Barriers of Effective Communication

Describe the barriers of effective communication. Introduction: If an individual (Sender) sends a message and the receiver interprets it in the same way as the sender had intended to express,the process of communication is said to be complete. But it is not always so. Certain barriers in communication affect the clarity, accuracy and effectiveness of the message. The barriers could be related to the communication system, mechanical devices being used, language or symbols being used for encoding, the sender and the receiver himself. There exist many barriers to communication and these may occur at any stage in the communication process.Barriers may lead to your message becoming distorted and you therefore risk wasting both time and money by causing confusion and misunderstanding. Effective communication involves overcoming these barriers and conveying a clear and concise message. Below are some common barriers to effective communication include: †¢ Physical Barriers: this has to do with poor or outdated equipment used during communications. Physical barriers are often due to the nature of the environment like background noise, poor lighting, temperatures that are too hot or too cold which in turn interfere with effective communication. Organizational Barriers: System design faults refer to problems with the structures or systems in place in an organization. This happens due to the physical distance between the sender and the receiver due to their task, power, and authority and status relationship. examples could be inefficient or inappropriate information systems, a lack of supervision or training, and a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities which can lead to staff being uncertain about what is expected of them. †¢ Ambiguity of words/phrases or Semantic Barriers:Different people assign different meanings to one specific message. Hence the communicator must ensure that the receiver receives the same meaning. It is better if such words are avoide d by using alternatives whenever possible. †¢ Attitudes or Interpersonal Barriers: Another main barrier is the fear and mistrust that form the roots of our emotional barrier which stop us from communicating effectively with our co-workers. These are based upon relationships, values held and attitudes of the members involved.Shortage of time for subordinates, lack of trust, can be a major hurdle in effective communication. emotions like anger or sadness can taint objectivity. Also being extremely nervous,having a personal agenda can make communications less than effective. †¢ Cross cultural/ Geographical Barriers: This barrier arises due to time, geographic locations and the effect of time upon reception of the message. Social relationships, words, colors, symbols concepts of time and space and perception are barriers peculiar to different cultures. Language Barriers: this can seem like an easy one, but even people speaking the same language can have difficulty understandin g each other if they are from different generations or from different regions of the same country. Slang, professional jargon and regional colloquialisms can even hurt communicators with the best intentions. †¢ Information Overload: it takes time to process a lot of information and too many details can overwhelm and distract the audience from the important topics. Keep it Simple and short. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject: If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message. For example: Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way ? Others cannot. †¢ Lack of Basic Communication Skills: The receiver is less likely to understand the message if the sender has trouble choosing the precise words needed and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver: A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver. Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message. one can improve effective organizational communication is by changing one’s thoughts and feelings with one’s colleague. In this way, we don’t just break down communication barriers, but also build relationships that work successfully for long.

Fall Fashion Trends

As we move into fall the weather gets cooler. The leaves start to change and so do clothes. Summer is out, and fall is here. It's time to put away the bikinis and purchase the latest in fall trends. Pick up these latest trends and you'll be a unanimous choice for most stylish. Just like last year skinny Scares are hot on the market. Expect to see not only bright colored skinny Scares, but also unique prints. For example, leopard and plaid pants will make an appearance on the fall fashion racks as well.The same style of skinny scares will be out on the market. Watercolors dresses found at stores like Lulu's already are popular from the summer and they will make their way into the fall season collection as well. The great thing about this dress is that it can be worn on the beach over your swimsuit, but it also can be worn for a fancy night out with the girls. As far as tops go fashion experts predict the effortless look of mixing and matching different prints will live on.The animal s weatshirts are at its peak in popularity for women of all ages. You can find these items at Forever 21 . For footwear, the reign of Toms will continue, but there is also a new shoe on the market and those shoes are Vans. Vans are similar to Toms accept more sneaker-like. Many people buy various prints and bright colors of Vans. There are all different types of Vans. They are made for both boys and girls. There are low tops, high tops, wide Vans, and skinny Vans.The famous skater, Tony Hawk, has his own brand of Vans. Boots are back. This fall expect to see the ankle boots back, but this time around they all have a more edgy vibe, including zippers and studs. The ankle boots are still in, but the newest style is combat boots. This military inspired boot instantly adds a touch of edge to any outfit, and they can be worn with Just about anything. If you follow these trends, then your fall wardrobe will be set and every person in school will be wondering how you got such great style.

By 1918 there was general agreement that a League Essays - Structure

By 1918 there was general agreement that a League of Nations should be established. The key articles of the actual covenant (constitution) spelled out the role of the league in identifying and addressing threats to peace, the settlement of disputes, and the imposition of sanctions against states violating international agreements. These articles occasioned limited disagreement. Participating nations also generally agreed that the league should be made up of an executive council, a deliberative assembly, and an administrative secretariat, but they disagreed over the exact function and makeup of these bodies. In an early draft of the covenant, membership of the council was restricted to the Great Powers and any smaller nation-states that the Great Powers chose to invite. However, the formulation that eventually prevailed designated the Great Powers as permanent members of the council while small powers had nonpermanent membership. The operation and membership of the assembly, which was the model for the General Assembly of the United Nations after 1945, was also a subject of some debate. In fact, its overall operation and significance was really only worked out in subsequent years. The administrative secretariat, set up as a coordinating and administrative body, was a less divisive issue. Its power was grounded entirely in the council and the assembly. The headquarters of the league were in Geneva, Switzerland, where the secretariat prepared reports and agendas. The assembly, which was made up of representatives of all the member governments, set policy and met on an annual basis. Britain, France, Italy, and Japan held permanent membership in the council, which met more regularly than the assembly. All decisions taken by the council and the assembly had to be unanimous if they were to be binding. The league also included a number of subsidiary organizations. One of these, the International Labor Organization (ILO) was a specific response to the Russian Revolution . It was hoped that the ILO would appease some of the more radical tendencies within the trade union movement in various parts of the world and curtail the attractions of international communism. A Permanent Court of International Justice was also set up, as well as a range of commissions that dealt with issues such as refugees, health, drugs, and child welfare. At the time of its foundation in 1919 the league had forty-two member governments. This increased to fifty-five by 1926; however, the failure of the United States to become a member contributed significantly to the decline of the organization by the 1930s. Meanwhile, Germany only became a member in 1926 and withdrew in 1933, while the Soviet Union was only a member from 1934 to 1939. The Japanese government departed in 1933, and the Italian government ended its association with the league in 1937.

Assessment Brief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assessment Brief - Essay Example groups, as well as our group, and with proper observation, we should be able to determine their good points and offer constructive comments about the part that we deem would need improvement. Our group was assigned the topic of Customer Care. The members were Fares Al- Naami,Ali Guhfli, Mohamed Echtibi, Issam Dalati, Ahmad al aomar. Our three good points were first, our effective power point slide show presentation that went well with our topic; second, our introduction was attention-getter even though it was brief, and third, the write-up that we had distributed was relevant to the information we presented. However, we have to admit that we have to improve in some issues, like team preparation. We displayed poor teamwork. We were obvious in relying on our personal notes, that we appeared less prepared and we missed employing the proper eye contact with the audience and the use of body language was almost totally missed because we were more preoccupied with our notes. On the process, we were not effective in the interaction aspect, and for a while, lost our contact with the audience because we were not able to hold their attention. Without waiting for anyone to suggest to us, we acknowledge the need for our group to research more, spend time with the other members in reviewing our presentation over and over again and aim for more quality in our work. We could have rehearsed and prepared a list of possible questions that the audience would be expected to ask. The second group, composed of Martin Kredba, Selcuk Ugur, Refik Iyiuyarlar, Cuong Khuat, and Tomas Vagasky, was given the topic Interactive Marketing. The only good points worth mentioning about their group was their presentable physical attributes which were quite impressive. They looked so formal, as if they really meant business. And next, they were able to adhere to the time element allotted for each group. Regretfully, other than these two, we cannot pinpoint anything else that could be

Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Education - Essay Example However, there exist a degree of consensus in the field of education regarding its goals, concepts, and principles. The main goal of teaching multicultural education is to restructure the schools in order for students to acquire skills, attitudes and knowledge that are needed to function in a racial and ethnically diverse world. Additionally, it also seeks to ensure education equity for students with diverse cultural, racial, socioeconomic groups and ethnics. It also provides students with educational experiences which enable them to maintain their commitment to their cultures, in addition to acquiring skills, cultural capital and knowledge that is needed to function in the community. In this regard, this paper aims at expounding on the challenge of teachers in recognizing the multiple identities of students, and making their teaching responsive to students’ diverse identity in their work. The essay will also incorporate the definition of identity by Vygotsky and Erickson, as well as give examples of different identities through discourse, community, multiculturalism among others and lastly, explain some of the problems teachers face and their solutions. Some of the challenges the teachers face in recognizing the multiple identities of their students, in terms of making their teaching responsive to their student’s diverse identity in their work is the ability to incorporate knowledge and skills that will be of use to the multiple identities of the students. Coleman (1999) regards skills as democratic ability and living in order to function effectively within diverse groups as important goals of schooling. Student’s diversity in today’s classrooms underscores the importance of developing teaching strategies, policies and curricula in order to help every student in succeeding in school. However, an effort to affirm, welcome and understand all students as well as treat their linguistic and cultural background as equally important and va lid is one of the problem teacher’s faces. This kind of approach is important when it comes to addressing literacy for a diverse student population. Effective instruction literacy is built upon the linguistic and cultural background, ways of building meaning and prior knowledge that all students bring in classrooms. Broder & Chism (2002) claims that such instructions helps acknowledge the importance of the role of every culture in literacy and language learning. Therefore, when teachers respect and understand the array of different languages and cultures represented in their classrooms it helps them adopt or come up with strategies for teaching, which will support and encourage their student’s achievement. There is rapid shifting demographics of school-aged children, as well as other projects for enrolling students who are linguistically and culturally different from what is referred to as the mainstream in United States culture continues to increase. Such students dif fer from the mainstream in terms of primary language, social class and ethnicity. Teachers, will help improve the academic achievement of diverse students who come from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds by responding and being sensitive to the wide cultures in their classrooms. This is because; children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds do not experience high levels of academic success because their literacy is often unaddressed because such students were only encouraged to assimilate into the mainstream (Broder & Chism, 2002). Identity

Fashion - critical and cultural studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Fashion - critical and cultural studies - Essay Example The essay "Fashion - critical and cultural studies" concerns the feminine fashion. The durability and versatility of the corset as a defining garment is almost as astonishing as its continuing appeal. Even after it lost its widespread popularity, the continued use of the corset in Hollywood depictions of the feminine preserved its use, established its historic connotations and illustrated how it symbolized something larger than itself. Contemporary fashion has given the corset a new lease on life as women continue to turn to this garment as a means of identification within the modern world. Although the corset has traditionally been viewed as a symbol of female submission, any intrinsic meaning is subject to wide interpretation. â€Å"What the immediate meaning usually comes from is available imagery, past or present, the suggestive pictures that have pervaded public consciousness and are loaded with shared associations†. The tight-lacing of the 17th and 18th centuries indicat e the degree to which the corset was considered a means of female sexual expression and define ideas of female beauty. Understanding how the corset has been used in Hollywood, revitalized in cult fashions and re-introduced in high fashion illustrates how it can operate to convey female submission and aggressive sexuality depending upon the internal and external factors at play in its design and use within modern fashion. Hollywood and the big name movie producers have employed the corset in any number of ways from the beginning of the industry. The corset was already used in everyday dress when ‘Hollywood’ emerged and it was already a strategic garment in Vaudeville and Broadway. Even then, women craved the fashions they saw on stage depending upon the persona of the actress and the intentions of the wearer. Broadway and Vaudeville star Anna Held is the first great example of the corset as a defining garment of the female character. Most of her fame was not attributed t o her singing voice, but rather to â€Å"her rolling eyes, eighteen inch waist and naughty songs†. As is shown in Figure 1, Held continued the practice of tight-lacing in order to portray an enticing, sexually appealing woman with a tiny waist and accented upper features.

Determination of Exchange Rate Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Determination of Exchange Rate - Coursework Example The initial period was 1870 to 1914 where most countries adopted the gold standard where gold was used as domestic money. The above gold standard was a uniform exchange rate regime, though some countries constantly used silver while other countries gold inconvertible currencies (Ehrmann and Fratscher, 2004, p. 105). The start of the First World War interrupted this exchange rate era thereby bringing in the second phase that was 1914-1946. Under this second period, there were many changes as many countries saw great variations of currencies used among countries and the over time. Exchange controls were initiated with most countries utilizing the floating exchange rates (Escobar, 2012). It was noted that in the late 1920s, the efforts to restore the gold standards as were before the war began aborted (Deaton and Duprietz, 2011, p. 152). The exchange rate policy was dominated by the Breton Woods agreement that was signed in 1944 between 1946 and 1973. Through this pact, countries agreed to commit themselves to convertible currencies that could be converted to the current account and the fixed exchange rate (Chinn and Hiro, 2005, p. 301). The pact enhanced eschew of exchange controls and fixing the exchange rates due to the negative lessons that were experienced after the world war (Bagella, et al. 2006, p. 1152). Despite the increased application and use of the Breton Woods pact, Kenen (2000, p. 111) posits that the arrangement was strained since the 1960s and in 1973, fixation of exchange rates was officially abandoned by most countries in Europe and Japan thereby ushering in the next period of exchange rates that has been in application since 1973 to date where countries use floating exchange rates (Chinn & Hiro, 2005, p. 303). 2.2 Types of Exchange Rates 2.2.1 The Nominal Exchange Rate Regime The nominal exchange rate is the exchange rate of a given currency whose value is not averagely weighted in relation to the major currencies across the globe (Cooper, n.d. : 21). The weights of the currency are determined by the domestic country that places its currency in a given pool of global currencies that are measured by the balance of trade between these countries. The nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) is the relative value of a domestic currency as compared to major global currencies such as the U.S. Dollars, the UK Pound and the Japanese Yen among others. A high NEER implies that the domestic currency has a more value than the foreign currency while a lower NEER implies that the domestic currency has a less value as compared to the foreign currency. As noted by Eichengreen and Leblang (2003, p. 804), the nominal exchange rate refers to the exchange rate of a given currency in relation to the given foreign currency. 2.3 Real Exchange Rates Galindo (2006, p. 64) note that the real exchange rate can be distinguished from the nominal exchange rates since real exchange rates refers to the cost of foreign good relative to the cost of domestic products. It provides the required competitiveness in the market and it is necessary in explaining the behavior of trade and national income in a competitive global economy. The real exchange rate is usually volatile and it keeps varying based on various business environment factors (Ickes, 2004, p. 16). The big fluctuations in the real exchange rates could lead to improved welfare to an economy, though this is not

Rat trap boat evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Rat trap boat evaluation - Essay Example Our initial focus will be to discuss the evaluation plan for the construction of the rat trap boat. The evaluation plan will cover the following areas: background, purpose, limitations, questions, methods, instrumentation, time line, and budget. The assignment for the creation of said rat trap boat was initially given in an Engineering and Construction course. The purpose of this project is to create a moving water vehicle that is powered only by the energy stored in the spring from a mouse trap. The following limitations will be set in place: a standard mousetrap, the spring on the mousetrap will be the sole power source, the spring on the mousetrap will be cut and bent, but no heat-treated or chemically alteration will occur, the maximum length of the boat will be 18’ (this does not include the lever arm), all materials used will be non-hazardous, and the vehicle will be self-starting and steer itself. In an attempt to answer these questions the following methodology will be used to create a rat trap boat. First I will cut the balsa wood into a ten inch by five inch rectangle. Then I will cut one end into a point, making a boat shape. I will then cut a four inch by two and a half inch notch into the other end. Next, I will make four three inch by one and a half inch rectangles out of the balsa wood for paddles. I will then cut the dowel down to six inches. I will then hot glue the paddles to the dowel, making sure they are centered and evenly spaced. I will then allow paddles to cool completely. The next major step will be to wrap wire around the dowel on one side of the paddle and twist with a wire cutter. I will then trim it to about one fourth of an inch to make an axle pin. Now it is time to attach a one inch wire in a loop to one side of the back of the boat shape by hot-gluing one end to the top of the wood and the other to the bottom. I will then slide the end of the dowel through the loop and attach the second one inch wire to the other side, around the dowel. It is now important to place the mousetrap on top of the boat shape on the same side as the axle pin. I will then hot glue the mousetrap in place. Then I will tie string to the axle pin and turn the dowel until I have about two feet of string wrapped around it. I will then tie the end of the string to the â€Å"jaw† of the mousetrap securely. I will then set the trap and tighten the string around the dowel. The final step will be to place the boat into the water and release the trap. The jaw should slowly begin to close, pulling the string and causing

International Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

International Business - Assignment Example The failure of Virgin Express was due to a lack of environmental study of the country and the competition. Richard Branson subsequently desired to repeat the success of Virgin Blue in the United States by the new venture Virgin USA. This will be possible by taking a corrective strategic management and marketing analysis. The objective of the study is to evaluate the factors on which the success of the aviation industry depends upon when starting a new venture in a different location. The study reveals the importance of research, strategic management and environmental analysis for the success of Virgin Airlines. Introduction Virgin Blue airline under the guidance of Sir Richard Branson was launched in the year 2000. The motive of the airline was to provide a low fare carrier to the people of Australia. The Virgin Blue airline demonstrated the success story in the airline industry in the short run. Virgin Blue occupied nearly 30% of the market share of Australia through its low price s trategy. In this case study, the success and the failure of the Virgin brand is depicted. The case reflects that Branson did not get success in the low cost airlines in the initial years. The airlines before Virgin Blue and Virgin Express did not succeed in the European market and was unable to compete with its rival Ryanair and Easyjet. The company was in the exploratory process to merge with the SN Brussels to recover its status, but failed after the 9/11 attack. Furthermore, the venture by Branson to provide air liner facility to the tour operator in the name of Virgin Sun failed to succeed. The Virgin Sun airline was sold to the Firstchoice because of its failure in the market (Daas, 2004). Cynics one of the observant analysed that the success of Virgin Blue was because of the lack of competition in the Australian market. The downfall of the other airline created a scope for the Virgin Blue and gave it an easy entry. According to Branson, the success of Virgin Blue was because o f the strong management, strategy and the financial planning by the management. The objective of the case is to analyse the failure of the Virgin Express in the European market. It is important to analyse the local market before the implementation of the airline expansion strategy in a new country or region. The reason for the mergers by Virgin Express and the success of Virgin Blue are evaluated in the case. Question 1 The Virgin Express started its operations in the year 1996. The airline was formed by Virgin Group when it bought the Euro Belgian Airlines and renamed it as Virgin Express. The aim of the airline was to produce a low cost carrier for the people of Europe. The company had to face severe competition from the rival airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet. These two airlines were well established in the European market because of their strategic and marketing implementations. The airlines offered a very cheap rate foe the tickets. The tickets were sold at lower prices to t he people on the basis of first come first serve. This strategy encouraged people to buy the tickets much earlier. This created the demand for the airline of Ryanair and Easyjet. Moreover, the flexibility provided in the pricing strategy was attracting more customers. These strategies made the airlines to flourish and on the other hand the new airline Virgin Express was unable to meet these requirements in the European market and hence failed. The airline was then sold to SN Brussels Airlines in the year 2006

Comparing and Contrasting Hinduism and Bhuddism Essay Example for Free

Comparing and Contrasting Hinduism and Bhuddism Essay ​Being dedicated is what it takes for these two religions Hinduism and Buddhism. They are considered a way of life for some people. They are two of the most influential and practiced religions in the world today. Millions of people partake in these historical religions. Hinduism dates back to 1500 B.C. Buddhism developed a little while after Hinduism. They both derived in the very rooted country India. Hinduism and Bhuddism have many similarities and differences. ​Hinduism and Buddhism are very similar in many aspects. Both religions goal is to reach enlightenment. Enlightenment means wisdom. In Hinduism it is described as moksha. In Buddhism it is described as Nirvana. In both religions they try and reach this state of perfect understanding. In both religions reaching this state of perfect understanding involves reincarnation. Reincarnation is known as rebirth. It is when an individual soul is born again and again until enlightenment is achieved. These two religions may be similar when it comes to their goal but they do have many differences that make the two separate religions. ​Hinduism and Bhuddism have huge differences. Both religions’ founder and origins are different. In Hinduism is a collection of religious beliefs. It is the result of cultural diffusion. Because of that Hinduism has no founder. Non-Aryan and Aryan beliefs intertwined and developed into one religion. There are thousands of gods in this engaging religion. Unlike Hinduism in Buddhism there is a founder. Interestingly Bhuddism derived from the same period as Hinduism. Bhuddism is the result of religious questioning. Siddhartha Gautman aka Buddha is the founder of Bhuddism. He went on a quest to seek religious truth and an end to religious suffering. From then on he was called the enlightened one and Bhuddism was developed out of his discoveries and philosophy. ​In conclusion, Hinduism and Bhuddism have many things they make them different and alike. Hinduism and Bhuddism are what shaped people’s beliefs and understandings in that time period. These are the two religions that developed in the Vedic age. Currently almost 1/5th of the world today practiced these two religions. They are two very respected beliefs still being applied to lives today.

Science Empiricism Rationalism

Science Empiricism Rationalism The term social science is a misnomer which masks the necessarily different epistemic methods and ontological realities consistent with natural and social realms respectively. Critically appraise this claim In this essay I intend to dispute the notion that the term social science is a misnomer. Firstly, I will define social science, and then focus on the differences between rationalism and empiricism without whose existence there would be no epistemology. Empiricism will receive more attention due to the fact that that it has become the dominant epistemic approach, systematically and rigorously expressed through its offspring, ie ,materialism, sensism, positivism and naturalism. Second, I intend to allow ontological realities to manifest themselves through Kants articulation as both an empiricist and a rationalist. This will dispel uninteresting dichotomies and allow one to stand back, as it were, from ones own analysis of the topic. EPISTEMIC APPROACHES WITHIN THE NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES:Rationalism and Empiricism. According to Marshall social science is a general label applied to the study of society and human relationships†¦The designation of an area of study as a social science usually carries the implication that it is comparable in many ways to a natural science (1994 :493). The implication here is that natural and social reality can be studied in the same way because both realities consist of relationships between facts, eg, cause and effect. Note should be taken of the fact that rationalists and empiricists, despite their different approaches in their quest for knowledge, have both contributed immensely to the birth of different academic disciplines to which even modern day intellectuals subscribe. More interesting is that each of the two epistemic approaches claims their method of enquiry gives birth to valid information or certainty. According to Hamlyn rationalism ,whose founder is Descartes is an epistemological doctrine that puts weight on reason or understanding, as distinct from the senses or sense perception(1987:134).On the other hand empiricists believe the only source of knowledge is experience. John Locke held the view that the scope of our knowledge is limited to, and by, our experience(Stumpf,1983:254). RATIONALISM (i)Descartes: This philosophical movement was initiated by Descartes and carried on with varying degrees of thoroughness by Spinoza and Leibniz†¦(Hamlyn, 1987:134). A rationalist relies on logic and principles of reasonableness in order to arrive at a conclusion. One would clarify this by giving an example popularized by Rene Descartes that it is only in relation to thinking that I am certain that I exist(Hamlyn,1987:138).Descartes continues to maintain that existence must be a property of a being who is conceived of as possessing all attributes in perfection (Hamlyn,1987:141).Kant opposed this view citing experience was not a property of a thing in the way that Descartes supposes. Leibniz went further by maintaining that existence depends on whether that conception is coherent or involves a contradiction(Hamlyn,1987:140).One can partly agree with Descartes view that existence is a property of a being, but to say that its creator is perfect is a product of human imagination. Perfection, by th e way, remains an imaginary construct when taking into account the context in which Descartes states his case. For example, in order for one to be declared perfect, one has to adhere to the standard guidelines which should be followed in order to create a particular thing or use a previous model as a yardstick or even improve on it. It is ones belief that rationalism has not been a dominant epistemic approach. Kant and Locke, for example, have imbibed both epistemic approaches. To take it further most modern day individuals employ both approaches in their daily activities. (ii)Spinoza There was also another rationalist called Spinoza in whose views rationalism received its most systematic and rigorous expression. His main work was called ethics. According to Stumpf ethics is concerned with actions that can be labeled right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, worthy or unworthy. Also, ethics, is concerned with ones personal responsibility, duty, or obligation for his behaviour(1983:1)His concern with ethics should be understood in its proper context in that both the means and goals of social science investigation are intrinsically bound up with ethical considerations, especially when conducting research involving human subjects, eg., protection of privacy through informed consent. According to Hamlyn Spinoza provides †¦a striking contrast with Descartes ,who had little concern with things ethical(1987:149).Spinoza felt that there are three kinds of knowledge, ie, knowledge of vague experience- when we generalize from casual and confused experience. The second kind is identified with reason, and the third one is intuition(Hamlyn,1987:152).The second and third kinds of knowledge reflect a rationalist view in that they are necessarily true, and reason regards things as necessary (iii)Leibniz According to Stumpf Leibniz was dissatisfied with the way Descartes and Spinoza had described the nature of substance because he felt they had distorted our understanding of human nature(1983:246).Spinoza defines substance as that which is in itself: I mean that the conception of which does not depend on the conception of another thing from which it must be formed(Stumpf,1983:241).Leibniz on the other hand takes it that substance as a basic form of existence must be absolutely simple ,for if it were complex it would be secondary to whatever it is composed of (Hamlyn,1987:159).This means that Leibniz and Spinoza somehow agree that substance should not depend on anything other that itself to exist. But one would argue that their view has defied logic in that every entity or substance is an offspring or a product of a particular thing. It is interesting that Leibniz, despite being a rationalist, sought empirical evidence to defend his principle that no two substances can differ solo numero (Hamlyn, 1987:162-163). He pointed to considerations that tree leaves are all different, and subscribed to similar evidence which was assessed through the newly invented microscope. EMPIRICISM According to Comte, empiricism is an epistemological doctrine that all knowledge proper must be subject to canons of verification in terms of experience(Hamlyn,1987:275). Marshall (1994:149) defines empiricism as a term often used, loosely, to describe an orientation to research which emphasizes the collection of facts and observations, at the expense of conceptual reflection and theoretical enquiry. This implies that knowledge must undergo rigorous interrogation so as to be sure that it has not defied science. Empiricism presents itself in four ways: Materialism, sensism, positivism, and naturalism. (i)Materialism: According to Marshall materialism means a range of metaphysical positions (philosophical views about the fundamental nature of reality)†¦Whereas in classical times matter had been opposed to form, the dominant early modern contrast was between matter and spirit or mind(1994:315).Thinking of societies in terms of physical or material properties may be called materialism. We must also explain nature in terms of materialism. (ii)Sensism According to Knight all materialists are of course sensists†¦Locke as one the empiricists, derives all simple ideas from external experience (sensations), all compound ideas modes, substances) from internal experience (reflection) (1999:1-see bibl.12 ).One can argue that sensism is problematic in that perceptions and judgements may differ with different individuals, leading to incessant speculation. (iii)Positivism The acknowledged founder of positivism was the French philosopher and social scientist Auguste Comte. He also came up with the invention of the term Sociology.In the context of positivism, positive facts are things that can be observed or measured. Positivists argue that only that which can be observed and measured can be studied†¦(Le Roux et al,1986:174).This means that positivists regard grounding as very important in positive facts. An example would be Durkheims statement that there is a relationship between social integration and suicide(Haralambos,1980:496).This is real in that integration of people from various backgrounds, with different cultures can cause tension , alienation and personality disorganization According to Keat and Urry several conventionalist philosophers of science have been influenced by the later writings of Wittgenstein, and realist philosophy of science has partly been developed from the standpoint of scientific realism, a position which is opposed both to logical positivism and also to the movement of analytical philosophy inspired by Wittgenstein, Ryle and Austin(1980:6).It must be understood that although the realist and the positivist share amongst others a conception of science as an empirically-based, rational and objective enterprise, there is an important difference between explanation and prediction. Keat and Urry say that, for the realist, a scientific theory is a description of structures and mechanisms which causally generate the observable phenomena, a description which enables us to explain them(1980:5) It is worth mentioning how these varying accounts of positivism and realism expose knowledge as an elusive concept. After ones acceptance of positivism as irrefutable conception of the natural science, realism demands that we discover the necessary connections between phenomena, by deconstructing the observable phenomena. According to Keat and Urry†¦we must get beyond the mere appearances of things, to their natures and essences(1980:5).In a nutshell one can say that we have to peel away layers of constructed meaning to reveal the underlying layers of meaning that were suppressed or assumed in order for the phenomenon to take its actual form. Focus will be on three empiricists: (i)John Locke:(1632-1704) According to Hamlyn, the purpose of Locke is to enquire into the original, certainty, and extent of human knowledge, together with the grounds and degrees of belief, opinion and assent, without meddling with the physical consideration of the mind(1987:168-169).This implies that he is concerned with the limits of human understanding and one is bound to believe that Locke does not want any kind of social construct to be attached to this process, so as to give it independence. According to Kenny, Locke is forever talking about ideas(1994:129).This is evident in his first book entitled Of Innate Notions which contains a sharp attack on the notion of innate ideas. Hamlyn says Locke is concerned with two things: (i)whether there is innate knowledge of principles; and (ii)whether what he sometimes calls the materials of that knowledge; the ideas on which the knowledge is based, are innate. That distinction between knowledge and ideas affects the whole Essay(1987:169).One might assume that Lockes preoccupation or obsession with ideas was prompted by his intellectual rival, Descartes, who according to Kenny wrote that an infant in its mothers womb has in itself the ideas of God, itself, and all truths which are said to be self-evident, it has these ideas no less than adults have when they are not paying attention to them, and it does not acquire them afterwards when it grows up(1994:128). One can argue that innate ideas do exist, and they mature with time because exposure to externalities. The outside world will decide on their validity. Marshall says that Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman, in The Social Construction Of Reality(1966), view social processes as a dialectic of externalization and internalization(1994:167).According to Stumpf, Lockess fellow empiricists Bacon and Hobbes had urged that knowledge should be built upon observation (1983:254).This means that knowledge should be a product of scientific enquiry. Locke discarded the notion that we all came here with a standard stock of ideas built into the mind(Stumpf,1983:257).He said the origin of his ideas is experience, and experience takes two forms, sensation and reflection. What he elucidated was that we cannot have the experience of reflection (mind taking note of its operations) until we have had the experience of the sensation (ideas). (ii)George Berkeley: (1685-1752) Berkeley was influenced by Locke although according to Kenny, his importance in philosophy is largely as a critic of Locke(1994:140).His principal criticisms focus on three heads: the notion of abstract general ideas, the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, and the concept of material substance(1994:140).Because of Berkeleys criticism, Lockes empiricism is reduced into a unique form of idealism. 1.ABSTRACT IDEAS Lockes view that words represent ideas and general words correspond to abstract general ideas has come under attack from Berkeley. Locke says in his Essay, that according to the representational theory, a general idea is a particular idea which has been made general by being made for all of a kind, in the way in which a geometry teacher draws a particular triangle to represent all triangles(Kenny,1994:140).There is also what Kenny calls the eliminative theory, according to whom the general idea is a particular idea which contains only what is common to all particulars of the same kind. Berkeley is interested in how Locke combines features of the two theories. According to Kenny, Berkeley says it takes pains and skill to form the general idea of a triangle-for it must be neither oblique nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural nor scalenon, but all and none of these at once(1994:140).One can say that eliminative theory and representational theory are two sides of the same coin in that in eliminative theory, the idea becomes a general idea when the unwanted group is eliminated. With regard to the representational theory, an idea becomes a general idea when all subscribe to it. Kenny accuses both Locke and Berkeley of using the word idea to mean to mean indifferently a sense-experience, an image, a secondary quality, or a concept(1994:140). IDEAS AND QUALITIES We must move from the premise that one of Berkeleys views is that distance is not something immediately perceived but something constructed from certain orderly relations of the ideas of different senses in the mind. According to Shand, the equating of ideas with sensible things, which thereby makes sensible things mind-dependent, eliminates each of the following forms of skepticism produced by materialism and Cartesianism(1993:132): (a)The existence of sensible things. The problem is solved because the skeptic cannot drive a wedge between ideas if the objects of sense are ideas. (b)The nature of sensible things. Science aspires only to map the regular correlations between ideas ,that is between phenomena. (c)The existence and nature of God. The problem is eliminated by making God indispensable. Gods existence is seen as the real cause of those ideas that are not caused by our imaginations and as the sustainer of those ideas we do not actually perceive, the supposition that God does not exist is refuted by almost every experience we have. (d)How matter and spirit can interact. This problem is eliminated by denying the existence of material substance; then the problem of interaction between spirit and matter simply does not arise(1993:132-133) The implication here is that Berkeley believes that anything that can be sensed actually exists. THE CONCEPT OF MATERIAL SUBSTANCE (i) One should also note that Berkeley is an opponent of materialism. According to Shand, Berkeley it is impossible for matter to have only primary qualities such as extension, solidity, movement. He believes that we cannot conceive of a shape which is no colour, and therefore the conception of matter required for materialism is impossible. He instead suggests that all matter should have all secondary qualities, from which primary qualities cannot be separated (1993:133).One can assume that he is referring to qualities such as weight, sound, taste and identity. To say that every matter must be able to move is not accurately correct in that not all matter is a living organism; (ii) Berkeley says that what exists has got to be a product of something. In his own words he argues that it is a logical contradiction to talk of conceiving of a thing which exists unconceived (Shand,1993:133).But Shand sees this as a fallacious argument in that it is not possible for A to be conceived of, and at the same time both exist and be a thing unconceived, but that does not mean at some other time A could not exist as an unconceived-of A, thus there is nothing contradictory in A existing unthought about (1993;133).This means that A does not necessarily have to be thought about in order to exist. (iii) Berkeley argues that if secondary qualities (colour, taste, heat, sound, etc.) are ideas in the mind, as Locke does, then the same applies to primary qualities (shape, size, motion, solidity),for these two vary with the observer (Shand, 1993:133).Colour is arguably not an idea in the mind because one can see it. It is not clear whether, according to Berkeley, secondary qualities also include things that one cannot touch. (iv) This argument pertains to pain and heat. Berkeley holds the view that when we are close to the, heat is felt as pain in the mind, and when we are a distance away the heat is merely felt as warmth (Shand,1993:133-134).The argument here is that since the pain is not in the fire, then it must be in the mind. (v) Berkeley compares the notion of matter with what Locke has to say about substance in general. Locke suggests that substance is characterized by being the support of all qualities, the qualities cannot subsist alone. But Berkeley argues that an attempt to give substance a positive characterization is impossible, since to do so would attribute qualities to it. This would render substance a qualityless something. Although Berkeley sees this as a perfectly flawless argument, he believes that no materialist would suggest that matter is qualityless (Kenny,1994:134).This would mean that substance and qualities cannot exist in the absence of the other. DAVID HUME (1711-1776) He is said to have carried empiricism to its fullest expression. He believed the scientific method could lead us to a clear understanding of human nature and in particular the workings of the human mind(Stumpf, 1983:270-271).Some commentators find it difficult the precise position of Hume. The difference with Hume was that if we used the scientific method to determine truth, we must according to Stumpf, accept the limits of knowledge(1983:272).Probably he was expressing doubt about the efficacy of scientific enquiry in clarifying pertinent issues. According to Hamlyn, the doctrine that every simple idea is derived from simple impression is the center-point of Humes empiricism, and that it is crucial for his philosophy(1987:190).Both Hume and Locke opine that impressions are of sensation but disagree on reflection because Humes account seems different from Lockes. He (Hume) holds the view that impressions are distinguishable from ideas by their superior force and vivacity(Hamlyn,1987:190).This might be the case because of the complexity of impressions. Hamlyn sees this as a very important principle, and one which Hume inherited from Berkeley which is :one cannot distinguish between impressions and ideas by reference to anything outside them, only by internal properties such as their liveliness(1987:190).One can simplify this by making reference to pain. The only person who feels the pain is the one who is hurt and nobody else. One cannot for example, merely look at the husband and confirm that the wife is feeling pain , nor can the husband know how much pain is felt by the wife. NATURALISM According to Knight, naturalism consists essentially in looking upon nature as the one original and fundamental source of all that exists, and in attempting to explain everything in terms of nature(1999:1). What this means is that all events find their satisfactory experience within nature itself. There are two traditions that claim to understand the problem of naturalism. These are the naturalist and anti-naturalist traditions. The former claims that the sciences are (actually or ideally) unified with positivist principles. For the latter the subject matter of the social sciences consists essentially of meaningful objects, and their aim is the elucidation of the meaning of these objects(Bhaskar, 1979:241). A naturalist traditions association with positivist principles means that it relies on measurement and observation in order to study a phenomenon. The anti-naturalist tradition, one would argue, looks beyond observable phenomena by enquiring as to what the object is made of. Bhaskar argues that the two disputants ironically share a common error in accepting an essentially positivist account of natural science, or at least an empiricist ontology. One would argue that there is nothing wrong in adopting a positivist approach when interrogating natural science, because essentially positivism deals with things that can be observed and measured. It must be understood that there is a fundamental contrast between social and natural science. With regard to the latter the discovery of intelligible connections in its subject matter is not equally the goal of natural scientific explanation(Bhaskar,1979:2). Instead this applies to social science. It is argued that the recent developments in the philosophy of science permit a reconsideration of the problem of naturalism(Bhaskar, 1979:3). These could be the varying views brought about by the naturalists and anti-naturalists. For example, Winchs anti-naturalism depends on empiricist theories of existence and causality. Now Bhaskar argues that if science employs a causal criterion for ascribing reality and causal laws are tendencies, his contrast collapses(1979:3). This means that if causal laws apply to science, then it applies top both natural and social science, and more important is it has become a tendency; Bhaskar defines naturalism as the thesis that there is (or can be) an essential unity of method between the natural and social services. It has two species: reductionism which asserts that there is an actual identity of subject matter as well, and scientism, which denies that there are any significant differences in the methods appropriate to studying social and natural objects, whether or not they are actually (as in reductionism) identified (1979:3).What is noteworthy is that these factions of naturalism talk in universals almost to a point of denying an opposite view the right to existence. In a nutshell, science is just whatever scientists do, and it is expected of them to differ in the way they solicit knowledge. ONTOLOGICAL REALITIES Marshall defines ontology as anyway of understanding the world, or some part of it, must make assumptions(which may be implicit or explicit) about what kinds of things do or can exist in that domain, and what might be their conditions of existence, relations of dependency, and so on(1994:367).He goes on to say the core of the philosophical project of metaphysics is to provide an ontology of the world as a whole. One will note that by focusing on the world as a whole, there will be a systematic arrangement of the relations between the social and natural sciences. Focus will be on Kant because he is both an empiricist and rationalist. KANT We must move from the premise that Kant is both an empiricist and a rationalist, in that he tried to reconcile rationalism empiricism by arguing that while knowledge itself comes from experience, the mind uses reason to structure knowledge(Prof. McLeary, see bibliography-No.11).Kant is described as a person who was more interested in science than philosophy, with the aim of making it truly scientific(Kenny, 1994:167).This shows that he really is both an empiricist and a rationalist in that he felt philosophy should also undergo the same rigorous interrogation as other academic disciplines, including the natural sciences. According to Kenny the distinction between a priori and a posteriori is central to Kants undertaking. A priori knowledge which is independent of all experience†¦In addition to a priori knowledge there is also empirical knowledge, knowledge derived from experience which Kant calls knowledge a posteriori'(1994:167).With regard to a priori knowledge, one can cite space as an example because yet one knows it exists. A posteriori refers to things we have seen, or touched or even felt. According to Shand, knowledge for Kant, as for Leibniz, had to be necessary and universally valid(1993:161).We are tempted to believe that if information was not universally accepted as fact, then it would not be regarded as knowledge. Kenny says Kant regarded all of mathematics as belonging to this realm: arithmetic and geometry were synthetic, since they extended our knowledge widely beyond pure logic, and yet they were a priori, deriving not from experience but from intuition(1994:168).This is an interesting philosophical statement in that two contradictory phenomena are combined to produce something qualitatively new, independent of experience, an understanding of which does not require one to be taught or even think hard.coeb ebr seebebw oreb ebk ineb foeb eb! Kant says there are two pure forms of sensible intuition, serving as principles of a priori knowledge, namely space and time(1994:169).It must be noted that both time and space can never be touched. After having asked himself what time and space were, he then came up with the answers. He made a distinction between a metaphysical exposition of an a priori concept and a transcendental exposition. Marshall defines metaphysics as a philosophical project which devises theory of the nature or structure of reality, or of the whole world. Transcendentalism is the belief that God stands outside and independent of the universe of which he is a creator(1994:325538). Kant says that the metaphysical exposition of space and time tells us that space and time are presupposed by, not derived from, experience; that we can imagine space and time without objects, but not objects without space and time, and that there is a single space and a single time, infinite in each case(Kenny, 1994:169).We are bound to believe that objects would not exist if space was non-existent, and that they have time within which they can exist. The transcendental exposition of the concepts of space and time shows how we can know truths about space and time which are not analytic and yet are a priori(Kenny, 1994:169). The implication here is that we do not necessarily have to experience a thing in order to know that it exists. CONCLUSION It has become apparent that social enquirers happen to tamper with the supposed objective enquiry by allowing their personal values to feed into their conclusions. Accepting that matters of value are matters of fact, their values must be correct. The mushrooming of social study over the last 100 or 150 years was partly inspired by the notion that social study was a matter of searching for general laws(Pratt, 1978:72).General laws, one would argue, are rather required by the natural sciences. With regard to social science, a particular kind of human behaviour cannot always be attributed to a particular kind of a problem. Suicide, for example, is not seen by every person as a solution to marital problems. Also, capital punishment does not necessarily deter potential murderers. Within natural science it is usually possible to use rigorous investigative techniques by bringing the objects under study into the laboratory. It is not as easy with humans, because one has to get approval from eg, the individuals themselves or the ethics committee. In a nutshell, we cannot employ the methods of the natural sciences in understanding the social world. This is evident in Winchs statement that †¦whereas the scientist investigates the nature, causes and effects of particular real things and processes, the philosopher is concerned with the nature of reality as such and in general(Hindess,1977:3).The two methods are inextricably intertwined despite their different approaches in their quest for valid knowledge and ability to predict. To declare social science a misnomer is arguably inaccurate in that both epistemic and ontological enquiries are social products employed in pursuit of knowledge for the benefit of society. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Bhaskar, R. 1979. The Possibility of Naturalism:A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences. Atlantic Highlands, N.J. :Humanities Press. 2. Hamlyn, D.W. 1987. A History of Western Philosophy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 3. Haralambos, M Holborn, M.1980. Sociology: Themes and Perspectives. London. University Tutorial Press. 4. Harris, E.E. 1969. Fundamentals of Philosophy. George Allen Unwin Ltd. Great Britain. 5. Hindess, B.1977. Philosophy and Methodology in the Social Sciences. Sussex : The Harvester Press. 6. Keat, R Urry, J.1980.Social Theory as Science. Boston :Routledge Kegan Paul. 7. Kenny, A.1994. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Western Philosophy. Great Britain :Oxford University Press. 8. Le Roux,T., Romm,N. Uys, T.1986. Sociology.Pretoria : Unisa. qtiSgzkEX Visit coursework de in de fo de for de more hypothesis de Do de not de redistribute qtiSgzkEX 9. Marshall, G.1994. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Great Britain :Oxford University Press. 10. Pratt, V. 1978. The Philosophy of the Social Sciences. New York: Methuen Co. 11. Shand, .J.1993.The philosophy and Philosophers. Harmondsworth :Penguin Books. 12. Stumpf, S.E.1983. Philosophy :History and Problems. New York. McGraw Hill, Inc. 13. Philosophy of Science, 2001.Philosophical Schools. http://mrrc.bio.uci.edu/se10/schools.html. 14. Catholic Encyclopedia.2002. Empiricism. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05407a.htm.

Human Beings and Their Control Over Nature in the Twentieth Century Ess

Human Beings and Their Control Over Nature in the Twentieth Century Throughout the history of western civilization, the human race has had a continuing relationship with nature and the environment. Progress has improved the way in which human beings use natural resources and the ways in which they work together to improve the quality of life. Developments in science and technology of the twentieth-century have greatly improved the way that humans interact. As the technological advancements of the twentieth-century progressed from the discovery of vaccinations to computer age technology, humans have learned to take a considerable amount of control over their lives and the environment as compared to the past, in which humans had very little control over nature. These progressions have had positive and negative effects on society. Positively, medical research has been able to allow the human race to lengthen life span and improve the work of genetics. Science has connected the globe through computer technology. The negative aspects of progres sion have some far-reaching consequences, such as new forms of imperialism, the atomic bomb, and destruction of the environment. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, poor living conditions and disease plagued western civilization. Europeans had little control over their environment. The Old Regime way of life caused a fear of change and new ways of thinking were usually condemned. The economy of subsistence reflected the general outlook of society. Little or no growth took place. The mindset during this time period was, in fact, à ¬better safe than sorryà ®. Improvements, however, were made during the Industrial Revolution and throughout the twentieth centur... .... 9. Rogers 524. 10. Rogers 524. 11. Rogers 528. 12. Rogers 385. 13. Rogers 535. 14. Rogers 382. 15. Donald Kagan, et al, The Western Heritage Brief Edition Volume II: Since 1648 (Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1996) 697. 16. Kagan 747. 17. Kagan 747. Bibliography - Riehl, Nikolaus and Frederick Seitz. Stalin's Captive: Nikolaus Riehl and the Soviet Race for the Bomb. The United States of America: American Chemical Society and the Chemical Heritage Foundation, 1996. This book largely details the experiences of the scientist, Nikolaus Riehl, who spent 10 years as a captive of the Soviet Union. He worked on the production of pure uranium for the Soviet nuclear bomb program. This relates to the topic of Human Beings and Their Control Over Nature with respect to the production of nuclear weapons.

Compare and Contrast: Passage 1: Description of Tom, Passage 2: Gatsby

Compare and Contrast: Passage 1: Description of Tom, Passage 2: Gatsby seen The first passage is a description of Tom. He is portrayed as strongly built: "It was a body capable of enormous leverage-a cruel body." He also seems to be a brutal an supercilious man. Words as "arrogant", "sturdy", "gruff" and "husky" create a mood around him which is quite unpleasant. This description is very objective and we get a clear picture of what Tom looks like. We are also given a description of Tom's voice as being "...a gruff, husky tenor..." The other passage is not really a description of Mr Gatsby, but rather an occasion which he fits into. The description we are given about Gatsby is much more unclear than that of Tom. The night makes the atmosphere more mysterious around Gatsby. Here words as "night", "trembling", "silhouette" and "dark" set the theme of the passage. There is a clear contrast in the themes between the two passages. In the first one 'day' or 'light' can be said to be a theme in comparison to the 'night' or 'darkness' in the other. Even though the description of Tom is quite objective, the sunshine and clearness has a high symbolic importance to the passage and makes it more of a contrast to the other passage. This sunshine could be there because Tom is an antagonist in the novel, thus his description should not be complicated as, for example Gatsby's. Thereby he is connected to unambiguousness, whereas Gatsby is connected to darkness and implying that his character will be revealed later on. The sunshine which is connected to Tom could mean that his character is exposed and open for everyone to look at. This could be connected to that his characteristics are those of a fascist prototype... ...asting themes are day and night and the tone and the techniques are based around these themes. The techniques are quite different in the two passages; in Toms there are many negative words and his body is personified as "cruel". In Gatsby's passage there are more words connected to obscurity and Gatsby is not at all illustrated negatively. The techniques create two contrasting moods in the two passages. Tom's passage is more simple and it is not as interesting to read as Gatsby's passage. Tom's passage is almost unpleasant to read because one could almost think he is a monster by his account. The tone in Gatsby's passage is more calm. The presence of the night makes everything more subjective and abstract. A potential effect of this is that the reader will feel more comfortable with this passage. Things connected to the night are usually more interesting.

Ease Of Using Search Engines :: essays research papers fc

â€Å"It is easy for all users to find specific information on the World Wide Web†. Because the web is relatively new in terms of reaching a large percentage of a country’s population, users’ experience, understanding and expertise varies widely. Technically-minded people will arguably have been familiar with the World Wide Web for longer, and therefore be able to find specific information more efficiently, if not more quickly than less experienced users. Defining ‘easy’ in terms of using the World Wide Web is interesting. In terms of searching for a specific item, it could be defined as ‘the ability to satisfactorily fulfil a task within a short period of time’. The increasingly plentiful selection of search engines and reference sites on the Internet means that some users will experiment with different engines, whilst others will find one they are satisfied with and make it their first stop when wishing to find information. Users who experiment with a variety of search engines will take longer to familiarise themselves with each individual engine, this can take more time than a user who knows their way around their favourite engine. A user who is loyal to one or two search engines would therefore find it ‘easy’ to retrieve information, provided their choice of search engine successfully provided the required data. If, however, the chosen search engine were not successful, the user would then have the option of either altering their selection of words, or try again on a completely different engine, one that may be uncharted territory for the user. I have been loyal to a small number of search engines, because on the whole they have provided the information I require, albeit after attempting a small number of alternative input words or phrases. This loyalty has stemmed from both my becoming more familiar with these engines, and my acceptance that if my chosen search engines or reference sites cannot find the desired information, then it is unlikely I will have any greater success on entirely different ones. Moreover, having become used to a few search engines, namely ProFusion (Intelliseek) and AltaVista seems to lessen the attraction to try those unfamiliar to me, such as HotBot or GoZilla. The level of experience a person has with both computers and the World Wide Web can help determine what type of user they are. Sutcliffe suggests four categories detailed below,  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Naà ¯ve  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Novice  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Skilled (or ‘Experienced’)  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Expert The first of these – Naà ¯ve – refers to someone who has either never used computers before, or who uses them only very occasionally.

Business Ethics Test Notes

Case Test 3 Chapter 12 Ethics Case 12-45 1. If the purchase had been handled properly by the controller this transaction may have been considered within ethical standards. However, evidence of weaknesses in internal control over inventory and possible management override of computerized records, that in all appearances increase the risk of adulterated inventory counts and computerized records in general, warrant response from the auditing team during their assessment of financial statements.Although the number of shirts sold to the auditing team do not constitute a material misstatement in regards to the financial statements, the risk related to fraud should be assessed and mitigated during the planning and carrying out of the audit and further audit procedures. These transactions do not affect the existence and valuation assertions relevant to auditing. The right and obligations assertions, on the other hand, may be impacted as physical counts of inventory and their accuracy and com pleteness come into question. The auditor should be wary of procedures related to physical counts of inventory.Extra care to mitigate intentional or misintentional inclusion of inventory in the physical count should be countered by the auditing team. Additionally, the audit should further address the implications of the ability of management to override perpetual inventory records and computerized information in general in all other areas of the audit to assure that relevant risks are mitigated and minimized. Outside of the effects on the auditing process, this case does not affect the opinion of the auditor on the audited financial statements.In spite of this, the client should be made aware of the discovery. Although the likelihood of material misstatement of the financial records due to this occurrence is unlikely, the auditor may find that purchase of the shirts negatively impacts thee appearance of independence of the auditor and the level of confidence entrusted to the auditor and auditing firm as a result of the situation. Additionally, the liability of the auditors may become an issue as litigation related to these audited statements arises. 2.The adequacy of the audit will be negatively affected as assertions need to be modified and relevant risks associated addressed to perform a reliable audit. Increases in control and detection risk factors may prompt the auditor to assign more experienced staff to areas identified as high-risk areas for fraud. Saint Leo’s core value of integrity relates to the auditing professing in a variety of ways as it is an inherent requirement in auditing. Auditors must consistently apply ethical paradigms during their professional and personal lives.This practice increases the confidence of the public in the profession as well as in the audited financial statements of companies. Requiring students to uphold this core value prepares them to address ethical concerns in the workplace and holds them accountable for the i ntegrity of their coursework during their studies as well. By consistently practicing this core value, students are better prepared for successful careers that mirror the core values of the institution and contribute to the economic health of society as a whole. Similar essay: Disadvantages of Ethics in the Workplace

Impact of the Russian revolution †Ideology matters Essay

I. BACKDROP: GERMAN IDEALISM AND RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARIES German philosophers in the 19th century were often â€Å"Idealists,† that is to say that they maintained that ideas have a force, power, and reality that is more â€Å"real† than that concrete, reality that so consume us in our daily lives. German idealism dominated the 19th-century Russian revolutionary movement from the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 until long after Lenin’s successful revolutionary coup that we call the October (or Bolshevik or Communist) Revolution of 1917. While I never want to downplay the central role of raw hypocrisy in human affairs, much of what we in the United States have interpreted as hypocrisy in the Soviet Union-the dissonance between the profound humanism of Marx’s ideas and the coarse violence of the Stalinist dictatorship-this hypocrisy can also be seen as the desperate attempt to coerce reality through the power of belief-through the power of the Idea. And one way to interpret the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was that the Soviets had lost their ability to convince themselves that the Leninist/Stalinist Idea had the power to transform reality into a better future. With the collapse of this self-justifying, central Myth that legitimized the Soviet experience, the Soviet Union died not with a bang but rather whimpered into Lev Trotsky’s â€Å"dust bin of history.† With this introduction, I would now like to offer three examples in the Russian Revolutionary experience where Ideas profoundly affected the future course of events. Only toward the end of the Twentieth Century have these effects begun to run out of steam. II. THREE EXAMPLES A. â€Å"MODERATE† SOCIALISM AND THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION OF 1917 The first example involves the reaction of moderate socialists to the February Revolution in Petrograd in 1917. Moderate Socialists, including the Marxist Mensheviks in contrast to Lenin’s Bolsheviks, had adopted a position that Russia was not yet ready for a Socialist Revolution; reading Marx’s Stages of History quite literally, they understood that the Bourgeois Revolution had to come first and had to take place under the leadership of the bourgeoisie. The working class movement thus had to be satisfied with playing the role of a party of the extreme opposition-the bourgeois revolution must come first and be developed, and the responsibility of the proletariat was to encourage this historical necessity. Real consequences flowed from this belief. When the women, workers, and soldiers of Petrograd spontaneously took to the streets in February 1917, it took only several days for them to overthrow the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty. They then handed power they had won in the streets to their moderate socialist leadership-none of whom were philosophically or psychologically ready to assume the mantle of power. Consistent with their beliefs, the socialists in turn handed power to the bourgeoisie who established the Provisional Government. Not having the complete courage of their convictions, however, the moderate socialists also established the Petrograd Soviet which basically held veto-power over the actions of the bourgeois Provisional Government. This â€Å"compromise† established the period of â€Å"Dual Power† which was inherently unstable. In retrospect, it is amazing that the Provisional Government, amidst the catastrophe of World War I, managed to hold on to power until October of 1917 when Lenin’s and Trotsky’s Bolsheviks managed a coup d’etat to take power. Lenin, like his Menshevik cousins, was a Marxist, but his Marxism focused less on the determinist element of Marx’s Stages of History than on the ability of the individual to assert his will on history. For him, there was no need to wait patiently for the bourgeoisie to fulfill their historical duty at their own leisure; Bolshevism could force the pace. Lenin’s Will to Power and his belief in the power of the Idea to change reality made the difference between his success and the moderate socialists’ failure. B. LENIN’S IMPERIALISM, THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM The second example of the power of the Idea concerns Soviet influence on the developing world. Lenin wrote Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism in 1917, during the trials of the First World War and before the Bolshevik Revolution, to explain two crucial contradictions facing Marxists of the day. The first contradiction concerned the delayed outbreak of the promised world revolution. After all, it had already been sixty-nine years since Marx in the Communist Manifesto had proclaimed that â€Å"A Specter is haunting Europe-the specter of Communism.† What had gone wrong? The second failure of the Marxist promise involved the inability of the world’s proletariat to prevent war and its rejection of internationalism for nationalism. It had been a common belief among those of all political stripes from the far right to the far left, that socialist influence on the proletariat had made a major European war impossible. One of the central socialist beliefs was that wars are fought for the benefit of capitalist profits. Now, with the spread of democracy and the entry of powerful socialist parties into Europe’s parliaments, the capitalists could try to provoke war to their heart’s delight but would find it impossible to vote war credits through parliament or to mobilize soldiers who, following their socialist leadership, would refuse to fight. These ideas evoke memories of the anti-Vietnam War poster: â€Å"What if they gave a war and nobody came?† Lenin’s ingenious answer to both questions came in his book, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In it he argued that the concentration of production had transformed the capitalism of free competition into monopoly capitalism. The concentration of production also had dramatically increased the socialization of production. Big banks had changed from pure credit institutions into business banks and as such they dominated whole sectors of industry. Together the banks and industry were tied in with government. This coalescence of bank capital with industrial capital with strong government ties had led to the formation of a financial oligarchy that controlled large sections of the national economy. Share issues and state loans had increased the power and amount of surplus capital which flowed beyond political frontiers and extended the financial oligarchy’s control to other countries. The capital exporting monopolies had divided the world among themselves; international cartels formed the basis for international relations, and the economic division of the world provided the ground for the struggle for colonies, spheres of influence, and world domination. But once the world was divided up, the struggle had become one for the repartitioning of the world. Because the economic development of individual countries is uneven and sporadic, some were left at a disadvantage in this repartitioning. Imperialism represented a special, highest, stage of capitalism. The transition to a capitalism of this higher order was connected with an aggravation of contradictions, frictions, and conflicts. Monopolists assured profits by corrupting the upper stratum of the proletariat in the developed countries. The imperialist ideology permeated the working class. In other words, the burden of bourgeois oppression had been shifted from the shoulders of the domestic proletariat to those of the colonial peoples. In effect, the domestic proletariat had been bribed and they came to see that their material interests were tied up with colonial enterprise. Now, successful war to repartition the world in the favor of a particular nation made fighting war against fellow proletarians in other countries worthwhile. With his theory, Lenin seemingly had explained those two problems with Marx. The revolution had not yet swept the world because the potential revolutionaries, the proletariat, had been bribed by the illusion of short-term, material gains to forget their true, long-term interests. They had rejected their class-based internationalism for nationalism because wars fought to expand colonial holdings appeared to be in their material self-interest. Hence they did not prevent the outbreak of the Great War. This theory held long-term importance because Lenin, unlike Marx and Engels, did not see the revolutionary perspectives as centered uniquely upon advanced capitalist countries. After the Great War, in a period of â€Å"Capitalist Encirclement† the Soviets attacked â€Å"the weak link in the chain of imperialism,† the colonies. Political influence went to where the oppression was-the colonies. In the colonial and post-colonial world after World War II, given the absence of an entrepreneurial bourgeoisie with the will and capacity to transform existing conditions and to overcome the entrenched interests opposed to full-scale development, a gospel of competitive individualism seemed useless for modernization to those in the Third World. What appeared to be needed to get the underdeveloped country moving has been collective effort inspired by a national sense of political purpose. Only governments had sufficient capital, organizational skills, and commitment to make rapid development possible. Ideologically, therefore, the intelligentsia of such countries gravitated to one or another of the various socialist doctrines-something that in general might be described as state capitalism, that is, the state and not private individuals perform the entrepreneurial duties of gathering land, labor, and capital for productive enterprise. Socialist rhetoric disguised this crucial essence . For most of the twentieth century, Soviet Russia provided the model for those in the Third World who wished to rapidly modernize their countries. And rapid modernization was necessary for the sake of national prestige and independence. Russia’s success seemed obvious when we note that within forty short years Russia had risen from the ashes of World War I to defeat Hitler, to become one of the world’s two superpowers, and to be the first in space. Just as important as was this practical example was the vocabulary provided by Lenin. That Marx himself had had little to say to the underdeveloped world mattered little. I would argue that many Third World leaders, for two contentious examples Ho Chi-Minh and Fidel Castro, who led revolutions to assert national pride, independence, and prosperity, turned to Communism because Lenin had provided a vocabulary with a coherent explanation for colonial degradation and a means for asserting national regeneration. Additionally, of the major powers, the Soviet regime alone more-or-less consistently supported the aspirations of those wishing to throw off the oppression of colonialism and capitalism. Of course, today, the Communist model no longer holds the same allure it once did. C. TWO MARXIST HERESIES: LENINISM/STALINISM AND MUSSOLINI’S FASCISM The final example of the power of ideas generated during World War I involves the intimate, kissing cousin-relationship between Stalinist Communism and Mussolini’s Fascism. Despite facile assumptions, Fascism and Communism were not antipodes. Although their exact relationship remains difficult to define, there exist commonalties, as one author has pointed out: Fascism was the heir of a long intellectual tradition that found its origins in the ambiguous legacy left to revolutionaries in the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Fascism was, in a clear and significant sense, a Marxist heresy. It was a Marxism creatively developed to respond to the particular and specific needs of an economically retarded national community condemned, as a proletarian nation, to compete with the more advanced plutocracies of its time for space, resources, and international stature. Was this kind of self-awareness present as thinkers and politicians struggled to define these two ideologies as they co-developed earlier in this century? In fact, many did recognize that their common interests held much greater weight than did the Talmudic differences between Fascism and Communism. Arturo Labriola’s Avanguardia Socialista of Milan by 1903 had become the forum for Italy’s Sorelian syndicalist revolutionaries, who were struggling to make Marx relevant and against reformist socialism. Such luminaries as Vilfredo Pareto and Benedetto Croce graced its pages, followed shortly by a second generation of Sorelian theoreticians, who came to dominate Italian radicalism for more than a generation. Together they constructed an alternative socialist orthodoxy, which they believed was the true heir to classical Marxism. Clearly, their ideas were no more heretical to those of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels than was Lenin’s Marxism. By 1904 Mussolini, then a socialist agitator in Switzerland, had begun his collaboration with Avanguardia Socialista, a relationship he maintained for the next five years. The syndicalist contributors to the journal affected the future Duce’s intellectual and political development. Radical syndicalists like A. O. Olivetti innovatively argued that, under retarded economic conditions, socialists must appeal to national sentiment if their ideas are to penetrate the masses. For him, both syndicalism and nationalism were dedicated to increasing production dramatically. As long as Italy remained underdeveloped, the bourgeoisie remained necessary to build the economic foundation requisite for a socialist revolution. Olivetti spoke of a national socialism, because in an underdeveloped economy, only the nation could pursue the economic development presupposed by classical Marxism. When Mussolini took over as editor of the socialist paper, Avanti!, in December 1912, he attracted anarchists and even some rigid Marxists like Angelica Balabanoff, whom he took on as his assistant editor. Paolo Orano, who served on the editorial staff of Avanti!, along with other syndicalists like Sergio Panunzio, set the tone of that socialist paper. Mussolini also founded and edited Utopia from November 1913 until December of the following year. This bi-monthly review attracted many of the most important young socialist and syndicalist theoreticians, who helped Mussolini to develop his own ideas. In the final years before the First World War, many independent national syndicalists, including Panunzio and Ottavio Dinale saw war as progressive. Helping to put together the rationale for Fascism, they supported Italy’s fight with the Ottomans over Libya in 1911, and, along with Mussolini, they called for Italy’s intervention in the First World War. Many socialists now passed into Mussolini’s Fascist ranks, and syndicalists such as Panunzio, Olivetti, and Orano, became its principal ideologues. As early as October 1914, Olivetti in Pagine Libere spoke of an Italian socialism infused with national sentiment, a socialism destined to complete Italy’s unification, to accelerate production, and to place it among the world’s advanced nations. Over the next three years in L’Italia Nostra, Olivetti spoke of the nation as uniting men of all classes in a common pursuit of historical tasks; class membership did not align an individual against the nation, but united him with the nation. Patriotism was fully compatible with the revolutionary tradition of Italian socialism. By the time of Mussolini’s accession to power, Fascism had given clear evidence of its commitment to industrialization and modernization of the economy. Not only were the Futurists, Nationalists, and National Syndicalists agreed that maximizing production was the first order of business, but all also advocated urban development, the rationalization of financial institutions, the reorganization of the bureaucracy on the basis of technical competence, the abolition of â€Å"traditional† and nonfunctional agencies, the expansion of road, rail, waterways, and telephonic communications systems, the modernization and secular control of the educational system, and the reduction of illiteracy. What does this mean for Fascism’s relationship with Soviet Russia? Mussolini by 1919 was pointing out the absolute decline in economic productivity in Russia as proving its failure to recognize its historic obligations. He suspected that the Bolsheviks ultimately had to commit themselves to national reconstruction and national defense, that is, to some form of developmental national socialism as defined by Fascism’s former syndicalists. Speaking of the Bolshevik failure to comprehend their revolutionary necessities, Mussolini presciently predicted that Lenin had to appeal to bourgeois expertise to repair Russia’s ravaged economy. Bolshevism, he said, must â€Å"domesticate† and mobilize labor to the task of intensive development, something which could have been anticipated, because Marxism had made it quite clear that socialism could be built only upon a mature economic base. Russia, not having yet completed the capitalist stage of economic development, me t none of the material preconditions for a classic Marxist revolution. Russia was no more ripe than was Italy for socialism. Lenin, in the practical working out of his revolutionary government, did run headlong into many of these conundrums predicted by the syndicalists. In the months following his takeover, he had expected that the revolution in Germany would bail Soviet Russia out of its difficulties. Thus, while the first Fascists were organizing for a national revolution, the bolsheviks were still dreaming of an international insurrection. Lenin, changing horses, in 1921 proposed the New Economic Policy to replace the ideologically purer but failed War Communism. Like Fascists, Lenin now spoke of holding the entire fabric of society together with â€Å"a single iron will,† and he began to see the withering away of the state as a long way away: â€Å"We need the state, we need coercion†-certainly a Fascist mantra. After Lenin’s death in 1924, this logic culminated in 1925 with Stalin’s â€Å"creative development† of Marxism: â€Å"Socialism in One Country,† a national socialism by any other name. Mussolini suspected that Stalin might be abandoning true Communism. This, it seemed, might provide economic advantages to Italy, and to Mussolini it made sense for his country to build ships and planes for the Soviets in exchange for one-third of Italy’s oil supplies. For him the even more interesting possibility was that Stalin might be the true heir to the tsars and an imperialist with whom Fascism could see eye-to-eye. In 1923, the Duce predicted, â€Å"Tomorrow there will not be an imperialism with a socialist mark, but . . . [Russia] will return to the path of its old imperialism with a panslavic mark.† Mussolini convinced himself that Russian Communism was proving to be less revolutionary than was Fascism. The Duce and some of his followers considered it possible that the two movements were moving together closely enough as to be no longer easily distinguishable. Even dedicated Fascist party workers such as Dino Grandi, Mussolini’s foreign minister from 1928 to 1932, early recognized Fascism’s affinities with Lenin’s Bolshevism. He had taken at least part of his own intellectual inspiration from revolutionary syndicalism, and in 1914 he had talked of the First World War as a class struggle between nations. Six years later, Grandi argued that socialists had failed to understand the simple reality of what was happening in revolutionary Russia. The Bolshevik Revolution had been nothing less than the struggle of an underdeveloped and proletarian nation against the more advanced capitalist states. Not only Fascists made this sort of analysis. Torquato Nanni, a revolutionary Marxist socialist and an early acquaintance of Mussolini, as early as 1922 had anticipated these developments. He analyzed the common economic foundations of Fascism and Bolshevism, which produced the related strategic, tactical, and institutional features of these two mass-mobilizing, developmental revolutions. Both, he wrote, had assumed the bourgeois responsibilities of industrializing backward economies and defending the nation-state, the necessary vehicle for progress. Lev Trotsky, the organizer of the October Revolution, consistently, even mulishly, argued that Fascism was a mass movement growing organically out of the collapse of capitalism. He also rejected all notions of any sort of â€Å"national† Communism. Nonetheless, he too recognized a certain involution. â€Å"Stalinism and Fascism,† he said, in spite of a deep difference in social foundations, are symmetrical phenomena. In many of their features they show a deadly similarity. A victorious revolutionary movement in Europe would immediately shake not only fascism, but Soviet Bonapartism. (that is, Stalinism) He, however, refused to go as far as his sometime ally, Bruno Rizzi, who later argued that the assumption of similar developmental and autarchic responsibilities could only generate social and ideological convergence. He lamented, â€Å"that which Fascism consciously sought, [the Soviet Union] involuntarily constructed.† For him, the governments of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and even Roosevelt were lurching toward a global system of â€Å"bureaucratic collectivism,† a new form of class domination. Fascist theoreticians agreed with such convergence notions. By 1925, Panunzio claimed that Fascism and Bolshevism shared crucial similarities. Fascists noted that the Soviets had created an armed, authoritarian, anti-liberal state, which had mobilized and disciplined the masses to the service of intensive internal development. The supreme state generated and allocated resources, articulated and administered interests, and assumed and exercised paramount pedagogical functions. Thus, while the first Fascists were formulating the rationale for a mass-mobilizing, developmental, authoritarian, hierarchical, anti-liberal, and statist program guided by a charismatic leader, events had forced the Bolsheviks along the same course. Both intended to create a modern, autarchic, industrial system, which would insure political and economic independence for what had been an underdeveloped national community. With forced industrialization and â€Å"state capitalism,† the Soviets hoped to bring Russia all the benefits of bourgeois modernization. In the face of required austerity, to mobilize their respective populations, the Communists and Fascists alike supplemented economic incentives with pageantry, ritual, ceremony, and parades. All this, coupled with territorial aggression, completed a compelling picture of â€Å"systemic symmetry.† III. CONCLUSION I have presented three diverse examples of the impact of the Russian Revolution on subsequent history. There are other potential examples. I find it interesting that events so crucial to the twentieth century, now seem to be fading so rapidly in their influence. One real benefit of examining the Communist Revolution within the larger question of â€Å"how best to develop† is that the Revolution loses its sense of seminal criticality. For all the pathos surrounding the effort, it becomes just another interesting attempt at rapid development-a failed attempt at that. While I would happily argue that Marx still has relevance for us today, especially in his critique of capitalism if not particularly in his solutions, clearly Lenin and Stalin no longer do.

Effects of Human Urine on the Growth of Indian Tree Essay

I. INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Most of the Filipinos earn a living through agriculture. Throughout the years, a lot of fertilizers were improvised, mostly for the comfort of the Filipino farmers. Human urine, for example, is a well-balanced nitrogen-rich quick-reacting liquid fertilizer. It contains nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus and other nutrients depending on the diet. The health risks associated with use of human urine in plant production are generally low, that is why it’s an adequate plant fertilizer. On another note, Indian tree (Polyalthia longifolia) is a small-to-medium-sized evergreen tree growing up to 15 meters. Its leaves are long, narrow and oblanceolate, dark green, glossy and have wavy margins. It is native to India, Sri Lanka and recently introduced in the Philippines and widely cultivated in Metro Manila, planted in parks, garden and roadsides. Studies showed that the seeds of Indian Tree contain amino acids, the barks contain phytochemical, the root extract contains antimicrobial, various solvent extracts contain anti-inflammatory, and the seeds that are extracted contain antifungal. Objectives (major and minor) of the study This study, therefore, endeavors to investigate the effects of human urine on the growth of Polyalthia longifolia also commonly known as Indian Tree. It also endeavors to inform the farmers and the people in the field of agriculture practical guidance of the other uses of human urine. Significance of the Study This investigatory project entitled â€Å"The Effects Of Human Urine On The Growth Of Indian Tree† will be conducted in order to help and inform the people especially the farmers that â€Å"the economical value of the urine can be calculated by comparing with the price of mineral fertilizer on the local market or by calculating the value of the increased yield of the fertilizer.† (Anna Richert, et.al., 2010-2011). We would like it to be one of the aspects that contribute to the progression of our technology especially in the field of agriculture. This can add knowledge to students, teachers and administrators in making a research and improving their experiment especially those who are working on herbal medicine. This project aims to guide the future researchers in making their experiment. Scope and Limitation This study will focus on using the human urine as a fertilizer. Human urine, water and a combination of both will be poured on to the soil of the Indian plant. Using a commercially available Indian plant will make a comparative appraisal. This study, however, will not alter the active compounds of the soil and the seed itself. II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Ricker, A. et.al. (2010) stated that urine is an aqueous solution made up of more than 95 per cent water, with the remaining constituents made up of urea, creatinine, dissolved ions (chloride, sodium, potassium, etc), inorganic and organic compounds or salts. Most of these remain in solution, but there can be a tendency for phosphorus-rich substances to sediment in containers that are stored for hygienization. This substance has a syrupish texture, and if urine is collected in a piping system, this â€Å"urine syrup† can sediment in pipes if the inclination is not sufficient. Differences in composition of excreta between different regions reflect differences in the uptake of consumed crops and thus in the plant nutrient supply needed for maintaining crop fertility in the region. Urine used directly or after storage is a high quality, low cost alternative to the application of N-rich mineral fertilizer in plant production. The nutrients in urine are in ionic form and their plan t-availability compares well with chemical fertilizer (Johansson et al., 2001; Kirchmann and Pettersson, 1995; Simons and Clemens 2004). Urine also contains large amounts of phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and micronutrients, but due to its high content of N, its P/N and K/N ratios are lower than in many mineral fertilizers used for crop production, and lower than what many crops need according to fertilizer recommendations. An advantage of urine in comparison with organic fertilizers is that the phosphorus exists in forms that are plant-available. This means that urine  is quite efficient as a phosphorus fertilizer, which has implications for the future with regard to the concept of Peak Phosphorus and the fact that phosphorus is a finite resource.(p1) The quantity of urine produced by an adult mainly depends on the amount of liquid a person drinks and perspires. Children produce approximately half as much urine as adults. Excessive sweating results in concentrated urine, while consumption of large amounts of liquid dilutes the urine. (p3) Urine use in areas where salinization is an issue should be monitored. Urine is a solution of salts, and salt stress can be a major constraint to plant production in arid areas. When urine is used in these areas, irrigation practices should be adapted, the urine should be watered down, and application of urine should regularly be interchanged with applications of water only. (p5) Grunbaum, M. (2010) cited that urine is chock full of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which are the nutrients plants need to thrive—and the main ingredients in common mineral fertilizers. There is, of course, a steady supply of this man-made plant food: an adult on a typical Western diet urinates about 500 liters a year, enough to fill three standard bathtubs. And despite the gross-out potential, urine is practically sterile when it leaves the body, Heinonen-Tanski pointed out. Unlike feces, which can carry bacteria like salmonella and E. coli, urine poses no health risks—astronauts on the International Space Station even drink the stuff—after it’s purified. Effective fertilization is not the only benefit of recycling urine, Heinonen-Tanski suggested in a review paper in the January 2010 issue of Sustainability. The separating toilets that collect urine use less water than flush toilets, she wrote, and the simplified waste stream requires less energy in sewage treatment. According to Shaw, R. (2010) one reason that urine is an appropriate fertilizer is because the majority of the highly available nutrients in urine exist in a form that plants can use easily. Seventy-five to 90 % of the nitrogen in urine is in the form of urea, which becomes primarily ammonium ions in an aqueous solution of near neutral pH. This ammonium can be biochemically transferred to nitrate (NO3-) in the presence of oxygen (Jonsson et al, 2004: 9). Phosphorus is excreted as phosphate ions (Jonsson et al, 2004: 9). The majority of potassium, sulfur, and most minerals are also present as free ions (Jonsson et al, 2004: 9). These nutrients are directly available to plants in these forms without  processing. As with chemical fertilizers, urine is therefore a dilution of fast-acting plant nutrients that can work quickly to nourish plants (Kvarnstrom et al, 2006: 4). Comparable crop yields have been found when using equivalent amounts of chemical and urine fertilizers on many different crops. (p12) A fast-acting fertilizer like urine fertilizer has several benefits. Assuming the nutrient content can be estimated or measured with reasonable accuracy, the fertilizer can be applied in specific doses to meet known nutrient needs. Fast-acting fertilizers can also be used to rectify some diagnosed nutrient deficiencies, even on specific plants. Nutrients can also be applied at specific times in a plant’s lifespan to optimize nutrient uptake.(p13) As with any fertilizer, urine fertilizer can be applied in excess. Over-fertilization can introduce toxic levels of nutrients into the soil and kill plants. As is often the case with urine fertilizer, the large amount of nitrogen is the main concern. Fortunately, the toxic level of nitrogen is very high. A rule of thumb is that the toxic level of nitrogen is approximately four times the normal fertilization rate (Jonsson et al, 2004:4). This provides a large factor of safety for the use of urine fertilizer. If nitrogen is kept at an acceptable level, it is generally accepted that, except in rare cases, the other nutrients present in urine will stay at an acceptable level as well. (p14) Another concern is the volatility of nitrogen in urine. â€Å"The high pH of the urine in the collection vessel, normally 9-9.3, coupled with its high ammonium concentration, means that there is a risk of losing N in the form of ammonia with the ventilated air† (Jonsson et al, 2004: 11). This volatilization of ammonia occurs rapidly, with increased volatility as temperatures rise, and substantial amounts of valuable nitrogen can be lost to the atmos phere (Glibert et al, 2006: 448). Further, the contact of urine with the atmosphere creates unpleasant odors, as anyone who has smelled urine evaporating on a latrine floorcan attest. Odor does not affect the usefulness of urine fertilizer, but it can dissuade people from use. Urine fertilizer must therefore be collected and applied with as little atmospheric contact as possible, both to conserve nitrogen and to reduce unpleasant odor. (p15) Robinson, D. (2010) said that fresh human urine is sterile and so free from bacteria. In fact it is so sterile that it can be drunk when fresh; it’s only when it is older than 24 hours that the urea turns into ammonia, which is what causes  the ‘wee’ smell. At this stage it will be too strong for use on plants, but poured neat on to the compost heap it makes a fabulous compost accelerator/activator, with the extra benefit of adding more nutrients. Most garden fertilizers for vegetables contain more phosphorus than nitrogen. Phosphorus is valuable for root growth, nitrogen for vegetative growth like leaves and potassium helps the ripening and fruiting process. The great value of urine lies in its universal availability and zero cost. Consequently it has immense potential value and has been used for many generations as a plant food in some countries, notably in the Far East. Because of its high nitrogen content it is particularly useful for feeding leafy vegetables, which enjoy a high nitrogen diet. According to Abington, J.B. (1992) cited that urine as a source of fertilizer has been investigated at Lumle. The effect of 1:1 water: urine mixture top dressing on the marketable yield of leafy vegetable crops was found to be a significant increase of 81.7% over an untreated control, and 23.7% over a top dressing of urea. (p51) III. MATERIALS AND METHODS A. Preparation and Collection of Tree Two Indian Tree seeds will be bought. They will be planted using Loam soil. The specimen will be stored in the garden area at MPC. Controlled variable 1 will be watered using urine (see step 2) and controlled variable 2 will be watered using tap water. B. Preparation and Collection of Urine Human urine will be collected from one of the group members. The contributor’s diet will be strictly observed. The urine sample will be measured upon collection. The color will also be observed. Materials -seeds will be bought or we’ll try to find it for free†¦ -2 pots? -human urine by Mark Figueras -mark’s diet -water Methods -plant the seeds, 2 pots (1 controlled *urine, 1 uncontrolled *water) -water 3 times a day having both urine and water equal in amount IV. BIBLIOGRAPHY Richert, Anna., Gensch, Robert., Jà ¶nsson, Hà ¥kan.,Stenstrà ¶m, Thor-Axel., & Dagerskog, Linus. (2010-1). Practical Guidance on the Use of Urine in Crop Production. [Pdf]. Ttockhollm Environment Institute, Sweden Retrieved December 12, 2012 from EcoSanRes Series. http://www.ecosanres.org/pdf_files/ESR2010-1-Pract icalGuidanceOnTheUseOfUrineInCropProduction.pdf Grunbaum, Mara. (July 23, 2010). Gee Whiz: Human Urine Is Shown to Be an Effective Agricultural Fertilizer. [Webpage]. Retrieved December 12, 2012 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=h uman-urine-is-an-effective-fertilizer Shaw, Ryan. (2010). THE USE OF HUMAN URINE AS CROP FERTILIZER IN MALI, WEST AFRICA. [Pdf]. Ryan Shaw, MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Retrieved December 12, 2012 from http://cee.eng.usf.edu/peacecorps/5%20-%20Resource s/Theses/Sanitation/2010Shaw.pdf Abington, J.B. (1992). Sustainable livestock production in the mountain agro-ecosystem of Nepal. Reprint, Rome.