Monday, September 30, 2019

Compare and Contrast the Marketing Strategies of Li Ning

English Language Centre Cover Sheet | Draft| X| Course Work Submission| Put an X in the box to show whether this is a draft or a credit-bearing coursework assignment Full Name (in pinyin)| | Yinqin Wang| English Name (optional)| | | ID Number| 1101133| Class (e. g. Y2_EEE_A1)| Y2_BAD_A2| Programme| Business Administration| Module Code| EAP105|Assignment Title| Compare and contrast the marketing strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally| Submission Deadline| 22 October 2012 before 20:00| EAP Tutor’s Name| Jacqueline Banki| Final Word Count| 1057| I certify that: * I have read and understood the University’s definitions of COLLUSION and PLAGIARISM (available on p. 31 of the current Academic Student Handbook of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and in the 2011 ELC Student Handbook Appendix 2, 4, and 5).With reference to these definitions, I certify that: * I have not colluded with any other student in the preparation and production of this work; * thi s document has been written solely by me and in my own words except where I have clearly indicated and acknowledged that I have quoted or used figures from published or unpublished sources (including the web); * where appropriate, I have provided an honest statement of the contributions made to my work by other people including technical and other support staff.I understand that unauthorised collusion and the incorporation of material from other works without acknowledgement (plagiarism) are serious disciplinary offences. By uploading my assignment onto ICE, I formally declare that all the above statements are true. Scoring – For Teachers Use (teachers may change descriptor labels below as needed)| Marker| Initials| C| O| G| V| R| Final Mark| First – red pen| | | | | | | | Second – green pen| | | | | | | | Third (if needed)| | | | | | | | For Academic Office Use| Other Penalties|Date Received| Days Late| Late Penalty| Marker Initials| Format (Y/N)| Plagiarism Co de| Collusion Code| | | | 1. | | | | | | | 2. | | | | Compare and contrast the marketing strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally With Chinese economy developing rapidly recent years and the huge success of 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chinese sportswear market has emerged a blooming scene. Not only the mighty foreign brands such as Nike and Adidas win the favor of Chinese people, which took 10. 5% and 7. % of mainland sportswear transactions respectively in 2011, the domestic brands such as Li Ning and Anta also occupy large market share (China Daily, 2012). Li Ning, the Chinese domestic sportswear brand which bears the name of renowned Chinese gymnastic athlete Li Ning, acts a leading role in Chinese sportswear market. Only secondly to Adidas, Li Ning possesses 7. 2% market share and keeps expanding (China Daily, 2012). Not satisfied with its immense domestic achievement, Li Ning strives for more enormous stage and switches its target to international market since 2011.Not ably, on the one hand, the domestic marketing strategies of Li Ning, such as opening and streamlining numerous retail stores, are somehow quite different from the international strategies like using e-commerce approach. On the other hand, the strategies domestically and internationally also share several similarities like attaching importance to branding. The emphasis of this essay is to compare and contrasts the domestic and international marketing strategies of Li Ning. Although to some extent few of these strategies are alike, Li Ning has largely followed diverse approaches domestically and internationally.To begin with, there are some similarities between the market strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally, such as investing more in branding to cultivate its long-term competitiveness. Specifically, both domestic and international strategies take steps to sponsor famed athletes or sports team to advertise the high quality and advanced functionality of its products, which aims to make people hold a favorable impression of Li Ning. For instance, in 2012 London Olympics, various overseas medal candidates like Spain’s basketball team were signed with Li Ning (Brandchannel, 2012).Also, Li Ning grasped Chinese top gold medal forecasts in multifarious sports events like ping pong and badminton, which includes Lin Dan and Wu Mingxia who enjoy the high popularity among Chinese people (Brandchannel, 2012). Especially, the athletes who are sponsored by Li Ning are inspired to publicize Li Ning not only by wearing its products. For example, immediately after Lin Dan won the gold though the spectacular final game, the logo of Li Ning at the jersey of Lin was tugged to display a gesture of appreciations, which makes the effect of advertising cracking (Brandchannel, 2012).Furthermore, domestic strategies are also similar to international strategies in targeting young generations. Domestically, Li Ning replaced old logo and slogan to make the brand mor e abut to the generation born after 1990s as well as establishes new â€Å"sixth-generation stores† which attracting young clients (China Daily, 2011). World widely, Li Ning also focuses on young people because they are unbiased to Chinese brands, accustomed to shopping online and generally spend so much time surfing the Internet, which opportunely corresponds to the e-commerce strategy of Li Ning (Ad Age, 2011).Although the domestic and international strategies share some similarities, they nevertheless employ fundamentally different approaches in a number of key areas, such as using different channels to sell products. In other words, the strategies domestically direct to sell inventories mainly in solid shops, whereas the international strategies prefer using e-commerce, event marketing and digital media. In detail, numerous retail shops spread all over China are owned by Li Ning.Also, confronted the cooling Chinese economy in recent times, in order to raise the efficiency of entity sales, the company adopts measures that streamlining the network of the retail stores and entering lower tiers cities to speed eliminating premium brands by merger and acquisition(China Daily, 2012). When it turns to worldwide, to shun retail channels, Li Ning established its appropriative e-commerce sites as the only passageway to its products and released a delicate teaser video heavily on its Facebook page and twitter account (Voight, 2012).Also, microsites and events are relied to induce online buzz (Voight, 2012). In addition, the domestic and international strategies are dissimilar in the slogan and the images they are intended to shape. Domestically, Li Ning created a new slogan â€Å"make the change† to indicate that greatness is not undying, only changes can be perpetual, which not only nettles the slogan of Nike â€Å"Live through your greatness†, but also remodels the impression of Chinese people on Li Ning as a more high-end brand (Brandchannel, 2012).Internationally, the slogan â€Å"straight out of new China† demonstrates that its products leverage its rich Chinese culture and are diverse from the cheap, rough made-in-China goods as old perception considered (Voight, 2012). Furthermore, with regards to new marketing segments need to be expanded, Li Ning focus on Children garment domestically while women market segment internationally. Cooperated with local children garment firm Paclantic to design more attractive children sports and leisure clothing, the clothes could be sold in the franchised stores and affiliated shops of Li Ning in China (Wang, 2012).Nevertheless, the market segment of women who do not need intramuscular figures and desire equal positions with men are attached importance to by the international strategies of Li Ning (Warc, 2011). In summary, this essay has made comparisons and contrasts between the marketing strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally. The domestic strategies, like th e international ones, have strong sponsor awareness and also aim to attract younger generations.Despite that the international and domestic strategies have to some degree implemented similar strategies; essentially approaches are adopted in crucial areas, such as using different slogans, selling products by different channels and expanding different market segments. Although the e-commerce method ingeniously avoids complex retail channels internationally and the notion to achieve long-term profits domestically seem to be reasonable, Li Ning may ot achieve so many profits as they expected, because its vague brand positioning might cause the confusion and misconstrue of domestic people and its international consumers may despise Li Ning for its imitative logo and slogan which have some resemblance to Nike and Adidas. It is suggested that Li Ning should slow down its expansion and invest more to raise the quality and make some innovations instead of having large inventories discounted as a result of expanding too fast. Also, to have explicit brand positioning is crucial.Nonetheless, as Li Ning keeps adjusting corresponded to the changing situation and creating new products, it is too early to definitively judge whether Li Ning will have a promising future. References list Ad Age (2011). China's Li-Ning Takes on Nike, Adidas With U. S. E-Commerce Site. [online]  New York: Ad Age. Available from: http://adage. com/article/cmo-interviews/china-s-li-ning-takes-nike-u-s-e-commerce-site/231642/. (Accessed 12 October 2012) Brandchannel (2012). London 2012: Success as Li-Ning ‘Makes a Change' in Olympics Strategy. [online] New York: brandchannel. Available from: http://www. randchannel. com/home/post/2012/08/13/London-2012-Li-Ning-081312. aspx. (Accessed: 12 October 2012) China Daily (2011). Li Ning expects business to slow. [online] Beijing: China Daily. Available from: http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/bizchina/2011-01/18/content_11874065. htm. (Accessed: 12 Octo ber 2012) China Daily (2012). China's sportswear brands nurse Olympics hangover. [online] Beijing: China Daily. Available from: http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/londongames/2012-07/02/content_15542591. htm. (Accessed: 12 October 2012) Voight, J. (2012). Video Is Lifeblood of Li-Ning's ‘New China' Sneaker Launch. online] Charlotte: ClickZ. Available from: http://www. clickz. com/clickz/news/2166538/video-lifeblood-li-nings-china-snea ker-launch. (Accessed: 12 October 2012) Warc (2011). Li-Ning plans global push. [online] London: Warc. Available from: http://www. warc. com/Content/News/Li-Ning_plans_global_push. content? ID=e7907838-2cd7-4859-ae44-f1695abdbd52;q. ( Accessed: 12 October 2012) Wang, W. (2012). Li Ning rejoins race in children's wear market. [online] Beijing: China Daily. Available from: http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/2012-05/12/content_15276320. htm. (Accessed: 12 October 2012) Compare and Contrast the Marketing Strategies of Li Ning Compare and contrast the marketing strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally With the development of Chinese economy, sports industry has become one of the new industries in china, which has large market size and high growth rate (Qinqin, n. d. ). In Chinese sports area, Li Ning brand, built by famous gymnast Li Ning (Enright, 2012), is the market leader and owns about 8000 hypostatic shops domestically (Zhang,2011). Similar to some international famous brands like Nike and Adidas, Li Ning intends to enhance influence by exploring international market (Sauer, 2012).For this reason, the essay will compare and contrast the marketing strategies of Li Ning domestically and internationally. A close look at the sources available, it seems that the topic could be analyzed from the internal aspect such as sales methods, promotion and the external aspect such as consumption concept and competition. The essay will compare and analyze Li Ning’s marketing strategies by the in ternal and external aspects’ factors. From the internal perspective, there are two main sales strategies should be considered as follows: sales methods and promotion.In regard to sales methods, Li Ning implements entity sales and e-commerce sales at home and abroad simultaneously (Anon, 2011a, Voight, 2012 and Zhang, 2011). Nevertheless, the focus of sales methods might be different considering the contrasting name reputation domestically and internationally. Li Ning, named after china’s gold-medaling gymnast, is very famous in china, especially after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (Enright, 2012). As typical local brand with high name reputation, Li Ning chooses entity sales as its main way of sale domestically and there are almost 8000 hypostatic shops in china (Zhang, 2011).Whereas the name Li Ning perhaps unfamiliar in the West. For instance, the marketing firm tested the brand with U. S. customers and the result shows that brand awareness was almost 0% (Enright , 2012). Rather than seeing it as a bad thing, Li Ning sees it as a launch point to â€Å"upgrade the brand image and win recognition from consumers† (Zhang, 2011). What is why â€Å"Li-Ning is planning to concentrate on the new online portal before opening more brick-and-mortar stores† in U. S. market (Anon, 2011a). In order to achieve more name reputation and higher sales, Li Ning fixes much attention n another sales strategy, promotion, as well. Both foreign and domestic, Li Ning has been paying much attention to Olympic Games and sports super stars (Anon, 2011b and Sauer, 2012). At home, since 1992 in Barcelona, China’s Olympic terms have chosen Li Ning as a fixture and the brand still counts on gold-medal terms such as Chinese ping pong, shooting gymnastics and badminton teams (Anon, 2011b). Overseas, Li Ning was the 30th Olympic Games sponsorship in 2012 (Sauer, 2012) and invited NBA All-Star teams players to speak for it (Anon, 2011b).Moreover, according to different national culture, Li Ning even used different slogans to appeal to the nationalist fervor. For instance, where the word â€Å"you† was used by Nike in America, Li Ning chose the slogan â€Å"we can† domestically and â€Å"the moment† for international audience (Anon, 2011b). On the other hand, in external aspect, Li Ning has taken a series of measures to deal with two social problems: target groups and fierce competition (Anon, 2011a, Ranasinghe, 2012 and Zhang, 2011). With the rapid development of internationalization, various views on Chinese goods have been published.In china, instead of praising highly local brand, Chinese customers are worried about the Chinese sports brand’s store quality is not equal to the brand's quantity (Zhang, 2011), preferring internationally famous brands like Nike and Adidas (Ranadinghe, 2012) and transforming the cost from sports to food and beverage (Ranasinghe, 2012). On abroad, although some older consumers usually think of China-made products as fakes or knockoffs, younger consumers do not see Chinese products as second-class or counterfeits (Enright, 2012).Regarding the situation, in recent years, Li Ning has been trying to make the brand more youthful and upmarket (Anon, 2011b). For the new strategy, Li Ning not only created a new logo and new slogans but also launched many new products with a better outlook and quality, which aimed to appeal to domestic and foreign younger generation (Zhang, 2011). Furthermore, Li Ning has managed to expand to different areas at home and internationally as well (Anon, 2011a, Anon 2011b and Wen, 2012).In view of China’s family planning policy, Li Ning has rejoined the battle of children’s garments by cooperated with another company in Tianjin (Wen, 2012). In consideration of the case that many foreign customers have great curiosity about eastern culture (Voight, 2012); Li Ning puts brand international feeling over oriental theme (Zhan g, 2012). For example, in March 2012, Li Ning promoted a pair of men’s basketball shoes with the Chinese dragon pattern which was a limited edition on Facebook, and then the tremendous crowds to Li Ning’s website led it to collapse (Voight, 2012).In addition, Women have become another one of the main target groups of Li Ning overseas (Anon, 2011a). Next, the second problem Li Ning is facing is the large-scale competition with local brands and international brands domestically and internationally (Anon, 2011a et al). The fierce competition â€Å"not only has it been forced to scale back its plans for world domination, but it also now finds itself at risk in its home market against domestic rivals like Peak and 361 °, but also with global heavy hitters Nike and Adidas† (Sauer, 2012).The difference is that language might be the main barrier Li Ning needs to face in international market (Zhang, 2012). With a view to the situation, on the one hand, Li Ning decided to slow the pace of new openings and close some inefficient stores to curtail expense and store energy (Ranasinghe, 2012); on the other hand, Li Ning would enter the second-tier cities to achieve next phase of growth (Anon, 2012). To sum up, in internal aspect, Li Ning chooses both entity sales and e-commerce sales at home and abroad. Different focuses are determined due to large name reputation difference.To achieve more popularity, Li Ning focuses on Olympic Games and sports super stars with different slogans. Furthermore, in external aspect, facing the customers’ different consumption views on Chinese brands domestically and internationally, Li Ning transforms its attention to younger people and set new different target groups both domestic and foreign. Li Ning has been facing increased competition with global names and local rivals, and what is why Li Ning determines to slow the pace of new openings and enter the second-tier cities.In future, Li Ning could make greater br eakthrough by implementing brand strategy, constructing international brand image, developing technology innovation and improving enterprises’ core competitiveness (Zhang, 2012). References: Anon. (2011a) Li-Ning plans global push [online] London Warc. Available from: http://www. warc. com/Content/News/Li-Ning_plans_global_push. content? ID=e7907838-2cd7-4859-ae44-f1695abdbd52= (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Anon. (2011b) China's Li-Ning Takes on Nike, Adidas With U.S. E-Commerce Site [online] New York Ad Age. Available from: http://adage. com/article/cmo-interviews/china-s-li-ning-takes-nike-u-s-e-commerce-site/231642/ (Accessed: 3 October 2012) Anon. (2012) China's sportswear brands nurse Olympics hangover [online] China Chinadaily. Available from: http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/londongames/2012-07/02/content_15542591. htm (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Enright, A. (2012) Li-Ning makes its U. S. debut [online] Chicago Internetretailer.Available from: http://www. interne tretailer. com/2012/01/16/li-ning-makes-its-us-debut (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Qinqin, D. (n. d. ) Comparative analysis of Chinese and Western Sporting Goods Enterprises’ Growth Pattern. Wuhan, China: Dept. of Sports Economics & Management, Wuhan Inst. of P. E. Ranasinghe, D. (2012) No Medals for China’s Sportswear Firms [online] US CNBC. Accessed from: http://www. cnbc. com/id/48454835/No_Medals_for_China_s_Sportswear_Firms (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Sauer, A. 2012) London 2012: Success as Li-Ning ‘Makes a Change' in Olympics Strategy [online] London Brandchannel. Available from: http://www. warc. com/Content/News/Li Ning_plans_global_push. content? ID=e7907838-2cd7-4859-ae44-f1695abdbd52= (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Voight, J. (2012) Video Is Lifeblood of Li-Ning's ‘New China' Sneaker Launch [online] New York Clickz. Available from: http://www. clickz. com/clickz/news/2166538/video-lifeblood-li-nings-china-sneaker-launch (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Wen , W. 2012) Li Ning rejoins race in children's wear market [online] China Chinadaily. Available from: http://www. chinadaily. com. cn/business/2012-05/12/content_15276320. htm (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Zhang, D. (2011) Li-Ning sportswear looks to win overseas [online] London BBC. Available from: http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-12665597 (Accessed: 3 October 2012). Zhang, X. (2012) ‘Marketing Plan for Li-Ning Product Expansion in UK’, Lecture Notes in Information Technology, Vol(14), Wuhan, China: Dept. of Sports Economics & Management, Wuhan Inst. of P. E.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

How far is it acceptable for technology to be used only for financial benefits Essay

?The inexorable development of technology has indeed become an integral part of our lives. Evidently, we often involve technology almost in every aspect of our lives. As a result, business in technology area seems very enticing for most people as they can potentially generate a lot of profit from this field. Hence, more and more people start to invest in it. However, as people are getting indulged in profit maximisation, problems concerning ethics and societal welfare start to arise from technology. Some argue that the usage of technology only for financial benefit is acceptable because such benefit can be redistributed to the less privileged ones to improve their welfare. However, others claim that it is unacceptable to do so because people, more often than not, may pursue such benefit at the expense of others. I, personally, am more inclined to the latter stand as the sole usage of technology for financial benefit will deal a fatal blow to the global society. It is acceptable to use technology for financial benefit only because it can indirectly contribute to the societal welfare. This is because some of the profit gained from the selling of such technology is used to help those in need. Hence, money earned is, in a way, redistributed to the poor to boost their welfare. A case in a point is the Gates Foundation in which Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, channels some of his profit from his business in the computer field to build this foundation to empower the needy to lead a better life. his is obviously unacceptable because every person has the right to have fair wages and enjoy conducive working environment. Thus, the use of technology only for financial benefit is still unacceptable, regardless of such benefit that may be used to help the last and the least, if some groups are being made worse off in the process. Furthermore, focusing only on financial benefit when we harness technology will make technological development shifts towards the favour of rich people only. Rich and poor people certainly have different kind of needs; while the rich aims, mostly, for self-enhancement, the poor are still struggling to survive. Hence, since the rich’s demand seems to be more lucrative for many investors because self-enhancement, like plastic surgery, is indubitably extornionate and, hence, generates a lot of profit, they will just invest their money for technological development in this area. As a result, more rudimentary aspects of technology, such as the mass production of food using food technology, are neglected. The poor will then suffer even to a greater extent than before. Another concern from this shift is that the widening of chasm between the rich and the poor will be more pervasive. Such result entails even worse implications in our society as social unrest may occur. Hence, given the dire consequences of the ill-use of technology, utilisation of it for financial benefit solely is unacceptable. Finally, the sole use of technology for financial benefit may corrupt our intrinsic values and virtues as human beings. Paradigm shift on our attitudes towards technology -more accepting and dependent – has made commodification of technology more successful. Thus, more and more people are focusing in this area and if their only goal for the use of technology is on monetary reward, they will do anything to its commercialisation to be even more successful. This includes the addition of elements in the technology itself to allure more people to use it. Unfortunately, those elements sometimes blemish our values as responsible humans. A case in a point would be the advent of violent video games (gaming technology) that distort the values of people, especially the teenagers and children. If they are exposed by the wrong principles throughout their stages of life, they will, most likely, not grow to people whom the society wants them to be. Hence, since the use of technology only for financial benefit results in such a case, I believe that it is unacceptable. In conclusion, it is unacceptable if technology is only used for financial benefit because others aspects concerning global welfare are most likely to be neglected. Therefore, a holistic approach should be adopted in harnessing the technology, so that multifarious fields in human lives are benefited. Hence, â€Å"technology is a social product† encapsulates the essence in the usage of technology as it should act as a representation of the fundamental needs of our society.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Henry Thoreaus View on the Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Henry Thoreaus View on the Economy - Essay Example Theodore had been a mathematician and an economist whose philosophy had been based on finding the alternative to harsh lifestyle. His writing on Walden discovered that with the natural lifestyle preserved, the advantage is presented on the need to offer solutions to uphold humanity through the changing environment. The longest of his chapters on his writings had been based on the measures needed to preserve the economy. The economy had been driven by the struggle by individuals to present the efforts needed to achieve a higher lifestyle and struggling with fluctuation in market prices. The solution in simple living and application of cheap alternative measures that utilize minimal raw materials from the environment had been the proven solution. Thoreau led a comfortable lifestyle with the advantage offered in applying readily available materials. He had calculated the expenses to be used and sought to utilize the alternative cheap measures that would limit the exploitation of the nat ural reserve. ... His philosophy presented that the natural compositions to be left untouched and away from the development in the society. He explained that though people saw him to be alone, he did not feel abandoned and gained satisfaction from the space created (Thoreau and Blake 40). The chapter discloses his venture to lead a differentiated lifestyle from those who work hard to achieve the luxury of the society as compared to his ideology that meant preservation of the wild and lead a basic lifestyle. Theodore had been a mathematician and an economist whose philosophy had been based on finding the alternative to harsh lifestyle. His writing on Walden discovered that with the natural lifestyle preserved, the advantage is presented on the need to offer solutions to uphold humanity through the changing environment. The longest of his chapters on his writings had been based on the measures needed to preserve the economy. The economy had been driven by the struggle by individuals to present the effor ts needed to achieve a higher lifestyle and struggling with fluctuation in market prices. The solution in simple living and application of cheap alternative measures that utilize minimal raw materials from the environment had been the proven solution. Thoreau led a comfortable lifestyle with the advantage offered in applying readily available materials. He had calculated the expenses to be used and sought to utilizing the alternative cheap measures that would limit the exploitation of the natural reserve. Thoreau explained that humanity had been accorded the challenge of relating to the lifestyle that had been admired by the society, and the authority presented in the

Maritime Operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Maritime Operations - Essay Example (The ISM code, 2010) (ii) It should ensure a safe working place is maintained on board ship. (iii) Identify areas where accidents can occur on board ship and provide measures for rectification.( The ISM code, 2010) (iv) Upgrade the ability of persons on board to react immediately in case of emergency per safety manuals. (v) The safety manuals and codes have been developed after years of research and feedback generated by shipping personnel over years of experience in facing different distress situations. Hence the crew should always be encouraged to follow the safety instructions and treat the code as a valuable piece of guidance. (The ISM Code, 2007) Therefore it is quite clear from the objectives that the human element is quite clearly addressed in the ISM code and guidelines have been prescribed to reduce operational risk. It is with these intentions that the Maritime Labour Convention of 2006 and the STCW 1978 were conducted and guidelines to avoid human risk were evolved. Mariti me labour Convention 2006 Since the Maritime labour Convention as a document covers a whole gamut of areas and stipulations, the primary areas of reference regarding reducing operational risk of seafarers shall be discussed here. This convention consists of a series of conventions which deals with the scope, rights and responsibilities of seafarers. Here Title 1 deals with the minimum qualification a seafarer must possess for him do his job efficiently thus mitigating accident risk to fellow crew and the ship. Title 2 deals with the minimum wages, hours of rest, period of leave and the manning levels of the seafarers. Title 3 deals with his accommodation and food that is provided on board. Therefore Title 2 and Title 3 deals with the psychological aspect of the person as only an optimum amount of rest would ensure that he performs his watch keeping duty diligently. Title 4 covers measures that the ship has adopted for accident prevention and medical care facilities on board in case of any injury. The ship should also be provided with efficient communication that could inform the land and have the injured person airlifted to the nearest medical facility. (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006) The regulation and code is then further arranged in to a series of five titles. These are (i) Title 1- The minimum age of entry should be sixteen years. Night duty for people below 18 years is banned. Night duty is also defined as one which begins before midnight and ends before 5am. Work that may have an adverse effect on the health of an individual should be avoided if he is below 18 years.( Cleopatra Doumbia, 2009) Seafarers who have not passed the medical tests prior to each sail shall be prohibited from joining ship and taking up duties. Medical certificates to prove the legitimacy must be provided on joining board. The seafarer should be adequately trained in carrying out watch keeping duties and should have carry all the relevant certificates regarding safety like basic fire fighting, first aid among others. (Maritime Labour Convention, 2006) (ii) Title 2- This encourages the shipping companies to adopt a more humane approach to the seafarer employer agreements so that his mind remains focussed when at work away from other external

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Jefferson's view about the Missouri Compromise Assignment

Jefferson's view about the Missouri Compromise - Assignment Example It is interesting to consider the view of Jefferson with the benefit of hindsight. The admission of Missouri as a slave state would have meant that the number of slave states within the Union would outnumber the free states by one, hence the compromise of allowing Maine to enter the Union as a free state. By the start of the Civil War, 25 states supported the federal government and 11 states were part of the Confederacy, and by the end of the Civil War the Union had prevaled. In a sense, Jefferson was right to have misgivings because the Union as it was in 1820 was destroyed, and the Missouri Compromise was one of the triggers for the start of the Civil War (McPherson & Hogue, 2009, p19). The Missouri Compromise is said to have exposed slavery as a contentious issue, and of course the Civil War was a response to slavery. However, Jefferson was not completely wrong. He also described the Missouri Compromise as the knell of the Union, where knell is taken to mean a solomn announcement of death. The Union as it was then died, perhaps, but the Civil War did end in a Union victory and thus the Missouri Compromise can be said to have strengthened the Union infinitely. The Missouri Compromise was not the only source of growing tensions in the US. In the 1840s, the American-Mexican war took place in response to the Mexican designs for the state of Texas (one of the states supporting slavery in the Confederacy). It was the American victory (and subsequent permanent acquisition of the state of Texas, amongst others) that led to the next Compromise with regard to slavery, that of 1850 (McPherson & Hogue, 2009, p88). The Compromise of 1850 was a bill defining the status of the newly aquired states within the United States, something that diffused the immediate political problems but did not, evidently, remove the need for the Civil War. We can say that

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Fourth Amendment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fourth Amendment - Research Paper Example The enactment of the fourth amendment guarantees to every citizen â€Å"the security of privacy against arbitrary intrusion by the police† (Levy 1995, p.164) In the case of Wolf v. Colorado, the Supreme Court recognized that â€Å"fourth amendment rights are basic to a free society and are therefore, implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.† (Article 1,  § 7 of the Tennessee Constitution) It is thus evident that the fourth amendment is also enforceable against the states through the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment that also secures the rights of an individual to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The are various interpretations of the clauses contained in the fourth amendment, but’ reasonableness’ tends to be the defining factor in the legitimacy of a search or seizure conducted by government and law enforcement officers. There are some considerations associated with the reasonable expectation of privacy, although there is no bright line rule indicating situations in which an expectation of privacy is reasonable under the constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in any goods or property that is located inside the home of such an individual. There is also reasonable expectation of privacy in any conversations taking place in an enclosed phone booth. On the other hand, reasonable expectation of privacy is not feasible in activities that are conducted outdoors, in open fields or in a situation where a person has entered the house of another person without the house owner’s consent, with the intent of committing crime. A person using a computer also does not have a legitimate expectation of privacy related to information from email addresses, total volume of the users traffic or the IP address of websites the user may have visited. This is because the supreme court has long held that â€Å"an individual has no legitimat e expectation of privacy in such information, which already has been exposed to a telecommunications carrier for the purpose of routing a communication (Lasson, 1937, p. 106), although a computer user generally has legitimate expectation of privacy with respect to the contents of email messages while they are still in transmission over the internet A relevant case law involving reasonable expectation of privacy is United States v. Maxwell, 45 M.J. 406, 418 U.S. Armed Forces Ct. App. 1996 in which the court addressed the issue of email privacy â€Å"the sender of an e-mail generally enjoys a reasonable expectation that police officials will not intercept the transmission without probable cause and a search warrant. Users do have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the content of their text messages vis-a-vis the service provider.† (Devenpeck v. Alford, 2004) Probable cause is the situation or event that may prompt a law enforcement officer to take certain actions. In the ca se Terry v. Ohio 392 U.S. 1 (1986) the supreme court ruled that in a situation in which a law enforcement officer witnesses unusual behavior that leads the officer to reasonably believe that crime is being committed or that the suspected persons pose a threat to the officer or to other people, then the officer may frisk or search such a suspect to ascertain whether the suspect is carrying a weapon. In order to conduct such a frisk, the officer must be able to

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Prayer in Islam Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Prayer in Islam - Research Paper Example Prayer is that spiritual communication to God or an object that is being worshiped, it is making a petition to God, an object of worship or a god. Prayer has different meanings and practices around the world where there is the use of postures like kneeling, walking and bowing the head which is seen as a way of showing devotion. In some places prayer involves asking for forgiveness, praise and worship and thanks giving. Some religions have a certain or standard way of praying, for example, the Lord’s Prayer which is often said by a group of worshipers. Islam is based on the five pillars which are the foundation of the Islamic life. The first pillar is the I-man or faith where Muslims believe in the oneness of Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger. This declaration or Shahada is the believe that serving and obeying Allah is the only purpose one has in their life and this is normally achieved through the teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad. Prayer is the second pillar which involves declaring a testimony of faith. Prayer in Muslim is seen to be important since it is a way of worshiping and establishing a close relationship with Allah who is the creator. It is seen as way of acknowledgement ones weakness and need to ask for Devine grace, forgiveness, mercy and abundance which is believed to be of interest to every Muslim. Prayer in Islam is referred to as Salat and is believed to have been made a mandatory obligation by Allah for every Muslim to follow it as per the Hadith where Prophet Muhammad was asked, â€Å"which of the actions is best?† ... ayer is also believed to be able to prevent one from all immoral or sinful deeds and strengthens the relationship and bond between Muslims, that bond of unity and love. Prayer breaks all differences that exist among Muslims because every individual prays at the same time, facing the same direction and this can also be seen when all Muslims gather together in Mosques to pray and listen to sermons. Prayer involves certain body movement while reciting passages of the Quran and consists of defined movements and recitations of passages of the Quran. For the Muslim community prayers can be done in any place that is considered to be clean; however, it is believed that prayers done from a mosque will bring 27 times more blessings. Muslims believe that when one begins a prayer session, they should not stop until they are through but there is an exception, for example, in a situation where a woman sees her child in danger, she can save her child while reciting the prayer as per the teachings o f the Quran [2:239] "Under unusual circumstances, one may pray while walking or even riding. Once one is safe, one shall commemorate God as He taught them what they never knew."    There are several pre-requisites to make a prayer valid which include; the prayer time where prayers have to be during the specific times of the day. Mosques normally help the congregation note the prayer time through the Adan or call to prayer which translates to; God is the greatest (x 3) I confirm that there is no one worthy of worship except God (x2) I testify that Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of God (x2) Come for prayer (x2) Come for success (x2) God is the greatest (x2) there is no one worthy of worship except God. Pre-requisites in making a prayer valid also include the purification rituals or Taharah

Monday, September 23, 2019

Ethnography-Mock at KFC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ethnography-Mock at KFC - Essay Example I studied my ethnography research at KFC in a local mall. It was Sunday and I was at the Dolmen Mall around 1 pm. Dolmen Mall is one of the biggest malls down here in New York. KFC was located in the food court on the first fourth floor of the mall. There were a lot of stalls that had covered the entire fourth floor. The stalls were juxtaposed with each other. In front of the stalls, there were tables and chairs and a comfortable seating area arranged for visiting family. The total number of stalls in the area was 25. The stalls belonged to various genres from coffee to desserts to donuts to fast food to continental to oriental food. KFC was stationed right in the center of the food court. On the left side, it had Mr. Burger and on the right side, it had McDonald's. The staff at KFC was mostly young. I felt that the primary reason behind the young staff at KFC was the less pay per hour. The stall was crowded as it was a weekend afternoon. People from different ethnic and religious ba ckgrounds were frequenting to the stalls. I noticed a gang of friends seated comfortably in a stall in front of KFC. They were happily laughing and chatting away. This group of friends was between 15-16 years. It comprised of 4 boys and three girls. They were cracking jokes, and playing with cell phones. One of the girls was meddling with her clutch to take out a mobile phone. I have noticed that men usually carry cell phones in their pants while women carry it in their handbags. I also observed their table manners and concluded that females were better behaved compared to their male counterparts. The conversations that flowed were very colorful. They ranged from cars to food to college gossip to relation statuses. I noticed men were the ones with the greater sense of humor as they would be the one cracking most of the jokes. Girls, however, were more prompt with their insight into the latest gossip and happenings in college.   1) Frame the study as a larger theoretical, policy, o r practical problem. The study will help frame marketing plans at the mall according to the type of gentry that visits it. 2) Pose initial ethnographic research questions. (aside from essential question) Where is it located? What kind of interiors are there? What kind of people is visiting? What kind of conversations is following? How are they behaving? What is the general mood like? What are the differences between the ways in which the guy is interacting and the way in which the guys are interacting?

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Deloneys view of age Essay Example for Free

Deloneys view of age Essay The word ‘age’ is also paired with the adjective ‘crabbed’, however the word ’youth’ is not attached to any word and seems almost completely separate. Youth seems quite isolated from the word ‘age’ and could represent how nowadays parents and children are quite segregated from each other. As well as the word being isolated, it seems to be independent, as it is not relying on an adjective to describe itself. Following onto the point of where I had written that parents and children are isolated from one another, this is clearly demonstrated to us in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, throughout the play, as well as in ‘crabbed age and youth’, when it is written that they ‘cannot live together’. The isolation between a parent and child, can be expressed due to the fact that these two humans are both from different generations, and have been brought up to have different opinions, or in some cases, completely contrasting opinions and as a consequence have little or nothing in common. For example in ‘Follower’ we are not informed of any similarities between the father and son, however the fact that the verb stumble appears twice and that both the father and the son have experienced it, suggests that this is the only thing of which they have in common. Another example is in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ where we see at the beginning of the play Capulet displaying a willingness to become a better parent as he attempts to understand Juliet’s thoughts and emotions by saying to Paris that Juliet is too â€Å"ripe to be a bride†. This portrays to us a parent who is willing to change their own opinion in a matter. in the Elizabethan era it was considered normal for a 14 year old to be married and expecting children, which is made clear to us when Paris says to Capulet ‘younger than she (Juliet) are happy mothers made’, to which Capulet answers by saying that young mothers are ‘too soon marr’d’. By defending his and his daughter’s actions, shows him to be a protective father. There is no doubt that along the path of parenthood there will be clashes between a parent and child, of which the child or parent feels that they ‘cannot live together’, due to different factors, the most prominent of which is a severe clash of opinions. We know not to take the line ‘cannot live together’ literally, because Deloney is talking about the two opinions of the youth and the old and how they are so severely differentiated, almost contradictory. I translate this stanza to mean that the two opinions are so contradictory that neither can win the argument. I can refer this to the poem ‘Catrin’, in which Gillian Clarke talks about a ‘red rope of love’ which represents the bond that a parent and child have. To demonstrate how contradictory these 2 opinions are, Deloney offers us a variety of antithesis, such as â€Å"Youth like summer†¦ Age like winter†, â€Å"Youth is hot†¦ Age is Cold†. The roles in this parent child relationship are clear to us; Capulet even tells us that he thinks of Juliet as a ‘whining mammet’. A mammet is a puppet, and so obviously a puppet needs a puppeteer, and due to how Capulet acts in this scene, it is evident that he is the puppeteer. This hierarchy of a parent and child is also shown in ‘Follower’, when Heaney describes his father to be a ‘full sail strung’ and that ‘horses strained at his clicking tongue’. By saying that even ‘horses strained at his clicking tongue’ shows how much power and authority his father had; he had to do such little, to get the horses to do a lot of work. The fact that an animal listens to him, demonstrates just how powerful he is. Deloney also thinks that age and youth are completely opposite by saying ‘age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave’. By using two completely opposite seasons of the year, Deloney is also pointing out that parents and children are also completely opposite. For example it is hot in summer and cold in winter, it cannot be hot in winter and cold in summer, however when we get too hot, we wish for it to be cooler and when we are cold, we wish for it to be hot. Similarly, when we are old we desire to be young, and when we are young we wish to be older or you could say when children are in need of parents, they may not be here, but that when they are here, you do not need them vice versa. If we were to interpret this to fit the role of a parent child relationship then we would say that when as children we become older and our parents eventually die, suddenly we seem to miss them immensely. So by using antithesis, the poet is basically telling us that once a parent or child is deceased, we learn how much we appreciated them. I feel it is a shame that we only realise things like this once it has been taken from us. This is shown in Romeo and Juliet when Capulet discovers that his daughter has apparently died from depression, he feels overwhelmed and his true feelings for Juliet are revealed as he says ‘with my child are my joys buried’, however when she was alive (in act 3 scene 5), he did not seem to care if she were to ‘die in the streets’.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

National Culture Essay Example for Free

National Culture Essay In other words, although the concept of nation unfairly characterizes colonized subjects as istorically unified in their primitiveness or exoticness, the terms promise of solidarity and unity often proves helpful nonetheless In their attempts at political amelioration. Fanon encourages a materialist conceptualization of the nation that is based not so much on collective cultural traditions or ancestor-worship as political agency and the collective attempt to dismantle the economic foundations of colonial rule. Colonialism, as Fanon argues, not only physically disarms the colonized subject but robs her ofa pre-colonial cultural heritage. And yet, if colonialism in this sense alvanizes the native intellectual to renew contact once more with the oldest and most pre-colonial spring of life of their people, Fanon is careful to point out that these attempts at recovering national continuity throughout history are often contrived and ultimately self-defeating. l am ready to concede, he admits, that on the plane of factual being the past existence of an Aztec civilization does not change anything very much in the diet of the Mexican peasant of today. In the passage below, Fanon explains that national identity only carries meaning insofar as it eflects the combined revoluuonary efforts of an oppressed people aiming at collective liberation: A national culture is not a folklore, not an abstract populism that believes It can discover the peoples true nature. It Is not made up of the Inert dregs of gratuitous actions, that is to say actions which are less and less attached to the ever-present reality of the people. A national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thought to describe, Justify, and praise the action through which that people has created Itself and keeps Itself In existence. Muhammad Slbtaln Haider 11-12-2013 National Culture By sibtainJaf because it re-inscribes an essentialist, totalizing, fetishized, often middle-class solidarity and unity often proves helpful nonetheless in their attempts at political but robs her of a pre-colonial cultural heritage. And yet, if colonialism in this sense below, Fanon explains that national identity only carries meaning insofar as it reflects the combined revolutionary efforts of an oppressed people aiming at believes it can discover the peoples true nature. It is not made up of the inert dregs through which that people has created itself and keeps itself in existence. Muhammad Sibtain Haider

Friday, September 20, 2019

Environmental Studies Essays Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development

Environmental Studies Essays Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development A small manufacturing company is keen to promote its activitiesas being sustainable. As part of this process, the management has decided toimplement an EMS with a view to obtaining ISO 14001 certification. Withspecific reference to issues that are likely to be relevant to a smallmanufacturing company, discuss the role of the environmental management toolswe considered in workbook 2 and explain how these environmental managementtools are interrelated in terms of both data inputs/outputs and methodologies.Also, describe to what extent the EMS and the use of management tools could beseen as contributing to sustainable developments. Interest in environmental protection and sustainable development has beenincreasing year by year. To meet the challenges, an Environmental ManagementSystem (EMS) is implemented. An EMS is a continuous cycle of planning,implementing, reviewing and improving the processes and actions that anorganisation undertakes to meet its environmental obligations. The worlds firststandard for environmental management systems (EMS) BS 7750 was developed andpublished by the British Standards Institution (BSI) in 1992. This later formed the basis for the ISO 14000, which was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). In 1996, ISO 14001 which establishes the requirements for an EMS was finalised. Implementation of an EMS can improve environmental performance, reduced liability, competitive advantage, reduced costs, fewer accidents, employee involvement, compliance performance, enhance management confidence, increase efficiency, improve public image, enhance customer trust, meet customer requirements and growth management. Thekey to effective environmental management is the use of a systematic approachto planning, controlling, measuring and improving an organisationsenvironmental performance. Common aspects of an EMS are environmental policy,adequate resources, responsibilities and authorities, training, systemdocumentation, operational controls, document control, system audits andmanagement review. Most EMS models are based on the concept of Plan, Do,Check, Act model introduced by Shewart and Deming which emphasises the conceptof continual improvement. Someof the important EMS elements in common EMS models are discussed in detail.Most of the EMS components are inter-related (given in fig 1). The firstelement is the environmental policy, which is the top managementsdeclaration of its commitment to the environment. The environmental policy servesas a foundation and vision of environmental concern by the entire organisation.The policy should relate to the companys products and services, be simple,understandable, and explicit enough to be audited. The policy is relevant tocontinual improvement, pollution prevention and compliance with relevant lawsand regulations. Thesecond element is the identification of environmental aspects which arethe organisations activities, products, or services that can interact with theenvironment. These environmental aspects , which are called as significantenvironmental aspects, determine the environment objectives to beestablished and operational controls and actions defined later. Theenvironmental aspects are essential to establish positive impacts on thebottom line and providing environmental improvements. Legal and other requirements of the EMS may include federalrequirements, state and local requirements, standards in locations in which thecompanys products/services are sold and permit conditions. These requirementsshould be factored into the organisations management efforts to avoidpotential costs as non-compliance can cause possible damage to the environment,revenue loss and impact on public image. Objectives and targets establish environmental goals for theorganisation in line with company policy, environmental policy, environmentalimpacts, the views of interested parties and other factors. This is essentialto help an organisation translate purpose into action. Various EMS implementationprojects for small and medium-sized companies indicate that it is best to startwith a limited number of objectives and expand the list over time. Measurementof progress of achieving targets should be determined. An Environmental Management Program is developed byplanning to achieve objectives. Targets should be set by definingresponsibilities for achieving goals and means and time frame for achievingthem. Therefore, an Environmental Management Program acts as a road map/actionplan for achieving environmental goals. Re-evaluation of the action plan andfocus in continual improvement should be made. Structureand responsibility defines effective roles and responsibilities and ensuresthat the top management provide resources including human resources,specialised skills, technology, and financial resources. Small and medium-sizedorganisations may have advantages over large ones in structuring theirresources for environmental management as resource being limited; people haveexperience in performing multiple functions. Structure and responsibility isneeded for an EMS to live up to its full potential. Training,awareness and competency are important for awareness, motivation,commitment, skills/capability, compliance and performance as every employee canhave potential impacts on the environment by generating good ideas forimprovement. Training should be conducted and tracked and its effectivenessevaluated. Establishment of internal and external communications onenvironmental management issues for neighbours, community groups, otherinterest groups, local officials, regulatory agencies and emergency respondersshould be effected to maintain the flow of useful and required information.Effective communication can help to motivate workforce, gain acceptance for thecompanys plans and efforts, explain the companys environmental policy, ensureunderstanding of roles and expectations, demonstrate management commitment,monitor and evaluate performance and identify potential system improvements. EMSdocumentation by maintaining information on EMS and related documentsshould be done to provide adequate information to the people involved in thesetting up of the EMS and also to external parties like customers, regulators,lending institutions, registrars and the public for better understanding. Documentcontrol is a mechanism providing up-to-date procedures, instructions andother documents to ensure effective management of procedures and other systemdocuments . It ensures that people are consistently performing in the rightway. It is linked with EMS documentation, operational control and records. Operationalcontrol is effected by identifying, planning and managing operations andactivities in line with company policy, objectives and targets which includedocumented procedures to manage environmental policy, significant environmentalaspects, objectives and targets and legal and other requirements. It ensuresthat the commitments of the environmental policy is satisfied and preventdeviations from the policy. Operational control is also needed to managesignificant aspects or legal requirements. Emergency preparedness and response is to be maintained to reduceinjuries, prevent or minimize environmental impacts, protect employees andneighbours, reduce asset losses and minimize downtime. It serves as a tool todetermine whether more training and revision of emergency plans and proceduresis needed. Monitoringand measurement of key activities and performance is essential to evaluateenvironmental performance, analyse root causes of problems, assess compliancewith legal requirements, identify areas requiring corrective action, improveperformance and increase efficiency. In general, is serves as an assessment ofhow well the system is performing and helps to manage the organisation better.Monitoring is done effectively when current and reliable data is available byproper EMS documentation and Document control. Non-conformance and corrective and preventive action is essentialto identify and investigate problems, identify root causes, identify andimplement corrective and preventive actions and make sure actions are trackedand their effectiveness verified. Most EMS problems are identified by internalauditors by accessing information from operation control and monitoring andmeasurement. Records are essential to demonstrate the actual implementation ofthe EMS designed. Records have value internally as well as over time when thereis a need to provide evidence to external parties such as customers, aregistrar or the public. Accurate records is also essential for a system tooperate consistently. Virtually every element of the EMS can result in thegeneration of records as it is inter-linked. An EMS audit is a systematic and documented verification processof objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence to confirm whether anorganisations environmental management system conforms to the environmentalmanagement system audit criteria set by the organisation. In a smallerorganisation, periodic audits can be particularly valuable as managers close tothe work may not often see the problems or insufficient procedures that have beendeveloped. Management review is the key to continual improvement and forensuring that the EMS will continue to meet the organisations needs over time.They also offer a great opportunity to keep the EMS efficient and costeffective. Smaller organisations often favour employee experience over writtenprocedures and documented systems. However, personnel turnover withoutdocumented systems can stall progress. On establishment of an EMS, it isessential to evaluate how useful it is to relate to the companys policytowards sustainable development. For any company, economic growth has been considered as a major indicatorof a healthy society, but lately, the environmental cost has been recognised bythe society. So there is a need to develop sustainable development a meansof satisfying present needs without compromising the ability of the futuregenerations to meet theirs. The implementation of sustainable managementinitiatives has been mainly a reaction to environmental pressures, legalobligations, risk management, customer demands and competition. This has leadto a change in the stakeholders interpretation of sustainable developmentthrough constraints of politics, economics, science, culture and religion. The intent of an EMS is to facilitate a voluntary implementation of aneffective management system for both sound environmental performance and alsoparticipation in environmental schemes. The design principle of an EMS is notto be a regulatory device as such, but as a regulatory device with the objectiveof sustainable development. To evaluate their role in sustainable development,in their current form, EMS only functions for continual improvement onenvironmental objectives and targets after considering regulations, effects ofthe products on the environment, organisational goals and views of concernedparties. Implementing an EMS does not alter the basic obligation to comply with applicable requirements or the requirements themselves. Through compliance, they provide ways to make achievement of that end more sustainable and predictable. So EMS has emerged as a important tool in improving performance above legal minimums and widely accepted. References. Cascio, J.,Woodside, G and Mitchell, P. (1996) ISO 14000: A guide to the New InternationalEnvironmental Standards. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Hillary (1994)The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme: A Practical Guide. UK: Stanley Thornes(Publishers) Ltd. IAS (1991)International Accounting Standards (2nd Edition). Vol I II.IAS No 1-31. Copenhagen: FSRs Forlag. International Network for Environmental Management. (2004) YourEnvironmental Management Tool Box, INEM. http://www.inem.org/htdocs/inem_tools.html#Anchor-ISO-11481[12/08/2005]. Netrags. (2005)Environmental Management Systems, Netrags. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs/275207/587836/?version=1lang=_e[14/08/2005]. Rao, P K. (2000)Sustainable Development Economics and Policy. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. SETAC (1991) ATechnical Framework for Life-Cycle Assessment. Washington DC: SETAC. Stapleton, P J.,Glover, M A. and Davis, S P. (2nd Eds) (2001) EnvironmentalManagement Systems: An Implementation Guide for Small and Medium-SizedOrganisations. NSF. Sturn, A andUpasena, S. (1997, 1998) ISO 14001 Implementing an Environmental ManagementSystem (version 2.02, 1998). Available from: www.ellipson.com[12/08/2005].

Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Misconceptions Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair Essay examples -- e

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Upton Sinclair had always insisted that The Jungle was misread but did he ever think it could have been miswritten? The style of writing is not effective when addressing issues in a capitalistic society but proves to be very effective when exposing the secrets of the meatpacking industry. The novel is not remembered for being a classic work in literature but rather an important book in history in that it changed the way America looked at food in the early part of the century.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sinclair loses his argument for Socialism at around the time when the characters in the book lose their humanity. The multitude of unfortunate situations and events makes the story more and more unrealistic and the reader loses a sense of compassion for the characters. Now, instead of being characters, they become objects in which the most you can do is pity them. When Jurgis comes home from jail to find his barely eighteen year-old wife dying, the third person omniscient narration guides the reader through the mind of Jurgis: â€Å"She was dead! She was dead! He would never see her again, never hear her again! An icy horror of loneliness seized him.† (190) After Ona’s death, one could not anticipate anything more to go wrong, but it does. In just a short time later, Jurgis’ son Antanas drowned in the street. It is extremely obvious that Sinclair is a Socialist himself. Anything and everything that could go wrong in the first three quarters of th...

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Symbolism of Mount Rushmore Essay -- Politics

The View from Mount Rushmore Amidst the Black Hills of South Dakota, the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln watch over the nation. George Washington, often called the father of the nation, was a leader in the American Revolutionary War to win independence from Great Britain and later became the first president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and added territory that doubled the size of the nation through the Louisiana Purchase. Theodore Roosevelt demonstrated strength, sought to improve the country through the Progressive movement, and constructed the Panama Canal (Nsp.gov). Abraham Lincoln sought to keep the country united during the Civil War and ensured freedom to African American slaves. The memory of these great leaders of the United States of America is forever carved into stone. Tourists who visit the monument each year are reminded of the ideals of freedom and democracy that these four presidents fought for a nd instilled in this country. Gerard Baker, the superintendent of Mount Rushmore spoke about the significance of the monument saying, â€Å"Mount Rushmore is a memorial that symbolizes America, and Americans should never lose sight of their cultural beginnings† (Nsp.gov). These men represent the freedom that this nation was founded on and yet, the image of this monument is often used to criticize the current situations of the country. Mount Rushmore has become more than a static symbol of freedom; it has transcended the past and has been utilized to create new and deeper meaning in a myriad of issues. Michael McGee defined ideographs as â€Å"culturally-grounded, summarizing, and authoritative terms that enact their meaning by ... ...oon/d8aab341-fbce-44cd-83e2-0ef20c01a75f.html>. NPS.gov. 2007. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 29 Oct. 2007 . PBS.org. 2007. Public Broadcasting Station. 2 Dec. 2007 . Pismestrovic, Petar. â€Å"Dreamland.† Cartoon. PoliticalCartoons.com. 2007. Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index. 29 Oct. 2007 . Dr. Seuss. â€Å"Liberators of America.† Cartoon. Introduction to Political Cartoons. 2007. 29 Oct. 2007 . Williams, Mike. â€Å"Back of Mount Rushmore.† Cartoon. Cartoonstock.com. 2007. Cartoonstock. 29 Oct. 2007 .

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The Extinction of Penguins

Emperor Penguins have been around for millions of years. Although they are a type of bird they can not fly. They walk, slide on their stomachs, or swim. They can swim up to nine kilometers an hour. That is faster than an average person can run. Emperor Penguins can hold their breath over twenty minutes and dive over eighteen hundred feet. Another interesting fact about them is that they show no aggression towards humans. The real question is though whether or not Emperor Penguins are on their way to extinction? Some of the reasons why we may think this would be climate change, depletion in food supply, pollution, tagging, and their predators. Climate change is the reason for the Emperor Penguin population to decline by fifty percent over the past fifty years. Penguins use the ice to escape from predators, and to raise their chicks. A temperature increase of 2. 1 degrees Celsius will jeopardize forty percent of the world’s Emperor Penguins. When the ice melts before the chicks have matured and grown their waterproof feathers, chicks that are swept into the ocean are likely to die. If the ice isn’t sturdy enough to last until when the chicks are ready to head out to sea, they aren’t going to be able to raise them. The loss of sea ice for adult penguins can lead to lower food availability, which can result in increased mortality. In Antarctica an Emperor colony has declined from 250 pairs to 10 pairs since 1960, due to rapid loss of the sea ice. Since global climate change has been causing the rapid melting of sea ice, the amount of krill in the southern oceans has decreased in recent years. Krill in which many penguins feed upon, survive by feeding off the algae which forms on the underside of the sea ice. So the reduction in sea-ice which has resulted from climate change has meant there has been much less food for penguins to eat. If this continues to happen the Emperor Penguin population is going to keep on declining. Over fishing of krill, and fish is another factor in helping penguins become extinct. It is putting pressure on food chains and food availability for penguins. Industrial fisheries deplete the penguins’ food supply and entangle and drown the penguins in longlines and other destructive fishing gear. The more fish and krill being caught by humans the less food there is for penguins to be able to eat. Ocean acidification which is caused by the absorption of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the oceans is also harming penguins. Plankton is a major part of the food chain for many fish on which penguins feed. As gases are absorbed into the oceans, they become less hospitable places for plankton and other organisms to live which is less food penguins have to eat. Oil pollution kills tens of thousands of penguins annually. The oil destroys the natural water repellent on their feathers, causing the birds to become vulnerable to hypothermia. Penguins also consume the oil while trying to groom, poisoning them and causing internal organ damage. The oil also kills the penguins’ food and poisons the penguins when trying to eat contaminated fish. The banding of penguins is another issue contributing to the declining population of penguins. The first evidence that flipper bands might be causing damage to penguins came in the 1970s. Zoos reported that the bands would wound penguins’ flippers, especially during the yearly molt, when flippers enlarge. Over a ten year period, banded penguins produced thirty-nine percent fewer chicks and had a sixteen percent lower survival rate than unbanded birds. Banded penguins also had less time and energy to reproduce and care for their young because they spent more time searching for food and provisions and arrived more than two weeks late to breeding areas. The penguins wearing bands expend twenty-four percent more energy while swimming and attract the attention of predators. Rory Wilson, an ecologist at Swansea University said the extra baggage likely increased the drag penguins experienced and impaired their athletic ability.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Act I of the Crucible Essay

In reading the overture, before any dialogue takes place, we are given a small glimpse into the world of the Salemites. Miller speaks briefly of the town and the surrounding wilderness. The placement of Salem, surrounded by the impenetrable forest already starts building tension. The simple fact that forest is present prevents escape from Salem and therefore the inhabitants of Salem are unable to physically remove themselves from their problems and conflicts within the community. The forest itself is described as: ‘dark and threatening’, by Miller. This introduces an almost intangible danger and constant threat to the play. This alone will make the Salemites feel trapped; this pressured feeling being reflected throughout the play. More significant is the way in which the forest is said to be: ‘over their shoulders’. This creates a feeling that the inhabitants of Salem are being overshadowed by this great threat. As the play is a battle between light and dark, good and evil, this is particularly meaningful as it shows Salem being overpowered by the darkness. It also adds to the feelings of threat and menace the Salemites feel because it implies an unseen ‘something’ watching them. When viewed in a historical context the forest serves another purpose. At the time of writing McCarthyism was sweeping America. Although more obvious parallels are drawn later in the play I believe the forest represents the looming threat of being accused a communist sympathiser. The audience would empathise with the Salemites through this shared threat; this link would have been used by Miller to give the entire play more impact. Another way in which Miller creates a feeling of tension is through the language used in both stage directions and in the speech of the characters. Miller uses ‘power words’ to create an atmosphere of tension throughout the play. On the first page with speech, page six, words such as: ‘frightened’, ‘trouble’ and ‘fury’. It is evident from the start that Salem is not the perfect pilgrim village it is meant, and used, to be. The fact that something is wrong in this village, wrong enough to make a minister weep, and react with such violence grabs the attention of the audience instantly. The stage directions are particularly telling of the moods of characters. Page seventeen sees Abigail and Proctor alone for the first time and the tension between them is clearly visible. For example ‘Abigail has stood as though on tiptoe, absorbing his presence’, when someone is on tiptoe their entire body goes tense as though anticipating something. This may be a very literal way of showing us tension between Proctor and Abigail. Later, on the same page, Abigail ‘springs into his path’. Again the word spring suggests she has been coiled, tense, awaiting his movement and it is this anticipation that Miller uses to great effect when showing us chemistry between two characters. Of all things, perhaps the fear of the unknown is the most potent. Miller uses this from the start and builds tension around the fact that the audience has as little or less information about the preceding events as the characters. As both the audience and characters are apparently in the dark about events surrounding Betty’s condition there is again a link draw up between the two, this is used to the same effect as the McCarthyism link. Speech patterns also show the stress of the characters involved. For example, most characters start to shorten their words and speak in a far more rigid fashion than usual when feeling threatened or angry. These monosyllabic phrases litter the play and show the audience the rising conflicts in the community. On page twenty-six this is especially apparent. ‘He had no right to sell it’, says Putnam to Proctor. All the words in this sentence are monosyllabic, sharp and to the point. It is these changes that show the audience how the characters are really feeling. Miller uses these phrases to both show tension and to create it between characters throughout the play. Repetition plays an immense part in ‘The Crucible’. Specific words such as ‘evil’, ‘unnatural’ and most obviously ‘Devil’ are repeated to the point where they are appearing almost every page. Only Proctor and Paris seem set against the idea of supernatural tampering and even when the village is faced with a mass of evidence which supports more mundane explanations of events the cries of witchcraft are still as loud. It appears as if the Salemites want to believe Lucifer himself is threatening them. There is probably a lot of truth in that statement. The Salemites had fled England but a few generations ago and had done so to avoid persecution because of their beliefs. Now the Salemites are trapped and alone. It is ironic perhaps that their flight to freedom has in reality increased their isolation. Now they have no one to fight either. They were truly alone; perhaps the manic belief in Lucifer’s conquest of Salem was a release, an enemy against which they could fight the good fight. Without the unconverted heathens England offered it what was left but fighting the Devil himself or looking to your neighbour for anything that could be seen as an unholy blemish? The Salemites belief in the Devils power in Salem may have been started by the girls but was carried onwards and taken higher by almost all of the inhabitants of Salem, possibly because they wanted to believe in the corruption of their village. This scenario, as presented by Miller in Act I of ‘The Crucible’ is at the core of all tension throughout the play. Miller makes us see how incredibly dangerous society can be when in the grip of hysteria, the audience of then would have known all too well. Through uses of different devices Miller feeds and augments the underlying tension at key moments until we realise that some dreadful act must take place before the village will realises what it has done. What action could be interpreted as the Devil’s work in a society gone mad? As we see from Goody Nurses and Proctors hanging, anything. Act i of the crucible? Essay â€Å"In what important ways does Miller prepare us for the hysteria and the accusations of the witch-hunts in Act I of The Crucible? † In The Crucible, it was important for Miller to fully show that the witch-hunts in Salem were not some unforeseen, unpredictable chain of events, but the result of many different, precisely added elements. He, therefore, had to display to the inevitability of such events by revealing the true nature of the Salem’s society: unstable and extremely volatile. This instability among the people of Salem, stems mainly from their own insecurities. Any person heard to make a statement that is vaguely accusative is counter-attacked with a provocative statement far exceeding that of the first. Such an incident occurs when Proctor identifies Putnam’s support for the system of voting by acreage by saying Putnam â€Å"cannot command Mr Parris† because the society â€Å"votes by name†¦ not by acreage. † He says Putnam is arrogant in thinking that because he owns more land than Parris, he has the right to order him; the belief being that he is autocratic. Putnam, taking offence, responds by accusing Proctor of two other things. By stating that he didn’t â€Å"think [he] saw [Proctor] at the Sabbath meeting since the snow flew† he is questioning Proctor’s religious devotion using inflammatory language, which is a serious accusation in a theocracy like Salem. He is also saying that the idea of â€Å"one man: one vote† is void for Proctor because he doesn’t take the interest in the society that one man should. From a single remark by Proctor, two, far greater reactions were induced in Putnam. The result is an almost exponential escalation of emotions. This constant attacking and counter-attacking makes the people of Salem very insecure. These insecurities are combated by them putting up emotional barriers to contain their anger, envy or any other emotion that would render them liable to an attack. This is done by creating an external being that is responsible for a person’s inner evil: the Devil. Mrs Putnam displays this when she uses extremely inflammatory language in attempting to resolve Betty and Ruth’s mysterious sleep. She uses explicit imagery of the Devil and describes â€Å"death drivin’ into them, forked and hoofed†. This is an easily defensible point of view, because anyone who challenges it would be â€Å"trucking with the Devil† themselves and become open to attack. Mrs Putnam finds a vent for her anger at â€Å"seven dead in childbirth† with her provocative exclamations such as â€Å"it is surely the stroke of hell upon you† and â€Å"what person murdered my babies? â€Å". By asking that question, she is indirectly accusing anyone in the village. This shows a woman who is desperate to find an explanation for her misfortune and believes she will find it in the people of Salem who have been in contact with the Devil. She uses the Devil as a scapegoat and weights it with all her inner evils. She is, therefore, extremely enthusiastic to find someone who has been in contact with it in order to blame that person. With the entire village thrusting all their troubles and inner evils into a single element, a huge tension is created by the repression of their real emotions that are blamed on the Devil and the innate human desire to find someone else to blame; someone who is responsible for your evil and not, as Rebecca says, to â€Å"rather blame ourselves†. This livid search for a devil and the barriers that are put up by people create people who amalgamate together to form groups with their defining factor often being that of vengeance. Parris believes one of these groups or factions â€Å"is sworn to drive him from† his pulpit. They are not created by people actually admitting themselves, but by other people, usually in opposition, categorising them. Mrs Putnam identifies these groups when she describes the â€Å"wheels within wheels, fires within fires†. The society, therefore, fragments and divides itself. If, as Mrs Putnam shows, the people of Salem cannot accept their own evils and they believe the â€Å"Devil† cannot possibly be within them, that which defines them as a â€Å"good† person must be that which is not the â€Å"Devil†. Therefore, the â€Å"Devil† must, by nature of the society of Salem, be the thing which is diametrically opposed to the person of God and its location must be in a faction or group physically outside their house and spiritually outside their religion. Miller uses these groups to create a self-sustaining repression in Salem. As the people are forced by the factions to repress their feelings and emotions and keep them bottled up, their emotions are heightened by the constant arguments that take place. Act I is an introduction to the society and a period of time in which to show its many tensions. At the end of the act, the tension between all these emotions and the repression is released and Hale says himself that â€Å"it is broken, they are free. † This shows us that the unstable and volatile society is, indeed, at breaking point. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Homo Neanderthalensis – the Neanderthals

Since their discovery more than a century ago, the Neanderthals have hovered over the minds and have baffled the best-laid theories of paleoanthropologists. They seem to fit in the general scheme of human evolution, and yet they’re misfits. (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan and Ciochon. p. 367) In a way they are like us the modern Homo sapiens but yet are a very different species. But the real question that needs to be answered is â€Å"why the Neanderthals were considered a different species than the Homo sapiens and what made them go extinct? † The first Neanderthal remains were discovered in the year of 1856 in Germany. This discovery of a skullcap and partial skeleton in a cave in the Neander Valley (near Dusseldorf) was the first recognized fossil human form (Smithsonian 2007b). This was the first time Neanderthal fossils were discovered, as skulls were unearthed in Engis, Belgium in 1829 and Forbes’ Quarry, Gibraltar in 1848. However; these earlier discoveries were not known as belonging to archaic forms. The type of specimen, named Neanderthal 1, consisted of a skull cap, two femora, three bones from the right arm, two from the left arm, part of the left ilium, fragments of a scapula, and ribs. When this skeleton was recovered the workers thought the bones belonged to a bear. The workers then gave the material to an amateur naturalist Johann Karl Fuhlrott, who then in turn gave the fossils to anatomist Hermann Schaffhausen. The discovery was jointly announced in 1857. In 1864, a new species was known as: Homo Neanderthalensis. These, and later, discoveries led to the idea that these remains were from the ancient Europeans who played an important role in modern human origins. The bones of over four hundred Neanderthals have been found since. The most controversial one was excavated in 1908 at La Chalpelle-aux-Saints in southeast France. This was a nearly complete skeleton of a man who would have been elderly by the Neanderthals standards. The bones were analyzed between 1911 and 1913 by the well known French paleontologist, Marcellin Boule. But unfortunately his prejudices got in the way of scientific objectivity. He described the La Chapelle- aux-Saints man, and subsequently all Neanderthals, as dull- witted, brutish and ape-like creatures who walked hunched over with a shuffling gait. Today scientists think he misjudged the Neanderthal posture because the adult male that was discovered had osteoarthritis of the spine. Also, and probably more important, Boule and his contemporaries found it difficult to fully accept that the Neanderthals would have been the ancestor of modern humans. The skull of this male, which was 40 years old when he died, is very large with a cranial capacity of 1,620cm. Typical of western European classic forms, the vault was low and long; the brow ridges are immense, with the typical Neanderthal arched shape; the forehead was low and retreating; and the face was long and projecting. The La Chapelle skeleton wasn’t a typical Neanderthal, but and unusually robust male. Who â€Å"evidently represented an extreme in the Neanderthal range of variation† (Brace et al. , 1979, p. 117). The term â€Å"Neanderthal Man† was named by an Irish anatomist William King. He named them after the Neander River Valley. Classic Neanderthal fossils have been found over a large area, from northern Germany, to Israel to Mediterranean countries like Spain and Italy, and from England in the west to Uzbekistan in the east. The first proto- Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 350,000 years ago. (Bischoff et al. 003). By 130,000 years ago, full blown Neanderthal characteristics were present. Neanderthals became extinct in Europe approximately 30,000 years ago. There is recently discovered fossil and stone-tool evidence that suggests Neanderthals may have still been in existence 24,000 years ago, at which time they disappeared from the fossil record and were replaced in Europe by modern Homo sapiens. (Rincon 2006, Mcilroy 2006, Klein 2003, Smithsonian 2007b, 2007b, 2007c). The classic Neanderthal cranium was large, long, low and budging at the sides. Viewed from the side, the occipital bone is somewhat bun-shaped. The forehead rises more vertically than that of a H. Erectus, and the brow ridges arch over the orbits instead of forming a straight bar. The Neanderthals were robust, barrel-chested, powerfully muscled. They also had a large, thick skull, a sloping forehead, and a chinless jaw. This robust skeletal structure, in fact, dominates hominin evolution from H. Erectus through all premodern forms. (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan and Ciochon. p. 370). Neanderthals had a compact body of short stature. Males averaged 1. 7 m (5ft 5in) tall and an estimate to weigh 84kg (185lb), and females averaged 1. m (5ft) tall and an estimate 80kg (176lb). (Smithsonian 2007c). Neanderthals also differed from modern Homo Sapiens in that they had a low forehead, double arched brow ridge, larger nasal area, projecting cheek region, weak chin, obvious space behind the third molar, heavily-built bones, broad scapula, short lower leg and arm bones relative to the upper portions, occasional bowing of the limb bones, the hip rotated outward, a long and thin pubic bone, and large joint surfaces of the toes and long bones. (Smithsonian 2007c). Neanderthals had noses that were broad and very large. They had limb bones that were thick and had large joints which indicate they had strongly muscled arms and legs. The shin bones and forearms tended to be shorter than those of modern humans. The pelvis was wider from side to side than in modern humans and this may have slightly affected their posture. One striking feature of Neanderthals was the brain size, which in these hominins actually was larger than that of H. sapiens today. The average for contemporary H. sapiens is between 1,300 and 1,400 cm, while for Neanderthals it was 1,520cm. The large size may have been linked with the metabolic efficiency of a larger brain in cold weather. Neanderthals mostly lived in cold climates, and their body proportions are similar to those of modern cold-adapted people for example the Eskimo people. The Eskimo people also live in very cold areas, and have a larger average brain size than most other modern human populations. Neanderthals develop quite differently in their childhood than the Homo sapiens. Neanderthal children may have grown faster than modern human children. Where as modern Homo sapiens have the slowest body growth of any mammal during childhood with lack of growth during this period being made up later in an adolescent growth spurt. The possibility that Neanderthal childhood growth was different was first raised in 1928 by the excavators of the Mousterian rock-shelter of a Neanderthal juvenile. Arthur Keith in 1931 wrote, â€Å"Apparently Neanderthal children assumed the appearances of maturity at an earlier age than modern children. †(Keith, Arthur p. 346) The rate of body maturation can be inferred by comparing the maturity of a juvenile’s fossil remains and the estimated age of death. Evidence shows that Neanderthals had a complex culture although they did not behave in the same ways as the early modern humans who lived at the same time. Scholars debate the degree of symbolic behavior shown by Neanderthals as finds of art and adornment are rare, particularly when compared to their modern human contemporaries who were creating significant amounts of cave paintings, portable art and jewelry. Some researchers believe that the Neanderthals lacked cognitive skills to create art and symbols and, in fact copied from or traded with modern humans rather than create their own artifacts. The Neanderthals had a reasonably advanced toolkit classified as Mode 3 technology that was used by early members of our own species, Homo sapiens. This was also known as the Mousterian, named after the site of Le Mousteir. Near the end of the time of the Neanderthals, they began to utilize the Chatelperronian tool style similar to the blade tools of Homo sapiens. . The tools of the Homo sapiens differed from that of the Neanderthals. The tools of the Homo sapiens were much more detailed as they were made out of ivory, bones antlers, and wood. There is little evidence that Neanderthals used antlers, shell, or other bone materials to make tools; their bone industry was relatively simple. However, there is good evidence that they routinely constructed a variety of stone implements. The Neanderthal (Mousterian) toolkits consisted of sophisticated stone-flakes, task-specific hand axes, and spears. Many of these tools were very sharp. Neanderthals trimmed a flint nodule around the edges to form a disk-shaped core. Each time they struck the edge, they produced a flake, and they kept at it until the core became too small and was discarded. There is also good evidence that they used a lot of wood, although such artifacts would likely not have been preserved (Henig 2000). Chatelperronian is one of the most advanced tool style than that of the Mousterian. This occurred at about the same time as modern humans entered Europe. Many archeologists think that the Neanderthals were attempting to copy the types of tools that they observed modern humans making. Alternatively, it is possible that they may have obtained these tools by trading with the modern humans. While Neanderthals had weapons, no projectile weapons have been found. They had spears, in the sense of a long wooden shaft with a spearhead firmly attached to it, but these were not spears specifically crafted for flight. The Neanderthals used their hunting weapons for hunting prey in close proximity and usually hunted in their localized areas. Because Neanderthals had no long-distance weaponry and were mostly limited to thrusting spears, they many have been more prone to serious injury-a hypothesis supported by paleoanthropologists Thomas Berger and Erik Trinkaus (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan and Ciochon, p. 376). Where as the modern Homo sapiens made use of spear-thrower and bow and arrow. With these weapons the Homo sapiens had a wider range of social contacts, perhaps permitting larger, more organized hunting parities. The Neanderthals built hearths and were able to control fire for warmth, cooking and protection. They were known to wear animal hides, especially in cooler areas. However, there is no physical evidence that Neanderthal clothing was sewed together, and it may have simply been wrapped around the body and tied. A very intriguing find was excavated a hollowed-out bear femur that contained holes that may have been deliberately bored into it. This bone was found in western Slovenia in 1995, near the Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Some paleoanthropologists think that it might have been a flute, while others have expressed that it is a natural bone modified by bears. Another way in which Neanderthals differed markedly from contemporary modern Homo Sapiens, Homo sapiens employed a much wider range of materials from across Europe- such as seashells from Atlantic and mammoth ivory from southern Germany. Neanderthals, by contrast, probably stayed mostly around their caves and campsites. So they did not trade like the modern Homo sapiens. They probably transported their stone materials from short distances- just a few kilometers away. This suggests that Neanderthals activity was localized and territorial. Although much has been hyped about the Neanderthal’s burial of their dead, their burials were less elaborate than those of anatomically modern humans. The interpretation of the Shanidar IV burials as including flowers, and therefore being a form of ritual burial (Solecki 1975), has been questioned (Sommer 1999). On the other hand, five of the six flower pollens found with fossil Shanidar IV are known to have had traditional medical uses, even among relatively contemporary populations. In some cases Neanderthal burials have been found with grave goods, such as bison and auroch bones, tools, and the pigment ochre. On the other hand burial of Modern Homo sapiens were more much more complex, and frequently included both tools and remains of animals (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan and Ciochon, p. 378) Neanderthals occupied a range of environments across Europe and the Middle East and lived through a period of changing climatic conditions. Ice Age in Europe was interspersed with warmer periods but by 110,000 years ago average temperatures were on the decline and full glacial conditions had appeared by 40,000 years ago. There is evidence that the Neanderthals hunted big game and chemical analysis of their fossils shows that they ate significant amounts of meat supplemented with vegetation. Despite this mixed diet, nearly half of the Neanderthals skeletons studied show the effects of a diet deficient in nutrients. Researchers have long debated whether Neanderthals also included human meat in their diets. It is not always easy to determine whether the cut marks on human bones are due to cannibalism, or some other practice or even animal teeth. But in recent years new evidence has emerged that suggests that some Neanderthals may indeed have been cannibals on occasions. The cave of El Sidron in Spain yielded hundreds of Neanderthals bones with cut marks, deliberate breaks for marrow extraction, and other signs that the bodies had been butchered for flesh in the same way as animals. There is Neurological evidence for potential speech in Neanderthalensis existed in the form of the hypoglossal canal, which is a bony canal in the occipital bone of the skull. The canal of Neanderthals is the same size or larger than in modern humans, which is significantly larger than the canal of Australopithecines and modern Chimpanzees. The canal carries the hypoglossal nerve, which supplies the muscles of the tongue with motor coordination. Researchers indicate that this evidence suggests that Neanderthalensis had vocal capabilities similar to, or possibly exceeding that of, modern humans (Kay et al. 1998). However, a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, led by David DeGusta, suggests that the size of the hypoglossal canal is not an indicator of speech. His team’s research, which shows no correlation between canal size and speech potential, shows there are number of living non-human primates and fossilized australopithecines that have equal or larger hypoglossal canal. In 1997, geneticists were able to extract a short sequence of DNA from Neanderthal bones from 30,000 years ago. In July 2006, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and 454 Life Sciences announced that they would sequence the Neanderthal genome over the next two years. At roughly 3. billion base pairs, Neanderthal genome is about the size of the modern human genome. According to the preliminary sequences, 99. 7% of the base pairs of the modern human and Neanderthal genomes are identical, compared to humans sharing around 98. 8% of the base pairs with the chimpanzee. The researchers recovered ancient DNA of Neanderthals by extracting the DNA from the femur bone of a 38,000 year old male Neanderthal specimen from Vindija Cave, Croatia and other bones found in Spain, Russia, and Germany. Additionally, in 2010, the announcement of the discovery and analysis of Mitochondrial DNA from the Denisova hominin in Siberia revealed that this specimen differs from that of modern humans by 385 bases in the mtDNA strand out of approximately 16,500, whereas the difference between the modern humans and Neanderthals is around 202 bases. Groundbreaking analysis of the Neanderthal genome published in 2010 shows that modern humans and Neanderthals did interbreed, although on a very limited scale. Researchers compared the genomes of five modern humans with the Neanderthal, discovering that Europeans and Asians share about 1-4% of their DNA with Neanderthals and Africans none. This suggests that modern humans bred with Neanderthals after moderns left Africa but before they spread to Asia and Europe. The most likely location is the Levant, where both species co-existed for thousands of years at various times between 20-90,000 years ago. Interestingly, the data doesn’t support wide-scale interbreeding between the species in Europe, where it would have been most likely given their close proximity. Neanderthals persisted for hundreds of thousands of years in extremely harsh conditions. They shard Europe for 10,000 years with the Homo sapiens. Today they no longer exist. There are two main theories of why they have disappeared. The first theory says the Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens on a relatively large scale. Followers of this theory believe that although Neanderthals as organisms no longer exist their genes were present in early modern Europeans and may still exist today. Interbreeding diluted Neanderthal DNA because there were significantly more Homo sapiens. Neanderthals were a sub-species of Homo sapiens rather than a separate species and hence their scientific name is Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. There is quite a bit of evidence that supports this theory. There are features of Neanderthals in some Cro-Magnon (Homo sapiens) populations. For instance the discoverers of the 24,000-year-old skeleton of a modern human boy from Lagar Velho in Portugal argue that although the pelvis and facial morphology are sapiens-like, the robusticity and limb proportions are more Neanderthal-like. As the age of the skeleton is later than the time of the last known Neanderthal, these features must represent significant interbreeding and transmission of DNA between modern humans and Neanderthals. Cro-Magnon remains from Vogelherd in Germany and Mladec in the Czech Republic also exhibit a Neanderthal-like projection of the occipital bun at the back of the skull, more so than in later Homo sapiens. Various reasons have been proposed for the ‘replacement’ of Neanderthals by modern humans. Today, most theories accept that Neanderthals displayed advanced behaviors and adaptive strategies and were not sluggish brutes that stood no chance against the vastly superior Homo sapiens. Neanderthal reproductive success and survival rates appeared poor compared to Homo sapiens. Most Neanderthal remains were of individuals rarely over 30 years old and over half were children. Slightly better rates of reproductive success and childhood survival over 10,000 years could be all it took for Homo sapiens to replace Neanderthals. Neanderthals may have also lacked the adaptive nature of modern humans who had complex social networks across wide areas. Smaller populations of Neanderthals that tended to stay in limited areas may have made them vulnerable to local extinctions. The survival techniques of Neanderthals were not as developed as Homo sapiens. For instance, studies on stress and build-up of tissue in Neanderthal bones indicate they may have lacked systematic and directional planning in procuring food. This Neanderthal predominance of ‘brawn over brain’ may also be reflected in the number of skeletal injuries seen in both sexes, probably from close range hunting. Other studies show that 40% of Neanderthal remains have hypoplasia, a condition caused by lack of nutrients in early childhood. This is supported by tests on Neanderthal bone collagen which indicate that meat was very significant in Neanderthal diets to the point that they may be lacking the nutrients from other sources used by Homo sapiens, especially fresh water products and vegetable matter. Researchers also believe climate could have played a major role in Neanderthal’s extinction. New data on the glacial period that occurred from about 65,000 to 25,000 years ago (known as OIS-3) shows that it was a period of rapid, severe and abrupt climate changes with profound environmental impacts. Although Neanderthals were physically adapted to the cold, the severe changes in conditions (within individuals' lifetimes in many cases) allowed no time for populations to recover. I believe doing this research on Neanderthals has taught me a lot more than I knew. I was fascinated by the anatomical differences and similarities between the Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals. I got to learn a lot about their lifestyles, their cultures and how the Neanderthals became extinct. I was surprised to know that some Neanderthals showed evidence of cannibalism. Now having done the research on the Neanderthal, if I was asked to answer my own research question I would be able to answer it. Neanderthals were different from the Homo sapiens for various reasons. They were anatomically different than the Homo sapiens. The Neanderthals were strong and robust while the Homo sapiens today are not as robust and barrel-chested as the Neanderthals. Also the brains of the Neanderthals were larger than the Homo sapiens today. Also I found the extinction theories of the Neanderthals very interesting. I agree with the climate theory. It was mentioned as evidence that the weather was so abrupt and severe it might have affected the Neanderthals negatively leading them to go extinct. Overall this research project made me become aware of all our previous human ancestors.