not that person is known to have an infection. 1. 2 INFECTION CONTROL GUIDANCE – cont. include: 1. 3 NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES A number of infectious diseases are statutorily notifiable under The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and The Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1988. There are three main reasons for such notification. So that control measures can be taken To monitor preventative programmes For surveillance of infectious diseases in order to monitor levels of infectious diseases and to detect outbreaks so that effective control measures can be taken. All doctors diagnosing or suspecting a case of any of the infectious diseases listed overleaf have a legal duty to report it to the Proper Officer of the Local Authority, who is usually the Consultant in Communicable Disease Control based at the Health Protection Agency. Notification should be made at the time of clinical diagnosis and should not be delayed until laboratory confirmation is received. Infections marked (T) should be notified by telephone to the Consultant in Communicable Disease Control (see Section 5) and confirmed by completion of a written notification form. 1. 3 NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES – cont. Notifiable Diseases Acute encephalitis Paratyphoid(T) Acute poliomyelitisPlague(T) AnthraxRabies(T) Cholera(T)Relapsing Fever(T) Diphtheria(T)Rubella Dysentry(T)Scarlet Fever Food poisoning orSmall Pox suspected food poisoning LeprosyTetanus LeptospirosisTuberculosis MalariaTyphoid fever(T) MeaslesTyphus fever(T) Meningitis * (T)Viral haemorrhagic fever(T) Meningococcal septicaemia(T)Viral hepatitis ** (without meningitis) MumpsWhooping cough Opthalmia neonatorumYellow fever * meningococcal, pneumococcal, haemophilus influenzae, viral, other specified, unspecified ** Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B Hepatitis C, other (T)Please notify the Consultant in Communicable Disease Control or person on call for the Health Protection Agency by telephone. Other specific diseases are designated by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 as â€Å"Reportable Occupational Diseases† e. g. Legionellosis. Please contact the Health Safety Team for further information (see section 5 for details). 1. 3 NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES – cont. Notification of suspected outbreaks An outbreak is defined as two or more cases of a condition related in time and location with suspicion of transmission. Prompt investigation of an outbreak and introduction of control measures depends upon early communication. Suspicion of any association between cases should prompt contact with the Health Protection Agency. 1. 4 IMMUNISATION COSHH requires that if a risk assessment shows there to be a risk of exposure to biological agents for which vaccines exist, then these should be offered if the employee is not already immune. In practice, with Social Care Services, this generally amounts to care staff within the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Services being offered Hepatitis B vaccination. Care home managers, after assessing risks, may also offer ‘flu vaccination to staff and individual cases may indicate the need for immunisation in certain circumstances. The pros and cons of immunisation/non-immunisation should be explained when making the offer of immunisation. The Health Safety at Work Act 1974 requires that employees are not charged for protective measures such as immunisation. A few GPs will make vaccinations available free to Social Care workers but they are not obliged to do so and can charge at their discretion. Departmental funding for the provision of vaccine, through Occupational Health, is restricted and so it is vital that only those to whom it is essential to provide immunisation are offered this service. The majority of staff will have received immunisation from childhood and have received the appropriate booster doses e. g. Tetanus, Rubella, Measles and Polio. However, it is important for the immunisation state of staff to be checked e. g. women of childbearing age should be protected against Rubella. Good practice and common sense should indicate that the immunisation state of staff is checked and appropriate action taken. If there is a potential risk of infection, change of work rotas or areas of responsibility can sometimes avoid the risk of contamination. Vaccination is not always the only course of action and in some cases staff may not agree to be vaccinated. 1. 4. 1 IMMUNISATION SCHEDULE Vaccine Age Notes D/T/P and Hib Polio 1st dose at 2 months 2nd dose at 3 months 3rd dose at 4 months Primary Course Measles / Mumps / Rubella (MMR) 12 – 15 months Can be given at any age over 12 months Booster DT and Polio, MMR second dose 3 – 5 years Three years after completion of primary course BCG 10 – 14 years or infancy Only offered to certain high risk groups after an initial risk assessment Booster Tetanus, Diphtheria and Polio 13 – 18 years Children should therefore have received the following vaccines: By 6 months:3 doses of DTP, Hib and Polio By 15 months:Measles / Mumps / Rubella By school entry:4th DT and Polio; second dose of Measles / Mumps / Rubella Between 10 14 years:BCG (certain high risk groups only) Before leaving school:5th Polio and Tetanus Diphtheria (Td) Adults should receive the following vaccines: Women sero-negative Rubella For Rubella: Previously un-immunisedPolio, Tetanus, Diphtheria Individuals: Individuals in high Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, Influenza risk groups:Pneumonococcal vaccine 1. 5 EXCLUSION FROM WORK The following table gives advice on the minimum period of exclusions from work for staff members suffering from infectious disease (cases) or in contact with a case of infection in their own homes (home contacts). Advice on work exclusions can be sought from CCDC (Consultant in Communicable Disease Control) / HPN (Health Protection Nurse) / CICN (Community Infection Control Nurse) / EHO (Environmental Health Officer) or GP (General Practitioner) Minimum exclusion period Disease Period of Infectivity Case Home contact Chickenpox Infectious for 1-2 days before the onset of symptoms and 6 days after rash appears or until lesions are crusted (if longer) 6 days from onset of rash None. Non-immune pregnant women should seek medical advice Conjunctivitis Until 48 hours after treatment Until discharge stops None Erythema infectiosum (slapped cheek syndrome) 4 days before and until 4 days after the onset of the rash Until clinically well None. Pregnant women should seek medical advice Gastroenteritis (including salmonellosis and shigellosis) As long as organism is present in stools, but mainly while diarrhoea lasts Until clinically well and 48 hours without diarrhoea or vomiting. CCDC or EHO may advise a longer period of exclusion CCDC or EHO will advise on local policy Glandular fever When symptomatic Until clinically well None Giardia lamblia While diarrhoea is present Until 48 hours after first normal stool None Hand, foot and mouth disease As long as active ulcers are present 1 week or until open lesions are healed None Hepatitis A The incubation period is 15-50 days, average 28-30 days. Maximum infectivity occurs during the latter half of the incubation period and continues until 7 days after jaundice appears 1 week after onset of jaundice None – immunisation may be advised (through GP) HIV/AIDS For life None None 1. 5 EXCLUSION FROM WORK – cont. Minimum exclusion period Disease Period of infectivity Case Home contact Measles Up to 4 days before and until 4 days after the rash appears 4 days from the onset of the rash None Meningitis Varies with organism Until clinical recovery None Mumps Greatest infectivity from 2 days before the onset of symptoms to 4 days after symptoms appear 4 days from the onset of the rash None Rubella (German measles) 1 week before and until 5 days after the onset of the rash 4 days from the onset of the rash None Streptococcal sore throat and Scarlet fever As long as the organism is present in the throat, usually up to 48 hours after antibiotic is started Until clinically improved (usually 48 hours after antibiotic is started) None Shingles Until after the last of the lesions are dry Until all lesions are dry – minimum 6 days from the onset of the rash None Tuberculosis Depends on part infected. Patients with open TB usually become non-infectious after 2 weeks of treatment In the case of open TB, until cleared by TB clinic. No exclusion necessary in other situations Will require medical follow-up Threadworm As long as eggs present on perianal skin None but requires treatment Treatment is necessary Typhoid fever As long as case harbours the organism Seek advice from CCDC Seek advice from CCDC Whooping cough 1 week before and until 3 weeks after onset of cough (or 5 days after the start of antibiotic treatment) Until clinically well, but check with CCDC None 1. 5 EXCLUSION FROM WORK – cont. SKIN CONDITIONS Minimum exclusion period Disease Period of infectivity Case Home contact Impetigo As long as purulent lesions are present Until skin has healed or 48 hours after treatment started None. Avoid sharing towels Head lice As long as lice or live eggs are present Exclude until treated Exclude until treated Ringworm 1. Tinea capitis (head) 2. Tinea corporis (body) 3. Tinea pedis (athlete’s foot) As long as active lesions are present As long as active lesions are present As long as active lesions are present Exclusion not always necessary until an epidemic is suspected None None None None None Scabies Until mites and eggs have been destroyed Until day after treatment is given None (GP should treat family) Verrucae (plantar warts) As long as wart is present None (warts should be covered with waterproof dressing for swimming and barefoot activities) None

Thursday, November 14, 2019

A Technophobic Confession :: Personal Narrative Computers Papers

A Technophobic Confession I am a technophobe. There, I admitted it. The Unabomber, George Orwell, my hardheaded grandfather and I are all members of the same fraternity. I am in the closet no longer. Just because I don't blow up buildings doesn't mean I'm not afraid of the unrelenting onslaught of technology. I went to high school in a small town in rural Illinois, and until the age of sixteen, I was able to survive without touching a computer. In fact, the only one I remember seeing on a regular basis was the one in the corner of the public library. Up until my junior year in high school, that computer was just about the loneliest thing in the world. Most of the people in town used a computer for one of two things: word processing or playing video games, and anybody who really had any desire to do either of these owned a computer or had access to one at work. The librarian's daughter used to set books on top of that computer when she was sorting them out to be reshelved. I always thought of the computer as just that, an overglorified bookrack. I laughed to see a tall, precariously balanced pile of books on top of the monitor, which was all but hidden by its dust cover body bag. I laughed because I am a technophobe, and to see it being used in this manner reassured me that computers were, quite obviously, a waste of time and money. Then the e-mail epidemic began cropping up in cities across the nation, and it spread quickly. Like all innovations, it eventually made its way to the Middle West. The outbreak in my hometown started where I least expected it: in that eternally slumbering computer sitting underneath the stack of book returns. It happened overnight. The computer was wired to the Internet. The small weekly local paper pushed the Knights of Columbus hall off the front page to run a story about the Information Superhighway. Clouds brooded on the horizon and little children tossed uneasily in their sleep. I was good friends with the librarian’s daughter. We went to the same high school. She was in my circle of friends. We were juniors. She was the first to get an email address.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Causes and Consequences of Corruption in India and How to Counter It

DEFINITION OF CORRUPTION Corruption is defined as the use of public office for private gain, or in other words, use of official position, rank or status by an office bearer for his own personal benefit. Following from this definition, examples of corrupt behaviour would include: (a) bribery, (b) extortion, (c) fraud, (d) embezzlement, (e) nepotism, (f) cronyism, (g) appropriation of public assets and property for private use, and (h) influence peddling. Activities such as fraud and embezzlement can be undertaken by an official alone and without involvement of a second party.While others such as bribery, extortion and influence peddling involve two parties –The giver and taker in a corrupt deal. The two party type of corruption can arise under a variety of circumstances. Often mentioned are concerned with the following: (i) Government contracts: bribes can influence who gets the contract, the terms of the contract, as well as terms of subcontracts when the project is implemente d. (ii) Government benefits: bribes can influence the allocation of monetary benefits such as credit subsidies and favoured prices and exchange rates where price controls and multiple exchange rates exist.Bribes can also be important in obtaining licenses and permits to engage in lucrative economic activities such as importing certain goods in high demand and in short supply. Moreover, bribes can be employed to acquire in-kind benefits such as access to privileged schools, subsidized medical care, subsidized housing and real estate, and attractive ownership stakes in enterprises that are being privatized. (iii) Government revenue: bribes can be used to reduce the amount of taxes, fees, dues, custom duties, and electricity and other public utility charges collected from business firms and private individuals. iv) Time savings and regulatory avoidance: bribes can speed up the granting of permission, licenses and permits to carry out activities that are perfectly legal. This is the so- called â€Å"grease money† to turn the wheels of bureaucracy more smoothly, speedily and hopefully in the right direction. It is also not difficult to think of a really awful situation where rules and regulations, and the way they are applied, are so complex and burdensome that the only way left to get things done is to pay money to avoid them. (v) Influencing outcomes of legal and regulatory processes: bribes can be used to provide incentives to regulatory uthorities to refrain from taking action, and to look the other way, when private parties engage in activities that are in violation of existing laws, rules and regulations such as those relating to controlling pollution, preventing health hazards, or promoting public safety as in the case of building codes and traffic regulations. Similarly, bribes can be given to favour one party over another in court cases or in other legal and regulatory proceedings. Causes:- 1) Lack of effective management and organisation: Due to mis management and disorganisation, there is a weak control on various departments and their working.This leads to lack of coordination and control among departments and levels of organisation. This uncontrolled and unsupervised administration gives rise to corruption on large scale. Besides, appointment of inefficient and incapable managers and executives on various levels of hierarchy also leads to mismanagement and disorganisation. The only cause of this wrong appointment is corruption. Hence, corruption breeds corruption. 2) Lack of economical stability: Economical crisis and price hike are major causes of corruption. Economical crisis leads to unemployment and change in standard of living.It develops a feeling of insecurity in the minds of affected people. Most of the people do not have patience and courage to face this situation. In order to regain their employment and to maintain standard of living and status, this affected people engage themselves in illegal and immoral activiti es. They do not want to work hard again for achieving the same position and post. They use various illegal short cuts for achieving them. 3) Lack of effective leadership: Good leaders can only lead people towards growth, development and progress. They play significant role in eradication of social evils.In India, there is tremendous shortage of good leaders. Leaders convey message of citizens to the administration and government. They lead the people against corruption and social evils. A country cannot survive without honest and sincere leaders. There is urgent need of leaders like Mahatma Gandhiji. We need more Anna Hazares and Medha Patkars. 4) Lack of support: There are few good leaders in India. They strive hard to eradicate corruption from the society. But due to lack of support and cooperation from people, the voice and efforts of these great leaders are often suppressed.People of India are more concerned with their life than the development and protection of their country ag ainst social evils. Many citizens have accepted corruption as a part of their life. They think, it is useless and waste of time, to support leaders against corruption. 5) Lack of values: Home and educational institution play a significant role in character building of citizens. Moral values are only taught in most of these institutions. But, they are not properly inculcated in individual. This is the basic cause of corruption. Many parents and teachers do not practise what they preach.Hence, their preaching does not bring out desired results. Children imitate parents. If parents are corrupt, it is more likely that children will also become corrupt. 6) Lack of love for country: Due to rapid modernisation and globalisation, people are becoming more and more selfish. They are only concerned with self enrichment and wealth accumulation. The only objective of many Indian is to become rich as soon as possible. They consider themselves as patriotic just by celebrating independence and repu blic day. They do not know the actual meaning of patriotism. They are not concerned with development of nation and rights of others.Due to this attitude, they easily get involved in corruption and immoral activities. During strike and protests, many politically affiliated citizens damage and destroy public property. 7) Lack of proper system: In India, corruption exists in all levels and areas of system. Very few honest people survive in this corrupt system. Those who raise their voice against corruption are killed or forced to resign. This accelerates the growth of corruption. Most of the people involved in Indian system have take corruption as part and parcel of their duties. They don't have hatred or ill feeling towards corruption.They think that without it, we cannot survive and sustain in this system. Besides, systems are interrelated and interdependent. As a result, corruption spreads like tumour in all the systems. 8) Lack of satisfaction: Greed results from non-satisfaction. People are not satisfied with their current status, position and wealth. They want to become millionaire in a short span of time. Growth and richness is not bad. But it is sad to see that the Indian are adopting illegal and immoral ways to achieve them. Many Indians are engaged in unhealthy competitions of wealth accumulation (with relatives, colleagues and neighbours). ) Lack of autonomy: Establishment and expansion of private and business sector depend on approval of politician. Many politician misuse their authority and power. They have only one criterion for approval â€Å"Pay us otherwise you will not get paid†. Entrepreneurs consider bribery as tax like other official taxes. Bribery has become necessary for the establishment of organisation. Companies and contractors secure contracts and government projects due to bribe. Good quotations and work of company does not considered to be criteria for securing contracts. 0) Lack of good control and vigilance: In India, some ag encies are working day and night to stop corruption. But some officials of these agencies get tempted towards illegal commissions and leave corrupt people without any penalty and punishment. Corruption breeds corruption. To keep a check on crores of people, more agencies and more honest officials are required. Hence, there is a tremendous shortage of these agencies and officials in India. This results in lack of control and vigilance on illegal activities. 11) Lack of good remuneration: In private sector, employer decides salary and employment benefits.He has complete freedom and there is no pressure on him from government. Due to this fact, many employers pay less for more work. They exploit employees of their companies. Even the working conditions in most of the establishments are worse. Employee does not have any social security and retirement benefits. Employees get frustrated and adopt illegal means to make their earnings better and future secure. 12) Lack of employment: Many u nemployed educated youth fall prey to corruption. They are willing to pay huge amount for jobs. Many employer take undue advantage of this situation. They take bribe and give appointment letters.The appointed employee uses all means (legal and illegal) to recover his lost money as early as possible. Hence, Corruption breeds corruption. When these employees achieve power and authority. They take bribe from candidates for jobs. These traditions of corruption continue from generation to generation without any check and control. 13) Lack of seats and educational institutions: In order to fulfil dreams and ambitions of their children, parents pay huge donation to secure admission for their children. Hence, the basis of admission is not merit but money. Management use maximum utilisation of quota granted to them.Every year there is a increase in donation amount. Affluent students who secured less percentage in examinations, easily gets admissions by paying huge donations. Poor students wh o secured good percentage struggle day and night to get admissions. Many a time their efforts go in vain due to lack of seats and more number of applicants. Consequences:- 1) Loss of National wealth: This is the greatest loss for the people of India. Since independence, India is showing tremendous growth in corruption (Jeep deal to 2 G spectrum scams). India lost billions and billions dollars of money in various scams.Instead of becoming independent affluent nation, India is dependent on international loans, grants and favours due to this tremendous of wealth in corruption. 2) Hindrance and obstruction in development: Corruption is the only obstruction in the way towards development. We cannot become a developed and self sufficient nation until corruption is not eradicated from our country. Many developmental projects are taking unnecessary time for their completion due to corruption. Since, many officials consider these projects as special hens(hens which lay golden eggs every day) . If project will get completed, these special hens will die.Hence, they take proper care of these hens. 3)Backwardness: Due to corruption, India is behind in almost every field- sports, inventions, health, medicine, research, education, economy, defence, infrastructure, technology and so on. Many scientists do not have latest equipments and technology for research and development. Sportsmen do not have proper facilities, equipments, coaching and training. There are scams and corruption in defence deals. Many doctors lack specialised and modern skills of treatment and diagnosis. 4) Poverty: Due to corruption, government is unable to eradicate poverty.Rich are becoming richer by snatching the rights and wealth of poor. Various packages, reservations and compensations for poor people, minorities and backward community are announced by government from time to time. But these disadvantaged sections of society hardly get any benefits. Since, affluent people freely consume benefits meant for poor. 5) Authority and power in wrong hands: Ineligible and incapable candidates are selected for various important positions. They pay and get selected. Due to their inefficiency, there exist many faults and weaknesses in system and management. These faults get easily hidden through corruption.The deserving and creative candidates satisfy themselves with unsuitable jobs and positions. 6) Brain drain: Corrupt employers and mediators offer jobs to unskilled and incapable candidates by taking bribe. They get their share of wealth. But nation loses its valuable share. Due to lack of good opportunities in India, many creative and talented Indian are serving developed nations. This is a tremendous loss for India. Since, we cannot become a developed nation without the contribution of talented and creative people. Talented people who serve other countries are actually cheating with their own nation.They are made capable and efficient by their own nation. But they use their capabilities for increasing the efficiency of other nation. This is also considered as corruption. 7) Rise in terrorism and crimes: One of the reasons for rise in crimes is corruption in police administration. Police departments grant security and protection to the citizens. When this departments get engaged in corrupt activities. Then there is no control on crimes and brutal killings. Since, criminals are given freedom and victims are tortured. Besides, corruption also leads to injustice. Injustice gives birth to crimes and anti social activities.Citizens take up arms for securing justice. 8) Rise in suicide cases: Suicide cases are increasing in India by leaps and bounds. One of the major causes in several suicide cases is injustice resulting from corruption. Government announces various schemes and help packages for farmers but most of the time this financial help does not reach to the farmers due to corruption in administration. This leads to rise in suicides cases among farmers. Candidates fulfil all necessary criteria for jobs or admissions, but then also they fail in their attempt to secure it because they do not have political contacts and money.This leads to hopelessness and depression which ultimately results in suicide. 9) Psychological and social disorders: Due to corruption in judicial system and police administration. Culprits are left free and victims get punishments and injustice. Due to this injustice, many victims suffer from depression and serious psychological disorders. Many victims get frustrated with judicial system and develop feeling of revenge against culprits. As a result, the victims become culprits by engaging themselves in anti-social activities. It corrodes the healthy social fabric of nation. How to counter Corruption:- ) Value education: Parents and teachers should inculcate moral values in children. Practice is more persuasive than preaching. The best way to inculcate values in children is not only to preach but to set an example by actua l doing. They should set themselves as a model of good behaviour. They should narrate stories based on moral values. Teacher should not only teach morals in value education period but they should inculcate values in pupils by correlating value education with various subjects and activities. They should not leave any stone unturned for achieving this great purpose. ) Effective and regular vigilance: Strict action should be taken against lazy and corrupt officials. Number of agencies and officials should be increased. They should be properly trained in the latest investigative skills. Government should supervise and monitor these agencies. They should be quick and active in their duties. They should not delay their investigation and inspection . Since, these delays is the cause for loss of tremendous wealth of nation. 3) Responsible citizen: If an individual is corrupt, he cannot expect those in power to be free from corruption.Hence, it is essential for every citizen to perform his d uties faithfully and to the best of their abilities. Every citizen should strive hard to eradicate corruption. People of India should report cases of corruption to vigilance department immediately without delay. They should follow up the cases of corruption. Since, merely reporting the evil practice is not sufficient for its complete eradication. 4) Strong and Effective leadership and administration: All those who are granted powers and authority by people should fulfil their promises and pledge.They should strive their utmost to eradicate corruption from systems and administrations. They should give up hypocrisy. Government and vigilance agencies should keep a check on their source of income and bank accounts. If any leader is not performing his duties properly, then he should be immediately terminated from the position. It should be performance based position. Government should do performance appraisal of leaders regularly. 5) Media: Media has wider coverage and impact. It plays a n important role in changing the life of people. It should frequently expose the cases of corruption.It should educate people against corruption on regular basis. Journalists and editors should give complete information about the issues related to corruption in their newspapers. Reporters should give more importance to the news and information on corruption; they should report corruption cases immediately. 6) Legislation: Government should frame strict and stringent anti-corruption laws. Severe punishments and penalties should be imposed on corrupt people. The justice and proceedings should not be delayed. Immediate action should be taken against corrupt people. The punishment should act as a good lesson for other corrupt people. ) Social organisation: Non government organisations should work in coordination with people and vigilance departments for prevention of illegal activities. They should devise and plan innovative strategies and methods against corruption. 8) Declaration of w ealth and assets: It should be made mandatory for political leaders and government officials to declare their wealth and assets. Investigation agencies should strictly and properly check their claims and declaration. 9) Transparency: Every process of selection, dealing and appointments of different fields should be made transparent.People should be made aware of reasons and merit for selection of candidates, contracts, tenders, etc. 10) Advertising: Advertising and marketing agencies should educate and aware people against corruption. There should be appealing ads on internet, vehicles, bus stops, railway stations, sign boards and television. 11) Serials and films: Films are powerful medium of mass communication. Films have powerful influence and widespread appeal. Films can be used to create public opinion against corruption. Producers should make certain popular serials and movies against corruption.Serials should have different episodes dealing with various types of corruption an d their cures. 12) Appointment and admissions: Selection of students, managers, officers and executives should only be based on merit. It is the responsibility of candidates and parents to critically examine the selection and appointment procedures. They should report irregularities to the higher authorities without delay. 13) Religious sermon: In India, people show very strict adherence to their faith and belief. They are very sensitive towards religion, place of worship and religious leaders.They have deep attachment and great respect for preachers and spiritual orators. They try to adopt the teachings of their spiritual leaders in day to day life. Hence, religious leaders should give sermons against corruption. 14) Loyalty and patriotism: Every citizen of India should become patriotic in true sense. He should give priority and preference to the development of his nation. He should always remain loyal to their beautiful culture, ethics and country. Social workers, political leader s, media and teachers should inculcate true patriotism in the citizens of India. 5) Dedicated and diligent leaders: There should be more dedicated, devoted and diligent leaders like Medha Patkar and Anna Hazare. These leaders dedicated their whole life for eradicating corruption. It is the responsibility of every citizen of India to support and cooperate with leaders who are sincerely striving against corruption. 16) Coordination and control: All government and non government agencies should work in coordination with media, educational institutions and corporate sectors to control and eradicate corruption. They should be united in their efforts against corruption. 17) Creative writers: Pen is mightier than sword.Creative writers should write appealing articles and books against corruption. They should write interesting short stories based on honesty. 18) College and Universities: These institutions should educate and train the youth against corruption. They should organise symposium , debates, group discussion, seminars and lectures for this purpose. 19) Gratitude: We Indian should show gratitude towards all those honest people who sacrificed and laid their lives for eradicating corruption from our beautiful country. It is now our turn to take this greatest responsibility and make our nation free from corruption.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Evidence On Global Warming Essay

Svante Arrhenius was really an erudite as he was the pioneer in discovering the concept as early as 1886 in the absence of many modern technical instruments and super computers. During December 1995, United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] , an international network of more than 2,550 scientists have confirmed that there existed many evidence of global warming and such phenomenon could not be denied ,though it is difficult to quantify. With the help of precise satellites measuring equipments and with the assistance of super computers, scientists have irrevocably proved that there are firm ground for the existence of global warming on the basis of process of large quantity of weather data’s. The other evidences of global warming are as follows: ? Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro legendary snows have melted down about 81% since 1912 and it would completely disappear by the year 2020. ? Bermuda’s coastal mangrove forest is annihilated by rising sea levels. ? Over the past forty years, world ocean temperature has increased by a net 0. 12 degrees Fahrenheit. ? Glaziers at Himalayas in India are withdrawing at a record speed and it is predicted by scientists that all eastern and central Himalayan glaziers will vanish by 2025. ? Pakistan witnessed the longest drought from 1999 to 2001 which had affected about 2. 3 million people and about 16. 1 million livestock. ? As compared to 20 to 40 years before , the ice volume in Arctic ocean has decreased by 40% ? In Washington D. C, Cherry trees have advanced their blooming season. ? Europe has witnessed an extreme heat wave in 2003 and more than 25,100 people were died. ? During May 2002, southeastern parts of India witnessed heat wave which exceeded more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit and more than 1210 people died.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Prepping Your Kid for a Test With No Study Guide

Prepping Your Kid for a Test With No Study Guide Its the moment you dread: Your child comes home from school on a Tuesday and tells you that there are a test three days from now over chapter seven. But, since she lost the review guide (for the third time this year), the teacher is making her figure out the content to study without it. You dont want to send her off to her room to study blindly from the textbook; Shell fail! But, you also dont want to do all the work for her. Theres a method that will get your child prepped for that chapter test despite the little misplacement habit shes grown fond of, and even better, she may learn more than she did had she actually used the review guide. Ensure She Learns The Chapter Content Before you study with your kid for the test, youll need to know that shes learned the content of the chapter. Sometimes, kids do not pay attention during class because they know the teacher will be passing out a review guide before the test. Teachers, however, want your kid to actually learn something; they typically put the bare bones of the test content on the review sheets offering a glimpse of the facts shell need to know. Not every test question will be on there! So, youll need to make sure your child has actually grasped the ins and outs of the chapter if she wants to ace the test. An effective way to do it is with a reading and study strategy like SQ3R. The SQ3R Strategy Chances are good that youve heard of the SQ3R Strategy. The method was introduced by Francis Pleasant Robinson in his 1961 book, Effective Study, and remains popular because it enhances reading comprehension and study skills. Kids in third or fourth grade through adults in college can use the strategy solo to grasp and retain complex material from a textbook. Kids younger than that can use the strategy with an adult guiding them through the process. SQ3R utilizes pre-, during and post-reading strategies, and since it builds metacognition, your childs ability to monitor her own learning, its a highly effective tool for every subject in every grade shell encounter. If you happen to be unfamiliar with the method, SQ3R is an acronym that stands for these five active steps your child will take while reading a chapter: Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. Survey Your child will browse through the chapter, reading titles, bold-faced words, introduction paragraphs, vocabulary words, subheadings, pictures, and graphics to grasp, in general, the content of the chapter. Question Your child will turn each one of the chapter subheadings into a question on a sheet of paper. When she reads, The Arctic Tundra, shell write, What is the Arctic Tundra?, leaving space underneath for an answer. Read Your child will read the chapter to answer the questions shes just created. She should write her answers in her own words in the space provided. Recite Your child will cover her answers and attempt to answer the questions without referring to the text or her notes. Review Your child will reread portions of the chapter about which she isnt clear. Here, she can also read the questions at the end of the chapter in order to test her knowledge of the content. In order for the SQ3R method to be effective, youll need to teach it to your child. So the first time the review guide goes missing, sit down and go through the process, surveying the chapter with her, helping her form questions, etc. Model it before she dives in so she knows what to do. Ensure She Retains The Chapter Content So, after applying the reading strategy, youre fairly confident that she understands what shes read, and can answer the questions youve created together. She has a solid knowledge base, but there are still three days before the test! Wont she forget whats shes learned? Its a great idea to have her learn the answers to the questions prior to the test, but in reality, drilling will force those specific questions, but nothing else, into your kids head. Besides, what if the teacher asks different questions than the ones youve learned together? Your child will learn more in the long run by getting a learning combo meal with knowledge as the main course and some higher-order thinking as a tasty side. Venn Diagrams Venn diagrams are perfect tools for kids in that they allow your child to process information and analyze it quickly and easily. If youre not aware of the term, a Venn diagram is a figure made of two interlocking circles. Comparisons are made in the space where the circles overlap; contrasts are defined in the space where the circles do not. A couple of days prior to the exam, hand your child a Venn Diagram and write one of the topics from the chapter on top of the left circle, and a correlative topic from your childs life on the other. For instance, if the chapter test is about biomes, write Tundra above one of the circles and the biome in which you live above the other. Or, if shes learning about Life on Plymouth Plantation, she could compare and contrast that with Life in the Smith Household. With this diagram, shes attaching new ideas to parts of her life with which shes already familiar, which helps her build meaning. A cold page filled with facts doesnt seem real, but when compared to something she knows, the new data suddenly crystallizes into something tangible. So, when she steps outside into the brilliant sunshine of a warm day, she may consider how cold a person might feel in the Arctic Tundra. Or the next time she uses a microwave to make popcorn, she may think about the difficulty of food acquisition on the Plymouth Plantation. Vocabulary Writing Prompts Another creative way to help your child gain a complete understanding of the textbook chapter for that big test coming up is with synthesis. This higher-order thinking skill can certainly help cement information from the textbook directly into your childs brain better than straight memorization can. An enjoyable, effortless way to have your child synthesize info is with a snazzy writing prompt. Heres how to set it up: As your child surveyed the chapter, she shouldve noticed the bold-faced vocabulary words scattered throughout. Lets say the chapter was about the Plains Native Americans, and she found vocabulary words such as expedition, ceremony, raid, maize, and shaman. Instead of having her memorize a definition shell have trouble remembering, instruct her to use the vocabulary words appropriately in a prompt like one of these: Using at least five of the vocabulary words from the chapter, compose a letter to the shaman from a warrior who is away on a raid.Youre visiting a Plains Native American tribe. Write a 1-2 paragraph description of the things you see, smell and hear using at least five of the vocabulary words from the chapter.You are a Plains Native American child. Using at least five of the vocabulary words from the chapter, convince an outsider that your tribe is the best place to grow up. By giving her a situation that may not have been described in the book, like a childs perspective, youre allowing your child to mesh knowledge she already has in her head with knowledge from the chapter shes just learned. This fusion creates a map for her to get to the new information on test day just by remembering her story. Brilliant! All is not lost when your child comes home sobbing because she mislaid her review guide for the umpteenth time. Sure, she needs to get an organizational system in place to help her keep track of her stuff, but in the meantime, you have a system in place to help her keep track of her test grades. Using the SQ3R Strategy to learn the test content and tools like Venn diagrams and vocabulary stories to reinforce it ensures that your child will ace her chapter test and totally redeem herself on exam day.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Adopting a Start-up Mentality for your Books Reedsy

Adopting a Start-up Mentality for your Books Reedsy Adopt A Startup Mentality For Your Books - By Dr. Sean Wise â€Å"I think I’m the only person who has made the authors into Lego people†At the Reedsy blog, we like to bring together the publishing world and the tech world. We think authors can learn a lot from entrepreneurs (and vice-versa), and today’s interview is dedicated to just that.Dr. Sean Wise is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor, mentor and successful author. He just released his latest book, Startup Opportunities, that he co-wrote with Brad Feld. How do two of the most successful startup investors out there go about marketing their book? Sean shares their secrets on how they engage with readers (careful, it involves Lego figures).He also gives his perspective on the changes the publishing industry is undergoing and on a few startups contributing to its disruption.If you want to see him drive through Toronto in a cab, get out, and walk home - all while chatting with us - just play the video, it’s awesome. Else, the transcript is just below! Dr. Sean Wise, it’s great to have you here. You’re a teacher at Ryerson university on entrepreneurship, are a mentor, advisor and investor, and have been involved with startups pretty much all your life, right? Could you give us a bit of background on that?Absolutely! I was born very, very young, and I grew from there. At 13 I had an experience that confirmed to me that I would never make a good employee and I started my first business. I’m now 43 and I have started 5 of my own businesses, but for the most of my working career I’ve been a venture capitalist. So I’ve been an entrepreneur, a ‘funder’, a founder, a mentor, and all of that has been to accomplish one goal: to help entrepreneurs succeed. Help people fail faster, learn quicker, etc. All of my books to date have been around that topic.That’s fantastic. And talking about your books, you wrote your first book and self-published it in 2007, back when digital publishing almo st wasn’t a thing. Why did you choose the self-publishing route?Well, I think you’d call it self-publishing. I had written a column for the Globe and Mail, which is a national newspaper in Canada, and at the end of a two-year run as a columnist on entrepreneurship, they asked if I’d like to wrap all the articles together, put a cover on it, and publish it. So they published it with me. It was â€Å"self-publishing† because we owned 100% of it, but it was edited and pushed out by a newspaper chain, so it was a very unique experience.My second book was bought by a large publisher called Penguin: it was How To Be A Business Super Hero and it combined my love for comic books with my need to help people understand that business isn’t only about money.For my third book, which came out three years ago, I went back to self-publishing. I published it with a magazine called Profit Magazine, and it’s another book about entrepreneurship called Hot or No t. In Canada (like in England) we have a version of that great TV show called Dragon’s Den (it’s now in 27 countries) and I spent 5 seasons working there to help entrepreneurs get the funding they needed to succeed.Now, full circle for my latest book: FG Press is half self-publishing, half traditional publishing. It’s really a startup publishing brand that is trying to figure out what publishing isn’t doing well at all, and what can be done better.Yes, FG Press is one of these actors that shows how exciting the publishing industry is in its current state. What is it that has changed, exactly, and how do you see it moving forwards?Well, I’m not smart enough to talk about what everyone else is talking about, but I know what I am excited about, so I’ll focus on that. For many many years, the publishing industry has been pretty much like the music industry or the film industry: you had these experts; and these experts, whether they were editors or acquisitions people, were in charge of deciding what the world needed. Without an editor’s blessing, you couldn’t have a book: there was no one to publish or distribute it.But like with most things, the internet has had a dramatic effect on the distribution portion of books. Now that books are digital, we know they’re just like Napster was for music: you can send them over email, you can move them digitally, you can read them on your phone, etc. So it’s made distribution a lot easier. Combine that with Amazon’s self-publishing tools, with Goodread’s ability to engage your authors, with Wattpad that can replace your editor with fans, and you really have eliminated the ability of one superstar sitting there and saying â€Å"your book isn’t good enough†.Now, that’s a double-edged sword. Now that there is no longer some expert that you need to tell, there also is no filter, so the biggest problem with publishing today is that anyone can publish. So how do you get past that?Exactly, and I think that’s a question for all forms of content in general, now that we have user-generated content, right?Absolutely. So it’s not a matter of whether my book is good or not, it’s a matter of whether I can get into people’s funnel: â€Å"can I get them to think about my book, can I resonate with them?† as opposed to â€Å"can I get on the shelves at Barnes and Noble?†.And that’s why it’s so important to build a readership before you publish your book. Which is exactly what you’re doing right now with Brad Feld. You’ve co-authored a book with him, Startup Opportunities, and you’re pretty much everywhere around the world talking about that book!Yes, I’m surprised - but happily so - , it looks like we’re going to have a 20-city book tour. We started last week with 5 cities in Canada, and we’re going to move from there ac ross the US, and who knows, if we’re blessed, we’ll even come to Europe!We’re doing that to build a readership and to engage with our users. It’s very similar if you’re aware of The Lean Startup. That book says that before you sink millions and millions of dollars into building a product, check if anyone cares.So before Brad and I got too deep in this book we started talking to readers, startups, just to ask them questions and to really understand what the need was. So we really based this book, Startup Opportunities, on the idea that people should not start stupid startups, that the problem isn’t just â€Å"how to start a company?†.Before we even launched, we had sold 1500 copies. And I can only hope that that continues and that we’re able to find something that resonates with our readers.What kind of out-of-the box marketing have you done for this book that could inspire other non-fiction authors out there?I think I’m the only person who has made the authors into Lego people. So Brad and I have Lego people that will travel with us, and if people want to tweet a picture of us and them, they’ve got to tweet the little Lego people and whoever tweets that and gets the most retweets, will get their own Lego figures, custom-made for them.I’ve never seen anyone make action figures out of authors and I thought that was kind of fun. So that was pretty unusual. The book tour is pretty standard, the Twitter is pretty standard. We did an infographics and a slideshare, too, which are now also pretty standard.Where do you find your inspiration for all this? I think the greatest thing about the transparency the internet allows, is that everyone can learn from everyone. So I wouldn’t want you to think that all these ideas are mine. I’ve stolen them from other successful authors. In fact, as a professor of entrepreneurship I teach that to my students: â€Å"steal with integrity and pr ide everywhere†. I try to give full attribution: I follow Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, they’re sort of my â€Å"author idols†, and I try to see what they’re doing and learn.But as far as I know, I am the only person who has a Lego version of Brad Feld and a Lego version of me.And that’s really really cool. It’s actually the mindset that certain authors in publishing are missing: what could I do that would be cool for my readers, or cool in general?I think, people look at Brad Feld and he’s got 5 or 6 bestsellers, he’s a multi-millionaire, a successful venture capitalist; but they don’t realise that his goal is still the same as every other author: to connect with the readers. All of these new tools are just ways to connect, and I think they’re fabulous because they cut out the middle person.I agree. Talking about â€Å"new tools† if you had to find two startups in the publishing industry that you find partic ularly interesting and are going to follow closely, which would they be? I’m a big fan of Goodreads. I know they’re owned by Amazon right now and that makes them not a startup, but I just think connecting your readers with your authors is so important.If I couldn’t choose Goodreads, I might choose Wattpad. They’ve got about 25 million readers and allows authors to put manuscripts up and get feedback. I’m much more interested in what other founders think about my book than what my father thinks about my book. I want to hear directly from them. Amazing authors who have millions of readers are using Wattpad to engage with them and get their books even tighter. So Wattpad would be one.I’m also another big fan of changing business models. So I found Netflix to be nice because it disrupted Blockbuster. And I think what Scribd is doing with comic books, audiobooks and digital books, this â€Å"all you can eat for $9.99†, is going to impact t he business in a disruptive way. I used to buy my comic books every week at the comic book store. And then I evolved into the digital comic book store, called Comixology. Then, I moved from Comixology, when they got bought by Amazon, to directly purchasing from Amazon.Now Scribd comes along, and it has over 100,000 comic books from Marvel, from Image, and all the things that I love, and instead of paying $30 a month in comic book sales, I pay $9,99. So it caters to another demographic. When I was young, for my birthday, I would always ask for some money for the comic book store. But now I don’t need that, I would ask for a subscription to Scribd, for $9.99.These are part of this bigger ecosystem that’s developing and what I think is most interesting is that it’s developing exactly the same. iTunes is the same as Kindle. Netflix is the same as Next Issue for magazines or Oyster for books or Scribd for comic books.So for me, if I look at the next 5 years, which is what I like to invest on - not companies that are amazing today, but companies that will be amazing in 2020 - I ask myself: what is the next revolution going to be? How do we emulate what’s going on in the music business in the book business? How can I increase my tour sales and keep my book sales up? How do I accept to give an album away for free?Brad and I actually discussed whether we should do a â€Å"pay what you can† model. Radiohead did that for music and they made more money than they would have if they had sold at $9.99. Again, I think these things are still in flux, and we live in an unbelievable time, because every industry is changing, and publishing is just slow because it has very big anchor tenants.Thank you so much for these insights, and for your time, Sean. I look forward to reading Startup Opportunities!Follow Dr. Sean Wise and Reedsy on Twitter:  @SeanWise  and @ReedsyHQWhat kind of out-of-the-box marketing have you  done for your book? How do you build your readership? Which publishing startups do you think are going to succeed? Leave us your thoughts, or any question for Sean, in the comments below!

Saturday, November 2, 2019

A Shift in the Balance of Power from the USA to China Essay

A Shift in the Balance of Power from the USA to China - Essay Example This paper illustrates that while China balances precariously between the free market and an edgy military regime, the nation is surfacing as a formidable contender in the economic sector and an impending challenger for technological advantage. From the benchmark of Tiananmen Square in 1989 well into the first tender years of the Twenty-first Century, many in the West continue to view China with unease and distrust. From the appalling crackdown on the visionary expectation of the ardent student protesters some16 years ago to the subsequent repression of all political dissidence, Communist leaders have time and again tended to reassert a blind obeisance to a dogged system of harsh and mechanical one-party rule. Equally alarming is the ostentatious display of military power in response to Taiwanese aspirations for independence over the last two decades, along with the troubling detection of furtive deliveries of military know-how to unstable areas in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. These measures scarcely serve to improve international confidence in the Chinese bid for a responsible position on the world stage of the new century. Admittedly China has recently begun to evince a new, less menacing and forward-looking stance toward proving itself as a responsible collaborator in global interaction as the nation begins to assume a substantial position in the world economy. By assisting in negotiations on the Korean Peninsula, China, in effect, was able to take advantage of her influence in the region in the service of broader international concerns. Domestically, the Peoples Republic of China has taken steps to free a token number of leading political dissidents in response to Western appeals, and, in diverse rural villages, elections for local leaders have been authorized. Chinese rulers also seem to be dealing moderately with the lately re-annexed regions of Hong Kong and Macau, and so far seem to be restricting intimidation tactics to verbal pos turing and a display of military muscle in response to Taiwanese desires for independence.Â